Darkness Falls

by Trista Ann Michaels

  Aiden was the one who’d come up with the Halloweenfest idea. He wanted to play up the house’s rich and supposedly haunted history, and it would be a way to bring in a little tourism and boost the local economy. Once Halloween was over, they would have the house refurbished and opened as a haunted bed-and-breakfast. Noah had been all for it. It’s a shame it had to start on such a sour note.

  “Why don’t you ever want to talk about it anymore?” Aiden asked gently.

  “Talk about what?”

  “What you saw that night you stayed with Karen and I went with Gram.”

  Noah remained quiet, trying not to think about it.

  “I know you saw something, Noah. I don’t know what you saw, but I know it upset you. When are you going to finally talk about it?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about because I don’t remember what I saw. Not completely.”

  Aiden sighed but didn’t push, and Noah was grateful. He knew his brother believed him. Aiden could feel if he were lying. Noah could also feel Aiden’s frustration. Aiden could still fully remember the fear of that night, and because Aiden could, Noah did as well, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what had caused it.

  “Alana wants to keep investigating the house,” Aiden said so softly Noah wasn’t quite sure he’d heard him correctly.

  He glanced over at his brother. The worry lines deepened across his brow as he stared into his beer bottle. Noah could understand his concern, especially after what happened.

  Noah’s lips twisted. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

  “I’m going to be there as well. I asked her today if I could be a part of it. I don’t know that my presence alone would stop it from happening again, but maybe between the cameramen and myself, we can keep our eyes open for anything suspicious. Besides, I’m curious now as to what did this.”

  “Don’t you mean who did this?” Noah asked with amusement.

  Aiden scowled. “Who. What. Whatever.”

  Noah fought a grin. Granted, there wasn’t anything funny about this situation, but sometimes, despite what was going on, he couldn’t help but aggravate Aiden.

  He definitely needed to get a glimpse of this Alana to see what all the fuss was about, because there was apparently something about her that had Aiden in knots. His brother tried to hide it, but Noah could feel it just like he felt it every other time. They’d been that way since they were teenagers, and he doubted it would ever change. Even distance didn’t lessen the connection.

  Noah remained silent for a few seconds, then spoke. “I’ll agree to letting the plan continue unless things begin to get out of hand.”

  “Fair enough. Hopefully last night was a one-time event.”

  “From your mouth to God’s ears,” Noah replied drily.

  Chapter Three

  Alana walked quickly into the hospital, stifling a yawn as she passed the welcome desk. She had hardly slept at all last night. Her mind kept jumping from Lisa’s injuries to Aiden and how he’d looked at her while they were at the hotel.

  Just thinking about it now made her skin tingle. She could feel the rush of heat over her neck and cheeks, and she took a moment to compose herself before moving on to the elevator.

  The doors opened onto the fourth floor, and she stepped out, glancing down the hall toward her friend’s room. Lisa’s doctor stood at the nurses’ station, and Alana rushed forward, anxious for news.

  She lightly touched his arm to get his attention. “Dr. Logan?”

  He looked up and smiled at her. “Good morning. It’s Ms. James, correct?”

  “Yes. How’s Lisa?”

  Dr. Logan closed the file he’d been looking at and set it aside. “Awake and asking for you. I’m glad I saw you first, though.” He paused for a moment, and Alana tensed. “Lisa doesn’t remember anything from last night.”

  “What? Nothing at all?”

  Dr. Logan shook his head. “The last thing she remembers is boarding the plane in Atlanta. At first, she thought that maybe she’d been in a plane crash.”

  Alana’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Are you serious?”

  “I’m afraid so.” He held his hand up, stopping her from asking her next question. “This sort of thing isn’t uncommon in traumatic events. In time it may come back, or it may not. Don’t push her. Let her remember on her own time.”

  “Do you think she should go back to the house?”

  “That’s up to her.”

  Alana nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Logan. When can she go home?”

