Island of the Forbidden (15 page)

“You're going to hurt her! Stop it! I hate you! I hate all of you! Let her go!”

The edge of the cyclone tugged at him, drawing him nearer. He reached out, grabbing desiccated branches from the bushes behind him. They broke off in his hands. The ground burned the exposed part of his side where his shirt had ridden up as he was dragged into the center of the clearing and up, up, up into the whirling, heedless cyclone.

Everything had become a frenzy.

The boy and the girl weren't listening. They needed to see!

Frustration swelled to a torrent.

You must see! See the bad man! Stay away from the bad man!

Alice and Jason struggled against their tempest. They needed to understand. They needed to be properly afraid.

They had to listen, and see…and feel.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Eddie watched with great amusement as Jessica duct taped slices of bologna over the lenses of any camera that was in the same room as them. Mitch and Rusty had been busy this morning. It looked as if every corner of the first floor was wired for audio and video. He could hear them shuffling overhead as they presumably did the same on the second floor.

She was thoughtful enough to remove the bologna as they left a room.

“You getting a kick out of this?” he asked as they sat in the main dining room.

“Not really. In fact, I hate it. I hate myself for getting stuck out here. I hate every single thing about this place.”

“Just focus on the kids. You know as well as I do that everything happens for a reason.”

He hoped the reason wasn't so he could re-master his abilities. He felt more in control of himself today than he had been in years. Because of his renewed psychic vitality, he was aware that the house was completely devoid of EB activity. It was a little unsettling.

Where are they?

“I guess we should go out and find them. It might be fun to play tag or something for a while. At least we'll get some exercise,” Jessica said, pushing away from the table.

“Or you can stay here and help us,” Nina said, sauntering into the room wearing a long black dress and thick, knitted shawl.

“You're a psychic,” Jessica said. “Read my mind.”

Nina stepped in her path, blocking her exit.

“Not your smartest move,” Jessica said, her jaw clenched.

“I don't understand why we have to be on opposing sides here,” Nina said. “From what I can see, this is a case of the living versus the dead. Whether you like it or not, we're on the same team.”

Jessica stepped back.

“That's your problem. You think you can come in here, rile things up and leave when you have enough to titillate the masses. There's no war to be had here. This is a place of tragedy. Sometimes it's best to leave the dead in peace.”

Jessica angled her body to sneak around Nina without coming in contact with her. When Nina tried to block her again, Eddie pushed outward with his mind, sliding Nina back a good two feet until her ass came to rest against a dining room chair. The woman looked to him as if he'd just made a demon appear in the room.

Jessica walked away, oblivious to Eddie's intervention.

“How did you do that?” Nina asked. Her hands gripped the sides of the chair for support.

“Just be glad it wasn't Jessica shoving you aside. By nature, I'm a pacifist.” He paused. “We aren't of the same nature.”

He left Nina in shock.

She doesn't know as much as she thinks she does. Good. Keep her wondering.

The icy prick of tiny needles jabbed at the base of his skull. She was trying to pry inside his mind. He shut her out forcefully enough to cause her to grunt.

And stay the heck out!

Jessica took a deep, relatively warm breath when they went outside. She wished she'd brought a heavy jacket so being in the house wasn't so bone chilling. Then again, who would think you'd need anything more than a T-shirt in the South Carolina summer?

She and Eddie went behind the house, expecting to hear Alice and Jason playing nearby. Only the rattle of leaves blowing in the wind greeted them.

“You think they're back to skipping stones?” she asked.

“It's what I'd be doing if I was a kid. Boys tend to obsess on anything that involves throwing stuff until they think they're the best at it. We like to become legends in our own minds.”

Jessica laughed. After the tension with Nina, it felt good. They traipsed through the underbrush, searching for the spot they'd eaten at the night before. She listened for the sound of rocks plinking into the water. They found the spot, but not the children.

“Wanna try the dock next?” she said. Eddie shrugged and followed.

When the docks turned up empty, she began to worry.

“They're somewhere,” Eddie said. “We just have to think like kids.”

“What if they went in the water and a riptide or something took them under?”

He shook his head. “I don't think there are riptides in the harbor.” Closing his eyes for a moment, he said, “I can feel them. And yes, they're very much alive.”

She nudged him in the side with her elbow. “Can't you do one of your mind tricks where you latch onto them or something? I once described you as a human GPS to Angela.”

