Copyright 2011 Kate Genet

Smashwords Edition

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Chapter One

Michaela walked down the gravel drive to the mail box. She squinted at the sun in the pale morning sky and rubbed at the ink around her forearms, a gesture that had become unconscious since the tattoos had healed. It was hot already and only edging into summer. She supposed that would be a good thing, the heat ripening the fruit on the vines that marched in orderly rows in the paddocks behind her. She flicked through the circulars at the mail box without any real interest; they would go straight into the trash when she got back to the house. She coughed out a little laugh at that. Trash. She was still talking American inside her head. Rubbish. It was rubbish again, and she’d better get used to it. Flicking a wave at the old geezer riding his pushbike into town like he did every weekday morning, read the paper in the library and enjoy the air conditioning or the heat. Michaela wiped an arm across her forehead and guessed today it would be air conditioning. The old guy lived further down the dirt road in a house even more antiquated than hers. She had at least persuaded her grandmother to insulate the ceiling, even though the rest of the place was still scrim behind the faded wallpaper. One day, she told herself, and the very thought made her tired. She fished the mail proper out of the box. There was never much. It was the twenty-first century and her phone and power accounts came by email. But she made the trip to the mailbox at the end of the drive regardless. There was a postcard. She stared at the picture on the front, a picturesque scene of fall leaves somewhere in America. She flipped it over, hands trembling slightly and she cursed under her breath. The words blurred and she stuck the card in the pile of junk mail and turned back to the house, whistling for her grandmother’s old dog to follow. ‘Mack,’ she called. ‘Come on.’ The dog pulled his head out of the ditch and left the scent of rabbit to trail after Michaela down the drive.

The house was cool. Not from fancy air conditioning, but the simple fact of the day being early and the house shady. Mack flung himself in his favourite spot on the cracked red linoleum by the refrigerator and closed his eyes. Michaela ignored him and smacked the mail down on the bench. She wrenched on the tap (faucet, tap, who the hell gave a shit) and splashed some cold water on her face, scrubbing with her hands. She turned the tap off and sniffed, reaching for a tea towel to dry her face. Pawing through the mail she plucked out the postcard and turned it over in her hands to read the back. ‘Tourist season,’ she read. ‘All the pretty tourists here to see the fall leaves. Sure is a sight worth seeing!!!’ Michaela chewed her lip and re-read the card. Typical Trisha, she thought. Ambiguous as always. Were the fall leaves the sight worth seeing? Or the pretty tourists? Michaela sighed and propped the card against the sugar bowl. She was putting her money on the tourists. Putting the jug on to boil for coffee, Michaela put fresh water into Mack’s bowl and scratched the sweet spot behind his ears. There was no one else around, so she spoke to the dog. ‘Eh Mack, what we going to do, boy?’ The dog leaned into her hand but otherwise made no reply. Michaela gave him a pat and moved away to make coffee. She took it out onto the porch and sat in her grandmother’s old swing seat. Mack followed and threw himself down in the sun. Michaela looked around and sipped her coffee, still thinking about the postcard. It was eight months since she’d flown out of the States and back home for her grandmother’s last few days. Trisha hadn’t come with her. A month before the phone call from New Zealand, from the old geezer down the road, as it happened, his voice cracking and loud as he struggled to tell Michaela her grandmother was in the hospital and not expected to last more than a week; a month before this, Trisha had decided she was going to go home to her family and try patching things up there. She was still shaken by what that bastard Gardener had done, trying to murder his mother, and only narrowly stopped from succeeding by the actions of Michaela and Trisha. They’d made a sure-fire team, all right, her and Trisha, Michaela thought, putting a booted foot on the porch railing and pushing herself on the swing. And she understood Trisha needing to spend some time with her family, of course she did. But it had all fallen apart. She’d had her dissertation to finish, then the call home. And now. Now there was a house and a dog and an orchard. She sniffed and checked the time, digging a watch out of her jeans pocket. The strap had broken and she hadn’t bothered to replace it. She saw the time and planted both feet on the ground standing up so that the swing bumped against the back of her knees and Mack looked up from where he was lying, ears raised as if to ask what’s the fuss? ‘Meeting with the manager, boss dog,’ Michaela filled him in. ‘And fuck it, I’m going to be late.’

