"No!" I cried out. I'd just had a close shave with a very claustrophobic-inducing entrance, and all I wanted to do was get out of there. "Can we please go now? I'm not really feeling very well."
Perkins nodded and his lips were pursed tightly together. "Alright. Sandoval, you stay here with the boy-" Perkins paused and glanced around. "Where'd he go?" That got us all looking around. Brent was gone.
I jumped when a loud, screeching noise broke the eerie silence of the place. It was a car horn honking. We turned back and, through the trees and bushes, we could just barely make out a figure waving to us. It was Brent at the police cars. "What's that idiot doing?" Perkins grumbled. He helped me up and all three of us walked over to the cars. Brent slipped inside Sandoval's vehicle before we got there, but through the window I could see his face was pale and his hands fidgeted in his lap. Perkins leaned against the car and looked through the window. "Let me guess, you want to go, too?" Brent eagerly nodded his head. The officer sighed and turned to Sandoval. "Well, I guess we won't be getting anymore out of these two for today. We can come back tomorrow and see about reenacting that night."
We got into the cars and drove back through the open gate. Nobody shut it. I was glad to see the cemetery road in the side view mirror, but I had a sinking feeling that I wasn't done going in there.
I was so glad to get back to my dorm and be left alone that I fell asleep the minute I collapsed on the bed. All the stress of the cemetery visit and my argument with Eric was just too much. I just wanted to block it all out, and sleep was the best remedy. I don't know how long I slept, but by the time I woke up it was getting dark outside. I raised myself off my bed like the living dead and grabbed a bite to eat from a college student's most reliable food, potato chips.
Munching away on my not-so-healthy food, I glanced out the window. The sun would set in about an hour and the world would once more be plunged into darkness. I rested a hand on my chest. The heavy feeling was there, though still not as heavy as before Eric and I had our fight. I wondered if he'd gone back to the cemetery, to that crypt that tried to trap me within its dark walls. Maybe he would allow our connection to break and leave me alone, and we would go our separate ways.
My heart sank at that thought. He really wouldn't be going anywhere, and where was I to go? To a life with a bunch of what-ifs? Then again, was a life with a ghost really a life or somewhere in-between? I sighed and my shoulders slumped over. This was all so confusing and frightening. I'd never had to make many large decisions in my life and this one was proving to be a doozy of a choice. To go with this strange phantom, this ghost who had admitted to killing people, or to leave him behind knowing I was chaining him to that horrible existence of wandering and waiting.
"Damn..." I muttered to myself. This just wasn't fair. Why'd all these questions have to come up so fast? Why couldn't I have a week more? "Because that connection would be broken sometime tonight, that's why," I answered myself.
I felt a headache coming on and pinched the bridge of my nose. All of this was just so complicated, which brought my mind back to the story Eric had told me about his demise. That was intrigue at its finest. A young man spurns local maidens and is killed because of that insult and his nice land. A terrible reality, if it was a reality. I only had his word to go on, but it did line up with what Mrs. Stefan had said about the family getting the land from the dead man.
An insatiable curiosity arose within me to find out if that really was the truth. I hoped it would help me decide whether I could trust Eric enough to see him in the next couple of days. Then again, did I want to see a homicidal ghost ever again? I rolled my eyes at my mind's evil indecision. "Just find out about the story and go from there," I commanded myself.
I got my phone and dialed Ashley's number. The other line rang and rang until it hit the answering machine. "Hey Ashley, it's me, Jess. Think we could talk for a bit? Call me."
I hung up, but there was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something felt wrong, mostly because Ashley always answered her phone. They were joined at the hip. I decided to call the house to see if everything was alright. The phone rang a few times before I got an answer. It was so quick after the pickup that I almost didn't catch the greeting.
"Hello?" Mrs. Stefan's voice spoke up.
"Hi, Mrs. Stefan. This is Jessie. Could I talk to Ashley?"
Her reply was given in a frantic, fearful voice. "I-I don't know. I can't find her anywhere. The last time I saw her she was standing on the front porch."
