Blood & Spirits (17 page)

Garrett is getting knocked around too until he pulls out a tarnished silver cross. Just holding it has made them drop him and move back. Then he says something I don’t understand, I think it might be Latin, and there’s the same intense strobe I remember from the funeral home.

The shadows flee, but I doubt they’ll be gone long. I yell to him, “Help me get her to the car!”

He rushes over and picks up the other end of the imitation casket, and we make a break for the door.

“Are you ever gonna tell me how you do that flash of light thing? Is it the cross?”

“We’ll call it…” He starts to answer, but I cut him off.

“Magic? I’ve heard that one. Try being more descriptive.”

He laughs as we load the crate into the trunk. The shadows are beginning to close in on us again, so I jump in the car assuming he’ll do the same.

He doesn’t. The front of my Charger is lifted six feet in the air before I see another blinding flash from Garrett’s cross.

He jumps in and slams the door. “I think we should go now.”

I believe he has the right idea, so I slam her in gear and throw mud all over the yard as I head back for the road, and for home.

I can’t help but laugh out loud at the insanity of the situation. I look over at him and he laughs with me.

“You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

***

Frank walks into the backroom of Digital Playplace with a fractured notebook in one hand and bottle of rum in the other. He may not know how to fix broken electronics but he knew how to get it done.

He’d found Julie’s notebook in the front parlor under pieces of a broken chair, rubbed most of the blood off of it, praying that it wasn’t Julie’s, and called to make sure he could get in to get it looked at tonight. Sometimes, he thought to himself, V didn’t appreciate how efficiently he got things done.

Jay Fontana does computer restoration for several companies in the area; he’s also done some work for the police force on the side, that’s how Frank met him. He owns Digital Playplace. It’s a place where kids can come and play games on their network against each other, or on the internet. He’s a good guy, but likes his booze a little too much.

Frank sets the bottle down on his desk before his heavyset friend even has a chance to look up. “You’re a good man, Frank. Don’t let anyone tell ya different. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Jay takes the notebook and looks it over, then he pulls out his tools. Popping the case off lets some thick red liquid drip onto the desk.

He looks up at Frank over his glasses. “That’s not blood is it?”

“That’s not a question is it?” Frank replies. That’s always the deal, no questions asked.

He looks back into the notebook taking more of it apart, and then examining it with his magnifying lamp.

“I can save the hard drive. Give me about an hour.”

This is the reason Frank likes him, he’s fast and he’s good. He takes a seat next to the desk and lets the man work his magic. In no time at all he’s asleep.

When Jay wakes him up, it’s to hand him a different notebook. Frank looks at it confused.

“I had to put it in something. It works fine, man. No data loss for you.” He gives a wheeze of a laugh, and sits back down at his desk with the bottle. “I’ll only charge you for the new notebook and an hour’s labor. Three fifty should cover it.”

Frank happily pays him and thanks him for his time on his off hours, and heads back to his car. In and out in less than two hours, not bad at all.

Looking over the notebook it takes him no time to find what he’s looking for. Now he knows who was there when Calvin decided to crash the party.

He starts the car and calls V. Pulling out of the parking lot he gets her voicemail. He leaves her a message. “I found out who the two clients were, Geoff Peters and Jerry Atkins, and I’m on my way to look into them now. Give me a call back when you get this”.

Now he just hopes the rest of his night goes as smoothly as this has.

***

Walking back into the house I’m impressed by how much Frank’s guys have already gotten done. It still looks like an abandoned house under construction. But they’ve managed to clean up and paint over the blood, get all the glass out, and get rid of the furniture that was broken beyond repair. Best of all the light comes on when I flip the switch.

I look around with optimism, but still see no Julie. I hope Frank has a lead on her. Now I have three people who I care about that have just gone missing. I really can’t stand the not knowing.

