“What about ending the duplication of houses? Will it do that?” Winn asked.
“No, handsome, it won’t,” Kari answered, the lilt in her accent increasing. “It just collapses them all, it doesn’t stop new duplicates. So it’s important that you don’t leave the house after the collapse, don’t walk through any outer doors, because the first duplicate house you see will be one that traps you and makes a new duplicate.” She smiled at Winn. “I was wondering if you talked! What a deep, masculine voice you have! You got me all warm inside!”
I can only imagine what Deem’s thinking, Winn thought.
“Any idea on what we can do?” Deem asked, her voice monotone.
“If the man who went in before was planning to collapse it with elemental fire and used a Haas Box to take something inside, I’m pretty sure he took in matura, which is easy enough to make. It’s completely inert in the River unless you take it in with a Haas Box.”
“What is matura?” David asked.
“It’s chopped up male pine cones mixed with a trace of gunpowder,” Carma offered.
“Correct!” Kari responded. “Once mixed, it has to age for a month, so your best bet is to go for the matura already inside the house and hope it’s still there. Find the body with the Haas Box, figure out how far they’d made it through the process, and complete it.”
“I’m operating off a process described by a hundred-year-old ghost,” Deem said. “Just so we don’t screw this up, can you repeat what the steps are, exactly?”
“Pour matura on the ground in one of the four corners of the house,” Kari said. “It doesn’t take a lot, just a teeny pile of it. Burn it with elemental fire. Then repeat in the other three corners. Doesn’t matter if you do it on the ground floor, the basement, or the attic. Once you burn the fourth corner, the duplicates will collapse.” Now a stick of celery went to her mouth, and she bit it off.
“And if we discover that Jacob had already started the process?” Winn asked. “Do we start from scratch, or just complete what he’s already done?”
“Ooo, I just love your voice!” Kari replied, smiling. “Just complete it, if you can decipher what was already done. Doesn’t matter that it’s been hundreds of years, as long as a corner was treated, it’ll work.”
“And it doesn’t matter that we’re doing it in one of the duplicates?” Deem asked. “It doesn’t have to be done in the original, or anything like that?”
“Nope!” Kari answered. “Any copy will do!”
“Then we come to the part that has us really thrown,” Deem said. “Killing the Creepsis once the houses have all collapsed.”
“Oh, it might be worse than that,” Kari said, her eyes distracted, as though she was looking at something else on her screen. “Depending on what kind of soulspider it is, once it kills and ingests a body, it’s able to control the remains. However many people were trapped in those duplicates will all be concentrated in one single house, and it’ll have control over all of them.”
“Like, reanimation?” David said. “Whoa!”
“I know! There was this mansion in Alabama I did, only thing that saved me was how big it was. Hundreds of corpses, all come to life and ready to hold me down so the soulspider could sting me. Completely crazy. Oh, hold on just a second, would you?”
Kari picked up a phone and slid off the headphones she was using. “No,” they could hear her speaking, through the still active microphone. “No. Tell her to send it to me again, I don’t have it...no, I won’t release it until I have a copy…no! No, that’s not how it works. I can’t send the routing form without the 24B, or they’ll just send it right back. No…no! There’s no other way!” She hung up. “Some people!” she said, rolling her eyes as she slipped the headphones back on her head. “Sorry about that. Where were we?”
“How do we defeat the Creepsis? How did you kill your creature in the house in Alabama?”
“I didn’t!” Kari replied. “Once I collapsed the place, I rolled right out of the River, and the place sat there for two months, super-haunted, until this guy from Alaska showed up with blue nightmare to finish things.”
Winn felt Carma straighten next to him as Kari finished her sentence. He turned to look at her. She was making a concerted effort to turn her face from him, and not let him see her reaction.
“Blue nightmare is the best way to clean it out,” Kari continued. “There are other ways, but I’ve found it works the easiest. It’s hard to come by, though, and you need someone who knows how to use it, someone who’s been trained on it.”
