I make us both a coffee and curl up beside Liam on the sofa. He looks tired but pleased with himself. I know he’s happy with everything he got done today. I didn’t get quite as much done, not with all the interruptions, but I did make a start on the peeling back the wallpaper in Organza’s room. She even helped a little, though she did grumble about it.
“That was a great start today. All of the more urgent repairs are done and I have a plan as to what I want to achieve over the next few days.” He leans over to kiss me then stops, his mouth hovering a few inches from my cheek. “That scratch still looks bad.”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. The iodine seems to have helped.” I close the gap between our mouths and kiss him good before drawing back. “Thanks for all that you’ve done today.”
“It was fun. Reece was my li’l buddy. He’s a smart kid. You show him something once and he does it.”
“Yeah, he is smart.” And he’s also very susceptible to demons who want to take over his mind and body. “Liam… I have to talk to you.”
“Oooh, this sounds serious.” He sits forward and twinkles his eyes at me and I know he thinks I’m going to ask him about fixing the door or the window or something.
Which is sort of true, if you think about it. I do need him to fix something. I need him to fix what’s following this family around. “It is serious. Remember all that stuff I told you about Cemetery Hill and the nothing-room?”
“Of course I remember.” Liam is frowning at me now and I take a deep breath and plunge on in.
“I think he’s back.”
“You think who’s back?”
“The Satanist.” I lower my voice. “Obidiah Wulfstan.”
“Why would you think that? Didn’t the fire destroy him?”
“Well, we don’t know for sure. He wrapped himself into this tornado vortex and kind of sucked in on himself and that was the last we saw of him.” That memory is still so clear, like it was only yesterday. I’ve spent a whole bunch of time picking over that particular part of the episode with Dr. McIntyre but it’s still as clear as it ever was.
“So why do you think he’s back? And why now, after all this time?”
“I don’t know… I wonder if there’s something about this house, coupled with Reece’s arrival here, that’s pulled him in. Obidiah is attracted to dark things, evil things.” I give an involuntary shudder and stare at the shadows in the corner of the room, willing anything that might be lurking there to show itself or better still, disappear forever.
Liam’s frown grows deeper, making rutted grooves on his otherwise smooth forehead. “What’s evil about this house?”
“I don’t know. There was that opossum in the closet when we moved in,” I say, knowing that sounds lame.
“I don’t think there’s anything evil here. I think you’re wrong about that. I think he’s followed Reece here. When was the last time you guys lived together?”
“Not since I started at Berkeley but I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything.” My voice is sharper than I intended it to be. It feels that Liam is insinuating that this is Reece’s fault and I won’t put up with that. Uh-uh, no way.
“I’m not blaming your brother, Ellie. I already told you I think he’s a cool little guy. But what if the fact your family is back together again has set off some kind of mysterious alchemy? What if that demon has been hanging around in the background all these years just waiting for the right moment to strike again?”
“You think?”
“No, I’m just making a suggestion. I don’t know any more than you do. In fact, I know a whole lot less. You lived through all that awfulness. I didn’t.”
I stick out my bottom lip and blow a stream of air upwards, lifting my hair away from my sticky forehead. “I wonder why he wants to be around our family so badly.”
“Maybe for revenge? From what you’ve told me, he seems the sort to hold a grudge.”
“I need to talk to someone about it. I asked Mom before but she just doesn’t want to know. I can’t blame her for not wanting to get involved again but it would’ve been helpful if she was just a little more supportive.”
Liam snorts. “She’s not that kind of mother and you know that by now.”
“Mmmm. I wonder if I can find Father Lucerne? He was so good to talk to, especially during those early months. He knows a lot about the occult. He said it was his business to find out.”
“Do you still have his contact details?”
I shake my head. “No, not anymore. They got lost in all of the shifting around. I know he retired from St. Joseph’s but I’m not sure where he went from there. He dropped out of using Skype, I know that much.”
“Sounds like you need to do some searching. Don’t worry, I’ll help.” He smiles reassuringly, my sweet and ever-loving boyfriend.
