by Dan Poblocki
Claire mentioned gathering Miles’s things from the police station, which Irene took in with a raised eyebrow. Lucas described viewing the footage in the sitting room of the Hush Falls Museum, including where the tape had cut off. He also explained how he’d been seeing Lemuel Hush, and how Mr. Hush was sending him frightening visions of floods. Claire finished with the tale of discovering Tanner Worley, her father’s stalker, watching them from across the hall.
“And where is this man now?” asked Irene. “Tanner?”
“We’re not sure,” said Claire. “We were thinking of calling in a tip to the police to let them know he’s in town. We don’t know how he’s involved. If he hurt my dad. Or if he knows anything about where he is.”
“I cannot believe this,” Irene said as if to herself. “You kids …” She just shook her head again. “I was never this brave when I was your age.”
That was not what Lucas had thought she was going to say. He felt proud of himself, and wondered if, maybe only slightly, she was proud of him too.
“You see, Mrs. Kent?” Claire went on. “We can’t go back to Archer’s Mills. Not just yet. We’re close. My father … I can feel him. Can’t you?”
“I feel a lot of things in this place. It’s all very … overwhelming.” Irene reached across the table and took Lucas’s hand. “You’re all right? Mr. Hush didn’t hurt you?”
“No, Gramma. He didn’t. And Claire’s visualization helped.”
“Those things don’t last forever. We still need to keep an eye out.”
“So, we can stay?” Claire jumped in her seat. “You’ll help me find my father?”
Irene rolled her eyes, then closed them for what felt like a long while. “I will,” she said. When she looked at Lucas again, she shot him a glare. “But don’t think I’m just going to let this go. When we get home, you are grounded. Do you understand?” Lucas nodded, totally fine with that. She turned to Claire. “I agree that these police are not to be trusted. It’s strange that they had Miles’s camera. We’ll hold off on contacting them for now.”
The waitress stopped by and they ordered lunch. Burgers and fries and mozzarella sticks and milkshakes and nachos. Everything comforting that they could find on the menu. They needed it.
AFTER THEY WERE finished eating, they climbed into Irene’s giant pickup truck, and Dolly gave directions toward the road where Sharon Pickul lived, which would bring them to where Miles had been exploring the lakeshore.
The waitress from the interview had been right—the road was a mess. Irene drove slowly, but even so, the truck lurched left and right as its tires drove over the many potholes and divots where rainwater had washed the gravel away. “Here!” Claire shouted as they came to a bend. “I recognize this area from the video camera. This is where my father began taping that last part.” Irene slowed to a halt, then pulled over.
As they walked down the hill, Lucas glanced all around. He couldn’t get what his gramma had said out of his head—that Claire’s white-light protection would not last. He hated to think of Lemuel Hush appearing again, but then he remembered that he was not alone in this anymore. If he were to see Lemuel, then surely Gramma would as well. And if she was as fearsome to Lemuel as she was to Lucas, then maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.
“Oh, this is odd,” Irene said, stomping through the brush. “I feel very strange indeed.”
“Strange in what way, Gramma?”
“Ever since I came into the town, I thought it was odd that I could feel no presence of spirits. Nothing. It was very unusual.” She held her hand above her eyes, blocking out the light. “But here, I can feel a dozen or more, the people I sensed last night while gazing into the milk and ink. Their spirits linger. Trapped. Lemuel Hush is the one keeping them here.”
“You can feel all that?” Dolly asked in wonder.
Irene smiled. “I’ve had many years to learn.” She glanced at Lucas with a knowing glint in her eye, as if to say, You, my boy, are just beginning.
“Do you …” Dolly began. “Do you feel the spirit of my mother? Her name’s Missy Snedecker.”
Irene squinted. Then she nodded. “I do.”
“My mother is here? Is there anything you can do to help her?”
“I will certainly try,” Irene said, smiling. Lucas could tell she was forcing it, and he felt suddenly horrible for Dolly. For all that she had been through.
The path down the slope was just how it had been on the tape. The trees were dense and tall. The pines wore enough foliage to spread sporadic shadows across the forest floor.
Then it appeared. The lake.
The sun was too far behind them at this point to cast any real light upon it, but still, it seemed to glow, reflecting the endless blue expanse overhead. They came through the brush to the shore. The grass was high there. Lucas listened to the wind through the distant forest. Under any other circumstance, it might have been calming.
Things were different since the waves had taken the coast. Lucas could still remember a time when everything had been filled with sound. Highways humming constantly somewhere over a horizon. Airplanes droning across the great blue. People chatting on their handheld devices. Now the world was quieter. And up here, in Hush Falls Holler, when the wind stopped blowing, the silence made him feel like they were some of the only people left. In a way—in several ways—they were.
“Do you still sense her?” Dolly asked. “My mother?”
“I did,” said Irene. “But now she may be hiding. With all the others.”
“This is where it happened,” said Claire. “Where my father saw Lemuel Hush hovering out on the water. There is where he ran. And farther, where he dropped his camera.”
“He’s not here anymore,” said Lucas.
