Chapter 19

“Jenn, honey, please don’t pick at your stitches, you’re going to leave a scar,” Kelly said as she pulled out of the elementary school’s parking lot. After Jenn had been injured, Kelly decided it was best to take both girls to and from school for the rest of the year. She felt perhaps they would be a bit more safe if their mother was there to protect them. Jade had put up a small argument, and then pretended to cut an imaginary umbilical cord with a chainsaw, but Kelly wouldn’t budge, no matter how funny her eldest thought she was.

“I can’t help it, it’s itchy,” Jenn said as she gently scratched as close to the sutures as she could. “And it stings a little bit, too.”

“Itchy is good, it means it’s healing. Stings is bad, it means you’re hurt,” Kelly said as they stopped at a red light. “So don’t scratch, or you’ll get an infection and then get a scar. You don’t want a scar down your chin, do you?”

“She’ll get one anyway,” Jade said. “But it’s best to let her stop scratching, or she’ll dig her entire face off. Oh, now that’s attractive,” she snickered.

“Shut up, Jade!” Jenn cried out. “It’s not going to scar!”

“Make me, Niblet!” Jade said as she turned around from the front seat to show her sister her balled up fist.

“Mom, she’s got those rings on again!”

“Yeah, and I’m going to leave imprints on you!” Jade teased.

“Jade, turn around and put your seatbelt back on, Jenn, stop scratching, or you’ll make that place worse.” She put her blinker on and turned right, heading deeper into town. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. We’ll put some of that stuff on it that’s supposed to ease scars. So no worries, right?”

“Right,” Jade said. “But you know she’ll end up married to some big burly guy named Foot who wrestles gators down at the local bar. He’ll have an eye patch, most of his fingers and hopefully all of his teeth.”

“If he cheats on me, he won’t have all his teeth,” Jenn said, causing a surprised mother and sibling to burst into laughter.

“Oh me,” Kelly sighed as their car bounced into the parking lot of the Baskin Robbins. “Let’s get some ice cream, I think we’re way past due on some “us” time.”

“Yay, female bonding!” Jade announced as she threw open her door. “I’m going in first so I can order it all, none for Jenn!”

“Excuse me!” Kelly said as she got out and locked the door.

“I said none for Jenn, I’ll save you some, Mom!”

“That’s better!” Kelly said as she walked behind her girls. Jenn took hold of Jade’s waist and tried to pull her back so she could get into the small building first.

“Just like their father and uncle,” Kelly chuckled.

*****

It was the closest Lance’s victims had ever come to the house. Gregg sat with his back against the old oak tree flanking the structure, his lute on his lap as he watched a mother and daughter, so very close to Kelly and Jenn’s age, wander around the large front yard. To him, it seemed as if they were searching for the other and he wanted to cry out and ask them, “Don’t you see each other? Just open your eyes…,” but he decided his voice would only be more white noise in a world of confusion anyway.

“They’re really close,” Billy said as a young cat wound a figure eight around his ankles. He looked down at the delicate creature, still more kitten than adult, and then sat down. She stood up and put her paws on his knee as she rubbed her face against his hand. Her purrs were warm and rich and her tail swayed slowly side to side as Billy scratched her behind the ears. “She had a human, one of these,” he said as his eyes scanned the wraith like forms lost and confused in his yard. He didn’t have the heart or desire to run them away. “I don’t think she understands why her owner won’t acknowledge her.”

“I hate that man,” Gregg said quietly. “I know we’re not supposed to hate, but… I hate that man. He is nothing but darkness, death and destruction.”

“He’ll get what’s coming to him,” Billy promised as another cat joined the first. It gave the tall blond a cursory sniff, and then turned and faced the crowd before bouncing back after its human.

“Do you think he killed the pets first, or the owners?” Gregg asked as he lazily strummed the lute strings for no particular tune.

“I don’t know, but do that again,” Billy said.

Gregg looked up, and then strummed the instrument again. The strains of out of place melody seemed to pleasantly surprise the victims out of their aimless wanderings. Instead of looking at the ground as they ambled along in large circles, their faces were turned up in search of the satisfying sound.

“Play for them,” Billy urged gently as the large kitten began to bat at his pants leg.

