The White Door

by Christy Sloat

  The doorbell rang and Ephraim got up off the couch to get it. My pain meds were making me feel better, but I was dizzy.

  “Brylee,” my Aunt Leona said as she came inside the house. Uncle Keith was right behind her, looking terrible.

  “Uncle Keith, I’m sorry about Grandma,” I said as I tried to get up off the couch. He bent down and hugged me tightly. I didn’t realize how much I had missed them both until right then.

  “Your mom said you were upset so, we brought dinner for you both. I was hoping we could all talk, if that’s okay?” Aunt Leona asked.

  I nodded, not sure what we were going to discuss.

  She set a pot roast with carrots and potatoes on the table and the smell hit me. I was starved. Ephraim helped me up off the couch and my shirt slid up a bit. Aunt Leona let out a scream.

  “What happened to you Brylee?” She pointed to the exposed skin and I looked at it too. The skin was swollen and the bruise was a dark reddish purple. It spread from my hip bone up to my ribs.

  “I fell in the tub upstairs and bruised my hipbone and my tailbone.” I shrugged and Ephraim sat me at the table. “No biggie. The doctor said the pain will be bad for a few weeks and with the swelling, they can’t tell if it’s fractured or not. Now I’m sporting this awesome bruise.” I gave her a sarcastic thumbs up.

  Aunt Leona’s mouth hung open as I casually told them about my injury.

  “You fell?” she asked accusingly. She looked from me to Ephraim.

  “Yes, for real. I fell, in the tub. Now, let’s eat dinner and talk.”

  I didn’t want them thinking Ephraim had hurt me, but I could tell Aunt Leona’s mind had already went there. Ephraim knew what was going on and I could feel him tense up beside me.

  He passed out the plates and silverware and Uncle Keith got the glasses. We had a nice setup and ate in silence for the first few minutes, then Aunt Leona asked, “So, how’s school?”

  I put my fork down and gave her an intense glare. “You came here to ask about school?”

  Uncle Keith gently patted my back, careful to avoid the bruises. “No. We came here to ask you if you want to come stay with us until the house sells. Your aunt and I don’t want you here all alone.”

  “But, I’m not alone. I have Ephraim here and Lynley.” I caught myself and put my hand to my mouth. Damn drugs! They lowered my inhibitions and I slipped up.

  “I mean, she died here. I can’t leave her.” It was a weak save and they didn’t buy it, not for an instant.

  “Honey, that’s the reason you’re staying here?” Aunt Leona asked. “She’s gone honey, you have to let her go.”

  “I’m not gone!” Lyn spoke up. She was sitting at the kitchen sink and she turned on the radio to make her presence known. The music blared out of the speakers.

  My aunt shrieked in surprise and got up to turn it off.

  “Guys, you can’t worry about me. I’m fine,” I told them. “I’m not leaving this house and it’s not because of Lynley. It’s because this is my home now.” Suddenly my stomach churned and I wasn’t hungry anymore. I wanted to go to sleep and try to forget this day. I had lost my grandma, my parents were being selfish, and my aunt and uncle were naïve.

  “Brylee, we can help you get through the last year of school. It would be nice to spend some time with you,” Aunt Leona offered.

  “And what about Ephraim? Huh? He would be left to just find his own place?” I asked.

  “Brylee, you know I’d be fine. Actually, I am buying a house,” Ephraim told my aunt and uncle. “I meant to tell you the sale went through, but with everything that came up, I didn’t have a chance.” He looked at me and a huge grin spread across his face. I grabbed him and wrapped him in a hug. I was so proud of him for buying his own house. He was only nineteen and now he was a home owner.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Well.” He shrugged. “You have had a lot happen over the last few days. I’m going to stay here until this house sells. We discussed her moving in with me, but she wants to live in the dorms at her school. Did she tell you she got accepted into Hopewell”? He was now talking to my aunt and uncle. Aunt Leona smiled and Uncle Keith patted my shoulder.

