“I don’t like the thought of you being scared and alone, and I know you are feeling that way,” said Chase. Reagan smiled to herself and felt a bit better. Chase believed her, as crazy as it all sounded, he believed her. She felt braver, too. She knew she could get through the night okay.
“Really, I’m okay now. I don’t understand what I saw, or what it means, but I am okay. I’m tired, and I’m going to go to sleep now. I will talk to you in the morning.”
“Okay if you’re sure. Wait, hang on.” Reagan could hear murmuring in the background. “Mom says you’ll be fine. Keep your starfish necklace on your neck and Wiley beside you. Those things will make you feel safe and protected. I will call you in the morning. If you need anything, if you’re scared or need to talk, just call. Don’t worry about waking me up, and if you need me, I will be there in a heartbeat. I promise.”
“Thanks, Chase, but I’ll be just fine. Good night.” Reagan clicked off the phone call and put her book up on the nightstand. She studied the room one last time, satisfied that everything was okay, and she clicked the light off.
Darkness filled the room, and Wiley whined softly. He pressed his cold nose against Reagan’s cheek and licked her with just the tip of his tongue. In just a few minutes, Reagan’s eyes had adjusted to the dark. She waited tensely, listening for any noises that seemed out of place. It was quiet. Soon, despite her nerves, Reagan fell into a restless sleep, Wiley watchful beside her.
Chapter 19
Reagan was lying in a deep hole in the ground. It was cold and damp. She tried to move, but she couldn’t. High above her, someone stood, a woman in a long dress. She was holding a shovel. The woman looked in the hole and smiled a wicked, haunting smile. Her eyes were wild, and her dark hair was blowing behind her in the wind. She laughed defiantly and dug up a shovelful of dirt. Then with a gleeful laugh, she tossed the shovel of dirt into the hole. It landed on Reagan’s chest, pelting her with small rocks. Dirt bounced off, peppering her face, particles sticking to her lips and landing in her eyes.
Another shovelful came down, followed by two more. The weight of the dirt was pressing down on her chest. She struggled wildly, trying to get up, but it was hopeless. Even her eyelids wouldn’t listen to her commands as they stared wide open at the crazy lady above her throwing shovelful after shovelful of dirt on top of her. The weight was becoming oppressive, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Her lips were getting covered, and dirt was filling up her nose.
Two shovelfuls landed on her neck, pressing down on her larynx. Soon she would suffocate or be crushed to death. The hysteria in her mind was building as she tried to decide which would come first and which would be worse. Another shovelful, this one landing directly on her face, covered her mouth completely and her left nostril and eye, the lids still wide open. She tried to scream through dirt piled on her lips, but nothing would come out, and she couldn’t draw enough of a breath to try to scream again. Her right eye was still focused on the woman above her. Their eyes locked, and the lady screamed as she threw the last shovelful down on Reagan’s face.
“I TOLD YOU TO GO AWAY. I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM SETH!” The pile of dirt landed with a thud on Reagan’s right eye and fell down into her right nostril, cutting off her breath completely.
Reagan gasped and struggled against the weight on her chest. She fought against the pressure on her throat as her eyes flew open. Moonlight bathed her room, and she found herself staring into the eyes of a cat. It blinked mildly at her and pressed its weight down harder, its front paws pushing down on Reagan’s larynx. She froze in fear, locked in a stare with the animal.
The cat slowly extended its front claws while holding Reagan’s eyes with its gaze. The claws pierced her throat drawing beads of blood. Reagan gasped, breaking the spell, now fully awake. Wiley leapt up snapping and growling, chasing the cat from the bed. The cat ran to the door, yowling wildly, Wiley hot on its heels. With its back to the door, the cat spun around and faced Wiley fearlessly. It arched its back and spat a warning, then lashed out with its claws, catching Wiley’s soft nose. Wiley yelped in pain. Reagan jumped out of bed, running for the door. She flipped the turnkey lock, careful to stay away from the slashing claws, and opened the door. The cat flew out of the room with a malevolent glance back over its shoulder. Wiley chased it into the hallway, then turned and came back to press his weight against Reagan’s thighs.
