hapter 1
“...he admires his hand's strength in the moonlight's shadows...”
The white lace curtains blow in on sea breezes...ah the summer night air. They unfurl over her from behind the couch. Almost transparent, they reach in like uninvited fingertips...almost touching her as she sleeps. She's unaware the t.v. is blaring away, the light on both end tables, one at the end of the couch by her feet, the other by her face, is left on, the hall light is shining in her face, the front door is open to the street, and the Moon Shadow Stalker is watching her sleep - just outside the screened window behind her. A hand-held mirror has slipped from her hand and lies on the floor.
He stands outside the window behind her...abnormally still. He stands there cause he chooses to be there for the moment, and she is safe, for the moment. She's just beyond the reach of lace curtain fingertips where really decent, nice women fall to sleep to t.v. shows, and lunatics who believe moon shadows make them into killers, stand, wait, watch, consider, picture, savor, drool... and step because they have to...towards the open front door.
In plain sight of the busy street, the Custodian steps up the steps and onto the porch of the purple and violet trimmed Victorian. From the open front screen door, he peers in through the tiny foyer and sees her sleeping on the couch. Like a predator, he is in hunt mode, senses heightened to anyone who would get in his way, or even worst, trap him. He pulls a matchbook from his left pocket, and sticks it in the screen door, jamming it slightly open, so that he is assured an easy exit rather than fiddling with an old screen door latch that might stick closed in the damp, salty mist of a Cape May evening. He looks up the staircase as he crosses the foyer and sees a bedroom light is on. He enters the parlor. His skin glows deadly blue in front of the t.v. set as he turns it off and stares at her on the couch to see if she stirs. She doesn't. He walks to the end table light by her feet and turns it off, walks across the parlor/t.v. room to the end of the hall and shuts off that light. He reaches over her head and turns off the light over her. In the blacks and grays of the now dark room, the moon light flutters through the lacey curtains, still blowing in the breeze, in patterns across his hands. He turns over his hands, looks at the palm of his hands, and notices their strength in the shadowy silver/dead gray light. Touched by the moon, these are the hands of a lunatic.
Man in upstairs bedroom
“Hon, you coming to bed?”
Custodian almost laughs. He considers answering the man upstairs in a woman's voice. But instead, positions himself so his face will be in the moonlight when the woman on the couch awakens. He grins a lunatic's grin: one of sick pleasure. He loves to see women scared and conveys that in the narrowed, wild, wolf-pack glint in his eyes and hungry smile. And he is an abnormally patient man. He waits perfectly still, only to reposition his feet every so often so his face stays in the moonlight as the light slowly moves across the room.
In her dream she feels like someone is watching her. She stirs awake. Focusing her eyes, she notices a man's figure standing near her...grinning.
Woman on couch.
“Joe?”
The Custodian stands perfectly still...anticipates her fright. He's grinning as if to say, “come on” realize I'm not your man standing here. The moonlight glistens on his smile, creates shadows so that some of his teeth resemble a canine's.
Woman on couch.
“You're not Joe.”
Woman on the couch goes to get up. The Moon Shadow Stalker is wolf-pack lethal, putting his hand over her mouth and nose and holding her down on the couch. She frails around in a panic. Fighting for her life. She can't breathe. She bites down hard on his hand…drawing blood. Rather than pulling it out of her mouth - in pain as a normal man would- he pushes his hand into her mouth harder. She is suffocating.
Joe, man's voice from upstairs bedroom.
“Hon, would you mind bringing up the Goldfish crackers? I'm hungry. Hey what time is it anyway?”
The woman on the couch digs her finger nails into the Custodian wrists, ripping at them like an animal fighting for its life in a trap. He presses into her mouth so hard, part of a tooth breaks off and goes down her throat. Her chest is heaving to get the tooth out of her throat…she's choking to death. Gasping for breath. Then her nails pull out of his wrists. Her arms fall limp to her side. Her chest stops moving up and down. And her eyes roll up into her head. The Moonlight Shadow Stalker stands inhumanly still with a grin of release and relief. He again turns the palms of his – now slightly bit up - hands over in the moonlight's shadows. He admires their strength.
[
Chapter 2
Field Trip
John and his Dad race down the street in his father's SUV. His father is steering – kinda- debating politics -deliberately- with a work buddy on the cell phone and spending quality time with his son. Dad takes a sharp right. Mrs. Meyers jumps back up on the curb and then sidewalk.
John
“Wow. Mrs. Meyers sure jumps high. She always jumped rope with us in Cape May City school.”
Dad is excitedly involved in his cell phone conversation.
Dad
“But everybody knows the Baghdad Airport road is dangerous. Put more troops on it. That's what I'm saying.”
Dad takes another hard right. Warmly rubs John's hair.
John
“Salem road is closed. You've gotta detour.”
Dad keeps driving. Nodding in agreement to what the person on the phone is saying about Baghdad road conditions. He screeches to a halt in front of the detour sign.
John
“Told ya.”
Dad ends phone call. Looks at John.
Dad
“How did you Salem was closed?”
John
“Gazette.”
Dad
“Oh, I don't read newspapers. You should really get in the habit of scanning the headlines on the net.”
SUV backs up, really fast, workmen jump left and right out of the way.
Dad
“Just get in the habit of going on Yahoo and reading the main news stories. It will make you a better citizen when you're an adult. Not that I'm not saying you aren't grown up now.”
In the SUV rear view mirror, workmen are seen waving shovels in anger at John's Dad's driving.
John
“Yeah, it's important to keep up on the road conditions in Baghdad."
John's Dad pulls the SUV behind the school bus with a little over 2 minutes to spare. It's filled with the class, ready for the big field trip back to near where John lives: Cape May Point State Park. John jumps on the bus and tries to squeeze past the teacher who is standing in the aisle, preaching…I mean teaching John thinks.
Teacher
“Nice of you to join us.”
