by James Hunt
“No, I don’t,” Lindsy said. “But I’m starting to paint a picture for myself. Let me guess, you had some parents that weren’t so good? Maybe knocked you around a little?”
Daniel stared down at his shoes, and his cheeks burned a bright crimson red, and in his moment of anger Lindsy managed to pull an image from Daniel’s childhood. He was naked in the living room, trying to cover himself as a man yelled for him to move his hand.
Lindsy grimaced. “What your parents did to you was atrocious.”
Daniel grew so mad that he started to tremble, and Lindsy thought he might explode, but instead, he spoke in a very calm, very collected voice that seemed more disturbing than if he had decided to shout. “What happened to me was despicable. And I made a promise that if I were ever to become a father that I would never allow my child to be hurt like that. Ever.”
Lindsy tilted her head to the side, still studying Daniel with a very close eye. “What did she tell you? Did she tell you that you were going to be just like your parents? Did she whisper that you would only repeat the horrible moments of your past?”
Daniel shook his head. “She showed me how much pain was in this world. She reminded me of how cruel it was to bring a new life into it. She was the only person who managed to tell me like it was. There was no one else out there who would speak the truth.”
“And what truth is that?” Lindsy asked.
Daniel looked Lindsy in the eye, his face sweaty and dirty, but with a clarity that was as disturbing as it was focused. “Children deserve to be in a place with no pain. And that’s where she’s keeping my little Angela.”
Lindsy stood next to Mike, her back to Daniel, as she spoke. “I’m going to have to try and get into his mind and see if I can free up enough of Daniel’s consciousness so he could start to fight off the midwife’s control over him.”
Mike frowned. “It didn’t go very well the last time you tried that.”
“Yeah, well, we’re not going to get anywhere until we figure out what’s in the trunk, and Daniel isn’t going to tell us where he buried it in his current state,” Lindsy said.
Mike nodded, but he pulled her closer. “Just remember not to go too deep. I don’t want you getting lost in there.”
“I won’t,” Lindsy replied.
Lindsy had always been able to see into people’s heads on a smaller scale, but she had never tried to go deep into someone’s mind. Typically, a person’s mind and body fought off a foreign invader. It was the human’s biological response, we evolved to fight back to protect ourselves.
What Lindsy was about to attempt, she had done only once before. And she had only done it once before because it was dangerous for everyone involved. When Lindsy had tried to go deep that first time, she had to defend herself against both the ghost and the person.
It had been a messy first attempt, but Lindsy managed to break the ghost’s hold on the woman, and from that point, they were able to move forward and allow the spirit to pass on. But she knew Daniel and the midwife were going to be in a different league than her first attempt.
Lindsy returned to Daniel’s side, the man still thrumming with rage and anger, the midwife no doubt digging her claws in deeper. She gently placed her hand on Daniel’s exposed arm and immediately felt the pulse of his resistance. But she closed her eyes and focused.
At first, Lindsy saw nothing. The midwife’s hold on Daniel was incredibly strong. Still, she kept at it, feeling her way through the darkness, always moving forward, putting out feelers for any sign that she was getting closer to breaking into Daniel’s thoughts.
The wall and the barrier were very intimidating, and just when Lindsy didn’t think she was going to be able to even find the entrance, she saw a flash of red. It was Daniel’s anger, and his sudden resistance told her she was getting closer.
Lindsy felt Daniel push back, and her progress slowed, but she refused to back down. She charged headfirst into his mind, and while she started to sweat, she was eventually rewarded when she saw the first glimpses of Daniel’s thoughts.
The image she caught was singular and disturbing, and she realized she was looking at him beating her to death with the shovel from earlier. It was a projection of a desire, which she could tell because the imagery was cast against a black canvas.
Over the years, Lindsy had learned to sift through the difference between people’s desires and fantasies and what memories were grounded in reality. Memory was more all-encompassing; it was like she was stepping into the moment, living it with the person she was trying to read.
