Page 12 of The Curse of Redwood

My breath caught in my throat as I waited for something to appear. A minute passed and still nothing. Maybe it had just been the house settling.

Yeah, right.

My mind then conjured up images of a grotesque ghost hovering outside the doorway, only keeping its distance because of the candlelight beside my bed. I imagined it wearing a dark cloak that blew behind it, and its face was decayed with yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

“Stop,” I said aloud to myself. That one word, though whispered, sounded much too loud for the unsettling quiet around me.

“I’ve got you, little dove.”

The memory of the voice from outside came back to me. Z’s voice. Had he been the one to carry me inside? If he was actually at Redwood… that would mean Theo was right. Z was a ghost. I didn’t want to believe it.

“Z?” I asked the darkness. Another creak came from the hall. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I finally found my voice. “S-Show yourself.”

A small shape dashed across the doorway.

I shrieked and flung the blanket over my head. Because yeah,thatwould totally save me. I would never yell at stupid people in scary movies ever again.

“Enough,” a deep, yet pleasant, voice said. One I recognized. “I told you to go to your sister.”

“Is the boy gonna be okay, Mr. Warren?” a child responded. “I didn’t mean to hurt ‘im, sir. Honest. I only wanted to play.”

Warren? Why did that sound so familiar?

“I know you did. Now go.”

A giggle echoed down the hall, but there were no footsteps.

A dark shape then neared the bed. I watched it approach through the thin blanket. Every hair on my body stood on end, and I breathed heavier with fear. A light pressure touched the mattress beside me.

“Please do not be afraid,” the man said. “No harm will come to you now.”

Slowly, I lowered the blanket. And my suspicions were proven true once seeing the man in front of me. “Z?”

Though he had the same blond hair and blue eyes I remembered from Halloween, his skin was paler. He had an inhuman aura to him, just like Theo. He wore black trousers and a waistcoat with a collared shirt underneath.

“Hello again, Carter.” He smiled thinly, the action not reaching his eyes. “I hoped you wouldn’t return to Redwood. I didn’t want you knowing the truth about me.”

“That you’re a ghost?”

Z nodded sadly before standing from the edge of the bed. His form flickered as he walked toward the dresser against the wall and grabbed another candlestick. He lit a match and held it to the wick until it caught fire.

“You suspected, did you not?” he asked, turning back to me.

I nodded. “It’s why I came a few months ago. I wanted to see if you were really here.”

“I was,” he answered, bringing the second candle closer to me. Instead of the light catching his features, it went right through him. As if he was made of mist instead of something solid. “I kept myself hidden, hoping if you didn’t find me, you’d steer clear of this place.”

“Why?” I sat up in the bed.

“Because this is no place for someone like you.”

“I don’t understand. Someone like me?”

“Someone alive,” he said. “I know you feel it. The darkness that circles this property, touching everything and everyone inside the barrier. This is no place for the living. You should have never returned, Carter.”

“Yeah? I didn’t have much of a choice.” Anger penetrated my voice. I was mentally exhausted from a major lack of sleep, creeped out from being in the mansion, and confused as hell. The last thing I needed was a damn lecture from him. “I’ve had dreams of this place ever since February. And for the past two weeks, it’s gotten worse. Someone’s been calling out to me, trying to get me to come back, and a part of me thought it might be you.”

Z’s eyes widened a bit with surprise before his expression returned to indifference. “It wasn’t me who called to you.”