Dead Suite

by Wendy Roberts

  “Oh for God’s sakes.” Sadie snagged the tyke from Maeva’s arms and abruptly the screams halted. “They just don’t get your Ozzsomeness,” Sadie told the baby. In response, Osbert gurgled and blew a large spit bubble.

  Maeva reached up and removed orange foam earplugs from her ears.

  “Thank all gods and goddesses for Sadie,” Rosemary announced; then she pointed upstairs. “At least now we’re a multiple of three again.”

  Sadie figured it was more like five and a quarter given Osbert’s size, but she didn’t argue. The sooner they could get this done, the sooner she could get home to late-night television and a cold beer, or a cold shower to stop her from thinking about Owen’s sexy body. She could still smell the distant scent of his cologne in the room.

  “Let’s get this thing rolling. In two hours I’ve got to be in a chat room class instructing scrying,” Louise said.

  The five stomped up the stairs, with Sadie swinging Osbert in the crook of her arm. The baby had wrapped his chubby fist around the necklace and was trying to cram the disc into his gurgling mouth.

  Up in the master bedroom, Sadie watched as Louise decorated the table with the contents of her bag.

  “Is this your first séance?” Louise asked Sadie.

  “Yup.” Sadie held Osbert’s face up to hers. “We’re newbies, aren’t we?”

  Osbert blew a wet raspberry between his lips and gave Sadie an adoring, toothless grin.

  “She’s like the frickin’ baby whisperer,” Maeva muttered, and everyone laughed.

  Louise spread a simple white tablecloth on the small round table and added two colored candles next to the other white pillar one in the middle.

  “We use a white tablecloth for purity and protection,” Louise explained. She drew a lighter from her pocket and lit the three candles in the center. “For the same reason, one of these candles is white.”

  “The purple one represents the third eye, or psychic powers,” Maeva added.

  “The black one helps to repel negative energy,” remarked Rick. He pulled a small packet from his pocket. “I brought the incense.”

  “We burn sandalwood scent for spiritual harmony,” said Rosemary, who still had her phone in her hand.

  Maeva reached into the diaper bag on her shoulder and placed a dinner roll next to the burning incense.

  “For munchies?” Sadie asked.

  “For spirits who seek nourishment,” Maeva corrected.

  “Better a bun than my blood,” Sadie remarked, sitting down at the table with Osbert in her lap.

  “Vampires are make-believe,” Louise said with a laugh.

  “But dead people who crave dinner rolls aren’t?” Sadie countered. “Sorry, I didn’t bring anything tonight.”

  “You’ll be our medium,” Louise said and pointed for everyone else to join Sadie around the table.

  “Say what?” Sadie’s mouth dropped open. “I’ve never even been to a séance before so I don’t think I should be running the show.”

  Louise shrugged. “The house chose you when the words ‘Bring Sadie’ were scrawled on the wall,” Louise added. Sadie shuddered and glanced reluctantly at the freshly painted wall. She preferred the light tan color Owen painted over bloodred any day.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Sadie cleared her throat. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Let’s be clear of our intentions first,” Rosemary said. She lifted up her cell phone and proceeded to snap a picture.

  “Stop that,” Maeva admonished.

  Rosemary put her phone on the table, resting it against one of the candles.

  “Our intention should be to call the spirit here and then encourage him or her to move on so that Owen and Gayla may claim this house for their renovations,” Rick suggested.

  “And if they resist moving on, we can suggest that they merely act in a more peaceful and benevolent manner rather than throwing things and scaring people,” Louise added.

  “Since some here are touch-sensitive and can’t hold hands with Sadie, let’s just hold our fingers up, almost touching, and go around the table asking for the spirit to join us,” Maeva said. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath in through her nose, and exhaled slowly through her mouth. “Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts from life into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”

  After Maeva spoke, everyone around the table continued to hold up their hands in almost-touching positions while they repeated what Maeva had said: “Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts from life into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”

  Sadie murmured a word here and there but she’d always been bad with the memorization of lyrics to popular songs, so it wasn’t until the fourth round of chanting that she thought she may have gotten the words correct.

