Dead Sure?: A Paranormal Mystery (42 page)

Jack questioned momentarily if the whole kidnapping thing had really been a ruse. Then again, if it was just a lie why was he in this remote place staring down the barrel of a gun? No, it had to be real; Steve was just trying to play him from another angle now. Jack decided that he was going to play too. “Shelby gave me directions and mentioned something about an appointment she couldn’t miss.” The look of anger that flickered across Steve’s face told Jack he had scored a hit, distracting his opponent from the job at hand.

“Whatever, let’s see the journal,” Steve replied tersely.

“If I had it with me, I’d just give it to you. Since I believed this was a real kidnapping, I decided to store the journal for safe keeping.”

Steve started to put his gun away slowly. Speaking softly, he began to say, “Well then, the two of us can just go and…” His sentence just trailed off into thin air, his body tensing as the revolver whipped back up.

Bullets began blazing past Jack as he threw himself to the floor, being cognizant enough to avoid the ledge.

“I killed you myself, you bitch! It can’t be possible, not after all this time.” His footsteps came thundering forward in a mad rush.

Jack rolled swiftly to the side to avoid being trampled, quickly realizing that he was not the intended target of the attack. Ending up on his side, Jack twisted his head back to watch the remainder of the event unfold.

Steve was kicking a body that already appeared to have the life draining from it. It wasn’t just any body, the victim was Ron.
Steve shot Ron. I thought they were working together. Why did he yell “Hey you bitch?” This doesn’t make sense.

In a whispered hush the wind draining from his lungs, Ron uttered a final word, “Why?”

Steve stood there in shock blinking and then looking again. He couldn’t believe his eyes, it was Ron, but how!
I know I saw Angela taunting me. It wasn’t Ron. Shit, what a fucking mess this is turning into.
Spinning on his heels, Steve leveled the gun at Jack, who was now in a crouch and appeared to be coming up with dangerous ideas. “Just sit back down on the floor nice and slow. As you can see, I have no qualms about shooting people.”

Jack complied begrudgingly, wishing he could have moved faster. His heart was racing.
Steve really is insane. He gunned down Ron in cold blood. How the hell am I ever going to get out of this?
His heart began to pound worse, his hands starting to shake.
Just stay calm and play along, getting worked up isn’t going to do me any good at all. Everything is going to be okay. Yeah, that’s it; just keep lying to yourself until you believe.

Steve moved hastily to the opposite corner of the room, all the while keeping a sharp eye on Jack. “Let’s not beat around the bush anymore. Your original suspicion was correct, this is a real kidnapping,” and with what appeared to be a performer’s flourish, Steve yanked the tarp off the lump in the corner.

He’s not only crazy, he actually seems to be enjoying himself,
Jack thought, before his eyes locked with Rene’s as the tarp fell away.
I have to get her out of this.

“What, are you speechless? Isn’t this what you expected to find in the first place, or is reality just a little too harsh for you?” with that, Charles reached down and pulled Rene brusquely to her feet.

She wobbled slightly, unable to get her footing with her ankles bound tightly together. The only thing keeping her upright was Steve’s tight grip on her upper arm. Rene desperately wanted to shove him and run to Jack, but with her arms tied behind her back and a gun to her head it wasn’t going to happen. Exhaustion gave way again to a new wave of fear. She began to breathe heavily, her ribs screaming in agony.

“Now let’s discuss the journal again. Where the hell is it really?”

Jack’s thoughts turned over and over again, trying to think of something. No scenario he could come up with turned out well. “It’s out in the car. Why don’t we go get it?”

Steve shuffled Rene across the room, right up to the edge of the remaining floor. “Jack, are you really sure that’s where it is? Sure enough to gamble Rene’s life on it?” he smiled devilishly, as he leaned her precariously outward over the chasm.

Before Jack could utter a response, there was a loud cracking noise and the floor started breaking loose underneath them. It was like standing on thin ice and realizing your mistake a second too late.

