The Pumpkin Man (38 page)

“Whoa,” Nick said. He pointed to the couch, and Travis walked over to it. Nick shut the door behind him. “Tell us how.”

The man from the grocery looked from Jenn's eyes to Nick's, and then he nodded, quickly. As if he were going to cop to a very big secret.

“Look,” he said. “Meredith was nice to me. She always tipped me good when I delivered groceries up here. One day, she asked if I could stay a little longer after my delivery to help her out with something. The next thing I knew I was holding her palm with one hand and the wooden circle of a Ouija board thing with the other, we were sitting here in a dark room calling for spirits—and she was happy about it!” He paused. “Oh yeah, she was really happy, 'cuz then I was helping her talk to, like, devils.”

“The Pumpkin Man,” Nick urged. “You said that we were responsible because of the Ouija. How?”

Travis looked at him over the top of his glasses and laughed bitterly. “He's not a man,” he said. “He's some kind of devil. Meredith used to call and tell him what to do using the Ouija. So, if you've used it, that explains why he's loose again. Why he killed Teri Hawkins and Erik Smith.”

Jenn sat down on the couch. “We did use the board, and it worked, but we didn't tell anyone to kill—”

“You opened the connection,” Travis interrupted. “You let him back in.”

“Bullshit,” Jenn snapped. “He's been here for a while. He
killed several people before I came to River's End. Hell, he killed my father all the way out in Chicago. I didn't start this.”

“I didn't say you started it,” Travis admitted. “I just said you opened the connection again and made it easier for him to come back. Meredith set it in motion and then you made it worse.”

Jennica snapped. “Blame me as much as you want,” she said, “but tell me what we have to do to stop him. That's all I care about. We have to stop him.”

“We need to use the Ouija again,” Travis said. “But this time we need to do it right.”

“Meaning?” asked Nick.

“This time we need to keep him from ever coming back.”

“And you know how to do that?”

“I know how to try.”

“And how is that?” Jennica asked.

Travis watched her for a long time, his lips drawn in a tight line. Finally he spoke. “We need to talk to your aunt. Meredith started this. She is probably the only one who can finish it.”

“Oh no,” Nick interjected, holding up a palm. “We've been down this road before.” He looked pointedly at Jenn and said, “We tried to talk to Meredith at my apartment, and the next morning we found a bunch of pumpkin pieces and Jenn's best friend Kirstin was gone. If the Ouija board is what gets the monster moving, then I don't think it's a very good idea to use it again.”

Travis made a face, his frustration palpable. “Don't you see? The only way to get the genie back in the bottle is to open the bottle fully and—”

Nick shook his head. “No! I don't want to wake up dead tomorrow.”

“Well, you wouldn't really wake up, then, would you?” Jenn asked.

Nick rolled his eyes. “Very funny. Do you really want to do this? Risk this?”

Jenn sighed. “I
would
like to reach Meredith just once. I don't think that was really her before.”

“And why would it be any different now?”

Travis butted in. “Because you're in her house,” he said. “She's closest in this location. You said you guys tried reaching her in another apartment, so God knows what kind of ghost you talked to there. Probably some old guy who hung himself in your bedroom.”

“I don't think anyone ever hung themselves in my bedroom,” Nick argued.

“Whatever,” Travis said, before Jenn interrupted.

“We did try to reach Meredith here,” she said. “But if she came, she never was able to stay . . .”

“If you try to reach Meredith here with me in the room, I think it might work better.” He held up both hands, asking them not to interrupt or ask why. “Please,” he implored. “She knew me. And I need to talk to her one more time myself. And I really think she can help us stop this. I don't think you want anyone else to die.”

Jenn looked at Nick and bit her lips. “Let's give it one more try.”

Watching Nick's face, she could tell he was going to give in. Somewhere along the line he had completely fallen for her. He would do whatever she asked, no matter what he thought of it. It was a feeling of power she'd never had before. So this was what it was like to be loved. She felt drunk with the feeling of possession. Human possession. It felt good.

