Rest Stop (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 4)

by Catie Rhodes

  “Okay, his father then.” Griff spoke slowly, more to himself than to us. “Issue there is I can’t picture him doing any kind of spellwork, even if it was to help his crop along or to fix a sick cow.”

  “Oh, honey, don’t be naive,” Mysti said. “The family that spells together…” She trailed off. “I don’t know a word to rhyme, but I’d bet almost anything the whole family was into magic of some sort.”

  “It’s not too late to go out and confront Lewis DeVoss,” Griff started the SUV.

  “But what will we say? We can’t go in there hollering about him practicing witchcraft.” I snorted. “He’ll shoot us. Mount our heads on the wall.”

  “The death certificate,” Mysti said. “Thing’s probably illegal if there’s no record of it with the State of New Mexico.”

  “Eh. I’ll think of something.” Griff backed out of his parking space and cruised through Nazareth. Mysti and Griff kept up a steady chatter, speculating about Lewis DeVoss, at times arguing. I stared out the window at the passing town. Something felt different about the town, as though someone pulled a thin film over it while we were stopped at the park. Things seemed cleaner and newer. More cars lined the streets, and all of them were old ones.

  “Wonder if they’re having an antique car show tonight?” I asked. Neither Griff nor Mysti heard me, and I didn’t bother to repeat myself. I had a feeling I recognized from dreams, the knowledge things didn’t make sense mixed with a lack of concern. It would all turn out okay in the end.

  Griff picked up speed as we left town. The feeling of unreality heightened for me as I stared out over the moonlit pastures. It seemed darker. Things moved in the shadows, just outside the edge of my vision. A few times, I thought I almost caught something before it blended into the nightscape, but I was always too late.

  “Y’all, I think this is a bad idea.” I raised my voice, but Griff and Mysti seemed locked in their own little world, separate from mine. I repeated myself. Griff glanced into the rearview mirror and his eyes widened.

  “You sick, Peri Jean? Want me to pull over?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Something’s not right. It’s like there’s things I can’t quite see. Shadows.”

  The rest area came up on the right. It took me several seconds to realize what was wrong. The place was lit up like opening night at a catfish buffet, the kind where kids ate free. Griff let off the gas and put on his turn signal.

  “Don’t stop,” I yelled. If Griff stopped, we’d disappear forever. Suddenly, I had a really good idea what the people who disappeared saw.

  “What? Don’t stop? Why? I don’t want you puking in my ride.” He pressed down on the brakes. Next to him, Mysti drew in a whooping breath.

  “Don’t stop.” Panic raised her voice. “Don’t stop. It’s a trap.” She swatted Griff’s arm.

  “What the…” Griff gunned the engine, shooting past the rest stop. The sudden takeoff made something roll out from underneath his seat. The snow globe came to rest against my feet. All the oxygen left my body, and all my spit dried up. My heart stuttered and roared to life. I wanted to tell Griff or Mysti, but I couldn’t move.

  At my feet, the snow globe lit up. Inside was the rest stop at night. A car sped through, leaving a green blur, and disappeared. He was coming. Camden was coming. I had to warn Griff and Mysti.

  I commanded my hand to reach down and pick up the snow globe so I could show it to the others. It lay in my lap, immobile and numb. Mentally, I shook myself. I couldn’t freeze up like this. Not when other people depended on me.

  “Griff,” I croaked.

  “What is it?”

  “The snow globe’s back here with me. It’s showing the rest stop. I saw—I mean, I think I saw—Camden’s car leave.” I sucked in a shaking breath. “He’s coming after us.”

  Griff glanced in the rearview. “I don’t see him. Maybe if we make it out to the main highway…” Griff pressed down on the accelerator, and the big engine responded with a roar. We shot through the dark night, headlights showing a little of the road ahead at a time. The headlights caught something shiny, just a flicker. Then, out of the darkness, Camden’s ugly old car appeared. Griff slammed on the brakes. The tires squalled their displeasure. The car still rushed toward us.

  Too late. Too late. Too late. My mind cried the words over and over like a song caught in my head. Mysti’s scream rattled my eardrums, and I tried to brace myself. Fear gripped me so hard my jaw hurt.

