Boy, had he called that one wrong. Even all this time later, he shuddered recalling how the spirit of that creep John McCafferty had hijacked his body and gone on to very nearly kill his sister. That man had been an asshole in life and, as it turned out, an even bigger asshole in death. They’d managed to stop him before he could kill again, and it was a better world because of it. Yeah, he guessed this power they had was a good thing.
Earlier he’d been sure it was his mother who came to him, and he still believed that. It wasn’t Mom now who called to him; it was his sister. For a moment he considered what had happened in the last few hours. His mother whispering to him from heaven and now his sister’s spirit drawing him from a deep sleep. Could it be possible this psychic thing that manifested in Lorna and that seemed to be leaching over into him as well was always within them both? Made him wonder, but not for long. It really didn’t matter because it simply was what it was. What it told him tonight was that he was needed.
He pushed up from the chair and went over to the sink in the corner, where he splashed water on his face and then dried it with a couple of the rough paper towels from the dispenser on the wall. As he stretched, his back popped. Sleeping bent over in a chair probably wasn’t the best in terms of spinal health, and his body felt it. As he rolled his shoulders he figured all in all he wasn’t in too bad a shape, and a couple hours of sleep had done him good. He walked back over to the bed, bent down, and placed a gentle kiss on the top of Merry’s sleeping head. Briefly he rested his hand against her midsection, picturing their tiny daughter who someday would be as beautiful as her mother. He smiled, taking great comfort in the touch and knowing both were in good hands for the rest of the night.
As much as he hated to leave Merry’s side, he didn’t feel that he had much in the way of choices. Lorna was in trouble. He felt it all the way to his toes. If he stayed here, she might be okay and she might not. The only way to be certain was to do what they seemed to do best these days: tackle evil head-on as a united team. It was like adding a second battery.
The same went for Renee. She didn’t seem to have any psychic powers at all, just an ability to read auras. It was pretty cool, actually, and he liked hearing her assessments of people. He could have used her help a couple of times when he did business with people that down the road he wished he’d never met. Even though she wasn’t psychic, she too was like an extra battery for Lorna. He wasn’t sure if it was because of her aura-reading powers or because she loved his sister so deeply. Either way, it worked and he was happy for it.
Even Merry, who didn’t seem to possess even a drop of paranormal anything, added to the mix. For whatever reason, the universe had seen fit to bring them all together, and their little cadre worked. A little miracle that had no rational explanation. Tonight, however, they would have to do this as a trio.
Now, it was time to render aid. Lorna needed him, and just as she was always there for him, he was damned straight going to be there for her, even if this was about helping Anna. Of course he was pretty damned motivated to get this done as quickly as possible and get right back here to his family. His goal was to get Anna, and hopefully Sadie, home safely so he could get back to Merry’s side before she awakened. He didn’t want her to wake up and find him gone.
Once he made it out into the hospital waiting area, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in Lorna’s number. The call went straight to voice mail. He didn’t like that at all. She should be picking up. He wanted to talk to her right now and find out what the hell was going on out at Healing Waters before he got there. He stuffed the phone back into his pocket and hurried down the empty hallway. Not much activity in the hospital this time of night. That was good, he liked the quiet. Made it easier for Merry to rest.
It didn’t hit him until he was all the way outside that he had a rather significant logistical problem. He didn’t have a car. Lorna had driven them to the hospital in the Yukon and had taken their vehicle with her out to Healing Waters. He was on foot, and it was at least twenty-five miles or more from the hospital to Miracle Lake. He wasn’t up for a marathon.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. “What the hell do I do now?” It was too late to get a rental, too far to run even for a seasoned runner like him. This was the wrong time to be without wheels. Then he smacked himself in the forehead as the obvious solution dawned on him. There was at least one advantage to being back in his hometown: good friends with great cars. No time like the present to call in chips. Lord knows he’d helped everybody else out at least once, if not two or three times. He started with his best friend, Ryan. He owed Jeremy big-time, having hauled his drunken butt home on numerous occasions. It was a bingo on the first call.
