CHAPTER TEN
A low growling noise stopped me in my tracks. To the left, by the neighbor’s fence, I could see the silhouette of Cheerio, snuffling and snapping at my presence. Even though the fence was thick with old knotted wood and a prickly bush spread out at its base, I entertained the thought of hopping over it into their yard and teaching the dog a lesson.
“Perry!” I heard my mother’s voice near my ear and I was suddenly aware that she had been yel ing it a few times already.
She was at my side, clutching her shawl with her dainty hand. In the afternoon light, its mint tone matched the fading grass at my feet.
“What are you doing out here? Where are your shoes?”
I looked down at my feet. I was wearing my pajama pants from earlier, along with a hoodie. My hair was tied back into a ponytail. I didn’t know where my shoes were.
Come to think of it, I had no idea why I was standing in the depths of our back yard, just staring at the neighbor’s fence. What wa s I doing out there? Where had I been before? Once again, I couldn’t remember.
“What were you going to do to the dog?” she asked quietly.
I looked at her as if she had two heads.
“The dog?”
“Why are you standing out here?”
“I…I…needed fresh air.”
My mom’s eyes roamed all over my face, her lips pursed as she thought about who knows what. Probably that I was a pig kil er. Then she took my hand and said in her extra- gentle, fabric softener voice, “You look cold, pumpkin.
Come on inside.”
That tone of voice brought back some pretty dicey memories. It was like déjà vu to high school all over again.
I forced a smile at her as we walked back up the damp grass to the house. I couldn’t get too wrapped up in what she thought and I couldn’t let her worry about me any more than she needed to. She had my dad to worry about. When he came home to see Officers Monroe, Hartley, and a few other cops taking photos of the house, he nearly had a heart attack. When he found out exactly what happened, his skin went so pale, I swore I could see his skul underneath. I thought he was going to scream or maybe throw up (seemed like the thing to do these days) but he just absorbed it all and shook. That was far scarier. My dad needed to throw things and yel and flip tables. That was his thing. That’s how he dealt with life. The fact that he just took it and kept it inside made me feel queasy. There was official y too much anger and fright in this household and it was only going to get worse.
We went up the back patio steps and through the back French doors into the house and walked past the study without even a glance. I was afraid to look. It was shut and tomorrow there would be a team coming over to clean it but I could stil feel the evil seeping through the cracks.
My mother sat down next to Ada and my father in the living room. They were watching A Fistful of Dollars but they weren’t real y watching it. They were watching each other. Watching the house. And getting lost in their own heads.
There was a small part of me that was almost glad that they were freaked out. It was comforting to know I didn’t have to suffer alone, even though they only knew a very small percentage of what was going on. I wanted to keep them in the dark about the rest for as long as possible and there was only one way to do that. I had to know what I was dealing with and how to get rid of it.
I know Maximus had said he’d talk to me in a few days, but I didn’t have a few days. I couldn’t explain it, but it felt like I was running out of time. Besides, I didn’t mind kissing him again. I welcomed that whole distraction with open lips.
I mean arms.
Taking my phone out of my hoodie pocket, I cal ed him and went up the stairs to my room to finish the cal in private.
“Darling,” he answered.
I smiled and hoped he could hear it over the phone.
“Hey. How are you?”
“I’m…I’ve felt better. Good ol’ whiskey head. My apologies that I didn’t cal you earlier.”
“That’s OK,” I said, having forgotten myself in all the commotion. I thought I heard a girl giggle in the background. My brow furrowed automatical y. “Where are you?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m out getting some fresh air. You know, at the market. It’s just wrapping up. Great tacos here.”
I listened harder. It did sound like he was somewhere where there were a lot of people. I don’t know why I was being so paranoid.
“Look, something happened today,” I said, not wanting to say too much over the phone.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I am. We all are. But the cops were here earlier and…”
“Cops?” he exclaimed. “Wel I’l be. You sure you’re all right?”
“I am for now but I was wondering if you’d come by and do like, a reading or something? I don’t know, I just feel like I’m running out of time and if this is going so far as to scare my family and not just me, I can’t just watch it happen. I can’t. I won’t!”
“Al righty, no worries Perry. I’l head over right now.”
“Thank you,” I whispered softly into the phone.
“You got it,” was his answer and the phone went dead.
I took in a deep breath and changed into leggings and a long teal sweater so I didn’t look like I just rolled out of bed, then did a quick run of concealer and mascara on my face.
Downstairs, my family was stil silent, stil pretending to watch the TV. I perched on the edge of my dad’s armchair and lay my hand down his. It was cold. He looked up at me and smiled. It was strained, but it was something.
