by Eva Pohler
Ellen frowned. This wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear.
Eduardo turned to Tanya. “Ready?”
Tanya nodded as Eduardo shuffled and cut. Then Tanya pulled her cards.
“The queen of diamonds wishes to remind you of both your outer and inner beauty,” Eduardo said.
“Yeah, right.” Tanya laughed.
“Oh, I’m serious, dear,” he said. “You have a tendency toward self-deprecation, even though it is completely unwarranted. The card whispers the reminder that you are beautiful. Don’t get caught up in the superficial notions of beauty of our time, because your beauty is timeless.”
Ellen was surprised to see tears forming in Tanya’s eyes. They were visible beneath the porchlight.
Then Eduardo said, “So you’re finally ready to speak?”
“What?” Tanya looked confused.
“Your cousin,” he said. “She says your mother was the same way.”
“My cousin?” Tanya asked. “Where is she? Which cousin?”
“She’s standing right behind you, dear.” Eduardo pointed. “She hasn’t told me her name, but she says she’s your cousin and guardian angel. She promised your mother—oh, she’s your mother’s cousin. She promised your mother she’d stay and watch over you for a while.”
Tanya covered her face with her hands and sobbed. The other two cards Tanya had pulled fell in her lap.
Eduardo picked them up, so they wouldn’t slide to the floor. Then he said, “Intuition. The seven of hearts is telling me that you don’t trust your own intuition. Your instinct is to run away in fear of everything, but your intuition knows when you need to be brave. This card goes well with the first: You don’t give yourself enough credit, dear. Trust yourself. Trust your gut. It will not fail you, as long as you don’t blind yourself to its message and allow your flight instinct to take over.”
Tanya wiped her eyes and nodded.
Eduardo held up the king of clubs. “The father.”
“My father?” Tanya asked with bent brows.
Eduardo shook his head. “It’s a symbol. This card is saying that you need to step into the world and own your power. Take ownership of it. Stop holding back. You are creating your own limitations, your own obstacles. Release them, take risks, and jump into your power.”
Tanya blinked.
“He’s saying we should buy that building,” Sue said.
Tanya grinned. “Oh, Sue.”
“She’s nodding,” Eduardo said, looking past Tanya. “Your guardian angel wants you to buy the building.”
“But why?” Tanya asked.
“She says her name is Vivian,” Eduardo said.
Ellen’s mouth dropped open, mirroring the look on her two friends’ faces. What were the chances of him getting that right? Unless? He must not be a fake, Ellen decided.
“They need your help,” Eduardo said. “Who needs their help, Vivian? She’s shaking her head. I can’t get a clear answer.”
“Please come to the building,” Ellen said, her heart racing. “We’re thinking of buying it, but our train leaves from Oklahoma City on Friday morning.”
“I’m tied up all week,” he said.
“It’s not far,” Sue said. “Would you be willing to go tonight?”
Chapter Eight: Fire
As Ellen pulled up to the curb in front of the abandoned building, she wanted to pinch herself. She couldn’t believe Eduardo had agreed to come—and he wasn’t even charging them anything. He had said he was curious, after seeing how urgently Vivian had insisted he come.
Ellen studied him beside her in the passenger seat. Then she glanced in the rearview mirror at the reflections of Tanya and Sue.
“Are we really going to do this?” she asked them.
“Is Vivian still with us?” Sue asked.
“Not in the car,” Eduardo replied. “But she’s close, I think.”
“She wouldn’t lead us into danger,” Tanya said. “My gut is saying we’ll be okay.”
“Well, far be it for us to argue with your gut,” Sue said. “But I’ll take my gun, just in case.”
The moon was a waning crescent, barely visible among the stars in the otherwise clear night, as they each used the light from their phones to climb through the hole in the fence and trod toward the east side of the building. The music from Cain’s Ballroom echoed down the paved streets where cars were parked along the curb and in the adjacent lot. There were no signs of people other than the music and the cars.
Ellen led the way, her heart pounding hard. Eduardo was close behind her. She was trying not to think, trying to ignore the warnings in her mind, along with the doubt that she had a gift of any kind. What had she been thinking when she’d decided to study the paranormal, to help heal the ghosts that haunted houses? What kind of person with as little knowledge as she jumps into something like this, feet first?
When she rounded the corner, she held her breath as she shined her light on the east entrance to the building. The doors that had been open were now shut.
Ellen glanced back at her friends.
“See if they’re locked,” Sue urged her.
Sue’s hand disappeared inside her large purse, and Ellen didn’t need to see it to know that Sue was holding her gun.
Ellen turned the knob and pulled the door open.
She and Eduardo shined their lights all around the hobo camp and found no signs of people. Ellen swallowed hard and stepped inside. Eduardo and her friends followed.
When she came to the hallway, Ellen pushed open the doors to each of the bathrooms and shined her light to be sure no one was hiding inside. With trembling hands, she continued down the hall into the first of the large rooms.
She hadn’t stepped in more than a few feet when something rubbed against the back of her leg. She jumped and shined her light all around and saw nothing. Maybe it was her imagination, she thought.
Then Eduardo, who caught up to her, suddenly flinched.
