Shane put his hand over the receiver. “How are we going to get him inside?” he asked.
Chapter Sixteen
Ryan pulled into the driveway in his rental car. He’d just finished a breathless conversation with Shane Adams, most of which hadn’t made any sense. He understood that the fans that were surrounding Shane’s house were now dangerous. They were hurting each other and struggling to get inside the house. The situation had worsened to a frightening degree in just a few hours. It didn’t look good.
Before, when Whitney had initially embarked on her story about Shane, Ryan had felt vague senses of foreboding, but he’d had no idea that things were this bad. He’d known for a long time that Shane and The Wrenching were mixed up in some kind of supernatural mess. Whenever he saw pictures of them or read about them, their aura radiated something very, very bad. He suspected...well, he hoped that what he suspected wasn’t going on. Besides, it didn’t make sense. Not exactly. He’d experienced things like this before. Ryan had more contact with the supernatural than he’d like. He didn’t have a good feeling about being here either, but he was going to charge Shane a very hefty bill for his services. Assuming he could do anything.
Ryan had been instructed to pull his car around the house to the side door by the kitchen. Shane seemed to feel Ryan would be safer if he minimized his contact with the crazed fans, but Shane had made it clear that Ryan would have to come in some contact with them, as they were all trying to get inside the house. There were apparently less of them on the side of the house. Shane said he was going to try something else to distract as many of them as he could as well.
Pulling into the driveway, Ryan surveyed the scene. He could see the backs of the fans, clumped up around the house. They were beating the walls with their fists. Some of them were screaming. He had to drive off the driveway almost immediately, because the driveway was crowded with abandoned police cars and news vans. Since the lawn was also filled with parked cars and vans from the Entourage, navigating through the lawn wasn’t easy. He could hardly see, because it was twilight, just the period of time when headlights hardly seemed to make any difference.
He clipped a car trying to make it through a narrow enclosure. His rental made a grating scraping noise as metal slid against metal. Dammit. He was going to have to pay for damaging the rental. Wonderful. Well, he’d just tack that onto Shane’s bill.
Immediately after clearing the car, he realized he’d made a bad turn, because there was no way he could get through the way he’d come in. Cars were blocking all of his exits.
Swearing, Ryan put it in reverse, scraping the car up again on his way back through. He watched the crowd of fans nervously, wondering if the sound would alert them to his presence, but they seemed to be entirely concerned with the house and not with him.
This time, Ryan was able to see a better path through the wreckage of Shane’s lawn to the side of the house. He pulled his car through it without more incident. He turned when he reached the corner of the house, and as he made the turn, the door he was heading for came into his view. There were definitely some fans around it, but there weren’t as many windows on this side of the house, so he saw why Shane had instructed him to come this way.
Shane had told him to stay inside the car until he saw the door to the kitchen open, so Ryan stayed put, but he cut his engine. For a few minutes, he sat in relative silence. The only sounds were the yells and cries of the Entourage as they pounded against the house. This close to them, he was overwhelmed by their rage. They each projected cloudy auras, confused but angry.
Ryan wondered how long he was going to have to stay inside the car. Then he heard a different noise. It was the sound of an electric guitar. A Wrenching song. Ryan was familiar with it because Whitney used to listen to it so much. The fans around the house all looked up when they heard the noise and then began moving in the direction of the music, which was coming from the front of the house.
As soon as all the fans that had been at the kitchen door left, the door swung open and Shane’s girlfriend Lark appeared in the doorway, motioning him inside. Ryan opened his car door, grabbed his overnight bag, and made a run for the door.
Safely inside, he looked at Lark. He nearly staggered from the force of her aura. A large dark circle, shot with red lines like lightning bolts, surrounded lark. Being this close to her made it hard for him to breathe. Power was pouring out of her, into everything around her. Ryan almost immediately felt the effects of it, the insane hunger for Shane Adams. He quickly slammed his mental protection in place, blocking her. He couldn’t see her aura as clearly this way, but he was safe.
