“I’m going to Joseph’s,” Rose said. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Olivia lowered her newspaper. “Are you sure?” She gestured at the food set out on the table. “These scones are lovely. Wouldn’t you rather have something to eat first?”
Rose smiled at her grandmother. “I’ll get something later, okay?”
It seemed strange to Nikki, looking at this real version of Olivia. She couldn’t help wait for an attempt at manipulation, part of her expecting Olivia to try remaining in control of Rose’s thoughts and actions.
Instead, Olivia smiled back at Rose. “Enjoy your morning, dear,” she said. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
Rose drove across town and it wasn’t long before she parked in Joseph’s driveway. At the door, she reached for the doorbell, then changed her mind and quietly entered the house. She stopped in the hallway, taking a moment to look at the framed photos lining the walls. It broke Nikki’s heart as she read Rose’s thoughts, herself knowing that what Rose imagined—her dream of being part of a family again—would not be coming true. Part of her wanted to stop Rose from climbing the stairs, to protect her from what she was about to learn. But Nikki reminded herself that they’d brought Rose to this very moment deliberately. The only chance they had at preventing her lingering torture in the future was to make her past yet more agonizing.
Rose looked away from the photos toward the living room. She peered down the hall, listening. When she detected no sound or movement, she softly climbed the stairs. She reached the landing and again stood listening. For one moment, Nikki wondered if she’d timed things wrong. Like Rose, she also heard nothing as a few seconds ticked by.
Then softly spoken words traveled from a bedroom down the hall. A girl’s voice, sensuous and enticing. “Do you mean that? You’d really do that for me?”
Rose stiffened at the sound of the girl’s voice. For Nikki, Rose’s emotions flared visibly. She saw an orange flash of painful recognition. Rose went numb, as if she’d been slapped in the face.
Joseph chuckled. “Well, I’m not saying I’d actually do it myself. I mean, there are people you can hire for that sort of thing.”
Only a few seconds of silence followed before Linda whispered, “How long do you think we’d have to wait to get married? I mean, after Rose is…gone.”
Rose’s hands started to shake uncontrollably. She balled the hem of her skirt into her fists.
“I don’t know, maybe a year,” Joseph said. “That seems about right. Don’t you think?”
Linda’s voice came back a seductive purr. “For you, I could wait a year,” she said. “As long as we get to keep doing this…”
Rose’s knees nearly buckled. She reached out to support herself against the wall.
Joseph’s amusement carried down the hall. “Seriously? Already?”
Linda giggled. She lowered her voice this time to an inaudible whisper.
Joseph sighed, then laughed. “God, you’re unbelievable!”
“Now,” Henry said. “Jump us out of here again.”
Nikki agreed entirely. Rose had already lived what followed—she didn’t need to endure it again. She grabbed hold of Rose’s wrist and reached for Henry’s hand. She closed her eyes and envisioned the tunnel that would take them back. A moment later, Nikki felt the shift telling her she’d returned them to the present.
Rose pulled away from her grasp and Nikki feared, that when she opened her eyes, she’d see Rose had returned to the state she’d been in before. But Rose stood just a few feet away, staring back at her—truly seeing her, Nikki felt sure. She saw both of them, Nikki could tell. At least that much had changed. The blank stare Rose had directed at them before had been replaced with awareness, if not recognition.
“Who are you?” Rose said, her voice a trembling whisper. Tears streamed down her face.
Nikki wished Rose could see her and Henry as she had before, in the dream. As people she knew and trusted. But the dream was gone and it had to remain that way.
“I’m Nikki,” she said. “This is Henry. We came to help you.”
“Do I know you from somewhere? I feel like I know you from somewhere.” Rose looked around the darkened hall. “Where are we?”
Nikki stepped toward her. “We’re in your house. But things have changed. It’s not…really your house anymore.”
Rose glanced back and forth between them. “For how long?”
“A long time,” Nikki said, “but it’s okay. That’s why we’re here. To get you to come with us.”
