Chapter 51
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
“Damn her,” Dr. Lawson said, and Nigel didn’t know if she meant Robin or Montague. Should he put a hand on her shoulder for comfort, or would she shake it off, cling to her anger?
Oscar’s chair creaked as he shifted his weight. “I doubt it will make you feel any better, but it seems pretty clear Ms. Montague was lying when she said Robin wanted to break up with you.”
“Of course.” Everything shifted for Nigel, like a Magic Eye picture snapping into focus.
“During the seance, Robin concentrated on Montague because she’s the reason Robin is stuck here.
She’s the one who talked Robin into keeping quiet.
That’s why Robin has been trying to reach her—to get her to come clean, absolve the guilt they both share. ”
The grief cleared from Dr. Lawson’s expression, replaced—at least for now—with anger.
“And how best to distract me from asking questions than strike where Patricia knew I’d be vulnerable.
She wanted me so busy questioning everything I thought I knew about our relationship that I wouldn’t keep pressing.
” She rose to her feet. “I’m going to fucking kill her. ”
“Er,” Nigel said, taken aback.
“I don’t think spending the rest of your life in jail will help anything.” Chris held out their hands as if to physically keep her from charging out of the room. “Let’s just think about things for a minute, okay?”
“I can’t believe I let myself fall for her again.” Lawson paced restlessly toward the shuttered windows, then back. “Damn it! And now we’re on this island, and maybe Patricia and I deserve to be blown all the way to Raleigh, but you kids don’t.”
Nigel cleared his throat. “We’re in our thirties.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “I remember when you were a wet-behind-the-ears undergrad, Taylor.”
“And you warned us,” he pressed on. “You warned me. But all I could see was the grant money and the chance to make things right at the Matthews house. And when nothing bad happened, I assumed your history had distorted your judgment. Which wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry.”
She turned on her heel to face him. “No, you were right. It did influence my judgment. I didn’t know about…
about this.” A glance at the VCR to indicate what she wasn’t ready to address directly.
“I always suspected she pushed Robin to try and tackle the ghosts while I was off visiting the Vanderwalls at their hotel and letting them know about our progress. Or lack thereof. But I didn’t have proof, just anger, and I let that guide me.
And then, when I saw her again, face-to-face…
I decided I’d been unjust. That I’d needed to blame someone for Robin’s death, and I took it out on her since I couldn’t take it out on the ghosts.
” She tilted her head back and glared at the ceiling. “Fuck me.”
Tina stood up and went to her. “You’re human,” she said, and opened her arms.
To Nigel’s surprise, Dr. Lawson hugged her. “Being human isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be,” she muttered into Tina’s hair, then sniffled.
“We are pretty dumb sometimes,” Tina agreed.
“And selfish, and…and…”
Tina hugged her harder. “Yeah. But we can be pretty great. You’ve always shown up for us, so let us show up for you.”
“Heh.” Lawson released the embrace and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes. “All right. We’re stuck here so we need to figure out what to do, before the storm gets any worse. Robin thought Gloria was a tulpa. What do you know about tulpas, Taylor?”
Feeling like he was back in her lecture hall and horribly unprepared, Nigel wracked his mind frantically. “Um…I think…they’re sort of like thought-forms?”
Oscar held up his hand. “I believe I speak for the rest of us when I say I don’t know what either of those things are.”
“Thought-forms are spiritual manifestations of concentrated thought. Any sort of concentration—a musician might create a temporary one while focusing on music. They don’t look human, more like blobs of color and light, though only mediums can usually perceive them, and even then only with the proper training.
” This, at least, he remembered from his studies.
“They tend to be ephemeral, there and gone when the circumstances that created them end.”
“Exactly.” Dr. Lawson clasped her hands behind her back.
“A tulpa begins as a thought-form, but its creators concentrate on a humanoid shape and personality, along with the determination to bring it into existence. Traditionally, the point is to create a spirit with an independent existence. If I had to guess, instead of holding a normal seance, the Pack decided they could bring Gloria’s spirit here by ritualistically envisioning her day after day.
Hopefully, she’d crossed the veil and was beyond their reach no matter what, but either way, their method produced a tulpa instead.
Said tulpa gained independence…and realized her creators were horrible people. ”
“She wants to get the victims’ story out.
” Nigel stood up and joined her in pacing.
“The Pack treated them as disposable. Probably society as a whole did. But every human has value. They lived, and their story is worth telling. So Gloria made up a tale about buried pirate treasure to get people to find them.”
Chris shook their head. “Says something that she thought ‘buried pirate treasure’ would work and ‘hey, there’s some dead people who need to be put to rest somewhere that isn’t a mass grave’ wouldn’t.”
“Was she wrong?” Nigel asked ruefully.
“Apparently not.” Dr. Lawson put her hands on her hips.
“We need to keep ourselves safe until the coast guard can rescue us. I say we hunker down in a room with fewer large windows, put Faraday cloth over the door to drain Gloria’s energy if she tries to get in, and wait.
After that…let me spread the word about what the Pack did.
I don’t have as much to lose as you young people do. ”
Nigel was unconvinced of that, but didn’t say anything. Maybe Ms. Montague would go easier on Dr. Lawson, given their history. Maybe—
The front door swung open, and Montague stumbled inside. Ethan had tried to shield her from the weather with an umbrella, but it was turned inside-out, the ribs broken from the force of the wind. As he slammed the door behind them, Montague straightened.
In her hands, she held the Devil’s Toy Box.