by Wendy Webb
I managed a nod.
“It starts little by little at first, the new consciousness taking over. There are periods of blackouts. Followed by periods of complete lucidity. Headaches. Dreams. Oftentimes, the new host body has no idea what’s occurring until it’s too late.”
I went cold. It sounded just like what had been happening to me. I wanted to tell her that, but instead, I shook my head, violently. Host body? I struggled mightily to get the words out, to ask the question I absolutely needed to ask.
“Is this thing inside of me?”
Nate came back into the circle then and took my hands. His face was filled with kindness and compassion.
“Yes,” he said. “And what we’re doing here, is getting it out.”
That same fury raged up from within me. “Who are you to do this? How dare you?”
“I speak only to Norrie,” he said. “And we have more of the story to tell her.”
“I don’t care about your story.”
“I know that only too well,” he said. “But Norrie does. And she’s going to hear it.”
I struggled to the surface. “But why now?” I asked him. “Why didn’t you tell me this when I first arrived, to prevent all of this from happening?”
“It was too late,” he said. “And also, when I saw that Diana was here and could sense what she was, I saw an opportunity for myself and the others. I saw the people who were assembled for this session, and I knew we had a unique opportunity to rid ourselves, and this world, of this monster.”
I blinked, unable to respond.
“I suspected immediately when Miss Penny died, but I knew for sure when you came asking for olives,” Harriet said. “They were Temperance’s favorite food.”
“Back to it, then,” Nate said, turning to Harriet. “Where was I? Chamomile?” She nodded.
He smiled at me and went on, still keeping hold of my hands. “So now, here we all were, stuck at Cliffside, knowing that somehow, this demon was inside Chamomile. Nobody could do anything about it.”
“But to be fair, for many years, nothing much happened,” Harriet piped up. “TB was cured, the patients went home, and the Dare family came to live here on the property. All was well, for a time.”
“For years, in fact,” Nate said. “It was as though Chamomile’s spirit was so strong, Temperance’s evil couldn’t really take over, not completely. We started to hope it was over, and yet, we were still tied here. But slowly, death started to seep in.”
Harriet nodded her head. “It did, that. She couldn’t help herself. I think Miss Penny suspected something, but what was she to do? Chamomile was her sister.”
Harriet continued. “Poor Mr. Dare had no idea that this monster he had tried to rid us all of was living inside his other, sweet daughter, so, oblivious, he turned his attention to the arts. It had been his wife’s greatest joy.”
Mr. Baines coughed. “It was Chamomile who convinced him to turn this place into a refuge for artists and writers,” he said. “We’re being honest here. Let’s be honest about that, too. We all know she wanted a steady stream of humanity coming to Cliffside. Not quite as much as in the old days, but people nonetheless. She had to prey on somebody.”
Harriet and Nate exchanged a look, and then Nate spoke. “He’s right,” he said. “It’s not like there were murders at every session, but a good deal of people died after coming here. It’s almost like Temperance would attach part of herself to these poor fellows and go home with them, festering into an illness until they died, shortly after returning home.”
I shuddered.
“But when Richard Banks came, all of that changed,” Harriet piped up. “It was apparent to anyone with eyes that Chamomile wanted him for herself.”
I struggled to speak. “He was sure she had a crush on him,” I said, finally.
“He was the catalyst, to be sure,” Harriet said. “She followed him all around the property like a puppy. I had never before seen her do anything like that.”
“I was nearby when Chester Dare realized his daughter had feelings for this young man,” Nate said. “He became furious and told her it was unseemly. She had had many inappropriate . . . affairs, let’s just say, over the years that he’d had to cover up for the sake of propriety.”
“Even a baby out of wedlock when she was much younger,” Harriet piped up. “She had no interest in raising it, of course, so Mr. Dare asked me to take it to the orphanage. It nearly killed him to do it, his own grandchild, but he knew that child had no chance at life if it stayed at Cliffside.”
“Back to Richard Banks,” Nate said. “Chamomile was decades older than he was, and that was the last straw for Chester. He told her in no uncertain terms that she was to stay away from the poor boy. She reared up—I had never seen anything like it. Her face was like that of a devil. I can’t even describe it. A horrible, disgusting thing, and Chester Dare was frozen to the spot, nearly dead himself. He knew he had to tell Richard to leave.
“They all said their goodbyes, and Richard drove off,” Nate told me. “I watched as Chamomile stomped off, and Chester hurried into the house. After what he had seen, I knew that he knew then what was inside of his daughter. The next morning they were both dead.”
“Chamomile engineered it,” Mr. Baines added. “I saw the whole thing. I have no idea how she got him into the car, but she somehow forced him to drive the two of them right off the cliff. It was no accident.”
I somehow summoned the strength to speak. “Chamomile died there.”
Diana nodded. “She did. At the point of death, the demon jumped to Miss Penny.”
My look of confusion must have caught her eye. “These kinds of spirits, Eleanor, don’t have bodies,” she said. “They jump from one to the other, muscling the residing soul out of the way. In extreme cases, the host soul gets swallowed up.”
