by Mirren Hogan
“Hey, I never said I thought it was you. And I never said I expected you guys to go looking for them.” Asa wiped sweat from under the bill of his cap and sighed. “What the fuck did I just see in there?”
“Smoke,” Flynn replied promptly. “Flames and lots of smoke. Smoke can do all sorts of things to your eyes and make you see things that aren’t there.” That was true of some kinds of smoke, anyway.
“Right . . . there was more than smoke in there. I swear I heard screams. But seeing as it’s silent now, we’ll just have to sift through the rubble to make sure we don’t find any bodies.” Asa looked at the family, then at Makani, and shook his head, “Why here at this house? What possessed them to come up here?”
Flynn shrugged and shook his head. “You know tourists, always wanting to poke around in strange places. That’s what brought Makani and me up here. We just happened to find them here too. They got locked in a back room.” He forced a laugh.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to them after everyone’s been checked out. In the meantime—” his eyes followed the gurney that Makani had been laid on, as it was loaded into an ambulance “—you’ll probably want to take her jeep to the hospital. Your family is going, too. Just to make sure there isn’t anything else going on.”
Flynn nodded. Apparently, him driving wasn’t going to be a problem. He saw Annie getting into the ambulance beside Makani. That would be an interesting drive. “I’ll get going then. You have my family’s stuff at HPD?” They’d want it and five one-way tickets back to Sydney.
“Yeah. We’ll have them down there to get their things and finish reports, after they’ve been checked out. I’ll be right behind you.” Asa stopped off at the ambulance to tell Makani what was happening, and grabbed the keys from her to give to Flynn. “By the way—thanks for making sure my cousin got out.”
“If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have.” Flynn shrugged. He’d seen her ass; it was worth saving, as many times as it took. He tossed the keys onto the passenger seat, hot-wired the jeep and followed the ambulance as it slowly wound its way back down the street toward the hospital.
CHAPTER 9
“Yeah, something fell on me. I didn’t get a good look at it.” Makani kept her eyes closed. She’d always been a bad liar, even as a rowdy teenager. The ride to the hospital was going to be full of questions she didn’t want to answer. Thankfully, Annie was there. Maybe she could deflect a lot of it. Or at least keep the paramedics occupied.
“Must have been a bit of ceiling,” Annie said, smiling to the cute paramedic. “The house was on fire, after all.” She coughed, as if to remind everyone that she’d only just escaped with her life. She looked a bit pale, but in better shape than Makani.
“Yeah, we’re just lucky we’re not crispy wonton chips on the floor.” She opened one eye and smiled at Annie. “Hey, is Flynn really following behind us with my jeep?”
Annie peered out the back window and waved. “Right behind us. Damn woman, where did you find that guy, he’s a hottie! Does he have a brother? Or a friend?” She looked back at Makani and grinned. “Or another knight from the round table?”
“I’m sure he’s got friends back home in Sydney.” And some day, in the not-so-distant future, that’s where Flynn would have to go. And then, who would be there to have her back when the nightmares returned? “If you wanna go for family, I’m sure his sister is gonna to be single very soon . . . ”
“True, but she comes with the disadvantage of being female. And—not my type,” Annie spoke diplomatically, but her nose wrinkled. “Hey, I could keep him warm for you while you’re in the hospital.” Her grin was cheeky but followed by a wistful sigh. Friends don’t do that to friends. “So how are you feeling, really?” she asked softly.
Makani tried to take a deep breath, but pain shot up into her throat. “I think I’ve got a cracked rib and nail gouges down my back. But that’s not the problem. One day soon, I’m going to have to sleep. And when I sleep, the nightmares will come back. What happens when they do? I don’t know if I can do this on my own . . . ”
“What am I, Scotch mist?” Annie raised an eyebrow. “I seem to remember having your back and saving your ass not half an hour ago. Not that I want your gratitude, just for you to remember that I exist. So, I don’t have washboard abs and a penis, that doesn’t make me no one.” She didn’t look even the slightest bit upset; more teasing than anything.
