Bryan saw the cloud of moisture rolling toward him too. As the steam swirled, an image rose from the base of the mist and materialized into a murky, indistinct human form. Bryan reacted by jerking into an attacking position: left foot forward, right foot back. He dropped the flashlight, pulled his gun out of its holster and pointed it at the form before him. “What—the—hell?”
The gun in his hands trembled.
The red light illuminated the vapors as the steam culminated into a bodily form that shimmered and moved. Its features blurred and faded as the darkness came and went. The heat from the steam filled Bryan’s nostrils, forcing him to step backward to get a breath of cooler air.
The figure followed him.
The apparition turned its head, momentarily glancing at Tanner with two dark blemishes that narrowed as they passed by him. Tanner froze in place, paralyzed with fear. He recognized the temperament of the eyes from his dream. He lowered the pipe, aware of his weapon’s impotence. The figure turned its squinting slits toward Bryan. A demonic growl and decaying stench emanated from the steamy figure.
“It’s David!” said Tanner.
Bryan gripped the gun more tightly and cocked his head to the side to inhale a deep breath of fresh air. He inhaled a mouthful of foul air instead and gagged.
“Whatever it is, it smells like crap!”
The form disappeared as the light flickered. Bryan stared hard into the mist, blindly reaching his left hand into the darkness. The red light flashed again revealing that the apparition had inched closer. Horrified by its sudden movement, Bryan recklessly pulled the trigger, sending the bullet through the spirit into a steam line, puncturing the system. The old steel piping splintered, releasing a powerful rush of low-pressure steam directly into Bryan’s face. The gun fell from his hands. He grabbed at his burning skin, crashing to the floor, where he writhed and rolled, screaming.
• • •
Lana stood with her head down and arms crossed. Her feathered brown hair covered her face as she gazed at the blood-covered letters. Her body quivered in fear as she considered all that had happened.
“What are we doing here?” she asked.
Noah and Kate stood nearby, waiting in the dim light of the entryway. Noah strained to get a glimpse of the dark hallway down which the other men had disappeared.
“Part of me thought we’d be fine,” said Lana. “The other part of me wondered if there was something here…something supernatural. But I never expected this. I never thought he’d be so evil twenty years later. And certainly not…this dark.” Lana lifted her head with a sob and looked toward Noah, her cheeks running with tears. He turned and gazed at her compassionately, watching the woman he used to call his “little bird” losing hope.
“Why is this happening Noah?” she asked.
Noah took a deep breath. He looked at Lana with the same caring eyes as he had twenty years earlier.
“He has a spirit, Lana. We all do. And his spirit, like ours, lives on, even if it’s helplessly roaming about in the afterlife.”
“But why is he here? Why now?” Her thoughts muddled. “Why is he hurting us? Why is he—”
Noah interrupted. “We may never know why. But we’re still alive and we still have control over this moment. So don’t be afraid. If it can’t get what it wants from us, it’ll move on.”
“But Noah, what about Maria? She’s dead! What if he wants to kill all of us? How can we stop him?”
Noah walked up to Lana, gently gripped her shoulders and said, “I can’t speak for Maria. Her life was in the hands of God and she’s gone home. You’re strong, Lana! You have the will to continue living. You’re going to make it. Trust me! Try not to think negative thoughts. Think about the ones you love and pray…hard!”
Kate edged closer to join the conversation. Her eyes were filled with disillusionment.
“Nick tried to tell me,” she whispered.
Noah turned toward Kate. “What did he try to tell you?”
“He’s been talking about David’s spirit roaming the halls and speaking to him for some time now. And…and I guess I thought it was just more of the same—more of his drunken stupidity.” Kate’s shoulders slumped and her hands plopped down at her side. “What I mean is, he had a really hard time dealing with the loss of his brother, and lately his PTSD has been on the fringe of madness and getting worse. Things got so bad that I was ready to leave him, because I just couldn’t handle his outbreaks anymore. I thought he was lying or just going crazy. But now I know that he was telling the truth.”
Lana slid close to Kate and put her arm around her.
