Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (7 page)

“
I…” Jacob looked away
from her.

“
Look into my eyes, Jacob
Marlowe,” Valerie said. “You do it this instant!!”

Jacob turned to face his sister. In that
moment, their eyes locked. Valerie sent all the love she had for
her baby brother. His pinprick pupil’s bounced wide. Holding her
gaze, he snatched a bottle of water from her and drank it down.

He threw up again.

“
I can’t… I can’t do it,”
he said.

“
Don’t give up, Jake. You
can’t let this creature take your soul,” Valerie said.

With a nod, he took another bottle of water
from her. This time, he didn’t throw up. He took another bottle
from her and poured it over his head.

“
Did you rent the hotel
room?” He shivered in the cold night.

“
Yes,” Valerie said. “It’s
not far. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“
I better go before…”
Jacob lashed out at Valerie with his fists. Horrified, she jumped
back and Mike punched him hard behind the ear. Jacob went down in
the weeds behind the road.

“
I could see him fighting
it,” Mike said. He picked up Jacob and stuffed him in the car. “I
don’t know what…”

“
Just drive fast,” Valerie
jumped into the passenger seat.

Mike sped through the night to the Holiday
Inn Express and Suites where Jill and her family waited. Jacob had
warned them. If he fought with the evil entity, it was likely he
would be invaded by some of its darkness. The darkness would grow
until it controlled him.

Valerie just never believed it would happen
to her baby brother. She climbed into the back seat and set his
head on her lap. Closing her eyes, she did the only thing she could
think of doing – she said the loving kindness meditation for
him.

“
Hang on, Jake. You can
fight this thing,” Valerie whispered. “Just hold on.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday early morning — 4:25 A.M.

Aden ran through the hospital. Skidding to a
stop, he pushed open Sandy’s hospital door and gasped. Her bed was
made. The flowers that had filled the room had been removed. The
forest of metallic balloons was gone. Terrified, he stepped
backward from of the door. He ran down the hallway toward the
NICU.

“
Mr. Norsen!” the nurse
called after him. “Mr. Norsen!”

Unwilling to stop for even a moment, Aden
continued to run through the hospital. His horrible nightmare
induced by the evil entity was creeping into reality. He slid
across the waxed floor to the window of the NICU. Rachel’s
incubator was empty. Unsure of what to do, he jogged to the door of
the NICU.

“
There you are,” the nurse
said. “Gosh, you’re filthy. You’ll need to change. I have some
clean scrubs right here.”

“
Is… is Sandy here?
Wh-where’s my daughter?” Out of breath, Aden’s words came out in
puffs.

“
Rachel? She’s resting
with Sandy.” The nurse shook her head at him as if he’d lost his
mind. “Rachel started to fuss around one o’clock. I hated to do it,
but I had the nurse wake Sandy. Of course, she came down right
away. They’ve been kangarooing since then.”

“
Oh,” Aden said. He felt
such an intense rush of relief that he fell forward. His hands
caught his thighs. Still unsure if he was dreaming, he looked up to
ask, “I thought we couldn’t kangaroo too long.”

“
That’s true,” the nurse
said. “I’ll probably get it when the doctor gets here. It’s just
that every time we tried to put little Rachel back in her
incubator, she went ballistic. Sandy even tried to hold her in the
incubator. Rachel was so distressed that we decided to try to keep
them both warm. They’re over there.”

The nurse pointed to a recliner. Sandy was
wrapped in blankets with one over her head. Only her face
showed.

“
You ran right passed
them,” the nurse said. “Let’s get you dressed so you can go see
them. I know Sandy’s been worried about you.”

Aden let the nurse help him change into
clean scrubs. The nurse put his clothing in a trash bag. She looked
him over then led him to Sandy. Sandy’s face brightened when she
saw him. She gave a little wave.

“
Rachel, you’re Daddy’s
here,” she said.

Aden felt like he floated across the floor
on her smile. He leaned down to kiss her lips. The nurse indicated
a nearby chair and he took it.