“Annie, we’ve known each other since forever ago. You were like, my first kiss when we played spin the bottle at Scotty Souza’s house. You’ve had my back from day one, and I love you for that.” That was a long story, and one Makani never planned on telling Flynn. “But no one can be there every time I sleep to make sure I don’t have nightmares.”
“No, but I can rig up a better than state-of-the-art security system that will keep anything but dreams away.” Annie scratched at a scorch mark on her arm. “I can rig it to wake you up if you start moaning if you want, but that might put a damper on your sex life.”
“Yeah, as if I’d still have a sex life after Flynn leaves.” The fact that he couldn’t stay, wouldn’t be around forever, filled Makani with a cold fear not unlike the terror she’d felt being under the hag. “You wanna move into my house and keep me company?” Her voice was hopeful, and she opened her eyes to look at Annie with a half-smile.
“I don’t think your place has enough room for my crap,” Annie replied. “But I could hack into immigration’s system and change his visa status. Or his citizenship status.” She grinned at one of the paramedics, who gave her a shocked look. “Just kidding.” She winked at Makani. If anyone could do it, she could.
“Right, kidding.” She tried to laugh, but it hurt something fierce. Her mouth pulled into a grimace. If only it were that simple. What if he didn’t want to stay now? Not that she’d blame him. His life would be a lot simpler without her problems following him around. Problems. Yeah, that was a massive understatement.
Putting a hand on Makani’s, Annie gave it a squeeze. “Chin up, it’ll work out, somehow. And if not, then he wasn’t worth it.”
“Yeah, yeah . . . ” Makani said, although it was hard to feel optimistic about things. The ambulance pulled into the bay and the paramedics started getting her out and into the hospital. Emma and her family were close behind, and headed for the exam rooms on the far side of the ER. Triage by the attending doctor had her being wheeled upstairs for x-rays. “You’ll watch for Flynn, right? I’m sure he’ll want to stay with his sister and the kids, though.”
“Sure.” Annie was busy fending off a doctor who wanted to check her over for smoke inhalation. “As soon as I convince these people that I’m fine.” She looked pointedly at the doctor but followed him obediently into an examination room.
“Yeah, have fun with that!” Makani leaned back and let the nurse wheel her away. This was probably going to suck, being probed by doctors and having to lie there and take it. But if they would pump her full of drugs, there was a good chance she could sleep and not dream.
“Not a chance!” Annie called back, just before the door closed.
***
Across the ER, Asa was trying to finish taking statements from Emma and Flynn. “So, you folks were trapped in the house? How did you get there?”
Emma looked at him in confusion. “I don’t remember.”
Crap, Flynn thought, the cover story isn’t going to hold up. “Didn’t you go up there with a tour guide or something?” he prompted.
Emma opened and closed her mouth. “I suppose we must have,” she said vaguely.
“Okay, miss . . . do you remember this tour guide’s name?” Asa ran a hand down his face, fighting the exhaustion that was threatening to take over.
“I . . . don’t know. Jason must have organized it . . . ” She glanced over at her husband, only to be greeted by a vacant stare.
“Maybe Makani would know,” Flynn suggested helplessly. “Unless they were only pretending to be legit.”
“Maybe. The
re’s a ton of people who give guided tours without a small business license. But I need a name, a description, something to work with.” He looked at the woman and tried to keep his patience.
“There was a woman . . . ” Emma frowned. “We were in the park and she offered to show us some sights before we left. Yes, yes, I remember now. I said no, but China started to cry, so we went. In a van. A red one. And we went to that house. And—then we were locked in . . . ”
Asa took notes, trying to keep up with the rush of words. “All right, ma’am. Do you remember anything else that could help us? We don’t want anything like this happening to another family.”
“She said her name, but I can’t remember what it was. Something like ‘Ukulele’ or one of those weird names you island people have.”
Flynn grimaced at Emma’s obvious racism. He’d have to apologize to Asa later. It wasn’t as though someone who called a child China had grounds to comment anyway.
