by Cege Smith
Ellie had no idea what Jeffrey was babbling about. She opened the cover and looked at the publication date. “1905?”
Jeffrey nodded. “Quite ahead of his time.”
Something clicked in Ellie’s mind as she started tying together the bits of information she’d gathered. “Lillian and Joseph knew him, didn’t they?”
Jeffrey’s eyebrows raised, and Ellie knew that she had grasped something that he didn’t expect her to. “Mr. Turner may have been an acquaintance of the Bradfords at one time,” he said. “You might even say that he was quite influential when it came time to choose the site of the house you are standing in.”
Ellie didn’t want to say anything else until she had a chance to review the book in her lap. Jeffrey had as much as said that the answer to the mansion's purpose was contained within its pages. “Thank you, Jeffrey. If you don’t mind, though, I am going to take this up to David’s room to read. I would prefer to keep an eye on him until he feels better.”
“He’s sleeping right now,” Jeffrey said, frowning and looking up at the ceiling.
The look on Jeffrey’s face was creepy. She hoped that Jeffrey couldn’t actually see into the room without being in it. That thought made her uneasy. “That’s okay,” she said lightly. “I’ll stay out of the way in the corner. I remember there being a lovely antique chair there. I appreciate you giving this to me. I am sure it will help me learn everything faster. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain. You were right; it’s just transition jitters I’m sure.” Before Jeffrey could say anything else, Ellie stood and strode out of the room.
Once on the stairs, she looked behind her expecting to see Jeffrey’s scowling face, but the floor below her was empty. She took the steps two at a time, eager to see David again and make sure that he was okay.
She slipped into his room and could see even in the gloom that he was indeed sleeping, just as Jeffrey said. She set the book on the chair in the corner and tiptoed over to his bed. He looked just like an angel sleeping there, and her heart constricted in her chest. She was terrified for both of them, but just having him close by made her feel better and more confident.
Ellie made her way back to the chair and clicked on the small reading lamp on the table beside her. She looked to make sure the small noise hadn’t woken David, and once she saw that he was still asleep she opened the book again. It was time she started figuring out what they were up against.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It wasn’t long before Ellie reached a point where she wished Jeffrey had never given her the book, but it sucked her in. It seemed too fantastical to be true, but with everything else she had seen, she couldn’t reason another explanation that made sense. In the margins of the book, she found notes written in a small feminine hand with questions and random thoughts. The pages themselves were well-worn; the book had been read many times.
Ellie learned that Max Turner believed that through a traumatic near-death experience when he was a child, he acquired an ability to be able to see places that he called “waypoints.” These locations contained some kind of mystical energy and were usually found where multiple “way lines” intersected. The waypoints drew souls to them that were in transition—sitting between life and death—and offered respite to those souls. The nearest comparison he was able to draw to known reality was that he considered them sanctuaries for the nearly dead.
Turner claimed during his near-death experience, he had found himself for a short period of time existing within one of these waypoints. While there, he learned that a waypoint not only existed at a place where way lines intersected, but also sat on the crossroads of mortals and the beings that lived in the Afterlife. If a portal was opened within the waypoint, the living and dead could pass freely between one plane of existence and another.
It all clicked into place. The Bradford mansion was a waypoint. What she didn’t know was whether the portal that existed inside was open or not. The thought that she was living in a house that possibly could be entered at any time by ghosts or other unknown phenomena from the Afterlife made the hair on Ellie’s arms stand on end. She remembered the different moods that she had felt when she had been inside the house, and the strangeness of the place overall. And she herself had encountered a ghost within its walls; David’s mother, Emma, had come to her aid when she was unraveling the Bradfords’ disappearance. Of course, Ellie had no idea that Lillian was present in her life already under another name.
“Hey, stranger,” she heard a raspy voice say.
Ellie looked up from the book and saw David sitting up in bed. His cheeks looked rosy and his eyes were clear and alert. “David! You look so much better!” She set the book down in the chair and hurried over to his side. She ran a hand across his forehead. “Your fever seems to have broken.”
“Who’s the doctor here?” he teased as he took her hand and caressed his cheek against her palm. The stubble of his five o’clock shadow sent shivers down her spine.
“I was so scared that something bad happened to you,” she said as she sat down next to him. “We were separated and I didn’t know where you were. Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure that anything bad did happen,” he said. “What about you? That bastard didn’t do anything to you, did he?”
“No.” Ellie shook her head, frowning. “I think I was in a kind of catatonic state for a while. It was strange. It was like I was drugged, because I don’t remember thinking I was in danger. It was rather like an elaborate therapy session.”
David looked at her strangely. “We should talk more about that, but right now I feel filthy and I’d love to get cleaned up and start feeling human again.” He looked around the room. “Do you think there is anything around here for me to change into?”
“I’m sure Jeffrey can help find something that will do,” she said. She watched as David swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked over to the bureau, opening several of the drawers.
He turned to her and smiled. “Ask and you shall receive.” He pulled a light blue T-shirt out of the drawer and showed it to her. He winked at her.
