The Ghoul Next Door (5 page)

“What’d you do?” Gilley asked.

Courtney looked down at the table, still struggling with the memory of that day in the house with her brother. “I wrapped him in my arms and hugged him tightly, promising him that I’d do whatever I could to help him, but he just kept asking me to make ‘him’ go away. Finally, I sat back and asked him who he meant, and Luke pointed behind me. . . .”

Again Courtney’s voice faded away and she struggled to speak. “I . . . ,” she said, her voice wavering. “I turned and on the wall of the living room there was this shadow. . . .”

“A shadow,” I repeated, trying to help. “Was it in the shape of a person?”

Her eyes lifted to mine. “Yes!”

“A man,” I added.

She nodded.

“And the shadow wasn’t flat, right? It had dimension, as if the shadow were in three-D.”

Courtney put a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide and misty as she nodded.

“Did you hear anything?” Heath asked her.

Her gaze shifted to him. “Yes,” she repeated. “I heard . . . I heard . . . laughter, only it wasn’t laughter. It was more evil. It was the evilest noise I’ve ever heard. And it surrounded us in a way that . . .” Courtney seemed to struggle with a way to explain what she’d heard.

“You felt it in your bones, didn’t you?” I said.

She gasped. “Yes! That’s exactly how it felt.”

Gilley set his fork and knife down. I could see the fear and worry on his face. I think when we’d explained to him that Steven had come to us saying that his fiancée had a ghost she needed help with, he’d thought it’d be more like the old days when we dealt with local spooks who just made small bumps in the night. This was already looking to be a much bigger deal. “What’d you do then?” he asked her.

She leaned over a little and hugged Steven’s arm. “I grabbed Luke and we bolted out of the house. I took him home to my place and we haven’t been back to that house since.”

Gilley seemed to relax. “Oh, phew!” he said. “So, you just want us to talk to Luke and let him know that what he encountered is a perfectly natural phenomenon, and that he’s not crazy, right?”

“No,” Steven said to him. “There’s a little more to the story, Gilley.” Turning to Courtney, he added, “Tell them the rest,
bella
.”

She took another deep breath and continued. “At first, things went back to normal. Well, sort of normal. I put Luke to bed, because he seemed to be exhausted, and the next morning I had an early surgery, so I let him sleep. When I got home, he was still asleep and I became concerned, so I woke him. He told me that before I’d gotten to the house he was renting, he hadn’t slept more than an hour or two a night in about a week and a half. I could also tell that he’d lost about ten pounds since the last time I’d seen him.

“He said that it all started a few weeks before winter finals. Walking across campus to his car after one of his night classes, he had the feeling that he was being followed, but he swore that every time he looked over his shoulder, nothing was there. He told me that once he got home, weird stuff began happening. He’d open up the cabinet where he kept his glassware, and instead he’d find plates and bowls. He’d put his clothes in the hamper and find them hanging up in his closet the next morning. Or he’d set something down for a minute only to return and find it in another room. And, he says, the feeling of being followed persisted and got worse.

“Luke swears that every time he left the house, it was like someone was right behind him—he could even hear the footsteps—but nobody was there. He started to wonder if he was going crazy. But then he says that his friends stopped wanting to hang out with him. This happened abruptly. One minute he had a group of buddies to hang out with or study with, and all of a sudden they don’t want anything to do with him.

“Finally he couldn’t take that feeling of being followed anymore, so he skipped class and stayed home, and that day almost nothing unusual happened. The next day he went out for groceries and the minute he stepped out of the house, he felt that presence again. It was like whatever was following him wanted him to stay put.

“He didn’t know what was happening, and he was terrified that he was becoming schizophrenic. He didn’t know what to do and he didn’t call me because he was afraid I’d tell him that’s exactly what was happening. Meanwhile, Luke said that every time he tried to catch some sleep, he would have terrible nightmares of being physically attacked by a shadowy figure wielding a hunting knife. He said he couldn’t get away from the shadow person in his dreams and he started to fear going to sleep. At last he started to see the figure of a man out of the corner of his eye, always darting out of sight whenever Luke tried to look. Eventually, he was so sleep deprived he became delirious and he could barely think. That’s about the time I found him.”

