The Whittier Trilogy

by Michael W. Layne

  Zana snuggled closer and closed her eyes.

  “I know we have to go, but can we stay here for a little bit? It’s still early.”

  Trent looked at the top of her head and kissed it. Then he stared up at the ceiling—thinking.

  “That sounds nice,” he finally said.

  They were quiet for a while, and they both started to drift back to sleep.

  Trent caught himself right before he passed out. He blinked his eyes and cleared his throat.

  “Do you miss the tunnels at all, Zana?”

  It was her turn to be silent for a few moments.

  “I miss my friends. Bozo and some of the others were like family. And we kept each other safe. But, no, I don’t miss the tunnels. I like being outside like this. I like being with you.”

  Trent kissed the top of her head.

  “I know you don’t like talking about it, but can you tell me something about your past, before Vegas? Other than the fact that you know how to use a wood stove.”

  Zana sighed, and turned over in bed to face him.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Have you always been able to sense spirits?”

  Zana exhaled a large breath.

  “When I was a kid, I used to tell my mom about the ghosts I could see. She thought it was just a phase and that I was making it all up, of course. But as I got older and kept seeing them, I think it really scared her. She sent me to a shrink who put me on some pretty strong meds at one point. I took one pill to help with my hallucinations. And one pill to help even out my body chemistry. And I had to take two more pills to deal with the side effects from the first two.”

  “Did any of them do anything?”

  She looked up at him and smiled, then turned her head back to his chest.

  “Made me sleepy, mostly. At least I was a lot more relaxed whenever I saw something or someone. But by that point, I was used to seeing spirits and energy…and other things. Sometimes I’d see a spirit and it’d look like a real person or animal, and other times, like with the spirit attached to you, I’d just see a cluster of energy. I eventually figured out that they were all the same thing, just in different states.”

  Trent yawned despite trying to stifle it.

  “Do you mostly see good spirits or those with, you know, sinister intentions?”

  “It’s not like that,” she said. “I’ve seen lots of spirits, and one thing I’ve learned is that most of them are just like the living. There’s rarely a good or a bad spirit. I know there are evil spirits out there, but I’ve never seen one. I’ve seen more evil in people that were alive than I’ve ever seen in spirits.”

  “You don’t think this thing attached to me is evil?”

  “Each spirit has its own motivation for being here instead of moving on to wherever it’s final destination is. The spirit on your shoulder wants vengeance for something that was done to it while it was alive. That much I’m pretty sure of. Is that a bad or an evil thing? Who the heck am I to say? Just like people, each spirit thinks or feels like it’s busy doing the right thing according to the way it sees the world.”

  Trent was about to ask another question when there was a loud knock at the door, and he heard a voice from outside.

  “Mr. Walker?” the voice yelled, loud enough to be heard through the walls. “This is Sheriff Nopes. I need a few minutes of your time to ask you and your friend some questions.”

  Chapter 22

  TRENT AND ZANA sprang to their feet and got dressed as fast as they could.

  “Just a second,” Trent yelled back.

  Within a couple of minutes, both he and Zana were fully clothed. Trent looked out the window and saw a man wearing a police coat and uniform standing patiently while snow fell heavily around him.

  As soon as Trent saw the man’s face, he recognized him, although the last time he’d seen the police officer, the lawman had been trying to kill Trent along with the rest of the townspeople.

  Trent’s first instinct was to grab something he could use as a weapon, even though he was sure the Sheriff had a gun. But as he looked at the side of the man’s face and his posture, Trent didn’t see any signs of aggression.

  He opened the door and waved the Sheriff inside.

  The short, stocky man entered and looked around the single room. He took his hat off and shook the snow off of it outside the door before putting it back on his head. He sniffed, and Trent wondered if he smelled the bacon and eggs from the previous night or the sex from less than an hour ago.

  Trent sat down at the small kitchen table with Zana. As Trent looked up at the Sheriff, he could tell from the micro expressions and the calmness in the man’s face, that either he didn’t recognize Trent or he didn’t care.

  Trent felt himself relax a few notches.

  “What’s going on, Sheriff? Mrs. Carney tell you we were up here?”

  The Sheriff let out a hearty laugh and leaned against the wall near the door.

  “I suppose she did. But she wasn’t the only one who noticed you were back in town. The whole town’s buzzing about seeing you—reminds people of a darker time they’re anxious to start forgetting. And now with Christina suddenly nowhere to be found… You can understand why I have to ask if you’ve seen her lately, don’t you, Mr. Walker?”

  “Of course. I understand, but we haven’t seen her. That’s why we’re up here, actually. We heard yesterday that no one’s seen her, so we decided to wait around for her to come back.”

  The Sheriff nodded seriously.

  “What exactly is it you want with Christina? If you don’t mind me asking, that is…”

  “She said to look her up if I ever came back into town. That’s what I’m doing.”

  The Sheriff’s eyes narrowed.

  “Let’s say I buy that for a second. You must really want to see her pretty bad if you decided to rent a cabin up here, wouldn’t you say?”