“Are you okay, buddy?” Reagan asked as she peered down at Wiley’s bloodied nose. “Come on, let’s fix that.”
She led the dog to the bathroom and gently cleaned off his nose. Luckily, the scratches were superficial, so she didn’t think he would need medical attention. “Let’s go back to bed. You can snuggle with me, but you need to do a better job keeping away my bad dreams.” She shook her head, trying to recall what she had been dreaming right before she woke up. Something about a woman and being buried alive. The woman said something to her, something that was important, but she couldn’t remember what it was.
She and Wiley got back to her bedroom. She closed the door again and turned the lock. She was feeling a little silly about it, but she felt better with the door locked. When she crawled back in bed, she noticed her phone was vibrating. Chase was calling her.
“Hello?”
“Reagan, are you okay? What happened?”
“I just had a bad dream, that’s all, and I woke up with the stupid cat sitting on my chest… wait, how did you know something was wrong?”
“I woke up and had a feeling… that’s all. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Just a bad dream.” Reagan absently fingered her throat where the cat’s claws had pierced the skin. “That’s weird,” she said.
“What’s weird?”
“My starfish necklace. It’s not there. That’s the second time it’s come off at night. I wonder where it is.”
“What, it’s not on your neck?”
“No, it was there when I went to sleep. It must be somewhere in the sheets, but I can’t find it. I will look for it in the morning. Go to sleep, Chase. I’m okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“If you’re sure. Call me when you get up, please.” Reagan smiled to herself. She kind of liked the protective side of Chase.
“I will. As soon as I wake up, I will give you a call. Goodnight, again.” She put her phone down and turned on her side, spooning Wiley and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
Outside her bedroom door, the black cat with the white slash of fur on its side stalked back and forth staring at the door and growling a low growl. On the bed, Wiley kept his eyes glued on the light seeping from under the door. He watched the shadow of the cat’s legs as it paced. The dog sighed and settled in for a long night. He refused to fall asleep again.
Chapter 20
Reagan woke to her phone vibrating incessantly on the bedside table. Wiley sighed and whined. He stretched his back in an arc while still laying curled against Reagan. He licked her chin, stood in the bed, and stretched again. He looked over at her vibrating phone and whined.
Reagan reached out a stiff arm and picked up the phone. Her skin tingled as the blood flowed into the still sleeping arm.
“Hello,” Reagan croaked. She cleared her throat, trying again. “Hello?”
“Hey. Good morning.” It was Chase. “Did you survive the night? Is Wiley okay?”
“Yeah. He seems like he is fine. He spent the night with me on my bed. He looks tired, but I think he is okay.”
“He is tired because he watched over you the whole night.”
“How do you know that?” asked Reagan, looking at the dog, curiously.
“Because I know dogs, and I know Wiley. His job is to make sure the people he loves are safe.”
“Well, I am safe. That was such a weird night. I had such horrible dreams.”
“Did you have any more after I talked to you?”
“I think so. I just remember feeling scared, like someone or something was constantly watchin
g me. Of course, Wiley probably was, so that isn’t so far off, huh?”
“What are you going to do today?”
“I don’t have a clue. I am so out of sorts. I think I’ll take a walk down to the ocean. I haven’t been down there for a while. The fresh sea air will probably clear my head.”
“Hey, why don’t I come over and go down there with you?”
“Sure, if you want, but you don’t need to babysit me. I’m okay, you know. My imagination just ran away with me last night.”
“Did you ever find your starfish necklace?”
“I haven’t looked yet. When I get up and make the bed, I’ll check in the sheets. I’m sure it’s here somewhere. The string probably came untied. I’m going to go take a shower and get something to eat. I can smell bacon cooking, and Cora Rose doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“No kidding. Maybe I can score a muffin or something when I stop by.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Reagan stretched lazily and then got out of bed. She looked all through the sheets trying to find her necklace, but it was nowhere to be seen. She smoothed the sheets and bedspread, setting the pillows up against the headboard. She got on her hands and knees and looked under the bed, but there was nothing there. That’s odd, she thought. It couldn’t have walked off by itself. She grabbed her robe, looking one last time on the floor for the necklace, then left the room for her shower.
