Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Colleen Gleason

  Alix made a face as she struggled to get to her feet, grabbing hold of Rose’s dresser to pull herself up. “Screw the doctors,” she said. “They’re a bunch of quacks.”

  Cord laughed. Holding the baby in one big arm, he reached out and took Alix’s hand, walking out into the hall with her.

  “Put the baby in her bassinet,” she told him as he headed for the back stairs. “She needs to take a nap.”

  His face fell. “Can’t I hold her a little longer?”

  Alix smirked. “You can feed her when she wakes up,” she said. “Seriously, Cord, you can’t keep walking around with her all of the time. She has to learn to be by herself once in a while. She needs to learn to sleep somewhere other than in her father’s arms.”

  He made a face at her, not particularly pleased by that answer, but dutifully took the baby into their bedroom and put her gently in her plush bassinet. The bassinet itself tended to move around; Alix would put it on her side but somehow it always ended up on Cord’s side. He fussed over the baby to make sure she was comfortable and settled before quietly leaving the bedroom.

  Out in the hall, he wrapped his arms around Alix, kissing her head and cheek as she tried to walk down the hall. She giggled, unable to really fight him off because she was still rather stiff from the difficult birth. He finally let her go as they descended the stairs into a kitchen where the boys were consuming most of the lunch meat. Alix fought off Kyle as he tried to take some of her sandwich meat from her as she made lunch for her and Rose to share. He grinned when she pushed him.

  Cutting the sandwich into four sections and carefully peeling away the crust, as Rose wouldn’t eat a sandwich with the crust on it, she put it on a plate and grabbed a few napkins. As Cord sat down with the boys, listening to them talk about the football practice that was coming up in a few weeks for the start of the fall semester at school, Alix headed back up the stairs with the sandwich.

  Rose was no longer picking up her room but rather playing on the floor. The room was still messy. Alix sighed as she stood in the doorway, knowing it would be a long process for her daughter to clean her bedroom. Setting the plate down on the floor next to Rose, she headed back over to the master bedroom to check on Kitty because it was habit with her; she tended to check on the infant about every ten minutes or so, sometimes more, which made for a disruptive sleep pattern. Still, she couldn’t help it; it was just the way she was and she had done the same thing with Rose and Sean when they had been babies.

  Quietly, she pushed the door to the bedroom open. It was quiet and dim inside. The bassinet was pushed up against her side of the bed and she crept over to it, peering over the side. The bassinet was empty. Startled, she tossed back the little blanket that was there, the one Kitty had been swaddled in. The baby was missing.

  “Cord!” she screamed.

  Alix came flying out of the bedroom, hearing Cord as he charged up the stairs. They nearly collided at the head of the staircase.

  “Kitty’s gone!” Alix shrieked. “I went to go check on her and she’s gone!”

  Cord looked at her, horrified, before pushing past her and running into the master bedroom. Alix ran in behind him with the boys bringing up the rear. They had heard the scream, too, and had come running.

  Cord was tearing apart the bedroom. “Where in the hell is she?” he boomed. “What in the…?”

  He ran at the windows, seeing if somehow, someway, someone had crawled into a second floor window and kidnapped the baby. But the windows were secure, locked from the inside. He dropped to his knees and looked under one side of the bed while Alix did the same thing and looked in from the other. The underside of the bed was dark but clear. Cord’s head popped up and he looked at the boys, clustered around the door.

  “Search every inch of this house,” he snapped. “Go!”

  They boys scattered. Alix, hearing the thunder of their feet as they raced around on the hunt for their baby sister, began to panic. Her hands went over her mouth and sobs bubbled up, like gasping pants. Cord, seeing that she was breaking down, vaulted over the bed and ended up on the floor beside her. He threw his arms around her and held on tight.

  “It’s okay,” he assured her urgently although he was verging on panic, too. “We’ll find her. Don’t worry, honey; she’ll be fine.”

  Alix was hysterical. “Call the police!” she cried. “Oh, my God, where could she go? Someone took her!”