John
“I am a USB v.2.0 port just waiting for you to download.”
John's brain is racing, could you sound more nerdy? Shut up, shut up, shut up.
Teacher
“What?”
John's brain screams just SHUT UP JOHN! John takes off his backpack and sits next to Aleem who is holding his head in his hands…shaking it at John's answer.
John
“Well, cause you know, even the ultra fast, super fast stuff won't be that fast if the port isn't a USB 2.0 too.”
Teacher
“Any way. We're going very low tech today. We're going out to the sanctuary and Point to observe migratory birds and maybe even a few monarch butterflies. And that rarest of all creatures home…John's home. We pass your house right?”
John shakes his head up and down, makes a zipped lips sign.
Aleem
“John leads tourists on nature trails on weekends.”
John pokes.
Teacher
“But since today is a school day, I'll lead.”
The bus goes past rows of Victorians, tree lined streets and buses of tourists. As they hit Sunset, the mood changes to being rural. There are big, mostly gray cedar shake homes with white trim on the right hand side and the marshes and brush of the park on the other. Beyond the protected area, the white sandy beach and ocean. But even with the height of the bus, you can't see the ocean John thinks. As they turn on Lighthouse, they pass John's house, his father is just getting out of the car after having dropped John off. John's Dad still is talking on the cell phone. He waves to the bus, then realizes John might be embarrassed by that move and puts his hand in his coat pocket…trying to act like he didn't wave. Jen, kneels on her seat and says to John seated behind her:
Jen
“Aleem got lucky last night.”
She pops back down…not unlike a Jack in the box only John didn't have to push her head back into the box…it just disappeared.
John
“Well, now.”
Aleem
“Kissing, hugging. That's it.”
The bus pulls up in the parking lot near the Cape May lighthouse. It rises creamy white into the blue sky. It's top is brick red. There are two raised platforms for watching birds on either side of the lot. One looks towards the beach. The other towards a marsh and duck pond. Both have bird watchers on them with expensive cameras. Between the platforms is a little plank, board-covered path to the beach.
Teacher
“Well guys, first we head for the beach.”
Jen looks at the dorky-looking, adult bird watchers on the platforms. Jen whispers to John.
Jen
“Yes. The bird brains are obviously intelligent. But can they pull together a look like this?”
Jen twirls around, showing off her low rise jeans and flashes her pierced belly-button. John looks from her belly...to the belly of a heavy set birder.
John
“God. I hope not.”
Stacey runs up with Aleem.
Stacey
“Did you hear Aleem got lucky last night.”
Aleem
"I'm still a virtuous Muslim lucky. There is a difference.”
John
“Kissing and hugging right?”
Jen
“But no…”
Aleem
“No. Actually, she got turned off...not on. I was tricked.”
Stacey
“Well, spill it.”
The class is walking down the beach as the teacher basically points at various birds and says: bird.
Aleem
“We went to rent a DVD. And she says you choose. She held up Sense and Sensibilities. And Happy Gilmore. I chose Happy Gilmore.”
John
“Dude if it was called Non-sense and Sensibilities, maybe guys would want to see it.”
Jen
“That's a very unenlightened viewpoint.”
John
“Please. I can see it. Two couples in Victorian dress…the man saying, “I shall reach for your hand”, the woman saying “You shant.?” An hour and a half of this: shall, shant, shall, shant, shall, shant.”
Teacher
“Pardon John?”
Reacting fast, John quickly grabs any shell from the beach.
John
“What kind of shell is this?”
Teacher looks at it sarcastically.
Teacher
“That's a clam shell. Class can we repeat this for John.”
Class breaks up and says:
“Clam shell.”
John
“John says…but what's that?”
He points towards the grassy bird nesting area.
Teacher
“Alright…sea grass…and…John run and get the ranger.”
A dead woman's hand with its flesh partially torn off is sticking out of the sand. It is being picked apart by sea gulls.
Chapter 3
Things that go bump…in the day.
John
“Kath. That you?”
Kathy, John's little sister, slams the front door. As usual, they are the only ones home in the afternoon.
Kathy
“Well who else would it be? Geez.”
Kathy drops her Tweety Bird backpack near the door, sits on the couch for one minute and announces:
Kathy
“Bored. Boring. Really bored.”
John, thinking fast cause he really just wants to lie down says:
John
“We'll build a fort, and then lay quietly behind it, for when the monsters come.”
Kathy
“You be the monster.”
John
“No. I'm gonna be safe inside the fort with you…laying down quietly so he can't find us.
Kathy
“K.”
John takes the cushions off the couch and pillows. Turns to Kathy:
John
“Mom doesn't need to know about us taking the cushions off the couch.”
Kathy
“Us? You.”
John
“You wanna play or not?”
Kathy
“I'm playing. I'm playing.”
They lie down behind the fort. Oh it feels so good to lie down John thinks. John can't get the sight of that dead woman's hand sticking out of the sand. Kathy is kinda crawling all over the place looking out for monsters.
Kathy
“Well? Where is he?”
John
“The stairs are the mountain and Mom's bedroom his the cave. He's walking around his cave right now. So the people can dance around outside the fort.”
Kathy
“Come on.”
John
“No the….fort watcher person has to lie here and keep tabs on where the monster is. He's still in his fort. It's safe to go outside towns people.”
Jumps out of the fort and dances around.
Kathy
“Can we still dance?”
John
“Yes, and jumping up and down too.”
Kathy jumps up and down. John calls from his horizontal position.
John
“Keep dancing.”
Kathy
“Still? Come on. I'm getting tired.”
Still lying down. John calls out:
John
“Bing, bing, bing. The monster is coming. All the town's people come in side.”
Kathy jumps back inside the fort.
Kathy
“Get up and fight.”
John
“No. We must lay still and he'll go away. Lay down”
Kathy lays on top of John's back. Whispers.
