2 A Haunting In Oregon (5 page)

I won’t,
Steven replied.
But
what if it hurts her?

This isn’t the first time it’s
done this to her,
Roy thought.
It’s more important that we learn what
it’s doing than you be the hero.

As they watched, the creature extended
a long neck and moved its face close to Sarah’s legs. A very thin black
appendage unwound from a spiral inside the creature’s mouth and inserted its
sharp end into the flesh of her thigh. Sarah winced but did not awaken. After a
few seconds, a red spot appeared on her thigh a few inches away from the
proboscis. With horror Steven realized it was a pool of blood, on the surface
of her skin. A second appendage shot out from the mouth of the creature and
into the blood that had accumulated. After a few seconds, the pool stopped
expanding, and remained the same size. Steven realized the second appendage was
siphoning the blood off of Sarah’s body and into the creature.

Steven looked more closely at the
creature, trying to memorize it if he was given the opportunity to draw it in
Roy’s book. It had a hump on its back and was covered with translucent hair.
The head was like an insect. It had a long tail that was twisting behind it in
the same way a cat’s tail will twist when it is bothered. The overall effect of
it caused cognitive dissonance in Steven’s mind. He imagined himself shaking
his head to try and clear his brain so he could re-absorb the image, but it
didn’t help much. The creature was freakish. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able
to draw it.

After a few minutes the proboscis
was removed from her skin, the creature siphoned all remaining blood that
appeared on her thigh and both appendages rolled back up into the mouth of the
creature, which turned and lumbered back through the wall.

Steven and Roy followed it until
it entered the passageway. As it passed into the tunnel it faded from sight. Roy
exited the flow abruptly, still standing in the hallway. Steven watched as Roy
held the small mirror up and aimed it at the passageway, twisting its angle to
try and see into the area where the tunnel had appeared in the flow. Roy
reentered the flow and observed the tunnel’s reflection in the mirror his body
was holding. After a few minutes, the passageway disappeared. Steven and Roy
both exited the flow and stood in the hallway, as dark and as silent as it had
been all night.

“It’s gone now,” Steven whispered
to Roy, who was still looking into the mirror.

Roy held his finger up over his
lips to Steven, a signal not to talk until they were somewhere more private.
They passed back through the dark kitchen and dining room and walked along the silent
hallways toward the north wing. Steven didn’t say anything until they reached
their rooms.

“What the fuck was that?” Steven
said, tossing his flashlight onto a chair by the door.

“Hideous thing!” Roy said, turning
to his book.

“It’s obvious it was drinking her
blood. What was that thing it stuck into her?”

“I suspect the first one caused
the hemorrhaging,” Roy said, “by injecting something into her. It probably
injected a sedative or a numbing agent as well, to keep her asleep.” He flipped
the pages of the book, scanning for anything that might explain the creature.

“And the second thing lapped up
the blood,” Steven said.

“No wonder people leave here
anemic,” Roy said.

“Have you ever seen anything like
that before?” Steven asked Roy.

“Not exactly,” he answered. “It’s
like a mosquito in many ways.”

“Except it’s the size of a horse!”
Steven exclaimed.

“Found it,” Roy said. Steven
walked over to see what Roy had found in the book. He scanned the words of the
text, and they seemed to clarify as he read. Then he saw the drawing – there it
was, already recorded in the book! There would be no need for him to recreate
it.

“It’s a type of harvester,” Roy
said as he read. “It collects things. Usually under the control of something or
someone else.”

“Someone else?” Steven asked.

“It regurgitates what it collects
for the person controlling it,” Roy continued reading. “It excels at being able
to extract what it has been instructed to collect from other creatures without
them knowing about it or being able to stop it.”

“Wait,” Steven said, “you’re
saying it doesn’t eat the blood? It delivers the blood to someone else?”

“What’s strange,” Roy said, “is
that there’s nothing here about it collecting blood, or anything for that
matter, from humans. It’s almost exclusively used to collect matter from
ghosts.”

Steven thought about this. Just
when he thought he’d found the cause of the problems plaguing the manor, the
mystery deepened instead. Now whatever controlled the harvesters would have to
be found in order to eliminate the problem.

“Why were the ghosts angry about
this?” Steven asked. “It was attacking a human, do they care about that?”

“I think,” Roy said still
browsing, “it had been misappropriated. Re-trained to attack humans. And I
think that explains the deaths.”

“I’m way behind you,” Steven said,
shaking his head. “Start at the beginning.”

Roy turned from the book. “These
things are used to collect matter from ghosts, that’s their main purpose. This
portal is a giant ghost magnet. I think someone has been opportunistic and sent
these harvesters through to collect ghost matter; after all, there’s a ton of
them. And I think that’s why the ghosts are pissed off. I think they’ve been
preyed on for years.”

“OK, I’m with you so far,” Steven
said.

“But these things don’t normally
collect materials from humans,” Roy continued, “so someone re-purposed them.
Whoever was collecting ghost matter decided to collect human blood instead – or
in addition. Who knows? On some nights there might be a dozen of those things
emerging, some collecting from ghosts, some collecting from people. As long as
they’re done in twenty minutes and back in the portal before it closes, there’s
nothing anyone could do about it. No one would know.”

