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It was the smells of cooking that drew Julia and Barbie from their wing, still torn on this situation and what this man means to their life. Putting aside Barbie’s desire for more than sandwiches and the few things they knew how to cook between them, Julia didn’t think he was sent by Dawn, nor the government. If he could just find them here and walk in, then he and whoever he worked for could have snuck in to the hotel in the middle of the night and taken them before Barbie and Julia knew what was happening. Which meant he was an unknown, and knew not only who they were but spoke as if he knew so much more.
It’s those things, the hints between Duke and Jackie that had been spoken and then they’d gone mum about it, that left Julia both uncertain and yet nosy about what it could be that Duke knows about them and what information he might be able to impart to them. In the end though it was the smell of food that brought them out, Julia still softly chiding Barbie about the fact that allies were not made by their ability to cook. Not that Julia was at all certain these people, Duke especially, were allies in the least.
That said, he could apparently cook. At least based on the smells coming from the kitchen, and all the things that were already arranged on one of the tables in the official hotel dining room.
Linens from the cabinet had been set out, along with candles, though the dishes were the standard commercial dishes that Barbie and Julia had been using the weeks they’d been there. It’s nicer than their meals that were usually shared in the kitchen at the counter, making it easier to get things to the sink and cleaned up.
“We so have to volunteer to do dishes,” Barbie whispered to Julia, making her smile that they were on the same wavelength as they lingered in the doorway to the dining room. Jackie looked up from where she was setting out silverware around the table and waved them in.
“Come in. Sit down. Dinner will be ready soon. Apparently he wanted to make a rack of lamb but time and all, you know? So we get tenderloin and mashed potatoes and some other stuff, and don’t worry about the potatoes. Seriously, Duke’s got some magic about turning everyday foods into good things. He’s even got me eating brussel sprouts.”
“Okay, one? Brussel sprouts are good for you. Two, you sound like a ten year old,” Duke teased, strolling in with a covered tray and setting it to a table beside the one set for them before settling himself at the table. Jackie did the same, moving to sit beside him.
“Neither of you are from Maine originally, so you might not know how hard it is to get fresh things up there for a huge chunk of the year. Except seafood. So you learn to adapt. Some aren’t good at it. Me? I got tired of bland and tasteless food, so I learned. Had a few friends that are chefs…” He paused then, thinking about the loss and Jackie moved to pat him on the arm, commiserating in that way that only those that came from that part of the country could understand.
“You might be living off a pantry full of food, but trust me, this is as good as you’ll get in any four star restaurant. Well, any that would cook without fresh ingredients.”
It’s obvious he’s trying to change the subject but now that they’ve gotten to this point, Julia isn’t ready to let things go that easily.
Crossing the room, she seated herself where she is across from Duke, waiting for the Barbie to round out the table.
“You pointed out that we’re not from Maine, and I’m not arguing that. I mean, it’s public record and it was part of the official stories that were published as I recall.”
Jackie snorted at that, already starting to serve herself. “Yeah, the official story. That one was a doozy. Ranks right up there with the Chamberlain prom massacre.”
Duke and Jackie exchanged a look and it only twisted something in Julia’s gut.
“So what do you actually know about it? And what do you know about us?” She looks at the blonde on her right. “Did you know who we were before we took this job?”
“What? Me? No. I didn’t have a clue. I was really just here doing research on my book, and my family, when I caught Barbie snooping around and thought he was spying. It took me a minute to place him, but when I saw the two of you together, I knew. Which was after you were hired, and I had nothing to do with hiring you.”
“And don’t look at me,” Duke said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I only came out this way when Jackie called me and told me you were here. We knew it wasn’t a coincidence, and once you were here, we kind of wanted to not only pick your brain but let you in on things. Most won’t listen, and they think we’re nuts about all of this, but you should have the choice to think we’re nuts or not.”
“Oh, we’re nuts, but not about this,” Jackie said, not realizing how disconcerting that statement could be in the middle of all of this.
“So you know who we are, you don’t believe the official Dome story and, what? You want us to help you with your conspiracy theorists book or something?”
