Happily Never After (22 page)

“How did you do this?” I asked in wonder. I
didn’t trust myself to look at him yet so I kept my eyes trained on
the little tree.

“It’s amazing what you can get when you’ve
been on TV or in a movie or two.”

He sounded a little embarrassed so I gave him
a playful shove.

No one had ever done anything this special
for me. Christmas and my birthday were always days I tended to
avoid. I recalled telling him about how I hadn’t really had
Christmas or birthdays and how much I missed it.

“I can’t believe you remembered.”

He walked over and kissed me lightly.

“You deserve a little light in your life,
Quinn.” He brushed the hair out of my eyes. “When you told me about
missing the holidays and how your parents were so into them, I
started thinking about doing something like this. It’s silly and I
kept second guessing myself. I hope you don’t mind.”

I sucked in my breath. “This is...I’ve
never... I don’t know what to say.”

Never had I seen him look so nervous and
unsure of himself. Instead of answering, he reached over and picked
up one of the presents under the tree.

“Open it,” he said. And the grin was back,
showing me his perfect teeth.

In five years, the only Christmas presents
I’d opened were from Abby and her mama. My memories of loud, busy
mornings opening presents were part of another lifetime. Honestly,
giving me even a fraction of the feeling I got those mornings with
my parents was the only gift I needed.

I took the present gently from him and
memorized every single detail. The shiny red paper had glittery
snowflakes on it, wrapped in a bright green ribbon.

Giving him a hesitant smile, I ripped it
open.

“I hope that’s the right kind, I had to ask
Abby what camera you had.”

Inside the box was a large zoom lens and it
was top of the line. I knew because I often gazed longingly at it
in the camera shop.

I set it down on the table and threw my arms
around him.

“You have no idea how much this means to me,”
I whispered in his ear.

While his arms cradled me I felt safe,
protected. Something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Then I thought
about him leaving and I remembered the loneliness from before. A
dull ache spread through my chest. In that moment, I knew I was
falling for Jason. And that scared me more than anything Catherine
had planned for me.

Chapter Thirty-One

Later that night, I walked out of the
bathroom towards the attic stairs, still buzzed from my time with
Jason. I could find no words to describe how I felt about what he
did for me. Well, that was a lie. I knew the word I would use to
express my feelings towards him but I didn’t think I could ever
bring myself to use it. It was way too soon.

My foot had just hit the bottom step when
something stopped me. Of course, I knew what it was right away. I
didn’t see Marietta. All I saw was a growing shadow advancing down
the hallway. Running was pointless so I pressed myself up against
the wall and hoped it would pass by. Like that would ever happen. I
was getting attacked almost every night now.

The icy cold hit me first, knocking the wind
out of me. The fierceness of the cold always surprised me, that
startling realization that something could be so cold it hurt.

My instinct was to scream but as I opened my
mouth, the cold surged down my throat and stole my breath. It
wasn’t the choking or suffocating on dirt like before. This was
invading and reaching into every inch of my body. It felt as if
something was pouring all the darkness and coldness in the world
straight into my soul.

And same as before, I was powerless to stop
it. I couldn’t make a sound.

Then, my feet lifted off the floor into
mid-air before I slammed into the wall behind me. The only thing I
could see was blackness. It moved as if it were alive, shapes came
in and out of focus; shapes of things that could only existed in
nightmares.

I vaguely heard the thought ‘why’ run through
my mind and was shocked when I got an answer.

“You know.”

Staring into the void in front of me, I was
even more afraid. Something about that voice made me want to curl
up and hide every single time it invaded my mind.

Please, I thought desperately.

A deep, menacing laugh echoed through my
head. If I hadn’t frozen already from whatever was taking over my
body, that voice would have done the trick.

What do you want from me?

No matter how many times I asked that
question, I still hoped for a response. I hated that I sounded so
weak and wished I could fight back. Before when she attacked me, I
often felt myself fading. Now I was extremely aware of every
sensation going on in my body.

