Trespass Against Us, page 14
Riley doesn’t deign to give that a reply. “See you soon.”
Alejandro’s smile dissolves. In its place is something else, something grim and tentative. “Yeah, buddy. See you soon.”
“Remember,” Vee says, “stay on the road, keep your eyes forward.”
“I know, I know.” Alejandro glances past them to the gates, ajar on their creaking hinges and hinting at a world beyond the inescapable grasp of Dominic House. “Stay safe, everyone.”
He goes, and the group swarms together by the van to watch him; unable to look away until he’s through the gates, down the road, and out of sight, claimed by the distance.
Alejandro had been wrong. It doesn’t feel like sending someone off to war; it feels like freeing someone of it.
Before
Riley had torn through the chapel, the courtyard, fervently searching through all of the ground floor. He’d half expected to find Ethan in every room he burst into, standing by the windows that overlooked the chapel, a specter of a presence.
He hadn’t been there. He hadn’t been anywhere. Fear climbed Riley’s ribs like a ladder, lodging sharp claws in the softest parts of him.
Their phones had no service. Clouds had rolled in while they slept, and Colton swore up, down, and sideways that when they cleared, they’d be back in business.
Riley knew better. Not that anybody would listen to him. It had taken both Colton and Vee to calm him down.
“He’s probably fine,” Colton promised, hand on Riley’s shoulder, as if without it to ground him, Riley might just float away. Riley wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t. “He probably just wandered off again, yeah? We’ll find him.”
They were in the house, bunched in one corner of the auditorium, breathless from their searching. They’d taken a moment to regroup, but every second that ticked by felt like an eon, time they could be searching wasting away.
“You don’t understand,” Riley said. “He’s been— God, all day. He’s been off. Haven’t you noticed? Something’s wrong with this place, and it’s getting to him.”
Colton and Vee exchanged a look over Riley’s shoulder. He read the meaning clear as day.
“I’m serious!” he insisted. “Something’s wrong!”
Colton stepped back, relinquishing him to Vee in a smooth transition. When she spoke, her voice was low, as if soothing a spooked child. “We’ll find him, Riley. And when we do, I’m going to kick his ass for worrying us all, okay?”
Riley shook his head, arms crossed. He didn’t know how to get them to understand—he didn’t know that he understood.
“I’ll check upstairs,” Colton said. “You keep searching down here. Someone should stay in the chapel in case he comes back.”
Low enough that Riley knew he wasn’t supposed to hear it, Vee said, “I don’t think Riley should be alone right now.”
“None of us should be alone,” Riley insisted. He shrugged Vee’s hands off. “I’ll go with you.”
Colton shook his head. “Go back to the chapel. He’ll probably be back before I am anyway. Wait to see if you can get a phone signal.”
Riley wasn’t so certain. “Colton—”
Colton turned, his flashlight bobbing as he strode away, and Riley was helpless but to watch as he vanished out into the hallway.
“Hey,” Vee said, snagging his attention. She pushed Riley’s hair from his face. “You’re letting this place get to you, okay? How many places have we been to that were actually haunted?”
Frustration consumed Riley. “Breaking into a few cemeteries and a few empty buildings around town has nothing on this, and you know it.”
Vee’s patience was endless. “Let’s go back to the chapel. When Colton returns, we’ll—”
A crack resounded throughout the house, and Colton screamed.
Twelve
“Well,” Jordan says after the silence of Alejandro’s departure has lingered long enough to become uncomfortable, “the way I see it, we have two choices.”
The snap of Josh’s lighter breaks through the air as he sparks a cigarette. “Can’t wait to hear ’em.”
Jordan holds up a finger. “One: We stay out here until Alejandro brings the calvary back.”
Josh fogs the air with smoke. “Why did you have to start off with that one?” he complains. “Whenever you lead with the best option, I just know I’m going to hate the next one.”
“And option two?” Riley prompts, ignoring him.
Jordan flicks up another finger. “Two: We head back inside and see if we can find Colton ourselves.”