Gregg nodded his head, and began to play an old tune his mother had brought over from her home land. The strains were aching and sweet, reminiscent of a time long gone, when the piece was first written over five hundred years ago. The spirits lowered their faces from the sky and slowly turned one by one to face Gregg. None dared to come too close to him, but the music eased their anxieties. Billy pulled in a slow breath as a little girl materialized close to him, her face turned to the young spirit sitting beneath the tree. She swayed slowly in place as the song lulled her and the kitten who had taken up with Billy suddenly bounced away from him to twine around her legs instead. She didn’t seem to notice it.

The border collie, the one Billy had seen on many occasions, flopped down on her belly in the grass and stretched as the sunshine bathed her coat in its warmth. She yawned once, her tail arched mightily over her back before she let out a content groan and flopped over onto her side. Warm brown eyes trekked over to the blond and her tail thumped the grass once.

“Who do you belong to, huh?” he asked as Gregg ended the tune, and then swung right back into it again. The spirits were still now, finally feeling a touch of comfort after their trauma. “Or were you a hapless victim?” Billy loved border collies, but in life, he had been allergic to dogs and therefore could only enjoy them from a distance. He patted his knee and the young dog sprang to her feet and trotted to him, her tail waving like a flag as she parked herself between his feet on the bottom step and propped her chin with expectation on his knee.

“Oh yeah?” he asked her as he put his hand on top of her head. “You’re a pretty girl; I’ve missed seeing border collies around here.”

“I think, and I could be wrong, but I believe it belongs to one of the victims, or maybe it was a lone kill,” Gregg murmured as he played. “And as tragic as this is, it is nice to play for an audience.”

“They seem to really enjoy it,” Billy said as he rubbed a silky ear between his fingers. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt pride for Gregg and his musical skills. He remembered watching him and his mother as she taught him how to play that very lute. It had been her grandmothers and when his mother died, she formally gave it to him before leaving for Hawaii.

“I can feel the calm. I didn’t realize how much they were suffering until it was eased, I didn’t realize that I could feel it.”

“I’m surprised that you didn’t realize that. You know we’re a pipeline to each other,” Billy said as he began to rub both ears. The pup melted at the touch, her soulful eyes slipping closed in bliss at the gentle attention.

“How many do you count?” Gregg asked softly. A set of twins, boy and girl, timidly walked closer to him and Billy tilted his head. There was a stirring of life in their dull eyes, a spark. “Twenty two people,” he said as he leaned forward and wrapped his long arms around the dog’s neck. He was greeted with a cold wet nose to his cheek and neck. “Too many animals to count. Most of them must have been feral, they won’t even come in the yard. The others must have been pets. This girl here,” he gave the pup a warm pat on the ribs. “I think she’s just friendly, I think her owners are still alive.”

“I hate that man,” Gregg sighed softly, and then shook his head. “Forgive me.” He looked up briefly to the twins, and then lowered his head so he wouldn’t intimidate them. “They don’t know they’re dead, do they?”

“No,” Billy said softly. “To them… we’re still ghosts. And your feelings are understandable, look what he did. So many lives that won’t go on because of him. And now, he has the audacity to hang around here.”

“Why don’t you just go find him and send him where he belongs?” Gregg asked as he let the song fade. He decided to play another tune, one a little more lively than the first.

“I will. In time. And I would have done it already if it wasn’t for Nix’s friend getting up to mischief and putting himself in my way.” Billy turned his head as the front door opened slowly. Moments later, the screen door opened and Jayce poked his face out. “Hi Biddy.”

“Hello, Jayce.”

“Do you mind if he comes out for a little bit?” Nix asked. “Could you keep an eye on him? I’ve got to get the rest of that tile put up in the kitchen and he’s being more than a little… helpful.” He sensed, more than saw, the spirits in the front yard.

“Of course,” Billy said. Jayce squeezed through the opening and joined Billy on the steps, where he began to coo to the pup softly. She thumped her tail harder and traded Billy’s knee for Jayce’s for her chin to rest. Her eyes closed in joy as the little boy hugged her head.

“Hi, pubby,” Jayce whispered. “I luh you.”

“She loves you, too, pal,” Billy whispered, and then turned his head over his shoulder. Nix was watching the yard, a frown on his face. “What?”

“What’s out there? I don’t see anything, but boy can I feel it,” he said. “And it makes me very uneasy.” He looked to Billy for confirmation that everything was alright.

“They won’t harm you, or the girls, I promise.”

“Who are they?”

“Lost, not yet found, but soon.”

