Wraith: Shadow Bound Part 20

THE CLOCK IN my car said 1:32 a.m. when I stopped to pick up Ava. She waited for me on the curb with her satchel over her shoulder. The zipper at the top bulged from whatever she had stored inside.

"What is all that?" I asked after she sat in the car and heaved her bag onto her lap.

"I've been researching. I got a little bit of everything. Just in case." She quietly closed the door behind her and I drove away from her house.

I glanced at Ava, sitting in the pa.s.senger seat with tired but excited eyes, and said, "You don't have to do this."

She held up a hand. "Stop."

I batted her hand down. "No, listen. You don't have to do this, but I'm glad you're here. I'm not sure I could do this alone, and with Connor being so erratic, I just can't count on him right now. This is too close to home for him. Plus, I don't even know where he is. He snuck out at some point during the night."

"I knew you should have told him! Where did he go?"

"Who knows? I woke up and he was gone," I said, but I had a bad feeling I may have an idea.

"Woke up?" Her eyes bugged wide behind her gla.s.ses. "Jane! You slept with him?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. I did not sleep with him. I mean, I slept in the bed next to him for a couple of hours."

She gave me a look of complete disbelief, but said nothing.

"I'm serious."

"Whatever you say."

"It's not like some kind of desperate last night together kind of thing or whatever," I lied.

"No, nothing like that, I'm sure," she said, seeing right through me. "Really though, where do you think he went?"

"I don't know," I said, pulling the car into the parking lot. I didn't and I hoped the inkling I had was wrong. "I'll have to deal with all that later, I guess."

The lot was dark, and Ava dug in her bag and retrieved two flashlights. At the last minute, I pulled the bundle Ms. Frances gave me and shoved it into my pocket. If I was ever going to need it, tonight would be the night. I took the flashlight she offered and turned it on. Once she had her light ready, we started down the path.

"I've never been here at night? Have you?" she asked.

I nodded. "Once or twice with Connor and the other guys, but they really know their way around. I just kind of followed."

"I'm not gonna lie. It's kind of scary." Crickets screeched in the night, making the unified sound of a dull roar, and high in the trees fireflies flashed their signals.

"Tell me what you brought."

Ava patted her bag. "The basics, Sage, salt, holy water..."

I turned my light on her face and she squinted. "Holy water?"

"Yeah, well, I hope it's real. I stole it out of the baptismal font at the church."

"You stole holy water?" I was increasingly worried about what would happen to me if I didn't survive this night. Lying, breaking laws and now stealing? I hoped G.o.d took mercy on those trying to do the right thing.

Ava held up a small vial and said, "Not a lot. Just enough to sprinkle around if we need it."

We were at the end of the paved path and I flashed my light on the overgrown dirt path on my left. "Over that hill is The Ruins, we need to go down there," I said, slapping a mosquito off my neck and feeling around for the charm on my neck. "The ruins aren't that far away, and I sure hope his last painting is up there or we're screwed."

His artwork is why I chose this spot. That symbol, the same one I wore around my neck, was my hope. My hope that with a little help, I could purge this reality of Charlotte for good. Something I was prepared to do. Something I wasn't convinced he was.

Ava followed me through the dark woods, the only sound came from our breath and feet, trampling over the brush and leaves. I pushed a branch back and it flew out of my hands, slapping Ava behind me. "Sorry," I whispered, but Ava's light was on our feet and she made no sign that it hurt.

Together, we climbed the short hill to the top of the Ruins. At the top, we waved our lights over the area below. Empty. Quiet.

"There," I said, and point to the bonfire pit. As we walked to the pit, I fumbled for a book of matches in my pocket. Ava dug through her bag, placing items on the ground and pulled out a small tin can. She held it up with a tiny grin on her face.

"Paint thinner?"

She doused the charred wood in the pile and grabbed the matches from my hand. "I didn't think we would have all night to light a fire." She struck the match and tossed it in the pit. We both leaned back as the sc.r.a.p of wood exploded on contact.

"How did you know to bring all of this?"

"I keep telling you: brothers. They prepared me well."