“Thanks, Liam. I appreciate you so much.”
He stands up and holds out his hand to pull me to my feet. “Bedtime. We’ll see if we can track down your priest in the morning. See what he has to say.”
“Yeah.” I let him haul me up. “If we can find him. He was old when we first got in touch with him and that was ten years’ ago. If he’s still alive he’ll be ancient by now.”
Chapter Twenty
Liam wakes up feeling, as he puts it so succinctly, as if an eighteen-wheeler has run over the top of him. He doesn’t look good, kind of pasty and bleary-eyed. I lay my hand on his forehead to check his temperature and it’s super hot. “Do you think you did too much yesterday?”
“No. Don’t be ridiculous. A bit of renovating and gardening shouldn’t make me feel like this.” He groans as he rolls over and pushes his face into his pillow. “Can you get me a drink of water?”
“Sure.” I climb out of bed, careful not to bounce the mattress too much, and pad out to the kitchen. Organza is already up, wrapped in her bedcover on the sofa, and she gives me one of her death stares.
“What?” I’m in no mood for Organza this morning. I walk out to the kitchen and get a glass from the cupboard but I can see she’s still glaring at me from the sofa. I fill the glass with water and walk back into the living room. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You kept me awake all night,” she says accusingly. “You and Liam.”
“What are you talking about?” I glance over at Reece’s door but it’s still shut. That boy sleeps like the dead.
“With your noise. Your screaming and cackling. It went on for hours.”
For the first time I notice the dark shadows under her eyes. It’s obvious she’s barely slept at all but I know for a fact that we weren’t making any noise last night. Liam was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow and I wasn’t far behind. “Organza, we didn’t make any noise. We slept all night and Liam has woken up this morning feeling sick.”
She’s rolls her eyes and lets out a huge sigh before turning back to the TV. I’ve been dismissed. I give her one last confused look and head back up the hallway to our bedroom. Liam is lying on his back now and he has pulled the pillow on top of his face. “Liam, here’s your water. Sit up.”
He fusses and groans as he sits himself upright. I can see he’s in pain, even after allowing for the fact that men don’t generally deal with illness as well as women do. I pass him the water and he gulps at it like a dying man in the desert.
“Organza said she was kept awake all night by us screaming and cackling.”
“Huh?” He passes the empty glass to me and lies back against the pillows.
“She’s got black circles under her eyes and you can see she hasn’t slept.” I bite my lip, wondering if I should talk to him about this now. He really doesn’t look well.
He smacks his lips together, as if his mouth is still dry and he’s trying to rustle up some saliva. “Can you get me some more water? I’ve got a sore throat.” He sniffs deeply, pulling that snot all the way back. “And some tissues.”
“Yeah, I can do that. I’ll bring a pitcher in this tim
e. Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No.” He squints his eyes at the curtains, where the first rays of sunlight are just hitting the folds of fabric. “Don’t open the curtains. The light hurts my eyes.”
I go back into the living room, ready to tell Organza that she’ll need to keep the noise down today, but I see that she’s fallen asleep in front of the TV. I get Liam his water jug and a box of tissues and quietly sit them down beside the bed. He’s sleeping now, too. I pick up my jeans and my sweatshirt from where I left them on the floor yesterday and I tiptoe out of the room. I’ll shower and then I’ll go check on Reece.
I push open the bathroom door and honestly, I just about lose my shit. The bathroom is swarming with flies! Thousands and thousands of the nasty, black little bastards. I stuff my sweatshirt into my mouth so I don’t scream and wake up the house while I’m backing out the door as fast as I can.
“Ellie? What are you doing? I need to go to the bathroom.” Reece’s sleepy voice speaks up from behind me and I really do let out a squawk. I didn’t expect anyone to be there.
“You can’t.” I’m sweating and stammering, trying to pull myself together when all I want to do is vomit. “It’s full of flies. We’ll have to find some way to get rid of them before anyone can go in there. Go and pee in the garden. You’re a boy. You’re used to doing stuff like that.”
