Chapter Seven

                   


                                                     CHAPTER SEVEN 

Students had finally started coming to the music and dance lessons which were held in the large theater behind the huge mansion house. It was a colossal place and had an arrangement of over 50 guests. It was something Jay’s dad had allocated for his son and her friend alone to chase their passion of becoming official dance and song champions.

Jay worked with the violin, guitar, piano and other musical instruments. He had long pursued the dream of becoming the lead musician of a known band. However, at the moment, he was too busy in his studies to pay attention to it, but it was a dream and he would chase it soon enough. 

So in the class of about 37 students was arranged. Most of the people coming were either adolescents or young adults.  Young people, with attentive minds and smiling and sparkling eyes, eager to learn and run after their fervour. Jay knew their looks and questioning gazes too well. He had been there once, himself. He was able to convey his meaning clearly to the people really well and at the same time help them out with their queries since he knew how an amateur musician thinks and acts.

Then there was Dawn. She taught people in their class how to sing, working with high and low pitch levels, increasing and decreasing voice. God! She was an expert. And her voice. Jay couldn’t remember when was the last time he had heard such a sweet, beautiful voice. Maybe it was Debby Ryan or Indina Menzel. But the truth was, he knew, never in living memory had he heard such a complete, attractive voice. The first day Dawn had begun singing, Jay had just stared at her, his instruments forgotten, and gaping at the way her voice floated around the room. Even without the music around, her voice was like a magic symphony which swirled about the room, gushing into ears and producing a mild to strong addictive effect to all those present. Although, Jay knew he may have been a bit biased when it came to Dawn and her ‘virtues’, the look on the faces of the people in the room when she ended, was something which assured him that he had not been wrong. Some faces showed interest, some applauded, while Jay could even spot a few who he knew were envying Dawn for having such a magical tone.

Anyways, so the lessons were held three days a week, mostly alternating but sometimes some were held in a row too. Jay had to keep track of time and since he had time, he wanted to get to know Dawn better. Though they had about three cozy evenings every week, together on account of the classes, somehow it wasn’t enough for Jay. There was something about Dawn, which charmed him like no girl has ever before. He wanted to be with her, most of the time he could. He wanted, more than anything else, to explore her melancholy eyes, which hid a whole other world behind them. Her smile, which was contagious. In fact everything about her was somehow….. Enchanting.

As Thursday was an off day, a seldom depart from the usual bustle of activities Jay had on his occupied mind, he decided to get over Dawn for the evening. They would have fun. And by that he meant it. He told the attendant, who was in charge of all his work, to make sure the whole house was clean and everything, though he would probably spent the evening outside home, but in case he had to bring her back to his place.

Pulling over an extra sweat shirt over his T- shirt, Jay stepped out into the hall and shut his door behind him. It was cold. Not like of course the U.S cold, but still, this area had the most unpredictable weather he had ever seen. It would be a sunny and clear afternoon and then two hours later, there would be storm raging above him, with rain and all. And the evenings were almost cold every other day. The reason was a weird mist, which would settle over the entire place, cool and damp, which was kind of dumb since there wasn’t a coast anyway near here.

Jay made his way into the living room and picked up his car keys from the table. His phone was also there. He started picking it up but then he stopped. Wait. Had he not placed the phone on his dresser after he had talked to Dawn, earlier that day? Then how the hell did the phone reach here? This was troubling. Maybe it was his mom. But she never meddled with Jay’s stuff and he knew it. He looked around for his parents but they were nowhere around. Probably gone shopping. Jay shrugged off the thought and walked out of the house, hands in his pockets, whistling a merry tune. He got into his car and was on his way to pick Dawn up.

