Текст книги "Island of the Forbidden "

Автор книги: Hunter Shea

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Eddie looked at the old colonial house. He couldn’t see a single EB outside. They must all be in there, wondering what the Harpers and their friends are up to.

“If it makes you feel any better, I think for once, you’re not the one the EBs will be pissed off with.”

Jessica followed his gaze. He took off his light jacket and draped it over her shoulders, rubbing her upper arms to break the chill that had seized her. Three years ago, he was sure if he tried a move like that, she would have kicked him in the ribs.

She leaned into him, the cold of her cheek bleeding through his shirt to the flesh of his bicep.

“Fuck it,” she said. “We came here to keep those kids safe. That’s just what we’re going to do. Paul and his film school buddies better play it smart and keep out of my way.”

Now that’s the Jessica I know, Eddie thought. They were going to need her strength if they expected to get off the island with their sanity intact.

Chapter Nineteen

Tobe Harper was more than mildly shocked when Jessica and Eddie walked through the front door, bags still over their shoulders. He was just about to show Mitch and Rusty to the library, a room big enough for them to set up their makeshift studio.

“Did Paul tell you?” Jessica asked, letting one of her bags drop to the floor with a resounding thud.

“He’s in the kitchen with everyone else,” Tobe said. He noted the dark expression on the girl’s face. Perhaps they hadn’t underestimated her supposed powers—he could feel it in the change in atmosphere alone—but they hadn’t taken her ferocity into account. As much as they needed her, she may also prove to be their undoing.

“Well, your little boat is fried. Actually, it’s frozen. So, even if we wanted to leave, other than swimming across the harbor, we’re stuck here.”

The boat was frozen? No wonder Paul had shuffled out of the room so quickly, avoiding eye contact. That was a most unexpected development.

She continued, jabbing her finger in his direction to emphasize her points. “Look, this is your house, your island, so I can’t tell you what to do. But I can tell you that you are not to film Eddie or me at any point. I’m strictly here for Alice and Jason now. You have no idea what you’re doing, and someone needs to keep their welfare in mind. So shoot your documentary, be a hack ghost hunter. Just leave us out of it.”

The sound of heels tapping along the wood floor made her pause. Nina entered the great room, a sandwich in hand. She took a bite, chewing slowly, her eyes flicking between Jessica and Eddie. After she swallowed, she said, “Actually, we do know what we’re doing. That’s why I was hired by the Harpers to find you.”

“Are you a private investigator or something?” Jessica asked.

Tobe noted Eddie’s subtle shake of his head.

Nina’s face blossomed into a wide, superior grin. “I guess you could say that’s partially true. I believe your friend Eddie has enough pieces to figure out the puzzle. Am I right, Eddie?”

He held onto her gaze as if he was attempting to see into her very soul. Without breaking his stare, he said, “She’s like me, Jess. Well, kinda.”

Jessica flexed her fingers, the knuckles popping. She turned to Tobe. “You hired a psychic to find me?”

Tobe cleared his throat. “Not exactly. She came to us with a business proposal.”

Nina interjected, “As you and Eddie know, the dead talk. And let me tell you, girlie, they talk a lot about you. Your money and secretiveness make it easy for you to hide from the living, but the dead can’t be bought and you certainly can’t escape them, especially when you’ve had such an impact on their after-lives.”

Daphne came into the room, confused by the gathering. The sound of Paul, Mitch and Rusty’s voices, talking and laughing loudly, followed her. Tobe put a finger to his lips. It was best to let Nina take the reins.

“So the spirits told you to trick me into coming here?”

Nina shook her head. “It wasn’t quite that simple. Your reputation precedes you. You’re looked at as a savior for souls who want to move on and escape the half-alive path of an orbital ghost, if you will. For those who like things exactly the way they are, you’re a monster. I’ve been hearing whispers about you for some time now. Then about three or so years ago, you met Eddie, and what you did together was like an atomic bomb detonating in the transom.” She clapped her hands once, loudly. “And then you disappeared. But what you didn’t know is that you’ve been followed, every minute of every day, and watched. It only took asking the right, ah, spirits to find you and confirm the stories are true. You were merely a fascination until I met the Harpers at a dinner gathering in Savannah with an eccentric entrepreneur that was a common acquaintance. I put them in contact with Daphne’s mother who had passed on ten years to the day during a particularly fruitful séance. We’ve stayed in touch ever since.”