Freshly showered and dressed, Reagan headed downstairs for breakfast. Wiley must have gone down while she was in the shower because there was no sign of him. As she stepped off the bottom step and turned toward the great hall and the dining room. Reagan hesitated. She looked at the huge table, her heart pounding in fear. Remembering last night, and the snarling and snapping of teeth, Reagan peered under the table from the safe distance of the hall. There were no signs of the wolves. Damn, she was losing it, she told herself. Straightening her shoulders, she walked briskly into the dining room and marched past the table. As she cleared the final corner, she heard the snap of teeth. She jumped and scurried to the kitchen, refusing to look back. Cora Rose looked up from the stove where she was removing a waffle from the iron.
“You look as pale as a ghost. Are you sick, girl?” asked Cora Rose, holding the spatula in the air. “You have a fever or something?”
Reagan shook her head.
“I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep well. When did you get back, Aunt Willow?”
“About an hour ago. Couldn’t miss a Cora Rose breakfast,” said Willow.
Reagan grabbed a plate from the sideboard and loaded it with bacon and waffles. Willow glanced up from her breakfast, holding a Pepsi in one hand and watched Reagan. Her eyes narrowed as she studied her.
Suddenly, a chill descended upon the kitchen, frigid air seemed to swirl around Reagan. Willow stared hard at Reagan and cautiously asked her, “Did you by any chance go up to the fourth floor?”
Cora Rose stiffened at the stove.
“No, of course not. I’ve never been up there. Why?”
“No reason, I was just curious.”
“Nope, I have respected your wishes. Although I must say I’ve been curious and wanted to explore, but I ignored those urges.” Reagan munched on her waffles thoughtfully. “Oh, yeah, I did let the cat out, though.”
Cora gasped, and the large metal spoon clattered to the cooktop.
“You what?” asked Willow, holding Reagan’s eyes in a steely glare.
“Your cat must have gotten trapped up there somehow. I let it out. It was yowling at the door. I opened the door and the poor thing ran hell-bent for the stairs. I didn’t know you had a cat. This whole time I’ve been living here, I’ve never seen it.”
“May the good Lord have mercy on our souls,” muttered Cora Rose as she took off her apron and walked out the kitchen door.
Reagan ran for the cliff path, tears streaming down her face. Willow’s harsh words rang in her ears.
“I don’t know why I ever agreed to let you stay here. I only asked one thing of you, that you not go on the fourth floor, and you disregarded my wishes. Now, we are all going to pay the consequences of your actions.”
Reagan explained again that she didn’t go up to the fourth floor, but she had just opened the door to let the trapped animal free. She didn’t understand what she did wrong. All she knew was Cora Rose wasn’t coming back, and Willow didn’t want her at the house any longer. Her mom was halfway across the world, and she was so very alone.
The wind was picking up, tearing at her hair as she turned at the top of the cliff and headed down the trail to the beach. She was temporarily blinded by her tears, and she tripped over a rock, falling to her knees. She slammed the palms of her hands into the ground in her attempt to break her fall. Scrambling to her feet, she wiped her eyes with her dirty, bloody hands and ran even faster down the path. Her knees screamed out in pain, but she didn’t bother to stop to pull the embedded stones from her flesh. She wanted to run and put the house, Cora Rose, and her aunt behind her.
She hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff at an all-out run. She didn’t realize that the tide was coming in and the ocean was swirling dangerously close to the cliff base. She flung herself down on her favorite flat rock, buried her head in the crook of her elbow and allowed herself to sob uncontrollably. All the pain and frustration of the summer was just too overwhelming. The things she didn’t understand and couldn’t explain weren’t helping the situation. She felt like she was losing her mind, slowly but steadily, and she felt a gnawing icy spot of fear in her gut. Normally she wasn’t the kind of person to be afraid. She was used to being self-confident and meeting the world head on, but this whole summer was beginning to erode that confidence. And now, she had royally screwed up, but she didn’t even know how it had happened.
