Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Colleen Gleason

Mrs. Mowbray smiled at the little girl, her ugly teeth evident. “Hello, Rose,” she said, glancing at Alix. “I see the resemblance between you two.”

  Alix smiled, hugging her daughter. “I’ve heard that more than once,” she said, looking down at Rose. “My mother says it all of the time.”

  “She’s right,” Mrs. Mowbray said, focusing on Rose. “How old are you, young lady?”

  Rose held up four fingers. “Four.”

  “Do you go to school?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Ah,” Mrs. Mowbray said confidently. “You must be in nursery school.”

  Rose didn’t say anything; she was too busy acting shy and shoving her fingers in her mouth. Alix gently removed them and turned to Mrs. Mowbray.

  “Well,” she said, standing up to signal that their conversation on the mysteries of the house was over, “it was really nice of you to come out today. Would you like to see the rest of the house before you go?”

  Mrs. Mowbray nodded enthusiastically. “I would love it, thank you,” she said. “As I told you before, I knew Cecily Trevor when she lived here and that was back in the nineteen thirties.”

  Alix listened with interest as she took Rose’s hand and began walking from the kitchen. “When I moved in, I think there were still remnants of the house from that period, including the big cast iron sink in the kitchen, which we kept. We just had it refinished. Did you notice?”

  Mrs. Mowbray looked at the sink, nodding her head in approval. “Beautiful,” she said. “It looks like you kept most of the flooring intact.”

  Alix nodded. “I did,” she said. “All of the flooring was saved. So was the banister on the front stairs.”

  As the women lost themselves in a discussion about the house, Rose began to hum. Holding her mother’s hand, she hummed that strange little song that she seemed to have made up since they had moved into the house.

  “Goody Good, Goody Good, ’ere snake and bird could,” she sang as she walked with her mother. She seemed to be looking off to her right, as if something was trailing behind her. Then she suddenly came to a stop and tugged at her mother. “Mommy?”

  Alix was pointing out the details of the two hundred-year-old banister but she paused. “Yes, baby?”

  “Mommy, the sad girl says we can’t go upstairs,” Rose said.

  In days past, Alix wouldn’t have given Rose’s comment any credence. She would have ignored it. But these days, when Rose spoke of the sad girl, she was inclined to listen whether or not she wanted to. Call it a hunch, or instinct, of the need for self-preservation, but she would make herself listen. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck go up.

  “Why not?” she asked softly, trying to keep the conversation between her and Rose as Mrs. Mowbray inspected the banister.

  Rose looked up at her mother with her big gray eyes. “She doesn’t like the lady.”

  Alix glanced at Mrs. Mowbray. She tilted her head in the woman’s direction. “Her?”

  Rose nodded solemnly. “She says she can’t go upstairs.”

  Alix’s jaw ticked as she thought on how to proceed. She was afraid of what would happen if she ignored the warning, having experienced a taste of the entity’s power before.

  “Rosie,” she said carefully. “Where is the sad girl?”

  Rose turned around, pointing down the hall. “There.”

  “Is she watching us?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you see her?”

  “Yes.”

  Alix looked down the hall. Back there was the corridor to the study, the kitchen, and the rear of the house. She pondered the situation for a moment before turning to Mrs. Mowbray.

  “If you want to step into the living room, you can see the hearth with the original stonework,” she said. “There’s even an iron arm in the mortar that they used to hold pots and kettles and things. You’re welcome to take a look while I take care of something.”

  Mrs. Mowbray nodded eagerly. “Thank you, I’d be happy to.”

  Alix waited until the woman wandered into the living room before turning to her daughter. “Show me where the sad girl is.”

  Silently, Rose led her into the back hallway by the utility room. She pointed to the doorway leading into the utility room.

  “Here,” she said.

  “Is she there now?”

  “Yes.”

  Alix fixed on the open doorway, taking a deep breath as she composed her thoughts. “Rosie, you told me her name once,” she said. “What was it?”

  “Mer-cy.”