Reece gawps at me, as if I’ve just suggested he go and flash his peenie in the center of town. “That’s disgusting. I’m not peeing in the garden.”
“No one will see. Pee behind the oak tree.” My hands are still shaking. How did they get in there? Maybe someone left a window open but still, why are there so many?
“I’m not peeing in the garden,” he says again. All of my family can be real obstinate when they choose. He shoves past me and before I can stop him, he shoves the bathroom door open.
I squawk again and duck down, covering my head with my hands. I’m fully expecting a huge cloud of those ghastly critters to come swooping at me but there’s nothing.
“What are you talking about, Ellie? There are no flies in here.” He swings the door open wide and I allow myself a peek through my fingers. He’s right. The closest thing to a fly is a tiny spider in a web above the window but other than that, the bathroom is critter free. He gives me an exasperated look and shuts the bathroom door in my face.
I swallow hard, waiting for my heart rate to settle back down. There were flies in there, I saw them. Feeling even more uneasy now about the weird things going on in this house, I duck into Organza’s room and quickly get dressed. I’ll have a shower later. I’m completely over the bathroom and its contents, visible or invisible, for now.
Chapter Twenty-One
Liam has the measles. The doctor who I paid a fortune to make a house call has just diagnosed him with the measles, and it looks as if Organza is getting them too. Reece and I are fine for now but the doctor, Dr. Wentworth, warned us that they’re highly contagious and we should expect to catch them soon. He’s placed the house under quarantine and warned us that we shouldn’t venture out. Said the last thing he needs right now is a measles epidemic in Gypsy Creek.
So yeah, it looks like me and the kids never got our vaccination shots when we were little. I guess there was too much else going on for Mom to worry about something like that. Liam told the doctor that his Mom is a staunch anti-vaxer so there were no shots for him, either.
So now here we are, trapped in a house together. This feels uncomfortably familiar. We are deja voodoo, we know more than you doo.
“This is a nothing house now,” I say matter-of-factly. Give it a name and then we’ll all know what we’re dealing with.
“What does that mean?” Liam is looking at me as if I’ve completely lost the plot and hey, maybe I have. Maybe I’m waltzing down nursery rhyme lane when I should be drawing out the battle lines in War & Peace. Who ever really knows for sure?
We’re all sitting in the living room with the curtains pulled shut because the light hurts Liam and Organza’s eyes. Liam and Organza are wrapped in blankets, balled up tissues litter the rug in front of the sofa, half-drunk cans of soda are sitting around, and the house just feels... ill. Like it needs all of the sickness whooshed out of it so it can start over again.
“My rash has started,” Organza says with obvious relish. She pokes her leg out from under her blanket to show us. “I’m highly contagious and infectious.”
“You’re infectious before the rash starts.” I know this because I’ve read everything I can about measles online. Apparently, Liam and Organza must’ve been harboring the virus for several days before the first symptoms appeared. Yes, I know it’s more than a little odd that they’ve both come down with measles at the exact same time when they’ve only been in each other’s company for two days but I don’t want to pick too hard at that little enigma. If I leave it alone, perhaps it’ll scab over and go away.
I also ordered a delivery of groceries while I was online. Liam is craving oranges and Organza wants some throat lozenges, plus we’re nearly out of fresh vegetables and toilet paper. Oh, and soda. I wrote in the message box that the driver should leave the bags out by the mailbox and we’ll collect them from there. We are deja voodoo.
“You’ve got a spotty face as well,” Reece points a finger at his sister’s cheeks. “You’re covered in them.”
Organza does one of her dramatic fake screeches. “What? Am I? Ellie, tell me the truth!”
“Yes, you’ve got a spotty face. It’s all part of having the measles, Organza. They’ll disappear once you’re well again.”
“Arrrrgghhh!!” She buries her face in her blanket, clearly thriving in all of her drama queen glory.
“Ssssssh,” Liam says irritably. “I’ve got sore ears and a headache.”
