Who: Kat & Shan Where: The Tunnel When: Afternoon, Saturday, July 7 Status: Complete
Kat couldn’t really explain her sudden desire to check out the Cooperdale Tunnel, but she thought it had something to do with the Dark Man dream that she’d had. That dream had haunted her all week, sticking with her as if she’d lived it during her waking hours, more a memory than a nightmare. The tunnel had been such a tiny part of it, forgettable really, but today she was itching to see it in person. She’d heard about it of course, from friends and family, but she’d never been there herself. In the daylight, it seemed like a safe enough trek, and it should be easy enough to find once she located the train tracks.
When she got to Seaview Village, Kat parked the car and began to walk. It was weird to think that she’d been somewhere via a path that didn’t exist and she began to wonder if the tunnel would look anything like it had in her dream. Probably not, but now she wanted proof. Maybe it would calm her mind a little to have evidence that some part of that dream hadn’t been real. It could also do the opposite, but she was trying not to think that way.
It wasn’t exactly a beautiful day, still overcast from the storm the day before, but the temperature was still pleasant, so Shan was hanging around outside. Caden was at work and she was already bored, perched on a chair on their small front stoop, one bare foot braced against the railing while she painted the nails. She’d already been out of the house for the day, scoping out some spots in the town to potentially rent and open up a studio -- Caden had told her to get her shit together and make a plan, so that was what she was determined to do.
She spread her toes and blew on them as she finished that coat. Movement in her peripheral vision caught Shan’s attention, and she glanced up, then did a double take as she recognized the woman who was passing by. “Kat?” she called, sounding surprised. Kat was on foot and didn’t seem headed in her direction, and while Shan hadn’t exactly made friends with her sister in law yet, that struck her as a little odd. Maybe she was on her way to visit somebody else in Seaview, but they could at least say hello, right?
Kat had been so set on her mission that she really hadn’t been paying attention to where she was. She jumped as Shan called her name, suddenly aware, and smiled as she broke from her path and strayed towards Shan’s house. “Hey Shan,” she said. “Sorry, I was kind of in my own head.” Her hand moved to her neck, which she rubbed self-consciously. With her hair in a ponytail, the bruising was far more visible, though not as bad as it had been earlier in the week. She still didn’t have a story that didn’t sound like she was crazy, so her solution had been avoiding people and putting make-up over it. Of course, now that she was there, she couldn’t avoid Shan and she hadn’t thought to put on makeup while wandering out to find the tunnel.
“Hey,” she greeted in return, lowering her foot to the porch floor again. It was impossible to miss the bruising on Kat’s neck as she came in closer, especially with the way she touched it. Shan had seen a lot of girls in abusive relationships in her time, and that pattern of bruises was easy to recognize. She didn’t think Kat had a boyfriend, Caden hadn’t said anything about that changing, but then again Shan wasn’t even sure if Kat would tell him if it did. They weren’t exactly a close, involved family. “Are you doing okay?” Shan asked, her tone a bit cautious but still indicating she knew the answer was No. It probably wasn’t her place to pry, maybe Kat liked it rough just like she did, but she looked a little out of it too.
“Um… I dunno,” Kat said with a little laugh. “I have this weird feeling and I was following it? Which is probably just crazy, but I had the time, so I thought why the fuck not?” It was probably a horrible idea, but she could still feel the pull, her curiosity drawing her towards the tunnel even as she stepped closer to Shan’s porch. “I had this dream the other night that was beyond surreal and—and the Cooperdale Tunnel was in it. I’ve never actually been there, so I thought I’d check it out.” Saying it out loud made her sound crazy and she rolled her eyes at herself response. She didn’t know Shan well, but she was pretty sure every impression she’d given her thus far had been unimpressive. This was just another bad example on the list.
That was not at all what Shan was expecting to hear, and she cocked her head a little and glanced in the direction Kat had been walking. She wondered for a second if Kat had been knocked in the head by whoever choked her out, but then she kept talking. Shan didn’t know what the ‘Cooperdale Tunnel’ was, but walking there did sound more interesting than what she’d been doing so far today. And this girl was technically her sister in law, so maybe she ought to spend some more time with her. “Huh,” she answered thoughtfully. Shan pursed her lips and glanced down the street again, then arched a brow at Kat. “You want some company? I’m going stir-crazy here, I can throw some shoes on and come with you ...” Two women walking was always safer than one walking alone anyway, no matter where you were.
