“Nick has a stepfather. He’s in my dreams that I share with Nick. How are you guys doing that?” Aster told her she didn’t know. “And you wouldn’t tell me if you did know.”
“This will go so much faster if you would stop being snarky to me. I’m trying to help you understand. Nick was abused as a child. Not just physically, though that was more than enough, but also sexually. Nightly, from what I’ve gathered, and his mother knew about it. He has a sister too, Ana. She’s gone as well, but she too was abused, and because of it, she took a heavy dose of heroin to end what she considered more than she could handle. It more than likely was. The abuse, all of it, was a lot for a small, weak minded child such as Ana. She’s better now, safe, but she’s still having troubles. Even after all this time.” Addie felt her heart twist at the suffering that they had gone through. “When Nick turned fourteen, his stepfather, Dane Glass, had invited a bunch of his friends over to help celebrate Nick’s birthday. Nick, of course, had no idea what was going on or he might have run then. But they beat him up and tied him to the bed. Once he was there, they took turns with him.”
Addie had to think what she meant, then when she understood she felt her belly lurch in protest of the images that flew through her mind. Abuse was one thing, but to gang rape a child was something that she could not imagine.
“How could anyone do that to their child?” Aster said she didn’t know. “So what happened…his mom got her ass in gear and called the police? Surely she didn’t let them do that to her child?”
“Yes. She claimed it wasn’t something she was aware of, that she was stoned, as she was most of the time. But she knew and let it happen. To both of her children. From what I understand, she knew it was going on but never paid any attention to it, as Glass helped her with getting all the drugs she could take. Then later, after Dane had spent a few weeks in jail for another charge, he was let out, and he fought with Nick. That was when Nick killed Dane. Even as they took the body out of the room, his mom kept blaming it on Nick.” Addie looked out the window again, not to see the view but to try and dispel the one that was running through her head right now. “Nick ran that night, blood covering his body. In pain and hurting, he ran until he couldn’t move. It was a couple of days before someone, another ghost like me, led them to him. Nick was dying, you see.”
“Who?” But Addie had a feeling that she knew what it was that led them to him. “He said that he’s a necromancer. Is that why? He was dying and that gave him the ability?”
“No. Nick could always see the dead. He helped them whenever he could. And when he couldn’t, then he would ask others to help. One of the people who he had helped was the wife of a cop. A good man by all accounts. His wife led him to Nick. It’s all that saved him.” Addie got up and moved around the room. There wasn’t much in the way of personal items in this room…a few little pictures of an older man and woman. She held one of them to Aster and asked her who they were. “He was here tonight. My grandfather. He didn’t know at the time of his death that we were going to be his grandchildren, but things happened and he died before we were born. That woman with him is my mother. Not the one that raised us, but my real mother. She lives here as well.”
Addie put the picture down and looked at Aster. “I don’t believe this. None of it. There are no such things as ghosts. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going to be sucked into whatever you guys are doing.”
Aster stood up and her face changed. Her body, once beautiful and full of life, now looked like she’d been hit by a car, dragged for many feet before she came to rest. Her face was ravaged as well; most of one side of her head was gone. When she turned back, became the woman that she had been, she smiled at Addie.
“You believe more than you say. You saw me for what I was. Only a few necromancers of some ability can do that. I think perhaps it is because you faced death that you can. But I’m not entirely sure about that. The rest will have to come to you in bits.” Aster moved toward her, and Addie backed up. “He’s coming for you. He and Dane Glass. And when they arrive they will hurt Nick in ways that will make what has happened to Elaine and myself look like nothing. He is an evil man. And Joel will help him. And you will be destroyed.”
“I can’t help any of you.” Aster nodded sadly and moved away. “I don’t believe in ghosts, Aster. I can’t help you because of that.”
“Yet here you stand talking to me. I did nothing to make it so you could see me. When you looked at me, I was as surprised as you. You may not believe in us, Addison Evangeline West, but you know that we’re here now.”
Chapter 6