Boardwalk Junkies - Part One

Marley     





      Secrets were a dangerous thing and Marley knew she couldn't keep this one any longer. The knowledge of what happened to that woman was eating her alive and not something she felt she could go on keeping to herself. Six years of living with guilt, regret, disgust was enough and she woke up that late April morning and decided that was the day she was going to tell.

 

  Marley sat up in bed and tried not to disturb the body lying beside her. He was still in a deep sleep and she didn't want to wreck that. He needed the sleep, and she needed the quiet. There was a lot of thinking to do. Marley sat up in a bed that wasn't her own and tried to remember how she had ever gotten to this point. In a stranger's bed, again, guilt ridden and worn, she felt used. Dirty. Sneaking out from the bed of a man she barely knew, Marley found her way to his shower and tried to wash off six years of muck.



    The shower helped. Marley felt she was able to focus and try to figure out the best way to go about getting herself free from the secrets and shame she carried with her. After gathering what little belongings she had thrown around the house, she found her car keys and snuck out. The combination of crisp early spring air and the salt from the ocean's spray hit her face and was a welcome relief. It was a feeling she had always loved and missed terribly since she stopped coming to the shore after the accident. Not her choice. Peter had made that choice for her. Marley shook her head to get Peter's face blocked from her mind. Unfortunately she would have to consider him in all this, he was the catalyst after all. But not yet. Not when she had the ocean right here. She knew where she needed to go. Marley got in her car and drove away.



    Twenty miles up the coast from where she awoke, Marley turned her car into the driveway of her family's vacation home. Years of neglect had taken over the grounds, which made muddling through the long driveway a bit of a task. As the trees gave way to the open sky of the beach, Marley saw the great home looming before her. If she thought that the grounds had suffered badly due to neglect, they were nothing compared to the home she used to love and cherish. The Hargrove family vacation home  was in near shambles. Year after year of nor'easters, hurriances, tropical storms and local kids vandalizing had taken its toll, and the once grand house looked pale and bleak against the bright morning sky.



    Marley made her way to the front door and dug out the key she kept hidden inside her bag. After a little battle with the lock, she was able to make her way inside. Not knowing exactly what to expect, her first few steps were tentative and unsure. Doubts swirled through her head about what was right and wrong. Coming back to this place was a risky move, but once she knew was necessary to free herself and move on with her life. She couldn't keep hiding. It was time that Marley Hargrove came back to life and claimed what was hers.



    The once bright and cheery rooms of the beach house were now dull and lifeless. Memories danced at the back of her mind of the countless nights she'd spent on the porch watching fireworks or reading with her mother. That house held some of her greatest moments, her happiest moments, and, unfortunately, some of her darkest memories. Marley shook her head to chase them all away. She wasn't ready for that, not yet. She had come to the house for a reason, and it certainly wasn't to be chased by ghosts of summers past. Marley needed the tapes. As she made her way up to the second floor, Marley prayed like never before that they were still right where she left them six years ago.



    Marley stopped in front of the door to the bedroom and froze. She squeezed her eyes tight as she gripped and turned the handle, as if she was afraid of what she would see when the room opened to her. After all, the last time she had been in that exact spot, what she saw changed the course of her life forever. This time though, it was empty. The bed was still lined with the same sheets and blankets as it had been, but now they were dirty and stained. There was a smell to the room that Marley hadn't experienced anywhere else in the house that turned her stomach sick. Knowing she would be there for a while, Marley forced open a few windows and tried to let the pleasant ocean air seep in to wash away the offensive odor. There really was no source for it, but Marley knew deep down it was the lingering stench of evil.



    With the odor dissipating, Marley felt a little more at ease being back in that room. Now, she thought, if only the memories would go away... But she knew that they were part of all this too. She was doing this to get her house back, to get her life back. To stop being afraid. She needed evidence of her secret, and the tapes were all that was left. If only there were still there. Once again reaching deep down into the pockets of her purse, Marley pulled out a tiny jewelry box key, and went to the corner of the molded carpet, pulling it up with ease. Hidden beneath the once plush pink shag, was a small opening in the floor, just big enough for a finger to slip in. Marley wiggled her finger into the hole and lifted, taking up a piece of the floor exposing a hole about eight inches deep. Marley sighed with relief when she saw the lock box still sitting there, where she'd left it six years before.     



    For the first time in a really long time, Marley smiled. It was genuine, and full of relief. She lifted the box out and closed the panel in the floor back up. The tiny key fit with ease, and despite the moisture and conditions that it sat it, opened without hesitation. Marley's smile grew bigger when she saw that the video tapes where still there. Now that she was armed with the proof of what really happened, Marley felt confident enough to plan out her next steps. It would have to involved Peter. Nothing more than a voice over the phone for the last six years, Peter was just not someone she ever thought she'd have to see again. Not unless she "couldn't keep her mouth shut"; his words, not hers. Besides, she had no idea where else to start, but with him. Peter was the one who knew everything, and Marley supposed he had just as much to lose as she already had. Maybe calling his bluff would rattle him enough that she could actually pull this all off. Maybe.



    With tapes in hand, Marley left her family's old beach home with a smile and a promise to return. Instead of getting in her car, Marley left the house and turned to walk the path to the beach instead. She trekked overgrown path, stopping just short of the opening to the vast and sprawling beach. The sound of the ocean waves crashing filled her with a renewed sense of strength. Marley closed her eyes and drew in a deep, salty breath of air and when she opened them, a stream of light had burst through the clouds and cast a magnificent morning glow out on the ocean water. This was her time. Her time to take back charge of her life and right the wrongs she let go.



    As Marley got back into her car, she knew that what she was about to do was fairly stupid, but somehow that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she try. So, if it all went to hell, at least she could say she tried. For herself. For that girl. That poor, dead, girl.