It was still weird for Kat to think of Shan as her sister-in-law. It had all happened so suddenly that she wondered why either of them had decided to make it work. It would have been easy to get it annulled, and yet Shan was still there, putting up with Caden’s bullshit. She seemed far more capable of handling him than Roxy had been, so that was a good thing, but Kat doubted she’d understand it until she got to know Shan better. This seemed like as good an opportunity as ever, one where they weren’t surrounded by the rest of the Lucas family. “Sure,” she said. “I think it’s a bit of a hike, company would be nice.” She glanced towards the nail polish bottle still sitting on the porch. “Are they dry enough? I can wait a bit if not.”
A hike, huh? That meant they were probably going into the woods. Shan glanced down at her bare legs and decided she should probably put on jeans too if that was the case. She didn’t want to get all scratched up and bug-bitten. “Eh, I can fix ‘em. Not much else to do,” Shan said with a shrug and a little smile. She backed up from the porch railing a bit and gestured for Kat to follow her. “Come on in for a minute, I’ll put some pants on too.” She could grab a couple of waters for them and maybe something to snack on ... and a joint, if Kat wasn’t weird about it. Walking in the woods was so much more fun while high, in her experience. Without really waiting for Kat to accept, Shan turned to open the front door and walk in, expecting her to follow. “Do you come here much?” she asked over her shoulder. Shan kind of doubted it, Caden didn’t seem to invite his family over very often.
Kat followed, not needing a formal invitation anyways. She shook her head, not sure if Shan meant the area or Caden’s house, but the answer was no either way. “No, I think he might’ve gotten it after I left? Timeline’s kind of blurry. I’ve been here a few times, but Caden’s not the sort to have house parties and we don’t really hang out much.” Maybe that was sad, since he was her brother, but she had two others and he wasn’t the easiest to communicate with. Kat had always been closest with Aaron. She’d also been gone, which meant she hadn’t spent a lot of time with any of them over the past few years. Things were changing now that she was back and Kat hoped that was for the better. “It’s nice though,” she said, looking around. “You like it so far?”
Hearing that Caden wasn’t someone who liked to host very often didn’t surprise Shan in the slightest. He hadn’t so much as had a friend over for a beer since she’d been there. Gavin and Aaron had stopped by once or twice, but never for long and they tended to talk out in the driveway, mostly about bar stuff from what Shan’s eavesdropping could gather. She smirked a bit as she headed for the fridge to pull out a couple of water bottles. “I dunno about nice,” she said with a low chuckle. “If there was any real decor in here, Roxy took it with her. But it’s all right. I’ve lived in worse places with worse people. I like him, that’s enough for me.” For now, anyway. She handed Kat the water as she walked toward the short hall and the main bedroom to change. “Did you know her at all?” she called, leaving the door open without a second thought. “Roxy?”
“Okay, well, it’s fully furnished, so you’re doing better than I am,” Kat said with a little laugh. Losing half her furniture in a breakup was a pain in the ass, but she still knew it was the right decision. She hated being single, but found herself happier than she’d been in years. It made rebuilding worth it. “Everyone knows everyone around here, but we’ve been friends since high school,” she said, taking the offered water bottle and following Shan down the hall. “They started dating maybe a year before I left? Something like that. But I wasn’t that far and came home often enough. So yeah, I know her.” Kat paused, knowing she should probably keep her mouth shut, but it wasn’t like Shan couldn’t find out the same info from almost anyone. “They weren’t good for each other.”
Shan shimmied out of her shorts and opened a drawer to pull out some thick yoga pants, not minding Caden’s sister seeing her in her underwear in the slightest. She’d worn much less around many more people who were even bigger strangers to her. She glanced over at Kat with a curious expression as she started to tug them on. “No? Well I mean, they broke up, so I assumed there were some problems,” she said. Once her pants had been wiggled into, she grabbed some socks and led the way out of the bedroom to find where she’d left her sneakers. “He doesn’t talk about her and doesn’t like me bringing her up, so I’ve been wondering.” She already knew Caden could be intense and probably aggressive, and while that tended to turn her on more than anything else, she knew not all women were like her. Shan perched on the edge of the couch to put her shoes on.
Kat glanced away when Shan slipped out of her shorts, just out of politeness, but looked back when Shan spoke to her. It felt weird to look away when they were talking and she knew Shan was used to people seeing her in a lot less. Kat assumed she wouldn’t have changed in front of her if it bothered her. “Yeah, that sounds like Caden. But I also imagine it’d be weird to talk about her with you,” Kat said with a shrug. “I think there were lots of issues, but I think the biggest was that Roxy wanted kids. Caden didn’t. That was never going to work out in a way that made them both happy.” That it had ended was best for them both. If they’d married, if they’d had kids, it could easily have gone the way of her parents. Kat thought Caden a better man than their father, but the wrong circumstances could bring out the similarities.
