by Aiden James
Satisfied, he went back inside. He checked all of the doors and windows on the main floor and then returned to the living room to get Christopher. Groggy and disoriented, David assisted him in negotiating the long stairway up to his bedroom. Soon, Tyler retired, promising to wind down before his ten o’clock bedtime. Jillian often fought to stay up later, but tonight didn’t put up a fuss.
“It’s just you and me now, my love,” he whispered from behind Miriam, blowing softly upon her neck where she waited for him, standing with her back to him inside their bedroom doorway. She pulled him inside the bedroom, and after he closed the door and locked it, they embraced. Their foreplay intensified and he carried her over to the bed, where they made passionate love for the second night in a row.
Chapter Five
“Billy Ra-a-a-y-y-y....”
“Huh?” David awoke lying on his back.
Miriam had already moved over to her side of the bed. They made love for more than an hour before calling it a night…he remembered that much. But something had changed in the room since then. The bedroom door stood ajar, and the glow from a light source carved a narrow sliver up to their bed.
“Damn it, Ty!” he hissed, thinking his son had left the hall light on after visiting the bathroom, or getting a drink from the kitchen downstairs.
His wife stirred briefly in her sleep and rolled away from the light. The digital clock on her nightstand read 12:33 a.m. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, irritated at being awakened at half past midnight for the second consecutive night. Tomorrow’s really going to suck!
“Come he-e-r-r-r-e-e-e!”
“Who said that?”
He got out of bed and pulled on his pants. The words whispered, the voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman standing in the hallway just outside the bedroom.
He crept over to the doorway, remembering the door had been locked. He tried to recall if Miriam unlocked it after they made love, which she often did in case the kids needed her during the night. But she almost never left the door open, since she struggled to fall asleep. He peered into the hallway. No sign of anyone on the landing, although he now noticed another light, this one above the stairway.
What in the hell? …I turned off everything up here earlier. I’m certain of it.
Pushing aside the bedroom door to where he could slip through, he stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him. He checked each room on the second floor, starting with Jillian’s bedroom. She slept soundly in her bed. Sadie, curled up at her feet, lifted her head when he opened the bedroom door and then rested it on Jillian’s shin as he shut it again.
Christopher snored from exhaustion in his bed, and when he checked on Tyler in his bedroom he noticed the cardboard triangle on his window under the hall light’s illumination. The camouflage of the orange-eyed black spider gracing the patch made the cracked panes look like a believable Halloween spider-web creation. He’d yet to learn of the window’s damage since neither Tyler nor Janice told him about the football incident.
Satisfied his oldest son lay asleep, he closed his door and moved back over to the guestroom and bathroom. Both empty. Bewildered, he stroked his beard while moving back to his bedroom. Then he heard the girl’s voice again.
“I’m not up th-e-e-r-r-e…. I’m down he-e-e-r-r-e!”
A sudden chill ripped across his spine. The voice sounded hollow, as if the words were spoken from someplace far away...and yet, impossibly, like it also resounded from beneath the landing, perhaps inside the dining room on the main floor. His first instinct was to grab the handgun he kept stashed in his nightstand, but then his machismo took over. He ran downstairs.
The entire main level immersed in darkness, the kitchen and living room nightlights he turned on earlier were off. But the security system was still armed. David turned on the dining room chandelier and the living room’s overhead light.
“Are ya afraid, Billy Ray-y-y?”
Billy Ray? Who in the hell is that??
“Who’s in here!” he called out gruffly.
Accept for an icy breeze embracing his face and torso, there was no other response. Just unnerving silence, as if the house itself held its breath in anticipation of what would come next. He walked into the kitchen from the living room, flipping on a row of fluorescent lights. Again, empty. No one in the laundry room either. Ditto for the den.
“Come out and show yourself, damn it!”
