Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set

by James M Matheson

  He stroked a hand through her hair, so gentle, so reassuring. “Your last call sounded like you were in trouble,” he told her. “Then I couldn’t get anyone to answer at that Inn. Nobody at all. I hopped the first flight and I would’ve been here sooner but there was this layover in Chicago.”

  “Is this a dream?”

  He kissed her on the lips. “No. I’m really here.”

  “How did you find me out here?”

  “I just got into town, and then I heard you screaming. Katie, that thing back there...?”

  “It’s bad,” she said, and that pretty much summed it all up.

  “We should run?”

  “Yes.” She kissed his cheek. “We should run.”

  Her heart lifted even as the fear of what was in the woods lingered. Riley was here now. He was here and she wasn’t alone anymore, and Hell itself might be right on her heels but that was okay. Riley was with her.

  The light, she discovered, was a flare in his other hand. There were two more tucked into the back of his pants unlit and waiting for him to use them. Smart man, she thought to herself. Such a smart man. He was gorgeous, too, with his lean body tucked into another of his favorite corduroy work shirts and his dark hair fluttering around the tips of his ears as they ran, and that face that she loved so much.

  What other boyfriend in the whole wide world would fly across the country just to check on their girlfriend because of a dropped phone call?

  A boyfriend who knew the scariest parts of the world were real, just like she did. That was who.

  From behind them, the ghost shrieked.

  “Die, die, die! You will both die at my hands!”

  Riley tugged at her hand, and they ran faster.

  They came out of the trees and into the town again.

  “What the hell?” Riley said, blinking at the sky and putting his arm up to shield his eyes from the sun.

  It was daytime again.

  “Katie...?” he started to ask.

  “I’ll explain later,” she promised, looking over her shoulder at the chill dead of night in the woods.

  “You’ll explain this? You think you can explain this?”

  After a moment, she shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

  Riley looked at the flare in his hand, such a pale light now compared to the sun, and dropped it to the dirt street.

  “There she is!”

  The sound of that wicked voice drew their attention back toward town. Ebenezer Snidge was leading the crowd of townspeople, coming right for them up the middle of the street, as if Katie had never been gone from this moment in time.

  “Come on,” Riley said, “we have to go back.”

  “Back to what?” Katie heard her own heart beating in her ears, and she smelled the tang of her own fear. “Here, there, what does it matter? We’re dead either way.”

  “We have to try!”

  He caught her hand again, and turned them back toward the woods.

  At the same moment, Dorathea stepped out of the trees, still wearing Mason’s body.

  The eyes in Mason’s face flared red with the ghost’s hatred. As she stepped into the daylight of another century, smoke curled off her skin. The sunlight burned her.

  She took a step back, and stayed to the shadows.

  She glared at Katie and Riley, and then extended that glare past them to the town itself, lifting up her hands to encompass everything around her. “This will all be swept away and remade with my power! All of you will suffer!”

  Riley pulled Katie into his arms, putting his body between her and the possessed Mason Fieldman. The ghost of the witch was in front of them. A scene of horror from the past was behind them.

  There was nowhere to go.

  “Don’t look,” Riley said to her. “Just don’t look.”

  In the next moment, Ebenezer was upon them.

  “Witch!” he shouted, making the word an accusation.

  The sound of it cut through everything like a knife.

  Katie looked up from Riley’s shoulder to see Ebenezer bringing his arm back, a heavy cobblestone in his fist.

  ...the first stone...

  She closed her eyes as he threw it.

  The sound of it hissing past her ear made her skin crawl.

  Her head came up with a snap when she realized what that meant.

  The rock had missed her...

  In the trees, half in and half out of the shadows cast over this moment from the past, the cobblestone struck Mason Pearson in the middle of his forehead, right between his eyes.

  Katie actually saw the ghost of Dorathea knocked backward, coming out of Mason in smoky tendrils smacked out of him by the impact of the stone. Her form and his body separated for a few split seconds before she billowed back into him.

  Blood sprayed from the wound in his forehead as the stone fell away. It splattered across Katie’s cheeks. It was warm and wet, and she scrubbed at it furiously to get it off.

  The red was slowly fading from Mason’s eyes. His muscles went slack.

  More stones were being thrown. Riley pulled them out of the way and held her. They watched in morbid horror as townspeople from a Twilight Ridge that no longer existed stoned a witch to death.

  With a last pebble thrown by a child, Mason fell forward like a ragdoll onto the dirt street. He fell face first, already dead from that first stone.

  When he struck the ground his body broke apart into a cloud of black dust, and blew away in the wind.

  What was left behind was Dorathea’s body, in the same dress Katie had seen her wearing in the photos. She shimmered and blurred, smoke rising from her, oily black in the sun.

  Riley whispered questions in her ear but she had no answers for them. She was too terrified by everything that had happened to even think. This had happened. That was all she knew. They were here, and this was real, and they had just watched the stoning of Dorathea Snidge happen for a second time.

  If Dorathea’s ghost hadn’t followed them backward through the years to this spot, Katie wondered...would it have been her lying dead in this street instead?

