Eximere (The River Book 4) (5 page)

“No, Steven is right,” Myrna said. “Something did hit me. I
felt it.”

“Poppycock,” Marilyn said. “I don’t believe any of this. Now
you’re all just convincing yourselves it was true. Just what he wants you to
believe.”

“I don’t think I’m tagged,” Steven said. “I’ll go with
Marilyn. We’ll find out.”

“Marilyn, you realize that if it is true,” Jonathan said,
“you’re taking your life into your own hands.”

“We all take our lives into our own hands every day,” she
replied. “And besides, I have Mister S here to protect me.” She wiggled the dog
back and forth, then turned her face to it and blew it a kiss.

“I’ll be fine,” Steven said, turning to Eliza and Roy. “I’ll
make sure she gets out OK. Then I’ll bring your meds back. If she gets out, I
don’t see why the rest of you won’t be able to leave, too. Although Roy may be
right, the rooms here might be better than that motel.”

“What I don’t like about staying here,” Myrna said, “assuming
the story is true, is that the device is in this house. I’m guessing it isn’t
draining every gifted person in the world, just us. That means proximity to the
device is how it works – like radiation. The further we can get from this
house, the better.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Russell said. “We should all get as
far away from this house as possible, and as soon as possible.”

“Before he left,” Eliza said, “Percival said that the
marchers were out because it was dusk. I’m guessing they’re only out at night.
If that’s the case, we can all walk out of here safely tomorrow morning.”

“I’d wait, but Roy needs his medication tonight,” Steven
said. “I honestly don’t think I was tagged.”

“He said they detect the gifted,” Eliza said. “That would
include you, tagged or not.”

“I’m not staying,” Marilyn said. “I don’t believe a word of
it, and I won’t be tricked into staying here overnight on false pretenses. Come,
Mister S.” She turned and started walking to the hallway. The others followed
her.

“I’m going to go with her,” Steven said to Eliza. “I think I
can make it. For some reason I feel I’m not included in what’s going on here. I
don’t think I was tagged, and I don’t think they’d attack me. I don’t think the
house cares about me one way or the other.”

Eliza turned to look at Roy. “What do you think?”

“I don’t think you should go,” Roy said. “I can get by one
night without the medication. I’m sure I’ve skipped a dose before by accident
and I’m still kicking. At sunrise we can leave and I’ll be back on schedule.”

 “
If
we can leave at sunrise,” Steven said. They were
walking down the hallway that led back to the stairs. “What if there’s some new
threat that keeps us here tomorrow, too?”

They heard a gasp from Marilyn, who was at the head of the
group. She was ten feet from the head of the stairs when she came to a sudden
stop. She held her free hand out to stop the others behind her.

In the hallway ahead of them was a dark figure. It floated
slowly above the ground, coming towards them. Steven tried to see its face but
it was looking down, not at them. As it approached, Steven could see its
darkness was partly due to the clothing it was wearing – all black, with wisps
of grey that trailed from the figure as it moved. It was tall and imposing, and
something about it seemed more significant than many of the ghosts he’d seen in
the past. It was the same feeling he’d had when someone important enters a room
and everyone knows that person is special.

The group was frozen. None of them said anything. Steven
realized they were all in the River, observing the figure.
Late to the party
once again,
Steven thought, jumping in.
It’s not an automatic reflex for
me like it is with these people.

As the figure reached the junction of the hallway and the
stairwell, it turned and approached the stairs. From within the River, Steven
could see more details. He saw that it was an old woman, dressed in back. Her
eyes were closed and her expression looked weary, almost as if she was
sleeping. Steven felt instinctually that he didn’t want to know what would
happen if she woke up. She made no sound. If she was aware of the group, she
didn’t show it. She floated down the stairs.

The group moved en masse to the top of the stairs and
observed the figure continuing its descent. When it reached the bottom of the
stairs, it turned and floated towards the hallway they’d followed earlier.

They all exited the River. “Do we follow it?” Eliza asked.

“I’m not going to chase god knows how many ghosts around this
house,” Marilyn said, starting to march down the stairs. The group followed
her. “I said I’m leaving, and that’s what I intend to do.”

As they descended the stairs, Steven turned to keep an eye on
the dark woman. She rounded the corner into the velvet wallpaper hallway, and
disappeared from view.

“Now, how do I get out of here?” Marilyn asked once she
reached the bottom of the stairs. “Does anyone remember?”

“Down that hallway,” Roy said. “Follow the ghost.”

Marilyn shot him a disapproving glance and began walking
briskly. Soon they were in the hallway, but the dark woman was gone. As they
walked past the closed doors in the hallway, Steven wondered which one the dark
woman had gone through. He was a little nervous that she might reappear out of
one of them.

