Because I Hear the Voices

Chapter 11

Anytime you wanna use the brake, Corey, is just fine by us,” Devlin suggested trying to get the whimper out of his voice.

“The brake is the pedal beside the one you are constantly applying pressure to,” I interjected hopefully.

“Not that I’m complaining, but why is it that we have to go to some back water town anyway?  I mean out of all the places to travel cross-country to, why Maple Vale?” Corey asked as she swerved the car around another sharp corner recklessly, completely ignoring our good advice.  It baffled the hell out of me that a girl, who in every way shape and form acts like she can’t do anything quicker than at a snail’s pace, could turn into a formula one driver behind the wheel of a car.  I swear that I have prayed more in the last few days than I ever have in my entire life; because finally I have found something that both Corey and Giles have in common, they are definitely the worst drivers I have ever had the misfortune to know.

 “I have to meet someone there that I have been trying to see for a while,” I replied through gritted teeth as she swung around to pass the car in front despite the double lines.

“Long lost lover?” Giles asked, after whooping with joy over his sister’s near miss with an oncoming truck.

 “Actually I have never met her,” I finally answered after I got my breath back.

 “Are we still alive,” Devlin whispered to me, his eyes closed in a desperate attempt to block out our latest brush with death.

 “I’m not sure,” I replied honestly, after all, this whole car trip was my idea of hell, “but if we live through this, I am going to kill you.”

 “Why are we going all this way to see someone you haven’t even met?” Giles asked clearly baffled.

 “Since we started uni last year, I have been researching really closely into my family’s past, and this girl is the only one I know that can answer questions no one else can.” I replied through clenched teeth, clenched in case I embarrassed myself by throwing up in my own lap.

 Silence filled the car and for the next few miles we where treated to the type of driving that Corey probably used to get her license in the first place.

 “What are you going to ask her?” Devlin inquired, finally gaining the courage to ask the question he had been meaning to all along.

 “I am going to ask her why she lied.”

 “How do you know that she lied?” came the question from the front seat.

 “I’m not sure if she did or didn’t, but I want to throw her off balance and see if she stumbles,” I replied with echoes of my brother’s voice crowding my head.

She lied.  Belinda lied.  Why did she lie?

“Well we’re here,” Corey announced suddenly, and we pressed our faces eagerly up to the window to take a look.  We took the exit past the service station quoting a price on petrol far more exorbitant than we’d pay in the city, and along a narrow road that didn’t have painted lines and not one single streetlight anywhere.

The wind howled and shoved at the car, as if warning us not to continue, and Corey activated the high beams, which sent a ray of light out onto the road before us.  The added light seemed to make the place even eerier than it had been, because now we noticed tall old trees leaning over the road which gave us the impression that we were entering into a long dark tunnel.   The end of this tunnel gave way to a sign that stated, “Welcome to Maple Vale, population 300,” and then opened up to the main road of this interesting little town.

The main road of the town, which was lined on the left side by a row of small one-storey shops with large awnings, was deserted.  We couldn’t make out what the shops were, or even if they were occupied in the minimum light from our headlights, and there was not a car or person in sight. The centre medium strip that divided the two-lane road was overflowing with tall trees, but it also housed one block, presumably the public toilet, and one playground, which in this light managed to come across as sinister and scary, and I had no problems believing how a place like this could breed something terribly evil.  I shivered in spite of myself, and darted my eyes all around me.

  “Gotta love the night life here,” Giles commented as we drove down the deserted main street, where not one light shone out of any of the windows.

 “Are you sure it's only 9 o’clock,” Devlin asked me as he put his watch up to his ear to see if it was still ticking.

“Must be like the early to bed, early to rise types I suppose,” I said, remembering that my parents who had grown up in this town, were still those types.

As we rounded the corner, hope of life hit us like a Mac-truck, because at the corner of the street in the distance was a place that appeared to have been lit up like an over excited Christmas light show decoration competitor.  It was a two-storey red brick hotel with a public bar.  The verandahs above were surrounded in white painted iron fencing and the ground level verandah was open to welcome maximum breeze.  The lights in the public bar were blazing and the old country music belted out in full force.  The place was crowded; children ran around in the stale night air, women congregated around the tables out front beating their hand held fans constantly as they gossiped and the men sat inside at the bar in groups around the noisy ceiling fans to share their wildest fishing yarns.  Corey punched the gas and we made a beeline for what looked like the only evidence of civilisation.

