Haunted Redemption

by Rebecca Royce

  Levi had to be looped into the discussion, and he had to be on board and not rolling his eyes with disdain when we had the talk. Although he’d been much, much better today than I’d ever seen him before.

  “Hey, Mom.” I changed the subject. “Since you guys are here, maybe you’d like to babysit on Wednesday ? Levi wanted to take me out to eat.”

  My mother raised her eyebrows slowly. “We’d love to watch the kids. That’s what we’re here for, to be with our family for a while and get to know everyone. Is this a date?”

  Before I could answer, Gray did. “She can’t date my father. They’re divorced. It means they don’t do that anymore. You can’t date your ex-husband.”

  My father leaned forward, winking at Gray. “You might be surprised what people can do.”

  I laughed and then stopped when my phone dinged. I know you’re not on the schedule for tonight. I’m wondering if I can stop by to see you after your kids are asleep. I want to talk about Chase.

  Reading Malcolm’s text made heat rise to my cheeks. How could the man affect me so much that even reading his texts made me squirm? I took a deep breath.

  My parents have come into town, and it was a long day. You’re welcome to come here, but it’ll have to be late.

  My mother whistled before she spoke. I grinned at the sound. I’d forgotten about that little eccentricity. It was like a verbal tick. Whenever she really dwelled on something, she started to whistle.

  “Dex is going to be fine. He has such a strong family. Kids are amazingly resilient. I got through my early years with it because of my grandmother. But I have seen some places where kids were not as lucky as we were. A foster home in the 1980s was probably the worst. This poor, talented little boy—lost, alone, with no one believing him that he was being haunted. And, boy, was he. He’d no sooner get one ghost off him than another one would show up. It was like he was some kind of magnet for them. Beautiful child, what was his name? I can’t remember now. You were very friendly with him when we were there. Do you remember his name?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t remember the incident at all. Did he turn out okay?”

  “He was moved before we could finish the job. The state came in and transferred him. I never found him again. A vision brought me to that job. You don’t remember at all? You were old enough to hold memory. Maybe nine years old.”

  I stood. My skin felt tight on my bones and itchy. I needed some tea, which meant I had to make some. Hot water. Tea bag. Tea kettle. I seemed to not be able to do anything but focus on small details.

  “You don’t remember a lot from those years. From the time you were nine until you were eleven.” My father’s voice cut into my train of thought. “We realized that right before you left home. Whole slots of memory are missing.”

  I stopped my activity and turned to observe the room. My kids hadn’t reacted to my dad’s statement at all, while both my parents stared at me like I was about to say something important. My heart rate kicked up.

  “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” I clapped my hands together, tea no longer seeming very important. “It’s bath time. Come on gorgeous creatures, let’s get upstairs and get ready. Say goodnight to Grandma and Grandpa.”

  With grumbles and a lot of eye-rolling from Gray, my kids made their way upstairs. Molly still needed help in the bathroom, so I followed in their wake until my father stopped me.

  “It doesn’t bother you at all that you don’t remember large portions of time?”

  He was right. It really should bug me. “What happened to me? Why did I repress it?”

  “We don’t know. We’ve racked our brains about it, and we’ve never come up with anything. So long as we’re speaking truth, it was right about that time you decided you weren’t going to live life like we did. We respected your feelings. Now I’m wondering if something happened and I just didn’t know.”

  I should be horrified, yet I felt nothing but calm. “Whatever it was, please don’t obsess anymore. I’m fine. I’m making it. I have three great kids, and I’m working finally. If you guys can help me with Dex, then I’ll truly be a happy woman. Please, Dad. I’m okay.”

  “I don’t think you are, love. But I think you will be.”

  Chapter Nine

  I’d all but given up on Malcolm—he’d never responded to my last text—when the phone buzzed. I lifted my head and struggled to read the screen in front of me. Had I been that close to sleep? I’d never gotten out of my clothes.

  Outside.