Lindsy pushed deeper, the progress slow but steady. Daniel kept throwing more violent images at her between the two of them. And while his visions were disturbing, they didn’t deter her from her mission. Eventually, her persistence paid off, and she arrived at her first real memory.
Daniel was in the bathroom. He was here in this house, so Lindsy realized that this was a recent memory, which made sense considering the outside memories around the mind were always the newest. They hadn’t had an opportunity to be buried deep into the subconscious yet.
The bathroom was steamy with fog, and Daniel wore a towel around his waist. His body was slick with water, and the air was heavy with heat. He stood in front of the sink, staring at the fogged glass of the mirror. He stayed like that for a long time, just staring at the fogged glass, unable to see his reflection.
Lindsy walked around so she could see Daniel’s face. He looked like he was afraid, and that’s when Lindsy noticed the goosebumps raised on his flesh. She realized that this must have been one of the midwife’s first tries in influencing him. She glanced around the bathroom, looking for where the woman might reveal herself, quickly realizing it was the mirror. She waited until Daniel finally mustered up enough courage to actually lift his hand and wipe away the water droplets on the mirror.
But there was only his reflection.
Daniel visibly relaxed at the sight of his reflection. Lindsy figured the midwife must have already popped up there once before. She was beginning to think that this memory was a wash when she saw the hand creep up from out of Daniel’s towel and claw his stomach.
Daniel screamed, and Lindsy was pushed from memory. She regrouped after Daniel’s outburst and went deeper.
Lindsy concentrated all of her focus on locating the memory where the midwife and Daniel first met. It was like following a trail of negative energy, which she learned to read early on when it came to ghosts. For Lindsy, it was almost like being able to smell rotten eggs. She knew the more influential the smell, the closer she was toward the truth.
Lindsy followed the trail and saw the darkness ahead. She pushed through the midwife’s defenses, clawing her way through the darkness, feeling the forces trying to take her back. It was like fighting hurricane-force winds and rain, the storm raging around her, thunder booming, and lightning splitting the sky open.
But Lindsy didn’t give up the fight. She harnessed every last piece of strength that she had, pushing herself beyond her limits to finally break through into the memory where she collapsed on a dusty floor.
Lindsy coughed, waving away the dust that had blown up around her as she pushed herself off the floor. She blinked and realized she had been here before. It was the house’s attic. She stood and glanced around, wondering why this memory was so important.
The floor to her left vanished as the ladder was pulled down, and Lindsy stepped back as Daniel climbed up and inside. He looked like he was following something, glancing around the attic as if there was a voice calling his name.
And that’s when Lindsy heard it too.
“Daniel,” the voice said. “You are doing the right thing, Daniel.”
Lindsy watched as Daniel found the same trunk Lindsy had when she first arrived. Daniel knelt in front of the old piece of luggage, placed his hand over the trunk and shut his eyes, and his breathing quickened.
“I feel it,” Daniel said. “I can feel the truth.”
“And what is th
at truth?” The voice hissed the words, and it radiated everywhere, and it was disturbing enough to send shivers down Lindsy’s spine.
“My daughter is not safe unless I give her to you,” Daniel said.
“That’s right.” The midwife hissed again. “Give her to me, and I will make her safe.”
“No!” Lindsy shouted and then lunged forward, grabbing hold of Daniel, which startled him in the memory. “This isn’t the way, Daniel!”
The memory started to fade around, but the midwife erupted in a fit of rage. “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!”
The winds returned, and Lindsy felt herself being pulled in nearly every direction, but she held onto Daniel, knowing this was the moment where he had finally given up and gave into the midwife’s demands. This was where she had asserted her control over him.
“Remember your wife!” Lindsy said, throwing as many memories as she could to him, which flew by her quick as lightning strikes. “Remember how much you wanted to be a father! You weren’t afraid then, because you knew you would be able to be a better man! Carla knew that too!”