“Right.” Yes, they were definitely tourists. “Anyway, the staff should be able to clear you folks after they’re done checking your daughters and husband out. When that’s done, you can come down to the station and get your personal effects, and everything is settled. Will that be all right?”
“Oh . . . I suppose so. Can’t someone bring our things here? Or better yet, the airport?” Emma looked hopeful. Flynn was even more so. The sooner they were on a plane and out of the country, the better.
Sighing, Asa ran a large hand over his short black hair. “You know what? I’ll bring it back here. I need to get to the station, file the rest of this paperwork. But I’m gonna come back to see my cousin. I’ll have your things then.” He stood and started out of the room, before anyone could object to that plan.
Flynn exhaled in relief, but it was short-lived. Emma rounded on him. “You need to come home with us!” She planted her hands on her hips and looked up at him, her big sister expression on her face.
“I’m not going home, Makani needs me.”
“We need you!” she insisted.
“Emma, you saw those monsters. I need to stay and . . . ”
“Shh!” She raised a finger to her lips and lowered her voice. “Do you want people to think we’re crazy? They weren’t there, they were just imaginary. A bad dream. Nothing more. The girls are scared enough, they need to forget what they saw.”
There was no arguing with her; she was obviously determined to block out the memory. All Flynn could do was nod and inch toward the door. “I’ll go and find you a lift to the airport.”
“For us! You’re coming, too!”
“Whatever, Em.” He had no intention of going back to Sydney today. He slipped out the door and went in search of Makani. He needed to talk to someone sane.
It took a long while to track her down. Makani had been bounced from the ER, to radiology, to the actual hospital. Flynn crept into her room and slid into the chair beside her bed. Makani was passed out, probably exhausted from all the action. He didn’t want to wake her. In fact, he wanted to crawl in beside her and sleep. He put his head down on the top of the covers and closed his eyes for a minute. It had been such a long day. He had to figure out what was real and what might have been some bizarre shared hallucination.
***
Cracked rib. Infected bite on her leg. The bloody wounds on her back had to be sutured in some places, glued together in others. The doctor said she was lucky it hadn’t gotten all the way down to her spine. All things considered, she was lucky to be alive. Interestingly, the doctor had ordered an MRI on her. Eventually, he said, they would want to run an EEG. Something about strange brain activity and telltale signs of a seizure. But at the moment, Makani was too exhausted to really absorb it all.
They installed her in another room, and told her to rest. But it was too hard to shut her brain down, even with all of the drugs running through her system. She was vaguely aware of Flynn’s presence.
She blinked at him, lips turning down in a frown. “Hey,” she whispered, and pushed his hair back with her fingers.
He opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey Sleeping Beauty. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been crushed.” Everything seemed better with Flynn around. “What about you?”
He exhaled. “I—” He was cut off as his phone rang. The sight of the name on the screen made him exhale again. “My mother.” He pressed the “accept” icon and put it to his ear.
“Mum! Yes, they’re fine . . . oh, Emma just rang you . . . ” He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not rolling my eyes, Mum. No, I’m not coming . . . yes, I know you’d like it if I came home but . . . Look, I have to go, I’ll call you later . . . No really, I have to go. No, don’t buy me a ticket, I can do that myself when the time comes. Yes, I promise I’ll call, okay? Bye.” He hung up the phone and sighed.
“Can we go back to that house now? It’d be easier to deal with than my family. They just don’t get that I have someone to stick around for. Emma is in denial. They’re all nuts,” he concluded.
“Maybe we’re the ones who are crazy?” She fiddled with the corner of the sheet. “Look, Flynn . . . maybe it’s better if you go? You’re only going to get hurt, if you stick around with me.” Her lips pressed together into a tight line and she whispered, “At this point, I don’t think anyone would blame you for leaving. Least of all, me.”
“You don’t want me to leave though, do you?” Where did the sudden insecurity come from? Probably the recent dealings with his relatives and their perception that he was the baby of the family.
