The Death Series, Books 1-3

by Blodgett, Tamara Rose

  We could've hear a pin drop it was so quiet.

  “Ah hell, nothing's going to happen here,” Jonesy said, dejected. He grabbed the flashlight out of my hands. “Hey!” I yelled.

  He planted it under his face and started making the idiot grins people do under LEDs. Funny, he looked like the ghosts we weren't seeing. It was just the thing that cracked the group up, tension escaping like steam under a door.

  Without warning, while Jonesy capered about, a green luminescent shape rose up over Jonesy, hovering for an instant above his head. Swooping down, it speared through his chest, Tiff and I leaping forward, my hand reaching for the vague shape.

  Jonesy shrieked like he was being stabbed, “It's cold! It's a ghostsicle! Get it out off me!”

  Tiff reached it before me, and I used the hand that wasn't now latched on to Jade to grab that opaque emerald. Instantly warmth bathed wherever I touched.

  Tiff's eyes widened and held my gaze. “Pull!” I shouted over the chaos. Bry tried to wrench Tiff away while John and Sophie were reaching for Jonesy. My Empath girlfriend caught between and as green as the ghost.

  Tiff understood and wrenched the ghost through Jonesy's chest where just a snippet of its form was. She wrapped it in her fist, with my left hand around her balled hand, my right wrapped around Jade. And we pulled, not with our hands but with our combined power.

  The ghost made a popping sound as it was extracted through Jonesy like hot taffy, who collapsed on his butt. “It's a brain freeze, but in the body!” John and Sophie crouched beside him, but I had bigger fish to fry.

  The ghost hovered about us, it looked like a man. I looked down and a part of it was like a rope to where our hands still held it. Tiff looked at me and we let it go. Like taffy, that rope snapped back into the ghost's form, making a sucking noise like water down a drain.

  Onyx had been barking the whole time. “Quiet boy.”

  The Dog did not like this cold, dead-smelling thing. The Dog knew the Boy was dominant and he did not have to Protect, but the Dog did not like it.

  Bry came up behind Tiff. “What is it?”

  “A ghost, dumb-ass,” Tiff whispered.

  Tiff, so delicate with her wording. Bry gave her a glare, sibling love.

  Onyx growled.

  “Shh... Onyx.”

  The ghost seemed to know what I was, gliding forward.

  My hand moved forward, looking up into the ghost's semblance of eyes and moved my hand through its form. It felt like bathwater, at once semi-solid and warm, right and good. Tiff tried, her eyes widening as she gazed up at the tall figure, its color shimmering in the ambient moonlight.

  “So warm, like fur,” Tiff said.

  Our eyes met. “Like bath water,” I said.

  “It's the same, but different,” John said. “You're AFTD but different people, your perceptions are different.”

  “That damn thing is not warm! It's cold as hell!”

  “That's an oxymoron,” Sophie said smugly.

  “I know what I felt!” Jonesy huffed.

  “Everyone knows hell is hot, dope,” Bry said.

  “Whatever! That thing is cold as hell!”

  I turned back to the ghost and it swung its head toward Jonesy.

  I felt its agitation.

  “I don't think it likes you,” I said to Jonesy.

  Jonesy backed up.

  Jade leaned forward and I caught her hand. “Maybe not.”

  “I can't hide behind you all the time, Caleb.”

  “I don't mind.” Leaning down, I kissed the tip of her nose, which coincided with her whipping her hand out and grabbing the ghost. It let out a shriek that reverberated in the house, she took it by surprise. Tiff and I reacted to that, the ghost jettisoning off straight up through the ceiling to the second floor.

  Jade snatched her hand back, cradling it against her chest. “Not smart Jade!” Tiff yelled.

  “God, you could have been hurt! We don't know what we're dealing with here!” I was scared, shaking her by the shoulders, what had she been thinking?

  “I was.”

  “You were what?” I asked.

  “It did hurt me.”

  “I wanna see,” Jonesy said, rushing forward.

  We all stood in a circle around Jade, she was the shortest one in the group so we all had a good view.

