Witches of Palmetto Point Series Boxset Books 1 - 3: Haunting Charlie, Wayward Spirits and Devil's Snare

by Wendy Wang

  A thick layer of dust coated everything, and the fabrics had faded badly and were stained and shredding in places. A big fat palmetto bug skittered up the wall behind the spindle headboard and Sugar cried out. They were nothing more than flying roaches and oh how she hated them. She used to make her brother Butch kill them because she couldn’t stand the thought of one flying at her and getting caught in her hair. She shivered, and a shadow passed in front of the old-fashioned vanity, drawing her toward it. Her mother’s silver-handled mirror and brush set were still in their tray. She traced a finger through the dust on top of the reflective glass. The shadow had not been anything otherworldly at all — just her father’s strap, hanging from a nail on the wall beside the large vanity mirror. When it had made its way upstairs from the kitchen, she couldn’t remember. She had feared that thick piece of leather so much as a child. It took on a life of its own in her father’s hands, administering discipline and his idea of justice.

  Take it Sugar, Honey’s soft whisper laced through her head. Take it with you.

  “Why?” Sugar asked the empty room. Honey didn’t answer directly, instead the nail bent down and the strap spilled onto the floor. Sugar sighed and picked it up. The strap felt heavy in her hand. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  The bedroom light went out, submerging Sugar in darkness. The hallway light flickered, and downstairs, Sugar heard a door banging.

  Sugar made her way downstairs again. The front door was still closed, so she wove her way through the stacks of junk to the kitchen. Wind hissed through the rusty screen door and the back door swung in the wind, slamming into the kitchen wall. She got hold of the door and started to close it, but the sight of them made her stop. A half-dozen silvery orbs floated at the edge of the woods. Sugar’s body went cold, and she took a step back.

  She’s with them. Help her.

  The front door was locked up tight when Jason arrived. He used the key his mother had given him, letting the three women into the house. He flipped the light switch near the front door and the foyer light flickered before coming on.

  “Charlie!” Jen called up the steps.

  “I doubt she’s in the house,” Jason said. “The door was locked.

  “Uh huh.” Jen nodded, but her tone was dismissive. “Charlie!”

  Jason looked to Lisa, using his hands to gesture his disbelief. Lisa frowned. “Jen, I don’t think she’s here.”

  A gust of wind swept through the hallway and some loose papers and damp leaves swirled into the foyer.

  “What the—” Jason started.

  Daphne peered through the double doors leading to the hallway running beneath the grand staircase. “I think it’s coming from through there.”

  Jason moved toward the kitchen and the three women trailed after him. The back door was wide open causing a tunnel effect. Jason scanned the kitchen, the hair on the back of his neck and arms standing alert. Lisa took hold of the door, stopping it before it banged into the wall. The rain had slowed down, but the storm was far from over. Thunder cracked in the distance, followed closely by a wide streak of lightning.

  “Jason is that your grandma?” Lisa pointed at the screen door. Daphne and Jen crowded behind her. The old woman ambled slowly toward the edge of the woods, taking care not to slip on the slick, wet grass.

  “What?” Jason pushed in front of them. “Oh my God. Gran.” His heart sped up at the sight of her and he was out the door and halfway across the yard before he remembered the women. He threw a quick look over this shoulder and found them trailing closed behind. Jen jogged in front of the other two with her hand shoved into her bag.

  “Gran!” he called. His grandmother reached the edge of the trees before he could shout her name again. The rain fell steady, and he kept having to wipe the cold water from his eyes. He blinked, not sure what he was seeing. Jason slowed for a moment and Jen caught up to him.

  “Do you see that?” he asked. Several pale silver lights bounced among the trees, advancing deeper into the woods.

  “Yes,” Jen said, speaking loudly over the sounds of the storm. “They look like they could be ghost lights.”

  “I don’t like this. Not one bit,” he muttered. A cold lump blocked his throat and his heart beat faster.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s see what they want.”