“This can’t be right,” Marilyn said after a few moments of
walking. “I don’t remember this. We’ve made a wrong turn or something.”

“There were no turns,” Roy said. “Keep going until we hit the
dining room. It’s still up ahead.”

“Are you sure?” Marilyn said. “I don’t remember going this
way at all.”

“Maybe you weren’t paying attention when we came down it an
hour ago,” Roy said. “I remember it.”

This does seem longer than I remember
, Steven thought. He was just
beginning to think he should voice his concern to the group when they finally
emerged into the dining room.

“Great, thank you, Roy,” Marilyn said. “And there’s the way
to the kitchen.”

She marched off to the archway. The group followed.

“Marilyn, I wish you’d reconsider,” Eliza said. “I can’t see
where waiting until morning would make much difference.”

Marilyn continued her march, turning into the kitchen and
making her way through it to the smaller kitchen with the butcher block.  “You
can stay if you want, but I’m not going to be part of this. I’ve dealt with con
artists before, and believe me, the best thing you can do is refuse to play
their game. If you stay and play on their terms, you’re just encouraging them.”

They came to the door that opened to the outside. Marilyn
opened the door and walked through. The group followed her.

Lights from the house and a couple of exterior lights
illuminated the area immediately in front of the house, but dusk had now ended
and darkness had descended upon the estate. There was a light next to the door
they had just exited, and it penetrated the darkness enough to show the steps
to the brick path.

“There, you see, there’s the path,” Marilyn said cheerily.
“I’ll be out of here in no time, and back at the motel within the hour. If any
of you decide to come along after, look me up and we’ll go out for a drink.”

“Marilyn,” Myrna said, “would you call my cell phone when you
get out? Let us know you made it?”

“Of course I will,” Marilyn said. The two of them exchanged
numbers. While they chatted, Steven turned to Eliza and Roy.

“I’ll be fine,” Steven said. “And I’ll call too.”

“I wish you wouldn’t,” Eliza said. “I don’t think it’s wise.”

“I’ll be fine,” Steven said again. “Something tells me I’ll
be OK. I’m not worried.” He gave them both a hug. “If everything goes smoothly,
I’ll bring the car up to the turn off at the main road, and take you all back
into town. I don’t think it will take more than a half hour.”

“Call us before then, call as soon as you make it off the
estate,” Eliza said.

“Will do,” Steven replied.

Jonathan had tried one last time to get Marilyn to stay, but
she dismissed him quickly and said her goodbyes to the rest of the group. “I’m
coming with you,” Steven said, joining her as she walked briskly towards the
start of the brick path.

“Come along then,” Marilyn said. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

“How very handy,” Marilyn said, referring to the keychain
flashlight Steven turned on. “Not a bad light for being so small!”

Steven focused the light on the path in front of them. The
lights from the house were not adequate to light the ground they were now
treading. The moon wasn’t up, and dim shapes passed them on either side as they
walked. Steven assumed they were the trees and rocks he’d noticed earlier.

“This has happened to me before, you know,” Marilyn said,
continuing her brisk walk. “I’ve had people try to take advantage of me and my
gift in the past. I don’t stand for it.”

“I guess not,” Steven said, trying to keep up with her. “It
sounds like you don’t have a very high regard of Russell, either.”

“He takes advantage of his own gift,” she replied, “and in a
bad way. Have you seen that show?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Well, don’t waste your time. It’s dreadful and embarrassing.
He’s turned himself into a circus sideshow. Do you know he charges five hundred
dollars an hour for a ‘private consultation’? I think that’s a little beyond
the pale, don’t you?”

For a moment, their pacing was in sync with each other, and
Steven felt an additional ‘thump’ with each step. After a few thumps, he began
to suspect it wasn’t their walking that was causing the sound.

“Wait a moment,” he said, stopping. Marilyn took a few steps
beyond him, then stopped and turned to look at him.

“What?” she said. “Let’s go.”

“No, wait,” Steven said, “listen.”

Once the silence settled around them, they both heard it. It
sounded like someone thumping a heavy rock on the ground. Steven looked at
Marilyn. She seemed ready to dismiss it.

“It’s coming from over there,” Steven said, shining his small
flashlight to the right, into the dark. He couldn’t see anything in the ten
feet his little light illuminated.

“Let’s keep going,” Marilyn said.

“No, wait,” Steven said. “It’s getting louder.”

They paused for another moment, and Marilyn turned to look in
the direction of the sound, trying to peer into the darkness.

Suddenly her dog launched from her arms, barking in a
high-pitched rapid fire stream of yapping. It hit the ground and bolted off
towards the thumping sound.