“Where?”
Henry stepped forward too. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s not like you thought. Everything is good there.”
Rose shook her head. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
“It’s where people go,” Nikki said. “After their last life is over.”
Rose stepped toward them, closing the gap, her eyes searching theirs. “Did you die?”
Nikki smiled. “Only who I used to be. I’m someone else now. But it’s fine. It’s okay.”
“I’m dead too,” Rose said. “Aren’t I? Did they kill me? Is that what happened?”
“That never happened,” Henry said.
Nikki glanced at him, her heart beating faster.
“I killed them, didn’t I?” Rose said, her voice rising in pitch. “Did I kill them?”
“It was an accident,” Nikki said. “Please believe me. It was just an accident.”
Rose gasped for breath as she started to cry again. “How did I die? What happened to me?”
Suddenly, Nikki felt it. The slithering, the pulsing. An icy chill rippled up her spine. Her heartbeat ratcheted up, hammering inside her chest. It felt like the air got sucked out of the room. They weren’t alone anymore. The darkness had found them.
“Please tell me,” Rose said. “How did I die?”
Nikki’s eyes widened as a shadow behind Rose shifted into human form. Olivia appeared standing next to her. Not the real Olivia, Nikki knew.
“You ended your own life,” Olivia said, her voice soft and pitying. “That’s what happened. I’m so sorry, dear.”
Another shadow shifted and Joseph stepped forward. “After you killed me. You shouldn’t have done that, Rose.”
Another shadow formed into Linda. “And me. You murdered me too. I was your friend but that didn’t stop you.”
Nikki locked her gaze on Rose’s eyes. “Don’t listen to them. They’re lying.”
“They aren’t who you think they are,” Henry said. “Listen to Nikki. She’s telling the truth.”
“The truth?” Joseph turned to Rose. “The truth is that these two are ghosts. They’re locked in hell for their sins. They want you to go with them.”
“It’s true,” Olivia said. “They’re dead and their souls have been forsaken.”
“What did they tell you?” Linda said. “Did they show you something that never happened? I bet they did.”
Olivia held her hand out to Rose. “Everything will be okay. I can take you home. You’ll never have to leave again. Come with me.”
Nikki pleaded with her eyes. “Please don’t listen to them!”
“They’re lying,” Henry said. “We can take you with us. You said you knew who we were. Please, think back. You trusted us for a reason.”
Rose twirled in a circle, her eyes pinned wide with terror and confusion.
Upstairs, Nikki heard the children cry out again. Footsteps travelled down the hall. She glared at Olivia, then at Joseph and Linda. She reached out and grasped Rose’s hand. “Keep your eyes on mine. Rose, please. Keep your eyes on mine. Remember me, from your dream, that place where you kept waiting. Remember Henry too. We came to you there. Do you remember?”
Rose’s hand trembled in Nikki’s. “I don’t know what’s real!”
“We are,” Nikki said.
“We were with you,” Henry said. “You showed us your records. Do you remember that?”
Rose’s eyes met
Henry’s and continued to widen. “I remember. You were older.”
“That’s right, I was older,” Henry said, “but it was me. Rose, it was me. And Nikki too. We were with you.”
Rose looked to Nikki. “You showed me that morning again. The part I didn’t know.”
Tears pricked at Nikki’s eyes. “I’m sorry. You had to know.”
“He didn’t love me,” Rose said. “He never loved me.”
“I’m sorry, Rose,” Nikki said. “Neither of them loved you and they should have. They lied to you. And what happened was an accident. It was just an accident.”
“But I killed myself.”
“And you only have to forgive yourself. That’s all.”
Olivia grabbed hold of Rose’s other arm. “Listen to me. They’re lying. You’ll go to hell if you trust them!”
“You will, Rose,” Joseph said. “That’s what happens to people who do what you did.”
