Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel (12 page)

‘Well the fun didn’t last, did it? I don’t risk my own skin.’

‘Yeah, I know. You’re a real compassionate guy.’ She stepped towards him. ‘But you’re lucky. I only want your opinion, some information. You won’t have to get your hands dirty.’

He stared at her. ‘Fine. Fine, we can talk. I’ll meet you during my lunch hour.
At the Java Bar.’

‘Excellent,’ Tully said. ‘I’ll be there.’ She spun on her heel and stalked out of the shop, only to stop on the footpath and realise that she didn’t know what to do next. She looked up and down the street then turned with a sigh and made her way to
the place where she worked.

Lara
was doing the early shift. ‘Can you come and talk for five minutes?’ Tully asked.

A tiny pause, then her best friend nodded. ‘Sure. Okay. Go and sit down, and I’ll bring us coffee.’

Tully went upstairs to the gallery where she and Lara were less likely to be noticed. She didn’t have to wait long. Lara gave her a strained smile when she sat down.

‘Thanks. This smells good,’ Tully said, and pulled the coffee cup towards her, reaching for the sugar packets.

‘Look,’ Lara said. ‘I know we kind of bailed on you, Matt and me. I feel terrible about it.’ She fiddled with her own coffee cup. ‘It got scary, you know? First it was fun, but then it didn’t stop, and every day, wondering what was going to happen, wondering what the noises were. If that horrible screaming was going to start again.’ Lara sighed, and lifted her head to look Tully in the eye. ‘It was too much, okay?’

Some of the tension eased in Tully’s gut. Tears prickled in the corners of her eyes and she reached out and took
Lara’s hand.

‘I don’t blame you,’ she said. ‘If I could run away from it, believe me, I would.’

Lara frowned. ‘You’re not still out at the cabin, are you?’

‘No.’
She shook her head. ‘No, we moved back home.’ Her fingers tightened on Lara’s. ‘But it’s followed us. Lara, it’s followed us.’

Lara
paled. ‘Followed you? What do you mean?’

Tully shivered, despite it being warm in the café. ‘Last night, I was babysitting my stepsister. Something was whispering through the baby monitor.’ She paused to bite her lip. ‘And there were noises, like at the
cabin. Crashes. Thumping. The lights went out.’

‘The lights went out?’

‘Yeah. It was real scary, but the whispering was worst. I couldn’t make out any of the words, but it had this desperate sound to it, you know? Like the whisperer was so far gone, they’d do anything. Like they were totally insane.’

Tully saw
Lara swallow. ‘Well, I guess that kinda makes sense,’ Lara said. ‘This did start after we went to the old insane asylum.’

‘I know.’ Tully sighed. ‘What I don’t know is why the spirit latched onto us? I mean, think about it – hundreds of people must have gone up there. Maybe even thousands. Why us?’

Lara just stared at her. ‘I don’t think you’re going to find out the answer to that one.’

Dropping
Lara’s hand, Tully stirred her coffee and took a sip. ‘I don’t know what to do.’ She sniffed. ‘I’m meeting Damien at lunchtime.’

‘Damien? The Ouija guy?’

‘Yes. The Ouija guy. I figure since he seemed to know so much about that, he might be able to throw some light on what’s going on.’

‘Good luck,’
Lara said, and picked up her own cup. ‘I thought he was good value to start with but…’ She lifted her shoulders in an eloquent shrug.

‘Yeah, but I don’t know what else to do.’ Tully frowned.

‘What?’

‘It’s Toby.’

‘What about Toby?’

‘Something’s weird with him. Off.’

Lara sipped her coffee and patted her pockets. Tully knew she was wanting a cigarette. ‘He’s probably been smoking too much. That last bag of weed he had was real strong stuff. Good – hell, really fucking good. But strong.’

‘Yeah. Maybe.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘I don’t know what to think. But last night, when things were really bad, Toby took off to his room – he’s sleeping above the garage – and I ran after him, thinking he was, you know, leading us to safety sort of thing.’

