Eli's Town Read online

  And that's when I realize that I'm being followed.

  Turning, I see a figure ducking down behind a nearby parked car. I pause for a moment, before heading to the street corner and making my way a few steps out of sight, and then I turn and wait.

  One.

  Two...

  A couple of seconds later, a teenage girl barrels around the corner and almost runs straight into me, with a camera clutched in her hands. When we come face to face, she stops and freezes for a moment with panic in her eyes.

  “Why are you following me?” I ask.

  She takes a step back. “I'm not following anyone,” she stammers, fumbling to put the lens cap back on her camera. “I was just going this way.”

  “You've been taking photos.”

  She shakes her head. “No, I was -” Before she can finish, she lets out a gasp and puts a hand on her belly.

  “Are you in pain?” I ask.

  “No,” she hisses, turning to hurry away, “I just -” She gasps again, and this time she has to lean against a nearby car. She's muttering something under her breath, too, as if she's trying to will herself to get going.

  “I'm a doctor,” I tell her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Why don't you let me see what's wrong? And while I'm doing that, you can tell me why you've spent most of the morning following me around town.”

  Chapter Eight

  Tatty

  “Seriously?” Holly asks, coming back through from the hotel bathroom with a damp towel in her hands. “Did no-one ever tell you about cramps before?”

  “I just thought something was wrong,” I mutter, watching as she places the warm towel on my bare belly. I'm starting to feel really, really dumb, as if I'm just a child. “Like, indigestion or something.”

  “Some people get strong period pains,” she continues. “Were you not told about this sort of thing at school?”

  I shake my head. Already, the towel is helping a little.

  “What about your parents? Your friends?”

  “No-one likes to talk about that stuff,” I tell her, too embarrassed to meet her gaze. “I tried a few times, but it's like... We're always told to keep things to ourselves.”

  “Still...” She sits next to me on the bed, and I can tell she's concerned. “I know people in small towns can be a little reserved about some things, but I can't believe there was no-one in Tulepa you could ask. What about the doctor?”

  “I went to see him,” I reply, “but... He told me I'd probably eaten something bad, and that it's best not to talk about things that happen inside our bodies. He listened to my belly with a stethoscope but he said nothing seemed wrong. He said maybe I should stop drinking dairy.”

  Turning to her, I can see the shock in her eyes.

  “What?” I ask, feeling more embarrassed than ever. “Was he wrong?”

  “He wasn't just wrong,” she continues, “he was completely incompetent. There's no way a doctor should have sent a teenaged girl away with garbage advice like that. This whole town is insane.”

  “Mom's advice was pretty much the same.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Something isn't right here. There's no way everyone in town should have been so quick to ignore the fact that you were getting your first periods. Every women in Tulepa has been through exactly the same thing, so why weren't any of them willing to talk to you about it?”

  “There's kind of a small-town mentality,” I point out.

  “Not to this extent. I don't buy that for a moment.”

  “I tried looking on the internet,” I continue, “but I only found one page, and it said to deal with the problem myself. To be honest, it said pretty much the same thing as Doctor Conyne. It even kind of phrased it the same way.”

  He frowns. “You looked online and that's all you found?”

  “Should it have said more?” I ask cautiously, starting to feel as if she thinks I'm a complete idiot. Then again, I don't blame her.

  Pulling a phone from her pocket, she starts tapping on the screen.

  “Can you type on that thing just by touching?” I ask, shocked to see the display changing.

  “You've never used a smart-phone before?”

  I shake my head.

  “This place...” She pauses, before continuing to type something into the phone. “It's one thing for a town to be a little behind the times, but this is something else. This place is completely crazy.” She sighs, before setting the phone down. “No connection. I swear, Tulepa is so closed-off, it's almost as if someone is deliberately keeping you all separated from the rest of the world.” She looks down at the warm towel on my belly. “Is that helping?”

  I nod.

  “And you at least have sanitary towels, right?”

  “I... I have towels,” I reply cautiously.

  Reaching over to her bag, she pulls out a small cardboard box containing what look like little pads in wrappers. “Please,” she says after a moment, “tell me that you know what these are?”

  Staring at the box, I genuinely have no idea. In fact, I feel so ignorant right now, I want to cry.

  “So let me get this straight,” she continues. “Tulepa is a town with no cellphone coverage and apparently no real internet connection. The local doctor refuses to discuss your period with you, and your Mom and your friends are the same. And every day at noon, someone drops dead and the town's only police officer insists that it's a coincidence?”

  “I can't believe it was Alfred Packer,” I mutter, looking over at the window. “Jordan was right.”

  “Who's Jordan?”

  “This guy I know,” I reply, turning back to her. “He's a real jerk, but he bet me he could guess who'd die today and he was right.” Sighing, I realize that from Holly's point of view, everything in Tulepa probably seems completely bizarre. “I guess he'll be waiting for me at old Eli's house tonight. There's no way I'm going, though. I know people like Jordan Swinton are only interested in one thing, he'd probably just -”

  “Eli's house?” she asks, interrupting me. “Do you mean Eli Denton?”