The waiter came by to clear away our plates and offer us dessert. I think he was a little thrown by the somber mood at the table, but we all ordered coffee and Courtney got back to her story. “For the next several days Luke rested, ate, and got better. He’d left all of his belongings back at the other house, but neither of us wanted to think about ever going back there, so I replaced his textbooks, his computer, and his clothes, and took him on walks down by the water to help him try to feel normal again. Luke loves the smell of the bay and I thought that walking along the shore was helping him more than anything, but then one afternoon just a few days into this new routine, as Luke and I were walking, I felt Luke sort of stiffen. When I looked over at him, I could see how pale he’d suddenly become—he looked terrified. I asked him what was wrong and he said that we were being followed. I looked behind us, but there was no one there.”

“Could it have been his imagination?” Gilley asked (hopefully, I thought).

Courtney shook her head. “At first, that’s what I thought, but then we started walking again and I swear I felt this sort of weird presence behind us too. Luke got so freaked-out that he took off running and it was a minute before I realized what’d happened. I started chasing after him when I saw this black shadow appear out of thin air and keep right on his heels. I think that scared me even more than the encounter at the house. I mean, whatever it was, it was literally chasing my brother all the way down the street. It matched Luke step for step. . . .” Courtney’s voice trailed off as she gave in to a shudder and seemed to lose herself in the awful memory. “They were both faster than me, but I did manage to catch up to Luke when he ducked inside a grocery store. When I found him huddled near the produce, I think we both realized that the shadow was gone. Luke said the minute he got into a crowd, the shadow had vanished. It’s like it can’t pick him out of a crowd or something, but out on the streets and alone in the house, he’s fair game.”

I glanced sideways at Heath and found him looking at me in return. This sounded bad, and I could tell he thought so too.

“After that,” Courtney continued, leaning back so the waiter could set down her coffee, “he begged me not to leave him alone, and so I didn’t. I called the hospital and rearranged my shifts, and managed to spend two more days with him. Steven came over and we had a few friends in for a visit, and while the house was full of people during those few days, nothing happened, and I started to hope that maybe we had lost whatever that thing was that had attached itself to my brother. Steven knew something was wrong, however, and after our guests left, he got me to confess what’d been going on, and I was so relieved when he not only believed me, but he told me he might be able to help. Luke and I felt so much better for his company, but then Luke started having those nightmares again.”

“The same as before?” I asked.

“Yes. He was always being attacked by a knife-wielding, faceless man who would grab him from behind and put the blade at his throat. He said he couldn’t sleep and Steven prescribed him some sleeping pills, which helped for a while.”

“He managed to get a few nights’ rest,” Steven said. “But then the shadows started appearing.”

“Shadows?” I repeated.

“Just like Luke had told Courtney,” Steven explained. “It was when Courtney’s friends left and the house was quiet again. We started to catch small glimpses of a flickering shadow. Sometimes it was like someone passed very quickly just out of view. It was the sense of movement more than actually being able to see anything.”

“Meanwhile,” Courtney said, taking over the story again, “Luke was having a harder and harder time at night. The sleeping pills weren’t working, and I got a little crazy myself from worrying over him. I went out and bought a dozen crucifixes and put them all over the house—I put three in his room alone—but that only seemed to heighten the negative energy in the house. Nobody wants to be alone there, and when I go to work, Luke comes with me and just hangs out in the waiting room. As long as he’s around big groups of people, he seems to be okay, but he’s exhausted, M.J., and spending all day in the waiting room of a hospital is no life for a twenty-one-year-old man. My brother hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks and he’s had to drop out of school. This is torture for him, and I don’t know how to help him. I don’t know how to protect him and get this thing away from him. I don’t even know what this
thing
is, and I feel like we’re all going a little crazy over it.”

“I understand,” I told her.

She surprised me by reaching out to cover my hand with hers. “I know this is incredibly awkward for you,” she said, motioning with her eyes toward her fiancé. “But Steven has told me so much about how amazing you are, and how you, Heath, and Gilley handle stuff like this all the time. . . . Do you think you could find it in your heart to help us?”

