Dead Suite (11 page)

Owen strode out of the kitchen, down the hall, and out the front door before anyone
could think of a thing to stop him.

“For some people, the paranormal world is just too much for the boundaries of their
minds to absorb,” Rosemary said, not looking up from her cell phone.

“I don’t think it was the thought of the paranormal that scared Owen off,” Sadie stated
evenly. “It was probably the fact that you three look and act like a band of freaks
from the planet Zolon. Have you ever considered toning things down a bit?”

Rosemary looked up and the three eyed one another critically for only a few seconds.
Between the numerous piercings, tattoos, bald heads, and fluorescent hair, it was
like a clown convention threw up in the room.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rick said evenly. “But it would’ve been
nice to stick with six people. Now when Maeva comes we’ll be short a person.”

“Better to be one person short,” Rosemary said, tap-tapping on her phone with her
long black fingernails, “than to have negative energy in the room.”

“True.” Louise nodded her fluorescent-colored head wisely. She held up a cloth shopping
sack. “I have a few items to set up. Shall we get the table ready?”

Just as they were rounding the front corridor to go upstairs, the front door opened
and Maeva walked in with a wailing Osbert squirming in her arms.

“Sorry, everybody!” Maeva exclaimed. “Terry’s been kept late at his catering gig.”

“You couldn’t get a sitter?” Louise asked, shouting over the infant’s screams. “You
know you shouldn’t bring a baby to a séance!”

“I know,” Maeva said, scowling at Louise. “Do you think I would’ve brought him if
there was a sitter on the planet who was deaf enough to put up with the screeching?”

“Make it stop!” Rick shouted, placing his hands over his ears.

“Oh for God’s sakes.” Sadie snagged the tyke from Maeva’s arms and abruptly the screams
halted. “They just don’t get your Ozzsomeness,” Sadie told the baby. In response,
Osbert gurgled and blew a large spit bubble.

Maeva reached up and removed orange foam earplugs from her ears.

“Thank all gods and goddesses for Sadie,” Rosemary announced; then she pointed upstairs.
“At least now we’re a multiple of three again.”

Sadie figured it was more like five and a quarter given Osbert’s size, but she didn’t
argue. The sooner they could get this done, the sooner she could get home to late-night
television and a cold beer, or a cold shower to stop her from thinking about Owen’s
sexy body. She could still smell the distant scent of his cologne in the room.

“Let’s get this thing rolling. In two hours I’ve got to be in a chat room class instructing
scrying,” Louise said.

The five stomped up the stairs, with Sadie swinging Osbert in the crook of her arm.
The baby had wrapped his chubby fist around the necklace and was trying to cram the
disc into his gurgling mouth.

Up in the master bedroom, Sadie watched as Louise decorated the table with the contents
of her bag.

“Is this your first séance?” Louise asked Sadie.

“Yup.” Sadie held Osbert’s face up to hers. “We’re newbies, aren’t we?”

Osbert blew a wet raspberry between his lips and gave Sadie an adoring, toothless
grin.

“She’s like the frickin’ baby whisperer,” Maeva muttered, and everyone laughed.

Louise spread a simple white tablecloth on the small round table and added two colored
candles next to the other white pillar one in the middle.

“We use a white tablecloth for purity and protection,” Louise explained. She drew
a lighter from her pocket and lit the three candles in the center. “For the same reason,
one of these candles is white.”

“The purple one represents the third eye, or psychic powers,” Maeva added.

“The black one helps to repel negative energy,” remarked Rick. He pulled a small packet
from his pocket. “I brought the incense.”

“We burn sandalwood scent for spiritual harmony,” said Rosemary, who still had her
phone in her hand.

Maeva reached into the diaper bag on her shoulder and placed a dinner roll next to
the burning incense.

“For munchies?” Sadie asked.

“For spirits who seek nourishment,” Maeva corrected.

“Better a bun than my blood,” Sadie remarked, sitting down at the table with Osbert
in her lap.

“Vampires are make-believe,” Louise said with a laugh.

“But dead people who crave dinner rolls aren’t?” Sadie countered. “Sorry, I didn’t
bring anything tonight.”

“You’ll be our medium,” Louise said and pointed for everyone else to join Sadie around
the table.

