by Rick Hautala
“Look, dear,” Junia said cheerfully. “The sun’s coming up. You need to rest instead of listening to me gab all morning.”
“No,” Elizabeth said. She raised her head as best she could and craned her neck to look at the brightening bars between the Levolor blinds. Her body trembled with the effort of trying to sit up. “I like to see the dawn. Open up the shades, would you please?”
Junia nodded and walked over to the window, brushing away with her foot the sheet that had covered her while she slept in the chair. Her hand shook with the palsy of age as she pulled the rope to raise the blinds. Elizabeth saw the bright orange disk of the sun just creeping up over the fire-trimmed edge of the cityscape. Thin bands of purple clouds stretched like fingers across the pale blue sky over Portland. High overhead, several small dots that might have been sea gulls circled over the ocean.
“I don’t think I’ll need to be strapped down any more,” she said, sighing deeply as an immense feeling of pleasure swelled through her. She felt buoyant, as light as a andelion fluff, almost giddy hen she considered that, in spite of. the horror and grief and ear he had been through, she had made it! She was alive! She had urvived!
A trickle of laughter bubbled out of her, but when she looked way from the early morning cityscape and looked at her aunt’s reflection in the dust-glazed window, her heart kipped a beat. The morning sun was beaming in on Junia’s face, but instead of seeing that aged, wrinkled face she loved so dearly, Elizabeth saw another face reflected in the glass. Bright, youthful eyes stared back at her and gleaming white teeth flashed in a broad smile.
“Oh, Jesus —” Elizabeth muttered. Her body twitched involuntarily, pulling hard against the restraints. It took a moment for her numbed brain to recognize the face; but, as their eyes locked, she found herself staring directly at her daughter, Caroline. Taking a deep breath to” calm herself, she smiled widely and, addressing her daughter’s reflection, said, “You know, Aunt Junia-I think you’re absolutely right. I think Caroline’s been here with me all along, trying to help me.”
Table of Contents
Part One: Listen, the dead are speaking!
Prologue
1. Late Night Visitor
2. Plot 317
3. Toys in the Attic
4. Old Flame
5. “Hey, Ouija! We need yah!”
6. The Old Crone
7. Night Hunter
8. First Date
9. Jonathan’s Hand
10. Another Warning
Part Two: Look, the dead have risen!
11. Seance
12. Visiting Caroline
13. White Noise
14. Button
15. Dark Meeting
16. Further Investigations
17. Waiting for Midnight
18. The Summoning
19. The Sacrifice
20. Healing
