314 Book 2 (21 page)

“I can’t…” Nia tried to speak, but her words caught in her throat as she continued to panic. “I can’t…”

“Can’t what?” asked Oliver as he knelt beside her. It was late, but he was still wearing the same clothes he had been
during the day. It became apparent that he’d been in the house across the street, probably monitoring the home that Mindy and Nia were sleeping in.

“I can’t go…
” Nia gasped. “Can’t go back in there. I can’t go back in…” She was clawing at the earth as if desperate to hold on.

“Just calm down,”
said Oliver and he started to pet the back of her hair. “It’ll be okay.”

“No it won’t.” Nia shook her head and then felt her stomach lurch. She pushed both Mindy and Oliver away and was going to run to the side of the house, but then realized she wanted to stay far away from that awful place. Her stomach convulsed again, refusing to give her time to find an appropriate place to vomit. A gush of bile, soda, and pizza splashed on the wet grass and over her bare feet.

“Oh my gosh,” said Oliver. “Come here.” He stood behind Nia and placed his hand on her hunched back. “Let’s get you to the facility. I bet you got a stomach bug or something. Let’s get you better.” He sounded like a concerned parent.

“It’s not a stomach bug,” said Nia as she wiped her lips. “It’s that place. Something horrible happened there.”

“What happened?” asked Oliver, his former gentle approach now usurped by excitement.

“Something absolutely horrible. There’s a demon in there. I don’t know
how I know, but he was called The Skeleton Man,” said Nia.

“
What is it?” asked Oliver. “I need to know every detail. Tell me everything you saw.”

“I don’t want to even think about it,” said Nia.

“Well, do me a favor and try,” said Oliver.

“Give her a break,” said Mindy as she
stepped between them.

“I’m sorry,” said Oliver
as his eagerness waned. “But as soon as you feel up to it, I really want to hear about what happened here.”

“I quit,” said Nia. “I just want to go home.” She was on the verge of tears.

“No, no, please don’t say that,” said Oliver. “I shouldn’t have brought you here first. That’s my fault. I rushed you into this, and I should’ve known better. Don’t quit on us.”

“I can’t do this anymore,” said Nia. “I don’t want anything to do with whatever’s going on here.”

“I can increase what we’re paying you,” said Oliver in a desperate attempt to pacify her.

“We could double your pay,” said Lee, who seemed
to appear out of nowhere. Nia decided he must’ve been sleeping in the same house that Oliver was in.

“Right, right,” said Oliver as he looked at Mindy. “We’ll double your pay. Both of your pay. How about that?”

“No.” Nia was adamant.

“Hold on,” said Mindy with a nervous chuckle. “Let’s not be crazy here, honey. Let’s give it some thought. Okay?”

“I want to go home,” said Nia like a wrongly accused prisoner walking into court. “I don’t want to be here.”

“I know, I know, but whatever just happened in there is over now,” said Mindy. “Let’s just relax and see how you feel in the morning. Okay? Don’t do anything rash that you might regret later. Oliver said he’d
increase our pay. Right?” She looked at the nervous man.

He nodded.

“So that’s a lot of money,” said Mindy. “Let’s not be silly.”

“I’m not being silly,” said Nia, but her angry tone had
been muted.

“I know, I know,” said Mindy as she put her arm around Nia.
“Whatever you saw in there spooked you pretty good. Let’s just try and put it behind us.”

Oliver walked away from them and started waving his arms. There was a vehicle driving their way that he was signaling.
The headlights pierced the darkness, and Nia had to look away as the van approached. She heaved again, but this time no vomit came up.

“Let’s just put all this behind us,” Mindy repeated.

“That’s just it, Mindy. You don’t understand; I can’t put this behind me. It doesn’t work like that. What happened in there is with me now. It’s in my head. It’s never going to go away.” Nia couldn’t keep herself from crying.

“Don’t think about it,” said Mindy.

A white van pulled up on the street. One of Cada E.I.B.’s security guards was driving, and Oliver waved the girls over. “Come on, we’ll take you back to the facility,” he called out to them.

“I don’t trust
him,” said Nia.

“Save the hate till the check clears, beautiful,” said Mindy with a chuckle, then she tried to console Nia again. “I know you got scared. I know some awful shit probably happened in there, but you’re going to thank me later for making you tough this one out.
Right now you’re just freaking out. If you run back home, you’re going to lose out on a shitload of money.”

“I don’t care about the money,” said Nia.

“Yeah, but what about your mom?”

The question stung, and Mindy let the moment linger as Nia considered what she’d be giving up if she were to leave.

“Twenty grand a week,” Mindy whispered. “Think about it. Think about how that kind of money is going to change your life; not to mention your mom’s life.” Mindy took Nia’s hand. “Let’s go with Oliver and see how you feel in the morning.”

Nia looked down at the multip
le rings that Mindy was wearing. Then she looked at the ring that Mindy had given to her. She rubbed her thumb over the silver ring that was designed to look like two intertwining threads.

“You got this one at a kiosk in a mall,” said Nia. “
It was more expensive than you expected, but you bought it anyways. You were wearing it when you found out Becky was in a coma after…”

Mindy took her hand away.

Nia continued, “After getting in an accident on her way home; after you kicked her out of your house.”

Mindy looked as if she wasn’t sure whether to be intrigued or disturbed. “That’s
scary. You were able to remember that from my ring?”

Nia nodded and then said, “Want to know about the woman that died while wearing it?”

Mindy cringed. “You’re freaking me out.”

“Welcome to my world.”

*   *   *

Nia and Mindy were taken to a facility
on the north side of town. It was a large warehouse, with a parking lot that ran the length of it, and trees draped over the edge of a tall, wire fence. There were only three cars in the front of the lot, but several more were parked further in, all of them draped in plastic tarps.

