The Ghosts of Mertland (An Angel Hill novel)

by C. Dennis Moore

  “Probably,” Mandy said. She took another sip of the Coke, holding back a grimace; it was flat and room temperature. “But until then I don’t think I want to go wandering these halls by myself. And the kids? They don’t seem to mind?”

  “They really don’t,” Lynn said. “Well, the ones who’ve been here. New kids, it takes some adjusting, but they see pretty soon the ghosts don’t pay any attention to them. I guess it’s sort of like a metaphysical minefield, you know? Once you know where to step, it’s a breeze. And that’s how the kids adjust. They learn where to go and where not to go. The ghosts have their routines, so we establish the kids’ routines around them.”

  “And no night terrors? No trouble getting them to sleep?”

  “They’re kids,” Lynn said.

  Jane came in and Lynn and Mandy looked over.

  “Snuck off without me,” Jane said, going to the coffee pot.

  “I’m training here,” Lynn joked.

  “I see.”

  Lynn stretched and popped her neck.

  “It’s gonna be a long night,” she said.

  Mandy looked at the clock on the wall.

  “I don’t know, seems to be going by pretty quick so far.”

  “Just wait,” Jane said.

  “Great,” Mandy said. “I can’t wait. So we just, what, sit around?”

  “Pretty much,” Lynn said.

  “That’ll give you and Bea a chance to become best friends,” Jane joked.

  “Awesome,” Mandy said. “I’m sure that’ll happen, too. Jeez, what’s the deal with her? Does she ever smile or act human?”

  “Only during a full moon every alternate Wednesday on months that begin with J,” Lynn said.

  They laughed and Jane said, “She’s actually good with the kids. She just doesn’t take any shit from them and they know it. I mean, she keeps them in line and they don’t fuck with her.”

  “Is she mean to them?” Mandy asked.

  “No, not mean,” Lynn said. “She just makes sure they know she’s running her show.”

  “So they do what she says out of fear?”

  “I don’t even know if it’s fear, necessarily,” Lynn said. “I think she just commands a certain amount of . . . obedience.”

  “She looks like a mean old hag,” Mandy said and Jane and Lynn laughed again. “What about those guys? Do they ever do anything but stand back and watch?”

  Lynn rolled her eyes and said, “They’ll work their shift and make sure the kids do what they’re supposed to, but don’t expect much beyond that.”

  “And by much, she means anything.”

  “Basically.”

  “They seem like happy guys,” Mandy said. “That was sarcasm, by the way.”

  Jane and Lynn nodded. It was Jane’s turn to look up at the clock.

  “And how have the ghosts been treating you?” Jane asked.

  Mandy was taken aback by the question and almost choked on her Coke. She swallowed and cleared her throat, then set her can on the table.

  “It’s a little unnerving,” she said, “I have to admit. I’d heard stories--who in town hasn’t, right?--but really didn’t know what to expect, so I guess I was thinking it would be things floating around in the halls while I’m walking past or doors slamming all night or something.”

  “That’s what people think about this place?” Jane asked.

  “No,” Mandy said. “It’s just what I imagined. I don’t know what people really think about it, I’ve never heard anyone offer an opinion or anything, it’s just sort of, I guess the underlying thing, you know, when people mention the place. ‘Oh yeah, the place with the ghosts,’ you know? So far I know not to go upstairs alone at night. That hallway, those voices yelling . . .”

  She shivered.

  “That was some creepy shit. And the bathroom down here.”

  “The bathroom?” Lynn asked, pointing outside the room and down the hall, where she’d run into Mandy earlier.

  “Yeah,” Mandy said. “The mirror kind of freaked me out, but I just tried to keep calm and get the hell out of there as quick as I could.”

  “No, I don’t know what you mean, though. What about the bathroom?”

  Mandy looked back and forth from Lynn to Jane and back again.

  “The mirror? It was sort of copying me, but a little bit behind?”

  Jane and Lynn looked at each other, then at Mandy, the confusion obvious on their faces.

  “You haven’t seen it?” Mandy asked. “Seriously? It’s freaky as hell, I didn’t like that shit at all.”

