Page 104 of The Curse of Redwood

My dreams were disturbing that night.

I dreamed I was running down the dark corridors of the mansion. Behind me was a woman dressed in black, her face covered by a veil as she drifted in the air, her feet dragging the floor. Croaky laughs and whispers came from all around me.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed, running faster. I turned a corner and hit a dead end before flipping around.

The corridor was crammed with ghosts. Jasper stood with his axe resting on his shoulder. The woman from the music room stood beside him, the sinister grin still frozen on her blood-red lips. A shorter girl with long black hair in her face crouched down low, releasing deep, inhuman growls.

The scariest part was when I saw Zeke. He floated a foot off the ground and stared directly at me with corpse-like eyes.

“Redwood is a place for dead things,” he whispered in a lifeless tone, stretching an arm toward me. “Come with me.”

I stepped toward him, and the growls of the crouching girl intensified. Jasper laughed and swung his axe, taking off the head of a man beside him who had his lips sewn shut. I moved in a sort of trance, knowing I should run away but doing the opposite instead. My will to resist was weak.

Reaching Zeke, I slipped my hand into his.

“We’ve waited for you.” He leaned down to me with a smile lifting the corner of his mouth. A crack formed in his cheek, and his pale skin began to chip away. “Welcome home.”

I turned my head to the side, facing the mirror hanging on the wall. My pink flesh began to pale, and dark circles spread around my eyes. As I stared at my dead reflection, the other ghosts began to surround me.

And then I smiled.

I flung upward in bed with a gasp. Zeke stirred beside me.

“Carter?” He put aside the book he’d been reading and touched my arm. “You’re shaking.”

“Bad dream,” I said, cuddling into his side. A candle burned on the nightstand, giving off just enough light for him to read. That must’ve been what he did every night when I was asleep.

“What can I do?” he asked, wrapping me in his arms.

“Just hold me.”

I wasn’t sure what scared me more; the phantoms in the dream…or how eager I’d been to join them.

The next day, I met Taylor and Ben at the café for breakfast. I didn’t tell them about my run-in with Lady Death. I didn’t tell them how afraid I was about the ritual the following evening. No sense in worrying them when there wasn’t anything they could do.

“Do I ever get to meet this hot blond guy?” Taylor asked, as he ate pancakes.

“When all this is over, I’d like for both of you to meet him.”

Even as I said the words, I wondered if it was possible. I might not make it through the ritual. And if I did, there was no guarantee I’d ever see Zeke again. But I smiled and put on a brave face. It was all I could do to keep from falling apart.

When I returned to Redwood later, Zeke and I sat in the garden as I drank coffee out of a to-go cup and told him about the visit with my friends. The ground behind the gazebo had been recently disturbed, and a pang went through my chest. He must’ve dug up Philip’s body late last night once I’d fallen asleep.

“Tomorrow’s the big day,” I said, bringing my legs up on the bench and sitting crisscross.

“It is.” Zeke rested a hand on my thigh and stared at the weeds and remnants of plants that had once made up a stunning garden. The one from my vision—Philip’s memory—had shown me the beauty of it once.

“What are you thinking?” I asked, leaning against him.

“I’m trying not to think of anything.” He peered over at me. “I don’t like the directions of my thoughts when I do.”

“Me either.” I placed my cup between my legs and breathed in the crisp afternoon air. It didn’t have the same impact as when I was away from the mansion. The air there felt different. Heavier.

Trees on the other side of the property line burst with oranges and yellows, and as I watched, a few leaves fell from the branches and coasted to the cold ground below. The trees on the Redwood estate, however, remained bare. There were no bursts of fall or signs of the beautiful day… there were only fragments of what used to be. Just like Zeke’s garden.

“Remember when you told me about the redwood trees?”

“Yes,” he said. “They’re dead like everything else here. What about them?”