Maybe Shan was too used to dealing with drunk men who just wanted to bitch and moan about the women in their lives -- current girlfriends, ex-wives, bitchy mothers in law, she had heard it all. Usually it was annoying, but something about the few times Caden had referenced Roxy had her curious. Or maybe she just liked messy drama herself, and she was interested in her new husband’s taste in women when he was actually sober. She gave an understanding hum at Kat’s revelation, standing up once she’d tied her sneakers. “Yeah that’s definitely a dealbreaker for some people,” Shan said. “I can’t stand kids, so I guess he got lucky with me.” She flashed Kat a wolfish sort of smile and headed for the trailer’s front door again, eager to be outside and walking now. “The little screamy ones, anyway, they get cooler around like, eleven or so.” She opened the door for Kat to lead the way.
“I’m glad. ‘Cause I kind of got the impression you two didn’t sit down and discuss those things first,” Kat said with a little laugh. If Shan could joke about it, then so could she. She would have hoped that Caden wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, but she doubted he had any idea of what he was signing up for with Shan. Maybe he knew now, but Kat was still feeling her out. “I like kids. I want one someday, but… it has to be with the right person. Or maybe I’ll just get knocked up and do the single mom thing. I dunno. I can’t afford it right now. Still trying to build my business here.” She was enjoying working at the paper more than she expected, but she still wanted her photography business to prosper. She didn’t have time for kids yet, so she shouldn’t be sad about it.
Most women Shan had known wanted kids, and she suspected that at least half of them didn’t even really know why, they just wanted kids because that was what society expected out of women. She wasn’t going to assume that about Kat, maybe she had a genuine desire for motherhood, Shan just hoped she’d really thought about it. “See that’s what I’m into,” she said as they walked outside. Shan locked the door behind them and trotted down the porch steps. “A business. That’s gonna be my baby.” Caden hadn’t wanted her to accept money from Shane for it, but if he didn’t end up funding her studio like he said ... well, Shan was going to make it happen one way or another. “You’re a photographer, right?”
“Yeah, mostly weddings, but also babies, families, senior photos. Engagement photos, maternity, boudoir. Pretty much anything. I was almost exclusively weddings before I moved back home, but Point Pleasant is small and there’s not a wedding every weekend, so I’ve got to take what I can get until I rebuild my user base in the surrounding areas. I’m doing photography for the local paper to supplement my income at the moment. It’s not so bad,” Kat said, finally stopping for a breath. She was enjoying working for the paper more than she thought she would, if only because it got her out and meeting new people. The photos she took for the paper certainly weren’t art, but art was what she did on her own time. “Sometimes I do something artsy, but that’s more for myself. That’s a lot harder to sell.”
All of that sounded super boring to Shan, except for the boudoir photos. She definitely wouldn’t have wanted to hang around the weddings of people she didn’t know, or take pictures of a bunch of dumb families wearing matching outfits for every season or whatever. An idea did spark in her head though, and she reached over to grab Kat’s forearm with a big smile. “Hey! Maybe you can do some promo shots for my studio,” she suggested. “Paid, of course. But I’ll totally need to advertise ... and honestly I want some good shots of me dancing, you know? If you’ve taken boudoir photos before, I bet you’d be good at it.” There wasn’t a lot of motion in boudoir shoots, but there was plenty of it with weddings and whatever Kat was taking pictures of for the paper, probably, so Shan had faith she could do it. And maybe give her a sister-in-law discount or something.
Most of it was boring, but Kat was good at it and it could occasionally be fun. The best part was that it was on her terms—she made her own hours and picked the jobs she liked. Her work made people happy and she felt respected while doing it. She’d waited tables just long enough to know that she didn’t want men slapping her ass for the rest of her life, or peering down her shirt, no matter how good the tips were. “Boudoir is always fun,” she smiled. “I’d love to take shots for your studio. I can discount your photos if you can discount me a lesson or two.” She was sure she’d need a whole lot more to be any kind of good, but that was the kind of workout she might really enjoy. “Oh! Have you ever done bachelorette parties? We could team up on something like that.”
Shan was smugly pleased to hear that Kat wanted a lesson -- it seemed that most of the other females in Caden’s family were interested, so his doubts that she would find customers were unfounded. Sure, they were Lucases (or almost Lucases), and that seemed to carry a certain wildness in this town, but there had to be other adventurous girls out there, right? She was eager to bring some spice into Point Pleasant, make it just a fraction sexier. “I mean, I’ve seen and been to a bunch of bachelorette parties, but this’ll be my first time teaching anything, so ... it’s a great idea! I could offer like, a lesson package with champagne and a certain number of pro shots from you ... that would help get your name out there too.” Shan added a little skip-hop to her next step, jazzed about planning for things like that. She was really excited to get started.
