Always Dead (Welcome To Dead House Book 2) Read online

  “Would you mind telling me what’s going on, Chloe, because he’s not making sense. When did you get home? I didn’t hear Lynn’s car, and I’ve been here all day.” I was totally confused but determined to get to the bottom of it. I felt a little guilty I wasn’t in the house when whatever paranormal happening occurred. Clearly that’s what was going on here because Joey never got this freaked out unless it was a supernatural event.

  Chloe put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes as if to focus. She took a deep breath and said, “All I know is I was asleep. I woke up because Miss Thing here decided to come into my room and crawl in bed with me. The power was out, my flashlight went out too, and there was a ghost lady in the hallway. She was going to charge us when the power came back on, and my room lit up.”

  Now was the time to confess. “I saw a woman too. The other night, she appeared as a twisting shadow in my room, and she crawled on my ceiling. I thought she would charge me, but I got away. I’ve been trying to communicate with her, but she’s not talking to me. She seems more interested in Joey than in you or me, Chloe. You say she called you Andrew?”

  “Why haven’t you told us?” Joey demanded as he sat up bolt upright on the bed.

  “I’m telling you now. You aren’t always easy to find, Joey. I was going to tell you.”

  He was on a roll, though. “She had a ghost baby and it was crying. Oh my God, Tamara! It was like that Victorian up at Edward’s Point. She was something straight out of a movie. Oh, the horror. Her face was all decomposing, and she called me Andrew. If you two don’t mind, I’ve got to go lie down. Don’t do any of your woo-woo stuff tonight, Chloe, because I might need to pop back in. Later!” Joey sailed out the open door and left us alone in Chloe’s room.

  “Are you okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I just stepped outside for a few minutes, and when I realized the power was off in the the house, I came right back in, and I heard you two and...”

  Chloe removed the batteries from her flashlight and tossed them in the garbage can near her vanity table. “Don’t worry about me, Tamara. I’m just peachy. Just seeing terrifying apparitions and whatnot, all by myself unless you include the Ghost. Situation normal. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go to bed and try to get some sleep. I’ve got a lot of studying to do tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow is Sunday. Are you telling me you were here half the day and I didn’t know it? What’s up, Chloe?” I didn’t mean to come off as a worrywart parent, but I had a right to know where she was and why she didn’t come home when I expected her to. Whether she liked it or not, I was her guardian.

  “You want the truth? Because I’d really like to give you the truth.” Her question surprised me, and I could tell there was something really bothering her beyond the normal. She tossed her flashlight in the nightstand drawer and slammed it shut.

  I plopped down on her beanbag chair and nodded my head. “Yes, very much. I would like to hear the truth, whatever that might be. Whatever you’re feeling you can tell me. I think I can handle it.”

  Chloe sat on the floor not far from me with her legs crossed. As terrified as she had been just a few minutes ago, she was full-on furious now. She was so angry or hurt or whatever it was that she completely forgot about the ghost woman and her baby.

  Don’t be a coward, Tamara. Don’t cry or show weakness. You take whatever she says like a woman. She deserves that, and you can handle it.

  “You forgot Mom’s birthday. You forgot all about her, and you were supposed to be her best friend. I made cupcakes, and you didn’t even ask. You didn’t mention it or anything. It’s like... It’s like you’re just posing, Tamara. It’s like you were never my mother’s friend. How could you forget her birthday?”

  To my surprise, Chloe was wiping tears from her eyes, clearly broken over my decision to pretend it wasn’t Tina Louise’s birthday the other day.

  “Oh, God, Chloe. I should’ve known that you would remember. Of course, I remembered your mother’s birthday. She was my best friend. But if I’d had a birthday party for her, she would kick my ass. I know you and your mother had a different relationship, but as her friend, I was expected to pretend she was always twenty-five no matter how old she got. That’s just how she was. We both worked in an industry that frowned upon getting older, and we didn’t enjoy our birthdays because every year they rolled around was an opportunity for your agent to let you go. I did remember!”