  “I would like to keep her one more day, just as a precaution.”

  Alana nodded again and walked around the doctor toward Lisa’s room. She knocked twice before gently pushing the heavy door open. “Hello? Are you decent?” Alana teased.

  “Of course I’m decent. Where the hell have you been?” Lisa asked in her usual brash manner.

  Alana smiled, relieved to see her back to normal. She stepped farther into the dark room, letting the door close behind her. “They wouldn’t let me stay,” she said, then glanced around at the dark interior. “Lord, woman. What do you think you are? A vampire?”

  She walked over and opened the blinds, allowing the morning sunshine to stream into the room. Lisa raised her hands to block her face. “No! The light! It burns!”

  Alana laughed. “Oh, shut up.”

  Lisa joined in, and Alana moved to sit on the side of the bed. The scratches on her face and arms looked much better this morning, although a couple of deeper ones still looked red and swollen.

  Alana reached out and finger-combed her friend’s dark brown curls. “You look so much better this morning.”

  Lisa’s smile faded. “What happened?” she asked softly.

  “You really don’t remember?”

  Lisa shook her head sadly, and Alana’s heart ached for her friend. How much should she tell her? Should she tell her anything at all? “You were investigating the house, and someone attacked you,” Alana said, deciding to tell her friend at least some of what happened.

  “Do you know who?”

  “No. No one was in the room except for you. Whatever or whoever it was shut the door, locking Keith out. Your digital camera didn’t catch anything either. Apparently there was a battery drain. Even drained that monstrosity the professional guys carry around.”

  Lisa’s eyes widened. “Really? I wish I could remember something.”

  “No you don’t,” Alana replied. “Trust me.”

  Tilting her head to the side, her friend frowned. Alana knew what was going through Lisa’s mind. It was obviously something bad if Alana didn’t want her to remember. Lisa opened her mouth to say something, but the door burst open and three members of their crew came rushing in.

  “Oh my God,” Lisa said, clapping her hands and giggling as Tray placed a huge plate of eggs, bacon, and biscuits on Lisa’s lap. “Thank you so much. This hospital food sucks.”

  “Yeah, I thought you might be needing something a little more…edible.”

  Alana laughed and tilted her head slightly, allowing Tray to kiss her cheek. “What’s this?” he asked as he gently fingered Alana’s straight hair.

  Lisa gasped and reached out to touch her hair as well. “I didn’t even notice it. You straightened it. You usually don’t do that because it takes so long.”

  Alana shrugged, dismissing it. “I had time. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

  Tray snickered. “Was it that you couldn’t sleep last night or didn’t want to sleep because Mr. Councilman had you occupied doing other things? I saw him escorting you down the hall to your room.”

  Lisa choked on her breakfast. “What? Did I miss something? Who’s Mr. Councilman? Is he talking about Aiden Barns?”

  “Yes,” Alana replied to Lisa first, then turned to scowl at Tray. “And no, he didn’t stay. He left right after he dropped me off.”

  “Oh, a quickie,” Tray teased.

  Alana grabbed a napkin off Lisa’s plate and threw it towar
d Tray. “Nothing happened, smart-ass.”

  “Give it time,” Tray said with more confidence than Alana felt. “I saw the way he looked at you at the hospital. That man is definitely in lust. And trust me, I know what that looks like.”

  Alana giggled despite herself. Tray definitely knew what men’s lust looked like. He was gay, after all.

  “Even if he did, that doesn’t mean I’m interested.”

  “Oh, you’re interested.”

  Alana glanced toward Lisa who watched her with a hint of amusement and just a little concern. No help from that direction.

  “You might as well give it up. You can’t argue with Tray,” Lisa said, her lips twitching as she tried to fight an all-out smile.