“Say what?” Sadie’s mouth dropped open. “I’ve never even been to a séance before so
I don’t think I should be running the show.”

Louise shrugged. “The house chose you when the words ‘Bring Sadie’ were scrawled on
the wall,” Louise added. Sadie shuddered and glanced reluctantly at the freshly painted
wall. She preferred the light tan color Owen painted over bloodred any day.

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Sadie cleared her throat. “Tell me what to do.”

“Let’s be clear of our intentions first,” Rosemary said. She lifted up her cell phone
and proceeded to snap a picture.

“Stop that,” Maeva admonished.

Rosemary put her phone on the table, resting it against one of the candles.

“Our intention should be to call the spirit here and then encourage him or her to
move on so that Owen and Gayla may claim this house for their renovations,” Rick suggested.

“And if they resist moving on, we can suggest that they merely act in a more peaceful
and benevolent manner rather than throwing things and scaring people,” Louise added.

“Since some here are touch-sensitive and can’t hold hands with Sadie, let’s just hold
our fingers up, almost touching, and go around the table asking for the spirit to
join us,” Maeva said. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath in through her nose,
and exhaled slowly through her mouth. “Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts from life
into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”

After Maeva spoke, everyone around the table continued to hold up their hands in almost-touching
positions while they repeated what Maeva had said: “Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts
from life into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”

Sadie murmured a word here and there but she’d always been bad with the memorization
of lyrics to popular songs, so it wasn’t until the fourth round of chanting that she
thought she may have gotten the words correct.

“Sadie, why don’t you ask the spirit to show herself?” Louise encouraged.

Sadie looked at her posse, who looked particularly comical in the flicker of the candlelight.

“I don’t know . . . ,” Sadie replied. “It feels kind of silly.”

Abruptly there was a loud bang and everyone jumped in their chairs. Sadie noticed
with relief that the closet door behind her had simply fallen back off its top hinge
and sat at a wonky angle. The heavy door had landed with a thud onto the solid wood
floor.

“That scared me to death!” Sadie exclaimed through a bubble of laughter.

“It’s definitely a sign,” Rosemary said. “The spirit is trying to connect.”

“Don’t be getting your hopes up. Owen was fixing the hinges on that door just before
you all came. Obviously he’s not the best repairman.”

The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door swung open with a massive crash
against the wall. Sadie nearly dropped Osbert. Abruptly Maeva and Rick each clasped
one of Osbet’s hands, careful not to touch Sadie.

“Concentrate,” Maeva hissed. “Thank you for joining us,” Rosemary said to the room.
“We are not here to harm you, only to make peace and—”

A wild whoosh of a hurricane-force air exploded from the gaping, dark closet door.
The candles blew out and the wind picked up, circling them in a vicious, icy-cold
vortex. The skirt of the tablecloth, as well as Louise’s bright hair, all stood straight
up. Sadie found it difficult to breathe in the strong wind, but Osbert remained cool,
as if this were no different than watching an episode of Elmo.

Suddenly Sadie’s chair was yanked back a foot and she nearly fell from the chair.

Maeva was on her feet and snatched Osbert from her grasp just as Sadie’s chair began
slowly scraping the floor, moving backward toward the closet door. Sadie tried to
get up but she was unable to move. It was as though invisible ropes held her. Her
Nikes dragged on the ground but did nothing to stop the scrape of her chair across
the floor.

Rick, Maeva, Rosemary, and Louise ran to her, each of them grabbing part of the chair,
but they were no match for the intense vacuum drawing Sadie toward the closet at a
painfully slow rate.

“Do something!” Sadie screamed.

“We’re trying!” Maeva shouted back.

Sadie thrashed violently in the chair, trying to release her arms. She was almost
at the closet entrance. Stealing a look over her shoulder, Sadie stared inside the
dark void that was a swirling mass of black. Suddenly the ink-colored cloud parted
and Sadie saw the translucent spirit of a young girl with her back turned. The girl
turned to face them and her face transformed into that of a monstrous demon with jagged
teeth.

