The Crimson Key

by Christy Sloat

  “So, graduation is coming up, are you excited?” Dad asked.

  Ephraim smiled, humoring him. “Sure.” Ephraim wasn’t happy about leaving me alone in school. He didn’t want to not be with me, and I felt the same.

  Ephraim passed the veggies and smiled at me. He knew this was idle talk and so did I. My parents were leading up to something, I could feel it.

  “Well, I guess now’s as good a time as any to tell you,” my mom started. “We know your summer vacation is coming up and we decided to take you back home for two weeks.” I dropped my fork into my mashed potatoes. I didn’t want to go home. Not now. There may have been a time when that sounded like the best idea ever. However, this was not it.

  “Whose idea was that?” I asked loudly. My dad smiled and waved at me.

  “Mine, honey. Aren’t you excited? A whole two weeks back home visiting Grandma and Grandpa.” I felt like throwing my plate into the sink and stomping upstairs like a spoiled teenager. I was going to be seventeen, didn’t that count for something? Didn’t that mean I could at least pick what I wanted for my birthday? Like new shoes or a day at the beach here? I didn’t ask for much, especially when dad first lost his job. I never whined or complained. I even kept quiet about our move out here. I only complained internally. But now I was going to be going home for two weeks and without Ephraim the whole time. I looked to him and his face didn’t seem disappointed, but his eyes did. I could always see his emotions in his eyes.

  “Brylee, are you not happy?” Mom asked with her serious face. I couldn’t tell them I wasn’t. I couldn’t act unappreciative of the gift they were giving me.

  “No, Mom, I am super stoked.” I gave a little smile and went back to my dinner. My parents talked more about the plans they made for us in Cali. Disneyland, Magic Mountain, and the beach. Yay! Not!

  Nothing sounded better than being with Ephraim and Lyn for the summer. I didn’t know what would happen while I was gone. I was certain I would survive, but not so sure I would want to.

  After we ate, my mom made us do dishes like usual. Ephraim rinsed as I washed; it was our routine. We had it down pat.

  “So not happy about your trip, huh?” he asked as he flung bubbles at me.

  “No, can you tell? I just don’t want to be away from you,” I admitted.

  “Brylee, you can’t worry about that. Go home and visit with your family. It’s been a long time since you have seen them, right?”

  “Yeah, it has.” I hated it when he was right. “I won’t have any fun without you.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah right and I will be having the time of my life here working all summer.”

  He would be working this summer and I would be alone anyway. Maybe this trip wouldn’t be so bad after all. I just wish it wasn’t two whole weeks. I thought maybe that I would try to talk my parents into shortening the trip. I looked around at our kitchen and the work my mom put into it. I wouldn’t miss the house and its inhabitants, that was for sure.

  “Just don’t go meeting some hot guy and leave me for him, okay?” he teased.

  “Ephraim, there is no one else in this whole world I want to be with more than you.” He grabbed me and I almost dropped the dish. He placed me up on the counter and I wrapped my legs around him. My soapy hands ran through his chestnut brown hair. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes. He liked it when I did that.

  “You’re making me want to carry you upstairs and do bad things,” he joked. Luckily, my parents were outside drinking their after dinner coffee. “Why don’t you then?”

  He lifted me off the counter and carried me up the stairs while I straddled him. I tried to keep my laughing to a quiet giggle but it was hard. He brought out a side of me I couldn’t keep quiet. He opened the bedroom door with his foot and laid me down on the rug beside my bed.

  “Lay here and be silent,” he ordered. I watched him as he opened the window, letting the cool air in. It also let in the sounds of my parents talking. “If they come back into the house, we’ll hear them,” he informed me.

  “Good idea.”

  Leaning down on top of me, he kissed my neck slowly. It was times like these that I would miss with him. Being with him intimately meant being as close to him as possible. I was taking all from him that I could while he was here with me.

