Black Candle

by H. P. Bayne

  An enraged roar tore from Bulldog’s throat, Zane saved only by the hindrances to the shorter man’s movements in the form of deep water and Sully. Even so, it was all Sully could manage to hold his friend back.

  He spoke quietly to Bulldog, his back to Zane as he relied on his friend to be his eyes. “Bulldog, no. He’ll shoot you. You think Bree wants that?”

  “Bree’s dead!”

  “She’s here, man. She’s right here, beside you. Don’t, okay? Please. Just don’t.”

  Bulldog was heaving breaths like a man who’d just run five blocks flat out. His eyes, fixed on Zane with a hate Sully had never known in Bulldog, finally shifted away from his sister’s killer and settled on his friend, enabling Sully to witness the gradual return of sanity.

  “Where is she?”

  Sully nodded to Bulldog’s left, where Breanna stood, lifting her hands toward her brother’s face, fingers reaching out as if to touch his jaw.

  Bulldog’s voice was a whisper. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, Bree. I’m so sorry.” Then he returned his glare to Zane. “If you think I’m letting you leave here with Sparrow, you’re dead wrong. You’ve got a max seven rounds in that thing with one chambered. There are three of us and you’ll need all seven just to stop me.”

  Sully turned in time to see Zane trying for a smirk, the expression of a man who was only just finding his legs as a killer and was trying to look the part. “Leave with her? I don’t want to leave with her. I came here to kill her. You’ve just made it easy for me. I thought she and I were going to be something but your sister got to her first. I’ll tell you something, man. I’m finally starting to figure it out. No bitch is worth this hassle. You can have her. She’s all yours. You can all go to hell together.”

  He stepped back and, before any of the others could reach the door through the relentless tug of water, he’d sealed them inside.

  19

  Sully and Paul pushed water aside to reach the door, Paul moving to unlock the PIN pad box this side of the panic room’s entrance.

  He’d just got it open when they heard a pair of gunshots from the other side, the sound dulled by steel and solid wood.

  Sully wasn’t surprised when Paul’s efforts to key in the combination came up empty.

  Paul slammed his palm against the wall. “The bastard must have shot out the mechanism.”

  “And there’s no other way to unlock the door?” Sully asked. “Nothing we can trip?”

  “If it were that easy, it wouldn’t be a very good panic room, now, would it?”

  Bulldog had found another problem, busy shoving against the door behind which Paul was keeping Sparrow. “Forget that door. Help me with this one! The water’s too high and, if that little girl’s in it, she could be drowning!”

  Sully didn’t bother sharing the obvious: that even if they got Sparrow out of the room, she’d drown with them regardless. Even so, there was something to be said for the comfort of having someone with you when you went, and the thought of the teenager being stuck back there alone wasn’t right. Sure, Breanna would no doubt be with her—the ghost had disappeared the moment Zane sealed them in here—but chances were Sparrow wouldn’t know that. Nor was it likely to make her feel a whole lot better if someone told her she was trapped back there with a dead woman.

  Paul joined Bulldog at the door, pulling a set of keys from his pocket and holding them in front of his flashlight until he could find the a particular one.

  Bulldog turned heated eyes on Paul. “Why do you keep the door locked?”

  “The room was designed for the possibility of intruders. It locks from either side with a key. My father had this idea that if someone chased him into the panic room’s outer chamber, he could either barricade himself in the inner one until help arrived, or lock the intruder in there. He’s nothing if not paranoid.”

  “I meant, why do you have Sparrow locked in there?”

  “I told you, I made a promise to Bree to look after her. I’ve been trying to keep that promise.”

  “By holding her against her will?”

  Paul took the keys below the water’s surface, presumably to unlock the door. “It turned out it wasn’t just Barwell or Zane she needed protecting from. She’d become her own worst enemy.”

  Any further explanation was prevented by Paul’s exclamation of, “What the hell?”

