A Strange There After

by Missy Fleming

  “Why would he let Cora stay? Seems a little out of character for a loa, according to what I read,” Boone asked.

  “She and Catherine are bound to him. Cora mutes his power, keeps him from regaining his full strength. Here, she is the one with authority. I don’t think he lets her do anything. I imagine Catherine is the only one benefiting from his presence. Yet, in a way, he and Catherine are servants to Cora’s whims.”

  The shocking truth of her statement hung in the air, an ugly misshapen thing.

  “I am no one’s servant.” Catherine’s shout caused the lights to dim and a few of the vases to vibrate.

  We all startled at her outburst. She stared us down, red-faced. “It was never meant to turn into this.” She gestured wildly at the backyard. “I never knew what he was until later. I accepted a deal in a moment of weakness. Am I to be punished for that?”

  “Absolutely,” Jason growled.

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the house shuddered, groaning and creaking, like it was caught in a windstorm. A large, swirling gray mass appeared in the foyer, filling the space from floor to vaulted ceiling. The air around it gave way to darkness, and everyone in the living room shrunk away from it. Thanks to whatever Meena used, the mass never crossed the threshold. It ran up against an invisible force, spreading out like smoke against glass.

  Meena walked up to the barrier and called out in a strong voice, “You cannot harm any in this room, Kalfu.”

  Wrong.

  An ear-shattering scream exploded. I spun, only to find Catherine suspended in the air, arms stretched out to her sides. Her pain swirled through the room with a life of its own. She tried to form words, probably a plea to make it stop, but they were lost in the noise. Only anguish escaped from her mouth. Our connection woke, bombarded by the intensity of her torture. Intense stabbing pain erupted behind my eyes, so blinding I dropped to my knees. It grew, a white hot agony that threatened to rip me in two.

  Jason rushed to her side, trying to pull her down, Boone to mine, both asking what was wrong and trying anything they could to help us. Abby watched on in horror, her casted arm clutched to her stomach. I could not form a coherent word.

  Only you can make this stop, Quinn Roberts.

  No one else seemed to react to Kalfu’s words, so I assumed they were directed to me. Slowly, I twisted, facing the wall of blackness dead on. Catherine’s cries escalated, if it was possible, and the crescendo throbbed through my head, making it impossible to form any rational thoughts. Nausea swelled, but I managed to finally speak.

  “What do you want from me?” I shouted above the din.

  Merely for you to come with me...for now.

  “Don’t believe him,” Meena warned, moving close to where I stood.

  “What are you talking about?” Jason asked, abandoning Catherine to stalk toward us.

  I ignored both of them. Even with everything Catherine had done to me, I still had compassion. I hated seeing anyone tortured, including my enemy, especially in my body. In a way, witnessing it only intensified my pain. Many times I wished this exact torment on her, but being in the same room, watching it happen, made me sick.

  “Where?” I gasped.

  You will see. And you have my word, if you cooperate, no harm will come to you...or any of them.

  I let my gaze fall on Jason’s face, heartened by the fierce protectiveness on it. As badly as he wanted to aid me, he couldn’t. Not in this strange world I found myself in. Pushing to my feet and through the pain, I concentrated on making my hand solid enough to touch his cheek. Understanding flashed in his eyes and I turned from him. Still fighting the fog of pain, I did the same to Abby, meeting her damp eyes, laying my hand briefly on her forearm. As I passed Boone, I could only offer him a fleeting look of apology. My shoulder tingled, and I glanced down to see his hand, as if he’d reached out to stop me.

  “Don’t,” he choked out.

  I shook my head once, side to side, and returned my attention to the dark presence. “Let’s go.”

  Suddenly, the screaming and the agony stopped, but as I stepped out of the living room into the foyer, everyone else disappeared except for an angry, violent wind. It buffeted me, giving me the sensation it picked me up and carried me far, far away. Fear pounded in my chest in place of my absent heart.