“That’s why you used a guy from Alaska?” Deem asked.
“Yes, and we had him scheduled for six months in advance!” Kari slipped another piece of celery into her mouth and crunched on it.
“Can we use him? The Alaska guy?” Deem asked.
“No, he retired a few years ago,” Kari replied. “I’ll reply to your email and give you the contact info for a couple of other people I know. But I’m telling you, they won’t be available to help for months. They’re always booked solid.”
“Fuck,” Winn muttered under his breath. He noticed Carma raising a hand to her mouth, then she slowly began to move, stepping away from him with tiny strides, gradually moving back into the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Deem said to Kari. “If you’d send it anyway, I’d appreciate it. Anything else you’d suggest?”
“Well, we don’t have the radiation complication out here, so I’m not sure what more to offer you that would be useful in your situation. I know that drinking protection before you go in can help keep the soulspider from detecting you. Of course that will only last a while; the other thing is just to hide really well. It has to search through all those houses, so hiding and remaining quiet can keep you alive for longer. Odds are it will eventually find you, though. That’s about all I can think of.” Kari’s eyes darted to another part of the screen. “Shoot. Sorry guys, I really have to go.”
“Thanks again, Kari,” Deem said, reaching for the laptop. “We appreciate it.”
“Good luck!” Kari said, waving. Then the screen went blank.
Deem turned to look at David. “We need to get you back to bed. You look awful.”
Winn rotated to see where Carma had gone. She’d disappeared into the kitchen.
“Where’d Carma go?” Deem asked. “I could see her backing out of the frame there at the end.”
“She got all squirrely when Kari mentioned the Alaska guy,” Winn said. “Then she started to back out of the room quietly, like we wouldn’t notice.”
“Something’s up,” Deem replied. “She knows something she doesn’t want to tell us.”
“I’ll take David upstairs if you want to hunt her down,” Winn said.
“Alright,” Deem replied, rising from the table. She put a hand on David’s shoulder. “Hang in there. We’re making some headway.”
“I’ll try,” David said, pushing himself up from the table and offering a weak smile. Winn wrapped David’s arm around his shoulder and helped lift him through the dining room and back upstairs.
After he put David back to bed, Winn returned to the large sitting room at the back of the house where he could hear Deem and Carma talking.
“I don’t know what you mean!” Carma was saying as he entered the room. Her chin was held high in a defiant stance.
“Winn said you got all weird when Kari mentioned the guy from Alaska,” Deem said. “Didn’t you, Winn?”
“Come on, Carma,” Winn said. “You straightened up like a board and started to sneak out of the room. We love you to death, but you’re a terrible liar. Tell us.”
“You know this guy?” Deem asked.
“No, I don’t,” Carma said, beginning to pace and wring her hands. “I don’t know him at all.”
“Carma,” Winn repeated. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!” she said, stopping to turn to Winn. “I should know whom I know and whom I don’t!” Then she resumed her pacing and wringi
ng.
“Was it something else Kari said?” Deem asked.
Carma hesitated, waited to take the next step. Then she continued.
“Ah, so it was something else,” Deem said.
“No!” Carma said, now shaking her head as she paced. “No, it wasn’t! Stop questioning me!”
“David’s really sick upstairs, Carma,” Winn said. “If you know something that could help…”
“I know he’s sick!” Carma replied. “Don’t you think I know that?!”
Winn turned to look at Deem. Deem had her determined look going.
“Why’d you back out of the room?” Deem asked Carma.
“I did no such thing!” Carma replied.
“We could see you do it on the display,” Deem said. “I thought you had to go to the bathroom or something.”
“Yes, I had to go to the bathroom,” Carma said, stopping her pacing and looking at Deem. She smiled, a forced, crinkly smile that was half convincing except for her eyes darting right and left. “When one has to go, you have to go. I felt it best to just slip away without making some big announcement.”
