by K. F. Breene
“I mean…I don’t know, but we can’t leave him down there.” Emily leaned over the banister. “What about the others, Carl? Did anyone else get out?”
“It went dark. All the lights went out. The music stopped.” Carl took a shaky step and looked back in the direction he’d come. “I was on the ground. I don’t remember how I got there. I don’t remember falling. A leg was near me. Someone’s…” Carl trailed away, looking at nothing now.
“He’s in shock,” Braiden said. “We need to go down and get—”
Emily screamed and pointed. “Carl, look out!”
A knife was hurled through the open door, spinning end over end.
Carl’s head dropped down. He stared at the very real-looking hilt protruding from his heart before his legs gave out from under him.
“Oh no!” Emily screamed. “No, no, no, no. They’re supposed to be ghosts!”
“Time to go.” Dirk pulled Emily away from the banister and pushed her in front of him. He grabbed Scarlet next.
“What happened to Carl?” Scarlet asked, turning to look. Her face blanched.
The man stepped into the moonlight, looking up at us with his sickly grin. Carl gurgled at his feet.
The contents of my stomach came surging up, but thankfully, the last thing I’d eaten was lunch. I dry-heaved, clutching Braiden’s arm as he moved me away from the banister.
“Maybe he’ll be okay when everything goes back to reality,” Braiden whispered urgently, moving us down the hall to a far room. “Maybe that’s what happens when this…magic or whatever dissipates.”
“No one has ever come back,” I said with a constricted throat. “No one has ever come back from here.”
“We need to find a way out,” Scarlet said. “Now!”
“But how?” Odis cried.
“Through here.” Dirk led us right, through some kind of sitting room and into a large bedroom. He stopped at the window on the far side, pointing at the branches hanging still in the thick night air. “Let’s try this window. If we can’t drop down, we can get onto those branches. They look sturdy.”
“Then what?” Buffy demanded, looking through another window at the tree. “There’s no ladder to the ground. How are we supposed to get down?”
I didn’t see what Dirk grabbed, but he took a step hop to the window and swung with compacted power. His instrument bounced off and he tried again, his form not nearly as smooth and precise as Braiden’s, but just as powerful. It hit the window and bounced off again.
“This can’t be happening,” he yelled, throwing the thing at the window. It ricocheted and came back at him. He kicked it with wound-up frustration he’d clearly been stuffing down and hiding. “This cannot be happening.”
He rounded on Braiden with his finger out. “You,” Dirk said through his teeth. His eyes glinted with malice. “This is all because of you. Everything was fine until you showed up. I kept people away from here easily. All it took was an occasional joke, making fun of Fella over there, and calling anyone who wanted to check it out crazy—it was no problem. They were already wary. I just pushed the envelope. But then you came along, and now look where we are.”
“What do you mean, it was his fault?” Buffy put a hand to her hip, her face tear-streaked but full of stubborn indignation. I could tell that all of her terror and uncertainty was boiling into anger. “You’re the one who wanted to come. You and Leo and the guys.”
“They always want to come. Every few months, someone mentions it. I go along with it until I can talk them out of it. But no one acted until he”—Dirk jabbed his finger at Braiden—“wanted a ghost tour from our very own whack job.” I got the next jabbed finger. “Then suddenly this stupid expedition is fast-tracked, and here we are, trapped in this godforsaken place with a collection of morons.” He picked up the thick object and threw it across the room.
“Oh, really? We’re morons?” Buffy took a step toward him with her fists clenched at her sides. “If you’re so smart, if you knew what coming here would mean, why did you bother? Bobby took off. Nate didn’t even come. Why did you tag along if you are so much smarter than the rest of us?”
Dirk spread his hands and a mocking expression crossed his face. “Why do you think? I know what you girls say behind my back.” He changed to a high-pitched voice and put his hands up like he was about to frolic through a meadow. “‘I’d only do him if he put a brown bag over his head.’” He went back to his normal voice and disgust contorted his features. “I’m a pity lay. I get it. I’m a dare. You think I don’t know that? Hell, I can’t even land the nerd from up the street.”
