Spooked

by Sharp, Tracy

  “Seven o’clock?”

  I nodded again. “Seven.”

  He paused. “Don’t worry, Lorelei. Everything will be okay. I’m here for you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Tanner.”

  “Call me Eddie.”

  “Okay.” But I couldn’t bring myself to call him Eddie right then. Eddie the pervert? Eddie the abductor of young girls? Eddie the killer?

  And his last words before he ended the call chilled me, stealing my breath. “Lorelei, I’ll keep you hidden. No one will find you.”

  Just like the others.

  ***

  Mick dropped me off a block away and I walked quickly to the cemetery. One gloved hand clutched the collar of my parka tightly while the other fisted a switchblade deep in my pocket. My hood covered my head and obscured my face, and I felt Fiona’s ghosts moving around me, but giving me plenty of room. I couldn’t help wondering whether Fiona had sent them to watch over me or whether they just had nowhere else to go and were familiar with me, having woven themselves around me at Brianna’s vigil.

  I shivered, making my way steadily into the cemetery. A light snow flurried around me in the quiet. I knew that Mick was watching me, staying far enough away that he wasn’t being obvious—watching me from some side street or something. Still, my hands shook.

  In moments Mr. Tanner came seemingly out of nowhere, walking toward me. His shoes were silent on the pavement, and it freaked me out that I wouldn’t have heard him coming had he decided to creep up behind me without warning.

  Almost before I could blink he was in front of me, leaning in close, a hand on each of my shoulders.

  “Lorelei,” he murmured, my name sounding slightly obscene on his lips.

  I thought I felt his breath on my face, but I hoped it had been wind.

  He hurried me out of the cemetery and to his smoke silver sedan—a Lincoln, a few years old. White hot fear pumped adrenaline through my blood, making my heart race as I sat on the black leather seats.

  “These seats are heated, so you’ll warm up fast.” He patted my thigh. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you somewhere safe.”

  I barely noticed the heated seat. My fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in and I had to grip the edges of the seat to keep myself from leaping out of the car.

  “Where have you been, Lorelei? Everyone is worried sick.” He looked at me, his eyes intense.

  “I can’t tell you that. Not yet, anyway.”

  “Does anyone know where you are?” The concern in his voice sounded contrived. Saccharine sweet.

  A chill moved over me all over again and I quivered. “No.”

  I thought I saw something pass over his face. Relief? Satisfaction? “You poor girl.” He turned the heat up so the air blasted out toward me. “You’re freezing.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Tanner,” I said, trying to keep the quiver out of my voice.

  “Eddie,” he said. “Please.”

  I tried to smile. “I’m not used to thinking of you as Eddie.”

  He smiled back. “I know. It would take some time, wouldn’t it?”

  “Are you taking me to the place on the map you drew for Fiona?”

  “Yes. You’ll be safe there. And there’s a fireplace. You’ll be toasty in no time.”

  I looked straight ahead, through the windshield at the swirling snow, and saw him looking at me again, a sidelong stare that made me scream inside.

  I stared at the road ahead of us, dread moving through me, making it difficult for me to breathe.

  “It’s not safe for you out in the world right now, Lorelei.”

  He sounded so sincere that I looked at him and studied his face as he turned back to the road ahead of us. His eyes were not predatory, but he slid a hand over my thigh, and my senses were all confused. Fear was keeping me from being able to assess the situation properly.

  “Mr.…E-Eddie…” I began, the stammer making me feel more anxious.

  He turned his face to me, his eyes large, eyebrows raised. I wondered whether he even realized what he was doing.

  “I’m uncomfortable with your hand on my leg,” I said, my voice sounding small and uncertain.

  “Oh!” He removed his hand quickly, as if my leg had burned him through his gloves. “I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t mean a thing by it. I’m just…feeling protective of you. That’s all.”

  I nodded. “It’s okay. I just don’t know who to trust right now. Like you said, it’s not safe.”

  Edward Tanner was definitely a letch, but that didn’t mean necessarily that he was a killer.

