Echoes of the Dead (26 page)

Johnny rose and stretched. His usual firm expression was drawn and soft. He moved to the window. “What about the others, though? The camera guys you sent out into the woods. What about them?”

“They are frozen by now,” Daniel said. “They are frozen and dead.”

“They might have—”

“Don’t kid yourself, Wormsley.  They never made it back to the house in this mess.  It’s well below freezing out there and it’s been blowing all night. Those guys are people-sicles. People-sicles killed by Benjamin Wormsley.”

“We have to look for Erin,” Kelsey said. “We can’t do anything outside. We should focus on her.”

Ben hesitated, but nodded.

Johnny kneaded his face. “Sure. Whatever you say. But I
did
look for her. We all looked for Howard—this whole thing stinks.” His bloodshot eyes fell on Ben. “It’s rotten.”

Kelsey laid both hands in front of her on the table. “We start on the third floor and we pry back the walls until we find her. A house doesn’t—”

The noise startled her, three thumps followed by a crash.

“The living room,” Johnny said. “Someone fell… Sarah was all alone.” He dashed under the archway, and the others followed.

Sarah was sitting upright, her back to the others.

“What happened?” Ben asked.

“Erin.” Sarah turned her head. “It’s Erin.”

On the hardwood floor near the foyer, a blonde woman lay face down. The tips of her fingers were marred and near-black. Kelsey caught her stomach with one hand. Blood. Erin’s fingers were smeared with blood.

“Fuck,” Johnny said, rushing to the fallen woman. “What happened?”

Erin pushed from the floor, rolling to one side. Her eyes were open, pupils wide and lost. Her fine, platinum hair matted to her forehead with another dark smudge. She opened her mouth. Her lips shook; she was trying to speak.

“Help me get her to the couch,” Johnny said.

Ben and Daniel joined him, and together they lifted Erin. She blinked. Closer now, Kelsey understood the blood on Erin’s fingertips—a few of her nails were missing, and where present, they were broken in jagged lines. The men laid her on the couch across from Sarah, propping her head on the armrest.

“D-dead…” Erin’s voice trembled.

Kelsey dropped next to Sarah. She put her arm around Sarah’s shoulders and pulled her close, wanting the touch of another human, someone real and tangible and alive. A strange, ethereal otherness floated with the word “dead” from Erin’s mouth. Her eyes watered. A ragged cut was just visible under her hairline with a crust of dried blood at the edge.

Johnny crouched at her side. “Who Erin?”

Her head shook. “Old dead… Been there a long time.”

A bolt of ice shot into Kelsey’s stomach. “It’s Jared.”

Johnny scowled. “Impossible.”

“She found Jared.” Kelsey shook her head. “I know it sounds impossible. I know it shouldn’t be possible. But she found Jared’s body.”

A sickly pallor fell over Johnny’s sharp features, softening them. “Jared…”

“Where Erin?” Ben asked. “Where did you find the body?”

“T-third floor. In the wall. I was in the wall.” Her eyes rolled back into her head; her shoulders shook with convulsions. “
I was in the wall
.”

Kelsey pulled her arm away from Sarah and leaned forward. “How did you get in the wall, sweetie?” She patted Erin’s knee.

Erin’s black pupils fell on Kelsey and then pointed to her own fingers. “Just was. One minute, I was l-looking in a room… then the wall. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. Too much dust and
stench
.  I groped in the dark, pressed in from both sides. I f-felt it. Soft and dry and brittle. I touched his—its—face…” Her voice broke off in sobs.

Johnny leaned away from Erin. “Jesus.”

Ben shook his head. “Do you think she found a door? Maybe a trick panel?”

Erin glared at him, her eyes flashing like black fire. “I was in the fucking wall, you prick. I didn’t open any fucking doors.” She lifted her torn fingers. “I had to claw my way out. Buried alive with that—thing.”

