The Crimson Key

by Christy Sloat

  The next morning I practically hopped out of bed. After running a brush through my hair, I dressed in jean shorts and a tank top. I made up a story about how I was going to call Ephraim and left the room. Once I was downstairs, I sat by the pool. It wasn’t occupied and that was what I needed. If anyone was around my conversation might be viewed as completely wacky. I did dial Ephraim first. I wanted to see if he would be interested in knowing this information. As always, he didn’t answer. So instead I sent a lengthy text. I filled him in on everything. I hated to betray Kayla but their lives were at stake. I had to tell them, keeping them in the dark wasn’t an option any longer.

  I had John’s number because Ephraim was once working with him and his phone was dead. So I called John’s phone at the times I needed to talk to Ephraim. This time I wanted to talk to John only. As the phone rang I imagined how John would weave a lie. What would he say to me this time? Would he warn me that I would get hurt? His voice answering jarred me from my thoughts. It took a moment to say anything, but finally I spoke. “John, it’s Brylee. Got a minute?” Silence. “John?”

  “To what do I owe the honor of hearing your voice? Had enough of Eph, have you?” He was smug and rude, and I wanted nothing more than to slap him through the phone.

  “I need to know what you know about the Barclay sisters, John. And no more lying to me. I know about your involvement with them.” I took a huge breath, trying to calm my beating heart. I was trying to be strong, but I was intensely nervous.

  “Brylee, I don’t know what you’re—”

  “Cut the bullshit, John. I know you preserve their house. You’re in deep, and I need your help. You don’t know why and you don’t need to. Just tell me where I can find Agnes Barclay’s body.”

  He laughed into the phone. Was he mocking me? Pissed beyond belief, I paced the length of the pool.

  “You are way too late to be asking me for this, aren’t you? They are already cursed. Lynley is closer to death as each day goes by. You don’t know this, but your house is dangerous.” Now I laughed. I had to pretend that his knowing didn’t shock the crap out of me.

  “Don’t you worry your pretty, preppy head about my house and what I know. I need to find her body, John. Tell me where she is!”

  “Okay, listen. I don’t know what you know or what you think you know, but I can’t exactly tell you right now,” he said with arrogance. “Why do you want Agnes anyway? She isn’t the one in control. She was weak, she led that pig of a Brown right into their hiding place. It was her fault they were killed.”

  “Maybe you thought I cared about these women. Let me reiterate, I don’t care about them. I just need them.”

  He laughed again and I ground my teeth. “I can only tell you in person. Not over the phone. That’s my deal, take it or leave it.”

  “Fine. When I get home then, deal?”

  “Deal.”

  I dressed for dinner as fast as I could without showing my nerves. My parents were rushing me to hurry, and I was dragging my feet. To be quite honest, this dinner made me very tense. I knew that Ethan would be there, and that wasn’t the problem; it was seeing his parents’ sad faces and pretending like it would all be okay. To pretend that I wasn’t staring across the room at their dead son while we all ate our dinner.

  Once we arrived at their home they greeted us warmly. His mom looked thinner than I remembered, and his dad, Rob was very pale. Ethan’s death had clearly taken a huge toll on them. Who could ask them to be normal after such a horrific event? Surely not me. My job was simple tonight, help them see that he was okay and hope he would be able to cross over.

  We were brought into the dining room and his mother, Jayne, showed me to my seat. I thanked her as politely as possible. She was a beautiful woman, but you could see the new wrinkles that surrounded her eyes. It wasn’t something I had ever seen in her face before. Jayne served us on fine china that I was certain had been brought out for the first time in a long while. This was probably a special occasion for them. As we spoke in light conversation, I searched the room for Ethan. He hadn’t shown up yet, but I knew he would pop in at some point.

  “Brylee, how are you feeling about starting your senior year?” Jayne asked as she took a bite of veal. I smiled and tried to act like everything was fine, but out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. Then the chair next to me moved slightly as Ethan took his place at the table.