Kathy
“Where is he now?”
John
“He's at the top of the stairs…I mean mountain.”
Kathy
“We've gotta lay here and be still.”
John
“Now he's coming down the mountain. He's just outside the fort. He's looking for people to eat. He's looking at the fort. Oh, he's looking at the farmer's fields and where the towns people danced. Oh good, he's going back up the stairs…I mean the mountain. He's at the top….”
Kathy
“I'm hungry.”
John gives Kathy pretend food.
John
“Here.”
Kathy
“No really hungry.”
John
“You don't wanna play monster anymore?”
Kathy
“No. I wanna eat.”
John puts the cushions and pillows back on the couch and turns the t.v. set on.
Kathy
“I'm hot.”
John
“From all that dancing.”
John goes out of living room, crosses the small entry way and opens the front door. He locks the screen door.
John
“You watch toons and I'll cook you some eggs.”
Kathy
“K."
Kathy kinda rocks on the couch as she watches cartoons.
John goes into the kitchen. He can see her but not the front door or the staircase – the monster's mountain - to the side of her. She totally wore herself out he thinks. Focusing on scrambling eggs, he's ignoring her and she sees that. Kathy gasps.
Kathy
“Who are you? What are you doing up there?”
John looks at Kathy. She's stopped rocking. She's staring towards the front door and staircase that are out of John's view.
John
“Kathy? At the top of the stairs?”
Kathy nods her head “yes” while staring towards the stairs.
John walks slowly out of the kitchen holding the plastic spatula. It is dripping scrambled eggs on the floor. To Kathy:
John
“Up there right?”
Kathy nods her head again.
John
“Kathy, if I yell run. You run down the street to Mrs. Meyers house. K?”
Kathy nods. John crosses the living room. He looks up the stairs. Looks at the screen door. Goes to unlock it. It's already unlocked. Was that tear in the door screen there before?, he thinks. He goes back into the living room and starts upstairs. The spatula is quivering…shaking off the remaining eggs. John screams upstairs.
John
“I've got a gun…and a knife. I've got two knives. ”
John's feet can barely climb. His legs are shaking so bad he's afraid he's gonna trip on the stairs. He pushes the quivering plastic, spatula out way ahead of him by holding out his arm. He glances back at Kathy to tell her again to run if he says run. Who ever is there…he might be, lurking, waiting behind the blind corner at the top of the stairs. Is that a shadow he sees? He turns around and Kathy is rocking happily back and forth…watching him.
John
“Kathy. Is this thing/person you were talking to…real or pretend?”
Kathy smiles and throws her hands up in an expression of “surprise”.
Kathy
“Pretend! Pretend! Pretend!”
Chapter 4
Voices in my head
all the things you said, all the things you said, going through my head, going through my head... John wakes up to the radio blaring and his mother's excited foot steps headed towards his bedroom door. Which means she must have warned me to get up before and now I've gotta rush to get to school, John thinks.
John's Mom commands:
"Now! John."
John gets up and runs into the shower. Voice in his head says: "mother blood" he just saw that Psycho movie at Aleem's house last night. He puts on black sport briefs, black jeans, a black t-shirt and silver studded belt. Pulls his hair straight up. Voice in his head says in an Arnold imitation: I'm am your new Governor...Get Out. He grabs his black back pack, runs into the kitchen. Grabs an uncooked pop tart. Sticks it in his mouth.
John
"Later Mom."
He books out the door and onto his black bike. He rides past the Bed & Breakfasts. The Voice says in a Madonna English accent: Tea with your scones? He screeches into the school yard. Locks his bike. Runs into the school as the Voice inside his head says...you're gonna be late. He smashes into the custodian who catches him with his hands.
John
"I'm so sorry. I'm late again."
John runs down the hall. The custodian looks at his hands, turns his palms over. The voice inside the custodian's head says: they look much stronger in the moonlight.
The custodian puts down fresh white lines between the baseball bases on the school playground. He stops for a minute to wipe the sweat from his face and sticks the hanker chief back in his pocket. He looks out across the field and sees, Jen, Jill and John sitting on the bleachers...talking. A voice inside him says: even from here that girl's neck (Jen's) looks helpless, easy to snap. He looks at the palms of his hands in the sun light. His voice adds: if only I felt stronger today. The custodian continues to walk and lay the white line down.
John
"Jen. That woman who was killed. She lived near you...right?"
Jen
"Three doors down. Pretty creepy huh?"
John
"So what did you hear?"
Jen
"Don't know her. Didn't read much about it."
Jill
"I did. She left the door open. Stupid."
John
"Well, was she nice? Married? I mean, you're neighbors."
Jen
"She's married. But I don't know anything about her or her husband. The only relationship I know about is Ben and J Lo's. I heard Ben makes things difficult for himself. But he's a good guy. I hope they get together."
John
"Were your neighbors getting along?"
Jill
"She said she doesn't know. What are you 80? Nobody knows their neighbors anymore. I think she was involved in something...drugs, sleeping around."
The custodian is in front of them laying down the line.
John
"Really? Did you read that?"
Jill
"No. I just think so. People normally don't kill for nothing."
John
"Well, you know they found another body on the beach."
Jill
"Drugs. I'm telling you. It's drugs."
Custodian stops. Pretends he's fixing the spreader he's using to lay down the white line.
Jen
"He creeps me out."
John glances at the custodian.
John
"Him? He doesn't seem to bother anyone."
Jill
"Why cause he's a custodian?"
Jen
"Cause he stares at me. Like at parts of me. Like he's imagining something."
Jill
"I think you're imagining something."
Custodian's voice inside his head is saying, get moving, they'll notice you're listening to them.
Jen
"Mind if we move guys?"
John
"Yeah. I have to get home anyways. Kathy will be home soon."
The friends walk across the playing field. They part ways and Jen walks alone. The custodian noticed that.
Chapter 5
Screw her.