Ryan pulled up in front of the hospital in his shiny new car twenty minutes after Jeremy woke him up. His short blond hair was standing up in all directions, and he was dressed in mismatched sweats. Jeremy got in, turned to his friend, and said, “Looking pretty sweet, my friend. I take it you were sleeping alone?”
Leaning sideways to glance at himself in the rearview mirror, Ryan shrugged and told him, “It was an off night.”
“Sure, off night. I’m buying that, dude. You haven’t shaved in at least two days. Takes the five o’clock-shadow look a little far.”
“Fuck you, Dutton.”
“Love you too, man.”
Ryan laughed. “Okay, so what’s the deal? Why did you tear me out of bed in the middle of the night? What’s so important you couldn’t call at a decent hour? You’re messing up my beauty sleep.”
“Sorry about that, ’cause it’s obvious you need a lot of beauty sleep.”
“Again, fuck you.”
Jeremy slapped him on the shoulder. “Seriously, I appreciate this. I need to get out to Miracle Lake and Healing Waters Hospital like right now.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Why would you want to go out there in the middle of the night? There’s nothing there anymore.”
“It’s important, man, or I wouldn’t ask. I can’t really explain more, and you wouldn’t believe me even if I did.”
“I think you’re getting too much rain over there on the coast. It’s making your brain soft.”
It was definitely doing something to his brain, though going soft wasn’t it. Far from it. He didn’t have the time or the energy to explain to Ryan. “It’s like this. You have two choices. Drive me out to Miracle Lake or loan me your car.”
“You know, you’ve gotten pretty weird since you became a west sider. You oughta consider moving back to this side of the state, where we’re nice and normal and don’t go racing out to creepy old hospitals in the middle of the night.”
“I don’t know how to break it to you, but you, my friend, haven’t been normal since the second grade.”
“You come to school dressed like a teddy bear one time, and you never live it down.”
“Not a chance, dude. That was hands down the funniest day ever. I even have the pictures to prove it.”
“Yeah, whatever. We’ll go back to my crib, I’ll go back to bed, and you can drive wherever the fuck you want. Don’t wreck my car, and don’t park it anywhere it’ll get door dings. Oh, and fill it up with gas before you bring it back. Capisce?”
“And if I don’t, will the teddy bear kick my butt?”
“With one big, fat claw.”
“Seriously, Ryan. Thanks.” They might sound like they were fighting, but it was far from it. Their banter was born of a lifetime of friendship. He’d known Ryan would be there for him just as he would be there for him. That’s what friends did for each other. A few hundred miles between them couldn’t change that.
“No problem.” Ryan’s gaze shifted from the road to Jeremy’s face, and a small smile crossed his face. “Yeah, no problem at all, my friend. This just means you now owe me. I kinda like it. No, I totally like it.”
After Ryan vacated the driver’s seat and walked back into his house, Jeremy got behind the wheel and made his way to the I90 West on-ramp.
He flew down the freeway, intent on getting to the Healing Waters exit as soon as possible. Right now he was operating on pure instinct, and he hoped to God it was the right instinct. If for some reason Lorna wasn’t back out at Healing Waters, he’d be screwed. She’d told him before leaving the hospital that’s where she was going. He assumed that’s where they still were. She was up against something dangerous—he could feel it in his bones—and he had to find her fast.
After pulling off the freeway and onto the highway, he took one of the curves too fast and nearly put Ryan’s car in the ditch. They might have been friends since grade school, but somehow he didn’t think that fact would save him if he wrecked his new car. Fortunately, he got back on the straightway immediately and quickly pushed the accelerator again. Fields went zipping by with nothing to see but open spaces lit by weak moonlight. Finally the lights of the small community surrounding Miracle Lake broke through the darkness. He breathed a little easier.