“What’s wrong?” Tanya asked from behind him.
“Oh, I sense an incredible amount of negative energy in this space,” he whispered. “Anger, hate, bitterness. It’s overwhelming. And it’s not coming from one person, but many. This building is filled with angry spirits. Oh, I can barely breathe.”
“We felt that too,” Ellen said, not mentioning the thing she had just felt at the back of her leg. “Though not as fully as you. Can you see anyone? Can you tell why they’re so angry?”
“I think we should get out of here,” Tanya whispered. “I don’t want to be around negative energy. I just can’t.”
“Do you think we’re in danger?” Sue asked Eduardo.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never sensed anything like this before. Ever.”
“What if you try to communicate with someone?” Sue suggested.
Tanya looked around, edging back toward the way they had come. “Is Vivian with us?”
“I don’t see her. I don’t know,” Eduardo said, also looking around. “Maybe if we had a candle, we could attract them with a flame.”
“I have a lighter in my purse,” Sue said. She brought it out. “Should I light it?”
“No!”
The four of them jumped at the sound of someone else in the room with them. The voice had sounded old and female. They moved closer to one another, putting their backs together as they shined their lights all around the room, revealing no one.
Ellen was trembling so badly that she felt faint. Her knees were weak, and she couldn’t even feel her feet. Her heart beat erratically, and it was fast and loud. She wondered if the others could hear it.
Finally, Ellen said, “Who’s there?”
No one answered.
“Make a flame,” Eduardo said. “See what happens.”
Sue lifted her lighter with a trembling hand and flicked up a flame.
A scream came from close by. Ellen dropped her phone. She bent over the floor, feeling around in the garbage at her feet. In the next moment, some
one was there with them. The person blew out the flame. Sue’s gun went off, and one of the windows above them shattered and fell with a crash across the room. Ellen screamed and fell to the floor.
“Is everyone okay?” Tanya asked, shining her light all around them.
Her phone light fell on a face—small and wrinkled. Tanya jumped back, her phone unsteady in her quivering hand. Then her light went out.
“Who are you?” Eduardo asked, shining his light on the face.
Ellen recovered her phone and began to dial 9-1-1, but her phone died, even though it had just been fully charged. She looked up at the face in the light of Eduardo’s phone. It belonged to an old Native American woman. Her skin had been badly scarred from chicken pox. Her hair and eyebrows were white. The terrible body odor coming from the rags she wore meant she was alive and not a ghost.
“Who are you?” Eduardo asked again.
Ellen climbed to her feet, panting with fear.
“Don’t light the flame,” the woman said in her gravelly, Native American voice. “The spirits don’t like it.”
“What spirits?” Sue asked.
“The ones who stay here,” the woman said.
“Do you know anything about them?” Eduardo asked.
“They do not like fire,” she said.
“How do you know that?” Ellen asked. “Does something happen when you make a fire?”
The woman nodded. “The spirits scream.”
Ellen glanced at her friends. “What else can you tell us about the spirits?”
The woman glared at Ellen. “They do not like white people. They will kill you if you stay.”
“I think we should leave,” Tanya said.
“Why are they here?” Ellen asked the woman. “Why don’t they move on?”
“They’re trapped,” she said. “That’s what I think. Now go. You’re in danger.”
“Come on, guys!” Tanya cried as she headed toward the door.
Ellen glanced at Sue and Eduardo, and then turned to the old woman. Ellen felt something holding here there in the room. It was almost a whisper—Don’t ignore us. “You live here, don’t you? Is that why you want us to leave? The spirits don’t really want to kill us, do they? You want us to go, not them.” Ellen suspected the woman lived in the upstairs bedroom with the dreamcatchers and crucifixes.
“Light your flame and see if I lie,” the woman challenged.
Sue glanced at both Ellen and Eduardo. Tanya was standing in the hallway, waiting for them to follow her.
“Try it,” Eduardo said.
Sue’s hand was shaking so badly that it took her a few tries before she produced a flame. As soon as it appeared, it was extinguished. Sue tried again. Once again, the flame went out.
“It’s brand new,” Sue said. “I bought it for my eyeliner. I don’t know why it won’t stay lit.”
“It’s Vivian,” Eduardo said. “I can’t see her, but I sense her. I think she’s blowing it out.”
At that moment, the old woman lifted her bony arm in the air and produced her own flame with her lighter. She held it high above her head. The room began to hiss.
“What is that?” Tanya asked.
“Go!” the old woman said, still holding the flame. “Go before they kill you!”
The hissing grew in volume—like the sound of an approaching train. Tanya cried out for Ellen and Sue to follow her as the room became filled with the moans of agony.
“Now!” the old woman shouted.
Sue and Ellen followed Eduardo to the east wing, where, in the room with the hobo camp, Tanya was pulling on a door that wouldn’t open.
“Turn the knob!” Ellen shouted as she moved to try it. “What?” It wouldn’t turn.
Eduardo tried, too, pushing against the double doors with his shoulder. They wouldn’t budge.
“Let us out!” Sue cried—to whom, Ellen wasn’t sure.
A scream came from the large ballroom, followed by “No!”
