“That’s the wrong attitude, Evangeline. We need to leave this place straight away.”
I whirled around to see Mr. Fernwood standing not ten feet behind me.
Impossible. I glared at him, still panting forcefully from my run. I clutched my side to steady my breathing.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Maybe you should take it easy ‘til you figure things out. For another, we are in a terrible place right now...”
“What are you?”
“Stupid little girl! We ain’t got time for this right now!”
“You’ve been lying to me, Mr. Fernwood,” I postured, “So I can’t really trust anything you say. And, I don’t like being lied to... do you not think I deserve some small degree of respect?”
He shook his head, frowning. “The truth will not help you trust me.”
“I don’t care!” My hands rose to my temples, and my eyelids fluttered in my impatience. I tried to keep my temper in check. “I still need to hear it,” I managed somewhat more calmly.
He looked toward the sky. “What do you think you saw down in that place?”
I was angry, my head shaking involuntarily, my thoughts laced with a single word: demonic. All manner of luck seems to elude me.
“Yeah. I mean, but that’s just a human label, really,” Mr. Fernwood replied flippantly. “We don’t exactly go around talking about that stuff ourselves. We got jobs to do, you know.”
“Yeah? No kidding. What is your job right now, Fernwood?”
He examined the backs of his hands very carefully but didn’t answer me.
“Let me guess... it wasn’t by coincidence that you happened to find me?” I said with a less than subtle sarcastic edge to my voice, “Is that right?”
He stuck his chin out finally and nodded once.
“Is this job of yours done now?”
Mr. Fernwood pursed his lips and shook his head.
“By all means then, let’s just get it over with. Bludgeon me to death or whatever it is you plan to do.” My breathing began to steady, but my chest burned and my side ached. I felt the fatigue of someone who’d been running for hours.
“I don’t have the strength to fight you off, or the speed to outrun you.” At this confession, my legs threatened to give beneath. “I thought you were my friend, Mr. Fernwood, and I know now exactly how foolish that sounds, but I needed to believe in someone, and have someone believe in me... ” I sighed heavily. “I’m tired, Mr. Fernwood, is what I’m trying to say... much too tired for this. I know I don’t stand any type of chance against you...” I narrowed my eyes at him, “So let’s just get it over with.”
Mr. Fernwood knelt beside me gently, “It’s for this very reason,” he muttered before he began unbuttoning his coat, “that I’ve been struggling so hard these past few weeks.” He shrugged one arm from his coat sleeve and then the other.
My body began shivering involuntarily from equal parts cold and fear of what was coming, but I was ready for it—and I would not go quietly.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” He swung his jacket off and placed it over my shivering shoulders. “I ain’t gonna kill you, cowgirl. How could I?” He shrugged. “I may be an accursed demon, but I ain’t no monster.”
I eyed him dubiously.
“Matter of fact, I knew the moment I laid eyes on you in that rec room that I wasn’t gonna be able to do it. I just kept procrastinating, making excuses to put it off... again and again. But all I found was more and more reasons not to go through with it, instead of the over way ‘round.”
“Some stories are just too… bizarrely intriguing to cut short,” he mused, grinning.
I smiled a crooked smile at him then. I felt the truth in those words—at least that he believed them. I knew he was too uncomfortable with emotion for me to show any more of it. I sniffed once to make sure mine were under control. “So... you said we needed to go?”
“Just don’t go running like that again... all that motion but none of it going forward…ah. I nearly died of laughter when you flew down that ravine,” he dabbed at his eyes before catching himself, seeming to think better of it and changing his tone, “I mean for your sake, too, you don’t wanna sap your strength too much.”
It had felt like I was running so fast. I’d always been a slow runner, too tall, big feet.
He was saying more but I didn’t catch it. Something behind him caught my eye. I was magnetically drawn to it.
“No, no, cowgirl. The other way... we need to go the other way.”
I pointed in the direction of my gaze. My mouth gaped. I was incapable of speech.
Mr. Fernwood’s wicked eyes were, for the first time, full of sympathy. “Let it go, honey,” he said, “There was a reason you weren’t meant to find this place.”
I felt his gaze on me but didn’t meet it. A thin layer a fog was just beginning to rise. Just beyond us at the end of this giant crevice in the earth was a crescent-shaped clearing, at the edge of which was a single twisted tree, so enormous it was more than twice as tall as any of the other trees in the forest. Light shone all around it, illuminating its gently falling leaves.
A chorus of deep laughter suddenly filled the air around us.
I spun around at the sound of this new voice with us in the woods, seeing nothing but darkness.
29.
“Her friends are on the way? Good.”
The person speaking was carrying on a conversation, though I heard no other voices.
“I’m especially looking for the lover boy, the one who’s been killing himself over her. Do take special care when bringing him.”