Makani drew a deep breath and sighed. “No.” That was definitely true. “But aren’t you tired of all the craziness? The ridiculous things that follow me?”
“Annie’s okay,” he joked. “Who was the woman anyway? The old one, I mean. Was she the one causing it all?”
“I—think so.” She wasn’t certain. “I told you, I’ve seen her everywhere.” Makani sat up, wincing as she jostled all the hurt parts. “Kanashibari, is what it’s called. Choking ghost. You might know the phenomenon as ‘hagging.’ “
“I have no idea what that means,” he admitted. At least now he knew better than to suggest they google it.
“It’s used to describe the choking feeling. It really starts to get freaky when it comes with the vision of an old woman laughing at you. But science explains it as a seizure that attacks only when you’re sleeping, pressed face-first into the mattress.” She chewed her bottom lip, “This has happened before.”
“When? Wait a minute, that doesn’t explain why I saw her too. Unless I got hit on the head and don’t remember?” He looked even more confused.
“She’s followed me since . . . I don’t know. Forever.” She pulled her knees up to her chin, “I don’t know why you’re mixed up in this. If I could stop it, I swear I would!”
He took her hand in his. “I know you would. So, she’s some kind of ghost?”
“Yeah. Maybe? I don’t know. Another creature come to life because I have an over-active imagination.” She thought for a moment, squeezing his fingers. Something occurred to Makani, and she looked up with a frown on her face, “Do you think . . . whatever’s wrong with me, you might have a touch of it, too?”
“Like—it was something contagious that makes our minds create flesh-eating monsters?” He frowned. “If it was, you’d have passed it on to someone else by now. Unless . . . ” He gulped. “It’s a bizarre STI. Do you have any dead ex-boyfriends?”
“No! Not like that. More like a congenital disease. Something you have to be born with, and it affects people to varying degrees?” That would explain a lot of things, actually. Some people were more prone to seeing things, others saw nothing. And apparently, Makani was one of those people who created these things.
“Oh.” He sounded relieved. “Like being psychic? But Annie saw them, didn’t she? I know Emma did. Maybe the kids didn’t, maybe that’s why she was so rattled. They wouldn’t have known why she and Jason were so scared.”
“That mi
ght be true. Where is your family, anyway?” She realized the ward was quiet, a clear indication that they weren’t in the near vicinity.
“Probably getting cleaned up and booking their flights home. Or looking for me, so they can convince me to go, too.” He sighed and put his head back down on the bed. “At the risk of sounding like my nieces, I’m not going!” he declared.
“I guess that means I have to hide you then?” That made her smile, but a yawn quickly followed. “The drugs are finally taking hold . . . ”
“I . . . ” His voice trailed off as someone walked past the room. “My baby!” Flynn exclaimed. He jumped up and darted out the door, returning a few moments later cradling his precious camera. “I don’t know what you did, but it worked!” He grinned tiredly. “Your cousin just brought it in with my family’s stuff.” He sat back down, looking like a little boy at Christmas.
“Now you can breathe easy. I only saved the pictures before we brought it in.” She wrinkled her nose, and looked at Flynn through one eye, “You know, you might want a shower. You smell like smoke and gross stuff.”
“I love you, too,” he retorted. “Can I borrow your jeep? The five terrors want a ride to the airport. Then I can go home and shower and change. That way, I won’t smell like big sister and kid as well. Then I’ll sneak you in some decent food.”
“Yeah, go for it. As long as you don’t ditch it at the airport and go home without telling me.” The words came out as a mumble, her eyes already starting to close.
“I’m not leaving,” he said firmly. He kissed her forehead and slipped out, letting her get some rest.
CHAPTER 10
Flynn’s head was pounding. He ran a hand through his damp hair and climbed out of the jeep, the bag of food in his left hand. He was clean, but tired. The wait at the airport for his family’s plane had lasted for what seemed like hours. If he’d seen another tear or heard another word from Emma begging him to go with them, he might really have been arrested for their homicides. Of course, it was only because she cared, but Makani needed him as much as he needed her.