“And every time the portal opens
it attracts more ghosts,” Steven said.

“Which in turn attracts more
people,” Roy said. “The previous owners actually marketed the place that way.
Whoever was collecting ghost matter got greedy and decided to pick up some
human matter, too.”

“But why the deaths? It didn’t
kill Sarah.”

“I think they had to train these
harvesters how to collect from people,” Roy said, “and some of them fucked up.
They’re built to collect from ghosts, not people. You can’t accidentally kill a
ghost. What we saw tonight was a small hemorrhage. If the harvester injected
too much into their victim, instead of hemorrhaging in one spot it could cause a
massive hemorrhage over the entire body. They’d never wake up, they’d bleed to
death in their beds, through their skin.”

There was a pause while they both
thought through the idea.

“Did you see anything? In the
mirror?” Steven asked.

“I saw a pattern,” Roy replied. “Blue
and diamond shaped. I’ve got a friend I can call in the morning; he should be
able to tell me who is behind that pattern.”

“I guess that’s our next step,”
Steven said. “Do we tell Pete and Sarah about these creatures?”

“Let’s play that by ear,” Roy
suggested. “I’m tired, I’m turning in for the night. I’ll see you at breakfast
in the morning.”

“Good night, Dad,” Steven said and
walked into his own room. He felt exhausted as well and decided he’d get into
bed, but he suspected his dreams would be clouded by the creature he saw in
Sarah’s room. The idea of it injecting him and collecting his blood while he slept
gave him the willies.
It only comes out when the portal is open, and it
isn’t open right now,
he thought, allowing himself some comfort. He
listened for the sound of the woman next door, preparing to shoot herself.
Perhaps
she’s on a timetable, too,
he thought. Based on what he had seen in her
room he had the distinct impression that she was too emotional for a timetable.
I’ll bet her brains hit the wall every few minutes all night long.

He closed his eyes and tried to
sleep.

Steven took another sip from his
mug of coffee and dug into the omelette in front of him. It was delicious;
Sarah was an excellent cook.

She sat next to him, at the head
of the table. Roy and Pete sat across from each other further down.

“So I guess Pete told you we have
guests arriving today,” Sarah said.

“Yes, he did,” answered Steven. He
felt it best if he did most of the communicating with Sarah rather than Roy.

“Pete told me you two have been up
at night, doing things in the basement and the hallways,” she said. Pete
lowered his head and stared at his food.

“Yes,” Steven answered, “we’ve
been working on a few things.” He took another mouthful of food. “This is an
excellent omelette, Sarah. Really stellar.”

“It won’t do to have other guests
inconvenienced by noise in the middle of the night,” she said, ignoring the
compliment.

“Sarah,” Pete said, “Steven and
Roy are our guests too.”

“Not paying guests,” Sarah said.
“And I don’t want paying guests scared off. Things are bad enough as it is.”

“Worse than bad,” Roy said. “
Very
bad.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sarah asked.

“I – we – agree with you
completely,” Steven jumped in. “We don’t want your guests to be inconvenienced
in any way.” He smiled at her.

She didn’t smile back, but she
seemed to accept this from Steven as a gesture of goodwill.

“What they’re doing,” Pete said to
Sarah, “is going to help us book a lot more guests in the future. We’ve got to
get a handle on this and they’re going to do it!”

“I agree we’ve got to get a handle
on it,” Sarah said, “and that’s why I’ve got a biologist from the university
coming in next week. He’s an expert in rare viruses and he’ll be staying for a
few days, conducting his own experiments. I daresay they’ll be more useful than
the ones you two are doing.”

“How’s your leg this morning?” Roy
asked. “Any pain?”

“It’s fine…” Sarah said,
suspiciously. “Why?”

Steven hung his head, afraid of
what Roy might say next.

“Well, we observed a creature
sucking blood from your leg last night,” Roy said, “and I was wondering if it
hurt, since he stuck something into you— “ Roy stood up from the table, and
jutted a finger into his thigh, a few inches below his crotch, “—right about
here.” His motion looked a little obscene, and Steven turned his head away in
embarrassment.

Sarah turned to Steven. “You were
in my room?”

Steven stammered. “Well, I,…”

She turned to Pete in a rage. “When
do they go? You told me a day or two! It’s been more than that! Now paying
customers are coming, and I think it’s time for these two charlatans – or are
you perverts? – to leave.”

“I suggest you stock up on iron
supplements,” Roy said, sitting back down. “If it does that to you every night,
which it might, you’re going to feel very weak.”

Pete turned to Sarah, a worried
look on his face. “What if they’re right? Were you attacked?”

“No, of course not!” said Sarah.
“They’re making it up.”

“You know I’m not,” said Roy,
sipping some coffee. “You know I’m right, don’t you Sarah?”

“What were you doing in my room?”
she asked. “What right do you have to be in my room, as you claim?”

“There’s a portal, in the
basement,” Roy said.

“A portal,” Sarah repeated
sarcastically.