“No. Well, I mean, that would be awesome,” Jackie admitted, digging into the food with a low, rumble groan of pleasure at the first bite. “But it’s not for us. It’s for you. You’re out there alone, but you’re part of this and you should know what we know. I mean, to be honest? You’re the first ones I can track that have been drawn to the Overlook. I mean, I’m linked to it, and Duke came because I called, but you two got here on your own. No one else has ever done that. There has to be a reason.”
Julia stared at Jackie, picking at her own meal as the others dug in. Even Barbie seemed content to listen and eat, though Julia had caught he’d moved the carving knife closer to him, keeping his hand loosely resting on the table just inches from the handle. Not that she didn’t think he was more armed than showed, he always was these days, but that meant it wasn’t likely to be used by the others. It wasn’t enough protection if they were armed, but it was a start.
Not that Julia truly believes either of them are here to harm them. Maybe it’s the earnestness of their words, the way Jackie lights up when she talks about this, or the fact that Julia can’t get past logic. They weren’t dead yet.
Yet was not a comforting word, her hand moving to cover her stomach for a moment under the table, knowing that no matter what, she would be there for this child. No matter what she has to pay to stay with her child.
“Okay, enough. I get it. You want us to be happy about this, Jackie but our lives have been utterly ruined except in finding one another, and we don’t know who or what is still out there. I know you want answer about what the truth about Chester’s Mill is, and I’m not adverse to telling you…”
“Julia,” Barbie warned in a low voice. She ignored him and kept on, though her hand moved from her belly to touch lightly at his arm.
“But I won’t until I know where you stand and why you think it’s important that we came to the Overlook. I know this place has a history of strange things, just like Chester’s Mill and Castle Rock.”
“And Haven, Derry, Chamberlain, Lewiston, Bridgton… The list of towns in Maine that had had incidents goes on and on and on. Most are dismissed as serial killers and weather anomalies,” Duke pointed out, pushing his plate out, forgetting about food in the middle of this talk. “Or as they were in Haven as bad luck and rumors mixed in with the rest. Except when you start looking and listening, it starts to make you wonder, and then you start to realize this isn’t coincidence, and it’s not some big name company somehow managing to set up a Dome that the military doesn’t know about, can’t penetrate with a MOAB strike, and that is never talked about again.”
He looked between the two of them, serious and intent. “I’m not asking for the story because in the end, it doesn’t matter what did it. It isn’t the how and whys, but that it’s not the logical and easily ignored. So what matters is that it wasn’t Aktaion. Was it?”
Julia looked to Barbie. Already he was staring at her, his hand moving to take hers. Even for Barbie the food was forgotten, ignored because if the rest of these things were caused by The Kinship, they need to know. He gave her a nod, squeezing her hand.
“No.” She spoke the word still staring at Barbie. “Nothing about that story is true, and nothing about it is accurate. We signed NDAs, and we don’t know when they’re listening, and I’m not ready to tell you the truth but I’ll give you that. It wasn’t Aktaion.”
Jackie whooped, leaning over and slapping Duke on the back. “I told you. I knew nothing about that was right. I mean, it could’ve happened in California and it wouldn’t be right, but this… Damn. This is part of it.”
“Part of what though?” Julia didn’t care that she sounded rude and demanding. She cared that they wanted answer, hadn’t gotten them yet, and now they were facing Jackie’s exuberance without any answers. “You keep mentioning this Maine connection and you’re hinting around it, but what do you know? Other than that Derry’s had a serial killer that targeted kids, a girl went nuts at prom a town over from Chester’s Mill back before I ever even heard of my hu… My ex husband, and that you couldn’t pay me enough to live in Haven,’ she said, looking to Duke. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he said, giving a shake of his head. “I’ve lived there all my life, and I’ve always known about the oddities. Some talked about the kids missing, and we had the troubles in Haven, but no one ever talked about the fact that much as anyone can tell? This doesn’t happen in any other state. Sure, there’s one city here, a county there. Hell, there’s the entire Mojave Desert that is rife with this stuff, but on a whole, nothing with as many oddities as Maine.”
“And it’s not just out tiny part of it,” Jackie said, leaning forward eagerly. “It covers the entirety of the state. All the way up to the border. Jerusalem’s lot? The fire that destroyed the town was no accident. It was intentionally set, and was done to to demolish the town. I’ve talked to the priest that set the fire, and he assures me that he had to so that the demonic forces in the town? Couldn’t ever leave. And let me tell you. Having a catholic priest tell you that he battled vampires? It changes everything.”