Chapter 7

The howling gale of wind pushed at Sadie’s friends, making their grip on her loosen
with every inch as invisible ropes reeled Sadie closer. Swiftly, a howling current
of air flung Sadie’s friends against the wall and pinned them behind the table and
chairs as Sadie slid within inches of the dark, yawning opening in the wall.

This is it. I’m going to die by getting eaten alive by a monster in a closet.

Just as the thought formed in Sadie’s mind she saw Louise tug a crooked stick from
her pocket and point it in Sadie’s direction. She yelled against the punishing current
of air.

“Evil, we banish you! Positive energy, flow through us and surround us with light.
Gods and goddesses, surround Sadie with light! So mote it be!”

It felt as though Louise’s stick released an electrical force that punched Sadie in
the chest. Suddenly the wind stopped and Sadie’s chair fell backward, banging her
back and head against the hardwood.

“Ouch,” she whispered.

The closet door slammed shut with such force the entire room shook.

Louise, the Thingvolds, and Maeva, carrying a sniffling Osbert, surrounded Sadie and
looked down on her.

“Thanks for d-doing that th-thing with your s-stick.” Sadie shook violently, and her
friends helped her as she got uncertainly to her feet. Her fingers rubbed the middle
of her chest where she’d felt the blow from Louise’s spell. Sadie lifted up the pendant
and looked at it. “Wow. You dented my necklace.” The two-inch gold disc now had a
concave look.

“It’s my new elder wand,” Louise said, holding the piece of wood out proudly.

“It’s a stunner,” Rosemary said admiringly.

“Did you carve those little hearts in it yourself?” Maeva asked.

Sadie’s eyes were wild as she looked from one to the other.

“Can we take this discussion outside?” she demanded. As she dusted herself off she
glanced worriedly over her shoulder toward the closet. “I’m a little freaked out.”

“We’ll do a circle of protection first,” Louise said. “You’re welcome to wait outside.”

“I think I’ll go home. I may have peed my pants,” Sadie said.

“You have the key to lock up,” Maeva reminded her. Osbert just then began sobbing
and leaning out of Maeva’s arms toward Sadie. “Why don’t you take Osbert downstairs
while we finish up?”

“C’mon, Blizzard of Ozz.” Sadie took the baby and allowed him to nuzzle into her shoulder.

Downstairs Sadie walked the rooms on shaky legs. Without the presence of furniture,
she sunk down onto the floor and sat cross-legged, with Osbert gnawing his tiny fist
and eyeing her curiously.

“This isn’t how I usually spend my evenings,” Sadie said.

Osbert stuck out his tongue and blew spit at her in reply.

Sadie’s cell phone began to vibrate in the pocket of her jeans, and when she saw who
it was she snatched it up anxiously.

“Hi!” she said, then corrected the wild excitement in her voice by clearing her throat
and saying calmly, “How are you?”

“Okay,” Zack replied. “Tired. I tried the house first. Are you out at a job?”

“Um. Not really.” Sadie looked up the stairs toward the sound of chanting. “Just hanging
out with Osbert and Maeva.” Zack tolerated her supernatural side, but that didn’t
mean he enjoyed hearing about it.

“Just wanted you to know I’m driving back tomorrow. I’ll stop by and get my things.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Sadie closed her eyes and stemmed the flow of tears. She hugged Osbert tightly against
her chest. She’d honestly felt like he was calling to apologize. She’d been hoping
he’d beg her to take him back and she’d, of course, say yes. Instead, as she was trying
to adjust to what he’d told her, he was already saying good-bye.

Sadie stared at the dead phone and her hand shook as she stuffed it back in her pocket.
Just then she saw the group coming back down the stairs, and Sadie got to her feet
and moved Osbert to her hip.

“So I think we should have a chat about what happened here. We need to analyze why
the evil that’s possessed this house wants Sadie,” Louise announced.

“Tell you what,” Sadie said, handing over a reluctant Osbert to his mother. “Why don’t
you four have a discussion about that, while I go home and drink myself into a coma?”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious?” Rosemary asked.

“No.” Sadie shook her head violently from side to side. “Curiosity killed the cat,
or in this case, the trauma-cleanup person.”

They all followed Sadie outside the house and to her car.

“I’m supposed to lock up,” Sadie said.