“I wish I could. That was one of the first things to go for me when things started to get bad. I'm feeling a lot stronger now, but I still can't seem to tap into the things I used to.”

Jessica cupped her hands around her mouth. “Alice! Jason! Where are you? Meet us in front of the house so we can play!”

Eddie rubbed his ears. “And you're a human dog whistle. I didn't know your voice went that high.”

“You should hear me when I shout
stranger danger
. I was top of my class in second grade when they gave us that lesson.”

They walked back to the house, Jessica calling out for the kids every few steps.

“You still do that whole kickboxing thing?” Eddie asked.

“When I can. It's hard to keep up with steady lessons when you're on the road. A lot of towns I stayed in didn't even have a place to do it. Why? You think I'm going to need to kick some living ass?”

“I hope not.”

When they got to the house and there was still no Alice or Jason, Jessica said, “Let's split up. You take the west end of the island, I'll take the east. Meet me back here in five minutes.”

“It shouldn't even take that long,” he said. She saw the concerned look on his face.

“You can still feel them?”

“Yes. They're here. Let's go.”

Jessica's heart thudded in her chest.
This is what Eve must have felt all those times I wandered off in department stores,
she thought. For some reason when she was a very little kid, she derived great joy out of hiding within the circular racks of clothes, sending Eve into a panic. Hearing her name on the intercom only made the game more fun. Her aunt never let her forget how awful it made her feel to make Jessica one of those leash kids. The little chest harness did wonders for her mental health, but it made her feel as if she'd failed as an adoptive parent.

She heard Eddie calling their names, answering his calls with her own. Daphne was standing on the front porch when they met back at the house. A look of expectant terror crippled her normally nonchalant features.

“Where are my children?” she asked, her hands balled into tight fists.

Jessica tried to settle her nerves, breathing in enough air to speak without the words fluttering from her lips. “I don't know. Eddie and I have been looking everywhere. Can you check the house? Maybe they've been inside this whole time.”

“Yes, yes, they may be in their room. They like to do puzzles or read this time of the day. Will you please keep looking for them out here?” Daphne pleaded.

As much as Jessica wanted to remain angry with Daphne for duping her into coming to the island, her about-face over the misguided setup was winning her over. God help the person who came between a mother and her children. This whole farce was a wedge that had shaken Daphne into her senses. Before they could get to the business of sabotaging Tobe and Paul's aspirations for television greatness, they had to find the kids.

Daphne slammed the door behind her. Eddie grabbed Jessica's wrist.

He said, “Come on, there are a couple of places we still haven't checked.”

Daphne scurried up the stairs, ignoring everyone as they tinkered with equipment in the hallway, crying out for Jason and Alice. She ran to their room, throwing the door open with so much force that it smacked into the wall, the knob putting a sizeable dent in the plaster. Their beds were still made, books and puzzles still in the cardboard boxes where they kept them.

She checked her bedroom and the bathroom. There was no sign of them.

Tobe intercepted her before she could head downstairs. He held her arms in a tight grip. He looked pale, paler than usual. Dark circles were beginning to bloom under his eyes. Neither of them had slept much last night.

“Why are you running around like a dog searching for a ball?” he asked.

“We can't find Alice and Jason,” she said, her breath hitching as she said their names, the burn of burgeoning tears stinging her eyes.

He held her fast as she tried to walk around him. “I think you're overreacting, Daphne. Just a bit. It's a small island but there are plenty of places for them to hide. They have to be somewhere. I need you to calm down. We were just about to start filming. If you came barging in here two minutes later, you would have ruined the shot.”

She stared at him,
into
him, with utter disbelief. Their children were missing and all he cared about was having their filming interrupted.

“How dare you,” she hissed.

“Someone has to keep a cool head. If you just calm down, I guarantee you they'll show up. We're on an island. There's no one here to harm them. You're losing sight of why we're here in the first place. You need to snap out of it.”

Daphne jerked back, releasing herself from his grasp. The others cast their eyes elsewhere when she turned to face them, embarrassed to be witness to the domestic dispute.

“Will you help me look for them, Paul?”

Her brother stroked his beard, looked to Nina and Mitch before answering. “Sure, sis. Just give me fifteen minutes. I'm sure they'll come running back here, hungry, before then. I just need to finish up here.”

To hell with you both!
she thought as she brushed past her husband.

