"Trevor, what are you talking about?"
"I lost my damn job, Bridgette! The factory canned me a month ago."
"Why?"
"Never mind why. What's done is done. But the bills ain't gonna pay themselves. I need this."
"Can't you find another job?"
"You think I haven't been looking? I guess no one wants a loser like me."
For all the bluster he usually wore around himself, Bridgette could now see him how he really was: naked and vulnerable.
He walked down the steps to the loggia and stared at the bay. "It's all or nothing," he said quietly.
Billy walked into the room. His face was stone and Bridgette couldn't read him. He stood with his hands at his sides, looking at Trevor until he turned from the water.
"I just thought you should know I figured it out," Billy said.
Trevor's lip slid up in an instinctive snarl, but there was guilt and apology too. "You did?"
"The treasure lies beyond the yellow brick road..." Billy muttered.
"So what about it?"
"That's what it said. The map didn't matter. It was those words. Only those words."
"What does it mean?" Trevor said, becoming frustrated.
"The Wizard of Oz, Trevor. That old movie, remember? What's at the end of the yellow brick road?"
Trevor's face screwed up. "I don't know. Some city, right?"
"The Emerald City," Billy emphasized. When Trevor still didn't catch on, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the emerald amulet he had found in the fireplace.
"You're saying that's the treasure?" Trevor said flatly.
"No," Billy replied. "But this is how we find it."
"So you're still in?" Trevor asked.
Billy hesitated for just a moment. "I'm in."
"Bridgette?" Trevor asked.
She paused. "I take it you can't be dissuaded."
He shook his head.
"Then it has to be soon," she said. "I'm afraid something really bad is going to happen if we stay."
Trevor looked at Billy. "You know what to do?"
"I'd bet anything on it."
"Okay," Trevor said, facing both of them. "We go tonight after darkness falls. We'll only have one shot at this. But we're going to get that treasure or die trying."
After dusk, when sheets of dark blues and blacks covered the sky, a rolling army of rainclouds bunched up together and released a steady downpour. Trevor had rounded up everyone in the mansion and went over the plan with them. When they were ready, they would get in the boat and go to the right spot. After finding the treasure, they would haul it up, then they would store it in the boat, hook the boat back to the van, and disappear in the night back to Texas before Will even knew what happened. The plan would work. Trevor was sure of it. There was still tension between all of them after their scuffle, but Trevor made it clear this was a one and done type deal; they were going to settle this one way or another once and for all.
"So how do we use it?" Bridgette asked.
Billy gazed down at the amulet in his hand and stepped forward. "I'll show you."
He led them all to the parlor and the five of them stood back while Billy stepped down into the loggia. "Look. The treasure lies beyond the yellow brick road." He motioned toward the floor of the balcony, inlaid with yellow bricks and gold trim around the edge. "The yellow brick road," he said.
They all stared at it, then they looked beyond it to the bay.
"So the bay?" Karen said. "The treasure lies in the bay? That's awful specific."
Billy studied each of their faces and saw that same anger rise in Trevor. But he held up a finger. "Wait," he said. "Don't forget, beyond the yellow brick road is the Emerald City." He showed them the amulet.
He turned and walked to the railing as the rain fell just beyond it. Billy stared at the bay while the others watched from the parlor. "Please work," he whispered to himself. He looked down at the amulet in his hand, then he raised it up to the sky, holding it up like a beacon over the water.
Several moments passed where nothing happened. Flecks of rain bounced and ran down his fingers and the melted gold of the amulet. Billy held his breath, afraid to turn around and see his friends' disappointed faces.
But then, as if by a stroke of magic, the amulet began to glow like it had on nights prior. A gentle green pulse made the jewel shimmer in the ominous night. Billy got excited when he saw it. His eyes sharpened on the bay.
A thin column of green light appeared over the water far in the distance, like a very narrow aurora. The light stayed resolute over the same spot on the bay, glowing in and out to match the rhythm of the amulet.