Lark smiled at him. “You’re here,” she said. “I’m Lark.” She offered him her hand.
Ryan shook his head. Backed away. “It’s you,” he whispered. “You’re doing this.”
* * *
Lark stared at Ryan, shaking her head. What was he talking about? What was she doing? “I’m not doing anything,” she said.
Upstairs on the balcony, Shane and Chris were still playing music. They’d all decided that the best way to get Ryan inside was to distract the fans outside. Even though it might not be advisable for Shane to play music again, they decided it was necessary. Now, Lark wondered how long he was going to play. She needed to get Ryan up there. Let them see him. Also, he didn’t seem to like her very much.
Tim was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He’d been standing by in case Lark needed any help getting Ryan inside. He glared at Lark. “I knew it,” he said. “I knew it was you.”
“It’s not me!” Lark protested. “Why don’t we go upstairs to find Shane and Chris, okay?”
“Shut it off,” said Ryan. “Shut it off now. Can’t you see the effect you’re having on these people? Everyone here?”
“I can’t shut it off,” said Lark. “I’m not doing anything!”
Ryan surveyed her for a couple of minutes, stroking his chin. “You don’t know,” he finally said. “You’re doing it and you have no idea what you’re doing. It’s like a poltergeist.”
Poltergeist? What? Lark had seen those movies. Hadn’t the little girl who’d been in the movies died in real life? She’d had some disease or something. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Lark.
“No,” said Ryan. “I see that you don’t.” He looked at Tim. “Let’s go upstairs,” he said.
Good. Finally, he was being reasonable. Lark pushed past Tim, who was still glaring at her menacingly and started through the foyer and up the stairs. She didn’t glance behind her to see if they were following her.
Once she got into Shane’s bedroom, she held the door for both Tim and Ryan, then shut it. They didn’t want the rats to get out. Chris saw her from across the balcony and stopped playing. Shane saw them too, but he kept going.
“Stop, Shane!” Chris yelled over the noise of the guitar.
Lark went out onto the balcony. Beneath them, the crowd was frenzied, trying harder than ever to get at Shane. They were climbing on top of each other in an attempt to reach the balcony.
“Stop Shane,” she said to her boyfriend.
He looked deep into her eyes, fear written all over his face.
She grabbed his hands. Stopped them from playing. Pried them away from the guitar.
Chris unstrapped the guitar from Shane’s body and set it down. She and Chris helped Shane inside. They closed the door to the balcony behind them.
“I couldn’t stop playing,” Shane said, looking at Lark with the same fear in his eyes. “I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t.”
Lark took both of his hands. “It’s okay. You did stop. You’re okay.”
“Excuse me,” said Chris. “But we most certainly are not okay. But hopefully this man can help.” He gestured to Ryan.
“I’m going to try,” said Ryan.
There were introductions then. Greetings. Shane thanked Ryan for coming profusely. Ryan waved it off, saying he was here to a job for which he was going to charge, a
nd thanks were unnecessary.
They relocated to the living room, where they could all sit down together easily. “Well,” said Ryan. “You’ve made the news. I saw it on television at the airport. Whitney would feel vindicated. She couldn’t get anybody to run a story on you.”
Tim nodded grimly. “She would.”
“What are they saying on the news?” Lark wanted to know. Could they possibly be reporting on this and not doing anything about it?
“Let’s find out,” said Shane. He turned on the large TV in the room and flipped through the channels. “You think it’s on Headline News? Is it that big of a story?”
He punched in the channel numbers on his remote and was rewarded with a reporter reporting quite cheerily on war casualties in the Middle East.
“Try MTV,” said Chris.
Shane snorted. But he flipped to MTV. Sure enough, within a few minutes there was an MTV News Break. A young woman stood on the screen reporting that members of the Entourage were mobbing Shane Adams house. “We have a reporter on the scene,” said the vee-jay. “Let’s go to Melissa now. Melissa?”
There was no response from Melissa.
“Melissa?”
Nothing.
