“The father came home one day to a bad scene. His kids had really messed the place up. Troublemakers. He was smashed out of his mind. Tired of them and tired of his terrible life. So, what he did was he took one of the axes used to cut down those trees…and he cut each child to pieces.”
“Jesus.” The glass slipped from Linda’s hand, shattering on the ground.
“Oops,” Deja said. “Did that story bother you?”
“You knew it would.” Linda bent to collect the glass shards, but one of them sliced into her finger. She gasped at the sudden shock of pain.
“Blood everywhere, but that wasn’t the worst smell. It was the father’s body. It stunk of vodka from the inside out when they found him. And I do mean inside, because guess what? His body had been twisted into pieces, too. And they never knew who, or what, did that to him.”
The smell of the champagne floated, reminding Linda of her father’s breath every time he hugged her. She felt like throwing up. Shook her head. “You’re trying to freak me out.” She wiped a drop of blood on her pants, then stood with all the strength left in her trembling legs. “That stuff’s not real.”
“Murder isn’t real?” Deja stood to her level.
“Of course, murder’s real. But ghosts aren’t. It’s just an old house in the woods, with an unfortunate history, but you’re using it to try and manipulate me, like you always do. But you know what? It’s not gonna work this time, because according to the show’s rules, I’m not supposed to be on this group date, so I’m not going.”
Deja laughed. “You’re not? You don’t need this show?”
“I don’t need this date. I’ll finish the show.”
“Funny,” Deja said. “Your contract states that you’re in breach if you refuse any activity we ask you to do. And if you’re in breach of contract, we don’t have to fulfill any promises we made to you, either.” Deja stepped forward until she was right in front of Linda. Linda’s lungs quaked. “No future for you, Linda. That’s not what you want, is it?” Deja’s breath hit her right in the nostrils; she stank like alcohol. “All those secrets coming to light? Be hard to start a nursery with things like that hanging over your head.”
“No,” Linda whispered.
“Then I guess I’ll see you on that bus.”
Linda turned and ran from the confessional to the bathroom, where she locked herself inside and slid to the floor, heaving as she tried to arrange her thoughts.
Deja was always manipulating them, but she’d never sounded dangerous before. Why was she threatening Linda on camera? Maybe it was a drunken lapse in judgment, a power play to get better footage than Brandon. Either way, that’s just what Linda had given her: a freak-out and some broken glass. It probably made Deja’s day. Linda wasn’t proud of herself in that moment, but it wasn’t the worst thing that she could have done. Still, she hoped to finish the show without a total mental breakdown on camera. She needed to showcase her best self. Needed the camera, the audience, to love her. She had too much to lose otherwise. She couldn’t back out now.
Day One at Matrimony Manor
Chapter Five
Linda
“Let’s go, ladies,” Deja said, her face betraying no hint of what went down in the confessional. Linda joined the women as they formed a line and exited the mansion, then piled into the van that production used to transport them from date to date. The conversations they had inside the van were filmed, but it was unlikely they’d be used; the show liked to give the illusion of a life where pretty women moved like magic, appearing one place, then another, with no need for boring in-betweens. In-betweens weren’t sexy, and Linda had never felt more aware of the ways people avoided transition and the uncertainty that came with it.
Linda dozed as the van merged from a packed California freeway to a less-traveled highway surrounded by tall trees. She dreamed of eyes: jars full of them, glass and plastic and wood. She peered into each jar packed into a curio case, then realized that she had to pee. She looked for the cameras, but there was only one giant bulbous camera, like the kind shops used to catch shoplifters, that watched her. She waved two crossed fingers in the sign for bathroom and searched for a door. Inside, she sat on the toilet and tried to let go. She felt watched. She looked about the room for signs of a camera; they weren’t supposed to watch her in the bathroom. She frowned in a tight thin line. Get out of here, she said, and that’s when she noticed them: a hundred eyes blinking at her from every wall.
