The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) (22 page)
Read The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) Online
Authors: Michael Richan
Yes, I’m not nearly so lonely,
Christina said.
Good,
Roy replied.
We’ll stop by down the road sometime and check in on
you.
OK,
Christina said, smiling.
Roy ended the trance and rose to his feet.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said, grabbing Steven by
the arm. They walked quickly back through the house and didn’t stop until
they’d landed in the car.
“Do we stop by Barbara’s and tell her about Georgina?” Steven
asked, starting up the car.
“Hell, no!” Roy said. “Christina is completely distracted by
her. She didn’t ask a single question about Unser. I hope Georgina keeps
visiting her, it’ll take her mind off her father.”
“Isn’t that a little risky for Georgina?” Steven asked.
“As long as Christina stays happy, that vortex will be fine,”
Roy said. “And Georgina will be fine.”
“Until Christina becomes unhappy,” Steven said.
“Well then, I guess we’ll get a phone call,” Roy said.
“I don’t like it,” Steven said.
Roy sighed. “Damn it, boy, nothing makes you happy. You want
to go tell Barbara? Rat out Georgina? She’ll lock her down, make sure she never
goes back there. Then Christina will be lonely and upset. Then what?”
“We visit more often,” Steven said. “With Christina. That’s
what we agreed to do in the first place.”
“And what if Barbara can’t control Georgina the way she’d
like to? What if Barbara decides to make good on her threat? You could almost
see the pitchforks in her eyes when we were talking to her about it. An old, abandoned,
dilapidated house that isn’t livable, is an eyesore and a danger to every kid
in the neighborhood, goes up in flames — who would care? The neighbors would
probably appreciate it. Then the body of Christina is discovered, and
reinterred. Power source gone. No more vortex.”
“Who’s to say that doesn’t happen anyway?” Steven replied.
“If Barbara finds out Georgina is still going there?”
“I’m not saying we don’t keep an eye on things,” Roy said. “I
just don’t see how ratting out Georgina helps. Georgina may stop visiting
Christina on her own, for all we know. We’ll have to check on things
regardless. There’s a delicate balance that has to be achieved here.”
“I think you’re making my point, Dad,” Steven said. “You’re
not considering the danger to Christina.”
“Nothing dangerous about it,” Roy replied. “I visited ghosts
in abandoned houses when I was her age. Did it all the time. And look at me, I
survived.”
“You’re trying to tell me it’s perfectly safe for her to be
going into that abandoned house?”
“It’s not the risk you’re making it out to be,” Roy scoffed,
waving his hands. “I did it hundreds of times when I was young. Seriously, your
generation coddles kids. Safety this and safety that. Drives me bugfuck!”
Steven sighed and put the car in reverse. He backed out of
the driveway, then turned and headed back to the main road. The abandoned house
caught his attention in the rear view mirror as they drove off.
He’s right about one thing,
Steven thought.
This is a delicate balance. I
suppose we’ll have to find the other two vortexes, too
–
the ones on
property controlled by the Tacoma law firm. Make sure they’re stable,
operational. See if there are any delicate balances to maintain there, too. And
then there’s Eximere. Trusting that Unser
–
or whoever is on the other
end of the arrangement
–
sticks to the plan.
He sighed again. Roy heard him.
“Oh, buck up,” Roy said. “It’s not as bad as all that.”
As they left Grays Harbor, both of them settled into their
own thoughts, and silence occupied the car until they reached Olympia. Finally
Roy spoke.
“How’s Jason?”
“He seemed fine,” Steven said, smiling to himself. “It was
hard to see him again. I was glad to, but it was hard.”
“You weren’t meant to,” Roy said. “Wasn’t supposed to happen.
They should have known better. Once you cross, that’s it. Whoever put him up to
it was really taking a risk. If I’d been there, they would have received a
piece of my mind.”
“Maybe that’s why he only appeared to me,” Steven said.
“They’d certainly have known we’d talk about it later,” Roy
said. “What they did is almost unforgivable.”
Steven found himself torn between Roy’s protocols and the
honest emotion he felt at seeing his son. “I got a chance to talk to him, to
tell him I’m sorry.”
“Wasn’t supposed to happen,” Roy repeated.
“But it did, Dad,” Steven said. “It did.”
