The Haunting

by Garcia, Nicole

  Chapter Nine

  Jace listened to Kelly crying on the other side of the door and wanted to do something for her. That beating he gave that perverted piece of shit prosecutor wasn't enough. "Kelly, please. Let me help you."

  "Go away!"

  "I can't do that. Just open the door."

  "No! You killed him!"

  Jace placed his head against the door and closed his eyes. "No, I didn't. I only knocked him out. Kelly he was going to rape you. I had to do something. Now, please just open the door so I can have a look at you."

  Her crying was agonizing to him. He couldn’t stand to see her hurt. He wished he could take her pain away. That son of a bitch Smith was lucky he didn't kill him. When he saw him on top of her he went ballistic. If it weren’t for Kelly telling him to stop he would have beat him to death.

  "No. Please just go away. I want to be left alone."

  "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to sit by this door until you come out. You don't have to be afraid. I won't let anyone else hurt you."

  A few moments passed and he heard the sound of the door unlocking. He stood and turned the knob to open it. He whispered as he entered the bathroom. "Kelly?" She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub sobbing. He put the toilet seat lid down and sat next to her. "Are you okay?"

  Kelly held her head down looking at the floor. "I think so."

  "He didn't, I mean, did he...?"

  She shook her head no and broke down. His heart was breaking for the woman in front of him. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and tell her it was going to be okay.

  Jace moved closer to her attempting to wipe her tear stricken face, but she pulled away from him. "Kelly, I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Please. Trust me."

  Kelly looked up at him and wiped her face with her t-shirt. "I'm sorry."

  Jace was confused. "Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong."

  "I have a hard time trusting men."

  "Well, I don't blame you. I've seen the assholes you have to deal with on a daily basis." Jace cursed under his breath and wished he could take back what he said as soon as it left his mouth.

  "What do you mean you've seen the assholes I have to deal with?"

  Jace sighed and inhaled a deep breath before he spoke. "Look, I haven't been completely honest with you. We have met before. Well, not technically met. I have been to your club numerous times."

  Kelly jumped up and moved closer to the wall. "I knew it! You're some kind of creepy stalker."

  He stood and stepped a little closer to her. "No! Will you just listen to me?"

  "Please don't hurt me."

  "Dammit Kelly, if I wanted to hurt you I would have done it already."

  "Yeah, you mean like choking me on the bus?"

  Jace closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to find the patience to explain. "I said that was an accident. I didn't mean to do that. My boss frequents the club a few times a week. Most of the time he gets so drunk and disruptive that I have to carry him out."

  "Wait, who's your boss again?"

  "Cesar Gonzales."

  He saw something click in her eyes figuring she now remembered seeing him before. "Cesar Gonzales, the drug kingpin? The tall dark haired man that always wears a long black leather coat?"

  "Yeah, that would be him."

  "That man is a pig. His hands are always where they shouldn't be. You're the one I've seen dragging him off the stage or through the crowd."

  "Yes, it seems that you are Cesar's favorite dancer and when he's drinking and high on drugs there's no talking to him. I’m the only one strong enough to handle him."

  Kelly moved closer to him and softly kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

  Jace was in a state of shock. "What was that for?"

  "For always protecting me even when I thought I didn’t need it."

  He smiled at her. "You're welcome. What do you say we go downstairs and take a break from all the crap that’s happened today? I wish we had some food or water. I'm starving."

  Kelly laughed. "You're starving? Even after all the food you ate for breakfast."

  "Yes, I'm a growing boy."

  Kelly looked around the unfinished bathroom and saw a toolbox under the sink.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I can't get us food, but I might be able to get water. Aha!" Kelly pulled out a needle nose pliers and placed it on the faucet stem. "The water is still turned on. They just removed all the handles." She turned the tool until water flowed into the sink.

  Jace was surprised. "Wow, way to think on your feet."

