Ghosts of Bliss Bayou Read online

  

  The blaze of the forest fire reflects off Bliss Bayou. I climb out of the boat I’m in and rush across the dock. The Alden house is burning. Fiona is trapped in there, and it’s up to me to save her.

  But as I reach the edge of the road, Shadow Man looms in front of me, all slimy and shiny black. From his face-with-no-mouth comes the evil voice: “So glad you are here. Now the curse can be fulfilled.”

  I wake up, rigid with terror. I scan the room. It’s all quiet and empty.

  The nightmares are getting worse.

  

  Friday afternoon, two days before I’m due to fly back to Florida, I get a text from Molly: “Check out the Quick Report. The whole town is going nuts!”

  I pull up Molly’s blog and see she’s got a new post, published a few minutes ago.

  Turmoil Erupts in Harmony Springs

  Near Riot Outside Town Council Meeting

  From what I read, the meeting last night was even wilder than Molly had expected. Fiona presented her plan to require easements on new construction. Phil Deering promised that any easements passed by the town would result in litigation. People from both sides disrupted the meeting repeatedly, and the police conducted some of them out of the hall. The meeting ended with the council referring the matter for legal review. Outside, the police broke up a fist fight and arrested four men and one woman.

  But that’s not all. During the night, rocks were thrown at several houses on the springs, and a pickup truck was set on fire. People on both sides of the controversy are accusing each other of vandalism and are threatening reprisals. The police have increased night patrols around the springs, but so far there have been no arrests.

  Reading all this gives me a weird, prickly feeling—like somehow I’m to blame. Like my leaving Harmony Springs has stripped the town of some magical protection. This feeling links right in to the nightmares in which I desperately try to save people—and fail.

  I have to get back there. I should never have left.

  As nutty as that feeling is, I can’t shake it the rest of the day.

  

  Soaking wet and slimy, I stumble into the clearing at the mouth of Bliss Bayou. It’s night, of course, and a bonfire has just been lit. Granma and Violet are tied to stakes in the middle of the pile of fuel. Shadow Man is holding a torch.

  He turns to face me.

  I lift my arms and attempt to banish him. Energy beams shoot from my palms. He just stands there as the energy disappears into his bottomless blackness.

  With a chill, I realize my mistake. He’s absorbing the energy—and growing stronger.

  I wake up with a gasp. My heart is racing, and it takes a long time for deep breathing to slow it down.

  It’s five in the morning. I switch on the bedside lamp and do the Ablution exercise.

  After that, I’m still too restless to sleep, so I break out my cards. I ask the meaning of my nightmares and about this crazy urgency I feel to get back to Harmony Springs.

  The reading is full of chaos and destruction. The crowning card is the Moon. In the picture, the moon hangs in the sky between two towers. A path emerges from a pool in the foreground and twists off into distant hills. Three animals—a wolf, a dog, and a lobster—rear up from the water and look at the moon. The card signifies illusions, fears arising from the Unconscious, perilous mysteries.

  For a while I stare at the face of the moon. What are you trying to tell me?

  Then the moon opens its mouth, and I hear a hollow voice clearly in the room: “Harmony can be restored—if you have the courage to walk the path.”

  I shiver and blink and come out of the trance.

  The picture of the moon is just a picture again.

  Was the vision truthful? Can saving Harmony Springs really be up to me?

  Or have I just watched too many superhero movies?

  13. Violet is through messing around

  On Sunday I fly back to Orlando.

  I’m kind of hoping the shuttle driver will be Timothy again, my friend from Belarus who drove me to Harmony Springs the first time. But it turns out to be some other guy. No matter: this time I can give the driver exact directions to Granma’s house.

  And this time, Granma fulfills my fantasy by rushing across the front porch as soon as the van arrives.

  Only instead of a sunny afternoon, the weather is dark and threatening.