  Still. Three girls were missing. And he had a penchant for young girls.

  “I just want to keep you…” he murmured, mostly to himself, it seemed.

  He wanted to keep me?

  My blood turned icy in my veins. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.”

  My heart hammered so hard I thought I could see my coat moving in time with its frantic beat.

  “Safe,” he said, softly. His face seemed a bit off. Like his features weren’t put together quite right. His eyes had taken on a wild glow. “I want to keep you safe.”

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  Oh my God. Oh my God. The thought was like a chant in my mind. I didn’t know how I’d get out of this. I searched the mirrors, and Mick’s headlights were nowhere to be seen. Where was he?

  We rode in silence for a few minutes, the trees becoming blurry in the dusky light. The snow fell harder, but Edward Tanner didn’t slow down.

  His fingers reached out and fumbled with the radio buttons. He found the oldies station and began singing with Jerry Lee Lewis. His gloved hands slapped the wheel in time with the boppy beat.

  We were in the middle of nowhere. I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and flipped it open.

  “Oh, you won’t get reception here,” he said. “There’s nothing out here.”

  Shit.

  “Oh. I just wanted to see whether Fiona texted me. See if she might have gotten somewhere safe.”

  Shadows moved across his eyes when he looked at me. He nodded. “I sure hope she has.”

  “Me, too.” I put my cell back into my pocket.

  He turned in to a driveway that seemed to go on forever, and then parked in front of a quaint log cabin. Any other time I would’ve thought it was cool. But not this night.

  “Okay, kiddo. Let’s go.”

  We both climbed out of the vehicle, and I fell onto my hands and knees in the snow, my legs betraying my frayed nerves. I hadn’t put my gloves back on, and as soon as my fingers touched the icy cold of the snow, the wind stole my breath and I felt more than heard whispers float up around me.

  “Lorelei, are you okay?” Tanner’s legs were in front of me, his knees moving close to my face as he bent and reached both large hands out to me.

  I couldn’t make out what the whispers were saying—there were so many voices. Whispers of young girls. Urgent, panicked. Trying to warn me away.

  Fiona’s ghosts came up around me then, mixing and merging with the snow, moving so fast they were a blur, trying to wrap themselves around me.

  “I need to go home,” I said, my voice small.

  His face was stricken. “No, no, no, no, no. No, Lorelei. It’s not safe there. Your Aunt Delia hasn’t been acting right. I think she needs help.”

  I think you need help, you sick freak.

  Reaching shaking hands out to his, I allowed him to pull me up. “Needs help? Shouldn’t we help her?”

  He shook his head, too hard. “She threatened to stab me to death if I went near her. Lorelei, she was growling at me through the door. And it smells bad. The whole area around the house smells horrible. I called Doc Griffith to check on her. He’ll take care of her.”

  I barely heard my voice. “I should be with her.”

  “No.” His grip on my arms became steely. “You shouldn’t.” He began pulling me toward the cabin. “You’ll be exposed.”

  The whispers became louder, overlapping one another. I
couldn’t hear the words but the message was clear. Get away. Now.

  I pulled in the opposite direction. “Let go of me!”

  I moved toward him and jammed a knee forward, but Mr. Tanner was too fast, moving backward. His grip on me didn’t loosen.

  “Whoa! Easy girl. Easy.” He laughed, clearly amused.

  “Let me go, you freakin’ pervert!”

  He stopped pulling and stared, wide-eyed, as if I’d slapped him. “What? What did you say?”

  Mr. Tanner blinked, stiffened, his eyes becoming huge. A dark circle appeared in the center of his forehead just before he fell forward, knocking me backward. A drop of his blood fell on my cheek. I screamed, shoving him off me and crab-walked backward. I kept screaming, my horror and terror complete as I watched him twitching in the snow.

  The whispers grew louder, roaring in my ears. I pushed myself up, looking around me, trying to see everywhere at once.

  “It’s okay. You’re safe now.” The young male voice came from behind me.

