The Haunting of Thornview Hall

by H. P. Bayne

  Dez tried his phone again. More than enough time had passed for an initial charge, in his experience.

  Still nothing.

  “Son of bitch,” Dez grumbled. “Did that bastard kill my phone? This thing cost a fortune.”

  “I’m sure it’ll come back.”

  Dez thought hard. “Lowell and Kindra didn’t have a landline in there, did they?” He answered his own question. “No, I remember. They called me with their cellphone numbers a few years back because they’d gotten rid of the landline.”

  “Did Mrs. Carr have a phone?” Sully asked.

  “Probably. I can’t imagine her coming out here without one.”

  “We need to get back over there and ask her to call Leo.”

  “If she’ll let us in,” Dez said.

  But the idea was as good a one as they were likely to have, so they left the SUV and made their way around the outside of the house, trudging through the deep snow, flashlights in hand to ease their way.

  Dez glanced through narrowed eyes at his flashlight before returning his eyes to their snow-covered route. “Why cellphones? Why not drain the flashlight batteries instead?”

  “Might be that’s next,” Sully said.

  Dez wished he hadn’t asked.

  “One hour, he said, right?” Dez asked.

  “Yeah. Not much time.”

  “Fingers crossed he gets stuck behind a highway crew. But we need to make this quick anyway.”

  The wind had died down as quickly as it had come up a few hours ago. Enough of a breeze remained to chill Dez and to ruffle the surface of the snow, but visibility was no longer a problem.

  That was about the only positive Dez could come up with.

  As usual, Sully wasn’t helping. They’d barely reached the other side of the house when Sully spoke up.

  “Lilian’s up ahead.”

  “Can we avoid her? We don’t have time.”

  “She’s facing us. She knows we’re heading her way.”

  “Come on,” Dez complained, voice dangerously close to a whine. He cast Sully a glance. “Listen to me, I don’t care what it takes. Don’t let her get in your head, all right? Not now.”

  “I’ll try. They don’t always give me the option to say no.”

  Dez knew it. “Bloody hell, man.”

  “Sorry.”

  They trudged on, Dez counting on Sully to let him know when they were in touching distance of Lilian. In the meantime, Dez preferred not to walk in silence.

  “So Lilian. We’re figuring she didn’t actually run off with Abel, right? We think her husband killed her?”

  “I haven’t ruled out the possibility it was Abel.”

  “What reason would he have?”

  “Let’s assume they were together. What if he asked her to leave with him but she refused because of the kids? Would he have been jealous enough or angry enough to kill her?”

  “It wasn’t the impression I got from Abby. Her dad seemed pretty fond of him to be hunting for answers the rest of his life. No matter how much you love your family, you can dislike them if they’re assholes. We know that better than anyone. Abby’s father probably wouldn’t be as concerned if that was the case, right?”

  “Except families often think the best of each other even when they shouldn’t. It’s hard to believe someone you love is capable of doing awful things. We’ve had direct experience with that too.”

  It was a good point, and Dez said so.

  “Where is she?” he asked a moment later.

  “Same spot. I’m trying to lead us around her but her head is turning with us. She sees us. I can’t imagine she’ll let me slip past.”

  Dez tried anyway. “Hey, Lilian, listen, we need to talk to the lady in the cottage, all right? Leo’s coming here right now with Miriam, and we can’t let them within a mile of this place until we can make sure it’s safe. You need to let us do that.” Done calling out, he turned back to Sully. “How’d I do?”

  Sully turned his head slightly as if to check, they returned his gaze to Dez. “Pretty good, I think. She hasn’t moved.”

  They made it to the cottage without any ghostly interference. As expected, the interior was dark. When, after a minute, no one responded to his loud and repeated knocks, Dez stepped to the side and peered through the window.

  A dull orange glow in the area of the fireplace suggested it was still lit, but only just.