Nix, satisfied with the answer, nodded his head and slowly backed up into the house. The door shut with a crisp snap and Billy turned his face down to the little boy. “Why don’t you go out in the yard and play, huh?”

“Kay,” Jayce said. He stood up and eased his way down the steps, the pup in tow. The twins, who had stood near Gregg and watched him play his lute, turned their heads in tandem as Jayce went out into the yard, and then slowly floated towards the little boy.

“Jay, why don’t you get your ball out from under the porch and play with the kids?” Billy called.

“Kay,” Jayce answered.

“Kelly and the girls should be home soon,” Gregg said as a young woman cautiously approached him. His heart ached at how lost her eyes were as they searched his face. He nodded his head in a gesture for her to sit, and she did. For a moment, she opened her mouth to speak; Gregg could see the question on her face, but no words came.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “You’re safe now.”

*****

“I see our boys in the yard,” Kelly said as they pulled up into the driveway. Jenn pressed back against her seat, holding her waffle cone tightly as they drove through three of the spirits who were listening to the music at a distance. Kelly only gave a shiver and turned off the AC.

“Is that a dog Jayce is playing with?” Jade asked. She lifted the bag of sundaes for the boys and undid her seatbelt so she could get out. Jenn remained in the car, staring out into the yard until Kelly opened her door.

“C’mon, baby, what’s wrong?” she asked.

Jenn shook her head and slipped out of the car. It was Friday, they had no homework, so she decided to leave her book bag in the vehicle. She gave the yard a wide, wary berth as she walked to the porch. Billy was still sitting on the front steps, watching Jayce share his large blue ball with a few of the braver children who decided it was fun to play.

“Billy? What’s out there? Jenn’s afraid,” Kelly said. She strained to see what she could feel, but her eyes only showed her the two familiar spirits, a little border collie and Jayce.

“You’re safe, Little Mouse, no Boogiemen out here, promise,” Billy said. “Oh, and Nix said a very dirty word in there, I think he must have turned his thumb into hamburger at least three times trying to put up tile.”

“I’m not going to ask, that man is the clumsiest thing I’ve ever met in my life,” Kelly said as she dug out Nix’s ice cream, and then handed the bag down to Billy. “Could you make sure Jayce gets this before it melts, please?”

“Yes ma’am,” Billy answered as he took the bag. “C’mon, Jay, ice cream.”

“Ice cream!” Jayce announced, and then abandoned his ball to come get the treat. When Billy popped the top off for him and stuck the spoon in, Jayce turned and ran back to the children, where they sat down on the grass and shared his dessert.

*****

It was a square off to end all square offs; Billy Holmes versus the hideous chair monster: round thirty-two. Or somewhere in that number range, he’d actually lost count by now. He stood in the living room, pacing slowly back and forth in front of the large picture window, his face turned with rapt attention to the abomination. Even in the dark room, where just a faint hint of moonlight poured through the windows, the tasteless pattern of the upholstery seemed to glare in the near blackness like a short, squat neon sign. Save for the few fresh patches of duct tape that Ade had put on before he left for the oilrig to hold up a seam where the padding was coming out in so much tacky, orange fluff.

“I see you’ve come to challenge me again,” he whispered, and then lifted his hand, causing the chair to tremble in place, as if it were a dog that had suddenly been threatened and decided to raise its hackles.

“Oh yeah? You’re tough, huh? Well, I see you’re too stupid to learn that you’ll never defeat me.” He lifted his hand again, where he drew the chair to him a few inches in a threatening manner.

Gregg, hearing the odd conversation and the weird scooting noise, slowly materialized at the foot of the stairs, where he saw only Billy facing the middle of the room. Curious, he came to the archway, and then suppressed a groan.

“Come at me, I’m bigger than you are,” Billy growled in the dark. He made the chair slide across the floor towards him, just so he could nimbly leap over it. Turning quickly, his long pale hair whipping around like a curtain, he gave the back a few hard kicks, and then bounced away, his fists coming up as if he were in the middle of a kickboxing ring, and not in some dark living room at just past three in the morning.

The chair swung around awkwardly, and when it was fully facing the playful ghost, the lever suddenly went down and the footrest came out halfway with a creak and groan.

“Getting too old to fight a young man, aren’t you? Well, let me do the world a favor and put you out of your misery!” Leaping forward, Billy batted the cushion rapidly, like a cat smacking some out of place object in its territory, and then hopped backwards, his fists coming back up in a defensive position.