“Vampires?” Disdain and disbelief dripped from Julia’s tone. “You believe a priest burned a town down over vampires?”
“I believe that Salem’s lot had vampires, yeah. After what you’ve been through, that’s hard to believe?”
“You’re talking vamp…”
“Julia.”
Barbie’s voice is soft, nearly pleading, and yet there is a pain there. He looks at her, eyes pleading, hoping she won’t make him say what he’s thinking. Vampires are really that much harder to believe than an alien invasion? Or that someone mistook aliens for vampires? After Chester’s Mill, he’s willing to accept, even if he doesn’t want to believe.
“We know what caused the Dome,” he continued, his voice soft, only for her though he knew the others could hear him. “I’m not ready to disbelieve anything they’ve got to say.”
He was careful in his wording, knowing that Julia had to have hard facts to believe. That was the reporter in her, and the woman he’d fallen in love with. Still loved with all his heart and was starting a family with. He wasn’t asking her to believe. He was asking her not to actively disbelieve. It wasn’t the same thing.
“Okay. Fine. Not disbelieving. Go on.”
“Even if you don’t believe the way the survivors tell it, not disbelieving is good because we know they can’t always tell the truth,” Jackie said, smiling brightly at Julia.
The redhead tensed, but she didn’t argue. Much as a jab as it felt like, it was true nonetheless. Would anyone believe them if they told them aliens? Some maybe, definitely in this room, but not everyone.
“So it starts then in modern times though really before that with the Troubles in Haven which is this whole curse thing on the town and those that are descended from the town founders. Which is what got me thinking about what all of this is, and why it’s happening.”
“Which is to say,” Duke interjected. “That maybe what happened to Haven either spread from there, or is part of the same thing. We don’t know all the details but it can be traced back generations in Haven, and sometimes outside of it as well. Jerusalem’s Lot was the first in his cycle but it’s possible there’s more than one cycle since, well, we’re on the second in my lifetime.”
Julia arched a brow but held her tongue. Mostly because they’d gone from vampires to curses, and she wasn’t sure she could stay civil.
Barbie on the other hand was watching Duke intently, frowning as he considered all of this and what they were saying though after a time he shook his head. “I don’t think Chester’s Mill was about a curse. I mean, who did it is a very definitive answer,” he said, trying to explain without breaking the nondisclosure he’d signed. Not that he worried about the government coming for them, but more an uncertainty that this wasn’t all a prank and not risking them losing their stay at the Overlook for the winter.
“Did you ever wonder why you? Or, in this case, why Chester’s Mill? Because that is the curse, we think. It’s not that any of the events even happening are in and of themselves the curse, but that the curse is why it all comes back to Maine.”
With that Julia’s dark scowl softened. No, she wasn’t entirely believing any of this, not yet, but suddenly with that what they were truly exploring made a bit more sense. She glanced at Barbie and he was looking at her though only a moment ago he’d been looking at Duke. He nodded.
“So…” Julia spoke softly, even drawing out that single word, because they were laying a lot out at their feet, and she wasn’t sure she could process it all in a single sitting. So instead she focuses on the one part that makes more sense than any of it. Even if she wasn’t ready to buy in on curses. “Something happened in Haven, decades ago…”
“Maybe a century, but definitely more decades than any of us have been alive.”
“And whatever it was that caused these Troubles you’re talking about, you think that event caused… a magnetic effect to the area?”
“Exactly,” Jackie said, picking apart a roll and nibbling at it. “So all of this other stuff, and some of it more mundane than others, and some of it unbelievable, all of it is not caused by the curse, but the effects of the curse cause it to come to Maine.”
“And it’s only getting worse,” Duke pointed out. “Some of it happened in the seventies and eighties, but there’s more and more cities being affected, and they’re coming faster, more often. Not only that, but I think they’re repeating.”
And where he had just been winning over Julia’s belief, the way she shuts down then is practically visible. Like a shutter behind her eyes closing with a snap.
Jackie sighed, tossing her hands in the air as Barbie reached for Julia’s hand once more. Duke though leaned closer, practically laying his chest against the table.