“I don't want to wake up in the morning with a pumpkin for a head,” he warned.

“I'll ask him to use a cucumber instead.”

“Nice.”

“Just trying to be helpful.”

“To who—you or me?”

Travis looked pained. “Could we just try?” he asked again. “Please?”

Jenn nodded. “I want to do this. I want to
stop
this. And”—she looked at Nick—“I want to know where Kirstin is.”

Nick looked torn. “Once more,” he finally agreed.

Jenn smiled and jumped up from the couch. Opening the stone from the fireplace, she pulled out the Ouija board and planchette and turned to set them down on the coffee table.

“Not here,” Travis said. “There's a better place.”

“Where?” Jenn asked.

“There's . . . there's another room in this house,” Travis said. “A room with no windows.”

“The room off the kitchen?” Jenn asked.

Travis nodded, looking surprised she knew it. “Meredith always said the wall to the other side was thinnest there.”

Nick frowned. “Maybe that's because she was trying to talk to the Pumpkin Man, and all of the bones of his victims are right there. I don't think that's who we want to reach.”

Jenn shook her head wildly. “No!” she agreed.

Travis didn't blink. “The bones from the Pumpkin Man aren't the only bones there, and they're probably not the most powerful. I think the reason the room is useful has more to do with the things that have happened there.”

“Such as . . . ?” Nick prompted.

“Death. Sex with virgins. Ritual bloodletting. Burials.” Travis paused and pointed at the books on the bookshelves, the ones Nick and Jenn had been reading. “When the Perenais witches needed power for their spells, they went to that room. Meredith told me as much.”

Jenn's eye roved to the
Book of Shadows
. She had only had the chance to look at a small bit, but one of the themes amid its cryptic, rune-riddled pages was the importance to magic of place. She'd seen that in Meredith's journal as well, and in some
of the other books she'd skimmed in her aunt's library. Magic was all about using symbology to tap into the power of the beyond. Symbols held power because of the truths they represented, places held power because of their stories. Spirits were drawn to both symbols and places.

“Let's go,” she said. “Do we need candles or incense or anything?”

Travis shook his head. “Meredith lit candles, but there should still be some down there.”

Scott pulled up the one-lane road on the hill that was River's End and stepped out of the car to open the gate. The path beyond led to the Perenais house. He'd spent a lot of time there lately. There was something about this place. Something very
wrong.
He knew it in his soul, though his mind still wanted to simply follow up on evidence and catch a serial killer.

He pulled up the gravel road and shut off his headlights before he got close enough for anyone in the house to notice. For a second, he felt as if he were sitting in limbo. Behind him, the soft rush of the ocean whispered. Ahead of him, the vague silhouette of the small house stood against the deep blue of the sky. The darkness of the edge of the world rushed over his car like a wave.

Scott leaned back in the cushion of his seat and took a deep breath. He didn't know whom or what he was watching for, but he knew that tonight he had to stay awake. He had to try to protect those kids in this house from whatever might be coming to get them.

He didn't know that he was already too late.

Jenn led the way to the kitchen and through the pantry. Nick and Travis followed. In moments they arrived in the room of bones. Nick used a candle he'd carried from the entryway to light a couple more that were still resident in wall sconces, and then he set his flame down in the center of the floor. Finally, they all knelt and set the Ouija down between them.

Jenn sat cross-legged, and Travis, who angled himself to rest on one thigh, shook his head. “I don't know how you can sit like that.”

“Good breeding,” she quipped. “And being a bookworm, it gives me a great area to prop my books no matter where I'm at.”

She set the planchette in the center of the board and eyed Travis, who sat to her left, then Nick, who was on her right. The coolness of the hidden room seeped up through the floor and she shivered, shimmers of light cast everywhere from the small struggling flames about the room.