  Ebenezer stepped forward from the rest of the group now, right over to Dorathea’s motionless body. With the toe of his boot he nudged her side. His scowl deepened.

  “Thus,” he said severely, “is the fate of all witches.”

  Then he turned away, and as he did, he disappeared.

  The crowd went with him, one at a time, all of them disappearing into a past that had somehow come into contact with the present only to fade away again.

  As the people disappeared the sunlight went with them. Day was replaced with night, and then they were standing alone on the paved street of Twilight Ridge again.

  Alone, except for Dorathea’s body. As Katie stood there, safe in Riley’s arms, they saw the witch’s body decompose in front of their eyes. Her clothing disintegrated. Her skin dried up and her hair fell away and her eyes fell out of her skull. Her skeleton collapsed into a pile as worms crawled through what was left of her.

  Then the bones themselves became a dry white powder, leaving the outline on the ground of where she had died.

  Dorathea was dead. For good this time.

  All that was left was the wristwatch Mason had been wearing, its large round face glinting as Riley sparked another flare in the dark.

  “Come on,” he said to her. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  She surprised herself by not running away as fast as she could with him. “Hold on.”

  Bending down, she picked up the watch and put it in her pocket. She didn’t know why.

  It just felt right.

  Chapter 22

  Back in her apartment in Oregon, Katie had a box in her closet. She kept it there so no one would accidentally find it and look through the things inside.

  When she got back, the watch would go in there as well.

  There were things in that box that scared her to death. Keepsakes. Things from other ghosts that had crossed Katie
’s path. A book. A medallion. Other things. Whenever she picked one of them up she could feel a sort of power coming through them.

  It was different for each one, but all of them made her squirm. It was a dirty sort of squirming that made her want to take back to back showers. Or go hide under a bed.

  For some reason, she could never get rid of those things. They reminded her of the times when she had nearly lost her life to raging spiritual entities but she still couldn’t part with them.

  She had a feeling Mason’s watch was going to be the same sort of thing. Because today she had nearly died again, and now there was this watch weighing down her pocket.

  “Are you all right?” Riley asked her as they walked up the street. As it turned out they had come out of the woods on the road leading into Twilight Ridge, and once they had gotten close enough to see the lights in the windows they had doused the flare in the dirt.

  Katie snuggled closer into the crook of his arm. “I’m fine now. Just another day in the life of a real estate investor.”

  “Oh?” he chuckled. “Is that what you’re calling yourself now?”

  “It sounds more professional than ‘house-flipper’ don’t you think? I actually had an offer to buy the Harper Inn, can you believe that?” She shook her head as she remembered Maggie asking her. “It’s like no matter where I go I can’t escape finding new properties to flip.”

  “And new ghosts to haunt you.”

  He’d meant it as a joke, but she just couldn’t find the humor in it. Ghosts found her.

  They always found her.

  She avoided looking at anyone they passed. There were only a few people out at this time of night anyway, so it wasn’t hard. She was afraid they would see something on her face, be able to know what had just happened, or worse...that someone would look at her and recognize how much she resembled Dorathea. Just like Maggie had.

  Maggie.

  “Oh, no.” She’d forgotten all about Maggie, lying dead on the kitchen floor. “Oh, Riley we need to hurry. I need to see if...”

  If what? If she’d really killed someone, or if she was going insane? What would she find back at the Harper Inn?

  “Just come on!”

  Now she was tugging on Riley’s hand as they raced the rest of the way down the street to the Inn and up the stairs and through the front door.

  Maggie was standing there, right at the registration counter, talking on the phone. She smiled at Katie, and looked surprised at Riley, and held a finger in the air asking them to wait until the phone call was over.

  Riley looked from Maggie, back to Katie. “What were you expecting to see?”

  “Honestly,” she answered him, “I don’t know anymore.”

  While they waited for Maggie to finish up, Katie brought them into the kitchen and made them some coffee. She really liked the sherry that she had borrowed from the kitchen--what was it, yesterday? She wasn’t even sure how long she’d been here. Not for real.

  Anyway, she liked the sherry, but this didn’t seem like the time for strong liquor. It seemed like the time for coffee, to wake them up from a nightmare that was finally over.

  “So what now?” Riley asked when they were sitting at the table with warm mugs in their hands.

  “How is that even a question?” she asked. “We’re going to go home. I’m going to turn in my rental car at the airport and then we’re going to fly back to Oregon. That’s what we’re doing.”

  “Oh,” Maggie said disappointedly as she swept into the dining room. “You’re not leaving already, are you? I thought you might like to stay just one more night. Especially now that you have a gentleman caller here.”

  She smiled at Riley, and then included Katie in the look as well. Katie almost felt bad turning down the offer to stay, but she felt like she needed to go. “I’m sorry, Maggie. We have a life in Oregon to get back to.”

  When she said it she stared down into her coffee cup, hoping the events of the last few days weren’t written on her face. Riley reached over and took her hand, but he couldn’t look at Maggie either.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked the two of them. “It looks like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Katie snorted. She pushed her coffee away. “It’s funny you should put it that way.”

