“We may be out of power for a while,” he informed me later at the grocery store. I put another case of water in the shopping cart just in case.
“How long?” I asked.
He shrugged, not really answering the question.
“Eph! Tell me,” I huffed out as I threw a pack of gum at him.
“Maybe a week.” OH! Just a week! No big deal. A week without hot showers. No hot food, no toilet. I felt sick to my stomach. As we rounded the aisle, we ran smack into Sophie holding a single can of soda.
“That won’t get you through the storm,” I joked.
She smiled smugly. “Thanks, but I am not here for supplies. I came for dinner.” She shuffled past us with a hint of arrogance. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was almost like she thought she was better than us. First, stopping by and asking for a spritzer, now I get attitude from her?
“So, Ephraim,” she said before she walked around us. “Keeping Brylee safe during the storm?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way. Why do you ask?” He gave her a look I’d never seen before.
“Just curious.” She continued down the aisle, picking out her dinner.
Ephraim turned to me and rolled his eyes and that’s when it hit me. I had never introduced her to Ephraim, nor had I spoke to her about him at school. So how did she know who he was?
“Ephraim, when she stopped by the other day, did she ask your name?”
“No, I thought you told her,” he said as he headed to check-out.
“I never told her who you were. But, she knows your name.”
He shrugged. “Maybe someone at school filled her in. I do think she’s odd, though. It must be because she’s not from here.”
If he didn’t find it odd then I wouldn’t either, so I paid for our stuff and we left the store.
But even as we drove home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something about her. Something familiar.
We put away all our new groceries and finished boarding up the front window before the winds outside began to get increasingly louder. Lyn sat on the couch, watching us as we prepared.
“You’re being quiet,” I told her. She wasn’t always talkative, even in life, but she was super quiet now.
“Is it weird to be scared of a storm when you’re dead?” she asked.
I had to think about it at first. “No, I don’t think so, because you’re here to witness and feel the effects of it. I think I would be scared too.” I sat with her and laid the hammer on the coffee table. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed.
Ephraim turned and looked at me then smiled. I couldn’t imagine not being able to see her again. It must have pained him to see me talking to her while he stood there alone, on the outside of my weird dead-talker bubble.
“All done.” Ephraim had finished with his board and the lights dimmed for a moment.
Fear coursed through me at the impending storm that was heading our way. Yes, I was scared of ghosts showing themselves to me, but I was terrified of this hurricane. I could help a ghost, but a storm is a moving force that can’t be stopped. Crashing through big towns and making them small. Ephraim must have noticed my shiver because he put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“It’s going to be fine.” I smiled but it didn’t reach my eyes. I didn’t feel like it was going to be fine. If it was so easy then why board up windows and prepare for this natural disaster?
I couldn’t take it anymore, so I turned on the TV and the three of us watched a movie until the power finally went out.
Chapter 9
We lost power fairly early on in the night and candles were lit throughout the bottom floor of the house. We decided to stay together downstairs because it seemed the safest place. Lynley camped out on the couch with a book and a candle. Ephraim and I went into his room, leaving the door open just in case Lyn needed us. For a ghost, the girl was seriously freaked out. I tried to explain that the storm couldn’t hurt her even if she was alive. We were inside where it was safe. I was only putting on a brave face for her though, because inside, I was scared too.
The storm howled outside and the rain battered the old house. Every once in a while I would peer out the window to see what it looked like, but I couldn’t see a thing. It was so pitch dark that all I saw was black. The rain streaked down the window pane and blurred the outside. I sighed and wished I could at least see what was going on. I could hear sirens blaring in the distance. Ephraim had explained the first time they went off that they were stating that it was a state of emergency and calling all volunteer firefighters to the station. I didn’t admit that I had had to Google state of emergency on my phone.
Ephraim snored lightly beside me while I freaked out. I had to pee so badly, but I didn’t want to walk to the bathroom. Finally, when my eyeballs started floating, I knew I had to go. I pulled on my hoodie and placed my feet on the cold floorboards. Ephraim didn’t move. Figures! My big, bad savior, passed out during the freakiest time.
I grabbed a candle, saving the flashlights for when we would really need them, and slowly walked upstairs. The sounds on the second floor were even worse than the first. The wind seemed to beat the windows to death, causing me to wonder how much they could take.
I hurried and went to the bathroom. I wanted to get back downstairs where it was safe. As I washed my hands, I noticed a light coming from the opposite side of the house. I pulled the adjoining door open and the light grew brighter. It was coming from the corner room. My heart hammered inside my chest, and I clenched in my hand the key to the room, which hung around my neck. I now found that I stood in front of the door, staring at the white light that seemed to dance around in the room. I couldn’t open the door, because that would let the curse out and all the work the spirits in this house did trapping it in there would have been in vain. Yet the urge to do it was strong. I was too damn curious for my own good. Why was there a light on in that room? I placed my hand on the handle and paused.
“Don’t do it, Brylee.” I turned fast at the sound of the voice. No one was behind me. “Violet?” I asked even though it wasn’t her voice. She wouldn’t be so sneaky either.
