What Lies Beneath (11 page)

There was a large tall table in the middle of the room with newspaper clippings, a small book, and a bottle of some gray powder sitting on top. The room looked completely different from the rest of the house, as if it didn’t belong somehow.

“This room is invisible unless I want to show it to someone. That boy, the one you spoke of, killed me. Before he did, he told me everything as if I cared to know his life story. The thing is dear girl, the reason you can see me is because you had a near death experience that night and he doesn’t know you have the sight. You’ve been seeing sweet Caroline and Hannah. I sent them to you to see if you could see them. I asked them not to tell you anything until I came upon more information, but your boyfriend found out and came after me. On this table is most of what I came to find. There are newspaper clippings of the deaths of girls from the early nineteenth century to 1963.
He murdered all of them
.”

“How? I don’t understand what is going on,” I said, leaning against the wall for support. How was Dylan able to kill all of these girls?

“Do you believe in the supernatural?” Pearl asked.

“I’m standing here talking to a ghost, I’m pretty sure
this
is supernatural.”

“I’m talking about other things. What you need to do is perform a spell to destroy his spirit for good. He’s not fully gone, Blair. He’s come back for you and will not leave until you go along with him. Caroline saw you go into that room in his house. That was a hoodoo room. I should have known then when she told me of it, but I wasn’t thinking right. Is there a way you can make him come to you?” The letter popped into my head and I nodded.

“He wants me to meet him at the Bernard cabin on Friday.”

“Then
today
, you must go there and set up the spell. It’s a very old vanquishing spell used by hoodoo priests. I’ve had it for many, many years. He’s a different type of spirit, he cannot simply die. He must be
destroyed
. It’s a very simple spell and anyone even a mere human with no power can do this. Take the bottle and the chalk on the table.” I looked over at the table and eyed the bottle and chalk.

“Then what?” I asked.

“Draw a large circle in the middle of the room and in front of that circle you must write this incantation on the ground:
Unda Mortae Caru
. It’s written on that piece of paper I wrapped the chalk with. Take that with you as well. After you’ve drawn the circle and have written the incantation you must sprinkle the crow eye that is in that bottle inside the circle to keep him from leaving it.”

“The last thing is the most important. The night that you meet him, after he’s stepped into the circle and cannot leave it, you must use your own blood to draw a line with three slashes through it below the incantation. After you’ve done these things his spirit will slowly turn to dust. It might work and it might not. I have no idea how strong he is.”

“But that is it? He’ll be gone forever?”

“Yes, Blair.
Forever.
”

12

             
The rain was slamming hard against my back as I made my way through the trees of the forest. I had slipped out through the back with everything in my arms. It was dark by the time I made it to the love rock, the wind was heavy and cold and the rain was severely intense. I would either have a cold or pneumonia by morning. But I had to do this now.

I hurried around the lake, nearly spraining my ankle on large rocks. I had to get to the cabin before I collapsed of exhaustion. I could hear Tate calling my name from Pearl’s but I didn’t want him to find me. I’d be able to make it home on my own and actually find out just how much he knew.

              My legs felt like weights as I ascended up the driveway of the cabin, the dark structure looming over me. The house looked completely abandoned, broken windows, the front door missing, and the roof nearly ready to collapse.

This was a dangerous place to be by yourself but it was either get this over with, or give myself up to Dylan. The whole way to the cabin, everything invaded my mind. Dylan wasn’t a regular ghost, he had Max held captive, and he was going to kill me. I just hoped that this spell worked and that everything would be okay in the end.

              I turned back to see if anyone was following me before I ran up the porch steps and went inside the house. The rain sounded distant as I made my way through the vacant living room and up the deadly staircase. I slowly went up the steps, dodging the broken ones as best as I could in the dark.

I hurried into a room that had already been set with a bunch of white candles and a red blanket on the ground. Some teenagers must have used this room. Names of random people had been written on the walls and the two windows of the room had been shattered to pieces.

I decided that I could use the blanket so I kicked it away and sat the bottle, chalk, and soaked piece of paper on the ground beside me. I was soaked to the bone and my teeth were chattering as I grabbed the chalk and drew a giant circle on the ground.

I crawled out of the circle and wrote the incantation in front of the circle as well as I could with trembling hands. I shoved the piece of wet paper into my jacket pocket and quickly uncapped the bottle of crushed crow eye.

I shook the bottle, sprinkling what looked like ashes in the middle of the circle. Content with what how it all looked I threw the blanket over the circle, concealing it. If Dylan saw it he’d disfigure it and I’d definitely be screwed.

I got up from the ground and dusted my knees off, ready to leave and get back home. I knew now that my parents had found out I was gone and probably had every officer in Hanson searching for me.