“It’d be good publicity for both of us, plus I think it’d be hella fun,” Kat smiled as she turned off the pavement and headed towards the woods. Though she’d never been out to the tunnel in her waking hours, she knew the train tracks would take them there and those should be just a little farther. It should be easy enough to find and the walk was going faster now that she had company. “I think learning a little strip tease and getting sexy photos can be a huge confidence booster. At least it would be for me. Boyfriends love it, of course, but women do it for themselves, because it makes them feel good. And around here word of mouth goes a long way.”
Shan followed where Kat’s steps led them, still not really questioning why Kat wanted to go see some old tunnel. It didn’t really matter, Shan was used to living her life according to her impulses. It had always taken her to interesting places, like this one. “Oh absolutely, it’s all about the women, for me,” she agreed as their shoes started to crunch through the leaf litter. “Even when I was stripping, I was there for the money and my girls, you know?” Maybe that sounded like bullshit since she’d hooked up with Kat’s brother and then ended up marrying him while they were both on a bender ... but hey, shit happened. It was kind of romantic if you looked at it a certain way, Caden had obviously stood out from the rest of the idiots who frequented her club. “Do you happen to know of any empty storefronts or anything around here? I need to find the right space.”
“Do you miss them? Your girls?” The closest Kat had ever come to having a crew like that was when she was a cheerleader in high school, but that had been a long time ago and was probably completely different. There was no money involved, but then again, they’d both been dealing with entitled, handsy boys on a regular basis. Kat suspected that was an issue for women everywhere, no matter what the age or occupation, but she hoped she was wrong. “I think there’s a space open next door to the new salon. It’s just off Main Street, so you’d get some good foot traffic, but not on Main Street, so it shouldn’t be as pricey. It might be worth checking out, but I have no idea what it looks like inside.”
“Ohmygod, that sounds amazing!” Shan exclaimed, giving another excited bounce. She had no idea what ‘pricey’ entailed in a place like this, she just hoped the rent would be within Caden’s means. And not high enough that he would make it a problem for her until she got the studio on its feet. Shan was game to find out, even if it crashed and burned. “I’ll check that out, thank you. But yeah, I miss them. They were a crazy bunch of bitches, but the ones I was tight with, we had a lot of fun.” She paused, then laughed a little. “They all think I’m fucking crazy too, marrying a guy and moving to Maine with him, but, y’know.” Shan shrugged like that was a good enough explanation. She didn’t feel like she owed anybody one of those in the first place, and it was fun that Caden didn’t seem to feel that way either.
“They’re not wrong,” Kat teased, “but you seem to be making it work for you.” Staying with a man you met and married while drunk seemed insane to Kat, but if it didn’t bother Caden and Shan, then good for them. Marriage felt like a gamble no matter what. Even the most devoted couples sometimes imploded. If they were having fun, they might as well give it a go. In some ways Kat was jealous of them. She didn’t think she could take such a risk herself, even if she woke up married to the hottest guy alive. “Point Pleasant’s gotta be a bit of a downgrade though. I mean, no one willingly moves here. I feel like everyone I know is trying to get away.” She’d been one of those people not so long ago. The only reason she was back was because her whole family was there and, in the end, those ties proved stronger than her desire to get out.
Shan laughed at the first part, glad that Kat didn’t try to politely dance around it or anything. She would much rather be called crazy to her face than endure any of that backstabby gossip shit that a lot of women liked to indulge in. This woman was technically her sister now, Shan wanted to be able to be blunt with her, and vice versa. “So far so good,” she agreed lightly, grinning a bit. Caden wouldn’t be a tolerable partner for just anyone, Shan felt especially suited to handling him, but she was okay with that. She didn’t want some boring ’nice’ guy who was underfoot all the time. “It’s definitely different -- the town, I mean. I’ve been a city girl most of my life. But that’s what makes it interesting to me, I guess. Yeah it can get boring, but I could get bored in a city too, so I just need this project to sink my teeth into, you know?”
Kat loved gossip as much as anyone else, but she’d never gotten a handle on being fake for the sake of her reputation, or anything else for that matter. She was who she was and if that was bad for her image, then oh well. Like Shan, she’d rather hear the truth than deal with sugar coated bullshit any day. “A project always helps when you’re getting settled. It’s what I’ve been doing. It’s nice to have a focus, something I can see progress on. I should probably direct that energy towards furnishing the house,” she said with a little laugh. It had been months since she’d moved home and she still had some things in boxes. “Train tracks,” Kat said, kicking one with her shoe before stepping inside them and turning to follow them. “This should take us there.”
