"What did it say?" asked Grace, sliding into the chair next to her as Jack continued to urge her to eat.
"What?"
Noah prompted her. "You said it whispered something, Dana. What did it say?"
"It said, 'Get out, get out before you go to hell, and rot inside a corpse's shell'."
"D, that's from 'Thriller'." Everyone looked at Jack.
Grace was puzzled. "What kind of ghost is going to be quoting Michael Jackson?"
"The human kind, Grace,”Rose replied with disgust.
Dana felt a dark humiliation burn in her belly. "Do you mean I've been screaming down the castle over angel hair and 'I Love the 80s'?"
"You didn't know, D," Jack said. Satisfied that she had eaten enough, he removed the plate and sat at her other side opposite Grace. He clutched her cold hands in his own. "Somehow, whoever is behind this managed to tap into your one true phobia."
"Wait a minute; you make it sound like this was directed specifically at me."
Jack looked around the room. "Anyone else freak out at spider webs?" He was greeted with a chorus of headshakes.
"But how could anyone happen to know that?" Noah wanted to know, his hands still on Dana's back.
"You told us this morning at breakfast, Dana.”Mark spoke up for the first time.
Jack looked at the boy sharply. "I don't think I like the way that sounded."
Mark looked confused. "What?" Then his eyes widened as Jack's meaning struck him. "Uh-uh, no way, I would never, Dana I didn't mean-"
But Dana was already shaking her head vehemently. "No, I refuse to believe that anyone in this room had anything to do with this."
"Then we come right back to someone else being in the castle,”insisted Rose.
"I tell you, it's not possible,”Oscar exclaimed. "We would have seen some kind of sign."
"Why isn't it possible?" Jack expelled air in frustration. "Mrs. Babineaux has been here all weekend and until today, none of us had seen her either."
"I kip to myself, I don' mix wit' the guest folk."
"So it is possible. Are there any unused rooms, cellars, hidden passages?" Jack asked.
Oscar continued to deny each suggestion. "Every room is open to view at all times except the bedrooms, and the only one not being used at the moment is the one left vacant by Brett and Austin. There is no cellar. The ground water is just too high. And I've never found or even heard of a secret passage."
"Forget it, it doesn't matter because I've had enough. Noah and I are taking Dana out of here," Jack said.
"No." Everyone looked at Dana, surprised by the cold finality of the single word. She shook her head slowly, but emphatically. "No,”she said again.
"D, not too many minutes ago you were screaming as if you'd seen Satan himself," Jack said.
"Well, it wasn't Satan himself and I'm not screaming anymore. Now I'm pissed off."
Henry patted her shoulder. "Girl, are you sure? Your eyes still look like two pee holes in a snow bank."
He was rewarded with a tiny grin. "I'm sure." She looked at Jack carefully so there would be no mistaking her intent. "We are not due to leave until tomorrow, and I am sitting in this castle until the very last second that I'm supposed to be here. I am not leaving until then. I don't care who is doing this or why. I'm not running from anyone. Or anything."
Jack looked at her with a mingled expression of exasperation and pride. He also recognized the expression on her face and knew there was no point in arguing.
*****
The worst of the storm now over, everyone went back to their rooms for the rest of the night. Stopping Dana outside her room, Noah hugged her tightly, something he rarely did anymore. He traded a man-to-man look with Jack and then headed to his own room.
Without speaking, Jack led Dana into her bedroom and quietly undressed her. Laying her down on the bed, he removed his own clothes and lay down besides her, wrapping himself around her like a blanket. He simply had wanted to hold her through the night, but he was driven by a need to reassure himself that she was really okay.
He felt a deep remorse, a feeling he was unfamiliar with, that he had been unable to protect her, hadn't been able to keep the monsters away. He kissed every inch of her body, stroked it, and bathed her with his tongue until she trembled violently with her own need. For her part she merely clung to him, knowing instinctually that it was all he needed from her right now.
