Episode 1.14

Outside of Nebraska’s

Kevin took Maggie’s hand as they left the slightly upscale restaurant and began walking along the streets of down town Pinõn Hallow. Maggie was finding herself in a new world, one where she was with a guy who didn’t have an estranged wife lurking in the wings. At least he was keeping that quiet if he did.

“So Kevin, tell me your deepest darkest secret.” Maggie said with a flirty head tilt.

Kevin looked at her with mock shock, “Like I have any secrets. I hate to tell you that my deepest, darkest secret is that when I was 12 and Siobhan was 16 I told this guy she was dating, Conner that she was dating five other guys when she wasn’t.”

Maggie stopped, her eyes looking directly into his, “Conner McKay?”

Kevin nodded, “Yeah he and Siobhan only dated a little while. Then that psycho Bethany Simpson got her claws into him. Why?”

“Oh he runs the film store next to Imagination.” She said as every ounce she had tried to cover any feelings she had for Conner.

Conner’s Apartment

Bethany was sitting alone on the couch, a pillow pressed against her body as she held the locket up against the light. She studied the craftsmanship of it as it sparkled. As she got lost in her thoughts about it Conner and Lysa came in.

“Mommy!” Lysa cried out as she ran to the couch, “Daddy and I got four DVD’s to watch tonight.”

“Wow, which ones did you get?” she asked as Conner put a plastic bag down on the coffee table.

“We got Cinderella, The Piglet Movie, and both Harry Potter Movies.” Lysa said proudly before she ran off to her bedroom.

“Well, I’ll go and let you two watch your movies.” Bethany said as she got up and dropped the locket.

Conner bent down and picked it up, “Is this the Lady Agatha Locket?”

“Yeah it is, could I have it back?” She asked outstretching her hand.

“Tell me what’s so special about this hunk of silver.”

Bethany sighed and shook her head as she felt her body sink back down to the couch.

Pam’s Apartment

Kip knocked on Pam’s door. He hadn’t visited her since the night everything happened. But he needed to know she was okay, and at first he rationalized it with his feelings of guilt about leaving her all alone, and what had happened.

Pam opened the door and stuck her head out. She smiled when she saw Kip, “Hey, come on in.” She said opening the door wider and letting him in.

Just around the corner Sam was coming down the hall with a bouquet of flowers. His smile faded and his head dropped when he saw Kip Davis enter the apartment.

The door was closed before either Pam or Kip saw Sam.

“So how are you doing Pam?” Kip asked as he saw her reach over for a bottle of prescription pills.

“I’m alright, a little sore still from being knocked unconscious.” She said as she undid the lid and took out several small white pills.

A sick feeling swept over Kip when he saw the pills. “What are those Pam?”

She tossed them in her mouth and swallowed them with a long drink of water she took out of the yellow Nalgene sitting on her table. “Just some muscle relaxer. Just to get my body to loosen up.” She explained.

“Is there anything I can do for you? I know what happened is horrifying—“

“Kip,” she interrupted. “I don’t even know what happened, remember I was unconscious. That’s the only thing to me now, I’m afraid to be asleep. I’m afraid of what my REM cycle will tell me, what images it’ll give me.” She told him, not realizing how loud and scared her voice was.

Hallow Hotel

Doug found himself pacing the floor of the seedy hotel room. He could strangle her, why did she have to meet him here in Pinõn Hallow? Why did it have to be today? He could scream with how this whole thing was going. He should’ve told Adel the truth, but Carla wouldn’t let him. He was getting sick and tired of the whole thing.

After what seemed to him to be hours of pacing the ugly maroon and gold carpeting there was a knock at the door. He opened it and saw a pizza box, “Carla?” he asked confused as this box was practically shoved in his face.

“Huh? No way man I’m Dan.” Replied Dan Adams, “I have a pizza here for Doug. Is that you man?”

“Yeah, I am.” he said taking out his wallet and paid Dan, which got rid of the kid.

He slammed the door closed and started his pacing again as he tossed the pizza on the bed. As the box hid the brown bed spread someone knocked on the door. Swinging it open again this time he was face to face to Carla Harrison. “Finally, now will you tell me what the hell this is about?” he asked.

Downtown Pinõn Hallow

“Well enough about Siobhan and her former boyfriends. What’s your deepest darkest secret Maggie?” Kevin asked.

She smiled, knowing she wasn’t going to tell him anything serious, “You really want to know?”

He nodded wondering what this charming, beautiful young woman could consider her deepest, darkest secret.

She let out a stressful sigh, “I was in beauty pageants in middle school and high school.”

“You were a teenaged beauty queen?” he asked, surprised only because of her current vocation.