“Yes,” Roy continued, “and we
followed it up to the south wing. We saw a creature emerge from it and enter
your room. It attacked you. It stuck something into your leg, and you began to
bleed. It harvested the blood from you, then it went back into the portal.”

Sarah’s mouth was open. She turned
again to Pete.

“Are you hearing this?” she asked
him, incredulous.

“It’s horrific!” Pete said.

“It’s ridiculous!” Sarah snapped
back. “It’s delusional!” She turned to Steven and Roy. “My father doesn’t have
the balls to tell you this, but it’s time for you two to go. Checkout time is
eleven, please pack your bags and be out of here by then. And don’t come back.
We don’t need your help.”

She stood, took her plate, and
left the room.

“She always leaves that way,” Roy
said, after she was gone.

“I’m sorry,” Pete said.

“Don’t be,” Roy said. “We’ll
leave.”

“But you were making such good
progress,” Pete said sadly. “I wish you could stay and finish.”

“I’m not sure we need to stay any
longer,” Roy said. “Our next step will take us away from here anyway. Don’t
sweat it.”

“What is your next step?” Pete
asked.

“We’ve got to find out who or what
is opening that portal,” Roy said. “This problem isn’t going to stop until we
do. It has to be shut down. We have a few calls to make. I’ll keep in touch
with you, let you know of our progress.”

Pete shook his head in appreciation.
“Thank you for that. I’m sorry Sarah is so uncooperative. But rest assured I
believe in both of you, in what you’re doing. And we need your help, whether
she knows it or not. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“I believe you,” Roy said, “but there
will be more deaths if we don’t put an end to it. We’ll work on that. Listen,
Pete, there’s one thing you must do. Sarah’s life is at risk. You will need to
keep a sharp eye out.”

“What do you mean?” Pete asked.

“There’s a lot going on with her
that you don’t know about,” Roy said. “Trust me. You’ve got to be vigilant. I’m
going to give you something I want you to put in her room. Put it under her
bed, where she won’t see it or know it’s there. It will help, but it won’t last
long. We’ll do what we can from the road. But you’ve got to watch her closely,
be prepared to take her to the hospital if she looks weak.”

“OK, I will,” Pete said, becoming flustered
and scared.

“Great,” Roy said. “We’ll get
packed. I’ll say goodbye before we go.”

Steven and Roy rose from the table
and left Pete sitting, wondering what dangers he and Sarah were being left to
face alone.

-

As they packed, Steven asked Roy
about what he had told Pete earlier at breakfast.

“I’ll give him some protection he
can put under her bed,” Roy said.

“Protection? You mean the potion
with booze in it? She can’t have that,” Steven said.

“Not a potion, an object,” said
Roy. “It’s far less potent than the potion, and it will only last a short
while, might keep that thing from her for a night or two, but then it will wear
off and she’ll be vulnerable again. If she wasn’t so obstinate I’d have Pete
dose her with protection each night, but she’s too big of a know-it-all to
stand for that.”

“Do you think it attacks Pete,
too?” Steven asked.

“It might,” Roy said. “But I think
the reason Sarah is in the most danger right now is the pregnancy. In some
markets, blood from a pregnant woman is far more valuable than regular blood.
It can be used for other purposes, more powerful recipes.”

Steven and Roy finished their
packing, and met with Pete in the entryway.

“Good luck,” Pete said. “I’ll be waiting
to hear from you. You have my cell number, so don’t worry about running into
Sarah when you call. And my apologies for how that went this morning. She’s a
good girl, really. She just doesn’t believe in any of this.”

“You’re welcome,” said Roy. “We’ll
be in touch. And remember to keep an eye on her. Her life may depend upon it.”

They all shook hands, and Steven
carried his and Roy’s suitcases to the car, loading them in the trunk. Roy
stayed behind and handed something to Pete, which Steven assumed was the
protection object. Pete and Roy chatted for a moment, then Roy joined Steven in
the car, and Steven drove them down the long driveway and onto the main road.
After a couple of miles they came to the intersection that would take them back
to Seattle.

“Don’t turn,” Roy said. “Keep
going straight.”

“We’re not going home?” Steven
asked.

“Nope,” Roy replied. “Is this car
in good shape? Can it handle a few hundred miles?”

“Sure, it’s in fine shape,” Steven
answered, “but why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking?”

“I called my friend Dixon this
morning, talked with him about the pattern I saw. He’s says it’s from Albert,
who lives in New Mexico. We need to go see him.”

“That’s a lot more than a few
hundred miles!” Steven said. “We have to go to him? You can’t just call?”

“Not with a guy like Albert,” Roy
said. “You talk to him in person, you don’t call. I’m not sure he even has a
phone.”

Steven kept the car going straight,
headed south. The trip would take at least a day, maybe two.

“You realize this is going to take
until Thursday to get there, at least,” he said to Roy.

“Not if we drive straight through.
We could make it there by tomorrow morning easy. We’ll switch off.”

“Where at in New Mexico? Do you
have his address?”

“Santa Fe.”

“Of course.”

“And yes, I have his address,” Roy
said.

Steven realized he had a supply of
clothes in the trunk and there was nothing stopping them. He pressed the
accelerator down and they sped toward I-5 and whatever awaited them in points
south.