Her sincerity and honesty touched me. I had a feeling that as hard as it had been for me to come here and meet her this evening, it might’ve been even harder for her—especially under these circumstances. I squeezed her hand and said, “Of course, Courtney. Of course we can.”

•   •   •

Later, when Heath, Gilley, and I were back at my condo, we tried to decide the best course of action. “I say you two drive several dozen magnetic stakes into the walls of Courtney’s house and call it a day,” Gil said.

I rolled my eyes. “That might help in the short term, but it’s not a long-term solution, buddy.”

“Why not?”

“Because Luke is the one being haunted, not Courtney’s home. Whatever this thing is, it’s decided to make Luke’s life a living hell. Which means, every single time he steps outside, he’s vulnerable.”

“He could wear one of our vests,” Heath suggested, referring to one of the magnet-loaded bubble vests that we wear on some of our more dangerous ghostbusts. Spooks can’t tolerate big shifts in the electromagnetic frequency of the atmosphere they inhabit. When you bring a bunch of magnets into a space they’re haunting, it’s like setting off a houseful of fire alarms—it’s crazy uncomfortable for them and they’ll go anywhere else to escape it.

I considered Heath’s suggestion to have Luke wear a vest for a moment before replying, “I don’t know how practical that’d be with summer coming on. I mean, you know how hot those things can be. Not to mention how much attention a guy wearing a bubble vest in the middle of summer would attract.”

“Good point,” Heath said, and we all went back to trying to come up with an idea that might work. Finally, when nothing seemed to be coming to us, I said, “I think where we need to start is by identifying who or what this shadow is and what he wants with Courtney’s brother.”

Heath nodded. “We need to interview Luke.”

I sighed heavily. That troubled me. In fact, in spite of what I’d told Courtney, this case was making me extremely nervous. “I’m worried,” I confessed. “This spook attaches itself to people—not objects. If we interview Luke and showcase our psychic abilities, what’s to stop this shadow from attaching itself to one of us?”

“Isn’t that a risk we’ll have to take?” Heath replied.

I fidgeted in my chair. “I think we should be cautious, honey.” Heath eyed me curiously and I added, “It’s just that we’ve been sort of forced into too many dangerous encounters in the past year, and I’d like to think that we’ve learned something about assessing the danger fully before taking any unnecessary risks.”

“What’re you thinking, then?” Heath asked me.

“I’m thinking that maybe we should start with a conversation with Luke in a nice crowded place.”

“He could still bring the spook with him,” Gilley said.

“True,” I agreed. “But it’s unlikely, given what Courtney’s already told us about its behavior.”

“I think you two should also wear vests,” Gil said. Heath eyed him sideways and Gil added, “I’m serious, Heath. M.J.’s right, you two need to be careful with this one, because if it follows you home, we know who it’s going to fall in love with.” For emphasis Gil pointed to his chest.

Heath and I laughed. “Yeah, yeah, buddy,” Heath said. “Okay, for your sake we’ll wear the vests.”

•   •   •

I called Courtney from my office the next morning and reached her voice mail. I left her a message to call me back; then I went for a run without Heath, who was still back at my place sleeping. Instead of taking the trail, I meandered through the neighborhoods for a while, then made my way over to a small lake in the adjoining town of Medford, which had a nice running path along the water. I noticed a news van over by the lake, and being the curious type, I edged closer. Unfortunately, I might’ve gotten a little too close, because the female reporter helping to set up the camera called me over. Reluctantly I came to a stop in front of her, very self-conscious of the sweat on my brow and the cadence of my breathing. “Hello, there!” the reporter said with forced enthusiasm as she stuck out her hand. “I’m Kendra Knight from Boston Seven News. Would you like to be on television?”

I smiled. I’d had more than my share of cameras shoved in my face to last a good long time. “No, thanks,” I said, preparing to set off again. Kendra quickly shot in front of me and her smile got bigger and her eyes wider. She seemed a bit desperate. “Please?” she said. “There’s nobody around and I really need to send my producer an interview.”