“Please don’t tell me you’re going to do some Ganzfeld procedure or anything like that,” she said.
The Ganzfeld procedure was a once popular parapsychology experiment where people with reported psychic abilities were given two white discs to place over their eyes while wearing headphones piping in white noise. Sometimes, strobe lights were added to the mix. It was supposed to heighten a psychic’s abilities. She thought it looked nice and creepy for movies and TV shows, but couldn’t for the life of her understand why it would help someone who was a true psychic. If you had a gift, you had a gift. What was the point of all the external nonsense?
He tossed all of the blankets and pillows into the closet. “Not for me, thank you. I had to go through a few of those while I was at The Rhine. I found it to be distracting. I prefer au naturale, just like my old great grandpa. Now my father, he did some odd things to communicate with the dead like soaking in an ice bath or covering his head with a heavy cloth to block out any ambient noise. I think that’s part of the reason he burned out so early. He tried too hard, though maybe he had to in order to make things work. We don’t talk much about it.”
She was about to ask him more about his father, but something in his tone told her it was best to leave it alone, for now.
“Okay, the room is clean and dark. What’s next?”
“Now we get on the bed and lie down,” he said with a smirk.
“Ha-ha, very funny. Seriously, what are you going to do?”
“I am serious. We both need to lie down on the bed.” His expression had turned somber. “I promise, this is not some ploy to get you in the sheets. I’m going to do something that you don’t read about in any books or see in any movies. It’s something I can do that, so far, is unique to me.”
Jessica had to keep her swirling doubts about the world of psychic phenomena at bay. Plus, curiosity was getting the better of her. Eddie propped his head on two pillows and stretched out. As she settled in next to him, she said, “Just a warning, I am a kickboxer, and not just some chick who goes through the motions to get a bitchin’ workout.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. So it’s in my own personal safety and interest to tell you up front that our hands will need to touch. I’m just going to rest the back of mine against yours, like that. Okay?”
She wanted to tell him it was very far from okay, but she had agreed to go along with him and if a little hand-to-hand contact was necessary, she would let it slide.
“This better be amazing,” she said, staring at the ceiling. A chip of plaster hung down in the far corner.
Eddie exhaled heavily through his mouth. “If it works, it will be. Now, the one thing I do know about this EB is that it’s fixated on Selena. I got the perception that it’s been hanging on the periphery for a while now, biding its time. When we first came here looking for the doppelganger, this other presence was using its power to cloak itself from me, which is why I felt nothing. That was its first mistake, because I knew right away that something was off here. Every house has a kind of soul, especially one with people living in it. This house was so devoid of one that I knew there had to be another force jamming my frequency. The EB was right in doing it if it doesn’t want to be found, because ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the population would have never picked up on that.”
“Show off,” Jessica said low.
“I’ll let that slide. I know what you saw last night was intense, but I can assure you that its ultimate intentions are way more vile than simply scaring her, which is why we have to find it fast.”
“And we do that by taking a nap? I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I kind of like to take action.”
“You’re going to get more action than you realize. I’m going to entice the EB back into the room now, using your latent capacity to attract it so it can pull more power from you.”
Jessica moved to her side to face him. He looked at peace. His eyes were closed without so much as a flutter under his lids. “And how will you entice an EB to come to you when it wants Selena?”
“I’m going to make it think I
am
Selena.”
Chapter Forty
Eddie was pleasantly surprised that Jessica didn’t pepper him with a million questions and doubt. The whole process could take some time and he didn’t want to waste what little they had.
“So, here’s the last important thing,” he said. She had rolled onto her back and moved her hand next to his. “When it gets here, I’m going to funnel as much as I can to you. That’s why it helps to have our hands touch. You won’t need to just take my word for what this EB is all about. We’ll both experience it together. I need you to tell me you’re willing to do it, because it can get pretty intense for me, and I’ve been doing it all my life. Plus, this EB is about as nasty as they come.”
Jessica didn’t hesitate to answer. “Do it. I want to see.”
“All right. Just stay still. You’ll know when it’s here.”
They took deep breaths. He could feel the heat of her body resting just inches from his own. The rain came down in earnest, peppering the window with hundreds of tiny taps while the heavy, comforting scent of the storm carried itself throughout the room, riding on the wave of escalating winds.
Eddie had been around Selena enough now to conjure up a perfect image of her in his mind. He imagined her on the bed, sleeping peacefully, and superimposed it over his and Jessica’s forms, using it to mask their presence. To make it more enticing, her image was dressed in a small, tight night shirt and panties. The covers were pulled back, revealing the olive skin of her legs, hips, exposed belly and arms.
He built a cocoon around them, projecting a softly breathing Serena over it to bring the EB out of hiding.
That was the easy part. What most people didn’t realize was that ghosts didn’t always see the world of the living the same as they had with their eyes when they had been alive. Jessica was right in calling them Energy Beings, because they lived on as pure energy, seeing and reacting to the emanating vitality of the world they had left behind but couldn’t entirely escape from.
Infusing that image of Selena with a replication of her life-force was the harder part, but not impossible. He had quietly absorbed enough of her essence over the past few days to give power to the mirage. It was very much like an impressionist donning makeup and adopting the speech and mannerisms of a celebrity for a play, except everything was done within his strange and unique psyche.