Chapter Six

                                                      
                                                     CHAPTER SIX 

Dawn sat down on her bed and closed her eyes, leaning against the wooden crown of her huge bed. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She was instantly greeted by the blue and grey wallpaper, which covered all her walls. Her favourite colours. Her eyes travelled along the walls and over the large French windows which covered her west wall. The sky behind the glass window was dark and inky. She could hear the rain pattering on the iron sill over her window. It made a wonderful sound against the occasional thunder and the music wafting through the room, as her music player played her picked songs cassette. Her gaze raked across the entire room and landed on her study table. She got up and walked up to it.

She stood near the table and looked on her table for a while. Her thoughts were disassembled and confusing. She bent down and started rummaging through her piles of books and notes. No clue. She dropped heavily onto the chair and held her head in both of her hands. She did not know when she had another appointment with Dr. Sophie. She had to talk to her mom about that. She sat in the same position for a while, feeling helpless and extremely sad. She did not know why.

After a while, she decided, a warm bath would make her feel better. She made her way to the bathroom. The mirror over her white marble sink caught her attention. She looked at her reflection in disbelief. Her hair was dishevelled and she looked like a zombie. She hadn’t realized that there were hot tears flowing down her face in tiny streams. Her eyes were not only bloodshot but also looked miserable. Her cheeks seemed sunken in her skull and made her look as if she had been starving. She shook her head and then splashed water over her face. Wait. What was the black thing running down with her soap water? She stepped back shocked. And her head snapped back to the mirror.

Mascara. Just her mascara running down. Why the hell did she get so paranoid? She gasped, both in relief and happiness and then stepped into the bathtub. The water, in contrast to the cold rain outside was warm and inviting.

 She slipped into the water and closed her eyes and let the warmth seep into her and placate her screaming body. The essence of the vanilla and chocolate extract body wash liquid in the water drifted in the air. Dawn’s body relaxed. Her thoughts wandered away and came to a sudden stop at Jay. His perfect smile. Her eyes snapped open. He was the only guy she had thought about in a long time. She smiled as she thought about their earlier farewell. Her tensed muscles relaxed as she closed her eyes once again.

                                   *************************************************

Jay opened his eyes and looked around. He had passed out in the position he had been laying. His eyes were still clogged with sleep and for a moment he didn’t seem to realize, what had disturbed his peaceful sleep.

A while later, he came to grasp that it was his phone, ringing continuously and the screen blinked. Jay groaned and looked at the wall clock. 5 A.M. Who would be calling him at this hour? With a groan he slumped out of his state and reached for his phone. His body moaned in protest as his still sleeping muscles were pulled out into consciousness. He frowned as he lip read the name on his blinking phone’s screen. 

Lilly? One of his best buddies back him. They rocked together. But right now wasn’t a great time for it. He pressed the receive button and bought the phone closer to his ear.

“What is it?” 

He quite rudely inquired. On the other side he could hear a whoop of laughter and a jolly voice answered.

“Lol! You don’t have to be so rude, Jay! Did I disturb you?”

Jay pulled his eyebrows apart with difficulty and cleared his throat.

“I was sleeping. Anyways, forget it. What’s wrong?”

He could feel background noises and couldn’t hear what Lilly was saying. He strained his ears. She was speaking fast and seemed breathless.

“Nothing. I just missed you, dear. You left me all alone! So I felt like talking to you.”

Jay couldn’t help but feel angry all over again. So this was Lilly. Calling him up early morning just to tell him she missed him. Typical. 

“Good Lord, Lilly! Is that what it’s about? It’s like, 5 A.M in the morning. Couldn’t you have kept your emotions for a little later, maybe?”

Silence fell on the other side of the line. Jay immediately regretted his outburst. If Lilly did not like his tone, he would probably spend the next ten years of his life trying to be friends with her. And he loved her too.

“Sorry, Lilly. I didn’t mean to say it that way. I was just a bit too sleepy. Am I forgiven?”

He could hear laughter on the other side of the line and Jay, imagined how she would have tossed her cool head backwards and waving her hands she would have said:

“Nah, darling! It’s okay. But I might consider forgiving you if you allow me to come and meet me, perhaps?”

