The Old House (Haunted Series Book 16) (11 page)

“Itchy.  Like something is itching me all over inside.”

Ted moved his hand along Mia’s back.  The black tattoos were gone.  Mia shivered before her eyes opened.  “Sorry, a little confusion in transference.  How is he?”

“Up and talking.”

“Good.  I could use a drink.”

“Bartender, a whiskey for my wife, please,” Ted said.

Mike looked over.  “Right away.  Barmaid, bring us a round.”

Audrey let go of Cid’s legs.  “I guess that’s me,” she said, trying to keep her mood light.

“I’ve got this,” Burt said, limping back from the bar.  He set down a bottle and a handful of shot glasses.

“Burt, I was thinking about this place,” Mia said.  “There are iron-covered trapdoors all over the ground floor.  It’s as if the former owners were afraid of something rising out of the depths of the mine.”

“Miners used to die all the time. It wasn’t unusual,” Ted said, sipping out of the shot glass.

Mia knocked hers back.  “What if the owners did something bad, and the result was a lot of people dying.  What if there was a shaft collapse, and no one bothered to recover the bodies?”

“That’s two what ifs, pumpkin,” Ted pointed out.

“No, Ted, she has a point,” Audrey said.  “If I had a guilty conscience, I would go to great lengths to make sure my secret was hidden, and if I were superstitious too, I would fear repercussions.  Like…”

“Ghosts,” Burt filled in.

“Vengeful ghosts,” Mia emphasized.  “But what if there are no ghosts?”

“Cyryl Nowicki doesn’t have to know that.  He has no clue about Murphy’s existence,” Burt reminded the team.

“I see what you’re getting at,” Mia said.  “We could turn his little game of scaring the little lady into scaring Cyryl into abandoning his plan and leaving Price Hills Resort.”

“We’re going to have to put it into play soon, because the storm is waning, and soon, he’s going to discover that we survived the fall.  We can’t fight bullets,” Mike said.  “We can’t run with half our team broken.”

“When we are ready and able, I’ll do my bit, being the scared, hysterical little lady.”

Cid opened his eyes.  Mia moved quickly over to him.  She looked him over and smiled.  You are a very lucky man.  Don’t you ever withhold information from me again.  When you’re healed, I’m going to kill you.  I just thought I would let you know,” Mia said.

“Yes, Mia, I love you too,” he said.  He sniffed the air.  “It smells like a bar in here.”

The group lifted their glasses.

“To Cid Garett the Obvious,” Mike said.

“To Cid,” they chorused.

Murphy snickered from the corner.  He was feeling pretty proud of himself.  His mother always wanted him to be a doctor, but a surgeon…  Well, she probably was bursting her buttons in Heaven.

The wind had died down, but it was still raining heavily.  Cyryl had just pulled on his jacket to head over and check out the sole, living occupant of the hotel when the doorknob twisted violently, followed by a beating of fists on the door.  He unlocked the door, and a muddy Mia fell into his arms.

“You have to help me,” she pleaded, whipping her muddy hair back off her face.  “I can’t find them.  I’ve been looking all night and day.  They’ve disappeared,” Mia said, sending a blast of whiskey-scented breath into Cyril’s face.

Ray pulled Mia off of the man they were supposed to have had in their custody.  She was drenched.  At one point, the drunk woman must had slipped and fell to the muddy ground.

Carl put a blanket around the shoulders of the frightened woman.

“There’s something horrible going on in there,” she said.  “Misty shapes coming out of the floor.  Doors slamming, glass breaking, and the smell, oh god, it smells like a sewer in there.  Help me.  Help me find my friends,” she pleaded, plastering her body against the surprised guard.

“Calm down, sweetheart,” Carl said, running his hand along her backside.

Cyryl cleared his voice.  “Maybe we should look into this.”

“You, you, you’re not in jail?” Mia asked, feigning surprise.

“The storm came up before we could leave here,” Ray explained.  “Old Cyryl was just upset with the people his stepmother sold the hotel to.  He means you no harm, miss…”

“Mia, my name’s Mia.  Do you think my friends left me here?”

“If they did, I can’t imagine how they would have left the top of the hill.  The road is ruined.  The gondola is the only way down, and in this weather, it’s too dangerous to operate,” Ray explained.

“I was changing my clothes in my room.  I started to hear all these doors slamming.  Ted told me to stay in my room.  No one called me to tell me that they were leaving.  I finally found my nerve and went to investigate.  That’s when the lights went out,” she explained.  “I found a supply of lights in the bar, and I’ve been holing up in there during the storm.”

“Come on, why don’t you show us where you last saw your team?”  Carl said.  “Here, try to wipe off some of that mud first.”

