WAX
It was a tight squeeze in the truck with Carly and Ginny stuck in the middle of the two men, but the space wasn't the real issue, not with the god awful smell and animal feet waving around their heads.
Carly held a hand to her nose before turning to her boyfriend "Can you roll the window down, please?"
"Yeah." He tried, but the window didn't budge.
"Sorry about that." The man shurgged "Truck's seen better days."
Wade raised an eyebrow "Do you mind rolling down your window then?"
"Not at all."
Ginny gave the man a slight smile once he'd down so "Thanks for this, we really appreciate it. I'm Ginny, by the way. This is Carly and Wade."
"Name's Lester." He smiled, showing off his stained teeth once more "So, you never really answered my question. About Ambrose... you heard of it?"
"Er, yeah, actually." Ginny admitted through a deep breath as she spared Carly a glance "I think I was born there."
The couple looked to her in disbelief and Carly couldn't but scoff. Another secret.
"Shit, for real?" Lester eyed her in interest "Well, it's not a bad place to come from. It used to be a pretty nice town... before the interstate came in." He paused as he noticed Carly nudging Ginny, eyeing up the weapon holstered at his side "You like knives? tools of the trade, ya wanna see?"
"No, not really."
He ignored Carly as he pulled out the blood stained blade "It's a bowie. That'll cut through anything."
Ginny gasped as he suddenly thrust it into the dashboard before screetching to a holt. Wade cursed quietly before eyeing him suspiciously as they stopped before the waterlogged road "What's going on, man? You said there was a town up here."
"Well, yeah, there is." He pointed ahead "It's just around that bend. I gotta flip my hubs into four-wheel. You mind giving me a hand?"
"When's the last time that you where here?" Carly questioned as Lester paused, halfawy out the door.
He chuckled humourlessly "What, you don't believe me? I forgot this way in's washed out, that's all."
"We'll walk the rest of the way then." Wade spoke up before Ginny could "Thank you. You've done enough."
"Now, why would you wanna do that?"
Carly's jaw clenched "Look, we wanna walk, okay? Just let us out now."
Ginny shot the couple a look "Guys, he hasn't done anything--"
"It's okay, darlin'." Lester assured the brunette, giving her a smile before it dropped as he glanced to Carly and Wade "Well, go on, get out."
As the couple shuffled out as fast as possible, Ginny sighed and turned to the man "I'm sorry. But seriosuly, thanks so much for your help."
"Sure thing." He nodded before grabbing her wrist as she made a move to leave before scrambling through the glovebox until he found an an old business card "Listen, if you run into any trouble, just gave me a call okay? I'll be there in a jiffy."
"Thank you." Ginny nodded, slipping the card into her pocket alongside the polaroid before giving him a smile "Bye, Lester."
The three college students watched as Lester reversed before turning in the road and taking off, leaving them in front of the fjord. Carly turned to Ginny "Okay, what the hell is going on with you?"
The Lifton girl sighed "Carly--"
"No, don't." She scoffed "First, you break up with Luke and don't tell me. Then I find out something is going on between you and my brother and you don't tell me, and now this? Why wouldn't you tell me you found out where you were born?"
"Because I'm not sure, Carly!" Ginny ran her hands over her face in frustration "Okay? I found a photo. One goddamn photo from before I was put in care and all I know is that it was taken in front of that wax museum in Ambrose. And as for Luke and Nick... God, Luke didn't want me anymore and Nick, well he did and it just... happened. I'm sorry I didn't tell you but you-- you have your life together Carly, you know who you are and where you're going but I don't. I don't even know my real last name."
Carly's face softened before she grabbed the girls hands once more "Ginny, you gotta let me help you. That's what we do, remember? So we'll get answers, today, okay? You and me."
Ginny nodded, her eyes welling with tears "Okay."
"I love you." Carly reminded her, pulling her into a hug that she returned before the strawberry blonde sighed "And you and Nick... I just, I don't want you to get hurt. You know what he's like, Gin."
"I do." She agreed, squeezing her friend's hand "But I need you to trust that I can take care of myself."
Wade cleared his throat after the two hugged once more "Okay, this is great and I love that you guys are all made up but can we get a move on? I wanna get that fan belt and fix my car before anything else happens to it."
The girls chuckled, allowing Wade to help them cross the washed out road before they made it around the bend only for the boy to groan at the sight of the town "Damn, now I feel like an asshole."
"You were one." Ginny snorted "You both were."