“At least you get laid,” Odis muttered. Scarlet scoffed.
“Me?” I took a step back, just as confused about this as I was about the stairwell leading to nothing. “But all you do is make fun of me.”
“You literally just called her a whack job,” Scarlet said.
Dirk sniffed and shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
“I told you those offers to take you to school weren’t poking fun,” Scarlet whispered.
“Or the wildflowers. Or the offer to lend you a movie. Nope, you ignored me, or rolled your eyes and gave me a snide remark. I got the picture. Little Fella is too good for the likes of me.”
“Those wildflowers smelled like pee,” I said, my voice rising. I’d thought them a prank. It was the worst time to plead my case, but the urge to defend myself was a personality flaw that would not go away just because I was in a haunted house with knife-throwing ghosts. “You gave me urine-encrusted wildflowers. What was I supposed to do, jump for joy?”
“They weren’t—”
“Oh, they so were. And that movie? The one my mother asked me to borrow? Yeah, I handed it off without checking what was in the case first. My bad. But then, why would I suspect a porno had been slipped in instead of Dead Poets Society? Do you know what sound a mother makes when she mistakenly plays porn for her friends at their monthly social?”
Buffy spat out laughter.
“How was I supposed to know it was for your mother?” Dirk demanded, facing me with his fists balled.
“Why would it have mattered?” I yelled back.
“That’s how the guys show they are interested in you,” Buffy said, a wicked smile on her face as she looked at Dirk. “You like Ella? Oh my goodness, this will ruin you. And to think, all the slander was really just intended to cover a grade-school crush. How cute. Who’s next? Samantha with the headgear? I hear she needs more members for her saxophone band…”
“Jazz band,” Scarlet said before holding up her hands. “Look, this is enlightening, and we definitely need to hash this out…maybe never, but—”
“This won’t ruin me,” Dirk said, still staring at me. “Not now that he’s in the picture.” Dirk glared at Braiden, standing near the door. “She’ll be untouchable, and everyone will see that I had good taste.”
“Wait…what?” Buffy braced her hands on her hips, looking between me and Braiden.
Dirk retargeted his scowl to her. “And to answer your question? I didn’t think anyone would actually go through with it.” He paused, staring Buffy down. “My bad.”
“Ooooh.” Scarlet nodded like she’d figured something out. “That makes sense.”
“What?” Braiden asked.
“His one-eighty about you. Ella made her choice, and it was you, not him. Sour grapes, much? Serves you right for all those times you—”
“Scarlet,” I said through my teeth. “Keep a lid on it.”
A small smile graced Braiden’s face as he glanced my way. He looked at his feet for a moment, then back out the door, keeping watch.
“Are you for real?” Buffy said. “No way. No. Way. That is grody to the max.”
“Are you blind as well as dumb?” Dirk snatched up his flashlight from where he’d left it before his attack on the window.
“Gag me with a spoon. No.” Buffy shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“You didn’t believe
in ghosts, either, and look how that turned out.” Scarlet started toward Braiden. “And maybe later on someone can explain to me why sending a girl porno is supposed to be a turn-on.” She stopped at the door and put her fingertips to her temples. “Okay, let’s figure out what to do. We can’t succumb to our terror and shock, or we’ll die. We have to keep functioning.” She looked back at me. “We can’t get out. We’re officially trapped. So, back to the question on repeat—now what?”
I took a deep breath, fighting the memory of Carl in the solarium. Fighting the fear and shock. Fighting to stay alive.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“If it were just door slammers and rock throwers, I’d say we find a place and wait it out,” I said, willing my mind to clear. “The energy keeping this place alive is bound to run out sometime. Or stop with daylight. When that happens, we can get out—”
“Why are you suddenly the leader?” Buffy asked, her eyes narrowed.
