Forest of Shadows (14 page)

“What would a man with a woman of his own want with you?”

Mai scowled and ground her teeth. 

“I don’t see you getting your rocks off with anyone else, asshole. You must keep coming back for a reason.”

Ahanu slumped in the back seat, wanting no part in their altercation. Muraco grew unexpectedly quiet, cutting the wheel hard to make each turn an adventure. Ahanu perked up when he saw the sign for Fir Way. 

“Dude, Nimmo is the other way.”

“When I need directions I’ll look at a map.”

“What are you doing?” Mai asked. 

“I’m gonna take you to see your white prince. I’m sure once he sees you he’ll sweep you off your feet, dump his wife and take you with him to live in a castle.”

“Stop being a jerk.”

“I can’t help it. I was born this way.”

“Just turn around and let’s go to the movies. This isn’t funny.”

Muraco snorted. “What? I’m only trying to help you. You practically jumped out of your clothes when I said a white man was moving in to the house. I’m sure if I said some wealthy Eskimo just bought it you wouldn’t say shit. You want him so bad, I’m gonna give you to him.”

Tears started to fall down Mai’s cheeks. “You really are an evil bastard.”

When they cut into the driveway, they saw the Jeep and lights on in the house. He slammed the brakes, leaned over and opened her door. 

“Go ahead, get your man.”

She pulled the door shut and stared out the front window, holding back sobs. 

Muraco glanced at Ahanu. “Help her out.”

Sighing, Ahanu stretched forward to open the door, pushed her seat up and got out. 

“You heard what he said. Get out of the car.” There was no conviction in his words, just tired resignation. 

“If I get out, how the hell am I supposed to get home?” Mai was glaring at Muraco now. 

Now it was his turn to look away. “Not my problem. I got you this far. Go follow your dream.”

She punched him as hard as she could in the arm and quickly exited the car before he could retaliate. Ahanu edged past, avoiding her eyes, and slid into the front seat. The Camaro sped back out of the driveway in reverse. 

“You’re a low life, Muraco!” she shouted at the retreating car. 

The front door of the house opened and a tall figure stood backlit in the archway. She was going to just run away and hoof it home until she heard slithering in the tall grass beside her. Something darted past the corner of her eye. When she turned her head, it was gone. The rustling of the grass grew louder. It sounded like a whole army of snakes were inching their way to her bare ankles. 

Straining her eyes against the dusky depths of the night, she saw the grass part as a dozen unseen shapes inched towards her. 

The air suddenly felt filled with static electricity and she stifled a scream. 

A puff of air blew against her bare legs, rippling her flesh with goose bumps. 

She ran to the safety of the house, moments before the first shadow descended on the now empty space by the Jeep. And in her absence, she missed the eerie sigh of resignation whispered through the grass.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Chapter Eighteen

Jessica peered out the window for the hundredth time that day. 

“I think I see one,” she shouted. 

“Then you’re in the best place to be, squeak-pip. Why don’t you stop scanning for skunks and help your aunt unpack Liam’s stuff.”

“Ooookaaay,” she said, head hung low, feet dragging up the stairs. 

Ever since they had pulled up to the house and spotted a skunk squatting by the front door like a bouncer at a night club, Jessica had been on the alert. Her scream had scared away the skunk and all of the other wildlife within a mile of the house. Liam woke up crying and John and Eve had to carry them both into the house and calm them down. It was a hell of a start to their stay in merry old Alaska. 

Six hours later, the house looked like a cyclone hit it with opened boxes everywhere and their worldly possessions laying about, waiting for nooks, shelves and drawers to call home. John told Eve he’d make dinner since she seemed to be caught in a whirlwind of domestic nesting. Thinking ahead while in Anchorage, he had bought several boxes of macaroni and cheese, pasta, a jar of pesto sauce, parmesan cheese and in case all else failed, peanut butter and jelly on crackers. They had plenty of juice for the little kids and a bottle of red wine for the big kids. The macaroni and cheese was just about done, as was the angel hair pasta. All he had to do was mix in the pesto and some cheese and pop the cork on the wine. 

“Soup’s on,” he called out. That was followed by the sounds of footsteps overhead as they made their way to the stairs. 

“I’m so hungry I could eat a moose,” Eve said. She plopped Liam into his high chair and snapped the little table in tight. 

“Nice Alaskan touch.” John said, winking at her. 

He brought her a plate of angel hair and wine in a plastic cup.

“I didn’t get to the glasses yet,” he said apologetically. “But that’s okay. This is cheap wine anyway.

“To our new adventure,” he said, raising his cup. “And to having the time of our lives. Thank you Jess, Eve and Liam for coming with me. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“To us,” Eve said. 

While the women and children dug into their food with abandon, John took in the house around him. 

Over thirty-five hundred square feet, the house was made almost entirely of Engelmann spruce logs. The dining room that they were in had a large bay window and doors leading out to the wraparound porch with a view of the magnificent forest that seemed to stretch on to the end of the earth. The kitchen behind them had custom pine cabinets that had been stained and distressed to add a more rustic look to the immaculate interior. Large beams were nestled into the ceiling dry wall. It was like a dream Lincoln log house.

John’s eye was captivated by the stacked-stone, wood burning fireplace in the great room. According to Mary Longfeather, it was made from special stones designed to look like river rock. It stretched to the top of their twenty-foot peaked ceiling and if he had any firewood he’d be there right now playing with fire and soothing the primordial jelly that still germinated in man’s brain. 

