Chapter 51
FIFTY-ONE
Alex was in the kitchen, his hands balled into fists and his shoulders hunched with tension.
His face was contorted with fear, his mouth still open in a scream, and his eyes were staring, but Quinn was certain he couldn’t see his parents.
Max began to shriek in terror, while Mia stood frozen, her back pressed to the fridge.
Silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at her brother, petrified.
Emma came running from the bedroom, her headphones hanging around her neck.
“Mia, what happened?” Gabe cried.
“I… I don’t know,” Mia whispered. “He just started screaming.”
“Alex, son, can you hear me?” Gabe tried, but it was obvious Alex couldn’t hear anything. His hand went to his chest, and he began to make choking noises that quickly turned to wheezing.
Quinn stood rooted to the spot, unable to move as blind panic seized her and refused to let go. Seeing her reaction, Emma grabbed a shaking and whimpering Max and held him tight as the little boy buried his face in her midriff. Mia raced past Alex and disappeared into the bathroom, unable to watch.
Gabe sank to his knees. He took Alex gently by the arms and tried to get him to look at him.
Alex had suffered from night terrors when he was small, so perhaps this was the same—a waking nightmare.
And then, as she looked into her son’s eyes, Quinn knew, and she was filled with purpose.
She hurled herself at Alex and tried to pry open his fist. He resisted at first, but then his fingers went slack, and he opened his hand.
Inside, slick with sweat, was the amethyst earring.
Instantly understanding what had occurred, Gabe grabbed the earring before Quinn could touch it with her bare hands and shoved it into the front pocket of his shirt.
Alex stopped screaming and looked at his parents in confusion.
His mouth opened in incomprehension when his gaze alighted on Emma, who was quietly weeping.
“What happened?” he asked. “Mum, why is Emma crying?”
Quinn shook her head and momentarily shut her eyes.
She wanted to shake Alex and berate him for touching the earring, but it was her fault.
She’d thought she’d returned the container to her bag, but she must have left it on the worktop when she’d come inside.
And what curious little boy wouldn’t check to see what it was?
Alex should have known better. He was aware that certain objects could hurl him into the past, but, like Quinn, sometimes he couldn’t resist. To him it was like watching a film.
Alex didn’t quite understand that what he was seeing was someone’s actual life.
Or death. Was that what he had seen? He had been gasping and struggling to breathe.
Was it possible that he had experienced Geneva’s final moments?
Mia slithered out of the bathroom and ran to Emma, who was cradling Max. He wasn’t crying, but he was still trembling and whimpering softly.
“Would you like to watch some funny videos?” Emma asked him. “Don’t worry, Mum, I’m not going on Insta. I have them downloaded,” she explained before Quinn could argue.
Max nodded, and the three children went into the bedroom and shut the door. For a moment, all was silent and still.
“Alex, what did you see?” Gabe asked once they heard Max giggling through the closed door, the incident already forgotten.
Alex shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about or relive whatever horror he’d just witnessed.
It had never occurred to Quinn that such a thing could be possible, but what if he was able to see an alternative version of events?
Or maybe the object had taken him to a different point in the same timeline.
If what she suspected was true, then he had skipped directly to the murder and bypassed everything that had come before. But she had to be sure.
“Alex,” she said gently as she came to stand before him. “What did you see?”
The child was calmer now, and the bright lights of the kitchen and his parents’ presence obviously made him feel safe, but he still seemed a bit shaky. Gabe went to the fridge, poured a glass of orange juice, and handed it to Alex, who gulped it down and handed the glass back to Gabe.
“Better?” Quinn asked.
Alex nodded. The color had come back into his face, and the trembling had stopped.
“Alex, what did you see?” she asked again gently. “I know it was frightening, but you need to tell us, so that we understand.”
Alex nodded and sighed so deeply his shoulders drooped with the weight of his sadness. “I saw a lady.”
“What happened to her?” Gabe asked.
“It was dark,” Alex said, his voice very quiet.
“And cold. The metal pressed against her shoulder blades and the backs of her legs as the wheels of the cart bumped over uneven ground. The sky looked so big, and it was full of stars. The moon was nearly full, and so bright. And there was snow on the ground.”
