The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Omnibus

by Clarke, Alexandria

  “How bad is it?”

  “It’s mostly just bones,” Alex sniffed. “Everything else has decomposed, but the plastic kept it all together. It’s disgusting. I can’t believe I ever trusted Ethan Powell. This is the work of someone truly sick.”

  I rubbed Alex’s back as Patrick inspected the bags with a wrinkled nose. All in all, he was the calmest of the four of us. He peeked inside the first bag and groaned. “Ugh. Yeah, that’s definitely me. Sheesh.”

  Bodhi escorted Patrick away from his body before he could continue his scientific examination of the remains. “Really, Pat? Really?”

  “What? It’s kind of interesting. Besides, I got over being dead about fifteen years ago.”

  “We’re so thrilled,” Alex deadpanned. “But in all honesty, I can smell your body from here, and I’d like to get it in the ground as quickly as possible before Ethan decides to make another visit, so could you do me a solid and let me know where I should start digging your grave?”

  Patrick revolved on the spot, looking around the backyard as if scoping out the best place for his final resting place. “Boy, I never thought this was something I’d do. There’s a lot of pressure, you know?”

  Since he didn’t seem to be making a decision anytime soon, I elbowed Bodhi. “Bodhi, tell him what you were thinking.”

  “Oh. Uh, Patrick?”

  “Yeah.”

  Bodhi pointed across the garden to the edge of the bluff where Caroline’s plumeria tree was in full bloom. “I was thinking you might like to go under the tree? It’s the nicest place in the garden. For now, at least. I promise we’ll clean up the rest of it before we sell the house.”

  Patrick considered the possibility, gazing toward the pink flowers. “I think Caroline would really like that actually.”

  “What about you?” Alex asked.

  Patrick smiled wistfully. “Alex, I just want to be with my sister and move on from whatever this is.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Could you do me a favor though?” Patrick added, fiddling with something behind his back.

  “Anything.”

  Patrick tossed his football to Alex, who caught it without thinking. “Could you bury that with me?”

  Alex rotated the football in his hands to look it over. “Is this the game ball from our junior year championship?”

  “It sure is.”

  Alex grazed his fingers across the laces in awe. “You sure you want it buried? I will absolutely throw it in there with you, but I’d much rather keep it.”

  Patrick’s eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. “Wait, you want it?”

  “Of course. That game was one of my best high school memories.”

  “All right. Take it then.”

  Alex grinned and clapped Patrick on the back. “Thanks, buddy. Let’s get to work.”

  I sat out the shoveling. Alex and Bodhi worked side by side, each one working on an individual grave beneath the plumeria tree. Patrick and I supervised quietly. I had lost track of the time. The moon was high and bright, and the stars were out in full force. While I listened for any signs of intruders, I lay down in the grass of the garden, cradling the back of my neck in my interlaced fingers, and gazed up at the constellations. I was never good at picking the shapes and patterns out of the stars. For some reason, my imagination couldn’t connect the dots or fill in the pictures. Tonight, however, something shifted.

  It probably wasn’t even a real constellation, but right overhead I swore I saw the outline of a plump toddler with a wide toothy smile in the sky above. I shot up from my bed of grass and stepped up to the deck.

  Bodhi wiped his forehead, up to his shoulders in dirt. They were nearly done. “Everything okay, Bailey?”

  “Yes,” I said, slipping through the open glass doors. “I thought of something. I’ll be right back.”

  As Bodhi returned to digging, I went upstairs to the second floor of the Winchester house and into the bedroom that Bodhi and I were sharing. My suitcase rested in the corner of the room, propped open. I had never bothered to fully unpack. It was too weird to hang my clothes in the house of a dead family. I swatted aside my belongings, feeling for a certain compartment on the side of the suitcase. When my fingers found the zipper, I reached inside and pulled out the object that I kept with us at all times. Every house we flipped. Every project we took on. Every shitty hotel we stayed at between jobs. She was there too.

  It was Kali’s urn.