  Alana scrunched her nose at Lisa. She couldn’t get over the difference between Lisa last night and Lisa now. Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t remember what had happened. She glanced at Tray, who pointed the tip of his index finger toward his forehead. Apparently, he’d been told as well, and Alana nodded in silent understanding. For now, they would follow Lisa’s lead. If she wanted to talk about it, they would. If not, they wouldn’t.

  * * *

  Noah strolled through the massive house, studying the paneling along the second-floor hallway. Where was that damn entrance? He knew it had to be here somewhere. He remembered his Gram talking about using it to sneak into someone’s room at the far end of the hall when she was a child.

  He hadn’t been in this house since he was a teenager, since before he’d left for college. The place gave him the creeps. It had always had this underlying sense of evil about it. It had ever since he and Aiden had spent those few days apart. He frowned. Why were there so many blanks concerning that weekend?

  He’d asked Karen numerous times, but she’d brushed things off, telling him not to worry about it. He’d had a bad nightmare, nothing more. Deep down Noah had known it was so much more than that, but could never put it all together and had eventually given up, deciding to trust Karen and her insistence that it had been nothing.

  Karen had been like a second mother to him and Aiden. He remembered so little about his own mother. She’d disappeared when he and Aiden were very young, leaving them with an indifferent and mostly absent father. Gram and Karen had been their saviors, keeping him and his brother out of trouble.

  With a sigh, he wiped his palm along the smooth paneling, feeling for the hidden mechanism along the raised design in the wainscoting. All the mechanisms were the same throughout the house; it was just a matter of finding where they were hidden.

  A cold shudder worked its way down his spine, and he shivered, trying to ignore the icy fingers of dread. He shook his head, fighting the sensations. Frowning, he realized it wasn’t the first time he’d felt those sensations, and he knew instinctively it had to do with the house—something that had happened in the house or close to it.

  He shook his head, trying to figure it out. Something just out of his reach; something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  This was insane. Ghosts didn’t exist. Psychics didn’t exist. Premonitions didn’t exist. The connection between him and his brother shouldn’t exist either, but that one he couldn’t deny. He could ignore it, downplay it, or fight it, but he couldn’t deny it.

  Pushing the sensations aside, he rubbed his palm along the wood. Dust flew into the air, swirling around him, highlighted by the morning sun as it shone through the dusty glass of the bedroom to his left. A breeze blew through the open window at the end of the hall, blowing the dust into his nose. He sneezed, and the sound reverberated through the empty hall.

  “Damn.” He wiped at his watering eyes.

  The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the feeling of being watched washed over him. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced toward the end of the hall, unsure what he might see but expecting something. He could feel it.

  A young woman, her age indiscernible, stood at the far end staring at him. She had long blonde hair and a slim build. Something about her seemed familiar, as though he’d seen her before, but he couldn’t think of where. She was dressed in an old, faded dress and had a look in her eyes that made Noah’s muscles tighten.

  He’d seen that look in women before—women who’d been abused, tormented.

  He frowned. “You shouldn’t be in here,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”

  The woman just continued to stare, and Noah got a weird sensation in the pit of his stomach. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” he asked.

  She glanced around Noah’s shoulder toward the other end of the hall in fear, and Noah turned to see what had upset her. There was nothing there, so he turned back to the girl, only to find the end of the hall empty. He scowled and took off running toward that end.

  “Hey!” he yelled, looking into the bedrooms for the woman who had disappeared. “I’m not going to hurt you, but you need to get out of this house.”

  Silence.

  He stood at the end of the hall, scowling. Where had she gone?

  * * *

  Aiden glanced up from the computer screen just as his brother opened the door to his office and stepped in. Noah never wore a uniform and instead dressed in street clothes, jeans and shirts usually. No one minded. Noah was one of the best sheriffs they’d ever had, so how he dressed was of little concern.

  Noah had a strange look on his face, one that made Aiden uneasy. The tension and fatigue in Noah washed over Aiden. Something had most definitely startled his brother, and Aiden was curious as to what it was.

  “Did you find anything?” Aiden asked.