  Slowly taking her hand away from her chest she showed us what looked like a burn, just shy of the blistering kind. It was the worst in the webbing which connects the thumb and index finger. I touched a finger lightly to the worst spot.

  “Yeah, it's tender.”

  “Was it hot?” Jonesy asked.

  Jade shook her head.

  “Cold?” John guessed.

  “Yeah... like colder than anything I've ever touched.”

  “Kinda like that time Carson put his wet tongue to that frozen utility pole,” Jonesy smiled, remembering.

  “And you pelted him with snowballs,” John said.

  “Ah-huh, that was the time,” Jonesy said in that dreamy tone.

  “Okay, so we know that they're dangerous,” Bry said.

  “Not to them,” John said.

  Everyone looked at Tiff and I. Awkwardness.

  Tiff said, “That's good, right? I mean, that's the whole reason Jonesy thought we should come, we're the...”

  “Contingency plan,” I finished.

  “Yeah, that,” Tiff agreed.

  I bent down and kissed Jade's hand and she smiled.

  “All better,” I said.

  “Pretty angry looking,” Sophie said, looking closely at it.

  “Yeah, it's a war wound,” Jonesy said, eyes cutting to the staircase.

  “Ah-no, haven't we had enough excitement for tonight?” John asked.

  “Never!” Jonesy enthused, running over to the base of the staircase, Onyx at his heels.

  “Wait a sec.... where did that ghost go?” Tiff asked.

  I pointed above my head and we all looked up at the ceiling.

  Jade said, “I'm game but no touchy.”

  I squeezed her head underneath my chin, holding her. “It doesn't seem like the ghost meant to.”

  “No,” Jonesy said. “It definitely didn't want to freeze my nuts off!”

  Bry and John laughed.

  Thanks Jonesy, so reassuring. “What I meant was, I think Jade took it..”

  “... him,” Tiff clarified.

  Right, definitely male, “... him, by surprise. He gave her the ice blast because she startled him.”

  “It's a guy ghost ?” Sophie asked.

  “Yeah,” Tiff said.

  “Wow, hate to see what he'd do to really freeze us,” Jonesy said.

  “He was warm to us,” Tiff said.

  John said, “It's the AFTD thing. You guys are like the same element or something.”

  “It was scared when I touched it,” Jade said.

  “Evil?” John asked.

  “Not really but, it could be. He could be.”

  “I bet they got personalities!” Jonesy chortled.

  “They do,” Jade said.

  He stopped laughing, John and Bry's smile slipping from their faces.

  Tiff stepped forward. “They do?”

  “He did,” Jade said.

  Whoa. “What did he think or whatever?” I asked.

  “He didn't exactly think, I just got feelings about him being disturbed and then there were some random images of his life here.”

  “Wait a sec, Jade, you're not AFTD?” Tiff clarified.

  “No, Empath.”

  “So how does she know anything about what it, okay, sorry, he thought?”

  “I was holding her when she swiped the ghost. We've noticed in the past that I can put the zombies back into the ground better if I am touching Jade,” I said.

  “Back-in-box, back-in-box,” Jonesy sang.

  “Jonesy, come on,” Bry said.

  Bry stated his question, “His life here?”

  “Yeah, he was th
e caretaker guy here,” Jade said.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let's cruise the upstairs really fast then maybe we can rip by the hideaway after.”

  “I don't know, that's way across town,” John said.

  “Who doesn't have a bike?” I asked.

  Jonesy raised his hand.

  “Be a peg-rider, dude,” Bry said.

  “For five miles?” Jonesy asked.

  “Who's driving?” John asked.

  Our collective attention turned to Bry. He was the smart one that brought up the peg idea.

  “Oh come on! He can't last five miles on my pegs.”

  “Can you?” A direct challenge from the sister.

  Bry's eyes narrowed to slits. “Yeah, I can do it.”

  John clapped his hand together. “Settled then!”

  Jonesy air-pumped. “Let's investigate!”

  “Wait!” I said, arcing the LED in the air toward Jonesy, who smoothly caught it.

  He took the steep steps two at a time never slowing down, Onyx at his heels.