“I have a friend coming over,” I announced quietly.
Everyone turned to look at me, surprised.
“Perry,” my mom said with disapproval. “After what happened today.”
happened today.”
“Because of what happened today,” I corrected her. I didn’t want to bring up anything about ghosts but I had to say something. “He’s new in town. And…he makes me feel safe.”
My family was adept at the three-way “Perry” glance.
Eyes were darting all over among Ada, my mother and my dad.
“Who is he?” my father asked.
“You’ve never mentioned anyone,” Ada shot in.
“Is is that fitness guy?” my mother asked, a little too hopeful y. I had forgotten about her fears of me turning into a spinster, but now I knew I had to milk that for all it was worth.
“No,” I said to her. Her face fel and I added, “It’s that Maximus guy I told you about.” >
“Maximus, huh?” Ada commented with a sparkle in her eyes. “Would this be the same Maximus that you met out in New Mexico?”
“That’s the one,” I said, my voice on edge as I shot her the stinkeye. I didn’t want her to bring up his ghost- whispering business in front of the rents.
“Oh, Perry, I hope you’re done with all those…those… doorknobs,” my mother said, slapping her thighs. By doorknobs, I’m pretty sure she meant Dex.
“He’s not a doorknob. Or any knob,” I said, and Ada giggled. Probably because I said “knob.”
My mother and father exchanged another look. They were suspicious, wary, disbelieving. But that was OK with me because lo and behold, they were worried about me and not about some mystery person who left decapitated livestock in the house.
They asked me a few more questions about him; most of them I couldn’t even answer because I didn’t know myself, like what the hel his last name was. Then we turned our attention back to the screen and watched that until Clint Eastwood kil ed some more Mexicans and the doorbel rang.
Shit.
I leaped up and ran for the door, opening it and jumping down on the front stoop where Maximus was standing.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” he drawled, putting his hand on my arm. He gave it a squeeze and peered down at me.
“You all right, little lady?”
I nodded quickly. “Yes. well . I don’t know. But here’s the thing…”
I leaned over and quietly shut the front door so my family inside couldn’t hear me. Maximus lifted his brow.
I lowered my voice and continued, “My family doesn’t know you’re a ghost whisperer or anything like that. They don’t believe in that stuff and to bring it up, well , it causes problems. I don’t know why. And especial y today, they want to believe what happened was caused by someone living, not dead. So we have to keep everything on a low pro, OK?”
“I got ya,” he said, his eyes darting over to the windows of the front sitting room. A light there had just gone on. It was probably my dad, wondering where the hel I went. “So what happened today?”
I gave him the Cliff Notes version while my dad watched us out of the window. I waved at him as I explained, hoping he would know we’d be coming in soon and to not interrupt us.
“Did you find the head?” Maximus asked when I was finished.
“No.” I reached over and grabbed his hand. “Do you think you can get a good sense of what’s going on tonight?
Like, wil you be able to do anything?”
He looked up at the house, taking it all in. He didn’t look all that confident. “I’m not too sure. This might be a slow process. You know I can only pick up on what the person was feeling when they died. Abby, if it is her, she didn’t die here. So I don’t know what I can do with it. And I’m pretty sure I know exactly what she felt when she died.”
“But you said you’d fix this,” I pleaded, almost stomping my feet like a little girl.
“I’m going to try,” he said, placing his other hand on top of my head as if to calm me down. “I promised you that.
We’l figure out what it is first and then take it from there.”
“Take it where? Like an exorcism?” I shuddered at the thought.
“You’re not possessed, Perry,” he said. “And exorcisms are a waste of time. Good luck getting someone to do it in the first place. Then you have to prove you’re possessed, which is hard to do, cuz like I said, it’s often in people’s heads. Personality disorders are usual y the cause. There is, as it turns out, always another explanation. And getting a priest or a shaman to exorcise a person who isn’t possessed is very, very dangerous. To the victim, to the priest, to everyone. Besides, you don’t exorcise a house.
You clear it.”
“So do you think you’l be able to clear it? Can you do that?” I felt more anxious by the second. “And don’t say you’l try.”
He paused and licked his lips. Then… “I never try anything,” he drawled. “I just do it.”
It was a line from one of my favorite movies, Faster p-ssycat! Kill! Kill! and I felt a grin tugging at the corner of my lips. This man knew exactly how to calm me down and possibly get in my pants.
“Wanna try me?” he added.
I smacked him on the arm, then took hold of his hand again and led him inside the house.
“You know, I reckon you look a bit like a young Tura Satana,” he whispered into my ear.
“Must be the boobs,” I tossed over my shoulder just as my dad appeared in front of us, having been waiting in the sitting room all this time.