“
How did it go?” Sandy
asked.

“
It was horrible,” Aden
said. “And… kind of… awesome.”

“
Awesome?” Sandy pushed
off some of the blankets so that Aden could see Rachel’s
face.

“
Hi Rach,” Aden
said.

Rachel opened and closed her eyes. She
nestled back into Sandy. Aden helped Sandy put the blankets over
them.

“
How was it awesome?”
Sandy asked.

“
You remember me talking
about my brother Mark?”

“
He was supposed to come
to Denver to set the next scam,” Sandy said. “But instead he came
here, met a girl, got married, and pregnant. When your family
arrived, there was nothing set up. Your father was furious. You
were six.”

“
I like that you
remembered that,” Aden said.

She smiled.

“
After I got my GED, I
decided I’d go and find Mark. He was my favorite brother. I always
liked that he stood up to Dad and…” Aden said. “Anyway, that’s how
I got to the mansion. Celeste’s father ran a little grocery store
near Barr Lake.”

“
How did you get to the
mansion?” Sandy asked.

“
They’re there,” Aden
said. “Trapped in the mansion. Mark and Celeste. Delphie says
they’re the ‘lovers’. You know, the skeletons found under the
Castle. They haunt the mansion in Brighton.”

“
Was it nice to see them?”
Sandy asked.

“
Yeah,” Aden said. “It was
really nice. I guess they protected me from the evil thing that
lives there.”

“
We wondered how you did
that,” Sandy smiled. “I thought it was your profound lack of
psychic capacity.”

“
How’s Jake?” Aden
asked.

“
Not great,” Sandy said.
“Jill called a little while ago. I’ve been here trying to send him
love or light. Mostly, I’m saying the rosary.”

“
I’m…” Aden’s eyes filled
with tears. He sniffed and looked away.

“
What is it?” Sandy
asked.

“
I had this dream or sort
of dream, a nightmare really,” Aden said. “I dreamed you spiked a
fever and died. Rachel died too.”

“
I did spike a fever,”
Sandy said.

“
You did?” Aden asked.
“How…? What…?”

“
Blane was here,” Sandy
said. “He brought the fever down. In fact, he had just taken the
needles out when they came to get me for Rachel. I would have been
asleep otherwise.”

“
I’m glad Blane was here,”
Aden said.

“
Me too,” Sandy said. “Did
Seth find his killer?”

“
They found his ‘trophies’
in the crypt,” Aden said. “Forty trophies, one from each of his
victims.”

“
Then they haven’t found
all the bodies?” Sandy asked.

Aden shook his head.

“
So sad. Those poor
families. Poor Seth,” Sandy said. “He must be crazed.”

“
He and Delphie will find
them,” Aden chuckled. “They’re quite a team. Like brother and
sister.”

Sandy smiled.

“
Shall we try to set
Rachel in bed?” Sandy asked. “Seems like she’s finally
out.”

Aden nodded. He helped Sandy with the
blankets and lifted Rachel from her chest. Rachel yawned. He kissed
her face and gave her back to Sandy. Sandy and the nurse put Rachel
back in her incubator. They watched as she fell sound asleep.

“
I bet we’ll be able to
take that CPAP out in the next day or so. She doing great,” the
nurse said. When Aden began taking the scrubs off, she said, “Why
don’t you bring them back after you clean up? I think you should
burn these.”

The nurse held up the trash bag with his
filthy clothing. Nodding, he took it from her. Sandy hugged the
nurse and thanked her for everything. With Aden’s arm around Sandy,
they left the NICU.

“
Buy you a cup of coffee?”
Aden asked.

“
I’d like to pray for
Jacob,” Sandy said. “He’s done so much for me and the kids
and…”

“
Let’s go to the chapel,”
Aden said.

Smiling, Sandy nodded. She’d been worried he
wouldn’t want to join her. She was glad he was the kind of man
who’d want to pray for their friend. They turned down the hallway
toward the hospital’s chapel.

“
What happened to your
flowers?” Aden asked.

