by K. F. Breene
“Nor will you. This house will probably have gas lamps or candles,” Scarlet said. “It predates the widespread use of electricity in homes. They might have updated it, but given its history, I doubt it.”
“I take it back. She can stay,” Cliff said.
“Gee, thanks,” Scarlet answered dryly. “I didn’t know you were the authority on who is and isn’t allowed to trespass.”
DJ stepped into the house, and a deep shadow slid across his back. Emily reached out and clutched Buffy, who didn’t shake her off for once.
“Oh sh—” DJ’s body was ripped into the house, doused completely in shadow.
Buffy and Emily screamed. Shana clutched Cliff, who froze. Braiden let go of my hand and pushed forward, moving through the quivering group and to the door, ready to burst in.
“Braiden, wait,” I called, hurrying after him.
“Got ya!” DJ stuck his face out and into the moonlight, everything else left in deep shadow. A cheesy grin spread across his face. “Look at you all. You guys, it’s only a freakin’ house. There’s nothing but varmints in here. Ghosts aren’t real.”
Braiden backed away from the door, his eyes darting deeper into the interior. They didn’t fix on anything, which was a good sign.
“Come on. Let’s check this place out.” DJ waved everyone in before turning and letting the darkness swallow him for the second time.
“I don’t know about this,” Emily said with a shaking voice.
“What are you, chicken?” Shana said, her swagger offset by her clenched jaw. “I’ll go in. I don’t care.” She followed DJ into the maw.
“I ain’t afraid of no ghost,” Cliff mumbled, the catch phrase sounding slightly pathetic now, and stalked forward.
Maria grabbed on to Emily and Buffy, followed by the girl I didn’t know. They squeezed through the door in a group. The guys followed next, many of them not looking so sure of themselves.
“I wonder where Bobby went,” Carl said before he disappeared inside.
“Come on.” Odis grabbed Scarlet’s arm and rushed forward, clearly needing the momentum so he wouldn’t chicken out.
“Wait, Scarlet,” I said, reaching for her. My fingertips glanced off her sweater.
She stumbled into the darkness with a “Whoooaaaa—”
Without thinking, I charged in after her, still reaching. Darkness engulfed my sight as my fingers grazed the fabric of her shirt for the second time. I staggered to a stop, waving my arms. Braiden’s big body hit me a moment later, and we half fell farther into the cavernous space.
“Scarlet?” I said, panic riding the name.
“Here.”
Only two feet away. I clutched her shoulder as Braiden wrapped his arm around my waist.
I’d crossed the threshold. Only time would tell if that action awakened whatever spirits waited inside.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Let’s get those flashlights on,” DJ called out.
“Hey, Braiden. I thought you were leading this expedition?” Dirk said from somewhere in the darkness. A light clicked on and flashed upward, illuminating Dirk’s smirking face and the fire of his hair. “Did you suddenly go chicken?”
“This has nothing to do with being a chicken, Dirk,” Braiden said, tapping my hand that held the flashlight.
“Through here.” DJ’s light ran along a wall before he disappeared through a doorway.
“This place is creepy,” Maria said. She illuminated a large wooden beam above her. Despite the size of the space, it felt closed in. As suffocating as the growing humidity outside.
“Come on,” Odis said, plucking at Scarlet’s sleeve. Even he had a flashlight. Apparently I was the only one who hadn’t planned ahead and brought one.
Scarlet pulled away from me and followed Odis.
“What are you doing?” I yanked at Braiden’s arm to get free.
“Wait, Ella, are we sure—”
“Braiden, let me go. I’m not leaving her.”
Last in line, I caught up with her just inside the hallway. The ceiling dropped considerably, and the walls pushed in close together, intensifying the claustrophobic feeling.
“This would’ve been for the servants,” Scarlet said in a hush, her voice barely rising above the scuff and scrape of everyone’s shoes against the dirty tile floor. “You can tell by the cramped feel of it. Cost-saving strategies, you know?”