Shan had been adding little touches to her and Caden’s place here and there to make it feel more like home -- more like hers. He didn’t seem to care, like a lot of men didn’t, so it had been easy to put up some art and switch out a lamp or two when she found something fun while being out and about shopping. Having a business to arrange and decorate would definitely keep her from changing the entire mobile home, even though interior design wasn’t really her passion. She just liked cute stuff, and Caden had very little of it. Shan stepped onto the tracks slightly behind Kat and walked along, doing her best to step only on the beams and not the gravel in between, just because. “So what’s up with this tunnel anyway? It was just ... in your dream?” she asked, curious what was bringing them out to the middle of the woods. If Kat had been a man, Shan might have been concerned about being murdered, but she wasn’t, and exploring was fun.
Kat knew the question was bound to come up and was honestly impressed they’d made it this far before Shan asked. She hesitated for only a second before answering, figuring that she’d been honest with her new sister-in-law thus far, so she might as well keep up the trend. “Yeah, but… my dream was fuckin’ weird,” she said with a bit of a huff. “This thing attacked me in it,” she said, gesturing to her neck. She knew Shan had likely seen the bruises, but was polite enough not to ask. Everyone assumed the worst, especially from a Lucas. The problem was that the worst was practically mundane compared to the truth. “I passed through the tunnel right before it caught me. I guess I just want to see it, see if it’s the same tunnel from my nightmare. It won’t make sense of what happened, but… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain something that really doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
She frowned as she processed that. “Wait, so ... you had a dream where some guy attacked you, and you woke up with like, real bruises?” Shan asked. She couldn’t help but sound kind of doubtful, because that was pretty crazy. Did Kat somehow do it to herself in her sleep? Had someone broken into her house and assaulted her or something? Things that happened in dreams didn’t translate over to real life as far as Shan knew. Or maybe it was just a cover story for an abusive relationship, like she’d thought at first. Shan’s voice dropped a bit. “If somebody hurt you, you can tell me,” she said. “I won’t tell Caden.” He seemed like the type of man to be a crazy-defensive brother, maybe Kat didn’t want to make that sort of trouble. In spite of her doubts, she kept walking with Kat along the train tracks toward this mysterious tunnel.
This was exactly why Kat had avoided telling people about what happened. She sounded like she was either losing her mind or making up the worst excuse ever for an abusive relationship. She’d actually worried about the first, but having her brother share her experience helped. Unfortunately, it didn’t help when people asked questions. “I would tell you,” she said. “My dad hit my mom on a regular basis, so it wouldn’t be shocking if I fell into that kind of relationship. And as fucked up as it sounds, I kinda wish that was the case ‘cause then I’d know what to do about it. But this is way more fucked up. And makes me sound crazy, so… yeah, the Dark Man attacked me in my dream and I woke up like this.” If she sounded matter-a-fact about it, it was because Kat had accepted it. This was the kind of nonsense she’d moved back home to and there was nothing she could do about it.
The tidbit of information about Kat’s parents caught Shan’s attention, and she tucked it away to consider later. Caden never really talked about his father, and while she’d picked up that he had been abusive, she didn’t really know any specifics. Maybe Kat would be a good source of casually-obtained information. The rest of what she said was more important at the moment, though. It didn’t sound like a cover story, and Kat was too blunt about it for it to seem like a bid for attention or something crazy. Many people now had warned Shan that weird things happened in this town and she hadn’t known what to make of it. She stared at Kat’s face for a moment or two, trying to process what she said. “And that, like ... that can happen?” she asked softly, a little awed.
“Well… I didn’t think so, but then it did, so I guess?” Kat said with an apologetic shrug. “It happened to Gavin too, so I know it’s not just me. And we’d both seen the Dark Man before, so maybe it’s specific to him? There’s so much I don’t know.” She wanted to find out more, but she wasn’t sure where to start. It also wasn’t a priority now that the Dark Man hadn’t come back. But he could, and she would be just as vulnerable as she’d been last time. She wasn’t sure there was anything she could do to change that, but she wouldn’t know if she didn’t try. “Probably shouldn’t have told you about Gavin,” she said as an afterthought. “I don’t even know if he told Charlie. He should, but… it happened the night before his party.”
Shan wondered if Caden had noticed anything wrong with his siblings that night, or if they just all had this unspoken agreement to ... well, not to speak up. She certainly hadn’t noticed it, but she barely knew Kat and Gavin. Which also meant this could be some strange kind of shared hallucination, maybe mental illness ran in their family ... it just didn’t feel like it. Shan had encountered plenty of ‘crazy’ people in her time, and Kat didn’t sound like any of them. Combined with everything else other Point Pleasant citizens had said to her, it sounded weirdly legitimate. Shan looked ahead of them, silent for a few moments while they walked the old train tracks, a chill running down her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature around them. “I won’t say anything,” she assured Kat finally. “I just ... that’s so weird, I dunno what to say.”
