Veiled Existence Read online

  The last words she said as she left the cave were filled with venom. “I could have made it so much easier for you.”

  Ice looked toward the opening. As soon as he’d drawn his head out of the hole, the memory of her being here, of the things she’d said, came flooding back. Her threat was genuine. Once on the other side of that hole, he would forget that she’d cursed him. Retrieving the pack, he took out a bottle of water and cracked it open, pondering his alternatives.

  He would give up his life for those he loved, that choice was easy. But the old witch must’ve had a motive for kidnapping him in the first place. If his death was her ultimate end, that could’ve been easily executed. Therefore, he didn’t believe that if he chose to stay here and perish that his loved ones were necessarily safe.

  On the other hand, although she hadn’t spelled out any specifics, the woman had made it clear that if he returned to his life without knowledge of the curse, the people he loved would be in danger. So the key, he thought, was to figure out how to remind himself—or inform himself—of the curse once he left the cave. Because as a medicine man, Ice believed a curse could be broken.

  Maybe if he could write it down… Ice felt his pockets. His wallet was missing, of course, so he continued to forage his clothes for paper of any kind: receipt, gum wrapper, anything. The search yielded nothing but a few coins.

  He peeled the plastic label from his water bottle, wishing for the days when they’d been paper. He didn’t have a pen or pencil, but thought he could find a rock that would work. After a few tries, he came to the conclusion that he’d known was imminent: plastic wasn’t suitable. He needed paper.

  Ice groaned in frustration. His head pounded and swam with nausea, making it difficult to think. He considered the debris he’d come across during his inspection of the cavern. Mostly there’d been stone, bricks and pipes. He’d found the tunnel full of keg caps, but they were plastic, too. Any kind of label or wrapper on the ground would be water-logged and drying something in the misty dampness would be next to impossible.

  Contemplating the few beer labels he’d seen half-buried in the dirt sparked a thought and Ice lurched for the backpack with a triumphant grin. He withdrew the lunch kit in its cardboard wrapper. Sliding his thumb under the glued edge, he opened the paperboard into a decent-sized sheet. Picking up the rocks he’d used on the plastic water bottle label, his grin transformed to a satisfied smile as the third stone he tried made a mark on the cardboard.

  Jeni’s thumbs were already flying over the keyboard when Dale asked where they found Ice’s Jeep. “I’m asking right now,” she said, noticing the tremor in her hands. No one spoke as they awaited the reply. “Across the river,” she announced as soon as the message appeared. “His keys were in it. She says the police are taking his disappearance more seriously, now.”

  “It’s about time,” Dale muttered. “At least they have an area to start searching.”

  Tyler twisted in his seat and smirked at Jeni. “So you actually didn’t know your boyfriend’s last name?”

  She felt her face flush, despite having an explanation. “Ice generally uses his given name: Shattered Ice. For legal or official stuff like his driver’s license, he uses his dad’s last name, Ashigan.”

  “I’m pretty sure Tresler is his mom’s maiden name,” Dale interjected.

  Jeni suppressed her smug smile, bringing up the diary again on Dale’s phone. “The next few passages are about the journey. I’m going to skim to see if I can find anything else interesting.”

  A while later, she straightened in her seat. “Oh my gosh, listen to this.”

  15 Jun 1851

  Alas I fear my intentions have come to naught. The peace meant for the spirit of the remains that I have traveled with, has not taken hold. Already have two men met their death, seemingly drowned in anomalous incidents. Learning that the first man was seen with a beautiful woman before he disappeared did not strike me until the same was said of the second deceased man. These same accounts were the reasons I brought the bones across the ocean. I will wait no longer, but inter the remains in blessed ground.

  “This guy actually thinks he’s brought a ghost with him?” Tyler scoffed.

  “I guess it depends on what you believe.” Jeni’s words rang with reproach. She was still bitter that her cousin denied the existence of the underwater monster because he never actually saw it for himself. She picked up where she left off so Tyler couldn’t make any other comments.

