Chapter 22

D anica turned to face her grandmother. “Cameron’s coming here.”

Her grandmother sighed. “I gather my daughter showed up.”

“She did.” Danica shook her head. “Freaked everybody out—but him? Not so much. He’s mostly angry that I’m being asked to sacrifice my life for this house.”

“Not for the house,” Nana corrected. “For the souls, for the people of our family. All of them are here, all of them in need, all of them connected.”

“Sure,” Danica whispered under her breath, “but at what price?”

Stefan, his tone soft and gentle, whispered in her mind, Stay strong .

“How can I?” she asked in an outburst. “Do you hear this?”

I have a friend trying to help right now, looking for energy, looking to see what she can find .

“Somebody who sees energy ?” Danica muttered in a dour tone, not believing that or much of anything else tonight.

She sees energy. She sees people’s auras, and she heals people. And, in this case, we’re looking to see if there’s a way to help.

“ Good ,” she whispered out of desperation. “I truly hope so. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do otherwise.”

Don’t let anything crazy go on , Stefan suggested.

Danica snorted. “It’s a little late for that. You mean crazier , right?”

He snorted. Your grandmother has controlled a lot of your life, whether you know it or not. Sometimes for your betterment and sometimes maybe not .

“I’m starting to think more along the line of maybe not .” She repeated the conversation to Nana.

“That’s not true,” Nana called out. “I loved you.”

Danica winced, as she noted the usage of the past tense in Nana’s statement. “And my mother?” Danica asked.

“Yes, I loved her too,” she whispered, “but she just wouldn’t commit. She wouldn’t listen. She was so out of control. She just wouldn’t listen.”

“And what was it she was supposed to listen to?”

“She wanted to be part of this,” her grandmother began. “It’s important that everybody be a part of this. We’re all family.”

“We’re all family,” Danica repeated. “But not all family members are given the same choices. You’ve made choices that you expect me to follow through on, choices that I may not want.”

“It doesn’t matter, child. You have been promised since birth. There are no choices anymore.”

She gasped at that. “Seriously? You will give up your last-born grandchild to this?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “That’s it exactly. As it has always been done before.”

“What if I don’t want to, Nana?” Danica stared at the old woman, who was suddenly somebody she didn’t even want to know or to be like.

“I still need a sacrifice.”

Danica froze. “ You need a sacrifice?” she cried out in horror, jumping to her feet. “Is that what this is all about? I’m to be your sacrifice?”

Dead silence came, when suddenly the front door burst open, and Cameron raced through the house. “Are you okay?” he asked, as he hugged Danica. He turned to face her grandmother. “How the hell is this even happening?”

She groaned in obvious pain. “It has to happen,” she whispered. “It’s been happening for decades, for centuries. It should already have happened, but I haven’t done my part. I am failing my family. It’s important that you follow through.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Danica looked over at Cameron. “Apparently I’m supposed to dedicate my life to this house, and, in return, this house will become my guardian, my protector, as it always has been for my grandmother. But now she just needs a sacrifice.”

“This house?” Cameron stared at Harriet in shock.

Just then every window and every door in the house opened and slammed shut, open and slammed shut, until Nana screamed, “Stop. Stop it. He understands.”

“Like hell I do,” Cameron argued, staring at Harriet. “How is—” And then he stopped, shook his head, and gave an order to Harriet. “You release Danica. You let her have her own life. She’s been in your shadow, in the shadow of your daughter all her life. Danica’s never been free. You let her go.”

Harriet groaned again, mustering great effort. Her body shook, as she fought the tide.

Stefan, his voice rippling through the room, cried out, “I can’t hold this much longer.”

“Nobody can,” Nana added in a shriek. “Generations and generations of us are here, and it’s my turn to join the rest.”

“It might be your turn,” Stefan noted, “but that doesn’t make it right to force Danica to go too.”

“She has to. She has to be the one. She has to be part of this,” Harriet cried out.

Outside, the wind howled, and a storm picked up at a level that appeared to terrify Cameron. He stared around at them, at the room, and muttered, “This is just too crazy.”

“I know,” Danica whispered. “Believe me that I know. You would be better off without me.”