  He took off my shirt and ran his fingers lightly over my skin, giving me chills. The good kind that you don’t ever want to stop. He slipped of his shirt and soon it was just his skin on mine, reminding me what he feels like in the flesh. The memories of him and I would last a lifetime even if our bodies wouldn’t. The truth was that in that desperate moment, while we made love, I feared for how much longer I would have him with me. Sure I was only sixteen and curses shouldn’t exist. Ephraim was mine and I was his. There was one thing that was certain; we would be pulled apart somehow. He felt it and so did I, that’s why we spent so many nights together. Against the rules of my parents, he snuck into my window. Against the thoughts and negativity of our peers, we stayed together and endured. No matter what people would try to do, we would never be apart. Until the end.

  Soon my parents came inside the house, ending our little love session quicker than we would have liked. At least we knew we could pick up where we left off later that night. He snuck a quick kiss in before he went back downstairs. I stayed upstairs so it didn’t look too suspicious. While he finished the dishes, I pretended to put my pajamas on. Ultimately it worked out fine and he left fifteen minutes after. I would see him later, I knew that.

  I sat down at the table and tried to finish the last of my weekend homework. Finals were starting tomorrow, and on top of that I had to find out more information on the sisters. I knew I had to go to the library. I could go there tomorrow if my mom let me. So I thought of a good lie. “Uh, Mom?”

  She turned down the T.V. and faced me. “Yeah?”

  “Can I go to the library tomorrow to study for my finals?”

  “Can’t you study here?” I didn’t think of that!

  “Yeah, but they have a study group there that meets Monday nights.” A smile grew on her face. She looked proud of me for some reason.

  “I am so happy that you want to meet new friends. That’s great!”

  “So that’s a yes?” I asked.

  “Of course, Brylee, now study.”

  I went back to my paper and finished typing it out. Once it was printed, it was after eleven. Ephraim would be meeting me about midnight and I still needed to bathe. After kissing my parents good night, I bounded up the steps. Taking off my clothes, I ran the bath, hoping that nobody would interrupt me tonight. I didn’t want the creepy ghost brushing my hair anymore. She was a new ghost, one that I would have to ask the others about. I hadn’t seen any of them in a while and it did worry me. Why were they being so distant? Especially Violet, she was the one I saw the most. While I had encountered others, it wasn’t like seeing Violet.

  I heard the door to my bedroom slam shut while I was toweling off.

  “Man!” I said to myself. Why they must torment me while I was naked was beyond me. Dressing, I moved slowly to my room. I would never get used to seeing them; it didn’t ever seem possible. Opening the door, I was met with Kayla. I sighed as I plopped down on my bed next to her. Sure she was a ghost, but she was my friend. There was nothing creepy about Kayla.

  “Where have you been?” I asked.

  “Around. You know, here and there.” She smiled. Kayla was killed tragically right out behind my house. She was holding a séance to conjure up the ghosts of the Browns. While she thought it was all for fun, it wasn’t. Violet Brown entered her body and led her to an old tree. Within the tree was a key to the corner room of my house. Violet needed the key to set her daughter Pearl’s spirit free. Kayla loosened the key but lost her footing, eventually hitting her head on a rock and drowning in the stream. Sadly no one has recovered her body so she roams around lost. Or rather, roams around my house and the mall.

  “Really, Kayla, where
you been, girl?” She gave me an irritated look for my attempt at Jersey speak.

  “Brylee, you can’t ever possibly make it as a Jersey girl talking like that.” I threw my pillow at her and she tried to block it, but it hit her right in the face. The thing with Kayla was her spirit was different than the Brown’s. She wasn’t mist to me; she was like a living human. Not a ghost. Leaning over, I grabbed my hair brush and pulled it through my hair. I had to attempt to look decent since Ephraim would be here soon.

  “Gotta hot date tonight?” she asked.

  “Yeah, he’ll be here soon. Do you want me to call and cancel so you can stay and hang out with me?” I suggested. “You know I don’t mind.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Nah, it’s okay. I only came to say hi. I wanted to talk to you about something though,” she said as she moved to my bay window seat. “Remember when I told you to stay away from the Mayhew boys and you didn’t listen to me?”