  It was impossibly small and made out of polished blue marble. I rarely looked at it anymore, let alone touched it. It just sat there in my suitcase, reminding me of what Bodhi and I had lost. Never had I considered any other options for it until now. I carried Kali down to the first floor in the crook of my arm. In my mind’s eye, I could see her brown curls and hazel eyes, the round pink cheeks and fat baby arms. It should’ve made me cry, but instead I felt a strange sense of relief as I stepped into the warm summer night. I took a deep breath before heading over to Bodhi and Alex. They sat beside the giant piles of overturned earth, covered head to toe in dirt, while Patrick dangled his feet into the grave nearest him.

  When Bodhi saw me, he hopped up from the ground and dusted his hands. “All done. Are you ready—?” He cut himself off when he saw what I was carrying. “Is that—?”

  I nodded, freezing in place a few steps away from him, suddenly unsure if this was a good idea or not. “I thought if you were all right with it, we could let her go here.”

  Patrick and Alex watched from a distance as Bodhi warily approached me. He offered his palms, asking silently for what I held in my arms. Gently, I placed the urn in his hands.

  “I haven’t seen this since her funeral,” he murmured, turning the object over to marvel at its miniscule size. “You’ve had it all this time?”

  “Of course. What else would I have done with it?”

  Bodhi hugged the cool marble to his chest. “I figured you’d given her to your mom to hold on to.”

  “Never. She’s been with us. Always.”

  Bodhi gazed out at the water. Behind us, the sky was just beginning to lighten. We had spent the entire night with the dead. If we were going to finish before morning, we needed to get a move on, but I didn’t want to rush Bodhi’s thought process. This was a joint decision. I couldn’t make it alone.

  Finally, he nodded. “Yes. This is the place.”

  While Alex and Bodhi heaved the ugly plastic bags into the holes they had dug and began to fill the dirt back in, I sat on the deck with Kali in my lap and Patrick at my side. As he watched Alex cover his body, a pinkish hue returned to his cheeks. He looked healthier, as if the simple act of burying him respectfully had already begun to have an effect on his afterlife.

  “Can you feel Caroline?” I asked him, wondering how the other Winchester child fared under such unusual circumstances.

  “She’s here,” Patrick said softly.

  As if to prove it, a chilly breeze that had nothing to do with the balmy summer air danced around me, blowing my hair around my face. I smiled. “Hi there.”

  “She wants to know about Kali,” said Patrick, gesturing to the urn resting on my knees. “What was she like?”

  I toyed with the lid of the urn, reminiscing. “Adventurous. Unstoppable. Mischievous. Quite a bit like Caroline actually.”

  Patrick grinned. “Like you, you mean.”

  I exhaled a big breath. “Years ago maybe.”

  “Hmm.” Patrick leaned back on his palms. “She’s still in there somewhere. You just gotta let her go.”

  “You’re very wise for a seventeen-year-old.”

  “Technically, I’m thirty-seven.”

  I scoffed. “I’ve met plenty of middle-aged folks who are nowhere near as enlightened as you.”

  Patrick brightened at the compliment, but before he could respond, Alex patted down the packed dirt, surrendered his shovel, and jogged over to us.

  “We’re about finished,” he said. “I thought we could all say a few w
ords.”

  Patrick and I stood up and walked over to the graves. Bodhi lay down his shovel and wiped his hands on his shorts. I handed Kali’s urn to him then walked to the plumeria tree and picked a handful of flowers. I laid three on top of Caroline’s grave, three more on Patrick’s, and placed a sole plumeria right in between them for Kali.

  The four of us stood side by side, facing the cliff’s edge. Caroline was there in spirit. I could feel her whispering around us like a light wind. No one seemed to know what to do, so Alex cleared his throat and took a step forward.

  “I’ve done something like this every year at the Winchester Celebration,” he said, his voice shaking. “But I’ve never done it with the knowledge that you might be listening in. Patrick. Caroline. I love you, I miss you, and I wish every day that you were still with us.”

  And that was that. Alex stepped back in line with us, and Patrick reached up to rest a hand on Alex’s broad shoulders in solidarity. Then, to my surprise, Bodhi moved forward and turned to face Patrick.