“Do you want to go back to bed, hun? It’s quieter up that end of the house.” I’m trying to be a good nurse, really I am, but I have to admit that I don’t think it’s my calling. I feel impatient with all the dragging around and the sickness and I just want everything to go back to normal. Liam and I are supposed to be renovating our new house in a state of coupled-up bliss and it just hasn’t happened.
“Yeah.” He pushes himself up on the sofa and shuffles away, dragging his blanket behind him like a bridal train as a confetti shower of used tissues falls to the floor around him. I stay where I am for a few minutes, giving him time to get into bed, before I get up to follow him. I’ll make sure he’s comfy then I’ll go get my computer and start looking for Father Lucerne. May as well do something to keep myself busy.
The bedroom door is shut when I reach it and I hesitate for a second or two before reaching for the handle. Maybe it’s best to leave Liam alone until he’s done napping. I sit my hand on the handle but don’t turn it, holding my ear close to the door to hear if he’s moving around in there.
You know when you get the feeling that something isn’t quite right but you don’t have any evidence to support that feeling? That’s the sensation I have now. I can’t hear anything inside the bedroom, which should mean that Liam is in bed, but then I hear a weird, sliding noise that my brain can’t find a reason for. I push the handle down and it doesn’t move. It just stays there, as if it’s glued in that position.
“Liam? Are you okay?”
Thump. Something heavy hits the other side of the door, causing me to jump back in fright. Then Liam is screaming at me from inside the bedroom. “OPEN THE DOOR!”
“I can’t! I’m trying to but I can’t!” I grab at the handle and it slips out of my hand without moving. “Try and open it from your side!”
Thump. “Just open the door, Ellie! Stop kidding around and just open the door!” Liam’s voice is hoarse and ragged from inside the bedroom. He’s panicking and I can’t do anything to help.
I tug and shove again at the handle but it refuses to budge. Faintly, very faintly, I hear Obidiah’s maniacal laugh from somewhere far away. I ball my hands into fists and pound at the
door, rattling it on its hinges with the pure driven force of my fury. “Obidiah, you bastard! You’re not going to win this one so you may as well give up now!”
“What’s going on?”
I turn around and Reece and Organza are standing behind me in the hallway, wide-eyed and frightened.
“Ellie,” Organza whispers, dropping any pretense at drama for once in her life, “Are we gonna have to do this all over again?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Reece gets the door open in the end. He just calmly approaches it, gently pushes me out of the way, and opens the door. Just like that. Liam falls through the open door, gasping for breath and ashen-faced, but he’s not so traumatized that he’s lost his voice. “What the hell were you doing? Why didn’t you open the door?”
He’s yelling at me, which is totally unfair. I was trying to get in and save him from whatever it was. It wasn’t as if I was just standing out here with my finger up my hoo-haa. I throw his anger back at him, raising my voice to match the tone of his. “Why didn’t you open the door? What was going on in there?”
He backs away from the bedroom door, staring back into the room with a look of such pure terror on his face that all of my anger dissolves in an instant. “Liam? What happened?” I can’t see what he’s seen and I don’t think I want to.
Liam doesn’t answer, I don’t think he can just yet, but Reece does. “He’s here. He’s in the bedroom. He’s waiting for you, Ellie.” Reece steps forward as if an invisible string is pulling him. His feet don’t seem to be stepping like feet generally do. It’s as if he is gliding forward rather than walking.
“Don’t you dare go in there.” I grab hold of his arm and I’m immediately drawn into some kind of bizarre tug of war in which my little brother is the rope. Reece slowly turns his head and looks at me with those cling film wrapped eyes again as I struggle to pull him back while something pulls him in.
“Nope, nope, and nope.” Organza, who has been standing there without uttering a word while all this is going on, flings herself onto Reece’s back as if she’s riding him out into the rodeo. It would look funny if this was any type of laughing situation. “Get yourself back out here, Reece. I’m not letting you go in there.”
The Nothing House Page 7