  “Mercy?”

  Rose nodded. Alix felt rather sick to her stomach. “Oh, Christ,” she whispered. “She told you her name was Mercy?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Alix looked at the doorway again, trying very hard not to feel frightened. Mercy… wasn’t that the name of Sarah Good’s dead baby? Alix seriously resisted the urge to run and take her daughter with her. Rosie had mentioned the name before, once when Alix had gotten knocked out by an unseen force, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it. Now, she wished she had. Pieces of a very sinister puzzle were coming together and she didn’t like it one bit.

  “Rosie?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Is she still there?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is she doing?”

  “Looking at you.”

  Alix realized she was trembling. She focused on the empty doorway, summoning her courage. When she spoke, it was to the air.

  “Mercy,” she whispered. “I know you know me. I’m Rose’s mom. I know you are sad and scared, but you are not allowed to tell me what I can do in my own home. This is my home now and I’m the master. Do you understand me? I want you to go back where you came from and stay there. You are not welcome here.”

  She was met with silence. After a moment, she turned to Rose. “Is she still there?”

  Rose shook her head. “She went away.”

  It was then that they heard a massive thump overhead and the entire house shook. Alix raced to the front staircase just about the time she heard Sean yelling upstairs. Mrs. Mowbray bolted out of the living room and met Alix by the front door.

  “What on earth was that?” the old woman asked, breathless.

  Alix looked at her as she mounted the steps. “We… uh, we still have some renovation going on up there,” she said quickly. “Would you mind letting yourself out? I need to see what’s happened.”

  Mrs. Mowbray nodded, watching Alix fly up the stairs. She was concerned but she did as she had been asked and headed for the door. As she opened it, she realized that Rose was standing behind her, gazing up at her. Mrs. Mowbray forced a smile at the little girl.

  “It was nice to meet you, young lady,” she said. “I hope we meet again soon.”

  Rose simply nodded her head and closed the door on the woman, very nearly pushing her from the house. Mrs. Mowbray swore she caught a glimpse of another little girl standing on the staircase just before the door shut and blocked her view.

  It was a little girl in a white dress that was the image of young Rose Hendry.

  * * *

  Two weeks later

  The wedding planner had done a spectacular job of decorating the house and grounds of Evenshade in fabulous winter colors, making the old house with the frightening reputation look like something out of a wedding magazine. It was a winter wonderland, a full-blown Christmas wedding complete with white trees and crystal lights everywhere. The theme was winter white with hints of silver and gold, and the wedding itself was set for the winter solstice, December twenty-first, at sunset. It was a magical time of the year.

  Alix had taken the week off of work to prepare for the wedding although the wedding planner had it well in hand and Cord wouldn’t let her do any work. He, too, had taken almost three weeks off of work and with a few of his buddies and his sons, took to re-landscaping the backyard where the wedding was to take place.

  As the weather hovered in the teens and the brisk
feel of winter kissed the landscape, Alix and Rose watched from the warm comfort of the house as Cord, Chris, Kyle, Sean, Cole, and about six firefighters ripped up the backyard and laid out an exquisite network of rocks and landscaping. A gazebo went up and a waterfall and pond went in. Sod was laid, one that was resistant to the extreme cold, and shrubbery was planted.

  Since it was heading into the dead of winter and a snowstorm had been forecast for Christmas Eve, Cord didn’t worry about flowers. He simply lay down what he could and hoped it would keep its green color until after the ceremony. After that, it could turn purple for all he cared. He just wanted it looking good for the wedding.

  His work buddies worked for free food and beer, which Alix kept amply supplied. She made big pots of chili or chicken and dumplings, her favorite, and fed them hot food every couple of hours. She also checked fingers and noses periodically for frostbite. Chris and Kyle worked silently alongside their father but Cole, being younger and not so hearty, would sneak inside to warm up along with Sean, the California boy, who had never dealt with weather this cold. He had no idea how to cope with it.

