Ghost Trackers (32 page)

He trailed off, his gaze becoming distant and unfocused as his mind drifted back to that time. Amber wondered if he heard the Lowry House speaking to him now across the decade and a half since it had been destroyed. If so, she wondered what it was saying to him.

Finally, Greg’s eyes came back into focus, and he looked at each of them in turn, as if he’d forgotten all about them and was surprised to see them standing there. But he picked up his story, as if he hadn’t lost a beat.

“I learned a lot that night. I learned that places
like this begin as natural phenomena that serve as focal points for negative energy. They draw it from the surrounding area, gather and concentrate it. And once they get strong enough, bad things begin to happen there. Plants grow stunted and twisted, and animals too dumb not to stay away find themselves becoming aggressive, if they didn’t weaken and die. It’s worse if people come into one of these Bad Places. We already carry so much darkness inside us—fears, jealousies, hurts, and hatreds . . . It’s all fertile ground for a Bad Place, allowing it to manipulate a person’s mind and spirit, bringing their darkness to the forefront, making them do things they’d never consider doing otherwise. Terrible, awful things. Things that cause pain and suffering, which in turn feeds a Bad Place even further, helps it grow even stronger.

“That’s what happened here. Over the centuries, this land, which was originally a focal point for negative energy, grew so strong that it achieved a sort of sentience. It became self-aware, intelligent. Not like us, though. Different. And it was tired of being bound to a single location. It wanted to be free, wanted to roam the world. But to do that, it needed a body.” Greg smiled. “It needed me. But why settle for one body when it could have four?”

Amber felt a sick chill as the full implications of his words sank in.

“So, we waited for the three of you to arrive. Through me, the Darkness in the Lowry House
understood what you’d come to see, so it gave it to you. Ghostly scenarios drawn from the land’s dark past, designed to scare you, thrill you, and ultimately lure you down here to me. You were supposed to join me in becoming vessels for the house’s energy, and together we would walk in the world and spread its Darkness throughout the land.” His voice had taken on a dreamy quality as he said these last words, but it returned to normal as he added, “But something went wrong, and the three of you escaped.

“After you fled, the Darkness reached into your minds and sealed away the memories of what you’d experienced here in order to protect itself. It was somewhat clumsy and brutal, I’m afraid, and you lost more of your memories than intended. Large chunks of your high-school years became blocked off, though they should’ve returned with the rest of your memories by now.”

“What happened to you after we got out?” Trevor asked. “Neither the police nor the firefighters found any indication you’d been here. You escaped the fire, but how?”

Drew shook his head. “He didn’t escape. He managed to get out but not unscathed.” He looked at Greg. “Isn’t that right?”

Greg looked at him a long moment before smiling. “Always the smart one.”

He did nothing obvious, but his face and hands changed. His hair vanished, and his flesh was now
puckered and wrinkled, like wax that had partially melted and cooled before setting once more.

“You’ve been using your abilities to disguise your true appearance,” Drew said. “But we got a glimpse of the real you yesterday at the hotel bar, just for an instant. What happened? Did your control slip, or did you decide to give us a little peek at the real you for fun?”

Greg’s burn-scarred lips stretched into a tight smile. “The latter, I confess.” His voice had changed, too, becoming rough and guttural. “You’re right, of course. I got out before the house burned down but not before taking some damage. The Darkness settled for using me as its sole avatar, and I carried it with me as I left. Its power allowed me to withstand the pain and sped my healing process, though as a creature composed of spiritual energy, its ability to affect the physical world is limited, as you can see.”

He gestured at his ruin of a face. “I was able to hide my transformation from my parents, and I returned to school. When the three of you got out of the hospital, I said nothing to you about what had happened. The Darkness wanted me to keep its existence a secret. It didn’t want me to have any contact with you, in case seeing me might somehow trigger your memories. And that was the end of our friendship. I regretted that, but after a while, I became convinced it was for the best, and so we went our separate ways.”

“We know you moved to a different school soon after that,” Drew said. “What happened to you then?”