Garrett helps me again, carrying the wood box into the house and down to the basement. I take him into my office and show him where the trap door is under my desk. I think this was used for alcohol storage during prohibition, but now it will serve as a resting place for Rachel’s body.

We gently lower the small box into the hole and close the door over it. I feel like we won at least one battle tonight, as we slide my desk back over the door and I sit down.

Garrett sit opposite me as I empty the money and photos from my bag into the desk, leaving out the photos of him.

I sit those photos on the desk and look up at Garrett expectantly.

“I found these in Calvin’s house, with pictures of Frank, Julie, and myself. Any reason you can think of why they’d be there?”

Garret looks at the photos and then sits back hard in the chair. “I guess this is the point where I come clean about a few things. I’ll start with what happened tonight when Calvin found me in the house. He said he was working for someone named Mr. Molder, and could pay me to just leave you there and walk away. I would be well compensated. When I refused that’s when the struggle began, and you walked in at the end of that.”

He seems like he’s trying to gauge my reaction before he continues. I’m sure he knows I’m watching his memories as he’s telling me. I keep myself cool and even, trying to reveal nothing, and wait for him to proceed.

“Tonight wasn’t the first time I met Mr. Hocker though.” And as he says this his mind becomes hollow.

I raise my eyebrows slightly as I begin to panic and he smiles. He can manipulate thoughts like I can.

Suddenly my mind is flooded with thoughts that aren’t mine. I’m not used to it and it takes a moment to acclimate myself to the environment he’s shoving into my head.

I see him visiting Calvin in jail and removing his mind. That means that while that may have been Calvin’s body there tonight it wasn’t actually him. Something else was in control. That’s a scary thought.

“I came across Calvin while I was investigating the spirits in downtown Pekin. Calvin was surrounded by them, like bodyguards. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know they were there. It was when I discovered that the spirits surrounding him were unquiet that I felt like I needed to know more about him. I know he was working for a man named Molder. I knew that before tonight, I got it out of his memories. He only dealt with him through middle men, like Mikey Moran. I know you’re familiar with him.” He stops speaking to point out Mikey in my memories.

I can feel him in my mind, riding my thoughts and emotions as he talks. He’s better at this than I am though; to be as deep as he is I’d be causing pain. I’m frightened and aroused, and I’m sure he knows that.

 “He’s never actually met Molder. I get the impression that whatever it was controlling him tonight has met him, though. Molder might be the one pulling the strings with the unquiet spirits that are amassing and might also be the one who has your Lucy and Rachel. I think he might have something to do with that funeral home because I tracked the unquiet movements and found that they keep going back there. That’s how I stumbled on you.” He finishes and leans forward, pulling the memory of our first meeting to the forefront of my thoughts. Letting me relive the rush I felt tasting him, how my body had responded.

I do all I can to stay focused on the conversation at hand. “You didn’t think letting me know any of this before would have been helpful?”

He cracks a wry smile. “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

I stand and walk over to him. I can see, in my mind and his, that we’re both thinking the same thing, both feeling the same desires. This is going to be incredible. To feel how he feels as he’s feeling me. It’s a dizzying turn on.

I stand in front of him, posing. My back arched, pushing my chest forward as I lean down to him. I slice into my arm with my fingernail letting blood run down to my fingertips, and holding them out to him.

He takes my fingers into his mouth and licks them clean, then runs his tongue up my arm to the blood source.

I run my hand up the back his neck and his hands find their way to my hips lifting me up onto him.

“So do you trust me now?”

HER VOICE IS TINY AND SMALL.
Her mouth is moving to speak or scream but there’s a distance to her voice that sounds miles away. Her white dress is fluttering out behind her as she’s running, but she isn’t moving.

The darkness moves around her revealing shadow people, gripping her and trying to pull her back and to the ground and still she runs, still going nowhere.

Her voice is melodious. Like a beautiful song being played so softly that only a few notes can be heard. Whatever she’s saying is important, her expression is of the most gravely earnest doctor giving life or death news to the patient in their charge.