Like all girls her age, Selena was at times invincible and fragile, eager to grasp the infinite possibilities of the world yet afraid of leaving the comfort of her home, her family, behind. She was young and beautiful and possessed a charisma that drew people to her. It was that same charisma that had attracted the EB, igniting its twisted fascination.
The sounds and smells of the storm faded into the ether as Eddie concentrated. He didn’t feel the sweat as it poured from his scalp and down his neck. The light touch of Jessica’s hand was his only tether to his true self.
He
was
Selena now.
There was one more thing to add.
Fear.
He made the image of her sleep fitful, imbuing the atmosphere of the room with a sense of hopelessness. The EB liked her scared. It fed off her terror. He knew it had cultivated its taste for trembling awe during the course of its life. It had done bad things and was held prisoner to its vices. Death hadn’t stopped it at all. It simply gave it free reign to find more victims without the threat of being seen.
When he had made brief contact earlier, he had felt its desire to be in the shadows. To wait and watch and plot. To build excitement until it literally exploded.
He channeled Selena’s fear and heard Jessica gasp. Her fingers twitched, lacing within his own.
Eddie was afraid. There was no way to separate his own internal doppelganger of Selena from his true self. The transformation had to be total in order to work. His heartbeat galloped and his mouth became dry as if he had taken a mouthful of sand.
The skin on his arms burned with the start of pins and needles and his hairs rose as if pointing to the source of the impending doom that had set off his body’s claxons.
It was close. Not in the room just yet, but cautiously approaching like a predatory animal. He increased the pressure on Jessica’s hand, could feel it grow cold as the blood retreated to her core.
His eyes were closed, but he could see the EB melt into the room with perfect clarity, its hunger savage and thick, infusing the atmosphere with its unholy animus.
Keep coming, you son of a bitch,
Eddie thought within the small part of himself that he kept locked from the invading beast.
The EB hovered over them, watching, debating what to do first. It absorbed the fear Eddie generated like a vampire, sating its need.
It was new to the spirit world, having crossed over very recently, still unsure of its powers, shocked that it could interact with the object of its obsession with such ease. Eddie couldn’t get a sense of what it had looked like in life. This spirit wanted no connection with its former self. All it wanted to retain was its demented lust.
The EB didn’t know how it had transformed from watcher to participant, but it was delighted with its newfound ability. It intended to use it to finish what had started…when? Eddie struggled to grasp on to its history without breaking the trap he had set. There was something more here. This was far bigger than either of them thought.
The EB growled, a soft ululation of almost demonic pleasure. Eddie prayed that Jessica wouldn’t react and break the spell.
It came closer, hovering just centimeters above their faces, exploring the depths of what it thought was a discomfited Selena.
The spirit had no form, no phantom mask that would betray its characteristics when it was alive. It had lost its humanity far before the last beat of its heart, so long ago that it could no longer resemble what it once was—a living being.
An icy, ethereal appendage extended outward, dragging across Eddie’s neck, lingering around Jessica’s mouth.
Eddie felt it pull back in confusion. His impression of Selena faltered for just a split second, but it was enough.
An angry moan reverberated within the room. It dove into them with terrific intensity.
Oh my God, make it stop.
Eddie tried to shut his totemic barn doors but it was no use. The flood of emotions and images was too strong to resist.
Dark, horrid pictures flashed through his brain. Twisted fantasies with Selena as the star attraction, the center of its obsession. Her naked flesh tantalized. Her moans turned into screams, terror scratching her throat raw.
Eddie felt the EB’s desire as his own. Shame flushed through him as his cock grew hard. There was no way to control it. He wanted to look away, but visions of a breathless, wanton, tortured Selena were everywhere.
You sick fuck!
Eddie spat at the terrible darkness that had hijacked his soul.
He struggled to shield Jessica from the EB’s baser aspects. She didn’t need to see this, to feel this…filth. No one did.
Using every ounce of strength he had, he conjured a gale force wind, pushing the EB out beyond the door of his subconscious. It tumbled back, pealing with wicked laughter.
He slammed the doors shut.
A burst of energy exploded in the room.
Eddie was catapulted off the bed, smashing into the wall, narrowly missing the window.
Jessica was raised up onto her feet as if she had been attached to a well-oiled pulley. Her eyes were wide and wild and she fought for control of her arms.
“That’s right, you bastard, we tricked you! Now you’re toast!” she bellowed.
Her bravado angered the EB. It lifted her higher, until her toes dangled above the bed. Eddie could see the fabric of her shirt bunch up as invisible hands pushed her up higher and higher until her head hit the ceiling. Jessica continued to fight.
“Show yourself, you coward!”
Eddie stared at her with astonishment. She had no fear of death, was almost reckless in her abandonment of self-preservation. She knew that death wasn’t the end.
But she had no idea what she was up against. Death was only the beginning.
He rose to his feet on legs that felt as if he had just come home from a month’s tour at sea. Between the pounding his back had taken when he hit the wall and the strength he had used up to get the EB here, then out of his head, he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to remain erect.