  “We got very…close the last time I was here.”

  “That’s what Tom over at the bar said. Hotel manager said as much, too. Said you were with Christina when they found the Elder dead over in the old barracks, too.”

  Trent just nodded.

  “That was a rough night,” he said.

  The Sheriff turned his gaze to Zana.

  “This is my girlfriend, Zana.”

  “Do you have a last name, young lady?” the Sheriff said.

  She smiled sincerely with a twinkle in her eye.

  “Just Zana,” she said. “I haven’t used a last name in over ten years. Wouldn’t help you very much anyway. I’ve been homeless for most of that time.”

  Trent could see the Sheriff trying to decide whether to push for her last name or not. Deciding that it wasn’t worth the effort, he instead turned back to Trent.

  “You don’t know anything about where Christina might be? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Yes, sir,” Trent said, standing slowly. “I assume you’re as concerned about her as we are, so if we see her first, I’ll be sure to let her know you’re looking for her.”

  The Sheriff pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight. He peered directly into Trent’s eyes.

  “We got a small town here, Mr. Walker, and when someone goes missing…well, it doesn’t go unnoticed. And it doesn’t get forgotten, either. How long are you two planning on waiting around here for her?”

  Zana stood and joined Trent, holding his hand.

  “We were thinking we’d give her three days—a week at the most, before packing it in.”

  The Sheriff pulled his hat down so that it partially covered his eyes.

  “I know you’re no stranger to Whittier, but you better be careful up here, Mr. Walker. Lots of wild animals in these woods. And as you can see, the season’s starting to turn. You stay up here too long, and you might get stuck here for the winter.”

  Trent nodded.

  “Thanks for the warning, Sheriff, but we won’t be here that long.”

  The Sherif
f opened the door, then turned back and surveyed Trent and Zana one last time. He looked at the suit Trent was wearing and at Zana’s jeans and high top sneakers.

  “Son, if you did get stuck in this cabin, and one of you decided to eat the other, you still wouldn’t make it through one of our winters up here. Trust me on this.”

  The Sheriff laughed as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

  After the Sheriff left, Trent and Zana looked at each other, trying to digest what had just happened.

  “What a weird thing for him to say about eating each other,” she said.

  “See why I had a hard time figuring out whether they were possessed or just plain crazy?” Trent said.

  “I’m starting to get the picture.”

  Trent thought the Sheriff’s visit was weird as well. It wasn’t so strange that he was looking for a missing member of the town, but his questions made it obvious that he suspected Trent of something.

  “I’m not sure where we go from here, Zana. If the Sheriff’s looking for Christina, he must have already asked everyone in town if they know where she went.”

  “I’m no fan of the police,” Zana said, “but at least if he’s looking for her, maybe she’ll turn up soon, and we can talk to her then. Maybe we should keep waiting. It’s not so bad up here.”

  Trent continued to be amazed at how calm Zana seemed about the prospect of meeting and talking with Christina. He wondered if secretly she was nervous about the encounter. Or even jealous. Or if she possessed any of the other normal female emotion he would have expected to encounter in a situation like this.

  He was about to ask her if she was really as okay as she seemed, when there was another loud knock at the door.

  “Maybe the Sheriff forgot to ask us something,” Trent said as he walked to the door.

  When Trent opened the door, he was surprised to find Christina standing there, with a smile on her face, despite the mild bluish tint to her cheeks.

  Trent stepped back, as if he were in a fog, while Christina shook the snow off her jacket, stepped inside, and gave Trent a giant, full-body hug.

  Chapter 23

  TRENT RARELY found himself at a loss for words. But after Christina released him from their embrace, he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

  Her light brown hair was still peppered with freshly fallen snow, and her smile diminished only a little when she saw Zana standing behind him.

  “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Christina said.

  She reached out to shake Zana’s hand, while Trent remained motionless and watched. He knew this inevitable meeting would be awkward, but he hadn’t expected his stomach to be as knotted up as it was.

  “You must be freezing,” Zana said. “Come on over and have a seat. We were just about to light up the stove.”

  Christina smiled and removed her coat. As soon as she did, despite her loose-fitting flannel shirt, vivid images of her sleek body with its ample curves flashed into Trent’s mind. He looked away clumsily.

  Zana came up behind him and put an arm around his waist. She was being friendly and respectful, but she was also claiming her property, and Trent could tell that Christina received the message.

  Trent and Zana held hands as they walked over to the small kitchen table. Trent remained standing, while the two women sat down.

  He put some balled-up paper in the stove, lit it, and added logs like Zana had taught him. Soon, the fire was going, and the cabin was warming up quickly.

  “Your boss said he hadn’t seen you in days,” Trent said. “We were getting worried that something had happened to you.”

  Christina looked at the floor, then back at Trent.

  “I’ve been doing some soul searching since you left.”

  Christina glanced at Zana then back to Trent.

  “Out in the woods this whole time?” Zana said.

  Christina barely nodded, acknowledging Zana’s question.