Still I saw no one.
“Life isn’t perfect, is it? Best just to roll with it sometimes. Considering her performance just now, and the fact that she just won’t stay down, it doesn’t look like killing her would really bring the satisfaction I was hoping for. No, I think I need to see the gore up close this time. Seeing her here now, I feel an itch that can’t be scratched any other way. And the friends—they’re really going to help with that itch.”
Mr. Fernwood was holding onto my elbow, apparently holding me back. I shook my arm free of his grasp, marching toward the source of this voice, toward the lovely ancient tree. I could feel Mr. Fernwood watching me helplessly.
“Come out here! Don’t you have the balls to show yourself?” I shouted
Still nothing. I ran to the tree, carefully avoiding running too fast. I expected to see someone or something there, but still there was no one. I could only stare in admiration at the lovely glen, visible clearly now in the twinkling ethereal light. It was the wrong season for dogwoods or magnolias or Carolina jasmine that I remembered from my childhood, but the red sugar maple leaves and yellow hickory leaves would’ve made up for it, had I the vision to make out their colors…
I heard approaching footsteps and finally saw human figures becoming increasingly clear.
“Evangeline?”
That voice. No, I shook my head. NO.
“Shut up and keep walking,” a brusque male voice ordered.
Nicky and Gavin stepped through the forest and into the clearing, followed by John Maverly—yet another innocent being dragged into my hellish life. My chest seized. The resolve I’d been mustering faltered.
“Guys, run! Run now!” I heard my voice quivering.
Nicky only shook her head uncertainly. Gavin seemed to stumble for a moment before collapsing onto the ground.
I ran to them and tried to help Gavin up. His side was wet. I pulled my hand back and saw it was covered in dark liquid. Blood. It was then that I noticed Gavin had one hand to his neck, trying in vain to stop the blood gushing out.
“Oh God,” I whispered involuntarily before composing myself. “Gavin, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay,” I said quickly, but as soon as I’d said those words, I realized that no one is ever okay after I tell them that. My eyes went wide.
“I’m sorry... I didn’t... believe you, Evangeline,�
� Gavin managed in between gasps for breath, trying to force a smile.
“Don’t—don’t worry about that.” I took off Mr. Fernwood’s jacket and used it to place pressure against his neck. I tried my best to make him comfortable before turning to Nicky and John.
“What happened to him?” I whispered.
Nicky only shook her head, her eyes horrorstruck.
She was obviously in shock so I turned to John instead, “Do you know what happened?”
“Yeah.” John nodded. “He got his throat slashed.” His tone was just a little too callous for the situation.
Clearly, they were both in shock.
Gavin’s head lolled against my arm—he was out. We didn’t have time to waste.
“John, snap out of it! If we don’t get him to a hospital, he’s going to die. Soon. Do you understand?”
“Probably,” he replied casually.
I turned to Nicky in confusion.
Nicky’s eyes were welling up. “He’s not with us,” she whispered.
My head swiveled back and forth in confusion. Nicky motioned toward John in response to my utter stupidity. Now that I was looking at him clearly, and up close, I noticed something different about him. Everyone else was a sort of a bluish grey color, just like their surroundings. John was different.
“You?” I know, not exactly brilliant of me, but I was covered in Gavin’s blood and therefore unable to think clearly.
John grabbed Nicky’s face, his hand squeezing around her cheeks. “Thanks for spoiling the fun.” He shoved her forcefully, flinging her backwards onto the ground. She didn’t get back up.
I let out a horrified, indignant shriek. Instinctively, I tried to jump up, but I was still supporting Gavin. My sudden movement jostled him. His head fell forward lifelessly, sickeningly. I checked his breathing—very, very weak.
But everything would be fine—Mr. Fernwood was here. He would fix everything. My head spun, eyes searching every direction for my paranormal friend.
He was nowhere.
“I’m right in front of you,” Jonathan said in exasperation, waving his hand before my face. This is what I get? You’re meant to be my brilliant, witty nemesis? I mean, seriously, you’re just going to sit there and place nursemaid to your little boy toy all night? I got to tell ya, you’re pretty disappointing so far.”
The ugly realization of what was going on chilled me to the core, but I couldn’t let him know that. Keep it together, I willed silently. “Yeah, I’ve actually heard that before. Though, I can’t say I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“You’re such a hypocrite, Evangeline. You say you don’t care about looks, but this is the guy you choose.” He inclined his head toward Gavin. “The most obviously attractive person, male or female, in the entire office! You’re so pathetic.”
With Gavin’s blood spilling all over the ground, soiling the brilliant autumn leaves, it didn’t seem the appropriate moment to correct John’s assumption about us. That would mean acknowledging Gavin lay here dying because of a mistake. And more importantly, because of me.