“Of course we’re going back inside,” Vee says. “I’ve already lost one friend to this stupid house, I’m not about to lose two.”
“I mean, if you had to lose a second friend, Colton seems like a reasonable choice,” Josh offers.
Vee sends him an acid look. “That’s not funny. Do you know what happened last time somebody vanished here? No, because nobody does.”
Josh holds up his hands defensively. “You’re right, sorry. That wasn’t funny. Shit, I just make bad jokes when I’m nervous, okay?” He shoots Riley a glance. “Give me a hand here.”
Riley doesn’t respond; he’s too busy deliberately avoiding everybody’s eyes. Ethan’s touch lingers on his skin, cold as a deathbed.
If he was going to tell them what happened, now would be the time to do it. Now might be the only time to do it. Once they go back inside the house, who knows what might happen.
Be quiet, Ethan had whispered. He’s listening.
Riley opens his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpses the inside of the van for the first time. His mouth slams shut again. He tears toward it, ripping the door open, ignoring Vee’s startled call of his name. What he sees makes his guts go cold.
Alejandro had been right, the entire dashboard seems to have been torn apart; wires dangle from beneath the wheel, from the broken gearbox, from everywhere wires might dangle from. The keyhole is smashed to ruin, the metal twisted.
He hadn’t mentioned the scars.
Claws marks rend the seats, spilling stuffing into the footwell like guts. The steering wheel has the impression of sharp fingertips ripped through its cover, and the plastic that covered the dashboard is split in the echo of four crooked claws.
Riley’s own scars burn, and his hands tremble like a leaf.
“Riley?” Vee latches on to his elbow, tugging him back, and Riley allows it. She turns him to face her, expression tight with concern. “Riley, what’s wrong?”
Ethan’s voice in his ear, whispering in fear. He can hear us.
Riley shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says. “Nothing at all.”
Vee looks him up and down. She glances over her shoulder to Jordan and Josh and asks, quieter, “You sure?”
It’s so open outside. It’s what had allowed Riley to feel safe out here before.
He doesn’t feel safe now.
“Vee,” he says, “do you trust me?”
Her frown deepens. “You know I do.”
“All right,” Riley says. “Then trust me when I say I’ve got nothing to share right now.”
She stares at him. Riley holds her gaze. Doesn’t blink. Doesn’t look away. The hand on him is warm.
“Okay,” she says, slow but firm. No deeper meaning—all the deeper meaning. “You’ve got nothing to share right now.”
She always was the smart one. Riley loves her so much, he could kiss her.
Vee doesn’t linger, turning back to the others. “All right,” she announces loudly. “We’re accomplishing nothing out here. Let’s go find Colton.”
Josh drops his cigarette, grinding it beneath his heel. “I’ve always wanted to rescue a maiden in distress,” he says. “Guess this is as close as I’m going to get.”
“Everybody’s getting cameras,” Jordan informs Vee, holding up a hand to stall her protest. “Not for content. Because between the issues with the lights and the incident with the spirit box, any possible sign of paranormal activity has manifested itself as electromagnetic activity. If this really is something supernatural, the cameras might pick it up first.”
Vee doesn’t look pleased, but she holds out a hand. “I hope you know I’m not prioritizing your equipment over my life, no matter how much it costs.”
Jordan laughs, and it sounds only slightly on edge. “Fuck, that only mattered when everybody was here and accounted for and I was aiming for a Pulitzer. Now I’ll be lucky if production doesn’t axe my show entirely. If you need to, throw everything at a specter’s head and make for the nearest door.”
That finally pulls a small smile from Vee. Jordan passes a camera to Riley, and he takes it with reluctance. The snap of it opening is as familiar as it is distressing. “So just to clarify,” he asks, “you’re giving us blanket permission to break everything you own?”
“Only if you want to explain it to Alejandro,” Josh says. In his hands is a clip-on flashlight, like the rest of the Spirit Seekers have been wearing. “Now, both of you hold still and let us clip these on, will you? I think it’s about time you got upgraded to your own special-made, hands-free flashlight.”