  They started into the woods again, moving as fast as they could despite the rain. Once he caught up to his grandmother, they were going to have a long chat about storms and following strange lights.

  Chapter 30

  Sugar froze when she spied the man's silhouette in the darkness. Even in the dim gloom of the rain and twilight she knew the motion he made with the tool in his hands. Her heart hammered against the sides of her chest and her whole body went cold. If it weren't for the ghostly lights, she would have moved slower through the underbrush.

  She heard Jason call, “Gran!” his voice caught between the sound of the rain and the wind. He was a determined boy though. She knew he'd catch up with her soon.

  She made her way through the bushes and saplings watching as the man dug in to the mound of dirt with a shovel.

  “I don’t think I can do this Honey,” she murmured. An icy hand pressed against her back between her shoulder blades holding her steady. It gave her a gentle push forward.

  This is how I died.

  Honey's words scratched across Sugar's heart. The pale lights flew away from her, heading toward him. Her fingers tightened around the leather in her hand. This was how her sister died. There was nothing she could do to save Honey. Nothing she could do about the fear and guilt that she ran from for so many years. But she could do something here and now. Rage ignited deep inside her belly. That was someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone's niece that he buried. It had to stop. She had to stop him. Sugar raised her hand, charging forward, her old body complying without complaint. She opened her mouth and began to screech.

  Something pelted her face, rousing her. Her hand searched for the culprit and she pinched bits of mud and sand and tiny stones between her fingertips. Charlie opened her eyes and breathed in the sweet scent of rain and wet soil. Her shoulder ached from lying on her side and she felt something warm against her back but when she tried to move her legs wouldn't comply. She turned her head and saw the shadow of him standing above her, shovel in hand. Her breath came in quick bursts, but only through her nose. Panic threatened to choke her as realization bloomed. Her hands and feet were bound by duct tape. Another shovelful of dirt rained down on her and she instinctively raised her hands in front of her face. She tried to scream, but the sound competed with the thunder and the blood barreling through her ears.

  Think Charlie. Think.

  It wouldn't take long for him to cover her with enough soil to make it impossible to move. A soft groan came from behind her and the girl on the television screen flashed through her mind. There were two of them in this grave. This was how Aldus Talmadge was adding to his collection.

  Charlie swallowed back the bile gathering in her throat. She had already lived through this once in a dream. She squeezed her eyes shut. She had wanted to die so badly two years ago, wanted all the pain in this world to just end. But now there was too much to live for — her son, her family. More than anything she wanted to hug her Uncle Jack’s neck and hang out on Friday nights with her cousins. And how would she ever get to know Jason? Another shovel full of dirt struck her, hitting her hip this time. Hot tears burned a trail from the corners of her eyes. This was not the way her life was supposed to end. She struggled against the duct tape wrapped around her wrists, wriggling it back and forth. If she could get her hands free, maybe she could escape this place.

  Where had Ruth gotten too? Was Talmadge keeping her away? Or maybe he used her to lure her in, further. A cold pang yawned inside her chest, threatening to swallow her whole. If he buried her in this hole — no one would know. She would just become one more trinket in Talmadge’s collection. Under his thumb for eternity.
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  Her hand slipped, the tape loosened just a little, and her knuckle banged against something soft and hard at the same time. Her fingers hunted for the source. Her bag. He hadn’t removed her bag. Fumbling with the flap she pushed her bound hands inside, searching for the bone handled knife. Something smooth and cold brushed against the back of her hand. The stones. Another stab of panic pricked her heart. Jen’s words floated through her head. Once you’ve picked a stone, call on a spirit guide to help you.

  Charlie wrapped her hand around the stone. Breathing in and out through her nose as best she could, she shut out the world around her and the ache in her chest. Would this even work? Did she believe? If she wanted to live, she had to at least try, didn’t she? Yes. Because more than anything, she wanted to live.

  Spirit guide, I don’t know if you can hear me. I don’t know if you really exist. If you do, please help me. Please, help me live.

