Oblivion (24 page)

“Any of them dangerous?” he asked and tensed by her guarded expression.

“I sensed violence in some of them, but they stayed away from me. Whatever work they had of their own took precedence. Just be warned they’re really curious. I also would warn you they crowded around me when I came through. Some of them tried to go through but you closed the door too fast.”

Jace felt ready to go back, excited in a way. Daphne saw his expression and smiled. “You can’t wait to see your girl, can you?”

“I ache to see her,” he admitted and sighed. “Every day I’ve been here felt like a year since I died. I have to make sure everyone I love is ok.”

“My death changed everything for the better,” she said with a laugh. “My parents think of me more kindly. They regret our last fight. My mom still cries for me. My dad is real suspicious of Aaron and he keeps pushing the cops in that direction. My son has more advantages too. My boss even invested in outside security.”

“But do you feel content now?” Jace persisted. “Did going back help?”

“Yeah, it did. In a way it is as if the anxiousness I felt when I got here is gone. I had no problem coming back. Jace, whatever you do, come back. Don’t think you’d be happy there long term for a minute. I see the way the others feel to see those they love with other people and see life go on around them without being a part of it. That would be worse than being here for eternity.”

Jace was sad to know Daphne was right. He couldn’t take seeing Lindsay with another guy, or see something go wrong for Sara and Dougie and be unable to do anything. That would be Hell in itself. Still, he had two weeks to say goodbye.

It was a funny thing about dying unexpectedly. The dead were no more prepared than the living to deal with the result. The love and sense of loss was just as profound. Jace wasn’t ashamed to cry some nights when he was alone. Every little thing he ever put off or took for granted came to mind, reminding him his life ran out and it was indeed too late.

Chapter Fourteen

Lindsay got up earlier than she normally did and didn’t know why. Some awareness took hold making the hair on her arms stick up. She sat up in the bed and slid out quietly. She opened her bedroom door and listened and that was when she heard a car running out back.

She crept to the door of the apartment and peeked out the peephole, seeing nothing. Carefully she unlocked the door and opened it a crack, peering out. It had to be in the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside.

The idle of a car engine alerted her and she scanned the lot and froze at the sight of Cam’s Mustang sitting near the dumpster. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She was about to cry out for Lance when the Mustang suddenly sped away from the lot and all went eerily quiet.

 She was about to shut the door when the explosion occurred. The building shook with it and she gasped to see her Mother’s BMW station wagon had been the intended target. Metal and glass were everywhere; the car ablaze.

Lance and Marnie came running and joined her on the second-story porch, watching the car burn.

“Call 911!” Lance hollered to Marnie and he ran down the stairs to the lot, looking up and down for some sign of anyone.

“It was Cam, Lance!” Lindsay called down to him in hysteria. “I opened the door and saw his car out here right before the station wagon blew up.”

Lance looked outraged. Roaring sirens and pandemonium soon prevailed as the fire department and Dan Dooley arrived on the scene. Bob, the other deputy on duty, pulled in shortly thereafter. The firemen opened up the hose from their truck on the car and put it out within minutes.

Lindsay was dazed as she sat with Marnie in the living room while Dan talked to Lance in the kitchen. She was numb and frozen with fear. Marnie saw her pale face and leaned near.

“Don’t freak out like this! It’s what he wants, Lindsay! Just breathe!”

“He’s sending me a message. Don’t you see?” she whispered hoarsely, blue eyes wide with fright. “He’s letting me know he can get to me anytime he wants.”

“Well he’s busted because you saw him!”

Lindsay didn’t hear what her brother was saying to Dan but she could tell he was getting mad. Dan was writing everything down, looking harassed and irritated. Sheriff Wilson walked in and he changed his whole demeanor as usual. Bob was writing up a report at the kitchen table and a wrecker was called to take her Mom’s car away.

Lance felt it was better to deal with Deborah later in the morning after the cops left. Her mother would have a conniption when she learned about her vehicle being firebombed. Sheriff Wilson came over and smiled kindly at them both.  

“You are sure you saw him, Lindsay?”

