“What? Wait, did you know they were coming?” Melissa asked.
“I didn’t. I had no idea who they were until they showed up on my front porch this morning. They were hoping Hangman’s House was abandoned.”
“This isn’t going to go over well,” she said and rubbed her temples again. “Thank you, Brighton. I’ll take it from here.”
Chapter Two
I was a little surprised when Thorn showed up at my house after his shift. I don’t know why, but I hadn’t expected to see him. Fortunately, Brody and I had ordered pizza, and we had more than enough to share.
“All we’ve got is a large cheese and a large pepperoni,” I said. “We weren’t expecting you, but I’m more than happy to share.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course I’m sure. Come in. I’m happy to see you.”
I kissed him, and sadly, I was actually surprised when he didn’t pull back. Things between us had become strained so fast that it almost made my head spin.
“I’m happy to see you too,” Thorn said and pulled me into his arms.
I listened to his heart beat for a few seconds while we stood there. It wasn’t a comforting sound. His pulse was too fast, and it seemed clunky.
“You’re not all right,” I said as our embrace broke.
“We need to talk about what’s going on,” Thorn said. “I want to clear the air about all of this, but I don’t want to discuss it in front of your brother. Okay?”
“Sure,” I said. “He took some pizza up to his room a while ago. He’s binge watching that Ghost Seekers show. I don’t imagine he’ll be down anytime soon.”
“Them. About that,” Thorn said and rubbed the back of his neck. “Those guys are a pain in the butt.”
“Why?”
“I got calls about them all day. People have no idea who they are or what they’re doing here, so they keep calling dispatch. I imagine it’s only going to get worse tonight.”
“Well, then I guess you better get some pizza while you have the chance. There’s Pepsi in the fridge too,” I said.
I had planned on eating some pizza too, but Thorn saying we needed to talk had tied me up in knots. Instead, I grabbed a diet soda from the fridge and joined him at the kitchen table.
“You’re not going to eat?” he asked.
“I will in a bit,” I said. “You said we needed to talk?”
“I didn’t mean to make you worry. In fact, that’s why I came here. I figured that if you knew what was going on, you’d worry less,” Thorn said. “You already know that my ex-wife is in town, and that she brought a little girl with her. Brighton, the little girl is my daughter.”
“And she kept it from you all this time? She never told you she had your baby?”
“Sadie thought the baby was my brother’s child,” Thorn said with a sigh.
“What?”
“My ex-wife started a relationship with my brother right after we split up. I mean, the whole thing started before we split up, but they didn’t get together officially until after the split.”
“How did you not know about any of this?” I asked.
“Because my brother and I are mostly estranged. He had no problems having a relationship with my wife, so it should be pretty obvious why.”
“So how do you know the kid isn’t his?”
“Eventually, Todd got tired of playing house with Sadie and Dani. That’s the little girl, my daughter’s, name. He suspected that there was a chance that Dani was mine, so he demanded a DNA test. Which he got through a court order. He wanted to ditch them and move onto something else, but Todd didn’t want to be forced to pay child support. He was right, and the test proved that Dani wasn’t his, but it also proved that it was a close genetic relationship. I’ve seen the test results, Brighton. Dani is mine. It’s why Sadie ran off and never came back. It’s why she would call me to talk even after we split, but I never saw her. She didn’t want me to know, but she knew that I wouldn’t just let the relationship go if I knew she was pregnant. I would have fought for our marriage, but Sadie didn’t want that. She wanted Todd.”
“So now what?” I asked a little more bluntly than I intended.
I couldn’t help it. All of his talk about not letting the marriage go when he knew his child was involved was exactly what I was afraid of from the moment he told me.
“That depends on you,” Thorn said. “I love you, but we’ve never had a discussion about kids. I have no idea if you’d ever even wanted them, and we couldn’t have possibly talked about how you felt about being a stepmother.”
“Stepmother?” The word wasn’t as scary as I’d thought.
“Yeah. I’m sorry if this all seems quick. We weren’t talking about marriage yet, so thrusting things like the word stepmother on you seems unfair. But, Brighton, I don’t know what else to do. I wouldn’t feel right proceeding with our relationship unless you thought that you might be okay with a child at some point.”
“And you’re not at all worried that talking about marriage and me helping you raise Dani is too fast?” The question was a delay so I could wrap my head around what was happening.
“I mean, I guess I assumed that marriage was where we were headed. Maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Right?”
“Yes, of course that’s where I thought we were heading, but I wasn’t sure anymore after you told me that. I assumed you’ve been gone because you’ve been spending time with your ex-wife. I thought that perhaps you were considering reconciling with her so you could be a family with your daughter.”
“Sadie’s and my romantic relationship is over,” Thorn said. “Any time I’ve been spending with her was only so that we could figure out how to co-parent Dani. That’s it.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said. “So what does this mean for us in the immediate future?”
Thorn was just about to answer when he got a call from dispatch. Sure enough, someone had called in a report about the Ghost Seekers poking around an abandoned house. They had their filming permit and weren’t technically trespassing, but Thorn had to leave anyway to go smooth the situation over.