  Here we go again. Kayla always told me to stay away from Ephraim. She never liked the idea of us being together. Although now she doesn’t say a word that he has the curse. She only just listens to me like a good friend would do.

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “Well, do you want to know why?” I did want to know, but I felt scared. It was like she was keeping a secret from me until now. It wasn’t like her to hold things in. Kayla was always very straight forward with me; she was outspoken and definitely not shy.

  “Come on, Kayla, out with it,” I urged her. Her eyes drifted out the window, toward the tree line. She was lost in her thoughts tonight.

  “Kayla, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me a little.”

  “Don’t be scared, Brylee, just be careful. You don’t know who the Mayhews really are,” she said as she now faced me. “Ephraim and Lynley may be two good seeds, I don’t know for sure. But the others are not who they seem to be. I am going to tell you this in confidence. If you say anything to anyone they will know it came from me.”

  “I don’t understand. Why do you care if they find out you told me? You’re dead.” I hated to say it so bluntly, but it was the truth. It wasn’t like she had a reputation to uphold.

  “I may be dead, but I still haven’t crossed over yet. And I am the only one who knows this truth. If they find out, they could try to hurt me.” She looked really worried. I sat with her at the window and held her hand.

  “I won’t say anything to anyone,” I promised.

  “John Mayhew and I sorta dated for a little while before I … died,” she said as she clenched my hand. “But he wanted to go further and I didn’t. He kept pressuring me to have sex with him, but I didn’t want to. Not with him anyway. If I was going to lose my virginity it wasn’t going to be with him!” I could see Ephraim’s cousin, John, being a jerk like that. But I had no idea he would have a thing with Kayla. She was punk rock and he was all prep. John Mayhew gave Ephraim crap all the time up until recently. When I first met him he and Ephraim had an intense rivalry going on. Now it was squashed, but I didn’t see it lasting forever.

  “One night we snuck out to see each other. You see, we weren’t ever supposed to be together in public. He said it could ruin his image.” She rolled her eyes. “So I met him in the woods right out by the old Barclay house.” I got chills as she said it. That old abandoned house was creepy and gave me the willies just looking at it. I stayed silent while she talked.

  “He had a key to the house; I don’t know why or how he got it. But I went in with him. We checked out the ground floor and he took me upstairs to their old bedroom. I didn’t like it in there, it gave me a funny feeling. So I told him I wanted to leave. We shouldn’t have been there.” She paused and I lost her for a second. “Shit, Ephraim’s coming.”

  “What?” I didn’t know what she was talking about until I saw Ephraim climbing my tree. “Come back tomorrow,” I grabbed her hand, “promise me you will,” I said.

  “I promise.” Then she was gone.

  Chapter 4

  School the next morning wasn’t all I had hoped it would be. Lynley had been avoiding me all day. She didn’t ride with Ephraim and me to school; instead she had her mom take her. I saw her in our class together and she didn’t even look me in the eye. So I decided to play the same game as she was. I was going to ignore her as well. In art I did what Mr. Combs asked of me and tried to stay busy. I counted down the minutes until I could see Ephraim again. Finally the bell rang and he came out of the darkroom to meet me outside.

  “I have a surprise for you,” he announced as he twirled me around. “It’s my newest picture.” He held up a photo of us after Christmas. We were planting the tree he had gotten for us for my room. It was his Christmas gift to me. A live tree that we could plant in my yard and keep forever. I remember the day we picked it out. It was so cold and we were going on a date. He took me to the Christmas tree farm to surprise me. It was an incredibly romantic gesture. That night we decorated the tree and I had to go into the basement to get extra bulbs. I encountered a ghost down there that, until now, I had totally forgotten about.

  “Do you remember that night when I saw a spirit in the basement?” I asked as quietly as I could amongst the students rushing to lunch.

  “Yeah, she told you not to kill her sister, right?”