Jay smiled to himself and checked his calendar.

“You bet! Come over anytime you want, I never stopped you, did I? In fact, I was thinking to invite over all our friends. Dad said I could. Come over and we’ll plan a party. Are we good?”

Lilly smiled.

“As you wish, dear. Do I book a flight?”

“I’ll do that. And send you the ticket too. Don’t worry about that.”

Lilly whooped and smiled.

“Really? You are the best, Jay! I love you! And…..”

Jay bit back a smile and cut through her next sentence.

“Do me a favor, okay?”

Lilly stopped short.

“What?”

“Do not carry your that wardrobe full of dresses here. We have lots of malls in here. I’ll take you shopping.”

Lilly chuckled and winked.

“Are you sure? Making quite a generous offer, huh? You know me. If I go shopping, I quite entirely buy the whole mall.”

Jay knew her just too well.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I can buy you a hundred such malls. Leave that to me.”

Lilly smiled.

“Well, I guess I’ll just get going now. Pretty tired and you must be sleepy”

Jay shook his head. It was 6 already. Walk time. He got up and poured himself a glass of orange juice.

“You just took away an hour of my sleep. What do I get in return?”

Lilly puckered her eyebrows mischievously.

“You never know!”

Jay drained his glass and looked at the clock again. 6.10. He was losing time.

“Talk to you later, Lady Arabella! I am getting late for my morning workout.”

Lilly immediately lost her nut.

“Don’t call me that! Anyways, goodbye Mr. Perfect. Cannot even stay on the phone for a friend during some other appointment.”

“I have a commitment, darling. Bye!”

And then he hung up. Throwing his phone on his bed, he couldn’t realize he had just spent an hour with Lilly over the phone.

“That girl……”

He thought to himself and smiled. She was one of his best friends.

He took out his track suit and rushed to the bathroom to change. He had a busy day ahead. No moment to lose. 

Chapter Five

  

                                           

                                                     CHAPTER FIVE 



      

Or, as Jay thought so.

”Oh! Wait, I’ll be right back!” Janice told them and skimmed off to an old pink convertible, parked quite skilfully near the edge of the clearing.

 The place seemed surreal and even though, Jay was accustomed to seeing lots of beauty and appreciating nature, this place was nothing like he had or will ever see again. There was a kaleidoscopic variety of flowers around, merging into, what it seemed the bright blue summer sky above. Similar patterns littered the surroundings, blossoming flowers all around with butterflies and different birds flying gaily about the heavenly meadow. A complete and picturesque portrait, God Himself, seemed to have designed. A sweet fresh aroma was lingering in the air. A slight mist had just started to come down, adding to the scene’s splendour. This was normal. The descending mist. Almost every night after sundown, an unexplained haze would come down. This would be so dense at times that it would be a problem walking on the street, let alone drive. 

Jay saw Janice open up the rear of the car and lift some things from there.

 “What is she doing?” Dawn grumped, apparently upset at her weird behavior. Jay shrugged. He had known this girl for 10 minutes now, how was he supposed to know what she had in mind?  As she neared, Jay saw that she held a picnic basket and a sheet. She spread it over a cozy looking spot between two large, shady, beech trees, and sat down cross legged on it. A short pause followed.

 Then she looked up and asked, “What?” reading their lost faces. “Come, sit.” Jay followed suit, while Dawn sat down on her knees and smiled up at Janice.

 “You are one distracted girl”. Janice chuckled and winked. “You have no idea, mademoiselle!” Jay watched this interesting exchange, smile playing on his lips.

“Okay, what do you guys want to know?” Janice asked, apparently, pretty satisfied now that they were all comfortably settled.

 But just as Jay started to speak, she cut across him quickly, opening up her picnic basket and bringing out things. 

“Oh and yes. I have something for you. You may have chips, cookies, and I also packed sandwiches, chicken and lettuce, sardines and pickled onions, and yeah I also have soft drinks and………….”