  16 Jun 1851

  She is at rest. I rose this morning with the sun and in my vestments walked to the foundation that will be the church. Encircling the perimeter of land designated as cemetery, I sprinkled holy water and purified the very dirt. Away from construction and future burials did I dig the hole on the far side of this plot. Though I have no means for engraving, I found a sizeable stone with which to mark the grave lest I forget where she is laid.

  Tyler snorted. “That never works.”

  “What doesn’t?” Jeni asked.

  “The sanctified ground. Not that I believe any of this idiocy, but in every horror movie or TV show, the holy ground doesn’t get rid of the ghost.”

  “Yes. And Hollywood is the ultimate source of information on this kind of thing,” Jeni said blandly. Tyler didn’t respond and she went back to the diary. “Yikes, get this. The villagers believe the men were killed by a witch! Father Kerr thinks they’re referring to the old woman he talked about on the ship. He says after they reached Iowa she disappeared. People said she’d gone mad and wandered off to live in the forest, and then hunters claimed they’d see her sometimes and she would ask if they wanted to meet her daughter.”

  “What about the ghost?” Tyler asked.

  “They say the beautiful girl that lures the men away is her daughter.”

  “No. I mean did burying the bones work?”

  Jeni paged ahead. “No. There are more deaths.” She pressed her fingers to her right temple where a spike of pain was growing. “Darn. I don’t think I can keep reading in the car.”

  “Did you say you have Ice’s roommate’s number?” Dale asked. When she nodded, he said, “We’re getting pretty close to the Twin Cities. Why don’t you call him and see if he’ll let us in Ice’s room. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him.”

  Danny agreed to let them into the dorm as long as they arrived before his brother picked him up, so they made only one quick gas and bathroom stop before rolling into Minneapolis. The bag of tortilla chips Jeni bought at the gas station settled her stomach, but she knew better than to go back to the diary. If she had to ask Dale to pull over so she could be sick on the side of the road, she’d not only be mortified, but Tyler would never let her live it down.

  Jeni’s fingers were curled around the door handle when they pulled into the dorm parking lot. As soon as the car stopped moving, she flung the door open and got out, gulping in the cool air and relishing the stable ground beneath her feet. She texted Danny that they’d arrived and he met them at the building’s front door to let them in.

  Entering the room, Jeni’s gaze fell on Ice’s packed duffle bag, and a lump formed in her throat. The pictures taped to the wall—of her and of both of them together—elicited unbidden tears that pooled on her lower lashes. She was relieved when Dale introduced himself, knowing the ache in her throat made her voice untrustworthy, and hoped no one noticed as she blotted her watery eyes with the sleeve of her jacket.

  Danny tossed his sandy curls out of his eyes and said, “Go ahead and sit… wherever.” The sweep of his arm indicated the futon, desk chairs or beds. He babbled a little, shifting on his feet. “My brother will be here in about twenty minutes or so. How was traffic coming in?”

  “Getting heavier the farther we went into the city. We were glad to see the exit for the university,” Dale said, pulling out Ice’s desk chair. “We don’t want to hold you up, just wanted to see if
you can think of anything unusual that happened before Ice went missing.”

  Tyler slumped onto the futon, thumb whisking over his phone screen. Jeni sat next to Ice’s duffel.

  Danny finally stopped moving, perching on the edge of his mattress. “Yeah, the cops asked the same question. Ice’s mom, too, so I’ve been over this a few times. There was only one kind of bizarre thing I could think of. It was orientation, so that was Tuesday, and I was meeting Ice at the dining hall. As I was coming up to the building, I saw Ice and this old woman—I mean really old woman—near the doors. She had her hand on his arm, I think. Anyway, she took off before I got there.”

  “Did you see what she looked like?” Grooves lined Dale’s forehead.

  Danny shrugged. “Not really. She had on some kind of long coat or cloak. And she was so stooped over, her white hair hung out of the hood. Like super-white.”