There was no sign outside displaying the name of the corporation that owned the building, but there were ‘Private Property’
placards affixed every twenty feet.

Oliver and Lee took them through a set of glass double doors and past a receptionist desk that didn’t have a computer or any other material you’d expect to find. There were no plants, or chairs, or paintings on the wall. There was nothing that suggested this was a functioning facility except that the electricity worked. The only sound as they walked through the halls was the buzz of
the fluorescent lights above and their footsteps on the thin carpet.

Oliver had been kind enough to go back in the house to retrieve Nia’s shoes, and she kept her hands in her pockets as they walked through the building. She wasn’t sure what had happened in the house, but it seemed to spark her ability. Normally her psychometric gift revealed itself to her in an absent way, and she would often not realize
until weeks or months later that she had obtained a memory she had no way of knowing. But when she touched Mindy’s ring, it was as if the object spoke to her. It wasn’t that she heard a voice, but rather that the ring was eager to reveal its history. A flood of memories were at Nia’s disposal, and the history of the jewelry was revealed to her. She didn’t think there was anything special about the ring itself, and was certain that anything she touched after leaving the cabin would resonate the same, which is why she was desperate to keep her bare skin away from any physical object. It seemed as if objects, like Mindy’s ring, were desperate to be fed information.

For several minutes after leaving the house, Nia was aware of the vibrations that different objects emitted. All living things were harmonious, as if happy to exist, and soaking in the world around them. Inanimate objects, however, were hampered by a much deeper hum, like a massive church bell struck long ago but still not quiet silenced.

Nia had been terrified that something in the house had awakened her abilities, and that she’d never be able to turn them off again. She was feeling slightly more at ease now, certain that, given time, she would be back to normal; or so she hoped.

Oliver led
them to a part of the facility with unpainted, concrete walls. The hall was lined with doors, and Nia thought immediately of a prison. Oliver looked in through a window on one of the doors and then said, “This’ll be okay.” He opened the door and stepped aside so the girls could go in. “We can get another bed if you both want to sleep in the same room, or we could find another room. Whichever you prefer.”

Nia saw a hospital bed alone within the bland, square room.

“What the heck?” asked Mindy as she looked in. “Is this some sort of emergency care facility?”

“No,” said Oliver. “Not exactly. This is the medical ward.”

“What is this place?” asked Mindy.

“It’s owned by an international investment group,” said Oliver. “They had this facility in Widowsfield that was working on a government related project.”

“That’s sort of vague,” said Mindy. “Why did they need hospital rooms?”

“They didn’t,”
said Oliver as he walked with them into the perfectly square, unfinished room. “These were supposed to be offices, but then the, uh, you know…”

“No,” said Mindy. “I don’t know.”

Oliver clearly didn’t want to discuss the subject and spoke quickly, as if the conversation were tantamount to tearing off a Band-Aid, “The event happened, and they shut it down.” He cleared his throat and continued, “So now we’ve got it all to ourselves. But, you’ll have to stick around this area. Okay? There’s a restroom right down the hall on the left, back the way we came. And I’ll be near there, so if you need anything – anything at all – just let me know.”

“What happened here?” asked Nia. “I mean, I’ve heard all the rumors, but what do you think happened.”

Oliver shrugged. “That’s what we want to find out. That’s why you’re here.”

“Why are we the only ones here?” asked Nia.

“It’s been a long time since the people here disappeared,” said Oliver. “I think most folks are just content leaving it a mystery, but there’s a group of us in the company that thinks it’s important to discover the truth.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” said Nia.

Oliver looked concerned. “Why do you say that?”

“Whatever happened in that cabin was…” Nia shook her head and felt at a loss for words. “Was something that should stay hidden.”

“Did what you see happen on March 14
th
, 1996?” asked Oliver.

Nia shook her head. “I don’
t know. There was so much there, so many memories, and they’re all just jumbled up in my head.”

“Do you feel like talking about it?” asked Oliver.

Nia was quick to answer, “No.”

“Okay,” said Oliver.
“We can go over everything some other time. Just take care of yourself. We’ll see how you feel in the morning. Are you both going to stay in here?”

Mindy and Nia looked at each other and nodded. “Sure, I guess,” said Mindy.

“But there’s no way I’m sleeping on a hospital bed,” said Nia. “No fucking way.” The thought of sleeping on a bed where someone had been in pain, or even died, was horrific to her.

“I’ll see if I can’t find something else for you. Maybe an air mattress or something like that. How does that sound?” asked Oliver.

“That’d be fine,” said Nia. She was comforted by the way Oliver doted over them. She wasn’t sure if she trusted him yet, or if the only reason he was being so nice was to protect an investment, but he seemed affable and genuine to her. It was hard to gauge his age, and she guessed he was in his mid-thirties, but he had a very youthful appearance. If not for the grey whiskers on his chin, she might’ve thought he was closer to her age.

Oliver eventually returned with a few cushions he’d taken off a couch, and apologized that he couldn’t find anything better. Nia didn’t mind, and used a blanket to fashion a mattress out of the cushions while Mindy agreed to sleep on the hospital bed. It didn’t take Mindy long to fall asleep, but Nia was left
to contemplate the horrors that had been revealed at the house in Widowsfield. She tried to forget, as she often did when memories were given to her that she didn’t want, but it was impossible.

Of all the images that haunted her, there were none more vivid than that of the little boy standing by the stove, boiling water as his little sister pleaded with him to
tell her what had happened upstairs. Nia was struck by a desire to keep the girl safe – to keep her far away from here.