Belle Manor Haunting

by Cheryl Bradshaw

  “What did you take? The locket?”

  Sara nodded, her eyes still glued on Mr. Pickles.

  “Can you tell me about it?” Addison asked.

  “Do I have to tell?”

  Addison nodded.

  “Oh ... kay,” Sara said. “Mommy and Daddy were gone, and Scarlett wanted to play hide-and-seek. She said we could only play if we played upstairs, and I had to hide first. I hid under the bed, and she found me. It was her turn to hide, but she said she wanted me to hide three more times first. She started counting again, and I ran into one of the bathrooms and got inside the cabinet. I was in there a long time. I waited and waited, and she didn’t come get me. I peeked out, and I called her name, and she still didn’t come. I got tired of hiding. It wasn’t fun, and I didn’t want to play anymore.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I got out of my hiding spot, and I heard Daddy in the hall. He forgot to take his money when he left, and he came back to get it. He found Scarlett, and he got angry.”

  “What did he say?”

  “I don’t know. He yelled at her, and she was sad. She said we were just playing a game and she guessed I was hiding upstairs cuz she couldn’t find me anywhere else. But she lied. She told me to hide upstairs.”

  “What did your dad say when she told him you were playing a game?”

  “He made her cry, and then she ran away. I thought I would get in trouble if he saw me, so I went downstairs real quick.”

  “Did you find Scarlett?”

  She nodded. “She ran to her room, and went in the bathroom, and closed the door. She was still crying. I was going to knock on the door, and then her backpack fell off the bed, and the locket fell out. It was so pretty and shiny.”

  “What did you do with the locket after you took it?”

  “I played with it for a minute. I poured it into one hand and then into the other one, and then I got bored and put it in my pocket. I was just going to keep it for a little bit. I was going to give it back. Promise.”

  Addison crossed the room and knelt in front of Sara. “It’s okay. Thank you for telling me the truth. Did you open the locket?”

  “Uh-huh. Nothing was inside.”

  “What happened after you put it in your pocket?”

  “Scarlett came out of the bathroom. She said sorry for leaving me in the cupboard upstairs for so long. I asked her why she left me, and she said she got lost. I get lost upstairs sometimes, so I said it was okay. Then she went home.”

  “When did you see her again?”

  “The next day, Mommy went somewhere, and Daddy’s friends were coming over to play games, and he asked Scarlett to stay with me.”

  “Did she come over?”

  Sara nodded. “Daddy wasn’t mad anymore. He told her he was sorry, and she said it was okay. Grannie JoJo came over. She gave me Mr. Pickles and told Daddy she was taking me to get ice cream. She went to the car to wait for me, and then Scarlett and Theo got there.”

  “Why was Theo there if Scarlett was going to be taking care of you?”

  “He used to come over and swim with us sometimes and Scarlett took him home. Daddy told Scarlett she was early. She didn’t need to be there for two more hours, and he asked her to get some snacks for his friends for when they came over later because he was busy. I was going to get in Grannie JoJo’s car, and then she said she couldn’t take me for ice cream anymore, and Scarlett said she would. We left, and that’s when ... that’s when ...”

  “It’s okay, sweetie. I know what happened. You showed me. You just didn’t show me everything, did you?”

  “I ... I can’t remember.”

  Except Addison knew she could.

  “Sara, I need to see what you didn’t show me the first time. I know you don’t want to, and I know it’s scary. I’ll be with you the entire time. Show me one more time, and you’ll never have to think about it again.”

  Sara sat down on the floor, crossed her legs, and rested Mr. Pickles inside her lap. She squeezed his ears, rubbing them between her thumb and fingers. “I don’t like thinking about it.”

  “If you want to be with Grannie JoJo, I need you to tell me everything.”

  “Promise?”

  Sara seemed tormented. Addison could see it in her eyes. Going back into her memory the first time had opened an old wound, and the wound had festered. If Addison was to convince her to dive back in, she needed to go deeper.