“Scarlet, remember where you are. This isn’t a tour of a safe historic site. We are inside McKinley Mansion, Scarlet.” I tugged on her sleeve.
“I know. I know.” She made an annoyed sound and clucked her tongue. “I know. This is stupid. But look at this place. You can feel the history in it. It’s fascinating.”
“It won’t be fascinating when it comes alive.” But I followed her even as I said it, squinting into the darkness to get a look at the house that had plagued my life for years.
“Give me the light,” Braiden said, reaching forward. “I need to keep an eye on whatever’s coming behind us.”
The line of people stopped moving, everyone in front of us as silent as the grave.
“What’s happening?” I asked Scarlet.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, pass it on.” I motioned like I was telling her to move forward.
She leaned forward and asked the question. A moment later, the answer came back. “DJ is at some stairs. He’s debating going up, or going forward through some creepy-looking doors.”
“Neither of those are good options. We should head back now, Scarlet,” I said, shifting from side to side.
Without warning, the pressure around us changed, popping my ears. Freezing cold settled into the hall, accompanied by the heavy feeling that proclaimed spirits were within our vicinity. A low rumble vibrated the floor.
“We need to get out of here!” I yelled. I spun and grabbed Braiden. “Go,” I barked, jostling him. “Go!”
He didn’t ask questions. He turned and surged forward.
“What’s happening?” Scarlet yelled, grabbing my hair.
My head was yanked back. “Ow!”
“Sorry.” My hair was released, then I heard Scarlet yell, “Ow! Get off.”
Odis’s apology drifted forward.
“Come on.” Braiden grabbed my hand and pulled, getting me moving again.
A door slammed somewhere in the house, followed by a surprised yelp. Another door slammed, closer. One more, the sound echoing through the door we’d just come through. My heart leapt into my throat.
“No,” I said, powering ahead. “Use a window if you have to, Braiden. Break it. We need to get out!”
Braiden turned the corner and swung his light. The breath left his mouth and he staggered. I knew what he saw.
“Use a window,” I yelled again. “Break your way out. Just get us out of here.”
“What’s happening?” Odis hollered.
“They’re locking us in,” I answered in a high-pitched, terrified voice. “They’ve probably been storing up energy for years. Decades. The spirits are locking us in!”
Braiden reached the closed door we’d entered through and cranked the handle. It didn’t turn. He shook it. Nothing happened.
“Window, I said.” I looked around desperately, seeing a faint light at the other side of the large room.
“Let me out of here,” a guy yelled.
A feminine shriek preempted a girl tumbling out of the hallway and onto the floor of the room we were in. Cliff barreled in behind her, crunching her fingers with his heavy boot. He looked around wildly, seemingly unaware of her cries of pain. “The door shut on its own. The door shut on its own!” He ran at Braiden. “Let me out.”
“It won’t open.” Braiden realized just in time that Cliff wasn’t working on brainpower. He barely dodged Cliff’s body as the guy rammed into the door with his shoulder. The old wood groaned.
“The door doesn’t open out, Cliff, it opens in,” Scarlet yelled.
Cliff grabbed the handle
with both hands and yanked. The door held fast.
“Quick, who knows how to pick locks?” Cliff shook the knob.
“It’s unlocked,” Braiden said, moving toward me. “The lock is on the inside, near where your hands are. It’s unlocked.”
“But that’s impossible.” Cliff rammed his shoulder into the door as more people filed out of the hallway. He flicked the lock, but the knob didn’t turn. He flicked it again, getting the same result. “That’s impossible!” He rammed the door with his shoulder. And again.
“Leave him,” Braiden called to Scarlet, who’d moved forward, probably trying to talk sense into him.
I tripped over something on the floor. After a stumble, I righted myself. “Watch out for the—”
Braiden’s foot caught the same impediment and he staggered after me. He couldn’t get his feet back under him in time and sprawled out onto the floor.
