We filed into the O’Neals’ ski lodge, and I went immediately to my bedroom, where I fed Doc, then plopped onto the bed and took a nice nap. I had the most delicious dream in which I was lying next to Steven, and his nearness was filling my senses with his smell, his heat, and his passion. I began kissing him in the dream; his lips were soft at first, but soon became hungry. He moaned and I wiggled closer to him, pressing my body into his.
His hands found their way under my nightgown, and my skin felt electric where he touched me. I felt a moan form deep in my throat, my heart seemed to be hammering in my chest, and my fingers clawed at his back. In the back of my mind I thought about the amazing vividness of the dream. It all seemed so real, including the hot breath I felt on my neck as Steven whispered my name.
Dream me felt completely uninhibited. If I were awake I’d be far more conservative; after all, Gilley was in the same house, and who knew how much noise carried through these walls? But here in my dream I could throw caution to the wind and follow my passions without fear of consequence. I gave dream Steven a few nudges with my pelvis, encouraging the imagery that came to mind, and his passion rose to the occasion—literally. “I want you,” dream me whispered. “I want you right now!”
“M.J.,” he said, his voice thick and rich.
Deedle-deedle-do! came a noise that dream me seemed to recognize, but not place. Deedle-deedle-do! it came again.
Dream me glanced up, and a bird sat in a branch above our heads singing, Deedle-deedle-do!
Dream Steven growled and, reaching up, he slapped the bird, sending it sprawling across the grass. I was horrified as the bird began to speak. “Hello? Hello? M.J.?” And then the bird turned into Karen.
“Hellooooo?” she said from her prone position on the grass. It was then that my eyes fluttered open and I realized I was half-naked and semientwined with the real Steven Sable.
“What’s happening?” I gasped, trying to clear my foggy brain.
“M.J.?” I heard faintly from the floor. “Is that you?”
I shook my head and twisted in Steven’s arms to reach for the phone. “Hello?” I said quickly.
“Hey, girl,” Karen said, her voice happy and light.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” I nearly shouted, then realized Teeko had no idea I was currently sprawled in a very compromising position with a gorgeous man still nibbling at my neck and feeling his way up and down my torso.
“Okay, okay,” she said, somewhat taken aback. “I was just asking.”
I slapped at Steven’s hands and sat up, pulling a pillow across my chest. I was quick to reassure her. “I’m sorry, Teek; I was having a weird dream when you called, and I must have knocked the phone off the nightstand.”
“No worries,” she said easily. “I only wanted to check in and see how you guys were doing.”
“We’re doing all right,” I said, shooting Steven a glaring look and placing a finger to my lips for quiet. He sighed and laid his head back on the pillows, apparently willing to cooperate while I talked to Teeko. “We’ve made some progress, in fact.”
“Tell me.”
“We found the body of one of the boys murdered at the school.”
“Whoa, back up here. What boy murdered at the school?”
I remembered then that Teeko wasn’t exactly up to speed with all that had happened between last night and tonight. I filled her in on everything I knew, and finished with, “So we’re heading back to the school tonight to see if we can make contact with Eric. I want to try to get a surname if I can, which might help police locate his family.”
“You’re positive this Hatchet Jack character murdered him?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. “I think we’re dealing with the ghost of a serial killer.”
“But why hasn’t anyone ever heard of him?” Teeko asked.
“I mean, M.J., if this guy murdered Eric and the others only thirty years ago, hell, my family would probably have heard of it. We spent a lot of time at Lake Placid as a kid. Maybe I was too young to remember, but my brother or my parents definitely would have mentioned it over the years.”
“It wasn’t in the news, Karen,” I said. “Somehow this guy was able to kill these boys without anyone knowing about it.”
“How is that possible?”
I swept a hand through my hair. “I don’t honestly know.”
There was a long pause before Karen spoke again. “What can I do to help?”
I smiled. “Nothing, kiddo. Enjoy Italy for now—”
“London,” she said. “We’re in London today.”
“Okay, then enjoy Europe. I’ll fill you in tomorrow.” I clicked off and placed the phone back on the nightstand, then turned an accusing look at Steven, who was lying back with a rather confident smile on his lips. “What do you think you’re doing in my bed, exactly?” I demanded.
The smile on Steven’s face broadened. “I thought I was rather obvious,” he said, snaking an arm around my middle. “But maybe I need to give another demonstration?”
I pushed at him. “Will you stop!” I said, then looked around the room in alarm. “Where’s Doc?”
“I snuck him into Gilley’s room.”
“Why is Doc with Gilley?”
“So that I could be with you without worry of being dive-bombed.”
I scowled and pushed again at the arms that kept trying to encircle me. “We have to get up,” I said reasonably.
“Mmmm,” Steven replied, snuggling closer.
“It’s eleven thirty,” I said.
“Mmmm,” Steven repeated.
With a great push I wiggled away from Steven and hopped off the bed, still clinging to the pillow. “I’m serious.”
Steven sighed and propped his head on his hand to consider me. “That is the problem,” he said. “You are always so serious.”
“We’re on a job,” I said.
“We are not allowed get-down time?” he asked.