“Jealousy really turns people ugly,” Scarlet muttered, her fingers on her temples again. “You know why, Buffy. But just so we’re all on the same page, and don’t have to answer this question eight more times, it’s because she’s the only one in this whole house that has been upfront about presences from beyond. She’s the only one who’s had serious experience with all this. Experience that she talks about. That she figures out. If anyone knows the best plan, it’s her.”
“But she—”
“Stop.” Scarlet held up her hand. “Just stop. You lose. You’re not the smartest, strongest, most knowledgeable, or the most needed one here. If you keep it up, we’ll tie you up and let the grinning knife thrower have at you.”
Braiden’s eyes widened and a cockeyed smile crossed his face. We went back to looking out the doorway. Dirk drifted to the other side of the room. No one was arguing with Scarlet.
Buffy scoffed and flung her hand up before stalking over to Emily and muttering quietly. That had to be my cue to keep talking.
I met Braiden at the door, looking out at the darkened house. “With the knife thrower around, and the other mobile spirits we haven’t met yet, we’ll want to keep moving. They don’t seem to have a sense of urgency. For now, that’s our greatest asset.”
“What about hiding?” Odis asked, his voice strained.
“I don’t trust that we’d find a place the inhabitants of this house wouldn’t already know about.” I shook my head. “I say we stick to the more open places. The large rooms—”
“As long as they’re dark,” Braiden cut in. “When the lights come on, it seems like the spirits go active. When they’re off, only a few roam around. So let’s stick to the dark.”
“Good call.” I glanced at the flashlight dangling from his hand. “I’d say to keep the flashlights off whenever possible. If we look at light, our eyes will get used to it. It’ll be harder for us to catch anything moving in the darkness.”
“If there’s no light, it’ll be just as hard to see anything moving in the darkness,” Dirk said.
I chewed on my lip. He had a point. And judging by the silence that descended, everyone else thought so, too.
“Maybe flashlights when it’s too dark to see,” Scarlet said, “And no flashlights when we have natural light.”
Braiden and I nodded at the same time. I looked at the others. Buffy turned away and Emily followed. Dirk shrugged, and Odis sagged against the wall, clutching his arm.
“You okay, Odis?” I asked. It occurred to me that he’d been strangely quiet for the past several minutes.
He looked at his upper arm. “I’m not sure.” Everyone in the room turned to him. He shrugged. “I think it’s just a scratch. It didn’t stick or anything.”
“What didn’t stick?” Braiden moved in Odis’s direction, and I stepped out of the way to let him pass.
He pointed back at the door. “Watch.”
Scarlet took his post.
“I didn’t get out of the way in time. But I think it’s okay.” Odis took a shaking hand away from his arm. His palm glistened.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Braiden ripped Odis’s shirt away before clicking on his flashlight to inspect the arm.
“I…I don’t know. It just…d-didn’t seem like a b-big deal?”
“He was probably afraid to admit something was wrong,” I murmured.
“Did he get stabbed?” Scarlet asked.
“It looks deep, but…” Braiden shook his head. “Does anyone know first aid?”
Scarlet pointed at me as Emily raised her hand slowly.
I slapped Scarlet’s hand away. “Wounds turn my stomach, Scarlet.”
“Kind of,” Emily said. “My dad is a doctor. I know a little.”
“If it weren’t for Emily, you would’ve been our only hope,” Scarlet told me
“Not even remotely,” I replied. “You know more than me. You took a sports fitness class, for heaven’s sakes.”
“You really haven’t picked up anything from your mother?”
I gawked at her as Emily crossed the room. “She works in emergency. I’m not about to go to take your daughter to work day in a place where people are all split open. Think it through.”
“Where do you think she works, in a horror film?”
“He needs to put pressure on it.” Emily bent to inspect the wound. “It’s not that deep, but there’s risk of infection if something gets in it. We should wrap it.”
Everyone exchanged looks. “Think they have first-aid supplies in this house?” I asked lamely.
“Sure,” Dirk said, and I knew I wouldn’t like his response. “Which would you prefer? The ones covered in decades’ worth of dust hidden in a bathroom somewhere in this giant house, or the kits that came alive with the murderers? The latter should be easier to find.”