“Don’t worry,” Louise replied. “Gayla gave us a house key when she hired us.” She
gave Sadie a sympathetic look. “You go on home and take care. We’ll lock up once we’re
done.”

Sadie scarcely remembered the drive home. Her thoughts bounced between the call from
Zack and nearly being sucked into a demonized closet. Once she was back home, Sadie
poured herself a large glass filled with vodka and a splash of club soda and then
climbed into a hot bubble bath. A few gulps of her drink and she found she could almost
stop thinking about being devoured by a closeted malignant spirit. Zack’s matter-of-fact
tone when he called was another matter. His words were on repeat play inside her head:
I’m driving back tomorrow. I’ll stop by and get my things.

She heard her phone ring a few times but there was no way she was leaving her warm,
sudsy comfort zone.

Once the bathwater began to chill she lifted her wrinkled body from the tub, dried
off, and headed straight for her bed. She drifted off praying that she wouldn’t dream
of demons, closets, or Mephistopheles in any way, shape, or form.

It felt as if she’d just closed her eyes in a vodka-induced stupor when she heard
a sound from the other room. Sadie sprung up to a sitting position and strained to
listen. She couldn’t remember if she’d set her alarm before going to bed or not. The
sun was peeking through the blinds. It was obviously morning. Maybe the sound she’d
heard was her neighbors putting out their trash. She strained to remember if it was
garbage day and concluded it wasn’t. It could’ve been Hairy knocking over his ceramic
food dish in the kitchen.

A soft thud sounded from the living room and every nerve in Sadie’s body pinged fiercely.
That was definitely not a Hairy thud. As quietly as she could, Sadie climbed out of
bed and picked up her robe from the floor to quickly cover her naked body. Holding
her breath, she reached for her purse on the nightstand and mined through chocolate-bar
wrappers and receipts to clutch the small canister of pepper spray she’d begun to
carry around with her.

She padded softly toward her bedroom door and listened. Sadie held her breath and
stood to the side of the door, hoping whoever it was would go into her office across
the hall and steal her laptop instead of checking the bedroom. She was positive this
was the hooker-murdering, finger-chopping maniac. She stared at her bedside phone
longingly. She should’ve dialed 9-1-1. Then again, if it was the maniac, he could
chop off more than one digit in the time it would take for help to arrive.

She heard determined footsteps coming down the hall toward her. If he slipped into
the den, she’d take off down the hall and, hopefully, get out the front door before
he could catch her. As she was planning her escape route, the bedroom door flung open.

Sadie lifted her hand and blasted pepper spray directly into the face of the cutthroat
killer . . . who turned out to be Zack Bowman.

“Argh!” Zack fell to his knees, screaming a bountiful slew of swear words that were
all anatomically and religiously impossible.

“Oh my God, Zack! I’m sooo sorry! I thought you were a killer!” Sadie dropped to her
knees and stared at Zack’s usually handsome, rugged face—now an inflamed, sloppy mess
of mucous. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?”

“Shower,” Zack grunted. He climbed unsteadily to his feet and stumbled down the hall
and into the bathroom. “Bring Dawn,” he commanded.

“My sister?” Sadie asked, confused.

“Dish soap!” Zack yelled.

“Don’t blow a gasket!” Sadie screamed back and headed for the kitchen to snag the
liquid dish soap. She returned to the find him naked in the shower and holding his
face to the spray. “This isn’t my fault, you know.” She thrust the bottle of dish
detergent into his hand. “You said you were coming today. Not at first morning’s light.”

“Check your messages,” he groaned. “And leave me alone.”

Sadie left the bathroom and then remembered the number of times her phone rang the
night before when she’d been soaking in the tub. She checked her cell phone and discovered
three missed calls. Two were from Maeva but Osbert was screaming in the background
so she couldn’t understand a word she was saying. The third message was from Zack,
saying that he’d be coming by just after six in the morning to get his stuff because
he had an early-morning job interview in Seattle. The voice mail said he’d try to
be really quiet so as not to wake her.

“Still not my fault,” Sadie said to Hairy, who was crouched hopefully by his food
bowl. “Well, maybe it is a
little
my fault.”

Sadie picked up her bunny, buried her face into his softness, and felt tension roll
immediately off her shoulders. If she could find a way to bottle Hairy and sell him
as antistress meds the world would be a happier place.

