Keep on Haunting

by Rose Pressey

  “Rip, are you all right?” Brannon called out.

  That was a tough question to answer. Physically, I supposed I was fine. “I’m okay,” I said. “Are you all right?”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Brannon said.

  That wasn’t the answer I was looking for. I couldn’t see him, so I was really freaking out. Somehow I managed to scoot over and get my phone. During this process I realized I was no longer tied to the chair. My hands were no longer bound since somehow the rope had come undone when I’d been knocked over. I used this opportunity to head for the door. If I could escape then maybe I could get help for everyone. At the very least I could sneak out and make a phone call. I’d go back and try to untie Brannon. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Brannon there. There were a lot of sounds of moving around, but the house was still rattling. It wasn’t unheard of for an earthquake in Kentucky, but I knew this wasn’t the case.

  As I tried to move across the floor in the dark I stumbled over something and fell again.

  “Who is that?” Joanna called out.

  I didn’t answer of course. I didn’t want her to know that I was moving and out of the chair, but as I touched the floor I felt something. I wrapped my hand around the object. I had the gun. Though with my hands still tied it would be impossible to use it. That was just my luck. As soon as there was a hint of a way for me to get us out of this then something stood in my way.

  Brannon had shown me how to use a gun, but I couldn’t fire one behind my back. I moved closer to the door. At least I had the gun and Joanna wouldn’t be able to use it on us. I knew the door was behind me, but I wasn’t sure how much farther I had to go. My back was pressed up against the wall.

  Chapter 26

  Finally I made my way to the door. I reached out and fumbled to find the door knob. When I made contact with the knob, suddenly the door burst open. I fell forward to the floor with a thud. The gun flew from my hand and I assumed slid across the floor based on the loud noise that it made. Someone screamed out and I realized it was Tammy. The light from her phone illuminated the hallway. I spotted the gun and made a dash for it just as Joanna was headed that way. I grabbed the gun and hurried to my feet, pointing it at Joanna.

  “Don’t make a move,” I said.

  Thank goodness the rumbling throughout the room had finally ceased.

  “And put your hands up too,” I said, motioning with the gun.

  I couldn’t believe that she actually did as I told her.

  “What is going on here?” Tammy asked.

  “This woman and her accomplice kidnapped me,” I said. “And all of the other people here too.”

  “All of you?” Tammy’s eyes widened.

  “How did you find me?” I asked.

  “You called my phone. After that last incident we did the tracking app, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right. I’m glad we did that.”

  “Me too. Do you think maybe we should untie Brannon now?” Tammy asked.

  “Oh, right,” I said. “All right, don’t make a move.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Joanna said sarcastically.

  “Keep an eye on them,” I said to Tammy as I moved across the room.

  “You’re ruining everything,” Joanna said. “Everything we’ve worked for is now gone because of you.”

  “Well, what can I say? That’s what I’m here for.”

  Now that I had the gun I could be really sarcastic. There was nothing she could do to stop me now. Well, other than get the gun away from me, but I didn’t think that would happen. Nevertheless, I watched her as I traveled across the room.

  I moved behind Brannon and feverishly tugged at the ropes around his wrists. Once I untied him from the chair I handed him the gun because I didn’t want it anymore. I’d had enough.

  Brannon stood in the middle of the room. “You two.” He motioned to Joanna and the man. “Sit on the chairs right now and don’t move.”

  They didn’t get in a hurry as they reluctantly walked over to the chairs and sat down.

  “Rip, can you and Tammy tie them to the chairs, please?” Brannon asked.

  “My pleasure,” I said, grabbing the rope.

  I handed one bundle to Tammy and I got to work on tying him, while Tammy worked on Joanna. I got a lot of satisfaction in knowing that they wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Not until the police arrived and took them away to jail.

  “Denny has a gun too,” I said.

  It had been concealed in the back of his waistband.

  “Hold onto it,” Brannon said.

  I pulled the gun from behind Denny and held it with my shaking hand.

  Brannon stayed in the middle of the room with the gun pointed at the two of them, even though now they were tied up.

  “So what’s next?” I asked.

  Brannon pulled out his phone. “I’m going to get the other officers here so that they can take these two away.”

  A lot of mumbling came from behind me. I spun around.

  “Oh, yeah, we have to untie the others,” I said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Tammy asked, looking at the group suspiciously.

  Well, I hadn’t thought they were a part of this since Joanna had guided them in the room. She’d tied them up too, but I guessed they could have been involved. Yeah, Tammy had me thinking differently now.

  When Brannon got off the phone, I asked, “What should we do with them? Are they involved?”

  “Let’s take the things off their mouths first,” he said.

  Tammy and I went around taking off the gags from around their mouths.

  “What do you mean? Only take the gags off?” the guy said as soon as I removed it from his mouth. “We had nothing to do with this.”

  “How are we supposed to be sure?” I asked.

  “Because we told you so,” Emma said.