By the time she’d met the manager, a sunburned guy in his forties who seemed to know what he was doing, and who seemed to view Michaela with her tattoos and half-cocked American accent and her English lit degree as vaguely more baffling than the average sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, and they’d taken a tour of the orchard, discussing the upcoming season in detail, Michaela had had enough of the day. The sun was sinking when she swung open the door to the house and stepped inside. She was knackered, if she did say so herself. She pulled open the door of her grandmother’s ancient refrigerator and fished out a beer. It wasn’t hard, there was only beer and a limp half a lettuce in there. Damn, she’d forgotten to go to the supermarket. Again. She pulled the cap off the bottle and leaned against the bench, drinking half the small bottle in one go. Damn it but she was tired. The manager was an asshole, she’d decided halfway through the day. Though truthfully, she’d decided this months ago, within half an hour of meeting the guy. But he was, she knew, an asshole who knew how to do the job. She wiped her sleeve across her forehead and sighed. The man was having a bit of trouble believing she knew the first thing about growing kiwifruit. The fact that she’d lived and worked on the damn orchard with her grandmother since she was fourteen years old, was a fact he seemingly couldn’t comprehend. She put the bottle down on the tiled bench and pushed up the sleeves of her long sleeved tee. The blue lines of her tattoos twined around her wrists. She rested her head in her hands and surveyed Mack gloomily. ‘At least you have something for your dinner, boss dog,’ she told him. She straightened up and shrugged her shoulders. She was too tense. Would get a bloody headache if she didn’t relax. She snorted and finished off the beer. The postcard caught her eye and she picked it up again and re-read the words on the back. She cocked the bottle in a toast. ‘Cheers Trisha. You sure know how to cheer a woman up.’ Another sigh and she tossed the card down. She picked up her keys instead. ‘C’mon Mack. Looks like we’re eating out.’ The phone rang as Michaela was pulling on her jacket. Cursing under her breath, she snagged the portable phone and stuck it under her ear. ‘Yeah,’ she said, expecting it to be Heyward, the manager. ‘Michaela?’ A woman’s voice. ‘Michaela, that you?’ Michaela finished stepping outside and let the door swing shut behind her. The sky was turning a bruised purple as the sun went down amongst storm clouds brewing in the west. She shivered.

Chapter Two

‘Trisha?’ ‘Oh thank fucking Christ, babe. Thought I’d got the wrong number again. You know how many numbers you have to punch in when you’re calling another country? You’d think you were calling off bloody planet.’ Michaela looked up at the sky. A first, fat drop of rain fell, making a perfect round circle in the dirt at her feet. She kept her face towards the clouds. ‘Trisha?’ ‘Yeah Michaela, you said that already.’ The voice on the other end of the telephone line softened. ‘How you doing, babe? It’s been a long time, yeah?’ Michaela closed her eyes. ‘I got your postcard today,’ she said. Trisha’s voice brightened. ‘Yeah? Hey I only sent that a few weeks ago. Hope you didn’t take it seriously babe, I was only teasing, you know.’ So it had been the tourists. Michaela shook her head. Then realised of course that Trisha couldn’t see her. Probably just as well, Michaela thought, then cleared her throat. ‘I know. How’re you getting on?’ Why are you calling? ‘I’m not so bad, you know. Working in Mom’s diner, she and I are working it out. It’s okay.’ There was a pause. ‘How about you?’ The rain was falling faster now, the clouds fattening overhead, the dimes of rain darkening the ground. Michaela thought she should probably go inside. ‘Getting on,’ she replied, making no move back towards the house. Mack was standing by the truck looking at her. ‘The orchard’s a lot of work,’ she said. Lightening flashed away to the right, in the sky behind the kiwifruit vines. ‘What the fuck’s that noise?’ Trisha asked as the sky vibrated and cracked. ‘Thunder.’ ‘You standing outside or something?’ Trisha asked. ‘Jeeze babe, you standing outside or something? Fuck me Freddy that was loud.’ The rain started in earnest now, falling out of the sky in great silver sheets. Mack whined and Michaela shook herself, ran back up the steps to the house, pushing the door back open, Mack twisting past her legs, almost tripping her. She was wet, her hair plastered to her head. She took the phone with her to the bathroom and grabbed a towel. ‘You still there?’ she asked. ‘Storms come up pretty quick here, I was just on my way out to grab a bite, there’s nothing in the cupboards, I’ve been working all day, had a bitch of a day.’ She was babbling. Stopped and took a breath. ‘Trisha. Why are you calling?’ There was silence on the phone and Michaela wondered if it had gotten wet, short circuited or something. She supposed she was lucky in that case not to have electrocuted herself. ‘Trisha?’ ‘Yeah, I’m here. Listen,’ a moment’s silence again. ‘Listen, can you come over?’ Michaela put the towel down on the bench. ‘What?’ she said. ‘I need you to come over. Listen, Michaela, can you come over?’ Michaela leaned her elbows on the bench and bent over the phone as lightening flashed again. Mack whined. ‘Shush Mack,’ she said but the thunder drowned her out, rocking and rolling right over the house. Michaela jumped, and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Shit that was close,’ she said. Trisha was speaking. ‘Michaela, Michaela, you there? Damn it I can’t hear a bloody thing, what the fuck is going on there?’ Michaela stood up and pushed away the dog cringing against her. ‘Storm’s right overhead,’ she said. ‘I can’t hear anything either. Can I call you back, Trisha, I’m going to have to call you back, I can’t hear anything worth a damn and the bloody dog’s trying to climb into my lap.’ On the other end of the line, Trisha swore. ‘I gotta go to work in half an hour. I’ll call you, all right? During my lunch break.’ Another flash of lightening, followed almost immediately by a great roar of thunder. The lights flickered. ‘Yeah, that’s fine. Think the electricity’s going to go out.’ She flinched against another lightning show and crouched down on the kitchen floor with the dog as the thunder rolled over head. ‘Trisha? One thing, did you ask me to come over?’ A pause on the other end. ‘No. I said I needed you to come over. I’ll call you back, okay.’

