“Now?” Steven asked.
“Better,” Eliza said. “A three.”
“Roy? Jonathan?” Steven asked.
“Four,” Jonathan said.
“Three,” Roy said.
Steven continued up the road until he reached the pull off for the estate. He pulled into and up the driveway, stopping at the chain.
“How about now?” Steven asked. “How do you feel now?”
“Honestly,” Eliza said, “I feel fine. A one or a two.”
“She’s right,” Roy said.
“Same here,” Jonathan said. “I feel perfectly fine.”
“OK, one more time,” Steven said. He pulled the car around and drove back into town. They passed the motel.
“Start telling me the numbers as they change,” Steven said. “What are they now?”
“Five,” said Eliza.
“Six,” said Roy and Jonathan.
He progressed another two blocks past the motel.
“Seven,” said Eliza.
“Eight,” said Roy.
He slowed the car and went another block.
“Pull over,” said Roy, opening his door and heaving. Within moments Eliza had her door open too, coughing and gagging.
When they got back into the car, Steven offered to keep going forward. “I think we know what will happen if I do,” he said.
“And you feel fine, Steven?” Eliza asked.
He turned to look at her. She looked washed out, her face pale and her hands wrapped around her stomach.
“I feel perfectly fine,” Steven said. “And I think if I went another block, you’d all be in worse pain. And if I go back to the motel, it will subside.”
“It’s the tagging,” said Roy. “It’s going to keep us close enough to drain us.”
“Take us back to the motel,” Jonathan said. “I can’t stand this.”
Steven turned the car around and drove back to the motel. He parked in front of his room.
“He’s absolutely right,” Jonathan said. “I’m back down to a four or a five.”
“Then the further we get from the house, the worse we’ll feel,” Eliza said. “Great.”
“We should let Russell and Myrna know,” Steven said.
◊
They all convened in Roy and Steven’s room.
“Do you think the further you get away from the house, the less it drains you?” Myrna asked. “Perhaps it’s relative to how sick you feel. If you feel fine when you’re close to the house, it’s draining you fast. If you feel sick when we’re here at the motel, it’s draining at a slower rate?”
“Perhaps,” Eliza said. “Or maybe it’s the other way around.”
“We could go back to the house,” Jonathan said. “At least we’d feel better.”
“If things don’t improve, I’m going back there,” Myrna said. “I feel awful here. I think it hit me harder than you all. I didn’t even try to leave the motel. I felt so bad.”
“I don’t want to go back,” Russell said. “If we go back as a group, I’ll go.”
“I don’t want to go back either,” Roy said, “but I’m afraid we’re stuck here now, unless one of us wants to try and go further than a mile down the road.”
“It was too painful,” Jonathan said. “Leaving town isn’t an option for me.”
“We’re going to have to deal with the house,” Eliza said. “Whatever is happening to us, the house – or something in it – is the cause, and even though we wanted to walk away from this, we’re going to have to figure it out, to save ourselves.”
“He’s forced us into it,” Myrna said. “I hate that.”
“Well, he expects us to just sit around while we’re drained,” Roy said. “We’ll fight. We’ll use the time to find the device and destroy it.”
“As long as destroying it doesn’t destroy us,” Jonathan said.
“What do we do?” Russell asked. “How do we start?”
“Well,” said Steven, “we’ve got two things I can think of. First is Roy’s book. Now that you’ve been exposed to this thing, the book may have some answers.”
Steven was referring to the book Roy received from his father, a hand-bound book that contained the accumulated wisdom of Roy’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of whom had the gift. They recorded their findings and encounters over the years, expanding the book with each generation.
“Did any of you happen to bring a book as well?” Roy asked.
Their heads shook no. “I have my own, but it’s not generational,” Jonathan said.
“Mine either,” Myrna said.
“Well,” Steven said, “Roy and Eliza can study Roy’s book. It goes back four generations. There might be something there.”
“What about you?” Roy asked.
“I’m going to find Roger Danvers at that shop,” Steven answered, “and find out what he knows about the Unser house.”
Chapter Five
Behind the knick knack shop was parked a dirty white Ford truck with a shell on the back. The back door to the shop wasn’t locked or even closed all the way. Steven could hear someone inside moving things around. He knocked on the door, then opened it and said, “hello?”
From Jerry’s comments he was expecting to find a drunk passed out on the floor. Instead he found a sharply dressed man, wearing wire rim glasses, moving a stack of boxes from in front of a workbench.
“Yes?” the man said, turning to Steven. “Can I help you?”
“Pardon me,” Steven said. “Are you Roger? I heard that you used to be a guide at the Unser estate.”
“Yes, that’s true,” the man replied.
Steven approached the man with his hand extended. “My name is Steven Hall. I’m in town with my father and some friends.”
“Nice to meet you,” the man said, shaking Steven’s hand.
“I’m sorry to just drop in like this, I can see you’re busy,” Steven said, “but we’re in need of some help, and I was hoping you might be able to give me some information.”
