by J. E. Taylor
“Should you be driving for this?” I asked.
“No. Concentrating on driving as well as thinking about multiple things will help. Thoughts are normally linear. That’s why they flood our heads if we aren’t concentrating on something or someone. I’m sure you’ve experienced the magnitude of noise assaulting your brain if you don’t focus.”
My mind drifted to the subway and the sheer volume of voices I’d heard in my head. Concentrating on Kylee had saved my sanity.
“Exactly. And I know you’ve heard nothing from me unless I’ve let my guard down, or I’ve been too overwhelmed with something to consciously create static.”
I nodded. “Alex could do that, too, and it frustrated me not knowing what was on his mind.”
“He’s very good at blocking me. He’s probably the only one who I can’t break through his barrier when it’s up even if I wanted to. But then again, he is my son.”
I sighed and scanned the traffic ahead of us. That hollowness inside me grew, and my stomach fluttered with angst. “How are we going to save him?”
“We have six hours to think about that before we get to Willard Asylum. In the meantime, you need to learn to cloak your thoughts.”
“Think of multiple things at once?” I asked and he nodded. I wasn’t sure that was possible, but I concentrated on driving as well as tossing around how to save Alex and lamented on what he would be like if we did free him from Lucifer.
I glanced at CJ, and his lips formed the perfect scowl as he shook his head. “It’s still linear.”
“How do you think of more than one thing at a time? It’s impossible!” My exasperation filled the small space in the car.
CJ drummed his fingers on the dashboard. “I don’t know how to explain it beyond thinking about more than one thing at a time. I think it’s just so ingrained in us that it’s second nature.” He wiped his face. “Steve used to say to treat your mind like a three-dimensional cube, and each side has its own thought track all working at the same time but focused on different things. It’s more like solving complex puzzles at the same time as having an in-depth political conversation where your focus is split between the two equally.” He sighed and shrugged.
“So, if I constantly did mathematical problems, would that work?”
“Maybe. But you have to be thinking of other things at the same time as the math problem. Take the next exit,” he said and pointed.
I changed lanes and took the exit without hitting anyone. The engine started sputtering as I slowed on the curve. I quickly shifted down, and it smoothed out. At least I didn’t stall on the exit ramp. Heat filled my cheeks, and I focused on shifting through the gears as I quickly caught up with the flow of traffic.
“I was going to give this car to Alex when he graduated,” CJ said as he studied the scenery passing by.
A lump formed in my throat, and I couldn’t swallow it. Tears blinded me, and I blinked them away. “He would have loved it.” I choked on the words.
He just nodded, never looking away from the scenery.
The quiet of his mind left me to my own morbid thoughts I knew he was privy to, but I couldn’t block them now that CJ had said his name.
I prayed we would be able to save Alex, even though deep down, I knew it was only a futile, desperate wish.
Chapter 5
The sign for a rest area in a mile caught my attention. I needed a break, and the gas tank was nearly empty. CJ hadn’t said anything for a while. The only thing he did was send a text to Valerie to see how the kids were.
When I pulled off, he glanced at me.
“We need gas.” I pulled up to the gas tanks and put the car in neutral, set the brake, then turned the car off and handed him the keys.
“First gear,” he said and pointed at the gears. “Always put it in first gear after you turn it off when you are on a flat surface or going uphill, so it doesn’t roll away.”
I did as he asked and then headed inside to use a restroom. The scent of breakfast meats and home fries from the adjoining fast food restaurant made my mouth water, but I went the opposite direction to the bathrooms.
When I came out of the restroom, CJ was leaning on the wall waiting for me.
“I’m hungry. I figured you might need some fuel too.” He nodded toward the food court and herded me into the line for exactly what got my stomach growling. Instead of taking our meals to the car, he took me to a seat near the window in a quiet section of the restaurant.
We ate in silence, and when he finished, he leaned back in the seat. “If Lucifer still has his soul in that necklace, we may have a chance.”
I sipped my smoothie because I wasn’t ready to discuss this yet. Every scenario I tried to work out in my mind ended with Alex dead. I couldn’t see my way around this puzzle. Besides, if I started talking about it after eating two egg-and-cheese sandwiches and a mountain of home fries, my stomach would turn into a burning mess of anxiety.
“Fine,” he mumbled under his breath and collected the garbage. He left me at the table and threw the load of crumpled paper into the receptacle. When he returned, he stayed standing. “Before we leave this parking lot, you need to see if the boots I grabbed of Valerie’s fit you.”
I blinked up at him. “Why didn’t you just grab mine?”
“Because yours don’t have built-in sheaths for a particularly sharp knife that could erase you from existence if you cut yourself by accident.” He crossed his arms.
I had forgotten about the knife, and the reminder of it was just as unwelcomed as discussing ways to save Alex. I nodded and focused on the creamy coolness of my smoothie, ignoring his impatient stare.
When my drink was gone and I sucked air through the straw, I stood, dropped my empty cup in the garbage, and followed him out to the car. He reached into the back and handed me the boots.