“I didn’t move,” Greg said. “After my parents died, I decided to strike out on my own and explore the newfound abilities the Darkness had granted me. Chief among them was the power to sense other Bad Places, large and small, ancient and newborn. I began seeking out those places, and once there, well, the Darkness within me was alive, wasn’t it? And that meant it needed to feed. We absorbed all the negative energy we could find, and we continued to grow stronger. And that’s what I’ve done for the last fifteen years: travel the country and feed my Darkness.” He smiled and spread his arms. “And now here we all are.”

“But
why
are we here?” Trevor asked. “And don’t tell me it was all so you could restore our memories. I’m not about to buy you as Greg Daniels, Supernatural Doer of Good Deeds. It must be the house or, rather, the Darkness that once inhabited it and now lives in you. It lost us once, and now it wants us back.”

Drew shook his head. “I don’t think so. If it wanted us so badly, why wait fifteen years? We had no memory of its existence and no way to protect ourselves against it. It could’ve taken us whenever it wanted.”

“No,” Amber said. “It couldn’t. Greg said something went wrong when it tried to possess us. Do
you remember when that happened? I do. It was when Greg’s lantern began to glow bright. I heard the voice he told us about whispering to me inside my head, telling me how much it wanted me, how much it needed me . . .”

“I heard the same thing,” Trevor said. “And the next thing that happened was the flame burst out of the lantern and began growing. You called for Drew, and he got you, and the three of us . . .” He trailed off. “That’s it! That’s how we resisted the Darkness. As we fled, the Darkness reached out for us, but we were together, our minds and spirits joined. Remember the cleansing rituals we researched? They all came down to the same thing in the end: positive energy marshaled to counteract negative energy. Our combined psychic energy formed a protection against the Darkness’s influence.” He turned to face Greg. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”

Greg looked at Trevor without answering.

“I suspect tampering with memories is a lot less invasive than full-out possession,” Drew said, “which is why the Darkness could still block our memories even though it was unable to take us over. We were already traumatized by the events of that night, and we were physically and emotionally exhausted, not to mention suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. It wouldn’t have taken more than a psychic nudge for the Darkness to give us selective amnesia.”

“So, we flew the coop, and the Darkness decided to forget about us and make do with Greg,” Trevor said. “But that still doesn’t explain why we’re here now.”

“You’re right about the Darkness settling for me,” Greg said. “And we’ve done very well on our own for the last fifteen years. You’re not here because the Darkness wants you but, rather, because
I
do.”

The three friends stared at him.

“I knew you had the hots for Amber,” Trevor said, “but all
three
of us?”

Greg laughed. “Not what I meant. For the first few years after my transformation, I was content to be by myself, traveling in search of focal points of negative energy to absorb. You wouldn’t believe all the different ways such energy can manifest. I’ve seen some bizarre things, even by my standards. But somewhere along the way, I began to miss having anyone to share my experiences with, and I found myself thinking back to high school and those investigations of yours. There I was, living proof that the paranormal was real, visiting one Bad Place after another, and I thought how much the kids you’d been would’ve loved to know even a fraction of what I’d discovered since my rebirth. Then, one day, it occurred to me. Why not get the three of you together, see if I couldn’t restore your memories, and then, once I’d shown you the truth of what I’d become and what I could do, I’d ask you.”

Drew frowned. “Ask us what?”

But Amber had already guessed. “To allow part of his Darkness to enter us and make us like him. And then we could accompany him on his search for more Bad Places to drain of negative energy.” She looked at Greg. “It’s simple. You’re lonely.”

“It’s true, and I admit, the change comes at a price.” He gestured to his face. “At least, in my case it did. But consider the great gift I’m offering you. When you were kids, you wanted to find evidence that there was something more to existence than what appears to be reality. Once you’ve changed, you won’t just be investigating the hidden world, you’ll be part of it! The knowledge you’ll gain, the things you’ll see . . .” Excitement rose in his voice. “I’m not exaggerating when I tell you human language doesn’t possess the capacity to communicate what your lives will be like once you accept the Darkness. What you’ve experienced this weekend is nothing more than the merest appetizer for what awaits you.”