  “Uh, I guess I am excited.”

  “You’re not excited. Liar,” Ethan teased. I looked his way and gave him my evil grin.

  Instead of punching him in the arm, I accidentally knocked my knife onto the floor.

  “Oops. Sorry.” I reached down to get it and looked him right in the eye. “Shush!” I told him. He laughed so hard his shoulders trembled. I was happy he was amused.

  The conversation turned to different topics throughout the rest of the dinner. My mom and Jayne talked home décor and Robert and my dad talked sports. I yawned and tried to stay awake during dessert.

  “Jeez, are my parents boring you that much?” Ethan asked.

  “No,” I whispered. “I didn’t sleep very well.” I had been missing a lot of sleep at night. I just wanted to be back home in my own bed.

  “What’s that?” my mom asked.

  “I said this pie is great,” I lied. Ethan laughed again. My face burned with embarrassment, but I was happy I could cover it so easily.

  “I am happy you like it. It’s a new recipe,” Jayne admitted. “I have been trying new things lately with my cooking.”

  “I’m just happy she is cooking again,” Rob muttered. Jayne’s smiled died and she blushed bright red. Now was the time for me to bring this up and try to help them. If I didn’t do it now I might not get the chance.

  “Can I ask you guys something?”

  “Sure,” Jayne said happily.

  Here went nothing. “Do you ever sense Ethan around?”

  “What are you doing?” Ethan asked me, pushing away from his chair. It moved away from the table and fell to the floor. Everyone gasped. I sat still, making sure they knew it wasn’t my doing.

  “You mean like things moving on their own?” Robert asked. “Yeah, all the time.”

  It was sort of perfect timing for Ethan’s temper flair up.

  “I only ask because … well, I sense him here also.” My mom shot me a glance across the room that screamed ‘stop’ but I couldn’t.

  “We actually want to move out of this house, but can’t because we sort of know he’s still here. Does that make sense?” Jayne asked my mom. My mom’s face went still as she nodded. “We can’t bear to leave him here alone.”

  That was the exact reason he was still here with them, because they couldn’t leave him behind. They weren’t able to live their life while their son couldn’t still live his. That wasn’t fair for them. He was gone and they still had lives to be led.

  “Stop it!” Ethan cried. I had to try to ignore him.

  “Can you show me his room?” It was a bold question, but it was the only way I could get Jayne alone in the room to do what I needed to. I needed my parents to stay down here and not know what was going to happen.

  Chapter 15

  Jayne led me upstairs as Robert and my parents stepped outside to the veranda. She seemed happy to show me his room as she opened the door. She pointed out his trophies and his medals. I knew Ethan was good at sports, but I had no idea how good. According to all the things in his room, he was great. I softly touched his bed and realized it still wasn’t made up. It was almost like he had just crawled out of it. Instead his parents left it like it had been the day he passed. Clothes were still scattered on the floor, like a typical boy. He followed us inside and the look on his face was pure innocence. It was like he was seeing this room for the first time as well.

  “We can’t decide what to do with his stuff,” Jayne said softly. “We might just donate it.”

  “That’s a great idea. I am sure someone needs it.”

  W
e stood in complete silence for a moment. I had to decide how I was going to do this. I had never done it before, and I was extremely nervous.

  “Jayne, he is here with us right now,” I blurted out. Her eyes found mine and filled with tears. “I can see him. I actually can see a lot of dead people. I know it sounds crazy, but please just believe me,” I begged.

  “How many people know about this?” she whispered.

  “My parents don’t know. So I ask if you could keep it that way.”

  She nodded and looked around the room. I wondered if she was going to try to run away from me and tell my parents to have me locked up, instead she shrugged. “I know he’s here so it’s not that strange. I am just in shock, I suppose. It’s not every day that a teen girl tells you she can see your dead son.” She laughed nervously and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Brylee, I don’t understand why you are telling her this.” Ethan was getting frustrated.