Her body shuddered again, and she let herself cry it out. A gull screamed above her. Instinctively, she reached for the necklace, forgetting that the starfish was no longer around her neck. Of course, this made her cry even harder. She heard the flap of wings just over her head. Great, she was going to be attacked by a damn bird again. Covering the back of her head with her hands she rolled into a tight ball, waiting the onslaught of talons. She didn’t have the energy to get up and run. A wing hit her ear, followed by the peck of a beak. She cried out in pain and swatted at the gull. Another bird tore at the flesh of her arms, a third ripped a chunk from her neck. She thrashed at the birds, striking one of them, but they renewed their efforts, beating her with their wings.
She felt a strong hand at her back. Peeking out from under her arm, she saw that Seth had crouched above her and was swatting at the birds. Now there were even more of them. A small flock of birds was wheeling in the sky. Mixed with the scream of gulls was the same maniacal laughter Reagan had heard in her dream.
“Where is your necklace?” asked Seth, “Where is the starfish I made you?” He sounded angry and demanding. Reagan hiccupped as she answered.
“It was on my neck last night when I went to sleep. Then sometime in the night, I had a horrible dream. It was awful, and I was dying.” Suddenly, the dream came back to her in vivid detail. “Ariana was trying to kill me by burying me alive. When I woke up, the cat was sitting on my chest, and his claws were pressing into my throat. After that, I couldn’t find my necklace.” Reagan sobbed again, and another bird hit the top of her head, slashing with its beak.
“Ariana?” whispered Seth. “Ariana is back? How was she set free?” But now he was yelling, his voice filled with rage.
“She was just in my dream. How could she be set free? She lived a long, long time ago. What the hell is wrong with all you people?” Reagan stood up defiantly, facing Seth. Her tear stained face was now no longer afraid but furious and ready to fight. She was ready to give him a piece of her mind when a large black gull flew right into her face and tore at her hair with its sharp talons, its cry sounding more like a laugh than ever.
“Hey,” a voice shouted f
rom the path. “Hey, get away from her.” Chase came running, Wiley sprinting ahead, barking and snapping in anger. Wiley reached Reagan first, leaping into the air, trying to bite the gulls. Chase pulled his hoodie off, wrapped it around Reagan’s bloodied head and pulled her sobbing into his chest.
His arms wrapped tightly, protectively around her as he watched the gulls retreat out to sea. Wiley whined and licked Reagan’s hands, struggling to get close to her, but she was snuggled deep into Chase’s chest, his sweatshirt and arms guarding her from danger. Reagan turned her head to look at Seth, but he had vanished. She stared in disbelief. She whipped her head wildly around looking for any sign of Seth, then she looked up into Chase’s face, and her eyes went vacant.
Reagan collapsed against him, and he swept her into his arms, carrying her like she was a feather. He carried her all the way up the cliff, never faltering as Reagan cried softly against his shirt. He gently placed her in the passenger seat of his car and closed the door. Wiley whimpered and barked incessantly, so Chase opened the back door, letting the dog jump in. Wiley leaned over the back of the front seat gently licking Reagan, trying to calm her. Chase got in the driver’s seat and drug Reagan close to him. Keeping his right arm tightly around her shoulders, he reached awkwardly over the steering wheel, started his car and backed out of the driveway. Willow watched the proceedings from the front porch. As he drove away, Chase locked eyes with Willow. She nodded then turned to go into the house.
Chapter 21
Emma met Chase’s car as it pulled into the driveway. She reached into the car and wrapped a soft, woolen throw around Reagan’s shoulders. Griff whined softly, pushing his nose into the car to see what he could do. Chase came around to the passenger side and gently scooted Reagan across the seat and out of the car. Realizing she wasn’t going to stand, he lifted her effortlessly and followed his mom into the cottage.
The Starfish Talisman Page 13