 Finally, she realized what was going on and stopped abruptly like she used to.

 “Sorry. I am a real bore!” She quickly corrected herself.

 Jay grinned up at her and held up thumbs up. “On the contrary, I find you quite amusing.” 

“Aww. That’s so nice of you.”

 Janice blushed, the rich red colour which flamed up beautifully against her pale, freckled skin. Oh, she did really seem to be as if he knew her. But he didn’t think he had ever seen her before. And yet….. The familiarity was uncannily surprising. And then it hit him. He had seen a girl back in his high school, who kept more to herself and always had her nose buried in a book or two. She was the girl that Janice resembled. Seeing her relax under his soothing gaze, Jay proceeded on to the matter.

“Yeah, I wanted to ask you about this place. Like its history and all. And why the hell do people seem so scared to death most of the time?” 

Jay inquired, and instantly saw Janice’s smile vanish. He looked at her apologetically.

 “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be so harsh.”

Dawn raised an eyebrow at Jay and immediately turned to Janice. 

“I am so sorry, Janice. Jay is so naïve, he didn’t mean to be that rude but he forgot he was being just that way.”

She said sarcastically. Janice managed a small smile but the tensed features around her face made it pretty obvious that she did not feel that well.

“No. It’s okay. Doesn’t matter. The only thing is that, this place has a complicated past, which makes it less of an “appealing “place.” 

Janice held up her hands bending her fingers in sync with her sentence to give the extent of her meaning.

“Like what?”

 Jay asked hiding his smirk behind a questioning gaze, lest he should annoy Janice too much. Janice was looking at a patch of flowers some distance away, apparently too absorbed to notice, anyways. Dawn, however saw his expression and glared at him giving him one of the Will-you-stop-it? Look he knew too well. He shrugged and winked at her. She turned away, grinning.

“I’ll tell you about everything. But first you have to help yourself to something. Or the deal is off.”

She told them and quickly spread out a promising supper before them. Jay and Dawn exchanged a look. This girl was too polite and formal. And sweet.  Anyways, they helped themselves to some of the things so they could get along well with Janice, since she seemed all on for the party.

Once they were done, they packed up and begin walking around the clearing. They reached the edge of a very not so steep cliff and began to climb. It wasn’t difficult.

“20 years ago, this place was called ‘Demeure de la paix’. In french, evidently if you have taken it’s lessons in school, you’ll know, it means ‘Abode of peace’. The place blossomed with flowers all round the year, well you get the gist…………”

 Jay lost the track of the conversation for a few minutes. Janice had led them to the top of the cliff. Tucking a lock of hair behind her hair, every few moments. They now stood on the very top of the descending cliff. As jay looked down, he could only see murky brown stuff, blobbing and frothing, a great distance away. This was the marsh. The one this area was famous for. It dominated a large area of land and was nowhere near the normal civilization, yet, it seemed to threaten its existence. From the cliff, an old, rickety bridge, led up to the other end of the marsh, which was probably so far, that Jay could only see an outline of it against the blue horizon. The weird part was, it seemed to have been broken somewhere right around the middle. Where, there seemed a plank missing, not to mention, it was skewed at an odd angle. Jay shook his head and steered his wandering thoughts, back to the conversation.

 “…beauty, which seemed to captivate those who admired it….”

Jay’s thoughts, however, were elsewhere. Absentmindedly, he placed a hand on the bridge’s support and held out a foot to step on it. 

“NO!”

 Janice’s scream rang out into the vast open space, for a few moments, time seem to have frozen. As her voice echoed around the place, the vocal effect was amusing for a few seconds, but as the voice returned, it was oddly creepy, very much unlike Janice’s soft, honey voice.  Jay turned to face her, surprised at her over reaction. Dawn’s mouth was hanging open in a soft ‘O’ shape. She too, look worried.

“What is wrong with you?” 

Jay turned to Janice and frowned, a hand in his pocket while the other was massaging his temples. Janice was sweating and breathing hard. She was not the composed, cheerful self, she had been for the past hour. 