“No,” he declared, turning to face Danica. “That makes no sense. But what also makes no sense is that Harriet would expect you to be a willing sacrifice for her. That’s not how the generations should be. She should be sacrificing for you, not the other way around. Yet nothing else she’s said tonight makes any sense anyway.”

“I don’t think anybody cares about how the generations should be,” Danica whispered. “I think they’re only concerned with how their own lives should continue ad nauseam.” Danica stared at her grandmother, with tears in her eyes. “I don’t think it mattered one bit to her what my life has been like.”

Just as she went to speak again, another loud bang happened, and something cold and brittle raced into the room. A spirit raced to Nana’s side.

Her grandmother cried out, “Finally, Daisy, there you are.”

“Daisy?” Danica asked, turning to look around in horror. “Is that really you, Mom?”

Cameron pulled Danica closer. She gripped him tightly and whispered, “Was this who you helped at the hospital tonight?”

He nodded. “She grabbed my lab coat.”

She gasped at him in horror, then back at her grandmother, and wailed, “No, no, no. Please, no.”

Her grandmother looked at her with tired faded eyes. “I wish there could be another way,” she whispered, “but it isn’t to be. A sacrifice is required.”

“But you also said that it should be of the bloodline.”

“It’s best if it’s of blood,” she replied, barely above a whisper. “We were never big on having children. It was hard for us to procreate. So sometimes the sacrifice had to be within.”

“ Within ,” Danica whispered. “My God.” She shook her head. “Are you saying you had children just to create sacrifices?”

“No,” Nana countered. “Sometimes we couldn’t even create children. I only had the one.”

“So, this is what you get up to in your spare time?”

Instantly more silence filled the room, right before someone else crashed inside.

Slowly Danica turned to face Jace, her half brother, who stared at her with such a ferocious hatred overtaking his facial expression. She didn’t understand why he was here. She told him, “You need to leave.”

He laughed. “Why the hell should I leave?” he asked hysterically. “This is perfect. This is awesome.”

“What do you mean?”

He smiled. “You have no idea the power that’s here. You have no idea how much power could be here.”

“No,” she cried out, “ you don’t understand. This is unstable power.”

“It’s still power,” he cried out. “ You’re the one who doesn’t understand. You won’t let yourself understand,” he said, looking around the room, an oddly intense look on his face. “This is special.”

“No, no, no, no—” Danica whispered. “It’s not special.”

He turned to look at their grandmother and cried out, “Take me.”

Her grandmother twisted, fighting against something, fighting against some power that appeared to be stronger than her.

“You can’t,” Danica yelled.

Her grandmother shook her head. “It’s time. I have no choice.”

The ghost of Daisy ripped forward and declared, “He is my sacrifice.”

“No,” her grandmother muttered, “there are enough sacrifices already.”

“No,” Daisy argued, “there isn’t. He’s mine,” and she raced toward Jace.

Cameron held on to Daisy with a tight grip, as he yelled, “Jace, don’t you understand what’s happening here?”

“Oh, I do, and I’m loving every minute of it. Do you know how much power I’ll wield as part of this?” Jace asked, looking from him to Harriet. “I know exactly what’s going on, and I welcome it.” He turned to the ghost of his mother and said, “Yes. Finally, yes. Do it.”

She gave a hoarse laugh and raced toward him, even as Harriet shouted, “Stop. Daisy, stop.”

Daisy cried out, “He’s mine. You have your own.” And, with that, she dove headfirst into Jace’s body.

Jace lifted up with a cry of pain and agony, before he was tossed brutally to the ground, unconscious.

Cameron released his hold on Danica, as he checked on his brother. Even as he turned, he heard the screams, and he knew he’d made a mistake. He jumped back out of the way, as Harriet screamed at him, “You only have this moment,” she cried out. “You should do something.”

“Do what?” he asked, staring at this frail old lady, who even now seemed to be fighting some internal storm, her hair lifting on its ends, even as the ghostly spirit of Daisy was now gone. “I think your daughter is at peace now,” he whispered.

“Aye, she is, and that is a good thing,” the old woman whispered, “but I have no idea how I’m supposed to deal with this now.” She groaned, clearly in pain, amid her death throes.