I didn’t stop. He was a big boy—he could pick himself up.
At the grime-covered window, I touched it to make sure it was glass and not some strange figment of my imagination. Then I felt along the wall, flinching at the spider webs but not stopping, until a handle of some sort filled my hand. A hammer, it felt like. This area must’ve been used as a garage or maintenance area.
Back at the window, Braiden was up and had his light trained on my target. “Do you want me to do it?” he asked.
In answer, I swung with all my might, putting all my fear and desperation behind the strike. The metal end hit the window with a dull bommm. Not so much as a crack.
I struck again and again. Still nothing. Not even a scratch to show for my efforts.
Breathing heavily, I stepped back and held up the hammer. Braiden exchanged it for the flashlight without a word.
“They’re panicking,” Odis said, jogging over. “They’re panicking. You need to get control.”
It sounded like he was included in that they. He was right, though. Someone needed to get control, and Braiden was the guy to do it. He’d known how to get control since his first day in Larkin.
Except he had more important things to do right now.
“Scarlet,” I barked, my voice confident and my legs shaking.
“Yeah?” she said, stepping closer. I hadn’t seen her waiting there, three feet away.
“Tell everyone to get near the door. If we can’t break this window, we need to find another. But we have to stick together. Time to roll out your hangriest persona.”
“Okay,” she said weakly.
“I could’ve done that,” Odis said.
“You don’t know Scarlet. When she gets frustrated with her peers, a different sort of girl emerges.”
Braiden swung, all grace and power, with the perfect form I’d seen in a million baseball games. The hammer rammed against the window, the sound sharp. Braiden fumbled his weapon, then shook out his arms. “That should’ve done it. I’ve never had to hit a window twice to break it.”
“You’ve broken windows?” Odis asked.
Braiden ignored the question, leaning forward to study his handiwork.
As before, not a scratch marred the plane.
Braiden’s swear matched my own.
“What’s the likelihood that these are bulletproof glass,” he asked, “designed not to be broken by a kid and his metal rod?”
“There is a dirty joke in there somewhere,” I muttered, trying to keep from succumbing to panic. The air hung heavy around me, thick and gooey. The chill had seeped through my clothes and invaded my body, making my bones feel brittle. Soon the spirit, or spirits, would reveal themselves. Judging by what they’d done with the doors and windows, they had a crapload of energy, and couldn’t wait to unleash it on new victims.
We had to get out of this house and off this property.
The problem was, we couldn’t.
We were trapped.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I doubt the windows are bulletproof glass,” I said as Scarlet raised her voice at the other end of the room. “Just like I doubt that door is simply sticking. If you know how to banish spirits, now is a great time to dust off your skills, because I get the feeling that we’re about to become the pawns of an enemy we can’t physically fight.”
“Hard to banish one when you don’t’ know where it is,” Braiden said in a humorless voice.
I ran my fingers through my hair, then cursed myself for forgetting, yet again, how much hairspray I had been wearing the last few days.
“So what do we do?” Braiden asked.
Scarlet’s voice cut through someone’s frantic wails.
On any other occasion, I might’ve found it odd that someone was asking me for guidance. No one ever listened to me. That was either because I was the nerd in a group of not-as-nerdy people, or because Scarlet was around and had a better answer. But in this situation, given my history, I knew there was no one more knowledgeable.
“Right.” I cracked my knuckles. My knees still shook. “There’s energy in the air, but this place is also changing the landscape—dragging us back in time.”
“Like at the old mill.”
“Exactly. It has something it wants to show us. That, or it has enough energy to relive the horrors of the past. Possibly both. We should start off by checking a few other windows, starting on the main floor and then moving to the second floor. Maybe the haunting is already sapping their energy, and they won’t be able to keep us in.”
“They? You think it is more than one?”