“What do you think it is, Noah? Is this just a ghost or something else?” asked Kate.
“It’s hard to say, but from what I’ve seen so far, it appears to be a poltergeist of some kind.”
Lana looked up to heaven and hesitantly made the sign of the cross with her left hand—forehead, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder. Her right hand rested on her cane.
“What exactly is a poltergeist?” asked Kate, cringed in fear.
Noah took a deep breath and exhaled, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. “A poltergeist is usually a ghost or some other form of supernatural being. In this case, if David Ray were the poltergeist, his power would be kept to a minimum, because he had a mortal spirit—that is, a mortal existence. What I mean by that is, he would normally be limited to throwing knickknacks and shaking small objects.” Noah’s brow furrowed. “But I’ve never seen a ghost with so much power.”
Lana continued. “Okay, then what are we talking about here? Are you saying it’s a demon?”
“No,” replied Noah. “I’m not making any declarations. It could be a poltergeist, or it could be David, or it could be both. What I’m suggesting is, there might be some other entity attached to David’s spirit, perhaps a demon, or perhaps not. And if that’s the case, then there’s more to this story than we know.”
“So what do we know?” asked Kate. “If Nick was right…and your assumption’s correct, then we’re screwed aren’t we?”
“Not necessarily.” Noah shook his head. “Most poltergeists and other spirits are simply looking for a resolution to whatever torments them. Demons, however, are a different story. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what we have here either.”
Lana looked up at Noah and asked, “What does that mean?”
“It simply means that something is dramatically unresolved within its spirit and it wants our help.”
Kate interjected, “Great! He didn’t kill us twenty years ago and now he brought us here to finish the job!”
Noah looked at Kate and Lana respectively and then his eyes rested on Lana. “I think we all have unresolved issues. I’m sure you can understand the kind of pain involved if you were to pass on without taking care of business, so to speak.”
Lana’s eyes locked with Noah’s. She understood the double meaning. There was a moment of silence. Then, without warning, the group heard a deathly scream from the boiler room. Noah, Kate and Lana turned toward the hallway and ran as fast as they could into the darkness.
24th
Larry watched Nick’s every move. Nick took a step toward David.
“What are you doing, Nick?” asked Larry.
Nick focused on the life-support equipment attached to David’s body. He watched a semitransparent liquid enter David’s abdomen through a rubber tube. Another tube exited his bowels. A third tube, attached to a respirator, entered his mouth. A thin plastic mechanical bag folded and hissed with each breath, opening and closing as it fed oxygen into his lungs. Nick’s eyes peered directly at the power source: a white 110-volt cord plugged into a red outlet. No ventilator, no oxygen, he thought. But would it kill him too fast? Would it hurt? Would he suffer?
He took another step. The doctor peered at Nick, visibly leery of his intentions. Nick took another step, and turned toward Dr. Mueller to see how near he was. The doctor seemed startled to see rage in Nick’s eyes.
“
What’s going on here?” asked the doctor, alarmed.
Nick smirked, his eyes focusing on David. “I’m doing what I should have done twenty years ago.” And then he charged.
“No!” Larry shouted as he lunged for Nick.
Nick was moving at full speed. All of his energy and emotion converged, focusing on David’s body. He shoved it powerfully with both hands, sending it tumbling to the floor. David’s IV pulled out as he plunged downward. The feeding tube and catheter stretched to the point of rupturing and then exploded out of his flesh, spraying liquids and bodily fluids over the surrounding wall and floor. David’s body crashed to the floor with a loud thud immediately followed by another thump when his head hit the hard tiles.
Dr. Mueller hit a red emergency button and sprinted toward David.
“My God!” he shouted. “Are you mad?”
The life-support machine beeped rapidly, warning the hospital staff of the emergency. In addition, a loud ringing tone blared in the hallway, calling for assistance.
Nick dove under the bed, grabbed the power chord to the respirator and ripped it out of the wall socket, causing David’s lungs to wheeze, desperately seeking oxygen. He pulled David violently under the gurney, grabbed his neck and began choking him. Larry slid to the floor and grabbed Nick’s feet, frantically shuffling his body around to get a grip as Nick kicked at him.