Just then, the front door burst open and two men, Deputy Aaron and Deputy Benson raced in.

“Stop what you’re doing,” Benson cried out.

Harriet looked over at him and whispered, “My other grandson. Perfect .”

Just as the deputy went to raise his gun, Harriet convulsed several times, then her body went stiff, and she fell back. As she did, Deputy Benson’s body jolted forward and upward, as he cried out.

Cameron watched in horror and shock, as something appeared to slam through the deputy, dragging his body to the wall behind him, where he cried out once and then slowly collapsed.

Aaron, as if controlled by some invisible force around them, was also slammed to the wall, and then he too collapsed. Cameron turned to stare at the vestiges left here, then at Danica, who stood in the middle, her hand to her mouth as she stared at him.

“I think,” she whispered, “I think they’re all dead.”

*

Cameron shook his head, as he raced to Aaron’s side. “This one’s not,” he declared, urgency in his tone. “Hurry, Danica. Let’s get him out of the house.”

“Why out of the house?”

He stopped and frowned, but Stefan now yelled into the house, “Hurry and get out of the house.”

She instinctively obeyed, not sure what the hell was going on. Then she smelled it. Smoke came from somewhere.

“It’s on fire,” Cameron urged her. “Let’s go. Let’s go.”

She helped to drag Aaron’s limp body outside, even as she turned to get her grandmother’s body.

Cameron stopped her and said, “No.”

She frowned at him, but Stefan’s voice, gentle in her head, added, Leave her. It’s best to cremate them all together .

Danica didn’t know what to say to that. Her grandmother was obviously dead and wouldn’t care and maybe would even prefer this. Danica was still stunned and unsure just what she was supposed to think of it all. Nevertheless she raced out of the house, Benji at her heels. He’d been hiding somewhere, but he was here with her now. She grabbed him, even as Cameron told her, “Get your RV out of here. Move. Move it now.”

She hopped inside with Benji, while Cameron carried the deputy inside, before she backed up her RV and turned it around, watching the flames engulf the big old house from deep inside. As she raced down the driveway, she cried out, “You know the fire department won’t come.”

Cameron nodded, a strange expression in his gaze. “Maybe that’s a good thing,” he muttered. “Maybe the memories and the superstitions and the rumors and the gossip will be burned up too.”

She felt tears clogging her throat, and she nodded. “Maybe it is for the best.” She looked over at Aaron, one of the few who’d treated her well. “How is he?”

“Take us to the hospital,” Cameron declared, his tone hard. “He’s got a concussion, but I don’t know whether it’s more than that.”

“Blood is coming out of his nose,” she noted, “but I suspect it’s more from the energy bursts all around him.”

“The energy that somehow didn’t affect us?” Cameron asked grimly, as he looked over at her. “Was that you?”

She whispered, “Maybe.”

“I thank you for that.” He studied her, as she pulled off to the side of the road for a moment, then looked back at the house, now a towering wall of flames. He watched it burn too, with a mixture of emotions. “I don’t—I don’t even know what to say,” he murmured.

Danica sighed. “I’ll try to explain it, but not right now.” She called out, “Stefan, are you here?”

“I’m here,” he murmured to all inside the RV. “Did you hear what Harriet said at the end?”

Danica groaned. “ Grandson ,… yes. Deputy Benson was my half-brother,… and so was Jace. I just lost four family members in that house tonight.” And yet she couldn’t help but wonder. “This really is for the best, isn’t it?”

“It really is,” Stefan replied in a soothing tone. “Only so much can pass from generation to generation, and they succeeded in something I had no idea was even possible,” he murmured, “but honestly, I’m glad that it’s over with.”

“I had no idea what Nana was up to. She was looking for a sacrifice who wasn’t me,” Danica shared. “At least I’m hoping I interpreted that correctly.”

“You did,” Stefan agreed. “She was looking for anybody who could do the job. When the deputy burst inside, Harriet obviously had a very strong negative relationship with him. She also must have sensed the blood tie between them. So, when she felt the hate within Benson, she had no trouble going after him.”

“He’s the deputy who made my life so miserable,” she whispered. “As in very miserable. So, when Nana saw him, even when I saw him, I felt the same kind of hate.”