I’d really be stuck at home now, and I would have to sneak out again on Friday to find out if this spell really worked. As I turned to the bedroom door, the room erupted in light. It blinded me for a moment and when my vision was finally stable, I saw that all of the candles in the room were lit.

“You’re a little too early, Blair.” Dylan’s voice seared through my ears. My heart shot into my throat and my eyes were beginning to water.
He was here
.

I took a quick glance at the ground and made sure that the circle and incantation were completely covered by the blanket. The bottle was still there but the ground was so dark you could barely make it out. I inhaled deeply and whirled around to meet Dylan. But instead, I was met with another familiar face.

Tate.

13

“
Tate?
” I breathed.

“Not really. See, Tate was very interested in anything paranormal and when he came here to investigate I killed him and took over his body. He deserved it, Blair. Did you know that he killed his parents to complete a demonic ritual? This boy had more skeletons in his closet than Jeffery fucking Dahmer.” Tate’s eyes, no wonder I felt so reminded of Dylan when I looked into them.

“All along it was
you
.”

“Yes and no. His soul is still in here and he’s trying to become dominant but he can’t kick me out, Blair. I’m too strong for that.” He walked into the room and stopped a few feet from the circle. “I suppose now we don’t have to wait until Friday. We can do it now.”

“Do what?” I growled.

“You don’t remember, do you?” he smiled.

“You wanted me to kill myself to be with you, but why?”

              “I’ve lived many lives, Blair. Dylan’s body was my recent adventure. I killed him on a school field trip, and then I met you at the barber shop. I was taken with you. I knew when I met you that we’d be together and soon after, we were. I thought you loved me, Blair Bear.
But you were just like all the other girls
.”

              “Like Caroline and Hannah?” his head twitched and his eyes grew wide.

              “How do you know of them?” he snapped.

              “They have been talking to me, Dylan. They told me how you killed them and made it look like suicide and how you did it to other girls.”

              “How can you…
damn it
. You have the sight, don’t you?” he took a few steps toward me and stopped directly in the center of the circle.

              “Yes,” I said, searching the room with my eyes for something to prick my finger with. I saw the broken glass surrounding a window and knew that I had to use it. I had to do this now.

“Back in the Louisiana I was in love with hoodoo. Many, many years ago I died but the love of my life brought me back as a spirit able to take human bodies and
live
in them, but only for a certain amount of time. She ended up being shot for helping a woman find out if her husband was being unfaithful. The husband came home drunk and killed both of them, his wife and my love, Edna. See, I didn’t know the spell she used on me and once the full moon came around, it was too late. She was a priestess, and I didn’t know much then.”

“I lost my heart and then I found the spell years later and fell in love with a girl named Annabel. All she had to do to be with me forever was to
willingly
die and then her spirit could travel with me. None of the girls I loved after Edna wanted to join me. So I had to take care of them. You, on the other hand, escaped my grasp. But now you will go with me, Blair.”

              “I’ll go with you. Just let Max go,” I said, figuring out a way to get to the window before he caught on. Dylan pointed behind me and I turned to see a closed closet. My heart began racing in my chest. Please don’t let him be dead, I said to myself as I walked over to the closet.

I grabbed the knob and pulled the door open, my eyes closed tightly. I heard a muffled voice and when I opened my eyes I saw Max, bound with rope and duck tape wrapped around his mouth. He looked brutally beaten and his left eye was blackened. He began crying when he saw me and my heart hurt.

“
What did you do to him?
”

              “It had taken me a while to get him to tell me you both had gone to Pearl’s for help. That ragged, old bitch. I took care of her though that night at the carnival.
Nothing can stop us now.
”

              “The thing is, I’m not going anywhere with you, Dylan. I talked to Pearl. I have the sight remember?” I turned and smiled at him.

              “You what?” Dylan leapt forward but was slammed back onto the ground with enough force that it rocked the house. He slowly got up from the floor and grabbed his head, screaming into the floorboards. I hurried past him to the window, grabbed a shard of glass, and went back to the middle of the room. I hoped to god that this spell worked.

              “I’m not going anywhere. But you are. You are finally going to rest in peace, with Edna where you
belong
.” I made a grab for the blanket and yanked it out from under him. He stood up and looked down at the circle and snarled at me like a beast.

              “Stupid girl. You know nothing of hoodoo,” he spat. But I could tell he was scared. Something in him doubted his own beliefs.

              “I may not know everything, but I know what I am doing right now. You can’t leave that circle, Dylan. I have control now.”

              “I love you, Blair. Please don’t do this to me.”

              “You don’t deserve to live,” Caroline’s voice erupted in the room. The candles rapidly went out, leaving the room pitch black. Thunder reverberated through the sky and the candles came back to life, but they weren’t alone.