“Some things aren’t supposed to be said, or heard,” Roy
replied.
Steven felt the positive feelings he’d developed about
Jason’s visit slowly leave him, replaced by Roy’s reticence. It bothered him.
The fact that they’d been arguing for a while added fuel to the fire, and he
felt like keeping it going.
“I can’t tell my son I’m sorry?” Steven asked. “Really?”
“He crossed over,” Roy replied. “So, no.”
“He told me that he hung around for a few weeks after we
buried him,” Steven said, remembering those sad days. “I thought I felt him
once or twice.”
“But you didn’t talk to him then, did you?” Roy said. “I told
you to, but you didn’t. Now he’s crossed.”
“I can’t see any harm in it,” Steven said. “I really don’t. I
was able to tell him how sorry I was. It was closure.”
“Closure?” Roy said, his voice prickly with irritation.
“Closure? Why the hell does everyone talk about closure like they’re entitled
to it? God, you’ve got no respect. I thought I raised you better.”
“No respect?” Steven asked, confused. “What are you
talking
about?”
“No respect for the dead,” Roy said. “Jason is gone. Your
window of opportunity to talk to him closed months ago. Now he’s unavailable.
Things happen for a reason, and you need to learn to respect that. But no, you
need
closure
, so those bozos use that against you, and against your son.
They disturb his peace and force him back here, the last place he wants to be.
No respect.”
“Maybe he wasn’t at peace,” Steven said. “Maybe he was OK
with coming back.”
“They’re
never
OK with coming back if they’ve crossed
over,” Roy said emphatically. “Never.”
Steven remembered Jason saying he’d have preferred to stay
crossed over, and he considered dropping the argument with his father, but he
couldn’t; not until his father realized how important it had been to talk to
his son. “So you’re saying he wouldn’t have come to talk to me unless they had
forced him to?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Roy said, “and that it’s
your
fault they did this to him. You’ve got to let him go, let him enjoy where he’s
at now, and get on with your life. Once they cross, that’s it. It’s a holy
thing. You’ve got to respect it.”
“Not something I would have expected you to say,” Steven
said. “Being so anti-religious and all.”
“If there’s anything in this world that’s holy, it’s how you
leave it,” Roy said.
Steven decided to drop it, and they continued to ride in
silence. He thought he understood Roy’s point.
But he wasn’t there,
he
thought.
He didn’t see Jason, didn’t know how good it felt to be next to
him, see him move, talk, smile. He didn’t lose a son by his own hand. He
doesn’t know how it feels.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt
he still had to say something.
“You’re a stoic old man,” Steven replied quietly. “But I
think we may have to agree to disagree on this one.”
“Fine,” Roy said. “Fine. I’m not getting through to you,
anyway.” He sighed.
“Oh, buck up,” Steven said. “It’s not as bad as all that.”
Silence descended once again upon the car, and it rode with
them until Steven pulled up to Roy’s house in Seattle.
###
Michael Richan lives in
Seattle, Washington. He was born in California and raised in Utah.
You can contact Michael at
www.michaelrichan.com
.
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The adventure continues!
In the quiet town of Clearlake, something dark and
evil roams the streets at night, searching for a victim to haul into the forest
and kill. When it targets Eliza’s son, forces are quickly aligned to fight it.
Eliza asks for help from Steven and Roy, her friends in Seattle who have “the
gift,” an ability to see things others cannot by entering a place called “The
River.”
Their battle will take them to dark mausoleums and
haunted groves. The answer may lie in the hands of a reclusive woman, a
specialist in death… or it may revolve around a stalker, a man intent on
creating an abomination.
Eliza, Steven, and Roy have worked together before,
but the creatures that walk the streets of Clearlake will challenge them,
bringing them to the edge of disaster.
Order your copy at Amazon today!
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Have you read
The Downwinders
series?
The mysteries of The River continue
downwind, where mutated ghosts and creatures inhabit the many caves and mines
of Southern Nevada and Utah. Deem and Winn battle an evil force intent on
destruction in
Blood Oath, Blood River
.
Pick up a copy and enjoy this
exciting series today!
The River
series:
The Downwinders
series
:
The Dark River series:
All three series are part of
The
River Universe,
and there is crossover of some characters and plots. For a
suggested reading order, see the
Author’s Website
.
