The Haunting Season (32 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Bryan’s face contorted as he stretched a hand toward Allison. Eyes closed, his head had dropped against his chest, blood flowing freely from his nose over his mouth. Gage could see he was giving it everything he had.

He wondered if Bryan’s all would be enough. If Bryan failed, Riley would use Allison’s body to open the gate.

You can do it, Bryan. You can.

You’ve got to.

Jess was squeezing his hand tightly.

Grimacing, Bryan cried out and fell to his knees, still working his mojo on Allison.

Allison faced them now, teeth bared. She walked toward the gate. Gage picked up one of the shovels. “Grab the other one, Jess!”

“What?” she cried. “Gage, I can’t. I can’t. It’s Allison. She’s in there.”

Gage moved forward. “Well, she’s going to be in
here
if we don’t stop her. And just a reminder—she’s got company.”

Gage cursed under his breath.

The air began to crackle with electricity. Allison was almost at the gate. God help him, he was about to hit Allison with the shovel if she took a step closer.

Yellow light burst from Allison’s abdomen and a roaring sound like a thunderclap echoed around them. Gage stumbled back and shielded his eyes from the light. When the cracking and popping subsided, Gage opened his eyes. Behind him, Jess was sobbing.

And Allison was gone.

He dropped the shovel. Jess was holding Bryan, who lay on the ground. He was conscious, but not in great shape. Blood soaked his shirt. How much had he bled, anyway? He’d never seen anyone who’d bled as much.

Bryan grinned up at him, weakly. “Just like the spider, Dude. Chicks dig it.”

Jess laughed through her tears and kissed Bryan’s forehead. “You did it, Bryan. Oh my God, you did it.”

But they weren’t in the clear. Not yet. They still had to get out of here and off the property. With Bryan’s condition and Mrs. Hirsch still hanging around, it wasn’t going to be easy.

And the girls would be back. He had no doubt about that. In the meantime, Bryan could bleed to death.

“Come on. We’ve got to get out of here,” Gage said, bending down to help Bryan to his feet.

“Is he going to be all right?” Jess’s face looked as tired and worn as his. She reached through the gate, keeping an eye on Mrs. Hirsch as she retrieved the iron pendant Allison had dropped.

“Yeah, I think so. We just need to get him out of here.”

Jess looked to the spot Allison had last stood, tears pooling in her eyes.

“She’s okay,” he told her. He hoped that wasn’t a lie.

Bryan managed to stand but it wasn’t what Gage would call graceful. “We don’t have a lot of time. Like the girls, Riley’s absence is temporary.”

Except for Allison. Gage doubted Nowhereville was temporary for Allison. Wherever Bryan had sent her, he knew she wouldn’t be back. He only hoped she’d found a place where there were no demons. Not even her own.

The tears on Jess’s cheek told him she felt the same. Allison and Jess had been at odds with each other now and then, but Jess was taking it harder than he’d expected. Even when confronted with the shadowed figure blocking Riley the way it had, and then Mrs. Hirsch possibly being the world’s most helpful zombie, Allison still saw demons.

And Jess still saw angels.

Which is probably why he cared for her.

“Riley won’t stay inside her,” he said, hoping it’d be
some
comfort.

Jess could only nod as fresh tears spilled onto her cheeks.

Mrs. Hirsch stared at them from the other side of the fence. However useful she’d been, odds were good that at Siler House, she wouldn’t stay that way much longer. They couldn’t get Bryan out of here without getting rid of Mrs. Hirsch first. If nothing else, she’d force them to end her form of existence, too. One way or the other.

“Keep Bryan steady,” Gage said to Jess. She threw one of Bryan’s big arms around her.

Limping, Gage picked up one of the shovels, earning him a frown from both Jess and Bryan, who swayed on his feet. Gage returned to them, using the shovel for a cane as Bryan wrapped his other arm around Gage’s neck.

“We’re going to need the shovel,” Gage explained.

“What for?” Bryan asked.

“Mrs. Hirsch,” Gage replied quietly. “I don’t know how far we’re going to get once we open the gate, but we can’t take any chances. And like Jess said, we can’t leave her like that.”

