Coldhearted (9781311888433) (29 page)

“
Yeah,” she replied,
uncertain as to where this conversation was going.

“
Well, I realized I was
wrong. There’s nothing I can do, nothing spectacular to receive
your gratitude. I can’t do much in this world, Edie. I can’t even
protect you from that ghost.” He sounded sad, beaten down,
defeated. “I don’t have a lot of money. I’m not that smart.
I—”

“
No, Mason,” she cut him
off. “Don’t talk like that.” She was on the verge of
tears.

Mason sighed into the phone. “Edie, it’s me
who should be thanking you.”

“
For what, Mason?” she
asked.

“
For being in my life,” he
replied. “Before, I never thought I deserved to be happy, but then
I met you, and with you by my side, I feel like my life finally has
some meaning, you know? Like throughout all the failures I’ve gone
through, the disappointments, the ‘Who Am I?’ phase that perhaps
God was testing me, seeing how much I could endure, and then when I
passed, I was rewarded—with you.”

Edie almost, almost broke down, and admitted
that she wasn’t really sick, and that she was lying to him, so she
could sneak away to the sanatorium.

She wiped the tears away that’d fallen during
his admission. “I feel the same way,” she said, now telling the
truth. “Even though I’m going through rough times, dark times, I
wouldn’t be as strong as I am now if it hadn’t been for you, Mason,
by my side.”

“
Edie, I wish I could be
there with you. I don’t care if I get sick too.”

“
No, no, Mason. I need you
well in case I need help like getting medicine, or my school
assignments if I’m out for a few days. I’m sure it’s one of those
24 hour bugs or something. I think I’ll be better by tomorrow. If I
am, we’ll do something, okay?”

“
Uh, yeah, sure,” he said.
“I go to church in the morning, but we could do something after.
Call me okay? Anytime,” he urged.

“
I will.” She’d been staring
out her window and now saw Jules’s Tahoe arrive, waiting outside
the locked gates. “I’d better go now,” she told Mason. “I need to
lie down, rest.”

“
You do that
and…Edie?”

“
Yeah?”

“
I…I-I hope to see you
tomorrow.”

She was sure that those weren’t the words
that he’d wanted to say, but she didn’t pressure him. He wasn’t
ready. And she wasn’t ready to hear them. Besides she had to be
focused for the ghost hunt tonight.

“
I hope to see you tomorrow
too,” she returned.

They said their goodbyes and Edie ended the
call. She exhaled, loudly, and was glad the conversation was over,
but worried as to the consequences. Jules honked her horn, waiting.
Edie raced to the front door and entered the code to let her in.
Finally, she went to her uncle’s study and knocked on his door. He
opened it, holding a cigarette between his lips.

She said, “If anyone calls or comes by, tell
them I’m sick with the flu.”

He looked her up and down, and then removed
his cigarette. “Where’re you going?”

“
Out with friends,” she
replied, and then she lied, saying, “School project.”

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “You’re
not sneaking off to meet that teacher, are you? Or your boyfriend?”
he added as an afterthought.

Edie grimaced. “No!” She bit her lip, and
then truthfully said, “I’m going into an abandoned mental asylum to
try to talk to ghosts.”

Uncle Landon placed his cigarette back
between his lips, and in a muffled voice, said, “Make him wear a
condom.”

Edie grimaced again. “Goodness gracious,
uncle! Seriously! I’m going to the old Grimsby Sanatorium.” She
gestured vaguely. “My friend’s car is outside. They’re waiting.
Reenter the code after I’ve left.”

He removed his cigarette again, and with the
same hand, raked his fingers through his messy, black hair. She was
surprised when he didn’t catch on fire.

He sighed. “I’m not your dad, so go, but be
careful, whatever you’re doing tonight.”

“
I’m going ghost-hunting,
that’s all.”

“
Ghosts aren’t real,” he
said with conviction.

She didn’t want to argue and just shrugged.
“We’ll see.” Then she gave him an inquisitive stare. “For a horror
writer, you don’t believe in ghosts?”

“
If they did exist, I
would’ve seen your mother by now. And my brother,” he added as an
afterthought.