  “I’m assuming you two are together,” she said.

  “We met in Vegas,” Zana chimed in before Trent could respond. “I begged him to let me come along.”

  Christina looked at Trent with a raised eyebrow.

  “I really need to talk to you.”

  Christina smiled awkwardly.

  “I bet you do,” she said, with almost sad eyes.

  Trent saw that she was holding back tears and decided to steer the conversation back to a safer topic.

  “The Sheriff was up here looking for you five minutes ago. He said the whole town’s looking for you.”

  “I saw him come in here, when I was hiding in the woods. I figured he thought one of you had kidnapped or maybe even killed me.”

  No one laughed.

  Christina slouched in her chair and pulled her hair back from her face, as the air in the cabin grew warmer.

  “Well? Did you turn during the last full moon?” she asked.

  “The short answer is, yes,” he said.

  Even though he’d been reluctant to accept a supernatural explanation for what had happened to him, after everything he’d been through in Whittier and in the tunnels under Vegas, he was left with no option other than to believe.

  But he still couldn’t bring himself to admit it out loud. Instead, he pulled his collar to one side, exposing the bite mark from Christina.

  “The wound’s still raw after a month and a half. It won’t heal.”

  Christina’s face turned dark.

  “I told you to call me if that happened,” she said.

  “I left messages. I texted you.”

  Christina was silent.

  “I know this is awkward, but I had to come back,” he said. “I have to know what this thing is, and more importantly, how to get rid of it.”

  Trent studied Christina’s face. He could tell that she was holding something back.

  Zana stood up and studied Christina, like a doctor inspecting her for some strange disease.

  “What is she doing?” Christina said?

  Zana turned to Trent.

  “That’s weird,” she said.

  “Do you see another spirit, like the one you see on me?”

  Christina’s mouth opened in disbelief as she waited for Zana’s reply.

  “She’s clean. From what you told me about her and what happened to you the last time you were here, I was expecting to see at least one spirit attached to her.”

  Christina got up from the table and moved away from Zana—a mix of curiosity and doubt on her face.

  “You can really see them?”

  Zana opened her mouth to answer, but Trent interjected.

  “Since I’ve been away from here, I’ve experienced some strange things, Christina—some of which I can’t refute with logic. Zana’s ability to see spirits is one of those things.”

  “The answer is, yes,” Zana said, “I can see spirits, or ghosts, or apparitions—whatever you want to call them. It’s something I’ve been able to do ever since I was a young girl.”

  “And you see one of them on Trent?” Christina said as she reached out and gently touched the bite wound she had left on his neck. “Here? Near the wound?”

  Zana nodded.

  “Your fingers are in it right now.”

  Christina removed her hand.

  “That hasn’t happened in a long time—not since the soldiers who built this place. After the slaughter, that’s how the spirits spread—by possessing the military men and using them to attack and wound other soldiers. But with us—the townspeople—the spirits never entered through a path of blood. They showed up during the full moon and left the next morning. They never stayed attached to any of us.”

  “Did the spirits come again during the last full moon?” Trent asked.

  Christina shook her head.

  “Most everybody stayed in their cages that night to be safe, and I volunteered to watch again, but nothing happened. I don’t think anyone slept very well, but we all woke up the next morning to a brand new lif
e. I remember feeling better than I had in a long time.

  Christina paused.

  “Then I thought of Alice, and how she would never get to feel what I was feeling.”

  Trent looked away. Alice and Christina had been a couple that was already on the outs when Trent had first arrived. Christina liked whomever she pleased, regardless of gender, but Alice liked only women, and Christina was the love of her life. From the moment Alice met Trent, she blamed him for breaking the two of them up.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “About the way everything happened with her. In the end, she gave her life for both of us though. It’s because of her that we’re both here still.”

  Christina nodded—a single tear rolling down her cheek.

  No one said anything for almost a full minute.

  “Christina,” Zana said in a soft voice, “if the spirits left the townspeople alone last time, why do you think this spirit is staying with Trent?”

  Christina turned to her.

  “There’s really only one reason I can think of. It must have unfinished business.”

  Silence again.

  Trent cleared his throat.

  “Regardless of why it’s here, all I really want to know is how to get it to leave? I can’t take this thing being inside my head for much longer, never knowing when it’s going to take over and make me do something horrible.”

  Christina wiped moisture from the side of her eye. She exhaled and looked like she was trying to relax her shoulders.

  “Since the full moon, have you been stronger than normal or healing faster?”

  “Other than the bite, I’ve been healing faster than should be even possible, but the strength and the heightened senses come and go whenever it feels like using me. Just a few days ago, I had my ass pounded into the ground outside a bar in the Yukon. The spirit didn’t do a thing to help me. But it did heal me up pretty fast. By the next morning, you couldn’t even tell I’d been in a fight.”

  Christina reached around Trent and grabbed a bottle of water off the counter.

  “To answer your question—there’s only one way to remove the spirit—besides helping it finish its mission and letting it leave on its own.”