  The last thing I heard was Abby’s cry, “Quinn!”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The swirling black vortex built, assaulting me inside and out, clouding my senses and twisting my body. It raged, pushing and pulling. As violent as it was, I didn’t sense a threat, just a really obnoxious method of traveling. At least, I assumed I was traveling. I had the sensation of moving, but soon it died off. I dropped the final couple of feet and slammed into a rough wooden floor. The pain made me feel deceptively human and solid. On wobbly arms, I pushed myself into a seated position.

  Once I gathered my wits, I stood and took stock of my surroundings. The floor was riddled with holes. Boards blocked the windows and shut out the light. Thick timbers lay toppled on one another, pieces of the ceiling above. In the corner, I spotted a narrow set of stairs, leading up to a second level. Something about the space was familiar to me, and it wasn’t until I made a complete circle that it hit me.

  The carriage house in my own yard.

  I furrowed my brows in confusion. Why send me here? I didn’t know much about the building, other than Boone’s observations about the EMF fields, and we couldn’t find a way in. It once housed carriages and horses, equipment used to keep the grounds looking perfect. The place sat on the edge of our property, a silent relic no one took the time to renovate. Was there a reason behind it? If this was where Kalfu lived or whatever, it made sense now.

  “Do you approve?”

  The sudden appearance of another person made me jump. I spun, only to come face-to-face with a stranger. He was tall, with shiny black skin, a pointed goatee and a faded top hat. His clothes were old-fashioned, the fitted velvet vest and ruffled shirt showing wear.

  “Who a-are you?” I asked, even though I had a sneaking suspicion I already knew.

  He swept off his hat and bowed low. “Call me Kalfu.”

  The exotic name fit him. He flashed me the gold-toothed grin I recalled from Catherine’s room, accenting the hollows in his cheeks.

  “Why here?”

  “We can speak in private. Do you think I spend my days in the yard like Cora? Living in a hole in the ground?”

  I watched as he tipped his head back, braying in laughter. My thoughts and emotions were all over the place, impossible to corral. The dapper, albeit run-down, man in front of me emitted a sense of danger, but I couldn’t connect him with the terrible things he’d been rumored to do. He seemed so carefree.

  “How can you have a body?”

  “How does our dear Catherine?” he counter-proposed.

  I so wasn’t in the mood for riddles and frowned. “You stole someone’s body?”

  “Not recently.” He straightened the vest. “Lurking about as nothing more than a wisp of air can be quite tiresome. This shell is merely an illusion. I figured you’d be more comfortable if I looked like this.”

  He had a point. I also sensed he was willing to have an actual conversation. Would this be the last time he offered to help me? If he did, I truly did not know what my answer would be. Maybe I could sneak in a few questions first.

  “Are you trapped in our world as Meena suggested?”

  Kalfu leaned against a huge wooden pillar in the middle of the vast room, crossing his arms against his chest.

  “The explanation isn’t always so black and white, Miss Roberts.” He sighed. “When I first found myself here, after the dreadful incident with the slave woman, I fought to return to where I belonged. See, I enjoyed my job. I had power. I decided who came and went through the crossroads. I controlled the spirits. It gave me satisfaction.”

  “Why not go back?”

  “Oh, I tried, for quite a while. Unfortuna
tely, I was linked to this swath of land because I took pity on a poor mother. Couldn’t leave. Cora has become a thorn in my side, keeping my powers in check. See, she didn’t know her son had come into this very building and witnessed the events unfold. She reached out for the nearest living creature, and in her desperation to destroy the man raping and murdering her, she ended up taking the boy’s life. He died so that she might,” he spread his hands searching for a word, “carry on and torment the Roberts. If you look, I’m sure you will find many ancestors who died mysteriously, all courtesy of Cora.”

  I gasped, nausea sweeping over me. No wonder Cora was angry. Killing her own son as she desperately tried to fight back. A mistake she could never fix. Shudders enveloped me, and I couldn’t stop shaking. I knew George died in this very building, but not because of his mama. How terrible.