Gregg rolled his eyes. “You fight like a girl,” he said.

“You ever seen girls fight?” Billy asked without removing his attention from his sparring partner, and then jabbed his fist out rapidly towards the chair, accentuating the gesture with ‘pow-pow’ sounds.

“Uh… no, I can’t say that I have,” Gregg responded, his eyebrows nearly in his hairline.

“Then you’d know you just complimented me. Men fight for honor and to prove dominance, women on the other hand, fight for blood,” Billy hissed, and then came at the chair again. This time it retreated at his advance and he let out a soft battle cry as he leaped into the air. He landed on the cushion, well-worn from Ade’s large frame, and bounced a few times before jumping onto the couch. It was at the moment that Gregg began to smile. Billy was moody and often times far too serious for his own good; it was a wonderful thing indeed to see that the tall blond could remember to act his age. After all, he was still a kid, just barely twenty.

“Oh, by the way,” Billy said as he bounced on the couch cushion. “The floor’s hot lava.”

“Says who?”

“Boogieman.”

“Ah,” Gregg said, and levitated up a few inches. “How’s this?”

“Deep lava, you have to get onto something if you want to live.” His eyes were still focused on the recliner, and he waited until Gregg hopped onto the couch’s matching love seat before pulling Ade’s chair back to him. “I do need a ring gi—“

“I refuse to be a ring girl for your weird, late night circus,” Gregg said.

“Well, make the ding-ding sound! This fight’s just about to start!”

“Would you lower your voice?” Gregg hissed. “You’re going to wake the whole house!”

“They don’t lower their voices for us, why should I return the complement?” Billy snapped. Some of the play was starting to fade from his eyes, so Gregg lifted his hands complacently.

“Ding-ding,” Gregg sighed, and then grimaced when Billy dove off the couch and tackled the chair. Together, they flipped over until it rested on top of Billy, who began to flounder. “Tag me, tag me!”

“I am not going to tag you!”

“It’s got me down for the count! I don’t want to lose my winning streak!” he turned his head, freeing it from one of the arms as he pinned Gregg with a pleading look. “It’s already at five! I don’t think it can count much higher than that, but you’ve got to tag me out and you in!”

Gregg closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before he moved to step down.

“No!” Billy cried out loudly. “Hot lava!”

“But you’re… you’re…” Gregg gestured to his friend. “You’re back is in it!”

“You have to jump, man! Jump!”

“Fine… fine…”

“Hurry up; it remembered how to get to seven!”

Shaking his head, Gregg grumbled. “I can not believe I am doing this,” he sighed, and then leaped, landing onto the chair. When Billy stuck his palm out, he slapped it perhaps a little harder than he wanted, and then looked down at the overturned piece of furniture. “Now what?”

Billy grinned as he squirmed out from beneath the burdensome thing. “Beat it up!”

“I will not!” Gregg protested. “This is not mine and I don’t want to tear it up!”

“How would they even know?” Billy clapped Gregg on the back of the shoulder with a grin. “Have at it!”

Gregg exchanged glances between his friend and the chair, the smile was back on Billy’s lips and he actually looked excited. Shaking his head softly, Gregg lifted his fist and punched the back of it once. A small plume of dust wafted out.

“Do it again!”

“Alright…” Gregg said in a dubious tone, but did as he was instructed. He punched the chair harder this time, and then again. He failed to notice when the light came on along the stairway. He punched the chair again, this time adding a little grunt to it.

“You have got to be out of your consarned, cotton picking mind,” Kelly said slowly in disbelief as she stood in the archway. She cast her gaze between the boys. Gregg looked at her with the same horror he would feel if Kelly had just walked in on him making out with Jade. Billy pulled his lips into a tight line to hide his grin as he suddenly pointed at Gregg.

“Look what he’s doing to your chair!” Billy exclaimed with a voice dripping with surprise and concern.

Gregg’s head snapped toward Billy, his jaw hanging open for a second. “What!?”

“I—I don’t know what to tell you, Kelly. I think he’s gone mad, down here, making all of this noise and beating up your furniture. I think we should have him committed!”

“Okay…” Kelly lifted both hands close to her face as she tried as hard as she could to comprehend the odd scene she had just walked into. “I don’t know… I don’t want to know what you two have been up to, but this is going to stop right now. I don’t even know how to yell at two dead young men who are acting up in the middle of the night.”