  “Sadie, why don’t you ask the spirit to show herself?” Louise encouraged.

  Sadie looked at her posse, who looked particularly comical in the flicker of the candlelight.

  “I don’t know . . . ,” Sadie replied. “It feels kind of silly.”

  Abruptly there was a loud bang and everyone jumped in their chairs. Sadie noticed with relief that the closet door behind her had simply fallen back off its top hinge and sat at a wonky angle. The heavy door had landed with a thud onto the solid wood floor.

  “That scared me to death!” Sadie exclaimed through a bubble of laughter.

  “It’s definitely a sign,” Rosemary said. “The spirit is trying to connect.”

  “Don’t be getting your hopes up. Owen was fixing the hinges on that door just before you all came. Obviously he’s not the best repairman.”

  The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door swung open with a massive crash against the wall. Sadie nearly dropped Osbert. Abruptly Maeva and Rick each clasped one of Osbet’s hands, careful not to touch Sadie.

  “Concentrate,” Maeva hissed. “Thank you for joining us,” Rosemary said to the room. “We are not here to harm you, only to make peace and—”

  A wild whoosh of a hurricane-force air exploded from the gaping, dark closet door. The candles blew out and the wind picked up, circling them in a vicious, icy-cold vortex. The skirt of the tablecloth, as well as Louise’s bright hair, all stood straight up. Sadie found it difficult to breathe in the strong wind, but Osbert remained cool, as if this were no different than watching an episode of Elmo.

  Suddenly Sadie’s chair was yanked back a foot and she nearly fell from the chair.

  Maeva was on her feet and snatched Osbert from her grasp just as Sadie’s chair began slowly scraping the floor, moving backward toward the closet door. Sadie tried to get up but she was unable to move. It was as though invisible ropes held her. Her Nikes dragged on the ground but did nothing to stop the scrape of her chair across the floor.

  Rick, Maeva, Rosemary, and Louise ran to her, each of them grabbing part of the chair, but they were no match for the intense vacuum drawing Sadie toward the closet at a painfully slow rate.

  “Do something!” Sadie screamed.

  “We’re trying!” Maeva shouted back.

  Sadie thrashed violently in the chair, trying to release her arms. She was almost at the closet entrance. Stealing a look over her shoulder, Sadie stared inside the dark void that was a swirling mass of black. Suddenly the ink-colored cloud parted and Sadie saw the translucent spirit of a young girl with her back turned. The girl turned to face them and her face transformed into that of a monstrous demon with jagged teeth.

  Chapter 7

  The howling gale of wind pushed at Sadie’s friends, making their grip on her loosen with every inch as invisible ropes reeled Sadie closer. Swiftly, a howling current of air flung Sadie’s friends against the wall and pinned them behind the table and chairs as Sadie slid within inches of th
e dark, yawning opening in the wall.

  This is it. I’m going to die by getting eaten alive by a monster in a closet.

  Just as the thought formed in Sadie’s mind she saw Louise tug a crooked stick from her pocket and point it in Sadie’s direction. She yelled against the punishing current of air.

  “Evil, we banish you! Positive energy, flow through us and surround us with light. Gods and goddesses, surround Sadie with light! So mote it be!”

  It felt as though Louise’s stick released an electrical force that punched Sadie in the chest. Suddenly the wind stopped and Sadie’s chair fell backward, banging her back and head against the hardwood.

  “Ouch,” she whispered.

  The closet door slammed shut with such force the entire room shook.

  Louise, the Thingvolds, and Maeva, carrying a sniffling Osbert, surrounded Sadie and looked down on her.

  “Thanks for d-doing that th-thing with your s-stick.” Sadie shook violently, and her friends helped her as she got uncertainly to her feet. Her fingers rubbed the middle of her chest where she’d felt the blow from Louise’s spell. Sadie lifted up the pendant and looked at it. “Wow. You dented my necklace.” The two-inch gold disc now had a concave look.

