CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EVE AND LUKE RETURNED TO THE HALL TO FIND RAN WAITING. THE rest of the team had already gone down to the cellar. Ran walked over and eased Eve into his arms. He gave her a supportive hug, then moved away. They both had important things to do.
“The equipment will be set up by now,” Ran said. “I know Zane’s news wasn’t something you wanted to hear. We have no idea what might happen next. Are you sure you’re prepared to go through with this?”
“As I told Lucas, I’ll handle it. I’m not letting evil win.”
Ran smiled. “That’s my girl.”
They headed down the hall. Lucas opened the door and preceded Eve downstairs. Ran followed. She had a feeling that unconsciously they were protecting her. Eve figured she could use all the protection she could get.
Jesse had set up the folding chairs to face the direction of the once-more bricked-up tunnel.
“Maybe they won’t be able to get through now that the tunnel is closed,” Eve said.
“Walls aren’t a problem for ghosts. If they want to get in, they’ll be here.”
“I don’t suppose you have any idea how that works,” Eve said, and caught Ran’s faint smile.
“Actually, I do. Or at least it’s a current theory. It started with Albert Einstein back in 1905. Einstein theorized that particles can behave like light, which can pass through barriers. Think of a screen or a window. In the 1990s, Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist and Nobel laureate, carried the theory further. He believed consciousness originates at a quantum level, that quantum information can’t be destroyed—even by death. He also believed quantum information can exist outside of the body, in the form known as consciousness, soul, or spirit. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but you get the general idea.”
Her eyes remained on his face. He had lost his wife and child. Clearly, he had researched the possibility of life after death.
“So, like light, quantum particles can pass through objects,” Eve said. “That must be what happened to Donny in my office.”
“Sir Roger would probably agree. Most scientists don’t buy it because the testing can’t be controlled in a lab. But astronomy, anthropology, and geology don’t rely on controlled lab testing, either.”
Eve mulled over his words. She had seen the evidence herself. She had seen Wally, who must have crossed through solid objects to be with her. That was all the proof she needed.
Ran turned to the others. “You guys ready to get started?”
“All set, boss,” Jesse said. “Let’s kick some demon ass.”
Laugher broke some of the tension in the damp, chilly cellar. Ran looked at Eve, his gaze intense. “I’ll be right here with you every second.”
She knew he wouldn’t leave her. She thought of the entity that had invaded Donny’s body, but somehow she didn’t believe it would risk tangling with a man as strong as Ran.
“I’m ready.” She sat down in the single metal folding chair in front. Ran sat behind her next to Violet and Lucas. A few feet away, Katie manned the FLIR imaging cameras, while Jesse handled the EVP voice recorder, the temperature measurement gauge, a meter called an EMF recorder that measured electromagnetic fields, and whatever else he and Katie had brought. She’d learned some of the names, but not all.
Eve fiddled with the little blue woolen hat in her hand. She looked over her shoulder at Ran, who gave a faint nod of encouragement. For an instant, her gaze went to Lucas. His solid jaw looked carved in stone. At least this was something he had seen before. Eve took comfort in that.
The lighting changed as Katie turned on the eerie, infrared camera that filled the room with a thick, dull red. Eve fixed her gaze on the boarded-up tunnel and took a deep breath.
“Wally? Wally . . . it’s Evie. Are you here?”
Nothing. Not the slightest stirring in the air.
Tension tightened the muscles in her neck. “Wally, can we talk? I’ve missed you.”
Nothing.
She tried a few more times, turning the little hat in her hands. Still nothing.
“I learned something today, something about you and your friends in the orphanage.” She let the words hang, hoping to tempt him. “I know something bad happened to all of you. I want to help you and the other boys. Can you hear me, Wally?”
From the corner of her eye, she caught movement. Then the stillness returned.
“Wally, please. I really need to talk to you. You can bring Herbie if you want.”
A wisp of something set the air stirring around her. She kept her gaze fixed on the boarded-up wall that closed off the tunnel. It occurred to her it might have been better to use her upstairs bedroom, where she had seen Wally before. Too late for that now.
“Wally . . . ?”
Evie . . . is that you? The words were indistinct, more a murmur than a sound.
“It’s me, Wally. I’m right here. Remember how we used to play together out in the garden?”
She saw a thin trickle of something that looked like fog seeping into the room, and her heart began to pound. The fog thickened to a pale-white mist that began to have substance and take shape. She prayed it was Wally and not the vicious creature that had come into her office.
“Do you remember the garden, Wally?”
I . . . remember. A little boy’s voice. She wondered if anyone else could hear it and glanced over at Jesse, who gave her a thumbs-up. He was getting something. The pounding in her heart went up another notch.
