The Waiting: A Supernatural Thriller (5 page)

Jacob
continued stacking their belongings upon the dock in an ever-growing pile. Within a few minutes the pontoon was empty, and Evan helped untie the craft from the dock’s moorings.

He
held out a twenty-dollar bill to Jacob, who immediately waved it away. “You have to take it,” Evan said, pushing the money at the older man again.

“No, I don’t,” Jacob said
, smiling. “That’s the nice thing about bein’ yer own boss. I’ll settle fer a handshake and maybe a beer next time yer in town. How’s that?”

Evan finally relented and shoved the money into his pocket
, then shook Jacob’s outstretched hand. “Sounds like a deal, and thank you again.”

“No problem, boyo. Keep
yer daddy in line, eh, Shaun?” Jacob waved at the boy.

Shaun raised a hand
, kicked his feet, and smiled.

“Take care, now,” Jacob said
, as Evan pushed the pontoon away from the dock.

Soon the motor purred to life
, and the boat as well as its captain grew smaller and smaller across the waves.

Evan turned back to the island, surveying t
he lush forest on the acreage, listening to the wind cutting through the trees, and breathing in the scent of fresh water and pine needles. Shaun waved at him, and he waved back before picking up one of their bags. When he glanced over his shoulder, Jacob had disappeared from sight.

They were alone.

5

A musty blast of air swept
past Evan’s face when he opened the door to the house.

Like a crypt opening.

He shook his head, forcing the odd thought away. Hefting Shaun into a better position, he nudged the door open and stepped inside.

They
were in a small entryway, with a closet directly opposite them. To the left, a living room opened into a wide space interspersed with comfortable-looking leather furniture. An entertainment center stood against the far wall, with a large flat-screen TV above it. The bank of windows in the room overlooking the lake were dusty but gave a great view of the yard and water.

Evan walked
farther into the house, pausing every so often to take in a painting on the wall or a knickknack standing on a shelf. Past the living room was the kitchen, modest and clean, with a long, wooden table in its center. A fridge stood beside a small dishwasher, and another series of windows looked over the backyard, which was more overgrown than the front, hemmed in by trees that obscured the lake from view save a shimmer here and there between their trunks. To the right of the kitchen were two doors.

“Let’s see what’s in here, buddy,” Evan said, and grasped the handle of the door on the left.

It was the master bedroom, a neatly made bed in its center and a walk-in closet off to one side. The windows faced the woods to the south, their growth even thicker than those in the backyard.

A wave of self-consciousness rolled over him
as he looked at Jason’s grandparents’ bedroom, as if they would come through the front door any moment and catch him and Shaun intruding in their private space. He shut the door, stanching the invasive feeling.

“How about door number two?”
he said, tousling Shaun’s hair. The boy giggled.

Evan grasped the doorknob and p
ulled. The door swung open—

—to
darkness. A set of stairs led straight down and disappeared from sight.

“Basement,” Evan said
.

Reaching out
, he felt along the wall for a light switch he knew must be there. His fingers found it, a disproportionate amount of relief flowing through him, and snapped it on.

Nothing happened.

Everything below them remained shrouded in black. Evan stepped back and shut the door, pulling his palm away from the knob as though it were hot.

“Let’s go find your room,” Evan said
.

They moved
through the living room to the opposite end of the house. The three-season porch branched off to the left, its hexagonal shape holding a gas grill, four lawn chairs, and a small table. The only bathroom in the house sat before two other doors, and when Evan opened them, he found that they were almost identical guest bedrooms. Picking the larger of the two, he went inside and set Shaun down on the edge of a twin bed.

“What do you think, buddy? Is this your room?”

Shaun’s eyes roamed the ceiling and flitted across the closet and chest of drawers. He pointed above Evan’s head, his upper teeth biting into his lower lip.

“Fa, fff
...”

Shaun paused, his jaw working to dislodge the word he wanted. Evan mimicked his expression and coaxed him with the same sound.

“Fffff.”

“F
-f-f-fan,” Shaun said, and smiled at the ceiling fan hanging in the middle of the room.

“Good boy
,” Evan said, and hugged his son close. “That’s right, that’s a fan. Can you say it again?”

“F
-fan!”

“
High-five!”

Shaun raised his small hand and placed it against his fa
ther’s much larger one. “Five.”

Evan grinned
, and in that moment Shaun looked so much like Elle it hurt his heart. How she would have loved to see his progress. Biting back a line of tears that threatened to spill out, he stood and gazed out of the window at the swaying trees.

“Come on, son. Let’s ge
t the rest of our gear inside.”

~

They worked for the next two hours, Evan hauling their belongings up the short hill and into the house while Shaun watched from his chair in the shade near the front door. Every so often Evan would stop to take in their surroundings. Spring birdsong filtered into the yard from the dense copses of trees to either side of the house. The fresh air tasted good on his tongue, and his muscles burned in an almost pleasant way.

He took the other guest room, mostly because he wanted to be within feet of
Shaun in case he had a seizure or needed him in the middle of the night, and only partially because he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep in the master bedroom. As he set his suitcase on the bed, a silver wristwatch on the bedside table, atop the cover of a paperback thriller, caught his eye. Evan picked it up and saw that it was a self-winder, the kind that used energy from the movement of its wearer. Its hands were stopped at 12:17. Frowning, he set it down and made a mental note to tell Jason his prior caretaker had left it behind.

