by N. M. Howell
“Shit,” I whispered. “Something is over there.”
I stepped back towards the door and gave it a push, but it wouldn’t budge.
I then turned back towards the door and gave the handle a squeeze and shoved the door with my shoulder, but still it wouldn’t open.
“Bailey,” I whispered in panic. “I think we’re locked in.”
Bailey tried the door herself. “What? Why would it lock from the inside?”
We gave each other nervous looks and turned our attention back towards the indoor space. Something was going on, and I suddenly really didn’t care to hang around and find out.
My heart began to beat faster as I heard a floorboard creak from the far side of the room.
“H.. Hello?” I called out in a loud whisper. “Who’s there?”
Suddenly a bright light was on me, and a man stepped out of the shadows before us. “Put your hands where I can see them!” he shouted.
Bailey and I obliged, but when I saw who it was through the light in my face, I lowered my hands back down.
“Oh, man,” I said. “Seriously? Did you really have to scare us like that?”
Sheriff Reese had his gun out, and Jordan’s friend Brett was holding up a flashlight.
“Oh, it’s you, River,” the sheriff said. “What the hell are you two doing here? I told you both to stay at home.”
Jordan and the other officers walked into the light as well, and Jordan did not look impressed.
I motioned towards him and raised my eyebrows at the sheriff. “You told him to stay home, too, but you don’t seem too concerned about his being here.”
Sheriff Reese put his gun back in its holster and crossed his arms. “Jordan O’Riley is an ex-cop. He knows how to handle himself.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, and is it not ex-cops who were the targets of the kidnappings, and possible murders?”
“Ex-cops, yes,” Sheriff Reese repeated, “and their partners.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
I shrugged. “Well, it really doesn’t seem like there’s anything going on here, anyway. Maybe we got the whole thing wrong?”
Sheriff Reese shrugged. “Could be, but we can’t be too sure. The boys and I are going to hang around until the event is supposed to start, at least, to see if anyone shows up. Chances are, this whole thing was a ruse.”
“That doesn’t answer the question about why all those people went missing,” Jordan commented.
“Or about why two ghosts appeared in my bedroom yesterday morning to tell me I was going to die,” I added.
No, I had a feeling it definitely wasn’t a ruse. “Maybe we just got the address wrong.”
Bailey nodded. “I hope so. Can we leave? This place gives me the creeps.”
“Me, too. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I know I don’t want to be here anymore.” I held my hand up to shade my eyes from the light Brett was still shining in my face, blinding me. “Can you guys feel it?”
They all shook their heads.
“All I feel is cold and damp,” Brett said. “And blind. Let’s find the damn lights.”
“There was a breaker in the back that I noticed,” one of the officers commented. “I’ll go check it out.”
Brett followed with the flashlight, leaving Bailey and me in the dark with Jordan and Sheriff Reese. We glanced at each other and smirked, as his hair was still the shimmery white and silver that Mrs. Brody spelled on him. I wondered if he even knew? No one else must have said anything.
I couldn’t see much through the darkness, but I could sense the anger and tension both men were carrying. Sheriff Reese took in a breath, and I had a feeling he was about to lecture us about coming here.
Before he had a chance to say anything, though, I managed to get a word in.
“Jordan, what made you change your mind and come?”
Jordan shrugged and scratched his chin. “Not sure. I just suddenly really needed to come check it out. I couldn’t miss it - not if I could come help in some way. Besides, I didn’t want to miss the event.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I thought you said you didn’t want to go to the event after all?”
“A man can change his mind.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, glancing sidelong at Bailing beside me. “Hand over the invitation.”
Jordan shook his head. “No. Why?”
“Just pass it to me.”
“No, it’s tucked away in my pocket.”
I turned toward Bailey, who had a look of extreme concern on her eyes. “Dude, you’re bewitched.”
“Hand me the invitation,” I repeated.
“No.”
I groaned. He was being exceptionally stubborn, and I really didn’t have time to be playing games at that moment. I didn’t care if he was bewitched, he was still being exceedingly irritating.
I lunged forward and grabbed his belt with one hand, and reached into his back pocket with another. He tried to push me off, but he was too slow.
“Got it!” I held the small torn piece of paper up to Bailey to inspect.
“Do you feel anything from it?” Bailey asked.
I shook my head. “No, am I supposed to?”
She took the invitation from me and turned it over in her hands. Sheriff Reese and Jordan were watching her curiously, but Jordan made no attempt to take the paper back. In fact, I noticed his body posture seemed to relax a bit after I took it from him. The spell must have had a serious affect on the guy.
Bailey considered the object in her hand a moment, holding it up close to her eyes to try and see better through the darkness.
“The invitation has your name on it, right?” she asked Jordan.
Jordan nodded. “Yeah.”
“Did it have River’s name as well?”
“No, just my name plus one.”
