Legacy, page 14
Still, Jo thought, things could have been much worse. If Meg had been more seriously hurt, she would have been in a great deal of trouble. No way were they strong enough right now to convey her all the way down the mountain after what they’d just done. Already, the light outside was starting to acquire the soft, hazy glow that preceded sunset. The storm had completely cleared, the sky almost entirely free of clouds, but it was still chilly, and the trail down would be slick and wet, dangerous to walk on, especially carrying someone. If they rested long enough, they might have been able to reach Andy’s Bronco, but it would probably be dark by the time they got there. Not necessarily having to do this was a great relief.
Andy let out a long sigh and rolled her shoulders. She slapped her knees and rose. “Okay. Enough of this. I’m hiking down to my truck to get search-and-rescue up here.”
Jo stood up. “I’ll go with you.”
Andy stared at her, frowning slightly, then finally nodded. Clearly, given the physical acrobatics she’d just witnessed as Jo helped save Meg, Andy had decided she was okay, but she also seemed uncertain, and Jo knew she was wondering if she was making the right choice to let her help.
Andy turned to Carter and pointed at Meg. “Make sure she gets lots of fluids when she’s up. In fact, if she doesn’t get up on her own in twenty minutes or so, wake her and give her a glass of water and some weak tea, if she’ll take it.”
“Okay.”
Jo and Andy started gathering their gear from the various places they’d set it out to dry. Most of it was still damp, but at least it was warm. By the time she had her boots on again, Meg was stirring on her bed. Rachel let out a little gasp and then leaned down to kiss her.
“Where am I?” Meg asked. The question came out muddled, almost slurred.
“You’re safe, baby,” Rachel said. “Back in the cabin.”
Meg tried to sit up, winced, and lay back down again. “How did I get here? The last thing I remember is getting hooked up with the ropes…” She shook her head. “Then nothing.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re here now. We got you back inside, safe and sound.” She picked up a glass of water. “Drink this.”
Rachel took a couple of pillows off the couch and propped them under Meg’s head to raise her head. Everyone had gathered closer to her bed, and as Meg finished her water, she peered up at them, obviously still confused. Her eyes stopped on Andy and Jo, who stood a little behind the others.
“Why are you dressed like that? Where are you going?”
“To get help,” Andy said. “You need to be in a hospital.”
Meg shook her head emphatically and tried to sit up. She let out a little hiss of pain and lay back down. “No! You can’t do that.”
Rachel grabbed her hand again. “They have to, Meg. You’re really banged up. This is no time for butch heroics.”
Meg shook her head rapidly. “It’s not that. It’s not that at all. You can’t go out there. It isn’t safe.” Meg, clearly seeing their puzzled expressions, began to plead. “No, please—listen to me. You have to believe me! I didn’t fall down that cliff. Someone pushed me off.”
Jo was stunned into silence. Carter crouched down next to the bed so Meg wouldn’t have to crane her head. “What are you talking about? Who pushed you?”
Meg paused and her face crumpled as she fought back tears. Finally, she took a deep breath and met Carter’s eyes. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.”
Meg looked around the room, terror in her eyes. “I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but you have to. Every word of it is true.” She paused, her eyes down and inward. She licked her lips, and then her face hardened with determination.
“It started right away. We were all out there, goofing around in the snow. You and Daniela were hiding behind that boulder, and me and Rachel were hiding in the trees.”
Carter nodded.
She turned to Rachel. “Then I heard something. Remember?”
Rachel frowned with apparent confusion, and then her expression cleared. “Oh my God! Of course. How did I forget that?”
Meg held up a hand. “I think I know why, but I’ll get to that in a minute.” Her eyes seemed to darken and lose focus, her thoughts turning inward as she relived the memory. She continued to stare at her legs as she spoke. “I remember telling Rachel I was going to check out the sound. It was like someone crying.”
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t remember that at all.”
Meg nodded. “I thought you wouldn’t. Things were already starting to go hazy at that point.”
