CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
True to their word, the girls hadn’t ventured too far into the woods before coming to a complete stop. The bright moon shone through the treetops, allowing Jess better visibility.
“Is this where you died?” Jess asked, unable to keep the slight tremor from her voice. There wasn’t anything unusual about the area they’d stopped in. Just a bunch of trees with woodland debris at their bases.
The girls exchanged another glance.
“This is where it happened,” Gracie said. “Are you ready to see?”
Jess didn’t answer. Her heart raced and her mouth had gone dry. She wasn’t ready, but what could she say?
“You have to touch the earth,” Emma explained. “You have to touch the spot where it happened. You’ll see it then.”
“And you’ll see it when.” Gracie added.
Jess shook her head. “I don’t think that’s all it takes.” Her reply was more of an excuse to turn around and go back than anything else. She wondered what might be underneath the decaying leaves. Crawly bugs, snakes and the like were the least of her worries.
“But it is enough,” Gracie’s form flickered in the moonlight. “For you.” As Emma let go of Jess, the cold chill slid up from her hand to her entire body, freezing her into place.
“You’ve always been able to see things, Jess. See us. Ghosts. But you don’t know how to channel it. Yet. Touching the area our bodies were in will help. You’ll be closer to us and you’ll see through to the other side,” Gracie explained. “You’ll be able to see things in our world.”
Emma nodded. “It’s what you’d call the veil.”
Jess frowned, but the girls’ expressions remained emotionless. What if by helping the girls, Jess could make it easier to find her father on the other side?
Be careful what you let in, Jess.
But this wasn’t a portal or some veil. She wasn’t letting something or someone else in. She was just looking through it to some other side.
Like some sort of one-way mirror. No. Don’t think of it like that. Don’t think of Riley and whatever else is there.
Part of her wanted to scream, to run away. Yet, some other part wanted to see this—wanted to know if she truly could see even further into the unknown.
It’s the house. Allison is right—it’s doing something to us.
It can’t. You’re not in the house. Don’t blame it for what you want to know. You can do this. You’ve come this far. It’s just dirt. Dirt! Just sticks, leaves and Georgia clay. You’ve let ghosts touch you and you can’t even touch a patch of dirt?
Jess shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “Okay.” Shaking slightly, she knelt down to the moonlit earth, the girls standing on either side of her, and placed her palm on the ground. At that same moment, the girls rested their hands on Jess’s shoulders. The cold of their touch bit into her, and she cried out in agony. Her vision grew fuzzy. A sense of frigid air and darkness swirled through her.
Jess blinked and found herself standing alone in the woods. It was daylight now and the air had a different smell—more earthen and pine, and something else, too.
…you’ll see it when.
When. As in time. Jess understood where she was, but more importantly, she had a good idea when she was—August 1909.
“Gracie? Emma?” she whispered. No answer. Up ahead came the sound of someone shoveling dirt. She wanted to call out again, but didn’t dare. If all she had to do was see what happened, then maybe she’d return or wake up.
Heart hammering, Jess made her way toward the sound. His back was to her as he fervently dug into the earth. Same dark hair, same tall, thin build.
Riley.
Gasping, she ducked behind a tree, mentally cursing herself for making noise. Surely he’d hear her. But he didn’t. He grunted as he continued to shovel sprays of earth.
He was digging their graves!
After a few minutes, Riley stopped and tossed the shovel aside. He walked out of her line of sight, behind a thicket of trees and then returned with a blanket and a wicker basket. He set the basket down and spread the blanket out neatly between a couple of trees.
What the hell?
Riley took a seat on the blanket and extracted silverware from the basket, along with a red apple. He bit into apple and looked up into the trees, taking in nature and the sky above him.
She cursed him for being so nonchalant about enjoying a picnic before burying Gracie and Emma’s bodies. She should have been glad that he’d been caught, except he’d still gotten away with it—the girls remained his captives long into their deaths.
Finishing the apple, he tossed its core aside. After taking a moment to pick his teeth, he got up and went back to where he’d been digging, putting his back to Jess once more.
Riley reached down and pulled at something—a flash of white skin caked with dirt. Dizzy with horror and disbelief, Jess nearly fell backward. He wasn’t digging a grave for Gracie and Emma.
He was digging them up.
Jess fought to catch her breath and stay on her feet as Riley dragged the girls from the ground and onto the blanket, propping up each against the base of a tree. Muddy dirt, twigs and leaves covered them. Dark stains along the neckline of their dresses indicated they’d bled heavily.
Jess wanted to move, to order her legs to take her away from here. But the shock and fear froze her in place. Her stomach began to rebel and she gagged, then wiped at her mouth, fighting against it.
He’ll hear you!
Riley knelt down between the girls and examined each girl’s neck where he’d clearly slit their throats.
He began to sing. “He cut off their heads with a carving knife, have you ever seen such a sight in your life!”
Again, Jess’s stomach lurched hard enough that her eyes watered.
Run. Run!
Her traitorous feet remained motionless as though stuck in quicksand. Jess was helpless to do anything but watch. Her breath came in quick, ragged bursts and she fought to not pass out. If she did, Riley would find her. Even now, she was certain he had to hear her, hear her breathing and the pounding of her heart.
Riley stopped his singing and bit into Gracie’s cheek, tearing away a chunk of flesh. He chewed slowly and swallowed. Jess’s eyes watered again and she wretched, unable to silence the sound, but nothing came up. Her heart pounded so hard now she swore it would burst. Her vision began to swim, yet her eyes remained glued to the grizzly scene. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.
Turn your head, look away.
Omigod! The smell!
The girls might only have been gone a day or two, but given that they’d been buried in shallow graves in Savannah’s summer heat, they’d already started to decompose badly. Jess wretched again.
Riley leaned closer to Emma and took a bite out of her, too.
And then Jess blacked out.
It was dark when she woke. Riley was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the girls. Relief poured over her when she recognized she was seeing the here and now. But relief began to ebb as the full realization of it all crashed down on her. She’d returned to the spot where the girls had taken her—the place where they’d told her to touch the ground—the place where Riley had dug up their bodies.
The place where Riley had begun to eat them.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Jess scrabbled backward a few feet. Her hands! Her hands were covered with dirt, her fingernails caked with mud. Her eyes settled on something smooth and hard poking out of a small section of earth. That hole hadn’t been there when she first arrived. Somehow, in her time-travel trance or whatever it was, she’d dug up this spot… the spot Gracie had told her to touch. The shape was unmistakable—the eye socket of a human skull stared up at her, the rest remained interred in the earth.
He separated us.
He cut off their heads with a carving knife, have you ever seen such a sight in your life?
Jess scrambled backward again, meaning to stand, but her legs were unable to support her weight and she fell backward, onto her bottom. “Oh my God!” she cried as she scooted farther away before finally getting to her feet.
How could Riley do that? How could anyone be capable of such a thing? He’d not only killed them, but buried their bodies, and then he’d come back later to…to…eat them. Why did they have to show her that part? Where were they? Had it worked? Had Gracie and Emma moved on?
Jess’s head buzzed with questions and fear.
If the girls had moved on, Riley wasn’t going to be happy about that. If they were finally free of Riley, there’d be hell to pay.
But the more she thought about it, she knew Gracie and Emma were still here. They’d told her they had been separated. That’s why they couldn’t move on. And heaven help her, but Jess knew what they’d have to do. But right now, she had to get out of these woods.
Jess ran, blindly, hoping she was headed in the right direction.