“Honestly, I have no idea, but I’ve never felt this”—I held my hands near my chest and clawed the air—“density before. You feel it, right? The press of the air on you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s never been this extreme. Not even with the Old Woman. So that’s…terrifying.”
“Don’t say terrifying. It’ll get into your head. Say challenging.”
“Okay, challenging.” It didn’t make any difference to my anxiety level, but whatever floated his boat.
“Basically, we have to ride this out until it—whatever it is—expends enough energy to let us out?” Braiden was nearly drowned out by Scarlet yelling again.
“Yes. At least, that’s what I’m thinking. I’m no expert.”
“Well it seems to jibe with the shows I’ve watched—about the energy, I mean. I figure you’re the closest thing to an expert we have.”
“Comforting.”
“Challenging.”
I sighed. “I’m of the mind that we shouldn’t split up. The paranormal seems to be the most active in my house when I’m not with my parents. That’s when ghosts use the most force.”
“You have that much activity in your house?”
“Yeah.” I tilted my head at him. “Don’t you? The previous owners were at their wits’ end before they moved—one of the few that escaped this town. I figured it had to have been bad.”
“No. Not that I’ve seen. I told the one to get lost, and that seemed to do it.”
It dawned on me that he didn’t have any real experience. When he’d claimed to have banished a ghost, his voice steeped in his infallible confidence, I had instinctively gone along with it. After all, this guy seemed like he could do anything.
What I was failing to remember was that he had only been living here for a few days. Total. Sending the spirit away might’ve worked that night, but it didn’t mean the entity had left forever. In my house, that meant the entity was simply gone until it collected enough energy to throw something else. Or slam another door. Or bang around in the kitchen until my dad ran down with a shotgun (my dad believed a shotgun would rid a house of all intruders, and so far, he’d been right).
Braiden’s knowledge was all theoretical at this point. Even his smudge stick was theoretical. I had to remember that. I knew the real world would not go how he thought.
“Let’s get going,” I said.
At the other end of the room, everyone was huddled near the door, their faces hard or ashen and trained on Scarlet.
She stood a few paces away with the flashlight illuminating her face. “Let’s look at it this way: we know that door doesn’t work. It’s jammed. But what do we know about the other doors?”
“We’re trapped,” Cliff said, and jiggled the handle for good measure.
“I should’ve followed Bobby,” Buffy said, tears running down her face.
“That’s not helpful, Buffy, and no, we’re not trapped, Cliff,” Scarlet said. “We can’t say that until we’ve tried all the doors and all the windows, right? Remember me saying this to you thirty seconds ago?”
“Hey,” I said, stopping by her side.
She sagged with an exhale. “It took you long enough. It’s hard to keep these guys under control. And we have to, because do you know what happens when fairly dumb jocks run amok? They crash into people and step on fingers. Honestly, we couldn’t be stuck in here with a worse group of people.”
“You said we weren’t stuck,” Cliff yelled.
“No,” Scarlet said, bristling. “I said that we weren’t trapped. There’s a difference.”
In this case, there really wasn’t.
“All right, everyone.” Braiden stopped halfway between the huddled crowd and the hallway we’d recently exited. “It seems this house hasn’t finished shifting yet.” He pointed at the door. “That one is jammed, like Scarlet said.” He pointed at the window. “And the window over there is made with special glass to keep intruders out. Because obviously this is the place they’d most likely try first.”
Everyone nodded like that made some kind of sense, except for Scarlet. She opened her mouth to argue.
I pinched her.
“Ow.” She twisted away from me.
I held my finger to my lips as Braiden continued. “So fine. We can’t get out this way. What of it? This is a huge house. There was that window DJ found originally, plus a bunch of other doors. Let’s go check those out.”
“Bu-but…” Leo outstretched a shaky finger. “The doors. They slammed. They slammed all by themselves.”
“I told you I saw something on the porch,” Maria said indignantly, cradling her fingers. She was obviously the one who’d been trampled by a rampaging Cliff.
