Echoes of the Dead (17 page)

“Nobody. I put two and two together. Mr. Wormsley mentioned this place was a little spooky, so I figured that was his angle. His pitching point.”

“I wish you’d stop calling him Mr. Wormsley. Ben Wormsley isn’t much of a Mister anything.” Kelsey approached the furnace. Shadows receded as she moved, pulling further into the corners of the grey space. “It’s gas powered. Lined in natural gas.”

“Does that mean something?”

Kelsey shook her head. “Not really… Sometimes rural houses rely on propane or wood.  We must be close to a line, that’s all. I didn’t pass any towns on the way except for Muskotah, and that’s a bit far. I’m not sure where it would get the service.”

Erin frowned. Her flashlight swept around the basement. A block of dark space held in the far corner, but when she shifted position, the flashlight beam revealed the same rough limestone as the other walls. “I hope you don’t think I’m a bitch or anything, but this isn’t what I expected Kansas to be like.”

Kelsey, feeling emboldened by the lack of basement secrets, approached the furnace. “What did you expect? Dorothy? Toto? I’ve grown up with those jokes my whole life.”

“No.” Erin slumped on the first step. “I thought it would be more rustic I guess. Wood burning stoves. Stuff like that. Not a nice furnace and backup generators and everything.”

“Sorry to disappoint. We are in a cell phone black hole, and the generator pooped out, if that means anything to you.”

Erin grinned. “That is pretty rustic, I guess.” Her smile slid from her lips. “What scares you the most, Kelsey?”

Kelsey rapped her knuckles against the furnace’s side. The metallic skin sounded a dull
thunk, thunk, thunk
. She tilted her flashlight toward Erin again. “What scares me?”

“Yeah. You were talking about your research, what you’re doing with the rats. You seem to be interested in fear.” Erin waved her flashlight in an arc. “I suspect that’s what this is all about. Kind of a
Fear Factor
,
Ghost Hunters
,
Survivor
highbred.”

“Survivor… Right. If it works—if people tune in to watch this mess, Ben will owe us a lot more than the twelve grand he promised.” Kelsey circled around the furnace, allowing her flashlight beam to pass over the shiny metal ductwork leading from the unit.

“So really, Kelsey, what scares you the most?”

The dark poured into the periphery of Kelsey’s vision, pooling just beyond the reach of her flashlight. Erin had aimed her light toward the hard concrete floor where it spread like a glowing pool of water. She knew the basement was empty; she’d just proven as much with Erin, but the suggestion of fear, the reminder of fear, worked against her. Inside, she was a girl again, ten and separated from her family and the rest of the tour group. The cave dropped into complete darkness. Sounds played beyond her reach, not voices, but sounds, scrapes and knocking. The whispered voice of Wind Cave as the miles upon miles of caverns fought in vain to balance the barometric pressure between the surface and the cave. Kelsey stood tall, straightening her back.

No.

She was not in the cave.

She was twenty-seven, a graduate student, and brave.

“The dark, I suppose,” she told Erin.

Erin nodded.

“It dates back to my childhood. I was ten I think,” Kelsey added quickly. “I got lost once. We were on a tour of Wind Cave, up in South Dakota.”

“Wind Cave?”

“It’s a national park. Huge caverns underground, but no stalactites or mites because it was mostly dry. Anyway, we went on a cave tour. I was almost last in line, just in front of my mom and dad. Somehow, I got separated from the others. It was all so beautiful, and then black.”

“Didn’t you have any lights?”

“No. Not on me. And the lights go out for the tours once they clear through an area”

“Shit.”

“It was dark, blacker than anything you could imagine. There’s nighttime dark and no light at all dark.” Kelsey shivered at the memory. “I never got over it.  They found me in like five, ten minutes, but when you’re a kid in the dark—the real, impenetrable dark—it could have been days. I say
they
found me, but Dad found me. Dad always had a way of knowing when I needed him.” A sob worked in her throat, but Kelsey forced it down.

