Sinister Entity (15 page)

Jessica rolled her eyes. “I was a little sore the day after, but it wasn’t anything some sleep and four Advil couldn’t cure. I haven’t even left the house yet because I figured I’d earned a little break. I got bored, so I started going through the inbox for my website. You’ll never guess what I came across.”

Eddie sat back in his chair, waiting. Jessica frowned.
 

“That was your cue to read my mind and tell me,” she said.
 

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Oh. Well, it was worth a try.” Her face disappeared from the screen as she moved out of frame. She came back holding a stack of papers. “I get tons of emails every week, most of them with photo and video attachments. Everyone who ever took a picture with an orb in it thinks they captured a ghost and wants me to put it on the website. You know, all these cheap digital cameras are going to be the death of true ghost hunting. Too many lighting issues pop up with them. Anyway, I was looking through everything, deleting most, saving a few that I would pass on to my web guy, Swedey, to load onto the site, when I came across one that literally made my jaw drop.”

Eddie couldn’t imagine what it was that could shock Jessica.
 

“I got an email from a girl in New Hampshire who is totally freaked out. She said she and her family have been seeing something that is so rare, it’s beyond belief.”

Eddie leaned in closer to the computer screen. Jessica’s excitement was contagious.
 

“Well, what is it?” he asked.
 

“This girl—” she leafed through the pages, “—Selena Leigh, saw her
doppelganger
.”

“A doppelganger? Are you sure?”

“No shit.
She’s
one-hundred-percent sure. According to her, her father saw it on a separate occasion and her mother heard it one afternoon calling to her. Needless to say, she’s completely wigged out.”

Eddie exhaled, long and hard. “Wow. A doppelganger that’s been seen by the person it impersonates as well as other people. That’s just crazy.”

“I know. But I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet. She sent me a video that she recorded in her friend’s room. I think she was trying to convey just how serious and upset she was so I wouldn’t ignore her email or throw it on the deleted pyre, you know. I’m sending it over to you now.”

Eddie opened up his email and waited for her message to arrive. It took a half a minute before his incoming mail chime sounded.
 

“I won’t say a thing until it’s over,” Jessica said.
 

“Jess, if you feel this is valid, I believe you. I don’t need to see a video of a frightened girl.”

“Just watch it.”

Eddie double clicked the attachment and brought the video up to medium size. He could still see Jessica in the live video window. She had taken out a nail file and was working on her tips.
 

The video image was very clear, near HD quality, and showed a pretty girl, not much younger than Jessica, sitting before the camera. The only blemish on her good looks was the dark bags under her haunted eyes. The heads of two girls bobbed over her shoulders. One had chestnut skin and was exotic looking, must have been Latina, the other your typical teen goth, all pale makeup and facial piercings. It struck him odd that such a trio would even associate with one another. He wasn’t that far removed from high school himself and remembered the rule of non-intersecting social circles.
 

The pretty girl spoke, “Hello, my name is Selena Leigh. I hope you had a chance to read my email. I…I never even heard of a doppelganger before until my friend Crissy just told me about it.” The goth girl waved at the camera. “I saw this, uh, doppelganger that looked like me, well, kinda like me, just stranger, in my closet one night.”

She went on to describe the frightened mirror image of herself in the closet and how her father had thought he’d seen her in the garage a week before that. Selena had to stop a few times to hold back her tears, and her exotic friend passed her tissues to wipe her eyes.
 

No doubt about it,
Eddie thought,
this girl is unnerved.
He had just seen that same haunted look in Tim McCammon’s eyes. It made him uncomfortable, seeing a young girl so afraid, pouring out her heart to a tiny camera in the hopes that a stranger on a website would come save her.
 

He noticed that Jessica had stopped filing her nails and was now watching him, watching the video. His eyes went back to Selena Leigh and her friends and her incredible story.
 

Just as the video was about to end, he saw something that made him squint at the screen. The video faded to black and he pulled the time bar back about ten seconds.
 

“Did you see it?” Jessica asked.

“Hold on.”

He pressed Play, watched it a second time, then pulled back again, pausing the video.
 

“No freakin’ way,” he murmured.
 

Behind the girls, by the window, something had appeared between flashes of lightning.
 

Selena’s doppelganger!
 

It watched them for a moment, its skin opaque, bordering on cadaverous, dressed in a knee-length, white nightgown. Then, as the flash of light from the storm outside dissipated, so did the apparition.
 

Neither Selena nor her friends had noticed it at the time and he assumed they didn’t when they played the video back.
 

He closed out the video and brought Jessica up to full screen.
 

“It’s real,” he said in a soft whisper.
 

Jessica nodded. “Can you take a few days off work?”

Eddie had to think for a moment. “I have three days off in a row starting Monday.”

“Good. Seabrook, New Hampshire is only about four hours away. I’ll drive.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Greg Leigh sat in his easy chair, but he was feeling far from relaxed. Rita and Selena sat on the loveseat opposite him. They had dropped Ricky off at his friend Xavier’s house earlier, then came home to drop the bomb. It had been one hell of a surprise.
 

“And when is this person coming?” he asked, holding off on his anger until he had all the facts.
 

Rita put a hand on Selena’s lap and answered, “There are actually two of them and they’ll be here tomorrow around noon.”

Greg looked at Selena, who cast her eyes down to her mother’s hand.
 

