by Amy Cross
“So this is all insane,” Elly said, keeping her hands on the wheel, apparently unaware of the significance of the trees. “I'm going to take Katia to the police and get them to help us. We can't go on some kind of road trip. We have to let the authorities know what's happening, and trust them to deal with it.”
“So why haven't you contacted the police already?” Annie asked cautiously.
“I haven't had a chance.”
“You must have,” Annie pointed out. “You could have gone to the first town we drove past.”
“Some small place in the middle of nowhere?” Elly replied. “They'd never believe us. We need to get to a city, and then maybe -”
“Stop the car!” Annie barked suddenly.
Immediately, Elly hit the brakes, bringing the car screeching to a halt in the middle of the road.
Turning, Annie saw that Katia was awake now.
“What's wrong?” Elly asked, before turning and reaching back to put a hand on Katia's shoulder. “It's okay, honey, everything's fine. We're going to get help soon.”
Annie watched them for a moment, before opening the door and climbing out of the car. As soon as she set foot on the tarmac, and as the cold night air ruffled the fabric of her dress, she felt a sense of familiarity. She looked around at the dark trees, and then she spotted a turning just a little way ahead, a road that seemed to lead off into a deeper part of the forest. Every single aspect of this road screamed familiarity at her, and after a moment she pinched her left arm, hoping against hope that somehow this was a nightmare.
She winced as the pinch drew blood, but now at least she knew that she was awake.
“Can you please get back into the car?” Elly called out. “Annie? I shouldn't even have stopped. Can you please get back in?”
Annie turned and stared at her.
“Annie,” Elly continued, sounding exhausted now, “this isn't the time for heroics, okay? You can't be some kind of one-woman army, taking on whatever you think is happening in the world. That's not how things work. We're going to go and get help, just as soon as we get to a large enough town.”
“Did you bring my stuff?” Annie asked.
“What stuff?”
“The things from your car,” she continued. “The things I brought from my house. Did you stop and take them out of the old car and put them in this car?”
“I...” Elly hesitated. “I did, yes. It's all in the trunk. I don't know why I bothered.”
Annie turned and hurried around to the rear of the car. When she pulled the trunk open, she felt a rush of relief as she found all her equipment. Reaching down, she pulled out the makeshift metal helmet she'd hoped she wouldn't have to use, and then she ran around to the driver's side of the car, pulled the door open, and knelt next to Elly. Without saying a word, she reached into the car and began to fit the helmet onto Elly's head.
“What are you doing?” Elly asked.
“Why did you drive us here?”
“I only -”
“It must have taken two days! Maybe three! It's conceivable that I was out for that long, after what I did to Carlyle, but why did you drive us specifically to this point?”
“I just drove!” Elly protested, as Annie adjusted the helmet. “Can you please take this thing off me?”
“You didn't just randomly drive us to this particular point,” Annie said firmly. “Either you did it on purpose, or something influenced you, something drove you here.”
“Nothing influenced me,” Elly said with a sigh. “I don't even know what you're -”
“This is Lakehurst.”
Elly opened her mouth to ask what she meant, before hesitating for a moment and then looking over at the trees.
“I'd know this place anywhere,” Annie continued, with a rising sense of fear in her voice as she too turned and look at the trees. After a moment, her gaze shifted to the road that led off into the darkness. A road she'd been on before. “You didn't realize, Elly,” she said finally, “but you've driven us right back to Lakehurst.”
***
“I don't think you're right,” Elly muttered a few minutes later, as she drove slowly along the narrow road the twisted and wound its way through the forest. She was still – somewhat reluctantly – wearing the helmet, which was way too big and kept bumping against the roof of the car. “I mean, sure, it looks a little bit like the same area, but I don't think we're actually at Lakehurst.”
“We are,” Annie replied, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead, watching as the SUV's headlights picked out the next turn. “I know we are.”
“That doesn't really seem possible,” Elly continued. “Think about it, how could we have randomly driven across the country and ended up here, of all places? The odds are ridiculously tiny!”
“It wasn't random,” Annie said, turning to her for a moment. “You didn't feel it, but something was in your head, nudging you to take certain turns. I don't get why it wanted you to put all my stuff in the car, though. That's a little weird. It would have taken a lot of time for you to do that, and by now you should have no faith in my work at all. So why did you bring them?”
“I guess I just wanted to be nice.”
“That's not the reason.”
“I didn't feel anything nudging me,” Elly said with a sigh. “Can you just quit with all this talk, Annie? There was no external force reaching into my mind and telling me what to do. I didn't feel anything!”
“Of course you didn't feel it! That's the whole point! At least now with the device on your head, nothing can get through. I should have made you wear it from the start, although then...”
Annie's voice trailed off, and then she turned just in time to see a set of ruins up ahead, nestled a little way from the edge of the forest. For a moment, she could only stare at the few remaining sections of old walls, and then finally she reached over and switched the SUV's engine off, bringing the vehicle slowly to a standstill.
“There are a lot of graves here,” she explained. “Some marked, some not. We should walk the last stretch.”
