by Paul Seiple
“Kim?”
She ignored Terrence. “Dad, do you see something?”
“Nope,” Sam said and went back to eating.
“Dad, be honest with me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Terrence asked.
Sam shoveled lasagna in his mouth, refusing to look in the direction of the empty chair.
“It’s OK, Dad. I see him too.”
A little boy wearing a red Speed Buggy shirt and a baseball cap with the word Superfriends embroidered on it sat in the chair, rocking his head from side to side while flashing an innocent smile.
Sam put the fork down. “It’s Joey Carpenter.”
The little boy started to kick his heels against the legs of the chair.
“How long have you been seeing him?” Kim asked.
Before Sam could answer, the boy opened his mouth. He didn’t have teeth; it was just a black hole. Kim felt the air leave her body. Her knees weakened. She fell to the floor. Terrence hovered over her in an attempt to protect Kim.
“She has nothing to do with this. You leave her alone,” Sam said.
The little boy closed his mouth. Kim gasped for air.
“It’s me you want. I sent him to Hell,” Sam said.
The boy stood up. “You say that like it’s a bad thing, Gramps.”
“You can take me. Leave Kim alone,” Sam said.
The boy picked up a plate of spaghetti and flung it against a wall. “I’ll take whoever I want, old man. And there’s not one fucking thing you can do to stop me.” The voice was more of a growl.
“What’s happening?” Terrence said, helping Kim to her feet.
“He’s talking to Dad, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.”
“You’ve never known the feeling of losing a child,” the boy said. “Missing your loved one so much. Never getting to see them again. But you will. I’m going to take your daughter. You don’t have much time left in this world, but what time you have will be spent in misery.”
The boy got up from the table and walked toward Sam. Kim tried to stop him, but as she got close, the boy opened his mouth and spit out a fine mist. Wetness latched on to her throat as two hands materialized. The fingers elongated. There was a tingle against Kim’s neck followed by a tight grip. She gasped and reached for her throat.
“Leave her alone,” Sam said, trying to stand, but the boy shoved him back down.
Terrence thought something was forcing Kim to choke herself. He tried to pry her hands from her throat, but an intense cold grabbed his hands, splitting the skin of his index finger. He jerked his arms back, flinging blood against the refrigerator.
Kim used the last breath she could muster to tell Terrence not to touch her. She fell to the floor and started to shake as if she were having a seizure.
“Do you see how easy it is to take your daughter, old man?” the boy whispered to Sam. His breath smelled of rotten meat. “I’m not heartless, though. “ The boy laughed, filling the kitchen with the odor of death. “I’ll let you say your goodbyes.”
The hands faded from Kim’s throat. Her chest lurched. She coughed and dry-heaved.
“I’ll be back for her soon.” The boy pulled Sam’s chair out from under him.
Sam fell. His back hit first, and then his head snapped against the floor.
“Dad?”
Kim was too weak to go to her father. Terrence crawled over to him, leaving puddles of blood on the tile.
“Sam, you OK?”
“Kim?” Sam barely managed to get the words out.
Terrence shifted his attention to Kim, who had propped herself against the refrigerator.
“She’s fine,” Terrence said. “I’m getting you two out of here.”
Fourteen
The crying began just after Norma Tate dozed off. She lay for hours in bed, staring at the cracks in the wall. She worried there could be problems with the foundation. The real estate agent wasn’t exactly forthcoming about the problems with the house. Maybe she was in cahoots with the home inspector. Norma beat herself up for not doing a more thorough check on the house before buying it. But she fell in love with the place. A better look into the history, and she would surely have found the cause for the haunting.
It was something she didn’t want to accept, but Norma admitted to herself that her new home was haunted. She opened her eyes. Her first thought was Sara. Norma swung her legs off the side of the bed. Something brushed against her ankles, filling her with fear. It was just the bedspread. She slipped her feet into her slippers and followed the sound of crying, leading her to Sara’s room. When Norma was just outside Sara’s door, the crying moved to the opposite end of the hall. She eased the door open to see Sara sleeping, clutching her toy monkey, Zira. Norma shut the door without waking her daughter.