“Perry, I thought you weren’t coming in,” he said with a nervous smile as he looked up at the burly redhead. My dad wasn’t very tal , so Maximus towered over him.
“Dad, this is Maximus,” I said. “Maximus, this is dad.”
Maximus shook my dad’s hand firmly, looking him straight in the eyes, and said, “You have a very lovely daughter here, sir.”
My dad beamed. He never beamed at any guys I brought home. OK, so I brought home only one, but stil .
“Oh, well , we like her.” He laughed awkwardly.
Sure, I thought. Now you like me.
We walked down the hal while Dad asked Maximus where in Louisiana he grew up and they started talking about the Cajun food. We came to the living room, where Ada and my mom were standing, waiting for us.
Maximus shook hands with both of them and I could see his frame, manners and charming drawl was winning over my mother in two seconds flat. Ada, on the other hand, was a bit snarky. I gave her a funny look, warning her to behave but she just rolled her eyes and plopped down on the couch, pretending the movie credits were fascinating.
“Since you’re here, how about we order Chinese,” my mom offered brightly. “I don’t think I’l be cooking in that kitchen for a long time.”
Maximus nodded and folded his hands in front of him.
“Perry told me what happened. I’m very sorry for all of you. I hope whoever did this wil be brought to justice soon. In the meantime, if there is anything I can do, I would be happy to help.”
He looked to my dad. “I know you have cleaners coming in tomorrow, but I would be happy to give you a hand in putting the room back together, make it look like nothing happened in there. I know how terribly upsetting it must be to have your sanctuary desecrated.”
Man, he was good.
My father almost looked chagrined at Maximus’s generosity. I looked over at Ada to see what she thought but she gave me a sarcastic look. Sheesh, what was up her butt? Did she have ginger-vitis?
I tried to think of a smooth way of getting him out of their hair but Maximus was smooth himself and turned to me with his extra-watt smile. “I’d love to see the rest of your beautiful house, Perry.”
I stifled a giggle and took hold of his arm, gently leading him out of the living room and up the hal to the stairs. I looked over my shoulder to see if my family was fol owing us. They weren’t but I could hear excited, hushed words in my wake. They’d be talking about him for a while.
“I’d particularly like to see your bedroom,” he said as we walked up the stairs.
“Wow, you are on a rol tonight,” I commented.
“That’s been the hotspot of supernatural activity in your house, hasn’t it?”
Oh. Of course. Right. We were back to talking about ghosts.
“Uh-huh,” I said in a raised voice and opened the door to my room. I had done a quick clean before he came over so there weren’t things lying about that I didn’t want him to see.
He walked into the center of the room and looked around slowly, his eyes scanning every nook and cranny. I shut the door and leaned against my desk, watching him.
I didn’t say anything and neither did he for quite some time.
Final y, he spoke. “There is something here.”
An icy trail seared down my spine and I shivered.
oveWhat?” I squeaked, and looked around the room, trying to see past the normalcy, past the fa?ade of my band posters, my stuffed animals, my photographs I’d framed. I looked for that warpy shimmer in the air that I had seen many times before, too many times. But there was nothing.
He closed his eyes and raised his hands up in the air slightly. I watched him, afraid to breathe or move. I wanted to feel it too. How come I couldn’t see Abby like I could the others? Were ghosts able to pick and choose who saw them?
I wanted to ask if it was Abby but I bit my lip and waited for him.
“It’s her…”he said.
“It is?” My heart quickened its pace. Thinking it and knowing it was like the difference between being scared and being absolutely horrified.
“I’m picking up on some of her thoughts,” he said, eyes stil closed. “But they are all over the place.”
“Thoughts?”
“When she died,” he said slowly and with patience.
Right. I kept my mouth shut and did a once over of the room again. It was too bad, in a gruesome way, that the slippers weren’t there anymore because he might have been able to get a reading off of them. I know he said he picked up on their last thoughts, but surely he could do more than that. Then again, what could I do? I was hovering by my desk, watching my room with eagle eyes for something I couldn’t see myself.
“She’s angry,” he said. “But it’s stronger than hate. It’s evil.”
“Evil?” I repeated. I felt suddenly cold all over and wished I was wearing more layers.
Maximus opened his eyes. They looked at me, through me, like I wasn’t there.
“She’s gone,” he said softly. Then he relaxed a little, his shoulders and arms dropping.
“Are you OK?” I asked him. I took a step forward.
He nodded and winced, as if he was in pain. His eyes were watering.
“Is it painful when you do that?”
“That one was,” he said, his voice straining.
“What can I do?” I joined him at his side and took his hand in mine.
