Sinister Entity (8 page)

Eddie pulled himself along the wall, locking his knees to keep his feet from going out from under him. It didn’t help much, and he had to use all the strength in his now shaky arms to hold himself upright. People who didn’t understand the true abilities of psychics would laugh at his not foreseeing his first meeting with Jessica going down this way.
 

Jessica rolled beside him. “First things first,” she said with barely concealed anger simmering in her voice. “Who the hell told you to write what you did? As far as I know, only two people in the world know what my father called me and where I go. I guess I was wrong. So tell me who it was so I can wring their neck.”

Eddie looked over and saw her hazel eyes had turned an almost golden color. He was pretty sure she would beat the information out of him if he tried to keep his source a secret. Hell, she might beat him anyway. She may have been a thin girl, but every ounce of her was coiled muscle.
 

“I think I should preface my answer with a quick question. Do you know who D.D. Home was?”

His right leg shot out and he had to grip the wall to keep from falling. If she was what she promoted herself to be on her website, it was a sure bet she knew about his great-grandfather.

Without hesitation, she replied, “D.D. Home was the greatest mentalist and spiritualist of the nineteenth century. I once read where he literally floated out a second story window in front of a team of debunkers and floated back in the adjoining window. Just crazy stuff. He was the only one who was never discredited, even though countless people tried. What does a dead man have to do with this?”

Eddie stopped and faced her. “Everything.”
 

He saw the light suddenly shine behind her eyes. “Wait, your last name is Home. Are you trying to tell me you’re related?”

“A direct descendant.”

“And you expect me to believe you have some psychic powers?”

“I was hoping you would.”

“Well, if you’re so psychic, you should have known that I don’t believe in them, which then proves my point. I don’t know how you did what you did. Maybe your family has special parlor tricks passed down from generation to generation. Not that I really care. It was nice meeting you.”

Jessica pushed off and skated ahead of him with surprising speed.
 

Jesus, you’re blowing it!

“Jessica, wait! Your father is the one who told me what to say!”

The DJ had just started playing Sugarhill Gang’s
Rapper’s Delight
and cranked up the volume. There was no way she could have heard him, and even less of a chance for him to catch up to her.

But he was wrong. She stopped on a dime and turned to him. The fire in her stare singed him from twenty feet away. Swinging her arms at her sides, she came back to his spot on the wall. Her hands were balled into fists and her mouth was pinched in a tight line.
 

“What did you say?”

Eddie swallowed hard and stood as straight as his legs would allow. It was make or break time.
 

“I’ve spoken to your father several times over the last few months. He was the one who told me to refer to you as
squeakpip
in my last email and also mention how much he enjoys your visits to his death site in Alaska every year.”

Jessica shook her head. “This isn’t possible.”

“I know it sounds weird, because
it is weird
. That’s kind of my specialty. I was desperate to meet you and he wanted to help.”

“Out of all the people in the world, why would he talk to you?”

Eddie sighed. Great. He had her attention and she wasn’t running away or hitting him. If he was lucky, things would stay that way.

“To be honest, I don’t know. I was at the Rhine Research Center for the past year and I took up a specialized form of meditation. I was mostly using it to clear my mind.” For now, the simplest explanation seemed best. “Then one day, he came to me out of the nothing. I could barely understand him the first couple of times we connected, but it seemed the more he reached out to me, and now me to him, the stronger our bond grew. He was the one who pointed me to your family’s experience and he’s the one who urged me to get in contact with you. Over the years, I’d heard about an incredible paranormal event in an Alaskan town that no longer exists, and to tell you the truth, always assumed what I heard from the grapevine had to be bullshit. From the little that is spoken about it, it sounds too crazy to be true, even for people crazy enough to believe in the impossible. Kind of like the Mothman phenomena—when something singular seems so outlandish, you tend to discard it. Your father changed my stance on that. But to tell you the truth, beyond confirming an event that happened over a decade ago and pointing me towards you, I have no clue what’s supposed to happen next.”

“And how did you find me?”

“He told me everything I needed to know. Then, it was just a matter of coming here and emailing the contact address on the website. Until a month ago, I was in North Carolina, so I wanted to be close in case you decided to meet. To tell you the truth, he seemed pretty insistent I meet you.”

Jessica rolled back until she was flush against the wall, her fists on her hips. Eddie noticed another girl staring at them from the concession stand. She waved at Jessica with a look of concern. Jessica waved her off. The girl nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off them.
 

Again, he was impressed. Jessica knew how to cover her bases.
 

Without looking at him, Jessica asked, “What was my father’s favorite hockey team?”

Eddie had a feeling this would happen and was glad he had been prepared. “The Islanders.”

“What town do I go to every year?”

“Shida, though your father told me it’s not a functioning town anymore. People in the area won’t even acknowledge that Shida ever existed.”

“What would he say to me every night before putting me to bed?”

Eddie looked at her and saw the anger and distrust had been replaced by hope. This was no longer Jessica Backman, the fearless ghost hunter. This was the little girl who lost her father well before his time in an event so tragic, so beyond normal human comprehension, that it must have left scars that could never heal.
 

He cleared his throat, and said softly, “I love you mucho much.”

“Stay right here.”
 