The custodian looks up at his chart of the phases of the moon for 2003. With each night, he has felt the strength in his hands grow stronger…and the need to stalk and kill prey more urgent. Tonight, the moon is full again. As he leaves the his office in the school's basement, next to the boiler, he feels so powerful that every woman he passes seem like in insect he could crush at any time. Like an ant before his feet, they live or die at his choosing. Soon, he is on Jen's street again. The 6 foot hedges her father planted for privacy, provide the perfect hiding place for him. Jen gets let out of a car. She's going to walk close enough to touch his voice is saying. Stay calm, don't move, don't move, don't move, the voice continues. He's standing abnormally still in the moonlight. He turns his hands over. In the grays and blacks of the moon shadow, they look especially strong. Jen walks closer, and closer. Jen's dad comes to the door. The custodian jumps through the hedges, startling Jen. Jen's dad puts the porch light on.
Jen's dad.
“Thanks for indulging your dad. I know it's embarrassing to call to say I'm leaving to come home now.”
Jen walks up the side walk. The voice inside the custodian is furious. The voice tells his mind how his strong hands would feel around Jen's neck. Wrapping his hands almost completely around it, and then snap. The voice say, and her head would tilt to one side…dead.
Jen
“No prob dad. John said they found another dead woman on the beach a month ago. It happened that same night.”
Jen steps into the house. Jen's father locks the screen door. And as he's shutting the door says:
Jen's dad
“I guess no place is safe. Not even Cape May.”
The yellow/brown glow of the house feels especially good tonight…even to Jen.
Jen's dad
“And I was worried about the Internet being unsafe.”
Jen takes off her coat and puts it in the closet near the front door. As she glances out the front door window. She could swear she saw something get up near the hedges.
Jen
“Well, you were right there. I won't even tell you the kinda creep Jess met on the net.”
A blond woman walking down Jen's street, looking into her purse for her house keys. She bangs into the Custodian's chest.
Blond woman
“I'm sorry.”
He doesn't see all of her. A shaft of moonlight falls on her neck. He doesn't answer her but just stands there in the middle of the sidewalk.
Blond woman
“I'll move…you're right, you were walking there.”
Blond woman walks off of the sidewalk and around the custodian. She glances behind her. He's still standing there. She shivers and walks faster up to her house. The keys are in her fingertips. She's fumbling for the key to the house. Got it, her voice inside her says and she positions it to slips quickly into the lock as she climbs her porch stairs. The porch light is on and she feels safe as she reaches it. She opens the screen door, and watches her hand put the key towards the door lock. A man's hand goes in front of the lock. Another over her mouth. She jabs the key into his hand. The man's hand is bleeding her inner voice says. Scream, scream scream her inner voice says as she sees the bloody hand pull away from the door. She can see both their shadows on the porch floor. The sleeve is gray. It's the guy she banged into. He's holding my mouth. No one will hear me her voice says. The custodian's voice says just snap it. He takes his bloody hand and snaps her neck. She drops to the floor of the brightly lit porch. The custodian walks off the porch. Glances around the empty street. Turns his hands over in the moonlight and looks at the moon shadow on his hands. Hatred and power rises in him. Screw her the voice in his head says.
Chapter 6
Mirror Image
Jen looks in her vanity mirror…left side of face…right side of face. Instead of seeing a really pretty teen, she doesn't see a Britney. At almost the same time, Jill looks at her Latino body, moves it back and forth in front of a full length mirror. Not one of JLo's curves she thinks. Meantime John doesn't look in the mirror when he gets up. He's focused on bigger things than himself. He's gonna get a quick surf in the early morning Autumn sea spray before he meets with his friends. Even if he wanted to look at himself in the water, his reflection is spread out across the crests of a million waves. The custodian wipes the steam off his bathroom mirror. Thinks about the day he watched his father shave…and his father, being drunk, took his straight razor and held it to his neck…threatening to kill him. And his mother popping her head in and popping it back out as if she say nothing. He thinks, my hands look old and week in the morning light. I'll be calling out sick next week, the custodian thinks. His left hand has a huge bite mark.
John, Jen and Jill meet up at the picnic tables near the Cape May Lighthouse. The lighthouse rises creamy white to a red cap. How tall it must have seen in the days before skyscrapers. How remarkable curved bricks were in the late 1800's. How well it protected Cape May people in its day. But this is a new day. A day when people don't know their neighbors. An explosion of non-stop information where you understand people from around the world more, but not from around your block.
Jen
“So, he killed again last night. And on my street.”
John
“My dad's freaking.”
Jill
“Your dad is always freaking though.”
John
“I'm actually surprised he knows about it. It must have appeared on the Internet. We have to do something.”
Jill
“I know what I'm gonna do.”
Jen
“Well?”
Jill
“Not get my ass killed.”
John
“Good plan. Actually we do need a plan. That's why I brought a pad. Let's list what we know about this guy.”
Jen
“If it's a guy? Maybe it's a woman?”
John
“A woman watching a woman. Killing women. Wow THE LESBIAN KILLER.”
John writes the title in big letters. John and Jen look sarcastically at Jill.
Jill
“Oh sure. Pick on the girl volleyball player.”
John
“K. What do we know? He kills at night.”
Jen
“But they found the body on the beach.”
John
“Had to be killed at night. I can see from here where she was killed.”
Jill
“It was a full moon last night.”
John
“He's not a wolf thing.”
Jen
“Werewolf”
John
“Tupperware-wolf. Maybe it's all about party's to sell containers to keep food fresh.”
Jill
“You're so goofy. But really cute. Do you like the way you look?”
John
“I look like me.”
Jill
“But do you like your looks.”
John
“Yes and do you know why?”
Jill
“Waiting…”
John whispers
John
“Cause I don't look at myself all that much. Anyways, the full moon theory…”
Jen
“You know, the other one happened on a full moon too. I remember cause I was looking at it in my bed. Oh-my-God through my open window…with just a screen in it.”