“I’ll call you soon,” he said and kissed my cheek. “Thanks for the pizza.”
As soon as he was gone, I noticed that I still felt completely unsettled. His words should have made me feel better than they did, but I still felt like something was amiss.
Seconds later, my phone rang. “So word around town is your new friends, the Ghost Seekers, are poking around the old abandoned Grant House,” Remy said as soon as I answered.
“Yeah, Thorn’s on his way over there to smooth things over.”
“When he’s gone, you want to go see what they’re up to?” Remy seemed enthusiastic.
“You think they’ll stick around after Thorn talks to them?”
“Oh, yeah. They’ve got their film permit and the Grant House technically belongs to Coventry since it’s been abandoned for so long. They’ve dealt with law enforcement far meaner than Thorn in the course of their show.”
“I guess maybe we should,” I said.
“If nothing else, we can make sure that they don’t find anything to upload to YouTube tonight,” Remy said.
“YouTube?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? They have a web series now that coincides with their television show. They post outtakes, raw footage, and teasers when they think they’ve got something.”
“That sounds like it could be a disaster,” I said.
“It does. So we should do our civic duty and go assist them,” Remy said. “Plus, it will cheer you up. I know you’re down. I can feel it.”
“So should I meet you there?”
“Nah, I’ll come pick you up. Give me ten to fifteen minutes.”
“No rush,” I said. “We want to make sure Thorn’s gone before we show up anyway.”
I could tell Remy wanted to ask me if there was more to my statement than just the issue with the ghost hunting crew, but he didn’t. I didn’t volun
teer the information either.
When I went upstairs to tell Brody that I was leaving with Remy, his bedroom door was wide open. He was on the bed on his stomach watching the Ghost Seekers episodes with his headphones in. I tried knocking on the door frame before I went in, but he didn’t hear me. I thought about walking up behind him and tapping his shoulder, but I figured that would scare him. Instead, I walked around and stood in front of him.
Brody hit the space bar and paused his video. “What’s up?” he asked without taking the earbuds out.
“Remy and I are going out. The Ghost Seekers are over at a place called the Grant House, we’re going to go keep an eye on things,” I said. “You want to come?”
“Nah. I’ll leave the field work to my betters. I’ll be here doing research.”
Ten minutes later, Remy pulled up in the driveway. I was sitting out on the front steps waiting for him when he arrived. He started to get out of the car, but I put my hand up to stop him.
Once I slid into the passenger seat and clicked my seatbelt, we were off. “I almost can’t believe the council gave them a filming permit,” I said after a few moments of silence.
“The witches didn’t want to, but they couldn’t think of a good reason not to do it. Denying them the permit would have just looked even more suspicious,” Remy said.
“You’d think they could have come up with something. The council could have told them there was a six-month waiting period or something. If they’d delayed it, the Ghost Seekers would have had to wander off and find something else,” I said.
“You should be on the council,” Remy said with a smile.
“No thanks.” I retorted and poked him in the arm.
“Well, the humans on the town council have no idea why this is a terrible idea, and the witches are hoping that the magic that keeps the human townsfolk looking in the other direction will work on the Ghost Seekers too.”
“But we both know that’s too big of a risk, and that’s why we’re on our way to Grant House, right?”
“That and I wanted the opportunity to hang out with you again. Like we used to when you were restoring the old cemetery.”
“Well, it won’t be like that because the Ghost Seekers will be there too,” I said.
“But we’ll be a team again,” he said hopefully.
“We never were not a team,” I said. “We had some struggles, but we were never not a team.”
“Sometimes it felt like you hated me,” he said.
“And sometimes it felt like you really didn’t like me either, but it wasn’t real,” I said. “Misunderstandings and misplaced feelings were all it was.”
“I’m sorry that I got mad at you because Annika figured out that Langoria was my mother. I never should have assumed the worst about you,” he said as he turned down the street for Grant House. “And I never should have been spying on you.”
“What happened?” I asked as we pulled up behind the Ghost Seeker van. “I mean, why were you doing that? It’s so unlike you. You’re not a stalker, Remy.”
“The night that I came to your house and told you that Thorn would break your heart, I was wrong. I mean that I was wrong to do that. I knew as soon as I had that I had screwed up, so I used that magic on you to make it seem like a dream. But you’re too strong for that. You knew it was real, but that’s not the point. I shouldn’t have done that. Using my magic for personal gain should have had consequences, but I did another spell to try and negate those. It was one stupid mistake after another.”
“But that doesn’t explain why you were outside my house watching Thorn and me.”
“It does,” he said with a sigh. “Because of my actions, I let darkness in. I had a bad spirit attached to me. It tormented me day and night. The Aunties wouldn’t help get rid of it. They forbid Annika from getting rid of it.”
“You should have come to me. I would have helped you.”
