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

  I left the stage and joined Adrian in the hallway. She shuddered and said, “I hate this room. Let’s go upstairs. It’s not great up there either.”

  The rest of the building was as I expected. Some of the rooms were bare-bones empty, while others were stacked with junk including some antique furniture. Most of the furniture was broken but certainly interesting.

  “The teachers’ rooms are to the right, and the students’ are to the left. The kids were bunked together, two and sometimes four to a room. The teachers got the better deal, only one per room, but their rooms weren’t very large. If you follow me, I’ll show you one room in particular that might be worth your attention. It’s at the end of the hall. Nobody likes that room. No one alive, anyway.” Even though Adrian suggested that I follow her, she fell behind. She clearly didn’t want to be here, but she had been kind enough to show me the hotspots and I didn’t want her to leave in tears.

  “I’ll go, Adrian.”

  “You aren’t leaving me in this hallway. It’s just as bad as that room. Lots of people see shadows and black mists on this floor.” She had her arms folded again, a clear sign that subconsciously she wanted to protect herself from whatever might be lurking in the halls at the Leaf Academy.

  As soon as I hit the doorway, I saw a stack of papers fluttering to the ground. Old papers. Drawings, sketches. I didn’t need a flashlight in this room; the windows weren’t boarded up. And in fact, there was a filthy view of the overgrown forest. But the papers…they had been moving. Luckily, Adrian had been far enough behind me that she hadn’t seen anything. Still, I could feel the creep factor ratcheting up by the second.

  “Stay right there, please,” I whispered as I entered the room and checked behind the door. There was no one here. No evidence of rodents and no open windows. All six of the panes were intact, and the wooden frames were so old they were probably swollen and stuck in place. I halfheartedly tried to lift the thing, but it didn’t budge.

  There was a bed frame and a cot in here. Not much else. Except for a pile of drawings—all of black feathers. I squatted beside them but remembered Jocelyn’s warning. Don’t pick up a damn thing, Midas. Nothing. The entity wants you to accept his gifts.

  “What is it, Midas?”

  “It’s just some drawings. I think we’ve seen all there is to see. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes, been ready.” She glanced at the pile of papers but didn’t ask about them. I was glad for that. I wasn’t exactly sure what to tell her. But those papers had been shuffling around. I heard them and saw them.

  I glanced over my shoulder as Adrian and I walked down the first set of stairs and then the next. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was not only watching us but following us. Making sure we left the Leaf Academy.

  I wouldn’t admit this to anyone, but I was happy to be leaving. Unlike Jocelyn, I wasn’t a fan of solo investigations, especially not a place this size. But I would be back. As soon as Adrian would let us.

  Chapter Three—Midas

  “I need coffee and some distance from this place. There’s a coffee shop in town,” Adrian suggested as she backed the car around and spun out of the driveway. She must have forgotten about taking me for a tour of the grounds. I didn’t think I should remind her.

  I buckled up my seat belt. Seemed like an especially good idea. “Sounds great. If you think my vehicle will be okay,” I replied as my mind replayed seeing those sketches floating to the ground. My opening the door could have caused a draft—that was a possibility. Although I believed Jocelyn, I had to go into this investigation the way I normally did: take the scientific approach first and whatever you have left, what can’t be explained, study that. Yep. Debunking what I saw would be the first order of business when we got the equipment unloaded and set up.

  “Your van will be fine. Trust me on that. Nobody comes out here. I’ll bring you back in a few minutes, but I need some fresh air. Fresh, faraway air.”

  “That’s fine, Adrian. I could use some coffee.”

  She smiled weakly as she turned off the soft jazz playing on her radio. “Thanks for understanding. Tell me the truth, Midas. What do you think about the place? Tell me I’m not crazy. It’s haunted, isn’t it? I mean, I know it is, but I’m not a professional.”

  “It’s not short on spooky ambiance, that’s for certain. And I do believe that there is activity, yes. You and Jocelyn are both credible witnesses. I’m not going to sugar-coat anything—Jocelyn is convinced that you have a unique and troubling entity in residence. It’s so strong that it has created a kind of vortex, all on its own. How much has she told you about her experience there?”

  Adrian shifted gears and shook her head. “She didn’t tell me much, but she does believe it is haunted. It’s stupid that I should doubt my own eyes and ears, my own experience. What happened to me was like something out of a horror movie. Here’s the thing, Midas. I know the Leaf Academy is haunted. I mean, I know it deep in my soul. There are malicious spirits there. And although their presence is felt strongest in October, they are at the academy all year round. That night in high school, my friends and I broke in. What’s crazy was I could have stolen the key from my grandfather and then put it back; he would have never known. But I didn’t want anyone to know I was related to the owners, and it seemed more exciting to break into the place. Big mistake.”

  “Go on,” I prompted her. I had the feeling Adrian was on the verge of telling me something.

  “We were smoking in that upstairs room, the one at the end of the hall that we checked out last. Really, my friends wanted to do it. I wasn’t much of one to smoke, but you know how it is when you’re in high school. You do stupid things to please your friends.”

