by Susan Conley
“God damn bastard! He’s not going to let us near her.”
At his words, the tentacles halted in midflight and held their station. As if now having proved their superiority, they no longer needed to intimidate. This spirit was indeed arrogant, Janice thought. With an ugly, vindictive nature.
Above their heads, the sparkling lights danced and curled for a brief second longer, then vanished completely. With the dissipation, the main cloud of light returned to cocooning Ginger. Again, the room was filled with the sound of crackling static and suddenly the cloud thinned, exposing Ginger’s rigid form to the group’s stare. Through the opaqueness, Janice could see her fright and a stain of tears. The sight of them brought a tight knot to Janice’s throat. It wasn’t fair for anyone to be so incredibly terrified.
“Somebody do something, or I will,” she stated defiantly.
Lloyd stepped in close to her body and lowered his voice so Ginger couldn’t hear. Or maybe so the spirit wouldn’t hear, Janice thought bleakly.
“I don’t think we have any choice now but to let Muriel channel the spirit,” he stated.
“I forbid it!” Jasper growled, overhearing. “That spirit is deranged. It would just as well kill us as look at us. Muriel could end up being its pawn.”
“We’ve got to do something,” Lloyd argued.
“We can’t leave Ginger stranded this way,” Janice stressed. “Please don’t abandon her.”
“We won’t have to,” Jasper intervened, signaling toward the sparkling lights. “Our friend is tired of baiting us. Look.”
The group swung around in unison. Across the way, there was a new change. The lights surrounding Ginger’s form were increasing in intensity and obliterating her from their sight once more.
“Is she all right? Can anyone tell?”
Janice felt her heart plummet along with a sinking feeling they were all doomed. One by one, they’d be picked off by this malevolent spirit. The men beside her closed their eyes. Jasper was the first to respond.
“She’s about to blackout.”
True to his pronouncement, Ginger toppled from the cloud of light. She slid to the carpet, ending in a crumpled heap at the foot of the couch. No one moved to help her. Rushing to her aid was out of the question, Janice knew. The cloud was still her hovering guardian, although Janice suspected that circumstance could change any second. No sooner had she finished the thought when the spirit shifted shapes again, this time morphing into a snake-like appendage streaming across the flat ceiling. If the situation weren’t so horrifying, Janice could admire the spirit’s ability to transform itself at will. It ballooned, it mushroomed, it re-energized itself with little effort. How wonderful to control such freedom of time and space.
Janice quelled her preposterous mind rambling, reminding herself that the spirit was not admirable. It was dangerous and they had no idea what trick it would play next. It might intend a second victim. And she might be that victim. Janice’s heart rate quickened at the thought, and as fast as her heart began to pound was as fast as the cloud began to crawl across the ceiling toward the side wall and down. It snaked its way, sure of its destination.
As it approached the wall mirror to their left, Janice’s fingers dug into Adrian’s shirt back and came away wet. He was sweating, sweating profusely in an ice-caked room. Well, she couldn’t blame him. Her own pullover felt damp against her ribcage.
“Dare we try to get to Ginger now?” Muriel asked, plucking at Janice’s sweater sleeve.
“In a moment,” Adrian cautioned. His gaze remained glued to the cloud’s misty form, which was now disappearing behind the wall mirror and seeping into the paint pores. When the last of its white tail vanished behind the mirror, Adrian moved fast. Janice moved with him, not about to stay put any longer. The others must have had the same idea because they all reached Ginger’s crumpled form within seconds of each other.
Adrian lifted Ginger to the couch swiftly, as Jasper grasped her wrist in search of her pulse point. His eyes closed, delving deep into the recesses of Ginger’s mind, and Janice chewed on her lower lip. He was back again quickly and she saw the worry increase on his brow.
“She’s not? … ” Janice left the sentence unfinished. She couldn’t say the word they all dreaded.