He grabbed one of the larger knives from the wooden cutlery block next to the stove, and wielded it menacingly. After circling back through the main floor he explored the garage. Still nothing. Worried, suddenly, this mysterious female might visit harm on his family while they slept, he ran to the foyer and up the stairs. He almost fell down the staircase when the voice cackled gleefully a few feet behind him.
David whirled around. There wasn’t anyone else on the stairs.
The knife ready, he moved back downstairs. But the evasive female kept silent, despite several more trips around the entire floor in hopes of drawing her out from her hiding place. Weary of the game, he waited in the living room. The clock on the mantle read 1:05 a.m. Too much adrenaline to go back to sleep, he turned on the TV and set the volume low. Perched on the edge of the sofa, he suffered through three late-night infomercials while waiting for something else to happen.
Just before two-thirty, after one last uneventful tour of the main floor, he returned the knife to the cutlery block in the kitchen and turned off the television and all of the downstairs lights. By then, the earliest morning birds outside began their songs in earnest as he trudged upstairs. But before he reached the second floor landing a high-pitched ring emanated from the dining room.
P-i-i-i-n-n-g-g-g!
With his heart racing, David tiptoed back down the stairs and crept over to the dining room. He half-expected the ringing sound to stop as he flicked on the switch to the chandelier, but it didn’t. The noise resonated from a large crystal bowl that graced the middle of the antique dining table. He couldn’t help but stare at the bowl, listening to the reverberations until they died.
Why in the hell is this happening to us??
The room grew cold around him, and David felt an odd sensation....like a hundred menacing eyes watched him from every direction. He shivered as he considered the connection between tonight’s events and what happened in Gatlinburg. As much as his pragmatic mind hated the idea, too many similarities said so.
And the voice...who did it belong to? Was it even real? If not, is this what happens when you go insane? Maybe all the tireless hours he worked the past few months had finally caught up with him.
“This is just too crazy,” he snickered, uneasy. He turned off the chandelier and stepped back slowly from the dining room. A deathlike heaviness surrounded him as he paused in the foyer’s darkness.
He wasn’t sure if anything or anyone followed him upstairs or not, but the hairs on the back of his neck didn’t stop tingling until he climbed back into bed and pulled up the covers. When he heard the female’s laughter coming from downstairs again, he told himself over and over that it wasn’t real. Thankfully, it became harder to keep his eyes open. Once he succumbed to sleep, it seemed like a matter of minutes before Miriam’s alarm signaled the start of the new week.
Chapter Six
“Come on, kids, we don’t want to be late!” urged Miriam, motioning for Jillian and Christopher to gather up their book-bags and lunch boxes. She walked briskly over to where David stood, next to the coffeepot in the kitchen.
On his second cup of coffee, he paused long enough to give her a kiss.
“I had a great time this weekend,” he whispered in her ear. “If you’re up for some fun later tonight, you know where to find me.” Offering a wry smile, he winked.
“Oh, yeah, big boy? We’ll see about that. It looks like you could use some serious rest.”
She looked up into his eyes. Painfully aware she noticed the redness under them, he’d missed out on his usual seven ho
urs of sleep.
“A few more cups of petrol, and I’ll be good for the entire day!”
“Yeah, right.” She turned away and headed toward the front door.
“Bye Daddy! Bye Ty!” said Jillian and Christopher, just before they exited the house. Jillian stuck her head back in through the doorway. “I like your coat, Ty!”
“Wow, son…now that looks great!” Miriam agreed. She stopped to admire her eldest child decked out in his new leather jacket as he stepped into the kitchen. “The girls won’t be able to keep their hands off you, and your buddies will wish they had it so good, huh?”
Tyler smiled shyly, blushing from their assessment of his new biker coat. He pulled out a package of chocolate Pop Tarts from the pantry and poured himself a glass of milk from the fridge.
“Well, we’ll see you tonight,” she said, prodding Jillian back outside. “‘Love you both!”
Tyler and his dad echoed her sentiment, and soon the sound of the minivan faded into the distance.