“No, not hate,” Stefan whispered. “Not from you. You felt the same kind of pain. Harriet felt that pain, and she chose him. I think she recognized him on a soul level as blood and went after him, instead of you. So that you could live.”

Danica muttered, “I don’t want to think that I’m to blame for that.”

“You aren’t. Not at all. At the same time, I am not sure that this town will be big enough for all of you.”

“That’s just fine,” Cameron agreed. “I have several more months here on my contract, and I had thought to stay. I built a house and everything, but I can’t stay here, not now.”

“I think you’ll find your house will go up in flames next,” Stefan said. Sure enough, the entire property was burning, the fire had raced off to the side, heading straight for Cameron’s home.

“But why?” Danica asked in shock. “Why his house too?”

“You know why,” Stefan countered.

“Because of the graves, right?” she whispered.

“Because of the graves?” Cameron looked over at her. “What are you talking about?”

“That’s why Nana wanted the property back,” Danica began. “Everybody, all the bodies, generations of graves are all there. I didn’t even get a chance to ask her if that’s where my mother was. After all these years, I don’t think I ever asked her where my mother was buried. She told me that Daisy had been cremated.”

Stefan added, “You need to spend some time working on a lot of healing. Yet you’re strong, you’re healthy, and you can do this.”

“Are you sure?” she whispered. “I’m not so certain.”

“I am,” Stefan declared, “and you also have an awful lot of work you need to do.”

“Yeah? What kind of work?” she asked, with a broken laugh. “I’m feeling very overworked and unloved.”

“I’m pretty sure the solution to that is right beside you,” Stefan replied, with a smile. “I’ve also spoken to the hospital, where you worked.”

“You mean, that kind of work?”

“Yes, that kind of work. You’re a healer, and the more that you turn against that energy within you, the more problems and pain and dissatisfaction you’ll have out of life. But the more you go toward that healing energy, using your gifts in a positive way,” Stefan explained, “the more you will flourish, and that is what Harriet wanted for you.”

“You talked to her for years. Did you not have any idea what was going on?”

“No,” he admitted regretfully. “I didn’t see that coming at all. It didn’t even occur to me that she was harboring that secret for so long. And that is something I regret not having spoken to her about—the block she had erected in her mind. I should have insisted she be honest with me long ago. She crashed into my world, shared what she wanted and no more,” he noted, with a touch of humor.

“She was a force to be reckoned with.”

“She was,” Stefan agreed.

Danica asked him, “Do you think the family members are all angry?”

“No. I suspect that, in a way, they’re all at peace,” Stefan stated. “The house in itself had become bigger than all of them. It had become their own prison. What might be a nice spot to retire for someone isn’t exactly the same for everyone,” he murmured.

Danica asked Cameron, “Are you okay?”

Cameron nodded. “Yes, but it would be a hell of a lot less disruptive if this Stefan person would use a phone.” At that, his cell rang. He frowned down at his Caller ID and answered it cautiously. “Hello?”

“Is this easier for you?” Stefan asked.

“Yes, damn it.” He put it on Speaker and shook his head. “Will this stuff happen all the time with her?”

“Yep, and with you too. You have no idea, but you’ve been touched by all this, and you do not escape unscathed.”

“What does that mean?” he asked in horror. “Personally, I’m okay to be unscathed.”

“There’s healing with this, as a lot of healing energy has been released, a lot of love. You’ll be a better doctor for it now.”

“Oh, I’m not against that.” He chuckled. “It is what I do.”

“I hear rumblings of some ethics violations coming for the hospital and for the local sheriff’s office. So, I think you might want to change locations for doing what you do.”

“I got that impression already,” he noted, looking over at Danica. “As long as Danica goes with me, I’m totally okay with a move.”

She smiled at him and nodded.

Just then, the deputy lying on the floor before them groaned.

She turned on the RV engine and said, “I hear you. Let’s get him to the hospital.” And, with that, she drove directly there. The orderlies got him unloaded and carried inside, where Cameron could work on him.

When Cameron returned over an hour later, he found the RV still sitting there in the hospital parking lot, and Danica and Benji sat on the lawn, the one green space under the early morning light. “Are you okay?” he asked, as he sat down beside her.

