Will wasn’t sure what to make of his conversation with Jena. He felt like she was lying to herself, but then, maybe he would be too.
Except he hadn’t. Not now, and not back when his mother had been possessed. Because he was sure that was what had happened. His conversations with Rose had given him the confidence to call it what it was.
Now he just needed Jena to see it too.
But why? Why was it so important to him that she understood?
His gut tightened.
Because we’re the same.
Both touched by the other, as Rose had said. Lives messed up by the supernatural. He didn’t want to be alone in that any more. He could see in Jena the potential for a friend who actually understood what it meant.
He just had to make her see that too.
Will headed for the front door, then paused when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Cade swung over the bannister at the top and landed just in front of him without even a wince. It was one hell of a height to jump from so casually.
‘Will, how’s it going?’ Cade grinned. ‘Hope you’ve been taking good care of Rose. I know Jena was worried.’ The glimmer in his eyes negated his words. Cade cared, but it wasn’t about Jena, it was about the money they were going to make from this, Will thought. Cade’s innocuous word choice would have been so easy to read as innocent if Will hadn’t known better.
‘Yeah, she’s doing okay. Hopefully soon we can get the farm sold and her into a rest home.’
‘Oh, does she really want that?’ Cade leaned against the wall, blocking Will’s path. ‘She loves it here. Jena always said she thought Rose would rather die here than anywhere else.’
‘Well, things change. She knows she can’t keep this place running on her own and that it’s time to sell up. It’s not like Jena has her heart set on being a farmer. Or has she?’ Will raised an eyebrow.
Cade just shrugged. ‘Who knows what Jena has her heart set on these days. Anyway, you look like a man on a mission. I’ll leave you to it.’ He strode past Will, knocking into his shoulder as he went, nudging Will into the wall. A picture frame rattled behind him and he spun to still it, not wanting anything to break.
He watched Cade walk away, shaking his head. That guy had no respect for anything.
But that wasn’t Will’s problem. Right now, he was more interested in learning about possession than figuring out why Cade was such an ass.
He quickly crossed the space between the house and the barn, making sure to close the door behind him. He had a sudden fear that someone might lock him inside, burn the place to the ground. He couldn’t let Rose’s worries infect him, though. He climbed the steps to get to his equipment, turned on the rural broadband device and pulled his phone out.
This would be so much easier on my laptop ….
Will searched everything he could think of: demons, possession, possessed objects, how to exorcise an object or person.
There were a lot of websites, most with similar information and all with a religious bent. And yet, Rose hadn’t said that whatever had possessed her lover was related to the Christian faith. But then, did it matter?
Will groaned and rolled his shoulders.
There was a lot of information about the signs of possession: increased aggression, erratic behaviour, differences in cadence of voice, or in the way a person moved, possessiveness over objects or people.
Well, those rang a bell; his mother had ticked all of those boxes. He wondered whether he could find a way to pass this to Jena; whether she’d be able to pinpoint some of the signs in her father. It could be a way to prove some of Rose’s assertions about what had happened. If he could pitch it right ….
Out of curiosity he looked to see what steps people advised for curing possession, but there was far less on that, and most of what he could find seemed to be bogus. Exorcists were few and far between, especially in New Zealand, and the sceptic crowd drowned out the voices of those who thought they knew the real information on the vast majority of forums that he could find. So many people who’d had exorcisms performed on them had died, those responsible imprisoned, declared mentally unstable.
If the possession was because of an object, then you could destroy that and it seemed like the most common way to fix the situation.
Not that it mattered. His mother was dead and gone and there was no saving her now. The necklace had been buried with her, so at least it couldn’t hurt anyone.
And the watch was in the swamp, away from people, and, as far as Rose was concerned, no longer an issue.
Will could only hope that was true; though the old woman had failed to give him a reasonable answer about what might happen when the next family moved onto the farm. What if they went into the swamp?
What if it found its way into the hands of another?
He shuddered, not wishing that upon anyone, but certainly not brave enough to go out and look for it himself.
It wasn’t his problem.
And even if it was, there was no way in hell he wanted to make contact with a possessed item.
He put his phone down and pressed his palms into his eyes, trying not to remember the look on his mother’s face as she’d cut into her stomach, the glee in her eyes, the way the blood had seeped out and pooled on the floor.