‘He wasn’t?’

‘He locked me out. I had Hannah in my arms, something was knocking around back in the house, and he took off and locked me out. Wouldn’t talk to me or anything. He just shut me out to deal with it by myself.’

‘Holy shit.’ Lara’s coffee was forgotten. ‘What happened then?’

‘Well, Dad and Mary got home, gave me a good
bollocking for being outside in the middle of the night with Hannah, and wanted to know why the lights were off, but they went inside, and everything was quiet then.’

‘So what do you reckon is going on?’

Tully stirred her coffee. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know if I should be more worried about this spirit or whatever it is, or about Toby.’ She dropped the spoon with a clatter. ‘Both, I suppose.’

It was
Lara’s turn to seek out her hand and give it a squeeze. ‘If there’s anything I can do to help?’

‘I don’t know what. Maybe we can all go do something on the weekend? Get Toby out of his room and doing something normal? That would be good. He hardly comes out of his room except to go to work now.’

Lara sat back and smiled, nodding. ‘Sure. Let’s go surfing. That’ll cheer Toby up like nothing else.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Remember last summer when Toby spent a whole day teaching that chick to surf, and then she introduced him to her boyfriend?’ She laughed.

Tully tried to join in, but it was okay for
Lara. She’d got away. She hadn’t been the one the spirit had chased. Or caught. Tully could feel the sticky web trapping her. When she’d spent all that time watching ghost hunting programmes, she never thought, not for one minute, that she’d end up having a ghost problem of her own.

‘Hey look, I
gotta get back to work.’ Lara was standing up. ‘Chin up, okay? And I’ll give you a call about the weekend. I’ve got Sunday off, I think.’

‘Yeah. Okay. Thanks
Lara.’

‘No problem. Good luck with Ouija guy.’

She nodded, and watched Lara skip down the stairs, her pony tail bouncing behind her. She wished she had as little to worry about.

He was late. Tully checked her phone again – not for messages, because Damien didn’t have her number – but to see the time. Ten minutes late. She tapped her fingers on the bar and asked for another lemonade.

‘I hoped you’d changed your mind.’ Damien appeared beside her and waved to the barman. ‘Vodka
shot, thanks.’

‘Aren’t you working this afternoon?’

Damien tossed over a crumpled note and picked up his drink. ‘Yep. And it’ll go a whole lot sweeter with this little drink. So will our conversation, I hope.’

‘Don’t count on it.’

He put the glass down. ‘Look, what do you want me to do?’

Tully sighed. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what you can do.’

‘Nothing, believe me. There’s nothing I can do.’

‘You seemed to know a lot about it, is all. Spirits and ghost hunting and things.’

Damien sniffed, swallowed his drink in one big gulp. Gestured for another. He rounded on Tully.

‘Look, I’ll be honest with you. I thought your friend was cute, all right? That’s all. I don’t know much more than the next guy about Ouija boards or any of that shit. I’ve seen probably the same movies and TV shows that you have. I just talk a good game, that’s all.’ He fingered the fresh glass.

‘You’re a piece of shit.’

‘Yes I am.’ He toasted her and downed the vodka. ‘Now if that’s all, I’ll be on my way.’

‘That’s not all.’

‘Look, there’s nothing I can do. If you’re having trouble with whatever was coming through the board that night, there’s nothing I can do to help.’

‘You said something about demons.’

She watched him roll his eyes. ‘Like I said – I’ve watched the same movies as you probably have. Something that throws stuff around and tries to hurt you – that’s a demon.’ He turned away. ‘I wish you luck.’ Then he was gone.

Tully sat still on the stool for a moment then picked up her drink and sucked the lemonade through the straw. So. She was on her own. Her and Toby. It was a familiar feeling. It had always been her and Toby. Her and Toby since their mother had died, their father doing the best he could, but when it came down to it, just her and Toby. Comforting each other in the middle of the night. Telling each other stories. Walking into school the first day together. Lara had come along, but she’d still been on the outside. It was always Toby and Tully.