Daniel struggled, caught between the two voices in his head, struggling to find his voice again. “I don’t… I can’t…”
“Remember the first time you held her, Daniel!” Lindsy shouted, the winds growing stronger. “Remember what you felt!”
Daniel bunched up his face. “I… remember…”
Lindsy felt her grip slipping on him. She didn’t know how much longer she was going to last before the midwife finally pushed her out. The woman was so strong, much stronger than Lindsy anticipated. And then Daniel finally opened his eyes, looking at Lindsy with clarity.
“My family is everything to me,” Daniel said.
The midwife screamed, and Lindsy finally lost her grip on Daniel and was thrust out with so much force that she was pushed backward when she came out of Daniel’s head.
Mike was quick to her side, helping her up. “Are you all right?”
Lindsy nodded, but she was only concerned with seeing Daniel’s reaction. She wanted to know if she had gone deep enough to free him.
Daniel was dripping with sweat, and he was hunched forward, a sign of the physical toll it had taken on him of having three heads inside of his mind.
Lindsy walked back over to Daniel, crouching by his side, and touched his arm. He didn’t flinch, which she took as a good sign, and she didn’t try to read his mind this time either. She didn’t think she had the strength to do that even if she tried.
“Daniel?” Lindsy asked. “Can you hear me?”
Daniel remained quiet and hunched forward, trembling. But he finally raised his head and looked Lindsy in the eye. He nodded. “I can hear you.”
Lindsy studied him, unsure if this was just the midwife playing another trick on the two of them. She needed to know for sure. “Mike, hand me the wedding picture.” Mike extended the picture to Lindsy, and she flashed it in front of Daniel, waiting for a reaction. “Look at it, Daniel.”
Daniel hesitated at first but finally looked at the photograph. And this time, instead of looking away, or grimacing, he cried. “I can’t believe I gave my daughter up.”
Lindsy knew they had gotten him back, and she and Mike removed the restraints and gave Daniel some water as he struggled to come to terms with what he had done.
“It was like I could see myself doing all of this stuff, but I was locked behind bars,” Daniel said, holding the glass of water with both hands, staring into the wall ahead of him. “It was like I wasn’t in control, but…” He looked at Lindsy. “It was like I gave her permission to take over.”
“You did,” Lindsy said. “But you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Evelyn Carter has been doing this for more than half a century. She’s had practice. And this is your first time dealing with something from the other side.”
Daniel stared down at the water, his expression set in a challenging, granite-like stare. “Most of it is a fog. But I remember enough that it still makes me sick.”
“Daniel,” Lindsy said, removing the key she had taken from the evidence locker from her pocket. “Do you remember where you buried the trunk?”
Daniel thought about it for a minute, and then he nodded. “Yeah.”
“There is something inside of that trunk the midwife doesn’t want us to see,” Lindsy said. “This key will open it—”
It was the flash of red and blue lights that stopped Lindsy, pulling everyone’s attention toward the front of the house. Mike walked to the window, pulling back the curtain.
“It’s the sheriff,” Mike quickly turned back to Lindsy. “You have to run.”
“You know running is only going to make it worse,” Lindsy said, and then she turned to Daniel and shoved the key into his palm, closing his fingers around it. “I need you to go into the woods, dig up the trunk, and find out what’s inside.”
Daniel stared down at the key in his fist. “I take it the reason the police are here is because of this key?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Lindsy said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Daniel bowed his head. “That’s not true.”
Lindsy lifted his chin, looking him in the eye. “You made some bad choices, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. All is not lost. We can still beat her. But we need whatever is in the trunk.”
Daniel nodded just as the police knocked on the door.
“Sheriff’s office! Mr. Maples, open up!”
Daniel stood and walked to the door, pocketing the key along the way. He turned back to look at Lindsy before he opened it, and she nodded at him.
Mike stood close, his voice whispering in her ear. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“I think we’re past good ideas now,” Lindsy said.