“
But-but aren’t they in
Heaven?”

Uncle Landon took a drag, and then exhaled.
“Don’t you remember what it says in Scripture? No one goes to
Heaven after death. They stay buried in the ground, or their ashes
in a jar, or in the ocean, or something, until the Resurrection.
You know? When we’re judged?”

Edie refused to believe that her parents were
not in Heaven, but she didn’t want to have a theological debate
right now, either. Jules honked the horn again.

“
I have to go,” she told her
uncle. “I’ll be back, well…I don’t know when, but if everything
works out, hopefully in a few hours.”

“
I may not be your dad but I
still care. If you’re not home”—he looked at the time on his
wristwatch—“by midnight, I’m calling you up. And if you don’t
answer, I’m calling the cops. Got it?” he threatened
gently.

She nodded. “Got it. Thanks, uncle.”

“
Be careful,” he said. “I
may be a hermit, but family still matters to me, and you’re the
only family I have left.”

She gave him a quick hug, just in case she
didn’t make it back. He hugged her back and followed her to the
front door, where they said their goodbyes, and then she left the
house. It was a short walk toward Jules’s Tahoe, and she was
directed to sit in the front seat.

Quinn had been regulated to the backseat. He
gestured at the maze, and then the chapel. “What’s that all
about?”

Edie waved a not-now hand at him, and then
looked over at Jules, who was readjusting her glasses to see Edie’s
house better.

“
Awesome,” Jules
said.

Edie didn’t confirm or deny. “I have until
midnight,” she informed instead. “My uncle’s concerned about me
going, although he’s not entirely convinced I’ll be hunting ghosts.
He thinks I’m going to hook up with a guy.” She purposely left out
Russell’s name, and she didn’t want to mention Mason, getting all
teary-eyed, again.

Quinn grinned. “I’m a guy.”

“
Not you,” Edie
clarified.

Quinn slapped a hand over his heart. “Ah, I’m
wounded,” he declared over-dramatically.

“
Get serious, Quinn,” Jules
said. She backed out of the driveway, and then turned out onto the
road. “Or I’ll kick you out,” she threatened.

Quinn settled against his seat. “You can’t do
that, Julie-bean. You need me.”

Jules sighed. “Unfortunately, yes.”

After they’d driven away from Edie’s house,
she turned around in her seat, and asked Quinn, “What’s so special
about you?”

He grinned. “Lots of things.”

“
Pervert,” Jules
said.

“
Seriously,” Edie said to
Quinn.

“
Well, apparently, ever
since I’ve been possessed, I’m like a magnet for spirits. I get the
best evidence.” He leaned forward. “So get ready southern belle,
’cause we about to square dance,” he sang in a horrible, southern
accent. “With the dead,” he added in his normal tone, as if she
were in need of clarification.

Edie ignored informing him that no one square
danced anymore.

Instead she asked, “What was it like being
possessed by a ghost? Why’d he do it? And how’d you get him to
leave?”

“
I remember snippets,” Quinn
said, “but I could tell that the ghost wasn’t trying to hurt me. He
just wanted to communicate.”

“
What’d he say?”

“
He said ‘hello,’ and then
something about knowing my grandmother, which was weird. I mean, he
knew details about her life that I didn’t even know. Later, when I
asked her about it, she just went all pale, and told me to stay
away from the graveyard. We’d been investigating the graveyard,” he
added, clarifying. “It was my first ghost hunt, and well, I didn’t
expect anything to happen. Man, was I wrong. The others expected
activity but not like that.”

“
And how’d you get him to
leave?” she asked, fascinated.

“
I didn’t,” Quinn said. “He
left on his own. I think he got spooked”—he smiled crookedly—“if
that’s ironic.” His smile faded. “I was with Jules and the others,”
he continued. “They were crowding all around me, excited, and I
think he didn’t like all the attention, so he just left. I haven’t
heard from him since.”

“
Have you gone back to the
graveyard?”

“
Yeah, even though my
grandmother would be furious.” He shrugged, clueless as to why
she’d acted that way. “I’ve never been possessed since,” he said
lastly, before falling into meditative silence.

