by Sean Michael
“That’s the spirit,” Will said. “No pun intended.”
They both chuckled, but it felt forced, not like their happy laughter of the night before. He held on to that memory.
Everyone trooped to the basement door and stopped in front of it. Will squeezed his hand, holding on almost painfully tight. “Stay with me, okay, Professor?”
“I swear to try.”
“Do you want the honors?” Jason asked, offering over the bolt cutters.
Payne reached for the tools, his hands shaking violently.
Will’s hand landed on his back, warm and solid and very much there. “Darnell or I could do this part if you want. We’ve a bit more muscle.”
He shook his head. He wanted to do this. He was pretty sure he needed to do this. He had to meet this head-on and face it down. Right?
“Stay with me,” he begged, a part of him feeling like a big baby for needing that, the rest of him on board with not having to deal with any ghosts on his own.
If you bring them downstairs, I’ll kill them all.
“We are right here and not going anywhere,” Will promised, hand remaining on his back. “You can do this.”
It was hard to ignore that voice, which wasn’t quite in his head—it was coming from outside of him, even if no one else could hear it. Could the ghost actually kill people?
Got your gram, didn’t I?
“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want you guys here.” A dull panic filled him, and he backed away. “I’ll do it, but you guys have to leave.”
“What? No. No, I’m not leaving you to do this alone.” Will rubbed his back some more, hand warming a line along his spine. “Safety in numbers, Professor, remember? Besides, the five of us have done this kind of thing before. We’re ready for anything. Go ahead and break the lock.”
“Will’s right. We’re here for you.” Darnell kept filming but everyone else hefted their flashlights and shovels and bats.
“The ghost will hurt you. I like you.” God, his heart hurt.
“Is it threatening you?” Will asked. “I’ll kill it.”
“It’s already dead,” Jason pointed out dryly.
“Well, then, I’ll send it to hell where it belongs. Is that better?” Will asked. He was growling and sounded much like had the other night when they’d first met. “Unless everyone here is too much of a chickenshit to meet this head-on. It’s no fucking skin off my nose if we pack up and leave the scaredy-cat here to deal with his own problems.” Will sounded more belligerent with each passing second.
“Will!” Jason grabbed Will and pulled him aside. “This isn’t you.”
Flynn signed and gave Payne an apologetic look. “You know that’s not him, right? The ghost is trying to use him against you.”
Blaine nodded. “It’s scared. We’re going down into the basement and it’s worried we’re going to find what we need to banish it.”
“Take Will out,” Payne demanded. “Just take him out and we’ll go.” He was probably going to die down there anyway, and that would be easier to take knowing Will was safe.
“You don’t want me there, MacGregor, you asshole? I don’t need to be there.” Will threw the bat he was holding down the hall, where it hit the wall hard, and stomped off, grumbling under his breath the entire way. They all heard the front door slam.
“I don’t know why it chose Will, but clearly that thing thought it could use him to keep us away from you.” Jason sighed. “We can’t lose anyone else, though. There is strength in numbers. Are you okay to keep going?”
“Yeah. Just keep him away from here.” He hadn’t liked anyone so much in a lifetime. He wasn’t going to risk Will.
“This asshole version of him isn’t real. You know that, right?” Jason looked concerned. “He doesn’t mean the things he said.”
It hit him that Jason thought he didn’t want Will around because he was being a jerk again. Ironic really, because the truth was about as far away from that as could be.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s do this thing.” He grabbed the lock and pressed the jaws of the bolt cutters together as hard as he could, the edges of the metal digging in. It was a lot more difficult than he’d thought it would be. Than he thought it should be, in fact.
Jason set down his flashlight and shovel and put his hands beneath Payne’s, adding his strength to the cutters. The metal seemed to fight them, almost creaking, and for a moment Payne thought it wasn’t going to work even with both of them trying to cut through the lock. Then all of a sudden the metal gave, and the blades slid through the rest of the lock like butter.