John
“Well, I guess he didn't want you.”
Jen
“Oh bull. I've totally got it going on. He'd be lucky to have me. What am I saying?”
John lists night, and full moon.
John
“Now, did these women know him? Was there something going on between them. Even drugs?”
Jen
“We don't know our neighbors much.”
John
“Well, and I don't want to get into blaming the victims.
Jen
“No way. There's that creep again.”
The custodian walks down a pretty deserted, off-season beach in the shadow of the lighthouse.
John
“You know. You're starting to sound…well, I don't know what it's called but it's when someone thinks they're better than someone who's poor. He's just doing a job.”
Jen
“He creeps me out. Like look. Why would he be wearing gloves on a day like today?”
John
“I think the neighbors need to get to know each other. How can you tell if there's someone strange in your neighborhood if you don't know your neighbors?”
Jill
“How can you spot a stranger in a town that is jammed with tourists?”
John
“I've got an idea. Let's dump this on my dad. He'll work it out.”
Jen
“I've got a better one. Let's follow that guy home.”
Jen points at the custodian who is walking across the lighthouse parking lot, towards where towns people, like John, tie up their little boats on Delaware Bay.
They run across the parking lot. John trips and falls and laughs. Luckily, the custodian is lost in his own world and does notice them. The custodian disappears into a sea of wet lands grasses and sea oats.
Jill
“Where's your boat?”
John indicated over here and puts his finger to his lips. They climb into the row boat, hidden among the tall grasses.
Jen whispering
“Where did he go?”
John
“Shhhh. You'll here him paddle.”
Oars coming in and out of the water seem to be approaching.
John
“Shoot. He's coming this way. He must have docked closer inland.
Duck down.”
The oars come in and out of the water much closer now and then stop.
Jen makes a scared look…She whispers.
Jen
“Or he could kill us with the oars.”
John
“Your “or’s are killing me. Or this, or that could happen..”
Through the reeds, they now see the custodian is floating, looking at mallards bobbing in the little canal. They duck their heads down again. Silence. And then, the oars going in and out of the water sound resumes.
John
“He's headed north, up the grass river, north of town.”
They wait until they can no longer hear the oars. John pushes his boat off the mound of grass. They head off in the direction he went. John peers up the grass river. No custodian.
John
“Row slower.”
Jen and Jill row the boat slow.
Jill
“I don't like this. Where did he go?”
Jen
“He could have seen us. Maybe he's going to wait and bash our heads in as we go by.”
John motions to stop rowing. The row boat continues to move forward. Like a bolt, the custodian stands up, inhumanly still, looks slowly across all of their startled faces, Jill's eyes, John's eyes. His eyes stop and stare at Jen's neck. Jen pulls her jacket up. The custodian doesn't smile. He doesn't smirk. He doesn't frown. He doesn't look angry. He doesn't express any emotion. John, Jill and Jen have faded away into night. He's looking beyond today…to the night of the next full moon. Now he smiles.
Chapter 7
One man's dream is another man's nightmare.
The foggy, salt air hangs low over the salt marsh. I'm lying in my rowboat...going up one of those wetland creeks John thinks. Actually, I'm being pushed. Must be the tide pushing me deeper and deeper into the Pine Barren's wilderness. There's no docks and I'm just flowing, helpless against the tide, John thinks. The blades of grass pierce the sky like knife blades....making the sky bleed crimson. It's twilight. A silver light shines on John's chest, he glances over his shoulder, it is a rising moon. It's full. Hey, John thinks, the tide isn't pushing me into the wilderness. Someone is paddling. I can't bear to look up, John thinks. He glances beyond his head, past the built-in aluminum seat, to dirty work boots caked in wetlands, black muck. To gray uniform pants. Up to the belt buckle. A hand with an oar interrupts John's upward glance to the face of the man who’s paddling. The hand has a bite mark on it. It is bleeding down the wrist of the man who’s paddling as he pushes the oars back into the water. John knows who this is. He slowly raises his glance to the middle of the gray uniform shirt, to the neck, abnormally still, to the chin that is being stretched down. Whoever that is is grinning. He sees the teeth in the glowing moonlight. They appear to be canine. The top lip is split from dryness or a fight. It is bleeding a bit on his upper teeth. His nose and cheek bones are raised in a smile John thinks. He sees his yellow, wild eyes and his forehead. He is the custodian...staring right at me John thinks and jumps.
John sits up in the bed in his room. The moonlight dances on the white curtains, making shadows in John's bedroom. John jumps out of bed. He runs to the window. There's the moon. It's only a crescent.
The Custodian. John blinks, trying to adjust his eyes to see better. Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness, Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness, Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness. His neighbor's Victorian garden flickers, like in the light of a movie being projected with the rapid-fire changes in light from darkness to light and back to darkness again. John looks up and sees the stars zipping across the sky. He looks back down on the Victorian garden… Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness. There's a presence in the bushes. A dark presence…he can't quite make out. Is it a vicious animal or man crouching? Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness. John can't make it out. Who's that entering through the trellis? Jen? What's Jen doing out at night? John thinks. Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness. The light catches every curve…where her shirt ends and before her low rise jeans begin, her hips, down to her feet, she's barefoot…and there's something moving in those bushes for sure John thinks. If I could just raise this window, John thinks as he goes to raise it, I could scream to her and whoever is down there with her might be frightened off. He can't get the window open. Darkness, silver, white, silver, darkness. The shadow is moving towards Jen. Then in the reflection in his bedroom window, he sees the Custodian coming up behind him. The Custodian puts his hand over John's mouth from behind. John hits the window. Jen looks up in the garden. John is being pulled backwards into the darkness of his room. He hears a voice saying:
“Now means now. Now means now.” John wakes up, he's looking around his room in the morning light. He hears from outside his bedroom door.