Nick’s eyes were filled with pure hatred as he squeezed the life out of the glassy-eyed monster. He lifted David’s head up and pounded it back on the floor. Larry got a firm grip and pulled hard on Nick’s legs. Nick started sliding backward, losing his equilibrium. His right hand slipped off David’s neck, but his left hand gripped tighter and pounded the head one more time before Larry completely pulled him from under the gurney.
Larry continued sliding Nick away from David for several feet and then climbed on top on him, subduing Nick momentarily. Dr. Mueller knelt down beside his patient and examined the damage. A nurse ran into the room to assist the doctor. They inspected David’s body for damage and checked his vital signs.
Nick screamed profanities at David, twisting his arms and kicking his legs to escape from Larry’s grasp. He almost succeeded. However, two orderlies ran into the room amidst the commotion and immediately grabbed Nick’s arms. Trained to deal with violent patients, they pushed Larry aside, and flipped Nick onto his belly, and then one of the orderlies pressed his knee tight into Nick’s back. The other pressed down on Nick’s head, restricting his ability to get up. Within seconds, the doctor fitted a syringe with a vial of 0.5 mg triazolam and injected it into Nick’s arm. Nick immediately relaxed and slumped back on the floor.
When he was fully sedated, Larry put the handcuffs back on Nick. The nurse assisted the doctor as he reconnected David’s life support and the orderlies looked on.
“Handcuffs? What’s wrong with that guy?” asked the doctor. “He almost killed my patient!”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Mueller.” Larry looked down at Nick, shaking his head. “I should’ve known better. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him here.”
“Why did he do that?”
Red-faced, Larry responded, “He’s…um…he’s one of the kids from David’s high school. David killed his brother.” Larry looked up. The doctor exhaled from frustration.
“Why would you bring him here?”
Larry said nothing.
“Did you think this was a good idea? No one was to ever know about this arrangement, and here you are bringing one of his victims! I don’t understand.”
Larry slowly lifted his head and responded.
“Nick suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and he thought he was seeing David’s ghost. So when I found out that David was still alive, I thought it would help Nick to cope with his panic attacks if he knew the truth. And…you said you’ve had strange things going on here. Well, we have too. Back at the school, a teenager was recently murdered, and we had strong evidence that David Ray was somehow involved.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. He’s been in this bed for two decades!”
“I understand. And that’s why I had to see him. Most folks back at Crescent Falls think he’s been dead for twenty years. I did too. Nothing was making sense. That’s why we came.”
“Well, you’d better get that maniac out of here, right away!”
Larry nodded in agreement.
The orderlies put Nick into a wheelchair and wheeled him out of the facility. They plopped him into the passenger seat of the sheriff’s vehicle. Larry buckled him in and headed back to Crescent Falls raging mad.
• • •
Bryan rolled on the floor, screaming in agony. Tanner ran over to try and help, but there was nothing he could do. He helplessly looked on as Bryan’s face burned red and blistered from the hot steam.
“Help! Someone help me here!”
Bryan rolled back and forth on the floor, holding his face, screaming. Tanner turned toward the doorway and shouted, hoping the others would hear. “Somebody help! Bryan’s hurt! Hurry!”
Noah and Kate ran through the dark hallway until they came to the boiler room. Lana trailed behind, briskly limping with her cane. They came to an abrupt stop when, in the faint red light, they witnessed what appeared to be David’s ghost hovering above Bryan and Tanner. The apparition peered at the group with its sinister eyes. Lana stumbled into the room behind Kate and Tanner. Then the door slammed shut behind her. The pipe that Tanner had grabbed earlier flew across the room and crashed into the wall nearby. A gust of wind followed, stirring up dust and other small objects that flipped and spun through the air. Tanner reacted by putting his hand over his face. The others crouched down and screamed in horror at the sight of the apparition. Lana’s and Kate’s hair began to flutter and whip across their cheeks. They covered their faces to shield their eyes from the flying debris.