  “No,” Lynn said. “I’ve been here forever and I’ve never seen it. Are you sure?”

  “You weren’t still just a little freaked out from upstairs, maybe?” Jane asked.

  Mandy shook her head.

  “I don’t think I was. I mean, no, I definitely was still freaked out, but it wasn’t that. I’m pretty sure I saw what I thought I saw.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a ghost, though,” Lynn said. “Nothing we’ve ever had here before, anyway. We’ve just got your standard hauntings, you know? Voices, things moving, weird sounds in the night. We see dead people, doing that same thing over and over, but it’s things that make sense, people who used to live here. Unless you used to live here, that mirror thing doesn’t make any sense.”

  Mandy shrugged.

  “I don’t know. I just know what I saw, and it wasn’t fun.”

  Jane shook her head.

  “It had to be adrenaline or something affecting your perception,” she said. “That’s not the way our ghosts work here.”

  Listening to them, and seeing the looks on their faces, Mandy felt a moment of doubt. Maybe they were right? She supposed there was some kind of logic to it, adrenaline from being hyped up just before she went in there . . . she’d still been pretty scared; maybe she had expected to see something weird, and that’s what her mind came up with.

  It was possible. Maybe?

  She shrugged and shook her head.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I’ll know if I ever go in there again and my reflection doesn’t move with me?”

  “Yeah,” Lynn said, although she didn’t say it very convincingly.

  “Okay,” Jane said, “but nothing that makes you want to run out of here screaming?”

  “Not yet,” Mandy said.

  “Good,” Jane said, “cuz the building likes you, so I’m not sure it would let you go anyway.” She was joking, she was smiling, but there was something about the words that made Mandy’s stomach tremble.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Mandy said. She was chuckling along too, although halfheartedly. “Those voices up there were pretty bad.”

  “Yeah,” Lynn said, “they are. We all hate them.”

  “And whoever was kicking my chair in there during the movie was getting on my last nerve.”

  And again they looked at her like they hadn’t understood her.

  “Really?” she said. “You don’t know that one, either? What the hell, man, I’m bringing the newbies out of the woodwork.”

  “Who knows,” Lynn said. “In a place this size, how sure are we that we know all of them by now?”

  “Good point,” Jane said. “We can’t be everywhere at once and just because you pass by a spot you saw one yesterday, doesn’t mean you’ll see it again the next day, even if you pass by at the same exact time.”

  “Yeah, it’s not like they keep to a schedule. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you don’t.”

  “Well, if it’s new or just not one you’ve seen before, someone kept kicking my chair during the movie. That’s why I got up and stood by the wall.”

  “Oh,” Jane said. “I wondered why you did that.”

  “Yeah,” Mandy said, “you put the chair back, it kind of followed me over there, like it was looking at me. Damn, when I say it like that, that’s pretty creepy too.”

  “Obviously we don’t expect you to get used to them right away,” Jane said. “But whe
n you do, they’re just there, you know?”

  In stories, it’s always a matter of finding out what the ghost wants or needs in order to be able to move on, and once the heroin does that, the spirit is gone. But that was just a fantasy in Mandy’s mind. Freeing these ghosts was not her mission in life. Hell, taking care of a dozen kids for the rest of her life wasn’t her mission, either, but she needed the money, and since she was here in the middle of this situation, she did feel a responsibility.

  She had always wanted kids of her own. She’d assumed she would have them with Sam eventually. They’d discover she was pregnant, move out of their apartment and into a small house, then a few years later when she got pregnant again, into a bigger house and eventually she’d find herself in the middle of a life. Or they’d get the house first and then decide together to start trying for a baby. The order didn’t matter as long as the outcome was the same; Mandy and Sam growing old together, building a life that was made up of more than just Mandy working a job five days a week just so she could pay the rent and eat every day.

  But it was looking more and more like that was the life she was heading toward, not the other one.

  “I’m sorry, what?” she asked when she realized Lynn had said something she didn’t catch.

  “I said what do you do? You know, spare time kinda?”