Jo’s stomach dropped. She knew exactly what Meg meant by “going hazy.” The same thing had happened to her at the well.
“The weather started getting colder—even colder than before,” Meg said. “Then, as I walked toward the sound, the day grew darker and darker, almost like nighttime, but not quite. Twilight, sort of? The air was funny, too, thick, almost, and kind of hard to breathe, like somewhere humid. It was hard to see very far. Like I said, it was hazy, like I was walking in fog. I don’t know why I kept going. Part of me knew something was off about everything, but it was like I couldn’t stop. I had to see what that crying sound was.
“Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the cemetery. I don’t know how I got there. I really don’t. I was just there, all of the sudden. It was freezing cold, with almost no sunlight. I could barely see anything.”
“We saw your footprints on the trail,” Carter said, her voice gentle and soothing. “You took the path there, Meg.”
Meg lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. “I kind of expected that. Like I said, I’ll get to it. I had a long time on that cliff to think, and I have some ideas. Anyway, I was standing in the middle of the cemetery, surprised but at the same time not surprised to find myself there.
“The crying was coming from the cliff. I started walking over there, but it was getting harder to move. It was so cold, and the air was kind of heavy. I felt more like I was swimming than walking, or maybe wading through mud. Also, I thought I heard someone else—Rachel, I think—calling my name, somewhere behind me. I tried to turn around but couldn’t. Then, like a second later, I didn’t want to find her anymore. I had to look over the side of the cliff. It was like…like—”
“A compulsion,” Jo said.
Meg nodded. “Exactly like that, like I had no choice.”
Jo went cold. She remembered that feeling with crystalline clarity. It had seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing at the time to climb up onto the edge of that well. Some part of her had known that it was wrong and dangerous, but the majority of her had considered it a great plan. If Andy and Meg hadn’t appeared, she would have climbed up there and jumped in. It had been as if she had to do it, like she had no choice.
“What did you see? When you looked over the edge?” Rachel asked.
Meg frowned, appearing almost angry. “That’s the thing I don’t remember. I keep trying to, but it’s hard—almost like that fog is still there, but inside me. I remember seeing a face—a scared, pale face, down there on that ledge you found me on, and then someone pushed me from behind. I slid all the way down but managed to land on my feet, which is probably how I hurt my ankles. Then I fell over and passed out.”
“So you didn’t see who pushed you?” Carter asked.
Meg shook her head and then hesitated. “No, but there was something—a tall shadow, and a strong smell right before it happened. The smell was really bad, terrible, like something rotten.”
Jo’s stomach fluttered with horror. Despite everything, she’d almost forgotten that smell. She hadn’t detected it at the well, but last night, and last week in the woods, it been overpowering. How had she forgotten?
“I’m just so glad you’re okay,” Rachel said, her eyes welling with tears. “That you’ll be okay, I mean.”
“So how do you explain the footprints we saw?” Carter asked, sounding angry. Jo thought she might be scared, too—anger was her usual response to fright.
Meg stared at her, her expression determined and serious. “That haze, or whatever it was, fooled me. It made me think I was seeing and hearing things that weren’t there.”
“Well, that’s obvious!” Carter shouted. “None of this actually happened. It’s not possible, Meg.”
Daniela touched her arm, and Carter’s face relaxed a little. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just…having a hard time believing you.”
Meg shrugged. “I knew you would, but it’s true. I lived through it, so I’m certain. It was showing me something for a reason, but I wasn’t actually there—I was here that whole time, walking down the path to the cemetery and then to the edge of the cliff, but the whole time, until the last second, I was also somewhere else, somewhere cold and dark. Whatever it was confused me on purpose, just like it did Rachel. It made her forget that I told her I heard something. It’s sneaky, whatever it is, and it’s rotten.”
