The Ghost Road

by Charis Cotter

  We were trapped. I felt a wild urge to scream and get up and run, but there was no one to hear me and nowhere to go. Our world had shrunk to this small dark room in the center of a storm, and no one knew where we were. No one would be coming to get us.

  So maybe this is it, I thought. This is how the curse ends. Ruby and I die and that’s the end of the Finns.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  THE LONELIEST PLACE

  I stumbled back to Ruby and lay down beside her and put my arm around her. She was still breathing softly, as if she were asleep.

  I began to cry. I didn’t want to die there in the dark, with my father so far away. And Gwen. I even felt bad about Gwen. They would get the news on some Greek island and have to come back here for the funeral. And Dad would be so upset. And Gwen would be too, because she did care about me, I knew she did, even though I was so mean about her. I wished I could take it all back, wished I had never called her Awful Gwen. I just didn’t want her to take my father away from me. And now he was going to be away from me forever because I was going to die here with Ruby. I’d never get a chance to ask him about adopting me, and he’d never meet Ruby or Doll and Eldred…

  I cried for a long time, there in the dark, with the winds still moaning outside and the rain drumming against the rocks. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that lonely. My only comfort was that Ruby was with me, and I could feel her warm body beside mine, and her gentle breathing.

  Finally I wore myself out and couldn’t cry anymore. I think I even might have gone to sleep for a while, but something woke me up with a start.

  It was a sound. Just a small, shuffling kind of sound, from very close by. As if something was there in the root cellar with us. Something like…a rat? I sat up quickly, my heart in my throat.

  It came again. A scuffling sound. And then, unbelievably, a soft laugh.

  Rats don’t laugh.

  “Who’s there?” I said, my voice quavering.

  Silence.

  Then the sound again, only this time it was a kind of swishing, slowly growing louder, and then I recognized it.

  The whispering. It had started so softly, like a mouse in a wall, but now it was moving through the air like a swarm of little flies around my head, with a teasing and a buzzing. I even raised my hand to try to brush it away.

  The laugh came again, startling me. And then the roaring began again, filling my ears. I covered them and cowered over Ruby, trying to shield her if the roof started falling in again.

  I closed my eyes and wondered how much it would hurt when a stone fell on my head and killed me. The roaring was so loud that I felt like I was inside the sound, that I was the sound, that it would break me in two. Then I felt myself sliding down into a deeper darkness where there was nothing but me and the horrible sound.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  THE FRYING PAN

  Gradually the roaring changed. It diminished till it was just the sound of a man, bellowing with rage.

  I was in the dark little room with the fire in the hearth again, and the man whom I had last seen lying dead on the floor was standing upright, staggering from side to side and shouting at a woman as he struck her. Children were screaming somewhere close by, and the woman fell to her knees and held her hands up, trying to ward off the blows that came raining down on her head.

  Then the door burst open, and the young woman I’d seen before in this room came storming into the room, yelling, “Leave my sister alone, Robert! Stop it!”

  But he wouldn’t stop.

  The other woman picked up a cast-iron frying pan from the table and hit the man over the head with it. He swayed for a moment and then fell to the floor. The woman bent over her sister, helping her to her feet. She had blood all over her face and she looked stunned.

  “Eileen, Eileen, what’s he done to you this time?” said the woman. Someone was still screaming, and I realized it was two little girls, about two years old, huddled together on a daybed in the corner, terrified.

  The woman left her sister and went to the children. “There,” she said. “It’s all right now.” She brought one to Eileen and held the other herself. “There,” she said softly. “Don’t cry now, your mother’s fine.”

  “Eva,” gasped Eileen, “look to Robert. I think you’ve killed him.”

  The man lay motionless on the floor.

  “I hope I have,” said Eva. “He would have killed you sooner or later.”

  The man on the floor stirred and clutched at his head, moaning. Blood was pouring down his face. He opened his eyes and fixed them on the two women.