As the floor began to give way, Steve let go of Rene, sending her toppling off the edge into the blackness below. Wincing from her broken ribs, she managed to gasp out a feeble scream through the duct-tape as she slipped away.

Jack sprung forward in a vain effort to grab her, knowing deep down the futility of it.

Steve scrambled away from the edge as the floor literally crumbled away underneath each step. Jack’s mad lunge caused him to collide with Steve, and the two of them slammed down backwards onto a section of the floor that jutted out from the edge like a peninsula.

The old material groaned in protest before giving way, the two of them riding down in a cloud of dust and debris.

Jack gasped at the sudden weightlessness experienced when the Earth slips out from beneath your feet. A myriad of thoughts raced through his mind as he arrived at the conclusion that this was the end.

Chapter 30

“Listen, I know she was acting like a real asshole, but I have feeling she’s in serious trouble. We just have to find her.”

“Sam, we have been looking for Rene for hours. I don’t know what else you think we’re going to be able to do. Maybe we should just call the police and get some help,” Liam replied meekly.

“Call the police and tell them what, my girlfriend stole my truck and took off?” Sam retorted sarcastically. “Besides which, we know where the truck ended up already, or maybe I could say, “I think my girlfriend is possessed by a ghost, Mr. Officer,” they’ll end up locking us up.” Immediately he noted a dejected look come over Liam’s face. “Sorry, I’m just upset. I want to help Rene, not get her in more trouble, and without mentioning the truck part of the story the police aren’t going to be interested. She has only been missing for several hours and possession isn’t going to fly.”

“I know, I just thought,” Liam started with a slight stutter. “I’m just flat out of ideas; we’ve looked everywhere, and tried calling everyone.” Liam paused, “However, it sure seems coincidental that Jack is missing as well. I mean, you must have attempted to call him about twenty times and it always goes straight to voice mail.”

“Yes, you’re right; I don’t think that’s a fact we should ignore, especially considering when we drove by his house before my truck was in the driveway.”

“Should we go over there and look again?”

“Yes, Liam, I think we should. However, if nobody answers we’re going to ask the landlord to let us into Jack’s apartment.”

“I don’t think she’ll do that.”

“Well, if she won’t than we’ll take matters into our own hands,” Sam replied with a slight smirk. It was the first time he’d smiled at all the whole evening.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I mean…” Liam lost his chain of thought, as Sam pulled away from the curb abruptly, heading for Jack’s house.

*    *    *

Jack gasped a few times for air as his senses started to return to him. He was no longer plummeting downward, but he felt extremely disoriented. He remembered falling but he couldn’t remember landing. His body began to ache as his mind slowly came back online.
I’m alive
; the thought began to repeat itself in his mind over and over.

Gingerly, he began to move his extremities, taking stock of the situation. Debris tumbled off of him as he slowly pushed himself up. The sickening realization that he had landed on top of Steve had just become apparent. Staring at Steve in disgust, he finished standing up. Jack’s body ached badly, but overall he seemed to have been lucky.

Jack determined that their fall had only gone two of the four stories.
No wonder I’m still alive,
then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Rene must have fallen the entire way. His head swiveled around in panic looking for her, trying to disprove what his gut told him was true. Hurriedly, he rushed away from the edge and back to the main stairwell. He went tearing down the stairs, two, then three steps at a time. 

“Rene, Rene, are you all right?” No answer returned to him aside from the dull echo of his own outcry. In under a minute or so, Jack was standing on the first floor, racing towards the center. There was debris everywhere and the darkness wasn’t making the task any easier. He slipped the key chain flashlight back out of his pocket, holding it up high and trying to navigate his way through the giant jagged hunks of concrete and splintered wood littering the central floor.

It only took a few seconds for Jack to locate Rene. She was laying face down, her legs bent in an unnatural manner. He tried to ignore the sickening truth as he stumbled towards her. Bending over and moving a football-sized piece of concrete from her back, he gently rolled her over checking for a pulse. There was nothing, not even a quiver or reflex. Jack knelt there almost in a catatonic state as tears welled up in his eyes.