She whispered soft words in his ear, reassuring him that she wanted what he needed to give her. He drove himself into her desperately, hungrily, branding her flesh with his in a way he never thought he would. The intensity of it frightened him, but she matched him hunger for hunger until they shattered in each other's arms. Dana had never felt so loved, so cherished, so safe in her life.
A shot of moonlight lay across the bottom of the bed illuminating Dana's foot stroking up and down the back of Jack's thigh. She was discovering a fascination with his face, a face she had always thought of as ordinary. She never tired of stroking it, exploring it, tracing his features with feather-light fingers. Jack studied her, afraid that he'd hurt her, afraid that he'd scared her. But she simply smiled at him in smug satisfaction. "That was nice."
Jack laughed at what an outrageously inappropriate word 'nice' was to describe what they had just shared. God how he loved her! He sobered again when she stroked a finger along his cheekbone. He grabbed her fingers and kissed them. "I'm sorry I hit you, D."
She shrugged. "It's all right, I hit you back."
"Rose was right; I didn't know what to do. You sure didn't react the way they do in the movies."
"No, I went all postal on you."
"I should have known better, you've always had a flashpoint about someone hitting you in the face. Remember poor Lindsay Kerns?"
Dana sniffed. "Poor Lindsay Kerns! She asked for it. I've never seen such a poor loser in my life."
"And when she slapped you for blocking her shot during basketball practice, it took two of us to pull you off. The girl was never the same. Her face got this weird tick whenever you would get too close to her in the hall."
Dana pulled him closer and whispered, "Why are we talking about Lindsay Kerns?" She traced his ear with the tip of her tongue. Jack groaned deep in his chest. "Why are we talking at all?"
*****
The following morning six o'clock arrived as it always did and Grace burst from her room to welcome it with a song on her lips and tap shoes on her happy feet. She halted abruptly when she faced a ring of folded arms and disapproving faces staring back at her en masse. She smiled at them weakly then slunk meekly backwards into her room and closed the door. With a collective sigh, everyone else went back to bed.
The smell of breakfast cooking downstairs soon had them all back out of their beds and getting ready for the day. The weekend was officially over and there was packing to do before leaving. But first waited breakfast.
Oscar had instructed Mrs. Babineaux to prepare only a light breakfast this morning and she had complied as best she knew how. But a light breakfast to Mrs. Babineaux meant stacks of fluffy pancakes served with a hot fruit compote, poached eggs and sausage patties, hash browns casserole, fried apples and chilled sliced peaches. Henry was filling his plate as if he never expected to eat again.
Grace glanced up as Noah walked into the dining room yawning hugely. Her voice heavy with concern, she asked, "How's Dana this morning?"
"She's fine, like nothing had happened. I tell you," he boasted proudly, "Nobody bounces back like my sister." Nonchalantly walking past Josie, Noah casually stuck a finger in her ear. Josie squealed and giggled and playfully slapped his hand. "They should be down soon. I think they were getting a head start on her packing. She tends to wait until the last minute and Jack wants to be gone as soon as possible."
*****
"D, how do you lose one shoe?"
"It's not lost, Jack, it's just not where it's supposed to be."
Jack cut her an irritated look over his shoul
der from his position on the floor where he had been peering under her bed. Dana was leaning against the wall with her arms folded and grinning widely. "What's so funny? And why aren't you packing?"
"I'm otherwise occupied," she said.
"By what, holding up the wall?"
"No, I'm ogling your bum." Dana cocked her head and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "It's a very sexy bum, by the way,”she mused. "I wonder why I never noticed before."
"You can ogle it to your heart's content once we get home. But right now, help me find your shoe."
Dana wrinkled her nose. "You're no fun." She slid the missing shoe towards him with her toe from where she'd had it hidden behind her feet. "Party poop."
Jack grunted in irritation as he got up. "Quit playing around, I'm not in the mood for it this morning."
"Oh, grumpy, grumpy. What's a matter, baby, didn't get enough sleep last night?" She batted her eyes at him outrageously.