  I spun around. Cole Nichols walked toward me, his police gun in one hand, the other held out, moving slowly up and down, making calming motions. “Lorelei, it’s okay.”

  Hot tears moved over my cheeks. I’d always imagined I’d be strong in dire situations, because I always had been strong. But at that moment I felt utterly and completely lost. I had no family. I was alone in the world. The only people I had close to me were Fiona and Mick. And Fiona might be gone forever.

  Mick. Where are you? Please don’t be dead. Had the shadow spooks gotten to him? The thought was too much to bear.

  I scanned the road beyond the property.

  Cole put an arm around me, his gray eyes searching my face. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, still unable to speak. I felt my chin trembling and a sob escaped my lips before I could swallow it down.

  “You’re one lucky girl, Lorelei. You know that?”

  I nodded again, the effort of choking back another sob taking all my energy from me. I was shaking.

  The whispering was so loud now that I could barely hear Cole speaking to me. He was leading me to the cabin, his arm steadily pushing me along.

  I turned to him, watching as he looked around, as if making sure nobody were watching.

  Something wasn’t right.

  As we climbed the few stairs leading to the porch, one word became clear and strong, whispered in unison: Run!

  Fiona’s ghosts whirled around me, but I was too close to Cole.

  Run, run, run, run, run, run!

  If I got far enough away from the cabin, and into the snow, Fiona’s ghosts would camouflage me.

  The door opened and I whirled, leaping off the top stair and landing on the snowy ground, almost losing my footing.

  “Lorelei!”

  I shot forward, heading to the woods. I heard Cole come after me, his feet pounding on the wood.

  I felt his fingers scrape against my back, trying to grab a handful of my coat. A startled cry echoed in the night. Without turning, I knew that he’d lost his footing.

  I said a silent prayer of thanks for the ice beneath the snow.

  I ran. I ran through the snow, into the trees edging the property. I ran until my breath was ragged in my chest, my throat burning, and ducked behind a huge, gnarled old tree.

  Cole screamed my name, a howl of frustration and rage.

  Fiona’s ghosts moved around me, thick and protective.

  I slowed my breathing and tried to calm my pounding heart. I closed my eyes for a second, listening.

  A woman’s voice. My eyes snapped open.

  “You idiot!” she was saying to him. I barely made out Mrs. Tanner. She stood, her image spectral under the porch light, looking out toward the woods.

  Searching for me.

  She threw her arms into the air. “Go find her. She can’t have gone far.” She turned and walked back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

  Cole was already making his way toward the woods. Toward me. He stopped at the edge of the woods, his head turning slowly, scanning the woods, like a condor searching for prey. “Lorelei! Come on, now. You’ll freeze out here. Come on inside. Miranda’s waiting inside.”

  Miranda? I frowned. Were they friends?

  Of course. They were lovers.

  Mrs. Tanner came out of the house. In moments, she was coming down the stairs, dressed in boots and a bright red winter jacket.

  “Lorelei!” Mrs. Tanner called as she followed Cole toward me. “Come inside. You’re safe now, but not if you freeze to death out here!”

  I blinked away snowflakes that had fallen on my lashes, watched Cole and Miranda Tanner as they searched for me, wolves in sheep’s clothing. I reached out and mentally probed them both. I swayed where I crouched, grabbing the tree for support. I’d never read two people at once before, and images came at me, bright and quick, like flashes of lightning.

  Miranda Tanner, sitting in her car outside the cabin, watching Eliza Ford framed by the window as she looked out into the night. I felt hatred coming off her as she watched her husband Edward coming up behind Eliza, embracing her and then kissing her as she smiled up at him, tilting her face toward him.

  I felt her blood boil. But it wasn’t about heartbreak—it was about competition. She had been the prettiest girl, not so long ago, and Eliza had no right stealing that spot from her. Stealing her husband’s attention. Eliza had to be taken care of, fast. Miranda wouldn’t be in second place. Ever.

  Then Brianna, whose text messages Edward had forgotten to erase. Some of which referred to the unborn baby.