  “I had to remember something I didn’t want to once when I was a little older than you,” Addison said.

  “Was it a bad thing?”

  “It was.”

  “Did it make you sad?”

  “It did.”

  “Did you get hurt?”

  “My friend did,” Addison said. “Her name was Natalie. We were in her back yard, and she was on a tree swing. She got too high, and she fell.”

  “Is she okay?”

  Addison weighed the best way to answer the question. “She wasn’t okay, but she is okay now. She’s in the place you’ll be going with Grannie JoJo.”

  Sara was quiet for a time.

  Addison waited.

  “Did you see Natalie fall?” Sara asked.

  “I did. I tried not to think about it for a long time after. Then one day, I knew I needed to remember what happened so I could feel better again.”

  “Do you feel better?”

  “I do, and you can too, Sara.”

  Sara’s eyes filled with tears. Addison flushed with guilt, knowing she was about to put her through the traumatic event once more. There was no other choice. Not this time. Sara’s inability to face the truth had kept her trapped in the void between one realm and the next. She was the key to unraveling everything, and she always had been. Addison knew that now.

  Sara folded her arms around the bear and said, “Can Mr. Pickles come too?”

  “Sure, he can.”

  “Okay. I’ll do it, I guess.”

  Addison stood. “All right then. Stand next to me, and I’m going to reach for your hand. Whatever happens, don’t worry. Hold my hand, and don’t let go. I’ll be with you. I will see what you see, and it will all be over.”

  Addison and Sara were in the back seat of the car again. Scarlett and Theo were talking up front, arguing over the music, arguing over when to have date night. Scarlett said she’d lost something, and Addison looked at Sara, this time picking up on the shame spread across Sara’s face over stealing the necklace.

  It was different this time, knowing what was about to happen, watching the way Theo looked at Scarlett—like a million women could be in the room, and he’d still only see one.

  Had Scarlett noticed his doting affection when she was alive?

  And if she had, were the feelings reciprocated?

  Scarlett gripped the steering wheel hard, like she wanted to bust it in half. She was a ball of nerves, a grenade set to go off. She wasn’t just nervous, she was afraid. She’d found the necklace, and now racked her brain over where it had gone and how she’d lost it.

  Addison believed Scarlett had found a secret hiding place upstairs.

  It explained why Scarlett wanted Sara to hide.

  She was buying time for herself to snoop around.

  Addison wondered where the necklace had been found, who had hidden it, and why it had been kept as a memento, a token reminder of a heinous crime.

  Sara’s palm started to perspire. She clenched Addison’s hand but didn’t let go.

  “We’re almost there,” Sara said.

  Addison glanced out the window. The stop sign where the crash happened was up ahead. “I know. It’s all right. Remember what I told you.”

  “Don’t be scared.”

  Addison nodded.

  Sara braced for impact.

  The car slowed to a stop on what appeared to be a deserted four-way stop, at first. Knowing where to look, Addison leaned out the open window, watched, and waited.

  She didn’t wait long.

  A black truc
k barreled through the stop, racing toward its target. The truck sideswiped the car, and Sara shot through the window, taking Addison with her. The truck stalled and then switched gears, preparing to take off, but it didn’t, it idled. The driver thrust his head out his window, scanning the scene to ensure there were no survivors. He removed the mask covering his face, and his eyes fell on an image he hadn’t expected, a tiny child blinking back at him, gasping as she took her final breath.

  Then he did something Addison hadn’t predicted.

  He pounded his fists into the steering wheel and screamed.

  “Sara! Sara, no! No! No! No! Oh, Sara. What have I done? What have I ...”

  This was his moment, his one chance to do the right thing, to rush over to Sara and scoop her up in his arms. Instead, he took the coward’s way out. He thrust the truck into gear and barreled down the road.

  Addison brushed a tear from her eye as she watched him. In the last second of her life, Sara had seen the killer, the man responsible for her death.