  “It’s my new elder wand,” Louise said, holding the piece of wood out proudly.

  “It’s a stunner,” Rosemary said admiringly.

  “Did you carve those little hearts in it yourself?” Maeva asked.

  Sadie’s eyes were wild as she looked from one to the other.

  “Can we take this discussion outside?” she demanded. As she dusted herself off she glanced worriedly over her shoulder toward the closet. “I’m a little freaked out.”

  “We’ll do a circle of protection first,” Louise said. “You’re welcome to wait outside.”

  “I think I’ll go home. I may have peed my pants,” Sadie said.

  “You have the key to lock up,” Maeva reminded her. Osbert just then began sobbing and leaning out of Maeva’s arms toward Sadie. “Why don’t you take Osbert downstairs while we finish up?”

  “C’mon, Blizzard of Ozz.” Sadie took the baby and allowed him to nuzzle into her shoulder.

  Downstairs Sadie walked the rooms on shaky legs. Without the presence of furniture, she sunk down onto the floor and sat cross-legged, with Osbert gnawing his tiny fist and eyeing her curiously.

  “This isn’t how I usually spend my evenings,” Sadie said.

  Osbert stuck out his tongue and blew spit at her in reply.

  Sadie’s cell phone began to vibrate in the pocket of her jeans, and when she saw who it was she snatched it up anxiously.

  “Hi!” she said, then corrected the wild excitement in her voice by clearing her throat and saying calmly, “How are you?”

  “Okay,” Zack replied. “Tired. I tried the house first. Are you out at a job?”

  “Um. Not really.” Sadie looked up the stairs toward the sound of chanting. “Just hanging out with Osbert and Maeva.” Zack tolerated her supernatural side, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed hearing about it.

  “Just wanted you to know I’m driving back tomorrow. I’ll stop by and get my things.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  Sadie closed her eyes and stemmed the flow of tears. She hugged Osbert tightly against her chest. She’d honestly felt like he was calling to apologize. She’d been hoping he’d beg her to take him back and she’d, of course, say yes. Instead, as she was trying to adjust to what he’d told her, he was already saying good-bye.

  Sadie stared at the dead phone and her hand shook as she stuffed it back in her pocket. Just then she saw the group coming back down the stairs, and Sadie got to her feet and moved Osbert to her hip.

  “So I think we should have a chat about what happened here. We need to analyze why the evil that’s possessed this house wants Sadie,” Louise announced.

  “Tell you what,” Sadie said, handing over a reluctant Osbert to his mother. “Why don’t you four have a discussion about that, while I go home and drink myself into a coma?”

  “Aren’t you the least bit curious?” Rosemary asked.

  “No.” Sadie shook her head violently from side to side. “Curiosity killed the cat, or in this case, the trauma-cleanup person.”

  They all followed Sadie outside the house and to her car.

  “I’m supposed to lock up,” Sadie said.

  “Don’t worry,” Louise replied. “Gayla gave us a house key when she hired us.” She gave Sadie a sympathetic look. “You go on home and take care. We’ll lock up once we’re done.”

  Sadie scarcely remembered the drive home. Her thoughts bounced between the call from Zack and nearly being sucked into a demonized closet. Once she was back home, Sadie poured herself a large glass filled with vodka and a splash of club soda and then climbed into a hot bubble bath. A few gulps of her drink and she found she could almost stop thinking about being devoured by a closeted malignant spirit. Zack’s matter-of-fact tone when he called was another matter. His words were on repeat play inside her head: I’m driving back tomorrow. I’ll stop by and get my things.

  She heard her phone ring a few times but there was no way she was leaving her warm, sudsy comfort zone.

  Once the bathwater began to chill she lifted her wrinkled body from the tub, dried off, and headed straight for her bed. She drifted off praying that she wouldn’t dream of demons, closets, or Mephistopheles in any way, shape, or form.