  Bry and John racing after him, John slipped and nailed a knee on the way up. “Ouch, damn,” he said, cupping the offended joint, jumping up the rest in an ungainly frog hop.

  Jade, Tiff and I climbed the steps with Sophie slightly ahead. It was dark and I held the railing in a death grip because the light was utterly non-existent here.

  At the top of the staircase stood the gang, mouths agape, looking at the scene in front of them.

  Wisps of luminescent figures twirled and sailed about, lighting the area with their phosphorescent glow, frantically gliding back and forth, agitated. There were “eye-windows” on either end of the eaves, caressing the floorboards, but the ceiling was really tall down the central section of the roof. We couldn't have touched it if we tried.

  Jonesy looked less enthusiastic than earlier and inching closer to the staircase by the second. Our male ghost hovered in the middle, looking intimidating. But I wasn't worried, he hadn’t been hostile to Tiff and me. But he'd hurt Jade and about frozen Jonesy's jewels off, caution was good.

  Tiff looked at the agitated ghosts. “They're kids.”

  That made me stare. They were swirling so furiously that it was hard to tell... but, I thought she was right.

  I didn't want to leave Jade. I looked at Bry, he nodded. Guy-speak, a wonderful thing.

  He moved closer to Jade and I said, “Be right back.”

  Tiff followed me, turning around once to look at John. “I'm shielding,” he said.

  I kept approaching. The large male ghost was hovering and I was seeing more of him this time. Tiff looked at me with wide eyes, our hair starting to rise off our heads, floating with static electricity. The small ghosts hovered around us, slowing their frenetic spinning, calming. We stood in front of the one big ghost, it held out what had once been hands, and Tiff and I each took an opaque “hand.”

  Images flowed into our minds; reverse history. We saw his death, in broken images, like a kaleidoscope rapidly spinning backwards, colors and shapes, jagged loneliness and care-taking, feelings of accomplishing, then... a lonely death here in this house, with no one to take care of him.

  “So sad,” Tiff said through clenched teeth.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  But the images weren't done. We saw the ghost's pain as children were killed and he could do nothing. He took care of their spirits, that much he could do. He was still the caretaker for the dead.

  He dropped our hands and floated back.

  His message was clear, we could speak for these dead children.

  We could do what he could not.

  “Wow,” Tiff said.

  “Yeah.”

  We moved back and the ghosts returned to swirling again.

  The evilness of his message began to sink in. Children had been murdered here. Kids. Like us. Tiff and I looked at each other.

  Jonesy said, “What's the deal?”

  I said slowly, “The deal is, he is the care-taker of a bunch of dead kids.”

  “Told you!” Jonesy said.

  “What?” Bry asked.

  “I told everyone that some boy had died here.”

  “Jonesy's right, he did say that a boy died here,” John said.

  Jonesy scowled at John. “And, there's a helluva lot more than just one.” He indicated the ghosts floating and diving in the background, holographic in the moonlight.

  We all looked at them, Sophie said, “Why are we seeing them?”

  “I got this,” Tiff said. “I did read all the stuff...”

  You did? Sophie mouthed silently.

  “Ah-huh, and us AFTDs,” she looked at me and I shrugged, I didn't know, “give off an aura so others can see stuff like ghosts.”

  “So, if Caleb and you take off, then they disappear?”

  “It sounds that way,” John said.

  “Shit, that's swift,” Jonesy said, impressed.

  The greater point of the murdered children was being lost to the jack-in-the-box ghosts.

  Bry chuckled. “He does have a way with words.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed but was thinking about all we'd seen. The horror of it felt like a splinter in my head.

  “We'll have to do something about this,” Tiff said.

  “I know,” I said, grabbing Jade's hand, comforted by the solidness of it after the creeping warmth of “our” ghost.

  “I wanna see if they'll disappear, Caleb,” Jonesy said.

  “Jonesy, give it a rest,” I said.

  “Yeah, let's book. I want to check out this hideout you guys have,” Bry said, glancing again at the ghosts.

  John stood, mesmerized. “Not every day you see ghosts.”

  “Yeah, they're kinda pretty,” Sophie said.

  Jonesy raised both eyebrows, uncomprehending.