I peeled off my sneakers and slid on Valerie’s boots. They weren’t an exact fit, but it was close enough, especially since the leather gripped my leg and the knife holders pressed into the side of my calf were snug enough to make the looseness in the fit around my foot moot.
The second boot fit just as well, and the blue handle peeked out from under the holder. When I zipped it up, the knife disappeared. It was a neat trick.
“Thanks,” I said.
Relief flooded through me. The boots were nice, and they went with my jeans, but they would be killer with my leather outfit.
I stretched out and closed my eyes. “What did you mean if they still have his soul locked in the necklace we have a chance?”
“I was thinking maybe if we set his soul free, he could bounce Lucifer out of his body.”
“Wouldn’t that leave all of us vulnerable to being possessed?” I opened one eye and glanced at CJ.
“With a soul, you have to agree to let him in.”
“So, he would possess one of the bodies, assuming they are still there?”
“That would be my logical conclusion. And that would make it easier for us to get close and end the bastard.” The cruel smile that formed on his lips seemed foreign on his normally kind face.
“And what if it doesn’t work? What if he can’t bounce Lucifer out?”
The look CJ gave me said it all. If he couldn’t bounce Lucifer out, he was as good as dead.
“Then we have to take him out,” he said in a very soft whisper, like saying the words too loud meant they would come true.
I wasn’t ready for this, so instead of bouncing around ideas, I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes, attempting to rest my mind and loosen the knots that had formed throughout my back.
WILLARD ASYLUM WAS probably the creepiest place I had ever seen, and the nearby prison just exacerbated the issue. My skin prickled with anticipation. This was the kind of place I could see Lucifer holed up in.
CJ and I exchanged a glance over the roof of the car, and I came around front to meet him. With the prison next door and the chain-link fence surrounding the asylum, I wasn’t sure how we were go
ing to breach the barriers without being detected.
“It looks like there is an opening over there,” CJ said and pointed towards a break in the fence that I hadn’t seen on my first pass.
He led the way, and when we stepped inside, the dust and decay eating away at the building churned my stomach.
When we crossed into the hallway, CJ pulled one of those big Maglite flashlights from the inside pocket of his coat like a magician. He pointed it down the darkened hall and switched it on.
The floor had caved in down the center. There was no way I was going to try to teeter along the edge to get to the other side. My teeth ached at the thought of it, and I realized I was clamping my jaw too tight.
I licked my lips as CJ handed me the flashlight and played on his phone for a minute. I glanced over his shoulder at the blueprints displayed on the monitor. He swiped the screen slowly, studying the layout.
“There’s another door farther down that we can take, and there’s a stairwell that we can use to get to the next floor. Hopefully we can get to the other side,” he said softly.
He traced his way back to the door, and once outside, I actually took a deep breath of the fresh air and felt some of my anxiety abate. Warmth radiated from the midday sun, baking the chill right out of my bones. We hadn’t run into any traps and I didn’t have that tingling sensation announcing any demons in the area, but that’s not to say this next entrance would change all that.
The closer to the door we got, the more jumbled my thoughts became. I really wasn’t ready to see Lucifer in Alex’s form. My mouth went dry with apprehension.
CJ glanced over his shoulder at me with eyes that carried the same dread pulsing in my muscles. His jaw tensed as he reached for the door.
The second entry was even dingier than the fist. Even with the sky outside bright and cloudless, the light barely penetrated the building. The doors that stood open in the hall layered bright swaths of sunlight across the path. These bright beacons of light interrupted the dullness of the rest of the hallway. It was a strange effect and one that made the penetration of the flashlight not as deep as if it had been shrouded in darkness.
We inched our way down the hall, testing the floor with each step before we put our weight down.
As we looked in each room, I scanned the windows and stopped CJ halfway down the passageway. “None of the windows are boarded up.”
CJ looked around again and huffed a laugh.
“This doesn’t fit Gabriel’s description.” I stepped gingerly into another room where the floorboards had seen better days. Every window was clear of wood. The panes were dirt-ridden, but the sun still shined brightly though the grime.
The floor groaned in a more alarming way than the other creaks we had heard along this path. I turned, meeting CJ’s gaze. Before I could leap to safety, the floorboards underneath me gave way, opening to a dark abyss behind me. My heart jumped into my throat. I reached my hand out as I started to plummet.
CJ’s fingertips just grazed mine and then I was freefalling towards spiked debris falling below me. Echoing bangs sounded just as loud as my wheezing breaths. I didn’t think I screamed, not with the rush of air whipping around me as gravity yanked me nearly three stories down.
“Stop,” CJ’s sharp command filled the air.
My fall stopped just as suddenly as it had started as if a rope had finally pulled taut around my waist.
I hung suspended in mid-air held by nothing but CJ’s willpower. I blinked up at the concentration written in the deep lines in his forehead as the strength of his powers pulled me back onto an intact spot by the door where he stood. He grabbed my arm and moved me to safety.
My temples pulsed with adrenaline as his concern turned to irritation. I inspected my arms to make sure I wasn’t bleeding anywhere, and all I found were a few scratches. I glanced back at the cascading hole I’d fallen into and shivered.
