“Do what?” June asked, turning around to look at her.
“The séance. We should do it at four tomorrow afternoon.”
“It’s the summer solstice tomorrow,” Chris said, his voice quiet.
Jim snickered and then chugged the rest of his drink. He wiped his mouth on his arm. His eyes were bloodshot and sunken, even more than the night before. “You guys sound like a bunch of fucking kooks. Can you imagine what the police would say if they saw you holding a séance in here tomorrow? They’d lock you up and throw away the key.”
Mark ignored him. “I think you’re right, Lara. We need to do it, and soon.” He glanced at Chris. “The Lewises seemed to have put some stock in this solstice business, so doing it tomorrow would make sense, too.”
Jim slammed his glass down on the table hard enough that everyone jumped. “Can you hear yourselves? Jesus Christ!” He moved unsteadily toward the door, almost tripping. Mark raised his hands as if to help him, and Jim jerked away from him, glaring. “Don’t touch me.”
“Jim—” Mark said.
“And don’t talk to me, either.” He looked at Emily. “I’m taking half of the journals into my room. You can do whatever you want with the rest of them, but I don’t want to be around any of you anymore.” He frowned at Mark. “I thought we were friends, Mark. I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.”
“Jesus, Jim, calm down for a second—”
Jim made a cutting motion with his hand. “Shut up, Mark. If you keep talking to me, I’m not sure what I’ll do.” He took a wary step away from everyone. “And the rest of you should think about having your head examined if you go along with his bullshit.”
With that, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The five of them looked at each other in silence for a long moment.
“So,” Mark said, finally. “Tomorrow at four.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Emily set her alarm to go off an hour before sunrise, but when it started blaring, she almost screamed. June also jerked awake, startled and peering around for danger. She finally laughed and reached across Emily to turn off the alarm before giving her a long, deep kiss.
“Good morning.” Her voice was still scratchy with sleep.
Emily smiled. “Good morning.”
June flopped back onto the pillows and threw an arm over her eyes. “Do we have to get up? We just went to sleep.”
They had, in fact, been up very late. First, they’d been discussing the séance, and then the police had knocked, explaining that they were bringing in some volunteers for the evening search. Emily and the others had made pots and pots of coffee and given out sandwiches and water until about one in the morning, when the search was put on hold. It had taken a while for everyone to leave, so by the time they finally went to bed, they could only sleep a couple of hours.
“We have to get up, June,” she said. “I want to see the solstice sunrise. Maybe we can come back to bed after it’s over.”
June flung her arm off her eyes and laughed. “Fat chance. Those search-and-rescue people will be back by then. In fact, we’ll be lucky to get any sleep tonight, either.” June turned her head toward her, frowning. “How long do you think they’ll look for Harry? I mean before…”
“Before they give up?” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Three days? Four? It probably depends.”
June groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. “What a fucking mess. God, I wish we’d never brought him here.”
She warmed with affection. She and Mark had brought Harry here, not any of the others, yet June seemed to be taking on the same blame as she did for herself. She leaned forward and kissed her again, and this time, when she moved away, she didn’t see sleepiness in June’s eyes.
June grinned, coyly. “Do you think Chris would mind if we took a few more minutes?”
“Is that all you need?”
* * *
By the time they joined the others outside by the gardens, the sky was already starting to light up with a warm, pink glow. She and June hadn’t had time to shower or eat, and her hair was a snarl of tangles and sweat. Lara, however, was fresh and clean, her hair falling in soft dark waves on her shoulders.
Everyone was standing at the far end of the alignment line through the gardens, facing the point at which the sun would rise above the flower garden. Chris had imbedded a tall wooden pole in the grass on that end to give them a line of sight to watch.
He pointed above the tree line. “As you can see, the trees are completely filled in there, but I went out and poked around in the woods a little yesterday with Lara. At least at one time, they were cut back pretty significantly in that direction. A hundred years ago, when the Lewis children were here, it’s probable there were no trees all the way to edge of their property. A line would have been cut straight through the woods to give someone a clear view of the sunrise on the horizon.”
“These Lewises are getting weirder and weirder,” June said, shivering. Without the sunshine, the morning air was surprisingly chilly.
“So what will we be able to see today?” Mark asked. “With all these trees, I mean?”
“I’ve adjusted the pole I put in the ground there to account for the trees, as best as I can, so when the sun clears the tree line, we should see it align there right above it.” Chris pointed.
“How long will that be?” Lara asked, squinting.
Chris glanced at his watch. “At least another ten minutes. I had to approximate a bit. It could have been perfect if I had more of my surveying equipment here, but I didn’t have time to go get it yesterday. I hope I didn’t screw it up.”
Mark clapped him on the back. “I’m sure it will be fine, Chris.”
Chris smiled at him gratefully, and Emily felt a happy rush of affection for everyone here. Lara was still a bit of a newcomer, but Emily felt closer with June, Mark, and Chris than she did with her own family. Something about the situation had dissolved barriers between her and the others. She knew they felt it, too. Things would have been perfect if Jim was out here with them, but he hadn’t come, and no one expected him to after last night. She frowned as she thought about him. They needed to reach out to him, but how? Wrapped up in these thoughts, she almost missed it, but she heard June gasp and looked up and over at the pole just as the sun cleared the trees.