Johnny, Ben and Daniel had been gone less than five minutes before Erin collapsed to sleep. Sarah and Kelsey sat on the opposite couch, watching the younger woman’s labored breath. Kelsey had wiped Erin’s hands and face with a damp cloth. She’d scrubbed away as much blood as possible without causing Erin any pain. The poor thing’s eyes had been lost and wandering the room before she slipped away.

“Do you think it was Jared?” Sarah asked. Her voice sounded soft and bruised. She hadn’t moved from the couch since the night before. “Do you think… I mean, is that even possible?”

Kelsey shook her head. “I don’t know. Last night I thought—I suppose it was a dream, but—”

“Jared?”

Kelsey nodded. “And my father. After I left you, I went upstairs. Something pulled me toward the bathroom on the second floor. I went through the door, and the house sort of disappeared.”

Sarah closed her eyes.

“I know it sounds nuts. But I was in the cave again, like when I was a kid. I felt the stone, Sarah.” She held out her hands. “I rubbed the back of my knuckles on the stone.”

“A dream.”

“No. I spoke with Jared this time. I’ve never spoken with him in a dream before. I’ve never been able to communicate. He told me Erin was still in the house.”

Sarah coughed.

“Sorry. I know it’s impossible to believe. I can’t wrap my head around it, either.”

Kelsey shifted on the couch. Her eyes fell to the bloodied rag in her hand. Erin’s blood. She glanced at Sarah’s face and found her friend’s eyes still closed. Was there something she should say? Was there anything she
could
say? Three days in the house and the whole world started to come apart, piece by piece, and make a puzzle they would never be able to solve.

Sarah sighed and slumped against the arm rest. “So tired.”

“Sleep then.” Kelsey leaned against the opposite rest. “We should all get some sleep.”

Kelsey closed her eyes, but she wouldn’t sleep. The cold, for one, worked against her. Her nose chilled and fingers began to numb. She dropped the damp rag on the carpet and examined her red fingers. How cold was it in the house? How cold would it get before they’d be found or someone fixed the generator? Damn them! Somebody needed to do something or the whole lot of them would freeze.

She rose from the couch and rubbed her hands together. She tilted her head, listening for a sound from the men upstairs. Nothing. A few steps and she stood in the hallway. She held her breath and pushed the door open to the maid’s quarters. A metal rack and several studio monitors with tape players had been installed against one wall. Several spools of orange extension cord lay on the floor as well as one big shoulder mounted camera. Three silver equipment cases were shoved in one corner. On a folding plastic table near the monitor rack, Kelsey found a cup of coffee, half full and nearly frozen. They were all nearly frozen. So much for Ben’s Hollywood dreams.

She picked up a hand radio and worked the switch. Static.

A noise came from the living room, and Kelsey’s heart jumped. She groped through the darkened hallway.

Ben paced the floor near the foyer. Daniel had collapsed in a chair. Johnny stood at the window, staring into the white wasteland.

“There’s a body. She wasn’t lying about that,” Johnny said. “It’s been up there for a number of years, too.”

“Is it Jared?” Kelsey asked. “Can you t-tell?”

Ben shook his head. “It’s pretty messed up. Rats I guess. Rats and age and maggots and—”

“Stop,” Kelsey said. She pressed one hand against her stomach. “I could do without the gory details.”

Ben nodded.

“He—it didn’t have a jacket on… Just what looked like it might have been a grey sweatshirt and jeans. Can you remember what Jared was wearing, Kelsey? When we lost him, what was he wearing?”

He was cold that day—no jacket. A grey sweatshirt and blue jeans. Kelsey pressed the heels of each hand over her eyes. Five years melted away until she found another snowy day, another cold dark snowy day in the house. What was he wearing? No jacket. A grey sweatshirt and blue jeans.

“Yes,” she said. “I think that’s him… But there’s no way of know, for sure, is there?”

Johnny hung his head. “No.  Not in his state. Like Ben said, rats and—”

“Enough.” Ben slammed his fist against the wall. “Enough.”