  Cord was up, grabbing for the phone but a yell from Chris stopped him. “Dad!” he bellowed. “In here!”

  Alix and Cord scrambled up from the floor, crashing into each other in their haste to move. Cord ended up picking Alix up off of the floor, practically carrying her down the hall in the direction of Chris’ voice. They realized the commotion was coming from Chris’ bedroom and they blew in the door about the time Sean, Cole, and Kyle got there. All of them were cramming in, jockeying to get a look at what the excitement was about. Chris was pointing to his bed frantically.

  “Look!” he said. “She’s here!”

  Alix and Cord rushed to the bed where Kitty was laying. She was awake, with the pacifier in her mouth, squirming around as she stared at the ceiling. Alix yelped when she saw her daughter, lying on the mattress without a scratch. She slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from sobbing out loud. Still, the tears of joy and relief came. She dropped down on the bed beside the baby as Cord hovered over her.

  “Oh, God,” she breathed, struggling not to openly weep. She ran her hands over Kitty’s skull, her neck and shoulders. “She… she seems fine. Not a mark on her. How in the world did she get here?”

  No one could tell her. Cord’s big hands were on the baby as well as if to see for himself that she was in one piece. He was shaken to the bone. When Alix finally picked the baby up and held her tightly, Cord’s hands never left her. His grip was on the baby, on his wife, as if holding the two together. His pale face turned to his sons.

  “Chris,” he said. “How did she… she was just laying here on the bed?”

  Chris nodded firmly. “I came in here to look for her and there she was. She wasn’t even crying.”

  He sounded frightened. In fact, they were all frightened. Cord looked around the room at his sons, seeing that all of them were apprehensive. He struggled to calm down and think clearly. He was so rattled he could barely form a thought.

  “Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath for control. “If this was some kind of joke, then now’s the time to tell us. But just so you know, I don’t think it’s very funny.”

  “How could it be a joke, Dad?” Kyle said. “We were all downstairs eating. You saw us the entire time and we never came upstairs.”

  Cord conceded the point. But then, he cocked his head as if a thought just occurred to him and he looked at his wife, who was struggling to calm down herself.

  “Rose was up here,” he said quietly. “Do you think…?”

  “Rosie!” Alix called before he even finished his sentence. “Rosie, please come here.”

  They could hear little footsteps pelting the wooden floors as Rose emerged from her bedroom. After a few moments, she appeared in the doorway. She had a plastic plate in her hand, looking at her mother and stepfather with her big gray eyes. Alix tried to keep her voice calm as she spoke.

  “Rosie,” she said. “Do you know how Kitty got into Chris’ bedroom?”

  Rose nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

  Alix’s heart skipped a beat. “How?”

  “The sad girl.”

  Alix’s terror returned full bore. “What do you mean? Did she bring the baby in here?”

  Rose shook her head. “She told me to take her.”

  Alix’s eyebrows lifted. “You carried Kitty in here?”

  Rose nodded. “The sad girl said that her mommy wants her.”

  Alix looked at Cord, her eyes as big as saucers. They were all thinking the same thing, sickened that evidently the sad girl was making some kind of resurgence. So many months of peace and now this. Al
ix wasn’t quite sure how to process it but she knew one thing; she couldn’t put her family in harm’s way. If the activity was kicking up again, she wasn’t going to stick around.

  “I can’t have the babies exposed to this,” she whispered, panic in her voice. “I need to take them out of here. We’re not staying here.”

  Cord nodded soothingly, his arms around Alix and the baby. “It’s okay,” he murmured, kissing her head. “We won’t stay here.”

  “I’m getting out,” she said, increased urgency in her voice. “I’m going to pack right now.”

  Cord could see how terrified she was. “Okay, honey, okay,” he said calmingly. “Go get packed. I’ll figure out where we’ll go.”

  “Us, too, Dad?” Chris wanted to know. “Do we have to leave, too?”