“I think -”
“Don't argue with me!” she snapped, before opening the door and stepping out. “This isn't going to be like the last time you were at Lakehurst, when you came here with Nurse Winter and Lacy. The feeling in the pit of your stomach might be the same, but this isn't going to go the same way.”
“And how do you know what I'm feeling?” Elly asked, a little annoyed that Annie's tone seemed so abrupt.
She waited for an answer, but Annie simply walked away from the car, heading across the grass toward the distant ruins.
“Wait for me!” Elly called out, before stopping and turning to see that Katia was staring at her from the back seat. “We have to go after her.”
“It's cold,” Katia replied.
“I know, but -”
Elly hesitated for a moment, as she realized that she couldn't in good conscience drag a scared little girl out into the cold night air and force her to wander around some old ruins. Especially when they were being led around by someone who seemed to be – at best – clinically insane. Turning, she looked out the front of the SUV and was just about able to spot Annie walking away, disappearing into the darkness surrounding the ruins.
“Do we really have to go with her?” Katia asked. “Can't we wait here?”
“Sure we can,” Elly replied, turning to her again and forcing a smile.
“Why are you wearing that weird hat?” Katia continued.
Elly reached up to remove the helmet, but at the last moment she suddenly realized that maybe she shouldn't completely dismiss Annie's warnings. After all, she had seemingly driven them all straight to Lakehurst, and she wondered whether perhaps there really had been a voice guiding her all the way. She didn't remember a voice, but she'd seen enough to understand that such things were possible.
“Do you want to play a game?” she asked finally, hoping to encourage Katia to smile. “Let's play a fun game while we wait, huh?”
/>
“Did you see those other ladies?” Katia asked.
“What other ladies?”
“Over there,” Katia continued, pointing toward the ruins of Lakehurst. “They were only there for a few seconds, but I think I saw...” She paused, before turning to Elly. “I thought I saw some nuns.”
“Let's figure out a game to play, huh?” Elly replied, forcing a smile as she pulled her coat closer in an attempt to stay warm. She glanced at the ruins, but to her immense relief she saw nothing out of the ordinary. All she saw was Annie walking further and further away. “Let's play a game,” she added, turning back to Katia, “and try not to look out there too much, okay?”
Chapter Twelve
It was like remembering an old dream, one long-forgotten but now suddenly remembered. Not that Annie had ever forgotten Lakehurst, of course. Quite the reverse; the place had haunted her every moment, had formed an air-tight seal around her entire sense of self, and she'd always known that eventually – somehow – she'd return. Now that she was among the ruins, however, she found herself reliving those awful days all over again.
She walked past one particular section of brickwork, and somehow she knew that this had once been a corridor. One particular corridor, in fact.
“Tell me you saw him!” she heard Mark's voice scream in her head. “Tell me you saw him or you're a fucking dirty liar!”
The memory was fresh and raw.
Poor Mark.
She remembered the moment when Mark had killed himself. He'd been frantic, screaming about the burned man and about Doctor Campbell. Somehow, in all the subsequent madness, she'd stopped thinking so much about the little tragedies that had taken place, especially the deaths that had seemed so horrific during her first few days at Lakehurst. Now she found herself reliving those moments as if they were fresh, and as she looked around at the ruined walls she found it hard to believe that this was the same space.
“You've sen him,” she remembered Mark saying to her, just before he died. “You'll be next.”
For a moment she felt overcome by the thought of Mark. So much had happened at Lakehurst – and since Lakehurst – that she'd had little time to think about Mark and his horrible, unnecessary death. There had been so many people who'd died in the hospital's room and corridors, and for a few seconds Annie felt as if she had to stop and mourn them all. She quickly reminded herself, however, that there was no time for that now. She just had to trust that people like Mark were now in a better place.
Forcing herself to ignore these rushing memories, Annie made her way along the patch of grass that now filled the space where once there had been a corridor. The air was cold all around her, and after a moment she glanced over her shoulder and saw that the SUV was still parked a few hundred meters away with its lights on. She knew that Elly was in there, talking to little Katia, and she was glad that they were out of the way. A few seconds later, almost tripping over some bricks on the ground, she turned and looked ahead, and in that instant she realized that she wasn't alone.
She could feel a presence nearby.
“You'll look back on your time at Lakehurst with fond memories,” she remembered Nurse Winter saying once. “You'll never sugarcoat it, of course, but you'll know that this time was well-used. You'll feel confident. You'll be able to accept who you are, and you'll be ready to put your past behind you and get on with the rest of your life. You'll be a useful and productive member of society. That sounds good, doesn't it?”
A useful and productive member of society?
Sure.
Right.
That was one prediction that hadn't quite worked out.
“I need to go and take another look at what's left of the basement,” she remembered Nurse Winter saying. “I still feel as if I'm missing something. Jerry used to do a lot of work down there, and the husks might have been linked to all of this. I guess I'm getting desperate, but there's something I'm just not seeing.” She turned to walk away, before stopping and glancing back. “Stay in here, you'll be safer. Besides, there are a lot of ghosts out tonight, and you might even be able to see some of them without any help. I've seen more than a few old friends since night fell. Doctor Inoue, Doctor Lava, Doctor Campbell... The gang's all here, so to speak. All haunting the place.”