Alex’s voice was different, deeper, and the words were that of an adult, not an eight-year-old boy. Quinn found that strange since, as far as she knew, she’d never channeled anyone else once she’d come out of her trance, but she didn’t dare interrupt. Alex needed to tell the story in his own way.
“There was a well. The wooden cover had been tossed aside, and the moon’s reflection danced on the water. The lady tried to scream, but someone clamped a hand over her mouth. They were wearing gloves.”
“What happened then?” Quinn asked.
Gabe shot her a look of warning, since whatever had come after wasn’t suitable for a child’s innocent eyes, but she had to know, if only to better understand how to help Alex process the horror.
“The lady struggled, but she was too weak to fight. After a few moments, she went still. The person grabbed her beneath the arms and dragged her towards the well. She wore nothing but a short slip, and her heels made tracks in the snow. They pushed her in, feet first, and she dropped into the freezing water. It closed over her head. The cold revived her, and she tried to scream, but the filthy water got into her nose and mouth, and she gagged. She tried to find something to grab on to.” Alex was crying again, but softly this time, with compassion, not naked fear.
“She was terrified. Her heart beat wildly, and her arms flapped as she tried to get her head above the water. She managed to suck in a few quick breaths, but then the person put their hand on her head and pushed her under. They held her down until she could no longer fight, and then they stood at the edge, looking down for a few moments until they fitted the cover into place.”
“So, she was still alive,” Quinn whispered. “The poor girl was still alive.”
Alex nodded, and she pulled him into her arms and held him. She could hear his heart beating against her chest and wished she could protect him from anything that had the power to hurt him, but they would not be able to put this episode to rest until she asked one final question.
“Alex, who was it? Who threw her into the well?”
“I don’t know,” Alex muttered. His voice shook with emotion as he looked into Quinn’s worried face. “Was it real, Mum?”
“It was real a long time ago,” Gabe said. “The lady you saw is past her suffering.”
“That’s good,” Alex said. “But why did I see that?”
“You saw a memory,” Quinn explained.
“Is it like the Pensieve in Harry Potter?”
“Yes,” Quinn said, grateful for the lifeline Alex had thrown her. It was much easier to explain if he could place what he had experienced into the context of a story he already knew and understood. “We can use the memories to figure out who did that to her.”
“Will they get punished?” Alex asked, and looked from Quinn to Gabe. “Will they go to jail?”
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean maybe?” he demanded.
“This happened a long time ago. They might be long gone. But it’s still important to find the truth. She had family, a sister.”
Alex’s gaze slid to the bedroom door, where his own sisters were talking softly to Max.
“Was it a man or a woman you saw?” Quinn asked.
Alex shook his head. “I don’t know. It was dark, and the person I saw wore a dark coat and a hat. I couldn’t see their face.”
“How big were their hands?”
The boy’s gaze went from Quinn’s hands to Gabe’s, assessing. “More like Dad’s.”
“So it had to have been a man,” Gabe said.
“Can I go now?” Alex asked. He bolted from the kitchen and went straight to the bedroom, then shut the door.
“I reckon that was bound to happen sooner or later,” Gabe said wearily.
“I’m sorry. I thought I had put the earring away. I must have left the container on the worktop.”
“The world is full of objects that belonged to the dead. Alex will have to learn to be careful what he touches.”
“He’s just a little boy,” Quinn said miserably. “This is too much for him to handle.”
“Yes, but we won’t be there to protect him every minute of every day. He should have known better than to open the container and take out the earring.”
“I wish there was something we could do to turn off his visions.”
“But there isn’t, so all we can do is tell him again and again not to touch things he’s not sure about.”
“Easier said than done,” Quinn replied. She suddenly felt very tired and sad.
Gabe took her by the shoulders and looked down into her face. “You look done in. Why don’t you rest for a few minutes, and I’ll come get you when the kids are ready to eat.”
Quinn nodded, but, just as she was about to leave, Alex emerged from the bedroom. He walked up to her and took her by the hand.
“What is it, darling? Are you still afraid?”
Alex shook his head. “No, but I remembered something.”
“What?” Quinn and Gabe asked in unison.
“I think there were two of them.”