  “He’s confused, he doesn’t know why I am telling you,” I told Jayne.

  “Is he … is he okay?” Jayne asked.

  “Yes, he is stuck here, though. He needs to move on and I think he can’t because you and your husband …”

  I didn’t need to go on; she understood what I was saying.

  “Tell her I don’t want to leave her,” Ethan said desperately. He stood now by her side, looking at her in awe. It was written on his face that this caused him pain, but I had to do it. He couldn’t be stuck here anymore. Yes, I would miss him and our talks. Yes, the thought of him really leaving killed me. But this was what was supposed to happen. You die and you move on. Not you die and stick around, watching everyone you love suffer.

  “He doesn’t want to go.”

  “I want him to. He can hear me, right?” she asked. I nodded. “Ethan, I want you to move on. If there is a heaven, I want you there instead of wandering around here. Your dad and I will be just fine. I love you, Ethan. I will miss you … I will miss you every day.” Her voice broke and she fell into silent sobs, sitting on his bed and gripping his blankets. “You were a wonderful child, and I don’t understand why you had to go, but I don’t want you to worry about us. Do you understand?” Ethan, who now rested his hand on her shoulders, nodded.

  “Yes, he understands.”

  Ethan’s body started to flicker, much like a TV show that wasn’t coming in too well. I didn’t understand what was happening. I reached out to touch him, and my hand went through him. He looked up at something behind me and I turned. I couldn’t see what it was that he could, but when I turned around he was gone. “Bye, Brylee.” His voice was barely audible, but I heard it. He was far away or on another dimension. He was gone.

  “What happened?” Jayne asked, looking around the room. I wiped tears from my eyes as I let my friend go.

  “He’s gone, I think,” I answered. Although I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, I felt that he had moved on. Jayne hugged me tightly and wept into my shoulder. Patting her back, I let her cry.

  The ride back to our hotel was beyond uncomfortable. I was being questioned like some sort of criminal by my FBI agent parents. ‘What the hell was that about?’ and ‘What do you know that we don’t?’ I just played dumb, which was easy enough for me to pull off. I twisted my blonde hair around my finger like a dumb blonde should and kept saying, “I don’t know.” Finally they gave up once they realized I wasn’t giving them any answers. It wasn’t like I didn’t want them to know at some point, but this just wasn’t the right time and place for this talk. Jayne kept my secret safe and promised to tell her husband after we left. She thanked me a million times and I smiled now at that. I helped her let him go and say good-bye. That was worth the looks from my parents, for now.

  We were coming up on the second week in Cali and I was suffering from boredom galore. Now that Ethan was gone I had literally no one to talk to besides my parents. They had stopped asking about the night at dinner and I was grateful. They finally let me go to the beach by myself, as long as I rode my bike. I tore through the streets and peddled as fast as I could. The ocean had become my sanctuary lately. I read as much from the book as I could. I was learning more and more about the sisters’ cult, but with my parents around all the time I didn’t have full access to it without being sneaky. I pulled the beach cruiser to my favorite spot and parked it, practically skipping to the sand without my shoes on. It felt invigorating to be one with the sand. Once I sat down, I almost didn’t hear my phone ring. I pulled it out just in time.

  “Ephraim!” He was finally calling me. It was torture not hearing from him this whole time. I wondered if he was mad that I went away while Lyn was in the hospital, or if it was something else. Not knowing led me to go crazy. I made up all sorts of reasons why he didn’t call, but finally hearing his voice now made me forget all of them.

  “Bry, I am so sorry I didn’t call sooner. It has been crazy here lately.” He sounded so different. “Lyn comes home today, so I wanted to call and tell you. How is your trip?” How was my trip? Did he not get my message about John? My trip could wait!

  “Ephraim, are you sure that’s what you want to talk about?”

  “Well, I didn’t want to start the conversation with telling you how I almost killed my own cousin,” he admitted. So he had gotten the message and became violent. Great.