A blur down the hallway caught her attention. The white light flickered like a dying bulb. She saw it again. The time, it was coming straight for her. Frozen in fear, Norma closed her eyes. A cold mist slapped her face. It was followed by a whisper.
“We were once lost. But now, we’ve found each other.”
The light above Norma started to flicker. There was a pop. The hallway went pitch black. It took a few seconds for Norma’s eyes to adjust. At the end of the hall, twelve small handprints glowed in darkness.
“This can’t be real. I have to be dreaming,” Norma said.
A scream from Charlie’s room reminded Norma this really was happening. She ran to Charlie. The door was locked.
“Let me in, Charlie,” Norma said.
“I can’t. She won’t let me.”
Norma jerked the knob, rattling the casing around the door.
“Help me. She’s going to kill me,” Charlie said.
Norma banged against the door with her shoulder. She wasn’t strong enough to break through. She backed up to get a running start. When she hit the door, it flung open. Norma stumbled into the room and fell to her knees.
Charlie was backed into a corner, using a pillow as shield. Sara stood in front of him holding a butcher knife.
“Sara, honey, put the knife down,” Norma said.
“It’s not Sara,” Charlie said. “It’s that ghost.”
“Charlie’s been bad, Mama,” the little girl said, tapping her fingers on the knife’s blade. “He made Daddy fall, and now Daddy is going to die. “
“Daddy’s going to die?” Sara asked, standing in the doorway.
Norma turned to see her daughter behind her. And something that looked like Sara in front of her.
“Shut up.” The little girl’s voice was loud and deep. It rattled the windows. “This is all your fault.”
“Leave us alone,” Sara said.
“All I wanted was for us to be friends,” the little girl said. “But you had to fuck things up, you little brat. Now I’m going to have to kill your family, so you can experience the loneliness I feel.”
The little girl raised the knife. Charlie cowered. Norma dove at the girl. The knife hit the floor. Norma slammed into the side of Charlie’s bed.
“Mom.” Charlie ran to Norma.
“I’m fine. Come on; we are getting out of this house.” Norma turned to say something to Sara. She wasn’t there. “Come on, honey.” Norma, holding Charlie’s hand, ran down the hall to Sara’s room. The girl was still asleep, clutching her stuffed animal.
“Sara, honey, wake up for Mommy.”
Sara didn’t flinch. Norma gently shook her.
“Mommy?” Sara attempted to focus.
“Honey, we have to go.”
Sara got out of bed, rubbing her face. “Jessica did something, didn’t she?”
Norma took Sara’s hand. She walked with her children downstairs. When she tried to open the front door, she couldn’t. “I can’t get it open.” She shook the knob feverishly.
“I’ll check the back door,” Charlie said.
“No, we stay together,” Norma said.
Children’s giggling echoed off the bare walls.
<
br /> “What’s that?” Charlie asked.
“It’s Jessica,” Sara said. “She’s mad.”
Norma picked up a box of unpacked books. “Stand by the couch.” She flung the box at the window. The window didn’t break. Norma grabbed another book.
“She’s not going to let us leave,” Sara said.
The box of books opened. A copy of Stephen King’s The Shining flew by Norma’s head and smashed into a picture of the Tates, on vacation at Disney World, placed on a piano across the room. The sound of shattering glass caused Norma to huddle over her children. Another book barely missed her. A third hit her in the knee. Norma doubled over to grab her leg, leaving Charlie and Sara in the line of flying books. A fourth book slammed into the ceiling and dropped to the floor. Then the chaos stopped.
“Are you all right?” Norma asked, pushing her children away to inspect them for injuries.
“I’m fine,” Charlie said. “Let’s go now.”
Norma took her children’s hands and started again toward the front door. Sara didn’t move, causing Norma’s arm to jerk.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
Sara pointed. “Jessica is at the door.”
“I don’t see anything,” Norma said.
Charlie broke free from Norma and stood behind the couch. “I see her. She’s smiling. Her teeth look like snakes.”