“And all we’d have to do to accept your so-called gift is to allow ourselves to be possessed by a force that can only be termed evil,” Drew said. “Assuming we were insane enough to allow such a thing to happen, how much of
us
—our thoughts, our feelings, our very selves—would be left?”

Greg shook his head. “Evil is a human concept, Drew. Energy can’t be good or bad. It just
is
. True, I’ve used terms like
Bad Place
and
Darkness
but
only for convenience’s sake. As I said, human language lacks the capacity—”

Amber interrupted. “Cut the crap. When we knew you, you were a socially awkward outsider, but you weren’t a killer. You’ve said a lot of things tonight, but you’ve neglected to mention the two men you killed this weekend: Sean Houser and Jerry Cottrill.”

“And I doubt they were the first,” Drew said. “Knowing what we know now, it’s more than a little suspicious that your parents died in a car wreck not long after your change, as you call it. What happened? Did they somehow discover the truth of what their son had become? Or did they simply stand in your way?”

Up to this point, Greg had been coming across as someone who had genuine affection for them. But now his gaze hardened, and his voice grew cold. “Neither. I just grew tired of them. And as for Sean and Jerry . . .” He shrugged. “I had to do something to amuse myself while you three jumped through the hoops I set up for you. What can I say? Boys just want to have fun.”

“You’re not human anymore, are you?” Drew said. “Maybe you still were when you first changed, at least partially, but the years continued to change you. The more negative energy you found and absorbed, the less human you became. The whole process was something like fossilization. You’re like a skeleton whose bones were replaced with minerals
over millions of years, until there’s no bone left, only rock. You look like Greg, you walk and talk like him, but the man you were died long ago. You’re not even a ghost. You’re nothing but a bad copy that doesn’t even
know
it’s a copy.”

“How many other people have you killed over the years?” Trevor demanded. “Do you even remember?”

Greg’s grin answered for him. Then the grin fell away, and he let out a weary sigh. “I’m disappointed, but I can’t say I’m surprised. I didn’t think you’d take me up on my offer. Not willingly, anyway.” He glanced down at the kerosene lantern, and the light within began to glow more strongly, just as it had fifteen years ago.

Amber understood what was happening. “The lantern is the focal point for the house’s negative energy, isn’t it? We keep calling it the Darkness, but it first manifested as fire when we were teenagers.”

“It couldn’t take us over back then,” Trevor said. “What makes you think it will be successful this time?”

The glow inside the lantern burned even brighter, until it became too painful to look at, and the basement, which up to this point had been cool and damp, began to heat up.

“The Darkness is far stronger than it was then,” Greg said. “And fifteen years ago, it had only a short time to probe your psychic defenses and search for weaknesses. This time, it’s had an entire weekend.

Plus, now it has
me
, and I know the three of you. I can help it find your weak spots.”

“We’re older now,” Drew said, “and we’re stronger, too.”

“You’re right on one count, at least,” Greg said. “You’re older. But during the intervening years, your psyches have acquired as much bad as good. More hurts, disappointments, regrets, self-doubts, and every one of them is a chink in your spiritual armor for the Darkness to exploit.”

“That’s how it got to you, isn’t it?” Drew said. “You came here as a teenager filled with resentment, determined to get back at us for leaving you out of our plans. The Darkness used those negative feelings to create an inroad to your psyche, and while you sat here waiting for us, it poisoned you and took you over.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “So, in a sense, I’m
your
fault. All three of you. If you’d been better friends to me, I wouldn’t have been so full of resentment, and the Darkness would never have found a foothold in my soul.”

While he spoke, the “Darkness” grew even brighter, filling the basement with so much light that even with her eyes squeezed shut, Amber could still see its glow through her eyelids. She couldn’t see Drew or Trevor, but she assumed that they also had their eyes closed. She wondered if Greg did or if, as a servant of the Darkness, he had no need to avert his gaze from its full glory.