“Hello? Who’s there?” Still no answer, except a tapping sound coming from my room. I held the candle out in front of me as if it would protect me from something.
The door swung open on its own as I approached it. My chest tightened with fear. This was not a good night to have a visitor. I shined the light around the room and noticed it too danced on the walls. I was trembling terribly.
“Okay, who’s there? This isn’t funny!”
At that moment, the window gave way and shattered, sending glass flying through the room. I fell back and hit my head on the floor. The candle fell from my hand and went out from the gusts of wind that now flowed freely into the house. Rain poured in as I tried to get my bearings.
The window exploded because of the force of the storm. Right?
“Brylee!” Ephraim shouted as he raged up the stairs. I sat up and noticed the blood all over my arms. I had been cut up pretty badly. Shards of glass were stuck in my skin like tiny crystals.
His arms reached around from behind me and pulled me out of the room. He assessed the damage, thoroughly looking me over. “Are you okay?”
I nodded unable to talk for fear I would cry. I told him I was okay, so I had to act the part. He pulled out a board from our previous day’s work and put it up before there was any more damage done.
“Just a little storm, eh?” Lyn asked as she sat with me. “You’re cut all over.” She frowned.
“Someone was talking to me just before it happened. A ghost, told me not to open the door,” I said as I pointed to the white door.
“You wouldn’t open it, would you?” she asked me.
“No,” I told her.
“Good.”
I didn’t tell her about the light. As I looked toward it, I noticed it was gone. I had met all the ghosts in this house on the night that Lyn died. I didn
’t think any of them would ever mess with me like that. Not anymore, but there were still the ones that wanted me out of the house. Did they do this to me? I had to wonder who would protect me from making a huge mistake by opening the door and then make a window break. If they wanted me out of their house, why would they do that? I wouldn’t have run screaming for the hills over a broken window. I’d dealt with worse.
I finally ended this train of thought by focusing on the fact that the spirit told me not to open the door. The window breaking was due to the storm, and that was that.
I got up and let Ephraim lead me into the bathroom. I sat on the counter as he wet a washcloth to clean my cuts. I placed it on my arms while he bandaged my head.
“It’s pretty deep, babe. I think you need stiches.”
I hadn’t really looked at the cuts, but the one on my head hurt like a bitch. I looked in the mirror and noticed the blood soaking through the gauze. My clothes were covered in blood and there were glass shards still embedded in my arms. I tried to pull them out, but Ephraim held my hands down.
“No, let me.”
Finally, after an hour of digging for glass by candlelight, he carried me downstairs. I was exhausted and done with this night. I lay in a ball as he covered me with a thick blanket, then sat in a chair by the bed. I relaxed to the sound of the wind against the house and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was a loud crack.
I opened my eyes, slowly realizing everyone else still slept. The sun was shining brightly through the edges of the boards. I sat up slowly, at first not remembering what had happened the night before. Once my head started pounding, the memory came back to me.
I slid out of the bed and realized Ephraim was fast asleep in the chair. He looked so uncomfortable, but I let him sleep. Something told me we needed as much as we could get. I heard that storm clean-up could take months.
I padded through the house and into the kitchen where I found Tylenol and water in the fridge. The light was off, meaning the power was out, so I closed it fast in an attempt to conserve the cold. My head pounded from my cut and I touched it slightly. It hurt, bad. I sighed and took the pills to kill the headache a bit. My arms itched from the glass cuts. I tried hard to keep from scratching them.
Even though I didn’t want to go outside in my pajamas, I had to see the destruction from last night. Once the door opened, the light from the outside blinded me before I could assess the damage. My eyes adjusted and I saw the flooded yard beyond. Water had made a pool in our front and back yard so high that I could put out a small boat and go rowing. I laughed at first, then the tears came. My parents had left me here all alone to deal with this and I didn’t have the first clue what to do. I had never been so mad at them as I was in that moment.
How could they be so selfish? They hadn’t even called to see if I was okay. Instead of throwing things, like I wanted to do, I pulled on my rain boots and walked outside. I sloshed around the yard, or rather our new pond. The water came to my knees, filling my boots and making it hard to go too far.
In the distance, I saw something flashing. Even though I didn’t want to venture too far away, I had to see what it was. So, I waded through the thick, dirty water.
Our garden, gone. Lynley’s rose hadn’t made it and that killed me. It was the only living part of her I had left. I stood over the spot where it once had been and I let myself cry.
I wanted to stay there and drown in my sorrow, but I had to keep going. Finally, the water let up at the edge of the trees. I noticed how many trees had fallen to the ground due to the strong winds. I climbed over them and made my way toward the flashing lights. But before I got too close, Kayla came to me. I ran toward her, tears still pouring down my cheeks. She held me in her arms, not saying anything.
“Why am I being tested like this?” I cried. She patted my back and held me tighter. She had never been like this for me. Sure, she was there for me, but never affectionately. That just wasn’t her MO. She was tough. After reading her diary, I learned that was all a front. She had to act tough, and, to an extent, she was pretty badass. But she was like most teenage girls. She had feelings and she was in love. Sadly, her life ended before anything could ever happen.