“
A nurse took them to a
women’s shelter,” Sandy said. “I get so many every day. I
thought…”

“
And the
balloons?”

“
Children’s Hospital,”
Sandy said. “One of the docs was on his way there. He asked. You
were there when he came by.”

“
I forgot,” Aden
nodded.

“
Why?”

“
I thought you were…” Aden
shook his head unable to finish the sentence.

“
Dead? Not yet. You better
keep sending those flowers,” Sandy laughed.

“
I will,” Aden
said.

“
You had some night,”
Sandy said.

“
I had some
night.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday morning — 5:30 A.M.

Delphie set the last of her white daisies
down on the final grave. Standing on the hill above the mansion,
next to the barn, she looked down the row of nineteen graves. She
bowed her head to pray for the souls she had rescued. Her hand went
to her heart when she thought of it.

They all died within hours of each other.
One child became ill, her mother had said. Just one child. They
didn’t think anything of it. By morning, they were all dead. No one
in the house survived the Spanish Flu. The only family member who
survived was the youngest son. He was away at Harvard. When he
couldn’t reach his father, he sent the postal clerk to the house.
They’d been dead for three days. The son came home, cleared out the
house, locked it and never returned. How could anyone expect him
to?

Delphie sniffed back her sorrow at the sad
story. Hearing footsteps, she turned to look.

“
Seth said you were here,”
Sam said.

“
These poor souls died
within hours of each other.” Delphie said. “Can you imagine? One
child got sick and they were all dead by morning. Every single
person.”

“
God, how awful,” Sam
said.

“
These souls have been
trapped in that house since 1918,” Delphie nodded her head toward
the mansion.

“
Did you set it right?”
Sam asked.

“
As much as I could,”
Delphie said. “But, Sam, what’s going to happen to these poor
people’s graves? They aren’t marked on any map and all of this land
will be tract houses by the middle of next year.”

Sam lowered his eyebrows.

“
We have to do something,”
Delphie said. “We can’t let them build on top of the remains of
these poor souls.”

“
What do you suggest?” Sam
asked.

“
We move them somewhere,”
Delphie said.

“
Sounds expensive,” Sam
said.

“
Why do you care?” Delphie
asked. “Sam… Oh, you’re joking.”

Sam smiled.

“
Should you be at work?”
Delphie asked.

“
Jacob’s pretty sick,” Sam
said. “I gave everyone the day off.”

“
Can you afford that?”
Delphie asked.

“
I can’t afford not to… Oh
you’re joking,” Sam smiled at her. “Come on, let’s get you out of
the cold. You need to eat and rest. Jake’s going to need our help
today.”

Delphie nodded.

“
You promise, you’ll look
after these poor graves,” Delphie said.

“
I don’t have to promise,”
Sam said. “I have you to remind me.”

Delphie smiled. Sam held her close.

“
I heard it was an awful
night,” Sam said.

“
Horrifying,” Delphie
said.

“
Come on,” Sam said.
“There’s a warm hotel room very near by. You can take a bath, eat
some warm food, and recover from the horror.”

Delphie smiled. She let him take her hand
and lead her to his car. He turned on the seat warmers and the
heat. They were about a half mile from the house when Delphie
sighed.

“
I just hope that never
happens to me,” Delphie said.

“
Your remains will
probably be revered as spiritual relics,” Sam said. “People will
fight over the care of them.”

“
God, that’s worse,”
Delphie laughed.

“
It’s nice to hear you
laugh,” Sam said. “It was really horrifying?”

“
Worse.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday morning — 6:30 A.M.

Ava woke to the sound of delicate piano
music. Unsure of where she was, she closed and opened her eyes. She
smiled.

She was at Seth’s house.

When they’d finished the preliminary
forensics work in that awful mansion’s awful crypt and had
catalogued all of the disgusting ‘trophies’, Seth had asked her
what her choice was. Exhausted, she shook her head and slept most
of the way back to Denver. He woke her when they neared Denver and
asked again. She’d said she wanted to go to his house.