  Dale drummed his fingers on the side of the chair. “You never saw this old woman again? Later that night?”

  Danny shook his head, running his fingers through his thick hair. “No. The exact opposite of an old lady is what made the party memorable.” He glanced briefly at Jeni like he wasn’t sure how much more he wanted to say.

  “Please, just tell us anything you think might be helpful,” Jeni said woodenly.

  Eyes fixed on Dale, Danny said, “There was this super hot blonde chick there. All I got from her was her name—something weird—Ultra is all I can remember but that’s probably not right. Anyway, I vaguely remember going to fill up my beer later and finding Ice in the kitchen talking to this girl. I remember because every guy there wanted to talk to her but Ice seemed like he wanted to get away from her. He and I left the room together and I’m pretty sure he asked me if there was a back way out of the house.”

  As Danny talked, Jeni’s heartbeat quickened and she clenched the blanket on Ice’s bed, squeezing it in her fist. Nik was right. Oh God, Nik was right.

  She could see the tension in Dale’s shoulders but he remained composed. “That was the last time you saw him?” he asked.

  “That I can recall. The party was for my birthday,” he offered apologetically.

  “I’m impressed you remember that much,” Tyler commented without looking up and Danny chuckled lightly.

  Looking from one face to another, Danny detected no further questions and he stood, glancing at his phone. “He’ll probably show up with some weird explanation, right?” It was obvious he felt awkward. “And the cops are looking now too, so that’s good.” He hooked his hand through the straps of his bag. “Jeni has my number if you need anything else.”

  As they all started to get up, Danny said, “Oh, I almost forgot. You guys can stay here, if you want. I’ll be home until Labor Day. You’ll need to get Ice’s school ID and room key from his mom. The police kept the keys to his Jeep for now, but gave her the rest of his stuff.”

  “Hey, thanks,” Dale said.

  “No problem. Good luck.” Then he was out the door.

  Jeni had a hand on the bedpost, her knees weak. “Okay, that was creepy, after reading the diary entries? What the heck is happening?”

  “I don’t know,” Dale said, his brow drawn low. “But I think we’re getting close to figuring it out.”

  When Dale opened the restaurant door for her, Jeni’s nose was assaulted with the smell of baked bread and oregano. Though the place was busy, they were seated right away and Jeni was glad for the ambient noise as it masked her growling stomach. “I don’t care what else we get on the pizza as long as there’s pepperoni,” she said, perusing the salad choices.

  The waitress arrived with a basket of hot breadsticks and once their order was placed, they all dove in. Keeping one hand clean, Dale was thumbing through the diary pages on his phone. “I’m hoping Father Kerr says something about where they found the…the men.”

  Jeni appreciated that he didn’t come right out and say “bodies.” The bread in her stomach helped her feel slightly less like she’d entered the Twilight Zone so she wiped her hands on a napkin and retrieved her phone too.

  Tyler shook his head. “You realize all that happened, what…like a hundred and fifty years ago?”

  Jeni flattened her lips into a white line. “Three words: Mythic. Underwater. Monster.”

  “You mean the monster that I beat the hell out of because he tried to gas us to death?”

  For Dale’s sake, Jeni let the subject drop.

  “Hey, I think I have something,” Dale said. “The first guy was found in the bushes near a well. The second was in a cave near—” He broke off when the waitress set a pizza in the middle of the table. “…near a creek,” he finished as he set his phone down and picked up the pizza server.

  “I see the one found in a cave. No, wait, this is a different guy. They found him on a ledge outside a cave up on a bluff.” Looking up, Jeni noticed that Dale had slid a piece of pizza onto her plate before taking one for himself. “Oh, thanks.”

  Silence reigned for a few minutes as they concentrated on food.

  Finished with her first slice, Jeni helped herself to another. With her hunger abated and anxiousness still humming in the back of her brain, she decided to eat one-handed, so she could peruse the diary. “Another cave,” she remarked, taking a sip of soda.