  Sully appeared at his shoulder. “If she’s in there, she’s not doing a very good job of tending the fire.”

  Dez managed a smirk. “She’s only half-human anyway. Probably loves the cold. The fire was just for show.”

  Sully bobbed his chin toward the entryway. “Try the door.”

  Dez shook his head as if to refuse but went ahead with the suggestion anyway. It opened easily.

  “Weird she’d leave it unlocked, isn’t it?” he asked.

  Sully said nothing, merely pushing gently past to explore the interior. It took the two of them less than twenty seconds to clear the small cottage.

  “She’s not here,” Dez concluded.

  Sully nodded his agreement.

  “Where’d she go?”

  This time Sully shrugged and shook his head.

  “You see a phone anywhere?”

  “Nope,” Sully said. “I checked. There’s a charger plugged in next to the bed but no phone.”

  “Great. And her car was still out front near the SUV, right? You saw it?”

  “It was there. Maybe it’s not anymore. It could be she saw it had stopped snowing and is trying to leave. You saw how badly she wanted away from here.”

  “I definitely did. Weird she’d leave the door unlocked and the fire going, though it’s possible she was in a rush and forgot.” Dez gave the interior one last scan. “Shit. How much time you think we have left before Jacob gets here?”

  Sully shook his head but otherwise didn’t answer. His eyes had gone to the front door they’d left ajar. The breeze had caught it and pushed it halfway open. The way Sully was staring, Dez had no doubt someone was standing in the opening.

  “Lilian?” he asked.

  Sully nodded. “I think I need her to let her show me whatever it is she wants to.”

  “Now?”

  “Better here than in the house, right?”

  Dez had to concede the point. “Or outside, for that matter. Okay, yeah, go for it.”

  Dez stepped closer to Sully and braced for whatever was about to come.

  15

  Lilian hovered in the doorway, subtly lit in a way most ghosts appeared to him in the dark. Her hair was the exception, a dense black cloud blocking out whatever glow might otherwise show from her face.

  Sully took a step toward her, taking some comfort in the fact Dez did the same, staying at his immediate side.

  “Lilian? You heard what Dez said, right? We need to work fast. Your children are coming here and they aren’t safe. I need to put the spirit in the house back into the pit it crawled out of. If whatever you want to show me can wait until after that, great. But if you have something you can show me that might help, I’m happy to hear you out.”

  It proved enough of an invitation. She shot forward in a blink, hand connecting with his cheek before he even knew it was happening.

  She was back in the third-floor hallway, light eking from beneath the door ahead.

  She reached for the knob.

  Her fingers moved through it as if it didn’t exist.

  Or as if she didn’t.

  Though seeing the vision through Lilian’s eyes, Sully remained present enough to recognize the fact he, as usual, couldn’t hear anything. But he could sense the turn of Lilian’s thoughts and emotions.

  He couldn’t hear but she could. And what she could hear was screaming.

  Her little girl screaming.

  She passed through the door like passing through a fog, its solid makeup meaningless to her. She saw him then, Bill hunched over Miriam, hammering her tiny body with all
of his great strength.

  And beside him, watching the scene unfold with such sickening glee, stood a second presence. A man but not a man, the feeling around him so horrible Lilian could barely bring herself to look.

  Until he turned to her. Long, dark hair, thick beard, wild eyes, teeth bared in a maniacal grin.

  “Sully?” He recognized Dez’s voice, coming from somewhere topside. Urgent. Worried. “Sully!”

  He could have listened, could have held onto the voice and pulled free as he had numerous times before.

  He didn’t. He needed to be here, with Lilian, now. There was more. Something it was important for him to see.

  He ignored Dez’s voice, sunk back into the vision.

  The entity meant to frighten her away—and she was frightened. She was terrified. Because she’d seen him before.

  The image changed as quickly as scenes on a television show.