  Kalfu continued. “I’d about given up when a desperate soul returned to the house, lost, hungry for revenge.”

  “Catherine.” Finally, I was hearing parts of the story she seemed too ashamed to tell. I shoved aside my sickness and concentrated instead on getting answers.

  “Lovely Catherine, so tragic. By the time she arrived, her family had either died or left or gone crazy. You’ll be happy to discover the night Margaret Roberts snapped and bludgeoned her daughter’s husband, William Jennings, to death, well, she did it all on her own. It was your average, run-of-the-mill insanity.

  “Anyway, I found myself drawn to Catherine, sensing she’d be willing to do anything to exact her vengeance. I proposed a deal. Help me, and I’d help her. Same as I’ve offered you. Since blood brought me here, I hoped blood would release me. All Catherine had to do was give me a sacrifice, bring me the same offering Cora did—willingly this time.”

  I gasped as the meaning sunk in. Holy crap, I’d underestimated her all along.

  “She brought you someone to kill?”

  “Not quite. I discovered that if I latched onto her spirit, took it over, so to speak, I was able to leave this god-forsaken house. So, I piggy-backed on her as she set out with two souls in mind. Her mother, who Catherine believed betrayed her, and her former lover, the soldier, who didn’t show up in time to save Catherine. One we couldn’t quite reach, the other came to us on his own, searching for the woman he lost

  Dread grabbed me around the neck, choking off the oxygen I didn’t need. That night in Catherine’s room Kalfu had mentioned a life for a life. I didn’t want to believe it until now. Shaking my head from side-to-side, I said, “She wouldn’t.”

  Then, I thought of my mama and recognized the lie. She would. Catherine didn’t care about anyone but herself, about the life she felt entitled to.

  Kalfu cocked his head. “Ah, I see you realize how wrong you are, don’t you? Death has a profound effect on certain people. I’ve seen it since the beginning of time. Some go quietly into the dark. Others battle it with everything they have. Some vital part of Catherine snapped the night she was murdered. She buried the goodness so far down I don’t think it’ll ever be reachable. A part of her was broken long before she died. She chose this path.”

  “And you took advantage of it,” I finished.

  “Turns out I can control spirits here, too. Only on earth I don’t have as many constraints. And I don’t have to let them go after I come in contact with them. In many ways, I have more power here than I ever did being a watchman for the crossroads. At least, I would if Cora were gone.” His face hardened. “Part of her curse was to limit my abilities, and her continuing presence hampers it. I found a way around it, by starting a collection of poor souls who should have passed on, but it’s not nearly enough. Imagine what I could do if she were gone?”

  I chewed my lips as his words settled in. Now I realized how strongly he and Catherine and Cora were connected, one could not be beaten while the others roamed freely, giving him more options. Simply booting Catherine from my body wasn’t going to work. They were a package deal, some kind of agreement. And this collection of his? I was afraid to ask what that meant.

  “What does any of this have to do with me?” I stuck to easier things.

  “You, my dear, are the last of your line. It’s sad enough you’re a female. If you marry, the name dies with you. It’s what Cora summoned me for. For decades, there have been male children. Your poor mother’s early death ended that.”

  Rage lit inside me. “Catherine killed her! She,” I stumbled over the grief, “she only managed to do it because of your presence!”

  He gave me a mocking expression of sadness, completely devoid of sympathy. “Nasty business, that, but death is a part of life. Catherine gets carried away. She should have been a little more subtle.”

  Anger licked at me, a sensation I’d become so familiar with, enough to acknowledge it was him trying to taunt me. I swallowed thickly, letting it fade.

  “Catherine won, Kalfu,” I said wearily. “So why won’t you let her leave?”

  He placed his fingers together in a steeple. “Without someone to aid me, I lose my power. Cora is relentless, refuses to undo her curse. Twisted and scarred by years of hate. Catherine, though, she has life inside her. Life I can use. But she ended up being weak, and you are strong. So much stronger than Catherine.”