  “I want to thank you,” he said firmly. “You too, Caroline. Were it not for this experience, I’m not sure where Bailey and I would be.” A gust of wind tickled Bodhi’s long curls. From his resulting shiver, I knew that Caroline had swirled around him. “I also wanted to say a few words for my daughter. Kali, if you’re out there somewhere, please know that I have and will always keep you in my heart. I hope you find enlightenment. I love you mightily.”

  Silent tears made their way down my cheeks. I let them go. It was what I needed. Bodhi caught my eye. He too cried peacefully, his golden irises glistening as they reflected the lightening sky. I stepped out to meet him, looping my arm through his. Together, we turned and walked to the edge of the bluff. There, I unscrewed the lid of the urn. It was a little stiff, but it gave way eventually. As the lid came off, a dusty puff rose into the air. I offered the urn to Bodhi, but he shook his head.

  “You should do it,” he said.

  I placed his hand on one side of the urn, leaving mine on the other. “Together.”

  And we tipped the small jar over. Kali’s ashes billowed out like a gray sail, floating away across the water. Bodhi tucked the empty urn under one arm and me under his other. I wrapped my arms around his waist, listening to his pulse as I rested my head against his chest. He gently stroked my hair and brushed his lips across my forehead.

  “There she goes,” he mumbled softly.

  We stood there for a while. Letting go of everything. Of Kali. Of Patrick and Caroline. Of all that came before. It was a renewal of sorts. Another beginning. And we were facing it head-on.

  We went to bed as the sun crested over the horizon. Bodhi had called the construction crew and told them to take the day off. Alex crashed on an air mattress in Patrick’s old bedroom after letting his wife know where he had gone. None of us were in any state to work on the renovations for the house. We needed the day to recuperate from the evening’s physical and emotional drainage. It was Friday. Tomorrow, Patrick and Caroline would officially pass on to the next life. If everything went according to plan, of course.

  Before turning in, we had charted out the necessary steps for what came next. There was still the matter of “recharging” Patrick and Caroline before their final confrontation with Ethan. Funnily enough, we’d used Bodhi’s offhand joke about the car battery as inspiration. We planned to rejuvenate Patrick with the energy from the white rental truck that Bodhi used to transport hardware to and from town, and Alex offered to drive his SUV up to the bluff in order to get Caroline the power that she needed.

  In addition, we worked out who was acting as whose energy conductor. Bodhi volunteered to be Patrick’s proxy, the human vessel he needed in order to collect the power from the truck’s battery. That left either me or Alex for Caroline, but before I could even open my mouth to offer up my bodily services, Alex jumped in with the declaration that he would be the one and only person to connect to Caroline. I conceded immediately. There was no arguing with old love. We arranged to perform the energy transference Friday evening.

  I woke up sometime in the late afternoon. Bodhi snored beside me. Both of us were completely worn out. My very bones seemed to ache with the aftereffect of my jaunt into the underbelly of the house. The muscles in my legs and arms felt agonizingly tight. I massaged them myself, digging my knuckles into the hard knots beneath my skin as I tried not to wake Bodhi. Then, for good measure, I checked my blog. I hadn’t posted much since my last update a few days ago, but my followers were as friendly and active as ever. Their comments were uplifting and positive, encouraging me to continue living my truth. I typed up a new post.

  Bailey and Bodhi: Flipping Out

  Hello, flippers! What a crazy couple of days it’s been. As you know, we’ve been preparing to renovate the rest of the rooms on the first floor of the Winchester house. The ballroom is going to be the biggest challenge there. It’s at the very back of the house, and it has these rows of paned windows down each wall. It’s gorgeous as is, and half of me is tempted to leave it, but I doubt whoever we sell the house to is going to go with the flow and heartily accept the old-school ballroom when the rest of the house is industrial themed. Who knows? Maybe we’ll find a good compromise.

