Chapter 33 #3
I looked down the stairs at her, trying but failing to feel sympathy through the nausea and dizziness that were currently spinning inside me.
I slid down onto the top step and gulped in air, refilling my lungs and attempting to clear my head.
Small, invisible feet ran past me and down the steps, leaving behind a feeling of panic.
The scent of Youth-Dew had evaporated completely, letting me know that Sybil had exhausted her strength.
And that this nightmare was far from over.
Felicity rushed to Camille’s side. “I’ll call nine-one-one and say we need an ambulance.”
Beau took the steps two at a time to reach me. He knelt next to me, then pushed back my hair and looked into my face. “Are you all right?”
I managed a nod. “I didn’t…” I slurred, then stopped, knowing he could smell the bourbon.
“I know. You don’t need to explain anything to me.”
“My mom…was…here. Bonnie.”
“Yeah. I figured that’s who it was. I saw Adele, too.”
“And Sybil. Mark…killed her.”
The last light of the day filtered through the windows, a frost now covering the lower corners of each pane, on the inside. I shivered.
“He’s here,” Beau whispered.
I nodded as my eyes drifted closed. “I need to…sleep.”
He shook me gently. “Not a good idea,” he said, keeping his gaze trained on something behind me. “Let me get you outside.”
An icy finger touched the back of my neck as Beau leaned toward me.
Then a tug on the hem of my jeans bolted me out of my inertia.
My mouth opened in a silent scream as I was yanked across the room into the dark corner where the bed stood.
I grabbed at whatever I could, splinters and broken glass stabbing my palms, blood mixing with nervous sweat.
I slammed against an old console TV and snagged a brass ring pull with my index finger, jerking me to a temporary stop.
“Nola!” Beau shouted, crawling toward me and grabbing my wrists just as my finger slipped out of the ring pull.
He hooked his foot on the leg of a heavy oak bookcase as something small landed on my head and then on my arms and Beau’s fingers.
The dying light from the window was reflected by the dark, glossy wings of hundreds of flying cockroaches falling from the ceiling.
I screamed. And screamed.
“It’s okay, Nola! I’ve got you!” Beau shouted over the fluttering of papery wings and the din of hard-shelled bodies hitting the wooden floor.
Felicity appeared at the top of the steps.
She dropped to her knees and crawled to us, her movement slowed by unseen currents of viscous air as she swatted at the large insects without flinching.
She grabbed hold of the back of my shirt with one hand, then put her free hand on Beau while hooking her feet around the other front leg of the bookcase to protect her from the suction pulling us all toward the bed.
“We’re stronger together,” she said. With her eyes on Beau, she said, “Mom said that. When we were on the steps.” A roach fell on her head, and she shook it off as another ran over my arm. I shuddered but dared not pull away. “That’s how I knew. That…I’m like you.”
“We’re stronger together,” Beau repeated as a percussive wave of air swept through the room. Four bright orbs of light, one smaller than the others, hovered around us. We’ve got this. The echo of the silent words reverberated around the room and through the invisible currents.
“They’re still here,” Beau said, close to my ear. “Their energy is depleted, but they’re here.”
One of my sneakers flew off my foot as unseen hands pulled on both legs, and I began to slip away from Beau and Felicity. I looked behind me, through the falling rain of cockroaches, and saw, beneath the bed, the dark abyss that was sucking me closer like a hungry mouth.
“Nola—close your eyes!” Beau shouted.
I shook my head. I couldn’t see spirits, but it didn’t matter.
Working together, we were all stronger. I drew from my anger at the pointless deaths of Patrick, Bonnie, and Adele.
And Sybil. Anger at the sheer waste of their lives.
I turned my face to the unseen force gripping me.
“Mark! We know what you did. You will be stuck here forever unless you ask for forgiveness and let Sybil and Patrick go.”
The pulling on my legs intensified. One hand slipped out of Beau’s grasp, but Beau held on with this other hand, his fingers digging into my skin, letting me know that he wasn’t letting go. I didn’t know what waited for me in the dark maw behind me, but I was beyond sure I didn’t want to go there.