“No!” she blurted out suddenly, stopping and putting her hands on the sides of her head. “I need to focus on what's happening now! I need to -”
Suddenly she turned, convinced that she'd sensed somebody standing right behind her.
She looked out across the ruins, watching the darkness for any hint of a human figure, but all she saw were small piles of old stones piled up on various spots on the grass. Still, she felt now that she was being watched, even though she tried to tell herself that she was being paranoid. The sensation grew and grew, until the hairs began to stand up on the back of her neck.
And then she saw them.
A group of nuns, half a dozen or so, making their way through the darkness at the edge of the treeline. They were gone almost as soon as she first spotted them, yet Annie knew immediately that they'd been no figment of her imagination. The ghosts of Lakehurst were clearly still around, which meant that there might yet be plenty of others waiting in the dark night air.
She turned and looked all around, half expecting to see some other familiar, dead faces.
Morris?
Jerry?
Doctor Campbell?
Maybe they don't want to see you, she told herself. Maybe they blame you for their deaths.
“It must be so hard doing this alone,” she remembered Nurse Winter saying. “Think back to the last time you were at Lakehurst. Think back to the last time you saw me.”
Annie opened her mouth to reply, before suddenly realizing that this voice – unlike the others a moment ago – was no memory.
This voice was real.
“Missed me?”
Startled, Annie spun around, and then she gasped as she saw Nurse Winter standing right behind her.
Stepping back, Annie bumped her right foot against some bricks. She lost her balance and fell, landing hard on the damp grass.
Nurse Winter smiled.
“Oh Annie,” she continued, “you look a little better than the last time we met.” She glanced toward the SUV, then at Annie again. “And you seem to have made a breakthrough. It is Annie, isn't it? That is the name you want me to use this time?”
“What do you want?” Annie stammered, barely able to believe what she was seeing. “You're dead! You died a long time ago!”
Nurse Winter rolled her eyes.
“You're dead!” Annie shouted. “I know you are! You have to be, you can't be here!”
“You need to realize where you are and who you're with,” Nurse Winter replied. “This is no joke. It's deadly serious, and time's running out. Have you even figured out where Eldion House is yet?”
“I haven't had time.”
“Make time. It's important I'd tell you myself, but to be honest my memory's a little hazy now. Must be all the electrics in this system. I hate to admit this, Annie, but I'm struggling to keep my thoughts together. That Carlyle idiot did tell you about Eldion House, though, didn't he? Please, tell me you're at least that far along the road.”
“How do you know what Carlyle said?” Annie asked, still down on the ground. “How do you even know who he is? Wait, does that mean you're not really here? Are you just part of my subconscious mind?”
“You wish,” Nurse Winter replied. “Do you still talk to Elly Blackstock?”
“I...”
Annie hesitated for a moment.
“Elly's helping me,” she managed finally, starting to feel a little defensive.
“Elly's bland and boring,” Nurse Winter said. “Then again, I suppose that's what you need right now, isn't it? Someone dull, a blank canvas. I suppose you can talk to her and bounce ideas off her, and maybe that helps you. Unfortunately, Annie, your process is too slow. By the time you figure this all out,
it'll be too late. You have to move past Elly.”
“Move past her?”
“Leave her behind.”
“Why?”
“Because she's slowing you down!”
Annie shook her head.
“You don't have a clue, do you?” Nurse Winter continued with a faint smile. “Oh Annie, when you understand the truth, you're going to kick yourself. I just pray that it won't be too late, because there's far too much at stake. I'd tell you myself, but I'm not sure you'd take the news very well. You need to figure out the truth about Elly, and about what really happened at Middleford Cross.”
“I know exactly what happened at Middleford Cross,” Annie replied.
“You think?” Nurse Winter said, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “You might have the gist of it, but there's something else you have to figure out. You don't have much time, either. I need your help, Annie. I need you to come find me, because you've got one thing that I lack now. You've got an actual, physical body, and there are some things I can't accomplish with my mind alone.”
“Why don't you have a body?” Annie asked.
“Remember when I jumped down into the mine beneath Lakehurst, to find the entity? I succeeded, I merged with it, but my body – or, I suppose, Nurse Perry's body – was burned up in an instant. We're talking less than a second. Fortunately, the entity pulled my mind out of my body before it was too late. I think he wanted not to be lonely anymore, which I'm sure is a sentiment you can understand. Eventually I slipped away, and I managed to travel through the power grid until I reached the system at Eldion House. Clever, huh?”
“I don't even know what you're talking about,” Annie replied.
“I do miss having a physical body,” Nurse Winter continued. “I didn't think that mattered too much at the time, but now I understand that I still need fleshy hands to press a few buttons and pull a few levers. The cults are idiots, Annie, but they've played their part. They've been dangerous idiots, and they've been manipulated into accelerating all the plans and luring all the players to one particular place, which happens to be Eldion House. We're so close, Annie. You just need to remember, and then we can stop this monster.”