A few more minutes and he would be at the old mental hospital. Driving out here, especially when he was in a hurry, he could understand why they decided to build the asylum this far out. It was distant enough from the city that people could bring the ones they wanted to forget about out here and never have to see them again. Its isolated location meant there were no reminders of what they’d done to those they supposedly loved as they themselves went about their day-to-day lives. It made him sad to think about the broken souls that had withered away inside those walls. No one deserved to be forgotten simply because of emotional or mental illness. It wasn’t right then, and it wasn’t right now.
As he pulled up into the parking lot, he let out a deep breath. Damn, how long had he been holding it? The band around his chest eased, and his breathing was no longer painful. He felt like a drowning man who’d just made it to the water’s surface. Three cars—the Yukon, one he presumed to be Anna’s, and one he hadn’t seen for a bit, Katie’s—were parked side by side. The relief he experienced at seeing the familiar dark sedan was huge. He and Lorna might have a talent for seeing on the other side of reality and using it to help, but Katie had a firm grip on the here and now. That was something they all could use and appreciate and, depending on what they found inside, critical.
His appreciation at seeing Katie’s car and his relief at realizing everyone was, indeed, here at Healing Waters didn’t last long. The air almost crackled and not in a good way. It was more in the way of making the hair stand up on his arms. Whatever was going down here was going down, as Lorna would say, right fucking now. How he hoped he wasn’t too late. There were no lights on inside, or at least none that he could see from where he stood.
After digging through the glove box and coming up with a flashlight—it actually surprised him to realize Ryan would think to put one in the car—Jeremy jumped out and raced for the front of the main building. No time to waste. He needed to get inside and help.
He put one foot on the first step leading up to the building entrance before he stopped. This time the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He brought his head up slowly, moving his eyes from a pair of shiny plain-toe black-leather oxfords to the pale face of the unsmiling man blocking his entrance to the building. He wore black pants and a crystal-white shirt topped by an elegant black cape. Jeremy did a double take on that one. Yeah, it was definitely a cape. He didn’t even realize anybody wore those things outside of Batman or maybe the Phantom of the Opera. This one was taking strangeness to new heights.
The odd man wasn’t wearing a hat, though it appeared his cape might have a hood. His hair was like his cape and his pants: jet black and very long. He didn’t often, or ever, for that matter, run into a guy with hair either that thick or that long. It wasn’t the most unique thing about him, however. No, what struck Ryan silent was the fact that the man had to be over seven feet tall.
*
Sadie was holding Anna’s hand, and together they were still trying to brainstorm a way out of the locked room when the door swung open to smash against the wall with a bang. She immediately thought about how it was going to leave a hole in the wall. Like it mattered.
Then her second thought was, oh, crap. Nurse Thompson filled the open doorway, her face smug and a nasty smile turning up the corners of her mouth. Her body language and her expression made Sadie’s blood run cold. This woman, or whatever she was, wore trouble like a bad perfume.
“Your friends”—she said the word like it was something dirty and unspeakable—“have arrived.”
The only friends Sadie could think of were those who’d been with Anna earlier. She hoped it was them because she wanted to get out of here in the worst way. “Lorna?” she whispered into Anna’s ear.
Anna nodded slightly and squeezed her hand. To the apparition in the doorway she said defiantly, “Good. They’ll have us out of here in no time. You won’t be able to lock us in here any longer. Lorna’s powers are strong enough to take this spirit out for good.”
Nurse Thompson’s laugh was icy, and her eyes narrowed to slits. “You think that, do you? You are both foolish women, just like our dear Rose. She actually believed that bringing you here would change things. As I said, foolish. None of you can change one little thing. I alone control what happens in my hospital.”
That pissed Sadie off. She didn’t like this woman as a ghost, and she was positive she’d have hated her in the flesh. She was nasty and evil, and only God knew what she’d done to her great-great-grandmother. “Look, bitch, I’m pretty well at the end of my patience with you. Time for you to return to the hell you came from.”