John's mother
“Now means now. You have to get up now.”
John jumps out of bed and climbs into his border shorts. He runs down the stairs barefoot. The chimes on the front porch are blowing in the breeze…silently. His mother is already in the mini van. He quietly slams the door behind him and sees his surfboard is already loaded in the back. The car glides over to Ocean and parks.
John
“Thanks Mom.”
John thinks.
John grabs his surfboard and climbs the stairs up the promenade. He sees the ocean is unnaturally smooth. At the horizon there is a dark figure. John goes down to the beach and sticks his surf board in the sand so he can lean on it. The ocean is silver and flat like a mirror. The figure on the horizon is moving towards him as the sun dawns bright overhead. Soon, details of the figure come into view, it is a man. He is headed right towards me, John thinks. He isn't in a boat. He's walking on water. He's wearing a gray uniform. Like the Custodian wears, John thinks in rapid succession. People gradually come on the beach and lay out their blankets. Only the wind can be heard. It is the Custodian, John realizes and tries to run. He can't. His feet are stuck in the sand. The Custodian is walking on water with the sun to his back…almost creating a halo. Inside, John knows this is evil…not a holy apparition. John frantically pulls on his feet at the knees…trying to get them out of the sand. The Custodian has almost reached the shore. The mirror-like sea is reflecting his Christ-like image. The people on their beach towels kneel in prayer. They are students and teachers at his school John realizes. John is in a panic. He cannot speak. He cannot move. The Custodian reaches the shore. John sees the smile of a maniac. The Custodian reaches his arms and hands out towards John grasping…floating across the sand. The Custodian's eyes narrow in hatred. His muscular hands reach out and grasp John's neck. John wakes up in a jolt. He looks around his room. It's dark. It's 5 he thinks as he sees the clock. He lays his head back down. I have to remember to tell Jen. The Custodian sees himself as a savior.
At the same time John wakes up from that dream, Jen wakes up, runs to her PC and logs onto the "Mirror, Mirror" site. I wonder how they rated me now. She thinks as she searches for the PDF of her face she's posted. A blank, animated mirror image appears, it spins as it looks for her image. Her name appears first in the mirror. It dissolves to the picture of her face she posted. Then the words "How do I rate?" appear and her numbers come in: "6s" and two "7s". That picture of me is a definite "9" she thinks and then
worries...aren't I a "9"? She jumps up and looks in her vanity mirror. I'm not that great looking she thinks.
Jen
"I'm gonna take another shot of myself and post it. Maybe with a sexy look."
Jen sits again in front of the PC. The animated image has stopped. The mirror is black.
Jen
"It creeps me out when it's black. Always feel like someone's looking at me from the mirror."
In a shack in the wet lands outside of town, the blue of a PC's light spills out onto the dilapidated dock. Inside, the Mirror, Mirror site's owner is looking at Jen's posting. He turns his hands over from the keyboard. In the blue, gray light of the PC, his hands look strong...almost like the way they look in the moonlight of a full moon. The Custodian shuts off his site. There's much to do today. There will be a full moon tonight.
Chapter 8
I had the strangest dream.
Jen is lying on her bed, hitting the redial key on her cell.
John
“Hello?”
Jen
“Where were you?”
John
“Church. And on Sunday no less”
Jen
“Oh, of course. Wish I was religious. I've been trying to call you. Do you get anything out of it...I mean church."
John
“hmmm. You've sinned. You probably will sin again. If you're sorry you're forgiven for sinning…oh yes and go out and be good with math on top of trying not to sin.”
Jen
“What?”
John
“The bible said go out and multiply. And me with remedial math skills.”
Jen
“How long did it take you to come up with that one.”
John
“Most of the mass.”
Jen
“Well, anyways. I just had to call you. I had the strangest dream.”
John
“Well, as long as it didn't have the custodian walking on water like Jesus Christ and trying to choke you. You're doing better than me.”
Jen sits up on her bed agitated.
Jen
“Did Jill tell you that? I called her today when I couldn't reach you.”
John
“No. I had the same dream. Did Jill?”
Jen
“No.”
John
“That's good. Cause if we're all having the same dream...I'd be expecting the Freddie dude with the razor gloves. Think he shaves with those? Oh, my God what if he picked his nose with those…no worst…what if he…felt himself - down there - with those razor fingers…he'd pull a Bobbit on himself.”
Jen
“Liter bottle of coke?"
John
“Drinking it as we speak. Cherry coke though.”
Jen
“I recognize the caffeine rush. Anyways, what do you think?”
John
“I think it's up to us to decide if celebrities are beautiful. It's not up to them to tell us.”
Jen
“Come-on.”
John
“It was an upsetting dream. And I'm trying NOT to think about it.”
Wanna meet? We could hook up at that donut shop on Ocean. Then we could walk off what we eat...down the beach. Of course we'd have to walk from Jersey to Florida to walk a donut off.”
Jen
“Yes to meeting you. No to the donut shop. I'm on a diet.”
John
“Hear about the Vegas diet: lose everything.”
Jen
“Later.”
John
“Much”
John goes to hang up.
Jen
“Hey, dork, wait, wait, wait. Don't hang up. When and Where?”
John
“The picnic benches near the lighthouse. We'll be alone. It'll be only us there this time of year."
Jen
“Just us and the custodian with our luck.”
The wind is whipping up white caps on the sea beyond the gazebo with the picnic tables where Jen and John are seated. Jen, excitedly tells her dream. It is the same as John's.
Jen
"What does it mean?"
John
"That you're unoriginal...I had the dream first. Get your own dream."
Jen rolls her eyes.
Jen
"This is serious. The police said he murders on nights with a full moon."
John
"I half heard something about a connection with all of the victims with that website you're on that "who's the fairest one of all" site."
Jen
"That line isn't on there at all. It's called "Mirror. Mirror."