  In the personal department, Bodhi and I hurdled a major milestone last night. I’ve been carrying around Kali’s ashes in my suitcase ever since she died. Honestly, I never thought I’d ever find a place that was worthy of them. Nepal, maybe, if we ever returned there. Then I realized that Bodhi, Kali, and I would’ve loved Black Bay together. I could picture Kali jumping off the docks in the marina. I could see all three of us playing in the annual flag football tournament when she got a little older. I could imagine walking along Main Street, swinging Kali between me and Bodhi.

  She belonged here. Or at the very least, I could believe that she could be free here. So last night, Bodhi and I scattered Kali’s ashes at the top of the bluff behind the Winchester house. I always assumed it would be beyond painful to let her go. Instead, it was sweet. Lovely, even. I’ll remember that moment forever.

  Thanks for reading,

  Bailey

  A light knock on the bedroom door stirred Bodhi from his slumber. He turned over with a groan and pushed my laptop off of my blanketed thighs so that he could rest his head there instead.

  “Come on in,” I called.

  Alex popped his head inside, his short hair disheveled. He wore a pair of shorts and a T-shirt that he had borrowed from Bodhi, both of which were a couple inches short for his tall, lean figure. “Hey. Sorry to wake you, but it’s getting late. Should we do this before we run out of daylight?”

  Bodhi mumbled something unintelligible. I suppressed a laugh. “We’ll be down in a minute, Alex.”

  It took much longer than a minute to convince Bodhi to leave the comfort of the double bed. I didn’t blame him. All I wanted to do was sleep for another couple of days. Unfortunately, there was work to be done.

  When I finally coaxed Bodhi out from underneath the covers and down the stairs, Alex and Patrick waited for us in the kitchen, discussing strategy for what was about to happen. Alex had already gone into town and brought back his SUV. It was parked in the front yard next to Bodhi’s truck. Both hoods were propped open, and a pair of jumper cables dangled from each of the batteries over the grill of the vehicles. Something jumped in the pit of my stomach. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “Oh, good. You’re up,” Alex said. He offered me a mug. “I made coffee.”

  Bodhi lurched over to the fresh pot to fill his own mug then leaned against the counter and inhaled the steam rising from the chocolate-colored liquid.

  “Bodhi, are you going to be okay to do this?” Alex asked, raising a worried eyebrow.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just exhausted.”

  “It’ll be all right,” Patrick jumped in. “Like I told you before, we’re taking energy from the cars, not from you.”

  “Thank goodness,” I said. �
�Caroline packs a punch.”

  Alex finished off his beverage. “Alrighty then. Should we jump right in?”

  We all exchanged looks. Bodhi shrugged and tipped back his mug for another gulp of coffee. “Might as well.”

  The four of us made our way out to the front yard. Patrick and Alex had saved us some time and energy with the setup. The jumper cables hung loosely from each car, harmless for now, but it was hard to wrap my mind around the science, or lack thereof, behind how this was going to work.

  “Bodhi, you stand here,” Patrick directed, escorting Bodhi to the hood of his pickup truck. He picked up the slack of the jumper cable and handed Bodhi one of the clamps. “Hold this. I just need to be in contact with you somehow.”

  “Do I need the positive end or the negative end?” Bodhi asked.

  “I don’t think it matters much,” Alex answered as he picked up the cable hanging out of his own vehicle. “If Caroline’s not around, how’s she going to make contact with me?”

  “She’ll come around when we start the car,” Patrick said. He grasped Bodhi’s wrist. “Who wants to go first?”

  Bodhi raised his hand. “Let’s get this over with.” He tossed me the keys for the truck. “Bailey. You want to fire it up?”

  I caught the keys, juggling them in my fingers, but I hesitated before circling toward the driver’s door. Bodhi held a live wire in his hands, and I had to be the one to fuel it with power. We had only Patrick’s word that the energy wouldn’t harm Bodhi on its way through to the next entity.

  “Patrick, are you sure this is safe?” I asked the younger boy.

  “I would never even think to ask you to do it otherwise.”

  His promise reassured me, but I slid into the driver’s seat with an uneasy feeling. Bodhi and Patrick faced me through the windshield. Bodhi’s knuckles were white around his end of the jumper cable. Similarly, Patrick’s grip on Bodhi’s wrist tightened in anticipation.