Again the woman laughed. “Do you believe I am threatened by you in any way? You are as stupid as you are foolish.”
Sadie still held on to Anna’s hand. When she’d married Anna, she’d done so because she loved her. In her mind it was simple. Love and marriage went hand in hand. During the hours she’d been held captive here, she’d reached a deeper understanding of what her vows meant to her. Anna was beautiful and smart and complicated. She could be shallow one day and deep as the ocean the next. The waves of personality that were so Anna weren’t uncomfortable or difficult. She loved them because they made her all the more interesting. Anna truly was her heart and always would be. It wasn’t just love they shared; it was destiny. This thing in front of them wasn’t going to change that.
Sadie didn’t give an inch to the defiant spirit before them. “You should be threatened. I don’t know what you did to the people you were supposed to take care of here, but I know whatever it was, it was wrong. You’re going to pay. I’ll see to it.” With each word her determination grew. She felt much more confident and stronger with Anna by her side.
“She’s right,” Anna said. “We’ll both see to it. You’re not real, and you can’t hurt us. We, on the other hand, can make sure everyone knows what you did here. We’ll figure it out, and we’ll expose you and this place.”
She loved the way Anna’s mind was working. This situation they found themselves in reeked of something from one of the paranormal movies she’d worked on. Taking a cue from one of those scripts, Anna hit on the one bit of power they could wield. Exposure of the truth. How they could hurt a ghost or a spirit was anybody’s guess. Probably no way to do it. Bringing hidden wrongs to light was real and doable and perhaps exactly what her grandmother brought her here to do. It was the one weapon they had at their disposal.
“This is my hospital, my responsibility, and I have taken care of it since the day it was built. I have always decided what is right and wrong, and that, my dear ladies, will not change. You are most deluded if you believe I cannot hurt you, for I can and I will.”
“Try it, bitch,” Sadie bit out. Her patience had finally reached its end. She was past ready to kick the crap out of this woman, ghost or not. There had to be a way to wipe her out, and she was determined to figure out what it was.
All of a sudden Nurse Thompson’s body went rigid and her head turned toward the staircase leading to the lower levels. “NO!” she sc
reamed as her hands balled into fists. “I will not have it!”
Sadie thought the expression on Nurse’s Thompson face was something beyond fury. She hadn’t heard a thing coming from outside their temporary prison, yet the nurse whirled in the doorway, screaming and running toward the staircase. In an instant it was as if she’d forgotten all about her and Anna. One second they were her whole focus, and the next she no longer cared. It was a break she greatly appreciated. She didn’t like anything about that woman, if she could even be called a woman.
For a moment Sadie simply stared at the empty space where Nurse Thompson had been standing a moment before. It took a few seconds before what she was seeing hit home. When it did, she turned and stared wide-eyed at Anna. It was one of those moments when she felt like God was smiling on them.
“The door,” Sadie whispered and couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice. “The door is open.”
Anna nodded, smiled, and pulled on her hand. “It’s now or never, babe.”
Sadie squeezed her hand back. She didn’t have to think about it. She’d been waiting for this opportunity since the second she woke up here. “Run!”
They had nearly reached the open door when it started to close as if an unseen hand was pushing it closed. “No, no, no,” Anna cried and threw herself in between the door and the frame. Her face was a mask of concentration as she said, “Get something to put in the door. I’m not going to be able to hold it long. We’ve got to block it open somehow.”
Easier said than done. Sadie turned and took in the room in a quick glance. The stupid place was essentially empty, just as it had been since she came to in here. Nothing of much bulk beyond the bed frames was available. They appeared to be all she had to work with. Using every bit of effort she could summon, she kicked the nearest bed. Either she was stronger than she thought or the century-old frame was simply too fragile to resist the impact of her foot. It broke apart on the first try. She grabbed the bed rail that looked like it might be the strongest and ran back to Anna.
Twisted Screams Page 17
