During the centuries past, people had often been brutal in their treatment of mental illness, and she feared that brutality still thrived inside those walls, that it had soaked into the floors, the ceilings, the windows. She would do anything to make sure it didn’t touch her love. Unfortunately, she had few resources with which to battle that kind of evil. In fact, she had nothing.
A flashing light came up behind them. “Shit,” Lorna muttered. “This is all we need right now.”
Renee couldn’t argue the point. The more time Anna spent out there alone, the more likely she was to get herself into trouble. Delays were not helpful, yet this one appeared unavoidable. “Better pull over. Maybe if we’re nice and polite, this will be a quick stop.”
“God, I hope so.” Lorna steered the car over to the side of the road.
The dark sedan continued around them and stopped right in front of the Yukon. Renee studied the taillights, thinking it was the first time she’d ever been stopped and had that happen. The cruisers always stopped behind the car. The unusual maneuver made sense a moment later when Katie’s head appeared out of the open driver’s side window. She waved and yelled, “Follow me.” A second later, Lorna pulled her car off the shoulder and back onto the highway. They were driving in the direction of Healing Waters once more.
Thank the heavens for small favors. Katie’s appearance lifted a huge load off Renee’s shoulders. Katie making her timely arrival as backup was comforting on a number of levels. She was a good friend who understood the special gift Lorna brought to the table, and she was local law enforcement, always a handy thing to have on hand when on state property in the middle of the night. This whole thing could go south in a hurry, but with Katie joining them, that was less likely to happen.
As instructed, Lorna followed Katie, who continued on with the lights of her car flashing bright red and blue. The fields and scattered farmhouses rushed by in the darkness, the lights of Katie’s car giving them the look of carnival grounds. A single car passed them as they raced toward Healing Waters well in excess of the fifty-mile-an-hour speed limit on this particular stretch of roadway. Katie was apparently of the same mindset as Lorna. Faster was better, even if it meant a possible ticket. Well, a ticket for Lorna anyway. Katie’s lights gave her a free pass.
The relief of Katie’s appearance faded as they drew closer to Healing Waters. Tension flowed back into Renee’s body with each mile they covered. She couldn’t help it; she feared what they might find once they arrived. The air carried a charge that seemed to grow stronger and stronger. It seemed like the longer she was around Lorna, the better able she was to pick up on her ability to tune in to their surroundings. It was a handy thing to be able to do.
As if she sensed the same thing, Lorna took one hand off the steering wheel and reached over to squeeze her hand. “We got this,” she said. “We got this.”
Renee squeezed back. “I hope so.”
Chapter Eleven
The room was dark, the beds empty, the air cold and it reeked of a bitter disinfectant. The smell was so intense it made her eyes water. A flicker of light made Sadie’s head snap around, and she sucked in her breath. Could she be going crazy? She’d never been one to see things before so the most logical answer was yes.
In the corner shrouded in shifting shadows, Rose sat at a writing table with a small journal open in front of her. A small lamp with a flickering bulb threw a little light across her face. She held a pen midair in one hand and with the other held down the corner of the journal. Her hair was pulled up and pinned in a sloppy knot on top of her head, tendrils of dark hair curling damply around her face. Under other circumstances, she might have looked pretty. In the off-and-on glow of the lamp she looked sad. Her skin was pale as a ghost, which nearly made Sadie laugh because she knew the only thing Rose could be was a ghost.
“Rose,” Sadie whispered and was surprised how loud her voice sounded. It was as if she was in an alternate dimension where no echo or reverberation existed. As weird as everything was around her, she wasn’t expecting to hear herself speak.
Rose turned her head and her eyes met Sadie’s. She jumped as shock thundered through her body. No way, it couldn’t be. Yet she was certain it absolutely was true. Rose knew she was here. She could hear Sadie’s voice just as she could hear it herself. Somewhere in this bizarre nightmare, she had become a ghost whisperer. With an insane little laugh, she wondered if she could put that on her resume…provided she ever emerged from this rabbit hole. This experience could spawn her very own reality series.