“Mister S, you come back here!” Marilyn scolded, but the dog
was gone, out of the limited range of light cast by Steven’s flashlight. It was
barking continuously.

Marilyn took a couple of steps toward the darkness, where the
dog had gone out of sight. Steven heard the thumping increase now, and was
beginning to lose his nerve. He wanted to turn off the light and race back to
the house, but he fought the impulse in order to deal with Marilyn. She took
another couple of steps, calling for the dog.

“Don’t,” Steven said, fearful she was drawing attention to
them.

“Come on, we have to find him!” Marilyn said, walking further
into the darkness.

“Don’t you hear that?” Steven said. “There’s something out
there. Percival was right. We need to get back to the house.”

“Not without Mister S,” Marilyn said. “I can’t leave him out
here!” She took a couple more steps towards the sound of the yapping dog, and
she was now at the edge of the light cast by Steven’s flashlight.

“Mister S!” she called into the darkness. The dog’s barking
was like a toy machine gun, nonstop bursts of noise.

Then, another thump, this one very close.

Marilyn called again for the dog, but was met only with the
sound of another thump.

Marilyn turned to look at Steven. “Aren’t you going to help
me find him?” she said. “Come on!” She turned to look back into the darkness.

“No, I’m not,” Steven said, but before the last words could
leave his mouth, he saw the eyes appear in the darkness ten feet above Marilyn.
She was pulled up and out of the light – and was gone without another sound.
The thumping stopped.

Steven fell to the ground and lay down on his stomach as flat
to the earth as he possibly could. He fumbled with the flashlight, trying to
find the switch to turn it off. He desperately wanted to hide from whatever had
just yanked Marilyn from his vision. He moved slowly on the ground, trying to
change his location in case the marcher had noticed where he’d been before he
hid. It seemed like forever, but he drug himself inch by inch away from where
he saw Marilyn disappear. He made it several feet when he heard Marilyn scream
above him. The scream was cut short by the sounds of tearing. Steven couldn’t
imagine what was happening up there in the dark. He was focused only on hiding
and moving as slowly and silently as he could.

He heard another thump as the marcher took another step
towards him. It landed close to where he’d been only a moment ago. Above him,
more tearing and cracking sounds. He felt liquid hit him from above, like rain.
Only he knew it wasn’t rain. The liquid was warm.

He froze, afraid that even the sound of moving might attract
the marcher. The sounds above him continued – tearing, crunching, more warm
rain. The dog had started barking again, peppering the horrific sounds with high-pitched
yelps. Steven waited motionless, afraid to exhale. He forced air in and out of
his lungs slowly, silently.

Then he jumped as something hit the ground right next to him.
His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and while he couldn’t see details, he
could make out the shape of it: a corpse. He could see wisps of heat rising from
it and he could smell the odor of bile and excrement.

He knew something was above him. He slowly rolled over onto
his back. The stars came into view.
Can’t see stars like this in Seattle
,
he thought involuntarily. Blocking part of the stars was a huge figure. He
couldn’t make out the details of the figure other than the eyes, which closed
and opened. The eyes were not looking at him.

From somewhere around him, the dog continued yapping.
Thank
god for the dog
, Steven thought. The marcher took a step, and the thump
shook the ground below him. Then another thump, and another. The marcher was
walking off. The sound of the dog barking began to fade. Either the marcher was
chasing the dog, or the dog was chasing it.

Steven turned on his flashlight for only a second to orient
himself. He needed to find the brick path and make his way back to the house.
While the thumping seemed to be receding, he heard a new set of thumps coming
from the same direction as the first. He needed to move.

The light from the flashlight illuminated briefly what was
left of Marilyn. Percival hadn’t been exaggerating. She’d been peeled – flesh
stripped from her body. The corpse was a bloody mess of twisted bones,
cartilage, and organs.

Steven had never seen such gore. He stifled the urge to
vomit. He’d seen some pretty horrific things since hooking up with Roy, but
Marilyn’s corpse was an image that was not going to leave his mind for some
time.

The thumping around him increased in loudness and intensity.
He saw that he was off the brick path by about ten feet. He switched off the
light and quickly ran in the direction of the path, feeling the brick under his
feet and turning on the path in the direction he believed the house to be. He
ran, stopping only when he felt his feet leave the bricks, and righted himself
back onto the path.
I’m running uphill, that has to be the right direction
,
he thought. Within a few moments he saw the lights of the house in the
distance.

The thumping was all around him now. He wasn’t sure if a
marcher was right behind him or waiting ahead of him. He sprinted the rest of
the way to the house, his heart beating out of his chest. As he reached the
door, he turned to look behind him. He saw nothing.
Perhaps they don’t like
the light,
he thought. He grabbed the door handle. It was locked.

