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Sorrow’s Edge
Danielle DeVor
ISBN: 978-0-9908827-0-1
E-ISBN: 978-0-9908827-1-8
© Copyright Danielle DeVor 2014. All rights reserved
Editor: Sheldon Reid
Cover Art:
Layout/Typesetting: jimandzetta.com
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Crescent Moon Press electronic publication/print publication: September 2014 www.crescentmoonpress.com
This one is for my father, Charles DeVor. His love of cowboy movies is renowned. I couldn’t resist using his wit as well as one of his favorite characters from the old west as inspiration. Love ya, Dad!
CHAPTER ONE
IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW
Just as Lucy said, I got the phone call at three. I was really starting to hate the true “witching hour.” I needed sleep, dammit.
I let the phone ring a few times, hoping that whoever was on the other end would just hang up. I wasn’t that lucky. I raised up, grabbed my phone off the nightstand, and swiped the screen.
“Mr. Holiday?” the man asked when I grunted into the phone.
“You realize it’s three a.m. right?” My head hit the pillow. I did not want to be doing this right now.
The man sighed. “It couldn’t be helped. We need you.”
I twitched. Who the hell was this guy anyway? Kind of presumptuous to call somebody at random this late at night when you’ve never met the person on the other end. His momma never taught him no manners.
I looked around the room. The light in the corner was still on. I’d gotten into the habit of sleeping with a light on ever since Sorrow’s Point. Yeah, it was irrational, but hey, I was trying to keep the beasties at bay. Lucy was sitting on the floor in front of the TV. I could just barely see the program through her. Her hair was as pale as usual—so blonde it looked almost white. She was wearing the same white nightgown she always did.
“How did you get my number?” I asked. I had to know. I mean, I doubted Will would suggest me to someone else.
“You came highly recommended.”
That was news to me. Only a very small group of people knew I did something besides graphic design. “By who?”
“That’s not important right now. You’re needed. That’s what should matter.”
I sat up. Not important to him, maybe, but it sure as hell was important to me. This guy was starting to piss me off. “Listen. I’m not about to traipse around and do whatever the hell it is you want me to do when you won’t tell me who you are and you won’t tell me who told you about me.”
“O’Malley said you’d be difficult.”
I froze. Father O’Malley had been the one who allowed me to see the Church as a vocation when I was a kid. But there was one problem. He’d been dead since before I left the Church. I didn’t care where he got the information. That was a low blow. Still, though, him having know about O’Malley at all had me nervous.
“I’m going to hang up now. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call here again.”
“No, wait!”
The desperation in his voice was the only thing that kept me from hanging up the phone. Now things were getting interesting. “All right. I’m listening.”
“O’Malley told me about you in a dream. When I woke up, your phone number was scrawled on my hand.”
Yeah, that was definitely the weird I had experience with. Having a dead person talk to him in a dream wasn’t so different from having a disembodied soul speak to me in a nightmare. Yeah, my life was really interesting. Though, I have to say, I’d never drawn on myself in my sleep. That was a new one. “So, who is it that needs an exorcism?”
###
The guy hung up. I swear. I literally heard the phone hitting the cradle. Who uses an old phone like that anymore? I almost threw my cell phone against the wall. I mean, what the fuck was that? Wake me up in the middle of the night for what? A stupid prank?
I scratched the sleep out of me eyes and looked over at Lucy. “Don’t you ever sleep?” I asked.
She looked at me and smiled. Her blue eyes were sparkling almost. “I don’t have to.”
I shook my head. Of course a kid would think it’s great to not sleep. I, on the other hand, needed my rest—weird phone calls or not. And if someone else called, I’d probably be looking at a murder charge.
“Do you think Tabby will like me?” Lucy asked. She stayed dressed in this little white and frilly nightgown. I wasn’t really sure if it was her favorite or if there was something else at work keeping her dressed like that. When I’d done her exorcism she sure wasn’t in frills.
That was the question, wasn’t it? I’d been toying with the idea of not telling her, but it appeared that was no longer an option. And, with my luck, Tabby would eventually see her, freak out, and the whole thing would be blown out of proportion.
“I’m sure she will… after she gets used to the idea.”
Lucy stared at me for a bit. I could tell she wasn’t buying it. I needed to start remembering that there was more to her than a regular six-year-old.
“It will all work out,” I told her. “Eventually.” Part of that was me trying to convince myself. There was only so much weird a normal person could take, and I figured I was probably getting close to the threshold.
“Uh huh,” Lucy said then went back to watching the TV. How she could just sit in front of the TV for hours on end, I didn’t know. It was almost like she became somehow hypnotized by it.
I laid my head back down on the pillow. I wished I could go back to sleep. I wished I could stop worrying about weird phone call. I wished…who was I kidding? I was seriously fucked. Again.