Felicity kept her grip on Beau, and small electric fibers danced around where their limbs touched. The muscles in Beau’s neck bulged as he struggled to hold on. “Mark! Let us help you find your way to the light. You don’t have to stay here. You have no more secrets to hide.”
The pull intensified more, tugging me backward. Beau’s grip loosened, my wrist slipping.
I pushed down the rising bubbles of panic. “Sybil is here, Mark. She and Patrick want to go to the light. You can go with them. You only need to ask for forgiveness.”
The fluttering of insect wings filled the room as the air shifted almost imperceptibly, my body now being shoved from side to side like a mind weighing a decision.
“There’s a better place,” Beau said, his voice wavering with strain. “A place where there is light and forgiveness. You don’t need to stay here. All you need to do is ask your mother to forgive you for what you did. She can lead you to the light.”
My fingers slipped through Beau’s and held on to his hand. One by one, they began to slip. “I…can’t…hold…on…” I gasped.
“Yes, you can.” The words were forced from between his gritted teeth. “Mark, listen to me. All you have to do is ask,” Beau shouted. “Your mother loves you. No matter what, your mother will never stop loving you.”
The heavy waves of air slowed, like water in a departing boat’s wake. The hold on my legs loosened by a degree.
“Sybil’s here, Mark,” Beau continued. “She’s waiting for you.”
A shimmer of gray light broke through a corner of the room, near the ceiling, a sparkling ray of sunshine cutting a swath out of the growing darkness.
I looked toward the almost blinding light and I recognized Sybil from Honey and Joan’s framed photographs.
She looked younger than in the pictures and had her arm around a little boy dressed in clothing from the turn of the previous century.
“Do you see her, Mark? She’s looking for you. She wants to set you free.”
A loud roar blew past us, my skin vibrating with the sound, my ears ringing. It was rage and regret and sadness and remorse all at once. Intense enough that my eyes stung with tears and my heart hurt from the kaleidoscope of emotions.
The roaches had stopped falling from the ceiling, their corpulent bodies vanishing from the floor, and the pulling on my legs came to an abrupt end, leaving only a throbbing pain in my ankle.
I kept my eyes on the woman and boy in the corner as the light grew, bathing the entire room in a buttery glow.
A black shadow appeared on top of the bloodstain on the floor, and I scrambled in my half-awake state to get closer to Beau. The shadow expanded, its head, torso, and limbs morphing into the figure of a man. He stared at us with hollow eyes before turning to face the woman and child in the corner.
The light grew as the man shed his dark shadow, becoming more human as he walked toward the corner.
He stood in front of the woman until she extended her hand.
After a brief moment, the man took it. Mark, Sybil, and Patrick turned as one, and without a glance back, they moved away from us just as the stream of light withdrew to wherever it had come, leaving us in dark silence.
I lay on the floor, breathing heavily and feeling on my hip the pressure of the storage-room key and fob in my pocket. Something cold that felt like a kiss brushed my cheek. I turned my head to see a small orb, its light dimming, its energy diminished. “Mom?”
We got this, Nola, baby. You’re gonna be okay. I’ll always be a part of you. Every time you make music, you’ll find me there.
I reached out toward the orb, wanting to capture it and hold it and keep it safe. But it was already gone.
Felicity switched on her phone’s flashlight and moved the beam around the room. “No more roaches. I thought I was back in New York City for a while there, although these cockroaches are bigger.” Her feeble laugh bumped with nerves.
Too tired to laugh, I turned my head and watched Beau crawl toward me. He sat down and pulled my upper body into his lap. The distant sound of sirens, not an unfamiliar noise in New Orleans, punctuated the night.
“I’ll go check on Camille and wait for the ambulance and police,” Felicity said. I listened as her footsteps pounded down the stairs.
Beau looked down at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, almost expending the last of my energy. “How did…you know…to come?”
He grinned, and it managed to shoot a bolt of electricity through me even in my current state. “You left the voice mail on Felicity’s phone, so we knew where you’d gone. But it was the kissing emoji you sent in your last text. That’s how I knew there had to be something terribly wrong.”
I smiled and closed my eyes, the sound of sirens growing louder as I finally succumbed to sleep.