“How could it happen?” Daniel asked. As he spoke, he edged forward on his chair. “How could this friend of yours be in the wall of the house?”

“Lath and plaster up there. Poor Erin forced her way out—she must have, just like she said.” Johnny rubbed his hand over the wall next to the window. “The plaster was broken and a few boards pushed out from the inside. No sign of how she got in there. No doors or hallways or secret dumbwaiters…”

“Jared,” Kelsey said. The mystery was solved.

Daniel stood and began wringing his hands. “What now? What do we do now?”

Kelsey touched her nose. It was cold and rubbery. “We can’t stay here indefinitely. Without any heat or sign or rescue, we’ll freeze.”

“Jesus… Just like Wayne and Nick. They couldn’t have made it all night, could they?” Ben crossed to the window and peered outside. “The wind looks brutal, blowing snow all over the place. I can’t tell if it’s still coming down.”

Johnny nodded. “We’ll need to try and get the generator working. We can fire up one of those space heaters at least.”

“What if you get lost out there?” Ben asked. “What if the house doesn’t let you find it again—like what happened to the crew?”

“I’m not sure I believe the house hid itself. That’s fucking crazy.” Johnny shook his head. “But where’s the generator?”

“In the shed out back. It was going to be too noisy for the microphones. Too much interference.” Ben rubbed his neck.

“We could use the extension cords in the spare room—your crew’s cords, Ben. We could make a tether for Johnny and keep him tied to the house.” Kelsey moved to the hallway door. “There’s at least a hundred yards of line. That way he’d be attached to the house in case—”

“I don’t believe the house disappeared for those guys.” Johnny shook his head.

“What happened to Erin, then?” Kelsey asked, glaring at Ben. “What about Jared.”

Johnny’s lips stretched in a firm line across his face.

“You’ll use the tether?” Kelsey asked.

Johnny nodded.

“What if you cannot start the generator?” Daniel asked. “What happens to us?”

Ben dragged a finger across the cold window pane. “We make a big fire to keep us warm and hope somebody sees the smoke. Either that or wait for them to dig us out.” A small, nervous laugh slipped from his mouth. “I’m kidding, of course.”

Johnny, wrapped in his heavy coat and tied at the waist with orange extension cord, opened the back door leading from the kitchen to the snowy yard. He gripped the cord with one gloved hand and gave it a slight tug.

“I feel like an astronaut going for a space walk” he joked. “Is it tied off?”

Kelsey yanked the extension cord’s opposite end, the end knotted to a cabinet post inside the house. “Best knot I could tie. I was a girl scout, you know.”

“And I thought you just sold cookies.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Kelsey frowned. “And hurry, okay? It’s cold in here. I’ll keep an eye on this end just in case.”

“You sure you can get the generator going?” Ben asked.

Johnny flipped his lined hood over his head. “Two years in the motor pool. If anyone is going to make this thing work, it’s me.”

He slipped through the door and pushed it mostly shut, leaving only enough space for the end of his tether. Kelsey watched from the kitchen window. Johnny’s dark form faded from black to grey to a just visible smudge in the blowing snow. The shed was a ghost. A good amount of slack remained. She leaned back from the counter.

“I think he’s going to make it with plenty of cord to spare.”

No one answered. Kelsey spun around. The kitchen was empty—moments before Ben and Daniel had both been with her.

“Ben?”

No answer.

Kelsey glanced to the window. Johnny was gone. She traced the orange line until it vanished a few feet from the house. The knot held firm. Extra cord lay looped on the floor.

“Ben? Daniel?” She called again.

Nothing.

The cord gave a slight tug.

A sharp, quick
bang
echoed through the house. A gunshot, followed by a second. Kelsey choked on her heart. Her eyes flicked to the window. Nothing. The knot held. She ran from the kitchen, through the unused sitting room, and into the foyer.

Sarah sat up. “Kelsey—shit. I heard a gun. Was that a gun?”

Kelsey looked up the stairs. Darkness.