“I know you would have, but I was afraid it would hurt you. Then, it started telling me that it was hurting you. It told me that Thorn was hurting you too. Not just your heart. I know it sounds stupid, but that thing had me believing that something bad was going to happen to you. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. My thoughts just got darker and darker. It said you betrayed me, and that you had to pay. I don’t know. Everything got foggy after that, but as you know, I eventually managed to pull myself out of it all.”
“I mean it, Remy, you should have come to me. I thought you were watching me because you were jealous of Thorn’s and my relationship. I had no idea,” I said.
“I think we’ll be all right.”
“I know we will. Well, we’ll be okay as long as we keep these chuckle butts from exposing all of Coventry’s secrets. Brody is watching all of their old shows, but do you know if they’ve ever actually caught anything? Do they have any real footage of ghosts?”
“There’s some stuff that could be real, but it’s nothing definitive. I’m less worried about them catching ghosts and more worried about them getting a witch using magic,” Remy said.
When I looked up, Chris was standing on the sidewalk near Remy’s car watching us. He saw me looking and offered a small wave.
“Well, let’s do it then,” I said.
“Brighton, good evening,” Chris said as I emerged from the car.
“Hello, Chris.”
“What brings you out?” he asked as Remy joined us on the sidewalk.
“This is my friend Remy. He works in the town archives. We thought we’d come out and check out what you’re doing,” I said.
“We’re just doing a light investigation around the perimeter of the house. The sheriff was just here, but he left pretty quickly after getting a call from his wife about his daughter.”
“Ex-wife.” I grumbled.
“What?” Chris was genuinely perplexed as he had no idea what was going on between Thorn and me.
“Oh, nothing.”
Sensing that it was a topic he didn’t want to be involved in, Chris turned his attention to Remy. “So you work in the town archives? That must be amazing.”
“It’s pretty cool,” Remy said with a smile. “So why are you guys only doing the perimeter of the house?”
“Well, we knew the house was abandoned, but we didn’t want to get arrested for trespassing so soon.”
“It wouldn’t be trespassing,” Remy said. “The house is technically public property. You could go in as long as you don’t do any harm.”
“Remy?” I couldn’t believe he was encouraging that.
“It’s true, Brighton. I would know. I’ve got all the records on this place stored in the archives.”
“Do you think I might be able to get a look at those?” Chris asked. “This place’s history is fascinating.”
“Sure, during regular business hours, of course. You should come by tomorrow. I can show you what I’ve got.”
“For now, can I ask you some questions?”
“I’m just going to go look for the rest of the crew,” I said when I sensed that they were about to have a long, boring talk about historical documents.
Brody should have come along. I’d make sure to let him know about Chris and Remy meeting at the archives the next day. He’d definitely want to be there for that.
“Could you let the others know they can go inside if the doors are unlocked?” Chris asked.
“Sure thing.”
No one else was in the front of the house, so I walked around to the side. The backyard was surrounded by a crumbling privacy fence, but the gate was open. I didn’t have to risk ripping it off its rusty hinges just to gain access to the yard.
The other Ghost Seekers were in the back milling around. Kurt looked as though he was practicing lines, and Toto was filming the whole thing. Link sat along the back fence in the lotus pose with his eyes closed. I figured he might have been trying to contact a spirit, and I wondered if he knew how much he probably didn’t want that to happen.
Rachel was off in another
corner with an EMF reader in one hand and a small recorder in the other. I didn’t know much about ghost hunting, but I did know she was trying to get EVP readings.
I didn’t need the EMF reader to know that there was a mischievous spirit nearby. It wasn’t making itself visible, but I could feel it. She was going to get something on the electronic voice phenomenon readings. Well, she was going to get something until I came along.
A little wave of my hand and her recording would be nothing convincing. I felt the spirit that had been trying to communicate with her rush past me in a cold breeze. Most likely it wasn’t happy with me, but I didn’t care. At least it hadn’t fully manifested and started throwing chunks of rotten fence at us.
“Oh, hey,” Kurt said when he saw me watching the scene. “Did you just come to check out what we’re doing? Because if you want to be on the show, we’ll need you to sign a waiver.”
“I thought I’d come see how you guys were doing. You don’t want me on the show.”
“Why not?” Kurt said as he crossed the yard to me. “You’ve definitely got the face for television.”
“Don’t let Rachel hear you say that.” Bobby stepped out from behind a huge tree in the yard. I hadn’t noticed him back there, and I’d kind of forgotten about him until that moment. He definitely had that blending into the background thing down.
“I already did hear him,” Rachel said without joining us.
“Yeah, she heard me,” Kurt said with a chuckle. “Good thing she’s not the jealous type.”
“Not even a little bit.” Rachel looked over and gave me a warm smile that time. “Besides, he’s right. She does have a face meant for television.”
“You guys,” I said, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want to be one of those people who couldn’t take a compliment, but I did have a hard time with compliments. So I changed the subject. “Chris and my friend Remy are talking out front. Remy wanted you guys to know that Grant House here is public property, so as long as you don’t damage anything, you can go inside.”
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 37