  That was not why I told him. I didn’t want him to hate John, even though I did.

  “Don’t kill our only source, Ephraim, please. He promised to tell me everything in person. So once I get home, he and I have a meeting planned,” I said with a sigh. I didn’t look forward to sitting down with him and talking, but I needed to. “He knows things and I need him. Sadly.”

  “He didn’t tell me anything. He told me he would only talk to you.” He paused and I could hear rustling, like he was moving. “So that’s the only reason I didn’t kill him. If he only knew what those sisters are doing to us. It makes me sick to think he is helping them in any way.”

  It made me sick, too. How could someone like John Mayhew be in league with someone like the Barclay sisters? And why? What was the reason for their union? I had to find out the answers, but here I sat in Cali and the answers were 3,000 miles away from me.

  “Let’s not talk anymore about that scumbag, tell me about your trip.”

  What was there to say? I want to be home and in your arms? “It’s been interesting I guess you could say,” I said. Looking out at the ocean before me, I wished more than anything that Ephraim sat next to me.

  “Interesting how?”

  “Well for starters Ethan came to visit with me.” I wasn’t sure how he would react to that news, but he laughed a little. “He has been communicating with me from time to time. So now that I am on his turf he sort of felt my presence here.”

  “Oh. How is that going?”

  I thought I heard a hint of jealousy, so I laughed before I answered. “It went well. I helped him move on. Ephraim, it was amazing!” I had not realized until that moment how awesome it had really been helping Ethan. It didn’t hit me until then that I did something huge. I was like the Ghost Whisperer in some ways. Instead this was for real, not some TV show. I liked to think that I was better at this than J. Love.

  “You amaze me, Brylee. Remember when I said you were exceptional, I take it back. You’re extraordinary. You need to hurry back home, though. I am missing you too much.”

  “Trust me, I want to be home, too,” I admitted. Even as I sat in the warm sand I missed Jersey. This wasn’t my home anymore, it was foreign to me now. Yeah I liked it here, but I felt at home where Ephraim was.

  “Things are changing with me, Brylee.” Everything just went from great to terrible with six small words. I gulped as he went on. “I am starting to hear them more now. And I noticed that I have been losing my temper on a regular basis. I lost it on one of the guys at work the other day.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t even know. I just … lost it. I went crazy. Brylee, it was like the old me came ba
ck.”

  I didn’t want to hear this stuff, it reminded me that he was still cursed. We were focusing so much on Lyn that we forgot he was going through it, too. I clenched my fists and tried to listen to him tell me how he lost his job and he went home to tear up his house. He was displaying signs of the curse. Getting angry for no reason was part of it. When would he be a blank person to me? When would that happen? After that happens there is no hope of getting him back unless I end this curse in time. I didn’t have Agnes Barclay yet.

  I knew John’s involvement, but that still wasn’t a cure for Ephraim and Lynley, that was just one step in the right direction. I had to be honest with myself and realize I was dealing with a whole staircase of steps that I had to take before I reached the end.

  “Brylee, don’t be scared. No matter what happens I will always be around,” he said. I knew what he meant. If he died he would still be with me in my house. Could I live with that? Could I live with him as a ghost in my house and still love him the same way?

  I knew the answer, but I couldn’t bring myself to think about it.

  “I love you, Ephraim,” I said in haste.

  “I love you, too.”

  After we hung up, I gazed at the waves breaking over the shore. I watched the kids play in the water. They were so innocent. I remembered playing at this same beach as a child. My mom and dad would help me build sandcastles and I would bury my dad in the sand. For just one minute I wished I could go back to the days of enjoying my youth. Instead I was seventeen and I didn’t feel it. Instead of being a teenager who enjoys shopping trips and movies, I fought curses and talked to dead people. I was a walking M. Night Shyamalan movie. I didn’t want to be like this, but it was the hand I was dealt. I would harness my abilities and help the dead, but first I would save Ephraim and Lynley. For me, the days of being a child were over.