After a few moments, the reporter said, “We seem to have lost contact with Melissa.”
Lark knew why. Melissa was now part of the throng of bodies crushing themselves to get inside Shane’s house.
Shane flipped back to Headline News, where there was a brief mention of a mob of fans at popular rock star’s, Shane Adams’, Tennessee home. However, the Headline News people had lost touch with their reporter on the scene as well.
“This is crazy,” said Lark. “I can’t believe everybody out there knows about this, and they aren’t doing anything.”
“What do you want them to do?” Chris demanded. “Every time someone gets close to this house, they go crazy.”
“Why aren’t we being affected, then?” Lark wanted to know.
“I’m being affected,” Chris muttered.
“But those people out there,” said Lark, “they’re barely human. They’re driven to act like animals. It’s...disgusting.”
“They want Shane,” said Ryan. “Chris and Tim are closer to Shane, so they aren’t going as mad with need. And you aren’t affected, Lark, because you’re causing it.”
Shane glared at Ryan. “Lark’s not causing anything. What are you talking about? Why does everyone hate my girlfriend except me?”
“Maybe because your girlfriend’s a bitch,” said Tim.
“I told you not to say shit like that,” Shane said through gritted teeth.
“Calm down,” said Ryan. “Both of you.” To Shane, “I most certainly do not hate Lark, but she is projecting a huge amount of power, and she doesn’t seem to be aware that she’s doing it.”
“Bullshit,” said Tim. “She knows what she’s doing. She’s doing the same thing she did to my brother.”
Ryan looked at Lark. “Lark? Has something similar to this ever happened to you before?”
“No,” said Lark. And it hadn’t. She definitely hadn’t ever been around large groups of insane people.
“You’ve never noticed that you have an...effect on people? That you’re able to sway them to your way of thinking? Or that they act differently around you than they used to?”
“No,” said Lark. Nothing like that had ever happened to her. What was this guy talking about anyway? Was he saying that her presence affected people? Made them crazy? Because she’d never even been around a crazy person before. She shrugged. “Sorry, but no.”
“Hmm...” said Ryan.
“What about Jimmy?” Tim spoke up.
Lark snapped her head around to look at Tim. “What about him?”
“He started acting differently after he started dating you,” said Tim.
That was sort of true, Lark guessed. “He did,” she said. “But I didn’t have anything to do with that. Jimmy just changed.”
“Who’s Jimmy?” asked Ryan.
“Jimmy’s my brother. She dated him and made him commit suicide.”
“I did not make him commit suicide,” Lark said. “I started dating Jimmy. He was sweet and nice and normal. And then he started...hurting me.” Lark shook her head.
“She doesn’t like to talk about it,” said Shane.
“He never laid a hand on you,” Tim growled.
Ryan peered at Tim with interest. “That’s odd,” he said.
“What’s odd?” asked Shane.
“There are two different things that are radiating from Lark. On the one hand, she’s putting out this strong compulsion to be near Shane. On the other, she’s got a less strong broadcast, which is essentially telling people to hate her.” Ryan stroked his chin. “Why would you do that?”
“I’m not doing that!” Lark protested.
“Why isn’t working on me?” Shane asked.
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t know. But it seems to be working on both Tim and Chris. I’m getting strong readings from both of them that they detest Lark.” Ryan stood up and began to pace in front of the couches where the others were sitting. “Tell me more about Jimmy, Lark. You say he hurt you? Maybe he started to dislike you?”
Lark didn’t say anything for a few moments. She really didn’t like to think about Jimmy, but if she had to, she would. “No,” she said. “It wasn’t like that. Jimmy loved me. It was just that, he got all twisted. He didn’t know how to love me anymore. He just changed. He... He was angry all the time. All the time. And he—” Lark broke off. She could feel all the emotions she had for Jimmy welling to the surface and she didn’t know if she could deal with any of them right now. Ever.
Ryan knelt down in front of Lark. He took her hands. “I’m going to try to sense what I can from what you tell me, okay? This might be hard for you, but I think it’s important. Can you try to let it all out for me?”