  It felt as if she’d just closed her eyes in a vodka-induced stupor when she heard a sound from the other room. Sadie sprung up to a sitting position and strained to listen. She couldn’t remember if she’d set her alarm before going to bed or not. The sun was peeking through the blinds. It was obviously morning. Maybe the sound she’d heard was her neighbors putting out their trash. She strained to remember if it was garbage day and concluded it wasn’t. It could’ve been Hairy knocking over his ceramic food dish in the kitchen.

  A soft thud sounded from the living room and every nerve in Sadie’s body pinged fiercely. That was definitely not a Hairy thud. As quietly as she could, Sadie climbed out of bed and picked up her robe from the floor to quickly cover her naked body. Holding her breath, she reached for her purse on the nightstand and mined through chocolate-bar wrappers and receipts to clutch the small canister of pepper spray she’d begun to carry around with her.

  She padded softly toward her bedroom door and listened. Sadie held her breath and stood to the side of the door, hoping whoever it was would go into her office across the hall and steal her laptop instead of checking the bedroom. She was positive this was the hooker-murdering, finger-chopping maniac. She stared at her bedside phone longingly. She should’ve dialed 9-1-1. Then again, if it was the maniac, he could chop off more than one digit in the time it would take for help to arrive.

  She heard determined footsteps coming down the hall toward her. If he slipped into the den, she’d take off down the hall and, hopefully, get out the front door before he could catch her. As she was planning her escape route, the bedroom door flung open.

  Sadie lifted her hand and blasted pepper spray directly into the face of the cutthroat killer . . . who turned out to be Zack Bowman.

  “Argh!” Zack fell to his knees, screaming a bountiful slew of swear words that were all anatomically and religiously impossible.

  “Oh my God, Zack! I’m sooo sorry! I thought you were a killer!” Sadie dropped to her knees and stared at Zack’s usually handsome, rugged face—now an inflamed, sloppy mess of mucous. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?”

  “Shower,” Zack grunted. He climbed unsteadily to his feet and stumbled down the hall and into the bathroom. “Bring Dawn,” he commanded.

  “My sister?” Sadie asked, confused.

  “Dish soap!
” Zack yelled.

  “Don’t blow a gasket!” Sadie screamed back and headed for the kitchen to snag the liquid dish soap. She returned to the find him naked in the shower and holding his face to the spray. “This isn’t my fault, you know.” She thrust the bottle of dish detergent into his hand. “You said you were coming today. Not at first morning’s light.”

  “Check your messages,” he groaned. “And leave me alone.”

  Sadie left the bathroom and then remembered the number of times her phone rang the night before when she’d been soaking in the tub. She checked her cell phone and discovered three missed calls. Two were from Maeva but Osbert was screaming in the background so she couldn’t understand a word she was saying. The third message was from Zack, saying that he’d be coming by just after six in the morning to get his stuff because he had an early-morning job interview in Seattle. The voice mail said he’d try to be really quiet so as not to wake her.

  “Still not my fault,” Sadie said to Hairy, who was crouched hopefully by his food bowl. “Well, maybe it is a little my fault.”

  Sadie picked up her bunny, buried her face into his softness, and felt tension roll immediately off her shoulders. If she could find a way to bottle Hairy and sell him as antistress meds the world would be a happier place.

  Reluctantly she lowered the rabbit to the floor and filled his dish with kibble, topping it off with a yogurt treat like a cherry on top. Then she texted Maeva: Are you awake?

  Sadie’s phone rang in her hand seconds later.

  “I’m always awake. The question is, why are you awake?” Osbert was screaming in the background. “Never mind; you can tell me in a few minutes. I’m coming over. Please have coffee.”

  By the time Maeva and Osbert had arrived twenty minutes later, Zack was still in the shower, but there was coffee made. Sadie poured them each a mug and placed the cups on the table before relieving her friend of her whimpering infant.

  “Did you have a hard time sleeping after the episode last night?” Maeva asked over her steaming mug.

  “No. I took a bucket of vodka into a hot bubble bath. Then I drank and soaked until I had no feeling in my extremities.”