  Bulldog’s eyes fell from Paul’s face to the water, as if he could see what it was bugging the other man if he focused in hard enough. “What the hell, what?”

  “I’ve unlocked it. I mean, the handle’s moving back and forth all right. But the door won’t open.”

  Bulldog pushed Paul aside with more force than was likely necessary. “Let me at it.”

  He shoved, then shouldered the door, putting as much force into it as the barrier of water would allow. The door didn’t budge.

  With nothing else working, all three men lined up, Bulldog and Sully putting their shoulders to the task while Paul reached between them to push. Sully felt the door shudder slightly, but otherwise there was no indication the force was accomplishing anything except bruises for the three of them.

  Bulldog grabbed Paul’s flashlight and cast its beam into the seams and corners of the doorway, as if looking for the source of the problem. “I don’t get this.”

  Paul had an idea—but it turned out to be one nobody wanted to hear. “Could be the water pressure’s too uneven. If the other room’s filled up, we won’t be able to budge the door until it’s the same our side.”

  Bulldog redirected the glare of the flashlight full into Paul’s face, making the other man flinch and turn his head away. “Don’t you even say something like that.”

  Why his brain picked this moment to recall it, Sully didn’t know, but he found himself flashing back on a recent moment in his apartment above the bar, to a trapped bird and a ghost with a flower cupped within bound hands. Dez had been standing right outside, unable to enter what had, only moments before, been an unlocked and open door. Breanna had done it, had kept the door shut and sealed, trapping Sully in there with her until she could deliver her message to him.

  And, suddenly, Sully saw another possibility.

  “Paul? You said the room’s supposed to be airtight, right?”

  “Yeah, like this one. There’s a setup to allow oxygen in but it’s supposed to be safe in there from fire, flood and any other natural disaster. Obviously, my parents should be looking for a refund.”

  “Maybe they don’t need one.” Sully pressed an ear to the door, listening. “Sparrow? Can you hear me? Sparrow, please, if you can, answer me, okay?”

  The reply was dull and muffled, but it was there. “What?”

  Bulldog gave a quick bark of laughter. “God, it’s good to hear your voice, kid!”

  Sully flattened out a hand, motioning it toward the ground in a call for quiet. “Is there any water in there? Any flooding?”

  “No! Get me the hell out of here! Now!”

  Sully met Paul’s eye. “Looks like the room’s holding, after all.”

  “So why can’t we get it open? All the pressure’s on our side.”

  Sully didn’t answer immediately, searching for the right words. Bulldog had no similar reservations.

  “You think Bree’s keeping the door sealed, don’t you?”

  Sully shrugged, ignoring the raised eyebrow and bemused expression Paul had turned on Bulldog. “She’s capable of it. And she knows it’s flooding out here. All of this, bringing us here, it’s all been about protecting Sparrow, about saving her. I think she’s still trying to do that.”

  “What are you two talking about?”

  Bulldog granted Paul a glance. “Long story. And you probably wouldn’t believe it, anyway. Just re-lock the door.”

  Sully didn’t bother explaining to Paul, who was doing as Bulldog asked. The dull thuds of pounding fists on solid steel and muffled yelling suggested Sparrow wasn’t so easily convinced.

  Sully tried sh
outing back, but thought it likely she hadn’t heard him above the sounds of her own protests.

  He turned to Bulldog. “You try. Tell her it’s flooding this side. She’s better off staying in there until we can figure a way out of here.”

  Bulldog did as asked. “Sparrow, it’s Bulldog, from The Hub! I’m Bree’s brother! The water’s really high this side, so we’re going to leave you in there for now, all right?”

  “Bulldog?” came the muffled reply. “Please, let me out!”

  “I can’t! Not yet! Soon, okay?”

  It said something, whether for the level of trust Sparrow had in Bulldog or in Bree, that Sparrow quieted, the sounds of thumping and yelling stopping.

