The Crimson Key (17 page)

“We can’t decide what to do with his stuff
,” Jayne said softly. “We might just donate it.”

“That’s a great idea. I am sure someone needs it.”

We stood in complete silence for a moment. I had to decide how I was going to do this. I had never done it before, and I was extremely nervous.

“Jayne
, he is here with us right now,” I blurted out. Her eyes found mine and filled with tears. “I can see him. I actually can see a lot of dead people. I know it sounds crazy, but please just believe me,” I begged.

“How many people know about this?” she whispered. 

“My parents don’t know. So I ask if you could keep it that way.”

She nodded and looked around the room. I wondered if she was going to try to run away from me and tell my parents to have me locked up
, instead she shrugged. “I know he’s here so it’s not that strange. I am just in shock, I suppose. It’s not every day that a teen girl tells you she can see your dead son.” She laughed nervously and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Brylee
, I don’t understand why you are telling her this.” Ethan was getting frustrated.

“He’s confused
, he doesn’t know why I am telling you,” I told Jayne.

“Is he … is he okay?” Jayne asked.

“Yes, he is stuck here, though. He needs to move on and I think he can’t because you and your husband …”

I didn’t need to go on; she understood what I was saying.

“Tell her I don’t want to leave her,” Ethan said desperately. He stood now by her side, looking at her in awe. It was written on his face that this caused him pain, but I had to do it. He couldn’t be stuck here anymore. Yes, I would miss him and our talks. Yes, the thought of him really leaving killed me. But this was what was supposed to happen. You die and you move on. Not you die and stick around, watching everyone you love suffer.

“He doesn’t want to go.”

“I want him to. He can hear me, right?” she asked. I nodded. “Ethan, I want you to move on. If there is a heaven, I want you there instead of wandering around here. Your dad and I will be just fine. I love you, Ethan. I will miss you … I will miss you every day.” Her voice broke and she fell into silent sobs, sitting on his bed and gripping his blankets. “You were a wonderful child, and I don’t understand why you had to go, but I don’t want you to worry about us. Do you understand?” Ethan, who now rested his hand on her shoulders, nodded.

“Yes
, he understands.”

Ethan’s body started to flicker
, much like a TV show that wasn’t coming in too well. I didn’t understand what was happening. I reached out to touch him, and my hand went through him. He looked up at something behind me and I turned. I couldn’t see what it was that he could, but when I turned around he was gone. “Bye, Brylee.” His voice was barely audible, but I heard it. He was far away or on another dimension. He was gone.

“What happened?” Jayne asked
, looking around the room. I wiped tears from my eyes as I let my friend go.

“He’s gone
, I think,” I answered. Although I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, I felt that he had moved on. Jayne hugged me tightly and wept into my shoulder. Patting her back, I let her cry.

The ride back to our hotel was beyond uncomfortable. I was being questioned like some sort of criminal by my FBI agent parents. ‘What the hell was that about?’ and ‘What do you know that we don’t?
’ I just played dumb, which was easy enough for me to pull off. I twisted my blonde hair around my finger like a dumb blonde should and kept saying, “I don’t know.” Finally they gave up once they realized I wasn’t giving them any answers. It wasn’t like I didn’t want them to know at some point, but this just wasn’t the right time and place for this talk. Jayne kept my secret safe and promised to tell her husband after we left. She thanked me a million times and I smiled now at that. I helped her let him go and say good-bye. That was worth the looks from my parents, for now.

We were coming up on the second week in Cali and I was suffering from boredom galore. Now that Ethan was gone I had literally no one to talk to besides my parents. They had stopped asking about the night at dinner and I was grateful. They finally let me go to the beach by myself
, as long as I rode my bike. I tore through the streets and peddled as fast as I could. The ocean had become my sanctuary lately. I read as much from the book as I could. I was learning more and more about the sisters’ cult, but with my parents around all the time I didn’t have full access to it without being sneaky. I pulled the beach cruiser to my favorite spot and parked it, practically skipping to the sand without my shoes on. It felt invigorating to be one with the sand. Once I sat down, I almost didn’t hear my phone ring. I pulled it out just in time.

“Ephraim!” He was finally calling me. It was torture not hearing from him this whole time. I wondered if he was mad that I went away while Lyn was in the hospital
, or if it was something else. Not knowing led me to go crazy. I made up all sorts of reasons why he didn’t call, but finally hearing his voice now made me forget all of them.

“Bry
, I am so sorry I didn’t call sooner. It has been crazy here lately.” He sounded so different. “Lyn comes home today, so I wanted to call and tell you. How is your trip?” How was my trip? Did he not get my message about John? My trip could wait!

“Ephraim
, are you sure that’s what you want to talk about?”

“Well
, I didn’t want to start the conversation with telling you how I almost killed my own cousin,” he admitted. So he had gotten the message and became violent. Great.

That was not why I told him. I didn’t want him to hate John
, even though I did.

“Don’t kill our only source
, Ephraim, please. He promised to tell me everything in person. So once I get home, he and I have a meeting planned,” I said with a sigh. I didn’t look forward to sitting down with him and talking, but I needed to. “He knows things and I need him. Sadly.”

“He didn’t tell me anything. He told me he would only talk to you.” He paused and I could hear rustling
, like he was moving. “So that’s the only reason I didn’t kill him. If he only knew what those sisters are doing to us. It makes me sick to think he is helping them in any way.”

It made me sick
, too. How could someone like John Mayhew be in league with someone like the Barclay sisters? And why? What was the reason for their union? I had to find out the answers, but here I sat in Cali and the answers were 3,000 miles away from me.