After Evan deemed them adequately moved in
, he made them sandwiches from the meager supplies he’d brought to get them through the first day or two. They ate on the screened-in porch, enjoying the view and listening to the wind and occasional whine of an outboard motor on the lake.

“This is beautiful, huh
, buddy? We’re going to stay here for the summer. Is that okay?”

Shaun gazed around at the trees, his eyes returning to the lake over and over.

“A lot of people would pay a bunch of money to stay in place like this, but Uncle Jason is paying us.”

Evan glanced over his shoulder at the house that wasn’t anything near a cabin. It didn’t need a full-time caretaker, not really. Someone could’ve handled the chores one day a week, if that.

“Uncle Jason’s too good to us, you know that?”

Shaun looked his way and smiled, his head tipping forward so that he looked at
Evan from beneath his eyebrows.

Evan
chuckled. “You’re a ham.”

When they were done eating,
he left Shaun on the porch, reclining his chair enough so the boy could comfortably fall asleep if he wanted to. In the kitchen he gathered the bread, turkey, cheese, and mayonnaise and opened the fridge to put them away.

The stench hit him like a baseball bat.

Rotten, molded food soaked in its own juices. Containers and bags filled with unrecognizable contents sat on each shelf. A single milk carton looked normal, but the crisper held nothing but a brown soup.

“Fuck me,” Evan
said, and stepped back, covering his mouth and nose.

He stared at the inside of the fridge, almost tasting the rot on his tongue. The sandwich in his stomach made a leap for the back
of his throat, but he swallowed, forcing it down. He glanced at the temperature setting, noting it was a little warm, but not enough to cause the decay before him.

Evan
shoved the door shut to cut off the smell. He moved back until his ass hit the counter beside the sink, watching the fridge as though it were some feral animal crouched in the corner. Without thinking about it, he dug his cell phone from his pocket and made his way to the porch. Shaun dozed in the chair, the breeze ruffling his light hair.

When
he glanced at the phone only one bar was visible for service. “Shit.”

He
walked through the living room. As he neared the windows overlooking the lake, the signal gained another bar, and he hit Jason’s number. It rang only once before there was a click on the other end.

“Make it okay?” Jason said.

Evan heard the murmur of other people in the background. “Yeah. Hey, can you talk right now, or is it not a good time?”

“Sure, I’m good. Just left a board meeting
. What’s up?”

Evan paced to the front door and then back again, shooting
a look at the kitchen. “Something’s off here.”

“What do you mean, ‘off’?”

“Who was this last guy you had in the house?”

A pause. “Why?”

“Well, for one, he left his watch and a paperback in the guest room, which isn’t a big deal. But the fucking fridge is full of rotten food, man. When I opened it up the smell about knocked me over.”

“Really?
Was it unplugged?”

“No.”

“What the hell? Yeah, I mean, his name was Bob something ... Garrison? Something like that, anyway. He was a normal guy. Single, lived in Colorado before he moved here, did some handyman stuff to get by. Never had a problem with him until this spring.”

“You said he quit
—what happened?”

Another pause. “Well, to be honest
, he stopped answering my calls—not that I called him all the time. I gave him a ring in late March, and then again in mid-April. When he didn’t get back to me the second time, I had Jacob go out there and check it out. He said that the place was empty and everything was fine, but no sign of Bob. He cashed the last check I sent him in March, so I thought he got sick of being there and jetted.”

Evan chewed at the inside of his cheek
. The house looked slightly different now. Not quite as open and bright as before.

“It looks like he up and left everything sitting here, like he just took off.
If he left in March, that would explain why the fridge is so nasty. But how the hell did he leave? Both boats are still here.”

“I’m guessing he hoofed it across the lake since it was still frozen in
early April.”

Evan shook his head. “Weird.”

A ding of an elevator came from Jason’s end.

“I don’t know what to tell you, my friend, people are loopy. I’m sorry you guys have to deal with the shitbag’s mess. How’s everything else, though
? Jacob get you there okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, he was great, didn’
t even charge us for the ride.”

“That’s how he is
. He was Dad’s best friend, good guy, except he’s Irish.”

“I’m Irish, you asshole.”

“I know.”

Evan laughed. “I’m sorry, man, I’m not complaining. The house is great and the island is beautifu
l. Shaun loves it here so far.”

“Good deal
. Hey, I gotta run, there’s a client waiting in my office. I’ll give you a ring later.”

“Okay, talk to you then.”

Jason began speaking to someone else a second before the line disconnected, and Evan felt the warm glow he always did when he reflected on their friendship. There wasn’t another person in the world who knew him better. Now that Elle was gone.

He swallowed and sighed before going to check on Shaun again. When
he saw that the boy hadn’t moved a muscle, he turned and headed for the kitchen, mentally preparing himself for the cleaning session he was about to endure.

~

It took him an hour to clean the fridge. Somehow, amongst three gagging episodes and two breaks to check on Shaun, he managed to evict all signs of the decaying food from the GE. After tossing two bags of refuse into a large garbage can outside, Evan finished putting away their food and separated Shaun’s clothes into the chest of drawers in his room. It was nearing five in the evening when Shaun awoke, and they sat down to a simple meal of canned soup.