Jessica’s chest heaved. Nina’s accounting of how things came to be didn’t seem to be sitting well with her.

“That doesn’t explain how you lied to us to get us on this island.”

“We need money,” Tobe said. He knew he sounded weak, desperate, but it was the truth. If they were all going to co-exist on Ormsby Island, the time for deception was over. “We…we never recovered from the market crash. Failing investments led to bad investments, until the bulk of our accounts was simply gone.”

“That’s usually when people get a job,” Jessica spat.

Tobe sighed. “You don’t understand. Daphne and I have never worked a day in our lives. I can’t see many companies willing to take on a middle-aged man or woman with no obvious skills or work experience.”

“The ironic thing is,” Daphne said, “my brother Paul, who was always looked at as the black sheep of the family, may be the only one that can save us.”

Nina sidled next to Jessica. “You’ve seen how networks are eating up ghost shows left and right. Even channels that have no relation to the weird or paranormal are filling every slot they can with people running around with night vision cameras. If it’s done right, it can make a lot of money. Ormsby Island is the right place. You, my dear, are the right lure. And I’m the right person to put it all together.”

Jessica recoiled as if Nina was breathing onion and garlic in her face. She said, softly, “Bitch, I can’t wait until you come to me so scared you’ll be begging for my help.” Nina’s confident smiled faltered for a moment so brief, Tobe wasn’t sure he’d seen her façade crumble at all. “And when I tell you to take a hike, you remember this moment. You want to stir things up? Bad frigging idea. While you play games, Eddie and I will get to the truth here and if you’re very lucky, we’ll make it go away before it gets its claws into you.”

Jessica snagged her bag, brushing against Nina as she went upstairs. Eddie, avoiding eye contact, went right behind her.

The house suddenly shook, as if it had been pulled up from its foundation and dropped back down again. Tobe’s hand met his wife’s as she gasped. Paul, Mitch and Rusty came bounding in the great room, eyes like frightened cats.

“What the hell was that?” Rusty cried.

Nina walked about the room, eyes partially closed, arms outstretched, her palms upright.

She said, “That, my friends, is pay dirt.”

When the house shook, Jessica ran to the window at the end of the hall. She breathed a long sigh of relief when she spotted Alice and Jason running in the backyard, laughing and blissfully unaware.

“Eddie, was that you?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not me. Them. I can’t tell whether they were upset or happy with your interaction with Nina.”

Jessica threw her bags back into the Blue Room. “This place is a fucking circus. If it comes down to it, I’ll take those kids, load them on the boat and paddle my way back to the mainland.”

Eddie grasped her arms. “I think you did a pretty good job throwing down the gauntlet. You also laid out exactly what we have to do.”

“I did? I think I kinda blacked out there for a second.”

“You did. We have to find out exactly what happened here and the names of the children so you can set them free.”

She gave him a soft punch in his chest. “Seeing as we’re cut off from the world without access to any records, people or even the internet, it’s not going to be easy.”

Out of all the people she had helped come to grips with the paranormal in her life, she had never been blindsided like this. She felt like a chump. Her time away from the field had dulled her senses, clouded her ability to judge people and situations.

But feeling the way the entire house just vibrated, the strange ability she had to fuel EBs hadn’t waned one iota.

“Which means we have to fix you,” she said. “Remember the first time I brought you on an investigation?”

“How can I forget? You were being choked to death by that pissed off EB. Of course, you did encourage it to come at you with everything it had.”

Twisting her hair into a ponytail, she said, “Exactly. You were able to grab his name for me so I could send him away. I just need you to do the same thing here, only like a hundred or more times. This time around, though, I won’t be the one provoking them.”

“So they’ll only be strangling other people.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that, especially if one of them looks like a dime store gypsy.”

They both let out a burst of quiet laughter. It was a much needed release from all the tension they had gathered downstairs.

