Remington
“This place gives me the creeps, man,” Bax says, waving his flashlight as the three of us pile out of the Shaggin’ Waggin’ and look around the empty, dark and soulless property that is the Sheffield farmhouse.
I dragged Bax and Tommy with me to get a few of Didi’s things.
It didn’t take much coaxing from Tommy, and Bax needed to sober the fuck up, so I dragged him along, too.
The three of us needed some bonding time, and Talia left the house hours ago—probably headed to campus to work. And Didi needed to rest.
Tommy stumbles out of the van last, holding his flashlight, wearing a dark sweater and jeans to match my own. The two of us make eye contact as we take in our surroundings, and the memories of the last time we were here come rushing back.
The shock of dead bodies, blood, and carnage. Seeing Father Malcolm and what we thought was Didi’s body, and the heavy emotions that followed us during the weeks after—solidifying we were, in fact, the monsters that plagued this town for centuries. Even though I’ve known for years.
Bax points his light to the field as we walk up the side of the house to check out the property before we head inside. He jolts and cries out as the light runs across a tall shadow shining in the moonlight.
“What the hell?” Bax shouts, dropping his flashlight. I snap my head toward him while Tommy wanders off.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him.
Bax points at the inky horizon. “There’s a dude over there in the grass, man.”
I glance toward the tall grass and see the outline of the straw man I placed there months ago to scare Didi off.
I chuckle. “Dude, it’s a scarecrow. I put that thing out to scare Didi when she first came here.
” Not that it did anything to get her to leave town; in fact, I’m pretty sure she liked the damn thing.
She could have chopped it down, but she didn’t.
Even after everything, the straw man is still standing.
Bax shakes his head. “No, it’s staring at me, man. I think someone’s out there, watching us.” He whips the flashlight around. “Isn’t this where that pack of hillbillies live?”
The sudden sensation that someone is watching from beyond the darkness tickles the short hairs at the nape of my neck. My senses sharpen as I look around for any sign of Clyde and Billie.
Wind. Grass. Muggy air. No grass people anywhere.
“Dude, you’re tripping. It’s just a scarecrow.”
He gives me a skeptical look, so I head over, hacking at the tall grass with my knife to prove my point, passing the dried-up well as I go. I shudder, knowing a rotting corpse lies just below—her soul likely trapped there. I grab the creepy thing and shake it.
“See,” I call out to him. “He’s made of straw, Bax. You’re going to be okay.”
He stands in the distance, the house behind him, with his lanky arms hanging by his sides.
I head back to him, and he crosses his arms, looking unimpressed. I slap him on the back. “Look, if you’re scared, then stay in the van. Tommy and I are going to grab Didi’s stuff and get the hell out of here. This place gives me the creeps, too.”
He nods manically. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll keep a lookout, man. Don’t be too long.”
Tommy is silent as he stands near the dirt pile we had made over the well. I step up behind him, and his body tenses as he peers down at it. “Tommy…don’t overthink it, man. None of this is your fault.”
He tilts his head. “She hates me.” I truly don’t know which girl he is talking about anymore.
Kicking at the dirt, he raises his eyes to me. “Remy, I screwed up.”
I stare at the ground, the image of a woman with white hair, strangled and shoved into that dark hole, flashing in my mind. I can still see the memory of Didi’s white hair scattered across her frail body. I should’ve been here to stop this, to protect her from that monster.
I screwed up, too.
“We both failed her, but she’s back now.” I pause, swallowing a lump in my throat. “Both of them are back, and they both need us.”
He looks up, his eyes full of pain. It kills me to see him like this. I’m the one who’s supposed to be brooding, not him.
“Talia hates me, too,” he says.
“Talia doesn’t hate you. Talia doesn’t know how to hate. Just like she doesn’t know how to love or cry. She doesn’t experience things the way you and I do. Her emotions aren’t real.”
He looks up at me and narrows his eyes. “What do you mean when you say that? She cried earlier today. Her emotions looked pretty damn real to me.”
“They weren’t real; they were just for show. Everything is a show with her.”
He can’t grasp Talia because he’s blinded by her beauty, just like he fails to see the darkness within Didi. All Tommy sees is sunshine and rainbows, with rock n’ roll music coming out of his ass.
“She might hate you right now, but she’ll be over it by tonight. Everything Talia experiences is fleeting.”
He runs his hand through his hair. “It’s deeper than the Order, isn’t it? There’s something wrong with her.”
My jaw ticks. “There is nothing wrong with Talia—at least, nothing that’s her fault.” I stop there. I’ve already said too much. Talia’s trauma is not mine to share with anyone. I vowed not to tell anyone.
He turns and pins me with his fingers right on my chest. “Don’t tell me there is nothing wrong with her. I can see the hurt in her eyes. Something ain’t right. You might think I’m a dumbass, but I care about her, man.”
“Talia isn’t crazy,” I bark out, slapping his hand down. “You don’t know a fucking thing about either of them.”
Tommy tenses, his muscles rippling under his tight, dark sweater. I take a step back, knowing that as much as Tommy is a softy, man to man, he could take me.
He doesn’t get angry much, but when he does, he doesn’t know how to switch it off. Pretty boy has a ferocious temper.