  “We have all done crazy things as teenagers. Smoking isn’t so surprising. Were you guys doing anything else? Maybe a séance or using tarot cards or a Ouija board? I’m not judging you, but it would help to know.”

  “Nothing that scandalous. Just cigarettes, Midas.” She shifted down and eased the car into the parking lot of the Dipping Donut, then put it in park and turned it off. “Karen and Betsy were my best friends. Funny to think we aren’t friends anymore. Karen is gone now, and Betsy and I never speak. Karen was kind of the alpha of our small group of friends. She was always pushing the envelope, and until that night I was happy to follow her. Everything had been so harmless until that point. She wasn’t happy just breaking in to smoke a cigarette—we had to do it in that room. Lots of stories about that room; other kids had gone there. People say they see a boy in that window.” Adrian fidgeted with her keys and grabbed her purse.

  “Let’s get that coffee,” I suggested as I got out of her stylish BMW. She agreed, and a few minutes later we were hunkered together at a small rickety table in the corner of the Dipping Donut. I suddenly wished Cassidy were with me. She would have been scribbling up a storm, I was convinced of that. There was no one else in the place except the owner, who was busy prepping the dough.

  “You guys went up to the room. Did you see anything on the way up there?”

  “No, but you can imagine how we all acted. Like giggling idiots. All except Karen. It was like she had some sort of…I don’t know. It’s like she was on a mission. She had to do it, and we had to go with her. You know, back in the nineties, nobody talked about any of this stuff. Not out in the open. And we thought of ourselves as brave. I mean, we were hoping to get scared but not nearly killed.”

  A loud machine in the kitchen kicked on, and Adrian jumped at the sound. No way was this lady making any of this up. Her experience at the Leaf Academy had left a lingering effect on her. Another reason to investigate, especially if she was planning to tear it down. Maelstroms were so rare; I’d only learned about these commanding, powerful spirits recently. And I’d never actually encountered one.

  “I’m sorry that you had such a terrifying experience, Adrian.”

  She reached for a napkin from the antique silver napkin holder on the table and dabbed at her eye
s. “Thanks. To be honest, I was nervous about my grandfather bringing in Jocelyn Graves, but seeing how professionally she conducted herself and how highly she recommended you…calling you just seemed like the right thing to do. This is the next step.”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I didn’t reach for it. Whoever it was would have to wait. “I am grateful for your trust, and I know it took a lot to make that phone call.”

  “Why do you do it? I can’t imagine investigating ghosts and whatever else you might encounter for a living. Why?” Adrian twisted the napkin in her hands.

  “I hear that question a lot. Mostly from my family,” I said with a smile. “My cousin Dominic went missing when I was a kid. We were close in age, and he was my best friend. Later, I understood what happened. Dom had been kidnapped and murdered, but while everyone was searching for him, I saw him. Actually, he visited me a few more times, came to my bed at night. He was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t make it out. I can’t tell you how frustrating that was. I loved Dom so much and wanted to help him. I saw him a few other places too. I think he wanted me to find him, but I couldn’t. I was just a kid. They found his body not long after his last visit to me.”

  “I’m so sorry. What a horrible thing to happen. I guess there are different types of spirits; I confess I don’t know much about them, and what I do know…”

  I agreed with her. “Sometimes the dead need help. If I can help them, I will. Other times, it’s not so nice, but we have to take the good with the bad.”

  Adrian put the napkin down and shook her head. “What about the evil dead? What if they don’t want your help, Midas? What if the ghost isn’t human?”

  “I’ve encountered non-human entities before. It’s scary at times, but we usually find a way of bringing the client information that is useful in expelling these entities.”

  “Like an exorcism?”

  I shook my head. “We don’t do those. But one of our team members, Sierra McBride, is a sensitive. She helps the dead move on if they will listen. We do have contacts for exorcisms if it comes to that, but we can’t jump to that conclusion. Tell me what happened to you. You felt threatened?”

  “Yes. Karen had some cigarettes—those long skinny ones. I never bought any myself, but I’d smoked once or twice with them. Just to fit in and be cool. Anyway, we agreed with Karen that we were going to do it, all three of us. She wanted to smoke in that room because she’d heard that it aggravated the ghost there. He was supposed to be some kind of teacher or a principal, I’m not sure which. Karen liked the idea of aggravating a teacher—anyone in authority. She was kind of a wild child. I liked that she didn’t want or need anyone’s approval. I liked that about her until that night. She was not the best influence, I know that now. As I mentioned, Karen died a few years ago.”

  Adrian’s hedging around the actual events of that night did not surprise me. After all these years, she couldn’t come to terms with what happened to her, didn’t want to believe it. I waited for her to share her story, but I couldn’t wait much longer. The donut clock on the far wall ticked loudly, reminding me that I promised to have dinner with Cassidy. We’d been missing each other recently. If she wasn’t busy training or working on a client’s artwork, I was off helping Papa Angelos in his diner. The old man couldn’t get around too well anymore.

