The Maelstrom of the Leaf Academy (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 11) Read online

“Get off me!” I said as I felt a second icy cold hand reach up higher on my leg. I kicked my sneakered shoe at the air; my foot didn’t make contact with anything, but the thing did release me. “Holy hell!” I shouted as I climbed out of the dirty hole.

  “What is it? What grabbed you?”

  “I think you know. I don’t think you should go in there. Nobody should go alone. You were right, Cassidy. Let’s get the—where’s the doll?” I handed her the flashlight and checked the ground in front of the stage.

  “It was just there. I wasn’t watching it; I was watching you.”

  Midas and Joshua entered the auditorium and called out to us. “Hey, you two. What do you think you’re doing? We can’t see you on the camera when you crawl around like that. What’s going on?”

  Cassidy said, “We found a room; Sierra found it, actually. She took a peek inside and made contact with something. It grabbed her leg? Ankle?” I nodded as I wiped the dust off my clothes. “The doll started putting off weird voices, and now we can’t find it. It was just right here. Oh, look.”

  I hadn’t noticed it before, but it was there now. As clear as day. A large black feather. Did this thing believe that we’d made an exchange, the doll for the feather?

  “Sierra Kay, are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I just need to get out of here. Tag, you’re it, Midas.”

  Without waiting for permission, I left the auditorium with Cassidy beside me. No way was I ever going back in there.

  I would be lucky to leave here alive.

  Chapter Seventeen—Cassidy

  “Deadsville, huh?” I asked the guys as they returned to the headmaster’s office. “Nothing at all?”

  “There were a few anomalous sounds, but I’m not sure I would classify them as paranormal. They sounded like the noise we heard upstairs yesterday, the footsteps, but they weren’t steady. You know what I mean. Thumps but with a bit of metal, like spurs. Or biker boots, like Jocelyn said.”

  Sierra’s eyebrows raised. “No sign of the doll?”

  “No. Anything on the camera, Jocelyn?” Midas asked hopefully.

  “You aren’t going to believe this, but the camera shifted. Like, a couple of inches, enough to cut out that part of the stage. I can see you two looking around, and I can see when you find the hidey hole. But a few minutes after, it shifts. Look at this.” The team crowded around the largest monitor and watched as Jocelyn scrolled back the camera feed. “Could anyone have bumped it?”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t think so, but I guess we can’t rule out animals. Birds. I think we would have heard an animal, though. Don’t you, Sierra?” She shrugged and continued to watch the loop. “The only other alternative is that an intelligent being moved it. Anywhere else, I would say that was highly unlikely.” My investigative partner didn’t offer any other suggestions, just looked unbelievably pale. “Tell the truth, Sierra. Are you sick? Is this place making you sick?” It wouldn’t be the first time she had a physical reaction to spiritual activity.

  “Yeah, but it’s not unmanageable. Not yet. Things are just weird. Like I said before. It’s not natural to have this kind of vacuum, and I guess I’m a bit rattled about my encounter.” Joshua put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. His face hadn’t quite cleared up yet, but at least they weren’t fighting anymore.

  Midas frowned and said, “Listen, if this place is too much, for any of you…if you want to leave, I’m okay with that. Everyone has their limits. I am not asking any of you to put yourselves in a bad position. Not on my account. Not for anyone.”

  Joshua squared his shoulders and said, “Nobody said anything about leaving, Midas. If you’re here, we’re here.” Sierra didn’t disagree with him, but then again, she didn’t quite agree either. If I could get her alone anytime soon, I planned on picking her brain about what unseen things were happening.

  “Then let’s turn our focus to the second floor. Maybe we’ll find the doll up there. Stranger things have happened.” Midas’ grim expression surprised me. Why the sudden shift in the atmosphere here? Were the spirits of the Leaf Academy making themselves known by affecting our emotions? Our thoughts? “Cassidy and I will head up first.” Armed with digital recorders and the thermal camera, we journeyed up the stairs side by side. The treads were dirtier than I remembered. It seemed like with as much foot traffic as this staircase had seen recently, there wouldn’t be any dust here. It was as if the dead were trying to cover up the footsteps of the living.

  Man, this place was a dirt pit.

  “You say something?” Midas half-turned to me on the top step.

