“Harvey! Get me out of here!” she shouted frantically.
Harvey laughed. A menacing laugh. He didn’t show himself. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time!”
Her cries woke Max. He crawled up to her face and sniffed her nose. She was asleep. Butting his head against hers, he tried to wake her. Instead of waking up, Danielle’s head moved frantically from side to side as she cried out in her sleep.
Max meowed pitifully. Sadie opened her eyes and looked at the mewing cat. She almost closed her eyes and went back to sleep, but Max leapt at her, swatting her nose with his paw. Jerking awake, Sadie started to growl at Max but then noticed he seemed preoccupied with Danielle.
Danielle cried out in her sleep again. Sadie leapt up and nosed her ear while Max persistently butted the side of her face. Yet, neither one was able to wake her.
Max looked at Sadie and let out a loud meow. Sadie jumped off the bed, racing to the attic to find Walt. Max stayed by Danielle’s side, his damp nose pressed against her cheek.
Walt made it to Danielle’s room before Sadie, who had to run back down the attic stairs and down the hall. He found Danielle tossing in her sleep, tears running down her face.
Sitting on the side of the bed, Walt looked down at Danielle. “Wake up Danielle, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up.”
She refused to wake up. Instead, her head tossed from side to side as she let out pitiful sobs. Walt had never seen her this way before. Closing his eyes, he tried to hop into her dream. But it was as if a door was firmly closed and he couldn't enter her sleep. Frustrated, he looked to Sadie.
“Go get Lily. Wake her up. Bring her in here. Let’s see if she can wake Danielle up.”
Sadie leapt off the bed and raced to Lily’s room.
Lily had only been asleep for thirty minutes when Sadie jumped into her bed.
“What the—” Lily bolted upright, rubbed her eyes, and looked around the room.
Sadie nipped at Lily’s blanket, pulling it from the bed.
“Sadie! Stop that!” Lily jerked on the blanket, inadvertently entering into an unwanted game of tug of war with her boyfriend’s dog. She was about to yell at Sadie again when she heard a loud meow at the doorway. It wasn’t quite a meow—more a cat’s tortured battle cry.
Confused, Lily muttered, “What is going on?”
Sadie released the blanket and raced to the door. Looking back at Lily, she barked and then dashed from the room. When Lily did not get out of the bed, Sadie returned and barked again, Max by her side.
Shaking her head, Lily stumble out of bed and made her way from her room into the hallway. Once in the hallway, she noticed the light on in Danielle’s room. Sadie and Max sat by Danielle’s bedroom door, waiting for her. Unease washed over Lily. She raced to Danielle’s room and found her asleep, yet obviously in the throes of a violent nightmare.
Without a second thought, Lily jumped onto Danielle’s bed and started shaking her. It took a few minutes, but finally Danielle woke up. She looked at Lily and broke into a fresh round of tears. Throwing her arms around Lily, Danielle held on tightly, tears soaked Lily’s shoulders.
“There were snakes, Lily! So many snakes!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Danielle sat alone on the porch swing, wrapped in a quilt. Sadie and Max slept together on the ground by her feet. She looked up when she heard the front door open and close.
Lily walked to her, carrying two cups of coffee. “Here.” Lily handed Danielle a cup and then sat next to her on the porch swing.
“Sorry about last night.” Danielle held the cup between her hands, soaking up its warmth.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Lily insisted.
“Did Ian get off okay?”
“Yeah. He left really early this morning for the airport, that’s why I had him leave Sadie with us last night.”
“I’m glad you did.” Danielle looked down at the animals by her feet and smiled.
“What are you going to do?”
Danielle looked over to Lily. “What do you mean?”
“You’re never going to get any sleep if you have to worry about some maniac spirit hopping in your dreams and giving you nightmares.”
“I figure the only thing I can do, drive out to Pilgrim’s Point.” Danielle sipped her coffee.
“Why do you think he wants you to drive out there?”
Danielle shrugged. “I don’t know. The only thing I can think of, it’s where Darlene was killed.”
“Do you think Harvey has some connection to Darlene?”
“Just that one of her co-conspirators was found murdered in the house he haunts.”
“So you think this has something to do with her?”
Danielle shook her head. “I really don’t know what to think.”
“The idea of going out there is kind of creepy. I wish Ian was here so he could go with us.”
“You don't have to go with me, Lily.”
“Are you kidding?” Lily frowned. “I’m not going to let you go out there by yourself. Although, maybe you should give the chief a call and let him know what’s going on.”
“I really can’t do that.”
Lily looked at Danielle. “Why not?”
“The chief is on vacation leave, and he’s leaving tomorrow. I don’t want to bother him with all this.”
“Bother him? If he hadn’t asked you to help him, you would never have gotten involved with that Harvey monster and had that horrible nightmare!”
“I don’t think Harvey is a monster exactly.” Danielle took another sip of coffee.
“Not a monster? Dani, you were terrified last night.”