The red exit light flickered, throwing sparks over their bodies, revealing the spirit’s complete form. Kate locked eyes with the misty figure. From across the room, the menacing spirit transferred its depraved energy into her body. She stumbled backward against the wall. Her face whipped from side to side while the entity slapped her. Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! She screamed into the blowing wind for help. Noah heard her cry, stumbled toward her thrashing body and covered her with his arms. The beating stopped and Kate’s limp body slumped to the floor.
Noah then pulled Lana close as well. The spirit seemed to retreat as the mist and dark eyes faded into the shadows.
Lana pleaded, “Do something, Noah! We’ve got to stop it! And we’ve got to get Bryan out of here!”
Noah nodded his head and looked around the room to locate the spirit. The wind blew hard against his face. The red light gleamed and the apparition once again appeared, rising from the steam and moving in Noah’s direction. Noah stepped toward the entity, glaring and silently praying for protection. As his prayerful thoughts rose to heaven, Noah’s arms flew up like a ribbon in a twister and his body lifted off the floor, rising, spinning.
Lana screamed, “Oh, no! Noah!”
“Grab him!” yelled Kate.
The women attempted to hold Noah down, but the force overpowered them. Noah slipped out of their hands and flew across the room. He landed in a heap with Bryan and Tanner.
Bryan spoke a few unintelligible words and finished with, “…Ca…arry!”
Tanner and Noah could barely hear his voice over the screams and whistling of the wind.
“What?” Tanner shouted back.
Bryan repeated himself with great effort through burnt and swollen lips. “Call…Larry!”
“I think he said to call Larry,” said Noah. “But how? I don’t know who that is.”
“He’s the sheriff!” responded Tanner.
Tanner suddenly spotted that the two-way radio was still on Bryan’s belt. Dust and debris continued to swirl about, while the entity hovered over its victims. Tanner fiddled with the radio, trying to make it work.
Bryan muttere
d, “…side button…talk.”
“Okay!” Tanner pushed the button. “Sheriff Richards! Sheriff Larry Richards are you there?”
Driving through the pouring rain, Larry heard a noise. He looked at Nick. He still seemed to be unconscious.
“Sheriff Richards are you out there? Please answer!” The voice sounded desperate. Larry realized that the voice was coming from his multi-channel radio. He reached for it. It wasn’t on his belt.
“Sheriff Larry Richards are you out there? We need your help urgently! Please answer!”
Nothing.
Tanner looked at Noah and shook his head. The only sound coming from the radio was static. Noah’s shoulders slumped; his body ached from the fall. He cocked his neck up toward the spirit and asked, “What do you want?”
The spirit descended toward Noah. Tanner crawled backward, watching as the entity came within inches of Noah’s face. Noah held his hands in front of his face guarding himself from the force and shouted, “We want to help! Tell us what’s troubling you.”
• • •
Larry looked down at Nick’s feet. In all the excitement, the radio had fallen to the floor. He looked ahead. The road appeared to be clear. With one hand on the wheel he reached toward Nick’s feet, his eyes barely viewing the road. At that moment, Nick’s foot moved ever so slightly, causing the radio to slide farther from Larry’s grasp. Larry stretched in response and the steering wheel pulled to the right. The car veered to the side of the slick road and started to fishtail. Nick’s head jarred, bumping against the plastic framework near the window. Startled, Larry shot up to regain control of the vehicle, whose wheels swerved across the wet pavement, finally straightening as Larry brought the car to a standstill. His heart raced. Nick moaned in pain from the jolt to his head.
• • •
Noah’s body stiffened when the apparition levitated directly in front of him, peering deep into his soul. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer just before he fell into a trance. Without a sound, the hovering spirit transferred its longings into Noah’s mind. His brain absorbed the apparition’s streaming mental images, filling him with a spiritual angst previously unknown to him. While in a half-conscious state, Noah watched David’s current bodily form take shape. Emaciated, bruised and hunched over, the figure walked closer, revealing his beard and nakedness under the hospital gown.
Reunion (A Psychological Suspense with Murder, Mystery and the Paranormal) Page 24