  “It might be a place to start,” Dale said.

  “Except Ice’s Jeep was found in the city, not that far from here,” Jeni pointed out. “There aren’t going to be caves around here.”

  “You must be from out of town.” The waitress had overheard Jeni’s statement as she approached with a pitcher of soda. “Refill?” she asked. As she topped off their glasses, she continued. “There are actually a lot of caves around here. Just ask Maddie.” She nodded across the room. “The bartender. She’s been in some of the local caves with friends that are some kind of underground explorers or something.”

  “Thanks,” Jeni said.

  Tyler was scoping out the bartender. “I’ll go talk to her.” He stuffed what was left of his third pizza slice into his mouth. A minute later he stood and Jeni was glad to see he headed for the back of the restaurant, presumably to use the restroom before talking to the bartender.

  “Did you hear from Ice’s mom?” she asked Dale.

  “Yeah, we can go by her hotel and get Ice’s dorm key.” He pushed his plate away.

  “Good.” Jeni chased the ice cubes in her soda with the straw. “Looks like Nik was right about the church.”

  “I’ve known Nik since I was a kid. He’s seldom wrong.”

  Jeni sighed. “Do you think Ice could be in a cave?”

  Dale was watching the bar, but he was listening. “It’s certainly worth checking into.” He lifted his chin and moments later Tyler dropped into his seat. “Maddie is a friend of the Action Squad, a bunch of urban explorers,” Tyler reported. “If we want to know about local caves, these guys are the experts. There’s an Action Squad website but she said she can put us in contact with Max, basically the leader and the guy who posts stuff online.”

  Jeni typed “Action Squad” into the search bar of her browser. “Holy moly,” she said. “There are a ton of caves around here.” She slid the phone toward Dale so he could take a look.

  After thumbing through the information, Dale met both of their gazes. “I think we should find out exactly where Ice’s Jeep was found and then go talk to this guy.”

  “Okay,” Jeni agreed. “But what, exactly, are we going to tell him?”

  They decided Tyler’s idea—a freshman prank gone wrong—was the best way to explain Ice’s disappearance. Both simple and plausible, their story was that some kids had persuaded Ice to check out a cave with them and then left him behind. Dale, Jeni and Tyler would claim they didn’t know the kids or what cave they’d gone to, only that Ice had mentioned to Jeni that he was going to a cave.

  The rental ca
r idled in the hotel parking lot while Jeni chewed her bottom lip, staring more at her hollow-eyed reflection in the glass than at anything outside. Dale was inside, getting the dorm key from Ice’s mom along with information about Ice’s Jeep. If Max said there weren’t any caves in the area where the Jeep was found, they’d go back to the drawing board. If there was a cave nearby, they’d ask Max to take them there.

  Jeni wondered if they were getting any closer to finding Ice or were embarking on a wild goose chase. He could just as well be in a basement or an abandoned warehouse as in a cave.

  Dale emerged from the building and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Okay, we have a place to stay tonight.” He buckled his seat belt and pulled up the map program on his phone. “Ice’s mom said the police are already looking in the area where his Jeep was found.”

  Neither Jeni nor Tyler responded as Dale’s phone began spouting directions. A tapping sound drew Jeni’s attention to the windshield, where drops of rain splattered on the glass. Ever since Lake Itasca, she’d regarded rain, and thunderstorms in particular, with ambivalence. The wetness could still spoil an outdoor event, but the prospect that the Thunderers were sweeping the area held comfort too. Tonight she didn’t care if she got soaked. If the Thunderers made an appearance, all the better.

  About fifteen minutes later they rolled into the driveway of a modest bungalow. Pulse racing too fast, Jeni gripped the railing while mounting the porch steps and drew in a deep breath as Tyler opened the screen door to knock.

  A solidly built man in his mid-twenties sporting a scruffy goatee and a ready smile greeted them. “You guys have the missing friend?” When they nodded, he ushered them into the house. “Then you found the right place. I’m Max Action.”