  Riley caught her eye, and shook his head. Don’t do it, he was saying to her. Don’t tell her the crazy stuff.

  Only, Katie really wanted to tell Maggie. The woman knew about the history of Twilight Ridge. She deserved to know what had happened.

  But how to begin?

  Mason. It all began with Mason.

  “Maggie, do you remember that reporter? The one who’s been hanging around town so much and asking questions?”

  “Who?” Maggie stared back at her blankly. “I’m afraid I don’t know any reporters, dear.”

  Katie wasn’t sure if she was joking. “You know. Mason Fieldman. He’s a reporter. He was here doing stories on Twilight Ridge, but it turned out he had another reason for being in town.”

  Maggie spread her hands helplessly. “I’m sorry. I don’t know that person. My, I didn’t know we had a member of the media with us in Twilight Ridge. Well, well, how exciting. I’ll have to invite him to stay here.”

  Katie saw Riley looking at her strangely. He’d never met the reporter either, except when they’d been running through the woods to get away from the witch’s ghost possessing his body.

  Riley didn’t know Mason, but Maggie should remember him. She’d talked to him.

  Now, he was dead.

  Actually, that wasn’t true. He wasn’t dead now, he was dead then. He died back in the 1800s, killed by Ebenezer when he was stoning his wife--the witch--to death. Did whatever had happened here in town alter the very flow of history? Could it be...was it possible that she had changed time itself?

  Her head was spinning. It wasn’t like the headaches from before. This was pure confusion. Nothing was making sense.

  She smiled. Why should this be any different than any other day in her life?

  “Let’s just put that all aside,” she said, seeing the relief on Riley’s face when she did. Oddly enough she was okay with it, too. Maybe they weren’t supposed to know that part. “Well, on another subject. Are you still planning to sell the Inn?”

  Maggie perked up at that. “Oh my, yes. How did you know I wanted to sell?”

  “Because you...” Because you told me, she almost said, but now she wasn’t sure. How much was different here in the town of Twilight Ridge? Like seeing Maggie’s body on the floor. Now she was alive. Had that been a change in time?

  Or maybe it was a ghostly delusion. Maybe it had never happened before.

  With all these questions, was she a fool to consider staying here?

  Katie shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Never mind. Um. Are you still planning on selling?”

  “Oh, certainly. To the right person, of course. Someone who will fix the old place up and maybe restore it to its former glory. Why do you ask?”

  Katie knew that the former glory meant the days when Dorathea and Ebenezer lived here, but she would never want to bring that particular specter back.

  There could be a happy medium between the modern and the past, though. She could stand to do one more project this year. One more investment, sight unseen.

  Turning to Riley, she smiled. “How about you? What do you think about this place?”

  “It’s amazing,” he said right away. “The structure is sound and the accents are beautiful. I could spend weeks renovating this place and have a lot of fun working at it. If you’re thinking about flipping this place, Katie, I’m in.”

  “Wait, don’t you have to go back to your work? You know, in Oregon?”

  He took a drink of his coffee and shrugged. “My guys can handle it for a while. I’ll be here, helping you.”

  She twined her fingers into his. “You really are the best boyfriend ever.”

  “You know it.” he leaned over and kissed her cheek
.

  Maggie clapped her hands together. “Wonderful! Oh, I never thought I would find someone to buy my Inn before I left for Florida next year. I have to go down to be with my mother because she’s in the nursing home and she needs me. Can’t be in two places at once, right?”

  Katie couldn’t agree more. She had a life back in Oregon but it was a solitary kind of living, and no one would be expecting her back there now except Riley, and he was sitting in the chair right next to her.

  “So it’s a plan then,” she said, raising her coffee cup in a toast.

  “I just have one thing I’m concerned about,” Riley said after they’d clinked their cups together. “These old homes have basements that are leaky and sometimes the walls are crumbling. If the foundation is no good then I can’t advise buying into the place.”

  “Oh, the basement is solid,” Maggie assured them. “There’s no worries there.”

  Riley drained his cup. “You don’t mind if we look, do you?”

  Maggie smiled. “Of course not. Come on down with me.”

  Chapter 23

  “Actually,” Riley said as they got up from the table, “would you mind if we waited on that? I want to talk with Katie. I’d like to take a look around the property too, if that’s all right?”

  Maggie actually clapped her hands. “Anything you like. I’m just so happy that you’re considering staying here. You’ll love this place, I promise.”

  “I’m sure we will,” Katie agreed. She was starting to look forward to it now. A new project, something she and Riley could tackle together here in a new town. Almost like a brand new start to their life.

  Riley took her by the hand and walked out through the front door with her. Over her shoulder, Katie saw Maggie smiling after them. This was really important to the old woman. Katie could see that.

  Outside the sun seemed to be brighter than it had in days. The world around her was full of color and life. She wrapped herself around Riley’s arm and pressed her shoulder against his. “Did you really need to examine the outside of the house?” she asked him. “I’ve already figured out that the roof needs patching and the siding could use an update.”