  Charlie waited — for what she wasn’t sure. An inner voice? An apparition? The silence inside her spread, inky and dark. Tears burned at the back of her throat and the corners of her eyes. She sniffled and moved her hand around the bag, searching for the knife. It looked like she was on her own after all. Finally, her fingers found the ridges of the bone-handled blade. She maneuvered it open and struggled to move it to the right place. Her sweat and the rain had let her stretch it just enough though, and the sharp edge found purchase against the sticky edge of the tape. She pushed her wrists away from each other, making the tape taut. The blade slid through the thick layers of plastic but only a little at a time. Another shovel full of dirt hit her legs.

  Somewhere above her head, light swirled, drawing her attention. She shifted her head. Silvery orbs spun so fast around the man, the light trailed after them, creating a near perfect circle. He stopped digging into the pile and struck at them with his shovel. The orbs swooped closer to his head, the terror on his face was visible only for a brief second in the light, but when the banshee-like scream came from somewhere behind him, he turned his back to her and held his shovel up, ready to strike at whatever was headed his way.

  Chapter 31

  “Break your binding,” a young woman’s voice said. Ruth Mathis appeared, hovering over her legs and a chill settled over her feet.

  “How?” Charlie asked.

  “Break your binding,” Ruth repeated.

  Break your binding. The words hummed through her head. She had heard something similar before. But where? Then she remembered. Brian and his escape tricks.

  Charlie kicked her legs free of as much dirt as she could and scooted onto her back. What had Brian done? She closed her eyes and tried to recall how he’d swung his arms. She’d been so distracted that day.

  Pushing against the young woman lying beside her, she raised her arms above her head and tightened her core. With a swift downward motion, her hands hit her belly and the duct tape gave way but didn’t tear completely. She brought her wrists to her mouth. Her teeth ripped through the piece still holding her wrists together and she spit the sticky tape to the side. Her hands were free. She sat up and used the knife to cut through the tape around her feet.

  Charlie turned to the girl and brushed her wet hair away from her face. “It’s going to be all right. I’m gonna get us out of here.”

  The girl groaned, and her eyes fluttered open for a second and closed again.

  Charlie pushed to her feet and found the hole was only about three feet deep. The orbs still distracted the man, enabling her to pull herself out on the opposite side of the hole.

  When she got to her feet, she readied herself to run, but the motion of the man ducking and shouting at his attacker stopped her. It took a moment to process what she was seeing — Sugar Blackburn was beating the man with what looked like a wide belt. He tried to strike back at her but the silver orbs kept flying at his face.

  Quietly Charlie slunk around the hole. If she could get him around the waist from behind, and grab hold of the shovel’s handle, maybe she could bring him down. She took several breaths and blew out hard on the last one then charged forward.

  Her shoulder connected with his lower back, and she knocked her fist into the back of his knee, narrowly missing the swing of the long shovel handle. She felt his body buckle, and the ground rose to meet them. He tried to push himself up, but Charlie climbed up his body and put her knee in his back. She shoved his head down and straddled him.

  “Sugar! Get the shovel out of his hand.” Sugar stared at her for a second, dumbfounded. The man bucked his body, almost throwing her off. “Sugar! Please! Help me.”

  Sugar moved into action, striking the hand gripping the shovel hard with the strap. He had some sort of brace wrapped around his forearm and he screamed. She yanked the shovel away from him and threw it out of his reach.

  “Gran!” A man’s voice startled both women.

  The man beneath Charlie threw her off his back and she landed hard on her side. He pushed up into a runner’s stance and started to bolt. Charlie grabbed him by his nearest leg in a hammerlock with her ankles and twisted. He fell flat onto his face.

  Jason moved in fast, twisting the man’s arm behind him. He pushed the man down by his neck and knelt, shoving his knee into his back.

  “Charlie, can you get the cuffs hanging from the back of my belt?” Jason asked, sounding calmer than she expected.

