by Blake Croft
Terror shot up her spine. Heart thudding against her ribs, her body flashed hot and cold.
“I told you to shut up!” Stewart growled. “Your days of lecturing me are over. Look at you,” he sneered. “You can’t even wipe your own ass anymore. You’re filthy.”
He jabbed Evelyn in the chest with a meaty finger.
Evelyn glanced down at the finger, seemingly dejected, but when she turned her eyes up again they looked at Linda directly for a fleeting moment but their plea was simple: I have him distracted; run!
Linda didn’t need to be told twice.
Inching back, keeping well in the cover of the wall, she tiptoed to the back door. Her arms were stretched behind her to make sure she didn’t bump into anything but her eyes were riveted on Stewart’s back.
His corded muscles, the height and breadth of him had been reassuring when she had first met him. Now he looked like a juggernaut of pain just waiting to be unleashed.
Her trembling fingers met the doorknob.
She froze.
How was she supposed to open the door without making any noise?
“Mmmmmm! Mmmmmm. MMMMMMMMM!”
Evelyn began to scream.
Linda twisted the knob and swung the door open.
“Shut up you stupid cow! Someone will hear you.” Stewart hissed.
Linda stepped outside and in the cover of Evelyn’s muted screams, she shut the door with a soft click. She didn’t stick around. She bent down so Stewart wouldn’t see her from the kitchen window and tiptoed to her own backdoor and let herself in. It was only then she allowed herself to breakdown into sobs of uncontrollable fear.
Chapter 32
After what felt like ages, Linda wiped her face of tears.
Her sleepless night was catching up to her, and the emotional turmoil was too much for her to bear. This was not the time to sit down and cry, no time to show her vulnerability. She didn’t know exactly what was going on in this house, but she was in danger. They needed to get out of here as soon as possible. She’ll come later to deal with the haunting.
But how would they leave?
The truck was still in the garage. She had to wake Ashley up, and they would have to walk out of the door in front of Stewart to actually make it out of the house. What if he stopped them? What if he became violent?
Ignoring the whisked eggs on the counter, Linda poured herself a glass of water from the faucet. She drank in slow sips, willing her hysterics to come under control.
She didn’t know for sure if Stewart had harmed anyone, nor did she have any proof that he was guilty of making any of the girls disappear. But the cell phone in the attic, the intimate pictures with Tara, and the clods of earth in the basement… All pointed to more guilt than innocence.
And the peridot pendant in the shape of a clover… Mrs. Grady had been right about a haunting, but it was more than the miners.
Panic threatened to bubble up her throat and consume her again.
She tamped it down.
A plan formulated in her head.
She made a beeline for the phone in the living room. She dialed a number anxiously. The dial tone blared in her ears. A soft click and then someone answered.
“Scott! I-” Linda tried to keep the desperation out of her voice.
“Hey, it’s Scott. I’m busy right now so leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.”
Linda bit back her disappointment.
“Scott, please, it’s important. I have a lead on Shannon and Tara. I think I even know where we can find them. But I need you to come right now. I think Ashley and I are in danger.”
She placed the receiver down and hoped that Scott would hear the message soon. With Scott in the house, Stewart would keep away. It wasn’t much of a security, but Linda felt better knowing help was on the way.
She pulled out the phone from her pocket. She pressed a few keys, but the screen remained blank. It was a similar model as Ashley’s phone so the charger might work on this one. Linda saw the charger dangling from a socket in the kitchen.
Hooking the device up, she waited to see if anything would light up to show the phone was charging. A green battery sign showed up on the screen with a large 0%. Linda wondered whose phone it was; probably Shannon, or Tara.
She guessed she’d find out soon enough, but there were more important things to do before that.
The walls of the house seemed to close in on her. She couldn’t stay there another moment, but she could wait across the street at Grady’s house. Once she’d thought of the idea she knew it was the right decision. She could discuss the things she had learned with Grady, and be safe from any influences in the house.
She decided to do just that.
“Ashley?” she called up the stairs.
She took the steps two at a time to reach the landing. Rain began to patter across the roof.
She walked down the office hall to the conference room Ashley had been sleeping in.
Ashley wasn’t there.
For a moment Linda was completely possessed by fear for her sister. She had to make an effort to push back the disturbing thoughts that came to mind. Backtracking down the hall and a floor down to the employee rooms Linda found Ashley sleeping in her room.
She sighed with relief, but something about her posture made Linda uneasy.
Ashley was a messy sleeper; always had been. She rejoiced in sleeping on her stomach, tucking a pillow under one of her legs while the other dangled off the bed. Her hands were always in the seven or five o’clock position depending on which side her head was on.
That wasn’t how she was sleeping now.
Her back was as straight as a board, both hands resting firmly underneath her breasts. Her pale mouth wasn’t slack-jawed or drooling but set primly. She didn’t look asleep at all. She looked dead.
“Ashley?” Linda placed a hand on her sister’s forehead. It was cool, but not deathly cold. A steady pulse throbbed in her forehead, and she could see the minute rise and fall of her chest. “Ashley, wake up!”