“Obviously,” Claire answered sharply, and he winced. “Sorry, Lucas. I don’t know what I thought we would find here.” She stared out at the lake. A pine-covered island rose from the water—a bunch of bristles, about five hundred yards from the shore. The lake continued beyond it for a great distance. This reservoir was enormous. It went on for miles. “I feel so … stupid.”
“Gramma, what do you see?”
“The same as you, Lucas. Water. Trees. The sky. Birds.”
A voice came from behind them. “I saw something.”
All of them turned. Lucas stumbled, almost tumbling into the damp sand by the water’s edge. A man was standing between the trees up the hill, a dozen feet away. Lucas recognized him immediately.
IRENE HELD OUT her arms to the kids, and they gathered close. “And you are?” she asked the man. His blond hair fell over his forehead and almost covered his eyes. His cheeks were flushed, as if he had run here.
“I’m Tanner, ma’am. Tanner Worley.”
Claire whispered, “He’s the one who was watching us. The one my father warned me about.”
“I’m sorry if I scared you. I saw you kids at the museum earlier and, well, I guess you could say I followed you out here.”
“For what purpose?” Irene answered harshly.
“I wanted to … to talk to you.”
“You’re not allowed to talk to us,” said Claire, her voice rising. “My father has an order against you.”
Tanner’s gaze fell. “I know. I should’ve kept my distance from him. But I got word of where he was scouting. And when I found out it was to be Hush Falls Holler, I just couldn’t stay away. I’ve been sleeping in my car, parked behind one of the abandoned cottages just off the highway.”
“So, you didn’t do anything to Miles?” Lucas asked.
Tanner looked gut-punched. “Me? Of course not! I would never. I’ve only ever just been a fan.”
“A fan who wouldn’t leave us alone,” said Claire, her eyes slivered. “A fan who showed up at our house.”
“I was just as shocked to learn that Miles had gone missing as the rest of you.”
“Then you didn’t follow him out here?” asked Dolly. “Like you followed us?”
“
No, no. At that time, I was sitting at the diner. Listening to Clementine interview a couple people who had ghost stories to tell. If I’d known he was in trouble I would have helped him. I swear.”
“So, what did you see?” Claire asked.
“Pardon me?” answered the man.
“You said you saw something here. What was it?”
Tanner shuddered. He came down to the water’s edge and trod through the tall grass. The group moved away from him. “This place is spookier than most of the other locations that Invisible Intelligence has explored. You can feel it in the air. Can’t you?” He ran his hand through his hair. Then he pointed to the island—the one that looked like brush bristles rising from the water’s surface. “It was out there. Last night. I was down the shore maybe a mile. But I could still see it. A light. Flickering slightly. But surely. It looked like a campfire.”
Claire spun to gaze out over the water. Lucas had to grab her wrist to keep her from soaking her sneakers. “Daddy?” she whispered to herself. Then she turned to Irene, a wild look in her eyes. “He’s out there! Dad! Daddy!” she called. Her voice resounded across the water. “It’s me! Claire! We’re coming to get you!”
Irene held out her arm, directing the kids back onto the shore. “If Miles is the one on the island with the light, how did he get there?”
“No idea,” said Tanner, stepping deeper into the grasses, as if mesmerized. The water rippled at his feet. “I went to the police. I told them what I saw. Then I waited. As far as I know, no one’s followed up. Maybe they decided I was a kook. But you’d think they’d at least check. When they didn’t, I spent the rest of the morning trying to track down a boat so I could row out there myself. But no one would lend me one. Something about the water being protected. Boats aren’t allowed.”
“Sure they are,” said Dolly, shaking her head. “You just have to clean them properly before you put them in and then again after you take them out. Whoever told you that was lying.” She looked fearful. “Do you remember who it was?”
Tanner sighed. “I don’t.”
She turned to the others. “We have a couple of canoes behind the motel. Paddles and everything. They might even fit in the back of your truck, Mrs. Kent.”
Claire lit up. “Let’s go get them!”
“Hold up, hold up!” said Irene. “We can’t just go rowing out across the reservoir by ourselves.”
“Why not, Gramma?”
She threw her hands into the air. “We don’t even have life jack—”
Something splashed at the water, rustling the grass where Tanner was standing. Before Lucas could think to move away, Tanner’s feet went out from under him. He flew onto his back, landing with a splat and a splash. He went sliding into the water, as if something was dragging him. “Help!” Tanner cried out.
He grabbed on to big clumps of grass, trying to hold himself in place. Turning over, he looked to the group. His marble-like eyes bulged with terror. His knuckles were white where he clutched at the grass. Their roots were coming up, making Tanner slide deeper into the lake.
“Something has me! Please! Pull me out!”
IRENE STUMBLED AFTER Tanner, reaching for his hands. But before she could catch him, the grass roots let go, and Tanner disappeared into the shallows with a distinct shloop!
“It’s Lemuel,” Lucas cried. “I can feel him here. He’s … he’s trying to take another victim.”
“Stand back,” Irene shouted. “All of you. Far back. Near the trees!” Lucas, Claire, and Dolly all did what she said.
Several feet out, Tanner thrashed his body, splashing lake water up into the air. But Lem was keeping him under, drowning the man. The ghost was invisible, but he was clearly there.