“We should be on our way, too, ‘Studly’.” David patted his son on the shoulder. Tyler blushed again. “I’ll take Sadie outside to do her business, which should give you enough time to finish your breakfast. You sure that’s enough to tie you over until lunch?”
“Yeah, Dad, it is,” said Tyler, working on his second Pop Tart. “I’ll meet you out front by the car.”
Sadie ran into the kitchen from the living room when David called her. The dog jumped up into his arms and he carried her outside.
Once she was finished he brought her back inside. She collected her treat and immediately climbed up on her favorite spot on the sofa, curling up and facing the TV. She cocked her head as if to remind him that he needed to set the station to the Cartoon Network, which he did.
After that he gathered his briefcase and coat. Before he left the house, he glanced around the living room and peered into the dining room. The dog seemed happy. No unseen voyeur this morning…. Last night seemed more and more unreal in the light of day, which made him think it had everything to do with lack of sleep coupled with an overactive imagination. David set the security system and stepped outside, locking the front door behind him.
“Are you ready to rock n’ roll, son?” he asked, once he reached the black BMW Z4. Whoever took Tyler to school got to drive it for the day. “Today, with that jacket this ride definitely matches your look.”
“Maybe…but please don’t call me ‘Studly’ in front of my friends,” he pleaded, as they both climbed into the sports car.
“No problem…Johnny Bravo,” teased David. Tyler shot him an irritated look. “Okay, I’ll quit.”
For the next several minutes the two rode in silence while Tyler scanned the sports car’s stereo until he found his favorite station, an alternative rock venue that brought a smile to David’s face. While most men his age preferred oldies 90’s music, the rocker in him still liked the latest sounds.
“So, you and Mom had a great time, I take it,” said Tyler.
“Yeah, we did,” said David. “The next time we visit Tennessee I’d like to take you kids with us.”
“What’s so special about Tennessee, other than the fact you were born there?” he asked, snickering. “Without the Titans, Grizzlies, and the Predators, what else is there? It’s not like there’s a Universal Studios, and there isn’t a beach either.”
“True,” agreed David, seeing more and more of his own cynicism in his son. “I admit there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot to do in Chattanooga when I was a kid, and things haven’t changed too much since then. But, Gatlinburg—now that’s a place with plenty to do, son.”
“Hmmm...the pictures on the web that Auntie Jan showed us were nice, but mostly of mountains that would only count as foothills here in Colorado.”
Despite Tyler’s smile smug, David could tell he was intrigued enough to not completely pan the idea of a family vacation trip to the Great Smokies.
“There are ghosts, too,” said David, immediately wondering where in the hell that thought came from, and even more why he voiced such an absurd notion. It didn’t take long to regret it.
“Really?” Tyler perked up. The fact they just arrived at Goddard Middle School was the only thing that saved David from a deeper explanation. “Tell me about the ghosts in Tenn-essee, Dad.”
“It’ll have to wait for another time, son. There’s Jarrod and Smitty.”
He pointed to Tyler’s two best friends, and he watched his son walk with them toward the school’s main entrance, so proud of the boy becoming a young man. Just like Miriam prophesied, several girls came up to Tyler and admired his new jacket, while Jarrod and Smitty looked on in envy.
***
Norm Sowell leaned over David’s desk at Johnson, Simms & Perrault, the accounting firm they both worked for. Deeply tanned and strikingly handsome with piercing blue eyes, thick dark brown hair, and a disarming smile, Norman Sowell III fit the perfect image of corporate success in an Armani suit. David’s best friend outside of Miriam, he built an impressive resume from his tireless drive as the firm’s top attorney. Pals for nearly twenty years, shortly after they met as incoming freshmen football players at the University of Colorado, their mutual love of sports and the great outdoors attracted them both to Boulder. Like David, Norm hailed from the southern part of the country, in his case, Tupelo, Mississippi.
“So, how was your trip, bro?”
“Great,” said David. “Honestly, I’d have to say it was one of the best times Miriam and I’ve shared in the past ten years.”