  Chloe wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stared at me. “Seriously? But Mom is gone now. Surely, we can celebrate her if we want to. I thought you just forgot.”

  I crawled out of the beanbag and went to sit by her on the floor. I took her hand whether she liked it or not and squeezed it. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you were a child, Chloe. I should’ve insisted Tina Louise come home more. I should have made her come back to Crystal Springs, but I didn’t know how everything was between y’all.” I didn’t know about you at all, I thought to myself.

  “I guess it’s easier to blame you because you’re alive and you’re here. I didn’t know Mom didn’t like birthdays. I made cupcakes for her, and she probably didn’t even like them.” Chloe laid her head on my shoulder and began to cry.

  “That’s nonsense. You were her child. Of course, your mother would have loved your cupcakes. She loves you still. With you, I imagine, Tina Louise didn’t have to pretend she was anyone other than herself. I’m sure you celebrating her birthday is just peachy keen with her and guess what? Going forward we're going to have a party for her every year whether she likes it or not. If she has a problem with it, she can haunt me.”

  Chloe sniffed again. “That’s just it, Tamara. She doesn’t haunt me. I have Joey and these other ghosts turning up, but never Mom. Never directly. Why? I feel like she hates me or something. I don’t understand!”

  I held her and let her cry it out. I did not have any answers for her, but I could at least comfort her. When she got still and was cleaning her face in the bathroom, I went to her bathroom door. “Hey, come with me. I want to show you something.”

  “Okay?” Chloe answered as she patted her freshly washed face with a towel. She pulled her hair back in a ponytail and padded behind me as we went downstairs.

  We didn’t go to my bedroom but to the room I used as a storage room. It was right beside my bedroom. There wasn’t much in there except for boxes of things I didn’t know what to do with. It didn’t take me long until I found what I was looking for. I reached over and grabbed a blanket from the cedar chest, and I spread it on the floor. I sat down on it and began to flip through the dusty scrapbook. Chloe sat beside me as I turned the pages. Each one depicted a special event and featured photos of either Tina Louise or me or both of us during a performance. There were no nude photos, just the two of us having a blast as characters from our burlesque shows. I had made this scrapbook for Chloe some time ago, but I never had the courage to give it to her. I kept turning the pages until I came to the one I was looking for.

  It was Tina Louise, her bright red hair perfectly combed and her fake mole perfectly penciled on her cheek. We were born the same year, yet she always managed to look like a woman from another era. She said more than once she felt as if she had been born at the wrong time. I sighed at that memory of this photo. How quickly she came into this world and left us all wanting more. It was my turn to shed a few tears remembering my best friend. Despite the fact she kept many secrets from me I believe she loved me as best she could. I had certainly loved her, and I had never had such a friend as Tina Louise Ridaught Carol.

  In this picture, her lips were perfectly painted. It was a close-up shot of her face, and in her red-gloved hands, she held a lit cupcake with white frosting and lots of sprinkles. I couldn’t remember what year this was, but it felt like yesterday.

  Another year, another attempt to pretend to be young.

  And then she was gone.

  I handed Chloe the scrapbook with a smile.

  “See? It’s okay to celebrate
her birthday, and I’m sure she would’ve loved those cupcakes. Just never make the mistake of putting the wrong number of candles on her cakes.” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Chloe clutched the scrapbook to her chest and kissed my cheek.

  “This is mine to keep?” she asked sweetly.

  “Today and forever,” was my answer.

  “Thanks, Tamara.” With that, she left me in the room sitting on the floor on the blanket. I sat a little while and rummaged through a few other things, feeling extremely sentimental and sad.

  I didn’t have time for this. I promised Kevin I would try to reach out to that Aaron guy, and I wasn’t going to achieve that here.

  According to the paperwork, he had been found dead at the back of our property on the dirt road that ran behind the place. It was a way back, but I think I knew a path I could take that would lead me to that section of the road. No one used the road anymore, but it was certainly doable. I went back to my room and changed my clothes into jeans and a t-shirt, socks and tennis shoes. I pulled my wild blonde hair up on top of my head and stuffed my backpack with the equipment I would use.