  Noah frowned and dropped into the leather chair across from Aiden’s desk. “Yes and no.”

  “Okay. What does that mean, exactly?”

  Noah leaned his elbow onto the armrest and lifted his hand to rub his fingers across his lips. “Well. I didn’t find the main entrance on the second floor, at least not yet, but I did find the one on the third floor and the one from the main level to the attic.”

  Aiden raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Anything out of place?”

  “No. It’s just as dusty and filled with cobwebs as I remember, although there are some…footprints, disturbances in the dust covering the floor, like someone’s been walking around.”

  “Well, that is how we believe the guy got into the room without being seen,” Aiden pointed out.

  Noah narrowed his eyes, glancing at him in irritation.

  Aiden’s lips twitched slightly. “Isn’t there an entrance to the second level within the lower passageway?”

  “Maybe. I can’t remember.” Noah stared thoughtfully out the window.

  “What’s up, Noah?”

  “A very bad feeling.” He turned his gaze back to Aiden. “I saw a girl there today. Looked to be somewhere in her twenties, maybe.”

  Aiden sat back in his chair, stunned. “A girl?”

  “Yeah, but she… Something behind me scared her. I turned to see what it was, but by the time I turned back, she was gone.”

  Aiden raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

  Noah scowled. “Don’t look at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like I’ve lost my mind.”

  Laughing, Aiden made his chair swivel back and forth. “I don’t think you’ve lost your mind. She has to know where the passages are, that’s all, and while you were turned, she ran into one.”

  Noah looked thoughtful again. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “So do I need to give you that speech about falling for all this ghost-hunter crap?”

  Noah slowly stood. “Oh, you’re just loving this, aren’t you?” Aiden chuckled softly as his brother pointed a finger at him and continued to bark off orders. “Just keep an eye out, would ya? And keep looking for that entrance. It has to be there somewhere. I thought I could remember where the one in the hall was, but I couldn’t find it. The ones in the bedroom have to be opened from inside the passage. You can exit the passage, then reenter through the bedroom,
but you can’t access it from the bedroom without unlocking it from the inside first. And before you ask, I checked, and the one in the bedroom was locked from the inside.”

  Aiden frowned. “I always thought that was strange, the way that was set up.”

  “I can’t believe you don’t remember any of this. Karen said they were set up that way because her father kept sex slaves locked in the bedrooms for government parties and special occasions concerning the governor. That way the men could secretly get into the room, but the girls couldn’t get out.”

  Aiden shuddered and shook his head. “Karen had a strange family history, didn’t she?”

  “No kidding,” Noah replied drily. “This whole thing with Lisa has to be someone’s idea of a sick joke. Whoever it was knew they were coming and set this up. I’d bet my badge on it. That woman I saw today could possibly be part of it. Just keep an eye on things while you’re out there tonight. Don’t let the women go off alone or even with just one cameraman. Make sure everyone stays together in groups.”

  “Aren’t you coming?”

  Noah shook his head and turned to leave. “I have to cover a shift at the station. Derek is on his honeymoon, remember?”

  Aiden scratched at his cheek and the stubble he’d forgotten to shave that morning. “Yeah. I forgot.”

  “And shave before you go out there. You look like something the cat dragged in.”

  Aiden made a face at his brother’s back as he left his office. Yeah, he knew he looked scruffy, but he’d overslept.

  “Sue me,” he grumbled.

  * * *

  Alana stood at the van, trying her best not to drool as Aiden walked across the yard toward them. He’d changed into jeans, his freshly shaved face all handsome and tan, his shoulders wide and mouthwatering beneath the cotton of his T-shirt. The blue denim of his jeans hugged lean hips, and the cool early-fall wind ruffled his hair and stirred dead leaves around his feet as he walked. She licked her lips before she could stop herself.

  Tray slapped her back, jolting her back to reality. “Ow,” she growled, grasping her shoulder with her free hand.