“Good for you, David,” said Norm, his tone envious. “You seem happier than before you left, so if that’s what adds the spice back into your love life, then more power to you.” He smiled and stood up straight, adjusting his tie. “If lunch is still on for today, how about we shoot for twelve-thirty?”
“Sure,” said David, briefly wondering whether his buddy coveted the vacation or the intimacy with his wife. “I’ll meet you out front. I brought the Z, so I’m driving today. That way, we’ll be sure to get back on time before Ned sends a posse looking for me.”
He lowered his eyeglasses, which he only wore when working, smiling slyly in reference to Norm’s penchant for long lunches to take care of ‘personal business’ errands.
“‘Sounds good,” said Norm after he started to move down the hall toward the legal department. “I’ll see you then!”
A very busy morning, the lack of sleep on top of such an enjoyable, and yet strange, weekend made it hard for him to focus. Nonetheless, by noon David managed to make a serious dent in the mound of paperwork stacked on his desk. His boss, Ned Badgett, came by just before he planned to meet Norm for lunch.
“It’s good to have you back, David!” he said, squeezing his shoulder. “Did you find the place we talked about?”
“Yeah, I did,” said David. He smiled, and for an instant thought about Allie Mae’s Treasures and the lonely ‘Allie +’ carved into the oak in the ravine. “The spot was as special as you said it’d be, Ned,” he added, unaware his smile had faded slightly. “Thanks again for the advice.”
“No problem at all,” said Ned. He studied David’s face as if trying to define the subtle change in demeanor. Still, he seemed pleased by his report.
Significantly older than all of his subordinates, Ned did little to minimize that fact. His gray thinning hair and drooping jowls clearly announced he had passed the short end of sixty. A driven perfectionist, he took an instant liking to David when he joined the firm after Norm successfully recruited him away from Blakely & Jones, a much smaller accounting firm, four years earlier. Ned planned to retire soon and groomed David to step into his role as manager of the mortgage services department. Like him, Ned grew up in rural Tennessee and then went to college in Colorado, in his case the University of Denver. Their common heritage helped create a bond of mutual kinship.
“I’ll take it easy on you today, and let you get through the rest of the King’s Inc. reports Nancy brought up h
ere earlier.” Ned glanced at the shrinking pile on David’s desk. “We’ve got the Applewood Associates audit coming up Thursday, so we’ll want to go over the preliminaries on that tomorrow.”
After Ned returned to his office, David locked his laptop. He glanced at his watch. 12:31 already…Shit! Grabbing his coat, he moved swiftly through the row of cubicles, intent on catching Norm before he could rub it in for being late. Instead of the elevator, he took the stairs down to the main floor of the historic building. The stately Victorian mansion located near the heart of downtown Denver had been completely renovated six years earlier, with ten offices on the main floor and another six upstairs.
The upper landing overlooked a grand foyer and was graced by an immense stained glass window that dominated the back wall of the building, next to the elevator. An angel blowing a trumpet dominated the window’s foreground, which often made David wonder if the mansion had originally been a church turned into a home as an afterthought. On either side of the landing stood a double oak staircase of exquisite workmanship from the late nineteenth century.
He ran past a marble fountain directly below the landing’s balcony. At the reception desk, Nancy Geddings, the firm’s chief admin, was busy reviewing invoices from a recently delivered supply shipment. He asked her if she’d seen Norm. She excused herself from her assistant and came over to where he stood. A beautiful woman of Haitian descent, who always dressed conservatively with her hair in a severe bun, she often gave the firm’s clientele the incorrect first impression of a stern, matronly woman.
“He was here a moment ago,” she advised, her warm voice sweetened by her strong island accent. “There he is.”
Peering around a large potted fig tree obstructing her view of the building’s front section, she pointed to where Norm stood on the patio just outside the main entrance. David’s footsteps echoed across the parquet floor as he hurried over to him.