###
By the time the sun was stabbing into my eyes like a suicidal pincushion, I’d gotten maybe four hours of sleep. Leave it to Lucy to put a voice to my fears. My best option was to tell Tabby outright, and while I knew she was used to weird things, how could I be sure this wouldn’t be so far left field she’d think I was insane? Of course, she probably already thought I was nuts, but that’s beside the point.
I got out of bed and crawled into the shower. The heat and the steam felt good. I needed to relax more, but it wasn’t like my life lent itself to a lot of relaxation. My shoulders were so tense that they hurt every time I tried to move my head. I ran my hands over my hair, getting the last of the soap out.
I needed a hobby. Something calming, like fishing. Too bad it was still a little too cold for that. And there was the fact I wasn’t the most patient person in the world. Yeah, fishing was out.
“Jimmy?” I heard Lucy ask through the door.
I turned off the shower so I could hear her better. “What?”
“The phone’s ringing.”
I grabbed a towel off the rack, wrapped it around my waist, and headed toward the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a brown disembodied head pass through the mirror. I left the bathroom and held the towel around my middle tightly. No sense in giving Lucy an eyeful of stuff she didn’t nee
d to be exposed to. Yeah, she was a spirit, but she was still alive too, and I wasn’t about to take anymore of her innocence away when the demon took most of it. Of course, I went through all of that and the phone had already stopped ringing. I picked it up. There wasn’t a notification of voicemail, so I looked at the missed calls. I was almost afraid that Mr. Creepy had called again. But no, it was Tabby. Tabby I could deal with.
I called her number and waited. I started to hang up when she answered.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.
I was glad she couldn’t see me roll my eyes. If she could, I probably would have been socked in the arm. “Um. Getting a shower?”
She made a grunting noise that sounded like she was trying to move something heavy. I could imagine her pushing her long red hair out of the way while she tried to get a handle on the boxes. I loved her hair.
“Did anything weird happen last night?” she asked.
How did she know? Sometimes her insight was just a bit creepy. “Yeah. There was a phone call.”
“Another one?” There was a little hint of sarcasm in her voice. I wasn’t sure if she was annoyed with me, annoyed with the situation, or annoyed with packing.
“Well, maybe. It’s kind of complicated.” Well, as complicated as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but whatever.
“Everything is always complicated with you, Jimmy. When I get there, I’ll be expecting details. But is this something you want to do again?”
Good question. Heck, I still wasn’t even sure if the phone call had been a stupid prank. “I’m not sure if I have a choice.”
“I thought God was all about free will and all that?” she asked.
Well, for normal people, he was. I gave some of that away when I became a priest, and some of the stuff I swore to, I still kind of believed in. “To a point, yeah. But we could talk theology for hours.”
“True.”
“So, how much longer till you get here?” I asked. Having her here was going to be a change, but I viewed it as something good.
She sighed. “Who the fuck knows? I’ve got so much stuff here.”
If I hadn’t had to get my house moved around for her to put her stuff in here, I would have been up there to help her. I was feeling a little guilty. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop pestering you.”
She laughed. “If I didn’t want to be pestered, I wouldn’t have called you.”
I smiled. She liked me bugging her. “I miss you,” I said.
“I miss you too,” she replied.
Too bad her witchiness wasn’t strong enough. Too bad she couldn’t just wave her hand and have her things pack themselves. But real magic didn’t work that way. “I’ll let you go. Get back to packing.”
“Okay. Be good.”
I laughed. “Always.” Well, that was a lie. I played being good really well, but I was way too ornery to just do what I was supposed to and leave it at that.
###
Lucy was staring at the TV. Normally, I wouldn’t find this strange, especially with her obsession and her weird TV thing, but she was watching a horror film.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She turned around and looked at me. “This is so fake.”
I looked at the TV again. Some scary thing was ripping out a guy’s stomach. Spirit or not, she was six. I knew her dad wouldn’t want her watching stuff like this.
I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned off the TV.
“Hey!” she said.
“Hey, nothing. I don’t have permission from your dad for you to be watching something like this.” I wasn’t exactly sure if I had a kid if I’d want them watching something like that at her age either.
She glared at me. “I’ve seen worse anyway.”
Fuck. It was hard. She was this sweet kid. I couldn’t deny that she’d seen and experienced worse. If I could, I’d take it all away. “I hope you can put that behind you one day.”
She stared at me. “I’d rather have him where I can see him.”
I couldn’t argue with that. We’d both seen too much. And knew too much.
Sorrow’s Point had been hell. I still had dreams about the demon. Fighting for Lucy’s soul had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Tabby, well, she’d fought too. It had been a miracle that I’d been able to stop the thing before it attacked Tabby worse than it had. And then, added to it all, was the fact that I was now Lucy’s guardian.