He banged on the door. Within a few seconds it flew open.

Steven stumbled into the entryway and fell on the floor,
gasping for breath. Then he turned over, looking up at the faces of Eliza and
Roy. Only then, in the light of the room, did he realize how he must look. He
was covered in Marilyn’s blood.

◊

Steven walked into the dining room where the others were gathered.
He was wearing a robe and had just emerged from a bath. Eliza had located a tub
in the largest bathroom Steven had ever seen, and once they were sure Steven
wasn’t injured, they’d left him to clean himself up.

“You OK?” Russell asked.

“Yeah, I’m better,” he said, joining them at the table where
they’d eaten dinner.

“I washed your clothes in the kitchen,” Eliza said. “They’re
drying. Should be good by morning.”

“Thank you,” Steven said. Roy passed him a cup of coffee.

“What happened out there?” Russell said.

“Yes,” Myrna added. “Please tell us.”

“Well, we made it a ways down the path,” Steven said. “Then
we heard a thumping sound. Her dog ran off, barking. Marilyn was yanked off the
ground out of my sight. I tried to hide from it, but I could hear it above me,
devouring Marilyn. At least, her flesh. It dropped the rest of her next to me.
Thank god for that dog of hers, I think it distracted the marcher enough that I
could get away. I raced back.”

“Marilyn’s body is out on that path?” Myrna asked.

“Yes,” Steven said.  “Do we phone this into the police?”

“And tell them what?” Roy asked. “You’ll be arrested for her
murder, coming back here covered in blood.”

“We don’t involve cops,” Jonathan said. “We never do, unless
it’s something they’d understand. They wouldn’t understand this.”

“What about her family?” Steven asked. “Relatives? Loved
ones? Someone has to be notified.”

“I think that’s something we’ll have to handle once we’re out
of this mess,” Eliza said.

“Someone needs to retrieve her body,” Myrna said.

“I’m not going back out there,” Steven said. “No way.”

The others looked at him. They could see the fear on his
face.

“Well,” Roy said, “we’ll do it tomorrow morning, when we
leave.”

“This is horrible,” Myrna said. “Just horrible.”

“At least we’ve learned one thing,” Jonathan said. “Kent
wasn’t lying about the marchers. So he might not have been lying about the
device, either. I think we should assume he was telling us the truth.”

“That’s a good bet,” Roy said.

“So what now?” Russell asked. “We just go to bed? Try to
sleep? With that device draining us?”

“I guess so,” Myrna said. “What else can we do? I have no
intention of trancing in this house again, and I don’t intend to go exploring.”

“Sunrise is just after 7,” Jonathan said, checking his phone.
“I suggest everyone get as much sleep as you can. We’ll head out as soon as the
sun is up and we’re sure those things out there are gone.”

Steven followed the group as they rose from the table and
walked back to the hallway. “All of the bedrooms appear to be on the second
floor,” Eliza said, walking next to him. “We’ve all picked out rooms. Roy got
one for you.”

They traced their way back to the stairs and ascended to the
hallway where they’d seen the dark woman earlier in the evening. “Any more
ghost sightings?” Steven asked the group.

“Nope,” said Russell. “Nothing other than the woman earlier.”

“Anyone feeling anything yet?” Steven asked. “Any draining?”

“If it’s happening, it isn’t anything I can feel,” Eliza
said.

They walked to their individual rooms. They all said their
goodnights.

Steven was pleased to see that his room shared a bathroom
with Roy’s room. “You OK, son?” Roy asked. Steven was a little taken back – Roy
rarely called him son.

“Yes, Dad, I’m OK,” he replied.

“Sounds rather harrowing,” Roy said. “Out there.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “The bloody
bodies in Oregon were close, but Marilyn was all…mangled.”

“You were lucky to get out of it alive,” Roy said. “You
should listen to me when I warn you about these things.”

“You’re right,” Steven said. “I don’t know if the marcher
passed me over because it couldn’t detect me, or if it was distracted by the
dog. I can’t say.”

“We’ll get you home tomorrow, then we’ll be fine,” Roy said.
“I guess Eliza must be feeling a little sheepish right about now.”

“I don’t blame her for any of this,” Steven said. “She
thought she was helping someone.”

“Yeah,” Roy said, “well, that someone turned out to be an
asshole.  She should have checked into it more.”

“I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt,” Steven said.
“After all, we do owe her.”

Steven thought back to how Eliza had helped him and Roy as
they were trying to get rid of the ghosts at a bed and breakfast in Oregon. Roy
was helping out his friend Pete, who owned the place. The whole thing had been
far more complicated than Roy had anticipated at the start. Things got out of
hand, and many more people got involved before it was solved. So Roy wasn’t the
one to talk.