"They didn't tell you how to banish a drama queen ghost did they?"

"Nope," she said and reached into her bag again. She pulled out the book. "But this did. Come on."

Ava had more faith than I had in the book Camille gave us, but at this point we had few options left. I wanted Charlotte gone. Now, before she could do further harm. And even though Ava thought she had tricks up her sleeve, l doubted we could beat Charlotte. There was too much I didn't know.

"This one?" Ava asked. Her voice echoed off the old buildings. She pointed to the graffitied wall.

"Yeah," I said following her. Connor's symbol hovered over us, the same one that hung around my neck. The same one that he inked onto his arm. The problem wasn't so much protecting ourselves, it was removing Charlotte. How did we make her cross over?

Ava pulled a large container out of her bag and began pouring it in a wide circle around the wall with Connor's symbol, leaving a break in one section. "From what I could understand in the book, we need to get her in this circle," she said, including the fire in the safe area. "As long as she's in here, she can't get to us and she'll be trapped."

"By salt?"

"That's what it said."

Once she finished, she gathered a bunch of herbs and lit them on fire, waving them around the s.p.a.ce. "For good measure," she said.

"You do realize we want to lure her out, right?" I asked. The sage seemed like overkill, but if it kept Ava safe I wouldn't argue. "I mean, I have no idea what will happen when she gets here. I just want both of us to be safe while I try to reason with her."

"Ha," Ava snorted. "Reasoning with a vindictive ghost. Good luck."

Ava had no idea this girl wanted to jump into my body and take over. She thought all I wanted was to lure her here safely and try a little book-suggested mumbo jumbo in the process. Protected by charms and salt. I knew it would come to more than that in the end. I just wanted it on my terms.

Over my shoulder, I heard the flapping of wings. "Are ravens nocturnal?" I asked, looking up.

"Not that I know of."

Despite the heat, a chill ran up the back of my neck. I'd like to think this was a different bird than the one tapping at Ruth's window, but I'm not that naive. Again, I hoped Ruth's statements to me were delusions.

"Great. Another supernatural ent.i.ty to deal with," I said, but whatever was going on with that bird would have to come later. Right now, my focus was on rationally getting Charlotte to leave.

"Oh c.r.a.p," Ava said with a frown. Charlotte would have to wait. A light flashed over the hill.

"Hide," I whispered and we both moved to the other side of the brick wall. Our fire was still burning and Ava left her bag of tricks on the other side. The bird t.i.ttered overhead. I needed a chance to think.

"It's Connor."

"What?!" I shout-whispered. "No. I need him out of here."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want him to ruin what I'm trying to do. He's too attached to Charlotte and I don't need her using him. I don't need to worry about his safety."

"Fine. I'll distract him. You just stay put while we figure this out."

She left me there, my back against the cool brick wall. I knew what I had to do. I needed him away from here. Away from my circle and Ava. While I might not know my way around these trails at night, I did know my way around them during the day from running them with my dad for the last two years. I flashed my light over to the woods. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to leave the flickering firelight and my best friend.

"Ava?" I heard him ask. He wasn't dumb though. Confused, but not dumb. "Where's Jane?"

"Look, Connor, she didn't want you to come with us. She's got this idea and she's confident..."

"Don't get involved, Ava. Tell me where she is," he said. His tone was frantic and I wondered what his own plans were down here. What was enough for him to leave me to come here.

Her?

These questions were enough for me to take a chance. One chance to lose him in the woods. I knew these trails well enough from my runs and they all wound up in the same general place. I could outrun him and beat him back from the other direction. Hopefully he would get lost long enough for me to deal with Charlotte. I flashed my light to get my bearings straight and ran. I bolted straight into the dark, running down the trail as fast as I could manage. The raven, startled by my movement, flapped his wings behind me, tearing through the night with a loud caw.

"Jane!" I heard him yell, but I continued with my escape. "Don't run! Come back!"

I used my memory of the terrain, and my flashlight, to run down the hill. Tree, I thought, coming to a curve where I knew if I didn't follow the trail I would smack right into one. I made the turn and heard the trickling water below me on the other side of the bank.