“Yeah, I was. My Aunt got me into it. She convinced my Dad it was a great idea for my self-esteem and that he wouldn’t have to deal with any girly kinda stuff then. So he got me into them, and I won a few so my self-esteem was in tact. Well now he’s got my younger sister Cassie doing them. She’s doing just as well as I did, if not better.” Maggie explained, letting Kevin into a piece of her past she had never even mentioned to Conner. Perhaps, Conner was just a heartbreak she needed to have so that she could appreciate whoever else came along, including that of Kevin Lane.

Kevin listened to her speak, noting to himself she didn’t mention her mother at all. He knew right now was not the time to ask why, he was sure it was something she would have to talk about in her own time, and in her own way.

Maggie looked down at their hands and if she hadn’t had on nail polish, she never would’ve been able to tell whose hands where whose. She smiled to herself as she and Kevin stopped at the corner. He smiled at her, and with his other hand tilted her head up, and their eyes met.

At that moment everything felt like slow motion and Maggie could have sworn she heard music as she and Kevin found themselves moving closer and her lips finding his, in one of the sweetest, warmest, kisses ever.

When they broke apart the only thing she could hear in her head was Annie Potts asking if he had strong lips, and then Molly Ringwald ask how she would know, ‘Could you feel it in your knees?’ Annie’s voice then said. Maggie smiled knowing she felt it in her knees and everywhere else on her body.

“So, you want to head over to Moonlight?” Kevin asked her as he watched her after the kiss.

“Yeah that sounds great.” She said as they crossed the street and headed towards the bar.

Conner’s Apartment

“Well Bethany, spill. What’s so amazing about this locket?” Conner asked as he studied it.

“It belonged to Lady Agatha Covington, she was the mistress of Prince Jeremiah of Yorkshire.” She saw his confused look, “It’s an island off of Greenland. He was married to Princess Alexandria, and she apparently liked the dark forces. Well she discovered that Jeremiah was going to give Agatha the locket. Well, the legend is that she cursed the locket, and then went on to kill Jeremiah. Well this was missing for years, and it was re-discovered in the twenties, and went missing again. That is until I was in Europe, I found it at a flea market. I know it sounds like I made this whole thing up. But after extensive research and the wonders of technology, I found out that this is the real deal.”

Conner shook his head, “This is the kind of thing you do? Track down mysterious accessories and then what?”

“I’m looking for a buyer. Adel Davis turned the deal down. I’m researching more history on Lady Agatha, and more potential buyers.” She looked at him, realizing that for the first time since she got back to town she and Conner were really acting like the friends they had been. Long before he dated Siobhan, and long before Brighton was in a cult.

Pam’s Apartment

“Pam, promise me that if our relationship starts getting uncomfortable for you, you’ll let me know. I don’t want to push you. Especially after what happened.” Kip told her as he watched her sit down on her couch and take out a ball of yarn and crochet hook.

“Kip, we’ll just take things slow.” She said as her eyes focused on what could be a scarf or part of an afghan, and her hand patted the couch.

He sat next to her, watching her. Hoping that someday he would be able to tell her what a monster he was inside and that even then she would love him. He was realizing that Pam was different from every other girl he had been with. She cared about things other then the latest fashions in Paris and who was dating who at the country club.

He watched her as she worked with the yarn, and drifted off to a daydream.

Kip walked into a very nice living room. It wasn’t over the top fancy as his mothers. It was homey, cozy, filled with pictures of three children, ranging from the ages of eight to six months. An eight year old boy, and a five year old girl raced down the stairs and threw their arms around Kip yelling, “Daddy’s Home!” A moment later Pam walks out, dressed simply in jeans and a sweater. She walks over and kisses his cheek and then sends the children into the kitchen.

“Kip?” Pam asks for what seemed like the millionth time since he drifted off into a dream world, “You okay?”

He smiled and looked at her, “Yeah I am. I was just thinking about the future. Do you think you see me as part of yours?”

“Yeah, I do see you as a part of it Kip.” She said softly starting to realize this was not the same man that sent her wild bouquets of flowers and the silver charm bracelet. Could she have been wrong about Kip being her secret admirer the whole time? If she was wrong then who had sent her them?

Hallow Hotel

Carla ignored Doug and pushed her way into the room and tossed her purse on the chair. “Chad’s come back for my help. Did you know he was in a gay cult?” Carla asked as she got straight to the point.

Doug’s eyes dropped, “excuse me? Gay cult?”

“Yes, now what the hell have you and Adel done to Chadwick? I’m afraid to think of what’s wrong with Kipland, well besides being named Kipland.” Carla said, as though taking major offense to the choice of name for Kip.

“Adel, wanted names they would never actually go by, but rather choose trendy nick names. But you already knew that about Chad. What’s really wrong?” He asked.

“I think its time we tell Adel the truth, about everything.” Carla told him as she crossed her arms and looked at him directly.

“No, I am not telling Adel about you. No way, no hell, never.”