Eddie’s jaw tensed as he watched her skate away once again, this time to join her friend at the concession stand. They talked for several minutes and he noticed she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands a few times. When she returned, the tension in her body had eased and her eyes were red rimmed.
 

“Okay, Eddie Home. I’ll give you one chance. I don’t think my father is running a dating service from the other side, so I can only assume he sent you to help me—not that I need any help.”

She gave him a business card and a pen.

“Write down your cell number, social security number, date and city of birth and current address. I’ll call you later in the week. If it turns out you’re just a con man, I’ll fuck you up so bad, your own mother will deny ever having had you. If you’re who and what you say you are, I’ll put you to good use.”

Eddie held the pen, too taken aback to start writing. Girls in North Carolina and San Francisco did not talk like this. “My social, really? That’s kind of an odd thing to ask for.”

Jessica glared at him. He realized it was an asinine question, considering what he had just dumped on her. He wrote down all of the information and handed the card back to her.
 

She skated away without another word or even a glance in his direction.
 

Chapter Thirteen

Selena Leigh lay across her bed, listening to her iPod. She had just downloaded a few tracks from Bruno Mars and Katy Perry and was content with doing nothing for the rest of the night. The school year had been extended because of extra snow days that had to be taken in February, but teachers had nothing left to teach. So, there was no homework to contend with. A small victory. She daydreamed about Hank Farley, her current crush and the best-looking baseball player in the county, and was in a very happy place when there was a knock at her door.
 

“Can I come in?” her mother asked.
 

“Yeah.”

Her mother was dressed in her jogging outfit and looked as if she had just done a few miles. Her skin was shiny with sweat and the hair poking out from under her baseball cap was frizzy.
 

“Your father wanted me to remind you that he’s picking you up after school tomorrow, so please don’t forget and take the bus. You can’t be late for your dentist appointment.”

Selena paused her iPod and rolled onto her back. “I hate going to the dentist. Can I ask her not to scrape my teeth with those metal picks? Whenever she does that, it hurts and it makes me want to crawl out of my skin.”

Her mother sat on the edge of her bed and stroked her hair. “Unfortunately, that’s just something that has to be done. I feel the same way. I wonder why they haven’t invented softer, plastic tools yet. Don’t worry yourself too much about it. Thanks to genetics inherited from your father’s side, you, my dear, have perfect teeth. It’ll be over before you know it.”

Changing the subject, her mother asked, “What are you listening to?”
 

Before Selena could answer, she had popped one bud into her ear.
 

“Oh, I like him,” she said, swaying gently to the beat. Her mom had taken a liking to pop music right around the time she joined the gym. It was weird having a parent that listened to the same music as her and her friends, but it was also nice to have something in common.
 

While she listened to the rest of the song, Selena stared at the ceiling, thinking.
 

“Mom?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Is Dad still mad at me about the car? I swear, I was never down there.”

Her mom pulled her into a hug. “No, honey, he’s not mad at you at all. He’s just…confused. Anyway, it just gives him more excuses to spend time with his car.” She smiled but Selena could see the concern behind her eyes.
 

“Okay, kiddo, I have to hit the shower. Don’t stay up too late texting your friends. You’ll see them soon enough in school. Good night.”

She gave Selena a kiss on the top of her head.
 

“Good night.”

After her mother closed the door, Selena went over to her computer and logged on to Facebook. Five of her friends were on as well, and she started texting each. Her iPod blasted away in her ears as she also managed to read the latest issue of
Cosmopolitan
. Multitasking for her generation was a way of life and done as easily as counting to ten.
 

She lost herself in music, texts and articles on how to make your lips look plumper, and passed two hours without realizing it. She hummed to herself while typing to her best friend Julie about what they would do the coming Saturday, the first Saturday of summer vacation. They had to make it special. Julie’s older sister had just gotten her license and agreed to drive them to the beach. She typed a reminder in her phone to pick up some sunscreen.
 

It wasn’t a sound or a movement that broke her from her groove. It was more like a feeling, like the air in her room had suddenly changed, become thinner, the small space made even smaller.
 

Selena knew she wasn’t alone.
 

That could mean only one thing.
 

Ricky had sneaked in and was spying on her. He was such a pain in the ass. He was in sixth grade, but he wished he were in high school and never missed a chance to see what it was that high school kids did with their time.
 

She spun in her chair and yelled, “Ricky, get out!”

Except he wasn’t there. She removed her ear buds and walked over to her door.
 

It was still closed.
 

Knowing Ricky, he was hiding under the bed.
 

She dropped to her knees and whisked the comforter up, ready to scream at the obnoxious little turd.

There was nothing but a couple of shoeboxes and darkness.

“I must be losing my mind.”

She was about to go back to her computer when she heard a muffled thump. It came from her closet.
 

Selena eyed her field hockey stick resting against her bed. If the little bed wetter wanted to play games, she was up for it. Why not make him
think
she was going to smash his face in? Hopefully it would keep him out of her room, even if only for a week or so.
 

She tiptoed to her closet, one hand with the raised stick, the other ready to pull the door handle open.
 

She paused when she heard a slight rustling, as if he was shifting amidst the clutter.
 

Oh, this would be fun.
 

Selena’s left hand darted for the knob. She put on her most menacing face and pulled the field hockey stick up as high as she could.