“Plus,” Jessica added, “we need to find that attic. The EBs didn’t point you in that direction for nothing. At least now, I don’t have to be polite and ask permission to poke around those locked rooms.” She went into her room, rummaged through one of her bags and came back out to show him her arsenal—several paper clips and a small screwdriver.

“What the heck is that?” Eddie asked.

“My lock picking tools. A house this old, this should be all I need to get in those rooms.”

He plucked the screwdriver from her hand. “Since when did you become a thief? Was this another one of your experiences on the road?”

She took the tool back and stuffed it in her back pocket. “I was bored one weekend and learned how to do it on YouTube. It’s easier than you think.”

“Easier than just asking for the key?”

“Think of it as insurance. I’m not sure they’re going to play nice with me from here on in. They wanted to use me so I can draw the EBs out, make them strong enough to show up on camera and audio so they can snag some million-dollar deal. Well, shame on me, but they got what they wanted. Now all I want to do is protect those kids and do my best to wreck the Harpers’ little plan.”

Chapter Twenty

Rusty nervously stroked his mustache while he filled a folding table with various monitors and cameras. The scene with Nina and Jessica had been ugly. He prided himself on being a lover, not a fighter. Confrontations made him jumpy. The only child of soft-spoken Lutheran parents, he’d always sought quiet corners, happier with silent contemplation than loud parties. His five-year stint in the army had given him enough barking and bellowing to last a lifetime.

“You got everything?” Mitch asked when he entered the library.

He nodded, eyeing the thousands of dollars of equipment, some of it borrowed without permission from the studio where Mitch did contract work. They should be good if they returned it all by Sunday, no one being the wiser.

“I was hoping to charge everything up at once, but the electrical here leaves a lot to be desired. We’re going to have to be careful with how much we plug in. If something blows out here, we’re screwed.”

When Paul told Rusty on the boat ride over that the place ran on a generator, he’d been less than thrilled. Everything they had required juice—lots of it. Gennies drained easily.

Mitch collapsed into a chair, his girth causing the wood to protest. “We’ll do some light filming tonight, then spend tomorrow making sure everything is fully charged so we can go at it hot and heavy. You want any help with that?”

Rusty waved him off. “I’ve got it. It’s better I keep busy.”

He’d known and worked with Mitch on various projects—commercials, a documentary on the Atlanta drought, a couple of music videos by fledgling pop stars that never popped, and even a corporate video on sexual harassment in the workplace. They were both cameramen by trade, though Mitch had directed a few things as well. Rusty liked working with him. The big guy made him laugh and was a consummate pro.

Unfortunately, times were tough and they needed to find a way to jump on a gravy train, any gravy train. They weren’t getting any younger. And then came Paul, an old friend from film school, with a plan that had potential.

“Ominous start to things,” Rusty said as he checked a mini dv camcorder.

Mitch blew out a big gust of air, rubbing his belly. “That’s what happens when you’re surrounded by people who are obviously bat shit.”

“Jessica was pissed, but she seemed normal to me.”

“She’s a goddamn ghost hunter, Rusty. That’s a little nuts.”

“That doesn’t say much for us, agreeing to be part of this.”

Paul rounded the corner and closed the library door behind him. “Hey, sorry about all that, guys.”

“Speak of the bat shit devil,” Mitch said with a hard grin. “Was what that girl said true? Is the boat really frozen?”

Paul waved his concern away. “It’s not frozen. The engine just won’t turn over. Some water may have gotten into the starter. I’ll try it again tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Mitch crossed one leg over the other. “Good. I don’t like the idea of being stranded on Spooky Island, or any island for that matter. And if you once refer to Rusty and me as Skipper and Gilligan, you’ll have to wear hats to hide the weird shape of your head for the rest of your life.”

Rusty gave a quick snort but kept his eyes and hands glued to the task at hand.

“And what’s with that Nina chick?” Mitch said. “I thought you were going to be the lead on this.”

“I still am. But we need Nina to give her psychic impressions, help build the tension. You’ve seen those shows. Audiences eat that stuff up. The only difference here is, she’s the real thing and not some hack.”

Mitch gave a derisive laugh.

Paul took a seat beside him. “No, I’m serious. I’ve seen what she’s done so far.”