This elicited a reluctant chuckle. Jack wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. He gave her a quick, hard kiss. "It is too early in the morning for you to be this obscenely cheerful. Now," as he turned her around and pointed her towards her suitcase, "finish packing."
"What's your hurry? We don't leave until two."
"And when the clock strikes two, I'm dragging you out of this place even if I have to throw you over my shoulder. I don't want there to be any excuses as to why I can't."
But instead of resuming her packing, Dana sat on the bed and chewed her lip. "You know I feel kind of guilty about leaving Oscar and Josie alone here without knowing what's been going on."
"How do you know Oscar hasn't been behind these stunts all along? Maybe they are part of the whole haunted castle package he's trying to peddle."
Dana frowned. "You don't really believe that."
Jack sighed. "I don't know what to believe, but my point is neither do you. What do we really know about him? About any of them?"
"Jack, it's not Oscar."
"Maybe not, but how do we know?"
"The same way you knew we would be more than just friends. Sometimes you just know people." Dana plopped backwards onto the bed. "I really wanted it to be Austin, but they went home before this last thing happened. That threw my theory out the window with the trash. That means there's some other nameless nasty lurking in the shadows. But if that’s true, then he wants everyone gone, not just me. And this is Oscar and Josie's home. They can't leave. I don't want to read in the paper about them having their throats slit in the middle of the night."
"It's not your problem."
Dana jumped up from the bed completely incensed. "Well, why the hell not? I know you want to protect me, Jack, but don't get so good at it that you forget how to be human."
At the look of hurt in his eyes, Dana wanted to bite off her tongue, spit it out and grind it under her heel. But before she could apologize he was at the door. "Excuse the hell out of me! You can finish your packing by yourself. Maybe I'll be fit company once I've had some coffee. It might help your disposition, too,”he added as he stormed out.
"Dana, you bitch,” she muttered disgustedly at herself. She had never found it necessary to censor herself around Jack, but now she needed to take into account that once their feelings for each other had grown and expanded, so too had the ability to hurt each other with a word or thoughtless remark. With the exception of the fabulous sex, it was easy to pretend that very little had changed between them. However, there were more changes in their relationship than she had yet bothered to consider.
In an attempt to please and appease, Dana set out to finish up her packing. This was another new notion for her to chew on. While she and Jack were doing favors for each other all the time, she couldn't remember ever consciously putting herself out to make him happy. The thought appalled her and she sat down on a nearby chair to ponder it.
She had been taking Jack horribly for granted all these years. He loved her cooking, but had she ever asked him if there was something special she could make just for him? They went everywhere together, but had she ever agreed to go with him to someplace she had no interest in? He had been talking about wanting to see the USS Kidd, a WWII-era destroyer on permanent display in Baton Rouge, but she refused to go with him. She assumed that he would go by himself, but he never had.
Dana's stomach growled loudly, interrupting her thoughts. She stood up from the chair to resume her packing with a firm resolve in mind. Love was about being there for someone else and that was something she and Jack had always done. But love was also about giving to someone else, not because you can, but because you want to. She was going to find out what Jack's favorite cake was and bake it just for him. And next weekend, she vowed, they were going to Baton Rouge.
Closing her suitcase with an audible click, she reached another decision. She would tell Jack that they could go home right after breakfast. She had been putting her pride above his very real concerns. Jack had been giving in to her for years, she realized now. It was time she started giving back.
Swinging her suitcase off the dresser, Dana caught a glint of something out of the corner of her eye. Dancing in front of the fireplace was what could be loosely called a ball of light. It made Dana think of the jars of fireflies she used to collect on summer nights when her parents would take them camping in the Ozarks.
The light danced and jiggled as if made up of many lights held together by some cohesive force. This was different from the light she saw last night. Strangely, she did not feel the creepy sensation she had then. Actually, she felt pleasantly warm.
As if it had been waiting to capture her attention, the light stretched out horizontally and seemed to rub itself along the side of the fireplace. Returning to its original form, it paused as if awaiting her reaction. Then it returned to dancing before her.