“It is weird,” Kat agreed. “But not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. Has Caden told you anything?” The most bizarre happenings included her own family, but she wasn’t sure if she should bring those up. She wasn’t out to scare Shan, but she did feel like she needed to know what was going on. If she’d learned anything from coming home it was that it was better to be prepared. It might not have stopped what happened in this case, but it could save lives in others. The least she could do was tell her about the Dark Man, since there didn’t seem to be repercussions about talking about him. “I know people whisper things. I’m sure you’ve heard rumors and it sounds like people are spewing bullshit just to scare you off, but I feel like… like it’s better to know than to be caught off guard.”
Shan thought back to the night she’d stowed away in Caden’s truck to see what he and Aaron were up to, and what they’d said about the woods. Nobody in their right mind wanted to be out in any woods at night, but they’d made it sound like Blackwater was especially dangerous. Caden hadn’t been very forthcoming with her about anything, but people did keep saying things that made her skin crawl a little. “No, he hasn’t really said much,” she answered, her brow furrowing as she shook her head slightly. “Just ... don’t go out in the woods at night and shit like that. What-- what should I know? I won’t like, think you’re crazy or anything, I promise. I’ve never seen anything personally, but I do believe in ghosts and stuff.” Shan wasn’t sure about dreams where the injuries followed you into the waking world, but she’d never been one to believe she knew everything about the world. It was weird out there.
“I mean, he’s not wrong. That’s good advice around here, but… it’s more than that,” Kat said, attempting to explain. “You might notice that people have an irrational fear of the fog. Except it’s not really irrational. We had some in December that made driving impossible. It went on for days. I wasn’t here, but everyone will tell you there was something out in the fog. Some kind of a monster. Or monsters, plural. Like, a dozen people died. Just as many got hurt.” She could talk about the incident easier than most because she hadn’t had to live through it, but she maintained a healthy respect for the fear it created. She wouldn’t be wandering out into the fog anytime soon herself. “There’s other instances. I’m not the only one who’s seen the Dark Man. If you ever see a man in a bowler hat, just run.”
She couldn’t help the way her eyes widened and her brow furrowed as she listened to that story. It sounded so unbelievable, a huge sort of thing that should’ve been national news and shifted their understanding of reality. Monsters? Caden had never mentioned a fog, but Shan was definitely going to ask him about it now. “Wow, it’s really like ... horror movie of the week around here, huh?” she murmured, still trying to process all of that. It wasn’t that she disbelieved what Kat was saying, it was just a lot to try and swallow. “So this dark guy ... you’ve seen him outside your dream too?” Shan asked after a beat. As terrifying as that prospect was, it seemed smaller and a little easier to focus on at the moment.
“It ebbs and flows. It’s been quiet lately. That makes some people forget. More than is rational, if you ask me. Others get twitchy. Anxious. I’m not sure which is worse,” Kat said. She’d like to live in peace, but not at the expense of putting herself in danger. There had to be a way to live that was somewhere between constant fear and stupidly blind, something like supernaturally tolerant and prepared for shit to hit the fan. “I’ve only seen the Dark Man once, outside my dream. I was twenty-one, maybe twenty-two. It was right before I left town. I went out with my friends, had a few drinks, and was walking to my car. By myself, which felt safe around here, at least at the time. I saw him on the street and… I just knew. I know he doesn’t sound scary, a tall man in a bowler hat, but he might as well have been carrying a chainsaw. It was that kind of fear that makes your skin crawl and your heart climb into your throat.”
Had Shan ever been that terrified of anything? Part of her mind flashed back to childhood, hearing that particular creak of floorboards just outside the door to her bedroom. Feeling like her heart was going to beat out of her chest as her small body froze from the inside out. There hadn’t been any supernatural threats to worry about, or even a chainsaw, but she’d been permanently scarred all the same. Eventually she’d learned to go somewhere else in her mind while it was happening, but there had always been that stab of icy fear first. Shan was quiet for a moment as they walked along the tracks, digesting all of that the best she could without having any direct experience. She had a ton of questions Kat probably couldn’t answer and she wasn’t quite sure how to ask in the first place. Shan kicked a rock ahead of them. “If it’s that bad, I don’t blame them for forgetting,” she said finally. “There’s plenty I wish I could irrationally forget.”