The kids clutched one another, watching as Irene raised her arms over her head. She was whispering something to herself. Tanner was slowing. Losing energy. Dipping below the surface. Irene stomped her feet, then held her hands out toward the water, imploringly.
To Lucas’s surprise, the water bulged where Tanner was struggling. Then, impossibly, its surface began to spin. The spinning spread out and down, just like the whirlpools that would form over the drain whenever Lucas would let water out of the kitchen sink.
The water’s surface dipped, and Tanner was able to raise his head up just enough to catch a breath before being yanked down again.
Claire grabbed at Lucas’s and Dolly’s jacket sleeves. “You guys remember the white orb I mentioned earlier? The one my father taught me to visualize?”
“Of course,” said Dolly. Lucas nodded.
“Picture it with me now. Okay?” Claire closed her eyes. “White light. Growing larger.”
Lucas and Dolly closed their eyes too. Lucas imagined the orb floating before him.
“Larger,” Claire continued. “Larger still. Now … send it out to Tanner. Imagine it helping us. Helping him.”
Lucas opened his eyes. In his mind, the orb dipped down and enclosed Tanner inside it.
Something was happening out on the water. The whirlpool was widening. The bottom of the lake was revealed.
Claire spoke. “Protect us from negativity, from spirits who wish us harm.” Tanner was on all fours on the cleared muddy bottom of the lake, his torso heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Between their visualizing, and whatever Irene was doing to the water, it was working. The group was forcing Lemuel Hush away.
“Over here!” Irene called to Tanner.
Looking confused and terrified, the man got to his feet. Tanner made eye contact with her, and suddenly, a determined expression came over him. He stumbled forward, the whirlpool following him up the embankment, until he was standing safely again on the shore. The opening in the water splashed closed again, sending small shivers out into the lake.
Irene raced over to Tanner and caught him before he could collapse. “Lucas, a little help!” Lucas ran to them and assisted his gramma as she heaved the man up toward the woods. They placed Tanner at the base of a pine trunk, where he slumped and put his head between his knees.
“Are you okay, mister?” Dolly asked, rushing to join them.
Tanner could only groan.
“What was that, Gramma?” Lucas asked. “That whirlpool thing? Where did it come from?”
Sweat beaded on Irene’s forehead. “I asked the spirits trapped in the lake to help us. They were able to move the water just so. That, along with what you three were doing, kept Lemuel Hush at bay.”
Tanner’s head flicked upward. His eyes widened as he stared out at the water. He scrambled to his feet, holding the tree trunk for support. “I can’t … I can’t be here.” He turned and began to hike up the slope toward the dirt road.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Irene asked him.
“Home,” said the man. His wet clothes clung to him and he shivered. “This was a mistake. A big, big mistake.”
“What about Miles?” asked Lucas. “Don’t you want to help him?”
Tanner spun on him. “And how would I do that? You four think you’re gonna hop in some canoes and head out to that island? It’s a death wish. Call the police. Tell them what I told you.”
“You said you already called the police,” Dolly spat. “They didn’t do anything.”
Tanner was quiet for a moment. Then he headed up the hill again. “This isn’t my problem,” he said over his shoulder.
Claire started to race toward him, but Irene placed her hand on the back of Claire’s neck. “Let him go,” she said quietly. Lucas and Dolly stood by and watched Tanner disappear between the trees. His footsteps crunched through the brush for a while longer. Then, except for some birdsong and the rush of the wind, the world was quiet again.
THEY KNEW WHAT they needed to do. They didn’t even discuss it.
When they reached Irene’s truck, they climbed inside. Dolly directed them back toward the main road, and from there Irene was able to locate the Lost Village Motor Lodge. The canoes were behind the long building, right where Dolly had sa
id they would be.
Claire worried that Dolly’s family would come out and confront them, but no one appeared.
The sun was low in the sky now. Shadows of the pines stretched wide across the parking lot. The atmosphere took on an amber hue, and the light around them seemed to glow.
The four worked together to get the two boats into the back of the pickup. “Do we need to wash these down first?” asked Claire.
Dolly smiled sadly, adding four oars to the truck’s bed. “I think we can make an exception this one time.”
As Irene was pulling out onto the road a few minutes later, Claire was suddenly overcome with relief. “We’re really doing this,” she said, trying to control the shimmer in her voice. “We’re going to rescue my father.” She didn’t know how to feel when the others did not answer. Maybe they were thinking of what they’d seen happen to Tanner Worley, or maybe their understanding of the situation was so solid they felt no need to agree aloud.
Dolly pointed the way toward a service road that would get them most quickly to the shore. Irene drove up as close to the water as she could get, which turned out to be about twenty feet away, and then they unloaded the canoes. This was farther from the island than the spot where Miles’s tape had cut off, but they all knew they couldn’t go back there again. Toward the northern end of the lake, the bristle pine island seemed to float quietly. Waiting for them.
“Stay away from the water for now,” said Irene. “At least until we can prepare ourselves.”
Moments later, Claire talked Lucas and Dolly into the protective white orb.
“I really feel like I should go out there alone,” Irene stated.