“Harvey may have been born decades ago, but mentally he’s nothing more than an immature adolescent, one with serious unresolved issues, considering he’s been haunting Presley House for years. I should have handled it differently last night.”
“I am surprised about one thing.” Lily stared down at the coffee in her hands.
“What’s that?”
“Last night you were aware it was a dream hop. You knew the snakes weren’t real, and still, you were utterly terrified.”
“Yeah…” Danielle sighed. “I guess with some phobias even imaginary can be frightening.”
“I never knew you were so afraid of snakes.”
“It’s not really something I talk about.”
“I’ll share a little trick with you, just in case something like this happens again and we aren’t around to wake you.”
“I sure hope that doesn’t happen again!” Danielle groaned.
“If you can get yourself to yell out, it’ll wake you up.”
“Lily, whenever I try to yell for help in a dream, no sound comes out.”
“Exactly.” Lily nodded. “But, if you really concentrate and focus and force yourself to yell out, you’ll do it. And it’ll wake you up. I know. I’ve done it a few times.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, the last time freaked out Mom.” Lily giggled. “I was staying at my parent’s house and having this dream where I was being chased. I managed to scream, woke myself right up. Only problem, it also woke my parents.”
“That must have shaken them up.”
“Pretty much. “Lily glanced back to the house. “You know, he was really worried about you.”
Danielle looked to the house. “Walt?”
“I knew he sent Sadie to wake me up. I could feel his presence in the room last night. It was—this feeling of urgency, concern—I can’t really explain it, but I know it came from Walt.”
Danielle smiled. “I tell you what Lily, I feel very blessed this morning, in spite of that horrid dream I had last night. I’ve you and Walt, special friends like Ian, wonderful furry protectors like Sadie and Max…”
“You are a regular Polly Anna,” Lily teased
Lily fidgeted with the controls on Danielle’s car radio. She sat in the passenger seat of the Ford Flex while Danielle drove toward Pi
lgrim’s Point.
“The book is in the glove compartment.” Danielle pointed to the dash area in front of Lily. “You’ll find a list of the different Sirius stations somewhere in there.”
Lily opened the glove compartment and pulled out a booklet. “Can’t you control the radio from your steering wheel?”
“Yeah.” Danielle glanced down at the steering wheel. “I just haven’t figured out how to do it exactly.”
Lily sat back in her seat and thumbed through the booklet. “I wish you would have called Joe.”
“Joe? Why would I call him?” Danielle continued to drive the car down the highway.
“You could have had him come with us today.”
“Oh yeah, right,” Danielle said with a snort. “And exactly what would I tell him? ‘Gee, Joe, I had a dream last night,’ I don’t think so.”
Lily shrugged and flipped a page in the booklet.
“Almost there,” Danielle announced.
Looking up, Lily leaned forward and opened the glove compartment again. After tossing the booklet back inside, she closed the glove compartment and leaned back in the seat. “It is pretty up here.”
“Yeah.” Danielle slowed down and looked to the west. Running parallel to the highway was the Pacific Ocean. Up ahead, they could see Pilgrim’s Point. “There it is.”
Just as Danielle was about to pull off on the viewpoint, she spied a woman standing along the side of the road.
“I wonder if something is wrong,” Danielle said as she pulled off the highway.
“What?” Lily looked around.
“There’s a woman walking along the bluff. I don’t see a car anywhere.” Danielle glanced around as she turned the steering wheel.
“Maybe her car broke down, and she’s walking for help,” Lily suggested. “We should probably see if she’s okay.”
Danielle parked the car. “I could always call someone for her if she needs help.”
Lily looked around. “Where is she?”
Danielle pointed up the road. “Right there. See, a few feet in front of those trees.”
Lily looked in the direction Danielle pointed. “Where? I don’t see her.”
Danielle pointed again. “Right there.” The woman stood about 200 feet away from their car.
Squinting her eyes, Lily looked around. “Where?”
“Dang, Lily, do you need glasses?” Danielle laughed. She pointed to the woman again, yet stopped laughing when the woman turned and faced her.
“Oh crap,” Danielle muttered, clutching the steering wheel tightly.
“What is it?” Lily frowned. She still didn’t see the woman.
“I know now why you don’t see her.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s Darlene.” Danielle stared at the ghost.
Darlene’s blond hair and the skirt of her long white dress seemed to be fluttering in the wind—yet the air was still. There was no breeze. The ghost, her back to the cliff overlooking the ocean, stared at Danielle, her face expressionless. She stepped backwards once and then again, moving closer to the edge of the cliff while never looking away from Danielle.
Danielle let out a little gasp when Darlene took one final step backwards, dropping effortlessly off the side of the cliff, disappearing from sight.
“What happened?” Lily asked.
Danielle’s heart raced. Although she knew Darlene was already dead, witnessing her dramatic exit was more than a little unnerving.
“She just stepped off the cliff,” Danielle explained. “Backwards. She was just standing there, staring at us and then took several steps backwards and dropped out of sight.”
“Is this why Harvey wanted you to come up here?”
“I don’t know. But I think I have to go over there and look over the cliff.”