Michaela pressed the phone’s end button, just as the lights flickered again and went out. Power was out. She laid the handset on the floor and sank down on her heels. Mack crowded against her and whined again. She wrapped her arms around him and they sat there, while the storm battered its fury against the house.

The pause between lightning and thunder grew longer and Michaela found herself holding her breath. She let it out and pushed herself to her feet, digging out her watch and checking the time. Nine o’clock. Would be midnight before Trisha called back. If she did. Michaela ran a hand through her hair. She flicked the jug on to make a coffee. She was bone weary and it was going to be a long night if she had to wait for the phone call. The jug didn’t turn on and Michaela cursed herself. Of course it didn’t turn on, the power was out. Had she forgotten? It was dark in the house. She opened the cupboard and fished out the flashlight. Damn it, she meant torch. Whatever it was called, the batteries weren’t flat and it switched on, the beam lighting up the dog in the corner, mashed against the cupboards where she’d left him. Now she knew how the expression hangdog had originated; he was hunched over, head down. ‘Hey Mack, it’s okay boy. The storm will be over soon.’ Already the lightshow was moving past the town and out to sea. The power might still be out an hour or so though. She held the light up and set about finding something to eat.

Chapter Three

She was asleep when the phone rang. Sprawled out on the couch with Mack parked under her feet like a cushion. An old desk phone was plugged in and sitting on the coffee table, just in case the power didn’t come back on. A can of peaches with a fork sticking out sat beside it. Michaela dived on the phone and Mack crashed off the couch, knocking into the table, sending everything flying. Michaela snatched at the phone. ‘Trisha?’ She was suddenly breathless, her heart pounding. The power wasn’t back on and the room was dark with shadows. Trisha answered. ‘You okay Michaela? You sound like you’ve been running.’ Michaela took a calming breath. ‘Was asleep. Power’s out, got a fright when the phone went.’ She laughed a bit. ‘Can you talk, Trisha? What’s going on?’ ‘What’s the time there? Didn’t mean to wake you.’ Trisha sounded uncharacteristically subdued. Michaela looked around at the dark room. ‘Dunno,’ she said. ‘Late. Doesn’t matter. Listen Trisha, is there something wrong? What’s going on?’ She heard Trisha breathing. Mack whined and stuck his snout into her hand. She patted him without thinking. ‘Trisha?’ ‘Yeah I’m here babe. How long will it take you to get here?’ Michaela sat back down. ‘I can’t just pick up and fly back to the States,’ she said, shaking her head even though Trisha couldn’t see her. ‘I have the orchard to run, the season’s just starting. There’s the house, and the dog.’ At the dog word, Mack jumped up on the couch and sat next to her. Michaela was shaking her head again. ‘I have all these responsibilities, Trisha.’ She squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I know you’d already gone by then, but my grandmother died, remember? And now I have everything to take care of.’ Trisha didn’t reply immediately. ‘Why are you being a bitch, Michaela?’ ‘What?’ Michaela stood up and stumbled over the toppled can of peaches. ‘Fuck!’ She wished the fucking lights would come back on. She took a deep breath. ‘I am not being a bitch, Trisha. You’re the one who wanted out, remember.’ ‘Oh jeeze, Michaela, we went through all this at the time. What, you think I should have just forgotten about my family because poor little Michaela didn’t fucking have any worth knowing?’ Michaela took a breath and let it out slowly. ‘Fuck you Trisha, that’s a miserable thing to say and you know it’s not bloody true. I supported you working it out with you mother, remember? We both bloody knew I couldn’t come with you. And you never fucking asked me to anyway!’ Trisha’s voice spat at her through the phone. ‘How the bloody shit-damn fucking hell could I? You knew that for christssakes. You still bloody know that. And it wasn’t going to be forever you dumb bitch.’ Michaela wasn’t sure but she thought Trisha might be crying. She shook her head. No way, not Trisha. But Trisha was talking again. ‘It wasn’t going to be forever, but then you picked up and flew back to the other side of the world and all I got was a fucking change of address card. So no Michaela, fuck you.’ There was silence on the line and Michaela pushed it against her ear in amazement. Trish had hung up. ‘Shit.’ That hadn’t gone well. Michaela groped around for the rest of the phone and put the receiver back. She straightened and ran both hands through her hair. ‘Shit shit shit.’ Mack barked. Michaela patted his head. ‘I fucked that one up,’ she told him. ‘Good and bloody proper.’ And with that, the lights came back on. Michaela stared at the peach slices scattered over the floor and sighed. She picked up the fork and scraped them back into the can. She walked through to the kitchen, Mack at her heels and tossed the fork into the sink, the can into the trash. Leaning against the bench, she tried to get her thoughts into some semblance of order. But all she could think was how totally she’d messed up. She looked at the portable phone sitting on the kitchen bench. It didn’t ring. She picked it up. But Trisha was at work. And Michaela didn’t think she even had Trisha’s home number. She chewed on her lip and put the phone back down. Maybe Trisha would call back when she got off work. ‘Yeah, and maybe pigs will fly,’ Michaela said. She headed to the bathroom. She’d grab a shower and hit the sack. Hell, who knew? Maybe she’d even be able to sleep.

Chapter Four

She’d slept. Dropped off round two in the morning near as she could figure. She groaned and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Another day. Mack stuck his brown head around the door and looked at her, silent reproach in his eyes. She glanced at the clock. Shit, half past nine already. No wonder Mack was looking at her like that. She snagged a pair of jeans and pulled them up her long legs, walking towards the door as she fiddled with the zip. ‘C’mon then, boy,’ she said, reaching the kitchen and opening the door so the dog could head out to do his business. Mack scooted outside without a backwards glance. Michaela sighed and filled the jug to make coffee. She rubbed at her bleary eyes and tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing today. The phone caught her eye. It sat mute on the bench while she went over the previous night’s conversation, cringing while she did. She picked up the phone and knocked herself on the head with it. ‘Fool fool fool woman,’ she said. She’d never even found out why Trisha wanted her over there. No, not wanted. ‘Needed. She said she needed me there.’ The jug boiled and switched itself off. Michaela stirred herself and put the phone back down. She didn’t think Trisha would call back, even though she’d be off work by now. No; she’d screwed it up good and proper. She tipped a couple teaspoons of sugar in a mug, added coffee and hot water. Reached into the fridge for milk and swore when there was none to reach for. The day was not off to a good start.