“You’re the last Roberts.” The voice
surrounded me and pressed in from all sides. It was impossible to
tell which direction it came from. “I want to make sure it stays
that way.”

It won’t work.

Something changed. Whatever control this mass
had been exhibiting suddenly vanished and my suspended body
quivered with the anger that blasted me. I was lost in a raging
ocean, fueled by a hurricane of anger, helplessly bounced around
and threatening to be swept away.

“You’re a stupid girl to doubt me.” It
roared, blasting into all the corners of my mind.

You can’t hurt me.

I knew the minute I thought it I’d made a
mistake. Who was I to try to bluff something I didn’t understand?
It had already hurt me, even tried to kill me but I wasn’t prepared
for what happened next.

Thousands of pinpricks pierced me from the
inside and out. The pain was so intense that for a moment I
couldn’t think of anything else. I became a living, breathing
object of pain. It scared me more than anything else I’d seen or
experienced up until that moment.

That fear caused me to fight back with
everything I had. Unfortunately, all I had were my thoughts and my
feelings. I thought of my parents and my love for them, flashing
through my most cherished memories and pushing them out into the
darkness. Memories like walking down the riverfront hand in hand
with Mama and Daddy or sitting in the kitchen watching Mama make
pancakes for breakfast or them tucking me into bed at night.

At first, I didn’t think it made a difference
but slowly I sensed the hold over me lessening and the darkness
growing smaller. Finally, I was free and dropped to the floor in a
pile. Strange enough, when I looked down at my arms and legs,
hundreds of pin-sized dots of blood lined them.

I ran my hand over my arm in a daze,
spreading the blood in a thin film. My head spun and I blacked
out.

A scream brought me back and I had no clue
how long I’d been unconscious. I noticed Suzie looking down at me
in horror. Following her gaze, I saw my body still covered in
blood.

“What did you do, freak?” Suzie demanded. I
glanced up at her, tearing myself from the sight of the blood. She
looked torn between disgust and concern. “Is that your blood?”

I shook my head, “I think so.”

Now she gave me a confused glare. “If you’re
not wounded it can’t be your blood. I bet its pig blood and you’re
doing some ritual. What is it for this time? To make something
happen to me or my sister? Its payment for what happened to the
dresses, isn’t it?”

She walked up and got in my face. I didn’t
even have a chance to reply to her ridiculous notion.

“I told you once before, this isn’t over,”
she promised before she stomped off down the hall.

I couldn’t believe how incredibly stupid and
paranoid she was. What if I’d actually been hurt?

Slowly, I got to my feet. I was still shaky
and almost crawled to the bathroom. More than anything, I needed to
wash the blood off me so I could feel normal again.

As the water beat down on me I wondered how
it would end. The thought of this ending in my death, sent my body
into convulsions. It terrified me and I didn’t see how it was fair
that I should have to pay for the mistakes of my ancestors. I was
sick of waiting but terrified to do anything about it.

No matter how much I loved the house and
living in Savannah, my life was more important. I wanted a future,
a family. I wanted everything that I’d missed out on.

I needed to leave.

The thought made me double over in pain.
Everything I had left existed in the very boards of this house. The
idea of walking away from it seemed extreme but I knew I could do
it. All I needed to do was wait for my birthday and my trust fund.
I’d be able to go anywhere in the world.

The idea intrigued me. I could travel the
world with just my camera and a backpack. The freedom that required
pulled at me in a way I never thought it would. It almost made the
pain of leaving a tiny bit more bearable.

Could I do it?

I had to do it. For my safety and even the
safety of those I cared for. I stepped out of the shower and
realized that if I left, it just might help Marietta too. Without
me, she could sell the house and maybe Catherine would leave her
alone. I’d even sign the house over to her if it meant this would
all end.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I made
it up the stairs. The room seemed safe, full of light and hope. It
made me wonder which of the house spirits was present or if it was
merely my imagination. Maybe the rest of the house had been
overtaken by Catherine and her spirit had left my attic alone.