  Kerry, opening the door and launching herself into his arms and wrapping her legs around him as he carried her inside, kissing her mouth the entire way, and using his foot to slam the door closed behind them.

  Miranda had watched that door slam behind Edward and his young lovers, and decided, each time, that the girl had to die. That maybe Edward would learn that she was the only one he could ever really love. It didn’t matter how many affairs she had. She had to be the only one for any man she was involved with.

  But Edward never learned.

  He’d made a key for each girl. As each girl vanished, he’d simply make a new key.

  But it wasn’t Edward Tanner who had caused their disappearance. It was Miranda. And Cole.

  Edward had never made the connection between him and the disappearances of his young lovers.

  Lorelei saw Cole’s booted feet climb the stairs to the cabin, and then his gloved fist knock on the door. He knew they came an hour early and waited until Edward finished his last class and arrived for his romantic rendezvous with them.

  Cole had been the one to murder, bury, and clean up. He had planted Kerry’s shoe in the woods for the search party to find, throwing the investigation off.

  All three girls were buried in these woods. They were whispering to me now.

  I closed my eyes and listened to the panicked, urgent warnings of three dead girls.

  Three that you know of, I thought.

  “There is nowhere left to run. I have nowhere else to go,” I whispered back to them.

  A scream cut the frigid air. My eyes snapped open in time to see Miranda Tanner trying to run through the high snow, falling, hands and arms buried as she tried to push herself back to her feet. I followed her horrified eyes to the driveway. Delia, a flamboyant, purple feathered witch hat propped crookedly on her head, came shambling along through the bright blood on the fresh fallen snow.

  “Cole!” Miranda fought her way to her feet, and then tried again to run toward the cabin. “Oh my God!”

  Cole fired a bullet into Delia, and I cried out, half reaching toward her with outstretched hands, even as I realized that it was no longer Delia and hadn’t been for a long time.

  Delia growled deep in her throat as the front of her light pink blouse turned crimson.

  He fired another round that knocked her witch’s hat off her head and made her take a few stumbling steps back
. She righted herself and headed toward him, leaning forward, head tilted. As she staggered closer, I shrank back at the image of her face, her teeth gnashing and drool frothing her lips and chin. She was hungry.

  I felt movement behind me and fell sideways into the snow, trying to spin around to see who had come up on me.

  I looked up to see Strummer grinning down at me, his spiked green hair covered in snow.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, his voice soft in the winter wind.

  I blinked, looking up at him.

  He reached a hand out to me and pulled me out of the snow. “We need to stay put for a little bit.”

  I nodded, shivering, and hearing my sobs as echoes in the woods. I couldn’t seem to stop. My tears were freezing on my cheeks, and I was beyond caring.

  Strummer unzipped his long, black coat and opened it wide, inviting me in.

  I moved toward him and closed my eyes as I lay my face against his warm chest, letting his darkness protect me as he wrapped his coat around me.

  “Ssssh,” he breathed, holding me close. “Ssssh.”

  And I felt warmth surround me, his heat radiating over me.

  Moments later I heard Cole’s shrieks as I imagined Delia sinking her teeth into him. Not long after that—breaking glass, and Miranda’s shrill screams slicing through the darkening night.

  ***

  “Where is Mick?” I asked, trembling as we trudged through the snow toward the driveway. I didn’t know how much time had gone by since Delia had climbed through the broken window. She hadn’t come out. I didn’t have to ask Strummer whether she would ever come out of there alive. I already knew the answer.

  A set of headlights made their way up the driveway. I squinted in the dark. Mick’s father’s Navigator.

  Strummer picked me up as if I weighed nothing. I’d lost weight since the entire nightmare in Saints Hallow began. My clothes had been hanging off me, and my jeans were dangerously close to slipping over my narrow hips.

  I wrapped my arms around Strummer’s neck and rested my face against his shoulder, closing my eyes. The energy had drained out of me, and at the moment I really didn’t care what happened to me. I was tired, tired way down deep in the bones.

  I heard the truck door open and felt Strummer gently place me on the back seat, careful not to hurt me.