  Of course, I would bring the digital audio recorder and my camera, but I was also going to use my brand-new spirit box. Unlike the older version, this particular spirit box didn’t focus on any one radiofrequency. It constantly ran through them all, which gave the disembodied voices more opportunities to speak to me.

  I went into the kitchen to grab a few protein bars and a bottle of water when I ran into Chloe again.

  “Are you going out?” she asked me point-blank.

  “Yeah, I’m going to do a spirit box session by the road.” There was no reason to lie to her. “Deputy Patrick, I mean Kevin, asked me to help him with a cold case. A young man died out here in the 90s. His name was Aaron. I’m trying to reach him to see if he can tell me more about his killer. They don’t have any good clues. I thought I’d give it a shot and put my new ghost box to work.”

  “That sounds incredible! Can I go?” After our recent bonding session, I found it difficult to say no. I gave her a few minutes to change her clothing and waited for her at the bottom of the stairs. While I waited, I called out a few times for Joey, but he did not appear.

  “Joey, if you are listening, I’m going to do a Periscope session. You’ll want to watch.”

  Even that didn’t entice him to step out of the wall or spring out of the dryer. He was probably still scared shitless. I was glad to see Chloe’s tears dried and that we’d made up as friends. I like having Chloe as a friend. I had to remind myself she was not Tina Louise incarnate. Chloe was her own person and liked her own things and did things her own way. It was my job to mentor her and to help her have a good life but also to get to know her and let Chloe be who she needed to be.

  Keys in hand, I locked the front door, and we went outside and around the house. As we walked, I shared more of the information I had gathered from the deputy, but Chloe stopped me.

  “The less I know, the better. I’m working on becoming more intuitive with my gifts. What I’d like to do is to go with you and watch your session but maybe have my own session before yours just to see what I pick up. I’m not as accurate as I would like. Is that okay?”

  “That sounds perfect to me. I appreciate you trying to learn about your gifts. I totally support that! Maybe you can hold the camera while I do a Periscope session for Joey. He’s all into that. It’s his new favorite social media platform. If I let him, he’d have his own page.”

  Chloe’s answer was to roll her eyes. Joey was a bit over the top, but I loved him. He was my best friend.

  We tried hiking straight back on the property, but it was thicker than I remembered. We had to meander a bit to avoid mucky areas. The stickers were bad too, but there were fewer gopher holes. After some work, we were at the road, and it was clear there had been no traffic here in years. The wildlife was abundant. I saw a young doe scamper off, along with a family of vocal squirrels. The foliage was infringing upon the forgotten roadway. There wasn’t a house to be seen besides ours, and I could only see the tip-top of that.

  “I wonder where this road leads? Do you think this is where we see the lights? Could this road be the pathway the dead use? Remember around Halloween? We kept seeing all those lights out here.”

  I agreed with her that it looked like the same area. From the window, it had seemed much closer. Now that we were here, and looking back at the house, it was definitely farther than my earlier assessment. To my mind, the house to the road to the abandoned barn made a sort of triangle, but it didn’t look like that from the ground. What a weird effect.

  I kept my thoughts to myself as Chloe began her work. “Is anyone here? My name is Chloe, and this is Tamara.” I quietly slid my digital recorder out of my pocket and hit the record button. If someone was talking to Chloe and she was unable to hear them, the recorder would catch what they were saying. It would be good to have proof for her that she was connecting even if she thought she wasn’t. I’d love to see her build her confidence with this gift.

  “I need to talk to Aaron. Aaron? Can you hear me?” Chloe spotted the recorder and held her hand out. I gave it to her with a silent nod. I smiled to encourage her to keep going. She began to pace up and down the road stopping every few feet to look around and stare at something I couldn’t see. “You were in a car, Aaron. Do you remember?” Interesting. I never told her that. She asked a few more questions, and I played it back for her.