“No!” Adrian’s snarl was emphatic. He hovered closer to Ginger. “Don’t anybody say it!”
Janice’s glance locked with Jasper for reassurance. He nodded briefly.
“She’s out like a light but her pulse is strong. Her mind is intact, no damage to her brain. She’s simply … ” he paused, struggling to find the right word.
“Free floating?”
He nodded quickly.
“Yes, that’s good, Janice. Was that what you felt when Lisette displaced you?”
“Yes. And a great darkness that was terrifying.”
“How long can she maintain this free floating episode, Lloyd?” Muriel asked. She reached out and brushed a stray blond curl back from Ginger’s face. “You must’ve seen some kind of mind control in your work with the students. Can her physical body maintain this type of stress for any lengthy period of time?”
No answer came and Janice turned along with the others, surprised to find Lloyd missing from their huddle. A quick look backward and they found him still frozen in place, his gaze centered on the mirror to their left. What was he looking at?
“Lloyd?” He ignored her call. “Lloyd!”
He swung about as if stung by the sharpness of her tone.
“What!” His tone was belligerent, almost hostile and Janice flinched. She had the inescapable feeling he resented her intrusion on his thoughts.
“Have you seen this kind of mind controlling before, Lloyd, in any of your experiments with the students?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze gravitated back to the mirror.
“Filthy bastard! Sneaking around! Why doesn’t he just show himself and tell us what he wants? No, instead, he swats at us like a cat teasing a grass yard lizard. Damn his mocking presence! Damn his fucking impertinence!”
The curse was heated, sliced with raw anger and Janice was shocked to hear the tirade. True, the episode was scary for them all, but Lloyd’s tone was distinctly edgy. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he was coming unglued at the seams. Though his posture showed no stress, his behavior reminded her of the dinner table scene in Alien. One minute the crew had been dining, chatting happily; the next a terrifying alien popped from their crewmate’s ribcage.
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Look!”
Lloyd’s voice broke off and Janice swept her gaze to the mirror. Her pulse skyrocketed at once. Reflected in the glass was a human feminine face — a quiet oval face, dark and rather delicate. Billowing hair blew about the face and the beginning of a smile tipped the corners of a rosette mouth. And then the image changed. Now a bulbous nose dominated meaty features — a glum-faced man whose mouth was pulled into a sour grin. And then the derisive grin changed to an open, friendly smile and it was feminine again. This time ebony curls swung about proud shoulders. No, now the hair was fiery red. Now, a cobweb of silvery gold.
Janice couldn’t keep up with the shifting features. Like a slide cassette gone berserk, images danced and alternated in lightning speed across the glass. What were they seeing? Faces from the ship’s log? The images began to repeat and Janice found herself moving toward the mirror. She stood before it, mesmerized by the ballet of color-laden images. Her suspicions had to be correct. They were seeing images of Lisette, the ships’ passengers, and crew.
Janice felt a light touch on her elbow but she didn’t turn.
“My dear, didn’t I say our ghosts were most accommodating?” Muriel whispered. “When we’re slow, they prod us.”
“But I don’t believe Lisette is producing these images in the mirror,” Janic
e replied, turning back to the reflections. “I think our third spirit is.”
“But why?”
“To draw Lisette out,” Lloyd snarled, his voice still thick and unsteady.
Fortunately, no one noticed the tremor in her own voice as she asked matter-of-factly. “Why draw her out, Lloyd?”
She was instantly sorry she had asked the question. Lloyd’s eyes narrowed and his back became ramrod straight. Janice felt that same nervous tic in the pit of her stomach. The look on Lloyd’s face said she was a fool not to know the answer.
“It wants to kill her.”
Janice was surprised by the declaration.
“But, Lloyd, it has already killed her. Three hundred years ago.”
A touch of madness came into Lloyd’s eyes at her words and Janice flinched under his withering stare.
“You fool! It killed her body, not her soul! It wants her soul. It will kill all of us to get it. I’ve got to stop it.”