"There!" Trevor shouted, pointing as he rushed onto the balcony. "It's there!" He turned and grabbed Billy, kissing him on the cheek. His eyes narrowed and suddenly he turned to the others and shouted "Paper! Someone get me a sheet of paper and a pen!" Karen rushed out of the room and returned with the items. Trevor held the sheet against one of the columns supporting the overhang and stared carefully at the light as he made a crude map and marked its location. He added a few estimated measurements that he could use when they were on the water.
"Everything good, Trevor?" Billy asked.
"Yeah, we're good." He couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
Billy lowered his arm and came back into the parlor, wiping his wet hand on his pants. The green pillar of light rolled up from the bottom and faded away into the night.
Trevor ran a hand through his blond hair as he sized the others up and down. "We know where it is," he said. "Now let's go get it. Are you ready to be filthy rich?"
The lights in the mansion flickered, just like they had in the dining room before Orianne threw the map in the fire.
"Oh no," Bridgette uttered.
Orianne came out of a hallway and cornered them into the loggia. The light bulbs burst overhead, leaving them only in what little moonlight was choked through the clouds. The ghost shrieked and rushed them. Her hands reached out, her fingers ready to choke the breath from them. Rage twisted her face.
The six of them cowered against the railing, hanging precariously over a thirty-foot drop to the rocks below. They watched as Orianne's shrouded figure came down the loggia's steps for them. Some of them whimpered. Some of them closed their eyes.
Orianne lunged for Billy, but suddenly she stopped on the spot. There had been a noise from somewhere down the hallway where she'd come from. She turned to it and heard something that the rest of them were too distracted to notice. A faint reddish glow came through the darkness. The rage from Orianne's face disappeared in an instant and was replaced by fear. She turned and fled down another corridor. And then there was silence.
"What the hell was that?" Dawson asked. He trotted to the hallway that Orianne had been looking at, but there was nothing there—just the living room at the other end.
"It doesn't matter," Trevor said. "Let's go."
"But—" Bridgette protested.
"Let's go!" Trevor yelled. He started off for the entrance hall and the others quickly followed. They raced through to the front doors of the mansion and out into the rain.
They descended the hill to the boat. When they were all in and ready, Trevor guided them through the narrow pathways of the bayou and out to the main channel. When they got to the bay, Trevor reveled at it. His fingers squeezed the wheel and he let out an animalistic grunt, knowing that the bounty would soon be his.
He pulled out the map he had drawn and studied the landmarks surrounding the bay.
As the boat skimmed across the bay, Bridgette glanced back at the mansion, which stood dark and resolute in the night. On the second floor, one of the windows was open, the curtains billowing in the faint moonlight. Orianne stood there watching them.
Something tugged in Bridgette's chest. There was something strange about the way Orianne had attacked them and even stranger about the way she had suddenly gotten scared and run off. Bridgette knew that Orianne never wanted to hurt t
hem, so why the attack? She didn't know what was going on, but she got the unshakable feeling that something was wrong.
The Ecstasy of Gold
"You know, they say there's a dead zone at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico," Billy commented. "So much salt funnels from the Mississippi River Delta into the Gulf that it settles at the bottom and kills everything around it." He chuckled a little and shrugged his shoulders, trying to say something to break the tension that everyone felt.
"Why would you tell us that?!" Karen cried. "No way am I going anywhere near that water! I'm staying in the boat." She huddled in the corner of the boat's cabin with her arms folded as she watched the rain splash against the windows.
In the captain's chair, Trevor studied the crude map he'd drawn and eventually eased the boat to a stop. He killed the engine. "This is the spot," he said. "Everyone suit up."
There were only four wetsuits and oxygen tanks to go around, and Trevor, Dawson, Billy and Bridgette wore them. Karen and Janet were more than happy to remain in the boat.