Patting Paul on the arm like he was an excitable child, Mitch said, “No problem, Paulie, we all know psychics are real. I agree that having one on the show will help with the theatrics, and that’s all that really counts.”

Something had been nagging at the back of Rusty’s brain. He had to scratch the itch before it drove him mad. Turning from his mobile control board, he asked, “What made that noise after Jessica and what’s-his-name went upstairs?”

Paul shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Nina says it was like a psychic sonic boom or something. It definitely wasn’t the house settling.”

“Not unless it settled into a sinkhole,” Mitch said.

Rusty said, “So you think this place is really haunted? To be honest with you, I thought we’d have to jazz things up to make this saleable. I know the gruesome history of the island will have networks drooling, but really, what are the odds of catching anything real?”

Pointing at the ceiling, Paul said, “Our ace in the hole is what will tip the odds in our favor.”

Perplexed, Rusty said, “What are they, actors or special effects people?”

“Nina says Jessica is some kind of ghost lure. And Eddie’s got something going on too. They can’t help but bring them to us.”

Mitch rose from the chair, his back and knees popping. “Paul, I don’t exactly know what you and your crazy sister and brother-in-law have concocted, and to tell you the truth, I don’t want to know. I’m here to film it, edit it down to just over forty minutes and pitch the fucker. Hopefully you can keep the drama to a minimum so we don’t end up with the paranormal Jerry Springer Show.”

I’m not comfortable with this at all, Rusty thought, turning back to his gear. There are too many people telling too many lies in too small a place. A psychic sonic boom? What the heck does that even mean? And now we can’t even get off the island if we wanted to.

Paul and Mitch left the library, debating about where to start the night’s first scene. They closed the door behind them, leaving him to work in silence.

Rusty ran extension cords throughout the room, expecting that blood freezing noise to erupt at any moment. It was going to be a long five days. He wished he’d packed warmer clothes. It was like working in a wintry graveyard.

Bad analogy, Rusty.

He suddenly felt very alone and very, very vulnerable.

Chapter Twenty-One

There was a light knock at Jessica’s door. She flipped her cell phone onto the cushiony bed. Out here, the thing was as useful as a rock. She’d been standing on chairs and crawling on her hands and knees hoping to get just one bar. It would be nice to be able to call her aunt or Angela, and exceedingly helpful if she could get a word out to Swedey and see if he was able to dig up more dirt on the Ormsby clan.

Daphne Harper stood outside the door, looking apologetic. Before Jessica could speak, she held up a slight, pale hand, her eyes downcast.

“Before you say anything, I want to apologize to you. I understand what we did wasn’t exactly fair.”

Understatement of the year, Jessica thought.

“I know it’s hard for someone of your means to understand what it’s like to be desperate.”

“How do you know about my means?” Jessica asked coldly. Even most of her neighbors back in the Long Island neighborhood where she was born and raised weren’t aware that she was a multi-millionaire.

Daphne took an unconscious half-step back. She did raise her head to meet Jessica’s icy glare. “You may dismiss her, but Nina does have some remarkable abilities. Truth be told, she frightens me. Which is why I would appreciate it if you and Eddie would stay close to Alice and Jason. I understand it’s a lot to ask, coming from a woman who deceived you.”

Jessica let a long, uncomfortable silence pass. She had to check herself from slamming the door in Daphne’s face.

“Paul and his friends plan to start filming tonight,” Daphne said.

“We’ll stay with the kids,” Jessica finally said. “Someone with some sense has to. You do know why, don’t you?”

Daphne slowly shook her head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Sighing her irritation, Jessica said, “You do know why you brought me here, correct?”

Playing with the sleeve of her jacket, Daphne said, “Yes, of course I do.” The words were defiant but her tone was defeated.

“That part of me that you wanted to use to bring out the EBs here. Your children have it too. Didn’t Nina tell you that?”

Daphne looked genuinely shocked.

Looks like I’m not the only one getting their chain yanked.

“From what Eddie can tell, their ability, for lack of a better word, is weak, unrefined. But they have it. I only came here to help them if I could and protect them if it became necessary. So, in a way, nothing’s changed much for me. So yes, we’ll be with them tonight and for as long as we’re here.”