“Well, that was easy,” she said, chuckling. Being around David made everything seem so much less scary; she could almost forget what she read in Max Turner’s book.
“What were you reading?” David asked while he continued to investigate the bureau drawers, as if he had read her mind.
“I’ve got a lot to tell you,” Ellie said. She had no idea where to begin. She had no recollection of how long it had been since they had stepped into the mansion and were separated, or where David had been during that time. She was sure he had a lot to tell her as well. “I honestly feel like we haven’t seen each other in ages, but it could have been just yesterday. Time seems so off here.”
David had a small stack of clothes on the bureau in front of him now, and as he gathered it up he stepped closer to Ellie. She looked up into his face and thought how handsome he was, but she could see small differences. Even though he was several years younger than her, he looked older than she remembered. There were tiny lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Where had he been?
“I’ve missed you, Ellie,” he said. He reached up and brushed her cheek. The intensity in his voice made her knees weak. “But I want you to know that I’m glad this happened. It was a necessary evil. I understand things about myself so much better now and I have you to thank for that. Let me take a quick shower and then we can talk more.”
He leaned over and brushed his lips gently against her forehead. She remembered the first time he had ever done that, the night of the dinner party when she had been in the mansion for the first time. It was a happy memory and the small gesture made her feel like melting. Then he stepped around her and headed for the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Moments later, Ellie heard water running.
David’s last comments made Ellie feel like something important had gone completely off the rails. She had planned to fill David in on everything she had learned and
then asking for his help in gathering more information so that they could find a way out of the waypoint. Given what she had read so far in Max Turner’s book, the waypoint’s portal would allow the living to pass back through to their own reality, if a portal existed there.
It was in that thought that Ellie realized what she had missed. Slowly, she turned to the bathroom door, her heart heavy with dread. She was so happy to see David that in the ensuing chaos her mind had been distracted. And after her unappetizing dinner, she had felt even more unsettled and focused on her own changes. So it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t register something so critical. David didn’t have an aura anymore.
Unable to think about the implications of what her revelation meant, Ellie swiped the Max Turner book from the seat of the chair and headed downstairs. She wasn’t quite ready to face David again. She was sure that her heartbreak would show on her face, and she needed to be certain. Plus her stomach was starting to tighten in a familiar signal. She was getting hungry again.
As she bounded down the stairs and rounded the corner heading for the kitchen, she heard something that she hadn’t heard since her re-emergence into the mansion: laughter. And not just one person’s laughter, but several people laughing together. She could also make out the clink of silverware on plates.
Ellie slowly stepped toward the kitchen, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. Who was in there? What were they doing here? When she was just a few inches away from the door, it suddenly swung open and Jeffrey stood there smiling broadly at her.
“Ah, Ellie! There you are. Good. I was just telling everyone that you were going to be so disappointed that you weren’t here to greet them when they arrived.” Jeffrey pulled her arm and drew her into the kitchen. “Everyone, this is Ellie Coulter, the proprietress of the Bradford Mansion and your benevolent host during your stay here.”
Ellie found three people sitting at the breakfast nook staring back at her, their laughter turned to silence. A woman who looked like she was barely out of high school smirked at her, while the two men with her merely regarded her curiously. The woman was stunning, with long, straight blond hair and a lithe body; she could have been lifted from the cover of a magazine. The man to her left had black hair that was on the long side with a black skullcap pulled down over his ears. The other man’s face broke out in a goofy grin, his brown eyes friendly under his flop of mousy curls. It didn’t escape Ellie’s notice that the trio was dressed in ski gear.
Ellie felt a nudge in her back and realized that no one had said anything for almost a minute. “Welcome,” she said automatically. Her mind raced as she tried to think of something appropriate to say next. She was sure that Jeffrey’s little introduction was brimming with clues that she was supposed to be picking up on and she tried to scan his words again in her mind. “I hope Jeffrey has been taking good care of you.”
The curly-haired man stood up and made his way over to her. Ellie was barely five foot three, and this man was only a few inches taller than her. He wiped his palms on his pants and then stuck out his right hand. “Hi, Ellie. I’m Will. Will Mauthen.” He cocked his left thumb behind him. “These are my friends, Katie and Martin.”
Reaching out her own hand, Ellie grasped Will’s. An image immediately flashed in her mind and then it was like a home movie reel began showing her everything that had happened.
The three friends had been on their way home from a long ski weekend, blowing off steam after semester finals. Will was driving Katie’s four-wheel-drive Ford Escape and squinting out the window. To Ellie, it looked pitch black just a few feet beyond the headlights.
Martin was in the passenger seat texting someone that they were on their way and should arrive in a few hours. Katie was in the backseat complaining about the music on the radio. All three of them had had a few drinks before they left the ski lodge, which in hindsight was probably the worst thing they could have done. Will’s hands gripped the wheel tightly. He had already felt the tires lose their grip on the ice several times, but he didn’t want to say anything and worry his friends.
