“What is this?” I asked, in little more than a whisper. “Why do you have these pictures?”
“Insurance, Keith. You have until 3:00pm tomorrow or I’ll be making a house call I guarantee you won’t like.”
Maybe I’d assumed things couldn’t get worse, but of course I’d been wrong. I’d always been able to count on my stupidity to lead me astray, but it had only been myself that got hurt. This was different. I’d led these people to my front door… endangered those I loved. It was my soul that needed to pay the price. Lowering my gaze to the ground, I nodded. The debt would be paid.
* * *
I was flying high as I inched closer to the edge of the cliff, keeping my eyes firmly focused on the rubber toecap of my tattered white Vans. It was as if my shoes had a life of their own, pulling me feet first toward oblivion. How easy would it be to end it all? Just step off the ledge and all pain would cease. Oh god, how nice that sounded! Such a relief. I inched closer, and pebbles cascaded over the ridge.
“Whoa.” A nervous cackle escaped me as I slid my feet back a smidge. I wasn’t thinking right. I didn’t want to die… did I? No. I couldn’t do that to my family. They’d already suffered enough. But, if I thought about it, what did I really add to the mix? Nothing – especially now that I could add breaking and entering to my list of crimes.
After Paulie’s threat of retaliation, I’d taken to procuring money by any means necessary, first from my dad, and then, to continue feeding my habit, by stealing easily pawned items and swiping prescription drugs off the shelves of the homes I burglarized. I’d justified my behavior by telling myself I was doing it for my family, but my debt had been paid the first day, and now my exploits were just being cycled back into my system.
I should’ve stayed home. After calling Emma for help following the beating, suddenly I found myself at home fearing an impending visit from Paulie. I’d had no choice but to tell my father. He’d taken care of what I owed, and I’d promised him I’d stay home. But withdrawal kicked my ass, and when he’d given me a moment to myself, I’d climbed out the window and hadn’t returned.
Whatever pill was inside me now was filling my head with dangerous thoughts. I felt weightless and ready for flight. Raising my arms to the side, I crept ever so slightly forward until the tips of my toes touched air again. The deliberate movements sent small rocks and other dusty debris tumbling to their demise over the rocky ledge. The Devil’s Plunge; that’s what locals had ominously dubbed this soaring patch of earth, and it lived up to its gloomy moniker. Every year it beckoned lost souls, and every year scores of them were silently claimed by the clutches of hell.
I could easily join their ranks. And once that happened, I’d be nothing more than a number, forgotten by all but a select few. There’d be no Keith McKallister Memorial Bench because I wouldn’t be dying in some badass way. There would be no horrifying shark attack for me. No, just a calculated and weak death, one that would serve its purpose in silencing my own demons… but would cast fresh new ones at the people I left behind.
Taking a quick peek over the rock face, I settled my gaze on the assembly of rocks piled high at the base of the cliff. Ocean water crashed, filling in the gaps between the boulders, and then, almost as if the water was changing its mind, the surge rushed back out to the sea in a swirl of waves. It was a sign.Back away from the edge.Yet my feet stayed put, teetering on the edge of death.
I could feel it – the pull for silence, for death. Whatever was in that pill I’d taken was making it so easy. I thought of all the other cliff jumpers who’d come before me and wondered what had been their final straw. Had they stood in this very spot contemplating their life up until the point they’d given up?
A familiar voice cautioned me.Back up, Keith. Don’t do this.Her face materialized before me, so clear. Sam.
“What are you doing here?” my altered brain asked. And then I remembered her brother, Sullivan, and his similar flight to oblivion. The rocks began to give way below my feet and I could feel myself slipping. I was going to die. Fear stole the haze from my brain, breaking my trance. I took a step back. Then another. Soon I was free from the cliff’s edge and from a death that was not meant to be mine.
A safe distance away, I dropped to my ass, burying my head in my knees as relief rocked my soul. Sam’s hologram rested beside me, her transparent fingers covering my own.You’re going to be okay,she reassured me. If ever there was a wake-up call, this was it. My tweaked-out brain had nearly forsaken me. If Sam hadn’t appeared when she did, I’d be dead. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. This had to end. I had to pull myself back off the ledge – somehow.
“KEITH!”
The scream came from somewhere down the path. I lifted my head to the shouts of one of my new druggie friends whose name totally escaped me. There was a desperation in the way he was calling to me that sent me scrambling to my feet. Something was wrong.
The scruffy dude rounded the bend, his eyes wide and face beet red from the trek up the mountain. As soon as he caught sight of me, he dropped to his hands to his knees, drew in puffs of air into his lungs, and said, “Jake.”
Even though I couldn’t remember who the fuck he was, I felt certain he should know not to speak my brother’s name. Hadn’t I made that perfectly clear? I narrowed my eyes on the traitor before brushing past him, away from the ledge, away from death.
“No,” he panted, grabbing the back of my shirt. “Keith. Wait. It’s all over the radio. Jake’s been found.”
18
Samantha: Shoreline
I’d only been at Shannon’s for two days when her mother’s frantic voice traveled down the hallway calling for our attention. Her tone was jarring enough that we’d both jerked our heads up and out of our books and exchanged alarmed glances before racing into the living room. Her mother and father were huddled around the television when we arrived, and Shannon’s mother reached her hand out to me.
“He’s been found,” she said.
My first thought was that she was speaking of Keith, but when a picture of Jake filled the screen, the full scope of her words hit home.
“He’s alive, Samantha.”
* * *
Jake’s escape would soon become the biggest news story ever to come out of our town. The details were so extraordinary that it reached a worldwide audience. If we thought the media had gone wild over the kidnapping, it was nothing compared with his return. Overnight our town’s population quadrupled as news organizations moved in, once again setting up shop on the McKallisters’ front lawn, in front of the hospital where Jake was currently fighting for his life, and at the home of Ray Davis, the man responsible for it all.
For the next several days, I sat glued to the tube with the O’Malley family and, along with the rest of the world, watched as the miracle of Jake’s return was twisted into something dark and sinister. Learning of the horrifying details of his imprisonment and subsequent escape was like a live action horror movie come to life – and that was before the police started digging up bodies.
* * *