Bailey nodded. “I suspect you’re not feeling the spell because you’re already a magic user. Even though your name’s not on it, you are still technically his plus one. In any other situation, I would suspect the bewitchment would carry over to whoever the partner was.”
I sighed. “That’s so twisted. Who would spell an invitation?”
Sheriff Reese looked concerned. “Someone who really wanted the invitees to come to the event.”
Oh right, that.
The indoor lights turned on just then, and we all raised our hands to prevent our eyes from being blinded. It took a solid few moments before I could open my eyes again. The light burned red through my eyelids, and I squinted through brightness around me until my eyes adjusted.
Bailey and I then gasped at once, and I stepped back and pressed my back against the door.
“What’s going on?” Jordan asked, trying to follow our gaze into the middle of the room, but obviously not seeing what we saw.
I shook my head and repeated, “No, no, no…”
Bailey slid down onto her feet and buried her head in her hands and began to cry.
“What the hell is going on?” Brett asked as he joined the group.
My skin grew cold and clammy, and I wasn’t even sure my heart was beating in my chest. The scene in front of me was too much to be able to process all at once.
The men in the room continued to look around but grew angry when they couldn’t figure out what we were freaking out about.
“There’s dozens of them,” I finally whispered. My eyes were wide and dry, but I couldn’t bring myself to blink.
“All of them. They’re all dead.”
I stared into the middle of the room, and Jordan finally walked up to me and shook me by the shoulder.
“River,” he said as he looked into my eyes. My gaze blurred and I couldn’t even focus on him. “What’s going on? What do you see?”
I shook my head and tried to speak again, but my voice had dried up as well. I simply pointed into the middle of the room, which obviously didn’t help any.
There were ghosts. There were dozens of ghosts, lingering around the interior of the mill. The
y all just sort of stood there, motionless, looking around themselves with blank expressions.
That explained why Bailey and I had felt weird when we came inside. The place was full of the spirits of dead people. And as I looked around the room, I recognized their faces from the missing persons articles I had studied so thoroughly the past two days.
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?” Sheriff Reese demanded. “River, what’s going on?”
I took a steadying breath and placed my hand on Bailey’s shoulder for stability. She had stopped crying out loud, but I could feel her body shudder through silent sobs.
“Ghosts,” I finally whispered. “The ghosts of the missing people. All of them. They’re all here.”
The sheriff and Jordan started looking frantically around the room but turned back towards me when they still couldn’t see anything.
“Where?” Jordan asked.
I stared into the room. “Everywhere. So many of them.”
I was grateful that the sheriff didn’t question me. After the past few months, he had grown accustomed to the paranormal stuff. He didn’t believe any of it at first, but after the latest local murder, I figured he had begun to catch on. It was a testament to his intelligence, and I realized I never give the guy enough credit for what he does.
Brett and the other officers, on the other hand, looked amused, and their expressions suggested that we were all crazy.
“Are you drunk?” Brett finally asked me.
I sighed, but thankfully I didn’t have to explain myself.
Sheriff Reese turned towards his men and cleared his throat. His voice took on an air of authority, and his men looked to him attentively as he spoke.
“I don’t care what your belief systems are,” he began, “but today, you listen to everything these girls have to say. Understood? You are to believe everything that comes out of their mouths, and you are to listen to their advice.”
Both officers nodded and glanced towards me with strange expressions in their eyes. They both then nodded to me, and I attempted a small smile back.
“I’ll do my best not to spook you,” I managed to say.
Brett, on the other hand, was having none of it. “You guys are batshit crazy, you know that?”
Jordan grabbed his friends shoulder and turned him to look straight in his eyes.
“Look, man,” Jordan said. “I know you’re all iffy with the whole paranormal thing, but whether you believe it or not, it’s real. I’ve seen it first hand, and I have a feeling tonight you will, too. So just swallow your pride, and follow along. Okay?”
Brett looked as if he was going to hit Jordan for a moment, but then his expression softened, and he nodded his agreement. “Sure, man. Anything for you.”
I blew out a sigh and then took a few steps forward towards the middle of the room.
“So, what are we going to do about the ghosts?” I asked.
Sheriff Reese shrugged his shoulders. “That’s your area of expertise, River. I just need you to find out what happened to them, and why they’re all here.”
The chill I felt earlier had left, and I was now filled with a hot determination to solve this case. Something terrible had happened to these people, and it was up to me to figure it out.
I glanced down at Bailey, who was still on the ground in a fit, and I realized I might be on my own for this.
I motioned for Jordan to go help her, and he went to join Bailey on the floor and put his arm around her.
I then pushed up my sleeves and stepped into the middle of the room to join the spirits.
They regarded me curiously, but they all remained silent. Eerily silent. It wasn’t like spirits to just hover, and I suspected that whatever had happened here had scared them into silence.
I had a feeling it was going to be a very challenging day.
13
Sheriff Reese was providing me with questions to interrogate the spirits with, but it was useless. None of them would speak with me, and they all looked so frightened.