  Sully and Paul had, in the meantime, worked their way to the other end of the short hall, Sully shining a light so Paul could examine the keypad. Using the tip of Sully’s knife, Paul set to unscrewing the faceplate in the hopes a solution lay beneath.

  There were a few minutes for questions, and Sully took advantage. “You said you were trying to protect Sparrow from herself. What did you mean?”

  “Sparrow more or less went off the radar after Bree was killed. She fell back into drugs pretty heavy. I couldn’t find her, but neither could Ken, so there was that at least. When I finally caught up to her, she was a mess, from both drugs and grief. Bree had really been sorting Sparrow out but, after she died, and with Danny Newton in jail for the murder, it was like Sparrow lost her will to stay straight. It wasn’t just the coke anymore with her. She was getting into meth. Bringing her here has been as much about getting her clean as keeping her safe from Ken. She isn’t exactly a willing participant in the detox, which is why I’ve had to keep her locked in. Then the weather situation went from bad to nightmare, and now I don’t know what to do.”

  “Well, stating the obvious, the first thing we gotta do is get all four of us the hell outta here,” Bulldog said. He’d spoken the words as much to Paul as to Sully, a clear sign his opinion about the businessman had changed.

  Despite the peril of the situation, Sully found himself smiling. But it didn’t last long. Sparrow hadn’t, after all, needed saving from Paul. She’d needed protecting from Ken and Zane and from the rising river that was threatening to wash them into the next life. And while they’d found her, Sully was fully aware they hadn’t succeeded in saving Sparrow from anything.

  Not yet, anyway.

  Paul was fiddling with the exposed mechanism, the keypad’s faceplate left to dangle from a series of wires.

  “It’s no use,” he finally grumbled. “I don’t know my way around this sort of technology. I had a hard enough time installing my entertainment system.”

  Sully looked elsewhere for the answer. “Breanna, is there any way you can get this door open?”

  She materialized next to him, focusing on the door before disappearing entirely. Sully waited, hoping, holding his breath as he waited for the click of a releasing lock.

  But none came.

  “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on here?” Paul asked again. He faced Bulldog. “Why is he talking to Bree? He does mean our Bree, right?”

  “Yeah, he means our Bree. Sully?”

  Sully sighed, no point holding back on the truth now. Given he was likely going to be spending the rest of his life with these people, they might as well get to know one another. “Go ahead.”

  Bulldog provided the explanation. “Sully sees the dead, or at least the ones who die in bad ways like Bree did. They come to him for help. Bree wanted him to find Sparrow, to save her.”

  “From me?” Paul’s voice was just one step above a whisper.

  “From Mazur probably. From this flood. Maybe even from herself. She dedicated herself to helping girls who she saw as going down the same bad path she once travelled. And when she found out who Sparrow was, she would have taken her as a daughter. Bree never had kids of her own, so she would have gone all in with that girl.”

  While Bulldog had been explaining, Sully was playing the flashlight beam along the frame of the door, searching for potential weak spots. There didn’t seem to be anything they’d be able to break through, but his eyes did settle on a large crack at the upper left corner, one that extended along part of the top of the steel door frame and then up toward the ceiling. It explained how it was the water had flowed into this otherwise airtight chamber; Sully guessed the pounding pressure from the rising flood had shifted the house enough to cause the small separation between wall and doorframe. A similar break had no doubt formed along the bottom, which was where the water had come in.

  But now wasn’t the time to consider structural engineering in any detail. The most relevant fact was that the walls were still too solid and the cracks far too small to allow any real give. They’d have to find another way.

  He’d have to find another way.

  Sully pressed his hands flat against the door, hoping to feel some sort of thudding or shaking—anything to tell him Breanna was trying to free them.

  He was met with nothing but silence and stillness, nothing to instil in him any hope.