“Yes! I heard a noise and looked out and saw his car by the dumpster. He left and the car exploded,” she said for the hundredth time, exhausted with all the questions.

Mr. Merriman was called and on his way in. The building sustained no damage, but there was broken glass everywhere in the lot. Lindsay was not looking forward to dealing with him, worried he would evict her for causing such trouble at his store.

“No, I know you say you saw the car,” he reiterated. “You actually saw him?”

“Well no, but that was him. Who else would blow up my car?” she asked in anger.

“Lindsay, Cameron’s mother reported the car stolen last night. She also claims Cameron was at home playing video games and that she checked on him before she went to bed and he was in his room.”

“That doesn’t mean anything! He could have snuck out!”

Gary sighed and sipped his coffee. “Lindsay, he has an alibi that places him at home when the explosion happened. Do you know a boy named Matt Lauder?”

“He’s one of Cam’s buddies,” she replied in exasperation. “He’d say anything for Cam.”

“Well, he says he got up to use the bathroom at five this morning and Cam was in bed sleeping.”

“Their lying!”

“Lindsay, I can’t charge him for this unless you actually saw him. You saw the car. Now do you see what I mean? With the car reported stolen; we can’t prove it was even him sitting there before the car bomb went off.”

Lindsay felt a dull ache of fear to know he was right. Cam’s friend lied and covered for him, but the pair had obviously blown up the station wagon and then stashed the Mustang. They probably walked back to his house and snuck in under his mother’s nose. She would bet the car was found not far from Bendview Estates.

Lance came back and eyed his sister grimly. “I have to call Mom, Lindsay. We need the insurance information and everything in the car was torched.”

Lindsay flinched, knowing how Deborah would react. “Can you call her? I think I’m going to be sick.”

She got up from the couch and flew to the bathroom, slamming the door shut and heaving her guts out into the toilet. She sat next to the commode and tears blinded her. A shaky hand wiped them away. Her head hurt and her eyes stung from the smoke billowing up from the lot earlier. Terror filled her gaze to think Cameron would employ such tactics.

She heard the door to the apartment open and close. The cops could do nothing. Anger made her sit up and face her situation with a good dose of reality. They couldn’t protect her, she knew. Even with Sheriff Wilson promising to do his best to keep an eye on her and Lance in the next room; she was vulnerable.

Lindsay whispered a prayer as she got up off the bathroom floor, asking for help from anyone who listened. Graduation was a month away. A lot could happen in a month. Despite her best intentions to stay and help catch Cameron, she knew the best thing to do was to leave with Lance and Marnie.

~ ~ ~

“Remember to practice your targets every day,” Jace was saying as they walked down the dark street.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Daphne was saying, keeping her eyes peeled for demons and deadheads alike. “You just make sure you come back, Jace.”

He didn’t answer her as they walked, his eyes scanning the shadowy alleyways as they passed. It was quiet tonight. Merrick gave him a long look before he left on patrol tonight. The older man’s brown eyes bore into his knowingly before he got into the van.

“You just get yourself back here, Kid. You ain’t no good to ‘em back there anymore,” he had said. “You only get in the way.”

Jace didn’t answer. He knew Merrick knew that better than anyone else. He gazed passed him at Daphne and he rolled his eyes. Jace’s protégé had to work on her shooting. Until she actually hit something she wasn’t going on patrols.

“I got to do this, Merrick.”

“I gotcha, just come back. I’ll cover for ya with Raymond.”

Jace watched him leave, feeling bad he couldn’t take Merrick’s word for it. He had to find out for himself.

“Earth to Jace,” Daphne piped up and intruded on his thoughts. “I wanted to know what you want me to do if I can’t find the new opening after this one is closed.”

“I can get back on my own if that’s the case.”

“Ok, are you ready for this?” she asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be. You just close that door fast, Daphne.”

Her eyes were solemn. “No problem. You don’t need one of those creeps following you back.”

Jace and Daphne arrived at the glistening ripple near a boarded up building. She looked around nervously. Jace could sense no demons nearby. It was uncanny on how fast he adapted to life down here.