Except last night, it had been just Toby, and just Tully. He’d locked her out of his room. He’d stood on the other side of the door and turned the key in the lock, sh
ut her out and he hadn’t said why, hadn’t said sorry, hadn’t said anything. He’d left her on her own.

Tully slammed the glass down on the bar and slipped off the stool. There was no point sitting there drowning her sorrows, especially since the drowni
ng would be a long time coming since there wasn’t any alcohol in her drink.

She had to start work in half an hour. There was no time to go back home and talk to Toby. But she’d see him at work. She plucked the parking ticket from the under the window wiper and stuck the key viciously in the lock, wrenching the car door open.

She was run off her feet at work, and Toby hadn’t turned up. Half an hour after the shift started, the manager pulled her off the floor and into his office.

‘Where’s your brother?’

‘He’s sick, he said he was going to call in.’

‘He didn’t.’

‘I’m sorry, he said he was going to, otherwise I would have for him. But I had to go into town before our shift started. He must have fallen asleep or something.’ She didn’t have to fake the worry in her voice.

Her boss straightened. ‘Tell him he has to call in next time. Give me time to call someone to cover for him before things get busy. You hear?’

‘Yes. I’m sorry. I’ll tell him.’ She left the office and pulled her phone out of her pocket, punching in Toby’s number. It wasn’t like him to miss work. Something had happened, she just knew it.

The phone rang, a soft burring in her ear. Someone gestured to her from the kitchen and she waved them off, plugging her other ear so she could hear.

‘Hey, you’ve reached Toby. You know what to do.’

Damn. He wasn’t answering.

‘Toby,’ she said after the beep. ‘What’s going on? The boss has just reamed me a new one because you didn’t call in. I said you were sick. You better bloody be sick.’ She paused and drew breath. ‘Call me back. Leave me a message, okay? I’m worried. We need to talk.’ Lowering
the phone, she cut the call. There was nothing to do but get back to work and hope he called her. She set the phone to vibrate and tucked it back in her apron. She’d feel it there against her belly, if he called.

‘Call, Toby. Call,
damnit.’

He didn’t call. It was after ten when Tully pulled into the driveway, and she hadn’t heard a word from him. Not a call, not even a measly text. Nothing. She could feel a tender spot forming on her lip from gnawing on it all night.

The lights were on in Toby’s room above the garage. She stood on the driveway and
looked up at the window. The light was bright and the curtain thin, in fact, the light was really bright and she wondered why Toby hadn’t swapped the bulb for something a little less blinding. He passed in front of the window, a shadow behind the curtain, then passed again. And again. He was pacing.

‘Can’t be really sick then, you shit,’ she muttered, and made for the garage door. A moment later she was hammering on his door. ‘Toby! I know you’re in there. Let me in.’ She rattled the door knob, but it was locked. Why had he started locking his door? ‘What the hell are you doing in there?’

The lock clicked, and the door fell open under her weight. She stumbled forward and stared up at her twin.

‘You look terrible,’ she said.

Toby just shrugged and looked away. ‘What do you want?’ He didn’t gesture for her to come in. ‘I’m busy.’

‘Um, you didn’t come in to work today. I had to cover for you. Said you were sick.’ She looked him over. ‘Toby, what’s going on? You didn’t even call in to say you wouldn’t be there. Why’d you miss work?’

Toby scratched at his chin. He hadn’t shaved for a while, a few days at least from the look at him. He glanced over her shoulder and frowned. Tully twisted around to look behind her.

‘What’s going on? What are you looking at? Can I come in?’ Lots of questions, and she wanted them all answered.

‘Nothing’s going on,’ he said. ‘I just didn’t feel like working.’

‘You didn’t feel like working?’ Tully’s eyes widened. ‘You didn’t feel like working? Jeez Toby, no one ever feels like working. We just do it anyway because we need the money. Remember?’