  Addison planted a kiss on Sara’s forehead. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’ve seen what I needed to see. We can leave now. We can leave and never come back.”

  Sara curled into a ball on the couch, sobbing. Addison hovered over her, wanting to remove her pain. Nothing she said would be enough. Not this time. Only one person could clear the salt from Sara’s infectious wound.

  Addison closed her eyes and said, “Josephine DuPont, I command you to appear.”

  Josephine materialized and rushed to her granddaughter’s side. “Sara, honey, look at me.”

  Sara sniffled a few times and turned her head.

  “There, there, dear,” Josephine said. “I’m here now. Dry those eyes. Everything is all right.”

  “Grannie JoJo, is it really you?” Sara asked.

  “It is me. I’ve waited to see you for a long time.”

  “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “We don’t have to stay. We can leave now, together.”

  “Where will we go?”

  Josephine smiled. “To a beautiful place. You’ll see.”

  Sara held up Mr. Pickles. “Can he come? He doesn’t want to be left alone.”

  Josephine gave Sara’s hand a squeeze and said, “Of course he can.”

  For a time, Josephine sat with Sara, and they talked as if no time had passed between them. When Sara settled enough for her grandmother to leave her side, Josephine said, “I need to talk to Addison for a minute before we go, okay?”

  Sara nodded.

  Addison and Josephine walked to the other side of the room.

  “I know what happened,” Addison whispered. “I know who caused the car crash.”

  “Don’t tell me,” she said. “Please.”

  “I thought you’d want to know.”

  “I’ve let it fester in me for years. Being reunited with my grandchild, I realize it doesn’t matter to me anymore. What happened to Sara, what happened to me ... the past doesn’t dictate our future. I’d like to leave it all behind. I’m at peace with it.”

  Addison had never received such a request, and yet, she understood it. Josephine had been given a rare glimpse of the afterlife, into what mattered and what didn’t, and it had changed her perspective.

  “Of course,” Addison said. “All you ever needed was to resolve it within yourself.”

  “I’d like to ask one last favor before we go, if I may,” Josephine said. “If you see my daughter again, tell her how much I love her. Even if she doesn’t believe you, I’d still like her to know.”

  “I will. Are you ready?”

  Josephine glanced over her shoulder. “What do you think, kiddo? Should we get out of here for good?”

  Sara joined Josephine and took her hand. A door in the center of the room burst open, shooting bright rays of light. Josephine’s father appeared, beckoning them forward.

  Josephine whispered in Sara’s ear, “Do you see them? Do you see all those people in there? They’re all here, waiting for you.”

  Sara clapped her hands and grinned. “Come on, Grannie JoJo. Let’s go!”

  They stepped through the doorway, and Josephine turned back. “

  “I’ll never forget you, Addison, and what you’ve done for me,” she said. “What a tremendous gift you’ve been given.”

  Two days had come and gone since Josephine and Sara crossed into the afterlife, and there was still work to be done, secrets to be untangled from the Belles’ twisted web. But first, Addison decided to step back, taking a short sabbatical from it all to reconnect with her family and herself. The stone Joan had offered was still where she’d left it, sitting at the bottom of a glass on a shelf in the red room. At first, she left it there thinking she’d use it when the time seemed right. Now her head was clear. Now she knew it wasn’t about a right time or a wrong one. It was about one thing and one thing only—the one thing she’d fought for years.

  Fear.

  Fear of what would happen when the stone was placed back where it belonged.

  Fear of how it might change things.

  Fear of the unknown.

  What power did it hold?

  What responsibility?

  Unlocking the book’s hidden secrets, if it had hidden secrets, was much more than discovering the hidden magic it contained. It was about unwrapping another layer of Addison’s identity.

  Two days ago, she hadn’t been ready.

  Today she was.

  Addison stood in front of the shelf, peering at the stone inside the glass. It seemed pure and harmless, nothing more than a delicate ornament waiting to be fashioned inside an exquisite piece of jewelry. Now, it would achieve so much more.