  Malcolm had apparently arrived, and it was…midnight. Well, he’d taken me seriously when I’d told him to come late. Next time I would have to specify that in a house with three children, ten o’clock constituted late enough.

  I hopped out of bed on quiet feet and made my way downstairs. My parents were asleep upstairs in the guest room, and I could hear my father’s low snores in the hallway. Having more adults in the house made me more at ease. If one of the children woke up needing his or her appendix out or if Dex suffered another vision, I wouldn’t be alone.

  I couldn’t think of Levi when I needed to meet with Malcolm. I stepped outside. My broker leaned against his SUV, staring at my parents’ van. I grimaced and then steeled my face. He couldn’t be thinking the same thoughts I did about the van. He’d never had to live in it.

  A solo streetlight lit up the otherwise pitch-black street. Malcolm looked almost unreal bathed in its low glow. He raised his head and met my gaze. Our night was starless, and even the moon could barely peek through the low-hanging clouds that had taken residence above Austin sometime earlier in the day. With no wind present, they hung over us like a blanket, keeping the light away.

  Even the darkness seemed blacker, denser, all-consuming. I could have laughed at myself. I wasn’t this dour, never had been, even when things were rough.

  The closer I got to Malcolm, the more I could see him. Although his shirt was half-unbuttoned and his bow tie hung slightly to the side, I had no trouble making out that Malcolm wore a tuxedo. I approached him, taking his sandalwood scent deeper into my body. If he’d pointed to the back of the car and said, “Fuck me,” I would have thanked him for the chance. What was happening with my hormones?

  “Hi.” I stayed back a distance. Too close and I might beg. “What’s with the fancy clothes?”

  He didn’t answer me for a second, and I wondered if I’d said something wrong. Should I not have remarked on his attire?

  “I stood in a wedding tonight. Actually, the guy who got hitched was one of mine. A clearer. You’ve only done one job for me, but considering the hugeness it turned out to be”—he dug in his pocket and pulled out some bills— “here. I’ll pay you today instead of Friday. I got more than we’d agreed upon because of the size of the nightmare you faced.”

  The money practically burned my fingers. If I’d been alone, I might have kissed the money. I was actually getting paid.

  “Thank you.” I managed to not squeal.

  He nodded before he continued speaking. “Anyway, I stood in his wedding, and I was looking out at the crowd. I knew about half the people there, which is funny because I never introduce anyone to anyone else. I make a point of trying to be sure that my contractors never meet. I don’t want to run an office; I don’t want to put up with personal bullshit. Yet, somehow, you all meet each other eventually.”

  “And this made you want to come out here and talk to me? It’s midnight, and you stood in a wedding. Weren’t there bridesmaids or … groomsmen you wanted to take to bed?” I rubbed at my neck. If he hadn’t liked the attire question, he was really not going to enjoy the one I’d just asked. Damn the verbal diarrhea I seemed to get whenever he was around.

  Malcolm shifted off the car and walked a step toward me. “Is that your way of asking me if I’m gay, Sage? There were plenty of bridesmaids more than willing, and yet I couldn’t help but think that I had to do something I never do—which is explain myself to you, thanks to Chase showing up at
your place this morning. And maybe some of the groomsmen were available too, but I don’t swing that way. Not unless it’s me and some other dude sharing a hottie between us.”

  “I see.” What was I supposed to say when he gave me way too much information that I had totally asked for? “Um. What did you want to tell me?”

  He leaned forward. “I didn’t get Chase’s sister killed. I liked her. She was a mid-level clearer with pretty good abilities, but not spectacular. Sweet girl. She went and got herself killed. She wasn’t there on one of my jobs. She took it on her own. I tell my contractors only to work for me. That’s not because I’m selfish. I decide what jobs you go on and which ones you don’t. I screwed up yesterday with you, and I’ve been trying to figure it out ever since. I didn’t get a reading that strong when I scoped the place out. How the hell did it go so off kilter? It’ll not happen again.”