  “Have you heard of him?”

  “He's my uncle,” she replies. “That's why I'm here, I'm trying to find him so I can check he's okay. Do you know him?”

  I shake my head. “Not him. Just his house.”

  “What about it?”

  “Everyone knows Eli's house is weird,” I continue. “Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude about your uncle, but... Everyone at school talks about how there's something wrong with that house, like there's something in there that doesn't want to be seen.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asks. “My uncle lives there, that's all. It's a perfectly normal house.”

  “Except no-one's seen him for years.”

  “No-one?”

  “It's like this dare thing,” I continue, realizing that she's really worried now. “It's dumb, but we always talk about it at school. Everyone dares everyone else to go and touch the front door of that house, but most people are too scared. It's one of the tricks Jordan Swinton uses to get girls alone at night, he takes them to Eli's house and...” I pause for a moment. “Sometimes I feel like they're not quite the same when they get back.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like, he took Brittany Lawrence there a little while back, and ever since... I don't know how to explain it, but the next day she was different somehow. More like Jordan, more like everyone else. That's what happens around here, people go to Eli Denton's house and they don't come back the same. Jordan wants me to go there with him tonight, but there's no way I'm doing that, not in a million years. I'm dumb sometimes, but I'm not completely stupid.”

  “So kids are playing around with my uncle's house?” Holly asks, clearly worried. “Do any of them ever say that they've seen him?”

  “Not that I've heard.”

  “Oh God,” she whispers, putting her head in her hands for a moment. “Something's really wrong, isn't it? My uncle's become some kind of boogeyman that no-one ever s
ees!”

  “He might still be okay in there,” I tell her, hoping to put her mind at ease. “I mean, it's possible, right? Like, he's become a hermit or something?”

  “Nothing makes sense,” she replies, getting to her feet and heading over to the window. “I feel like this whole town is running to its own rules.”

  I wait for her to continue, but she seems lost in thought as she stares out at the parking lot.

  “I'm sorry I was following you and taking photos,” I say after a moment. “I didn't mean to freak you out, it's just that I was investigating the weird deaths and then I saw you, and strangers usually never come to Tulepa so I thought you were worth checking out. I can delete all the photos, I'm using my Mom's old digital camera so it's not a problem.”

  “I don't care about photos,” she replies, turning to me. “I care about finding my uncle, and I feel like everyone's trying to get me to forget about him and leave town without any answers.”

  “Not me,” I point out. “I don't think you should do that.”

  “So what do you think I should do? I tried the police, but Captain Lucas clearly has no intention of helping.”

  “He's a jerk,” I reply. “I mean... Well, yeah, he's a jerk.”

  “Tell me about it.” She sighs. “I even tried forcing the issue with him and Doctor Conyne, but that didn't work either. They called my bluff.”

  I pause, genuinely not sure how to answer. “I mean,” I continue finally, “I guess the first thing to do is to go take another look at his house. Your uncle might be in there, maybe he just doesn't like answering the door.” As those words leave my mouth, however, I can already tell how feeble they sound. “There's no point asking the police to do anything,” I continue, “not around Tulepa. The only thing John Lucas cares about is scheduling his nap-time so he doesn't get interrupted. Seriously, I swear half the adults in this town spend most of the day asleep. I'm not even exaggerating, either. If they don't hear you coming, it's like...”

  My voice trails off for a moment as I try to think of the best description.

  “Even my parents,” I add. “It's like, if I'm at home and they don't hear me coming, if I go down the stairs without making much noise or something, I usually find they're just sitting around, completely still, almost as if they've switched off. And then when I get their attention, it takes a few seconds before they're themselves again.”

  “Like they've been sleeping?”

  I shake my head. “Their eyes are open, I just... I looked online to see if it's normal, if it's just something that happens to everyone, but I couldn't find anything. They're weren't like it before, when I was a kid, but now I'm older...” I pause again, figuring that I might finally have found someone who can help me make sense of this crazy town. “This is gonna make me sound totally nuts,” I continue, “but I swear, everyone seems totally normal until they get to their mid or late teens, and then they start acting weird.”

  “In what way?”

  “Like something's just changed in them. It hits some people early, like when they're fourteen or something, and some people change later, more like eighteen, nineteen. I'm sixteen, so I'm kinda worried it's gonna happen to me at some point. I thought maybe the pains in my belly were linked to it all.”

  “The pains in your belly are a normal part of growing up,” she replies. “You really don't need to worry about them. Still...” She pauses. “From what you're saying, it almost sounds like something happens to people when they hit puberty. It's been a long time since I was last in Tulepa, but I'm sure I'd have remembered if the place was this weird. Are you sure no-one has come to look into the deaths you mentioned? I can't believe people drop dead at the same time each day, and it's not being treated as a big deal.”

  “Doctor Conyne just says it's natural causes each time,” I reply.

  “And you believe that?”

  “I don't, but... I think most other people do.”

  “And no-one ever visits from out of town?”

  “I don't think so. I'd never seen anyone, not until you showed up.”

