"This way!" Billy cried, and he and Karen fled into the library.
"Your ear!" Karen said, seeing the gash in it. "What happened?"
"I had a run-in with a pirate," he answered. "I think he was the big cheese." Billy had taken the armor off after he narrowly escaped from Gaspar. It was only good for hiding in plain sight in disguise; trying to run in it was an exercise in terror and futility.
When they reached the center of the library, they ran for another hallway ahead, but Billy slipped and fell. By the time he got back to his feet, the pirates chasing them caught up and cornered them. Karen and Billy pushed their backs against the bookshelves and stared at the incredibly sharp tips of the pirates' cutlasses in front of their noses.
The pirates shook with excitement. "Just hold still," one of them rasped, his throat sounding like it was filled with the same detritus coating the sunken treasure. "Shh..." the other one cooed. "You can be just like uuuuus..." They raised their blades and Billy and Karen squeezed their eyes shut.
Splat
The pirates paused then turned around. Billy and Karen opened their eyes.
A fish was lying on the floor.
The two pirates stared at it for a long time, not able to process what happened. The fish was dead and gutted. Its blank eyes stared across the room. It sat in a little puddle of water.
The pirates both looked up in unison and saw the spiral staircase stretching far over their heads. They staggered toward the middle of the room to get a better angle and see who'd dropped the fish.
One of them growled and started up the stairs and the other followed.
Meanwhile, Boomer whispered to Billy and Karen from the hallway next to them and motioned for them to follow him. They wasted no time in doing so.
Billy thanked Boomer profusely. "I thought we were goners!" he said. "Where on earth did you think of that?"
"Sometimes a little distraction is all you need," Boomer said as he trudged along the hallway as quickly as his old bones would allow. "We gotta find your friends now. Get you folks out of here."
"A fish!" Karen said in bewilderment. "You saved us with a dead fish! Why didn't I ever think of that?"
Boomer readjusted the shotgun under his arm and smiled a toothy grin. "Sometimes it takes a life to save a life. That fish was going to be my dinner, but I figured I may as well take it with me in case it came in handy," he said, patting his empty satchel.
"Stop it!" Bridgette cried.
Will wound up and slammed his foot into Dawson's ribs again. Dawson wheezed like a wounded animal as he rolled around on the floor. A devilish grin was on Will's face. He was enjoying this. And every time Bridgette instinctively lifted her leg to take a step forward, Will snapped his eyes up at her and brandished the gun at Dawson's head.
Dawson ground his teeth together. He wanted to take that gun and shove it up Will's ass, but he knew he was in no condition to do so.
"You got what you wanted!" Bridgette cried. "So just let us go!"
"Oh I don't think so," Will said. "I can't leave loose ends dangling around. Everything will have to be tidied."
"So then what are you waiting for?" she asked, exasperated.
He thought about this for a moment. "You know what? Good point." He gazed at Dawson's head and wrapped his finger around the trigger.
"No!" Bridgette shouted as tears rolled down her face. Dawson looked up at her, and even in his moment of greatest weakness, he pursed his lips and gave her a silent kiss.
Before the gun went off, Billy ran into the room from the hallway, carefully zipping past the small handful of pirates gathered and sliding to a stop next to Bridgette. "Hey!" he said.
Will faltered and looked up at Billy. "Just what do you think you're doing?" he asked.
"I don't know," Billy said, shrugging. He waited a moment, casually glancing around like he was waiting for a bus. "Sometimes a little distraction is all you need."
Will cocked an eyebrow, then he pointed the gun at Billy's chest.
A loud bang ripped through the parlor and blood splattered on the marble floor.
Bridgette gasped.
Will sank to his knees and dropped the gun. The large hole in his chest bled profusely. He tipped forward and his face smacked the floor, dead.
Boomer stepped out from the courtyard, the barrel of his shotgun smoking. He hobbled over to the body and picked up the red amulet.