The brightness of the sun immediately hurt her eyes. But for a second, before she was forced to look away, she saw an exact alignment between the sun and the pole Chris had planted in the ground. Suddenly, the gardens seemed to make sense in a way they hadn’t before, and she stared at the spiraling paths with new interest. Whoever had designed them had been thinking of this moment, once a year, when the sun would fall on them precisely as it did now, and for a second she could see it. Each spiraling and curving path lit up, one by one, gradually filling with sunlight. A pattern formed there—something different than she’d seen before, something more beautiful because it was revealed only in the rising light. Finally, the sunlight reached the far edge of the gardens, and the impression she’d had faded almost before she was aware of it. Now everything looked like plants and flowers again.
“Incredible,” Mark said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Chris said, tears in his eyes. She felt like crying herself, and she knew nothing about gardens or plants.
“But why?” June asked. She gestured at the gardens. “Why go through all this bother? That lasted what, five minutes? Now they’re just like any other gardens.”
“It must have meant something to them,” Lara suggested. “This day, I mean. It’s the solstice, and that might be enough, but it was probably something personal, too.” Lara looked at her. “Was it someone’s birthday today?”
She shrugged. “Actually, except for Margot’s, which is in May, I don’t know when their birthdays were.” She turned to Mark. “Do you? Did you find them in the records in town?”
Mark shook his head. “I didn’t get a chance. We found the year
s and months they were born and died, but not the birth days. Julia died in June of 1925, and Nathan in July of 1919, if I remember right from the obituaries. Maybe Julia died on the twenty-first. I don’t know for sure.”
“Well, the birthdays could be worth looking into, anyway,” Lara said. “We might not find any reason for this elaborate setup in the end. They might have simply been interested in pagan ritual, but it’s possible this date has special meaning for them.”
Sounds from the distance made all of them turn back toward the house, but as it blocked their view of the road and driveway, Emily could only assume they were hearing the searchers returning. They’d given a gate key to the head of the search team so he could let himself and the others in and out at their convenience. She heard June’s sigh and had to stifle her own. It had been so much better when it was just the six of them. This was, she thought, their punishment for bringing in an outsider.
She shivered, suddenly ashamed of herself. Harry was probably dead, and her first thought had been for her own comfort, not for his. She saw similar expressions of guilt mixed with dread on the faces of the others. She was certain they’d thought the same thing.
“Let’s get this over with,” Mark said, starting toward the house.
“Wait a second, Mark,” Lara said. “We all agreed to do the séance this afternoon, but Jim’s right, at least in one way.”
“How so?” June asked.
“It’s going to be hard to do it with all these people around. And he’s also right about being caught. None of us want to have to explain ourselves.”
“What do you propose?” Mark asked.
“We need a lookout, maybe more than one.”
Everyone seemed equally puzzled, and Mark frowned. “You mean one or two of us would sit out of the séance?”
She nodded.
“It should be Emily,” June said.
She looked at June sharply and opened her mouth to protest, but Lara was already shaking her head. “No, June, I’m sorry, but Emily has to be there.” Lara met her eyes. “I’ve managed to talk to everyone about their experiences but you and Jim, Emily, and everyone else has more or less said the same thing—that the house is focused on you somehow. It’s crucial for you to be there.”
She was happy to have a reason to agree and nodded.
“Who, then?” June asked. Her face was spotted with color, and she was clearly fighting her own anger.
“Well, it can’t be me, and it can’t be Emily,” Lara said. “And ideally, we would have four people at the table. Less than that is supposed to be dangerous, at least according to what I’ve read.”
“Only five of us here,” June said. “How can we have two lookouts if we need four people at the table?”
“Jim,” Lara said. “Someone needs to talk to him.”
Emily and the others looked at each other guiltily. Things had gotten progressively worse for Jim the last few days, and everyone knew it. She had seen the changes in him even before they’d been locked in her bedroom together. He was drinking too much and obviously hadn’t been sleeping well, if at all. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and they all knew it. They should have talked to him days ago, if not sooner, but everyone, like her, had avoided him.
“I’ll talk to him,” Mark said, resigned.
Emily shook her head. “No. I’ll do it. It has to be me.”
“Why?”
She paused, unable to explain easily. “He’s got something against you now, Mark. You saw it last night. If you’d tried to stop him, he would have taken a swing at you.” She remembered, suddenly, that he’d actually become violent with her before, that night outside his room, and some of her certainty drained away. She made herself go on, though. “I think he’ll take it better from me.”
“What will you say?” June demanded. “What could you possibly do? Get him to stop drinking?”
She took June’s hand. “I don’t think that’s possible, but I can try to talk some sense into him. He’s part of this. He just doesn’t want to admit it. He’s fighting it for some reason. Maybe I can make him accept things. We’re stronger together, all of us.”