Actually, I just hoped that she could get reunited with her body and forget all this shit. If not, there was no way she was going to have a social life. I didn’t even want to think about the possibility of spirit babies.
Great. Now I had something else I needed to forget about.
###
The rest of the morning I finished straightening up the house. No sense in letting Tabby freak out about the state of the place. I wasn’t the type of guy to live in a pigsty, but I had some clutter too. The clutter had to go, for the time being at least. I mean, Tabby needed more than a path to move her things into the house. My books needed to be moved off the floor. After rearranging things, I’d even managed to make room in the living room for her to add some bookcases. Between the both of us, we had a lot of books.
Lucy stayed in front of the TV, mostly to stay out of the way, I think. I didn’t know if things passing through her hurt her. She’d never said. Of course, she’d been quiet all day. She hadn’t spoken to me since I’d refused to let her watch the horror film.
I was walking into the kitchen when I suddenly noticed that all of the light in the house was dimmer, almost as if something was blocking out the sun. I went to the front door, opened it, and looked outward. The sky was clear yet darker somehow. It was almost like something big, yet not totally opaque was blocking out part of the sun. I did not want to think about omens, but if I’d paid attention to some signs with Lucy, maybe things would have turned out better.
The sky looking dark with no clouds was a hell of a clue, but of what? Usually, a dark sky meant a storm was coming, but there weren’t any storm clouds that I could see. Definitely weird.
“Are you seeing this, Lucy?” I asked. I knew she could hear me. So far, it didn’t seem to matter how far away from her I was, she always heard me. I was peering up at the sky, probably doing a damn good meerkat impression.
“You need to listen,” she said from behind me.
To what? I was looking at stuff, not hearing anything weird. I turned around. “Lucy, the only thing you were talking about was some dumb horror movie.”
She nodded. “And you didn’t listen.”
I closed the door and crouched down in front of her. Maybe I should start paying better attention. “What did that movie have to do with this?” I pointed at the sky.
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now. He’s coming.” Then, she disappeared.
“Who’s coming?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t ignore me. She didn’t answer. This was so not good.
Then, the doorbell rang.
###
I would like to say that the doorbell was connected to someone who could help me with all of this, but no dice. It was the postman delivering a package. I probably should have thought about this more intensely, but I was more worried about the dark sky and Lucy than the package that just got delivered to my house.
I opened the door and stood and stared for a minute. I was in shock, honestly. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe some tall guy in black who could take over and save the day. But no, the guy shoved this box toward me. I grabbed it, and he left. There was nothing weird about the exchange.
The box was square, about fourteen by fourteen and six inches tall. It wasn’t real heavy, but I could tell there was something in it. I held the box up to my ear. No. No ticking. Not that I knew of anyone who would send me a bomb, but hey, you couldn’t be too careful.
I lowered the box, closed the door, and walked into the living room in a daze. I almost felt like I hadn’t slept for about four
days. Something had wiped me out.
“What’s that?” Lucy asked. The sunlight from the window was passing just slightly through her. There was a shadow on the floor that was sort of a shadow and sort of not.
I looked up. “I have no idea.”
After walking into the kitchen to get some scissors, I leaned against the counter and looked at the package. It was a regular brown shipping box with clear packing tape. There was no name on the return address—just an address in Tombstone, Arizona. I didn’t know anyone in Arizona, and, to be honest, getting a package from a place called Tombstone didn’t leave me with a fuzzy feeling. I had enough of this omen shit. I didn’t need to be hit over the head with a cinder block for God’s sake. I wasn’t that stupid.
I took a deep breath and sliced through the tape on the box with the scissors. Nothing happened. There were no explosions. That was good.
“Is that a good idea?” Lucy asked me. She was standing in the doorway to the kitchen now. It was kind of disconcerting to have a kid around that you could never hear walk around the house. I was always thinking she was up to something just because she was quiet.
I shrugged. “We won’t know unless I open it.”
“That’s what that girl thought when she opened that box in that movie.”
I set the scissors down on the counter. “Just what have you been watching when I go to sleep at night?” I vaguely remembered seeing a trailer for a movie like that. Something about a possession. She didn’t need to watch that type of stuff. How in the hell do you get a therapist for a spirit?
“Stuff.”
I rolled my eyes. Yeah. Stuff. Great. That left me feeling really relaxed about the whole thing. Right.
I opened the flaps on the box and took a deep breath. Down inside was something wrapped and taped in bubble wrap.
I picked up the scissors again and cut through the tape. I almost felt like I was opening the wrappings on a mummy. The suspense was getting silly.
I unrolled the package. Nestled amongst the plastic wrap was a silver flask. The initials J.H.H. were etched into the side of it. I looked back through the packing, but there was no note, no nothing. Okay, why did someone send me this?