  She was running from the cottage, trying to keep pace with Abel. And he was chasing Bill. Abel was going to kill her husband. She was sure of it. Kill him so he wouldn’t harm her or the kids again. He wanted to take her from this place, her and the kids. They’d start a new life together, a life free of Bill and the bad feelings the house stirred up.

  Abel intended to tear Bill limb from limb with his bare hands.

  Bill had other plans.

  Ahead of Abel, Bill whirled in place. The blast drew Lilian up short, had her questioning the source of the sound, unbelieving it might be what she suspected.

  Unbelieving until, a moment later, Abel fell.

  He hit the forest floor hard, like a tree being felled. She ran to him blindly, unthinking, collapsing on her knees and staring into eyes that were fixed open, unseeing.

  The smell struck her next, a burning scent she recognized as gunpowder. Gunpowder mixed with blood.

  Then she saw the hole. Visible beneath the fringe of hair covering Abel’s forehead.

  She expected Bill would shoot her next. He didn’t. He had something worse in mind for her.

  As the first blow fell, she knew she was about to receive her final beating from Bill.

  “Sully! Let go!”

  Another page turned, another vision. She was back in the woods, watching Bill place her daughter in the ground, into a fresh hole he’d dug.

  He was weeping, but the man next to him—the same man present when Miriam had been killed—was no less gleeful. He turned to Lilian, fixing her with his sick, gloating grin. And she knew. Bill had always held a troubled and even dark soul, but he’d succeeded in holding much of it in check.

  Until they’d moved here. The beatings had started soon after. Then he’d turned on the kids.

  It was because of this … man. This demon.

  He reached for his throat, pulling free an amulet. What it was, she didn’t know. A double cross and a figure eight along the bottom. He fingered it lovingly, raising heavy brows at her as if to tell her this was the source of his power, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

  And there wasn’t. She knew there wasn’t. All she could do was stay close, close to her remaining child in the hopes she could stop him from taking him too.

  If she couldn’t, maybe she could find her children in this strange new dimension and escape.

  Another image, Leo and Miriam, together. Leo behind the house, staring into the woods. He’d seen. Lilian knew he’d seen. He’d watched Bill carry Miriam away that terrible, terrible night.

  As locked as the boy’s attention was on the woods, Miriam’s was on him. Her hand hovered near his, as if to comfort him.

  Always so sweet. Such a sweet, sweet girl.

  But Leo didn’t see Miriam, and Miriam didn’t see Lilian. Lilian wanted it that way. She knew how she would appear to the little girl, battered and bloodied, all but unrecognizable. She didn’t want to frighten her, not when she’d already seen so much.

  She had Leo, and she would stay with him. They’d look after each other, even without Leo’s knowing it.

  And Lilian would stay close. She’d keep watch over this house, over that awful entity upstairs, even if she could never step foot inside again.

  She would stay for her children, even if it wasn’t enough.

  Even if it meant she was trapped here forever.

  The vision ended abruptly. Sully discovered he was on his hands and knees on the floor, Dez crouched next to him, shaking him.

  “Sully? Sully, talk to me, man.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “I couldn’t pull you out. Jesus, Sull. I couldn’t pull you out.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I needed to stay under until she showed me what she needed to.”

  “So you ignored me? Is that what you’re saying?”

  Sully sat back on his heels and gave Dez an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry.”

  Dez stood and glared down at him. “Goddammit, Sully. That’s not how this is supposed to work. If I’m trying to pull you out, I have a reason. You were shaking, you couldn’t hold yourself up. For a minute there, I even thought you were even going to stop breathing.”

  “Any other situation, I would have listened to you. But we don’t have an option now. We’re running out of time. Come on. We need to get back to the house.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll explain on the way. Let’s go.”

  Sully filled Dez in on details of the vision as they headed back toward the house, jogging whenever the snow cover allowed it.

  “So this symbol around his neck is what, exactly?”

  “I don’t know,” Sully said. “But Lilian believes it’s where he draws his power. If we can find it and separate it from him somehow, I think we can get rid of him.”