  The first day of the landscaping party had been brutally cold and Alix brought Sean indoors after just an hour because his lips were turning blue. He got angry with her about it because he didn’t want his future stepbrothers thinking he was a wimp, but the truth was that she gave him a great excuse to warm up.

  Once the landscaping was down, the wedding planner went to work with her exquisite white lighting and other marvelous effects. It was absolutely gorgeous and the night before the wedding, Alix and Cord had stood on the back porch, arms wrapped around each other, and just admired everything. The whirlwind courtship was culminating in a dreamlike wedding, and they were still both coming to terms with it. Deeply in love and deliriously happy, they were both savoring every minute of it. It was unbelievably right, all of it, and they were very thankful.

  On the night before the wedding, the snowstorm hit. Alix awoke in her bed, alone, as Cord and his boys were down the road at his house, to Sean yelling excitedly about snow. Staggering out of bed, she had opened the shutters to be faced with a world blanketed in white, including her brand new landscaping. She had been standing there staring at it in wonderment when her cell phone rang. She didn’t even have to look at the number; she knew who it was.

  “Hi, babe,” she said, sounding sleepy.

  Cord’s voice was warm and deep. “Hi yourself,” he said. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Surprisingly well,” she said. “In fact, I’ve woken up every morning for the past couple of weeks and have felt fine. I think the worst of the morning sickness curse is over.”

  “Thank God,” he breathed quietly. “But speaking of worst, have you looked out the window lately?”

  Alix grinned. “I’m looking out of it now,” she said. “I think I see your house buried under a bunch of snow.”

  Cord snorted. “You think you’re kidding,” he said. “I’m going to send Chris and Kyle up to the house to shovel the driveway and put down salt. I’ll be up in a few minutes to take a look at the backyard and see what we need to do about cleaning the snow off the gazebo and such.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll make some breakfast.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “We’ll be right up. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Alix hung up the phone and went to take a quick shower. It was hot and wonderful, steaming up the bathroom, as she finished up and dried off. She took care to rub oil over her growing belly so she wouldn’t get stretch marks, inspecting her belly in the mirror and realizing it had grown quite a bit over the past few weeks. She was nearly four months along and suspected it was going to be a rather large baby.

  Drying her long hair and putting on a bit of make-up, she dressed in stretchy leggings and a gorgeous oversized sweater that was warm and cozy. Pulling on her fuzzy boots, she headed downstairs to begin breakfast which, for Cord and his boys, was a rather large affair. They were big boys and they liked to eat, so the moment she got into the kitchen, she went straight to the refrigerator and pulled out the eggs. That was where she started.

  By the time Cord and his boys rolled up several minute later, Alix already had a mass of scrambled eggs with ham, bacon, potatoes and juice on the table. As the door opened and they began piling in, she put the first big stack of pancakes on the table. Chris, Kyle and Cole threw themselves at the table with its cornucopia of breakfast delights while Cord went to Alix and took her in his arms.

  “Hello, beautiful,” he said, kissing her lips.

  “Hi,” she said, kissing him in return. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the groom is supposed to see the bride before the ceremony.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her as he headed for the table. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the bride is supposed to cook for the groom and his sons before the ceremony.”

  Alix giggled and flipped a pancake. “It’s the least I can do before I throw you all out into the snow.”

  Cord sat down as Chris handed him the plate with the eggs. “We’re used to it,” he said, scooping out a healthy portion of eggs. “Besides, I already called some of the guys. They’re coming over in a while to help get this place cleaned up.”

  Alix finished up pancake round number two and put the plate on the table as Sean came down, lured by the noise. He sat between Kyle and Cole, already getting a ribbing for the fact that he was still in his pajamas. Alix grinned, pouring Cord and Chris some coffee, thinking she would be very happy to listen to the brotherly teasing for the rest of her life. When she should be on duty in the emergency room, she was making pancakes, pouring coffee, and loving every minute of it. Her entire life had been filled with ambition and medicine, but the past few months had seen that drastically change. Ironic how the right man could change everything.