I looked blankly at him for about two beats before I said,
“It’s downtime, not get-down time, and yes, we are allowed some downtime, but not in the way you’re thinking.”
“So I am not understanding this…” he said, struggling to find the words, “this thing that is between us.”
I sighed heavily, trying to think of a way I could explain how I felt without bruising his ego, but just then there was a knock on my door, and Gilley opened it without waiting for me to respond. He came halfway into the room before his jaw fell open when he spotted Steven on my bed and me standing there with a pillow to my chest. “Sorry!” he said, and wheeled around as fast as he’d entered. “I just wanted to ask when we were leaving.”
“It’s not how it looks!” I called after him, feeling heat sear my cheeks.
Steven laughed and got up as well. “You Americans,” he said. “So up tightly. You should learn to take things with strides. You know, like, to relax?”
I gave him a level look, and he wisely chose to leave my bedroom without further ado. I quickly changed my clothes and splashed some cool water on my face. Looking reproachfully at my reflection in the mirror, I muttered, “Stupid subconscious.”
By the time I was finished freshening up, Gil and Steven had packed the van and were ready to roll. Gil made sure to let me know how “rested” I looked and that I had a certain “bounce” in my step. I ignored him and we piled into the van without further delay.
We arrived at the school, and I had to admit the place had a certain eerie quality about it at night. Lights illuminated the parking lot and the front of the elementary wing, while a cool mist spread across the lawn. “This is good ghost-hunting weather,” said Gil, pulling up under one of the streetlights.
“Let’s just hope they’re in the mood to come out and play,” I said. While Gil moved to the back of the van and began flipping on the monitors, Steven and I grabbed our duffel bags and equipment and went through our microphone sound checks.
“Mine’s not w
orking,” said Steven as Gil shook his head no when Steven spoke into it.
“Do we have a backup?” I asked Gil.
Gilley got off the seat he’d been perched on and rummaged around in one of the side compartments, finally coming up with a replacement microphone. “Try to be careful with this one,” he advised, handing it to Steven. “It’s our only spare.”
Once we had tested the equipment and were sure the cameras were feeding directly to Gil’s monitors, we closed the van door and began walking over to the school.
“About what happened back at the ski lodge,” I began, a little uncomfortable with the topic.
“It was nice, wasn’t it?” Steven said, bumping me with his hip.
I gave him a tight smile. “I really think we should focus on the job at hand, Steven.”
He gave me a coy smile. “I’m good with a hand job,” he said.
“I’m serious. You know it takes a lot of energy for me to communicate with these spirits, and I need time to recoup. If you and I are…er…carrying on, then I might not have the energy to do what I have to do.”
Steven looked a bit dejected. “Are you giving me the sweep off?”
“It’s brush-off, and no, I’m not giving that to you. Listen,” I said, placing one hand on his arm. “I don’t want to push you away, but when I’m on a job I need all of my attention, energy, and strength to go into busting the ghost. This Hatchet Jack is one hell of a challenge, and if I’m going to bust his ass to the lower planes in the next few days, I’ve got to be on top of my game.”
“So I cannot be on top of your game?” Steven asked, but the sneaky grin he flashed me let me know he knew exactly what he was saying.
“All I’m proposing,” I said with a giggle, “is for you to give me some room and some space until we finish this job. And then…”
“And then?”
“When we get back home we can see about developing our…” I paused, trying to think of exactly what word could best describe where Steven and I stood. Finally I said, “Interest in each other.”
“Interest,” Steven repeated.
“Yes.”
“You are interested in me,” he said, and it wasn’t a question.
I felt the corner of my mouth lift. “I suppose so.”
“This is good,” Steven said. “This is very good. All right, M.J.,” he said to me. “No panky in the hanky until we’re done with this job.”
I had to laugh. Sometimes the things that came out of his mouth sounded so ridiculous, they were too funny to ignore. “Thanks for understanding.”
“But when we get back to Boston, it will be a different thing.”
“Really?” I asked. “You think so, huh?”
Steven nodded vigorously. “I know so.”
We had reached the building by then, and I fished around in my pocket for the key. After unlocking the door we moved inside and stood for a moment in the hallway.
“Where will we set up the campsite?” he asked.
I glanced at all the classroom doors and finally decided to go back to the most active site we’d been in. “That one,” I said, motioning to my left where we’d first seen Eric and the other little boys. “If they’ve been there once, they’re likely to come back again.”
“Do you feel them here now?” he asked, glancing up and down the hallway.
“No,” I said, a little disappointed. “But then, it’s still early and we’ve got all night.”
We set up our equipment in the classroom, and I noticed all the desks were in their original order of five neat rows of four. Steven pointed one of our cameras directly at the window, where Gilley could monitor it from the van for movement. He set the thermal imager up next to the camera too, in case the video wasn’t sensitive enough to capture any spirits who might show up.
Steven held the other camera and I had the second thermal imager. I sat down on the large desk at the front of the classroom and closed my eyes, concentrating on feeling out the room and the surroundings for any hint of a disturbance in the ether.