  “Oh. Nothing, really. I used to just hang out with my boyfriend, but…”

  “Not end well?” Jane asked.

  “It ended. If it were going well, it wouldn’t have, right?”

  Jane nodded.

  “No, I don’t really do much of anything, I guess. Watch TV. I guess I read a little. Not as much as I used to.”

  “What do you like to read?”

  “I don’t know. I guess whatever. I’ll have to go by the library.”

  One of the kids came into the room, a young girl who looked ten. Her blonde hair was long and pulled into a high ponytail, and it still dangled to the middle of her back. Mandy thought the little girl was very pretty, with bright green eyes and pale skin. She wore a yellow t-shirt with a picture of a kitten on it.

  “What’s up, Katie?” Lynn asked.

  “Someone’s laughing at me,” Katie said.

  “Is someone being mean to you?” Jane asked. Mandy hadn’t met Katie earlier with Lynn, so she guessed Katie was one of Jane’s girls.

  “No, someone in the bathroom.”

  “Who was laughing? I’ll go talk to them.”

  “No,” Katie said, “someone in the mirror. She looked like me and she was pointing and laughing.”

  The women all looked at each other and Mandy felt a chill. She wanted to say I knew it, but she kept her mouth shut until Katie was calmed down.

  “Oh,” Jane said. “Well, remember what we talked about when you got here?”

  Katie nodded.

  “What did we say?”

  “You said if I just turn around so I don’t see it that it will go away.”

  “That’s right,” Jane said. “If you can’t see it then it’s not there.”

  “It didn’t like me,” Katie said. She looked on the verge of tears and it broke Mandy’s heart. But she didn’t know what to do to make the girl feel better. Let Jane handle her business, she guessed.

  “It’s not able to like or not like, sweetie. I promise you it can’t do anything to you. Next time you have to go to the bathroom, you come get me and I’ll go in there with you and show you it’s okay, right?”

  This seemed to calm the little girl and she smiled and said, “Okay.”

  “Now, go get ready for bed, it’s almost time.”

  Katie said Okay again, then disappeared into the hall.

  “That was freaky,” Mandy said. The other women nodded. “Told you there was something in that bathroom.”

  “That is weird, though,” Jane said. “It doesn’t sound like the ghosts we’ve normally got here.”

  “Yeah,” Lynn said. “I don’t like it.” Her voice came in a monotone, as if she were mentally somewhere else. Probably trying to figure out this new mystery, Mandy thought.

  “My best friend’s name is Katie,” Mandy said.

  “Really?” Lynn asked. “Hmm. Interesting.” She said it like someone who in fact didn’t find that interesting at all, and Mandy felt a sudden chill fall over everything.

  “Well,” Mandy said, trying to lighten the mood. “So, it’s time for bed. How does that work?”

  “They go to bed and sleep,” Lynn said.

  Mandy nodded, then glanced at Jane for some confirmation that maybe Lynn was a little too distracted, but Jane just gave her a look that seemed to be saying, “Der, stupid. Isn’t that obvious?”

  “I mean, do we, like, take head count or something? Do the little ones get stories read to them? Do we make sure they brush their teeth first? What’s the drill?”

  Lynn was still staring at the door Katie had left through, as if expecting the girl to come back.

  “Yeah,” she said, distracted. “They brush their teeth and we take headcount.”

  “Alright,” Jane said, standing and stretching. “I’ll count my girls, you count yours. See you two in a bit.”

  She walked out, leaving Mandy alone with Lynn. Mandy wasn’t crazy about being left alone just now, she was still having a hard time reading the other woman. To try and break the tension, or at least just escape it with her life, Mandy got up and headed for the door, stopping before it and asking, “Ready?”

  “Yeah,” Lynn said, focusing again and standing up. “Let’s get it over with.”

  Mandy followed Lynn down the hall.

  All of the girls were in their rooms and accounted for until they reached the room Theresa and Denise shared. The bathroom door was closed and they heard water running. “Theresa,” Lynn said. “She’s got this whole beauty routine she goes through every night. It gets a little annoying.” She rolled her eyes as she said this and Mandy smiled. Whatever Lynn’s problem had been earlier, she seemed to have gotten over it.