John
"On the wall...who's the fairest one of all?"
Jen
"Who's the fairest one of all? It's not on there don't break my balls."
John
"Beautiful girls who know how to curse. That's a 10 in my book. See, you can't look in a mirror or a picture on a site and really see yourself."
Jen
"Do you really think so?"
John
"You can't use a site to tell you you're beautiful or funny or any of that stuff. You shouldn't put so much of yourself on line anyways. Weirdo’s lurk."
Jen
"You lurk."
John
"No. I'm the jerk who doesn't luck. I meet in broad daylight. That's a creepy ass site anyway."
Jen
"I do feel like someone's watching me."
John
"Well duh, you put your picture up there."
Jen
"No I mean as if something can see me when I'm on the site. Like someone is watching me."
John
"You said some-thing."
Jen
"Well, if it is the Custodian, he's a sick animal."
John
"Animals. They always insult animals. I like animals better than people. Although I'm no chicken hugger like Pamela Sue Andersen."
Jen
"Ramble much?"
John
"You know, the Baywatch babe who's boycotting KFC cause she wants chickens to have better lives? Bet she still goes to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can see her ordering a breast or two."
Jen
"Focus. What are we going to do....wait for him to come and get me?"
John
"No. We'll go get him. We'll track him like the animal he is."
Jen
"He lives in the wetlands up by Atlantic City. What if we can't find him so we can track him?"
John
"Then we just have to look behind us. He's probably tracking us."
Chapter 9
"This was called the graveyard and the first light keeper was named Daniel Scull.
Jen is relieved to see John standing, right where he said he would...near the Abescon lighthouse.
Jen
"So what's the big secret? Why come up to Atlantic City? He hasn't killed anyone up here. Just down by us."
John
"I wanna show you something."
John points to the Abescon Inlet, on the north side of Atlantic City. That was called
"the Graveyard Inlet." And the first light keeper of the Abescon Lighthouse was Daniel Scull. Is that cool or what?" John says as they walk towards the yellow and black striped lighthouse.
Jen
"No way was he named that."
They approach the lighthouse. Jen looks up. John smiles...almost winking.
John
"Well, his name is spelled Scull not Skull. But that's close enough for me."
John opens the lighthouse door.
John
"Come on."
Jen
"John, we don't have time to play. That full moon is going to rise right over there soon."
Jen points over the graveyard inlet.
John walk into lighthouse and begins to climb the stairs with Jen close behind.
John
"I was thinking about you and the "Mirror, Mirror site. And I was thinking about how onetime I saw the way the Custodian shines the mirrors in the boysroom. He caught a glimpse of himself...and looked so angry."
Jen and John continue to climb the spiral stairs.
Jen
"I'm thinking. No need for the stair master this week."
John
"Anyway. And I was thinking how remember in science how Mr. Armstrong said light bounces off us, hits the mirror, bounces off it and into our eyes."
Jen
"No. I totally zone out in Science. But I'll take your word for it. Look...."
Jen stops climbing. She looks out the window. The full moon is on the horizon over the Atlantic.
John
"Quick. I have to show you something. Well, you know how I volunteer to feed the elderly in the nursing home?"
Jen
"Yes and yuck. Although I know that's a good thing."
John
"Well, this one guy is totally into lighthouses. And the Abescon lighthouse is the only one that still uses it's First Order Fresnel Lens."
John and Jen reach the top of the lighthouse and see a glowing, glass lens from 1857.
John
"See Jen. It projects it's light out. Out to help people. Not to reflect on itself."
Jen
"Yeah, ah what a beautiful thought. And thanks having me climb all the way up here to tell me this. Would you mind telling me a tinsy, winsy thing?"
John
"Oh sure, I know. You wanna know where the lens was made?"
Jen
"No. I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE HECK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT?"
John
"If who we are is reflected light. We need to project that out to where it can do some good...not look at a mirror and reflect on ourselves. Virtual or real."
Jen
"That's deep. And we're sooo dead. The full moon is up. And I knew from the first time I could him staring at my neck after the other girls were strangled...that I was dead. And now I hear they were on the Mirror, Mirror site too."
John
"That's o.k. I have a plan of course we have to split up so he'll come after you."
Jen
"So your plan is to get me killed? Oh, how will I ever be able to thank you. Oh that's right I won't...cause I'll be dead."
Jen and John walk down the spiral staircase in the marina area of Atlantic City just as a row boat from the depths of the wetlands and the depth of human depravity docks nearby and the Custodian gets out.
Chapter 10
“I'm just a Custodian. People make a mess. I get rid of it.”
The miss rolled in from the sea, obscuring the lights of the Atlantic City Casinos as if they were in a dream, rolling across the boardwalk as if Jen and John were walking into a nightmare.
John glanced behind him at the Abescon lighthouse.
John
“See Jen, I can see why they needed that lighthouse. This is the kind of night that made that inlet a graveyard for ships.”
Unseen, walking just far enough behind them is The Custodian. The full-moon, etched the muscles in his hands.
Jen
“I'm so glad we started back when we did. It got dark fast.”
John
“There will be more people up by the casinos.”
Jen
“Well, more people in them anyways.”
Jen jerked around.
Jen
“What was that?”
John
“What?”
Jen listens like her life depends on it.
Jen
“I heard footsteps behind us. And when we stopped before…it stopped like a moment later.”
A fog horn blasts out at sea.
John
“Things get weird in the fog…you know echoes and stuff.”
They begin to walk again. John looks up at the greek statue at Cesear's Palace Casino.
John
“Yo, Caesar dude. Your ass is totally showing. For God sakes man, put on a longer skirt.”
Jen laughs. Then stops and jerks around again.
John
“Ah….Jen. Old buddy. Old pal. Newsflash. We might not be the only ones walking the boards in Atlantic City. Note the name: city.”
Jen
“I guess I'm just creeped out. The way he looks at my neck. I swear he does it 'til I notice he's doing it.”