  The emotional exhaustion hit him hard. He dropped his forehead against the metal, the resulting thud the only reverberation he was expecting. He knew ghosts had limited energy in the physical world, and one could only imagine how much Breanna had spent in leading Sully here, in keeping Sparrow sealed in the dry room. It was possible she had nothing left to give. Or it might be she would never be able to manipulate a door this heavy and complex into unlocking for them.

  Then he heard the thud.

  Solid enough he felt it against his head.

  Sully pulled back from the door just enough to call out Breanna’s name. He hadn’t expected a verbal reply, and the one he got—while muffled and a little hard to hear—was definitely not that of a woman.

  “Sully?”

  Sully felt the grin spread across his face despite the situation. “Dez? What are you doing here?”

  Dez’s answer had him chuckling. “Figured I’d do some late-night fishing. What the hell do you think? How much water is in there?”

  “Probably same as out there,” Sully said. “Dez, listen. Zane Mazur—”

  “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, Eva and I took care of him. He’s unconscious and tied up. Eva’s got him propped up against the wall at gunpoint, and I think she’s just itching for an excuse. Listen, I need to get you out of there. Are the others with you?”

  “Everyone’s here. Bulldog, Sparrow and Paul. Everyone’s okay.”

  “Ask Paul if there’s any other way to get this door open. Mazur blew out the mechanism.”

  “I know. Paul said there’s no other way, man.”

  “There has to be.”

  “There isn’t.” The grin had slipped from Sully’s face as a new reality set in. He was prepared to die if he had to. He knew there was some form of a life waiting for him on the other side. But going out with Dez beside him wasn’t something he was prepared to do. Dez had too much to live for, too many people who relied on him. And if Eva was here too, Kayleigh would be left an orphan if her parents didn’t leave here soon. “How long until the dam gives?”

  “They’re going to be releasing some of it in about half-an-hour to relieve the pressure.”

  “How much is some?”

  Silence.

  “How much, Dez?”

  Even muffled through a steel door, Sully could hear the reluctance in his brother’s tone. “Enough to destroy The Forks.”

  Sully had momentarily forgotten his companions this side of the door—at least until Paul’s quietly muttered, “Oh, God, no.”

  Dez drew Sully’s attention back to the door. “Sully?”

  “I’m here.”

  “So am I. And I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to get you out of there.”

  “Dez, you need to leave.”

  “Bullshit, I need to leave.”

  “You do, man. You need to leave. You and Eva have Kayleigh to worry about. I’ll be fine
here.”

  “No, Sully.”

  “Dez, I mean it. I’ll be fine.”

  The response was a solid bang, louder than before, the sound of his brother’s frustration. “Sully, don’t you give up on me! You got that? I don’t care if I have to smash through this door with my bare hands. I’m getting you out of there!”

  “Dez, no. I mean it, man. Get out of here! Now!”

  Dez’s voice was replaced by a woman’s, very clearly Eva’s. And she was pissed. “Sully, you listen to me, damn it. We are not leaving here without you. That’s all there is to it.”

  “But Kayleigh—”

  “Don’t you go there. I’m her mother, and the last thing I want is to have to face her and explain how we just left you to die here. We don’t give up on family, Sully. Not ever. And I’m sorry I let you down before. I was wrong, I was scared, and it’s not happening again. Now, we’re getting you out of there, come hell or high water.”

  It wasn’t likely she’d meant to make a joke, but Sully took it as one anyway, letting loose a laugh that felt oddly relieving. Behind the door, he heard Eva’s abashed response. “Poor choice of words.”

  “I love you guys,” Sully said, meaning the words far more than his laughter would reflect.

  The moment of levity faded fast, dying completely with Dez’s next words. “Sully? It’s getting weirdly cold up here. That means something, right? Something I’m not going to like?”

  Sully was more excited about what that likely meant than Dez would be. “It’s probably nothing.”

  Dez’s reply was heavy with sarcasm. “As if, man. All those nights you used to crawl in with me when we were kids, this is what it felt like. It’s one of them, isn’t it?”