"Did you try calling her phone?" I knew that failed for me but maybe it would work for her.
"Yes, but I just got the answering machine. I'm so worried, Jessie. You know how she always answers her phone."
"Yeah, I know. I just tried to call it, too, and got the machine." My mind furiously tried to find some logical, non-scary reason for her going AWOL like this. "Maybe she took the car somewhere?"
"No, it's still here," Mrs. Stefan choked out. She was about ready to burst into tears. "Oh Jessie, I'm so worried about her."
"It's okay, I'm sure she's just fine. Maybe she fell asleep somewhere around the farm. Want me to go over there and help you look?"
I was glad to hear a faint hint of relief. "I would be so grateful if you would. I'm sure she's fine, but after hearing about what happened to Rob and Brent I'm just a little nervous.
I wished she hadn't mentioned them in the same sentence as my vanished friend. "No problem. I'll go borrow a car and get over there before it gets dark."
I grabbed a flashlight, got a car from another friend and drove toward the farm. My mind was abuzz with frantic thoughts of Ashley's disappearance and her family's dark connection with the ghost. A wild idea popped up into my mind about Eric's fate to walk, er, float the earth until he found his love. My worry was that maybe, after telling me his story, that he'd got the idea to get his revenge on the family rather than wait for another girl to come along, especially after I spurned him yesterday.
The sun was setting when I passed the cemetery. I slowed the car down to a crawl, then a stop, as I gazed at the open gate. It invited me in for a long stay that I didn't want to experience at such a young age. All around me the shadows lengthened and my mind kept nagging me to move, to drive away. Mrs. Stefan expected me; I couldn't stay here or she'd be worried about two girls instead of one.
And yet there was something in there; I felt what I was looking for was in that cemetery. Maybe it was intuition, or maybe the pull of whatever was inside of me from Eric. Either way I turned the car and drove up the old road. The headlights flowed over the headstones and skeletal trees as I passed through the gate and out into the open cemetery. The place was eerily quiet, as always, and there wasn't a soul in sight; not even a wandering soul.
I stopped the car and got out at about the same spot the police parked earlier that day. With the help of my trusty flashlight I could see around me, but everything outside the beam was darkened by the bright light. Fortunately I only had a straight line to cross to get to the mausoleum, and dragged my feet all the way there. The last gasps of the setting sun peeked over the horizon when I reached the entrance to the crypt. The possessed door still stood ajar, but at an even wider angle than before it tried to shut me in. I could shine my flashlight all the way to the back while standing in the doorway.
A part of me expected to find another body added to Eric's collection, namely Ashley, but there was nothing more than what I saw earlier that day. Well, except that I saw the sarcophagus lid had been moved. The foot was twisted at an angle, so that meant there was a crack at the head. I forced my legs to move forward into the crypt, and shined my flashlight inside. Nothing. The stone coffin was completely empty. Wait, that wasn't quite true. There was something not quite right about the shadows in there. I leaned over and directed my light to the foot of the sarcophagus. The beam went down into the floor and beyond. There was a staircase in the coffin.
With my head inside the box, my ears caught the faint nois
e of a voice. My eyes shot open. It was Ashley. She was down there, and she was crying. I had to get to her. I pulled myself back out of the tight hole and put my hands against the lid. The damn thing didn't budge an inch. "Come on! Get the hell out of my way!" I grunted.
As though it heard my demand, a sudden gust of strong wind swept into the crypt. The door slammed shut, but the blasting breeze also flowed over the top of the crypt and pushed aside the lid far enough for me to climb into the coffin. I'd have to panic later about the door because right now my focus was on my terrified friend. She needed me and I was going to help her, hell or high water. Turns out I was going into a little bit of both.