John
“We talking custodian here?”
Jen
“No. Brad from the varsity squad.”
John
“Come on Jen. This is soooo you!”
John points at the flashing yellow and white sign: "The House of Mirrors". It's a funhouse comprised of a mirror maze you walk through. John and Jen enter the House of Mirror, mirror maze. John thinks he sees the open path and walks fast into the mirror banging his head.
Jen
“K- you're totally supposed to use your head to get through the maze…but not like that.”
John
“Shut up.”
John laughs as he rubs his head. They feel their way through two more rooms. You can partially see through the openings to places that look like paths in the maze but with all of the mirrors you can tell what a path is and what's a reflection John thinks. Jen glances in a mirror at herself, rolls her eyes in disgust. John finds another opening.
John
“Hey, at least you're learning what a mirror is good for…fun not being all anxious—ie.:
Jen pushes his back as they enter an area where there are two openings…two ways to go.
Jen
“Now what?”
John
“Now we split up and race to the end.”
Jen
“You guys. Everything's a contest.”
John and Jen laugh as they separate and hurriedly make their way towards the opening at the end…which has come into view as a reflected image. They are gradually moving away from each other. John waves as Jen looks a bit confused. Jen moves another few steps towards the opening at the end. She catches herself in the mirror. Stops, tries to fix her hair…which looks good to John…and looks up in horror. First she sees black shoes, then gray uniform pants and shirt then the canine teeth in his smile. It's the Custodian smiling at her as he enters the exit. She pounds on the mirror wall to John. John goes to run to her. He hits his head against he mirror and is knocked out. Like a maniac or some wild, starving animal, the Custodian makes his way towards Jen. Jen turns around and starts trying to make her way out the entrance. Left, turn, right turn, left turn….dead. God. I have to go back towards him to get out Jen thinks as she hits a dead end. Soon, she makes her way back to where she saw the Custodian. He smiles at her from a few mirror-rooms away. With the clear thinking of the hunted, running for their lives, Jen makes all of the correct turns and is shocked when she runs out of the entrance and into the raw, foggy night and deserted boardwalk. I can't even say help me Jen thinks as she runs off the boardwalk towards the Atlantic Bus Terminal. He's done nothing to me. I can't even ask for the police…her mind is racing as fast as her feet. She hits the bus terminal to see the Cape May bus leaving. Jumping over a bench she hits the curb and pounds on the bus door. The bus stops and the door opens just as she glances and sees the Custodian running up the street towards the terminal. The bus door closes. She runs to the back of the bus and sits down She looks behind the bus to the street. The Custodian is gone. Oh my God. I forgot John she thinks as the bus makes it's way to the Garden State Parkway South.
John wakes up to find he's outside the House of Mirror with a ride operator putting an ice bag on his head.
John
“I'm o.k. I'm o.k. Did you see the girl I was with? Really pretty…this high.”
Ride Operator
“She must have gotten claustrophobic. She tore out of here.”
John
“Was anyone chasing her.”
John gets up.
Ride Operator
“No. Why? This place is so safe. Do you know how many cops are around the casinos? This guy in a gray uniform. Well I said something to him. He said he's just a Custodian. People make a mess...I get rid of it.”
John's flesh crawls as if touched by a snake. He shivers.
John
“Thanks for the ice. I'm fine.”
John sees a cop on the boardwalk. What would I say? John thinks. We think the Custodian from our school who has proven he's a serial murderer cause he stares at my friend's neck too long is chasing my friend? John uses his cell.
John
“Hi. This is John. Is Jen there? Oh she came in a bit ago. No that's fine. I'll talk to her tomorrow.”
All the way home on the bus, John thinks of how he could have put Jen in danger by going to the boardwalk and being closer to wear the Custodian lives. Then the horror hits him. His dream. Jen wasn't on the boardwalk. She was in the Victorian garden next door. John runs down the street towards his neighborhood. Running across his lawn he runs next door to the Victorian garden. Any deviant could be lurking under those bushes John thinks as he looks at the clipped rows of evergreen-black yews. The shadows of the trees resemble shapes like fingertips reaching out towards John's throat, glistening in the misty moonlight like the nails of a predator waiting to pounce. Nothing. Good. John goes up stairs to his bedroom. In the pitch black, he undresses and opens his closet draw. He throws his shoes in, next to the black Custodian's shoes. And turns around to shut the bedroom window. He pulls the old window down with all his might and locks it against the ghostly, foggy night. Moonlight streams down hazily to the Victorian Garden. Who's that? John thinks. It's Jen he realizes as he sees her. She looks up at him. She runs. My God it's happening. He's after her. The black Custodian shoes move in John's closet. The canine smile glistens in the moonlight, the Custodian hands looks strong. I can't see what's chasing her, John thinks as he raises the old window again. The lace curtains unfurl around him like a funeral shroud. The Custodian steps towards him from behind I the pitch blackness. John leans out the window.
John
“Jen?”
The Custodian reaches out his hand to grab John's neck. Just then, John's bedroom door opens. John jumps in fright to the left, out of the reach of the Custodian's grasp. It's Jen. She jumps in the air and kicks the Custodian in the chest…sending him out the old window. All the way down his hands are outstretches, his fingers crinkled like the claws of a predator, his wide smile showing canine teeth. The howl of a wolf emanates from him as he hits the ground with a thud. Jen lands with a thud on the floor next to John.
Jen
“You totally forgot the dream…you knew where he was going to be.”
John
“Well you know….you know I don't have one freak'n clever thing to say.”
Chapter 11
Anything exciting happen?
Aleem comes up to Jen and John who are seated at the picnic tables near Cape May light. The sea spray blows across the dunes and the tables.
John
“How was the trip?”
Aleem
“Boring. Did I miss anything exciting around here?”
Jen and John look at each other.
Jen and John
“Nah.”