  That’s what I had told him and it was true. It just wasn’t all she had said. She was fair-haired, like the new ghost I have been seeing around my house. She was walking toward the furnace and seemed like she didn’t even notice my presence. I had asked her if she was okay, because I was worried about her for some reason. A ghost like her seemed so different than the others in the house. She seemed desolate as she begged someone in the room not to kill her sister. It was like she was reliving a nightmare in my basement. Just as I asked her the question, she turned to me and said, ‘You’re not going to help them. They’re doomed,’ then she walked into me and disappeared. I hadn’t told Ephraim about that part, only about the other things. He didn’t need to know that he was doomed. Remembering her now and thinking about her lost behavior, I knew that she was the same girl from the other day. The same girl who had tried to brush my hair. She was a lost soul, and I had to find out who she and her sister were.

  “I don’t understand why you thought of that when you looked at this photo.” He seemed hurt that I even brought her up. Here he was trying to do something special and I had to ruin it.

  “No, that’s not what it makes me think of. It makes me think of that day we got the tree,” I told him as I grabbed his hand. “That was an awesome day.” He smiled and we went to sit at our table in the cafeteria. To my surprise, Lynley was not sitting at the table waiting for us like usual. Instead, she was nowhere to be found.

  As we drove home Ephraim talked about his day at school and how he had a hard time on his math test. I sat and listened even though my thoughts were on Lyn’s weird behavior. She was my best friend and I needed to find out what was going on with her. I owed her that much!

  “You’re not listening to a word I am saying, are you?” Ephraim asked, pulling me out of my trance.

  “I’m sorry. I’m just worried about Lyn is all,” I admitted. He gripped the steering wheel and his face grew heavy. He was worried about her, too. That was apparent. “Your mom sort of told her to stay away from me.” He pulled the truck into my yard and killed the engine.

  “When did she say that?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  I told him all about what I had overheard his mom say. It was something I hated doing. Ratting out someone’s mom wasn’t my forte. I needed him to know that she was a little less than nice to me as of late. Maybe I deserved it for getting them cursed. Maybe Lyn was right to stay away from me. I was delving into some dangerous ground involving myself in the Brown family curses and spirits. I never asked Lyn to be a part of it, though; she came along for the ride willingly.

  “Brylee, listen to me when I tell you that my mom is sort of crazy. You never did anything to hurt us and you shouldn�
�t listen to her. Lyn and I know she is full of crap when it comes to her opinions,” he assured me. “If Lyn is being weird just know that it will pass. It’s what she does.”

  I took his advice with a grain of salt and kissed him good-bye. He had to work and I had studying to do. My finals were tomorrow and then the last day of school was the very next day. I was excited to end the junior year and to see Ephraim graduate this weekend, but my heart ached when I thought about my impending trip back home to Cali. Opening the door, I found the house empty. Great, just me and the ghosts.

  My mom was working and I would be alone for another few hours. She assured me she would be home in time to take me to my fake study date at the library. Until then I had just enough time to really study and try to contact this blonde ghost. After grabbing a soda from the fridge, I headed upstairs. My room was cold and it felt great. The weather was getting warm and having a nice cool place to study was ideal. After a few minutes of reading through my study notes I was ready to jump out of my window and run away from my test tomorrow. I was doomed to fail. I didn’t understand why this was so hard for me. I have always been smart when it came to school, but lately it had been a real struggle. It might have been all the new stress in my life and maybe an added haunting or two. No matter the cause, I was sure to fail unless I figured out who this new ghost was. Was she the key to me finding out who the evil was in this house? Hala had told me evil resided here and that evil was a she. I had to find out who the person was and I had a feeling this new ghost was the way to find my answers.

  Putting my books away, I grabbed a flashlight to venture into the basement where I first saw her. If I didn’t find her in there I would look in the bathroom. She had to be here somewhere. Although finding ghost in my house lately was like finding a needle in a haystack. They didn’t just hide in certain places. Since they existed on a different plane than I did they weren’t always around. Some of them lived their lives here, like they were still living, and others knew they were dead. Once Violet had told me that sometimes they didn’t know they were dead, that they lived here like we did. And when I or my family did certain things, it upset them because they felt we were the intruders.