Kat gave a little nod as she remembered that Point Pleasant wasn’t the only place with monsters. She’d had one in her own home, perhaps different from what Shan was thinking of, but no less terrifying. Even after his death, her father still haunted her and some of the wounds he’d left would probably never heal. And she knew she’d been protected from the worst of it. Her mother and older brothers had taken the brunt of it, leaving her feeling both grateful and slightly ashamed. They shouldn’t have had to protect her. They shouldn’t have had to protect themselves either. “It’d be nice if we could just…selectively erase memories,” Kat said. “But I hear they make us who we are. I’m sure if I got rid of all the bad stuff, I’d be a completely different person.”
Being a completely different person didn’t always sound like a bad thing to Shan, but she knew most people didn’t want to hear that. Usually that didn’t matter to her, but she was trying not to alienate Caden’s family, since they were so important to him. Sometimes she wished she’d had a totally different life and been a happier person, but that wasn’t how it worked for anyone. You played the hand you were dealt. She hummed some noncommittal response as they kept walking. They were coming around a gentle curve and Shan finally spotted a stone structure up ahead. She nudged Kat gently with her elbow and gestured ahead of them. “Is that it?” she asked, her voice dropping subconsciously.
It was hard for Kat to imagine a life without her worst memories. She’d be happier for sure, but at what cost? She had enough life experience to know that nothing was free, and magic like that was probably a double edged sword. If she forgot about her father, she’d probably be setting herself up to marry a man just like him someday. She couldn’t think of anything worse. Kat took a slow, deep breath as she looked up to spot the tunnel ahead of them. It was exactly as she’d dreamed it, a fact so impossible that she searched the area just to ensure the Dark Man wasn’t there waiting for them. “Yeah… that’s it,” she said, her steps slowing as they walked closer. “It looks the same. It’s so weird.”
Shan looked around too because Kat was, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for. A tall guy with a hat? Something else? Maybe it was just the conversation they’d had walking up here, but the whole area was already giving her the creeps. “And you’ve really never been here before?” she asked, more to have something to say than actually question what Kat had told her. It briefly crossed her mind that this might be some kind of family hazing thing, and Gavin and Aaron were going to jump out of the tunnel to scare the shit out of her ... but no, this family didn’t really seem like the prankster types. She kept pace with Kat as they approached the dark mouth of the tunnel.
“No,” Kat answered softly, daring to walk closer though her heart began to pound in her chest. “A few years after I graduated, some kids were hanging out here and one of them disappeared. The cops thought they did something to him, but were never able to find any evidence.” She took a deep breath, then stepped inside, lightly running her fingers over the graffiti that clung to the walls of the tunnel. Had that been there in her dream? She’d been so focused on getting out that she didn’t remember. “Something happened to Mila down here. It messed with her head.” Kat stopped, looking deep into the darkness of the tunnel. She’d come through here in her dream, but she knew it wasn’t possible. She’d entered through a sewer pipe. A chill ran through her and she turned back towards the entrance. “I just needed to see it,” she said, her feet carrying her back towards the entrance, as if the tunnel might suddenly shut and swallow her.
She was usually pretty fearless and adventurous, but Shan’s feet stopped right at the boundary of the tunnel and she couldn’t quite make them go any further. It made her back tense up to watch Kat walk inside and touch the walls, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Except for all of the creepy stuff the other woman continued to tell her. People disappearing, something happening to Mila here that fucked with her head ... Shan’s mind immediately went to more mundane dangers -- was she raped here? Attacked? Something else? But maybe it had been something more like Kat’s dream: fucking weird and unexplainable. Shan wasn’t positive she wanted to know. She crossed her arms over herself, under her breasts, her brow furrowed with concern as Kat walked back toward her, the weird urge in her body to grab the other woman to pull her out faster. At least she hadn’t wandered far. “What happened to Mila?” she asked, her voice a little hushed.
Kat was quiet as she stood outside the tunnel, looking into its depths. Was there something inside? Or was the tunnel itself some kind of dark entity? She wasn’t sure and she hoped she never found out. “Amelia went missing last fall. Mila and Aaron were looking for her and came around here,” Kat said as something caught her eye—a couple of small, colorful rocks sitting by the tunnel entrance. She walked over and picked one up, turning it over in her hand. “Something got in Mila’s head. I don’t—I don’t know how to explain it, but she wasn’t herself. She stabbed Aaron. Twice.” There was some confusion in her head about what had happened afterwards, with Mila disappearing and how things had returned to normal, but Kat didn’t like to ask questions about that time now. It was a dark period for everyone involved and she’d been the outsider, coming home to help but with minimal impact to herself. “She’s okay now, but… they blame the tunnel.”