  Ephraim was doing this for my benefit. He wanted them to see that I would be fine on my own and that he was a responsible adult. They needn’t worry about me. I didn’t have my parents, but I didn’t need them to survive.

  “You’re leaving the house?” Lynley asked, now at my side. I stiffened and tried hard not to look at her. If my aunt and uncle saw me talking to no one they would insist I stay with them for sure. I wasn’t eighteen yet and they could send me back to my parents.

  I played it cool and nodded slightly.

  “What’s gonna happen to me?” she asked sadly. For once, I hadn’t thought about what would happen to Lynley. I was being selfish myself. She was tied to this house even though she was free to walk around with me. The curse still owned her in her afterlife.

  I gave her a sad look, but prayed she would wait until my aunt and uncle left before bringing it up again.

  After dessert and Aunt Leona’s two glasses of wine, they left. I flopped down awkwardly on the couch and hung my head. Ephraim noticed and brought me over my pain killers with a glass of water.

  “What’s wrong? I thought it ended well. I mean, at first I thought your aunt was going to kick my ass. She thought I hurt you,” Ephraim mumbled. “But in the end, it went great. Are you mad about the house?”

  I looked at him and smiled. “How could I ever be mad at you for buying your own house? That would be foolish, Ephraim. I love you.” I ran my fingers through his unruly hair and settled them on his shoulders. “I’m sad about Lynley. She figured out that we were eventually leaving her here, alone. I mean, why didn’t we think about that?”

  Ephraim’s eyes fell sadly. He had just realized it, too. I wasn’t the only one living life and forgetting Lynley. It hit me that she would be forever stuck at this age even as Ephraim and I grew up. We would probably marry, have kids, and grow old all while she was forever seventeen.

  Tears streamed down my face as I looked up to see her sitting on the coffee table in front of me.

  “Don’t cry,” she said, wiping my tears away. “I will visit you at school. I’ll visit Ephraim at his new house, but the others told me at night I will have to be here. It will be okay. I’ll haunt the new family that moves in. It could be fun.” She laughed and I couldn’t help but laugh as well. Just picturing her haunting a new family was hilarious.

  “What’s funny?” Ephraim asked.

  “She said she’s gonna haunt the house and whoever moves into it.”

  “Oh yeah, that would be fun to watch,” he agreed. We laughed for a little bit, just imagining the things Lyn would do to the new family.

  “I just realized something,” Ephraim said.

  “What?”

  “It’s been a peaceful few days with no angry mob attacking the house. Rich must have really set them straight, huh?”

  I thought about it. He was right, except I knew that Evangeline wasn’t giving up. Agnes would attack me again when she had the chance.

  “I just have to keep Lyn with me to protect me against Agnes,” I reminded him. “You’re like my bodyguard,” I told her.

  “Anything for you!” she said.

  I felt the sleepiness set in and Ephraim noticed as well. He pulled a blanket off the couch and set it over me, then turned on the T.V and I fell asleep to the sounds of his favorite show.

  Chapter 26

  I woke in the middle of the night and found myself in my own bed. Ephraim must’ve carried me up here. I was cuddled up with my favorite comfy blankets. The room was calm and empty, no ghosts, not even Lynley. I swallowed and felt dryness in my mouth. That was what woke me. I rolled over and saw a glass of water on the table. I sat up and drank it down in one gulp. Satisfied, I lay back down and settled back into my dreams…

  I was walking alone in the house. The sme
ll of something baking downstairs hit me. Pie, maybe? I walked down the steps and the smell was more like smoke, not something baking. I ran now, but the stairs warped into mud and I was trying to pull my feet through them. It was impossible. I was stuck. The smoke hit my face and I could feel my eyes burning.

  “Brylee,” Ephraim’s voice was waking me up again. I could still smell the smoke and feel the burn of the fire in my eyes. I opened my eyes, expecting him, but came face to face with Evangeline. She was sitting on top of me, her greedy hands digging through my clothes. She was looking for the key.