Mia walked over to the sink in the kitchenette and moved her shaking hands to her face and splashed water everywhere, sobbing.

“Sit down, honey. Let me,” Carl said, taking a dishtowel.  He washed her face and neck while getting an eyeful of her feminine charms.  He knew Cyryl was watching him, so he controlled himself.

Mia ignored the man’s fumbling.  She did her best to not react to Carl’s little violations.  Instead, she studied the holstered gun which was the twin to the one Ray was carrying.  Cyryl had a rifle.  Part of Mia wanted to see if she could disarm these men herself.  But if she failed, it meant her friends were dead.  So she restrained herself.

Cyryl handed her a sweatshirt.  She pulled it over her soiled clothes.  “Thank you, I was freezing.”

Mia lost track of Ray for a moment.

The lights went on.

“Oh my god, the lights are back on,” she said.  “How about the phones?” she asked.

Carl lifted the receiver and shook his head.  “It’s typical for these parts.  The phones will be out for a few days.”

Mia raised her cell phone and frowned.  “I can’t get any bars.”

Ray reappeared and gently took her phone from her.  “Honey, your phone is out of charge.  Let old Ray help you out.  Do you have your charger?”

“It’s back in my room.”

“Why don’t the two of us go and…”

“Ahem,” Cyryl said.  “We’ll all go.  Now we have lights, we can search the place for the little lady.  Did you know I grew up in that house?”

“I thought it was hotel.”

“No, that’s what the Price Corporation did to my home.  It was a large old house that my family built.  It started out a small house, and they added on when they hit it big.  It used to have entrances to the mine under the wing that houses the bar and the expensive suites.”

“I don’t understand?” Mia said, acting confused.

“My ancestors were miners.”

“Goldminers?” Mia asked.

“No, copper.”

“Like pennies?”

“Yes.”

“Why did they stop?” she asked as Cyryl led her outside.

“The copper played out.  Then they cut the lumber from the hillside and sold that until it was gone.  Finally, my grandpa had the idea of having a ski run here.  The house was expanded again, and I guess it was a hotel for a while.”

Mia stopped, looked up at the hotel, and shrieked.

“Child, what is the matter?” Cyryl asked, annoyed.

Mia pointed to the upper story of the older part of the house.  Silhouetted behind a curtain was a man.  He stood there a minute and then vanished.

Ray pulled his gun out and went running inside.

“Maybe it’s one of your friends,” Carl said.

“Do you think so?”  Mia asked, trembling.  “I’ve got to go and find them.”

“You stay with me,” Cyryl instructed.  “I’ll keep you safe.”

“How could I have been so wrong about you?” Mia lied.  She clung to his arm.

Cyryl was getting tired of being the woman’s protector.  Maybe he ought to let the boys have fun with her.  That should drive her over the edge.  But still, he couldn’t have that, no matter what an annoyance she was becoming.  His mother raised a gentleman, and that was that.

~

Ray took the stairs two at a time.  He walked down the hall, checking the doors of the rooms on the front side of the building.  All of them were locked.  He estimated which room had had the figure in it.  He used the passkey and let himself into the room.  It was a suite that hadn’t been refurbished yet.  The room was clean of dust, but nothing could mask the smell of aging draperies and carpets.  He walked over to the window but didn’t see anything amiss.  He looked down at the trio and shook his head.  The woman began pointing at him, jumping up and down.

He turned around and faced a madman holding an axe!

“You buried us alive!” the madman screamed and swung his axe towards Ray.

Ray shot off a round, but still the man kept coming.

“You’re not real,” he said, backing up.

“You buried us alive!” the ghost repeated.  “All Nowickis must die!”

“I’m not a Nowicki,” he said, twisting to the side, the axe just missing him.  Ray ran out of the room and down the hall.

Murphy could have easily unarmed the man and probably dispatched him too, but there was a plan in place, and he’d promised to do his part.

Ray burst out of the hotel shouting, “The place is haunted!”

Cyryl, amused by the guard’s playacting, said, “That’s why the Corporation invited Mia and her friends here.”

“You’re not listening to me,” Ray said, pulling Mia off of Cyryl’s arm.  “You stand there,” he ordered Mia.

He pulled Cyryl out of, what he hoped was, earshot and told him of the axe-carrying man and his threats.  “I wouldn’t be you for a million dollars,” he said.

“You’re spouting nonsense,” Cyryl insisted.  “Remember the plan.  We drive the woman mad and…”

The front door crashed open.  There, standing, backlit by the lobby lights, were two dust-covered men and a boy.  They had their arms out.  One of them shouted, “Nowicki!”