  Jade nodded in agreement with Sophie.

  Our group headed down the stairs. Jade, Tiff and I lingered. A palatable weight hung over us. Breaking contact, we climbed back down the stairs.

  Walking through the door we shut it softly behind us, the sadness and horror clinging like smoke to our bodies.

  CHAPTER 31

  Coming out into the moonlight we sucked great gulps of fresh air into our lungs, trying to expunge the cloying feeling of claustrophobia the house had given us.

  “Okay, so... let's shake that off,” Jonesy said.

  “Maybe you can but not me, not for awhile,” Sophie shivered.

  I agreed. It'd be awhile before Tiff and I would get over that.

  Jade looked around, seeing the group lounging by the gate. “Let's pulse the adults.”

  Bry said, “Great idea, mom's going to have a kitten if we don't check in.”

  Tiff nodded, letting her brother pulse for the pair. One by one we shoved our pulses back into their respective spots and looked around.

  Jonesy got a strange light in his eyes. “What do ya think...” he began.

  “No.” John said.

  “Right. What he said,” Jade agreed.

  Bry said, “What, Jonesy?”

  Tiff waggled a finger. “You don't know Jonesy that well Bry, he gets these ideas,” she made the universal choking gesture with both hands around her throat, “that usually get us all in trouble.”

  “Oh, I don't know about that, so far the night's been pretty exciting,” he said, smiling.

  “See, there's a dude that knows how to keep the adventure rolling!” Jonesy said, giving Bry guy acknowledgment.

  My watch said it was only eleven; felt like hours had passed.

  “Looks like we got the green light to do more screwin' around. Let's see who we can jerk outta the pasture here Caleb.” Jonesy said, thumb in the direction of the old graveyard at our backs.

  “Nah, I don't want to. I've had enough for tonight. And with ghosts so close, I don't know. Things could go bad. Besides, it seems wrong to do it for sport or something.”

  “The element of surprise!” Jonesy said, ignoring me.

  Bry blan
ched. “Would it be like Scenic?”

  “May have been because Gran was a relative,” I said.

  “Well that one zombie, Chris, Claude...” Jade began.

  “Clyde,” I supplied.

  “That's him!” she remembered.

  “Yeah, he seems more aware,” John said.

  “What do you mean? I've never seen the zombie trick.” Sophie said.

  “It's not a trick,” Tiff said, offended.

  “I didn't mean anything by it, I'm just sayin'...”

  “Caleb's raised this particular zombie, what, three times?” John looked at me for confirmation, I nodded. “So each time he comes back he seems to be...”

  “Smarter,” I said.

  “Yes,” John agreed.

  “Last time he seemed to communicate with the other zombies like a captain or something,” Jade said.

  “Captain of the Zombie Guard!” Jonesy laughed.

  Right... so funny, not-laughing.

  “I don't want a repeat of the Gran Incident,” Bry said.

  “Yeah, that went pretty sideways,” Tiff agreed.

  “And then Garcia and his creepy partner showed up...” Bry began.

  “McGraw,” I added.

  “Yeah, him,” Bry said with gravity.

  We were all quiet for a little bit.

  “So Garcia's corrupt?” John speculated.

  “It's lookin' that way, I don't know for sure. But they're pairing mundanes with paranormals now and McGraw was quick to show us he was an Elemental, sorta like a threat,” I said.

  “Wait, I hadn't heard they had decided that, pairing mundanes and paranormals,” John said.

  “They haven't, but Ward and Gale said that it was going to be a permanent rule or whatever soon,” I said.

  “A sanction?” Bry clarified.

  I nodded.

  “That makes sense. Look at what would happen if a bonehead like Carson decided to do crime professionally.” Everyone nodded their agreement. “And two regular cops showed up?” Jade stated.

  “Sish-kabobs! Cop-kabobs!” Jonesy yelled, making the up in flames noise.

  Nice visual.

  “The original human torch,” Bry agreed.

  “My point exactly. There's got to be a counter for that level of power, like a John,” she said.

  We all looked at him. “Bet there's a ton of Nulls on the force,” Bry stated logically.