“Yes,” Rose said quietly as she turned her entire body in the small chair so she was looking directly at Sadie. “I am so glad you have finally arrived. I have been waiting a very long time for you, my dear.”
“You see me?” Her question was barely above a whisper. Sadie still couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea that she was having a conversation with a ghost. The notion that perhaps she really had hit her head and now her hallucinations were taking on sound was seizing on a pretty strong foothold.
Rose nodded slowly, and a smile fleetingly crossed her face. “I see you very clearly indeed, my child.”
My child? Why, the ghost in front of her couldn’t be much more than a year or two older than Sadie. Child wasn’t exactly an accurate characterization. “You hear me?”
She smiled again and this time it didn’t fade away, her teeth straight and very white. But the beautiful smile didn’t erase the deep lines of sadness in her face. “I hear you as well. You have a very lovely voice. I am so glad.”
“Why?” Sadie was so stunned it was all she could do to get the one word past her lips.
“Why do I think your voice is lovely?” She looked confused. “Because it sounds like Christmas bells to me. It has been quite some time since I have heard something so sweet.”
Sadie shook her head. “No, not my voice. I mean, why can you see and hear me? You’re a ghost.” She wondered if Rose even knew she wasn’t real. Telling her she was a ghost might make things worse.
Rose’s face cleared, and she gave her another beautiful smile. This time, it did seem to chase away a few of the shadows. “Oh, my dear girl, I am real, or—” She paused and looked off into the darkness. “I was once. In some way I do not truly understand, I still am. It could be because, as I said, I have been waiting for you quite a long time. I knew you would come if I was patient, and I have to be real to see you and to speak to you.”
Chills raised the hair on her arms as something indefinable whispered to her. “Who are you?”
A sad expression crossed her lovely, thin face and chased away the fragile sweetness that had been there a second before. She held out her hand to Sadie. Her fingers were long and slender, like those of an accomplished pianist. “Come, my child.”
Again with the child thing. Either she was blind or delusional, and given where they were, both were a possibility. Sadie looked down at her own hands, and the sight stopped her. A shiver ran down her spine as she curled her fingers into a ball and then stretched them back out. She repeated the motion several times, staring in amazement. It couldn’t be and yet the sight that greeted her eyes was undeniable. Their hands were the same, with identical narrow, long fingers and delicate smooth nails. Hands that could, indeed, play the piano well.
Okay, her fears were confirmed. She was obviously losing it after being trapped in this place for God knows how many hours. It had started with seeing ghosts, followed by hearing them, and now they were asking to hold her hand. Worst of all, she was seeing her hands on the apparition. Not just similar either. No, their hands were identical, as if they were twins. There was no denying what was happening to her; she was losing her mind.
“Do not be afraid of me. I would never hurt you, my child.”
Stop it, she wanted to scream. Stop calling me child. This was all so surreal. Her mind was going, and yet strangely she wanted to talk with this spirit. She wanted to touch the hand still held out to her and that looked just li
ke her own. “You’re a ghost.” Her protest was pretty darned weak.
She was surprised when Rose nodded slowly. “I am most assuredly a ghost. My life faded away years before my body could no longer stay grounded in this place of hell.” She continued to hold her hand out toward Sadie. She motioned Sadie closer with her fingers. “Come with me. I have something I must show you. It is why I have waited all this time for you to come.”
Part of her wanted to step forward and accept the outstretched hand. Another part of her was screaming, Run, Sadie, run. Neither part won the battle. Instead of doing either, she continued to stand rooted in place. Her feet refused to move and her hands stayed at her side. The part of her brain that worked toward self-preservation was still fine. She might very well be losing her mind, but that didn’t mean she had to go willingly.
“Just tell me, please.” Yes, the frightened whine she was hearing did come out of her mouth.