She released me from her embrace and looked me in the eyes. She went to speak and water spewed from her mouth yet again. Pouring out just like it had at school. She held her throat and I tried to help. I pulled her to my chest and hoped that with my arms around her it would stop. But, it didn’t. She continued to drown, right in front of me. I was helpless.
She pointed toward the flashing lights just before she vanished.
I took her cue and continued on even though I wanted to look for her. As I got closer, I noticed the lights belonged to police cars. Before I could turn away, I saw two men carrying a body bag to the water, where a corpse lay. I didn’t want to see. I wanted to turn and run, but I couldn’t physically do it. I stepped closer and closer, my curiosity getting the better of me.
The body wasn’t much of a body, it was mere bones. The men held the body bag out as a second team lifted the bones and set it inside, piece by piece. The only thing I saw that made me decide it was a girl were the clothes the team put in the bag with the body. It was the same outfit Kayla wore every day that I saw her, a little black dress with red skulls and Doc Martens.
Chapter 10
They had unearthed Kayla’s body. I stepped back and fell on my ass. My breath came fast, and dimly I realized that I was hyperventilating. Where was a paper bag when you needed one? No scratch that, I needed to un-see what I had just seen.
“Hey, you! Kid, what are you doing here?” A man dressed in nice slacks and a button up shirt came toward me. He was the last thing I saw before I passed out.
Being slapped awake sucks! So I wasn’t happy when it happened to me. Even if this guy was hot, he had no right to slap me.
“There we go,” he said, sitting me up as I scowled at him. “Take it easy.”
“You take it easy, Slappy Hands. Who taught you to wake a girl up?” I pushed him off of me. I needed air to remember what I was doing here. It came to me slowly and then hit me like a ton of bricks. Kayla’s bones lay in a black bag in the back of a van. I spotted the van and the team that had found her. Their faces were grave and serious. No one likes to see dead bodies I suppose. Especially those of a seventeen year old girl.
“So, you found her then?” I asked Slappy.
He nodded. “Yes. She’s been missing for over two years. It’s been a hard road for a lot of us.” I noted the somber tone in his voice.
“Yeah, I would say it’s been hard.”
“So, can I ask why you’re back here? Why you fainted?”
Was this guy stupid? Why did he think I fainted? “I wasn’t expecting to see Kayla’s body in my back yard. So, it’s pretty shocking,” I told him as I tried to stand. He helped me up the rest of the way.
“What’s your name?”
“Brylee. I live there.” I pointed to my house and his face paled. Yeah, Slappy I live in the Brown house. “Yep, so I should go. Lots of clean-up after the storm.” I turned to go, then stopped. “Hey, what made you find her now? After all these years?”
He rubbed his stubbly chin. “The tree split in two from the hurricane, downing power lines. When the company came out they found her. She must have been wedged under that tree all these years.” He stopped rubbing his chin and gave me an all business look. “I would like to talk with you more. Here’s my card. I’ll be over at your house later.”
I took the faded card and put it in my jacket pocket. “Hey, Stock, come check this out,” one of the cops said. Slappy hands turned and left. I had to go home and wake Ephraim. This was huge news. Kayla’s body had been found.
Ephraim and I sat at the kitchen table eating a pint of ice cream. If we didn’t, it would go to waste. This was one bonus of the power outage. Eating also helped when I stressed. I shoveled the chocolate deliciousness in my mouth, all while Ephraim reassured me things
would work out.
“Look at what happened with Ethan,” he said about my dead first crush. Yes, things had worked out great. He died and I helped him crossover. But there’s one problem, I wasn’t ready to let Kayla go yet. Ethan had to go into the light because his being here pained him and his family. Kayla’s mom is nowhere to be found and I am all she had.
Then it occurred to me, Kayla was like family to me. I, like Ethan’s parents, didn’t want her to go because I was being greedy and selfish. I knew it was for the best that she did. I put down my spoon and Ephraim rubbed my arms in a way that showed me he would always be there for me, no matter what.
“All I really want to do is take a hot bath …” My voice cracked as tears started choking me. I felt them slip down my face as Ephraim got me a tissue. “It would make me feel better.” I started to cry so hard I was convulsing. The next thing I knew I was being carried into Ephraim’s room. Lynley waited for me on his bed and she cuddled with me, letting me cry on her lap.
She was my support system now and I not only cried for Kayla, but for her, too. Because, one day, this would be happening to her. I would be saying goodbye to her, again.
After a few minutes Ephraim scooped me up in his arms and carried me up the stairs. I held onto his neck and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I was in the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” I asked. He set me on my feet and I noticed that the tub was not full completely, but enough. Hot water somehow, with bubbles.
“How?”
He smiled at me slyly. “The miracle of gas stoves.”
It dawned on me that he had actually boiled water and walked it up here by the potful to fill the tub. I took off my dirty clothes that were brown from the mud outside and climbed in the tub. It was not only perfect, but it worked like magic to ease my sadness and tension.
The White Door Page 5
