Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (58 page)

“Yeah. I was buying some new soccer socks and as I was checking out, there he was. He works at Dick’s.”

Kate stopped painting.

“How apropos,” she said, smiling. “Being that he is one.”

I heard a noise out front. I went to the living room and saw Ty outside in the driveway. He grabbed something from the bed of his truck. When I opened the door, he was coming up the path, carrying two of the old coffee cans we had found in the desert, each one full of daffodils.

He handed me one and gave me a quick kiss. I had those usual fluttery feelings that flew around inside whenever I saw him.

“Wow, this really does look cool,” I said, staring down at the can. “Thanks.”

He greeted Kate and handed her the flowers and told her the story about how we had found hundreds of burned out cans in a pile when we were hiking in the Badlands.

“I thought it looked kind of Western and artsy,” he said. “Perfect for the lodge theme you have going on here.”

I was surprised how she really seemed to love the can and flowers as much as he did. She put hers on one of the new tables.

“They’re fantastic,” she said. “You really have an artist’s eye.”

It made me happy that they were such good friends. It felt right.

“Kate, come with us,” he said, when he heard she was staying home. “Or how about meeting us at the movie later?”

“No, I’m going to pass. But you guys have a great evening.”

“Okay,” he said. “But if you change your mind, we’re going to the 10 o’clock showing of the new Liam Neeson movie.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “But honestly, I’ll be in bed by then with my Kindle.”

She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Bye, guys,” she said.

“Bye,” I said.

I grabbed my new Guess jacket off the coat rack and put it on and then remembered the cookies and headed back to the kitchen.

“These are for you,” I said.

“Excellent,” Ty said, taking the tin from my hands. He opened it up and inhaled deeply and then took a cookie and stuffed it in his mouth.

“Amazing,” he said. “Thanks, Abby.”

As we drove over to the Old Mill, we talked about work and the things that happened over the last few days. It was always good to see Ty and I noticed that the energy that surrounded him was bright and moving fast as we talked.

He kept his window opened a crack, even though it was freezing outside, and his light, long hair blew around in the air. Ty was never cold. Sometimes he picked me up in shorts and a hoodie when it was snowing. 

“How was work?’ I asked.

“Good. I’m still hoping that they’ll teach me how to brew.”

“Do you like 10 Barrel beer as much as the beer at Deschutes?”

I remembered Ty’s story about how Deschutes Brewery was the reason he moved here from Montana.

“I do,” he said. “Deschutes is good, but there are a lot of really great beers here in Bend. 10 Barrel knows their stuff. And I have to say I’m looking forward to learning how to brew. I could totally get into that.”

I flipped on the radio and found the new rock station. Sometimes Mike put it on at work and so far I liked it. As we cruised down 14
^th
, a song from one of the local bands I had heard at work came on.

We decided to go to Flatbread Pizza. We went there once in a while, when I could drag Ty away from the pubs.

“You look great, by the way,” he said, putting his arm around my shoulders as we walked slowly past the movie theater, past REI, and toward the restaurants.

We got a booth and ordered. After the waitress left, Ty finished telling me about his day at work and I told him about Mike being okay with the river job in the summer.

“So, did Brad get hired as a guide?” I asked.

“They’re still thinking about it,” he said, picking up a breadstick. “I don’t know. Now Rebecca is saying that they might not hire anybody new this summer and just let us absorb the extra hours.”

“I hope they change their mind,” I said, now that I had told Mike I wanted to work both jobs. Last summer, Ty was working seven days a week on the river.

I tried to think of things to tell him about my week. I wished that I could tell him about all the things that were happening, like how I saw the ghost or about how Mo was mad at me. Ty was great with people and if I told him, he could probably offer some good suggestions on how to talk to her.

It couldn’t be good for a relationship to have such secrets, but I didn’t want him to think he was dating someone who rented headspace out to squirrels. Plus, I wasn’t really sure what Ty’s reaction would be if I was honest and told him I saw ghosts. Some things can’t be predicted.

And that I talked with Jesse once in a while.

Ty and I had never discussed religion or beliefs or any of that stuff. The only thing I was sure of was that he hated all those popular vampire movies. I knew if we were to continue and if things were going to get serious between us, I would have to tell him. Eventually.

But not tonight.

“What do you want to do for your birthday?” he asked.

 “Come on. You sound like my sister,” I said. “It’s still months away.”

“It’s not that far away. And it’s the big one. How ‘bout we go bar hopping?”

“Okay, let me think on that,” I said.

“You’ll like it,” Ty said. “You’ll see.”

I took a bite of the pizza.

“Don’t let Kate throw me a party. She’s been hinting at it and it would be great if you could tell her that I’m not up for it. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I really don’t want one.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll let her know. So what then?”

“I’ll give it some thought. Something quiet. But special.”

It was funny talking like this with Ty, discussing these plans for the future. It was nice, comfortable.

I argued with him when the bill came, but he insisted on handing his credit card to the waitress and then went to the restroom.

The tingling feeling that bubbled up inside when I was with him felt nice. But sometimes it made me feel like I was betraying Jesse.

We still had a little time before the movie so we strolled along the river, holding hands, up and over the bridge where plastic flags flapped wildly in the bitter wind. The clouds were gone and it was a moonless sky with thousands of brilliant stars scattered in the blackness above.

I tilted my head all the way back, breathing in the night.

CHAPTER 18

The howl of the train whistle in my ears was deafening.

I fell into the cold, dark water and sank down, down, down past the bubbles that were rising up all around me. I tried to reach for the surface, tried to get to the air but couldn’t. It kept getting farther and farther away. I was being pulled down to the bottom and I couldn’t hold my breath for much longer.

But suddenly, I was out of the water, breathing again, down in an even deeper darkness, the train still loud in my ears.