Before Daphne could respond, Jessica closed the door. It wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but damn it felt good.

Eddie and Jessica ate dinner with the children by the water where it was warmest. He could almost believe it was late spring, this far from the strange house. The trail of EB children kept their distance from them, which was what allowed the heat of the day to penetrate their moveable chill. When they sat down by the water’s edge to lay out their sandwiches and apples on a thin blanket, Eddie cast a mental request for the EBs to give them some space so they could eat without shivering.

To his surprise, the EBs had responded, granting his wish. It was the first time he’d had a focused interaction with an EB for a year.

Please let that be a sign that I’m getting some of my strength back. It was possible that Jessica was charging him as much as the dead. It made sense, considering how strongly tethered he was to them.

Jason and Alice devoured their dinner and had been skipping rocks along the water for the better part of an hour. Jessica had been the one to show them how to get more skips on each throw. Most of Eddie’s rocks sank to the bottom after a two skip maximum. Jessica’s rocks danced atop the liquid surface like frantic dragonflies.

It didn’t take long for Alice and Jason to become fledgling experts.

“You keep this up, there won’t be any more rocks left on the island,” Eddie said. He lay on the blanket, propped up by his elbows. The orange reflection of the sun shimmered as rocks rippled the water.

Jason looked around his feet. “We may run out of good, flat rocks.”

Alice, who was crouched low, poking around the dirt, said, “We can just find another spot if we do.”

Jessica offered Eddie the last half of a ham sandwich. Paul had made the dinner for them, in between being called into the library by Mitch. He hadn’t spoken or even looked them in the eye. To Eddie, he looked like a man waiting to be punched, his body tensed in a defensive position at all times. Tobe and Daphne had spent their time in the great room with Nina. It seemed to give Jessica great pleasure when Eddie told her he’d overheard Daphne having some harsh words for the flamboyant psychic. No one looked happy in that room.

“I’m stuffed,” he said, patting his stomach.

“You eat less than Alice,” Jessica said, taking a bite of the sandwich.

“I think I’ve conditioned myself to be full with less.”

“You’re no starving artist, so you need to start eating.”

He rolled onto his side to face her. “To tell you the truth, I’m usually too sick to eat. Just the thought of chewing food when your head feels like it’s going to crack open is enough to go on a liquid diet. My father used to tell me a dark beer is like a meal in a can.”

“If you even think of going alcoholic on me, I’ll beat you.”

Jessica had done her homework after meeting him, reading up on psychic phenomena and the lives of famous psychic-mediums. The fact that most ended up with strange, debilitating medical conditions and substance abuse problems hadn’t flown under her radar. She’d once grilled him about his own family and their gifted and at times renowned lineage. Unfortunately, they did little to break the stereotype of the sickly, addicted psychic medium.

Jessica suddenly leaned forward, staring hard at a spot on the water. Eddie looked too.

He hoped she wasn’t seeing the same thing he could.

Jason had a handful of rocks. Plucking them one after another, he skipped rocks like a little machine gun.

The ghostly remains of a boy—he looked to be no older than his early teens—rose from the water. Jason’s rocks sailed through the apparition. The boy was bloated, his waterlogged flesh splitting at the seams, his face blown into a distorted mask that would give even the hardest homicide cop nightmares.

Being as casual as he could, Eddie said, “What’s the matter, Jess?”

She squinted against the sun. “I thought I saw something in the water, like a fish breaking the surface. Did you see it?”

Eddie allowed himself a small sigh of relief.

“It’s not a fish. I think part of you was able to detect it, but there’s not enough there for your brain to piece it together.”

“Is that your way of telling me there’s an EB in the water?”

“Right in the line of fire.”

The boy stared at Jason and Alice with distended eyes. Eddie closed his eyes hard, trying to keep the boy’s image from burning itself into his memory. It was one thing to see the dead. It was another to see a representation of them at the time of their death. There was no pattern to it. Some chose to revert to what they were as a child, or a younger, healthier version of themselves. Others retained their death mask, victims of horrid accidents, drownings and suicides. He’d asked many an EB about it but even they had no answers.