“We do not cross the bridge or even talk about it.” 

Janice told them in a low voice. Jay cocked his head to one side and widened his eyes in mock horror.

“Well, isn’t that a surprise?”

“Shut up, Jay!”

Dawn squealed at him. He looked at her and then back at Janice.

“Tell me, exactly what happened, that you people are so scared to death about?”

Janice looked at him and shook her head sadly. 

“You may think it’s a joke, but all of us here, know it’s true. About eight years from now or maybe seven, a young girl used to live here. She was beautiful, and smart. She was talented in singing and dancing. People used to adore her. She was sweet and ever ready to help. But one day, a very bad thing happened. She was crossing the bridge probably, and never came back. Later, when search parties were sent to find her, the only clue found to her disappearance was a missing plank on the bridge and her certificate next to it. We believe, since she was so wonderful, someone just out of sheer jealously and envy could have murdered her. She probably fell down in the marsh and drowned.  Her body was never found….”

Jay was listening to this fantastical tale with eyes wide while he felt Dawn stiffen to his side. Janice seemed to be in a trance. Quietly going on with her tale.

“…. A few weeks later, people started disappearing. People became superstitious that it was the dead girl causing problems, and would keep on doing so until she had her revenge. The revenge for her murder. So people started moving from here, to settle elsewhere.”

Janice finished her story, voice almost as low as a whisper. Jay gazed out into the darkness, realizing, heavy black clouds were covering the scene. The overcast weather made the bridge look even creepier.

“The rumors and stories got so persuasive that people had to leave the place. Its name changed to ‘Lieu du décès’. The place was beautiful and yet unapproachable for years.” 

Dawn slowly completed Janice’s story. Both Jay and Janice stared at her. Her eyes were wide and her gaze was frozen at the bridge some distance away. Jay prodded her. She seem to come out of her reverie. 

“How did you know that?”

Jay asked her, surprised. Dawn shook her head and shrugged.

“I have lived here for long, Jay. Mom and Dad always told me stories from here. This was one of them.”

Though she said it in a casual tone, Jay noticed her hands were shivering.

“Want to know something else?” 

Janice questioned, quite her bustling self again.

“I think it’s enough for the day.”

Dawn turned down her offer. Jay turned to her and looked at her intently. 

“Are you okay?”

She was extremely pale and her hands shook. Her lips quivered. She bit into the lower one to keep calm.

“Dawn. Calm down, buddy. For all we know, this could be just some stupid fairytale.”

He told her and placed a hand on her shoulder and felt her relaxing in his embrace. He tightened his arms and tried to put as much of his warmth in it, as he could. Janice squirmed. Apparently, offended at his last sentence. But he had to make Dawn feel better.

He thanked Janice and then walked Dawn back to his car. She was quiet and looked scared. Still. But there was nothing more he could do to make her relax. Not yet, at least. He drove her back home, and then opened the door for her. As she stepped out, their hands met briefly. Jay smiled at her and then took her hand and softly touched it with his lips. 

“Don’t worry, Princess. All is fine. You have my number. Do let me know if there is anything I could help you with, okay?”

Dawn smiled up at him and the effect was immediate. Jay could feel his heart pounding in anticipation as her smile widened. She was so beautiful. Her eyes glistened under the now dark sky. 

“Sure thing.”

Jay watched her go in and then turned to his place. The clouds were thundering above him, accompanied by heavy but short, bursts of rain and lightning. Parking his car in the covered, porch, Jay went in. The house was quiet. Probably his parents were in their room. He made his way to his room and dropped, exhausted onto his bed. He didn’t even bother to take his shoes off. 

 

Listening to the heaven rage above him, Jay looked at the mantelpiece absently. But his thoughts were still on the conversation with Janice and Dawn….

 

Ahhh. Dawn. He smiled and turned on his bed. There was something so different about her. She always made him smile.