‡ Promise 4: Something Strange ‡

-As told by Tommy-

was heading for my locker, at school, when Pete and his jock friends decided to pay me an visit. "'Sup, turd!" Pete yells and slams my head into my locker. My books and papers goes flying everywhere. Pete and his friends laugh. "Ha!" I laugh along, "That's a good one, Pete! I'll see you guys later?" They just kept walking down the hall, maybe they didn't hear me. "Are you okay?" a female voice asks. I turn to see Jody and that new strange girl. Jody was picking up my books and papers, the new girl giving me a worried look. Then I remember her question, confused.
"Am I okay?" I sigh, "Why wouldn't I be?" "Dumb jocks." she frowns, giving a dark look down the hall, "I guess they're in every school." Jody hands me my books. "Wait," I said, still confused, "You mean, Pete and the guys? No, they were just playing around. They're my friends." The new girl blinked a couple of times and then stares at me. "Are you retarded?" she asks. "Heh," said Jody, anxious to change the subject, "Tommy, this is Lily. She's new here and she lives right next to Keith Rolmir!"
"Shh!" hushed Lily, giving nervous glances. "Oh!" said Jody, covering her mouth, "Sorry, you're right. I shouldn't say that too loud. Anyway, I spent yesterday spying on Keith, with Lily." "Really?" I said, opening my locker, and not seeing the big deal about the news. "He hangs out in his yard," giggles Jody, "And we're going to spy on him more, after-school. Want to come?" "What for?" I frown, "I mean, I like the guy's movies and all, but I see no point in eyeballing him." Jody sigh, "He's a boy, he doesn't get it." "Did you really think he would." shrugs Lily. "Guess not." sulks Jody.
"Well," I said, "It's almost lunch. I'll see you girls around." "Wait," nods Jody, "Why don't you have lunch with us?" I thought about it, decided that chatting with the new girl might be interesting. "Okay." I agree, "Whatever." "Great!" smiles Jody, "Let's hurry before all the best tables are taken." Jody has a way of being cheery about everything. I'd imagine that even at a funeral, she would be able to see the bright side of it all, and turn it into a happy celebration. It's kinda annoying at times. But in other times, it's kind of soothing. Heh, as strange as that sounds.
We managed to get a table, hidden in a shady corner of the cafeteria, which Lily seemed to appreciate. After I placed my tray on the table, I began all of my curious questions. "So," I asked Lily, "Is it true that you worship the devil?" "Tommy!" frowns Jody. "No," waved Lily, "It's all right. I'm not ashamed of my religious beliefs. The dark lord is always commanding me to spread his gospel and to bring in new recruits. You do seem worthy for the cause, Tommy. All you have to do is turn over your mortal soul." I stare, not sure what to do. Both girls laughed.
"Man," laughs Lily, "That was too easy!" "You should have seen your face, Tommy!" laughs Jody. I laughed too. "That's funny." I smile, "Got me good." "So..." frowns Lily, "What do you guys do for fun, in this town?" "Oh," smiles Jody, "There's the diner and the movie theater. And my mother's bookshop is pretty popular too! We have all of Keith's books there!" "Lovely." sighs Lily, "I wonder how your night-life is." "Oh, people don't usually be out at night." nods Jody, "Everyone has places to be in the morning." "It's not a good idea to be roaming the town at night." I say, blankly.
Lily seems interested, "How come?" "Oh, brother." frowns Jody, "Tommy's conspiracy theories." "Strange things happen in this town at night." I stated, "Dark and unexplainable things." "Like what?" asks Lily, learning a little closer. Jody rolls her eyes and digs into her chocolate pudding. "My neighbor," I explain, "Mrs. Klamp, she was gardening one night and saw a something strange in her garden. She said it looked like a human fetus, but it was blacken, charred. It had red glowing eyes and stared at her for just a second, but then it scuttled away, under her prized mulberry bush."
Jody snorted. "And," I added, "Since the sighting, she never leaves her home anymore. Her garden has gone to crap and she has her groceries delivered to her home. I even hear that she bought a shotgun." "That doesn't make any sense." waves Jody, "If she doesn't leave the house, how did she get the gun?" "I don't know," I huffed, "Maybe she got it before she started staying in." "Uh-huh." scoffs Jody. "It's true!" I frown, "I saw the creature myself!" "Really?" asks Lily, wide-eyed. "W-well," I stammer, "Not directly. It was dark and I was walking home from the park. I saw it's tiny leg, charred, turning around a corner. I-I went after it, but it was gone."
"Wow," says Jody, shaking her head, "That's some imagination you've got." "I didn't imagine it!" I yell, now pissed off. "Maybe he didn't." says Lily, in deep thought, "Is it just me or doesn't this story sound like something Mr. Rolmir would write?" "Nah!" laughs Jody, "He wouldn't write anything so cheesy!" But Lily ignores her, "I wonder... something is a little odd here." "That's what I've been saying." I nod, now feeling validated. "Have there been any other stories like this one?" Lily asks. "I don't know." I shrug, "This town is so hushed about things like this."
Lily stayed in deep thought. It's nice that at least one person believes me. Jody and I have been friends, since the third grade. I trust her with everything, all of my secrets. So when I told her what I saw four years back, I was disappointed that she didn't believe me and made fun. It was just strange, that the person I truly counted on didn't believe, but some new girl did. At least I no longer feel alone with my sighting, anymore.
After school, I waved goodbye to the girls, hopped into my car, and drove to Mrs. Dodson's bookstore. I've been going there, every week since the sighting, using the public computers to look up information on what I saw. Over the four years, I haven't found anything on such a creature. Only a few fictional stories with a creature that was similar, but not quite. I wonder what the new girl meant, by saying my story sounded like one of Keith's. I typed in "Keith Rolmir" in the search engine.
Of course, it bought up his books, reviews, interviews, publicity shots, his movies, and fan-created sites. Nothing out of the ordinary. After scrolling through that, I noticed a link to a history site, which said "Keith Morlir". Something compelled me to click it. It was the history of a famous poet in France, year 1902. He created macabre poems, of death and sorrow, of hell and brimstone. In a painting of him, he looked somewhat similar to Keith Rolmir. I browsed back and clicked another similar link, to another history site, the name "Keith Limror". He too was a writer in England, year 1800. He written books that were considered "taboo", about ghost and demons. No photo was available.
I began searching the others, going back as far as the 11th century. Every one hundred years, a brand new horror writer or storyteller would appear and take the country by storm, all with the name Keith and the last name changed around. And on their seventy birthday's the writers would suddenly disappear. Twenty years later, a new young horror writer would appear, in a different county. Of the paintings or photos, that were available, each man looked similar to Keith Rolmir. Just slightly changed in one or two details. Blue eyes in one, dark hair in another, green eyes in another, or a smaller nose.
I remembered what Lily had said, "I wonder... something is a little odd here." "There's something odd indeed." I nod, placing my hands behind my head. If I didn't know it, I would think that Mr. Rolmir has a pesky little habit of immortality. That in all of these cases, it's the same man, a genius plan to disappear in his faked golden years and to resurface when people had forgotten him. But I'm not sure Mr. Rolmir counted on the internet and it's history archives.
I clicked "print" and pulled out my cellphone. It rang twice and Jody answered. "Yes, this is Jody Dodson." her cheery voice sang. "Yeah," I said, "This is Tommy. What's Lily's address?"