Suddenly, the hallway blasted full of light. Nikki jumped back, wincing. She lost hold of Rose’s hand. A man and woman strode forward, silhouettes at first, then coming into view. The woman appeared to be young, maybe in her early thirties, slim with curly brown hair and freckles. The man seemed a few years older, tall with thinning blonde hair. They ran to Rose and the man pulled her away. He turned to block her from the demons still trying to reel her in again. “Get away from my daughter!”
The woman flanked Rose as well, reaching out to grasp her hand. “We know what you are. Leave her alone!”
The light continued to intensify and Nikki could barely keep her eyes open against it. A moment later, Lysrus walked toward Rose. He stood facing her, his eyes on her alone as if it was only the two of them. “I’m not here to judge you,” he said. “Only to help. Do you understand?”
Rose nodded, keeping her eyes on his. “Yes, I think so.”
Lysrus didn’t bother turning toward the demons, who now stepped back, becoming shadows again. Just their forms remained, their eyes glowing green as they stared at Lysrus.
Lysrus held his hand out to Rose. “Those who have impersonated people you once loved can no longer hurt you. Not if you don’t let them. Please don’t be afraid.”
Rose glanced at her father, then her mother, as they stood next to her. She reached out to take hold of Lysrus’s hand. “I’m not afraid.”
“We’d like you to come with us. Will you do that?” Lysrus said.
Tears continued to fall from Rose’s eyes, but now she smiled. “Please take me with you. Can you do that?”
Lysrus smiled back at her. “I’ve been waiting a very long time to do just that,” he said. “Now, it will be done.”
Lysrus turned to Nikki and Henry, his eyes offering an assurance that Nikki didn’t understand, then he vanished in another burst of blinding light taking Rose and her parents with him. Nikki waited for the hall to darken again but, instead, the light continued to brighten, pulsating with the colors she remembered from before when she and Henry had first met Lysrus in that middle space provided between his level and theirs. When the glare finally receded, only she and Henry stood in the hall and Nikki understood what Lysrus had been trying to tell them. The space around them had been cleansed. The strength of the dark entities only held when there was pain and sorrow to feed on. In this house, that was no longer the case. Around her, the light settled back to dusk and shadows. But it was just nighttime now and the shadows were nothing other than shadows. Moonlight beamed through windows, casting its glow against the floor. All of it natural now, Nikki realized. For the first time in a very long time, things were as they should be and a sense of peace rippled through her.
Only a few moments passed before Nikki heard a child upstairs, the little girl. “She’s gone, Mommy,” she said. “I think she finally went home.”
16
Testing a Theory
“What’s to keep them from just finding someone else? I mean, we helped Rose but those... things are still out there somewhere.” Even now, Henry wasn’t sure what to call the entities that had taken on the forms needed to ensnare Rose. He’d almost used the word “demons” again but, to him, the word just didn’t fit. He didn’t want to give them credit for being something mythical. They were just parasites that fed off of others’ pain. The spiritual equivalent of bullies, nothing more.
“They will find someone else,” Lysrus said. “If not today, then soon. It’s how they survive.”
Something else occurred to Henry. Something that, strangely, hadn’t before. “Do they even die? Could you have killed them?”
Lysrus smiled. “Define death.”
Nikki and Martha both laughed.
“He got you there, Henry,” Nikki said.
Henry’s face grew warm. He was blushing, he knew. Still, he couldn’t help smile. “You know what I mean.”
“You’re right. I do,” Lysrus said. “To answer your questions—yes, they can be destroyed but not by my kind. Mentors can’t destroy anything or anyone. We’ve evolved past it.”
Henry almost asked what Mentors might do if it was a matter of self-defense. But, essentially, Lysrus had just told him. Mentors didn’t kill or destroy. They couldn’t. So, the implication was clear—they would choose their own destruction first.
Lysrus glanced from Henry to Nikki, then back to Henry again. “For the time being, all that matters is what you two did for Rose. You found a way for her to see the truth. Which, in turn, opened the door for me to help her the rest of the way.”