Bridgette rushed forward and threw her arms around Dawson. She sobbed profusely, trying to choke out words professing how thankful she was that he was still alive. He took all the strength he had to lift an arm and wrap it around her shoulder.
Boomer stood upright, turning the amulet around in his hand. The pirates stood warily at the corners of the room, their eyes locked on the trinket. He held it out to Bridgette. "I think maybe you could use this."
A sword emerged from Boomer's chest and he let out a long, rattling gasp. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his jaw fell open. His arms went limp and he dropped the amulet on the floor next to him. The sword was withdrawn and he fell to the floor like a rag doll.
The red energy swirling around the statue had ceased. And now standing behind Boomer's body was the ghostly form of the great patriarch himself: Jacob Jasper.
He dropped the decorative sword he'd taken from the wall and took a casual step forward, plucking the red amulet from the floor. His eyes glinted with evil as he set his gaze upon the theater of victims in front of him.
The Patriarch Returned
Jasper stood tall before them, his skin and clothing pale just like all the pirates. He stood over six feet tall and had shortly-trimmed white hair neatly folded over his head. His face was long with a slivered chin and a sharp nose. His eyes were turned inward slightly, like they were fixed into a permanent state of intense, angry focus. He was dressed in a fine 1700s-style suit, still kept pressed and creased even in his ancient, ghostly form. The way he carried himself, standing tall and square-shouldered, his chin up, was in sharp contrast to the scallywags surrounding him.
He raised the red amulet into the air and all the pirates cowered down as gasps and murmurs ran through them. Jasper smiled and looked at the amulet in his hand, for a moment mimicking the stone statue behind him.
"You must be the ones who made all this possible," he said, gazing at Bridgette and Billy. "I do enjoy this every time." He returned his gaze to the amulet and it began to flicker. A flash of red light rushed out of it and spread through the room, gone in the blink of an eye.
The pirates standing by the hallways suddenly shrieked and cowered down, holding their hands to their temples and squeezing their eyes shut. They were in agony.
Jasper grinned and laughed, the sound thunderous in the parlor. The pirates started to stand up, the pain seeming to subside a little. But then Jasper took a step forward and held the amulet out, closing his hand around it tighter like he was squeezing the remaining juice from a lemon. The pirates doubled over again and shrieked louder than before. When some of their cries settled down, Bridgette could hear distant screams and howls in the mansion, and she knew that Jasper could reach all of them, regardless of where they were.
"Why are you doing this?" Bridgette asked, trying to stand resolute against him.
He ignored her for a moment, taking glee in his torture of the pirates. Then he eased up on using the amulet and let them settle for a moment. "Gaspar and I used to be business partners," Jasper said. "But he was weak. Foolish. Stupid. So I took the company from him and ran it as it should be. I gave him his own ship and put him in charge of the prime shipping route between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. But he wasn't grateful. And he bit the hand that fed him.
"One of his little shipmate scoundrels saw it fit to court my daughter." Jasper's face twisted suddenly. "Can you imagine it? A dirty scoundrel with the heiress of a great and mighty company and fortune? Unthinkable.
"So I cut Gaspar and all these cretins off. Still the ungrateful swine they were,
Gaspar stole my flagship and sailed away with it, turning to a life of piracy in the Caribbean. I didn't hear from him for a while, but I heard rumors running along the trading line. Rumors that he wanted to return and take what was mine.
"When they finally did return, I was ready for him. I let him have his fun and think that he got away clean. But when he was out on the bay like a sitting duck, I fired upon him and sent him to the grave. And I knew that that would be his cold and lonely resting place for all eternity. I would personally see to it. And that scoundrel tried to take my daughter away with him on board, but I ensured she was locked away that night so they couldn't get to her."
"How could you do that to Orianne?" Bridgette asked. "Your own daughter?"
Jasper hissed. "Don't speak her name! If she wanted to betray me and have a life surrounded by delinquents and criminals, then I was no longer going to let her be a daughter of mine. I wasn't going to let anyone else even know she existed. I kept her locked up until the day she died, withered away from a broken heart."