She nodded. “Is Aaron okay?”

“Yes,” he replied, reaching out to pet Benji. “The deputy’s awake, but he has no clue what happened.”

She murmured, “I wonder what we’ll tell him.”

“We’ll tell Aaron how there was an explosion at Harriet’s house, right after her passing, where Deputy Benson and Jace were killed inside. The only thing we could do was run, and we grabbed Aaron as we left the house,” he explained. “That’s what I came up with.”

She looked over in admiration and smiled. “That’s not half bad. I know it’ll take you a whole lot longer to come to terms with all that happened.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure there’s any coming to terms with all that,” he murmured. “I mean, out of all your family, including your two half-brothers, the only sane person was Harriet, and I would have sworn to that. Come to find out, I can be so wrong.”

“At least Nana redeemed herself somewhat by refusing to use me as her sacrifice. I still can’t believe she killed her husband. How could Nana have done that, claiming he was the love of her life and how she had him for too few years?”

Cameron shook his head. “We may both need therapy, yet we can’t tell anyone what really happened. It’s one of those things that’ll stay in our memories. We may need to be our own therapists.”

She smiled at that. “I’m game.”

Cameron asked her, “Do you have a dream location where you want to live?”

She looked at him and laughed. “I certainly don’t have any place to live outside of my trusty wheels,” she replied, motioning to her RV. “You pick a city. I’m happy to go, but I really don’t want to stay here.”

“That’s okay. I’m pretty sure the hospital doesn’t want me to stay either.”

“Yet, if nothing else, I think that solved the problem of their annual Halloween hauntings.”

“Agreed. So maybe they will remember me kindly after all.”

“What about your brother? I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, me too, but it’s another reason to go away and to start fresh somewhere else,” he whispered. He reached out a hand and asked, “Coming?”

“Absolutely,” she murmured, as she hopped up. She looked back over at the hospital. “Don’t you need to go back inside again?”

“Not right now,” he replied, with the wave of his hand. “I will finish my contract, but only if they insist. If they can find another doctor, I’m out early.”

“Regardless of how the patients feel?”

He nodded. “I think it’s time I did something for me and you and Benji, not just for everybody else.”

“I like the sound of that,” she whispered.

He grinned. “I’m hoping that you’ll stick around and see what else we can sort out in our lives.”

“Absolutely,” she murmured. She reached up and kissed him gently on the cheek. “I’m really grateful that you came into my life.”

“Ditto,” he murmured, as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. “It could get a little ugly over the next few weeks,” he warned, looking at her intently. “There’ll be inquiries and all kinds of shit. Because of that they might even let me out of my contract early.”

“I wouldn’t be against that either,” she shared, with a smile. “As soon as you’re ready to leave is good for me. You’ve got your house issues to deal with too, though.”

“Yeah, and it was insured, but I’ve also got to deal with my brother’s remains.”

“Oh, right. I’m sorry. I forgot.”

“Your brothers’ too,” he added, with a nudge. “How do you want to deal with that?”

“I don’t even know what to do about them,” she murmured. “We can’t bury them, and the house cremated them. Maybe just add a stone in remembrance to the property, with all the other family members buried there? Once we figure out where that is… But what about Jace? What would you want for him?”

“He’s gone, and, despite whatever was happening to him at the end there, I would like to think that he’s finally at peace.”

“Had he been troubled for a while?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “I can look back and see it even in his early years. He was very troubled and getting worse. So, I’m good to have a memorial plaque on your family’s land. If that’s okay with you, it’s fitting for him, as your half-brother. Plus, it’s an ending. Not the ending I would have wished for him, but it’s over.”

She nodded. “Sometimes that’s all we can ask for.”

He smiled, held her close, and whispered, “Personally I’m all about beginnings.”

“I’m all about beginnings if there is one in my future,” she said, with sorrow in her tone. “It’s been a long haul.”

“But that is all over,” he stated firmly. “From now on, it’s you and me against the world.”

She grinned. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, at least not in relation to me.”

“You have now,” he declared, smiling at her. “So, let’s just hold on tight and get through these next few weeks. Then we’ll find a place where we can start again.”