I knew they were all speaking the truth. I could feel it inside of me, roiling, full of hate, trying to take control. But I was determined not to let it. Nate said I was going to come out of this alive, and if I had anything to say about it, I’d prove him right. As much as it tried to muscle me out of the way, I shoved back.
“I knew Miss Penny was up to something,” Harriet went on. “I heard the calls she made to Richard Banks, trying to lure him back to Cliffside. But I couldn’t figure out why. Miss Penny’s body had aged into that of an old woman. She could never have hoped to attract him to her. But then, she got an idea. It wasn’t until I heard her on the telephone, calling your boss at the newspaper and demanding he fire you, that I began to suspect what was going on.
“I knew she had had her eyes on you for years,” Harriet said. “She kept tabs on you, read all of your articles. She had me clip them out of the newspaper. Temperance, within Miss Penny, chose you, Miss Harper, and made sure you were available when the time came to succeed her. She knew you’d be drawn in when you heard she was retiring.”
I nodded, remembering finding the file of my clippings. Had it really been just earlier today? It felt like years had passed since then.
“But why?” I said, struggling to force the words out.
Harriet looked from Mr. Baines to Nate and then back again. Nate nodded.
“You were the one she chose to carry on the Dare family legacy because she believed you belonged at Cliffside,” Harriet said. “And she was right about that. You, Eleanor, are the baby I brought to the orphanage. Chamomile Dare was your mother.”
CHAPTER 38
Somewhere deep inside, I was trembling. Me, a Dare daughter? That couldn’t be true.
“How could you possibly know that?” I asked her.
“I knew the first minute I laid eyes on you, and so did Penelope,” Harriet said. “I think she started hatching this plan way back then. It took her this long to put the pieces together, but through that connection, she was able to pull you here.”
I thought about what she was saying. It was true that I had long felt a kinship to Cliffside even before being here twenty year
s earlier. And I had idolized the Dare sisters growing up. I had thought about the place often, dreamed about it. Could it be that Temperance was pulling me back, all of that time? Could Harriet possibly be right?
Harriet answered my unspoken question. “She created this mystery for you and the others to solve, something that would terrify you all, doling it out in small doses. She wanted revenge on the others, but she wanted Richard Banks here to be with you—a rightful Dare—until it was time for her to jump to the next in line, likely after you had both grown old and Richard had died.”
I could feel it then, bubbling up inside of me. Who were they to try to ruin the plan I had so painstakingly put into place? It was going so beautifully, every step of the way! Richard was falling for me just as I knew he would. He had said so.
It was then, in that moment, sitting in the chair in front of Nate, Mr. Baines, Harriet, and Diana, that I knew. They were right. I remembered it all.
My first day at Cliffside, a short while after Miss Penny had left me to unpack, I had curled up before the fireplace and stared into the flames when the phone in my room rang.
“Eleanor, dear,” she said, her voice slurred and slow, “will you come up to my room, please? Right now? It’s on the third floor.”
“Of course,” I told her. “I’ll be there right away.”
As I put the receiver down, I was wrapped in that same, familiar fear that had been plaguing me for months, as if something was coming, something bad, but I didn’t know what it was. It was as if a tendril of evil was reaching out to me and tickling, just a bit.
I pushed it out of my mind, left my room, and headed to the third floor to find Miss Penny. She sounded out of sorts. I hoped nothing was wrong. I climbed the stairs and found myself in the empty ballroom, her bedroom door to one side. Creepy, I thought. As I stepped into the room, I noticed how chilly it was, but I couldn’t really concern myself with that at the moment. I just put my head down and hurried across the room to Miss Penny’s door.
I pushed it open to find her on her bed, her eyes nearly closed. “Come here, dear,” she said. “Come here.”
I moved to her bedside and knelt down as she extended a hand to me. I clasped it.
“Should I get you a doctor, Miss Penny?” I asked. “Are you ill?”
“No,” she said, her voice thin and papery. “It is how it should be.”
With that, she smiled a broad, unnerving smile and opened her eyes wide, squeezing my hand with what seemed to be all of her might.
The next thing I knew, I was standing above her, making up her face. It wouldn’t do to have her looking like death warmed over. A little lipstick. A little eyeliner. There! All better. Then I slipped an envelope into her hands. I simply turned and walked away, humming a little tune. In the ballroom, I paused before crossing the empty floor to the toy box, running my hand along its lid.
And then I walked down the stairs, back to my room, and closed the door behind me. I was moving, it seemed, in slow motion, as though I couldn’t quite get used to my limbs and arms, like an astronaut in a space suit, in zero gravity for the first time.
I sat at my desk, pulled out a sheet of paper, and began to write. Finished with that missive, I folded it up, put it in an envelope, and slipped it under the covers of my bed. And then I sat down and waited. I knew it wouldn’t be long before Eleanor took over again. It sometimes took days for me to be fully in control, and Penelope had put up quite a struggle. I was glad to be rid of her once and for all.
I loved this young, new body and couldn’t get enough of using it, stretching my new legs, being active, walking in the woods.