“What happened in Derry in the early eighties? You’re a reporter, you know this.”
“A serial killer targeted children in Derry, killing at least three though the bodies have not all been recovered. Since then several of the children that claimed to have seen the killer, a man dressed as a clown, have died in one way or another.” The last isn’t what Duke asked, but Julia will be damned if he challenged her like that and got away with it.
“And this happened when?”
“We just established that. In the early eighties. I can’t tell you the exact year without having a look at my computer.”
“Then have a look at this instead.” Reaching into a pocket inside the denim jacket he still wore, Duke pulled out a carefully folded page from a newspaper. Not a single article but the entire page folded into a neat, perfect square.
Using the same care, Duke unfolded the page, the color of the paper new and the dark of the ink crisp against the white paper. When it was still folded in half, he handed it back to her, revealing the front page of the Derry Daily Bugle.
“Missing Derry boy found in sewers,” she read, glancing up at Duke past the paper and then back to the text. “Georgie Denbrough’s body was recovered last night just south of main by sewer workers brought in to assist in the rescue attempt. Preliminary reports are still days away but anonymous sources claim the boy’s arm had been removed.”
Julia lowered the paper, looking up at Duke. “Okay? I don’t get what this has to do with this cycle you’re talking about. Care to explain?”
“Look at the date.”
Julia lifted the paper once more, peering at the tiny date in the corner. “Twenty…” She snapped the paper down, glaring at Duke. “You’d have been a lot more convincing without a fake paper. At least then you wouldn’t have anything I could prove was a lie,” she pointed out.
“Go to your suite. That’s where your computer is, right? Look it up online. If you google Georgie’s death you’ll find nothing but the death earlier this year. If you look up a clown killer in Maine? All you will find is the recent sightings in the last year. If you try and find any documentation on it in the hospital or the police?”
He looked at Jackie. She smiled widely, proud of herself that she had done that work in all of this.
“Nothing but the most recent information. For all you can find,” Jackie said, reaching for another roll. “And I mean, they’re keeping it tight under wraps because the thing is, those of us that grew up there, or even lived there like you two?”
“We still remember,” Julia said, that deep frowning causing her brow to furrow and leaving her looking more sad than upset. “So you have to talk to people not records?”
“Which is why I called Duke. To talk to you. We get you don’t want to talk about it but eventually the official record will be all we have and then Chester’s Mill will be written off as nothing more than corporate greed.”
Pushing away from the table, Julia couldn’t stay in once place as she listened to this, thought it over. She paced, moving back and forth behind the chair, circling past Barbie and brushing her fingers against the back of his neck as she went.
“Even if we told you, you wouldn’t believe us,” she said, glancing to Duke and then to Jackie as she turned.
“You didn’t believe us either, but you listened,” Jackie pointed out. “And you really don’t realize how we believe. We’re talking vampires at you, and curses that strike families for generations, and cemeteries that raise the dead, and demon clowns, and let’s not even get started on the truth on the gas main explosions in Chamberlain. My uncle was possessed by this hotel, and Castle Rock has been a center of this attraction for longer than I can…”
“Aliens.”
Julia goes still as Barbie blurts out the word. Jackie’s chair rocks forward with a snap and a thunk and Duke’s jaw literally drops for a moment.
“The Kinship set an egg in Chester’s Mill, intentionally in that place, and it created the Dome. That’s your answer, and if the curse attracts things then you need to know that now they’re attracting things from not just other planes but other planets as well.”
Duke sat back, folding his arms over his chest, confused and obviously not having thought of that though he doesn’t look as if he doesn’t believe.
Jackie though lets out a whoop. “This is the best day ever. Well except the day I got to kill a crazy guy by driving an axe into his head,” she said with delight.
Barbie gaped and Julia slapped her hand onto the table. “You what?”
“Oops. Did I not mention that?” At least she had the decency to try and look sheepish.
“No. No you didn’t.” Julie jerked her chair out, sitting down once more. “Damn I wish I could have a drink right now. Barbie, go get me a paper and pens, and my laptop? Please?” She offered him a smile, glad when he was on his feet in an instant. “Okay. Castle Rock. Start at the beginning and leave nothing out. We’ll move on from there.”