  She reached for the glass, tipping the stone into the palm of her hand.

  What secrets do you have to reveal, and how will I change after you do?

  She had a theory, a partial answer to her own question.

  There was good in her. Most days she could feel it, the light flowing beneath her skin. It was radiant and alive, full of vibrancy and energy.

  There was also something else, something hidden beneath the light. A veil of darkness was attached to the cracks and crevices of Addison’s soul, to the few places the light failed to reach. The heaviness was something she’d felt ever since she was a child. She hadn’t dared speak of it because she didn’t know how. In the past, it had been something she herself couldn’t explain.

  Until now.

  Her inner beast wanted out.

  She could feel it.

  Feel its longing to rise from its lightless chamber and become alive.

  It felt dangerous and heavy, as if someone’s hands were pressed against her chest, provoking her to anger.

  Her mother’s blood wasn’t all that circulated within her. The blood of her father did too. And now she had to make a choice. She’d started to feel like a pawn in a much bigger game of tug of war, a game where everyone had an agenda, it seemed. Her grandmother. Her mother. Her father. Even Joan. The time had come for Addison to insert her own agenda, to fight for herself, for her own protection, and for the protection of her family.

  Addison knelt in front of the book of enchantments, placing the stone where she believed it was meant to go. The cauldron sunk inside itself, molding around the stone until the stone was imbedded within it, and then the book ignited, filling the room with a brilliant ray of red.

  Addison placed her hand in the book’s center. A surge of energy flowed through her arm and into her body until her entire frame was alight. It lifted her off the ground, suspending her in midair. She raised her arm, staring through her translucent skin as centuries of knowledge passed down through generations of necromancers penetrated her mind.

  She was no longer one.

  She was all of them.

  The glow began to fade, and Addison floated to the ground, coming to rest on the rug beneath her. Fatigued and drained, she rolled onto her side and surrendered to sleep. Some time later, she awakened to a faint, melod
ic whisper of someone calling her name. Her eyes opened, coming to rest on a freckled woman with long, scarlet-colored hair wearing a velvet, emerald, floor-length dress.

  Addison pushed herself to a sitting position and said, “Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”

  The woman smiled. “You know who I am, Addison. You invited me here.”

  “You’re Sybil, aren’t you? Sybil Waterhouse.”

  Sybil nodded.

  “I didn’t invite you,” Addison said.

  Sybil slipped a ring off her finger and walked over to Addison, sliding it onto her pinkie. The ring looked centuries old and was made of brass, with a red stone in the center. Addison glanced at the book’s cover. The stone was gone.

  “Is this stone the same one I just ...” Addison began. “Did you ...?”

  Sybil reached for the book. The moment her hand touched it the book ceased to exist.

  “What are you doing?” Addison asked. “Where has it gone? I need it.”

  Sybil shook her head. “You don’t. Not anymore. You are the book, and the book is you. Can’t you feel it, all the generations of your ancestors within you?”

  She did feel different.

  Changed.

  Herself, but not herself at the same time.

  “You are the woman you were before, but now you’re elevated,” Sybil said. “You can see and do things you only imagined doing before.”

  “Why is this happening? What do you want from me?”

  Sybil turned a hand upward. “Nothing.”

  “You must. Everyone wants something from me. Why would you be any different?”

  “It’s not for me to say what you do with the gift I just bestowed upon you. It is for you to decide.”

  “Why me? Why now?”

  Sybil crossed the room, trailing a finger across a few adornments on a shelf. She wrapped a hand around an empty bottle. “You know what this needs?”

  Sybil pulled the empty bottle off the shelf, and it filled with wine. She turned her palm up, circling it in front of her, and a goblet appeared. She poured some wine into it and focused back on Addison.

  “You look like me, and you act like me, except you seem a lot more uptight,” Sybil said. “You worry too much.”