  Cord let Alix go with the little girls, off to pack their things. He stood in the doorway of Chris’ room, genuinely distressed. Brow creased with worry and thought, he put his hands on his hips.

  “I suppose that depends,” he said. “This ghost girl has never bothered you guys. Do you feel safe staying here?”

  The four boys looked at each other, trying to decide if they were scared enough to leave, but none of them wanted to be the first one to admit it. Chris, unable to get a real response from his brothers or from Sean, looked at his father.

  “I don’t feel threatened,” he said. “I’ll stay.”

  “Me, too,” Kyle said. “If Chris stays, I stay.”

  Cole and Sean looked at each other a moment before Sean finally spoke. “I want to go with my mom,” he said quietly, “but if the guys are staying, I’ll stay.”

  Cole looked around at his brothers, his father, before sighing heavily. “I’ll stay,” he muttered.

  Cord scratched his head wearily, letting his hand slap back down against his thigh. “Okay,” he said. “If that’s what you want to do, that’s fine, but for tonight I’m taking Alix and the girls to a hotel somewhere.”

  “Are you going to stay with her?” Chris asked.

  Cord pondered the question. “Maybe not,” he said. “If the activity kicks up tonight, I want to be here. In fact, I may call Grampa and have him come stay here, too.”

  They could hear Alix slamming drawers in her haste to pack the girls’ clothes. She was telling Rose to gather her things, encouraging the little girl to move quickly. There was a great deal of panic in her voice even though it was controlled. They could all hear the fear, feeling it in the very air they breathed. Cord finally gave a heavy sigh.

  “You boys stay here,” he said. “I’m going to run over to Grampa’s house to let him know what’s going on and bring him back. I think we need some help. Hang around here for Alix’s sake, okay?”

  “Sure, Dad,” Chris said.

  It took Cord almost a half hour to convince Alix to let him leave the house without her. She didn’t want him to go. He had to explain his reason over and over because she refused to accept it. Finally, she relented and when he moved quickly to retrieve his car keys, he happened to notice the very old documents that they had found in the attic still tucked into the drawer. He’d never taken them to Mrs. Mowbray. His gaze lingered on them a moment, wondering what secrets they contained and if, in fact, there was something in those fragile yellow pages that could help them. After a few seconds of indecision, he grabbed the documents along with his keys.

  “I promise I’ll be back within the hour,” he told Alix, who was moving around behind him throwing baby things into a suitcase propped up on the bed. “The boys will be here so you won’t be alone. If things get bad or start picking up again, just get out. Go somewhere and call me. Okay?”

  Alix had Kitty in one arm, stuffing the suitcase with the other. “Okay.”

  He bent over and kissed her swiftly. “I love you,” he murmured, kissing her again and then kissing the baby’s head. “I’ll be back.”

  As Cord headed out to his truck, he noticed that the sky was starting to cloud over and a summer storm threatened. Once he got on the road, he used his smartphone to find a hotel for the night as he headed over to his father’s house. His mind was focused ahead on his father and what they needed to do in order to clear Evenshade once and for all of the ghostly spirits. He was determined to rid them from the house once and for all because they certainly couldn’t go through the rest of their lives afraid of their own home.

  With his mind occupied on what he had to do, he was unaware that back at the house, a storm of epic proportions was brewing. Tonight would decide who remained at Evenshade – the flesh and blood occupants, or the dead ones.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “You found these under a floor board in the attic?” Quirt repeated what he’d just been told, moving from the living room into his study to get his magnifying glass. “These have got to be a couple of hundred years old. This is actually hide and not paper.”

  Cord had just walked in the door with the horror story of the moving baby and, in the course of the conversation, handed his father the documents. Quirt took one look at them and headed for his study. He knew they were something special and he was eager to take a look. Mary followed the pair, wringing her hands with apprehension.

  “I told you to move out of that house,” she said to her son. “There is something very evil there.”

  Cord held up a hand to quiet his mother, his patience thin. “I know what you told us, Mom,” he said, “but the activity has been gone over the past several months. After Dad cast the banishment spell, we though the spirit was gone so there really wasn’t any reason to pick up the entire family and move.”