  “No, but I was thinking loudly,” I said with a smile, hoping to lighten his intense mood. There wasn’t a hint of happiness in his eyes.

  “Funny,” he whispered with a certain air of impatience.

  “I thought it was,” was my tart reply, but then I heard it too.

  Midas!

  I clicked on the audio recorder as Midas pointed his camera toward the hallway to the right. The air crackled with electricity—like a powerful thunderstorm was growing and about to descend on the Leaf Academy. And all those inside it. This floor in particular. My hair raised up, including some of the hair on my head, like I’d rubbed my feet on thick shag carpet wearing slipper socks.

  “This entire hallway is hot. Look at the camera!” Midas whispered to me in an excited tone. The screen displayed vibrant orange and red colors. I’d never seen this colorization on the thermal camera before. I suddenly wished Jocelyn were here to make sense of all this.

  I reached for my walkie-talkie. “Hey, are you guys getting this?”

  “Yes, we’ve got it,” Jocelyn answered. “Proceed with caution. I can’t say what that is, Cassidy. Ask Midas to step back and pan to the right.”

  “You heard her,” I said as he did just that.

  Midas! Midas! Come and find me!

  Yes, that was a child’s voice. It was sing-songy. As if the name-calling were some sort of game. Midas remained in position, but he was too close to the stairs. Definitely too close… I reached out to touch him, to pull him back from the edge, when I heard the voice again.

  What are you? Chicken?

  That’s when I saw the camera’s display change. The colorization returned to normal levels, but there was a blue dot about ten feet away from us. Blue indicated cooler temperatures, not something living. Like a draft or ice. There wasn’t any ice up here, and it wasn’t drafty. In fact, it was incredibly stuffy. I wanted to get out of here, or at the very least open a window and let some air in.

  And then maybe jump. You should do that, Cass. Then you can be with me.

  “Stop it!” I said in a hiss. Midas appeared transfixed by whatever waited for us in the hall. The voice that addressed me didn’t come from the hallway. It rang in my head. I knew only I could hear it. The voice wanted me to believe that it was Kylie, but she would never suggest something like that. Never.

  My heart pounded as I shifted my eyes from the screen to the hallway in front of us. I felt him before I saw him.

  A boy—a boy with a familiar face. This thing wanted us to believe that this was Dominic Demopolis, a child who’d been dead for at least twenty years. “Dominic?” Midas’ grip weakened on the camera, his hand wavered, and he wobbled on his feet. As he staggered, I snatched him by his shirt and pulled him closer to me.

  “Midas! Please! You know that’s not Dominic! Snap out of it!” I yelled as the image fluttered before us like it was a projection by an old camera that clacked as it worked and occasionally blurred the film.

  The image shifted slightly, or at least the thing’s face did. His frame and height remained the same. This was Ollie! I recognized the evil child’s face from Shanafila’s encounter.

  Mi-das! Come play with me!

  “You aren’t here.” His voice sounded rough and broken like he didn’t truly believe it. Was he entertaining the idea that this was actually his cousin? The boy’s face shifted again into a twisted mask of
anger. I pulled Midas even closer. My fight-or-flight instincts were kicking in, but my fiancé’s feet weren’t moving. For a moment, for one terrifying moment, the façade vanished. No more Ollie. No more Dominic.

  The creature had burnt black skin. I detected a strange glimmer to it, like it had scales. What was even more shocking were the yellow eyes that didn’t blink. They stared and hated and stared some more.

  “Nalusa Falaya!” I said without thinking. Then it smiled and showed a pink mouth and white teeth. Sharp white teeth. “Midas, step away!”

  The thing issued a hiss and a growl, all rolled into one. I couldn’t think, I could barely speak, and more than anything I wanted to cry my eyes out. But all I could do was hold on to Midas and watch it all unfold. The creature flickered away, and Dominic returned.

  Dead and bloodied Dominic. I heard Midas catch his breath. He saw him too! The thing raised its arm slowly in strange, puppet-like movements. I couldn’t fathom what it could be doing, but then I saw the feather in its hand. The Nalusa Falaya offered Midas a feather. A black feather.