  I raised my hands in the air. “Hey, if I couldn’t have done it, I would have left without doing the job. I have three kids, not a death wish.”

  “I believe you.” He pointed at the driveway. “That your van?”

  “No, it belongs to my family. They’re in town.”

  “Right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s it, I guess. I wanted you to know I didn’t get her killed.”

  “Why? We just met each other. Why did it matter to you what I thought?”

  He looked up at the sky and then back at me. “It just did.”

  Malcolm reached out and touched the side of my face. My whole body went on alert, from my feet to my head, from his fingers on my cheek. Behind him, his ghost moved, drawing my attention. I forced myself to step back. I’d had a long day, and he didn’t seem like himself; maybe the whole Chase thing had thrown him more than he realized, and weddings had a tendency to make people get all philosophical about life, too.

  He didn’t move; if anything he got even more still than he usually did. “Do you believe in the moon?”

  “In terms of what?” His question didn’t make any sense to me.

  Malcolm turned to his car, speaking to me over his shoulder. “That’s what I thought.”

  And just like that, he left me standing on the street. Did I believe in the moon? Sure, a celestial body that went through several stages a month in terms of visibility. Gravity. The Ocean. What part of the moon did he want me to believe in?

  Goosebumps broke out on my skin, and nausea rolled through me, threatening to take me to the ground. I tried to breathe through my nose. What the hell was going on? Half-walking, half-crawling I made it to the front door without hurling. By the time I was inside, the overwhelming need to puke passed.

  I sunk down to the floor. Not moving for a bit seemed like the best course of action.

  ****

  I dragged myself out of bed the next morning to the smell of coffee and bacon. My kids were laughing. Took me a minute to remember it was Tuesday. Every once in a while Levi had made me breakfast but not on a weekday and not since he’d moved out. Were my parents … cooking?

  The two kids who were going to school were out the door on time, and no one complained the entire time we were in the car on the way to school. Who were these people, and what had happened to my surly children?

  My phone buzzed on my way back into the house. Your parents are in town. Can they watch your children so you can work a job tonight?

  Malcolm’s presence in my driveway the night before and the sweet way he’d talked to me had rattled me more than I would like to admit. It had taken me an hour to shake off the weird feeling after he’d left. Did I want to hop back into working for him again this morning? Hell yes I did because he’d touched my face and I’d felt … blissful.

  Besides, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have to see him. He’d text me an address, and that would be the end of it.

  If you don’t want it, I’ll give it to someone else.

  Wow. He was touchy. I’d hardly had time to read the text. Sure. I’ll take it. Hold your horses. Give a girl a second to think.

  His text came back almost instantly. Thinking is overrated.

  I went back in the house. Today was our first day with Dex home. I had to figure out how this was going to work. Except that it turned out I didn’t because my dad had him seated at the table reading by the time I came through the door.

  I stopped to admire the scene, my throat clogging with emotion the second I tried to speak. By the time I did, my words sounded more like a croak than a sentence. “A girl could get used to this kind of help in the mornings.”

  My dad winked at me as his only response.

  The rest of the day went relatively easily compared to the kinds I’d been used to lately. I got a lot done around the house, and it wasn’t until the afternoon that Dex had his next vision. One second he laughed at something Grayson said, the next Dex was on the floor rocking back and forth while he screamed the word no.

  I wish I had immediately reacted properly, but I didn’t. I froze. My mother rushed to his side, and my dad started rounding up the other two kids to get them out of the way, and there I stood—not moving—as I watched, for the first time, my son get assaulted by a so-called gift I would have sold my soul to protect him from.

  The first tear to rush down my face snapped me out of my horror, and I dove to the ground next to Dex.

  “It’s okay, baby.” I rubbed his back. “It’ll be over soon.”

  He shook his head wildly, his pupils huge when he finally answered me. “But it won’t be, Mommy. Everything is wrong. He’s coming for the light. All of it.”

  I stared at my mom. “Any idea what he’s talking about?”