  His simple admission immediately made me suspicious. I hadn’t trusted he would give me so much, so easily. It showed a high level of confidence, and I wondered if there was a way to use it to my advantage. Suddenly it hit me.

  “What? You think I’m going to be your next Catherine?”

  “No, no, no. I want you to be happy, little one. I want to be happy, too. You help me, and I’ll help you. Quite simple.”

  The possibility filled me with fright, more than I’d ever felt before. “I have a life, people I love. Why would I give it up? Catherine had nothing when she gave in to you.”

  He smiled, a cunning and threatening gesture. “Do you? Truly? Who is living your life right now? You, love, are on the outside looking in. We are the same.” He waved his hand, indicating the two of us, silver rings adorning his fingers. “We can get everything we want.”

  “How?”

  The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Kalfu had undeniable charisma. His manner of speaking drew me in, captivated me. Against all odds, it made me curious. It didn’t matter that he’d more than likely ask me to do something terrible in exchange for his help. Well, it didn’t matter enough to walk away and say no, yet.

  “I propose a contract. I shall give you all you desire, and, in turn, you rid me of a pesky annoyance.” He flashed his smile. “There are plenty of details to iron out, of course, but that is the gist of it.”

  “You mean you want me to kill someone,” I bit out. The possibility slicked over me, an oily sensation I couldn’t get rid of.

  He lifted a thin shoulder. “Hard to kill someone who is already dead.”

  My mind raced, struggling to connect the dots. It didn’t take long for it to hit me. “You want me to get rid of Cora.”

  He beamed at me. “Precisely. Once she is disposed of, I will have the resources I need to return you to your body, to give back all that Catherine has taken.”

  “And what about Catherine? Didn’t you strike the same kind of deal with her? How do I know you won’t betray me when we’re done?”

  “A contract is a binding transaction. I am bound to it. Catherine has displeased me, broken the rules. She is selfish. I see much more potential in you, Quinn.”

  I shuddered. The other day in the laundry room, I used some kind of energy to stop Cora’s attack on Jackson. Kalfu saw. I’d heard him in my head afterward. My biggest worry was being indebted to him for the rest of my life. What good was having my life back if I had to spend it doing his bidding? I wouldn’t really be me anymore.

  But I’d have everything I wanted, a small voice reminded me.

  I didn’t give in. “All those times Catherine hurt me, in the months before she took my body, did you help her?”

  Something
glinted in his eyes, too quickly for me to label, but it gave me chills. “Catherine acts on her personal whims, impulsive. I did manage to keep her from going too far, from killing you. I’m not responsible for what she does with the gifts I give.”

  Not much of an answer. I buried it, though. Water under the bridge. I could forgive and forget if it meant I got what I wanted.

  “Is this the third time you’re asking me?”

  “No, child. Today is simply a way for you to get to know me better. Others will attempt to alter your opinion of me, but I believe you must make your own decisions. Free will is one of our greatest gifts. Don’t let your friends take it from you.”

  I opened my mouth to argue that they wouldn’t, but something slammed into the doors of the carriage house. They must have figured out where I was.

  “It seems our time is at an end. Think about all I have said.”

  With a smile, he slowly faded into nothing. Conflicting emotions boiled through me. I hated how tempted I was by his offer, but I’d never accept unless it was my final hope. It would feel a little rewarding to use Catherine’s actions against her.

  Shaking my indecision aside, I strode over to the doors. Best let my friends know I was okay and figure out a way to explain what just happened. Then I paused. Would they do as Kalfu predicted and attempt to sway my thoughts?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The doors to the carriage house continued to rattle. Once I’d managed to corral my wandering thoughts regarding Kalfu, I stepped through the wall. Boone and Jason were ramming the entrance over and over with their shoulders. Abby’s face was red, stained with tears, Meena hovered nearby, her expression a mask of shock, while Catherine lingered behind, watching from the shadows of the doorway to the house.