“Oh thank god.” Vee sighs. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for you to say that.”
Jordan snorts, beckoning Riley in. He goes obediently, and she snaps one on the front of his shirt. “Try not to break these, at least. You two are wearing the only spares we have, and once we run out of light, we’re out for good.”
Riley tries not to think about how ominous that sounds. “I’ll try my best.”
“That’s all I’ve ever asked.” Jordan steps back, assessing them with her hands on her hips. They’ve been out here long enough now that she’s ironed the nerves from her expression, in charge once more. “All right, we ready to venture back in?”
No.
“Yes,” Riley says.
Jordan smiles at him, setting one hand on Vee’s back, the other to his. “Well, here we go. Once more into the breach it is.”
They follow Jordan back up to the porch, but as they do Riley’s new flashlight sweeps over the front of the house, and he’s drawn up short.
Before, the flower beds had been thick with wild poppies, sprouting from fluffy green bushes. He’d noticed them when they’d arrived and then again when he was sitting outside.
Some of them are still cheerful and bright. Most of them are not.
A stretch of the flowers are wilted, the bushes they hang from browned and limp. As Riley stares at them, he realizes they line up with the window in the hallway near the dormitory—the one Josh had sworn he saw somebody walking past.
Riley doesn’t know what could do that. Suck the life from a living thing like poison in the veins. He doesn’t think he wants to.
Ahead of him, Jordan calls, “Riley?”
Riley wrenches his gaze away. “Yeah,” he says. “I’m coming.”
And once more, he follows Jordan into her fabled breach.
With both Colton and Alejandro gone, the house abruptly feels quiet and still. Without the abundance of voices to chase back its oppressive energy, Riley feels its sinister pull on every inch of his skin.
He stands in the foyer, uncertain what his next step is supposed to be. A part of him fears that if he moves at all, the inky blackness of night will open and swallow him whole, just like it’s done to Colton.
Like it did to Ethan.
A hand lands on his shoulder and he spins, heart in his throat, but it’s just Jordan, watching him with concern. “Are you okay?”
Riley is sick of people asking him that. “No,” he says. “Are you?”
Jordan blinks and then huffs out a laugh. “Fair,” she concedes. She glances over Riley’s shoulder, and her flashlight beam dances up the steps to the second floor. “I’m taking Evelyn to look around the courtyard. Stay with Josh, and for god’s sake, don’t wander off.”
Before Riley can respond, footsteps announce the others. Jordan asks, “Is everyone clear on how we’re doing this?”
“Stay together, no wandering, meet by the van in thirty.” Josh taps his watch. “We’ve got it, boss. The kid is safe with me.” A pause. “This time I mean it.”
Jordan doesn’t comment on the last part. Instead, she says, “If we find Colton, be prepared to carry him out. He might have fallen somewhere in the dark; he could be injured. This is not a safe house to be lost in without a light.”
Riley doesn’t want to think about Colton falling. He doesn’t want to think about the state Colton may be in if they find him.
When. When they find him.
His expression must be something to behold, because when Vee looks back at him, she says, “We’ll figure it out, okay?”
Riley wants to believe her more than he actually does. “Yeah. Sure.”
Vee’s face dips into a frown, but Jordan is already moving, steering her down the hall and toward the auditorium door. Riley watches her go, the shine of her hair vanishing into the dark.
Josh nudges him in the shoulder. “C’mon,” he says. “I want to go through and check the thermal cams. They might have something we missed.”
Riley doubts it, but it’s not like he has any better ideas. He glances toward the staircase to the second floor, the classrooms.
You need to leave, Ethan had said. Don’t come back for me.
He knows Riley well enough to know that was never going to happen. Riley came here for Ethan, and now that he’s found him, he’s not leaving without him.
He turns to Josh. “Lead the way.”