Eddie had once shocked Jessica when he told her the dead had more questions about the afterlife than the living. She’d refused to believe him, thinking he was holding back on information gleaned from a lifetime of communing with the deceased.

“Do you think we should tell the kids to give it a rest? I don’t want the EB to think they’re being disrespectful.”

The apparition turned its heavy head in his direction. For a brief moment, Eddie was able to snatch its thoughts from the cacophony that surrounded him.

“He doesn’t,” Eddie said. “He heard the rocks skimming over the water and was curious. He thinks Alice needs more practice.”

Shielding her eyes from the early evening sun, Jessica stared hard at the place where the phantom boy stood hip deep in the water.

“Straining your eyes won’t make him come into focus for you.”

“But I did see something before. Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.” She gathered up their empty plates and dirty napkins, tossing them in a canvas bag. “Does the boy need anything from us?”

He shook his head. “He just wants to watch. I get the feeling he hasn’t been with the others on the island. There are some behind us by the tree line over there who seem to recognize him but can’t communicate with him. I think it’s been a long while since he surfaced, so to speak.”

“This is such a sad, sad place. I can’t tell you how many times I just felt like crying since we came. It comes in waves, and leaves just as quickly.”

Alice rubbed the dirt from her small hands. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“I’m surprised your arm doesn’t hurt, you threw so many. You got so good,” Jessica said.

The little girl smiled proudly. “Is it nighttime yet?”

Jessica checked her watch. “I know the sun is out, but it is getting late. Pretty soon we have to get you back to the house. Can we talk for a little bit?”

“Sure.”

The children sat cross-legged, facing Jessica with smiling, open faces.

Jessica said, “I want to ask you about the Last Kids. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine, Ms. Backman,” Jason said. “We’re not afraid of them.”

“That’s good. You’re two super brave kids, you know that? Has anyone else seen or heard them?”

The children shook their heads.

“Have you told your parents or uncle about them?”

Again, they shook their heads. “It’s our secret,” Alice said. “But we knew we could share it with you and Mr. Home.”

“And we’re very glad you did,” Eddie said.

“Have you ever experienced anything like this before, in places you’ve lived or visited?” Jessica asked.

“A couple of times,” Jason replied. “But never like this. And never with kids like us.”

“Like you, honey?”

“Our age,” he said. “Well, a lot of them, anyway.”

No wonder they’re not frightened, Eddie thought. This is nothing new to them.

Eddie asked, “When you’re around the Last Kids, how do you feel?”

They thought about it for a bit. Alice said, “Sometimes, I get tired, like I want to take a nap.”

Jason nodded in agreement. “That’s not bad, is it?”

Jessica caressed their cheeks. “No, not at all. I’ve seen the way you to run around. I’m sure you just get tired from being so active.”

“You’re not tired now, are you?” Eddie asked, knowing they were surrounded by EB children.

“No, not at all,” they said in unison.

Eddie set a reminder to ask Jessica how she was feeling. His theory was that now that a larger power source was in their midst, the EBs would focus their attention on Jessica, leaving the kids alone for a spell.

Jason cleaned his hands on his tan slacks, leaving trails of grime along the outer thighs. “Can we do one more thing?” he asked.

“Sure,” Jessica said. Eddie got off the blanket and helped her fold it up. It was an odd scene, this faux idyll amidst an island with a dark secret, teeming with the souls of dead children while a handful of fame seekers plotted a way to take advantage of the situation.

“Would you like to see the cemetery?” Jason said.

“The cemetery? I thought Eddie and I saw the whole island. I didn’t see any cemetery.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “It’s not like a real cemetery. It just has a couple of headstones.”

“Where is it?” Eddie asked.

Alice pointed over their shoulders. “Behind the house. It’s hard to find because there’s a ring of trees around them. Come on, we’ll show you.”

“Do the Last Kids go there too?” Jessica asked, slinging the canvas bag over her shoulder.

Alice said, “No, they don’t like it there. They don’t like us to go there, either, but I figured it would be all right because you’re with us. Right?”

She looked past them. Eddie knew there were dozens of EBs not ten feet away.

“Can you see them now?” he asked.

Alice giggled in reply and jogged off to the hidden cemetery with Jason right behind her.