“You could have stopped yourself,” he said when I finished my examination, then he turned and stormed down the hall in the direction we had come.
I caught up with him, and movement at the far end grabbed my attention. I clutched CJ’s arm. He glanced in the same direction and then looked closer at me with a crease between his eyes.
“You don’t see them?” I pointed at the huddled group of people peering at us. They clung together as tightly as I gripped CJ. It took me a moment to realize they weren’t demons like I half expected to jump out at us at any moment. And they weren’t other haunted asylum adventurers like us.
They were ghosts.
Real ghosts. The kind that Tom used to exorcise from houses.
The only true ghost experience I had was when Tom Ryan died. I wouldn’t categorize the spirits I saw at Paradise Cove as ghosts because they were solid to touch. The things at the end of the hall weren’t solid. They were like wisps of smoke which somehow made me even more nervous.
CJ closed his eyes, and that crease of concentration appeared between his brows. After a moment, he glanced at me. “I can’t sense anything beyond fear from the ghosts, but keep an eye on them while we make sure...” He twirled his finger around.
I don’t think he wanted to say Lucifer’s name out loud, not with the group staring at us. Scratch that. Staring at me.
We inched down the hallway towards them. CJ turned me into a stairwell before we reached the surreal crew. The door creaked, and CJ climbed the steps, testing each one out as we climbed to the top floor.
We stood in one of the rooms that was as large as CJ’s family room. Even though the walls had peeling paint similar to the video, the state of the floor wouldn’t support multiple people, nor would the wall hold anything akin to a chain.
CJ shook his head.
I glanced around one last time before we went back down the stairs we had climbed. We probably only investigated half the building, but beyond the huddled ghosts, nothing else stirred.
“This place is a bust,” CJ said and headed for the exit.
Chapter 6
CJ took the driver’s seat again, and I was thankful. Just as thankful as I had been when he indicated the all clear of Willard Asylum.
He wiped his face and sighed as he stared at the building. “This isn’t it, even though it still doesn’t feel right.”
“I know what you mean.” The hair on my arms was still standing on end. “Maybe it was the ghosts?”
He shook his head and looked in the rearview mirror at the maximum-security wing of the prison within fifty yards of Willard Asylum. “Maybe it’s that place.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder.
That made more sense to me. After all, a prison was certainly a place where evil existed, despite the mantra of rehabilitation.
I glanced back at Willard. “This place is too much of a hazard. I mean, I’m surprised only one floor gave out.” I waved at the building as he started the car. “Thank you for saving me, by the way.”
He chuckled and pointed at me. “You really do need to master your powers. As far as the building, it would certainly deter anyone from entering the area, even Lucifer.”
“Should we do something with the ghosts?” I wrung my hands at the thought.
“They were just watching, not engaging. They seemed harmless.” He put the car in gear and started away from our first dilapidated asylum. We had five more to go before we regrouped and looked further.
I didn’t know whether to hope we found them or not. If we didn’t find them, it could mean they moved on, and it would be near impossible to find them.
“Do you think he’s sending us on a wild goose chase?”
He remained quiet until we pulled onto the highway heading south. “I’m not sure. I have the same unease that you do, but considering he’s preparing for us, I don’t think he’d just disappear off the grid. It’s not his style.”
I glanced out the window at the thick trees lining the highway and let the scenery lull me. My mind wouldn’t stop with the what-if scenarios either. My stomach growled loud enough to
capture CJ’s attention.
“There are snacks in the bag behind my seat,” he said.
I couldn’t envision CJ putting together a care package like that.
“April put it together for us, so I’m sure it’s all carbs and will leave us with a hell of a sugar crash. I just hope it doesn’t come at the wrong time.”
I reached over and pulled the bag free. One glance inside proved he was right. Snacks wasn’t the right term. It was more like a candy explosion. I pulled a bag of gummy bears out and offered it to him.
“I’m good.” He focused on the road with his forehead creased in concentration.
WHEN CJ FINALLY TURNED into Letchworth Village, we both gawked at the number of cars in the parking lot. Beyond it, the number of people walking the paths between the buildings wasn’t what we expected. Neither was the golf course bordering the village. It looked as if all the winter wallflowers had turned up for a nice walk between the actively used buildings and the boarded-up and crumbling monstrosities.
He parked, turned the engine off, and leaned back in the seat. “Lucifer isn’t here.” He sent a text to Valerie to let her know we had arrived at the second on his list, and that it was another bust.
I scanned the campus. “You don’t think he’d be in one of the remote buildings?” I knew it was a long shot especially with the number of people in the area, but I didn’t want to underestimate Lucifer.
He slowly shook his head. “I can’t sense a thing. Usually when I get near him, my chest feels like someone tightened a belt around it. My skin crawls with the evil in the air. And that isn’t what I sense here.”
“We should take a walk around just to be sure,” I said, even though I knew CJ was right.
I didn’t have any forewarning at Tom’s house when we’d pulled in and Lucifer stood from the side steps. All I knew was my heart had suddenly lurched, sending a shot of adrenaline through every muscle. The portals were different. What CJ had described was exactly what I felt like when I approached one of the breaches.