That is, until we get to the third floor.
Where I had seen the light from outside.
On that floor I stop dead when I see bloody water seeping out from underneath a doorway.
“Uh,” I say, pointing at it, and holy fuck have I never wanted a video camera as bad as I do right now. This is fucking gold.
“Oh my god,” Perry says softly, jumping back from the water as it seems to rush toward our feet. “What’s in there?” She stares at the door.
“It’s a bathroom,” Atlas says. “It’s locked and I don’t have a key.”
Oh, this Edgar Allan Fuck is lying, that much is true.
“And it seems we’re out of time,” he says, taking out his phone.
“What do you—?” My words are cut off by all the lights in the house going on at once.
Illuminating people standing all around us.
Dead people.
Fucking everywhere.
Perry and I scream bloody murder, our voices rattling through the house.
And then the lights go back off.
The dead people disappear.
The bloody water that was inches from my boots, retreats back under the door, like a film in reverse.
“November first,” Atlas says tiredly. “The walls have closed.”
I barely hear him, barely take in how quickly time has passed while we’ve been in this house.
All I hear is the rush of blood in my head.
The dry rasp of my breath as I try to breathe.
And all I feel is something deep inside me coming alive again, hitching a ride on the adrenaline that’s pumping through my veins.
I look down at Perry to see if she feels it too, the electricity, the heat, the desire. The…purpose. Because fuck it if Atlas wasn’t right about that.
She’s breathing hard, her hand to her chest and she looks scared.
Really wish that didn’t turn me on so much, but this house has fucked with me a bunch of different ways already.
And I want more.
I glance over at Atlas to see him watching me with curiosity, a gleam in his eye.
He knows. He knows what I have planned.
That’s why he brought us here.
“So,” he says carefully. “I’ll have to tell my father that it didn’t quite work this time.”
“This time?” Perry asks, giving her head a little shake. “No, we only agreed to this one time.”
“You won’t come back another night? I don’t think you’ll have any problems getting through.” He pauses, licking his lips. “Or are you just going to take the money and call it quits?”
“That’s not fair,” Perry says. She looks at me expectantly. “Dex? We’re not doing this again.”
But didn’t you feel it? Didn’t you feel plugged into the motherfucking universe?
I’m not sure if she hears me or not.
“We’ll think about it,” I tell Atlas, even though he knows I’ve already made up my mind. “Give us a few days.”
“Take all the time you want,” he says. “She’ll stay dead forever.”
What a callous way to think about your own mother, then again, I’ve thought that and worse about my own. Perhaps Atlas and I have more in common than I thought.
We make our way down the stairs, and I hold onto Perry’s hand the whole time to give her reassurance for the time being.
Then Atlas opens the front door and we step outside into the night. The air smiles like firecrackers again, it’s cold as hell, and I feel like every sense I have is suddenly heightened.
Ada and Jay are at the bottom of the steps and Ada immediately rushes toward us, pulling Perry into a hug. “Oh my god, are you okay?” she cries out. “We saw all the lights in the house go on. I saw a fucking ghost boy in the window!”
“Yeah, we, uh, saw all that,” Perry says.
We walk down the steps and then Atlas gives a nod, like he’s some old timey gentleman saying goodbye. “Let me know when you want to talk,” he says, and then he goes down the street, disappearing around the corner as quickly as he had appeared earlier.
“What the fuck was that?” Jay asks me. “That fucking house is not a house, is it?”
“I don’t know what that was,” Perry says. “I just want to get the hell out of here.”
“Oh, let’s go back to that hotel and get more drinks.” Ada claps her hands together, apparently able to turn from “I saw a ghost boy” to “More underage drinking!” in a heartbeat. “Do you think they’re still open?”
“Princess, it’s past midnight,” Jay says, putting his arm around her. “And we have our own hotel to get to.”
She grins at him, remembering.
We start walking down the street back the way we came, and the further we get from that house, the less of a pull it has on me. By the time we’re at the Sorrento Hotel and calling an Uber, it almost feels like a dream, like none of it happened at all.
But I know it happened.
I know what I saw.
I know what I felt.
And I know that I’ll be back.
With my camera next time.
THE END
…or…the beginning…
Have you heard the good news? This story continues on in CAME BACK HAUNTED, the all-new full-length novel, Experiment in Terror #10. Releasing on December 11th, 2020.
Dex & Perry are back, baby! Make sure to join me on social media for all the latest updates.
A Nordic New Year Featuring the Nordic Royals
Chapter 1
Aurora
I’m being chased by a pig.
Not just any pig, of course, but the now infamous Snarf Snarf, who is miffed that I ripped a Christmas tree ornament out of his snout. He was about to chomp a plastic Santa in half, no thanks to the terror twins who are on a rampage today, shredding all the Christmas decorations before we even have a chance to put them away.
“One of you could help me!” I cry out, running down the hall and whipping around into the dining room, which probably wasn’t the best idea. You see, Snarf Snarf is slow and fat, but he’s clumsy and this dining room is filled with