“Not really busy,” Roger said, grabbing another box and moving it to a stack on the other side of the small room. “Just gotta get to this workbench today. The wife’s got a honey do list a mile long and last night she got pissed about it. I need to make it look like I’ve started something.”
“Ah, gotcha,” Steven said, smiling.
“Why do you want to know about the Unser house?” Roger asked, continuing to move boxes.
How much do I tell him? Steven wondered. I can’t tell him the real reason. He’ll think I’m nuts. I need to bluff like Roy.
“We’re both historians, my dad and I,” Steven said hesitantly, unsure if he’d picked the right lie. “He’s a bit more obsessive about it than I am, prefers to research from books. I prefer to talk to experts who know a place.”
“Writing a book or something?” Roger asked.
“We might, depending on what we find,” Steven said, hoping to intrigue the man enough to get him to cooperate. “We’re a little competitive with each other. I’m hoping to beat him by unearthing some things about the place that he can’t find in historical documents somewhere.”
“Oh, there’s all kinds of interesting things about that place,” Roger said. “Things we learned when we worked up there. I doubt they’re in books.” He stopped moving boxes and turned to look at Steven.
“Sounds like your expertise might help me,” Steven said.
“Are you an open-minded person?” Roger asked. “’Cause some of what I know about the place is a little unusual.”
Steven smiled. “Buy you a cup of coffee?”
“Tell you what,” Roger said. “If you’ll help me move these boxes out of the way to clear a path to the bench, I’ll have finished my chores for the day and will talk to you about the Unser house as long as you want.”
“Deal,” Steven said, stepping forward to grab a box.
◊
“Back so soon?” asked Bess. “Oh, I see you fo
und Roger!” She smiled. The restaurant was empty. Howard and Jerry had left for the morning.
“Is there any other place in this town to get a cup of coffee?” Steven asked her.
“No hon,” Bess said, “there isn’t.”
“Sit at the bar?” Steven asked.
“It’s easier for me if you do,” Bess said. They walked to the bar and sat, ordering coffee. Bess poured the cups and disappeared into the kitchen.
“I’d be happy to buy you breakfast for your time,” Steven said. “If you’re hungry.”
“Nah, already ate,” Roger said. He seemed a little fidgety.
“You look nervous,” Steven said.
“I don’t usually come here,” Roger said. “People around here still think of me as a drunk.”
“You don’t seem like a drunk to me,” Steven said. “You seem like you’re put together.”
“Two years sober,” Roger said. “But it takes a long time to change a reputation in a small town. To them I’ll still be a drunk ten years from now.”
“You lived here long?” Steven asked.
“My whole life,” Roger said. “Except for college. Met my wife at college, then we moved here when my parents passed away, left us the house. Got three kids.”
“How long ago were you a guide at the Unser house?” Steven asked.
“Five years,” Roger said. “Everyone in town was excited when they started opening it for tours. We figured it’d revitalize the town. Hell, Percival promised it would. If you haven’t met him yet, you should look him up, he knows a lot about the place too. He talked Brenda and I into a ten year lease for that shop, so we could take advantage of all the new tourism. What a mistake that was. But Brenda enjoys running it, so we keep it going. Don’t come close to breaking even though. I like having the shop in the back.”
“How did you wind up giving tours there?” Steven asked.
“Again, Percival,” Roger said. “They were keen on trying to hire locals for most of the work there. One thing he did right, I guess. I’m one of maybe three people in this town with a BA, so I was a shoe-in for the job when I applied. It was decent money while it lasted.”
“How long before they stopped the tours?”
“Only a year, then they shut it down. Not enough people came. Percival said the lawyers shut it down because it wasn’t turning a profit, but I think there might have been other reasons.”
“Like?”
“Well, there’s a lot of crazy shit up at that place, and I think the lawyers knew it, and they weren’t really comfortable with people poking around.”
“Ah, like a conspiracy?” Steven asked.
“Not a conspiracy, just a desire to keep things quiet. No sense in stirring things up unnecessarily. I think the tours made them nervous.”
“And Percival? What did he think?”
“Oh, he was on a mission. He was going to turn the town around, and the house was going to do it. You could see the dollar signs in his eyes. He was devastated when the lawyers shut it down. Went into a depression, no one saw him in town for months. I was depressed too. Took up the bottle.”
“Tell me more about the house,” Steven said. “You said there were some crazy things there?”
“It’s a strange place,” Roger said. “Bizarre. Doors that are sealed shut. Not just locked, but painted shut. Hidden rooms. Secret passages. There’s a library with sliding panels, right out of a movie. We used to demonstrate that one on the tour.”
Didn’t see a library, Steven thought. But then, we didn’t explore the whole house.
“And like any old house with a history,” Roger said, “it’s haunted.”
“Really?” Steven said, feigning surprise. “How so?”
“Every morning Mrs. Unser arises from her grave and walks through the house to her bedroom, on the second floor. Then she stands by the window in that room, looking out over the front yard. And every night she leaves the room, and goes back down to her grave.”
“You actually saw a ghost?” Steven said, sounding incredulous in order to prod Roger further.