Paul watched his sister storm down the stairs, ripples of anger left in her wake. And now he was worried too. A part of him felt that Tobe was right. The kids were safe and sound, probably hiding from one another and everyone else in the process.

But it wasn't like Jason and Alice to disappear like that, not so long as to make the unflappable Daphne unraveled.

“Hey, maybe I should help Daphne look for the kids. It should only take a few minutes,” he said.

Mitch sighed, ducking his eyes behind his camera when Paul turned to face him.

“That's a good idea,” Rusty said. “I remember all the times my boys happened to lose themselves, especially during soccer games, when they were young. I swear it's the reason I lost my hair.”

“Thanks.”

Paul headed for the stairs. His chest collided with Tobe's unyielding hand.

“You can look for them after,” his brother-in-law said.

Paul pulled him aside. “They're your kids, man. You should be helping too. This can wait a few minutes.”

“Actually,” Mitch interjected, “we're losing the natural light. We should get this in the can before it's too dark.”

Nina leaned against a closed door, an odd smirk on her face. She said, “You're worrying for nothing. I can feel them. They're fine.”

Tobe spread his arms wide, his smile even wider. “See, even Nina says they're all right. Now can we all please calm down?”

Paul didn't necessarily have the same trust in Nina's preternatural abilities as Tobe. But there was something in his eyes that warned him against delaying things any further.

“I hope you're right,” Paul said. He noticed Rusty's disgust as he shook his head and walked down the hall.

You better be right,
he thought.
What's the sense of resurrecting the family's finances if something were to happen to Alice and Jason?
He stood on the X taped to the floor, waiting for Mitch to give him the thumbs up.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Eddie and Jessica ran down the path to the docks. Midway through, he pointed into the brush.

“They're in the clearing,” he said. “I can practically see them in my mind.”

Jessica crouched down, pulling aside thick branches, searching for the way in. The little passageway they had all gone through just the day before was choked with inflexible flora. “Are you frigging kidding me?” she huffed, searching for a way in.

Staring at the intertwining branches, Eddie knew this was no accident of nature. The Last Kids, maybe all of the EB children, had done this. They wanted to keep the adults out.

Or Jason and Alice in.

“Let me try,” he said. He'd been feeling his telekinetic oats lately. It was the one ability that he felt most proud of. He'd grown up a fan of the X-Men comics, and always assumed he was a real-life mutant. TK power was his entrance to the X-Men, should they ever come to life. He already had a superhero name picked out for himself—
Kinetico
. It was lame, but it was the best he was able to come up with when he was a kid.

Jessica stepped back. The bushes and trees chittered as he tried to force a path wide open. Leaves cascaded to the damp floor, but he couldn't get them to break.

“Hold on,” Jessica said, running back to the house.

Eddie tried until his head began to pound and the periphery of his vision darkened. It felt like an ever-expanding bubble was about to burst in his brain when Jessica returned carrying a sickle.

“I saw this by the back patio. Sometimes brute force trumps mind power.”

A wicked gleam of determination flashed in her eyes as she hacked away at the underbrush, grunting with each blow. The vegetation gave way under the sickle's singing arc. Jessica slashed, back and forth, up and down, carving her way through to the clearing. At one point, Eddie asked if she'd like him to take over for a bit. The muscles of her arms must surely be burning.

“I've got it,” she said, focused on the way forward.

He had to keep a good distance between them, unless he wanted the point of the sickle in his eye or arms. Jessica was covered with splintered wood, leaves and gnarled twigs.

“I see them!” she shouted, hammering the final obstacle with renewed fervor.

Jason and Alice lay in the center of the clearing, unconscious.

Jessica dropped the sickle, her body coiling, ready to run to them.

Eddie lashed out, managing to grab hold of her shirt collar. “Wait,” he said.

“Wait? Are you crazy?”

She made a fist as if to cold-cock him should he make the mistake of holding her back one more second.

“I'll get them,” Eddie said. “There's something else going on here.”

“What? Tell me.”

Eddie stared at the horde of EBs that had backed away from the children the moment Jessica broke through the brush. They formed a deep semi-circle around Jason and Alice, a still wall of silent expectation.

What did you do to them?
Eddie asked psychically.

They replied with an unsettling silence.

Why did you bring them here? And why did you try to keep us away? Come on, answer me.

The reply came as a soft whisper that tickled the center of his brain. “
We had to make them see.”