Connor crashed through the woods, my name echoing off trees. Even if I couldn't see him, I could easily hear him. I turned and found myself near the water. My flashlight bounced off a series of rocks. I needed to cross to get to the other side, which would loop me back around the trail to the other side of the Ruins. I took a deep breath and placed a foot on the first rock, wobbling a little as I gained my balance.

"Jane!" I heard Connor bellow through the woods. I jerked at his voice, missing the stone. My foot hit the water with a splash. "Stop!"

"c.r.a.p." I swayed over the water again, losing my balance and dropped the flashlight with a thump into the water. "Double c.r.a.p," I cried, wondering if it was worth it to wade deeper into the water to retrieve it.

Before I could decide, I saw a shimmer ahead. Fear gripped me because I wasn't ready to face Charlotte yet. Not here. I felt the familiar cool blast over my wet skin and braced myself. Whatever I expected did not come, instead a small, cool hand fit into mine.

"Tonya!" I wheezed, attempting to catch my breath. "What? Why? Why are you here?"

My asthma made it hard to talk, but I knew we needed to keep moving. Midway across the creek, Tonya said, "She's coming. Follow me."

I took a strangled, deep breath and followed those shiny black Mary Janes, reflecting in the moonlight, over hills and down cliffs until I no longer had a sense of direction. "Where are you taking me?" I asked when I finally begged her to stop, dropping to the ground and leaning back on a tree. I wheezed and coughed, trying to catch my breath.

"Away from her."

I could barely see her face in the dark. "I thought you crossed?"

"I'm tied to her. When she stayed, I stayed."

"Do you know why?"

"She wants inside you. To become you." Her voice was small, but she spoke with confidence.

"Do you think she'll ever stop?" I asked.

"No."

"Then what are we doing out here? Do you think I should just give up? The plan I had was to just fight her head on." My words were met with silence. "Will she come?"

More silence. Too much silence. I tilted my head and listened. Connor hadn't followed me through the woods and he had not called for me since we crossed the creek. Even though I couldn't pinpoint my location, the park wasn't that big. Using my hands, I pushed myself to a standing position. I said, "You separated me on purpose. Connor told you to bring me out here."

"He told me it would help, I wanted..."

"Can he see you?" I asked, frantic now. Because why did he want me out of the way? Did he want me alone so Charlotte could take me? Did he want me away from Ava and the protections?

"Yes. He sees me."

Realization struck that he was off his meds again. He probably stopped the night we slept at Ava's. Which means he may have seen Charlotte at the cemetery.

"Take me back, Tonya," I begged. "Take me back."

She hesitated a beat too long, so I walked off, feeling my way around in the dark on the trail. "Which way?" I asked her.

"He said to keep you here, away from him. Because he's the one she wants."

"He's right about that, but not in the way he thinks. If she catches me out here, Tonya, I'm gone. She'll win."

"No..."

"Yes. Like you said, she wants inside my body. She wants him through me. I have to stop her."

I heard a commotion in the trees and jumped back, looking overhead. It was the bird, flapping its way to the ground. I saw the glint of its eye in the moonlight and watched as it hopped forward.

I took a step in its direction and it hopped again. I guess I knew how I was getting out of these woods. "Jane!" Tonya called. "That bird, you stay away!"

The bird hopped and flew a couple feet away. I took one last look at Tonya and said, "Sorry," before following it through the woods.

This raven, dark as the night surrounding me, seemed coated in the same shimmery gloss as the ghosts. I shook off the implications and used the light to follow the bird back to the edge of the woods. Once there, the decaying walls of the Ruins stood in the open. The bird flew off in silence.

"This is not happening," I heard. Connor's face burned reddish-yellow, lit by the fire. The flickery shadows against his skin gave him a scary glow.

"It is and it will," Charlotte laughed.

His fists balled against his side like a 4-year-old at art cla.s.s, mad when playtime ended. "No," he said, on the verge of a tantrum. "Why are you still here? Why are you following us? Doesn't matter. Go."