*    *    *

Liam’s old car squeaked noisily as it bounced up the entrance to Jack’s driveway. Sam threw it into park while it was still rolling, causing the machine to issue yet another protest. Liam began to join suit, but Sam was already too far ahead of him to notice.

The backdoor was locked, as Sam had suspected. Jack’s car wasn’t here, so it was unlikely he was either. Sam pounded on the door impatiently. “Jack, Jack, are you there, I need to talk with you!”

Liam looked around nervously as he walked up the several steps to join Sam. “I don’t think they’re here.”

“You’re probably right, but maybe there’s a clue inside as to where they are. I have a really bad feeling that they need our help now.”

“We could always ask the landlady to let us in like you suggested,” Liam replied.

“I don’t think we have time for that,” Sam said, pausing. “On second thought, Liam, why don’t you run around to the front and give that a try? I’ll just stay here and knock a little more just in case.”

Liam headed around the corner of the house complacently. Once he was out of sight, Sam carefully removed a lock pick tool from one of his pants pockets, setting to work on the door. The old lock didn’t put up much resistance before clicking open.

Once inside, Sam raced up the back stairs and into Jack’s apartment. Rapidly, he moved from room to room looking. What exactly he was looking for he didn’t know. Just something, anything that might help him figure out what the hell was going on and what action to take next.

As Sam was walking by the attic door he paused. Something, he wasn’t sure what, had caught his attention. He could have sworn he had heard someone talking.
No, if anything, that’s just Liam downstairs talking to the landlady. Just great; if she decides to let him in she’ll be curious how I got in. Um let’s see, I tried the handle again and it just happened to be open. Flimsy, but it will have to do.
Sam was about to move on when he heard conversation again, only this time it was a little louder and it definitely wasn’t Liam and the landlady.

“I told you your damn plan was never going to work. With Rene dead there isn’t shit you can do to fix things.”

“Don’t ever tell me what I can and can’t do, Bill! It’s bad enough I’ve been stuck with you all these years.”

“It’s not my goddamn fault you sent me to rob something with a curse on it. Hell, if you had known what you were doing in the first place none of this would ever have happened.”

“Listen to me, Bill Wilhelm, if your dumb-ass relative was a little more susceptible we would still be in business, but if that little freak even sees his shadow, he wets himself and passes out.”

Liam was standing next to Sam now, listening intently. His eyes widened upon hearing his name. “It’s like she’s talking to me about me. My name is William Wilhelm,” he said in aggravated surprise.

Sam glanced at him putting his finger to his lips and mouthing for Liam to keep quiet. The voices had stopped, Sam rolled his eyes with irritation. 

Liam, who was just now putting two and two together, began to look scared. He whispered, “Who the heck is up there?”

Sam shushed him again just as the voices resumed.

“Somehow I have to guide Jack,” the female voice said resolutely.

The male voice retorted, “If it was that simple you would have done it ages ago.”

“Shut up, Wilhelm, you ass,” Angela replied, pent up fury bubbling to the surface. This was followed by the sound of footsteps crisscrossing the floor above them for what seemed like an eternity, as if two people were pacing angrily back and forth.

Sam and Liam continued to stand in the hallway for several minutes. The voices had stopped now and no other sounds were emanating from the attic.

Sam broke the silence first, leaning over and whispering to Liam,” I think we should go and confront them. They obviously know something about what is happening.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but they sound dangerous.” Without waiting for Sam’s response, Liam grabbed the door handle and whipped the attic door open, running up the stairs like his hair was on fire.

Sam stood stunned for a second before chasing up behind him. The attic was dark except for some moonlight coming in through the front windows. The beams cast an eerie glow throughout the room, bouncing off dressers and boxes and creating shadows of all shapes and sizes everywhere.

It didn’t appear as if anyone was in the room, much less two people having a heated argument. Liam found a string hanging down from an overhead light bulb and gave it a tug.

With a click the shadows receded and the room was filled with a warm yellow glow. The place was filled with lots of old stuff but no people. Sam and Liam stared at each other in wonderment.