Slowly, Rose shook her head and her hand dropped to her lap. “I cannot tell you, for you must see to believe. You do not think this is happening to you right now, do you? You imagine you are hurt or are dreaming. Am I correct?”
Undoubtedly she was quite correct. Sadie was under the impression she had some kind of head injury and was seeing things brought on by severe trauma to the brain. She’d heard stories of things like this happening to people who’d suffered brain damage. The fact that her head didn’t hurt anywhere was a minor inconsistency to what she thought of as a solid theory. Then again, if she was suffering from an injury, her being able to come up with any kind of theory was shaky at best. “No, I’m hallucinating. You’re a figment of my imagination. Nothing about this is real.”
Rose’s laughter was brittle and far from warm. “Trust me, child. You are not having visions. I would know. Come with me now. Let me show you what you need to see. You will understand why all of this is happening to you.”
Her reluctance was fading away because the draw to Rose was almost magnetic. Something about the ghost was irresistibly compelling, and fear was nowhere in the equation. Her previously uncooperative feet started to move, and the next thing Sadie knew, she was standing next to the apparition called Rose. Almost as surprising was when she put her hand into Rose’s and then almost as quickly snatched it away. It couldn’t be. Her touch felt as real and as alive as her own. Damn, but this was going so far beyond hallucination.
“What do you want from me?” Her trembling question was so soft she barely heard the words herself. The faint scent of lavender enveloped her as she stood next to Rose. It was sweet and soothing and totally frightening, as it hadn’t been there a minute before. Sights, sounds, and now smells. She was going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
For a brief moment, Rose closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Then she opened her eyes and stared directly into Sadie’s. “It is very simple, my dear. You will set me free.”
“I will set you free? What does that even mean? It doesn’t make any sense.” Like any of this made sense. “How in the world can I accomplish that, considering you’re not real?”
She glanced down at Sadie’s hand. “Once, so long ago, I was flesh and blood just as you are now. I lived and I loved and I laughed. I had a life with a family, with children, and then it was all ripped away from me.” The last words came out on a sob. She breathed in deeply and then blew out the breath, long and slow. When she spoke again, her voice was once more steady. “Everything was taken from me and I nearly lost all hope, but God told me that one day you would come and give me back my life and my name.” Her head came up, and she once more met Sadie’s eyes. “God sent you to me.”
“How?” Sadie asked again. “I don’t even know who you are.”
Rose ran a hand over Sadie’s hair. “You will know how to help me, and you will know why when you see it.”
Yeah, well, that narrowed it right down. She was already seeing ghosts. What more could there possibly be? “How?” Lord, she was beginning to sound like an owl. Who, who. How, how.
Rose took Sadie’s chin in her hand and turned her head toward the mirror. When their heads were side by side, her hand dropped away.
“Oh, dear God,” Sadie whispered right before her vision went black.
*
Anna jammed the car into park, turned off the motor, and got out. From the backseat she grabbed the pry bar she’d dug out of the garage. She hadn’t even known they owned a pry bar but was damned glad to see it tucked back on a shelf behind a can of motor oil. Before she left the house, she’d also grabbed the big flashlight they kept on hand for emergencies like power outages. This was, in her opinion, one giant emergency, and she doubted there would be electricity once she got inside the building. She was going in prepared.
Ahead of her the main building in the complex loomed dark and ominous in the night. The smaller buildings stood out in the darkness like guards to the larger, more imposing one. There were no lights in the parking lot, or at least none that worked any longer, and likewise for the building. It was as black and somber as everything else in this seemingly forgotten land. It was as if everyone wanted this place to fade away in silence. Out of sight, out of mind.
How she wished it had disappeared because maybe then she wouldn’t be here in the middle of the night preparing to break and enter for the first time in her life. Committing a felony wasn’t exactly her thing, and she didn’t feel good about it now.