  Rose began to cry as she was pouring some orange juice for Sean so she raced up the back stairs and into her daughter’s bedroom. Rose was still in one of the back bedrooms because Alix didn’t want her returning to the front bedroom where the sad girl seemed to pay so much attention to her. However, when she entered Rose’s pink and white princess bedroom, her daughter was nowhere to be found. But she could still hear the crying.

  “Rose?” Alix called out. “Where are you?”

  No answer but more crying. Alix went into both bathrooms and Sean’s room but she still couldn’t find her daughter. As she came back out into the corridor, she noticed the door to Rose’s old bedroom slightly ajar. Feeling the least bit of trepidation, she pushed it open and stuck her head in.

  “Rosie?” she called.

  There was more crying but it was louder now. Alix stepped into the room, which had now become a storeroom for boxes and stuff that Cord was moving into the house, looking around to see where her daughter was and what had her so upset. But Rose didn’t seem to be anywhere in the room. Puzzled and concerned, Alix was about to turn for the door to call down to Cord for help when she noticed that the closet door was cracked open. She immediately went to it and opened it.

  “Rosie?” she called up the narrow attic stairs. “Are you up there?”

  “Mommy!” Rose cried, sounding frightened. “Mommy, come get me! She won’t let me leave!”

  Alix started to take a step when an unseen hand suddenly shoved her back. She stumbled out of the closet, backwards, but when she tried to grab the door, it slammed in her face. It was a loud and violent sound. Rose started screaming and so did Alix.

  “Cord!” she shrieked.

  She could hear the cavalry coming up the back stairs. It sounded like a thundering herd. Cord burst into the room, followed by all four boys. Alix pointed at the closet door in a panic.

  “She’s up there and I can’t get the door open!” she cried.

  Cord raced to the door, listening to Rose’s screaming in the attic. He pulled and pulled but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t budge the door. Alix began crying
, terrified for her daughter, as Cord ended up pulling the door knob right out of the door.

  “What the hell?” he exclaimed, looking at the old iron latch in his hand. He tossed it aside and tried to get his fingers into the mechanism to open it. “What in the hell is wrong with this door?”

  Alix was in tears. “It pushed me back and slammed the door in my face when I tried to get to Rose.”

  He looked at her. “What pushed you back?”

  She was nearly hysteria. “That big draft you said didn’t exist,” she said angrily. “It pushed me out of the closet and slammed the door in my face. I need to get to my daughter!”

  Cord had his hands full with a panicked fiancée and a jammed door. He turned to Chris. “Find me something,” he said with urgency. “An axe, a hammer… any kind of tool I can use to bust this door down. Go!”

  Chris was off. Cord grabbed his biggest son, Kyle. “Help me with this door,” he said. “We’re going to try to kick it down, okay?”

  Kyle put his size fourteen feet to work. He and Cord began kicking at the door, anything to get it to move, but it seemed more stuck than ever. Even the old wood of the panel seemed like concrete; no cracks or chips. Alix was panicking, which in turn fueled Cord. They could all hear Rose screaming. But then, it abruptly stopped.

  The sudden silence was electrifying. Alix stopped crying, her eyes wide with terror as she looked at Cord. He glanced at her but didn’t take the time to stop and comfort her. He was desperate to get the old door open. Looking around the room, he could see a big brass lamp base, heavy and well made. He grabbed it and returned to the door, lifting it like a hammer and preparing to take a swing. But just as he brought it down, the door swung open.

  Rose was standing there. Cord was already in full swing, bringing it right down on Rose’s head before he could stop himself. He heard Alix scream and he even heard the boys yell, but he was already in motion. It all happened too fast. But just as soon as he delivered a blow that would have surely killed the child, she vanished into thin air. All that was left was an open door and a dark, empty stairwell.

  Cord nearly had a heart attack. He dropped the lamp base and pitched forward, stumbling into the closet and onto the stairs. Alix was literally on his heels as he raced up the steps.