  “You’ve been the death of me, Eva Finn,” he said. “You and your sister.” Then he coughed and nearly choked.

  Eva handed the child to her sister and then poured some water into a cup from a jug and brought it over to him. She bent down to help him drink it but he pushed her away and the water spilled on the floor.

  “You’ve killed me,” he said in a raspy voice, and his black eyes stared out at her, filled with hate. “You’ve killed me and I curse you! I curse you, Eva Finn. I curse you and your sister both. I curse your children. I curse your unborn children. I curse the ground you walk on. Wherever you go, you’ll never get away from me. My curse will follow you. You may have killed me, but you’ll never live to see your children grow. You’ll die first. The two of you. On the same day, at the same time, you’ll fall down dead. And the same with your children. As long as there are twin girls in your family, they’ll die young on the same day at the same time. Their children’s children will die young. You’ll pay for murdering me. And your children will pay. And their children will pay. And you’ll pay till the end of time.” Somehow he struggled to his feet, blood pouring down his face, and took a step toward the two women. He lifted his arm and pointed it at them.

  “They’ll all die,” he said. He was trying to shout, but his voice was a hoarse croak, his face contorted with hate: “By fire. By water. By sudden death.”

  It was the voice I’d heard whispering over and over again. In the cemetery. On board the ship. In the fire. In the root cellar.

  “By fire!” he repeated, taking another step toward them. “By water!” and he took another step. “By sudden death!”

  And then he choked, rage filling his throat, and he put both his hands to his head and staggered backward, and fell. With one more horrible cough, the choking stopped and he lay still, his eyes staring up.

  I was stunned, his words echoing through my body like my own heartbeat. Like they were part of me, born with me, knit into my flesh and bones. The curse.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  POSSESSION

  “Holy Mary,” said Eileen in a shaky voice, crossing herself, her face white. “He’s dead, Eva.”

  “Yes. And I can’t say I’m even a little sorry.” Eva spat out the words, but she was as white as her sister and her hands were shaking.

  “But you heard him, Eva. He’s cursed us.”

  “Never mind that now. We have to get out of here. Michael is sailing to Newfoundland from Waterford tomorrow on the morning tide. We’ll go with him.”

  “But they’ll come after us,” said Eileen. “When they find Robert’s body.”

  “They won’t find it,” said Eva grimly. “Pack some things, quickly. Then we’ll burn the place down, and him with it.”

  The little girls had stopped screaming, but they clung to their mother, plainly terrified. Eileen brought them to the daybed and started digging through an old dresser, pulling out clothes. She was crying softly and muttering to herself. Eva was pouring the contents of a bottle of whisky over the floor.

  Then suddenly Eileen stopped what she was doing and her voice rose in a wail of despair.

  “I can’t do it,” she said. “You heard what he said, Eva! We’re cursed. And my babies are cursed. And their children are cursed. It’s going to haunt us down the years, as Robert said. It’s going to follow our children and their children and we’ll never be free of it. We’ll never be
free of him.”

  Eva strode over to her, seized her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. “Eileen Finn!” she said. “You listen to me. It’s all nonsense, curses and such. We mustn’t believe in it. We mustn’t give him any more power over us.”

  But Eileen just shook her head. “It’s done,” she said. “We’ve killed him and his blood is on our hands. He’s cursed us and it will never end.”

  Seeing their mother crying, the two little girls began screaming again. I closed my eyes, and the screaming stopped. When I opened them I was back in the dark root cellar, lying on the hard ground with Ruby beside me.

  She was still breathing softly.

  I felt suddenly tired, so tired that all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Or die. The damp air around us seemed to vibrate with the horror of what I’d just seen. Outside the wind had picked up again, and I could hear it wailing mournfully, as if it was crying for all the Finns down the years who had been cursed by the dying Robert Barrett.

  I sat up and felt around for the flashlight. I found it in the corner and turned it on. It still gave out a wavering yellow beam of light. I examined Ruby’s head. The bleeding had stopped and the blood had crusted over the wound on her forehead. She felt warm, but not hot.