Eduardo rushed toward the voice, following the small glow of his phone. Ellen followed, too.
Her hands rushed to her cheeks at the sight of flames leaping from the floor where the old woman had been standing. Was the woman on fire?
Eduardo pulled his shirt over his head and bat at the flames.
His shirt caught fire, and he dropped it onto the floor, stomping on it with his shoes. But the fire caught onto more of the garbage and began to spread.
Sue cried out, “Spirits who dwell here! Please help us! Please help us, and we will not ignore you!”
Suddenly a violent wind whipped in through the broken windows. Ellen’s hair was blown against her face, and an audible whoosh sound floated around her as the wind extinguished the fire. Ellen’s mouth fell open with disbelief. The skeptical side of her considered the possibility of a storm causing it. A cold front might have come in. But another side of her was trying to accept the idea that spirits exist and that they impact the world of the living.
The sound of the Indian woman running away toward the west wing brought them all to attention.
“Wait!” Ellen shouted. Then to the others, she asked, “Should we follow her? Maybe she knows a way out.”
“Let’s go,” Eduardo said, grabbing his charred shirt.
Ellen covered her mouth and nose with one hand, trying to block the lingering smoke from the fire, as she followed the small light of Eduardo’s phone in front of her. She glanced back at Tanya and Sue just behind her.
When she turned back to follow Eduardo, she tripped on something and stumbled to her knees. She used her hand to get to her feet but felt something hard, smooth, and round beneath her palm.
Sue bent over her with her light. “You okay?”
Ellen cried out, a kind of choked scream. Partially wrapped in an old blanket was what appeared to be the skull and bones of a human child. Ellen’s hand had landed on the bones of the arm, splayed out from the blanket, as if reaching out to her for help.
Ellen gasped. “Oh, my God. Look. Someone call the police.”
The others crouched around her.
“What is that?” Tanya asked.
“A child,” Eduardo said.
“Can you sense him or her?” Sue asked him.
“I sense too many souls in here to single anyone out,” he said.
“Call 9-1-1,” Ellen said.
“No,” Sue said. “We’ll get in trouble for trespassing. And they might even think we started the fire and killed whoever that was. Think about it. I shot my gun. If we’re suspects, they won’t let us leave the state.”
“It’s obvious this child didn’t die tonight,” Ellen countered.
“Don’t call the police,” Eduardo agreed.
Tanya paced around them. “Then what do we do? We can’t just ignore this.”
“We’ll call Gayle in the morning,” Sue said. “We’ll ask to see the building again. We’ll call the police tomorrow and pretend we’re seeing the bones for the first time.”
“But I touched them,” Ellen said, her throat tight, her head dizzy. She could hardly breathe. “When I fell. My DNA, my fingerprints.”
“Take the ones you touched,” Eduardo said. “And let’s get out of here.”
Sue shined her shaky light on the remains as Ellen found the arm bones where her hand had landed. She shivered as she reached her fingers around them and pulled them from the socket at the shoulder joint. At first, they wouldn’t budge. Then Eduardo stepped his boot onto the clavicle, and she pulled again, breaking the small skeleton arm free. Cringing at the sound of the crack of bone, she held it up in the light of Sue and Eduardo’s phones, not sure where to put it and hoping whatever spirit once inhabited the body would forgive her for breaking it.
Sue leaned over with her big open purse. “Stuff it in here and come on.”
As Ellen drove Eduardo back to his home, she wondered what in the world she was going to do with the little skeleton arm in Sue’s purse. Should they take it on the train back to San Antonio?
What if it was discovered in their luggage? She couldn’t just dump it somewhere with her fingerprints all over it.
Then a new idea hit her: Maybe she should send it to that online lab that had helped her find Cynthia Piers.
“That was weird that the doors wouldn’t open,” Eduardo, the first to break the silence since they’d been in the car, said. “I don’t understand it.”
“Me, either,” Sue agreed. “They were unlocked when we went in.”
“If the old woman wanted us to leave,” Tanya said, “she wouldn’t have locked us inside.”
“You would think that would be the case,” Sue said as Ellen pulled up to the psychic’s duplex.
“Maybe the spirits wanted to keep us there,” Tanya said.
“And I can’t believe my phone died again,” Ellen said.
“Mine too,” Tanya said. “It’s so bizarre.”
“Spirits are known to siphon electricity,” Eduardo explained. “It gives them the energy they need to communicate with us.”
They thanked Eduardo again and again for helping them, saying they might call him the next time they were in town. They begged him not to say a word to anyone about what had happened. He gave them his word and wished them luck as he hurried from the car to his house.
Tanya climbed into the passenger seat. “I think we scared him more than the Indian woman or even the ghosts.”
“I’m sorry I shot my gun,” Sue said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Ellen turned toward the highway. “I’m glad you had your gun. It may have saved our lives from that crazy woman. You never know.”
“Where should we dump these bones?” Sue asked.
“We should bury them,” Tanya said. “Near that building, so the spirit can find peace.”
“I want to send them to that online lab,” Ellen admitted. “We can come back and bury them after the lab returns them to me.”
“Why don’t you let the police handle it?” Tanya suggested.