As the light moved against the wall like fire ghosts, twisting and drifting in and out of focus, Jenn pushed the planchette toward Travis. “Do you want to lead? I think you have a little more experience than I do.”

He sneezed and shook his head. “I don't know any more than you do, really. I just held the stupid ring for Meredith and tried to make my mind go blank. Which is harder than you'd think.”

“No comment,” Nick muttered.

“So, you all want me to drive this bus?” Jenn asked.

Travis nodded.

Jennica took a deep breath. “Okay. Put your fingers on the planchette and try to clear your minds. Travis, you knew Meredith, so it would probably help if you thought of her. Hard.”

The grocery clerk nodded and leaned closer to the board, squinting his eyes shut and pressing his fingers hard to the wood ring.

“Gentle touches,” Jenn reminded him. “I should barely know that anyone else is touching the planchette. Though . . . I guess I don't really need to tell you this, Travis. You've apparently used this more than I have.”

She gave first Nick and then Travis a squeeze on the arm, then put her front two fingers on the planchette. “Okay,” she whispered. “Let's talk.” She felt her blood run warm as she said it.

“Aunt Meredith,” she called out. “I know you're near. You lived and died here, and your work continues on here. I need to talk to you.
We
need to talk to you. This is your Ouija board I am touching. Your witchboard. Please come to us now and advise us. I need you. We never talked much while you were alive, but I am your niece—your only remaining blood. I
need
you.”

Jenn paused, and she could feel the tension emanating from Nick and Travis. Each was caught up for different reasons, she supposed. Nick simply wanted this all to be over. Travis wanted . . . something else. Maybe he really did want to stop the Pumpkin Man. She hoped so.

The room had been chilly when they'd come in, but suddenly Jenn felt cold enough to see her breath. She shivered and breathed out gently, just to test, but did not see anything. Surprising.

“Meredith,” she said again. “Can you hear us? Please give us a sign.”

Jenn felt her fingers move slightly. She tried not to focus on it, because the whole point was to allow your muscles to be moved
by someone else. But still, she looked down and saw the wooden ring inching across the board. It reached the left upper corner and stopped.

The ring sat atop the word YES. Around them, the candlelight flickered against the wall like the semaphore of invisible souls. Animated and engaged, but eerily wordless. Jenn could hear every breath that the men next to her drew in, and that reminded her. The world—or perhaps more specifically, the afterworld—was watching.

“Meredith,” she breathed. “I've tried to reach you before, and I am not sure if it was really you who answered. I hope that you can hear me now, because I've waited so long to talk to you and I really do need you. But things here are a little . . . messed up right now. I need to know something, and I think you can help.”

She took a quick glance at Nick and Travis. Both men had their eyes closed to slits, struggling presumably to keep their minds clear. She was the only one who wandered.

“Did the Pumpkin Man kill Kirstin?” Jenn asked finally.

The planchette shivered, as if its motion was somehow blocked. Then it slid off YES for a moment, only to slip back on. It didn't move.

“Did the Pumpkin Man kill Brian?” Nick asked. His voice was quiet yet firm. He had to know.

Again, the wooden ring shivered and moved under all of their fingers, slightly off the mark and then quickly back on.

“No surprise,” Nick murmured.

“No,” Jenn agreed.

She quieted as she felt her fingers slip through the air; the board seemed to take control of itself for a question. All of their hands moved across the wooden surface, letters forming the first word, which Nick read out loud.

“‘Ask.'”

Huh. Meredith seemed to have a question for
them.
And word
by word, the planchette spelled it out, moving quickly between letters and then pausing between words. Nick read them out, slowly and in order:

ASK

TRAVIS

DID

HE

KILL

ME?

At the word “kill,” Travis's face went bedsheet white. But he didn't immediately pull away, instead allowing the ghost to finish her sentence. The damage was already done, and he waited to see what Meredith would do to him from beyond the grave.

“Did you make the Pumpkin Man?” Travis asked, his voice reedy and desperate in the empty space.