  “Noooooooo,” Griff yelled.

  We hit Camden’s car. Loose items flew forward. My seatbelt bit into my chest and forced the air from my lungs. I had a second to watch the SUV’s hood crumpling and a spider’s web of cracks appear on the windshield. Then my head snapped back at the impact, a sunburst of pain forming in my neck. I slammed back into the seat hard enough to wake up the old injury in my lower back. The world stilled, and I drifted.

  The sound of metal grinding together and shrieking jerked me awake. The world was black, the moon hidden by banks of dark clouds. The SUV began to move. I tried to call out to Griff and Mysti, but my chest hurt too bad. I drifted off again.

  The squeal of a big door rolling up on a track woke me the second time. I sucked in a deep breath, and my ribs screamed in protest. The salty, metallic taste of my own blood running down the back of my throat and filling my mouth nearly gagged me. A little examination made me think I’d just bitten my lip or tongue. I opened my eyes. Bright, artificial light filtered into the SUV’s windows. A thunderbolt of pain throbbed in the middle of my forehead, like my sinuses were full to bursting. Darkness flashed behind my eyes. My vision wavered. Stop this, Peri Jean. Toughen up. I couldn’t afford the luxury of pampering my hurts. I rubbed my face hard and tried to shake it off. Now I could see the shape of Griff’s shoulder and Mysti’s head.

  “You two alive?” I barely heard my own voice.

  “Think so,” Mysti said. “How did Camden do it? How’d he get the car around that curve and ahead of us?”

  I didn’t know, so I said, “Who pulled us off the road?” Ghosts can’t tow vehicles. Someone on the living plane had moved the SUV.

  Mysti moaned in answer to my question. The metal door I’d heard coming up slid down and hit the ground with a final sounding bang. Mysti and I both jumped.

  “Griff?” I reached out and touched his shoulder but got no response.

  “Is he…” I couldn’t say it.

  “No. He’s breathing,” Mysti said. “I think the airbag knocked him out.”

  “We gotta get out of here,” I said. “Will your door open?”

  “I can’t leave Griff.”

  I dropped back against the seat. She was right. We couldn’t leave him.

  “Where’s the shotgun?” I asked.

  “I saw it go flying when we hit,” Griff said, his voice thick. “You two okay?”

  “My collarbone’s hurt,” Mysti said.

  “I think I’m just bruised,” I said. “What about you?”

  “My knee hit the dashboard,” Griff said. “I’m not going to be able to go far on foot. I want the two of you to go out the cargo door in the back and get help.”

  I knew Mysti wouldn’t leave Griff without having to ask. No way in hell I’d leave them. Nazareth was a good five miles away. If I couldn’t get a car to stop for me, I’d have to walk the whole way. The odds of me making it back in time to help Griff and Mysti were dismal. But I could find that shotgun and use it to protect us. I unbuckled my seatbelt and raised myself off the seat. Something punched into Griff’s door and wrenched it open.

  “Hold it right there, ma’am, and I mean don’t move a muscle.”

  “He’s got a gun, Peri Jean.” Griff’s voice cracked. “Sit back down.”

  I turned around and saw Lewis DeVoss pointing a huge, silver revolver at us. Large caliber, too, judging by the chambers in the cylinder.

  “I want you all three to step out of the vehicle.” Lewis backed away from the SUV, far enough away he’d have
time to shoot us if we rushed him.

  “We’re hurt. I’m not even sure I can walk,” Griff said. I figured he was stalling, so I peered out the SUV’s window, searching for weapons or exits.

  Another car sat next to us. I squinted at it, knew I was seeing something familiar, but didn’t know quite know what. My addled mind clicked into gear. It hit me. I bit back a silly, frivolous, unnecessary scream. Sometimes there is no help for horror.

  Next to us sat the car we hit out on 231, the one Susie Franklin took her last ride in. The car was rusted out, on blocks, and had its hood up. It hadn’t been anywhere in years. Though I already guessed the car was part of Camden’s ghost realm, seeing it like this, obviously out of commission, spooked me more than Lewis DeVoss’s hand cannon. Mysti saw the expression on my face and turned to see what I saw. She let out a long wail which expressed my feelings perfectly.