She spent the day outside, under dripping kiwifruit vines, checking the irrigation hoses, and fixing where they leaked. When she’d finished she was filthy and irritable. She hit the shower, pulled on clean jeans and long sleeved black tee and grabbed her keys. She hadn’t bothered to buy herself a new car yet, so Mack stood on the back of the Ute waiting, grinning at her for the first time that day. She stopped and looked at him then shrugged. Gave him a pat. ‘What the hell, boy, you love going for rides, don’t you?’ She swung in behind the steering wheel and spun down the driveway and out along the road to the highway. Nelson was nothing of a metropolis compared to the cities she’d visited in the States, but it had good places to eat and grab a beer. She liked the new Mexican cafe. Hot food, cold beer. She left Mack standing in the back of the truck and went in. Propped herself up on a stool at the long, polished bar and ordered. She’d almost finished her nachos and was downing her second beer, brooding over the phone call with Trisha. A woman slid onto the stool next to her. ‘Hey Mickey, how you doing?’ Michaela looked up into the smiling face of her one and only friend from high school. She tipped her bottle in Sandy’s direction. ‘Don’t call me Mickey,’ she said. And laughed, leaning over to give the other woman a firm hug. ‘Life’s a bitch, what can I say? You’re looking good, Sandy. How have you been?’ Sandy grabbed Michaela’s arm and pushed the sleeve up to reveal the tattoos. She raised a delicate eyebrow. ‘Wow, Mickey, these are kinda over the top, don’t you think?’ Michaela shrugged and pushed her sleeve back down. Sandy laughed. ‘You always did like making statements. You back for good then? Are you on your own? Hey I was real sorry to hear about your grandmother, she was one very cool woman.’ She turned and ordered two more beers from the bartender and waited while they were served. ‘Cheers,’ she said and smiled again. ‘So Mickey, spill your guts girl, tell me you news. Got a girlfriend?’ Michaela hesitated and Sandy pounced on her. ‘Yeah, I think so. Is that a blush I see?’ Michaela laughed and took a swig of beer. She wasn’t going to be able to drive home if she kept drinking. ‘There was someone. Over in the States.’ She shrugged. ‘It didn’t work out.’ Sandy was examining her, eyes narrowed. ‘All these years, I can still read you like a book, Mickey. That’s not the whole story, is it? C’mon, tell Aunty Sandy and I’ll buy you another drink.’ Michaela rolled her eyes. ‘Can’t drive home if I have anything more to drink.’ Sandy shrugged. ‘So, you can crash at my place tonight.’ ‘I have Mack with me.’ Sandy looked confused. ‘Who’s Mack?’ she asked. Michaela picked at the last of her nachos. ‘Gran’s old dog. I inherited him too. He’s standing outside in the truck.’ Sandy smiled. ‘Jeeze Mickey, thought for a moment your time away really had been a life changing experience.’ She laughed as Michaela shook her head. ‘What about you, Sandy,’ said Michaela. ‘You have anyone special? Where are you working now?’ They bought more food, more beer and talked and caught up until the guys in the place started giving them pointed looks. Michaela laughed. ‘I think they want to close,’ she said and they stood, paid and made their way out into a pleasantly cool night. The fresh air revived them a little and they decided to walk back to Sandy’s place. Mack was curled up asleep on a blanket in the back of the truck. He gave Michaela his reproachful look. She gave him a pat. ‘C’mon buddy, this lady is taking us home.’ Sandy lived above her shop. Michaela wandered around, admiring the place while Sandy hunted up a bottle of wine. She appeared finally, clutching the bottle and two beautiful, hand blown glasses. ‘Thanks,’ said Michaela. ‘This place is amazing. Everywhere there’s something interesting to look at. You’ve done really well for yourself.’ Sandy laughed. ‘Yeah, who woulda thought, if they’d known us in high school. Here’s me with my own shop, and you all educated and brainy.’ She toasted with her glass. ‘Here’s to us. It really is good to see you again, Mickey.’ She placed her glass carefully on the coffee table and took Michaela’s and did the same. ‘What’re you doing Sandy?’ Michaela asked. ‘Shh,’ Sandy said, and kneeling in front of Michaela on the couch, wrapped her arms around her and kissed her. Michaela could taste the wine on her breath. ‘What’re you doing, Sandy?’ she said. ‘We agreed years ago we weren’t each other’s type.’ Sandy sat back and ran her hands up Michaela’s arms. ‘These are sexy tattoos,’ she said. ‘Come on Mickey. That was back in high school. Lot’s changed since then.’ Michaela disentangled herself from Sandy. ‘Sorry Sandy, I don’t think I can.’ Sandy stood up and grabbed her glass of wine. She looked down at Michaela still sitting on the couch. ‘That sure is a shame then Mickey. You are one very hot woman.’ She laughed. ‘You have this intense, brooding thing going on, which is an amazing turn on.’ She took a sip of her wine and looked speculatively at Michaela in a way that had her squirming on the couch. ‘You’re still hung up on this American chick aren’t you?’ Michaela put her hands over her face and groaned. ‘Fuck it, Sandy, why can’t anything in life ever be simple?’ Sandy sat down beside her and stretched out her legs. ‘She called you and said she needed you over there, didn’t she?’ Michaela took her hands away from her face. ‘Yeah, but I screwed that up. She hasn’t called back.’ She sighed. Sandy shrugged next to her. ‘It’s simple, Mickey. Go there.’ ‘What’re you talking about? I can’t just go there.’ ‘Yeah, I know. You have all these responsibilities. But you also have a manager for the orchard, and I’d bet anything your gran’s old boyfriend would happily take old Mack there in.’ She set her wine down and turned to Michaela. ‘Just go, Mickey. She said she needs you. What’ve you got to lose?’ Michaela thought about it. ‘It’s not really busy on the orchard yet,’ she said. ‘Old Frank sure doesn’t mind when Mack wanders down there to visit.’ She picked up her wine glass and sipped. ‘A couple weeks away wouldn’t hurt. Would it?’ Sandy toasted her. ‘Wouldn’t hurt at all,’ she said.