  “Yeah, but you’re the one who led us into the séance and got us in this mess to begin with,” I said.

  “Look, we didn’t want anything to do with this. We’re just trying to get out of this.”

  “You helped them get us here.”

  “If it meant we would get out of this, then I was doing it,” she said.

  A sound came from outside. Had the police arrived?

  As I walked by Tammy to look out the window, I asked, “How did you get here?”

  “There’s my car right here.” Tammy pointed out.

  As I looked out the door, I spotted that mysterious car drive by. The same one with the suspicious driver that I’d seen talking to Dana. The one that seemed to be stalking me in downtown Devil’s Moon. This was definitely no coincidence that the car had shown up at this here too. It had to be someone working with Joanna and Denny. That meant we might have more people to deal with.

  “Is everything all right?” Tammy asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “We may have a problem on her hands. That strange car that I told you about at the tavern? I just saw it drive past. I don’t think that’s a coincidence and I think we might need to prepare ourselves for something else bad about to happen.”

  “I’m ready to take on whatever they want to dish out,” Tammy said.

  I knew she was really worked up now. I had to focus my attention on the scene in the house now though. I couldn’t worry about what might happen. Only a few seconds went by until the door burst open. A woman with long dark hair stood at the entrance with a gun in her hand. She wore jeans and a big cream colored sweater.

  She pointed at us. “Put your hands up.”

  I wasn’t willing to do that since I had a gun too.

  “You put your hands up,” I said with the gun aimed at her.

  Her eyes widened when she saw that I had a gun too. I had no idea what to do next. Panic surged through me. How had I ended up in this mess? My hand shook, but so did hers. I knew she’d never done this kind of thing before either.

  “You put the gun down,” I said.

  “That’s n
ot going to happen.” Her voice shook.

  Why was she doing this? I didn’t know who she was, but I assumed she’d been the woman in the car looking for my old apartment. Since she was still standing by the door she was just out of sight from the others. Though Brannon was close by. I hoped he was planning a way to get the gun away from her. He remained quiet so she wouldn’t know about him.

  “What’s going on?” Joanna asked.

  The woman glanced in that direction. “Who is that? How many people are here?”

  “There are a bunch of us,” I said. “And they all have guns so you should put yours on the floor now.”

  Would she believe me?

  “I’m looking for Denny Walsh and Joanna,” the woman said as she continued holding the gun.

  I glanced over at Joanna and Denny. Brannon motioned for me to stay calm.

  “What do you want with them?” I asked.

  “I think they knows why I’m looking for them,” the woman said.

  “Yes, she might, but I don’t. Please enlighten us,” I said.

  “Not until I see them. Bring them out.” The woman kept the gun pointed at me.

  No way would I bring them out to this woman. This could be a setup. A way for all of them to get away. I wasn’t falling for it.

  “I can’t do that,” I said.

  Now we were at an impasse. Something had to be done. We couldn’t stand there like this all day. I sensed that Brannon was growing impatient as well.

  “Excuse me, ma’am,” Brannon said, walking closer to the hallway.

  She narrowed her eyes when she looked over at him.

  “I need you to put the gun down so we can discuss what the problem you have with Denny and Joanna. The police are on their way and they will be arrested. If you put the gun down now then I can save you from going to jail as well.”

  Brannon’s steady and calm voice amazed me. He knew exactly how to talk to her. Brannon inched closer to her. My heart beat faster. What would I do if she fired her gun at him?

  “My husband is Denny Walsh. My name is April. Joanna lured him her with her talk of covens and such. He’s not a bad person. He’s just under her influence.”

  “That’s no such thing. Denny is under the influence of the devil,” Joanna said.

  “Oh, even better,” I said drily.

  “I came here to get him back,” April said.

  “We can work something out. Just put the gun down.” Brannon moved closer to her.

  To my surprise she actually put the gun down. Brannon took it from her hand. I released a deep breath and lowered the gun. Thank goodness this was over.

  Before we had a chance to continue this discussion the sirens sounded outside. The police cars pulled up in front of the house.

  “Can you let them know that I’m in here holding these two?” Brannon asked.

  I rushed toward the door and waited for police officers.

  “He’s in there with the two perps,” I said.

  Yes, I’d been around Brannon too long. Okay, he’d probably never even said ‘perps.’ I’d probably heard it in a movie or read it in a book. Regardless of where I’d picked it up, it sounded right when I’d said it.

  The police rushed into the room and immediately got the couple up out of the chairs. Before they had a chance to put the handcuffs on them Joanna and Denny took off toward the front door.

  “Denny, come back.” April started after him.

  An officer stopped her. It was pointless for Denny and Joanna to try to get away because there were so many police officers in the room and they immediately grabbed them. I couldn’t believe they had tried to get away.

  “Nice try,” Tammy said. “You’re not going anywhere other than jail.”

  Tammy always talked smack when she was mad.

