The Crimson Key (13 page)

“Just promise me you will stay away from the house
, please!” The fear in her face made my skin crawl, not to mention her threat of that house. “That evil woman in your home, she is a Barclay, and she gives me the willies.”

“Yeah me
, too. Thanks for helping me out with her the other day,” I told her. I totally had forgotten to thank her for that. She had proved to be a good friend, dead or not.

“No problem.” And once again she was gone. I sat in the car for a few minutes
, watching the upstairs window for a bit. When I saw the curtain move my heart stopped. Had my mom found a way into the room? Had she found my key? I held my breath for a second as I stared closer to the window, thinking maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. When a face appeared that’s when I knew I was wrong. Except the face wasn’t my mom, it was Evangeline.

I flew into the house so fast my mom
, who was cleaning the kitchen, didn’t even notice me. I reached my room, searching for the key. Sure enough it was gone. “Damn it!” I went to the room and pushed the door, which opened with a sigh. I hadn’t been in there since the day Pearl left; the day that my boyfriend and best friend were stricken with the evil inside of it. I tentatively froze at the doorway. I could still hear Lynley’s cries and see Ephraim lying on the ground. I snapped out of my vision when I saw Evangeline sitting on Pearl’s bed. How dare she come in here after all she has done to this family?

“Come to pay me a visit?” she asked as she played with the bedspread.

“How did you get in this room?” I tried to look menacing, but I knew I couldn’t pull that off.

“The door opens for me; I am the one who holds the blood to enter. You know that already
, though, don’t you?” I knew she took my key, but she wouldn’t tell me. I had to get it back, I couldn’t let it stay with her. Not after all I did to get it. If she gave it to Lynley we were in big trouble.

“Don’t lie to me
, I know you have the key,” I told her. “Now give it back to me!”

“I don’t have the key. If it’s missing from its hiding place
, it was not I that took it.” She stood now and walked around the room, looking at Pearl’s belongings. I had to try to convince her to help me seal this room off. There was no guarantee that she would want to help me. Truthfully what did I have to offer her in return? I couldn’t release her spirit because I didn’t know how.

“I need … I can’t believe I am saying this. I need your blood to help me seal this door off
, to stop the curse.” I swallowed hard, waiting for a reply.

A few moments later it came
, in the form of a roaring laugh. I felt like running over to her and slapping her, but she was a ghost and it probably would do no good.

“Brylee
, there are things I need from you before we can even talk about that. You are so naïve and young in thinking that it’s that simple. First, I would have to
want
to seal the door. Second, I would have to want to help you, and right now I don’t,” she answered between laughter.

She wanted something from me
, did she? “What could you possibly want? What everyone else wants? To be free? I can’t do that, okay!”

Tears burned my eyes as I felt the shame in myself for not being able to harness this power inside me. Here I had this awesome gift that so far did more bad then good.

“No, I don’t want to be free. Do you know how I got here in the first place?” I shook my head. I had read Everett Brown’s journal and I knew that he had killed them, but he skipped over the specifics.

“He separated us and killed us in two different areas
, so that in death we could not be together.” Her gaze left mine and she stared out the window. “He killed us with an athame, a very powerful one at that. He told us there was something we needed in each place he held us. He promised us both different things because what we wanted to do with our power was not the same. We still do, I suppose,” she said as she stood now. She went to the window and paused briefly. “I haven’t been able to find her spirit, but I can sense it’s near. I know she is close by, and that is what I want from you.”

“You want me to find her?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes, you are the only one who can find her. I promised you before I didn’t want to hurt your friend. I still don’t, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I am not the same as my sister, but I need you to find her for me, can you do that?” I didn’t know what to say. Could I find her? Where would I even start?

“If I find her
, will you seal this door and end the curse?”

“Yes. You have my promise that once my sister is found and brought to me I will end the curse on the Brown family
,” she promised, holding out her hand. I was scared to take it, but I did and shook hard.

I now had a way to save Ephraim and Lyn. Yet
, at the same time, had made more work for myself. I had a lot of things to do when I got back home.

My mom calling me downstairs broke my train of thought while I was reading of ways to control a spirit from one of the books Angie gave me. I found something about finding spirits, but finding one and bringing it into your home was a bit more complicated. I dropped my book as my mom’s voice filled the air around me. I flew down the steps and found her at the door, “Is she hurt?” she asked Ephraim, who stood at our door looking broken.

“What happened?” I asked them both. Ephraim’s face was pale and he didn’t seem to have the strength to answer me.

“Ephraim says Lyn’s in trouble,” Mom told me as we headed out the door.

I followed her and Ephraim across the yard to his house. He didn’t even seem to notice I was there until we reached their bathroom door. Steam was flowing out the door and Ephraim was telling my mom what happened. “She went to take a shower a long time ago. So I came to check on her
, and that’s when I heard her crying. She’s hurt in there and isn’t answering me,” he said desperately. My mom’s hands trembled, but she steadied him.

“I am going to call your mom
, you get this door open. I am sure it’s nothing,” she said as she pulled out her cell phone and went outside. She thought it was nothing, but Ephraim and I knew the secret. We knew it could be something bad. The secrets we held were deadly.

He stepped back
, and with all his strength kicked the door in. It fell sideways and the heavy steam filled the room, leaving it hardly visible to see inside.

“You go in
,” he told me. I went inside, climbing over the door. The water was on and I could hear her crying.

“Lyn
, are you okay?” I didn’t want to pull the curtain open, but I knew I had to. I moved it aside and the scene I found was unlike anything I had ever seen before. She stood under the hot water murmuring to herself, her lips moving a mile a minute. Her skin was red with blisters forming right before my eyes. I reached in to shut the water off and got splashed. “Holy crap!” I screamed. The water was not hot, it was scalding hot.

She grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes. “As warm as the sun
, as warm as the sun, as warm as the sun,” she kept saying over and over. Ephraim grabbed her with a towel and pulled her out of the shower. I shut off the water as she screamed at him, “No, it’s too cold here. Too cold.”

Ephraim lay her down on the floor and I covered her body up with more towels. My mom came upstairs to check on us. When she saw Lyn’s skin she panicked. “Oh my … God! I am calling an ambulance.”

“Wait, Mrs. Branson, did you get ahold of my mom?” Ephraim asked her as she dialed the number.

“No
, she didn’t pick up,” she said with a tone of sadness in her voice. Why was this woman never ever around for her kids? Lyn was covered in burns and she wouldn’t be here to help her own daughter.

“Why were you in that hot of a shower
, Lynley? What happened?” Ephraim asked her as he gently stroked her hair.

“I needed to be warm like the sun
, Eph. Warm like the sun.” She was lost to us right now. I looked at Ephraim and I knew he and I shared the same thought. They would put her on some kind of psych watch for a few days if she went in talking like this. We had to have a story and get her to snap out of it. I could hear the sirens in the distance. We were running out of time. I got down on Lyn’s level on the floor until we were eye to eye.

“Lyn
, they could put you away for a while if you don’t come back to us right now. I know you’re in there,” I said, choking back the tears. “You have to tell them this was an accident, you didn’t know it would be that hot. Do you understand me?” She stared right into my eyes and said nothing.

I heard the footfalls on the stairs as the EMT’s came up. They were coming in now
and would see her like this. Her rants would sound absolutely crazy to them, not that it didn’t to us, but they wouldn’t understand why she was acting like this.

Sure enough the EMT started asking her questions. Ephraim held me as we stood out in the hallway
, his chin resting on my head. I felt the tears fall from his eyes as they landed on me. I bit my hand, trying not to cry. Seeing her like this made me ill. I couldn’t handle this; I had to stop it from getting worse.

A stern faced officer came to talk to us. She didn’t look happy that there was no parent around to discuss the situation with.

“Your sister seems to have suffered burns that look like second degree at this point. Any reason why the water heater would be set so high?” Ephraim froze.

“It’s finicky
,” I answered for him. She nodded and looked over her shoulder at the stretcher that now carried my friend down to the ambulance.

“She is in shock
, which is completely normal for the amount of pain she is in right now. One person can ride with the ambulance to the hospital.”

Ephraim stepped forward
, following her out the door. He briefly turned back. “I’ll call you and let you know when she is settled, okay?”

I smiled
, trying to look hopeful. “Yep,” I said. He walked out the door and I fell to my knees and cried. My mom came up behind me and rested her hand on my back for support. I knew she was trying to tell me it would be okay, but it wouldn’t and she didn’t know the truth. I got up and followed her out of the house, stopping right before the doorway.

“Wait one sec
, Mom. I forgot something upstairs,” I lied.

“Okay
, I will meet you at the car. Lock up behind yourself on the way out.” I nodded and let her leave. I ran to the basement, looking for the water heater. I had to check the temperature on it. I had learned once that if it’s set too high it will burn you. I looked for the little gauge, and sure enough I found it. It was turned all the way up. I didn’t know how hot that was, but it had to be damn hot. Hot enough to scald Lyn, causing burns and blisters. I didn’t know who would do this to her or why. I walked out of the house and locked the door behind me. Just as I slammed it shut, an arm reached out and turned me around fast.

I was forced up against the door by an energy that was felt and not seen. My breath was ragged already
, but this force was pressing all the air out of my lungs, as if I was being strangled. I fought to get free, even kicking the air around me. Nothing happened. Whatever this was, it was evil and it was apparent that they were trying to send a message to me that snooping is a no-no. I started to plead, “Please …” My eyes watered as I fought for breath and finally I was let go. I fell to the ground gasping for air.

“Take this as a warning to mind your own business, little girl,” said a sinister whisper.
I felt something stroke my face and a cold rush of air pass me. Then, I was alone again.

My mom and I reached the hospital to be met by Ephraim at the front entrance. The grim look on his face gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. I had already encountered enough stress
, and now I awaited the news. He hugged me and my mom tightly, and then held my hand in his. “They aren’t letting anyone in except family. My mom is up there with her now. She is stable,” he said. “She is asleep and comfortable.” Relief that she was stable washed over me. That meant that she may be okay physically; mentally I wasn’t sure what was happening.

“How did this happen?” my mom asked
, to my dismay. I had hoped she wouldn’t ask how it went down, but instead just focus on the recovery of my friend.

“She went in to take a shower and the water burnt her so bad she went into shock.” Ephraim’s lies reached his eyes
, and I could see he didn’t like to tell them. He was a brutally honest person who had been forced to lie to people constantly. To protect them with the lies was better than scaring them with the truth. Who knew how many people we would lose if we told them the truth.

“We can’t see her?” I asked to spare Ephraim from any of my mom’s questions. He shook his head and I hugged him. He trembled slightly
, and pulled me aside for a moment. My mom got into her car and let us have a moment to ourselves.

“I leave tomorrow. I won’t be here to see her when she wakes up.” I hated that this had to happen right before I left. Now I didn’t want to leave even more so than before. I tried to come up with schemes to stay here
, but even this wouldn’t sway my parents. Now, even more than before, they wanted me to leave for a bit. My mom said that a break would be good for me. I think she was the one who needed a break if you asked me. But no one ever did.