  "Not really. I'll have to remember to thank my good for nothing superintendent. This is how I have to use my kitchen sink if I want a glass of water or have to wash dishes."

  Jace laughed. "You're kidding me right?"

  "I'm very serious."

  They both took turns drinking water out of the sink. It wasn't the best tasting water. It kind of tasted like dirt. Not much could be expected since the house had been abandoned for so many years. Kelly had found some matches on the desk in the office. She put them in her pocket and hoped they would be useful. There were many silver ornate candelabras placed in all the rooms. She lit the one next to the club foot bathtub and they proceeded into the pitch black hallways. Kelly abruptly stopped at the door where Lance Smith was locked in.

  Jace put his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. He can't get out. I locked the door and I put the key right here in my pocket."

  Kelly breathed a sigh of relief as they continued down the hall to the main staircase. She stopped just before turning the corner. "Shh, listen."

  "Sounds like a rocking chair that needs some oiling. This is an old house with old furniture. Scott’s downstairs. He's probably sitting in one of the chairs down there rocking himself to sleep.”

  Kelly stood still for a moment listening to the creaking chair going forward and back. A visible chill went through her body and Jace edged her forward. She stopped short at the top of the staircase. A rocking chair wasn't what their eyes met. Instead they saw Amber McCarty dangling from a dog collar and leash. Her limp and lifeless body swaying from the crystal chandelier hanging by the front door.

  Kelly screamed and buried her face in Jace's chest. What the hell was going on? Two people were dead with no explanation. What made it worse was no one from the network had come to shut down filming to investigate.

  Scott came running from a room and stared up at the ceiling putting his hand over his mouth. "Oh my God, what happened?!"

  Jace ran down the stairs and grabbed Scott by the shirt. "What the hell did you do to her? What happened, she insulted you a little bit so you decided to kill her?"

  Scott glared at Jace. "I could ask you the same thing. I was in the study the whole time."

  As Kelly came down the steps the doors on the second floor all began to open and slam shut over and over again. She put her hands over her ears to muffle the sound.

  Jace walked Scott backward until they reached the study. He pushed him in the room and used the skeleton key to lock him in.

  Scott yelled from the other side of the door. "Flame! Flame let me out of here! You can't do this! You can't just leave me to die in here!"

  "Shut up rich boy. You're not going anywhere until we figure out what's going on here."

  "This house is fucking haunted that's what is going on here!"

  Jace banged on the door. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up!" He looked back to where Kelly had been standing at the base of the stairs. She was gone.

  He shouted her name over and over again, but there was no answer. Finally, he ran up the stairs taking them two at a time and tripping over himself. It was too dark to see where he was going and he had no time to waste. She could be in danger. "Kelly!"

  At the end of the hall he saw a small glow of candlelight. There she was staring at a doorway. Her face looked grief stricken and she stood frozen like she was paralyzed with fear.

  "Kelly? What's wrong?"


  She held out her hand and gently pushed open the door to the office where Jace had locked Mr. Smith up in.

  Jace stepped to the side and pulled Kelly's back against him. "Stay here."

  "No. I don't want to be by myself. I'm beginning to think this house is really haunted."

  Jace scoffed at her. "That's ridiculous. There must be some other explanation."

  "What?! Please tell me what else it could be? We were in the bathroom together the whole time. Scott may have killed Amber, but he wouldn't have had enough time to kill them both."

  He took her hand and they slowly walked into the office looking around for anything out of the ordinary. The door to the office slammed behind them. They desperately tried to open it back up, but it was stuck. They were stuck in the room with Lance.

  Kelly glanced at him sitting up in the chair and quickly looked away. She couldn't look at him despite what he tried to do to her.

  Lance had money stuffed in his mouth and there was blood dripping onto the floor from his hands. Each of his fingers had been cut off and were lying in the pool of blood at his feet.

  "Jace, please open the door, please."

  "I'm trying. It's stuck." He continued to struggle a little more when the door suddenly flew open.