Mrs. Hirsch didn’t respond to their movement. She stared blankly as they made their way to the gate. Jess released the latch and pushed the gate open. The housekeeper continued watching, but made no moves.

“You’re going to have to keep him upright.” Gage eyed Mrs. Hirsch. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Okay.” Jess accepted more of Bryan’s weight. “Just help me through the gates first.”

She’s not going to be able to keep him on his feet
, Gage thought as he helped her guide Bryan through the gates.

Mrs. Hirsch continued to stare after them. He wasn’t sure whether her intelligence was now equal to a bag of hammers, or whether she was just waiting for the right time.

Five feet outside the gate. Ten. He glanced back. Mrs. Hirsch was beginning to follow them.

Fifteen. Twenty. Thirty feet. She was closer now, beginning to pick up the pace.

“Keep him upright,” Gage reminded Jess. “Can you do that on your own for a few minutes?”

“No,” Jess replied. “Gage, I can’t.”

“You have to, Jess. She’s coming for us.”

“Leave me,” Bryan said weakly.

Gage shook his head. “Not a chance, Bro.”

This was impossible. Even if they got Bryan to the road, what then? They didn’t have a phone. Sure, the estate was off a fairly decent-sized road, but that didn’t mean anyone would stop. But he wasn’t leaving Bryan behind.

“Hold onto Bryan,” Jess said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Jess—” Gage protested.

“Just do it!” she snapped.

Bryan shifted his weight to Gage and he winced at the extra pressure on his injured ankle.

“Give me the shovel,” Jess said. Tears flowed down her cheeks, but her voice remained strong. Determined. “I’m not big enough to support Bryan. You’re the only one who can help him, even with your ankle. Like you said, it’ll only take a second.”

Gage looked at her, then Mrs. Hirsch, who was less than ten feet away now. “You sure?”

Her bottom lip quivered. “To the head, right?”

He nodded and handed her the shovel. “Hard as you can.”

He wanted to tell her she had courage, but the words seemed lost in the situation. Jess was doing this because it was a logical decision. And because she didn’t want to see Mrs. Hirsch like she was any longer.

Come on, you can do it, Jess. I know you can.

He hated that she’d have to be the one to set this right.
Fixing it
, as Mrs. Hirsch had called it, should have been his cross to bear since he had brought her back. Jess shouldn’t have to go through this.

Shovel in hand, Jess met Mrs. Hirsch halfway. The housekeeper stopped and waited. Jess paused for only a second, then drew herself up and cried out as she swung the shovel hard, making a direct hit to Mrs. Hirsch’s left temple.

Thwaaap!

Jess stepped backward, holding the shovel like a bat, sobbing freely now but ready to swing again if necessary. Mrs. Hirsch wobbled on her feet a second before falling to the ground.

“Fix it! Fix it!” Mrs. Hirsch’s arms flailed at her sides.

Gage was ready to ease Bryan to the ground and take care of the situation when Jess raised the shovel high and brought it down hard into Mrs. Hirsch’s forehead. Jess let go of the shovel and backed away. The shovel remained upright, protruding from the housekeeper’s head. She lay still in the grass. Jess stared at Mrs. Hirsch, then wiping the back of her hand against her mouth, Jess began to sob.

“I’m so sorry, baby.” Anything else Gage might have wanted to say was lost on him. Jess returned to him and Bryan, choking back more tears. What could they say? Any of them?

Without another word, they made their way to the front gate, and from there, to the road.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Fourteen months later…

Jess held flowers as she and Gage walked through Highland Cemetery outside Asheville. The weather had turned unusually cool for late October. The flowers she’d brought probably wouldn’t last long.

But they’d last long enough.

“Have you heard from Bryan?” she asked. Once in a while, Bryan would call her, but mostly, he kept in touch with Gage. He’d vowed to visit them over Christmas break, but they both knew he wouldn’t. They’d most likely never see him again. He only kept in touch to make sure life was still normal. To make sure it was truly over and that nothing had followed them out of Siler House.

Bryan thought they might be pushing their luck for all three of them to be in the same place at the same time. There was no sound evidence to prove his theory, but he wasn’t taking chances.