  There was silence even in the playback, but Chloe did not let that deter her. She clicked record again and kept going. “Okay, Tamara. I’m just going to keep talking because I’m feeling and seeing things I don’t understand. Maybe I will understand later.”

  I nodded in agreement and whispered, “Go ahead, Chloe.”

  “He’s waiting for someone. He has dark hair, and it’s slightly wavy. He put stuff in his hair to make it stick up everywhere. He thinks that’s a cool style. He’s got a really bad pain in his neck. I mean, it’s like...” Chloe put her hand to her throat and shook her head as if she couldn’t quite understand what’s happening. “He can’t breathe. He came here with someone, but then...oh, no.”

  “What is it? Don’t leave me in suspense,” I demanded as I watched Chloe’s face turn pale.

  “There is another person out here. Not Aaron, and not with Aaron. She is much older. I mean, older dead. It must be the woman looking for Andrew. She’s so angry. I...I can’t help her. She’s out of her head, I think. She’s just screaming and making no sense. Oh, God! Tamara! She wants me to die!”

  “Just stop, Chloe. Stop connecting with her. Take a deep breath and have a seat on the grass. It's okay. You did great. You can’t help everyone, you know. You just can’t.” Chloe took some deep breaths to calm herself and sat in the tall grass next to the road. I stood in front of her to observe her and protect her from the unseen. I clicked on the flashlight because the light was fading fast. It would be full-on dark out here soon. In my investigative experience, that’s when the spirits got the most active, but I didn’t want to put Chloe at further risk.

  “Call it a night, Chloe. I think you should head back. I’ll hang here and work the spirit box. Did she hurt you?” She wasn’t having any of it.

  “If you’re staying, I am staying!” She was on her feet again.

  “If you’re sure. Let’s try the spirit box to see if we can figure out who this is that’s threatening you. Aaron was here, and you were right about the car, but this other woman interrupted. She clearly wants our attention. Let’s give it to her but on our terms. If she has something hateful to say, she can say it to me.” Chloe rubbed at her throat and silently agreed with me as I flipped on the spirit box.

  As soon as I flipped on the machine, it began making a crackling noise. A flurry of voices came through, but there weren’t any that made sense. Someone screamed. Someone laughed. A few other voices whispered to one another. I pretended it didn’t creep the hell out of me.

  �
��My name is Tamara, and this is Chloe. I’m here to speak to the lady who came to Chloe’s room. How can we help you? Tell us your name. Who is Andrew?”

  I heard a soft feminine voice whisper an answer. “Alice.” Chloe snapped her fingers at me, and I repeated the name back to the box.

  “Did you say your name is Alice?” A flurry of other voices came through, but that particular voice didn’t speak again

  “No!” Another feminine voice screamed through the spirit box.

  In a firm voice, I said, “I want to talk to Alice and no one else. Step away from the spirit box unless your name is Alice. Alice, can you hear me?”

  After a few seconds of warbled talking and scratching sounds, we heard, “Yes.”

  “Alice, what can we do for you? How can we help you? Have you lost Andrew?” This was Chloe now, standing on her feet. Her hands were shaking, and my heart was pumping. I don’t know what we expected to hear, but it wasn’t this.

  Andrew...come back!

  With a scream of despair, Alice was gone, and all the other voices returned. Laughing and whispering, all unhelpful voices. What did I expect? I did a ghost box session on Dead House property. Naturally, we were going to get many answers and not just one.

  This one left me cold. We tried a few more times, but nobody else wanted to talk, and Alice was long gone. Poor Aaron hadn’t even come through, but at least Chloe had seen him, and we learned he had come here to meet someone. Chloe had not seen any photos of Aaron, but she had gotten his description correct. I would show her his picture later, but for now, my heart was heavy. To think someone’s child had been murdered on this property. Alice must have been the woman who came to my room, too. She was seeking help, and Chloe had done such a good job of banishing ghosts from her space, at least for a little while, she came to me first. Or second. She was definitely seeking Joey.

  There could be no doubt about it. The Reaper had not collected Alice. I suspected that was because Alice demanded justice for something.