The next thing I remembered, I was using my key to enter Brynn’s room. That twit. And the book she was writing! Scandalous! Father had nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t have her bringing Cliffside down, its reputation in tatters. She’d be my first victim, but in the meantime, I tore up the journal and wrote my message on the pages, a giggle escaping my lips. This would terrify them.
Then the scene shifted. I was slipping out of my room and padding down the hall to Brynn’s. I knocked softly at the door.
She opened it a crack. “Oh,” she said. “It’s you.”
I smiled at her. “Will you come with me for a minute?” I asked her. “I need your help with something upstairs.”
She sighed and folded her arms. “I was just about to head down to breakfast.”
“It’ll only take a minute,” I said. “I have something to show you that I just know you’re going to love.”
I led her upstairs, singing a little tune to myself. When we got to the top of the stairs and took a step into the ballroom, she stopped.
“This is creepy,” she said, looking back and forth. She had no idea.
“Nonsense,” I said, my mouth curling up into a broad grin. “Come on. It’s over here.”
I took her by the hand. It was so easy, really. When we got to the bedroom door, I ushered her inside and shut it, my back to her.
“Ew,” I heard her say. “What is this?”
“Your worst nightmare, my dear.” And it was then I turned around, showing her my true self. The very face of death, filled with the pain and suffering of all that I had taken, my eyes, black as night, jagged peaks where teeth might have been.
She was frozen in terror, but as I rushed toward her she tried to let out a scream—she was so terrified, she didn’t make a sound—and fell to the ground. I gave her a few kicks. Nothing. Her eyes were open, her mouth contorted into what looked like a smile. She was still breathing. I hadn’t scared her to death as I had planned—maybe I was a little off my game—but I could use this, nonetheless.
“I’d like some tea, how about you?” I said to her. And I dragged her over to the tea table and settled her on a chair. I scowled at her. “This won’t do,” I said. “You look like a dead fish. But you’re as pretty as a doll.”
I crossed the room and opened a dresser drawer, fishing out a makeup kit. “There,” I said, after painting her lips and her eyes. “Much better. Now, how about that tea?”
I poured for her—you always serve guests first—and was just taking my first sip when it occurred to me that I should really get downstairs. Richard, my beloved Richard, would be wondering where I was. I couldn’t let him find me like this. So I shook off the mask of death I had shown to poor Brynn and slipped out of the room and down the stairs.
The scene shifted again, and after a little play with the dolls—I do so love terrifying people—I saw myself walking through the house toward the kitchen. It was there I found Cassandra.
“I was just trying to rustle up something to eat,” she said. “Hungry?” She had no idea.
“I’m glad I ran into you,” I said to her. “I think I figured out the key to this whole thing. I don’t want to tell the others yet, but I’ve got something to show you.”
“Oh?” she asked, clearly intrigued.
“Come on,” I told her. “We have to hurry.”
I led her up the backstairs to the third floor.
“You’re kidding,” she said. “I’m not crazy about this.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, talking quickly. I might lose her. She wasn’t dim-witted like Brynn. “Listen, I found a link to your grandfather.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” I said, leading her across the floor toward the room. “You know that he was a patient here in 1952, but you don’t know that he actually drove the nurse—who was Henry’s mother, by the way—away from the property after she killed poor Temperance.”
“The nurse was Henry’s mother?” she said. “Whoa.”
Indeed. I shut the door to the bedroom behind her.
It was then that troublesome Archie Abbott appeared. I’d known he was here somewhere, of course, but hadn’t seen him in a long while. I’d had a feeling he’d materialize when his granddaughter arrived on the property, and I was right.
Cassandra’s eyes grew wide.
“You’re not going to hurt he
r, Temperance,” he growled at me.
“Oh, but I think I am,” I said, and he flew back across the room and through the door. What a dolt, confronting me alone.
“What just happened?” Cassandra said, her voice shaking. “Who was that?”
“The thirst for revenge is a powerful thing, Cassandra,” I said to her. “It can live inside you for years. Decades, even. But when it comes time to enact that revenge, the wait makes it all the sweeter. Don’t you agree?” I raised my voice. “Archie, don’t you agree? Payback time.”
He materialized between me and his granddaughter. “You’ll have to go through me first, you old witch,” he said. “Cassie, run. Now. Get everybody out of here.”
Cassandra flew to the door and opened it. She might have gotten through it and away from me, blowing my whole plan to smithereens. But I just said her name. She turned around and made the mistake of looking at me. “Norrie, why are you doing this?”
“This is why,” I said, showing my true face again.
She didn’t scream. She just slumped to the floor. At first I wondered if she’d had a heart attack, but no. She was in the same state as the first one. The others were so terrified by my little tea party setup, I decided to try it again. I dragged her back into the bedroom and then through the little door. And so that’s how I left her, before making my way back down to my office.
And the others were none the wiser. They were such dolts. This was going to be easier than I had thought.
“Are you remembering?” Harriet asked, bringing me back into the present, back into the room with her and the others. “Can you remember what you did while she was in control?”
I nodded.
“And you’re still there, Norrie,” Nate said, his voice loud and commanding. “You haven’t left us?”
I nodded again.
“Okay, then,” Diana said, clearing her throat. “That’s very good news. It’s time we get this done.”