“Is she going to stay with her parents?” Nikki said. “I didn’t think people were grouped that way here. I mean, at least for us, everyone is about the same age.”
Again, Lysrus smiled and Henry could see it coming. Lysrus even gave Henry a quick wink before returning his attention to Nikki. “How old are you, Nikki?”
Nikki opened her mouth to speak but changed her mind.
“He got you there,” Henry said.
“In the realm you’re currently experiencing, people are grouped according to what best serves their well-being. How old someone is—or appears to be, more accurately—is entirely up to them. Regardless, for the time being, Rose will remain with her parents from her last life. Only they can determine how long that will last.”
“But she’ll be happy again, right?” Nikki said. “She’ll forgive herself now?”
“I’m sure she will,” Martha said. “Thanks to both of you. That was very resourceful, by the way. I don’t know that it would have occurred to me—the idea of letting Rose experience a different perspective of her own past.”
Nikki had told Henry her suspicion that Martha had been trying to nudge her in that very direction. The look on Martha’s face—as she maintained eye contact with Nikki—confirmed the same for Henry. Had Martha broken some sort of Rule? From what Henry knew of Martha’s past as a poltergeist causing disturbances across the globe, it seemed entirely possible.
“Indeed.” Lysrus cast a glance at Martha suggesting he suspected something similar. “As I mentioned when we first met, your resourcefulness for helping people is what brought the two of you to my attention originally. For now, I just wanted to thank you. You’ve been under quite a bit of pressure so I don’t think it would be fair right now to add more.”
“But?” Nikki said, her characteristic smirk returning.
Henry felt his smile broadening as he watched her. It was so like Nikki to mess with people, to leave them just ever so slightly uncomfortable.
It even worked on Lysrus, who shifted on his feet, then shrugged. “Well, there’s something I’d like you to consider after you’ve had time to rest.”
“Are you trying to recruit us?” Nikki said.
Lysrus lifted an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly the word I would have chosen.”
“But it’s basically true,” Nikki said.
“I think she got you there, Lysrus,” Martha said.
Lysrus turned to Martha. “They are challenging, aren’t they?”
“You don�
�t know the half of it,” Martha said.
~~~
A few minutes later, Henry and Nikki descended the stairs together being careful not to be heard by the others. They’d catch them up on things in the morning. Right now, they needed a little time to wind down. They went outside and sat on the front steps of Halfway House, the two of them again sharing the view of the stars.
“This is kind of getting to be our spot,” Henry said.
“After the kids are in bed, you mean,” Nikki said.
Henry smiled. “I’m sure they had a busy day while we were at work.”
Nikki slid a bit closer, her shoulder touching his. “I think I could have passed on that day at the office. But it’s good to know little Simon is all tucked in and cozy.”
“And little Jamie.”
Nikki snorted. “Wee baby mohawk prongs stabbing at his pillow.”
Henry burst out laughing.
“Shh, you’ll wake them up.”
Henry dropped his voice to a whisper. “Are they going to bed earlier or are we just staying up later?”
“I think we’ve been keeping some psycho-crazy late nights,” Nikki said. “It’s kind of hard to tell, especially when you hijack somebody’s brain and zip from nighttime to morning, 1964, then back to nighttime again. If I was wearing a watch, I’d guess it has to be like three in the morning. But I haven’t owned a watch since 1972.”
“For the record, I never owned a watch.”
Nikki gasped. “No way! I had this super cool Minnie Mouse watch. I loved that thing. I got it when I was ten.”
“Kind of hard to picture you wearing a Minnie Mouse watch. Seems kind of sexist, by the way.”
“Whatever. Not back then. But you’re right. You probably would have had a Mickey at some point. Most of the boys did.”
“See what I mean?”
Nikki nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “You’re just jealous you never had a watch.”
“Didn’t need one. I had a cell phone.”
“Okay, you suck.”
Henry laughed. “Oops, sorry. Probably shouldn’t wake people up.”
Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3 Page 17