Chapter Five

Michaela couldn’t get comfortable. She drummed her fingers on the armrest and earned an annoyed look from the fat woman next to her. The woman stared at her tattooed forearms and Michaela pulled her sleeves down and reached for the headphones. She didn’t know what the in-flight movie was, but anything would be better than listening to her thoughts for the next eight hours. She spent the four hour stopover drinking coffee and pacing the airport from one end to the other. She was nervous, stomach churning. She alternated between cursing Sandy for convincing her that this was a good idea, and praying she was right. Back on the plane, she fished Trisha’s postcard out of her bag and gazed at it, ignoring the interested looks from her new neighbour. The scene on the postcard was beautiful. Michaela wondered if it had been taken somewhere near where Trisha lived. Perhaps they could go there. Take a picnic lunch. Get reacquainted; work things out. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath, clutching the postcard in white fingers. Was she being an idiot? What was Trisha going to say when she saw her? For God’s sakes, Trisha didn’t even know she was coming. Michaela swallowed and wished she was sitting up front in first class so she could order something a bit stronger than coffee to drink. No, she didn’t need a drink. She just needed to think about this rationally. Just because Trisha didn’t call back at any time during the three days it took Michaela to get organised and get on this plane, didn’t mean anything. Except she’d needed Michaela and Michaela had fucked it up again. Well, now she was going to fix that one. She opened her eyes and looked down at the postcard again. It would work out okay. Trisha had needed her, right? Good grief but she wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a full eight hours in a clean, soft bed somewhere. Instead she was standing in line at customs, her leather satchel over her shoulder and a hastily packed suitcase at her feet. Just the one; she’d packed only the basics, jeans, jerseys, clean underwear and a warm jacket. She’d told Heyward, the manager, that she’d be away two weeks at the most. Why then, she wondered, had she not purchased a return ticket? ‘Because I don’t know the exact date I’ll be coming back,’ she told herself, realising with a blush she was speaking out loud. She was tired. The line was inching forward and she tried not to catch the eye of any of the uniformed guys, uniformed guys with guns. ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,’ she said, again out loud. The customs guy looked at her and beckoned her to hand over her bags. Michaela wiped her forehead with a sleeve. She didn’t cope well without proper rest. Got all drawn and pale looking. And unlike most of the women in the customs line with her, she didn’t try to disguise it with make-up. Michaela just wasn’t that sort of girl. The customs officer was checking her face against her dark blue passport. Michaela didn’t think she’d changed that much in the five years since the passport photo was taken but he seemed to be taking his time in the comparison. Bugger she wished he would hurry up; she needed to pee. The customs guy was speaking. ‘You had a stopover in Bangkok?’ Michaela nodded. ‘Yeah. Only four hours. I never left the airport.’ He was staring at her tattoos. ‘You meet anyone while you were there?’ Michaela stared at him. ‘No,’ she said. He looked back down at her passport. ‘You’ve spent a long time in the U.S previous to this year. What were you doing here?’ Michaela watched him flicking through the pages and visas. ‘I was studying at the University of Ohio.’ ‘Ohio?’ ‘They have a good literature and writing school.’ The guy looked at her again. ‘So you graduated now?’ Michaela tipped her head on the side. ‘B.A honours. Was studying for my Masters when my grandmother died and I had to go back home.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m just back here to visit a friend.’ ‘Not to finish your studies?’ ‘Not at this time. Look, why all the questions? I’m a New Zealander. Hardly a terrorist threat.’ He closed her passport and gestured at her suitcase. ‘Just doing my job,’ he said. ‘If you could come with me, please, we’ll examine your things over here.’ Michaela couldn’t believe her bad luck. What possible threat could she be, for crying out loud? She followed the muscular customs official as he carried her gear further into the room. The woman in line behind her gave her an odd look and stared after her. Michaela sat in a plastic seat, answered more questions, this time from a baby-faced blond woman with a hard-assed attitude. She was required to take off her shirt and display the inked designs on her skin, explain their significance. Sniffer dogs were brought by to give her bags a once over. Her passport was frowned over and she was questioned closely about where she was going. ‘To visit a friend,’ she said. Again. ‘What friend? Where does this friend live?’ ‘A woman I met when I was living here.’ She stared at the uniformed woman. This one was wearing a gun as well. Michaela didn’t know what sort. ‘My girlfriend,’ she said. The officer raised her eyebrows. ‘Girlfriend?’ ‘Yes,’ said Michaela. ‘She was my girlfriend when I lived here. She called me last week, said she needed to see me.’ ‘And you just packed up and came? Why did she need you?’ Michaela closed her eyes. ‘I’m here to find that out.’