Trevor scanned the water for any signs of police boats skulking around, but it looked clear. "Okay, assume we don't have a lot of time. Let's get in and find the stuff, load it up as quickly as we can—as much as we can take—and then get out of here."
When they were suited up and ready to go, Trevor hooked a large wire basket to the cable line on the rear of the boat, then he used the winch to unwind it and sink it in the water.
"Divers, stay close together," he said. He handed each of them a waterproof flashlight, then he said, "Follow me."
He sat on the edge of the boat and flipped into the water. Billy went next, giving his sister a reassuring nod. Karen's teeth chattered as she watched, feeling colder than the temperature actually was. But she was just glad to stay where she was.
"We'll be right back up," Bridgette said to the two girls. Before she went into the water, she nodded to Janet and Janet nodded back. But there was a look on her face that suggested she was uneasy about something too. She seemed herself, but she glanced at the water with a certain visible dread, as if to tell Bridgette to be careful. Bridgette silently heeded that advice as she plunged into the water.
Dawson took up the rear. When the black waters of the bay rushed up all around him, he turned on his flashlight and found Bridgette. He followed behind her. When she paused, he paused. When she continued swimming, so did he. Just because they were broken up didn't mean he would stop protecting her.
The bay was very deep, even at the shallow distance from shore they were. Their flashlights pointed down at nothing but a black chasm.
Trevor began to dive steeply, sweeping his light around. They others followed behind, keeping an orderly line. When they finally got low enough to see the bay floor, Trevor's heart sank. There was no sunken ship.
He turned his light to his left and swam in that direction, realizing that the directions he'd recorded may not have been precise. The others branched out from each other to search the area without straying too far. But in the end, no one could find a single coin or earring, let alone an entire ship.
Trevor ascended and the others followed. When he broke the surface of the water, he took the breather out of his mouth and said, "What the hell?!" He pounded his fist on the side of the boat, unintentionally making Janet and Karen jump. The others reached the surface and they all climbed onto the deck.
Trevor stepped forward and shoved Billy, who stumbled back and almost slipped over the side of the boat. "What the hell, dude! You said it would be here!"
"Hey!" Billy snapped back. "What are you looking at me for? You saw the green light just like I did. How am I supposed to know where it is?"
Dawson took a step forward, ready in case there was any trouble.
"Give me that stupid amulet!" Trevor said, holding out his hand to Billy.
Billy rolled his eyes, but he pulled down his wetsuit and reached into his pocket. He handed the amulet to Trevor, and Trevor promptly raised it in the air like Billy had done before.
They all watched and waited as the rain came down on them and cooled their tensions. At first, like before, nothing seemed to happen. But then the amulet began to glow, its green light pulsing in and out. They all stared up to the sky, expecting that same pillar of green to hover over the water, but it was absent.
"You know what's weird, though?" Billy said, more to himself than anyone. "The map had a reference to the Wizard of Oz, but that movie didn't come out until 1939, after the most recent slaughter, in fact."
"What are you saying?" Bridgette asked.
"I don't know. It's just funny that it was written on parchment, too. I didn't think people still used parchment in the late 1930s. It all just seems kind of... fishy."
"Shut up!" Trevor said.
The amulet began to hum and vibrate in his hand. The pulsing got faster and faster until it turned into a rapid flash. The amulet shook violently. Trevor was terrified.
A huge burst of green light erupted from the water next to them, breaking the surface like a missile and making the boat rock violently. The light shot up into the sky and stretched out in multiple directions like fireworks. The green glow brightly lit up the sky and the water, allowing them to see into the depths.
"Is everyone okay?" Dawson asked after they had regained their footing. Everyone gave their halfhearted "yeahs", and then each of them tried to figure out just what the hell happened.
Trevor leaned over the edge of the boat and looked into the water. His eyes lit up bright as the light coming from the bay. "There! Look!"