  “Betsy had the matches. She struck one and put the flame to the cigarette tip, but it went out. Like someone blew it out. We laughed about it and blamed it on the wind. But then she lit another one and it happened again. That pissed Karen off. She thought I was doing it—she even called me a few names. I was so freaked out, but I didn’t get it. Not yet. My hair was standing up all over my body, but I didn’t want to believe what was really happening. Karen took the cigarette from Betsy and made us both back up a few feet, far enough away that we couldn’t blow out the flame. Her fingers were shaking, but she popped another match and tried to light the cigarette. I’ll never forget it. It wouldn’t work. She tried several times, examined the box and then remembered she had a lighter in her purse.”

  Adrian closed her eyes and bit her lip as she recounted her experience. “She flicked the lighter, and the flame leaped up. Really high, too. It turned completely blue like it was burning really hot. But she wasn’t going to stop. I could see the tip of the cigarette catch and heard her take a deep draw off of it, but then she dropped it. Her head flung back, and her feet were dancing in the air. Before I could speak or think or anything at all, I felt a hand around my throat too. A monstrous hand. It had to have belonged to a really big person because it went all the way around my neck.”

  She rubbed her neck at the memory. “I think the two of us hung in the air for at least five seconds, maybe more. I thought it was going to kill me—choke me to death. It didn’t attack Betsy, but it got me and Karen.”

  “How did it end? Do you remember?”

  She sighed and kind of collapsed in her seat. “Of course I do. I will never forget any of it. Betsy made it stop. She was screaming and praying the Lord’s Prayer, and I think that’s why it quit. I’m glad she did because I’m pretty sure I would be dead if she’d decided to run off and leave us. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I was gone. All of us were. The three of us ran out of there like bats out of hell.”

  “It sounds like a terrifying encounter with something that meant to do you harm.”

  Her eyes were wide as she nodded in agreement. “It was the scariest damn thing I ever experienced. I will never forget it. Never.”

  After a few moments of silence, I asked, “Anything else you can remember?”

  “Yes. I heard a voice. A man’s voice. It was like he was right at my ear, almost inside my head.”

  Now the hair was creeping up on my neck, but I didn’t let on that anything she was telling me was disturbing. It wouldn’t do her any good to tell her how strong that entity had to be if it spoke and manhandled them. “What did he say? Could you make it out?”

  “He said, ‘No smoking!’ His voice was really angry and really loud. I don’t know if my friends heard it. I can tell you what, though, I never smoked again.”

  “I bet. Adrian, we’re going to do all we can to see what is haunting your property. Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I know how tough that can be. Are you ready to go back? I’ve got to pick up my van and meet one of our team members.”

  “I think so. As long as I don’t have to get out. I feel kind of icky now.”

  “You don’t have to get out, but I would like to walk the grounds before I go. If that’s okay?”

  She dug in her purse and handed me a set of keys. “Sure. Here are the keys to the school and the outside buildings. Please, Midas, you all be careful. I hope you guys can figure it all out. And I really hope this investigation doesn’t piss anything off.”

  “We will be more than cautious, I promise you. I think we already have all the evidence we need to establish there is an active haunting at the Leaf Academy. But I would like to bring you some peace, if possible, and dig deeper. And maybe help whoever is there.”

  “Oh, wait. You’d better have this too. I started reading it and had to quit. Maybe it will help you. It’s Moriah Mitchell’s diary. He was the headmaster in the 1930s. He knew more about what was going on than people believed he did.”

  “Thank you, Adrian. This kind of artifact does help.”

  She tugged the purse up on her shoulder. “You’re an optimistic kind of guy, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but I’m not a fool. And I’m sure as heck not going to light up a cigarette while I’m there.”

  “Good thinking, Midas. Well, let’s go. No time like the present.”

  We left the donut shop and headed back to the Leaf Academy. Adrian wasn’t joking around. She didn’t get out of the car. All the front windows were boarded up, but I couldn’t quite shake the sensation that I was being watched from somewhere on high. Hm…maybe I’d pass on the outbuildings. There was so much going on in
side the school that there was really no need to go poking around in the various sheds, the dilapidated greenhouse or the boarded-up annex building. Everything we needed, paranormal-wise, was in the school. I put the journal on the passenger seat and tossed the keys in the console, then I got out and stared at the building.

  A maelstrom, huh? How are you going to deal with this, Midas? What’s the game plan?

  My emotions were all over the place. I experienced a heady mix of excitement, fear and curiosity. This was what I lived for. Okay, Demopolis. Get your head in the game. Time to think like a professional.

  And then I heard the voice. A familiar voice. One I hadn’t heard in a long time.

  Midas…help me. Midas.

  And in a flash, I saw the image of a pale-faced boy standing on the porch near the main entrance. His mouth hadn’t moved, and he said nothing else, but his presence infuriated me. “Cut it out!” I shouted back without thinking. Nobody answered. No one said a thing. I got in the car and slammed the door, then put the keys in the ignition and drove away. Now that ticked me off! Whatever this spirit was, I knew one thing for sure. It was a trickster. There was no way that was Dom’s voice, although it wanted me to believe that it was. Dominic was dead and gone. He’d passed over long ago, and I didn’t believe for a minute that he was hanging around me hoping to resolve any unsettled business he might have. What would that be? No, it wasn’t my dead cousin, but that had been his voice I heard.