Friday, July 15, 1994

Friday, July 15, 1994

2:52 p.m.

Billy starts to cry the moment the retreating forms of Ethan and the others vanish in the trees. Something about the way he can still hear the rapid crunch of their footfalls long after they've disappeared eclipses his fear, replacing it with disappointment and sadness.

They abandoned him.

All of them.

Even Ethan.

That thought—of being left behind by his best friend—brings the tears, which in turn brings shame. He should be fighting. He should be trying to squeeze himself through the bars. He should be doing anything but standing there sniffling, especially now that the man in the suit has him by the arm.

"Hey, there's no need for all that," he says. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Billy wipes his eyes and looks up at him. It's the same man he saw yesterday, the one who sent him scrambling when he was spotted at the falls.

"But I'm still in trouble, right?" he says.

The man eyes Billy, stuck between the bars of the gate like the world's worst jailbreaker. "Right now, I'd say you've got a bigger problem on your hands."

With the man's help, Billy finally gets free of the bars. All it takes is patience, sucking in his breath as much as he can, and a little maneuvering he didn't get a chance to do before Ethan and the others fled.

"Well, now that that's been taken care of, would you mind telling me why you're here again?" the man says. "I told you not to come back. You should have had enough sense to stay away."

What he doesn't understand is that it was impossible for Billy to stay away. Not after what he'd been told by Johnny Chen the previous summer, when they both found themselves in the woods at the same time.

Billy had just started exploring the forest on his own, curious about what he might find there. What he found was Johnny sitting on a stump with a dazed look in his eyes.

"Hey there, Billy boy," Johnny said, capping his words with an odd chuckle even though they hadn't been that funny. "Whatcha doing?"

"Just looking," Billy said.

"For what?"

"Ghosts."

A year later, Billy's still not sure why he told the truth. He guesses it's because he thought Johnny would understand. He was also in the woods, after all, making Billy hope that maybe there was someone else on Hemlock Circle as curious as he was.

"Intriguing," Johnny said. "There are definitely ghosts out here, but not where you think."

He then told Billy about the Hawthorne Institute, a place Billy never knew existed. Now that he did, he wanted to learn everything about it.

"Is it haunted?" he asked Johnny.

"Not in the way most people think about hauntings," Johnny said. "It's more like a place where ghosts come to visit. The people there, they talk to them. So I've been told. I've never seen any myself."

Billy's eyes widened to the point where he imagined they were as big as saucers. "You've been there?"

"Plenty of times. Going there used to distract me from things I didn't want to think about. Not anymore, but it helped for a little while."

Billy, who also had things he sometimes didn't want to think about, said, "How do I get there?"

He listened, rapt, as Johnny gave instructions on how to reach the Hawthorne Institute. Cross the road that cuts through the woods. Go a little bit farther until you reach the stone wall. Crawl through the hole in the wall and keep going until you hit the falls.

"From there, you'll see the institute," Johnny said.

The conversation ended then, and Billy never got a chance to talk to Johnny about it again. For soon he was dead. Drugs, Billy's mother told him in that worried way of hers, as if just mentioning it might cause it to happen to someone else.

For the rest of last summer, Billy had no desire to find the Hawthorne Institute himself. Thinking about the place made him sad because it reminded him of Johnny, the only person who'd taken him seriously when he talked about ghosts. Ethan certainly doesn't. Sure, he pretends to be interested, but Billy can tell he doesn't believe in them. Not the same way Billy does.

When this summer rolled around, though, his sadness about Johnny had faded, and Billy was ready to explore. He began gradually, making quick treks into the woods, going a little bit farther each time until he reached the road. Then he started exploring beyond it, eventually finding the stone wall Johnny had mentioned.

Then, yesterday, he'd found the breach in the wall and, without hesitation, pushed through it. After that, curiosity took over, pulling him all the way to the top of the falls, where he finally laid eyes on the Hawthorne Institute.

What he saw disappointed him.

The place was huge, yes, and undeniably interesting. Yet he'd been expecting something different. Something spookier. Still, he was debating whether to explore farther when the man in the suit spotted him.

"Hey, you!" he yelled. "You're not allowed to be here! Go away and don't come back!"

Billy ran.

All the way home.

Afraid he was being followed but too afraid to look behind him to find out.

Now Billy knows the man is right. He should have had enough sense to stay away. Instead, he returned. And this time he brought others.

"Let's go," the man says, giving Billy a nudge that's surprisingly gentle for someone so huge. "I need to find out what to do with you."

He leads Billy along the gravel path, heading toward the mansion he'd seen from the top of the falls. As they approach it, Billy expects to feel nervous or afraid. Instead, by the time they get to the mansion itself, a kind of anticipatory curiosity has taken over.

This is where they talk to ghosts.

And he's about to go inside.

The man in the suit guides him through a red door in the back of the mansion and down a long hallway. It leads to a vast entrance hall with a huge staircase and a creepy oil painting of a man surrounded by weird symbols.

The only other person there is a woman who pokes her head out of an office door. Peering at Billy, she says, "What do we have here?"

"Trespasser," the man in the suit says. "Where's the boss?"

The woman gestures to the stairs. "His office. This is either going to make his day or ruin it."

Off they go, across the entrance hall and up the steps to an office on the second floor. "Hope you're ready, kid," the man tells Billy before they go in. "Because you have a lot of explaining to do."

The fear Billy had felt earlier comes roaring back at full force. He shouldn't be here. Not alone. He wishes more than anything that Ethan were here with him. Anger, sadness, and disappointment mingle with his fear, threatening to overwhelm him. He feels tears start to form again, although he's not sure which emotion has summoned them.

Or maybe it's a new one, sneaking up on him like a ghost.

Loneliness.

That's what Billy feels in this moment. So terrifyingly, utterly alone.

The man in the suit nudges him into the office, where Billy sees another man in a similar black suit. He's standing behind a desk, his back turned as he looks out a window overlooking the gardens at the back of the mansion.

"Hello there, Billy," he says. "I hear you're very curious about this place."

Billy's hit with a wave of confusion. How does this man know his name?

The answer arrives when the man turns around, revealing himself to be Billy's neighbor.

"Mr. Van de Veer?" he says, stunned. "What are you doing here?"

"Please, son," Mr. Van de Veer says. "Call me Fritz."