“Bite me,” he seethes.
I take a deep breath as I clench my fists and then soften. I don’t want to fight him; I just want to get home to our girls.
“Look, I won’t lie, Talia’s a mess. She feels things—remorse, anger, love—probably more intensely than either of us.
That retreat with the hippies wasn’t just for appearances; killing Daniel really messed her up.
But her feelings aren’t the same as ours.
They’re more like surges she must fight to control just to seem normal.
Everything she does is a performance, because deep down, everything hurts.
Sometimes I worry she won’t be able to control herself, and god help us all if that happens. ”
He pins me with a stare. “What happened to her? What made her kill Daniel like that?”
He asks as if he’s only now noticing how fucked up Talia is—as if she’s not been like this for years. She’s that good at hiding it.
I stare down at my feet. “You’ll have to ask her that one day. What I do know is she tries. Every damn day she tries.” I believe my sister is still in there somewhere, and that’s the version of her I’ll die to protect.
Talia’s not inherently evil, even if she was a product of it.
He grows quiet for a moment. “What the hell are we going to do now?”
A burst of wind hits, blowing dust in my eyes. I stare up at the broken door and dark windows, the white curtains shifting in the wind like an invitation. Tommy flashes his light over at Bax, who’s muttering to himself, transfixed by something in the sky.
“He’ll be fine for a minute,” I say. “Let’s go in and get this over with.”
I let Tommy lead, and as soon as we step into the room, we both shine our flashlights around to check things out.
Didi’s presence is everywhere—the essence of her is overwhelming.
Half-burned candles with melted wax. Books, blankets, a small radio. Honey jars and boxes of crackers. Her sweet scent amidst the stench of death.
Tommy walks into the kitchen, flashing his light around. He doesn’t enjoy being here anymore than I do and can’t stand still.
“The kitchen’s empty,” he calls out, his shadow not the only looming presence I sense among us.
A slam behind us has us both jumping as the tall, lanky form of Bax walks in.
“Fuck, Bax,” Tommy says. “You scared me.”
“Hurry, man. That creepy straw dude is waving at me. Someone’s here, I can sense it.”
Goosebumps pebble my flesh. I feel the same, like there are eyes everywhere. I sensed it as soon as we arrived.
“We’re almost done,” I mutter.
He stumbles inside and walks to where Tommy and I are huddled around the door to the first bedroom. Tommy and I make eye contact before I slowly open the door and peer inside.
It’s empty, other than a small, coiled mattress and multiple bloodstains on the floor. No amount of scrubbing from my father’s men could ever get rid of it.
I shine my light at the window to double-check if it’s open as a chilly breeze pushes through my clothes. My hair stands on end when I realize the windows are shuttered.
I curse under my breath and step toward the second bedroom, and Tommy follows me.
“Let’s grab Didi’s stuff and get the hell out of here,” I grumble.
The second bedroom is marginally better.
At least this room smells like my little lamb.
Tommy grabs handfuls of clothes and her textbooks, shoving them into a box we found at the front of the house.
I walk over, running my hand under the mattress until my fingers find the edge, and I wrap my hands around it, pulling it out. The blade is still stained with blood.
“So, you were asking what we do now?” I ask, and Tommy pauses, glancing up from where he is neatly folding Didi’s clothes. “We have to protect them. Their flesh, their hearts, and souls. We shield them from everyone and everything, especially themselves.”
“Hey, guys…” Bax calls out, his voice shaky. He cautiously draws our attention to the dark hallway, clearly terrified. “She’s watching me, man.”
Irritation roils in my gut. I swear to god, if he goes on about that scarecrow again—
“Who’s watching you?” Tommy calls out.
“The girl, man… The girl in the bedroom is watching me. She’s wearing a white nightgown, and I…I don’t think she wants us here.”
Tommy and I stare at each other briefly, and in the corner of my eye, I see the shimmer Bax is talking about.
I turn to face her, and I blink, and she’s right in my face, so close I can reach out and touch her. “Are you two seeing this?”
“I see her,” Tommy says, frozen in place. “What do you think she wants?”
My voice becomes shaky as she shimmers and appears in the corner of the room. “I don’t know.” I stand frozen, watching and waiting, and the ghost girl stands over what looks like a blood spot. I carefully step into the room.
“What are you doing?” Tommy hisses. “Let’s go.”
“One second,” I bite back. “I want to check something.” These old houses sometimes have spaces beneath the floors.
This ghost girl isn’t haunting us for pleasure; her soul is in torment, and she’s trying to tell me something.
If I can help her find peace, and escape this place, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
I drop to my hands and knees and knock on the floor, hearing the echo from underneath.
I immediately dig my nails into the space between the floorboards and yank it up. Tommy and Bax stand and stare.
“Help me, for fuck’s sakes.”
They each grab a side, and between the three of us, we are able to rip the board from the floor. It cracks and splinters into dust. Bax flashes his light into the darkness beneath, at the human remains left below.
“Damn,” Bax whispers. “This is like some intense shit.”
I lift my chin as the ghost girl shimmers over us and glances down at her body.
That’s enough for me. We hightail it the hell out of there as fast as humanly possible. I’ll send someone here to bury her properly.
That’s what Didi would want.