Then Katie leaned over the front seat to forcibly change the station and she bumped Will’s arm. It happened right as the car hit a patch of black ice, and the small jerk of Will’s hand on the wheel caused him to lose complete control. Katie’s screams filled the car as it went into a sickening tailspin right at the point where the road curved sharply around the mountain. The car exited the road just before the spot where the guard rail on the curve started, and it sailed over the edge and crashed down into the ravine. Now all three passengers were screaming and Katie was crying. Then there was nothing.
Ellie pulled her hand away with a gasp. She saw in Will’s eyes that he had relived the scene with her. His face tightened but he shrugged. “Katie’s always gotta have her way.”
“Don’t blame me!” Katie shrieked, standing up and pounding her hands on the table. “You should have let Martin drive like I said. It’s supposed to be my fault that you couldn’t keep the car on the road?”
The room erupted into a chaotic yelling match between Will and Katie, each one blaming the other for the accident. Martin silently watched his friends and continued to eat. Ellie looked at Jeffrey for help, but the old man just pointed back at the group. “They are in your care whether you like it or not,” he said in a low voice that was easily masked by the din. “I suggest you figure out a way to calm everyone down.”
Ellie was annoyed that Jeffrey wasn’t going to be any help at all. She crossed her arms and waited another minute, thinking that if she let them vent their feelings, the argument would naturally die out by itself. But instead the argument got louder.
“Hey, what’s all the ruckus about?” David’s voice was right behind her and Ellie closed her eyes. It was like stepping off the precipice into madness, she decided. But first things first. Apparently she was going to have to take matters into her own hands.
She took a deep breath and shouted, “ENOUGH!” Instantly it was quiet again. “I am sure you are all tired from your...journey and I know that you are all on edge. A little rest will probably do you some good. There is plenty of room for you on the second floor. Jeffrey? Will you please show our guests to their rooms?”
As she looked at the old man, she saw a tug of a smile cross his face. So far so good it appeared.
“Who’s this?” Katie asked, pushing past Will and openly staring at David. Ellie turned slightly and understood what got the woman’s attention. David was dashingly handsome with his dark blond curls and muscular shoulders. She tried to catch a glimpse of anything that would indicate an aura, but she didn’t see any.
And unfortunately for the trio standing in front of her, she didn’t detect an aura around any of them either. She had a bad feeling that their tickets to the waypoint were one-way. But the only way she’d ever be able to confirm that would be to see someone who had an aura. She frowned and felt a flutter of hope as the idea spread through her mind. Maybe people in the waypoint didn’t have auras. The only slightest vision of one that she had seen so far was around Mikel, and even that wasn’t what she would consider a true aura. Maybe her talent didn’t work in the waypoint.
She looked at David and smiled. His face lit up as he smiled back at her. Maybe there was still hope for him. She put her hand on his arm. “This is David Mitchell. He is the doctor in residence in the event you need any medical assistance.”
She watched his eyebrows rise, but he didn’t say anything to contradict her and she was relieved.
“Come on, everyone. I’ll show you to your rooms now,” Jeffrey said, gesturing at the group. “There will be plenty of time for pleasantries at dinner. I will announce dinner by ringing a small bell that you should still hear in your rooms. You will have plenty of time to rest in the meantime.” Jeffrey’s litany continued as he stepped out into the hallway. Will and Martin followed single file, each nodding to Ellie and David as he passed.
Katie brought up the rear and paused in front of Da
vid. “So nice to meet you, Doctor. I’m Katie. I do have a few things I’d like to discuss with you later if you have the time.”
David blinked and Ellie felt the slightest itch of jealousy. “Of course, Katie. Whatever you need.”
The woman smiled brightly and then smirked at Ellie again before rushing to catch up with the rest of the group headed upstairs.
David turned to Ellie. “Maybe you’ll fill me in on what that was all about?”
Ellie’s stomach growled and she knew it was time to pilfer the cupboards. She sighed. “Like I said earlier, I’m not sure where to start. I’ll make us some coffee. It’s probably time we compared notes.”
CHAPTER NINE
“This is going to sound weird, but apparently I need to eat pretty much all the time, otherwise my body is going to start playing some scary tricks on me. Exactly what that means I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out,” Ellie said as she dug into the refrigerator. As she expected, the shelves were piled high with white wrapped packages of varying sizes. None of them were labeled, but she pulled several out and squeezed. Definitely meat, she concluded. She was starting to feel a bit lightheaded.
“Anything I can help with?” David asked. “Scary doesn’t sound good, especially around here. Anybody tell you why?”
Ellie sighed and pulled out the smallest package she could find. She wasn’t accepting the idea yet that red meat was going to be her daily diet, but for the time being she knew that she just needed to make her current hunger pangs go away if she was going to be able to think straight. She needed to have a clear head if she was going to make her side of the story make any sense.
“I can do it. Jeffrey just said that it has something to do with the transition from where we were to here. My body needs to eat more frequently until I am acclimated.” She grabbed the frying pan out of drying rack and put it on the stove. Without even looking at what was in the package, she dumped the meat into the pan and turned the burner on high heat. She tried not to think about licking the meat wrapper while she waited for the meat to cook. Then another thought occurred to her. As she leaned against the countertop, she frowned at David.
