Free The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman by Tim Wellman Page B

the past
years."
    He grabbed her hand again. "The next name."
    "B E C K..." She jumped up. "No!" She shook her
head. "You did this earlier."
    He stood up. "Believe what you want to believe,"
he said. "I've shown you something important. It's up to you if you
accept it or not."
    "All of the names are there?"
    He nodded. "Now, did they do it, or did Charlie
do it before he died?" He chuckled. "Were they signing their work
or was ole' Charlie naming his murderers?"
    "You've got one hell of an imagination," Evelyn
said. "I'll give you that. You should write horror novels." She
stepped back over the corpse and headed toward the stairs.
    "You know something is wrong, right?" he
said.
    She stopped but didn't turn around. "I..."
    "This whole fucking town is screwed up," he
said. "And there's nothing either of us can do to fix it. I tried
once, but it cost me my little boy, too." He caught up with her and
turned her around. "I was new here, once, too," he said. "I
believed I could change things, fix things. But I couldn't. Neither
can you. My boy died when the other boys died. Got strangled on
candy."
    She turned back around and started walking
again, but stopped. "Why are you telling me these things now? Why
do you hate my girls so much when you know they had nothing to do
with the accident?"
    "You don't get it, do you?" he said. "It's not
just your girls, it's everyone. They seem okay, nice enough, right?
I'll tell you something. Charlie was the most normal of the
bunch."
    "You're telling me everyone in this town is
somehow evil?" She turned to face him. "How can an educated man
believe that?"
    He smiled. "Because they are," he said. "Not on
purpose, maybe, not even maliciously evil, but evil still the
same."
    "My girls, they'll be blamed for this."
    "No," he said. "No one is brave enough to blame
them. I think they have the power to control everyone else, or at
least threaten them someway. Except maybe your past protects you some way, makes you more resistant than everyone
else."
    She shook her head and snickered. "You tell a
good story, Steve," she said. "But I stopped reading horror stories
when I auctioned off my black dresses online. Charlie killed
himself. The girls might have scratched that in the floor, but
probably months ago. Or maybe he did it to set my girls up."
    He smiled and shrugged. "Believe what you
want."
    "I always have."
     
    ****
     
    She could see the girls standing outside the
building as she walked across the lawn. The day was not starting
off on a good note: overslept, drizzling rain, and now it looked
like another new problem to face with the girls.
    "Miss Crone," one yelled. "They won't let us
in."
    "What?!" She walked past them and up to the
entrance. The doors were locked. "Is anyone inside?"
    "Yep," Susan said. "Everyone else is in
there."
    "We're wet," Betsy said. She tried to smile but
seemed embarrassed that she was one of the girls singled out for
humiliation. "What did we do?"
    "Nothing," Evelyn said. She jiggled the door
handle, and then pounded on the door. With no response, she kicked
the door several times. She could see the Principal come out of his
office, glance toward the door, but then quickly walk into Steve's
classroom across the hall. "What the hell is going on!" She kicked
the door again. "Open this god damned door!" She saw the Principal
peep around the door facing and she pointed at him. "Now!"
    He seemed to resign himself to facing her, and
slowly walked to the door and unlatched the lock. But he didn't
open the door, he simply cracked it open slightly. "Sorry, you and
your girls are forbidden on school property until the investigation
is over."
    "What?" she said. "What are you talking
about?!"
    He winked at her several times. "They're saying
Charlie's death was murder," he said. "And they think your girls
had something to do with it. Maybe even you told them what
to do since you're a witch."
    She was shocked and took several steps back. She
hadn't imagined, even in her wildest