“Let’s not talk anymore about that scumbag
, tell me about your trip.”

What was there to say? I want to be home and in your arms? “It’s been interesting I guess you could say
,” I said. Looking out at the ocean before me, I wished more than anything that Ephraim sat next to me.

“Interesting how?”

“Well for starters Ethan came to visit with me.” I wasn’t sure how he would react to that news, but he laughed a little. “He has been communicating with me from time to time. So now that I am on his turf he sort of felt my presence here.”

“Oh. How is that going?”

I thought I heard a hint of jealousy, so I laughed before I answered. “It went well. I helped him move on. Ephraim, it was amazing!” I had not realized until that moment how awesome it had really been helping Ethan. It didn’t hit me until then that I did something huge. I was like the
Ghost Whisperer
in some ways. Instead this was for real, not some TV show. I liked to think that I was better at this than J. Love.

“You amaze me
, Brylee. Remember when I said you were exceptional, I take it back. You’re extraordinary. You need to hurry back home, though. I am missing you too much.”

“Trust me
, I want to be home, too,” I admitted. Even as I sat in the warm sand I missed Jersey. This wasn’t my home anymore, it was foreign to me now. Yeah I liked it here, but I felt at home where Ephraim was.

“Things are changing with me
, Brylee.” Everything just went from great to terrible with six small words. I gulped as he went on. “I am starting to hear them more now. And I noticed that I have been losing my temper on a regular basis. I lost it on one of the guys at work the other day.”

“Why?”

“I don’t even know. I just … lost it. I went crazy. Brylee, it was like the old me came back.”

I didn’t want to hear this stuff
, it reminded me that he was still cursed. We were focusing so much on Lyn that we forgot he was going through it, too. I clenched my fists and tried to listen to him tell me how he lost his job and he went home to tear up his house. He was displaying signs of the curse. Getting angry for no reason was part of it. When would he be a blank person to me? When would that happen? After that happens there is no hope of getting him back unless I end this curse in time. I didn’t have Agnes Barclay yet.

I knew John’s involvement
, but that still wasn’t a cure for Ephraim and Lynley, that was just one step in the right direction. I had to be honest with myself and realize I was dealing with a whole staircase of steps that I had to take before I reached the end.

“Brylee
, don’t be scared. No matter what happens I will always be around,” he said. I knew what he meant. If he died he would still be with me in my house. Could I live with that? Could I live with him as a ghost in my house and still love him the same way?

I knew the answer
, but I couldn’t bring myself to think about it.

“I love you
, Ephraim,” I said in haste.

“I love you
, too.”

After we hung up, I gazed at the waves breaking over the shore. I watched the kids play in the water. They were so innocent. I remembered playing at this same beach as a child. My mom and dad would help me build sandcastles and I would bury my dad in the sand. For just one minute I wished I could go back to the days of enjoying my youth. Instead I was seventeen and I didn’t feel it. Instead of being a teenager who enjoys shopping trips and movies, I fought curses and talked to dead people. I was a walking M. Night Shyamalan movie. I didn’t want to be like this, but it was the hand I was dealt. I would harness my abilities and help the dead, but first I would save Ephraim and Lynley. For me, the days of being a child were over.

The next morning was dreary and rainy. There would be no going to the beach today, and that made me miserable. Instead I stayed with my grandparents and read. The more I learned about how strong the Barclay’s were, the more I feared them. The talents they had were beyond amazing. I couldn’t even really call it
talents
. That word was too kind for what they did. It ranged from sacrificing animals, to upping the stakes to take human lives. It made me think of the ghosts I met in the field, especially the one whose mouth was sewn shut.

My hands shook as I read Aliah’s words on how and why they did it; it was sport to them. Aliah was just as sickened by it as I was. Soon after she learned what they were really doing she left them. She made up a story that she had to go home to take care of her parents in India. She fled the country and never returned. I wondered after reading this if they went after her
, but then I realized she had children and grandchildren so she must have led a long life.

I came across the final page of the book and the last entry from Aliah. It was a warning to anyone who read this journal to stay away from the sisters. That and sacrificing the humans they had become very strong. They could kill anyone they wanted and they would never stop. They would continue to kill and use their powers on the weak
, causing havoc in their wake. I shivered thinking about how Evangeline was in my house at this very moment. For once I was glad I wasn’t there. If they were so damn strong, how did one man—Everett Brown—kill them so easily? Maybe Hala knew, maybe she didn’t. The fact remained that they were dead and I still needed their blood to seal the door. I knew you couldn’t get blood from a dead person. My hopes were that upon finding Agnes I would get another answer on how to stop this curse.

My mom burst into the room
, startling me at the same moment I had just finished the nightmare passage in the book.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I clutched my pounding heart.

“Nothing, I just came to talk. Why are you so jumpy?” She laughed at me but I didn’t find it to be funny. When she sat on the bed next to me, I tucked the book under a pillow.

“I’m not jumpy
, you came in here like there was a fire or something,” I told her.

“I just wanted to talk to you is all. We haven’t talked in a while and I wanted to see how you are enjoying your trip.” She bit her lip. That was a tell
-tale sign that she was lying.

“It’s fine
, but I am ready to go back home.” I couldn’t lie. She wanted to know the truth so there it was. I hated it here now. This wasn’t who I was anymore. “I am not a Cali girl anymore, Mom. I am not the same person I was when we left. I live in New Jersey now, and no matter what you guys do to butter me up, I am not moving back.” Her mouth fell open in shock. She tried to say something, but no words came out at first.