It didn't make sense to Eddie, but when he pressed them for more, they refused to answer.

“Now I know where all of the EBs have been,” he said, his gaze locked on the spirit children.

“We have to get Alice and Jason.”

Jessica stepped around him, sprinting to the unconscious kids. Eddie jogged behind her.

She lifted their heads onto her lap. Alice's hair was a tangled mess. Jason looked as if he'd been through a wind tunnel. “Alice, Jason, are you all right? Can you hear me?” Her thumbs stroked their cheeks, hoping they would respond to her touch.

The EBs pulled into one another, the edges of the semi-circle contracting.

“Are they all right?” Eddie asked, tensing, trying to decipher what the EBs were up to. He'd never felt so disconnected from the spiritual realm. He felt like a helpless voyeur. Their collective strength had formed an impenetrable wall he somehow had to bust through.

Alice's eyes fluttered open. “Ms. Backman?”

“Yes, Alice, it's me. Are you hurt?” The words poured from her breathlessly as she pulled the little girl to her breast.

“I don't think so. I'm so tired.”

Jessica checked her head, feeling for any bumps.

The EBs coalesced into a blinding ball of light so intense, so pure, Eddie could feel it burn the back of his eyes.

“Ms. Backman?” Jason croaked. He pushed himself into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. “What happened?”

An electric charge burst from the EBs, scorching the ground at Eddie's feet. Alice squealed.

“What was that?” Jessica shouted, holding the kids tight.

Eddie shook his head. “I don't know. I've never seen that before. It's like…spirit lightning. Holy cow.” Looking down at his arms, he saw all of the hairs standing pin straight. The back of his scalp tingled.

“Jess, you have to get the kids out of here,” he said as calmly as he could muster.

She didn't need to be told twice. She scooped one under each arm and ran as fast as she could to the path she'd hacked open.

Eddie felt the EBs surging.

What are you doing? You'll hurt them!

His telepathic words fell into a dark vortex of palpable indifference.

“The bad man hurt us!”
the EBs screamed.

In that instant, Eddie felt their pain, their anger, their fear. It was like a laser momentarily piercing the center of his being.

They can't control it
.

Who is the bad man?

His brain seared with the morphing image of a man. It came and went so fast, he couldn't retain any of the man's features. He went from young to old and liver-spotted in a spark's flash. There was something familiar about him, especially when he was in younger form.

The air in the clearing filled with the scent of burning wires. Any second now, those EBs were going to take another shot, either at him or Jess and the kids. He sensed unfocused confusion and anger coming from the EBs. It was as if they were all throwing a tempter tantrum at the same time. There was no history to fall back on to know if it would have a physical effect, psychic, or none at all.

I don't want to find out,
Eddie thought.

He pulled all of his senses inward, as he would grab his family into a storm cellar before a tornado. His flesh prickled as he invoked an image of what he planned to do to stop them. It was going to take everything he had, but there wasn't any time to weigh the pros and cons. If there was any chance they were going to direct their energy towards Jess, Alice and Jason, he had to do it, no matter the personal consequences.

Last chance, kids. Stop now.

His chest hummed as if a freight train was fast approaching.

No!

A brilliant flash of sharp, concentrated radiance exploded from the EB collective.

Eddie's conjured psychic wall burst into being, absorbing the blow and caroming back to its source. It hit the EBs like a guided missile.

He thought he heard Jessica shout his name. He felt his body lift into the air, his feet no longer in touch with terra firma.

Stay numb, stay numb, stay numb.

Tumbling across the clearing, the physical pain pulled him to the here and now so he felt every bump, every burn, every scrape. He stopped within the entrance to the passageway exit like a nine-ball shot into a corner pocket. Something tugged at his collar, constricting it around his throat. He heard voices but couldn't decipher the words. As his vision came back into focus, he watched the EBs separate from their collected mass, the wraith children turning their backs to him and disappearing into the darkening gaps between the trees.

A crashing wave of vertigo swept over Nina. She grasped for the nearest solid holding to keep from falling. The great room had grown dark, splotches of dying light on the wall creating a kaleidoscope that made her head spin even more.

“Are you all right?” Paul asked.

Knowing the cameras were rolling, she collected herself, careful to make the most of the moment. Holding a hand to her head, she rolled her neck and said, “I can feel the children, Paul. They're in the house now. So many of them. All that pain and suffering they've been carrying with them for twenty years.” Reaching within the folds of her loose and layered blouse, she pinched a chunk of flesh on her wrist between two sharp nails. The tears came right on cue.