  Kelly ran out into the hallway with Jace not far behind her. They found a bedroom and he barricaded the door.

  Kelly was obviously frightened, she was pacing back and forth. "Wait! We can't just leave her hanging there like that. What are we going to do Jace?"

  He took the candelabra out of her hand and placed it on the mantle. He then removed one of the candles to light the others that were placed on a night stand by the bed. "I don't know. What do you suggest we do? She's too high, I can’t reach that far to get her down. We should stay in here until morning. It will be safer."

  "How can you say that?! No one is safe in this house. Look at what happened to Lance. He was locked in the room alone and he got killed. No wonder that woman went insane. Who knows what else she saw and heard while she was living here?"

  Jace grabbed Kelly by the shoulders and shook her gently. "Get a hold of yourself! I promised you I wouldn't let anything happen to you and I'm a man of my word. It's only a few hours until morning. That asshole Sanders is supposed to come back to host a second day if no one quit."

  Kelly ran over to the windows. "What if we take off the boards and climb through. I'm sure we could climb down the vines."

  "We can't. The windows are nailed shut."

  "Maybe there’s more tools around and we can...."

  "The boards on the window are nailed shut from the outside."

  "What about the front door?"

  Jace thought hard for a minute. "If we leave now we lose the money. That's just not an option for me."

  "Even if staying means dying?"

  "Yes, it does."

  "Why is it so important for you to win the money? You clearly make a lot of money working for Cesar. And why do you work for such a scuzzball anyway?"

  Jace walked over to the bed at sat down. "I hadn't planned on having this life or working for Cesar. In fact, when I grew up I wanted to be a fire fighter. Would you believe that?"

  Kelly sat beside him and put her hand on his arm. "I do."

  "Anyway, my father left my mother for another woman and abandoned his two sons. My mother broke her back day after day working two and sometimes three jobs just to support me and my brother. I'm the oldest so when I turned sixteen I got a job flipping burgers at a fast food place, but it wasn't enough money so I started selling drugs for Ceasar. A few years later my mother began getting sick a lot. It turned out she had cancer. She had insurance at the time and received chemotherapy and the cancer had diminished. Not long after her cancer came back and she was too sick to return to work. Without her job she had no insurance to cover most of the medical bills. I began to rise in position with Cesar and made more money. It was great for a while, but I found myself asking Cesar for more and more advances just to get by."

  "I'm sorry Jace. Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman. She didn't deserve the life she was dealt. Can I ask you something?"

  "Yeah, go ahead."

  "Did you really set that man on fire and try to kill him?"

  Jace looked at his feet and shook his head. "No. That guy wasn't supposed to be home. Cesar made me go to his house to send him a message. So, I staked the place out a few days to see when he would leave for work. He worked the night shift so I figured that was better than doing it in the daytime. Everyone would be sleeping and no one would see anything. So, I poured gasoline along the outside of the house and set it on fire. Problem was, he called in sick that night and stayed home. He barely got out of there alive. It turns out one of the neighbors saw me that night and tried to notify the police. Cesar threatened the woman that if she told anyone she and her family would be dead. Soon after the rumors started and I got the nickname, The Flame. I even got this tattoo to show everyone what I was capable of. So, you see I'm not the bad guy everyone thinks I am. I'm just a coward."

  She smiled softly and spoke with sincerity in her eyes. "Having a kind heart doesn't make you a coward. Jace, despite your temper I think you're a good man. Your heart is in the right place, it's just you were dealt a horrible hand at life and you’re doing what you can with the choices you have."

  He never knew such kindness except from his mother. He knew she was special the moment he laid eyes on her. "Can I ask you something now?"

  "Sure."

  "Okay, I have two questions. Where did you get such an uncommon middle name like Fallon? And why do you work at that hideous and revolting club? It's so beneath you and you seem so out of place there."