"I don't care." Carly shrugged "That guy was a freak."
Ginny sighed "A freak that saved us a 15-mile hike."
"Let's just find this Bo guy." Wade sighed and nodded towards the old town "C'mon."
The three made their way through the empty streets, everything quiet without the sound of mindless chatter or cars roaming the road. Ginny looked around in interest, trying to see if anything familiar stood out to jog some long buried memory when her eyes caugth a flyer pinned to the town notice board "Hey, there's a beauty paegent. Miss Ambrose."
"I wonder how many teeth you have to have to win that one." Wade joked.
As Carly laughed, Ginny rolled her eyes "Yeah, okay country boy."
Carly continued to laugh until she looked across the street "Oh no way, there's a pet store."
"Let's go!" Ginny gasped in excitement, the two girls rushing over as Wade groaned before following suit "Puppies!"
Carly cooed at the sleeping dogs in the window, their little tails wagging as they dreamt "They're so cute."
"Adorable." Wade deapanned before pulling the pair away "Maybe next time. Come on."
The girls whined as they followed after the boy but soon quit their complaining as they stumbled across the gas station. Wade made his way to the door, peering through the dark building "Hello?"
Carly pushed open the door, hearing the cowbell jingle overhead but when no one came to the desk she sighed and turned back to Ginny and her boyfriend "No one's here."
Ginny sighed before jumping slightly as her cellphone rang "Oh." She pulled it out, seeing Paige's name flash across the screen "Hey."
"Hey, we're heading back."
"Why?" Her eyebrows furrowed "What happened?"
"Traffic. Did you guys get that fan belt thing or whatever?"
Ginny sighed "No, there's no one at the gas station. We're gonna go look through town, try and find someone to help."
"So where do you want us to pick you up?"
"Why don't you just head up the road that we got off at for the campsite?" Ginny suggested "It's washed out at the end. Call us when you get there."
"Okay. We'll camp in the same place as yesterday, but you know, away from that pet cemetary."
Ginny chuckled "Good idea. See you then."
Carly looked to the girl as she hung up "Well?"
"They didn't make it to the game so they're just heading back." Ginny responded before noticing an elderly woman peeking out from the window across the road before she quickly pulled the curtains back in place.
"Hey, there's that House of Wax." Wade gestured to the buidling around the corner.
Carly sighed "Wade, what about the fan belt?"
"There's no one at the station." He shrugged "Beside's, aren't we here to find some answers for Ginny, too?"
"We are." Carly agreed "But how about we ask someone in the church first?"
Ginny nodded "Okay, you guys go, I'm just gonna look around."
"We'll be back in a minute." Wade assured before he took Carly's hand and they headed to the church.
The Lifton girl watched them for a moment before heading towards the wax museum as she pulled out the photo from her pokcet, matching the scene in the old memory to the one before her. This was definitely it.
A hand on her shoulder had her jump in fright before cursing as she found Wade holding his hands up in surrender, a wide eyed Carly at his side "Jesus, when you said a minute I didn't think it would be literal."
"Yeah, well we walked in on a funeral like a bunch of assholes."
"But we found Bo." carly added to her boyfriend's admittance "He's meeting us at the station in half an hour."
Ginny nodded "Oh, cool."
Carly bit her lip "Can we see the photo?"
The Lifton girl nodded, holding it out for the couple and Carly smiled down at it "God, look how cute you were."
"It's definitely you." Wade added "Those eyes."
Carly smiled as she handed the photo back "Maybe we'll find out where you got them from, huh?"
"Maybe." Ginny breathed out shakily. She didn't want to get her hopes up "Wanna check out the museum?"
"Yes." Wade perked up for despite the non-committal answer he'd given Nick, he did in fact love all sorts of museums, espesicially those for the weird and unusual. But as they made their way up the steps, his eyes narrowed in on the wall before he took his car key and gave it a scrape "It is wax. Like, literally."
"Huh." Carly muttered, feeling it for herself.
Ginny smiled before it fell as she spotted the sign on the door "Shit, it's closed."
"Or is it?" Wade smirked before giving the door a shove, a grin growing as it swung open "I guess not."
"You're not gonna go in there, are you?" Carly gawlked as she watched her boyfriend step inside "Doesn't closed mean 'I don't want you in here'?"
Wade sighed as he held open the door for the girls "Relax. I just wanna take a quick look."
"What if someone's here?" She questioned hesitantly as they followed him inside.