Nothing rippled along my senses, so there was nothing to do but wait. The minutes ticked along mostly in silence, until I finally heard Gilley say into my ear, “I’ve got absolutely nothing registering on any of the equipment, M.J. How’re you doing?”
“Coming up empty,” I said with a sigh. “There doesn’t seem to be anything in the ether tonight.”
“What do you want to do?”
“How long have we been here?” I asked.
“Almost an hour.”
“We’ll stay put for a while longer,” I said. “If nothing shows up we’ll try something else.”
We waited another hour and a half, and still nothing disturbed the quiet peacefulness of the evening. I opened my eyes and stretched out from the crouched position I’d been holding. From the light coming in from outside I could see Steven sitting at one of the small desks, fast asleep.
I walked over to him and slid his earpiece out of his ear, placing it in his pocket, and took the camera out of his hand. Easing out of the classroom I said quietly, “Gil, you still with me?”
“I’m here.”
“Steven’s asleep.”
“I saw him nod off about forty minutes ago,” Gil said.
“You seem to have tired him out.”
I ignored that comment. “I’m going out on the grounds.”
“Alone?”
“Unless you’d like to accompany me?” I said, knowing what his answer would be.
“Uh…er…maybe I should just monitor you from here.”
“Good call,” I said with a chuckle.
“Do you think there’s activity out on the lawn?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But it’s weird that we got so much activity last night, but tonight things are quiet.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “What do you make of it?”
“Not sure. It’s odd, I’ll admit, but then, Jack and the others did display a lot of activity last night. Maybe they’re recuperating.”
I opened the front door and walked down the steps. Pointing the camera in front of me so that Gil could track my progress I cut to the right of the parking lot and headed out to the front lawn, my senses still open and on high alert. Nothing moved in the stillness of the evening, so I used my ears. Auditory phenomena are far more prevalent than any other type exhibited by earthbound energies. I was hoping to hear footsteps or knocks or even voices, but nothing at all came to my ears or my radar.
“All monitors still clear of activity,” Gil said into my ear.
“And I’m not picking up anything either,” I said. “Crap, Gil. This is perfect ghost-hunting weather. I was really hoping to get a hit.”
“What about the back of the school?” Gil asked. “Maybe there’s something around the other side?”
I moved away from the lawn and made my way to the back of the building. It was darker here, so I flipped on my flashlight and walked carefully along the grass. As I rounded the corner I could see a light on in one of the other buildings. Curious, I headed toward it. “Where ya goin’?” Gil asked.
“There’s a light on in the other building,” I said.
“Not unusual,” Gil reasoned. “Someone probably forgot to turn it off.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, but I was drawn toward the light. It seemed to be coming from the ground floor, and as I got close to the building I noticed that the window the light was emanating from was slightly submerged under the ground level. A shadow passed in front of the light, and immediately I flipped off my flashlight and whispered, “Gil! There’s someone inside the school!”
“Who?”
I crept closer. “Hold on; I’ll tell you in a second.” I hurried to the side of the window, not wanting to approach it directly, and eased my head out to take a peek inside. I gazed down a few feet and realized that I was looking into a room in the building’s basement. In a chair in the middle of the room sat Nicholas, the janitor, completely absorb
ed in a video game. Around him was a playroom any kid would envy. Shelves on one wall were loaded to the gills with games and action figures. Model airplanes hung from hooks in the ceiling, and posters of comic-book heroes adorned the walls.
“Whoa,” said Gilley. “Lookit all that.” And I realized I’d been pointing the camera straight at the window I was peeking through.
Before I could agree the ether I’d been silently monitoring all night seemed to tingle, and I recognized Eric’s familiar energy. I focused immediately on the direction it was coming from, and gasped when I realized it was emanating from inside Nicholas’s room.
Nicholas looked over to the exact location I felt Eric’s energy and smiled before he said, “Hi, Eric!”
My eyes widened. “He can see him!” I whispered into the microphone.
“Who?” Gil asked. “M.J., are you okay?”
I didn’t answer. I was too wrapped up in the scene happening in the room just below me. Intuitively I had a vision of Eric as he sat in the chair next to Nicholas and pointed to the TV screen where the video game had paused. Nicholas pumped his head up and down and said, “I know! I made it to level four!” Nicholas turned back to the game to continue playing.
I realized I’d stopped breathing. It was incredibly rare for a child ghost to interact with an adult, even one who was mentally challenged. I felt Eric’s energy quiver, and I realized he was laughing at Nicholas, whose video game player had just gotten tromped on by a gargoyle-looking thing.
“Awww! You made me lose my concentration!” Nicholas complained. And the two seemed to carry on for several more minutes, like best friends from middle school.
I eased away from the window, amazed at their interaction and wanting time to think about it. “Hello?” Gil said. “Come in, M.J.”
“I’m here,” I said quietly. “Give me a minute, ’kay, Gil?”
Gil was quiet, and I walked with purpose back to the elementary wing, where I roused Steven from his slumped position in the chair. “Rise and shine,” I said brightly.
“I’m awake!” he said, jerking upright.
“Sure you are,” I said with a laugh. “Come on; we’re heading back home.”
“No activity?”
“I’ll tell you about it in the van.”