The stairs led down into the earth to a subterranean world of dirt and rocks. Tree roots pushed out from the ceiling that lifted higher and higher away from me the deeper I went down. Large and small boulders lay on my right, while on my left was a gaping space into the void of the darkness. I swear in the wall beside me I saw the ends of a few coffins sticking out here and there. Fortunately those passed by without me seeing something I wouldn't have wanted to see and I found the way ahead opened up to a small, natural cavern. Stalagmites and stalactites littered the floor and ceiling, and the walls had been rounded by primitive tools to give the whole place a bowl shape. The beam of my flashlight swept over the walls and I noticed a tunnel that went deeper into the earth. There was also a small area in the center of the room that was devoid of the natural rocks, and I saw Ashley sitting there in the middle.
She started at my light and her head snapped up. "W-who's there?" she called out.
"Good god, Ashley, how'd you get down here?" I replied as I ran toward her.
Ashley's face lit up when she recognized my voice. "Jess! Oh, thank god it's you! I thought you were that terrible ghost or some other dead person!"
I stiffened. My voice came out in a nervous, trembling tone. "Ghost? What ghost?"
She clung onto me like she was drowning and I was a life raft. "That man I saw a long time ago, the phantom. I was standing on the porch when he came out of the forest. He stayed in the shadows but I could see his eyes staring at me." She buried her face in my coat and let out a sob. "I couldn't stop myself. I had to go to him. He led me here and showed me that staircase. I walked down and then he left me. I haven't seen him since."
I pulled her to her feet and glanced around. The place was quieter than the graveyard above us. That didn't bode well. "Well, let's just get you out of here so that doesn't happen," I replied. I led us toward the staircase with my eyes ever on the darkness beyond the beam of my flashlight.
We'd just reached the bottom stair when we heard a noise above us. I directed the light to the top and my eyes widened in horror. The lid of the coffin was slowly closing, trapping us in this darkness. We scrambled up the stairs, but weren't in time to make it before the lid closed completely. The last bit of fresh air was blotted out. We were trapped.
Ashley didn't take the situation very well. "We're going to die, aren't we? Oh my god, we're going to die!"
I grabbed onto her shoulders and gave her a good shake. "Come on, pull yourself together!" I ordered her. "We've still got my flashlight and we know this lid moves, so that means we've still got a way out of-" That's when the weight inside of me suddenly stirred. A rush of heat washed over me and I clutched at my chest.
Ashley caught me before I went tumbling down the stairs. "Jess! Jess, what's wrong? Talk to me, Jess!"
"I-it's nothing," I replied through my gritted teeth. With each passing moment the heat increased. My body was alive with the delicious, sweltering warmth.
"Just sit down and rest a bit. Like you said, we still have the light," Ashley spoke up. She set me down on the steps and took the light in one of her shaking hands. The beam was pointed down toward the bottom of the stairs and I heard her shallow, scared breathing next to me.
We were alone, but I knew that wouldn't last for long. Though there was only one outlet to the outside world, the one above our heads, a soft breeze swept through the floor beneath us. It wound its way up the stairs and brushed over us. For me it felt like a hot caress along my heaving chest, but for Ashley it only meant danger.
"D-did you feel that?" she stammered out in a quivering whisper.
"Y-yeah," I replied. I shifted against the hard stone staircase, one that must have been chiseled by Eric's hand alone. There was no other way to explain how this small, subterranean world had remained a secret from vandals and storytellers alike. I lay my palm against the cool stone and wondered at his own hand forming the steps one block at a time; how he must have labored, stained in sweat, to produce this wondrous masterpiece of craftsmanship. I shuddered at the thought of his body glistening and shimmering against the light of a candle.
Ashley gave a cry at my side. The lethargy was partly removed from my brain and limbs as she pointed down the steps. "He's here! Oh god, he's here!"
My eyes looked eagerly into the darkness, and sure enough at the edge of the flashlight beam stood a familiar figure. Eric. His dark red eyes were turned up to us, but he didn't step any closer.
"So you came to me after all," he called out to us.
I cursed myself for my husky tone. "Because you made me come," I countered.
Ashley's head whipped between me and him. "What are you talking about? What the hell's going on?" she hissed at me.
Eric answered for me. "Your friend and I are joined as one in mind, body and soul. Soon you will be the same with me."