Dana stood transfixed. There was no urge to run, no desire to scream. There was something soothing about the light, friendly even. She never once considered calling for anyone downstairs. Again and again the light repeated its actions, dancing, stretching and then stroking. Yes, it seemed to be stroking the bricks on the side of the fireplace. And once it had, it would pause for a moment and then begin all over again.
Each time this ritual was repeated the dancing grew more agitated. Dana felt strongly that it was trying to tell her something and she wasn't getting it. Each time it touched the fireplace it would wait as if expecting something, the way a teacher may expect a clever answer from a prize pupil. Then it would resume its dancing when its expectations were dashed.
As if in a trance Dana continued to watch until she realized that it wasn't just touching the fireplace, but it had been touching the same brick on the fireplace. Over and over it had been showing her a specific spot. Unaware she was doing so, Dana reached out her hand to touch it. Once her fingers made contact with the stone, the light winked out of existence.
Dana felt oddly abandoned. Of its own volition, her hand stroked the brick just as she'd seen the light do. At the far end of the brick her fingertips settled naturally into two notches. Without thinking she pressed down. She heard a labored snick and felt the brick move under her hand.
Settling her fingertips even deeper, she pulled the brick towards her. Unseen hinges groaned from lack of use as the brick swung out and away revealing an uninviting black maw in the side of the fireplace. Stepping around in front of it, Dana leaned closer to see what was inside.
"That belongs to me."
Chapter 12
Dana was surprised at how calmly she turned around to look at Austin leaning against the door jam of her room. He appeared smugly arrogant as usual. "You!" Last night's humiliation washed over her like a wave. She felt her fingers clench. "I should have known." Dana opened her mouth to yell.
In an instant, Austin was across the small room and pressing the tip of a knife lightly against her cheek. "Don't." His eyes glittered hotly. "Do you know how easy it would be for me to cut you right now? Right here?" He
touched the tip to the corner of her mouth. "Or here?" He traced the corner of her nose. Oddly, Dana felt no fear of him or the knife he held. She was too royally pissed.
His eyes met hers and he grinned. He lowered his knife and leaned into her. "Hey, doll,”he whispered. He gave a laughing hiss like she had heard behind her last night. Her fingers clenched harder. Then he mockingly licked her across the cheek. "Remember me?"
It took every ounce of will power Dana had ever possessed not to strike him. But the knife still held casually in his hand dissuaded her. She stared at him coldly until she began to shake with repressed rage. Thinking her tremors were from fear, Austin laughed. "So, who's laughing now?"
"Is that what this is about? Because I laughed at your stupid voodoo trick?"
When Rose and Grace had spoken about the voodoo museum in New Orleans, it had birthed the idea within him. He had read about voodoo poltergeists years ago. Using materials he and Brett had in the car, he had spent the better part of the afternoon crafting the chicken, taking pains to make it as realistic as possible. The electronic equipment they had brought with them completed the illusion. He'd almost thought it was real himself.
The sound of her laughter had haunted him from that night. Her taunting cackles of amusement rang in his ears and her rejection at his advances had all had led up to him wanting to punish her for humiliating him.
Austin's eyes hardened and the hand holding the knife rose slightly. But with some effort he relaxed. "Don't flatter yourself, sweetheart. Although,”he leaned in so close she could feel his breath, "we could have had a lot of fun, you and me."
Backing up slightly, he indicated the hole behind her. "No, it is all about that, Roan Davis's hiding place,”he continued.“I know Oscar told you all about him, the school teacher bandit. I was listening outside the door yesterday. That was when you so helpfully gave me the idea for the spider web in the music room. You were so fun to watch last night."
"Where were you?"
He looked her up and down insolently. "There's a storage closet towards the back of the room. I ducked in there just before your idiot boyfriend charged in to the rescue. I stayed there until everyone went back to bed. Just as I did the night before." Austin's eyes narrowed slightly and he added silkily, "The night you laughed at me.”
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