A multi-purpose loft, complete with skylight, overlooked the great room. The upstairs had a master bedroom and three extra bedrooms. He gave the master bedroom to Eve and Liam, while he and Jessica would take a room across from each other. There were one and a half baths and a finished basement built above the water table. The basement would make a great office.

It really was a beautiful house, decorated to match with the furniture they had rented. 

“What kind of wood would you say this is?” John asked, pointing to the table they  were dining upon. 

“Looks like cherry wood,” Eve answered. The corners of her mouth were green from the pesto sauce. “It’s stunning, isn’t it? You should get one just like it when we get back home. I think it would look great in your dining room.”

“Why don’t we settle in first before we start redecorating my house on the other side of the country?” John laughed. 

Eve looked outside and muttered, “That’s funny.”

“What’s funny?” John asked. 

“It’s supposed to be relatively light out all night this time of year, but it looks pretty dark outside.”

John walked over to the window to take a good look. “You’re right, it is pretty dark for a summer night in Alaska.” He craned his neck to spy the tops of the trees that appeared to stretch up into the clouds. “Must be all the trees. They create a kind of natural cave. At least we won’t have to adjust to sleeping when it’s still bright out.”

It definitely was odd the way the house was shrouded in nature-made darkness. That alone could give someone the creeps. He was actually thankful for it. After all, it was
supposed
to be dark at night. 

After dinner, Eve and Jessica cleaned up while John changed Liam’s diaper. Plopping down onto the couch that was about the most comfortable thing he’d ever parked his butt on, John cradled Liam against his chest and the two of them just stared at the empty fireplace. As Liam nodded off, it hit him that yes, this was a marvelous house and they were all excited, but the reason they were here was because of its supernatural past. People had disappeared here. Was it the house or something else? That’s what he was here to find out. He very much doubted that a ghost, spirit, poltergeist, whatever you’d want to call it, could make a person, much less an entire family, vanish without a trace. Maybe it was cabin fever. He never checked the season they had gone missing. Could being cooped up together over a fierce winter have driven one of them insane? Perhaps the father had killed them all, hidden the bodies, then simply walked out into the snow, only to become dinner for the bears and wolves. Or maybe it was the mother. Or one of the kids. 

He’d done his homework and researched all he could on Native American legends. There were plenty to choose from. He burned out a printer from printing up hundreds of pages from various websites on the subject. It was now a matter of gleaning a history of the house, if that was possible, and cataloging their experiences. 

A haunting
and
a murder mystery. Two separate intrigues in the same house. 

It was possible. In his line of work, if you could call it work, wasn’t anything within the realm of possibility?

And speaking of matters of the impossible, here he was, day two going cold turkey on his anxiety meds and he was feeling nothing but calm. In fact, he was downright sleepy. Liam started to snore, a tiny, high pitched rumble like a hypnotic, Lilliputian buzz saw. John felt his eyes grow heavy. 

As he drifted off, he kept thinking,
can this house that feels so benign really be plagued by things that go bump in the night?

Can it?

The sound of tires skidding along the gravel driveway jarred him awake. They were out in the middle of nowhere. Who would bring a car to a skidding halt just outside their door?

He gently laid Liam onto the couch. Eve and Jess came running down the stairs.

“John, there’s a car outside,” Eve said. Her eyes were wide and wary. It was late, though not as dark as it would be back in New York at this time of night, and welcome wagons didn’t come calling like thieves in the night, especially burning rubber. 

John’s pulse quickened. Their first night here and they weren’t beset by spiritual beings but flesh and blood strangers in a strange place. He was of the firm belief that people were far more frightening than phantoms. Alert citizens didn’t keep guns and bats by their bedside to ward off spooky apparitions. 

“I’ll go outside and take a look.” He eyed the mess in the living room for some sort of weapon, just in case, and settled for Jessica’s baton. 

He paused for a moment when a wave of dread swept over him, delivering a powerful blow to his chest.
Not now, dammit
. He closed his eyes, took a few breaths and felt it pass. 

“I think I see a girl,” Jessica said as she peered out the window. 

Eve pulled her away and held her arms across the little girl’s chest. “Just stay with me while your daddy sees who it is.”

They thought they heard voices, then the slam of a door. 

John placed his hand on the knob, twisted it and threw the door open. 

What he saw was a dark-colored car tearing ass down the driveway in reverse. Someone was standing by the Jeep. His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark, so he couldn’t tell whether it was a man or woman. The figure stood there in the shade staring after the departed car. 

John thought he heard something, like distant voices carried on a summer breeze. It couldn’t have been the mystery shadow in the driveway. It sounded like several people talking at once, a heated discussion in hushed tones somewhere out of sight. 

Before he could further contemplate just how that could be when their nearest neighbor was miles away, the figure made a sudden move towards the house, all pumping legs and arms in a sprint to his front door. Locking his jaw, he gripped the baton and braced himself. 

The next fifteen minutes were a complete blur. Eve saw John’s entire body tense at the same time she detected the slap of footsteps on the ground outside. That was followed by a woman’s voice, breathless, upset, then sobbing. John’s body in the doorway blocked her view of the hysterical visitor. She did see him casually move the baton behind his back and flip it back into the room. 

Then he was leading her inside, a girl, maybe late teens, early twenties, average looking, made unattractive by the overdone makeup and streetwalker clothes. 

Don’t tell me they have hookers here,
was her first thought. 

“Here, have a seat,” John said as he led her into the living room, mindful not to touch her. She was all tears and heaving shoulders now with her head buried in her hands.