Rachel let out a little gasp of fright and leaned down to hug her. They continued to hold each other, Meg’s hands, bandaged and scratched, tight across her back, both of them shaking with sobs. Andy touched Carter and glanced at Jo and Daniela, motioning toward one of the bedrooms. They followed her in there, and she closed the door behind them. Andy looked troubled and pale.
“I’m really worried now. It’s imperative that we get her out of here and to the hospital. She’s clearly delusional.”
Jo shook her head. “No. She’s not.”
Andy and Carter looked stunned. “You believe her?” Andy asked.
Jo nodded and turned to Daniela. We should tell them. Everything.
Daniela seemed to have trouble meeting Carter’s gaze. We were going to tell you.
Tell me what? Carter was clearly angry now, her brows knit, and her lips curled in a deep frown.
Andy cut in. “Can someone tell me what you guys are talking about?”
With Carter acting as interpreter, Daniela began their story. It started when Jo was reading in the living room and I was in the bedroom, doing the last of the cleaning in there. She told the others about the book that seemed to relocate on its own and the tools that appeared in the bedroom without help.
And then, of course, there’s the faucet, she said.
“What about the faucet?” Carter asked. “It’s just a mechanical malfunction.”
Daniela stared at her levelly. Do you really believe that? You saw it move on its own, too.
Carter laughed. “Because it was malfunctioning! That’s all. Water pressure could easily turn that handle. There’s nothing supernatural about it.”
I think there is, and I think you know it, too. You just don’t want to admit it.
Carter put a hand to her forehead. “Hold on a second, here. I’ll admit the moving book and tools are a little weird, but there’s clearly some rational explanation. And the faucet is not haunted. It’s broken.”
“What about the weird furniture sculpture I found?” Jo asked.
Carter seemed taken aback, and Jo had to explain what they’d seen to the others.
Daniela frowned at Carter. You never mentioned this.
Carter sighed. We didn’t want to scare you.
Jo took a deep breath and let it out. “There’s more.”
Carter’s head snapped her way. “What?”
Jo told them about hearing footsteps in the woods, about how she had felt somehow compelled to go look for whatever was making that sound out there. She hadn’t felt the same overwhelming compulsion she had at the well, but it had been strong enough to get her to run outside of her tent without a coat or shoes.
“And I don’t think I was alone out there, either. And I’m not sure I hit my head.”
“What do you mean?” Andy asked.
She met her eyes. “I believe someone hit me.”
Andy and Daniela were clearly stunned, but Carter’s face went a mottled red. “What? This is the first time you’ve told us. Why didn’t you mention it before?”
Jo shook her head. “I didn’t want to scare you. And I didn’t think you’d believe me.”
“And I don’t.”
She nodded, expecting and accepting this reaction. Carter’s anger came from a deep sense of the rational and made her such a good lawyer and a good, clearheaded friend. Her rationality was being shaken, and she didn’t like it. Part of Carter knew that what Meg, Daniela, and now Jo had said was true, but she wasn’t willing to accept it. Her rational brain was too strong. Still, Jo knew she had to try.
“There’s one more thing,” Jo said, then glanced at Andy. Her heart broke a little when their eyes met. Andy’s were filled with pity, but she was also clearly skeptical. If Jo continued, she was pretty sure that expression would stay there forever. Still, it needed to come out, all of it, if they had a chance to figure this thing out.
“It happened at the well,” she said, then told the whole story. The others listened and watched her patiently. All of them, however, did this with clear and deep skepticism in their eyes, especially Andy and Carter.
“Don’t you see?” she said. “It’s just like what Meg told you. The same thing happened to me.”
They stared at her and didn’t reply. Daniela was obviously upset, her eyes red and wet, but, Jo suspected, she was halfway convinced. This made sense—she’d seen the book and tools move on their own, or had at least seen them after they’d relocated. Carter, on the other hand, was even angrier than before, and Andy’s expression was hard to read—concerned, perhaps, or worried, her eyes not meeting hers.
