Page 7 of Now You See Him

Chapter

Six

T ina needed answers, and the only person who could give them to her was Derrick. It was clear that the dream she’d experienced was some kind of memory or impression that was imprinted on the house…if she believed in those things.

Scratch that. She definitely believed in those things.

In her dream or her memory transfer…whatever the fuck it was, she saw a man who looked exactly like Derrick die.

That face, frozen in terror, wasn’t something that was pulled from her imagination.

It was too real, too specific, and it would stick with her forever.

She’d woken up that night sweating, drenched, trembling, as Logan snored peacefully next to her.

In the morning, she thought about texting Derrick again, to ask him outright how his brother died and if he remembered anything about the basement scene, but those kinds of questions weren’t exactly conversation starters for the phone.

The problem was that she couldn’t go to him with Logan around. She didn’t want her fiancé to find out. Not until she knew whether or not what she’d experienced was real or a hallucination.

And for some reason, Logan was sticking to her like glue.

Over the last week, he’d begun following her room to room.

He sat in the oversize armchair she’d put in her office, claiming that he just wanted to spend time with her.

He’d even developed shadows under his eyes as if he wasn’t sleeping well.

That morning, when Tina came downstairs after her shower, he was standing in the hallway, pale and shaken.

“Is everything okay?” she’d asked.

He’d jolted and then told her about his trip to New York. “I just, I’m exhausted working on this new account. I have to go to the city and get some time in the office for meetings. Are you okay if I leave today and come back on the weekend?”

It was Tuesday. He’d be gone for the whole week.

Normally, that would’ve annoyed her, but Tina felt relieved.

Then she felt guilty for being relieved at his absence so she could go talk to another man who fucked her brains out in some fugue state.

She took out her phone from her back pocket and pretended to scroll through her calendar, ignoring the fact that most of her nights and two of her days were free. “Yeah,” she said, motioning to the screen. “I have a super busy workweek. Tons of meetings, so a good time for you to go, too.”

Logan nodded, rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced up the stairs. They were different now from what she’d remembered in her dream.

“I really don’t like this house,” he muttered.

Her guilt morphed. Tina wanted to snap at him, to tell him to get over it already because his complaints were getting old, but that would only make things worse between them. They were engaged. They were supposed to be partners .

And yet, she’d broken their trust by cheating. She’d been passive-aggressive and thinking about the end of their relationship when this was supposed to be an opportunity to revive what was once a good thing. A stable thing.

She tried to smile at him, acknowledge what he said, before she turned on her heels and headed towards the kitchen. “When are you leaving?”

“Ah, I was actually thinking I’d go pack now.

Get out there so I can at least have my afternoon meeting in person.

” He followed her, sticking so close that she felt like he was going to step on her heels.

She rounded the counter and grabbed a mug from one of the upper cabinets before she stuck it under the spout of their grind-and-brew coffee machine.

When she turned, Logan was standing on the other side of the island, looking at the basement door.

“What is it?” Tina asked.

He turned, shook his head. “What?”

“What’s wrong? You seem out of sorts. Not just today, but for the week.”

“Nothing, I—” The tension in his face was quickly hidden under his mask, the professional one he wore when he was trying not to show people he was annoyed.

Then there was that practiced smile that she’d seen him use on other people at dinner parties or work events that he’d asked her to accompany him to. “Nothing,” he repeated.

She should tell him about the dreams, about what she was almost sure was a haunting presence in the house, but since she couldn’t verify any of it as reality at this point, she felt like it would only be another crack in their already-fractured relationship.

So Tina smiled back, the same practiced one that she’d also perfected over the years.

“I have a staff call now. It’s going to last about an hour.

So I guess I’ll say goodbye now? Have a good trip. ”

They parted like roommates. Strangers who bumped into each other at a grocery store.

Tina was back to thinking that there was an expiration date on this relationship.

After Logan left with less fuss than he usually did, Tina pushed aside thoughts of dreams, hallucinations, of a basement filled with secrets, hauntings, and paranormal activity, all so she could focus on work.

She refused to be scared of being alone.

Her office, the one room that was bursting with her personality, was the epicenter and heart of her new home.

From the throw pillows and blanket to the frames on the bookshelves along the back wall.

Seeing her things was grounding and reminded her that she now had room, she had quiet, and anything that came before her in these halls was long gone.

Even when she swore she could hear the chair behind her creak, as if someone was sitting in it, or a stray curl fluttered off her face and behind her ear, she stayed put. This was her space.

After a series of meetings, one tedious presentation deck she had to put together for a client, and a hastily eaten chicken sandwich, the clock ticked to six.

Most of her team members had logged off, and she knew it was time to call it quits before she burned herself out.

Tina got up to stretch, used the bathroom, and curled up in her reading chair to check her personal phone.

There was a random check-in from her parents, her sister, who was in California, and a college friend who called once a month.

She’d told none of them what was happening with her relationship, with her life.

It would’ve been nice to connect with someone, anyone, to share some of her concerns, but she’d become so isolated.

It was next to impossible to bridge the widening gap between herself and her family that had formed over the years.

Even her friends in the city had moved on with their lives while she was still at a crossroads trying to figure out what to do next.

New York, for all its people and hustle and bustle, could be isolating, and her time there was a big part of why she didn’t have an active group chat or people to complain to about her ghost in residence.

However, when she opened social media, she realized that now that she was in the mountains, in the rural Pocono Mountains, it didn’t have to be this way anymore. The first account that popped up was the Iron Fist Brewery. They recently posted a reminder about Trivia Night.

Tina scanned the details. Seven p.m..

She’d started following the account when she went over her conversation with hallucination-Derrick in her head a dozen times. It was one of the clues that she clung onto when she realized that Iron Fist was a real place.

Making the split-second decision, she quickly made her way back to her bedroom, where she changed out of her work-from-home clothes into a pair of jeans and one of her nicest blouses. Her long black hair was tied in a loose French braid, and she put on jewelry.

She should’ve worn her engagement ring that lay in the top compartment of her jewelry box. She picked up the simple gold band with a round diamond that was the size of a pea. It was simple. Dainty.

Tina hated it.

Logan loved it.

He claimed that big diamond rings were flashy and were for other people. This was just about a commitment between each other.

She closed her box, leaving the engagement ring inside, shutting Logan out of her mind as she called for a ride share before she applied some lipstick and jogged downstairs.

It took fifteen minutes for the car to show up, but she didn’t mind.

She waited on the front porch and smiled at the red-headed man who turned into her driveway.

He had a wary expression on his face as he looked up at the house, but he didn’t say anything as she slid into the back seat.

The ride was in silence, which suited her just fine.

It wasn’t until he turned into the Fist Brewery parking lot that she let out a low whistle. It was packed for a Tuesday night.

After paying Gerald, she got out of the car and took a moment to assess her surroundings.

The building was a nondescript brick box with a simple banner above a single door on the side.

There was a steady stream of people walking inside, a group of smokers standing to the left of the entrance, and the heavy bass from a band vibrating through double-hung windows.

She’d pictured a tiny, narrow brewery with a couple tables and chairs, a decent crowd, but nothing like this. Then again, space was at a premium in the city and she definitely wasn’t in New York anymore.

Her hopes of running into Derrick in a space this big were starting to dim, so she walked inside a large room filled to the brim with locals.

Clusters of people stood around high top tables.

The bar had two rows of patrons vying for the bartender’s attention.

All of the booths were full, and someone was setting up a set of speakers on a small platform stage.