  “What the …” I pushed her hard, but she didn’t budge. “Get off of me!”

  “Shut up girl! I know you have the key! I need it.”

  Desperation dripped from her voice. I realized she was in her normal form. The form she took as Ephraim’s mom, but it wavered. It was like a hologram of her on top of me. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I set my hand on her. It went through her body. She was getting weaker!

  “You’re dying aren’t you? If you don’t find that key, you’ll have to take another form.”

  Her eyes flashed with hatred. I was right. Her younger self flashed to her old, crippled form.

  “Give me the key or I swear I’ll take Ephraim’s form. I’ll take him away from you forever,” she spat. “I’ll do it, now give me the key.”

  I couldn’t lose him. I thought about where the key was now. It was around his neck. He took it from me so that she couldn’t find it.

  “No, Brylee, don’t listen to her.” I searched the room and found Ephraim sitting in the corner of my room, tied up. If she went as far as tying up her own son she would take his form.

  “Ephraim!” I screamed. “Let him go and I’ll give you the key.”

  She smiled and sat up, freeing me. She pulled a knife from her pocket and slit the ties binding him. He sat up immediately and went to shove her, except he fell through her. She laughed at him wickedly and sauntered over to me. Ephraim did not give up. He kept trying to fight her, but failed every time.

  “The key!” she yelled.

  I sat up, still feeling the effects of the pain killers in my system. I placed a hand on Ephraim’s chest and felt the key through it.

  “No, Brylee. Don’t do it. Don’t give in to her! Please,” he begged. I ignored him. I had to do whatever I could to save him. I pulled and ripped the key through his shirt.

  Evangeline laughed. “It was on him the whole time. I should have known. Stupid girl, you thought you could hide the key from me forever?”

  I held the key in my hand and looked at Ephraim as his face fell. We were giving her what she wanted. She would have all the power again and it was up to us to get out of the house before she could destroy us. She would be stronger than ever and she would hold a vendetta against us.

  “Give it here!” she demanded. I turned to face her and handed her the key. Once it was in her hand, she smacked me hard. I fell to the floor, feeling the pain from her hands on my cheek. How could she hurt me but I couldn’t affect her? It didn’t make any sense.

  “I need your blood to enter the room,” she reminded me. “I need you to bleed.”

  As I sat up, she pulled the knife up and slashed it across my palm. I screamed at the burning sensation. My blood welled up in a tiny pool in my palm. Evangeline dipped the key into my blood and then did the same to herself. Slashing her own palm and dousing the key. With our blood mixed together, she stood up. With a look of vengeance, she left my room.

  Ephraim pulled me up and wrapped his shirt around my hand. The blood seeped around it and he wrapped it tighter.

  I felt my eyes burn again. Smoke. I had felt it in my dream and had smelled it upon waking up. Where was it coming from? “Ephraim, is something on fire?”

  He sniffed the air. “I think so.” He ran to the window and gasped. “Of all the nights. They come now?” I looked out and saw the tree outside burning to a crisp. Below, holding torches like a real lynch mob should, were the townspeople who had attacked my house earlier. They stood around, cheering as the oak tree burned. I shook my head at the idiots. They were killing my tree, what was next?

  “Oh my god! They’re gonna burn the house down!” I turned to rush outside and stop them but Ephraim restrained me.

  “No, I’ll call Rich. We have to try to stop my… Evangeline.” He was going to say my mom but he stopped himself. I had to look at it from his perspective. To him, his mom was gone forever.

  “Ephraim, I don’t know how to stop her. Once she gets that door open, she will be too strong,” I admitted. My body was weak and the pain was back, full force. I couldn’t fight her off, there was no way. I was giving up. She had beat me.

  He held me in his arms and rested his chin on my head. “Then I’ll stop her. You call Rich.” Before I could stop him, he was gone and through the bathroom doors. I heard the click from the other side of the door. He had locked me out!

  I would have to go around and up the other set of stairs to get to them. I heard a shout and knew he was trying to stop her, somehow.