  I gave her a gentle shake. She muttered something but didn’t wake up.

  “Oh, Ruby,” I whispered. “Come back.”

  But she slept on.

  I got up and looked around at the damage again. Most of the ceiling was intact, but just above us there was a gap where the rocks had shaken loose and fallen on us. And the pile of rubble still blocked the tunnel. I went over and knelt down and started to move the rocks, one by one. Maybe I could clear enough space for us to get out. “Yes, in a year or two,” I muttered to myself. But I kept moving them. It felt better to do something.

  I thought about what I’d seen in that dark kitchen in Ireland. The source of the curse. Eva had killed Robert Barrett to save Eileen’s life, and he’d cursed them. They’d burned down the house and fled to Newfoundland with their brother Michael Finn. But the curse had gone with them, and the Cathleen had gone down, killing both of them.

  I shivered. What kind of man curses his own children? And his children’s children? Robert Barrett was evil, through and through. His violence and his hatred had lived on in the curse over all these generations, one hundred and fifty years. It had killed my mother and her sister, and now it was going to kill Ruby and me. I gave a choking kind of sob and started pulling harder at the rocks, prying them loose from the pile of rubble and throwing them to the side.

  There was a faint noise behind me.

  “Ruby?” I said, picking up the flashlight and turning it on.

  She was sitting up, her eyes wide open.

  “Ruby!” I said, taking a step toward her. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  She didn’t respond. She didn’t seem to see me. I felt a clutch of fear at my heart. The head injury must be worse than I thought, affecting her sight and her hearing.

  I took another step. “Ruby!” I said, louder this time.

  She began to murmur something. At first it was so quiet I couldn’t make out what she was saying. But as it grew louder my legs turned to jelly and my hand with the flashlight in it started to shake.

  It wasn’t Ruby’s voice. It was deeper, a rasping kind of croak.

  “By fire,” she whispered. “By water. By sudden death.”

  Her face twisted and it wasn’t Ruby anymore. It was as if Robert Barrett was inside her, using her face and her body as if she were a puppet.

  “I curse you,” she said loudly in Robert’s choking, angry voice. “You and your children forever.”

  Blood began pouring down her face, making her look just like Robert did when he stood cursing his wife and her sister. She raised her arm and pointed it at me. There was a mad light in her eyes and a hideous grin twisted her mouth.

  “I curse you,” she shrieked. “I curse you. By fire! By water! By sudden death!”

  I felt weak with fear, like I was going to fall down. I was shaking all over.

  “No,” I called out. My voice sounded thin and weak. “No!” I tried again.

  She laughed, a horrible, crackling laugh, then got to her feet and started toward me, her arm still outstretched, her eyes like two red flames.

  “By fire,” she began again.

  “Shut up!” I screamed, backing up against the wall as she got closer and closer.

  “By water!” she roared.

  “Stop it!” I shouted.

  “By sudden death!” she said, reaching for me.

  There was nowhere to go.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  BRING IT INTO THE LIGHT

  I grabbed Ruby by the shoulders. Robert Barrett might be possessing her, but she still had Ruby’s body and she was no bigger than I was. I held her off and looked into her face.

  “Ruby, come back! Ruby!”

  I had dropped the flashlight, and in the dim arc of light that came from it, I could see her eyes. Only they were Robert’s eyes, filled with hate.

  “I curse you,” she whispered in that cruel, cracked voice. “And you,” she said, looking behind me, “and you, and you!”

  I dropped my hands and spun around. The blocked entranceway to the root cellar was nowhere to be seen and a crowd of people stood there, silent. A pale yellow light illuminated them. They were all there: Eva, with a frying pan in her hand and murder in her eyes; Eileen, her face bloodied and bruised; Catriona and Caitlin in their wet clothes; Meg and Molly in their long white nightgowns; other faces, all young women, all blonde. Seven generations of Finns. All cursed. The same twins I had been seeing in my dreams, walking up over the hill.