Reluctantly she lowered the rabbit to the floor and filled his dish with kibble, topping
it off with a yogurt treat like a cherry on top. Then she texted Maeva:
Are you awake?

Sadie’s phone rang in her hand seconds later.

“I’m always awake. The question is, why are
you
awake?” Osbert was screaming in the background. “Never mind; you can tell me in a
few minutes. I’m coming over. Please have coffee.”

By the time Maeva and Osbert had arrived twenty minutes later, Zack was still in the
shower, but there was coffee made. Sadie poured them each a mug and placed the cups
on the table before relieving her friend of her whimpering infant.

“Did you have a hard time sleeping after the episode last night?” Maeva asked over
her steaming mug.

“No. I took a bucket of vodka into a hot bubble bath. Then I drank and soaked until
I had no feeling in my extremities.”

“And then you called Zack and begged him to come home?” Maeva asked.

“No.”

“Then why is his Mustang in the driveway?”

“He came to pick up his things,” Sadie said, keeping her voice even.

Maeva tilted her head. “So then where is he? Packing?”

“Showering.”

“He came to pack his stuff and leave you but then decided to have a shower.” Maeva
waggled a finger in Sadie’s face and Osbert blew a spit bubble at his mom. “I get
it. Makeup sex.”

“No.”
I wish
.

“Then what? You just gave him one for the road?”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “Of course not.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just give him something to remember you by?”

Zack walked into the room, wearing nothing but a towel.

“She did give me something to remember her by,” he growled. “She gave me a face full
of pepper spray.”

“You pepper sprayed him?” Maeva covered her mouth and stifled her laughter. “That’s
a little extreme, dontcha think?”

“I thought he was a finger-chopping maniac,” Sadie said, bouncing Osbert on her knee.
“Excuse me if I’m a little edgy after almost getting eaten alive by a closet last
night.”

“Eaten? By a closet?” Zack shook his head ruefully. The look on his face said he wasn’t
going to miss this craziness. He slammed the bottle of dish soap onto the counter
next to the sink. “I don’t even want to know.”

Zack poured himself a cup of coffee, then stormed out of the kitchen.

Sadie sighed and rubbed Osbert’s back.

“You need to eat,” Maeva announced.

She got up and made them each a piece of toast and talked small talk to pass the time
until Zack returned to the kitchen; then she excused herself on the pretense of using
the washroom.

“I’m still working in Portland until I hear whether or not I’ve got the job today.”
He took out his key chain, then slid Sadie’s house key off the ring and placed it
on the kitchen table. He lowered his voice and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Look,
once I get settled back in Seattle with a full-time job and a place of my own, I’ll
call. Maybe we can start from scratch. You know . . . dating.”

She’d heard those words before, but now Sadie leaned into the hand resting on her
shoulder and bit her lower lip. “I . . . I don’t want you to go.”

He pulled his hand away and sighed. “I’m no good right now. I know it’s been a few
months since I’ve been home from rehab but, right now, it’s a constant battle not
to slip up again. You understand, right?”

Sadie placed Osbert against her shoulder and refused to look up to meet Zack’s gaze.

“I’m going to miss you.”

She blinked away tears. Zack kissed the top of her head and left. Once the front door
was closed, Maeva returned to the kitchen to find Sadie holding Osbert’s face up to
hers.

“Promise me you won’t grow up to be an asshole,” Sadie said, her lower lip quivering.

“Oh, Zack isn’t an ass,” Maeva remarked quietly as she took her seat at the table.
“He’s just a confused fool.”

“I don’t think I want to talk about it,” Sadie sniffed. “I just want to forget all
about Zack Bowman for a while.”

She got up from her chair and refilled her mug.

“Fine. Let’s talk about what happened at the house last night and why some demon has
a thing for you.”

“Let’s not talk about that either.”

Sadie was saved by the ring of her office phone, and she pushed a reluctant Osbert
into his mother’s arms and took off down the hall where she snatched up the receiver
with a breathless “Scene-2-Clean. How may I help you?”

“This is Bev calling from the Pacifica,” said a smooth, authoritative female voice.
“We spoke the other day.”