Jessica cocked her head as if she didn’t understand what Charlie said and then started walking toward him.
“Get away from me,” Charlie said, backing up.
Norma couldn’t see the ghost child, but she stepped in front of her son to shield him.
“Don’t do that,” Sara said. “She will hurt you.”
The hairs on Norma’s arms pricked up. A tingling sensation crawled over her flesh and nibbled at her neck. When she slapped at it, it went away. “Where is it?”
“She’s beside you, to you left,” Sara said.
Norma’s earlobe tingled, and then it felt as if someone was tracing the outline of her ear with a fingertip. She fought back the urge to brush it away.
“What’s it doing?” Norma asked.
The ghost girl’s legs stretched to the point that she was face to face with Norma, who stood about five-feet-eight. Jessica leaned in and whispered to Norma.
“You can’t save your children. Their fate will be the same as mine.”
“Like hell I can’t.” Norma swung in the direction of the whisper. Her arm pushed through a fine mist. The residue stung her skin like a swarm of bees. Shaking her arm only made the pain intensify.
“You hit her,” Sara said.
Jessica split in half at the waist. Her legs disappeared. Her torso floated towards the ceiling.
“Where is it now?” Norma asked through gritted teeth.
“It looks like she’s going upstairs,” Sara said.
Norma turned to Charlie, who was frozen in fear. She shook him. “Honey, I need you to be strong. We are getting out of here.”
Charlie nodded.
“Is it gone?” Norma asked.
Before Sara could answer, the front door opened.
Norma grabbed her children and ran out without saying a word. As soon as they stepped off the porch, the door slammed shut. Rocky was sitting by the car waiting for them.
“Rocky.” Sara hugged the dog’s neck.
“Get him in the car, honey,” Norma said, helping Charlie into the passenger seat.
Sara opened the back door and Rocky jumped in. She followed. Sara watched the house as the car pulled out of the driveway. Jessica, holding the stuffed bear she had given Sara, waved to her from the front porch.
Fifteen
“How’d you sleep?” Terrence, pouring a cup of coffee.
“Honestly, I don’t remember. I don’t remember much about...shit, Dad?”
“He’s fine. I let him have my bed last night. I slept in a chair. He never woke.”
Kim touched Terrence’s forearm. “Thank you.”
Terrence smiled and handed Kim a cup. She sat at the table, running her fingertips along the rim of the mug. “What the hell are we going to do?”
Terrence took a seat beside her. “I don’t know.” He tried to mask the tone of defeat in his voice, but Kim saw through it.
“How’s your finger?”
Terrence held up his hand, flipping his palm to the ceiling and then to the floor. “Fine. As soon as we left your house, it was back to normal.”
Kim took a sip of coffee. “You don’t feel any pain?”
“Nothing. It’s like it never happened.”
“There must be some sort of mistake,” Sam said, walking into the kitchen, wearing Terrence’s robe. “I don’t smell eggs and bacon. Please tell me this is a nightmare.”
Kim laughed. Terrence pulled out another chair. “Have a seat, Sam. I’ll see if I can get some eggs. I don’t have bacon. Turkey sausage, OK?”
“It’ll do, I suppose. I don’t get this whole healthy eating fad, though. Bacon is one of life’s last luxuries,” Sam said.
“Bacon’s not good for you, Dad,” Kim said, placing a cup of coffee in front of Sam.
“Neither is that little asshole that shows up at the house uninvited. I’d rather take my chances with bacon.”
“How long have you seen the Carpenter boy?” Kim asked
“I don’t remember. It’s been a while.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sam blew on the coffee. “I didn’t want you to think that I was any crazier than I already am.” He took a sip. “But you’ve seen him too now, so you’re just as crazy as me.”
Kim placed her hand on Sam’s. “Dad, I don’t think you’re crazy. We think someone has placed a curse on people involved in the Hayes case.”
Sam raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the left. “Come again?”
“Remember the murders I told you about?”
Sam nodded and sipped the coffee.