  And they were all staring silently at Ruby. Only it wasn’t Ruby. It was Robert, held inside her, contorting her face with rage.

  “I curse you!” she suddenly screamed. “All of you. And I curse your children’s children till the end of time!”

  There was a gentle stirring behind me, and I turned to see Meg and Molly coming forward. Meg held a candlestick aloft and I realized that it was the source of light that illuminated the others. Her golden hair was shining in the warm yellow light and she was smiling at me the way she had when she first appeared in my bedroom. There was a collective sigh like a gentle breeze behind me, as if all the twins had let go their breath at the same time.

  Ruby who was Robert took a step back into the shadows, as if to escape the light, but Meg moved forward and held the candle high. Molly stood beside her.

  “Ruby,” said Molly, in such a loving voice that it almost broke my heart. “Come back. Come back to me.”

  A spasm passed across Ruby’s face, and for just a moment she looked like herself again. But then Robert was there again, his eyes burning with hatred.

  “I curse you!” she shrieked. “You’ll never be free!”

  Meg held up the candle, and for a moment, it seemed as if waves of golden light were rolling out from the pure yellow flame, engulfing all of us.

  “Let her go, Robert. Just let her go.”

  There was a hiss like the sound a fiery torch would make as it plunged into a lake. And then Robert was gone, just like that, and Ruby was standing there blinking in the light.

  “Mom?” she said, squinting at Molly. And Molly stepped forward and enveloped her in a tight hug.

  Meg turned to me, with that beautiful smile and said, “Bring it into the light, Ruth. Bring it into the light.” And then the light from the candle grew stronger and stronger until there was nothing but pure golden light everywhere.

  It was too bright. I closed my eyes. Everything started to spin and I felt dizzy, and then it was as if I was light as a feather and I was floating slowly to earth. Hard-packed, cold earth. The spinning stopped.

  “Ruth?” came Ruby’s sleepy voice from beside me. I had my arm around her and it was very dark.

  “I’m here,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  “My head hurts,�
� she said. “And I had the strangest dream.”

  I sat up and felt around for the flashlight, but all I could find was my knapsack. I pulled out the thermos of water. There wasn’t much left, but I helped Ruby sit up and drink a little. It felt weird to be doing all this by feel, in the pitch-black darkness.

  “What happened?” asked Ruby, lying down again. Her voice sounded a little weak, but not too bad.

  I didn’t know where to start.

  “There was an earthquake or something and part of the roof fell in and hit you on the head,” I said.

  “Oh. I guess that’s why I have a headache,” she said.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  “What’s so funny?” said Ruby.

  It was too hard to explain. “Let’s just say that a headache is the least of your problems, Ruby. I thought you were dying there for a while. And we’re trapped in here and can’t get out. And it turned out that Eva killed Robert Barrett and that’s why he put the curse on us, and then he took over your body and—”

  “Wait just a minute!” said Ruby, and her voice sounded almost back to normal. “You’re going too fast for me. Start from the beginning. You said we’re trapped?”

  I felt close to tears. “Yes. The tunnel to the door fell in and I don’t see how we can get out. I started to move the rocks, but then all the twins came and—” I gulped. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Ruby.” And then I was crying and she was hugging me, and for a while we were both crying.

  When we calmed down a bit she said, “I had the strangest dream, Ruth. I know I should be scared about being trapped in here, but I have this warm feeling inside, and I think we’re going to get out of here. Somehow, we’re going to be all right.”

  “What was your dream?”

  “Well, it was all mixed up with what happened. I remember the earthquake and the shaking, and then something hurt my head. Then everything was very dark and I was kind of drifting, but I could feel you beside me so I didn’t feel too bad, except my head hurt. I felt too tired to move or speak or really wake up properly, and so I kept drifting in and out. Then I started to get really scared and I don’t know why, really, because I was still drifting, but it was like that feeling when you’re asleep and you know you’re going to throw up, and you feel so awful and you’re scared to wake up?”