Her lovely gown is being ripped, and her skin is beginning to fray as the shadows continue to claw at her, and with all their might stop her from running, from speaking. She only shows more determination.

Her voice grows slightly louder, enough to be heard for the briefest of moments. “Veronica, it’s you. It’s you he’s after!”

***

I sit up in bed shaking. It was just a dream, a vivid and horrible dream. It takes me a minute to orient myself. I’m home, I’m in my bed, there’s a naked man next to me smiling.

I completely forgot he was here.

Garrett smiles softly at me and asks, “You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a dream. They’ve been kinda off lately, what with people I love missing, and everyone out to kill me.” I say it, now I just have to mean it. I have to be fine.

“I just think it’s incredible that you can sleep. I’d heard that some of us still could, but you are the first one I’ve actually met.” He leans in and kisses me on the forehead before he gets up and walks to the bathroom.

He’s certainly nice to watch walk away.

I hear the shower start, and then he calls back to me, “Are we going out hunting for a drink, or do you have something in the house?”

“I have some here. That should save us some time.”

I wonder for a moment if it would be horribly out of place to join him, but then I consider that I took a shower right before I went to sleep and I don’t want to seem clingy.

Picking out clothes I remember what it felt like to have him inside me, inside my mind, and being inside his. This could really be the death of me.

I have on the thin maroon dress I was wearing when I met him. The cleaners managed to get out all the splinters and drywall dust. I think I’ll wear that with fishnets and my twenty-two hole boots. I want him to think I’m sexy, but he has to know that I’m not afraid to get dirty.

I step into the bathroom and try to use the mirror in the fog of steam. I brush out my hair, and put on some of my scent. I can come back and do my make up when it won’t melt off me.

It’s almost evening and aside from his shower running the house is quiet. It doesn’t seem right.

Peeking my head out into the hallway, I can tell that no one is upstairs, not even sleeping. There are people moving around in the kitchen downstairs, but not many, and they sound like they are being hushed on purpose. Odd.

If I take the back stairs I should be able to get to the kitchen without getting sunburned in these last few minutes of daylight. I walk quietly and slowly, listening to the voices until I can tell it is Leslie and Piper. They’re talking to someone, but I haven’t heard another voice. Maybe it’s Frank, and he’s pouting about something.

I get to the point where I’m still in the shadows of the staircase but I can see into the room and I’m in shock. Piper and Leslie, in bandages, are sitting at the new kitchen table, trying to talk to Julie. My heart leaps at the sight of her, but something is wrong.

She looks tired, but recently bathed, and is staring at her hands folded in front of her. She’s not responding to them and their concern for her is palpable.

Seeing them like this I can’t help but feel like I’ve won the battle of bringing them together like a family, but why does it take something horrible happening to make them react this way?

Frank leans around the corner into the stairway door and scares me, almost to the point of making me jump. He smiles at me, but we both know it’s forced.

“She’s been back almost all day. She wandered in nearly naked and dehydrated, but we gave her a bath and dressed her. She still won’t eat or talk though.” He looks back at her sitting heavily in the chair, then at me. “You shouldn’t linger in the shadows. Some of us can smell your perfume and think it’s rude. Just sayin’.”

He walks over to the counter and pours two cups of coffee, as I walk to the table and sit. He’s even got my favorite mug. Frank can be so good to me.

Piper looks at me and then back at Julie but Leslie can’t take her eyes off me. She’s looking to me for answers and direction and I don’t have any. These girls have faith in me, and I keep letting them down.

I sit down at the table next to Julie and put my hand on hers, nudging her. She doesn’t even look up. This is my fault. If I had left her as I found her she might well have ended up dead, but is this any better?

“Julie?” I say her name and she looks at me, and my heart breaks. She’s so empty.

I enter her mind, or what’s left in there, and it’s worse than Calvin was. Julie is blank; she has no mind to speak of at all. No thoughts or will to do anything.