They start in the dormitory, Riley planted in a corner, absently scanning the room with his handheld while Josh reviews the footage from the thermal.
Without the others, the room feels so much bigger. The dark eats into the corners, and no matter how many times Riley turns, his light sweeping over cobwebs and dust, he can’t shake the feeling they’re being watched. By whom, he doesn’t know. Ethan, maybe, angry about Riley’s continued presence. Or something worse, angry about another thing entirely.
Riley shivers and looks down at the camera screen. It offers him nothing of interest.
Josh sighs, aggrieved, and abandons the thermal camera. “There’s nothing here. The only time Colton set foot in this room was when we were all together. And the footage from then isn’t all that interesting either. Spirit box aside.”
Both their eyes flick to what remains of the box in tandem, nothing more than a shattered nest of plastic and wires. Josh grimaces. “You know what? That whole thing was a lot more exhilarating two hours ago.”
“For you, maybe.” Riley closes his camera. “Where do you want to head next?”
“We’ll go through the rest of the first floor, and if nothing turns up, I guess we’ll try upstairs again.”
“He’s not going to be upstairs,” Riley says.
Josh frowns. “You both keep saying that. What has he got against the stairs?” A flicker of a smile, trying for levity. “Afraid of heights?”
Irritation chases along Riley’s frayed nerves before he can stamp it down. “You’ve seen the broken railing.”
“Yeah,” Josh says. “And I’m not an idiot, so I don’t go the fuck near it.”
“Well, it wasn’t broken two years ago,” Riley hisses. “It only broke when Colton fell through it and snapped his leg in three different places.”
Silence falls, awkward and heavy. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” Riley says. “Oh.”
Josh sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “I didn’t know,” he says apologetically. “It wasn’t in any of the research we had.”
“Of course it wasn’t. Colton didn’t talk about his injury with the media.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Josh corrects. “Just . . . he didn’t say anything. Nobody would have ever suggested he go anywhere near the second floor if he’d said something.”
“Colton doesn’t talk about what really happened that night,” Riley says. “Not ever.”
Josh raises a brow. “Not even to you?”
“We haven’t spoken in over a year,” Riley says. “So no, not to me either.”
Josh says, “Would have thought going through something like that would have brought you all closer together.”
Riley sinks down on the nearest mattress. “That’s why.”
“What’s why?”
“‘Something like that,’” Riley says with accompanying air quotes. “How are you meant to bond over surviving something if you can’t even talk about what that something was?”
Josh eyes him with consideration for a second and then, without warning, snaps his camera closed and tosses it to the mattress beside Riley’s. He drops a hand to his belt. It takes Riley a second to realize he’s fumbling with his mic pack.
Riley frowns. “What—?”
“There,” Josh says. “No cameras. No recording. Just you and me. Hopefully.”
“Jordan will be furious,” Riley remarks.
“Jordan’s not here,” Josh says shortly. “Riley, what happened two years ago?”
Riley’s stomach turns. He goes cold—his scars burn. “You think I’m going to give you an answer this time just because you hit some fucking buttons and made a production out of it?”
“No,” Josh says. “I think you’re going to give me an answer because whatever happened two years ago seems to be happening again, and you’ve seen enough people disappear in this house to last a lifetime.”
Josh’s blunt honesty hits Riley low and leaves him winded. He stares at Josh and Josh stares back, as serious as Riley has seen him. “Wow.” Riley breathes out. “I think I liked you better when you were pulling your punches.”
That tugs a small smile from Josh. He drops down beside Riley, nearly bouncing the cameras to the floor. The mattress squeals, and Riley is uncertain whether the bed frame is going to hold their weight.
“Look,” Josh says, “at least tell me you understand why I’m asking you.”
Riley glances down to the stained carpet. “I know. I get it.”
“I’m going to be real with you, man,” Josh says. “I’ve been to a lot of haunted houses over the past few years, and none of them has ever been like this. I’m scared as hell. I don’t care if we never film another episode again—I just want to make it to sunrise, you know?”