  The walkie-talkie went crazy with static as Sierra’s voice crackled. I heard Joshua’s boots running up the stairs, but I couldn’t look away. Instead of a scream I shouted, “I know what you are—Nalusa Falaya! I know what you are!”

  Suddenly a huge boom shook the school. Even what was left of the window glass rattled, and I heard the sound of breaking glass in the rooms to the left. Whatever happened, however it happened, I realized that a great surge of energy was just released. And it was coming our way. But to what end? Would it kill us? Would it kill Midas?

  Another boom hit us, and the recorder I held clattered to the ground.

  “Stop!” I heard a wailing banshee scream as she dashed past me. I could barely breathe as I picked myself up off the floor. Somehow, I managed to snatch Midas to his feet too. But it was too late.

  That hadn’t been Joshua’s boots I’d heard coming up the stairs. That had been Jocelyn!

  A wild wind whipped down the hallway, and then everything stopped. The air lightened, and my hair wasn’t standing on end anymore. The thing was gone.

  And so was Jocelyn.

  Chapter Eighteen—Jocelyn

  I heard him before I saw him. Gary Holloway flicked a switchblade as he paced back and forth a few feet away. How I ended up in a heap on the ground I couldn’t say, but I wasn’t staying here. With a surge of fear-fueled adrenaline, I clambered to my feet and stepped away from the menacing spirit. Only he wasn’t a spirit. He seemed so much more real than he had before. Even during that first encounter, when I hadn’t detected that he was anything but a homeless guy dressed in vintage rags hanging out in an abandoned school. Not so weird in today’s society. I glanced around and was surprised to see that Midas and Cassidy had vanished, and so had the cameras and anything related to the Gulf Coast Paranormal investigation.

  I was by myself here! What had I been thinking running up those stairs?

  “Ah, you again. Can’t stay away from me, can you?” He flicked his knife again and grinned.

  “I’m not supposed to be here. I can help you, Gary. That’s your name, right?” I held up my hands to show him I wasn’t armed. And I wasn’t. Even my radio had vanished into thin air.

  “You know my name, honey. How about telling me yours? Let’s get acquainted. You look like a real peach,” he said in a deep, threatening voice. I couldn’t believe the detail with which he appeared. Black boots with metal chain accents. A pair of dirty jeans with thick cuffs. A ragged t-shirt and a moldy leather jacket. “But you can’t fool me, Honey. I know you aren’t human.”

  “Yes, I am, Gary. I am very human. See?” I held up my hands to show him my palms. What was I thinking? How far was I going to get with this guy?

  “Oh no, you’re not. And you know what that means.” He took a step toward me, swung his knife lazily and shouted, “Boo!” as I screamed and nearly threw up.

  “You don’t have to obey him. He’s not your master, Gary. You made a mistake, but you don’t have to pay for it forever. Not forever, Gary Holloway. Please, I can help you. My friends can help you. That’s why we are here; you have to believe me.” I was near tears now. A moan welled up from deep within me. “My name is Jocelyn Graves. I’m not your enemy.”

  “I can smell you.” His smile widened.

  “No, Gary! Listen to me. Your brother passed away recently, and Adrian owns this place. She would be your great-niece—she called us because you’re trapped. She knows you’re trapped, Gary! Please, listen!”

  Gary stopped pacing and bowed his head slightly, but his eyes never let go of me. Oh, this was no optical illusion. I was with a dead man, a crazy dead man who had every intention of killing me. His greaser hairstyle sagged a bit as he bent his neck even deeper. Then with a blast of angry and profane language, he slammed himself in my direction.

  I almost missed the blade. Almost. I screamed as the knife made contact with my arm, but I flung myself ahead of him and raced toward the door at the end of the hall.

  There was nowhere to go but up. As my heart beat crazily and the world fell silent except for Gary’s curses, I fled up the stairs to the roof. All the while, my mind raced with what I should do next. If I could get to the edge of the roof, maybe I could signal someone, catch someone’s attention. But then again, I had the strangest sensation that I had slipped not only to another time but to another place, another world.

  “Don’t run from me, honey. You’ll only make it worse. So much worse. Come on, sweet plum. Gary ain’t gonna hurt you. Not much.” The ghost of Gary Holloway enjoyed this deadly cat-and-mouse game far too much.