"You're evil!" Bridgette said. "You trained your own family to continue this heartless charade. Your own grandson was killed because of all of this. Do you even care?"
Jasper stepped over Will's lifeless body. "There are others," he said.
He raised the amulet and gave the pirates another dose. When their howls settled, he grinned again. He looked at the amulet and marveled at its wonderful powers. "When Gaspar and I were young men, just starting our business and exploring the world, we came across a merchant off the shore of Cambodia. In exchange for other goods, he traded us two dusty trinkets. He warned us of their power, but I don't think he himself fully understood them. One went to Gaspar and one went to me. The green and the red. Life and death.
"On that fateful night when Gaspar thought it fit to rob me of what I earned, he used his amulet to return himself and his crew to life after they drowned like scurrying rats. But I used mine to set a curse upon them, one that would keep them trapped in limbo. The two amulets, working opposed to one another gave off an unpredictable result. My curse on them lasted awhile, but eventually it waned and they were brought back to life by the power of the other. I knew that they would come, so I instructed my lineage to resurrect me when the day drew close. Left unchecked, the curse would fade entirely and they would return to this world, or drift to the afterlife if they chose it. But if they were resurrected just before that, then I could use the power of the red amulet to place a new curse upon them and relegate them to a hundred more years of mind-shredding torment in limbo.
"After enough time spent in their ethereal prison, left with nothing but their own thoughts, their minds would turn to mush, driven by animalistic instincts rather than by intellect. When they finally did return, each and every time, all they could muster was base vengeance, never finding a way out of their prison."
Jasper walked over to one of the lowly pirates, still doubled over in pain. He placed a finger underneath the scoundrel's chin and lifted it, gazing upon the man's twisted face. He smirked, enjoying his work.
Boomer stirred on the floor. His breath rasped in and out of his lungs, and he found just enough strength to push himself onto his side and look at Bridgette. "Not all snakes crawl on the ground," he rasped. His eyes rolled up again, then a final death rattle escaped his mouth and he died.
Bridgette still didn't understand his words, but she knew they had to escape, for Boomer's sake if nothing else. With Jasper distracted, she hurried over to Dawson and wrapped her arms around him. "We have to get out of here," she whispered. Dawson groaned, trying to move or get up, but the pain was overwhelming.
"But my soul grows weary," Jasper said with his back still turned as he continued his rounds inspecting the pirates. "To continue to punish them, I need to keep myself in my own state of limbo. Before I passed, I found a way to enter and leave that state with my amulet, but I needed to prepare my mind to handle it, and it is taxing. And so, I think it's time I passed on into the afterlife. But my lineage has been diligent all this time in studying the secrets and ancient powers of these lost civilizations where these amulets were originally forged. And there is a way that I can send these cretins back to their prison, but this time... forever."
The pirates howled at the mention of this. Some of them held their arms out, stumbling over to Jasper and dropping to their knees in pleading. They prostrated to him and he stood above them as their master, dominating them completely.
"But to do so," Jasper continued, "I need the green amulet as well. Give it to me now and I might spare you."
Bridgette quietly motioned to Billy. "Help me," she whispered as she bent and hooked her arms under Dawson's armpit. Billy hurried over and grabbed his other arm and they slowly dragged him toward the courtyard. He winced and bit his tongue from the pain, and his blood trailed on the floor. Jasper turned at last and smirked as they disappeared around the corner.
"So be it," he said, not in any hurry to go after them.
"We don't have much time," Bridgette said as they dragged Dawson across the mansion. "We have to get to Janet. Where's Karen?"
"I left her hiding in a wardrobe upstairs," Billy said. "She'll be safe in there for now. Well, I hope."
They passed many pirates as they dragged Dawson away to safety. The crew was doubled over and stumbling around, their faces twisted into agony just like the ones with Jasper.
"We have to talk to Orianne," Bridgette said. "She might know what to do."