The sudden success had Jason off-balance, and he jerked into Payne, the two of them hitting the door together. It creaked for a moment, and Payne thought it was going to open and send him headfirst down the stairs. But Darnell’s hand wrapped around his arm and tugged him back, and Flynn and Blaine caught Jason, righting him.
“Christ,” muttered Jason.
“This sucks, guys. I’m so sorry….” He hadn’t meant for anyone to get hurt.
“You don’t have to apologize,” Blaine told him. “We all know you’re not responsible for any of this. And if we didn’t need to get down there to figure out who this ghost is and how to get rid of it, I’d suggest boarding the door up and never going down there again. But I think we all know that’s not going to work. This thing is obviously affecting people and things up here. So we need to go down.”
“We sure do. I’m not letting Payne continue to live under the thumb of this fucking ghost.” Will came down the hall and went past them, grabbing his bat.
“Should you be here, Will?” Jason asked.
“I felt more myself when I got outside, so I chugged the holy water we had in the van. Just let this thing try to get in my head again.”
“Go away!” Payne said. “I don’t want you in here.” He took Will’s arm, shook him. “You could be hurt.”
“And so could you. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t go down with you and something happened to you.” Will grabbed his arms and kissed him, then stared into his eyes as he continued. “We will go down there, all of us together, and take out this motherfucker. His time to be on this earth is over. Let’s do this.”
“This isn’t the house,” Payne whispered, holding Will’s gaze.
Will didn’t look away, not even for a second. “No, this is me and you. The growling at you earlier, that was the house. This is me now. I am clear on that.” Will smiled at him. “Let’s do this. You and me together.”
He nodded, still holding Will’s hand, and pulled the dangling chain the lock had been keeping in place off the door. It slid down with a rattle and a series of dull thuds. He took a breath to fortify himself and opened the creaky old door. The stench of dank rot belched up, nearly sending him to his knees.
Will kept holding his hand, and that stopped him from falling.
“You want one of us to go first?” Jason asked.
“We’ve got this,” Will said. ”Give me one of those monster flashlights.” He put down the bat and grabbed the flashlight Jason handed him.
Payne looked down the old stairs leading into the dark basement like a maw into a devouring mouth. “So many secrets,” he muttered.
“Yeah. The research we did was all too general to point to anything certain. There’s a bunch of candidates for the evil ghost.” Will turned on the flashlight and shone it down the stairs. “You ready for what we might find down there?”
“Uh-huh.” Payne took a step forward. Immediately what felt like a dozen hands grabbed him and tried to drag him down the stairs.
His feet went out from under him, but Will dropped the flashlight and grabbed him around the waist with both hands, holding him close until he could get his feet back under him.
The flashlight bounced all the way down, leaving a swath of light across the basement floor.
“They were pulling at me,” he whispered. “Someone. Lots of someones.”
“Christ.” Will
held on to him even tighter. “Did you guys hear that?”
“Yeah.” Jason turned on his flashlight and shone it down the stairs, adding to the light. “We knew that a lot of servants died down there because of the awful conditions and then the fire. There might actually be a lot of ghosts, given what you felt.”
“Acting as one entity,” murmured Blaine. “That’s why we thought it was just one bad ghost. They’re all tangled together. They’re mad at Angus MacGregor. They blame him. You look so much like him…. Even now I think your grandmother is trying to keep you from going down there. I think she’s the one who threatened Will to keep you from going down.” Blaine swayed slightly, Flynn bolstering him on one side.
They’ll kill you. Stay away. Stay out of the basement. Danger, little boy. Danger.
Payne saw himself as a little boy, staring down into the basement, the glow of the furnace like hellfire, and his gram turning him away.
“She’s trying to keep me from being hurt.” He blurted the words out, Will’s arms never losing their grip on him.
“Yes.” Blaine sounded far away. “She’ll do almost anything to keep you from going down there. I don’t blame her. The malevolence coming from the basement is palpable. Something’s holding them to this plane. We need to go down to find out what. Make them go away.”