  I found it hard to breathe; my lungs were burning as if I had run a mile or two, not just traveled up a couple of stairs. My hands were sweating. All proof that I remained very much alive. And I was looking to stay that way.

  I reached for the doorknob, expecting that it would stick like it did the last time I came up here, but it swung open easily and I nearly spilled all over the ground. That would be bad because Gary Holloway was right behind me, not fifteen feet. I didn’t bother trying to close the door. He was coming after me.

  I screamed as loudly as I could, “Midas! Cassidy! Anyone!”

  Nobody answered. I couldn’t hear a car anywhere, nothing but birds. Crows or ravens, I couldn’t be sure.

  And then Gary was there. He spotted me and swung the knife as he bit his lip with pleasure.

  “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this, honey. Time to let ol’ Gary see if you’re human. Don’t make it hard on yourself,” he purred as he began to walk toward me.

  All I could do was scream.

  Chapter Nineteen—Cassidy

  “Take my hand, Cassidy. We have to work together. I need your help!” Sierra was screaming. Joshua and Midas were still running around looking for Jocelyn, and Midas was near tears. I couldn’t explain it; I’d never seen anything like it before. Jocelyn Graves had vanished into thin air right in front of me.

  “She just vanished, Sierra. She’s just gone.”

  “Snap out of it, Cassidy! It’s Ollie, you know it is. He made it happen, but now he’s weak. Too weak to keep all the balls in the air without taking another soul. We can’t let him have Jocelyn. He thought he would take Midas. It’s the anniversary of Dom’s death. I knew he wasn’t in the right state of mind for all this, but I didn’t say a word. I’m responsible for this, and I have to make it right. Hold my hand, Cassidy, and give me your energy.”

  “How? I’m not a sensitive, Sierra. Not like you. I’m an artist. What do I do?”

  “Look at me and control your breathing. I want you to imagine yourself wrapped in purple light. Think about the light, Cassidy. Just do that. As you think about it, make it brighter and bigger and stronger. Just do that and leave the rest to me.”

  “Okay,” I whimpered as I focused on my task. All I wanted to do was cry. Or call the cops, but what good would that do? I could hear Midas yelling for Jocelyn. He’s never going
to find her, she’s not here.

  “Focus, Cassidy. And don’t open your eyes.”

  “What? Why?” She didn’t answer me, so I took a breath and did what she asked. I had a hard time focusing on anything at first, but it got easier by the second. I wanted to ask a dumb question like what kind of purple, but Sierra was squeezing my hand and doing her thing. Stop being an artist and just focus. Lavender. I could see it all around us. I imagined it easily.

  Sierra began to speak in a confident tone. “I am calling out the spirits trapped in this place. You have been here too long. You have been separated too long from your family. It’s time to go now. You deserve peace and rest. All of you. Leave while you can! I call on the families of these souls trapped in this place, come now! Help your loved ones return to you! Please, come now!”

  Through my closed eyes, I imagined the colors changing to a deep indigo. A wild, throbbing color full of life and love. I heard strange sighs around me and felt the wind whip my hair, but Sierra’s voice never wavered. “Children, you may go to your parents, to your grandparents. Your loved ones are here now!”

  I heard giggles and laughter, and the air felt lighter every second.

  Suddenly Joshua was with us, holding on to both of us as the wind continued thrashing us. And Midas was there, and I could feel his hand in mine. Stay focused, Cassidy, I imagined Sierra whispering to me. I focused on the indigo color and pictured it wrapping around us like a living thing. It protected us from the rage that was about to be unleashed on us. Oh yes, the Nalusa Falaya hated Sierra McBride. It hated us all!

  “Hugh McCandlish! Moriah Mitchell! Shanafila! You are free! Go to your rest now!”

  As soon as the air shifted, I felt the angry presence of the creature.

  “We can’t make him leave since he is not human, Cassidy. He was never human, but we can push him back. Midas, go find Jocelyn!”

  Joshua said, “He’s dangerous, Sierra Kay! I’m not leaving you.”

  Suddenly it occurred to me. I knew where she had to be. In fact, I could almost hear her screaming my name. “She’s on the roof. She’s on the roof!” The four of us hurried to the roof door, clambered up the steps and found the door wide open.