Before Janice knew it, Lloyd seized an ashtray from a nearby tabletop, and hurled it at the mirror, shattering the glass and spewing shards in all directions. Flabbergasted, Janice jumped away. Could this nightmare get any worse? She stepped back to study the jagged fragments still intact in the mirror and became conscious of a low, tortured sob.
Instinctively, Janice knew a terrible regret was assailing Lloyd for what he had done. Cracking under the strain, his face was bleak with sorrow and his teeth were starting to chatter.
Janice closed her eyes, her heart aching for him. Is this what they all had to look forward to? To succumb to a torment eating at them from the inside out? She kept her eyes tightly closed, unable to bear the sight of Lloyd without breaking down herself. It was wretched to feel so helpless. And then the sobs moved away and Janice opened her eyes.
Jasper was leading Lloyd away with Muriel trailing several paces behind. Janice felt a sick yearning to have this nightmare over — even if it meant sacrificing her body to a hot tide of passion with Adrian. Making love would be a humiliation but one she could quickly forget. If making love to Adrian … she broke off her thoughts and sank into the nearest chair. My God, she was actually entertaining the thought of making love to Adrian without the proper safe-sex precautions. Was she out of her mind? Yes, that was it. She was losing her grip on reality, like Lloyd. She clasped her fingers together in her lap and stared down at them. She hoped when it came, her breakdown would be swift and that she’d have no recollection of it. It was all right to be insane if you couldn’t remember the details. A tear dropped onto her thumb and she felt movement in front of her. Strong fingers appeared and covered her white-knuckled ones.
“That won’t happen to you,” Adrian stated.
Janice met Adrian’s dark eyes. She released her fingers from his grasp and scrubbed at the wetness on her cheeks. Though her mouth felt like paper, dry and dusty, she managed a shaky reply.
“I wouldn’t have thought it would happen to him either. Lloyd’s the strongest man I know.”
“Let’s not judge him until we have all the facts.”
“You mean his behavior may have been manipulated on purpose?”
“Yes. To cause dissension among us. To split us apart.”
Denial flew from Janice’s lips immediately.
“But you’re wrong. It isn’t to split us apart. It’s to bring you and me closer together.”
Surprise siphoned the blood from Adrian’s face and he stared at her as if she had suddenly grown a new head. Then his face twisted into a lopsided grin and he patted her fists lightly.
“Can’t be done. If ever two people were worlds apart, it’s you and me. I hate you. You hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Adrian.”
“Of course you do. I’m an arrogant bastard, you said so yourself.”
“Well, you are. But I don’t hate you for it.”
Adrian cocked his head and Janice had the feeling he was staring into her very soul.
“Do you want to make love to me, Janice Kelly?”
Weary of the question, her answer was half-hearted.
“I don’t know.”
“You are cracking up.” His retort dripped with sarcasm and he withdrew his hands from hers. Acknowledging his sarcasm, she pressed her hands over her eyes.
“I must be. There’s no other explanation for such stupidity.”
Adrian stood then, bringing her up with him. He swept her into the circle of his arms and his lips descended on hers. It was an empty kiss, lacking real heart and emotion, but still the pit of Janice’s stomach did a wild somersault. When he raised his head again and they were staring curiously at each other, Adrian sent her a wry grin.
“There now, we’ve got the damn kiss behind us. We both felt nothing. Now, maybe we can concentrate on getting the hell out of this place.”
He swung about and strode to the bedroom, leaving Janice to stare after him in alarm. Did he think that empty kiss settled matters between them? If so, he was a fool. The kiss had made things worse, if not for him, at least for her.
Janice sat down hard again in her chair, pressing her hands once again over her eyes. He probably thought a cold kiss would prove to their captors the futility of pushing them together. The kiss had started a funny kind of singing in her veins and on her lips. Her whole being was filled with unanswered longing. Janice gave an impatient groan. Damn Adrian! He had doomed them. She hadn’t been fooled by that ice-caked kiss, and if she wasn’t fooled by it, the ghosts certainly weren’t either.