Erin’s face tilted toward her flashlight. “So I guess you’d like to keep one of these things handy, just in case we have another outage, huh?”

Kelsey took a breath, swallowed the sob, and clicked off her light. “Doesn’t matter. Nothing is as black as the cave. Once you’ve gone all the way with a fear, it’s hard to worry about lesser incarnations. That’s what I’m trying to prove with my research.”

“The rats?”

“Once they’re terrified, they just sort of switch off. There’s only so much a living organism can take before it shuts down.” Kelsey pressed her lips together, wondering if she believed her own words. How much had she taken, along with the others, from the house?

Erin pointed her beam up the stairs. “Ready to get out of here? Howard’s not lost in this place.”

“Sounds good.” Kelsey glanced at her dead flashlight, and an infusion of courage pumped through her veins. She could do this, stay in the house for the remainder of the week. She’d been taken to the very edge and the house had nothing else to offer, no more threats. Following Erin up the stairs, she paused to ask, “So what are you afraid of, Erin?”

“Oh, me? The only thing which scares me is knowing too much.” The beautiful blonde let out a tiny laugh and pushed open the door to the kitchen.

A small group had gathered in the parlor by the time Erin and Kelsey decided to leave the basement. Daniel stood against one wall, his arms crossed in a silent self-hug. Sarah glanced at the other two women, her eyes wide and blank as she pulled on her lower lip. Kelsey slid in behind Johnny’s bent back, straining for a look at whatever was laid on the table before him.

“What’s the story?  Where’s Mr. Wormsley and the others?” Erin asked.

Johnny peeked at her over his shoulder. “Outside, probably. I’m sure they’re still looking for their guy. I doubt they find him outside. We found this upstairs.” He stepped aside. A black hip pack and attached belt sat on the low coffee table in front of the couch.

Kelsey pulled back. “That’s Howard’s.”

“We figured the same.  Wasn’t he wearing it earlier today?” Johnny dropped onto the couch. “Anyway, I opened it and poked around. Found a pair of wire crimpers and some other electrical tools. Nothing definitive, but…”

 “But what?” Kelsey asked.

“Why would he take it off and just leave it?” Sarah asked. “I mean, it’s kind of a screwy thing to do, right?”

Erin circled the couch and sat. She leaned forward, elbows on knees, and rested her chin in her hands. “So where did you find it?”

Johnny turned to Erin and flashed a quick glance at Kelsey. He told her too much in that glance, a look dripping with something dark. Even Johnny felt fear. Kelsey looked away, aiming her attention at the big window across the room. Snow continued to fall.

“We found it just outside the bathroom on the second floor,” he said.

“Did you try the door?” Erin asked.

Johnny looked up, his eyes open wide. “No. The door was locked. Ben said so. I didn’t even think about trying it. Besides, why would he—”

“We need to look,” Kelsey said. Her own voice surprised her, firing quick, cold shafts of ice through her chest. “I don’t remember it there earlier. But the lights were out when Sarah and I came down. God… We need to look in there. If he’s hurt or had an attack—”

“You’re right.” Johnny stood. “I’ll go.”

“We’ll all go.” Sarah said. “And if any crazy shit has happened up there—I’m out of this fucking place.” Her eyes met Kelsey’s. “I’m cruising pretty close to my limit already.”

Kelsey followed the group, one foot after the other, trying to break the latest infusion of ice in her body. Her fingers shook as she pushed her curls behind her ears. Nothing crazy could have happened in the bathroom. It was locked. Ben said so. He said so… Didn’t he? Howard just left his belt when he went… Where? She looked up, surprised to be standing on the second floor landing. The house was so quiet. So calm. So perfectly clean. Nothing bad could have happened at all. Her feet pulled her toward the bathroom. Toward the door.

A slight clicking noise met her ears. The hinges did not creak as it opened.

“Unlocked,” Johnny said.

There was a thick, quiet moment without any other sound.