“Does he need to come with us?” Will asked. “I could take him back out, let him sit in the car until we’ve dealt with it.”
“I don’t know, Will. I honestly don’t.” Now Blaine sounded sad.
“I’m not letting you go down there alone,” Payne insisted. He wasn’t going to lose Will. The fear that he might was real. And stronger than his fear of what they would find down there.
“I won’t be alone. I’ve got the guys.”
Payne shook his head vehemently. “No. If you go, I go.”
“Well, then, I guess we go. Because it’s pretty damn clear there is something down there, something bad, and we need to deal with it.”
“Okay, then. Let’s do this.” Jason pushed past Payne and Will. “I’ll go first, then Blaine and Flynn, then the two of you. Darnell will bring up the rear with the camera.”
“Please God, keep us all safe.” Payne wasn’t a religious man, but… it seemed necessary.
“Amen,” grumbled Will.
Jason led the way, Blaine and Flynn behind him, all three of them lighting up the stairs. Then Will moved the two of them forward together, one arm wrapped around Payne’s waist.
Every step downward, he could feel something trying to pull him back up in the other direction. Then the screaming began, but clearly it was only in his head because no one else seemed to notice.
No. No. No. Come back upstairs. Don’t go down there. Bad. Bad. No.
His knees buckled, and he reached up, clinging to Will. “Please. Please help me.”
Will supported him and stopped. “Blaine?”
“We’re almost at the bottom, I think he needs to come with us,” Blaine called back up to them.
“Dammit.” Will kept going down, practically carrying him.
The world was bashing at him, beating at his brain, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t understand any of this. Not a bit of it.
“Stay with me, Professor. We’re here. We’re at the bottom of the stairs. No more falling down.” Will squeezed him tight.
Maybe the worst was over. Please let the worst be over.
The guys shone the flashlights all around, and Blaine took a few steps forward. He gasped suddenly, nearly collapsing. Flynn’s quick move to support him seemed to be the only thing keeping him up.
“It’s bad,” Blaine managed to get out. “So much pain. So many lost souls.”
All your fault.
No. No, he’d just moved in a while ago.
All your fault.
“What’s wrong?” Will asked. “You’re shaking.”
“They’re saying it’s his fault,” murmured Blaine. “They want him dead.”
Will gasped, then shouted, “No fucking way. He’s not Angus MacGregor, you assholes!”
Things suddenly began to fly at them—aluminum dishes and a few pieces of wood, rocks. Will shielded Payne from the worst of it and began dragging him back toward the stairs. “I’m taking him back upstairs before they succeed in killing him.”
ALL YOUR FAULT!
The sound was huge, knocking Payne’s brain around in his head, and the world went blessedly black.
10
“I’m getting him out of here.” Will grabbed Payne up and threw him over one shoulder in a fireman’s carry. It was the safest way he could think of to get Payne back up the stairs.
“We’re going to investigate some more. See if we can figure this out before it’s too much for Blaine.”
Will didn’t care—he needed to get Payne out of this toxic environment. If they were lucky, things would calm down once Payne was out of the house, and the guys would be able to figure out how to stop this.
He tripped twice going up the stairs but managed to fall forward and catch himself both times. He didn’t believe for a minute that was him losing his footing so much as whatever was down there trying to keep Payne with them.
The urge to slam the door shut behind him when he got to the top of the stairs was huge, but he didn’t. Instead, he propped it open with a chair. He didn’t trust that something wouldn’t try and close the door again once Payne was safely upstairs, sacrificing the guys in order to save Payne.
He patted Payne’s shoulder, his cheek. “Wake up. Come on, Professor. Wake up.” He shook his head when that didn’t have any effect and took Payne outside, breathing a sigh of relief when the front door opened without any problem. “Come on.”