Linda jolted awake as the van pulled up to a building on the side of the road. A faded orange sign proclaimed GAS by the service lane, while a weathered wooden sign proclaimed STORE atop a faded white shack.
“Last chance to use the restroom before we arrive, ladies,” Deja said. “I’ll be chaperoning each of you in, one by one.”
“Me first!” Linda jumped from her seat. She did need to pee—and to gulp some fresh air, untainted by the perfume of hair products.
“Come on, Meadows.” Deja ushered her forward. Together, they climbed from the bus into crisp air infused with the smell of coming rain. Linda walked on legs that creaked from a couple of hours’ disuse. As they entered the tiny store, a gas attendant hurried past them to the van.
“Shit,” Deja said. “I forgot about Oregon’s pump laws. Get into the bathroom. I need to take care of this. I’m trusting you, Meadows. Don’t you dare go sneaking a phone call or a newspaper, yeah?”
Linda gestured to the empty store. It seemed that the gas attendant was in charge of everything. “Who would I borrow a phone from?”
“I’ll be right back, you hear?” Deja hurried out, and Linda breathed a sigh of relief at being unobserved for what seemed like the first time in a year, though it had only been a month and a half. She’d made it farther than she thought she would when she signed on, and the fact that Tristan had gone for both her and Sabrina made Linda think there may be more than met the eye with him. And Charity had her charm when she wasn’t causing a stir. His decision to keep Marion, on the other hand, reflected poorly. Marion was the frontrunner, which Linda forced out of her mind when she needed to be attracted to him.
In another week, the final women would take Tristan to meet their families. Linda pushed the thought out of her mind; she hadn’t prepared Tristan for that yet.
Linda made her way to the bathroom door in back. At first, she averted her gaze from the newspaper display, then she laughed at herself and snuck a peek. Who would know? UPSET AT MATRIMONY MANOR, the headline of the little local paper read. MAJOR TV NETWORK PURCHASES ABANDONED HISTORICAL SITE. Linda read the article’s first line: “TV network ABS is rumored to be using the infamous Williams family manor as the location of a ghost-hunting series.” No mention of the place being haunted. Linda scoffed. Deja had been trying to scare her with baseless history.
Linda heard the ding of the bell on the door and jumped away from the newsstand.
“Ready?” Deja said.
Linda hurried into the bathroom. Before sitting, she checked the walls for eyes. There were none to be found.
Once Linda finished, Deja ushered her out of the store. She’d turned the newspapers around on the stand. The gas station attendant was re-hanging the nozzle.
“I know who you are,” he said to Linda and Deja as they approached. “I know where you’re going.”
They stopped. The attendant was the type of man who seemed ageless, with a face that had weathered years of a nebulous quantity. He grinned at them and handed Deja back her credit card. “Here you are, Deja.” He’d slid a business card underneath. “I examine TV credits religiously. You’re headed out to the manor. I read about it in the paper.”
“Shhhhh!” Deja shoved at Linda. “Back on the bus, Linda!” As Linda followed her orders, she heard Deja saying, “They’re under embargo, and if you had any experience in—” She read the man’s card. “TV writing? You’d know that. Now, please, I don’t need any more gas, and I’ve got to get the rest of these women fixed up. If I catch you saying one more word to them, I’ll pass your name on to every exec I know so you never get any work, you hear?”
The man straightened his posture. “Sorry!” He turned around and rushed back inside.
Linda waited on the bus for the rest of the women to head inside, then back. Despite her curiosity, she had an uneasy feeling about the situation. Sabrina returned to the van and took the seat beside Linda.
“Do you ever feel like something’s catching up to you?” Linda said. “Something bad?”
“I’m worried about you.” Sabrina rested her hand on Linda’s knee. “Since your weird date, you’ve seemed weird, too. Did the taxidermy possess you? Do I need to learn exorcism?” She shivered. “Scratch that. I don’t mess with supernatural shit.”