Paul played along as if they'd rehearsed it. “By the children, do you mean the ones that were found burned to death by the Charleston police?”

Nina paused to catch her breath. “Yes,” she whimpered.

In fact, she wasn't lying. She did feel a strong spirit presence enter Ormsby House. She couldn't discern how many or distinct personalities, but that was never one of her gifts. Sure, sometimes an earthbound spirit would come to her, and in those instances she would form a dialogue, a bond, as strong as if she were speaking to the living. Out here, it was different. From the moment she'd accepted the Harpers' invitation, it was impossible not to sense the young souls that still clung to the island. But they'd been so silent, as if they were either oblivious to or deliberately avoiding her.

They were here now, that was a certainty. And as usual, they watched them with mute interest.

“Can you see them?” Paul asked, looking absolutely terrified. Rusty was a bit waxen himself.

She looked over his shoulder and pointed. “Yes. There are three girls standing outside the library doors. They're very young, wearing shorts and pink and yellow T-shirts.” In fact, she could see nothing.

Paul said, “Do you think you could get them to speak to us?” He turned on an EMF meter and placed it on a table, along with a handheld audio recorder and a curved metal hanger with a small, hanging replica of the Liberty Bell, crack and all. “We don't want to frighten you. We only want to talk. If you want, you can come over to this table and let us know you're here by either making the needle move on that black box, or by talking into the silver recorder in the middle or even by making the bell ring.”

Nina had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as she watched Paul talk to an empty doorway with all the tenderness he normally reserved for dealing with his niece and nephew. She wondered how all those supposed ghost hunters managed to talk to thin air with such sincerity, all without cracking even the tiniest smile at the absurdity of it all.

They waited a moment to see if anything would happen. Tobe stood behind the cameramen, hands clasped together, eyes glued to the table.

Nina said, “I know it's been a long time since anyone talked to you. It must get very lonely out here. I'd like to help you, but I need you to show everyone that you're here with us.”

A gust of wind rattled one of the great room's windows. Rusty whirled to film the window. He was the jumpiest of them all and there was still a long way to go.

Ting-ting-ting.

Paul gasped as the bell gently rocked back and forth for several seconds.

“Do you think it's the wind?” he asked.

Nina shook her head. “Very good, girls. Can you do that again so no one can doubt it's you?”

It seemed as if everyone in the room held their breath. She wondered who exactly was ringing the bell. Maybe it was the wind. Or maybe it was one of the actual children that spent their time hiding from here. Either way, she had to work with it.

Ting-ting.

“Very good. Thank you. I'd like to ask you some questions. You can ring the bell once for yes and twice for no. Do you understand?”

Ting.

“The EMF just spiked,” Paul said. By the time Nina looked, the needle had gone back down. “Mitch, hand me one of those K2 meters.” Mitch gave his camera to Tobe, fishing one of the meters designed for electricians out of his kit bag.

Nina continued, “Are you here because you want to be here?”

There was a long pause, then two chimes of the bell.

“Are there more than three of you?”

Ting.

“More than ten?”

Ting.

“Fifteen?”

Ting.

“Twenty?”

Nina knew this was television gold. For her own sake, she'd never come across so many active spirits in one place before. That, of course, was if the spirits ringing the bell were being truthful.
You can trust the dead as much as the living, which means not at all,
she thought.

The bell remained silent and still.

Paul said, “Is it less than twenty?”

A quick
ting-ting.

He looked to Nina for help. Something long and dark slunk around the corner of the room, slipping unnoticed behind Tobe and Mitch.

Nina's chest felt weighted down. The sensation of fingers pressing on each knob of her spine made her shiver, hoping to shake the phantom digits off.

The bell blared to life, swaying madly.

Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!

The EMF meter whined like a deaf cat, the needle pinned to the end of the dial. Multicolored lights on the K2 meter flashed and blinked, then stayed on.

“What the hell?” Rusty said, backing into a wall.

Mitch moved in for a tighter shot of the table. The base of the bell began to wobble. The clanging of the bell increased in intensity, the volume far exceeding what the little souvenir was capable of producing.

Nina wanted to shout for them to stop ringing the bell, but the words wouldn't come. It felt as though her mouth and chest had been filled with damp cotton.

Ting-ting-ting-ting!