He rubbed his forehead with his free hand, then shook out his shoulders and arms and legs.
“Bah. It’l pass.”
“So you know for sure it was Abby?”
“I thought so,” he said, then sat down on my bed and put his head between his hands, combing them through his thick, glossy orange hair. “But then, it didn’t make sense. If it’s her, she died and went to someplace where she should have never come back.”
I wiggled my fingers nervously. “Where is that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice muffled. “I don’t know if I want to know.”
I sat down beside him. “I don’t either. But I think we might have to if we’re going to solve this. No trying, remember?
Just doing.”
He slowly raised his head and eyed me. He was paler than usual and a thin sheen of sweat had broken out along his wide forehead. “I’m going to have to poke around the rest of the house, if that’s OK.”
“Of course.”
“I feel like…maybe it’s not just Abby.”
My eyes felt like they were going to pop out. “I have more than one ghost?”
He sighed and straightened up. “I don’t know. It felt like it.
This felt…special.”
Oh, f*cking brilliant, I thought. I have a special ghost.
He got up and reached down for me, scooping me to my feet by the elbows.
“Is there anywhere else where there’s been activity?” he asked.
I thought about the obvious places like the study and the kitchen. Then I remembered.
“Ada’s room,” I said. “That’s where she thought I was cal ing her.”
“I hope she won’t mind,” he said with a small smile. “I reckon you don’t want to piss that lady off. And I have a feeling she doesn’t like me too much.”
“No, you don’t want to piss Ada off,” I replied, and we left the room and went down the hal . I could hear my parents downstairs talking to each other and the drone of yet another inane TV program.
I knocked at her door. She had her Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the knob but it was always like that.
I heard a mumbling and grumbling from behind the door.
She opened it, not at all surprised to see us.
“Wel ?” she asked impetuously.
“Can we come in? Please?”
She sighed like this was the greatest inconvenience of all time then stomped over to her bed, flinging herself down butt first and crossing her arms. She eyed us like we were about to rob the place. What happened to the chipper girl I met this morning?
“We just, uh…” I looked at Maximus for help. He looked uneasy around Ada and I didn’t blame him. Being in a ful - fledged teenager’s room didn’t help either.
“You want to do a reading,” Ada fil ed in for him. She balked at our surprised looks. “Whatever. You told me he was like some weird ghost whisperer.”
“I did not cal him weird.” Real y, I hadn’t.
“That’s all right, darling,” he said to me. Ada looked like she was going to barf at his southern-style sentiment.
“You’re right. I do want to get a feel for things. Do you mind?”
She sighed, then shook her head no. I closed the door behind us and joined Ada on the bed beside her.
“Would it kil you to be nice to him?” I whispered harshly in her ear.
“Ladies, please, silence,” he said. He stuck out his arms and closed his eyes, like he was expecting to be rained down with riches. >
Ada and I sat side-by-side and watched him. It felt nice, actual y, to have Ada in on the ghostly stuff. I didn’t know if she felt the same way, though.
After a few minutes ticked by, according to her bedside clock, Maximus opened his eyes.
“It wasn’t as strong in here. But it was here at some point.”
He looked at Ada. “You seen anything strange? Felt any cold spots?”
She shook her head adamantly to both of those.
“Heard any talking, maybe whispers?”
At that Ada became stil . Her eyes flashed guiltily and she looked down at her hands.
“What?” I asked her, prodding her gently with my shoulder.
“I heard whispering.”
I let out a small gasp as my chest tightened up. Not my baby sister as well .
Maximus came over and squatted down on the floor in front of us, placing his hand on her knee.
“Where did they come from? What did they say?”
She pointed to her closet and then to the foot of the bed.
“They say Perry’s name. And sometimes, I can’t understand them. It’s like another language or something.”
I eyed the closet. A ghost in there would be Ada’s worst nightmare. No one goes in Ada’s closet.
“It’s happened more than once?”
“A few times,” she continued. Her admission shocked me.
“Why didn’t you tel me?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “You’ve got a lot on your plate. I can deal.”
“Wel , you shouldn’t have to.”
She fixed her gaze on me. “And neither should you.”
“Dinner’s here!” my mother yel ed from downstairs as we heard a single knock at the front door.
Ada rushed out of the room, glad to leave us behind. I walked unsteadily over to the door and Maximus held my side the entire way. I couldn’t believe that Ada was hearing voices too. It gave me more credibility that these things were actual y happening, but I didn’t want her to suffer the same way I had. She didn’t need any of that.
With those thoughts running through my head, it was no wonder I could barely touch my food, even the beef and broccoli, which I adored. I put it into my mouth anyway, chew, chew, chew, swal ow. But I didn’t taste it.