 In our hurry to disembark, Devlin and I threw open the sliding door before the van had come to a complete stop and Batty yelping with delight at the prospect of freedom, bounded out onto the road.  Spying the escapee I jumped from the vehicle myself and grabbed at his leash before he had a chance to get too far away.  I noticed then that the air was so hot and thick that it hurt to simply breathe.

 I turned back and saw Devlin on the ground, and a bolt of panic hit my stomach as I raced back to the car thinking he had fallen out and hurt himself.  When I reached him I realised that the daft prick was just kissing the ground in his delight at seeing it again.

 “Eat dirt,” I stated as I lifted my foot behind his neck and rubbed his face in the ground he was busily making love to.  

 When I released him, he coughed and spluttered, and before I could move away quickly enough, grabbed my ankle with his right hand and knocked me on my arse.  Batty, clearly delighted in the game, jumped on top of us, and proceeded to lick every inch of our faces.  Our shouts and screams alerted the locals in the bar, who rushed out to see what was going on.  It took both Corey and Giles to restrain Batty, and two of the locals came forward to give Devlin and myself a hand up.

 “You do realise that Innisfail is just 30 kilometres down the road,” asked one of the men that helped us to our feet.

 “Actually we are here to visit someone, an old friend of my family’s, Mrs. McNealy,” I replied cautiously.

 A collective gasp filled the night, not only from the men in front of us, but also from the rest of the community enthusiastically eavesdropping from the verandah.

 “s**t son, nobody uses that name is these here parts, it being jinxed and all.  Mrs. M’s what we calls her now and she lives in Donovan Street, which is left at the fork and three streets over on the right, number 12,” said a man with a ginger and grey striped beard.

 “What’s your family’s name son?” someone else asked innocently.

 “Achias,” Giles supplied for me.

 “Never heard of them,” said another.

 “Ah yes, well it’s from my mother’s side and all,” I replied quickly, “anyway it’s too late to call on her now so we’ll just wait till morning.”

 Sensing my wish to escape any further questions, Devlin began to herd up our comrades and we hastened back to our van, threw open the doors and climbed in.

 “Thanks for the directions,” Devlin imparted out the window as Giles roared out of the car park in reverse, hit the accelerator and we sped off into the night, knowing full well that at least sixty pairs of eyes were watching our departure.  

 “Where to now?” Corey asked clearly confused as to where we were headed.

 “Actually there is a clearing not far from here, that would be perfect for us to pitch the tent,” I informed Giles, giving him directions from a memory of a dream.

 We parked the car on the side of the road near a run down abandoned house, gathered our gear and with the aid of four heavy-duty flashlights headed off into the dense tropical rainforest.  When we arrived at the clearing I looked around me and took in the wild ferns and moss covered tree stump.

 “It is exactly the same,” I whispered into the night air.

 Five large ghost gums bordered the clearing.  The ground was covered with layer upon layer of leaf mulch, and small plants thrived in the undergrowth.  The tree stump that I always sat upon in my dreams was wet and cold to touch, and the air smelt cool and fresh.

 “I thought you said he’d never been here before,” Giles remarked to Devlin.

 “He hasn’t.”

 I turned and looked at Devlin’s face, but he turned away and began to take the tent from its bag.  Giles sat down beside him, crossed his feet and leant back against one of the trees, clearly forgoing the pleasure of putting up the tent and settling instead for the role of supervisor.  As I walked to the edge of the clearing I heard Corey and Devlin sniping at each other.

 “You don’t do it like that you bimbo,” Corey accused.

 “What the hell would you know, snot features, you’re only a girl,” Devlin threw back at her.

 Corey and Devlin began to challenge each other to see who was right, and Giles, who appointed himself as the overseer began filming their antics, although they were totally unaware, and very unhelpfully snapped out comments and demands that had the two constantly butting heads, or more appropriately egos.

  I felt a cold shiver on my skin and despite Batty’s barking and the shouts of laughter from my friends in the background, I felt alone.  I had never been scared here before in my dreams, but now I was here in reality I was scared, bone chillingly so.