Gregg’s eyes glowed hotly at Billy, who had begun pointing at him again.

“Billy… I’ve been around the two of you long enough to know that Gregg wouldn’t tackle a chair.”

“He did tackle the chair! I saw him do it, too!”

“That was only because you said the floor was hot lava and you wanted me to tag you out because it was pinning you down and had counted all the way to seven!” Gregg burst out angrily.

“Since when do you ever do what I tell you to do?” Billy fired back, but the grin was growing wider on his face.

“I am going to kill you,” Gregg hissed as he rose, still standing on the chair.

“Too late! Ha-ha, I’m done dead, big boy!”

“I’m already dead,” Gregg corrected him, and before Billy could say another word, leaped towards his friend. He caught the tall blond in the middle and before Kelly could utter another word, they disappeared through the floor, Gregg yelling and Billy laughing madly as they made their way to the basement.

“Mom?” Jade asked quietly as she stood on the third step up from the bottom; Jenn’s favorite step. “What was that?”

“Boys,” Kelly sighed as she turned to face her daughter. “Did they wake you up?”

“Yeah, I heard them all the way through my headphones.”

“That’s not good, why don’t you get back to sleep, sweet angel, I love you.”

“I think I want to come down and get something to drink, since I’m up anyways. And love you, too.” Just before Jade put her foot down on the landing, Kelly put her hand out. “Be careful.”

“Why?”

“Hot lava,” her mother said with a smirk as her daughter snorted and rolled her eyes.

*****

Gregg put out his hand and moments later, the overturned chair gave a gentle shudder, and then tipped over as it set itself back onto its wooden runners. The girls didn’t bother with putting it back to rights and he didn’t blame them. After all, they weren’t the ones who’d knocked it over to begin with. Down in the basement, he and Billy had wrestled and sparred until they were both laughing heartily. Gregg smiled. It felt great to remember how to be his own age again. He didn’t realize how stuffy he could be and dearly hoped he didn’t come off as too aloof, or even, heaven forbid, a bore.

“I don’t know about you,” Billy said as he came up through the floor. “But I feel a huge storm coming up.”

Gregg made a soft, noncommittal sound. Billy was right; the air, lately, had felt charged. Perhaps it was the reason why his best friend was in such a playful mood. The electricity was giving them both a good, continuous source of energy.

“So, you think we should wake Nix up for work?”

“No, let him sleep. He’s been restless for a while,” Gregg murmured softly as he floated over to the couch. He leaned over and began to fluff the cushions from the dents made from their feet.

“I’ve noticed that, too,” Billy said as he flopped down on Ade’s recliner, his long arms draped over the arms. “This thing stinks.”

“They really need to either get it deep cleaned or just get rid of it,” Gregg said, and then turned around and sank down onto the spot by the arm closest to the archway.

“Finally, you speak words of sense, little one,” Billy intoned deeply, earning himself a deep frown in return. “But, back to the point, yes, I’ve noticed that he’s been stressed.”

“It didn’t help that you pestered him the other day,” Gregg fussed. “And I know we’ve had thunderstorms coming, but I feel a big one.”

“I do, too,” Billy whispered. “Feels like it’s miles away yet, but I feel it.”

“I wonder if Nix can, too?”

“If he can sense us, he can sense this big one coming, too. He just doesn’t know he can.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“No point, he’s been too cranky.”

“Gee, I wonder what dealing with someone cranky feels like.” Gregg said dryly.

“Just keep it up, kid, I’ll show you cranky. Besides, you’re just mad because you lost that fight.”

“I did not,” Gregg sniffed.

“Oh please, I held your face into my armpit until you surrendered.”

“Perhaps I lost the battle, the war, my friend, is far from over.” He gave Billy one of his extremely rare predatory grins as he produced a pack of cards from his pocket. “Care for a game of gin?”

Billy scoffed. “Hell no, you play with loaded cards.”

“How can you play gin with loaded cards?” Gregg belted out.

“I don’t know, but I find it highly suspicious that you always seem to win when we play! In fact, back when I was alive, I was pretty good at the game, thank you very much!”

“Well, I personally think you’ve forgotten how to play, and therefore, it doesn’t take much to beat you,” Gregg said with a touch of calculated primness in his voice. “However, maybe I should take it easy on you, just this once?”

“You’re on, little man!”