“Dani, do you think that’s a good idea?”
“That’s why we came, isn't it?”
“Is it?” Lily asked. “Maybe we should go home.”
“I don’t think there is anything to be afraid of. Darlene wants to show me something. I’d bet on it.”
“But she was killed when she fell off that cliff the first time! I don’t think we need to be walking along that bluff!”
“Lily, Darlene was killed when Chuck smashed her skull with a paperweight. I imagine if I fell off the cliff—which I don’t intend to do—there are enough shrubs and bushes to help break my fall. You stay here.” Danielle unhooked her seatbelt.
“No, I’m going to go with you,” Lily insisted as she too unhooked her seatbelt.
“I’d rather you stay here with the car. Just in case.” Danielle opened her car door.
“Just in case of what?” Lily asked nervously.
“I really don’t know. But here are the keys.” Danielle tossed Lily her key ring. She opened the car door and started to step out. Pausing she looked at Lily. “You have your cell phone with you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t expect anything to happen but just in case. Well, you know what to do.” Danielle got out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, she started walking in the direction of the cliff.
The sound of waves hitting the rocky beach below filled her ears. It grew louder with each step she took toward the bluff. When she was about twenty feet from where Darlene had dropped off, she paused a moment and looked back at her car. Lily sat in the passenger seat, anxiously watching her.
Turning back to the cliff, Danielle startled when she came face to face with Darlene, who stood less than two feet away.
“You again,” Darlene said.
“I thought you had moved on.”
“I had something I needed to do first.” Darlene smiled.
“And did you do it?”
“Yes.” Darlene glanced back to the cliff.
“Then why are you still here?”
“I’ve just been waiting for someone to come by. I had no idea it would be you—someone who could actually see and hear me.”
“Why did you need someone to come by?”
“To see what I did, of course.” Darlene stared at Danielle a moment. Finally, she asked, “Have you seen Todd?”
“Not since he left. Why? Have you seen him?”
“He’s angry with me. He moved on without me. When marriage vows say until death do you part, it’s true.”
“You did kill him,” Danielle reminded.
“So? I’m dead now too, you would think that would even things out.”
Danielle glanced back at the car. Lily was still watching her. She looked back to Darlene. “Okay, what do you want to show me?”
“It’s over there.” Darlene pointed to the edge of the cliff where she just a moment before had stepped off.
“Fine, but no funny business,” Danielle warned.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Darlene frowned.
“Don’t be trying to shove me off the cliff or anything.”
“Shove you off the cliff?” Without warning, Darlene leaned forward and pushed at Danielle. Effortlessly, her hands passed through Danielle’s body. “You mean like that?”
Danielle smiled. Darlene, like Angela, was unable to harness her energy in the same way Walt had.
“I don’t know why that makes you smile,” Darlene snapped. “Even if I could push you off a cliff, why would I? How could you help me then? And don’t you think I’m in enough trouble all ready?”
“Fair enough. Okay, show me what you want me to see.”
In a huff, Darlene turned from Danielle and marched to the cliff. She pointed down the hill. Danielle followed her to the cliff and looked down. Teetering precariously on a shelf midway between the top of the cliff and the shore was an upside-down black sports car, its cab so severely smashed Danielle could not imagine anyone had survived the accident.
Danielle looked back to where Darlene had been standing; she was going to ask if anyone was in the car, but Darlene was no longer there.
Chapter Twenty
-Four
The air had been still when they had first arrived at Pilgrim’s Point, yet now the breeze sent the treetops to dancing and repeatedly blew Lily’s hair into her face, which she stubbornly brushed back, over and over again. Danielle, whose hair was neatly confined in a fishtail braid, was spared the annoyance.
“If someone was in that car, I don’t see how they could still be alive,” Lily said as she and Danielle stood by the red Ford Flex, waiting for the police to arrive.
“I keep thinking, maybe whoever was driving flew out before the car landed, and they got out of there alive. Maybe they just haven’t returned to get their car.”
“Don’t you think the police would have told you that when you called?” Lily asked.
Danielle sighed sadly. “Yeah. You are probably right.
“I wonder whose car it is.”
“I can’t think of anyone around here who drives a black sports car.” Danielle pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and checked the time. “I wish they would hurry up.”
“Is this why Harvey wanted you to come here? Is there some connection between him and Darlene? Or whoever owns the sports car? And why is Darlene still here?”
“If Darlene hadn’t said what she did, I would make two assumptions. One, that she is currently haunting this place because it’s where she died. And two, she just happened to witness the accident. So seeing her today wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with Harvey or the black sports car.”
“What did she say?”
“She said something about wanting me to see what she had done. As if she was responsible for the accident.”
“Well, that’s just creepy.” Lily shuddered.
“Although that doesn’t make sense either. There is no way a spirit—one who is unable to harness her energy—could cause a car accident.”
The sound of sirens roaring up the highway in their direction momentarily silenced them. They both looked in the direction of the sound. A moment later, several police cars, followed by an ambulance, came into view.
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