Lark wanted to scream that she couldn’t. But she nodded. “Okay.”
“How exactly did Jimmy change? Was there a noticeable moment or period of time? Did his habits change?”
“He...started painting these visions he was having. Before he always painted nice, pretty things. Like trippy stuff. Fanciful things. But when it started, he was having these things he called visions. And when he would paint them, it was as if he wasn’t himself. He was angry.”
“Go on,” Ryan encouraged.
Lark bit her lip. “At first, he’d have a vision or whatever, and then he’d snap out of it and be himself again. But the visions kept getting longer and longer. He wasn’t himself much of the time at all. He stopped painting after a while. Instead, he ripped up our apartment. All his paintings and all our furniture, and he started...using the paint to write things on the wall. He said it was another language. He used to talk to me in it. And he would get so mad when I couldn’t respond. That’s when he’d start hurting me. Throwing me down steps and stuff. Once he used this bat, and...I thought I was dead. I thought he killed me. I couldn’t see because my eyes were swollen, and there was so much blood, and he wouldn’t stop. He just kept hitting me and hitting me and...”
Lark ripped her hands out of Ryan’s. “I can’t,” she whispered.
Ryan firmly took her hands again. “You can,” he said. “The paintings of his visions. What did they look like?”
“Um, well, he painted the ash man. Shane what did you do with that painting?” The last time Lark had seen it, it had been lying on Shane’s bed when she went to pick him up at the bar.
“I haven’t seen it,” said Shane.
Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen it when they got back that night. Weird. It was almost as if the painting had ceased to exist...
“The ash man?” asked Ryan.
“The man I made the deal with,” said Shane. “There was a painting that kind of looked like him. It was in my house. But Lark said Jimmy painted it.”
“The ash man,” said Ryan again, only this time it sounded like in r
ecognition. “Tall. Dark. Lots of smoke.”
“Yeah,” said Shane. “That’s familiar to you? You know what I’m talking about?”
Ryan dropped Lark’s hands. “This isn’t good,” he said. “I think I understand what’s going on here.”
“You do?” said Lark.
“My father was the CEO for Halborn,” said Ryan.
“Halborn?” said Lark. Why was that important?
“The company that went bankrupt ten years ago?” asked Tim.
Ryan nodded. “Halborn wasn’t a company. It was an empire. It got to be an empire because my father made a deal with the same being you made a deal with, Shane. The price this man exacted for my father’s fortune was that from time to time, my father’s employees were, well, killed. But their bodies were never found. The reason that the company went bankrupt is that I ended the deal for my father, after the being—your ash man—took my brother’s life.”
“You ended the deal?” asked Shane. “That’s possible?”
“It wasn’t easy,” said Ryan. “And it’s nothing compared to what’s going on here.”
“How did you end the deal?” asked Shane.
“Didn’t your father die around the same time the company went bankrupt?” asked Tim.
Ryan sighed. “My father came to me for help because of my abilities. We were able to end the deal by getting another being to buy out the contract. But what that being wanted in exchange was my father. I didn’t want to do it. But my father felt so guilty about the death of my brother that he agreed.”
Lark’s head was spinning. She had no idea what Ryan was talking about. Maybe it was the trauma of remembering Jimmy, or maybe it was just that everything seemed crazy right now. “I don’t understand any of this,” she said.
“Yeah,” said Chris. “Me either.”
Ryan stood up. “Let me start from the beginning, then. I’ll try to explain. There are other worlds besides this one. You could call them dimensions, maybe if you wanted to use a science fiction term. Things in those worlds are very different than things here. Those worlds function under very different laws than ours does. Since I was a small child, I’ve always been able to see these worlds and to travel into them. My parents thought I just had a very active imagination. But I was also able to read people in our world. I could see things that other people couldn’t see. When I was young, I thought it was a curse, but I’ve come to terms with it. It’s what I am. And I try to use to do as much good as I can.
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