“Alright,” Winn said. “If you say so. I just hope we can figure out something to help David in time. Maybe one of the names she sends us can help, if we explain that it’s an emergency.”
“Carma…” Deem started.
“Bathroom!” Carma said, cutting her off.
“Do you know what this ‘blue nightmare’ is that Kari mentioned?” Deem asked.
Carma’s body once again stiffened, and they watched as Carma recognized she’d been caught. Carma turned around, her back to them.
“Carma?” Deem asked again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Carma said, facing away from them.
“It’s obvious you do,” Winn said.
Carma whipped back around, her mouth open as though she was going to speak. Then she closed it, as though she was catching herself. Then she opened it again, and closed it. After several false starts she threw up her hands in the air.
“Talk to Lyman!” she said, and stormed out of the room.
Winn looked at Deem, and Deem turned to look back.
“It’s some secret Lyman thing, like the cannery,” Winn said.
“Poor thing,” Deem said, pulling her phone from her pocket. “Lyman swears her to secrecy on these things, but she’s so bad at hiding it. It must frustrate her.”
“So, Lyman — you checking the moon?”
“Yup. Looks like 11:15 tonight.”
“What can we do in the meantime?” Winn asked.
“We keep an eye on David, and hope he can hang on,” Deem replied. “I had a date planned with Warren for a late lunch after he gets off his shift, but I don’t know if I want to keep it or not.”
“Why not?”
“Something he said the last time I saw him. About Dayton.”
“Dayton? What did he say?”
“He said he saw Dayton the other day, and he didn’t understand why I thought he was such a bad guy.”
“That surprises me,” Winn said. “That must have pissed you off.”
“Enough that I ended the date and left him sputtering.”
“Trouble in paradise,” Winn said, sitting down. “Maybe you should keep the date today and work it out with him.”
“How do I do that? He already knows what I think of the guy. I don’t know why he’d come down on Dayton’s side of things.”
“Have you told him about Claude? All of that?”
“Not in detail.”
“Maybe you should. He might think the whole episode with David’s parents was too removed from Dayton for him to be personally involved. You know how these Mormons are. They can rationalize anything.”
Deem paused. “I shouldn’t have to prove myself like this. He isn’t active, anyway. He should be on my side.”
Winn stood up. “You go keep your date, if you want to. I’ll stay here, keep an eye on David.”
Deem groaned. “I’ll think it over with a Big Gulp.” She walked around Winn and out the front door of the house. He heard her truck start up.
He turned to walk out of the room, intending to go upstairs. Carma caught him in the hallway.
“Winn, come here a moment, will you?”
“I’m sorry about all that badgering, Carma,” Winn said, following her.
“Never mind that,” Carma said. “There’s something I need you to do for me. This morning.”
“I told Deem I’d keep an eye on David.”
“I’ll look after David. This is important. Deem’s welfare may be at stake.”
Winn followed Carma into her small office off the kitchen, where she began to explain.
Chapter Fourteen
Deem walked in the door just before 11, with moments to spare before their planned excursion down to Lyman.
“All day?” Winn asked, as Deem wandered to the drawing room and fell into her favorite chair. “Cutting it a little close.”
“It went from one thing to another,” Deem said, smiling. “It was a wonderful day. We talked so long at lunch it was dinnertime before we knew it, then he took me out to an overlook and we talked more.” Winn could tell she was floating on a cloud.
“Sounds like you repaired things,” Winn said.
“Yeah, I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding,” Deem replied. “We worked it out. He’s really a great guy.”
Winn sat down. “Well, things here aren’t so great. David is unresponsive. I think we should take him to a hospital.”
Deem sat up in her chair, her post-date euphoria evaporating. “Unresponsive? What do you mean?”
“I mean, he’s unconscious. We can’t wake him.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“It happened a few minutes ago. I thought you’d be back any second for our trip down to Lyman.”