  “And she rooms with Denise, right?” Mandy asked, looking around.

  “Yes. She’s . . . I don’t know. Tell you what, you stay here. When Theresa comes out, just get to know her a little; neither of them were too open earlier. I’m gonna see if I can find Denise.”

  “Okay,” Mandy said, and Lynn was out the door.

  The water was still running, so Mandy went to the window and looked outside. It was very dark, so dark she almost couldn’t see anything out there. She was able to make out a few trees, but that was about it, and those trees looked like they were only a few feet from the building, but beyond that, it was nothing but black.

  It looked eerie out there with no moonlight shining through, no streetlights. That’s because you’re looking at the back of the building, she realized. No streetlights out there. She wondered how big the grounds were. She’d seen the front of the building a million times while driving past during the course of her life, but had never wondered what it looked like back here until this moment.

  The water turned off and the bathroom door clicked open. Mandy turned around as Theresa was coming out.

  “Hi again,” Mandy said. “I’m Mandy, remember?”

  “Where’s Ms. Lynn?” Theresa asked. She had turned off the bathroom light, but still stood there in the doorway, not sure if she should come into the room or not.

  “She went to find Denise,” Mandy said. “Come on in, I won’t bite.”

  Theresa stepped forward and once she was fully in the room Mandy saw the palest face she’d ever seen. This girl must burn under the weakest sunlight, she thought. But she was very pretty, the kind of pretty high school boys would soon go crazy for, she thought.

  Awkward silence followed for a few seconds until Mandy turned back toward the window and asked, “So what’s out here?”

  The bed creaked with Theresa’s weight, but Mandy kept her eyes on the window. She could see in the reflection the girl was staring at her, but Mandy didn’t meet her e
yes, just tried to see out into the darkness.

  “The back of the building,” Theresa said.

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Mandy thought, this kid’s a rough one. Thanks for leaving me alone with the brick wall, Lynn.

  “That it is,” Mandy agreed. “I meant further out. Backyard? Playground? It’s so dark out there I can’t see anything.”

  “There’s nothing to see,” Theresa said.

  “Well, there’s got to be something out there. Patio? Tennis courts? Anything?”

  “There’s nothing out there. I’m tired, I’d like to go to sleep.”

  “It’s late,” Mandy agreed and looked at the clock between the beds. It was 9:55. “Lynn will be back with Denise in just a second, then we can turn out the lights and she and I will be on our way.”

  “I’d like to go to sleep, please,” Theresa said.

  “I know,” Mandy said, trying for charm, for calm, just keep the girl relaxed, everything’s cool. “They’ll be here any second. I just don’t want to turn the light out if they’ll be turning it back on ten seconds later, you know?”

  “I’d really like to go to sleep now,” Theresa said. “I don’t know why you won’t let me go to sleep. Please let me go to sleep, I’m very tired.”

  Mandy expected the girl to break out in tears any second. Her voice broke and Mandy wasn’t sure what to do next.

  “Yeah, yeah, it’s no problem,” she said, still trying to remain calm even though Theresa’s attitude had been creeping her out, and now this sudden shift in mood really made her uncomfortable. But it wasn’t just that the girl was so insistent, Mandy realized, it was that she also seemed a little afraid.

  What had happened to this girl that put her here, she wondered.

  “I tell you what,” Mandy said. Theresa sat on her bed in a long white cotton nightgown with her legs crossed and her face in her hands.

  “I just want to go to sleep.”

  “I know, I know,” Mandy said. “I’m just going to step outside and wait in the hall for Lynn and Denise, okay? Is that all right? Um . . . it was nice meeting you. I’m sorry if I upset you. Good night.”

  And with that, Mandy slipped out the door, closing it behind her, and waited in the empty hall.

  The dark, empty hall, she realized as the silence in the building rushed at her. The door clicked behind her with an echo, but that died quickly and she was left with nothing but the sound of her breathing.