Bailey had finally gathered herself, and she came to join me in the middle of the room.
“Any progress?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, nothing. They must have been fairly traumatized for them all to be staying so silent.”
Bailey looked around the room then looked back at me and shrugged. “I don’t see any sign of bodies or a struggle. Do you think they were killed here?”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I do. Why else would they be hanging around?”
Bailey shivered. “I really don’t like it in here.”
“I bet they don’t, either.”
I tried approaching a different ghost to see if I would have any better luck. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t see us or anything. They all acknowledged me when I went up to them, but they all just seemed too scared to speak.
I spent what felt like a few hours trying different approaches to no avail. Sheriff Reese nearly gave up, and I wasn’t going to be too far behind him.
I spent my time analyzing the room. It was a large space, mainly just one open room, with an entry in the front and a small area behind a wall in the back. The spirits were all clustered together in the main space, and they seemed to be avoiding the doors and windows.
“Did you notice they’re all dressed in dresses and suits?” Bailey asked.
I looked through the crowd, back and forth between the spirits of the men and women around us. “Yeah, you’re right. They must have all gotten the same invitation as Jordan.”
Bailey frowned. “But for different nights?”
I shrugged. “Well, it’s not like the event was actually real. I suspect he was using it as a way to lure these people here. The only question is, why?”
Bailey shivered again and held her arms tight around her stomach. “It’s so sad. All these people. They all look so young. They thought they were coming to an event to celebrate. Not to die.”
I nodded as I began pacing the room, trying to read the faces of the spirits around me. “Yeah, it’s pretty sick.”
“Were Sarah and Peter dressed up?” Bailey asked.
“I actually can’t remember.” I continued to walk around, but my attempts at conversation were met with frightened stares and silence.
“Hello,” I finally said to about the twentieth spirit I approached. “We’re here to help you and figure out what happened here. Are you able to answer a few questions for me?”
The young woman stared back at me but kept her silence.
I sighed. “My name is River. What’s yours?”
The spirit’s eyes went wide at the mention of my name. That was at least some progress.
I waited patiently, hoping that she would say something. I breathed out a sigh of relief when she finally opened her mouth to speak.
“Jordan?” she whispered quietly to me.
I nodded and motioned back to the other side of the room. “Yes. He’s over there.”
Her eyes went even wider.
“Run,” she whispered again.
My heart began to beat a little faster in my chest.
“Why?” I asked. “What’s going on here? What happened to you all?”
The spirit simply looked back down to her feet and wandered away to join the rest of her group, sulking around looking defeated, devastated, and scared.
I rubbed my eyes and groaned. “We’re not getting anywhere.”
Bailey put her hand on my shoulder. “Well, at least we know that Sarah and Peter weren’t lying. If this spirit knows your name, then it at least confirms our suspicions.”
I nodded. “You’re right. At least there’s that.”
“It also means,” she began, “that we really need to get you and Jordan out of here.”
I shook my head. “Not until we get to the bottom of this.”
“River, we need to go,” Bailey insisted. She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away, but in her attempt to drag me through the room she tripped over a r
aised floorboard and fell onto the ground, spilling the contents of her purse everything.
I rolled my eyes. “And you call me clumsy.”
Brett walked over to her and began helping her pick up her things. The small bag Mrs. Brody had given her had fallen out and was lying on the floor a few feet away.
I eyed the bag as I began to sense something strange coming from it, but my attention was immediately turned back to Brett as he bent over and revealed something that was under his shirt.
“Gun!” I shouted as I ran backward. “He’s got a gun!”
I pointed frantically at Brett so Sheriff Reese and his men could see, but they just stood there staring at me.
“What the hell are you guys waiting for?” I screamed. “He has a gun! Why the hell does he have a gun?”
I knew there was something off with that guy since the moment I met him with Ryan Bramley around Halloween. Of course, it made sense that he had something to do with this. Ryan ended up being a murderer, after all. Why not him, too?
“Do something!” I was beginning to panic. “Bailey, run!”
Bailey had began crawling backward away from her, her eyes wide and her face pale.
But Jordan simply walked up to him in the middle of the room and crossed his arms as he gave me a strange look.
“River, he’s a cop,” Jordan said to me.
“He’s a what?”
“A cop. That’s how we know each other. We used to work together.”
I blinked and stared back and forth between the two men.
“What did you think?” Jordan asked. “Did you actually think he was here to hurt us?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It makes sense. We were meant to be lured here, to begin with. It was just as easy for him to bring you here on his own. We’re both here, aren’t we?”
Jordan shook his head. “River, he’s okay. He’s one of the good guys.”
I glowered. From his crappy attitude towards me when we first met, I severely doubted that. Not that I held a grudge, or anything.
When Jordan continued to look at me with an expression of mild anger and exasperation, I sighed and gave in. “Okay, fine. Sorry, Brett.”