  In the summer, ferocious thunderstorms often flare up in Florida. I’ve heard rumblings ever since we got near Harmony Springs. As I climb out of the van, the sky is black, and wind whips the upper branches. Granma hugs me and says we’d better get inside. I tip the driver and pick up my suitcase and backpack. While we’re crossing the front yard, there’s a flash and a loud thunderclap. Just as we reach the steps, the rain starts pouring.

  We sit in the kitchen and have a cup of tea. Granma’s opened the windows and screen door so we can watch the storm and feel the cool air blowing in. Sheets of rain dance across the backyard. The voice of the storm is a loud hiss, like air escaping a punctured tire. Sometimes it turns into a groan that makes me think of a sick woman in a hospital bed. Once, the thunder cracks so loudly it makes my shoulders jump, and Granma’s too.

  We look at each other and laugh. Granma says, “I’m so glad you’re back, Abby.”

  

  I wake from a dream of drowning in black water.

  I sit up straight in bed. The room is icy cold, with a strong, swampy smell. The terror starts at the base of my spine and rushes up to squeeze my heart.

  He’s standing at the foot of the bed, visible in the faint light that comes from under the bathroom door. When I first saw him, he was a flowing black cloud fresh from my nightmares. On the dock at Bliss Bayou, I saw him as a slumping man-shaped thing a head shorter than me.

  Now he’s six feet tall.

  “Yes…I am getting bigger.”

  I shove down my panic and say as forcefully as I can, “Go away!”

  “I too am glad you are back, Abby Renshaw.”

  I remember the banishing magic. I trace a five-pointed star in the air with my finger. “Be gone from this place and leave us in peace!”

  His head moves a little, but that’s all.

  I stand on the bed and take up a self-defense pose. “I am Fighting Eagle, initiate of the Circle of Harmony. I have tasted the waters of the Five Springs. In the name of our founders, I banish you from this place.”

  He leans back but does not go. “Abby…your fear comes from within. I am not your enemy.”

  This attempt to reassure me only makes me more terrified. Desperately I try to think what else I can do. Thomas Renshaw’s ring lies on my bedside table. I snatch it up and hold it to my chest. I imagine the Springs flowing through my body. I visualize the Spring of Balance near my heart.

  Stay close to the Fountains, Abby.

  “I am Fighting Eagle of the Circle of Harmony, spirit. I demand to know your true name.”

  The shadow stiffens, as if I’ve surprised him. But then he settles again.

  “What if I told you my name is Lebab?”

  That shocks me. No, it feels all wrong. “I would say you are a liar.”

  He actually snickers. “What do you really know, Abby Renshaw, about the magic of these springs? In past times, young people sacrificed themselves for the good of all, drowned themselves in the waters as offerings to me, Lebab. That is where the power comes from. Magical power is never free. You are but one in a long, long line.”

  Maybe that’s it. It all adds up—my nightmares of drowning, the crazy unrest that’s gripped the town, my sense that it’s up to me to set things right, my suspicions since I was a little girl that I am cursed…

  He holds out his hand to me. “But there is another choice. If you join me, you can live. I will share my power with you, teach you as I taught your ancestor.”

  My shoulders relax. If he could save me from dying. If he reall
y is Lebab. My hand wants to reach toward him.

  Then I remember what Violet advised me. I seek the voice of my heart.

  My heart tells me this creature is evil, that it’s not Lebab. It is a deceiver.

  This time he takes a step back, as though I’ve stung him a little. But he says, “I am patient. I grow stronger. I will stay till you are ready.”

  

  We stare at each other for a long time.

  Finally I sit down and wrap myself in a blanket.

  I’m awake the rest of the night, repeating the Ablution exercise, breathing slowly, trying to stay calm.

  Each time I open my eyes, he’s there watching me.

  Over and over I think about drowning in Bliss Bayou, the agony and blackness. And the pain it would bring to Mom and Granma. What if I’m wrong? What if he really is Lebab and the way to save myself is to trust him?

  Awhile after sunrise, I hear Granma moving around. I jump up and run into her room. She’s just put on her robe.

  “Abby. Is something wrong?”