  “That's pretty weird, don't you think?” she asks. “A whole town can't be cut off like this.” She checks her phone again. “Still no signal. I'm starting to think I should drive to the next town along and get help. Whatever's going on here, I think it might be a little bigger than just my missing uncle.”

  “Now you're making it sound like something really bad is happening,” I tell her.

  “I'm starting to worry that it is.” Getting to her feet, she heads over to the dresser and grabs her purse. “I have to find out if he's in that house,” she continues. “I don't suppose you happen to know how to pick locks, do you?”

  “No,” I reply, “but...” I pause, finally feeling as if I might be useful. “I know how to pick windows.”

  Chapter Nine

  Holly

  “Wait!” I hiss, but it's too late.

  As soon as her elbow hits the towel placed against the window's lower left corner, the glass cracks and starts to fall forward, only for Tatty to reach out and hold it up before it can smash.

  “See?” she says with a nervous, but slightly proud smile. “I told you I could pick a window.”

  “Sure,” I mutter, feeling mildly as if I'm on the verge of a heart attack. Glancing back across the garden, I'm relieved to see that there's no sign of anyone nearby; when I turn back to look at the window, I find that Tatty already has a sizable piece of glass out, and to her credit she's managed to do all of this without making much noise at all. She might seem somewhat shielded and innocent, but she's also smart.

  “Relax,” she continues, knocking out another section of glass until finally there's a decent gap. “It's your uncle's house, right? So it's not like he's going to go nuts. Sometimes, breaking and entering is the best way to show that you care.”

  “I guess there's that,” I reply, watching as she starts crawling through the gap. It takes just a few seconds for her to squirrel her way through, with her feet finally disappearing from view. A moment later, there's a bump on the other side as she lands on the floor. “I won't fit through this,” I whisper.

  “No need.”

  I hear footsteps inside, and a moment later there's a click nearby as the front door is unlocked and swings open, revealing Tatty's smiling face.

  “You don't wanna know how I learned stuff like this,” she explains, clearly pleased with herself as she takes a step back. “Let's just say a misspent youth was involved, along with lots of time alone and the discovery of an abandoned warehouse out on the far side of town. I knew this kinda stuff'd come in handy eventually.” She pauses. “Does that make me sound weird?”

  “You're a teenaged girl,” I reply. “Breaking the rules is kind of expected.”

  After checking once more that no-one is nearby, I step through the doorway and immediately notice a fusty smell in the house, as if the air hasn't been disturbed for a while. Making my way over to the nearest door, I look through to the kitchen and see that it's surprisingly neat, with no sign that anyone has been in here recently. In fact, as I head over to the counter, I can't help noticing that all the furniture and devices seem to be exactly the same as I remember from the last time I was here, as if Eli hasn't updated anything. When I place a fingertip against the counter, I manage to wipe away a thick layer of dust. Eli was always a little careless, but he wasn't downright slovenly. It's clear he hasn't been up and about for a long time.

  Looking up at the ceiling, I realize with a heavy heart that he might be dead somewhere in the house.

  “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Tatty asks.

  “Don't say it,” I reply, making my way past her and looking through into the front room, only to see that Eli's favorite armchair is still in place, still with the dent from where he used to sit watching TV all day. Spotting a newspaper resting on the table, I head over and pick it up. “This is five years old,” I continue, before setting it down and looking around the gloomy room aga
in. “There's no way anyone has been in here for a while.”

  “Should we look upstairs?” Tatty asks, with fear in her voice.

  “I'll go,” I tell her, heading back to the hallway. “You can stay down here.”

  “It's not that I'm scared,” she replies, “it's just, I've never seen a -” She stops suddenly, but it's clear what she was about to say. “Well, you know...”

  The stairs creak as I make my way up, and with every step I feel more and more certain that I'm going to find Eli's corpse somewhere, most likely in bed. The thought of him dying here, alone and neglected, and not being found is too much to bear, but I have to find out one way or the other. When I get to the top of the stairs, I instinctively reach out and flick the switch on the wall, only for the light above to flicker into life.

  “Huh,” I mutter. “Someone's been paying the bills, at least.” I wait for a moment, chilled by the silence. “Eli?” I call out finally. “Is anyone home? It's Holly, your niece. I came to see if you're okay.”

  I wait.

  Silence.

  Looking back down toward Tatty, I can see from the look in her eyes that she knows this isn't going to end well.

  “I'll check the bedroom,” I tell her, before heading to the nearest door. I hesitate for a moment, trying to steel myself against what feels like the inevitable discovery, and then finally I push the door open until the bed comes into view.

  Empty.

  Just a few sheets, left ruffled and unmade by whoever was in here last.

  I feel an instant wave of relief washing over my body, although this is immediately tempered by the realization that if he isn't in bed, he has to be somewhere else. Stepping into the room, I glance around, but there's no sign of anyone and when I go to look at his desk, I find nothing to suggest where he might have gone. I open a nearby wardrobe and find it filled with the same old brown clothes Eli used to wear, so it definitely doesn't seem like he packed before he left.