The door opened, and Sheriff Torrence stepped inside, immediately making a beeline toward Lindsy. “Lindsy Foster, you are under arrest for breaking and entering, tampering with evidence of a crime scene, and destruction of government property.” He stopped right in front of her, towering above and staring down at her with a smile on his face. “You want to give me what you took?”
Lindsy kept her mouth shut and simply extended her arms out in front of her.
“Fine.” Torrence snapped his finger, and the deputy that had been on duty tonight came over and slapped the handcuffs on her.
Lindsy looked back at Mike and smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Mike said.
Lindsy knew that this was going to be hard for him, hell, it was going to be hard for her too. She only hoped that they uncovered the truth before it was too late.
16
Even though it was late, Sheriff Torrence didn’t have any problems sticking around for the booking process before Lindsy was tossed into one of the cells in the back. He wore a sly smile during the whole ordeal, not hiding the fact that he was enjoying the sight of her being booked into his jail.
“I knew you’d be back in here the moment I laid eyes on you,” Torrence said after Lindsy’s picture was taken.
“Yeah?” Lindsy asked. “Well, thanks for giving me an edge in the courtroom when I tell my lawyer that I was profiled.”
Once the booking was complete, the deputy stepped away, and Torrence took the man’s seat. They had done most of the paperwork in the bullpen. Since it was such a small facility, she figured that’s where most of the conversations between criminals and the deputies occurred.
Lindsy expected some kind of big speech from the sheriff, but instead, he pivoted the computer screen on the desk around so Lindsy could see it. A video was paused on the screen, but Lindsy knew what it was before Torrence hit the space bar to play it.
The video showed the evidence locker, and it showed Lindsy breaking into that locker. It showed her going through the boxes, taking the key, and then sprinting out.
“I think the phrase ‘caught red-handed’ comes to mind here,” Torrence said, pivoting the screen back around to face him. He watched the video a few m
ore times before he looked at Lindsy again. “I’ve already emailed this to the DA’s office. I won’t hear back until the morning, but I wanted you to know so you could sleep on it.”
Lindsy chewed on the inside of her cheek. She knew silence was her best weapon, but she couldn’t help but prod the sheriff. “You’ve let that badge go to your head, Sheriff.”
Torrence leaned forward, his big body overtaking the space as he encroached on Lindsy’s personal space. “I’m the law. And I will continue to enforce the law in my town. It is what the good, respected citizens of this area elected me to do.”
“From what I hear, you might not have too many citizens to vote you in for another term if the town isn’t able to stay afloat,” Lindsy said. “Was it the law that caused you to bully the Maples along with the mayor into trying to sell their land?”
Torrence smiled and leaned back, hooking his hands behind his head. “You don’t have a goddamn clue about what goes on in this town. And it’s driving you mad.”
That was true. The town was driving Lindsy mad. But it wasn’t because she didn’t know what was going on. She had a good idea of what was happening. She just needed to prove it to everyone else. “What makes you think that you’ve cornered me? Is it because I’m here? Because I can guarantee you that I’m not going to stop fighting.”
Torrence’s smile widened. “I don’t mind the fighters.”
“You might mind this one,” Lindsy said.
Torrence continued to grin, but there was an added intensity to his gaze that, despite Lindsy’s best efforts, she couldn’t help but feel frightened.
“You people are all the same,” Torrence said with contempt in his voice. “Outsiders think that they can just waltz into our town, take one look around, and know everything about us. But you’re wrong. And everyone like you is wrong.”
“Everyone like me,” Lindsy said, slightly confused.
“People who think they don’t have to play by the rules.” Torrence pressed his big pointer finger down into the desk, the old wood groaning from the pressure, even though it was only one finger. “And when you outsiders, you disrupters and instigators start wreaking havoc on little towns like this, it’s people like me who put you back in line. Because that’s what I was built for, Mrs. Foster. That is my purpose.”