“No, I never saw her myself,” Roger said. “Other people said they had seen her. Tour hours were from 10am to 4pm, so we were never there at dawn or dusk. I wanted to see it, but they were strict about people leaving the property right at 4.”
“I did see the stairs,” Steven said. “Kent Percival took us out there yesterday, so we had a look around. I didn’t see a library, but I did see the stairs.”
“Did you see her?” Roger said. “Mrs. Unser?”
“No,” Steven lied. He wanted to keep Roger talking. “But we weren’t there at dawn or dusk, so maybe we missed her.”
“You have to be there at the right time,” Roger said. “If you can get Percival to take you back out, you might want to time it. That’s one thing I’m sure the lawyers weren’t keen for people to see.”
“That’s a good idea,” Steven said. “If I go back out, what else should I look for? Other interesting things?”
“Well, check out the library for sure,” said Roger.
“Where is it?” Steven asked. “We saw the kitchen, dining room, and the stairs that lead up to the second floor.”
“Then you didn’t see even half the place,” Roger said. “You know the hallway you walked down that leads from the dining room to the stairs?”
“Yes.”
“Go around the base of the stairwell to the other side. The hallway continues on. The library is down there.”
“I noticed a lot of doors in the hallway,” Steven said. “Where do they lead? It seemed that the bedrooms were all upstairs.”
“Several of the doors in that hallway are painted shut,” Roger said. “Never saw what was behind them. I’m not even sure there’s anything behind them, but the house is so big, there has to be something there. Behind one door was a broom closet, I remember that. Another led to a second hallway. Tours never went down into that area, so we’d explore it when we were bored. There are more doors in that second hallway, some of them painted shut too. There’s a room down there that’s incredible. If you go back, try to see it if you can. The walls are lined with mounted trophies, and it’s crammed full with a lot of the stuff they removed from the rooms to make the house less crowded for the tours.” Roger leaned over to Steven a little, and lowered his voice. “That’s the room with the secret passageway.”
“Passageway to where?” Steven asked.
Bess emerged from the kitchen and poured them both a refill. “You boys want something to munch on? A bagel or a doughnut or something?”
“No, just coffee for me,” Steven said.
“I’m fine,” Roger said. Bess eyeballed him and replaced the coffee pot.
“Well, just holler if you change your mind,” she said, returning to the kitchen.
“Where does the passageway lead?” Steven repeated.
“Don’t know for sure,” Roger said. “A co-worker and I were hanging out in there when we discovered it. We weren’t supposed to be back in that hallway or that room. It’s in a corner, and you slide a lower panel to the right and the passageway is there. We were both scared out of our minds, but we were intrigued, so we walked down it. It bent a few times, like we were passing behind other rooms. It ended at a door.”
“Did you go through it?” Steven asked.
“No, it was locked,” Roger said. “And we were getting nervous, so we went back.”
“Did you ever find out what was behind the door?” Steven said.
“No, never did. The tours shut down soon after that.”
Bingo, Steven thought. It might not be the prize, but it’s a place to start.
“Well, I think this will put me ahead of my father,” Steven said. “I doubt his document scrubbing will turn up anything as fantastic as that.”
Roger smiled and sipped his coffee, happy that his story had impressed.
Steven checked his watch. “Oh, I’m supposed to be meeting him.” Steven stood from his stoo
l and left money on the counter. “Thanks for your time Roger, I really appreciate it.”
“Oh, no problem. Thanks for helping me move the boxes,” Roger said.
“Would you be available if I have more questions?” Steven asked.
“Sure,” Roger said. “Just stop by the store. I’m there every morning. There’s a ton of stories about that place if you want to hear more. Are you going to check out that passageway?”
“If we get to go back there and can explore, yes, I intend to,” Steven said.
“Good!” Roger said, smiling. “I’ve always wondered what was behind that door. When you find out, will you tell me?”
“Deal,” Steven said, extending his hand for a goodbye shake.
◊
“And then I told him I’d look into it,” Steven told the group who had assembled in his and Roy’s motel room. “And I left.”
“Do you think the passageway leads to the device?” Russell asked.
“No way of knowing,” Steven said, “without checking it out. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t go up there.”
“I do,” Myrna said. “I’m really weak. I need to sleep for a while.”
“I feel the same,” Eliza said. “I think it was all the vomiting earlier. I just want to lay down and take a nap.”
“You’ll feel better if we go back to the house,” Roy said.
“Just the idea of getting in a car makes my head spin,” Eliza said.
“Me too,” said Myrna. “I think if you gave me a couple of hours to rest up, I could make it.”
“We’re going to need to deal with that locked door, if we do find the passageway,” Roy said. “Does anyone know how to pick a lock?”
“I do,” said Eliza.
Steven and Roy both looked at each other, surprised.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Eliza said. “It’s a little insulting.”
“Why didn’t you pick the lock on the gate?” Russell asked. “Made us walk all the way around that fence.”
“I didn’t have my tools,” she said. “I’ll bring them with me this time.”
“How did you learn to pick locks?” Steven asked.
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