Shan’s eyebrows inched higher and higher until they seemed to be trying to merge with her hair. One of the kids had gone missing? And then Aaron’s fiancee had stabbed him? And she wasn’t in jail for it, they were still getting married in a couple of weeks? “What the absolute fuck,” she breathed, more to herself than Kat. Shan thought of the body in the woods again. She was beginning to think that Caden’s family was even more batshit than her own. “She’s okay now? What, did they like, put her in the psych ward and get her on meds or something?” She didn’t even know how to interpret ‘they blame the tunnel,’ and Shan got another chill as she glanced at the shadowy maw in front of them again. The pretty pebble in Kat’s palm did nothing to assuage that bad feeling in her gut.
“She’s fine,” Kat said, looking up at Shan as she slipped the rock into her pocket. “They’re both fine. I don’t know if there was an official diagnosis, but I know Aaron didn’t press charges. Everyone seems to be in agreement that—that she wasn’t herself.” It sounded wrong when she said it and knew it created more questions than answers, but that was how she understood it. Mila hadn’t stabbed Aaron—something else had, something that came from the tunnel. Looking at it now, it was like a light switch had flipped; Kat wanted to get the hell away from it. Why had she even come there? “We should go,” she said, starting to back away. “It was stupid to come down here.” What the fuck was wrong with her? She couldn’t even imagine what Mila and Aaron would say if they knew. As they moved away, she turned towards Shan, incredulity in her eyes. “Caden really hasn’t told you any of this? About Amelia? Or Jasper? Or, fuck, our dad?”
This whole thing was weird -- the tunnel, almost everything Kat said, her sudden desire to go. Shan kind of felt like she was in the setup to a horror movie. She didn’t hesitate to turn and walk with Kat away from this place. She kept her arms crossed over her body and her eyes scanning the area around them, just in case. Shan glanced over at Kat with a furrowed brow and shook her head. “No?” she said. “I mean, like ... I know your dad died and he was a giant asshole -- that’s how Caden always makes it sound anyway. But that’s all.” There was something with Jasper too? Shan wasn’t even sure she wanted to ask. Caden definitely hadn’t talked about Aaron’s fiancee stabbing him and then disappearing though. Or his niece going missing. She would’ve remembered that.
“You should ask him,” Kat sighed, then shook her head. “No, I should just strangle him. What the fuck.” Maybe if Shan had known a bit more, she would’ve talked Kat out of coming down there. She would have known what a horrible idea it was. It worried her now, how casually she’d strolled down to the tunnel, as if it was a normal place to visit. As if horrible things hadn’t happened to her family down there. She still wasn’t sure if that’s where Amelia had disappeared into, but it wouldn’t shock her if that was the case. And there she was, sightseeing. She was going to throttle Caden for not giving his new wife a little background on their family. She might think they were all nuts, but that wouldn’t be new. “I’m sorry. I’m having a weird day, I guess.”
At the moment Shan kind of wanted to strangle Caden too. He’d obviously known about all of this -- or known that his sister was kind of crazy, which also deserved a warning, if that was what was actually going on. Shan was certainly going to ask him when he got home. Or soon, at least, she would have to see what kind of mood he was in. “Hey, it’s okay,” Shan replied, glancing over. She sounded sincere, even if she wasn’t completely sure this wasn’t all in Kat’s head yet. Those were huge events she was talking about though, so it should be easy enough to verify. “We all have weird days. And I’m glad I saw you, ‘cause coming out here alone seems like a terrible idea.” Supernatural weirdness or not, a woman shouldn’t be out walking alone in a place like this.
“Yeah, it… it probably was,” Kat said, giving Shan a small appreciative smile. She didn’t know why her brother had married Shan—she was ninety-nine percent sure it was for the sex, which seemed like both a fantastic and horrible reason to marry someone—but she liked the woman. She spoke her mind, was ambitious, and stood up for herself. She seemed strong enough to put up with Caden, and hopefully strong enough to handle this town. Kat felt bad for dragging her into it with so little warning, but it was better late than never. At least now if something happened, she wouldn’t be completely unprepared.
Shan smiled back, feeling that feminine understanding pass between them -- women had to look out for each other. They were sisters now, and Shan would try to act like one until Kat somehow proved she didn’t deserve it, like her blood family had. She didn’t have any shiny happy delusions that she would be embraced to the bosom of the Lucas family or anything, but if Shan could make friends with at least one or two of them, she was doing all right. Maybe this was a good start with Kat. If nothing else, it had been an interesting walk, and now she had all kinds of crazy shit to ask Caden about whenever he came home from the bar. Point Pleasant was getting progressively more interesting.