Sarah broke the stillness, saying, “Holy shit. It’s not even the bathroom.”

And it wasn’t. Before them, the door opened to a small room. The floors, hardwood like the other rooms, spread out in polished, immaculate condition as though they’d been resurfaced within the month. The walls wore paper with subtle, yellow flowers. It reminded Kelsey of the room she shared with Sarah, the yellow room, but less abstract. A single, naked light bulb hung from a dark cord which ran into the ceiling. Johnny flipped the switch, and the yellow flowers almost seemed to pop from the walls.

Across from the hallway door, another door, this one closed, faced them.

“That door,” Johnny said. “I don’t remember that door.”

“I don’t remember any of this. This was the fucking bathroom. This is where we found the old dead dude.  Right fucking here.” Sarah’s voice had begun to shake as she spoke, and both hands wagged in front of her. “You never forget something like that. Right here.”

Kelsey backed away from the door. She felt the hard press of the hallway wall on her back. The bathroom door framed a bright, yellow glow which seemed otherworldly, unnatural. Voices pooled into a murmured puddle.

There was another door in that room. A door none of them remembered.

And where was the bathroom?

“That’s it. I’m done. Twelve grand is a nice, hefty sum, but I’m not playing around with a house that has magic fucking doors and disappearing rooms. I’m not paying any games with this supernatural bullshit.” Sarah pushed past Erin and made for the stairs. Her eyes caught Kelsey’s as she passed, both of them near black and full of fear.

Kelsey felt it, too.

Unsettled. Confused.

She grabbed Sarah’s arm. “Stay. For now. I need my roommate. I don’t think I can be in the yellow room without someone else.” She offered a forced smile.

“Kels… This is over the edge. What the fuck happened to the bathroom?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know…”

Johnny knelt just over the threshold and examined the room. “Calm down ladies. One of Ben’s gimmicks. I bet he had it removed.” He ran his hand over the floor. “It’s smooth. Feels like it could have been refinished recently.”

“The whole house kind of looks brand new,” Erin said. “I’m not an expert or anything, it just seems untouched. Like the lack of squeaking stairs.”

“What about that door?” Sarah asked. “I don’t remember that door, Johnny. Kels?”

No, the door had not been there five years ago. Kelsey knew it as well as Sarah. She knew it deep inside, tucked away in the folds of her brain like any fragment of truth held in memory. Regardless of Johnny’s assessment, the floor hadn’t been refinished, not by Ben or his production crew—he didn’t even have a production crew, just the two cameramen and Howard. Kelsey knew it; she knew something was off in the house. Her forced smile slipped away.

“That’s it then?  Ben playing tricks?” Sarah shook her head. “I don’t buy any of it.”

“Why don’t we try the door?” Daniel’s usually soft-spoken voice was firm. “The other door, in the back. It has to lead somewhere in the house.”

Johnny stood, swept the small gathering with his blue eyes, and stepped inside the room. Something broke as he did, like an invisible bubble or pane of atom-thick glass. Kelsey looked down and realized she’d been holding Sarah’s arm. She let go, and white finger marks filled with color. Johnny was intruding. He shouldn’t have stepped into the room.

“Looks okay in here,” Johnny said.  He turned and beckoned with one hand. “C’mon in, the water’s fine.”

Erin obeyed first, followed by Daniel. Of course they went, not holding the same memories which swirled in Kelsey’s brain. She closed her eyes and saw the room as it was five years ago. She could still see the drawn, horror-stricken look on the dead man’s face and the long, bloodless gashes on his arms. She could see those things like they sat in front of her now. Her hands covered her face, and she pressed her eyes closed, trying to find another image, anything to block the memory. She thought of her father. She tried to find his face, but nothing came.

“Kels?” Sarah touched her shoulder. “What’s up?”

“My dad. I can’t remember what he looked like. I can’t see his smile or remember the color of his eyes.”

“Your dad?”

“My dad…”

“What happened, Kels?” Sarah’s voice was sweet.