Chapter 18
SATURDAY — 4:15 AM
The west bedroom was swathed in half shadow, half light, and from where she stood in the doorway, it was hard for Janice to imagine a more serene picture. Yet she knew the chain of events that had occurred in the last hour didn’t even remotely resemble serene. Nothing seemed real in the last ten minutes. Not Ginger’s cocooning, not Lloyd’s breakdown, not Adrian’s empty kiss. It was if time had simply surrendered itself into Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone.
Adjusting her eyes to the dim light, Janice studied the four-poster bed silhouetted before her. It stood like a giant wasp, an alien creature with tasseled wings. In its stomach, Lloyd slept peacefully, oblivious to the world, barely seeming to breathe. Muriel was alongside the bed, her arm draped on the coverlet. Janice watched her fingers pluck continuously at the tufted quilting as she kept a vigilant eye on Lloyd’s rhythmic breathing. Stepping into the room, Janice headed for the bed.
“How is he?”
A silent wave signaled her to a chair and she sank into the deep green cushions, glad to be able to give her own body some restful downtime. She rubbed her eyelids and then settled her gaze on Muriel, who was thoughtfully contemplating Lloyd’s sleeping form.
“How is he?” Janice asked again. Muriel’s whispered response was low and filled with compassion.
“He’s asleep at last. Poor man, he’s exhausted. It must be hell to be so defenseless. To have to listen to garbled voices in your head and not be able to cast them out!”
Janice stole a peek at Lloyd’s sleeping form. If there were voices chattering in his head, it wasn’t apparent on the surface. He seemed lifeless, almost comatose. Janice wondered if he was somehow slipping away from them on purpose, out of self-preservation. What was he hearing in his head? It was awful not to know. Perhaps if they did, they could help him ease the pain.
Janice returned her gaze to Muriel, averting her thoughts from Lloyd’s breakdown. “You don’t look so refreshed yourself, Muriel,” she commented softly. She hoped the worry in her tone was adequately disguised. They all had enough troubles without saying the obvious.
“Too much excitement,” Muriel replied. “And not enough time to process it. It’s as if time has been suddenly suspended and what we do in the next few moments will seal our destinies.”
; “Perhaps it will,” Janice remarked. The women exchanged knowing glances and Janice found herself leaning forward, stilling Muriel’s restless fingers. “Do you trust me, Muriel?”
Muriel’s eyes widened in surprise at her question.
“My dear, how can you even ask that? Surely you know I’ve grown exceedingly fond of you. It is my dearest wish that when this nightmare is over, you’ll let Jasper and me come and visit you in Colorado. I want to meet that precious daughter of yours.”
Janice felt a rising knot in her throat and swallowed it down. Muriel had to be the dearest, the sweetest woman she had ever met. If only things weren’t so muddled. She squeezed the fingers in her palm affectionately.
“I’ve grown very fond of you too, Muriel. That’s why you must listen to what I am going to say with an open mind.”
“I’m a trance channeler. If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s an open mind.”
Janice stifled an urge to laugh. Muriel was incorrigible, her sense of humor indestructible. Even now, when things were at their worst, she was still able to poke fun at their plight. Janice felt a sudden inner pang; she envied Muriel’s ability to remain buoyant no matter the adversity. Perhaps if she herself had a better outlook on what was occurring, she would be able to handle the gnawing ache in the pit of her stomach. As it was, continuing to hold back the pain set her teeth on edge more and more, she realized. She had to make Muriel see things as she did. Leaning in, Janice took the initiative.
“I can’t stand what’s happening to us, Muriel. If I have to stand by and watch another one of you shut down like Ginger, I’ll go out of my mind.”
“My dear, who’s to say that you won’t be next? We don’t know what our spirit friends intend.”