He dragged the little hall table over to prop the door open, then went onto the porch. He put Payne down on one of the huge old-fashioned porch chairs and patted his cheek again, then a little harder. “Come on. Come on. Don’t you let this house get the better of you.”
Payne groaned softly. “We have to go back in.”
“I think you’re safer if you stay out here. I’ll go back and help the others.” He didn’t want to put Payne at any more risk.
“No. No, they want me. They’re going to hurt your friends.”
“They can’t have you. Their beef is with your great-whatever grandfather. You’re not him. And you shouldn’t have to pay for the shit he did.”
“No, but you and your team shouldn’t either.” Payne stood, swaying as soon as he was upright, nose bleeding in a single line.
Will wiped the blood away with his sleeve. “They’ve got each other, and they’re only going to stay as long as they can safely.” He was pretty sure they wouldn’t be getting rid of the ghosts today, but if they could pick up enough information, hopefully they could get what they needed to come back and take care of it once and for all.
A wild cry sounded, and they both blinked.
Payne shook his head. “Come on, Will. We can’t let them get hurt.”
Will nodded. He didn’t want Payne to go back in there, but the guys needed him. Needed both of them. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s go.”
Payne took his hand. “I swear to God, Will, this is ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not. Bad things happened in that basement, and when they died, those people didn’t cross over properly. They’re hurting and confused, and all the men in your family look exactly alike. From what I understand, ghosts don’t experience time the way we do. They won’t understand that you’re not him.” Will hoped talking about it would distract Payne as they approached the basement again.
“No, I’m not him. I’m a librarian. I’m a good guy.”
“I know that. They don’t.” Maybe that’s why he’d been so angry and growly when he’d first met Payne. Maybe these unfortunate ghosts had been inside him. God, that was not something he had ever wanted to be involved in.
They got back to the door to the basement. “Ready for take two?”
“Yes. Let�
�s do this.” Payne frowned mightily. “Back the fuck off, you assholes!” This fierce side of Payne was unexpected but definitely hot.
Hoping that would buoy them both, Will didn’t stop at the door to the basement but went straight down. It was much easier to get down than it had been to go up.
They found Jason lying on the floor, head bleeding. Darnell was swinging the camera back and forth among Jason, the stairs, and deeper into the basement.
“Oh my God! What happened?” Will asked.
“I don’t know. He just dropped. And I don’t know where Blaine and Flynn went.”
“They’re missing? Blaine! Flynn!” Will called out for the guys. He grabbed Jason’s flashlight and began throwing light around the room, searching for them. “Blaine! Call out. Flynn! Dude. Come on.”
God, this place was vast, a bunch of dark little rooms. He was going to have to go searching.
“Are you going to be okay here with him?” he asked Darnell.
“I’m fine. Scared, but fine.”
Will went over to his friend and hugged him, taking himself as much comfort as he hoped he was giving. “He’s still breathing. He’s okay.”
He looked at Payne, who was crouched next to Jason. “You coming with me?” He was torn between insisting that Payne do so and wanting him to stay here and go no deeper into the basement. He also probably should have grabbed the camera, but he thought it was more important to have the flashlight and a free hand. Just in case.
“Yes. We have to figure this out.”
“Okay, then. You walk behind me, but keep your hand on my shoulder so I know you’re still with me.”
“We’ll find Blaine and Flynn first, right?”
“Absolutely. I’m sure they’re just around the corner.” He waited until Payne’s hand gripped his shoulder, then he headed to the rooms on the left. He was going to sweep the rooms systematically.
They were tiny, dark, and his flashlight revealed walls covered with drawings and jumbled-up letters. There were no windows, no source of light, only a heavy gloom. It broke his heart to see the proof that children had lived down here as well as adults.
Everything was covered in dust, but in several rooms there was a layer of soot as well, proof of the rumored fire. God, he couldn’t imagine living down here, let alone what it must have been like when the fire started. If the fire didn’t get you, the smoke would have, and they’d had nowhere to go.