They walked back to the house, going in via the front door in order to check in briefly with the searchers. After a quick greeting, June, Lara, and Emily went inside and left Chris and Mark to talk to the men and women in the search party. Emily was surprised to see the doors to the sitting room propped open again, and when she looked in there, she saw Jim staring out the front window, drinking already despite the hour. She gestured for Lara and June to leave her alone with him, and June reluctantly followed Lara into the dining room. She took a deep breath and walked into the sitting room.
Jim must have heard her, but he didn’t turn around. He continued to stare out the window, standing in profile to her. She took a few steps closer but kept a cushion of space between them. Even from here, she could smell his sour stink. His clothes and hair were a mess. The hand that lifted his drink to his mouth was trembling, and an overwhelming pity swept through her.
“Jim, we need your help.”
He laughed, bitterly, and finally turned toward her. The pity she’d felt evaporated in a sweeping blaze of horror. His eyes were completely crazed, the grin on his lips crooked and false.
“You don’t need my help, Emily. None of you do. I saw you all outside together. You seemed to be getting along fine without me.”
“Jim, we wanted you out there. You didn’t have to stay inside—”
Again he laughed, and a sneer replaced his grin. He turned and took a step toward her. “Like I said, I saw you guys. You’re like one big, happy, multi-racial family. You were happy I wasn’t there. Relieved, even.”
She couldn’t help but take a small step backward to recover some space between them. Already, she knew this had been a mistake. She had to fight the temptation to turn and look behind her for the doorway.
“That’s not true, Jim. I can’t speak for the others, but I was wishing you were there the whole time.”
His sickly grin returned, his bloodshot eyes narrowing. “You actually expect me to believe that? You’re here because you need something from me.” His grin faded, once again replaced with a sneer of disgust. “I also saw you and June, holding hands, dashing out there late because you stayed in bed fucking around.” He turned his head and spat on the carpet. “Disgusting. Nothing worse than dykes.” He stepped closer, gesturing at her with his drink. “You don’t need me for anything, Emily, when you’ve got that fine piece of ass to use.” He shook his head, clucking his tongue. “Real shame that, but I guess you never can tell these days.” Now he smiled. “Though I can see which side you butter your toast on, and it ain’t with dick, that’s for sure.”
She risked a glance behind her and continued to back up. She raised her hands a little in a warding-off gesture. “Listen, Jim, you’re drunk. I’m going. I don’t think you mean any of this.”
His broad smile made his chapped lips crack a little, and a tiny bead of blood formed at a corner of his mouth. “Oh, I mean it, all right. Every word.”
He had erased most of the space between them and stood perhaps three feet away. She had to fight the urge to run away, but that might be an overreaction. At this point, he was simply being insulting, not physical.
“So tell me,” he said, “what you want from me. It can’t be this, after all.” He grabbed himself between his legs and then laughed, his head thrown back.
She took the opportunity to turn, but she wasn’t fast enough. He snatched her shoulder, spinning her toward him.
“Hey!” he said, his spittle hitting her face. “Don’t leave when I’m talking to you, you cunt!”
She struggled, and he dropped his drink, the glass landing with a heavy clunk but not breaking. His hands now free, he held her by both shoulders, his fingers painful. He jerked her hard, twice, snapping her teeth, then stopped, dragging her toward him and leaning down into her face, close enough to kiss her.
Wh
en he spoke, he was almost screaming. “What do you want from me? Huh? What do you want?”
“Jim!” June called from the doorway. “Let her go!”
Jim was startled, and Emily pushed his chest as hard as she could. His fingers slipped off her shoulders, and she almost got away before his hands clamped down, this time on her throat.
The pain was immense and startling, closing off sense and thought, leaving only instinct and panic. She clawed at his face and arms and jerked back and forth until he squeezed hard enough to make her knees go weak with pain. His face was a mask of rage and stupid brutality, but his eyes were distant, unseeing.
She had a vague memory of a self-defense class she’d taken in college. She’d been taught how to get out of a choke hold but couldn’t remember how. The pain and lack of air were making her stupid. Lara and June appeared on either side of him, yanking his arms to get his hands off her throat, but the knowledge and understanding of what that meant was starting to slide away into the haze of pain.
Tiny pinpricks of light appeared in her vision, and her chest started to feel tight and hot. In a final effort to push him away from herself before she lost consciousness, she put her hands on his chest and felt something in his pocket: the little lead soldier. Her fingers were too weak and uncoordinated to get it out, so she pulled down on the pocket until it ripped off, the toy falling to the ground.
Jim let go immediately, and everyone fell into a pile of limbs on the ground. She scooted away as fast as she could, clutching her throat. June gave Jim one more push away and then came to her, folding her into her arms and howling in fright and relief. Lara had gotten back on her feet and was bent at the waist, trying to catch her breath.
“You monster!” June screamed at him. “You fucking animal!”
“June,” Emily tried to say, but her voice came out in an almost inaudible croak, the pain so intense she stopped trying to talk. She clutched at her throat again, tears springing to her eyes.
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