She shook her shoulders and prodded her cheek. Ashley’s eyelashes fluttered.
“Come on, Ash!” Linda shook her harder. “Wake up, please!”
Ashley opened her eyes. They were alert, without any trace of sleep. Linda was a little taken aback by her sister’s frank gaze.
“Come on,” Linda got up off the bed. “Scott will be here soon.” She didn’t know if this was true but she hoped it was. “We have to go to Grady’s and wait for him to get here.”
She started towards the door.
Ashley snored. Linda stopped in her tracks.
Ashley was sitting up in bed. She was curiously motionless.
She was about to shake Ashley awake when someone knocked on the front door.
Linda licked her dry lips. Had Scott already arrived?
The dark clouds still rumbled in the sky. Linda could see flashes of lightning within the nexus of whirling black. She climbed down the stairs, one hand tracing the wall. Why did she feel like the house had conjured up the sudden terrible weather?
The knocking was urgent now.
Linda strode through the kitchen to the living room.
“Scott, thank God you’re here,” she opened the door.
“Stewart,” Stewart stood outside the doorframe. “I’ve always been Stewart.”
Chapter 33
Linda’s hands fell limp by her side.
She couldn’t think, she couldn’t even move her body.
She was sure her face betrayed her fear.
Stewart was looking at her quizzically; his muscular form blocked the entire doorframe casting her in deeper shadow.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said walking inside.
Across the street, a curtain twitched and Linda was heartened that Mrs. Grady had seen Stewart enter the living room.
“Hey,” Stewart called. “Are you waiting for someone?”
“Yes, actually,” Linda said. She willed hersel
f to move and closed the door.
“Scott, right?” Stewart grinned.
“Do you need anything?” She was cold and distant, hoping he’d take a hint and go away.
Stewart laughed. It wasn’t jovial or good-humored. The laugh was high, and edged with steel.
“Oh, I need plenty,” he said. He stood in the middle of the living room, hands stuffed in pockets. His grin was large and goofy, but it did not match the fiery glint in his eye. “But we’ll get to that later. I wanted to talk to you about this silly idea of yours of filing a law suit. In fact, I was so anxious you’d leave before I got home so I came back as fast as I could.”
“Excuse me?” Linda frowned. Maybe a show of anger would stop this silly charade in its tracks. As it was, Stewart was making her very nervous.
His hand shot out. Linda flinched.
It stroked her hair.
“What are you doing?” Linda backed away like a scalded cat.
He held up his hand, grinning broadly. “Spider web. Your hair’s chock full of them.”
Linda touched her hair self-consciously.
Did he know she’d been in his house?
“Ye… yes,” Linda stammered, trying to find a good excuse. “I was cleaning out the corners in the upper hall. The place is infested with them. You should do something about the rats as well.”
“Rats?” Stewart lifted a sardonic brow.
“You have an epidemic on your hands.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” If it were possible his grin widened. “I have far worse things than rats on my property.”
The shrill ring of a cell phone interrupted them. Linda nearly jumped out of her skin. Stewart checked his phone, but it was silent. Linda walked to the kitchen where the sound was coming from.
The phone from the attic was ringing. It’s screen glowed. It screamed for attention.
“It’s Ashley’s girlfriend,” Linda lied. “I better get this. Excuse me.”
Linda took the phone off the charging device and answered the call. It was still deathly cold and stung her hands.
“Hello?” she whispered, still in shock that the phone could receive calls.
“Help me...” The soft female voice was familiar. It was the voice she’d heard in the basement calling her name.
“Mom?” Linda yelped.
“No one will help you now, Shannon. I’ll get away with this. Again.” Stewart’s voice came from the phone.
Linda reeled from shock. She took the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. It was completely blank once again. She glanced back in the living room. Stewart sat sprawled on the sofa grinning at her. How could that be possible?
She placed the phone back by her ear.
“Somebody will find her body in the mine shaft like I did,” the woman was saying. “You can’t hide what you did to Tara forever.”
“Are you threatening me, Shannon?” Stewart’s voice growled in the phone. “You don’t have to worry about Tara. You can keep her company.”
Shannon screamed. The sound of something heavy crashing down steep stairs echoed through the receiver, then stopped. A gurgling choking cough punctuated the silence, then a whisper, soft as pigeon down.
“Trapped. Lost. Free me…”
The phone vibrated once and then became perfectly still.
Chapter 34
Licking her chapped lips, Linda turned back to the living room.
She pocketed the phone. So that was it. The phone belonged to Shannon. Stewart killed her in the attic by pushing her down the stairs; that was Shannon’s influence in the haunting. She’d need it later if what Shannon had said was true.
It didn’t occur to her to doubt the experience she had just had, because it was clear now that her world was thinner around the edges. She could see things, hear things others couldn’t. She was more vulnerable and receptive to voices from the other side.
So it hadn’t been her mother warning her in the basement afterall; it was Shannon. It was no surprise she had been mistaken, she dreamed those voices more than she really heard them.
How else had Shannon tried to help her?
But what about the miners?
It begged the question who the source of the manifestation was. Which source was she looking for? How malevolent were they?