“I would like to know how you managed to escape the orderly I sent to take care of you.”
“I told him he was a very pretty man,” I replied with the most wicked sarcasm I could muster. “No one can resist false flattery.”
He chortled humorlessly. “Sure you did. Keep your secrets, Evangeline. That’s fine. I don’t think I’ll need them anymore.”
“You’re the Midnight Murderer, right? That’s the big secret? Not a huge shocker to me at this point.” It took all my strength to sound tough. I could not afford an ounce of weakness.
He grinned at me knowingly. “Maybe I’m not the one who’s fallen down on her research,” he replied, his voice measured, confident. “I don’t think you know why I killed them.” He smirked at me.
“Rampant mental instability?”
“Nice mouth. You really don’t want to know what I did to the last woman who called me crazy.” Hatred flashed in his eyes. “Do you know anything about all of those men, the men your mother killed?”
My calm facade was slipping away. I didn’t like the sudden change of direction the conversation had taken.
“I’ll take that as a no, then?” His voice reeked of smug self satisfaction. “One of them, a man your mother so callously disposed of, his name was Thomas Rancourt. Does that name mean anything to you?”
I shook my head in what I hoped was a casual, nonchalant way.
“No, I guess it wouldn’t. Why would you care about any of the people left in your wake? They’re no different than these friends of yours,” he motioned toward my handful of precious friends, one of whom lay unconscious, the other not so slowly bleeding to death.
Clearly, he was insane. I didn’t know him at all, so that bit of ranting was just crazy talk. However, there was no minimizing the fact that both Gavin and Nicky were in this fatal situation because of me, and I was painfully aware that if I fell apart now, they would certainly die. Whereas if I held it together and figured out a plan, their chances of dying were decreased to merely highly probable, instead of certain death.
Once again, I found my train of thought leaning toward the unhelpful.
“You know they are going to die because of you. How does that feel?” he continued wickedly, catching my gaze.
My jaw went rigid.
“I thought so,” he smirked. “Anyway, the dead man you can’t be bothered with was my father. Oh, don’t worry—he was a cruel, crude man. No originality. No creativity. All it took was a twelve-pack every evening for him to be happy. He had no other dreams in life, no ambitions. When I was older, I found out he was suspected in a number of disappearances back in his day, but nobody could ever make anything stick. He murdered prostitutes, mostly, or runaways, the kind of people who’d never be missed. I’ve used my abilities to find some of them recently. Disgusting, utterly disgusting. I don’t blame your mother one bit for doing away with him. He was a pathetic excuse for a man. I don’t believe he had an ounce of grace or style in his entire body, the complete opposite of your mother in so many ways.
“I was so enraptured by her as a child. I never knew my mother, but if I had, I’d have wanted her to be just like that. I became obsessed.”
This new revelation ignited a current of pain in my body. It radiated through me, ebbing and flowing in waves. I didn’t want to hear any more.
At that moment, another person fell into the clearing in front of us.
Simon. And the three enormous men that followed led me to believe he hadn’t fallen on his own.
“Finally,” John said, “You idiots took long enough bringing him. Where’s the geek? I want him here, too.”
“Don’t call him that,” I replied flatly.
John only grinned until an unnatural-sounding voice relayed that Lyle was nowhere to be found.
Thank God.
Simon pushed himself up and stumbled forward. He saw Nicky lying on the ground and went to check on her before coming over to Gavin and me.
“Is she alright?” I whispered, frantic.
“Yeah. I think she’s just unconscious.
“So, now that we’re all here, let’s begin properly, shall we?” John approached me. “Get up.”
I nodded to Simon. He took Gavin from me hesitantly. I knew exactly what he was thinking. I know, I wanted to tell him, but what else can I do?
“I need to show you something,” John said, nodding his head toward the very large man nearest me, who, in turn, grabbed me by the arm and gave me a shove in the direction of my long lost tree.
I’d assumed we were headed to the tree, because it so intently held my fascination, but John stopped me after only a few yards. “I have something here for you.”
John abruptly grabbed my hand, forcing my fist open. I would’ve struggled harder, but seeing as I was completely outnumbered by some rather odd looking individuals, there didn’t seem to be any use to it. To my surprise, he placed something inside my
palm.
I held the object closer to my face. It glimmered in the moonlight with the movement. It was only a blank card of some kind. What was the big deal? As soon as I turned the card over, however, I felt all the air being expelled from my lungs. I didn’t need to read the words.
Beloved Member of..... The Haunted Explorers Society.
My first thought was something along the lines of how had he gotten this from my house? But then I realized the lamination on the card was in mint condition, whereas mine was crumpled from my father’s rage.
Beloved Evangeline (A Dark Paranormal Urban Fantasy Trilogy for Grown-ups - Book 1) Page 24