  “Shut up.” DeVoss issued the command in a conversational tone, sort of the same way you’d ask someone how they liked this weather.

  Mysti continued howling. I didn’t blame her. I wished I could do something to ease the tide of horror building in my mind and eating up all rational thought, but I couldn’t even move. I was too scared.

  “Shut her up.” DeVoss stuck the gun in Griff’s face. “And get both these women out of the damn vehicle.”

  I might have been about to die, but DeVoss’s tone pissed me off. I yanked on my door, ready to confront him. The pain hit like a clap of thunder. The wreck had pulled something in my neck. I writhed in the seat, barely able to keep from whining. DeVoss opened my door and pulled me out. I dropped to the dirt floor of his barn hard enough to jar the air out of my lungs again. A beehive of pain took up residence in my side where the seatbelt bit into me. I gasped at the intensity of it.

  “Come on, sir. Get on out,” DeVoss said. “You make me shoot you, won’t be no killing shot. I’ll shoot that knee you’re favoring. Shoot your lady in her hand.”

  I lolled in the dirt, trying to gather my strength. I thought I could fight Lewis DeVoss with Griff’s help. Anger and defiance made me feel strong enough to lasso the world and whip it into submission. Mysti would help. The three of us could bring him down.

  DeVoss walked off while I battled the haze of pain and fury clouding my head. Water splashed in a basin, but I couldn’t turn my head enough to see. His footsteps came back. Cold water washed over me.

  “Wake up, you stupid bitch. I ain’t carrying you.”

  I heard a pop. DeVoss grunted and tripped over me. I wiped water out of my eyes in time to see Griff slide out of the SUV. He must have hit DeVoss with the door. Griff put his good foot on the dirt and held his other one aloft. I rolled toward DeVoss, searching the dirt for his revolver. If I could get my hands on it, we could beat him. DeVoss rolled over, and I heard the click-click-click of him pulling back the hammer on his monstrous revolver.

  “All right. I’m done fooling around with you meddlers. Get your asses over there in those chairs by the time I count ten.” He leveled the gun at my arm. “You don’t, and I’m gonna be blowing off arms and legs. You’ll live a long time ‘fore you die, and it’ll hurt even more’n it’s going to.”

  I turned my head, worried by the cracking sound my neck made, to see where Lewis pointed. What I saw made me dizzy with fear.

  Three straight back wooden chairs were backed up against a far wall. All three had shackles attached to the legs and the armrests. Near the shackles, the chair’s wood bore deep gouges and scars. Dark spatters dotted the boards behind the chairs. Long lines trailed from the stains where something had run. Blood. I bet it’s blood. My skin tightened.

  I met Griff’s gaze, and he nodded at me and mouthed “Go on.” He turned away from me and went around the SUV to help Mysti out. She yelped in pain. A few seconds later the two rounded the vehicle, supporting each other. I found out how many of the muscles in my neck I used to get to a standing position. It screamed the whole damn time. The three of us limped to the chairs. We were going to die in this musty corner of Hell.

  “Try not to look at the chairs,” DeVoss said. “It’ll make the waiting worse. Scareder you are, worse it’ll be on the other side.”

  The other side. Did he mean Camden’s killing room? “What’s the other side?”

  “Where you going.” DeVoss followed us and began attaching the chairs to chains suspended from the metal ceiling beams. “Where you stepped into when you stopped in that stupid rest stop. You’s a goner soon as he saw you through the snow globe, soon as he felt what you are.”

  “What does Camden think I am?” I asked.

  “Power for him to eat and absorb. My boy’s a smart one, he is.” DeVoss stepped to the edge of the half circle and pointed his gun at us. “Now y’all sit in those chairs and buckle up.”

  We stared at him. I considered running again but knew I wouldn’t be faster than a bullet. Plus, I couldn’t leave Mysti and Griff. By the time I got back, it would be too late.

  “Y’all gonna cooperate? Or am I gonna shoot out some kneecaps? Don’t matter what I do to you, long as you’re alive when I bring Camden in.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting your son do this?” Hysteria made my words tangle together, but DeVoss understood fine.

  “This is my son,” he said “The last blood I got.”