  I rush to her side and grip her hand. I tell her the evil entity is back, and I can’t make him leave. I try to sound calmer and stronger than I feel. As I’m talking, he follows me into the room, and it’s suddenly colder.

  “Oh my god!” Granma says. “I can feel it. It’s horrible.” She clutches me tight and yells in the direction of the door, “Get out of here! I will not let you harm my granddaughter.”

  I steal a peek from the corner of my eye. He stands in the doorway, not moving.

  “Don’t worry,” Granma says. “I’ll get Violet and Kevin to come over. There are things we can do.”

  We go downstairs, and even though it’s only seven, Granma telephones Violet. She tells her the spirit that attacked me before has returned, and we need her help. They discuss it for a few minutes. When she puts down the receiver, she smiles at me reassuringly.

  “Violet and Kevin will be over in a little bit. We’ll make it go away, don’t you worry. I think Violet is relishing the challenge.”

  I glance over at Shadow Man. I swear he now looks seven feet tall. I hope he’s not too big of a challenge.

  Granma makes breakfast, but I’m too upset to eat. Shadow Man lingers in the kitchen. His silent presence makes me feel desperate, like I’m half a step away from losing my mind. Maybe this is how Annie Renshaw was driven to drown herself. I try not to think about it.

  Granma and I go out to the back porch and sit on the swing. It feels a little safer out in the daylight, although Shadow Man has followed me again. He waits by the screen door, motionless, like a black hole in the middle of my reality.

  Violet and Kevin show up at eight thirty. They carry shopping bags packed with gear—robes, candles, pictures, and a big book bound in leather, with brass hinges. Gold lettering on the cover gives the title: The Book of Lebab.

  “We’re going to do a Profound Expulsion,” Violet says. “I am through messing around with this thing.”

  Granma looks solemn, but Kevin winks at me. “Don’t worry, Abby. When Violet is through messing around, she is through messing around.”

  In spite of my fear, I smile.

  They sit down with me in the living room and ask me to describe everything that’s happened. When I tell them that Shadow Man is growing, Violet and Kevin glance at each other and seem worried. When I tell them that he identified himself as Lebab and offered to save me, Violet is outraged.

  “Don’t believe that for a second. The little bastard is trying to confuse you.”

  I glance over at Shadow Man. He doesn’t look so little.

  “It’s a common ploy,” Kevin says. “Malevolent spirits try to trick a magician through lies. In the writings of the Circle, they call such creatures deceivers.”

  “That’s the word that flashed in my mind when I asked my inner heart.”

  “Good,” Violet says. “It’s very good that you sought advice and received that answer. The Circle of Harmony is protecting you.”

  They get to work setting up the magical chamber. They arrange pictures of the Five Fountains around the room, with candlesticks and vessels for holding incense and spring water. Violet fills a large silver bowl with water and sets it down on the coffee table.

  “I have a task for you, Abby,” she says. “We want to drive this creature away from this earth if possible, but especially away from you and your grandmother. I need you to take this bowl outside and sprinkle water at the four corners of the property. Move in a clockwise direction, beginning with the east. As you sprinkle the water, concentrate on the Spring of Balance at your heart and visualize that Spring and the water in the bowl as flowing from the same source. Okay?”

  I feel scared, but I nod and pick up the bowl.

  “Maybe one of us should go with her,” Granma says.

  “No.” Violet is definite. “She needs to claim her own power over this. You’ll be all right, Abby. Go ahead.”

  East is at the side of the house that faces the Parkers’, so I go out the front door. Shadow Man follows me as far as the porch but stands in the shade, watching. Maybe he’s like a vampire, and direct sunlight will kill him.

  Yeah, right. I wish it were that easy.

  I sprinkle the water at the front corner by the road, then follow the property line around to the back. I try to keep my mind focused and my feet steady. I sprinkle the two corners of the backyard, then return to the front of the house.

  When I get there, I find Molly climbing off her bike.