“Look,” Carter said, breaking the silence, “I don’t know what happened to you, and I don’t know why you feel the need to tell us this fairy tale—”
“It’s not a fairy tale, Carter. It happened. I swear to God, it happened.”
Carter shook her head briskly. “No, Jo. It didn’t. You’re imagining things.”
Jo opened her mouth to protest, but Andy raised a hand. “This is getting us nowhere, folks, and it’s not going to help Meg. I need to go to my truck and get some help up here. Her condition might not be critical, but she needs X-rays and better medical attention than we can give her up here. Jo, are you still coming?”
She tried to smile. “As long as you don’t think I’m crazy.”
Andy gave her the kind of warm smile Jo had feared she’d never see again. But when she spoke, what she said broke her heart. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Jo. You obviously believe what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it, not based on what you’ve said. You know that, right?” She touched her shoulder briefly and then dropped her hand.
Jo nodded, her stomach clenching with sorrow and dread. She was fairly certain she’d just been dumped.
“Okay then,” Andy said. “Let’s get going. The sunlight will last only another hour or two.”
Jo barely heard or acknowledged this remark, but she followed her out of the bedroom and outside into the brisk air, a deep part of her knowing that she’d blown it.
Chapter Fifteen
It was dark by the time Meg and Rachel disappeared down the mountain road inside the ambulance. Once the search-and-rescue team had come, the evacuation went fairly quickly, despite the slick trail. Jo and the others helped as they could, leading them up or down the trail, but generally stayed out of the way. Andy spent most of this time on the radio in her truck, relaying messages to the various task forces involved, as well as park officials. The other cars and trucks from the rescue team disappeared one by one until only Andy’s and Carter’s vehicles were left. Jo waited for Andy to finish from inside Carter’s car, dozing off now and again.
She’d slipped into a deep sleep when Andy knocked on her window, startling her awake. She opened the door and climbed out, stretching.
“Everyone’s gone. It’s over,” Andy said, her voice weary and hoarse. “What do you want to do now? Go to the hospital?”
Jo shook her head. “Meg begged us not to come. She said we can visit her tomorrow, if she’s still there. Otherwise she and Rachel were heading to her place as soon as possible. I’ll call them in the morning.”
“Are Carter and Daniela still up at the cabin? I didn’t see them come down the last time.”
“Yes. The three of us still need to finish a few things up there.”
Andy’s face darkened, and her eyes strayed up the trail, which disappeared in the dark some twenty feet away. Down here, it hadn’t snowed at all—just a light rain, and even that had mostly dried up hours ago. Still, the trail seemed somehow menacing in the dark, and Jo could see that Andy was a little afraid of it now, too.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Going up there again?”
Jo laughed. “It’s our home. My family’s, anyway. I’m there only a few weeks a year, but it’s part of me, part of all of us. And anyway, you and Carter seem to think Meg and Daniela and I are imagining everything. What’s the problem?”
Andy looked worried, her brows low. “I don’t know what I think, Jo. It’s all just so…fantastic, I guess. I mean, really—ghosts?”
Jo shrugged. “I don’t know what it is, Andy. Ghosts seem like a silly way to describe what I saw and felt. But something is up there. I swear it.”
Andy hesitated and then nodded. “I know you think that’s true, so I won’t argue with you. But whatever it is, I don’t think you’re safe there. You might want to end this trip before you get hurt again. I don’t like the idea of you going back.”
Jo didn’t respond. It was impossible to explain why she felt like she needed to, had to go back, even. She didn’t have any choice. Beyond the fact that the cabin was her favorite place in the world, she was certain now that something was wrong with it—a kind of illness that had blossomed in the years it was neglected up there on its own. When she’d been up there before, she’d never felt or experienced anything like the odd happenings during the last week, and she knew one else in her family had, either. Something had changed, something had come through. But the place was hers—her family’s. More than a vacation home, the cabin was a kind of refuge, and it had been for generations before her. She had to stop whatever was happening.