I didn’t know where I was. I was walking in the dark, my bare feet on the cold ground. Fear surged through me. There was a faint glow up ahead and I moved slowly toward it, one foot in front of the other.

I came to a door and pushed against it, but it wouldn’t open more than a few inches. It was bright in there, but I couldn’t see much. It was a room, with furniture and a long table pushed up against the wall. A television was on in the background and I could hear the sound of drums. 

Someone was there. A shadow moved past the open crack as I looked inside.

I tried again to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The shadow swayed and danced across the room. I couldn’t see who it was, couldn’t make out a face. Suddenly a strong smell, a chemical of some sort, filled my nostrils and then smoke started filling the room. It was hard to breathe.

I backed away, away from the light, and then I was suddenly swimming. Up, up, up to the surface, leaving the shadow figure far behind, buried somewhere at the bottom of the lake. I moved my arms through the water in hard, furious strokes, faster and faster, finally breaking the surface just before my lungs exploded.

And then I started screaming, the train still howling.

***

“Abby!” Kate said, shaking me. “Abby. Wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

I sat up. My heart pounded and tears streamed down my cheeks.

“It’s okay,” she said over and over again until I finally heard it.

Until I believed it.

She wrapped both arms around me and held me for a long time, stroking my hair.

“You’re safe, Abby. You’re here at home. I’m here with you. Nobody is going to hurt you.”

I ran to the bathroom, feeling like I was going to throw up. Kate followed me and rubbed my back as I leaned over the toilet. Staring down at the water just made it worse and I backed away, managing to hold it down. I washed my face and sobbed and she handed me a towel. She helped me put on my robe and slippers.

She led me to the living room and wrapped a fleece blanket around me and we sat in the dark stillness, not saying anything. I stared at the light outside that was filtering through the curtains. She put her arm over my shoulders.

“You’re okay, Abby,” she kept repeating. “You’re okay.”

I didn’t feel okay. I felt dark and terrible, but I nodded anyway.

“It’s over. It was just a dream. A nightmare.”

But I knew that wasn’t true. It was something more.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head.

“How about some tea?”

“Okay,” I said.

She got up and I heard her banging around in the kitchen. It seemed like she was gone for only a minute and she returned carrying two mugs.

She put the cup in my hands and I blew on the steam.

“Thanks.”

“What was it about?”

“I don’t even know. Darkness. Shadows. But Kate, it wasn’t a nightmare.”

She put her mug down on the table and looked at me.

“What do you mean?”

I glanced up at her, studying her face. She knew what I meant.

“It was one of those visions, when I’m in the lake and then I’m thrown out and I see people or something. It was one of those.”

“Like after your accident? When you had those visions about him killing people here in Bend?”

I nodded.

She sat back, her eyes wide.

“Damn,” she said. “Did you see
him
?”

“No, I didn’t see him. But I think he was there, Kate. I think he was watching someone. He was watching this guy walking around. It had a bad feeling. Just like those visions. Just like when he killed all those people.”

“Abby, it’s impossible. He’s dead. He’s not able to kill people anymore. You saw his body. Ben buried him. There’s just no way.”

I knew what she was saying was true. I drank the tea in uneven gulps. I think I knew now what people meant when they said they could really use a drink.

CHAPTER 19

We spent the entire night talking about dreams and visions and Nathaniel Mortimer. When dawn finally crept in, I told Kate I would call and make an appointment to see Dr. Krowe.

“Good,” she said. “And let him give you something so you can get some sleep.”

“All right,” I said, fighting off a yawn.

I was hoping what she said was true too, that it was just a dream and not one of those visions I used to have. But it sure had felt the same. Starting off in that dark lake, drowning. It had felt the same, although I had trouble explaining that to Kate.

Not long after my drowning accident, I had a series of visions in which I witnessed Nathaniel Mortimer stalk and kill four people. Following the murders he had injected each of the victims with his serum. At the time I didn’t know that he was killing them so he could bring them back to life. It didn’t work.

In the last vision, Nathaniel had seen me watching him and even smiled at me. He told me later that we had a special bond. And now I was terrified that my greatest fear was coming true. That death wouldn’t be able to keep us apart.

I never understood the visions. Why I had them, or why they stopped. I was just grateful that they had.

But regardless, Kate was right about one thing.

It was time to see Dr. Krowe.

CHAPTER 20

I was surprised that Dr. Krowe could see me so fast and that he had an opening that afternoon. I would have to go into work an hour later, so I called Mike to make sure it was okay.

“Sure,” he said. “Lyle can probably cover it. You okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “It’s just a dentist appointment I forgot about.”

“Oh, well good then. See you at three,” he said.

I called Kate at work to let her know. She sounded tired, but perked up when I told her about the appointment.

“Say hi for me,” she said.

It still felt like going backwards, especially on the drive over, but I didn’t think too much about it. My sleep-deprived brain didn’t seem up to the task. I focused instead on stop lights, pedestrians, and safe lane changes. As I pulled in and parked by the small wood building tucked away next to some trees, all sorts of feelings sprouted up, making me want to cry.

I remembered those times I came here, believing all the while that Jesse was still alive, when everyone knew the truth. He had died in the accident.

But Dr. Krowe had helped me once, and had helped me a lot. I had told him everything in the end, about the visions, about seeing Jesse’s ghost. Everything. And he believed me. He was cool that way, willing to be open to the fact that there were paranormal events in the world that couldn’t easily be explained.

Really, he was one of the good guys.

So maybe it wasn’t that bad seeing him again. It was kind of like visiting an old friend. That’s how I was going to look at it anyway.

I knocked on the door.

“Abby,” he said, his face lighting up. “It is so good to see you.”

He gave me a hug, which surprised me.

“Hey, Dr. Krowe. How are you doing?”