“Tommy Lloyd was the killer.”
“Jimmy Lloyd’s father?” Sam asked.
Kim nodded. “And then this guy, Luke Barton, drowned at Lake Norman. He was the brother of Jaime Barton. Yesterday, I had to shoot Mary English, the mother of Bradley. She wasn’t herself. If I didn’t shoot her, she would have killed Terry.”
“She hit harder than the entire Steel Curtain,” Terrence said, dumping a pile of turkey sausage onto a plate in from of Sam.
“And there’s the Carpenter boy,” Sam said, cutting into the sausage. “What do we do?”
Kim’s cell phone rang before she could answer. “If this is Judith again, I swear…”
“Miss Strode, it’s Norma Tate. I’m sorry to bother you. I left a message last night…you asked me if I needed anything to call you. Well…” There was silence, as if the connection was lost.
“Norma? You there?”
“I...I think our house is haunted.”
“Where are you now?” Kim asked.
“We are at the Country Inn off 77.”
“I know where it is. Stay put. I’ll be there soon.” Kim tapped END on her phone and noticed the one new voicemail indicator.
“What was that all about?” Terrence asked, piling eggs on top of the sausage on Sam’s plate.
“Grab a doggie bag for Dad. We have to go.”
“Where am I going?” Sam asked, shoveling as many eggs as he could into his mouth.
“I’m taking you to meet a few friends,” Kim said, pulling her blazer over her shoulder.
“I haven’t been to this shopping center in years,” Sam said, rolling down the window of Terrence’s sedan. “Right over there used to Billy’s Burgers. Not the best cheeseburger, but the chili was out of this world.” Sam pointed to the right. “And High’s used to be there. Best chocolate shake I’ve ever had. It’s damn shame they let this place go to hell.”
“You remember all of that, Dad?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I? And there, it used to be Mario’s Meatballs. Your mom and I u
sed to grab pizza there after grocery shopping on Friday nights.”
Terrence pulled the sedan into a parking place in front of THE MUSEUM OF THE UNEXPLAINED.
“What the hell?” Sam stuck his head out of the car.
“Dad, Terrence and I have to go somewhere. You’re going to hang out with a few of our friends for a little while. Is that OK?”
“You’re pushing me off on a babysitter?” Sam asked.
“There some cool stuff in there. You like history. This museum has a ton of it,” Kim said.
“Just don’t touch anything,” Terrence said.
“Yeah, don’t touch anything, Dad.”
The wooden doors opened. Don walked out, waving.
“It’s a trick. You’re putting me in an old folks’ home, aren’t you?” Sam asked.
Kim smiled. “You’ll have fun, I promise.”
“You better hope I do. This fresh air seems to sharpen my mind. I probably won’t forget this,” Sam said.
“Detective Sam Strode, it’s an honor,” Don said, opening the car door.
“Ain’t been a detective for many years. Ass kissing won’t get you anywhere,” Sam said.
“Dad!”
Don laughed. “It’s OK. I’m used to ornery old men. You should see Mason when he doesn’t get his coffee.”
Don opened the car door and extended his hand to Sam, who reluctantly took hold. Terrence and Kim followed them into the museum. Once inside, Sam shed his hostility and broke free from Don.
“All this crap is supposedly haunted?” Sam asked.
“Not supposedly,” Mason said, stepping out from the back room, sipping coffee from a mug resembling a skull with crossbones for a handle.
Sam gawked at a Coronet 4-4 camera from 1957. “You’re telling me this camera is famous for snapping photos of ghosts?”
“Not always,” Mason said, stopping beside Sam. “It was a regular camera that at times photographed apparitions. If one appeared in a photo with someone, that person, or people, died within a year.”
Sam flashed a look of disbelief.
“I take it you don’t believe in the paranormal,” Mason said.
“I believe in evil,” Sam said.
Mason smirked, set the mug on a stack of old magazines, and pulled a binder from a slot in the side of the podium housing the camera. He flipped to a photo and pointed to man standing near a pier. “See anything strange in this picture?”