Exhausted, I fell into bed and directly into
sleep.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“We’re going to the club for dinner,”
Marietta told me as she ushered the twins out the door. Quiet
enough so only I could hear, she said, “If I find out you left this
house, you’ll be sorry. I think we’re both aware how capable I am.”
She smirked and closed the door behind her.

I didn’t plan to go anywhere. Jason was
filming and Abby working her new job. With a night all to myself, I
had no clue what I would do.

As I walked up the stairs I passed Jackson in
his usual spot, halfway up. It frustrated me that he was almost
impossible to communicate with. Without looking directly at him I
stopped and said, “You’re really a pain, you know that?”

I felt him smile before I saw it spread
across his handsome face.

“I wish I could talk to you. Why can’t I talk
to you?”

Sometimes the past is too painful to talk
about.

Then, I watched his image grow stronger until
he appeared mostly solid. I was nervous being this close to him.
Catherine might still be sore that he'd come to my defense the
other day and wouldn’t like me talking to him. I decided it was
worth the risk.

“I never got the chance to really thank you
for what you did the other day.”

She wasn’t always so troubled. Catherine used
to be full of life, a bright shining star I could never keep up
with.

The last word I would have ever used to
describe Catherine now was troubled. It made me sad to think of a
man who seemed as strong and capable as Jackson still hung up on
the same woman after a hundred and fifty years. Could love really
be that overbearing? From what I’d seen of Jackson he didn’t strike
me as that guy, the guy who whined about a lost love.

“Why do you stick around for her? Did you
love her that much?” Asking those things felt a little too personal
but his answer was important to me for some reason.

Jackson looked up at the ceiling, mulling
over what he would say. When he looked down at me I saw a grim
resolution in his eyes.

I loved the vibrant young woman I fell
instantly for. She was a drug to me until the day I left for the
War. But that is not the reason I continue to stay. I stay because
it’s my fault she is like this.

Shaking my head slowly, I couldn’t understand
why he blamed himself unless there was more to the story than I
knew.

“From everything I’ve heard, Jackson, you’re
not responsible for this. I’m not really sure anyone is.”

You’re wrong. When I came back home from the
War I was different. It changes a man. The nightmares I saw, the
nightmares I couldn’t get rid of, left me in a place where I knew I
wouldn’t be able to give Catherine the happy ending she'd wanted.
Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to marry her, but I needed time
to heal first. Until the day I stepped foot back in Savannah I knew
nothing of her marriage.

He paused and I watched him swallow hard as
if the next part was difficult to talk about.

When I heard Catherine had married I was
relieved. It’s shameful to say but at least I knew I wouldn’t have
to explain to her why we couldn’t marry and start a family right
away. I loved her so much. I only wanted to be the man she
remembered. Hearing she married a Yankee broke my heart but I
wasn’t going to screw things up for her.

I went to see her to say goodbye. It
surprised me when she answered the door because I assumed they
would have some house staff. Maybe Jennings didn’t want any
witnesses to the things he did to her. She looked as if she had
fought a war of her own. Her face was bruised and her lip was cut.
I saw death in her eyes, like she knew it was coming and she was
waiting for it. She said she saw me come up the front walk and that
she knew I’d always come back for her.

Catherine expected me to rescue her. Once she
pulled me inside and told me all the horrible things that he had
done to her, I had no choice. My first reaction was to hunt him
down and kill him but she convinced me it would only land me in
jail. We needed to run away. I didn’t think twice about it and told
her to meet me that night at the train station. I had money and
we’d go to California where there was a fortune to be made. I
remember her smiling and telling me she forgot what it felt like to
smile.

That night I waited for hours and she never
showed up. I worried that something might have happened to her so I
went back to their house. No one was home. The next day as well, no
one answered the door. By then I was in a fit not knowing where she
was or if she was well. Later that week I found Jennings having
lunch with my father and some of his friends. A Southern gentleman
would never come out and accuse anyone of anything unsightly in the
presence of their equals and neither did I. I merely inquired as to
her whereabouts, that I wanted to tell her I was home.