That made both our eyes widen. My mouth flopped open like a fish for a moment before I could find my voice. "What the hell? I thought you needed only one person!" I shot back.
"My curse is two-fold. The revenge on the family who murdered me and the wife I could never find in life," he explained to us. "With you two here, I shall have my revenge and two wives in the deal."
Ashley looped her arm into mine and squeezed against me. "Jess..." she whispered in a frightened voice.
I grasped her free hand in both of mine. "It'll be alright. We'll find a way out of here."
Eric stepped forward so his figure was fully in the light. His smile was large, frighteningly large. This was the same man I'd come to care for, and yet not. This was the complete picture, the phantom that had killed all those trespassers and frightened Brent out of his wits. This was the possessive side of him, the wild side. We both shrank back from him. "I will allow you both to leave, but not before the night is over. Until then you are both mine, and you will enjoy what I have in store for you."
"Please, Eric, just let us go," I begged him.
He only shook his head, that smile ever on his face. "I'm afraid I cannot allow that, my dear wife. Tonight I will finally be able to vanquish my curse and be free of this tomb. You both will take my soul with you out into the world and I will enjoy the pleasures of life again with you as my guide and lover." I shuddered at his words. The possibilities both excited and terrified me. He held out his hand toward us, and his red eyes fell on me. "Come, my wife. Let us join together." Then he raised his other hand toward Ashley, and looked to her. "Come, my vengeance. Through you your family will be forgiven for their sin against me."
Ashley's body shook against mine and she didn't move an inch toward him. In my case, however, the pull inside my body flared up again. The fog swept over my mind and body, encapsulating me in its soft, warm embrace. I struggled to fight against the feeling, to fend it off with my willpower, but the sensation was too strong. My cheeks blushed a deep red and I panted for breath.
Eric noticed my reaction and smirked. He held up his hand, and a gust blew up from behind him and toward us. With it came black shadows that stretched out from the crevices in the rocky walls beside us and the darkness beyond the flashlight. They swept over us and wrapped themselves around our body. I felt like I was immersed in a plethora of soft, gentle hands, each groping at my body, tearing at my clothes to get at my flesh. I leaned my head back against the cool stones of the stairway wall and groaned.
Ashley screamed when she was hit with the darkness. They swarmed over her like locusts intent on picking clean their fleshy victim. Large patches of her clothes were ripped from her body as she flailed her arms and cried out for mercy. The flashlight clattered down the stairs and shattered at the bottom. The shadows didn't let up for one moment, but lifted her off the stairs intent on speeding her off into the darkness. In midair she twisted around toward me and her pleading eyes caught my own. "Jess!" she shrieked.
My love for my friend and her heartfelt plea broke the lethargy over my mind. I cried out as my hands reached for her. Hers stretched toward mine and for an instant our fingers touched. Then she was dragged from my reach and into the darkness. I nearly fell over the stairs trying one last grab, but to no avail. I hung over the steps staring blankly at the darkness. Her cries were muffled now, drowned out by the shadows which wrapped around her.
I turned my furious eyes on Eric, who still stood at the bottom of the stairs. His pale face jumped out of the darkness and around him lay a ghostly, bright aura. "What the hell are you going to do with her, you monster?" I snapped at him.
"I am trapped on this earth for two reasons. One is the vengeance I feel against her hated family, and the other is my love for you, my dearest." He took the bottom step, then another. His hand was outstretched toward me. "Will you come with me and set me free? Will you complete our union tonight in this lonely cavern?"
My frantic mind was split between two choices. One was to go with him and ignore Ashley's fate, and the other was to refuse him. I didn't know what would happen to Ashley on the second, but I didn't like either options. Then my eyes lit up. I stood up on my shaky legs and crossed my arms over my chest. I had one simple word for him. "Depends."
Eric stopped dead in his tracks and frowned. "I don't understand. What do you mean by that?"
I liked the confusion in his tone. I could work with that to get what I wanted. "What it means is that if you don't let Ashley go, I won't go with you. If you do let her go, I'll do whatever you want," I explained to him.