And Tara, poor murdered Tara? How much of the haunting was her?
Linda remembered the pictures she found in Stewart’s apartment, the bright green eyes of Tara Walsh and the equally green pendant at her throat. The pictures were quite damning. Stewart had conducted an affair with a guest, a massive breach of conduct. Linda recalled Stewart asking her out to dinner and only now realized how unethical that suggestion was. She shuddered.
Shannon had mentioned Tara was buried in the mine shaft, and Stewart had promised Shannon would join her there. Linda’s assumption had been correct, the mine shaft was where the source was, but what was the source?
Walking back into the living room, Linda couldn’t help but feel a pulsing rage at the man sitting on her sofa. It was the same feeling that had erupted on the fateful day Jackson had driven her too far over the edge, and she had lashed out with a knife. But this feeling was less erratic, it was cautious like the pointed edge of a sword. There was fear there too, of course there was. She’d be stupid not to be scared.
“I’m glad you came by, Stewart,” Linda said, voice quivering. “This way I can say goodbye.”
Stewart’s smile stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“I told you yesterday that I will not be continuing on as a guest,” she said. She went over to the window and twitched the curtains aside. The house across the street was still. No one stood on the porch. Grady wasn’t staring out the window. The sky grew darker as the second bout of rain lashed across the earth. “Ashley and I are willing to work here but live off-site.”
Stewart chuckled. “You look so hot when you’re angry.”
“What?” Linda turned around, and the curtains closed behind her. Linda was perturbed by his casual smile.
He held out a hand for her to take, but she backed away. That made him laugh harder.
“I know what this is really about,” he nodded. “You’ve had enough of me pretending this thing between us is platonic.” He got up and stood tall. Red lines were streaked along his neck. “I know you like me. And oh, Linda I like you too.”
“What are you talking about?” Linda took another step back towards the kitchen. “You’re crazy!”
“Crazy in love.” Stewart lunged forward.
Linda cried out and side stepped him. She ran for the front door, but strong hands gripped her arms, hindering her progress.
“No, you don’t,” he growled in her ear, his hot breath on her neck.
“Let go of me!” Linda screamed.
“I’ve waited too long for this.” He licked her neck. Linda squirmed, nausea building in her stomach in waves. His hands ran up her waist, creeping fingers inching closer to her breasts.
Linda cried, her chest heaving with panicked sobs. “Please, let go of me!”
Stewart laughed like a greedy child who had gotten his hands on a bag of chocolates. Linda felt bile rise up her throat. Her own nails clawed at his hands, striking him to loosen his grip but to no avail.
“It’s just so tempting seeing such pretty women move through the house.” Stewart giggled. “But Stewart can’t touch them; Stewart can’t even talk to them because they’re so damaged.”
“Tara wasn’t enough?” Linda shot back, hoping the name would distract him, make him cautious.
“So you know about Tara,” his grip tightened. “Oh, you’ll be a nice substitute. I knew you’d been inside the house. You left a trail of crumbs everywhere; just like that pesky Shannon. Good. Then you know what I’m capable of. Mother couldn’t stand it though. It completely took her over the edge when she saw me strangling Tara to death.”
Tara’s pretty face loomed in front of Linda’s eyes; how happy she h
ad been with Stewart only for him to kill her.
“Don’t worry,” said Stewart with a smirk. “You’ll get to know Tara soon. I’ll bury you in the cave along with her and Shannon.”
He hiked up her shirt. Linda yelped in surprise, shaken out of her roiling thoughts, her mind pulsing red. All thoughts abandoned her, as what was happening to her seared on the forefront of her mind.
He was going to assault her. He was going to kill her.
Someone came screaming from behind them.
Stewart’s grip didn’t slacken; it tightened and twisted as he turned. It was instinct for Linda to turn, as well to avoid his hands pinching her skin too hard. She saw Ashley bearing down on Stewart with a frying pan in hand, her face a mask of feral rage.
The metal hit bone with a sickening thwack.
Stewart went reeling to the floor, taking Linda with him.
Linda’s jaw hit the floor. She cried out as searing pain shot up her jaw and nestled in her head, but it was drowned in Stewart’s yowling curses. Pushing his hands away, she rolled away from him to crouch by the front door.
Ashley was breathing hard. Her teeth were bared. She kicked and punched Stewart, the frying pan discarded after the first blow. Blood smeared the floor. A shallow cut bled across Stewart’s forehead.
Linda hardly had time to register what was happening in front of her, when the front door burst open.
Scott stood in the doorframe his gun held out in front of him.
He looked rooted to the spot, taking in the scene.
“He murdered them,” Linda screamed. “He murdered Shannon and Tara!”
Whatever shock Scott was under, it finally broke. He strode into the apartment, stuffing his gun back in its holster. Linda got back up on unsteady feet. Mrs. Grady was climbing the porch steps beyond the open door.
“Are we too late?” Mrs. Grady asked, her green eyes were sharp and alert. “I called Scott as soon as I saw Stewart enter your apartment.”
“No,” Linda grabbed Grady’s hand, the urge to laugh aloud only mitigated by the need to cry. “You’re just in time.”