  As I struggled to get down each and every step, I called Rich on my cell. It was late, or early. He was probably asleep and a call from a teen girl who talks to the dead was the last call he wanted.

  He didn’t answer and I wasn’t surprised.

  In my last attempt, I called 911 instead and reported the crazy people who were trying to burn down my house. The operator paused, to make sure I wasn’t messing with him, before he dispatched the police. I made it down the steps, each one causing pain. Once I made it to the living room, I noticed a presence.

  “Crap. Not now,” I told the empty room. I decided to push through and try to ignore whoever was here with me. Before I could, I felt clammy hands pulling at me. I looked around and saw the ghosts. Every one of them pulled at me. I saw all of them and their desperate faces. They filled the living room and the hallway. They were pulling me and trying to get me out of the house. Were they trying to save me?

  Evangeline had terrified them before and they had stood up to her in their anger. Now they looked scared and weakened again.

  I thought of what Hala had told me before. That if I asked them to stand with me, and protect me, they would.

  I searched the faces for Lynley, and finally found her next to Agnes. She looked at me once then looked down. She didn’t mean to hurt me, I knew that, but my anger flared. My aching body felt the blow of her rage and I couldn’t forgive her just yet.

  “Listen, I need your help again. You have helped me fight her in the past and I need it again now. I’m weak,” I paused and looked right at Agnes. “Injured. And for some reason Evangeline is like a fading ghost. I can’t touch her or affect her physically. I don’t know any way to defeat her, unless I have you help me.”

  It was an honest plea for help. I didn’t expect their assistance, but if they wanted their home safe, then they had to help me.

  Lynley stepped forward. “They want to help but she did something to them. She banished them from the upstairs. Me, too.”

  I shook my head. “No.” She had prepared for this. She knew they were my only help. I leaned against the wall for support. I didn’t know what else to do.

  “Brylee, did you know that some people used fire to banish witches?” Lyn asked quietly.

  “Lynley! You’re a genius!” I knew what I had to do.

  Chapter 27

  The smell of smoke was so thick that I coughed, even in the fresh night air. I crept up against the side of the house and found my neighbors and some of the parents of the kids from school, setting fire to the bushes and trees in the woods behind me. Some used torches that looked like rags dipped in fire and others used bottles of liquor with a rag inside. They threw it in the woods and it spread fast, engulfing the trees and brush.

  “Burn it down!” one of them was saying. These people needed a serious lesson from Smoky the Bear! I turned and saw a man throw a bottle into an upstairs window.

  “Hey!�
� I yelled. The man turned and looked at me. He squared his shoulders and yelled, “Get her!”

  I ran as fast as my feet and body would let me. I reached the door, leaving it open for him to enter. Once inside, I hid in the kitchen. The ghosts would do the rest.

  I heard his feet stomp up the steps and then slow once he was in the living room.

  “Brylee, we’re not here to hurt you. We just want to talk to you,” the man said, trying to sound earnest.

  I heard more feet and then saw the rise of flames on the curtains. It pained me to see our stuff burn to ash, but this house was cursed. This was the only way to save ourselves and to set the ghosts free. The house had to burn, and it had to burn with Evangeline inside.

  Lynley appeared at my side with Agnes. I didn’t know how they had become so chummy all of a sudden.

  “Brylee, we got this. You let us take care of them. When they’re distracted, get your butt up the stairs and tie my mom up.” I nodded once. I understood the plan, but I didn’t know how to tie up someone who I couldn’t touch.

  “I’ll try. Lynley, I don’t know how to tie her up. I can’t even touch her without my hand going through her.”

  Agnes’ eyes grew wide. She knew what was going on with her sister.

  “She put a spell on herself. One that makes her dense. The spell makes her seem transparent, but it’s only a spell. It keeps you from harming her physically, but your touch slows her down. That’s probably why she hasn’t breached the door yet.” Ephraim was fighting her and slowing her progress, but that wouldn’t last forever. Eventually he would tire and she would get through, then we were screwed.