  “Hey, Abby. Welcome back! I texted you yesterday, but—what are you doing?”

  Panicking, that’s what. I can’t have her here now. And I don’t know what to tell her.

  “What’s with the bowl? Why is the Palmer’s Books car here? What’s going on?”

  “Molly, I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

  A statement like that is guaranteed to make Molly more curious. “What do you mean, you can’t tell me? What is it that you can’t tell me?”

  My hands are shaking, so I set the bowl on the ground. “Please—”

  “Is this some sort of magic thing?” She eyes the bowl.

  “I can’t tell you!”

  Now I’ve screamed at her. Molly looks stunned, then wounded. “I thought we were friends.”

  “We are.” I speak with slow desperation. “But I can’t explain. And I need you to leave—right now.”

  Molly stares at me. Her mouth turns down, and I can tell that I’ve really hurt her. She glances at the front door then turns and walks back to her bike. She doesn’t look at me again or say a word, just starts up the engine and rides away.

  I feel wretched.

  As I bend to pick up the bowl, I see Shadow Man standing behind me. I sense that he witnessed it all—my panic and confusion, Molly’s pain—and loved every second.

  My focus is shot now, but I go through the motions of sprinkling the water at the last corner. When I get back inside, Violet, Granma, and Kevin are dressed in their robes and are ready to begin.

  They place me in the center of the room. Violet walks around and traces the magic circle. All of us visualize the blue waters of the Springs revolving around us.

  Shadow Man stands in the doorway. I sense that, once the circle is established, he cannot cross the boundary. He watches us steadily, showing no reaction.

  The Profound Expulsion contains long speeches that Violet reads from The Book of Lebab. Some of it is in English and some in another language that might be Latin or Greek or something else. Violet calls these parts out in loud, vibrating tones.

  We turn and face each of the Five Fountains one by one, visualizing their waters flowing into our circle. Kevin beats a drum, deep and loud like a giant heartbeat. Granma and Kevin and I repeat certain phrases as we’re prompted by Violet:

  “We conjure you.”

  “We command you.”

  “We abjure you.”

  “We expel you to
the outer darkness whence you came.”

  With each repetition, I feel the power in the circle growing.

  And Shadow Man begins to fade, gradually changing from black to a dim, shallow gray.

  Just before the expulsion reaches its climax and he disappears completely, I hear his creepy whisper in my ear: “You should not have involved these others. Now if you do not join me, they will suffer and die.”

  

  When it’s over, Violet sits down, all white and panting. Kevin looks concerned and checks her pulse. She rests on the couch while Kevin goes around the room, releasing the energy of the circle. Granma and I help him pack everything away.

  After that, Granma goes to the kitchen and fixes a fresh pot of coffee. By now Violet looks better—still exhausted, but with a spark of exhilaration in her eyes.

  No one asks me if I still see the evil spirit. They all know he’s gone.

  But now I have a new worry. His last words stick in my mind. When Granma asks how I’m feeling, I hesitate, then tell them what he said.

  “Oh, don’t be alarmed about that.” Violet waves it off. “Empty threats. They’ll try anything to scare you.”

  “Yeah, the little creep,” Kevin says. “Just talking trash as we kicked his ass out the door.”

  But I’m not sure they’re as confident as they’re trying to sound.

  

  Well, at least he is gone for now. The house is filled with peaceful, protective energy. After Kevin and Violet leave, I eat some toast, then shower and change clothes. I ride into town with Granma to open the shop.

  It’s a quiet Monday morning. As soon as we’re settled in, I work up my courage and text Molly: “Sorry about this morning. Please forgive me.”

  She doesn’t answer right away, so I try again in an hour.

  Still no reply. I cringe, picturing the way she looked at me this morning. I’ve probably ruined our friendship forever.

  But I don’t know what else I could have done.

  I suppose that if you have to keep secrets from people, it’s inevitable that you’ll hurt them sooner or later.

  That’s a painful and lonely thought.

  14. Renshaw and Quick, ghost hunters