"Hello? Anyone in here?" Wade called, his voice echoing around what looked to be a dance hall, wax scupltures in all sort's of postions "See? We're fine. Wow, how cool is this? Everything in here is wax. The floor, the walls."
Ginny nodded as she looked around in awe, despite everything being covered in layers of dust, it was clear just how much work had gone into everything "Whoever made all this is incredible. Look at the details, it's all so realistic. My professor would love these."
"Who are these people supposed to be?" Wade glanced at the sculptures.
Carly shrugged "I don't know."
Wade frowned "Aren't there supposed to be famous people in a wax musuem?"
Ginny ignored the couple as she headed for the wax concession desk, slipping past the model to the peer at the framed news clippings on the wall "Trudy opens House of Wax. Trudy's wax carvings are a hit at the state fair. Trudy and husband are expecting first child."
"Since when is a wax sculptor a celebrity?" Carly questioned, making her way over with Wade.
"I don't know." He shrugged "Small town, I guess."
The Jones girl held back an eye roll "That's right. You like small towns."
He sighed, knowing just what she was getting at "I didn't say I wasn't gonna like New York... I just said I haven't made a decision yet. I still have time, all right?"
"Well, I'd really like you to be there with me."
"Oh, no. There's a fire. Help me." Wade suddenly put on a girlish voice and the pair turned to see him holding a lighter to a little was ballerina "Help me, I'm melting."
"Will you cut it out?" Ginny scowled as she reached over to shove his arm away before smoothing the wax he'd messed with down "Someone worked hard on that."
Wade rolled his eyes before spotting another figure across the room "Hey, Car. There's a dog for you." He strolled over to the thing, reaching a hand out "Hey, puppy. You a little wax dog, too? What up, dog--"
Wade was cut off by a bark and he quickly fell to the ground in a heap before the very much alive dog ran off with a growl. Carly and Ginny giggled as they leant against one another and the boy gave a sarcastic one of his own "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. What's a dog doing in here anyway?"
"Same thing as we are?" Ginny joked as the boy got up, taking a seat at the piano and giving the keys a few smooth sounds. She made her way over to a row of small scultpures, each a mix of human and sea creature before picking one up, finding a name carved into the bottom "Vincent?"
"There's some more of Vincent over here." Carly held up another sculpture.
"Wow." Ginny mumbled in awe as she looked at the framed paintings "This Vincent guy is quite the artist."
"This Vincent guy needs therapy." Wade scoffed as he stood and the three headed into the next room. The dining room "I mean you said it, Ginny. Look at all this detail. It's almost too realistic."
Carly frowned "Realistic or not, everything made out of wax is a little weird."
"Those arent made of wax." Wade gestured to two high-chair covered in dust and cobwebs in the corner.
The Jones girl rolled her eyes "Oh, whatever."
But Ginny wasn't so disinterested as she spotted the name on one "It belongs to Vincent." her eyes went to look at the other when she spotted a little wax toddler reaching up between the two seats, it's bare back to her leaving only the little wax diaper and mop of dark curls visible. Ginny carefully reached out to run her fingers over the curled brown hair only to gasp at it's softness "It feels so real."
A sharp gasp from Carly had the pair look over at her in concern "What? What is it?"
She was staring towards a dust covered window with wide eyes "I just saw someone."
"It was probably just a wax thing." Wade waved her off.
"No. No, it wasn't." She argued "It was moving and it was freaky-looking."
Wade nodded "Okay, I'll go check it out. You guys wait here a sec."
As the boy headed outside, Carly turned to Ginny "You believe me, right?"
"Yeah, of course I do." She assured, rubbing the strawberry blonde's back "Let's just look around for a bit while we wait for Wade to check, okay?"
A hand on Carly's shoulder had her scream and bump right into the sculpture of the maid, sending it crashing to the ground. Ginny's eyes widened as she watched the head break off "Shit."
"Whoa, whoa, it's just me." Wade assured the shaking girl in his arms.
"Can we just go?" Carly stressed "This place is freaking me out."
Wade nodded "Okay, let's just go to the station."
"I'll meet you guys there." Ginny assured as she knelt down in front of the broken sculpture "I don't wanna just leave it lying here like this."
"Are you sure?"
Ginny waved their concern off "Yeah, go, go, call me when you're ready to go."
As the pair nodded before heading for the door, Ginny sighed and picked up the wax head, looking into it's frozen face "Sorry about that. Let's get you fixed up, huh?"