“Heaven is like that, Wally. As pretty as the garden, only a thousand times better. It’s the place you were supposed to go after the accident.”
He made a noise and she realized he was crying. She could hear his little-boy sobs and her heart just broke in two.
Eve steeled herself. She couldn’t afford the luxury of tears. “Your mother is up there waiting for you. She’s missing you, Wally. She’s waiting for you and the other children.”
I miss her, too.
“I know you do. All you have to do is look for the light and it will take you to her.”
What about Herbie and the others?
“I’ll help them, I promise.”
Wally seemed uncertain. His image floated a few feet off the cellar floor.
I don’t see the light. I can’t find it.
Eve glanced frantically back at Lucas, who had risen from his chair. He was repeating something in Latin, saying it over and over. She looked back at Wally, saw his wavering image.
Then the red light on the camera went off and everything turned black. She could hear Katie and Jesse both moving around, trying to get their equipment working again.
Lucas kept speaking in Latin, praying, she thought.
Her heart nearly stopped when a shaft of light cut through the darkness, a yellow circle that glowed like pure gold. It went right up through the ceiling and gave off a warmth that beckoned in the chilly air.
I see it!
Her heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her temples. “Just move toward the light, Wally. Just keep going no matter what happens.”
Wally’s hazy image was the only thing she could see in the darkness. He was wearing his little blue sailor suit, floating toward the light.
A fierce voice cracked through the silence. You! Will! Not! Leave! The angry voice she’d heard before. The demonic thing that held the children captive. I command you to stay!
Wally’s small figure wavered.
Eve leapt to her feet, her heart in her throat. “Don’t stop, Wally! Your mother is waiting!”
The small figure began to move again, moving closer and closer to the light.
Katie gasped as her camera and tripod sailed into the air and crashed against the wall. Some of Jesse’s equipment tore apart, flew up in the air, then shattered on the floor.
“Let’s go!” Ran reached over and gripped her arm, hauling her up from the chair.
“I’m not leaving!” She jerked free and turned back to the hazy figure of the little boy. “Hurry, Wally! Don’t stop! Just keep moving toward the light!”
A rushing began, swelling like the roar of a tornado, and then a furious thunderclap shook the walls. Eve’s gaze never left the small figure floating toward the light. She could hear Lucas’s desperate incantations.
Wally’s wavy image stepped into the glowing circle, and it bathed him in its warmth and golden light. Wally started rising upward. Then, in a brilliant white flash, he was gone.
I! Will! Kill! You! The terrifying words vibrated through the air.
“Let’s go, damn it!” Ran jerked her roughly toward him, dragging her across the room toward the stairs. She should have been angry, but she found herself smiling, filled with joy instead. Wally was safe. He was with his mother now. Nothing could change that. Not even a demon.
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, the other team members were halfway to the top. Lucas looked over his shoulder to be sure she and Ran were on their way, then continued climbing again.
Behind her, Eve could hear the crash of equipment being torn apart, hear the vicious howl of the wind. No one paused in the hallway. They bolted out the front door into the night.
Eve’s throat tightened and fresh tears welled. Tears of happiness this time.
It was dark as pitch outside, clouds blocking the stars, the air crisp and cold. Eve inhaled a deep breath. Jesse was cursing, his equipment destroyed. But Katie was crying, moved by what she had witnessed. In the porchlight, Violet looked stunned. Lucas’s face was pale. He looked completely drained.
Zane appeared out of the darkness just in time to witness the tears she’d held back sliding down Eve’s cheeks. Then she heard Ran’s voice and it centered her.
“I’m sorry, honey.” He pulled her against him, wrapped her in his arms. “I didn’t mean to be so rough. I was just so afraid you’d be hurt.”
Eve pulled back to look at him. She wiped the wetness from her cheeks. And she smiled. “We beat him, Ran. Wally’s with his mother now. He’s safe.”
Ran returned her smile. “You did it. Wally’s safe.”
Then his smile slowly faded and he glanced away. But Eve had seen the faraway look in his eyes. He was thinking of his wife and child, wondering, perhaps silently praying, that they were safe as well.
She took his hand and tugged him forward, out of the dark place he had slipped into. “Call the limo. Tell the driver we’re ready to go back to the hotel.”
He nodded, his powerful shoulders straightening as he went to work setting things in motion.
He led her over to the BMW and held the door while she settled inside and clicked her seat belt in place, then closed the passenger door. All the way back to the hotel, Eve thought of what had happened in the house. There was so much to say, so many questions that needed to be answered.
Most important of all, Herbie and eleven more orphans remained trapped between this world and the next.
The euphoria she was feeling slowly drained away, replaced by worry and fear.