Regardless of how she felt about the action, she was barging full speed ahead. Sadie was in this building somewhere, they’d all said so earlier, and she was determined to find her one way, legally or otherwise. As long as she found Sadie safe, she didn’t care if she was arrested and thrown in jail. It would be worth the charge. Besides, she knew a couple of good lawyers who’d have her bailed out in no time. Having friends who were licensed professionals came in handy.
Pry bar in one hand and flashlight in the other, she mounted the steps of the building. She balanced the big flashlight on the brick balustrade so that it illuminated the door. For a moment she studied the oval glass in the center of the thick wooden door. It was undeniably beautiful, and she believed it had stood in place for a century or more. It was unfortunate that she was here to destroy it, and a part of her regretted what she was being forced to do. Another part of her couldn’t have cared less. It was simply glass, and glass could be replaced even if it was a hundred years old. Sadie could not. She walked up close to the door and, holding the pry bar high in a batter’s swing, prepared to shatter the workmanship that had barred entrance to this building for so long. Time to get this party started. As she started into her swing, Anna paused and then slowly lowered the pry bar to her side. A thought had occurred to her mid-strike, and she decided why not give it a try. She reached out, grasped the door handle, and pushed.
It opened.
Anna gasped, and her hand flew off the handle as if she’d suffered third-degree burns. She rubbed her hands together, the lingering effects of an unexpected shock disconcerting. How in the world did that happen? Earlier three of them had tried this same door, and it had been locked up as tight as a prison. The door wouldn’t budge no matter what they tried. She didn’t imagine it earlier when it was locked up tight, and she wasn’t imagining it now as it swung open on silent hinges.
She stepped back without crossing over the threshold and considered the ramifications of what had just happened. It was a simple thing that filled her with trepidation. After all the decades of misuse, after all the years of wind, rain, snow, and heat, the door should squeak like a scared rat when opened. It didn’t make even a whisper, as if it had been installed yesterday. Silent was the very last thing this door should be.
As much as she wanted to charge through and find Sadie, rancid fear began to creep up her spine. Something about this was very, very wrong. Suddenly, despite all her earlier bravado, an urge to turn around and drive back home as fast as she could assailed her. She longed to pretend that when she arrived back at the lovely home with the whi
te shutters and wide deck, Sadie would be waiting for her, wineglass in hand and a smile on her face. If only it could be that easy.
That wasn’t going to be a reality, and she had only one choice. She closed her eyes and took several long, deep breaths. This wasn’t the time to be timid or frightened, and she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening because it most definitely was. Denial wasn’t an option she was willing to embrace. Her wife, wherever she was being held, was depending on her to be strong, and that’s exactly what she was going to be. It didn’t matter if things between them lately had been a little strained. One thing she knew with certainty, Sadie would do everything in her power to find Anna if she was the one in trouble, so that’s what she was going to do now. Love was about being there for the other person no matter what. No matter what, she repeated. Anna dropped the pry bar and reached back to grab her flashlight.
“It’s now or never,” she muttered, then stepped over the threshold. When the door slammed behind her with a loud bang, she jumped and just managed to choke off a scream that rose in her throat. Whirling, she grabbed the door handle and pulled. It wouldn’t move. The quirks of an old, abandoned building, right? It had to be, because anything else…well, she wasn’t going there. She didn’t have the time or the energy to waste on going there.
Anna gave up on the door and turned back around. She swept her light over the entryway. Once it had probably been quite spectacular with its oak-paneled walls, terrazzo tile, and a tall ceiling with an ornate dropped light hanging in the center. Imposing in the middle of the room was a massive reception desk, and it was clear that it was the defining element of the space. Visitors must have waited on the side she stood on now. Patients—or were they inmates—kept on the other side. The barrier it created was as effective as if it were a solid wall. Behind the desk was a long stairway leading to the upper floors, and the once-polished steps appeared to stretch up into a yawning black hole.
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