  Terror, colder and more unforgiving than the darkest night of winter, swept through me, filling me, and choking off my sanity.

  “My boy is lonely.” DeVoss spoke slowly, as though to someone mentally deficient. “He gets urges. If the price of keeping my boy comfortable and happy is the lives of you three nosy-rosies, I’m okay with it.” He pointed the gun at Griff, the biggest and strongest of us. “So what’ll it be? Walk to the chairs on your own or force me to hurt you?”

  Mysti, Griff, and I contemplated each other. Sadness elongated both my friends’ faces. Mysti gripped my hand and gave me a tug. Griff limped toward one of the chairs. Mysti followed, and I brought up the rear. This was it, the way the world ended for us.

  “All right. Pull the chains around your middles, and use the padlocks to secure yourselves.”

  “Mysti, darlin’.” Griff’s voice trembled. “I am sorry I gave you the run around about being in a relationship. I love you, and I wish I had done things another way.” He brought the chain around his middle and clicked the lock.

  “I love you, too, Griff,” Mysti said.

  DeVoss waved his gun at Mysti and me. We buckled ourselves in for the ride. I didn’t have anybody to say goodbye to, so I closed my eyes and tried to figure out what I was going to do once Camden pulled me back into the rest stop.

  “I’ll go get Camden,” DeVoss said.

  Go get him? My eyes popped open and I stared at DeVoss, confused. I assumed Camden’s ghost would summon us.

  DeVoss pressed his lips together and sighed. “Look. This is really the only way this whole thing can play out. Once y’all fooled around the rest stop and Camden made contact with you, it was over. He’d have got you one way or the other. You see the wreck he caused you to have. This’ll all be over with by midnight tonight.” He turned and exited the building through a side door.

  Midnight’s four hours away. My nerves jittered and danced at the thought of what would happen over the hours to come. Too soon, I heard wheels squeaking their way toward the building. Sweat popped out all over my body. Images flashed behind my eyes, the worst things my imagination could conjure.

  The big overhead door rolled up, and DeVoss rolled in a man in a wheelchair. He marched him through the room and rolled him to a stop in front of us and locked the chair.

  “Here they are, son.” DeVoss leaned forward and kissed his son’s greasy, thinning hair. He stepped back a few feet.

  The man in front of us didn’t look like he could stomp a roach, much less hurt three healthy adults. Drool ran from one corner of his mouth, and his hands were fixed in claws. One eye rolled in its socket while the other stayed fixed on a spot so
mewhere on the bloody wall behind us.

  “What do you do with all the bodies?” Mysti’s eyes glowed too bright, and she held her gaze on Camden DeVoss as she asked her question.

  “Buried ‘em.” Lewis DeVoss crossed his arms over his chest. “I own more than a thousand acres of land. Be near impossible to find ‘em.”

  Anticipation gnawed at me. Part of me wanted to yell at both DeVosses to get it over with, but the other part still wanted a chance to fight, to survive. Lewis DeVoss walked in front of our chairs, setting a snow globe in front of each of us.

  “All right, son. You can go ahead and pull the little black headed one in like you did before.” Lewis DeVoss took a syringe out of his pocket. “I’ll knock the other two out for you.”

  The edges of Camden’s psyche tickled at mine. I strained against letting him in, pushed until my nose hurt and my breath came in pants. Sweat popped out under my arms. My ribs protested. I glared at the mangled man through narrowed eyes. He began to shake with the effort of forcing his way into my brain. Lewis DeVoss approached me, head cocked to one side. He struck like a snake, his big, gnarled old fist shooting out and burying itself in my stomach. The breath whooshed out of me. My focus waned for one second, and it was enough for Camden. He shoved into my innermost self, burning and ripping himself a path. My vision darkened and my conscious tumbled down a dark tunnel.

  8

  I woke up on the floor of the restroom, mouth dry, entire body throbbing. The place sparkled, everything new and in working order. The sharp tang of bleach stung my nostrils, making my eyes water. I glanced at the window. As I watched, the night went gray with dawn, full daylight came and went, and the sky turned pink with the oncoming sunset all in the space of a couple of minutes. The ripple of iridescence covered the floor and shone over the walls, a bubble holding me in this timeless, isolated place.