Deem stood and walked upstairs. Winn followed her. Carma was seated on a chair next to David, by his bed.
“Oh, no!” Deem cried. “David?”
“He’s out,” Carma said. “Comatose. I’m afraid he’s been taken.”
“Fuck!” Deem spat into the air, angry that their plan was forcing them to wait rather than act. “What can we do?”
“He needs an IV,” Winn said. “I don’t want to take him to a hospital, but I think we have to.”
“And I think you should wait until after you speak with Lyman,” Carma said. “Then decide.”
Winn looked at his watch. “Five minutes. Come on, Deem. We need to get down there. I don’t want to miss him.”
“You won’t miss him,” Carma replied. “You can find him for a good half hour just after the zenith.”
Winn watched as Deem reached down to take David’s hand. “He’s warm,” Deem said, feeling for his pulse. “Heartbeat is good and strong.”
“For as long as he can hide,” Carma said wistfully.
“Come on, Deem,” Winn said. “Let’s go.”
Deem set David’s hand down and followed Winn as he led her through the house, downstairs to the large, finished family room, and through the closet in the back to the doors that opened into the cave entrance. He flicked on a switch, and the string of overhead lights clicked on, dimly illuminating the path deeper into the hill behind the house.
Once they reached the chamber with the table, Winn checked his watch again. “It’s time,” he said.
“Lyman!” Deem called. Then they entered the River.
Lyman! Deem called again. We need to talk to you!
Lyman’s ghostly image solidified. He was standing in the back of the cave, near a smaller tunnel that continued deeper into the hill.
We are in a crisis, Lyman said, standing perfectly still.
We are, Deem replied, moving toward him. Winn followed her.
We met with Cloward, as you suggested. And you were right, the house in Paragonah is like a spider web; it’s a trap, and now it has David. We think we may have found a way to solve
things, but we’re missing a key piece.
What is that? Lyman asked.
Someone who can take out the spider once we collapse the houses, Deem replied. We’ve talked with an expert who’s had experience with these kinds of places, and she told us we have to kill the spider to save David. But we don’t have the tools or skills to do that.
And you think I do? Lyman asked.
The expert mentioned blue nightmare, Deem replied.
Winn watched Lyman carefully while Deem explained the situation. Whereas you could read Carma’s reaction almost instantly, Lyman gave no indication that anything Deem said registered with him in any way. He’s far more collected, Winn thought.
Your plan is to collapse the houses and then kill the creature? Lyman asked. Kind of like destroying the spider web, and cornering the spider in one place? Evil is more dangerous when it’s cornered.
We don’t have any other options, and we’re running out of time. Please, Lyman, if you can help us, we really need it now.
Lyman lowered his head. This isn’t something I’d normally do, he said, then raised his head back up to look at Deem. I’m risking a lot to help you with this, but I’ll do it.
Oh, thank you! Deem replied, the relief evident in her voice. Thank you so much, Lyman.
Now, Deem, go back upstairs, Lyman said.
Um, upstairs? she replied, hesitantly.
Yes, Lyman said.
Winn watched as she turned to leave. He began to follow her.
Not you, Winn, Lyman said. You stay.
He stays, I leave? Deem asked, turning back to face Lyman.
Yes.
She paused. Why him?
Go back upstairs, Deem, Lyman said patiently.
Are you going to show him something? she asked. If you do, I want to see it, too.
Deem, I said I would help you, Lyman continued, his voice kind and measured. This will be done my way.
And I have to leave?
Yes.
While he gets to stay? Deem said, pointing at Winn.
Yes.
Winn saw Deem look at him. She had a mixture of anger and frustration on her face. She does not like this, Winn thought. Nothing makes her angrier than being excluded from things. I could reassure her that whatever Lyman has planned, I’ve got it handled, but I know that would just piss her off even more.
The Blackham Mansion Haunting (The Downwinders Book 4) Page 15