  "Well, to answer your first question Fallon is my father's name. He really wanted a boy, but got me instead. My mother wanted to make him happy because she knew how much he wanted a son, so she gave me his name as my middle name. Still, he wasn't happy about having a girl and soon left us. My mother worked hard for just the two of us and spent every extra penny she had to give me dance classes. Nice right? My mother worked so hard for me and I use my dance experience stripping for money. Which brings me to your second question. I didn't plan on becoming an exotic dancer. I got a four year scholarship to college and earned my degree, but I wanted to continue on to medical school to become a doctor. I had plenty of jobs, but I wasn't able to save enough money. It would take me half the time dancing than if I was working some low paying, minimum wage job."

  "Kelly, you don't seriously think your father left because of you, do you?"

  She looked at the floor. "Why else did he leave? He didn't want a girl. He wanted a boy to raise and carry on his name. I just wasn't what he wanted."

  Jace placed his finger under her chin and turned her head to face him. "Your father was a selfish man and a fool. You're not only smart, but you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on and he's the one that has lost out all these years."

  He pulled her forward and gently kissed her on the mouth. She parted her lips and he slipped his tongue along her bottom lip. She tasted so delicious and he wanted more. He needed more. His hand slowly traced down the line of her back and then up to her bra. He unfastened it and grunted in approval as her breasts spilled against the palm of his hand, while his other was entangled in her black curly hair.

  She raised her arms over her head and allowed him to remove her shirt. He gently laid her down on the bed and ran his fingers over her hard nipples.

  ********

  Kelly didn't know if she was making the best decision, but it sure felt right. From the first time she saw him at the bus depot, she wondered what it would feel like to have his hands all over her. Now that it was happening her nerves were starting to get the best of her. As his hand traveled inside her pants and touched her throbbing clit, she bolted upright and pushed him away.

  "Oh my God, I’m such a fucking idiot. I'm sorry Kelly. I was only thinking about my own needs when I should have bee
n thinking about what happened to you earlier." Jace stood off the bed and was about to walk away until she grabbed his hand.

  "No, wait. I'm sorry...I…"

  "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. I must be a new breed disgusting human being to take advantage of your vulnerability."

  Kelly looked up at him and tried to explain to him why she had to stop. "No, what I meant was. Never mind. It doesn't matter. Please, I want this."

  Her hands went to his belt buckle and their eyes were locked on each other as she opened it. His hard cock was straining against his pants as she pulled down the zipper. He stepped out of his jeans and kicked them across the floor. Kelly was surprised to see he wore no underwear at all.

  Jace fisted her hair and guided her towards him. "Lick me Kelly. Put your mouth around me and suck me hard."

  Kelly teased his cock with a flick of her tongue and gave him a coy smile.

  "You're such a tease. I knew I had to have you the moment you licked my ear in the hotel dining room. Suck my cock Kelly. I want to feel your warm wet tongue tasting every inch of me."

  She place her mouth over the head of his dick and closed her lips around it. The taste of his pre-cum hit her tongue. The thought of him being so turned on excited her. She glided her tongue up and down his hard shaft until he forcefully pushed himself into her mouth. At first, she was caught off guard, but soon began to move her head to the rhythm of his hips.

  She ran her hand up his thigh, across his stomach, and up to his chest. She squeezed his nipple hard and he threw his head back as she continued to suck him.

  Jace looked down at her. "Fuck Kelly, I don't know how much more I can take."

  His eyes were clouded with need. A need she wanted to fulfill. He seemed to like it rough so she gently scraped his cock with her teeth and placed her hand on his balls. She gave them a gentle squeeze as she took the length of him in her mouth.

  After a few hard strokes he yanked her head back. "Don't...Kelly stop!"

  Kelly put her head down feeling embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I just thought..." How could she think that she would be able to please a hot guy like him? He probably had hundreds of women throwing themselves at him who knew how to please a man. Sure she was a great tease. Taking off her clothes and dancing around for strange horny men was easy.