It seemed that Trevor had been a little off in his mapmaking, as the source of the green light was deeper in the bay still, just past a ridge where the floor of the bay gave way to a deep chasm. And in the light of the green pillar lay the remains of a sunken ship.
"Oh my God," Bridgette said, putting a hand over her mouth.
"It's real..." Karen said.
Janet looked at it with pursed lips.
"What is it?" Bridgette asked, tugging on her arm.
"I don't know," she said. "You shouldn't go down there."
"How do you know that?" Bridgette studied her face, looking for a clue as to why she had the same gut instinct. "Is it Orianne?"
Janet's face twisted like she was about to cry. It was as if she was experiencing great inner turmoil.
"Come on, let's go!" Trevor said, shoving the amulet at Billy. And without another moment passing by, he was already in the water.
"What's wrong?" Dawson asked, seeing the look on Bridgette's face.
"I don't know," she said. "I think we made a big mistake."
"Then we leave," Dawson said. "Immediately."
"We can't," Bridgette replied. "We have to get Trevor."
"Then let's get him."
The two of them and Billy put their goggles and breathers back in place and entered the water. Trevor was already far ahead of them, grabbing the basket hanging from the loose line and pulling it toward the ridge.
The terrible feeling Bridgette got only intensified the deeper they descended and the closer to the pirate wreck they got.
The column of green still stretched up into the sky from the wreck, though it was starting to fade now.
Trevor stopped near the edge of the ridge and began picking up loose valuables that the ship must have scattered on its fateful descent. He stuffed them into the neck of his wetsuit and pointed his flashlight into the abyss beyond the ridge. His body jerked in visible excitement, and the others followed him as he plunged down farther, taking the basket with him.
Sitting on the floor of the chasm was a loose pile of gold, with coins, jewels and trinkets, all covered in slime and sea crud. It sat next to a large, ragged hole in the hull of the ship, possibly the result of cannon fire.
When the others passed over the ridge and saw it too, they could hardly believe their eyes. Bridgette felt a wave of excitement pass through her, but it was immediately stymied by the horrible and black feeling in her gut. Sh
e heard a voice scream in her head, telling her to get away.
And then she saw them.
Out of the big, sprawling wreckage of the pirate ship, the spirits of the dead emerged. Their ethereal bodies glowed green in the fading light. Their faces were mad, painted with murderous intent. Their skin was leathery and their eyes yellow, their hair caked with grime just like all the treasures of the seafloor. They swam through the endlessly dark waters with their cutlasses drawn, coming for the divers to exact their bloody and merciless vengeance after being locked away in their prison for so long.
Bridgette cried out from behind her breather, trying to get Trevor's attention. He floated over the pile of treasure and busily stuffed it in the basket.
The pirate in the lead of the crowd spotted Trevor below. His blackened lips peeled back, baring his sharp and rotten teeth. He changed course and descended, crawling along the exterior of the ship, staring at the exact location on Trevor where he would sink his blade.
Bridgette screamed louder and Trevor looked up. His eyelids bolted open like they'd been stapled to his forehead. He watched the pirate twirl down through the water for him, saw the glint of the fading green light off the blade.
Bridgette waved at him from above, screaming behind her mask for him to leave the treasure and get out of there.
But Trevor didn't move. He'd opened a large chest to find it filled with gold bars, and he looked from the riches to the pirate, and then to Bridgette and the others.
Dawson pulled at Bridgette's arm to try to take her away from there as the crew of the undead came for them. But she resisted and remained at the edge of the ridge, clinging to it with whitened fingers. The three of them watched in horror as Trevor remained motionless below, trying to make his decision. Finally, he began to swim for them, leaving the treasure behind. The ghost of the pirate chasing him was closing in, but Trevor would make it in time.
He swam partway up the wall of the ridge to them, but then he stopped. He caught the glint of gold in the corner of his eye and turned his head toward the treasure. And in the next moment, he dove back down for it.
The Box Set of Hauntings and Horrors Page 53