“It’s fine,” Odis said in a shaky voice. “It’s okay. I’ll just hold it.”
“Use his sleeve,” Dirk said.
“It’s got blood all over it.” Emily fingered the material. “And it’s dirty. No, I wouldn’t advise that. We need something clean to put on it.”
“Here.” Braiden shrugged out of his light sweatshirt, then the polo shirt underneath. He then stripped off the white tank top he wore beneath, revealing a defined torso. “We can use this. Rip it up. We’ll keep what he doesn’t need…just in case.”
Emily slowly took the shirt, her eyes glued to his exposed six-pack.
“What about cleaning it?” Braiden asked. “Emily?”
She startled out of her trance. “Oh. What?”
“Shouldn’t we clean it?”
“Y-yes. Yes, of course. Wait, what am I saying? How are we going to clean it?”
For the second time, everyone looked around.
“We can see if there’s running water,” I offered. “Does the state turn that off when someone moves out?”
“Do you know anything?” Dirk asked.
“About running water in a state-owned home” I replied. “No, I sure don’t.”
“Simmer down, lovebirds.” Buffy grinned at Dirk.
“Ella, take watch.” Scarlet motioned out the door. “There’s a bathroom just through there. I can check really quickly—”
“Well, let’s…” Braiden took back his shirt when it was clear Emily wouldn’t be able to rip it. His biceps bulged with the effort. “Let’s get it wrapped to stop the bleeding, right, Emily?”
“Huh?” she responded.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Dirk walked to the doorway at the far end of the room, the second of two. It belatedly occurred to me that someone should’ve been watching that one all along.
“Should we wrap the—” Braiden said.
“Right, yes.” Emily took the first strip of fabric. “Wrap it, yes. Then find running water. Together. We shouldn’t split up.”
“Even if there is running water, can we trust it?” I asked, seeing a flicker of movement within the darkness beyond the door. I pushed up next to Scarlet and dropped my voice to a whisper. “It would’
ve been sitting in the pipes for how long?”
“We can just let it run for a while. It’s not our water bill.”
A shape streaked through the end of the hall, moving from one door to another. “Did you see that?”
“What?”
I jumped at Braiden’s voice behind me, not having heard his approach. He pushed his arm through his polo shirt before putting his head through.
“I saw something,” Dirk said in a hush from the other side of the room.
“I thought I did, too. But in the opposite direction as you.” I pointed out the area to Scarlet, but she didn’t seem to notice. She looked straight ahead. “Do you see something?”
“No.” She glanced the way I’d gestured, but her eyes flitted away. “I don’t want to fixate on anything. That’s the way you miss an attack coming from somewhere else.”
“Smart,” Braiden said, putting on his sweatshirt. He was standing so close that I could feel his heat coating my back.
“I have to focus,” I muttered, trying to shake off the effects of his presence.
“Something…” Dirk’s voice trailed away as he gripped the edge of the doorframe and leaned out. “Do you see anything else?”
I squinted into the darkness. The hallway stayed clear. The silence seemed to bear down on us.
“Look at the door outlines.” Even though he was speaking in a low voice, at a distance, I could hear Dirk with crystal clarity. “Look for disturbances in the lines.”
I did as he said, following one straight line after the other, framing the doors with my gaze. At last, I shook my head, ready to tell him that I hadn’t seen anything, when the edge of the door across from us bulged.
“I have something,” I whispered.
Scarlet sucked in a breath. “I do too. Straight ahead. Is that…?” She leaned forward as I did, trying to make out the shape in the darkness. It looked like the wood had bubbled, though not in a perfect circle.
Looking harder, straining, I noticed fuzziness on the top. Like…hair.
“That’s an eye. One eye. It’s a person.” Scarlet pushed back, bumping into me. “That’s a person. A kid.”
“Yeah.” Dirk clutched his flashlight like a weapon. “Mine looks a little older than a kid. Not…real, though. It’s looking right at me.”