He looked at her and smiled. “Just close that door and get your butt back to the garage. Use the fire escape to get back in and lock up behind you.”

She grinned. “No problem. And hey, it’s real cold when you pass through but just keep walking.”

Jace nodded. “Anything else I need to know?”

“You can’t do a damn thing for them, Jace. I hope you come back when you realize that.”

He reached into the translucent ripple that separated dimensions, feeling the cold jelly-like feel of it. He withdrew his hand and it came back dry. A shiver of apprehension went through him. He was determined to help the people he loved even if they couldn’t see him or hear him.

“Alright, I’m ready. You just be ready,” he warned as he turned to Daphne.

The redhead smiled. “Yes, Boss, just keep saying there’s no place like home. Now get going before the spooks catch on.”

Jace cleared his mind of everything but the farm, the kids, Lindsay, and his hometown of Little Bend. He concentrated hard, his dark eyes narrowed as he pictured Lindsay’s apartment, the graffiti spray-painted by some punk on the back of Merriman’s grocery store. The picture of the place was crystal clear in his mind, every detail he could recall. He walked forward, into the rippling doorway.

Jace gasped as the coldness of it took his breath away. He fought the urge to turn back as he stepped through, forcing himself to concentrate on what lay beyond as he walked. He saw nothing but distortion on either side of him, shapes and colors he couldn’t make out. He stepped gingerly as he walked, unsure of the terrain. The sponginess of it reminded him of wresting mats in the gym at school. He heard nothing but the beating of his own heart and his ragged breathing.

He felt like he walked a quarter mile when he began to see light at the end of the ripple. He began to walk faster, feeling a sense of claustrophobia in the cold portal. The light was bright enough for him to squint as he passed through it. A look of wonder crossed his face as he stepped through it and found himself in the front yard of his former home. He hurried up and closed the doorway behind him.

The farm was rundown and ramshackle in the best of times. The sight that greeted him in the morning light was dismal and disturbing. An orange sticker was affixed to the window of the front room. He didn’t have to go up and read it to know the farm had been condemned by the county. All of the broken appliances had been removed from the front yard and hauled away. The old tractor had been dragged out of the field; gone too.

Jace sighed as he looked at the sagging roof of the farmhouse. How many times could he recall his mother berating his father to fix the leaks that plagued them for years in the spring? Sadness filled his gaze to know the land that was in the Turner family for nearly eighty years was now gone for back taxes.

His pa probably didn’t know or care what became of it, so lost in his own disease of drunkenness. Thoughts of Everett made him angry now. The man never did anything but drag his children down with him. Jace felt fury to know he’d been denied a childhood to make up for his lack.

While other boys played little league and fished with their father’s; he worked from the time he got out of school until late into the evening to care for his siblings and ailing mother. Dawn had a small insurance policy from her employer and they had enough to bury her and Everett pocketed the rest without thought to put any aside for his children.

 No, his pa didn’t harbor much guilt for those days, or he stayed drunk to fight off the demons that came for him. Jace knew there was no point in dwelling on the unfairness of the past. He fumed to know death had not lessened his resentment, only intensified it. Daphne’s words about how anger fueled their power made him long to destroy the leaning dinghy farmhouse until it was rubble.

His eyes focused on the chipped red-brick chimney and he felt white-hot rage course through him, his mind pushing at the house. He was frustrated to see it still stood after several minutes of concentration. Obviously he had some skills to work on before he went looking for his murderer.

Thinking of Cam made him smile. His friend thought he was untouchable. He would touch him before this was all over.  He would feel every bit of Jace’s rage before he returned to Oblivion to wait for whatever the afterlife held in store for him. A touch of guilt made him frown, knowing his group was down one man in their efforts to ward off both demons and deadheads in their world.

Rhys, the deadhead’s leader, was growing stronger every day, encouraged by the demon’s promises. The man believed their lies. Such was the desperation to be deemed a lifer in Oblivion, with no chance for redemption from either side.

The Devil didn’t want them because of their lack of souls and God cursed them for taking their own lives. Without hope, they had no choice but to believe the lies of the demons.