"Don't suppose Jasper will let us walk out the front door, will he?" Billy said with a nervous chuckle.
"Stop, stop!" Dawson pleaded. "I can't take it anymore! My leg is killing me."
"Just a little bit further, honey," Bridgette said. They both pulled him into the living room and saw that the lights were on and some of the furniture was righted. Janet was sitting in a chair, wrapped in a blanket. Orianne was standing next to her, wringing her hands. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Bridgette and the others. Roger was doubled over, kneeling on the floor as he cradled his head in his hands.
"He did it!" Orianne said. "Evil! Malveillant!"
"You have to watch Dawson, too," Bridgette said, getting Billy to help her pull him onto a couch. Dawson bit so hard on his tongue he thought he was going to lop it off.
"Stop him!" Orianne pleaded. "You must!"
"How?" Bridgette asked.
"The amulet," Orianne replied. "The red... take it from him!"
"Oh is that all?" Billy said. He and Bridgette turned their gazes to each other. "Distraction?" he suggested. "I think it's about all we can do."
Bridgette nodded. "Okay, if I distract him, can you sneak up behind him and grab it from him?"
"I don't know," Billy admitted. "I can give it my all. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"
"He will trap you!" Orianne said. "In limbo forever... like us!"
Billy gulped. "Well, my calendar was pretty clear anyway."
Duel
When Bridgette and Billy decided on a plan of action, they split up and individually made their way back toward the parlor where Jasper waited. Bridgette was going to go in through the hallway, and Billy was going to sneak in from the courtyard and wait for her to make a scene. And then he was going to pray and slip across the room as fast and as quietly as he could to pull the amulet away from him. He had never tried to pull an amulet away from a ghost before, and he couldn't decide on what the exact logistics of that would be, but he kept his fingers crossed in the hallway as he made his way to the parlor.
Bridgette lagged behind a little, making sure Billy would be in position by the time she got there. Pirates stumbled by her on her way through the hallway, their horrifying faces twisted and moaning for relief. She dodged them and got to the edge of the parlor, waiting another moment to make sure Billy would be ready. Then she sprang into the room.
And Jasper was gone.
Bridgette spun in a circle, gazing all around at the dark room.
A moment later, Bil
ly came out of the courtyard and joined her in the middle of the parlor. "Where did he go?"
Both of them suddenly doubled over in pain. It felt like someone was wrapping their hand around their stomachs and squeezing. The pain was so bad that they each fell to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the floor.
Janet screamed in the living room.
Bridgette found the strength to pick her head up. "Janet..." she uttered. Both she and Billy knew what had happened and fought through their agony to get back to the living room as quickly as possible. They helped each other along the way when one would stagger into a wall and almost fall to the floor.
When they returned, Jasper stood in the middle of the room, clutching his amulet. Janet's hands were squeezed to the sides of her head and she let out a bloodcurdling cry.
"Stop!" Bridgette yelled behind her own pain.
Dawson writhed on the couch, suddenly forgetting about the numbing pulse in his leg. Karen stumbled onto the landing on the second floor, drawn out from her hiding spot by the unbearable pain. And Orianne was on her knees next to Roger, her teeth grinding together and her eyes squeezed shut.
Jasper surveyed his surroundings, pleased at the torment he was inflicting. "I asked you nicely for the amulet," he said. "It seems you declined."
Bridgette thought of the plan that she and Billy concocted, but none of them were in a position to surprise him.
Orianne found the strength to rush over to her father and claw at him like an animal, like she had done to the back of her door, trying to escape her imprisonment at his hands. "Bastard!" she cried.
But he held her at arm's length easily, and when she weakened, he tossed her to the floor.
Bridgette fell onto her side. She lay writhing like a dying bug on its back, but she managed to glance over at Billy. "Use the amulet!" she cried. "Figure something out!"
He rested on his hands and knees, grunting through the pain. "I... I don't have it anymore," he said.
The Box Set of Hauntings and Horrors Page 57