Carl went for his gun, but two of the three disappeared before he could get a shot off.  He fired repeatedly at the lone ghost.  The ghost just stood there.

“It’s a trick, you moron,” Cyryl said.  “Watch.  I’m going to walk up to this hologram and,” he said, closing the distance between himself and the man raising his axe, “walk…” He stopped talking as he connected with something icy cold.

The ghost growled at him, “Nowicki, now you die!”

Cyryl dropped his rifle and turned tail and ran.

Mia picked up a few rocks with her mind and threw them at the running man.  One hit him with such force that it knocked the legs out from under him.

“What the hell is going on?” she screamed, pulling at her hair, looking wild-eyed at the guards.

Ray screamed as he felt something move up his trouser leg.  “Get it off me!” he said, lowering his gun and firing at the rising in his pant leg.  “Argh!”

“You idiot, you just shot yourself!” Carl said, taking the gun from Ray and tucking it at his back.  “You,” he ordered, “get me something…”  He stopped speaking.  The woman was hanging upside down, her mouth frozen open in a silent scream.  “What the hell is happening?”

Mia choked out a few words, “Demon… ghost… blood…” before she passed out.  Carl and Ray watched as whatever had ahold of her dragged her off into the darkness.

There was a steady clicking and whirling sound around them.  Cyryl raised his head off the ground to see three glowing lights coming at him.  He managed to get to his feet and ran to the gondola landing.  Carl helped Ray up and followed Cyryl into the open doors of the gondola.  The doors shut, and the car started its descent.  They had just passed the large suspension tower when the power cut out.

Mia looked down at the gondola.  “That ought to hold them for a while.”

Mike, who was busy wiping Audrey’s concoction of Vaseline and talcum powder off of his face, observed, “We better warn the rescuers that two of them are armed.”

Audrey ran up to them.  “I got through to the state police.  They are on the way.  Also, I notified the Price Corporation of the problems up here. And Alan of course.  I have a feeling, at least one of us is going to have to answer some hard questions,” she said.

“Not it!” Mia and Mike said in chorus.

Mia pushed at Mike, and he at her.  Soon the two were squaring off in the muddy yard, laughing too hard to actually do much damage.

Murphy moved beside Audrey and said, “You did well.”

“Thank you, Stephen.  It’s my first time being a ghost.  It’s tough work.”

Murphy just whistled.  He walked over and picked Mia off of Mike, whom she was trying to feed a handful of mud to.

~

Washed and dressed, looking every bit the professional, Mia sat down with the state police and told them almost everything.  Ted insisted on staying with her until she was free to travel with him to the hospital.  Mike backed up her story.  The two of them agreed to leave out anything supernatural.  Audrey insisted that the place be condemned until a few licensed engineers located and disabled all the trapdoors.

The three of them packed up all the equipment and gathered all of the team’s belongings.  Jake had migrated to Ted’s phone until Ted could download the ghost back into his home in the PEEPs computer system.  Mia stopped, at one point, and picked up the pieces of the lone PEEPs casualty.  All that was left of one of the Oculars after being shot was its lens and a few twisted wires.  She wrapped it up in a pilfered linen napkin and stuck it in her pocket.

“So this is what cleaning up afterwards is like,” Mia said.

“Yes,” Mike said.  “This is the kind of thing you always seem to get out of,” he teased.

“Dupree, you did a great job.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you?” he asked.

“You kept the team in one piece.  Even down in the cavern, you gave them more than support.  You gave them hope.  You’re quite a hero, Mike.  Be careful or the birdmen will be knocking on your door,” she warned.

“Mia, what’s going on?” he asked seriously.

“I wish I knew.  All I know is that we humans are being kept in the dark.  Something big is going to happen.  I get the idea, it’s all about the struggle of good and evil, and the prize is us.”

“Let’s hope the good guys win.”

“But who are the good guys?” Mia asked.  “I can see it from two perspectives, and neither show the other in a very good light.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” he asked.

“I’m going to take my husband and child someplace, without the distraction of ghosts, birdmen, angels, superhumans, cell phones, and computers, where I hope Ted and I can find our way back to each other.”

“Things still rocky?”

Mia’s eyes teared up.  “We seem alright physically but…” she paused, pulling herself together.  “I’m not giving up.  I had a few moments of bliss.  I want them back.”

“I hope you find your way back, Mia.”

“Thank you, Mike.  If not, we need to find a way to share Brian and PEEPs,” she said.

“So you’re not leaving us?”

“Never!” she said, her face beaming.  “I’m here to stay, Dupree, so you better get used to it.”

He laughed.  “I was counting on it, Cooper.”