“I don’t remember anyone asking me if this was okay,” he said. He dug a nail into the armrest, trying to keep his composure.
 

“Selena came to me a few days ago. She and her friends did all the research and she showed it to me. I told her to contact them.”

Rita looked him in the eye, defiant. She was in full on momma-bear mode. Things could get ugly, fast. Selena looked as if she was close to crying. Greg took a deep breath, hoping it would calm him. He and Rita were very much alike when it came to fighting. Both were stubborn as hell and defeat was never an option. It was why some of their more legendary arguments led to his sleeping in the guest room for as much as a week at a time.
 

Rita continued, “I don’t know if you’ve been aware, but we’ve been living in fear the past few weeks and you didn’t lift a finger to even attempt to find some answers. If bringing in the people from this website makes Selena comfortable, that’s good enough for me.”

She had him there. He still thought there was a rational explanation for what they had experienced, and since it hadn’t happened again, it was easy to ignore. He had work, and with this being the busy season for his company, he often brought it home with him. Where would he have found time to seek help? And just where the hell did they expect him to start?

It was Rita who went to the library to see if she could find anything that would shed some light on things, but the occult section left a lot to be desired. Greg remembered coming home one day to find her sitting in bed, books on UFOs, ghosts and witchcraft on the comforter. He had joked that she looked like one of the gang from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and she had given him the cold shoulder in return. When that proved fruitless, she went to Father Ogden and asked him to bless the house. That was supposed to happen in another week and Greg had already made a mental note to keep busy in the yard when the padre came to the door. He thought Father Ogden was a bit of a tosspot who was well past his prime. He couldn’t stand the man’s sermons. They always seemed to tie back to abortion and the sanctity of life. Roe v. Wade must have really unhinged him, Greg had thought more than once.
 

“How much is this going to cost?”
 

Greg held his breath, waiting for Rita to answer. What she said next would determine whether there would be peace in the Leigh house tonight. Even in the best of times, money was tight.
 

“Nothing. They do this to help people, not to make money.”

Greg huffed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Selena spoke up. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were glassy. “Please, Daddy, don’t be mad. They’ll only be here for a couple of days. The woman who wrote me said she knew what we were dealing with and that she could help. I don’t…I don’t know how much longer I can stay here, waiting for that thing to show up again. Even when I don’t see it, I can feel it. It’s like I’m being watched all the time, even when I’m out of the house.”

Greg almost told her to stop thinking crazy thoughts like that, but one look at her face made him swallow his retort. Jesus, she was a mess. He felt his anger, his trepidation, his wounded macho pride fade away. Whatever apprehension and doubt he felt, and it was impossible to discount, would have to be put on the back burner for now. He motioned for her to come over. Selena rose from the loveseat and melted into his outstretched arms. She buried her face in the collar of his shirt and wept.
 

When he looked toward Rita, she mouthed a silent thank you
.
 

Eve looked over the questionnaire that Jessica had asked the New Hampshire girl’s mother to fill out. It was standard procedure for Jessica to gather as much information as she could before she went to someone’s home to take on their supernatural problem. It was essential for Eve, too, so she could get a clearer picture of what Jess was about to step into. If she didn’t like what she saw, there would be no trip. She’d dismantle the Jeep herself to stop her.
 

The questions were pretty straightforward. They asked the experiencer to describe what they saw, when, where, the weather at the time, if there were additional witnesses, etc. From all accounts, what happened with the Leigh family was recent and brief. No prior history.
 

“What do you think?” Jessica asked. They were in the living room, having finished watching
Dancing with the Stars
, a guilty pleasure for them both. Jessica looked like a little girl in her long Mickey Mouse night shirt and fuzzy slippers. Eve smiled, remembering having her on one lap and Liam on the other, sitting on the same couch watching cartoons. Now here she was, being asked to give her blessing to let Jessica travel to New England to help a scared girl who wasn’t much younger than her brave and stubborn adopted daughter.
 

“Well, from what I learned from your dad, doppelgangers are pretty rare and don’t pose a threat to anyone but the person they’re impersonating. I hope this is all just a misunderstanding and not a sign that something might happen to the girl. Poor kid.”

“That’s why I want to go. How many people have had the chance to investigate an actual doppelganger? And I want to give some peace of mind back to Selena if I can. So, can I go?”

Eve rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t know. New Hampshire isn’t exactly around the corner.”

“I’ll only be gone for a few days.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like the idea of you alone in a place you’ve never been. There are dangers to young ladies other than ghosts, you know.”

“I won’t be alone. Eddie will be with me.”

“And I’m supposed to be over the moon that you’re going there with a boy you barely know?”

Jessica shrugged. “Wasn’t it you who said you liked the idea of me having someone that would have my back? And he really did.”

“What will the sleeping arrangements be?” Eve knew Jessica wouldn’t be shacking up with Eddie, but it was fun to push her buttons sometimes.
 

“Oh jeez, we’ll be in separate rooms at the Best Western. Who do you think I am, some reality show horn dog? I’d break his arms if he even suggested sharing a room.”

Eve bonked Jess on the head with the rolled up questionnaire. “Sounds like you already made plans.”

Jessica laughed. “It’s all refundable. If I show you one more thing, will you let me go?”

“I dread to think what it could be. I know you won’t be happy until you do, so let’s see it.”

Jessica picked her laptop off the floor and called up a video, sizing it to full screen. “Pay close attention when you get to the four-minute, thirty-three-second mark.”