  Quirt bent over his desk and picked up his magnifying glass. Cord inhaled the must and pipe-tobacco smell of the room; as a kid, he’d always loved that smell. It brought him comfort. As Cord inhaled and tried to calm down, Quirt flipped on the green banker’s light on his desk and put on his reading glasses.

  “Dad, I need you to come back to the house with me,” Cord said as his father peered at the old documents. “Something is brewing and I want to stop it before it gets going. Alix isn’t going to stay there tonight; she’s terrified for the girls and I don’t blame her. The boys are there, though. The spirit doesn’t seem to be interested in them.”

  Quirt grunted in response as he examined the documents. Carefully, he laid them out on his desk; there were five sheets of very old vellum. Under the bright white light of his desk lamp, he fixated on them. The edges were damaged, curling up, but it didn’t diminish the historical significance. He was fascinated.

  “You need to get everybody out,” he said, eyes glued to the pages. “Tell the boys to come over here. They can stay with us.”

  Cord didn’t say anything for a moment; he was watching his dad as the man read over the old vellum in search of whatever answers or information they might provide.

  “What about Chris?” he asked softly. “We may need him.”

  Quirt glanced at him over the top of his glasses. “What do you mean?”

  Cord crossed his enormous arms, his gaze fixed on his father over the top of the desk lamp. “You don’t have to lie about it anymore,” he said quietly. “I know you have been working with Chris on casting. I know you’ve been doing it since he was small. He must be pretty good by now.”

  Quirt just stared at him. Then, he lowered his gaze back to the documents. “He’s better than I am,” he said, rather contritely. “Who told you?”

  “No one. I’ve just seen the clues now and again. I’m not an idiot.”

  “I never said you were. But knowing how you felt, we didn’t want to upset you. Chris takes it all very seriously.”

  Cord simply nodded his head and looked at his mother, who was standing in the doorway looking rather guilty. “You’re not mad, are you?” she asked.

  The corners of Cord’s mouth twitched. “No, I’m not mad,” he said. Then he sighed heavily. “It’s in his blood. I suppose I can’t deny him his legacy.”

  Mary smiled timidly and went to stand next to
her husband as he inspected the documents. Cord leaned against the big, heavy desk, watching his parents as they examined the antique papers.

  “Dad, I really need to get back to the house,” he said. “You need to come with me.”

  Quirt nodded. “I will,” he said. “I want your mother to come, too. I can’t sense things like she can.”

  Cord looked dubious. “It might be dangerous,” he said. “That entity has been known to get violent. It knocked Alix out once. I’m not sure I want Mom to….”

  “Holy Smokes!” Quirt suddenly exclaimed, interrupting his son. “Do you know what these are?”

  “What?” Cord demanded.

  Quirt picked up the third sheet of vellum and scrutinized the faded brown writing. He seemed quite excited and quite entranced. When he spoke, it was with awe.

  “They’re curses,” he said. “By damn, these are curses on other people, among them Sarah Good and William Good, her husband. I see several names here, all listed with curses. I think there’s even a curse here written for Dorothy Good; I can clearly see the name.”

  “Curses?” Cord bent over so he could see what his father was referring to. “Can you read them? Are they in English?”

  Quirt nodded. “It’s English,” he said, squinting at the writing. “Back in Colonial America, they spoke and wrote English although it differs from the language we use today. Still, it’s generally the same. I can read it pretty clearly.”

  He suddenly began shuffling through the papers, rapidly, as if he was looking for something. Cord alternately looked at the documents and his father’s expression. He could feel an odd sense of urgency emitting from his father, something electric in the air. It made his heart beat faster.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “What are you looking for?”

  Quirt didn’t answer for a moment; he was still shuffling the pages around, reading the front and back of them, holding up a hand for patience when Cord asked him again. After several long moments of inspecting the papers, he sat back in his chair and pulled off his glasses.