It was weird to sit at the dinner table with a guy and my family. I couldn’t even cal him my boyfriend, because he wasn’t. He was just a man I made out with, who liked to cal me darling, and who I hoped had some sort of answer to the destruction around me. But I was the only who felt a bit awkward by the whole thing. well , not counting Ada.
Maximus talked to my parents like he’d known them for years and even though it tickled me that they were getting along so well , it pissed me off at the same time. I think it’s because they never had a nice thing to say about Dex (with reason) and I didn’t feel the same way about Maximus as I did about him.
Your heart needs time, I thought to myself. I was right, too. Everything with Dex was such a fast, precarious, passionate blur. I needed someone steady and normal (relatively) and good. Dependable. Like Maximus. I might lack the passion at the moment, that yearning in places other than between my legs, but I had just met the guy.
And yet there he was, shoveling chow mein in his face while talking to my parents. And I was dwel ing on this when there were other things to focus on. Dangerous things such as multiple ghosts.
I started piling some lemon chicken on my plate in order to look busy when the doorbel rang three times with a slight pause in between each one.
My heart thudded about loudly. After everything, I didn’t think I could take any more.
“Who wants to get that?” my mom asked, the fear ripe in her voice.
“I wil ,” Maximus volunteered, like I knew he would.
He patted me on the arm as if to say he’d be right back and took off toward the door. My dad, feeling unsuited as the man of the house, took off after him, and of course I had to fol ow as well . Because I was scared and stubborn at the same time.
With the door open, they were staring at something on the steps, Maximus’s tal frame beside my dad’s short and stocky one, the light from the motion sensors shining down on my dad’s bald spot.
Before I even saw what it was, I knew what it was. The pig’s head.
And I was right. As I poked my way between the two men, I saw the poor hog’s gory, disgusting, chopped-off head lying on the front stoop. Its eyes were gouged out. A nice, evil little touch.
I was more annoyed than scared. I walked back in the house, shaking my head, as Ada and my mom came cautiously around the corner.
“Oh, very mature Abby!” I yel ed up at the ceiling, shaking my fist dramatical y. “Couldn’t think of anything better, could you? Is that all you got?”
“Perry,” I heard Maximus’s warning tone. “I wouldn’t…”
I shrugged and in the back of my mind I realized I was that close to accidently enacting a scene from I Know What You Did Last Summer. I pushed past Ada and my mom, tel ing them, “It’s the head of the pig. You don’t want to see it,” as I walked back into the dining room.
I plunked myself down in my chair and let out one exasperated sigh. My head was swimming. Every thought had importance. Every thought was a loaded gun.
My dad cal ed the cops from the kitchen phone, while Maximus and the rest of them came back into the room.
They all stood behind their chairs, staring down at me and down at the food. I guessed everyone’s appetite was gone after that.
Ada announced she was tired of the fuzz and going to bed and Maximus helped my mother clear the trays and put them in the kitchen. I thought about how nice that was of him, even though part of me felt like he was sucking up. The bitterness of the thought was surprising. I mean, I wasn’t helping. But I had a lot on my mind.
When he was done, he came back into the dining room and took the seat beside me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. His voice was gentle.
Too gentle.
I eyed him. “I haven’t been babbling in Latin, if that’s what you mean.”
He paused and licked his lips. “What makes you say that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Isn’t that what the demonic people speak?”
“I think you watch too many scary movies.”
Or maybe I don’t watch enough, I thought. They could teach me a thing or two.
He looked up at the clock on the wal and from the hesitant vibe that was rol ing off of him, I knew he was thinking about leaving. I couldn’t let him, though. Not after last night. Not after today.
“Can you stay over here? With me?” I asked, conscious of my parents being in the next room over.
He gave me a small smile and I knew it wasn’t going to be good news. Goddamn it, what happened to the Maximus who asked me out on dates and was always flirting with me?
“I don’t have any of my belongings on me.”
I nodded and looked down at the greasy lemon chicken.
“But you could come over to my place. If you’d like. I’d like you to.”
I brought my head up sharply and ignored the vice-like feel in my head. “You mean it?”
Why didn’t I just add Gee, golly at the end of it? But despite sounding like a fawning idiot, the fact that I didn’t have to stay in my house was like music to my ears.
He nodded quickly and smiled wide. “Of course I mean it, Perry. I’d love it. I just have a one bedroom, though, but I can take the couch. It’s super comfy and light as a good beignet.”
I didn’t know what that meant but I gave him a grateful smile and got up to get my stuff together and escape the confines of my house of horror.