  She was pale when she spoke. “No, unfortunately. I’ve not had this vision. I’d gladly have it instead of him. I never had them this strongly when I was his age.”

  “That’s my boy. The overachiever.”

  I hadn’t known Levi had arrived, and I jolted at the sound of his voice. He knelt down next to Dex. “Tell Daddy what you’re seeing. It’ll make you feel better.”

  “No. It’s wrong.” Dex shook his head over and over before he finally launched himself into Levi’s arms. “Scary.”

  For whatever reason, I always associated silence with night. The way the darkness brought about the sense of nothingness. I learned right then that daylight had its own version. As we stood in the backyard—my son, my ex, and my mother with me—I could hear nothing. Dex’s pain made the world stop singing. The usual sounds—birds, cars, dogs—they all stopped. Or maybe I simply couldn’t hear them. My child enduring trauma silenced everything.

  Eventually, it stopped. Not all at once, and Dex didn’t bounce back, but it did cease.

  Levi carried him inside the house, not letting him go even after he was okay. They sat together at the dining room table across from my father who sipped his tea, watching the two of them.

  “Explain to me what function this plays in your world.”

  My parents made eye contact with each other, and then didn’t answer, leaving it to me. “I’m afraid I don’t understand the question.”

  “In your world, where this kind of hell is thrust onto children and ghosts roam the halls causing havoc and pain, I can actually understand what your function is. You can clear places of their presence. Have a ghost problem? Great, Kendall Yates can arrive, and she can make those suckers disappear.”

  I could do more than that, but it was interesting to hear Levi’s take on the subject. I didn’t interrupt him, and he went on. “What purpose does Dex’s gift serve? Maybe if I could understand his new role in your world, then I could help him adjust to it? He sees bad things. Okay. Is he supposed to relay the news to everyone, like some kind of Cassandra, and then you go rush off and save the day?”

  My mom sighed loudly. “I wish it were the case, the way you describe it. Sometimes it is. Every once in a while I get a vision that lets me help someone prevent something from happening, but honestly, most of the time it simply lets me know where to go to do the clean-up. I s
ee the horror, and then we get in the van, and we go.”

  “I see.” Levi shook his leg, and Dex bounced up and down on his lap while he did. My son giggled; it was a nice sound, the first happy Dex-y noise I’d heard since the vision. “So he has to live through this crap, and nothing comes of it? No ‘save the world,’ ‘it’s all worth it because look at what he can do’ ending.”

  “I hear what you’re saying.” My father sat back in his chair. “I’ve thought it enough times myself. I have a slightly different take than you because I can actually see the energies when I encounter them. The ghosts. The demons. The scary bumps in the night. When I was a kid, a demon stalked me up and down the block every time my parents insisted I ride my bike.” He whistled once before he spoke. “I’d convinced myself I was crazy. It wasn’t until I met my wife I even knew others could see them.”

  “That’s interesting, but it doesn’t help my son.”

  My mom leaned over, placing her hand on Dex’s back. “We’re going to figure out how to control it. I don’t get run over by them anymore. Dex will learn too.”

  “Wonderful.” I didn’t hear joy in Levi’s voice when he said it. Sarcasm had always been his weapon of choice when he felt threatened.

  “You’re all lying.” Gray’s angry shout caught us all by surprise. My father so much so that he scooted his chair back like he was about to be attacked. “This is all crap.”

  I gasped, jumping to my feet. “Grayson Yates. You do not talk like that. Crap is not an okay word.”

  “I’m sick of this family. You’re all liars. There aren’t ghosts. Dex is just weird because you made him that way.” He pointed at me with so much hatred that if his finger had been a gun he would have blown my head off. “This is all your fault.”

  Levi rose slowly to his feet, setting the now crying again Dex on the seat. “Grayson Yates, I am sick to death of this. You will not speak to your mother in that tone. You will not use inappropriate language. I’m not going to tolerate it. Go upstairs. Get your tablet. You’re done with it for the foreseeable future.”