Edie was starting to put the pieces together.
Quinn had been possessed by a ghost who knew his grandmother. So
this meant that Tristan was able to possess Russell because he had
some link to Russell that he didn’t share with anyone else in
Grimsby.

But what was it? And could the link be easily
broken?

Chapter 20

Grimsby Sanatorium was creepy, but Edie had
been expecting this.

It looked more like a maximum security prison
than a residence for the mentally ill. The moonlight exposed its
ugly features. It was gray-bricked, with shattered-out, iron-barred
windows, and dead vines snaking up the sides. In the front was a
tiered fountain without running water. Edie assumed that when the
place had been in operation it’d given the sanatorium an appearance
of hospitality.

The building seemed to easily cover a
football field with walkways between wards, and the central point
of entry was at least five stories with a pyramid roof. The front
door was wooden and looked sturdy with a KEEP OUT sign hanging
lopsided by one nail.

She was standing in front of it while waiting
for Jules and Quinn. They were gathering their equipment from the
Tahoe that was parked next to a stylish black Land Rover.

The door to the sanatorium creaked open and a
tall guy came out. He was in his early twenties with short-cropped,
raven black hair.

“
Edie, right?” he said,
smiling.

“
Yes,” she
acknowledged.

They shook hands. Edie noticed that his were
warm with a secure grip.

“
I’m Gunnar, nice to meet
you.”

“
Nice to meet you too,” she
agreed.

“
First ghost hunt?” he
asked.

She nodded.

“
Jules said you have a ghost
attached to you?”

“
His name is Tristan
Lockhart. He’s more of a poltergeist, really.”

Someone stepped out of the shadows, behind
Gunnar. He was average height with curly blond hair. Both of his
hands were occupied; his left was holding a small device, while his
right was holding a digital camera. He put both in his left hand to
shake Edie’s with his right.

“
I’m Rory. You must be
Edie.”

“
Nice to meet you,” she
said. “What’s that?” she asked next, pointing to the smaller device
that he was holding.

He held it up for her but she still couldn’t
identify it. “It’s a digital recorder for EVPs.”

Edie furrowed her brow. “EVPs?” she repeated,
confused.

“
Electronic Voice
Phenomena,” a female voice translated, and then thankfully
clarified, “Basically, ghost talk.”

A tall girl came out of the shadows next,
followed by another tall girl, who looked exactly like her. The
twins, Edie remembered.

Rory stepped aside to let them pass. “Edie,
this is Bree and Amee.” he introduced, pointing out Bree as the
brunette and Amee as the blonde.

They seemed nice, smiling.

“
Glad you could make it,”
Bree said, holding a digital recorder too.

Amee’s hands were stuffed into her coat
pockets, but it seemed more out of habit than keeping warm. “We
heard about your attachment,” she said. “You could be a conduit
like Quinn.”

“
Did you just call me a
condiment?” Quinn asked.

He was grinning as he came to stand by Edie’s
side. He had a duffel bag loaded down with the strap hoisted over
his shoulder.

Amee sighed.

Bree said, “Good ol’ Quinn. He’s like that
one funny guy in a horror movie.”

“
Whoa,” Quinn said, not
smiling anymore. “Doesn’t the funny guy always die?”

“
No,” Jules refuted, coming
up beside Edie. She had a heavy duffel bag too, holding the straps
with one hand. “You’re thinking of Star Trek when a guy with a red
shirt goes with the Away Team down to an alien planet.”

They all looked at Quinn’s shirt. It was
red.

Quinn cursed. “Someone change with me.”

“
Don’t be ridiculous,”
Gunnar said.

“
Yeah, let’s get this
investigation going,” Rory said. He looked at Edie and smiled. “I’m
excited to see what kind of activity we get with you
here.”

“
Me too,” Jules agreed.
“It’s going to be awesome.”

Gunnar led the way inside. Rory let the girls
enter first, and then he followed. They were so excited about
investigating a creepy sanatorium that they didn’t even realize
that Edie and Quinn were still standing outside. She was hesitating
because she was nervous, but she didn’t know why Quinn was stalling
too.