“You heard what I heard, right?’ Sam asked Liam.

“I heard it all right.”

“How is this possible?” Sam asked, looking around again.

“I don’t know and I don’t like it,” Liam replied, beginning to sound a little shaky again.

Sam started to walk around the room, looking behind and underneath furniture and crates. He found exactly what he expected to find, nothing.

Liam did the same cursory search, yielding the same futile results.

*    *    *

Jack hadn’t moved from the spot where he was kneeling since finding Rene’s body. His mind was in a fog. It was filled with would have, should have, could have, and despair. It was unlike him to have no plan of action or ideas. Yet here he sat motionless, lost in a hopeless void.

A cold chill suddenly hit the back of his neck, snapping him back to reality for a moment. He began to look around unseeingly at first before his eyes were drawn to a glow in the far corner of the old mill. It was a greenish hue, nothing like the moonlight that was streaming in from the windows and the missing floor above him.

The room began to feel electrified like a large jolt of static electricity was pulsating repetitively. All the little hairs on his arms began to stand at attention. Jack’s dazed state had rapidly fallen away, replaced with alarm. He stood up, unsure of what action to take next, walk closer to the light or turn and bolt.

That’s when he heard an ethereal voice began to speak. It was a woman’s voice, one that sounded almost familiar in an odd way. The bizarre luminousness drifted closer, Jack could just make out the shape of a beautiful woman fading in and out as the light varied in intensity. “Get the medallion and go back,” the voice uttered.

I don’t believe it. I’m really losing it. I must have taken a hard shot to the head during my fall.

The specter’s countenance changed to one of anger, perhaps at getting no response. “Get the medallion and go back to 1929,” it yelled, the pretty face growing grim and menacing.

Fear had taken a strong grip over Jack at this point. He had come to the conclusion that this was not in his head. Turning about to run, he looked at the spirit again and spoke softly, “I don’t know where the medallion is; besides, time travel doesn’t exist.”

The ghost went from hovering to charging, the apparition moving at him with a look of sheer rage, the ghostly hands outstretched as if moving in to choke him.

This time Jack gave in to his better instincts and began to retreat, stumbling over the rubble-laden floor as he made his way towards the exit.

*     *    *

Sam sighed in disgust, “How is it possible? We heard people up in this attic as plain as day.”

“I don’t know, but we’re not giving up. This whole thing is tied together,” Liam stated in a confident manner, a tone that rarely if ever emanated from him.

A sickening feeling came over Sam as he spotted the picture Rene had forced him to get rid of. The painting was leaning against an old steamer trunk. The girl that Sam had remembered seeing on the porch was missing, and at first glance he could have sworn he saw the figure in the upstairs window move.

As Sam walked closer to the painting it was as if a cloud was ascending around him, a feeling of trouble brewing that he had experienced in the painting’s presence several times before. Without thinking, acting on pure impulse, Sam snatched the picture up from where it sat. He swung it widely above his head like an athlete poised to make a play, and then in a smooth sweeping motion Sam brought the canvas crashing down squarely against the top of the old steamer trunk the wretched thing had been leaning against.

*    *    *

Jack was almost to the door as an overwhelming coldness began to wash over him. His throat constricted under the pressure of invisible fingers fumbling to get a purchase. Twisting this way and that, Jack tumbled the final few feet to the door. Scrambling in an attempt to get back on his feet, he grabbed for his throat as the temperature seamlessly changed from ice cold to normal. His pulse reverberating throughout his ears, Jack could just make out a woman’s scream, and then a final muffled word “Medallion.”

*     *    *

The whole attic around Sam and Liam exploded with colors and sounds as the painting’s frame shattered, bits flying in every direction. The painting itself ripped nearly in two as the tarnished metal corner of the antique trunk caught it. The room transformed from hot to cold and back again almost faster than Sam and Liam could comprehend.  If there had been time they would have run. As it was, the whole event was over in a matter of seconds. The woman’s voice they had overheard earlier uttered a final statement.