Jess understood. Some days, she felt something was there—waiting. She knew Gage often felt the same, even though all of them now wore iron pendants. Gage wore his on a strap of dark leather and Jess wore hers on a chain of sterling silver. So far, her dorm roommate hadn’t questioned Jess’s only choice of jewelry. But she
had
noticed Jess’s weird habit of covering up the mirror in their room before going to bed at night.

“Bryan called last weekend,” Gage replied. “His mom is getting remarried.”

She smiled. “That’s good. I’m glad he’s doing okay. He could use a little normal in his life.”

“I checked on the house this morning.” Gage didn’t need to tell her which house. “It’s been reopened as a bed and breakfast.”

Jess shook her head. How long before the house became active again? Before people saw things in the mirrors, anxious for a chance to spot a ghost at Savannah’s most infamous haunted house?

Promise me, Jess. Promise!

Be careful what you let in.

Jess sighed. “Fools.”

Gage squeezed her hand. “Maybe someone else will find a way to make it stop.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she said. “I’ll always feel bad we couldn’t tell anyone the truth.”

They’d kept their word to Allison, but that didn’t make her feel good about it. She thought of Allison nearly every day.

“There’s nothing we can do. If we had told them the truth EPAC would still be hounding us. And every paranormal specialist out there would think they had something to prove. We know that won’t end well. All we can do is hope that what happened at Siler House doesn’t happen again any time soon.”

But it probably would, and they both knew it. Maybe not exactly what happened to the four of them, but Riley and Siler House would never rest. Neither would those who walked its halls. The best they could hope for was that Siler House would remain standing during their lifetimes. Because, if it ever did catch fire…

Jess shuddered.

The authorities and EPAC remained convinced Allison was still out there, somewhere. As for physical evidence, the camera was missing. And, in the end, Dr. Brandt’s final notes turned out to be more about the house and his own findings than anything about the four of them. For now, they were off the hook with EPAC.

Not that they could ever have fully controlled their abilities, anyway. Some things were never meant to be harnessed.

Jess knelt in front of Gram’s grave and placed the first set of flowers there. Gram always loved roses, and while there were only a few mingling with the carnations, Jess thought Grams would approve. She lingered for a moment, then stood and rested her hand on the top of the headstone.

I’m careful now, Grams.

She took Gage’s hand and led him along the pathway. The tree leaves were a beautiful gold as they danced against the clear blue sky. A squirrel bounded across the lawn in front of them.

Jess stopped in front of the second grave—her father’s. Her heart still ached for him—still ached as though it were only yesterday that she had stood here for his funeral. She placed the second set of flowers on his grave. Had he been at Siler House? The shadowed figure? Had he been watching over her the whole time? Was he still here, somewhere close by?

She wanted to say good-bye, as though after all that had happened, it’d be some sort of closure, some way to make up for the fact she hadn’t been there when he’d died. She used to think if she’d been given the opportunity to go back in time, to have that moment they’d been cheated out of, the pain would be different. She realized there weren’t ever enough good-byes, because she’d always want one more.

Had
her father been at Siler House? Jess would never know. At one time she’d only wanted answers to questions like those. Now she realized some things weren’t meant to be messed with. She, Bryan and Gage had vowed to never try to make contact with anything otherworldly again. No matter who it was.

Not all ghosts were bad or harmful, but you couldn’t always open the door to one without opening it for the others.

Would their vow be good enough? No. Probably not. Allison had said that once the portal had been opened, it couldn’t ever be fully closed. It was a bridge they couldn’t uncross.

Jess had been glad to move out of the house and into a dorm at the start of her freshman year at the University of North Carolina. Especially after she noticed little black spots on her sister, Lily’s, dresser mirror. She’d broken that mirror. Total accident, she’d explained to her mother. Lily kidded her about seven years of bad luck. It could have just been a faulty mirror, but Jess wasn’t taking any chances that dark spirits had found a way to get to them.

“I gave Lily my room,” Jess said as she placed the flowers on her father’s grave.

Gage nodded. “Ah! The wrought-iron headboard. Good move. When we’re out of school, we’ll buy our own.” He grinned in that devastating way that made her heart race every time.

A blast of cold air blew past them and Jess rubbed her arms as she stood. Winter felt like it might come early this year.

Gage held her against him. “Are you cold? Want to go grab some coffee?”