  “Without you needing to go darkside?” Dez asked.

  “I’m hoping.”

  “Good,” Dez huffed out. “I like the sound of that.”

  The back door was locked so they raced around to the front. They’d definitely left this door unlocked to allow them to get back and forth to the SUV.

  “Hey, Sully?” Dez said, pointing. “Mrs. Carr’s vehicle. She hasn’t left.”

  Sully drew up short and stared at it. “Damn.”

  “What?”

  “What if she started toward the house when it was still snowing and got lost? She could be freezing to death out there.”

  “Not our problem right now,” Dez said. “We’ll find her later, all right? We need to get this done.”

  They ran into the house, Dez immediately making for the stairs heading up. Sully reached out and snagged his arm.

  “Not upstairs,” Sully said. “I’ve got another idea.”

  He led the way to the basement, flashlight chasing away the shadows the electrical lights didn’t touch. Sully played the beam around until he found what he was looking for.

  “What’s this for?” Dez asked as Sully handed him a large garden spade.

  “You used to want to be an archeologist, right?”

  “Yeah, for about five minutes. What the hell are you talking about?”

  Sully flashed him a smile. “I’m not completely sure, but I think we’re going to dig up a grave.”

  Dez grimaced. “I wanted to be Indiana Jones, not a Winchester brother.”

  Sully grabbed a shovel and patted Dez on the chest. “Sorry, D, tonight you’re a Winchester. Let’s go.”

  16

  The idea of digging up what Sully believed to be a grave was revolting.

  But Dez realized it was also a plausible solution. Only in their world would grave desecration fit into the job description.

  Sully had been leading the way through the basement, but Dez’s longer legs and faster stride soon put him ahead as they raced down the hall to the left. Once they finished with this, he hoped, Miriam would be safe, Lilian would be free and the evil bastard who’d had a hand in Flynn Braddock’s death—and very likely Aiden’s too—would be gone.

  If that wasn’t enough to spur him on, nothing was.

  He was a
bout to turn into the room when he sensed Sully was no longer at his immediate back. Dez turned to find he’d stopped a few paces behind him. His hand was braced against the hallway wall, head bowed and back heaving as he worked to draw in deep breaths.

  Dez went to him.

  “You okay?”

  “Dizzy. That damn room.”

  Dez put out a hand and rested it on the side of Sully’s head. “Stay here. Or better yet, move back a few. I’ve got this.”

  “You don’t even want to be doing this.”

  “All about the end game, man. It’s handled.”

  Sully moved his free hand and bunched up the material of Dez’s coat front. “Okay, but I’m staying close. Just in case.”

  “Fine. But at least move farther away.”

  Sully shook his head. “No. I need you to talk me through what you find and what’s happening. I need to know what we’re up against.”

  As much as Dez wanted Sully where he’d feel better, the selfish part of him was grateful to have him nearby regardless.

  “Got it,” Dez said. He grasped Sully’s wrist to gently tug his hand free of his coat but the fingers dug in harder.

  “If you find the amulet, yank it free immediately. It should stop him.”

  “Should?”

  Sully raised his head enough to meet Dez’s eye. “They don’t make a user’s manual for this sort of thing, you know.”

  Dez smiled and patted Sully’s wrist. Sully released him and Dez was off, back down to the room.

  He flipped the switch and set the flashlight on the floor, playing the beam toward the depressed centre of the room to better illuminate the scene. Sully was right. This did look like a grave.

  Dez took a breath and got started.

  The ground was hard, making each initial strike with the spade a battle. But Dez was a big guy, strong enough to make a task like this manageable. He kept at it, hammering away at the ground, chipping away bit by bit.

  “Anything yet?” Sully called out after a few minutes.

  Dez took the opportunity for a quick breather. “Not yet. How you doing?”

  “Same.”

  Dez got back to work.