  Charlie quickly did as he asked. Jason snapped the cuffs tightly around the man’s wrists.

  “Jason, the girl is here,” Charlie said. “She’s still alive but she's unconscious.”

  Jason nodded, pulled his cell phone from his pocket, and made a call.

  “We'll have officers here shortly,” he said. “Are you all right?”

  Charlie nodded. “Yes.”

  “I’m going back to the house to wait for my team to show up. Can you stay here with her?”

  “Of course,” Charlie said.

  “I’m staying too,” Sugar said dully.

  “You sure, Gran?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. I’ll be back soon.”

  They watched as Jason trudged through the woods with the handcuffed man in tow. Charlie moved in close to Sugar. “You sure you’re all right?”

  Sugar's eyes darted around the woods. The rain had reduced to barely a mist, but fat drops still fell from the leaves. Her hand dangled by her side, still gripping the strap tightly.

  “Yes.” Sugar sounded uneasy. She gave the three young women standing nearby a sideways glance. “Where did they go?”

  Charlie knew exactly who she meant, and she glanced around, looking for the ghostly lights that had led her to this place, but they were gone. Had they moved on? The dread coiling in Charlie’s stomach told her, no. They were still here. Still trapped beneath Aldus Talmadge’s thumb. She touched the old woman’s upper arm. Jen, Lisa and Daphne drew in around them and Jen put her hand in the center of Charlie’s back.

  “I don’t know,” Charlie whispered.

  The first orb appeared to Charlie's left, glowing pale and white. It morphed into the shape of a young woman. One by one the orbs formed a circle around them, becoming apparitions of the young women, they once were. Charlie recognized Ruth and Honey and a fresh pang filled her chest when Daniela, the missing girl she dreamed of appeared.

  The air stilled, and a chill settled around them. Without warning, Lisa screamed and was yanked backwards. Her hands went to her throat, and she gasped and wheezed, trying to catch her breath.

  “Show yourself you coward,” Charlie spat the words.

  Aldus Talmadge appeared behind Lisa, his arm around her neck in a chokehold. She clawed at his arm, but her hands went through him.

  “Let her go,” Charlie said.

  “You think you bested me,” he said his black eyes narrowing. “But you haven't. You have taken something I love and so now I will take something you love.”

  “You do that and I will hunt you for eternity.”

  “You don't have eternity,” he sai
d.

  Charlie pulled the sharp knife from her pocket and unfolded the blade. She pressed it to the skin of her wrist.

  Jen stepped up beside her and put her hand over Charlie's. “No. You are not allowed to do this. There's another way.”

  Jen bent down and dug through the top layer of wet leaves until she found a wide, dry one underneath. She reached inside her bag and retrieved a tiny bit of wet soil.

  “Ms. Blackburn, I need a drop of your blood,” Jen said softly.

  Sugar looked from Charlie to Jen and then to the apparition of her ancestor holding Lisa captive. Sugar nodded her head and held out her hand.

  Jen gently slipped the knife out of Charlie's hand and poked the sharp tip into Sugar's finger. She squeezed the digit tight letting blood drop into the soil on top of the leaf.

  “Are you sure about this?” Charlie asked.

  Jen nodded and turned Charlie's hand palm up. She placed the leaf in the center. She reached inside her bag one more time and pulled out a small baggy of white powder and a lighter.

  “Jen, you should be doing this. I don’t have—”

  “You’re the one he’s attached to. You’re the one that has to stop him. Don’t be scared. It won’t burn you, I promise.” Jen took a large pinch of powder and sprinkled it over the soil and blood, while muttering an incantation. Charlie sniffed and the soft baby scent tickled her nose. Talcum powder. Charlie’s heart beat faster. With a flick of Jen’s lighter, the powder caught fire and flared. Charlie stepped forward with the fireball in her hand and Jen continued the incantation until the inky shadow morphed from the darkness. It loomed up behind Talmadge, morphing into the shape of black robes. The blade of its scythe glimmered with an inner light.