  The officers grabbed the couple up and slapped the handcuffs on them. They also guided April out. I hoped she got help after what her husband had obviously put her through.

  “The spirit will still come after you,” Joanna said with an evil tone and look in her eyes.

  That was what I was worried about. I knew that we hadn’t gotten rid of the spirit yet. What would we do now? I wouldn’t let her get to me though, even if the spirit was about to show up here.

  “We have ways of taking care of that,” I said. “We’ll be able to handle it.”

  Actually, I felt as if this was the calm before the storm. The demon probably wasn’t finished with this séance. No matter that we were finished with it. Plus, we hadn’t closed it out and told the spirit that it wasn’t welcome here. That made things even worse. But first things first. We had to get rid of these two before we could even address the other problem. Tammy looked uncomfortable with the mention of the word ‘séance.’

  The police guided the couple out of the house and to the police cars waiting outside. They were angry the whole way to the car, debating on why they should be arrested. They’d done nothing wrong, was their argument. Well, other than the fact that they had murdered someone. I still didn’t understand why they’d had to do that, but I supposed that was why they were crazy. Their logic didn’t make sense to anyone.

  The rest of the group headed out of the house. Now they were a little bit upset with us too because we hadn’t released them right away. But better safe than sorry in my opinion. There was one more thing we needed to take care of before we left.

  “Brannon, we have to get rid of this evil spirit that they conjured. It will just follow us,” I said. “What can we do?”

  He reached in his back pocket for his phone. “I’ve been working on this sound app that will close up portals.”

  “A sound?” I asked.

  “Yes, it doesn’t seem like much to the human ear, but I think it will send the demons away.”

  “Won’t they just come back?” I asked.

  “Not if we close the portal entrance,” Brannon said.

  “And how do we do that?” I knew I sounded clueless.

  “Simply by saying they’re not allowing to enter.”

  I supposed that was the only option we had right now. Brannon turned on his phone and a low hum emanated. He was always working on some kind of paranormal device. This was just his latest. The room shook a little as he held the phone, but it was nothing like what had happened before. The noise filled the room. Even though it wasn’t loud, it still vibrated through my body. Luckily, no dark shadow appeared. After a few minutes, Brannon turned off the sound and then we held hands.

  “You’re not allowed to enter. We close this portal with love and light,” Brannon said.

  We repeated this several times. With each word the room felt lighter.

  “Do you think it’s gone for good?” I asked.

  “It seems lighter in here. I think it’s gone,” Brannon said.

  A weight had just been lifted from my shoulders. I was glad to be out of this place. Part of me had anticipated that dark shadow would show up again soon. I knew that it could and would just follow me, so it wouldn’t matter if I was there or not. Brannon seemed convinced though so I would trust him. Brannon and I walked outside hand in hand.

  “Thank goodness that it’s over now,” I said.

  “I’m just glad we didn’t have to do a séance,” Tammy said. “The demon would probably attach to me.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t ask you to do that anyway,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” she said with a laugh.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Brannon said.

  We headed toward one of the police cars. I looked back at the house and for a moment I thought I saw someone looking out the window. I just assumed it was my imagination playing tricks on me after everything we’d been through this evening. I knew no one else was in the house and that spirit was gone. I wouldn’t think anything else. I headed toward the car and didn’t look back again. I would close this chapter in my life and not give it a second thought. We got into the car and headed away from the hous
e.

  ***

  The next day things seemed considerably calmer as I walked through town, making my usual path toward the coffee shop. I didn’t see any strange shadows or a mystery man walking around town. I headed into the shop and placed my usual order for coffee and pastry. Dana saw me and smiled. She headed over to me.

  “So things are back to normal for you?” she asked.

  I took the coffee and gave her a big smile. “As normal as they’ll ever be. I hope things are okay for you now. I know you went through a lot.”

  “I’m pretty tough and I’ll make it,” Dana said.

  “I know you will.”

  I left the coffee shop with a bounce in my step and headed for the library. This was the best that I’d felt in a long time. It was good not to have the stress of worrying about where the killer might be.

  The library was airy and bright when I opened the door. Annie was waiting by the door for me when I arrived. She was all smiles. I checked my phone for the message.

  It’s over and you got rid of the ghost.

  “Yes, I did. How did you know?” I asked.

  The thing hasn’t been here at the library, she said. I’m glad it didn’t hurt you. I need to find a way to travel farther and then I can help you more.

  “I’ll be fine, Annie. With any luck all the bad spirits will stay away,” I said.

  Bless your heart, I hope that’s true.

  Jane Austen strolled up and rubbed her body against my leg. She meowed for her food.

  “Thank you for all the help, Annie,” I said as I moved to the reference desk.

  You don’t have to thank me. I will always help you.

  I put the food in the bowl and filled up the water. The cat started eating immediately. Yes, things were much better at the library this morning, and I hoped that it stayed that way forever.