Chapter Six

There was a bitter wind and Michaela pulled her jacket tighter, wishing she had a hat too. Fall in Wisconsin. Not so much of the beauty thing going on from outside the airport. Just a damned cold wind. She still hadn’t told Trisha she was coming. She’d tried Trisha’s cell phone but it was disconnected. She didn’t have a home phone number for her. How bad was that? They, both of them, had done a piss poor job of keeping in touch. Michaela shook her head. Michaela had done as much research as she could before she left home, so now she followed the signs to the rental car lot. She was tired and her bag, unpacked and then repacked by customs was weighing her down. She tucked her head down into the collar of her jacket and walked.

Michaela’s eyes were gritty from lack of sleep by the time she reached Tricia’s home town. She wished she could stop somewhere and splash cold water on her face, wake herself up some before going to meet Trisha. She eyes her reflection in the rear vision mirror. She looked wrecked. Sighing, she concentrated on the road again. It was four o’clock in the afternoon. A chance then that Trisha was working. She hoped so. She hadn’t been able to find Trisha’s address back at home, and there was none written on the post card. She scanned the road. Place as small as this, there couldn’t be too many diners, surely? There weren’t. Corner of Main and Sorrow Streets (who the hell named these places?) a diner, big windows in the front, Pat’s Place etched on them. She pulled over to the curb and looked in. Red and white décor, half a dozen customers and holding a coffee pot in one hand and order pad in the other, Trisha. Michaela felt dizzy. She coughed and tried to breathe. Hand slippery on handle, she opened the car door and forced herself out onto the street and up to the door of the diner. She took a breath and pushed it open, stepped inside. That was as much as she managed. She stood there, just inside the door, heart pounding, taking in the sight of Trisha in a red nylon uniform, a little apron tied around her trim waist. A sight. A sight for sore eyes. Trisha filled coffee cups at one of the tables and turned around to see who had come in. The smile on her face fell away as her eyes widened in shock. She groped to put the coffee pot down on an empty table and took a few steps toward Michaela, still standing by the door. Michaela swallowed, her mouth dry. ‘Trisha?’ she said. Trisha had one hand over her mouth, eyes still wide in shock. She stumbled the last few steps and threw her arms around Michaela. ‘Michaela? Oh my God Michaela, why are you here? I can’t believe you’re here.’ Michaela buried her face in Trisha’s hair. Oh God, she smelled just the same. She wrapped her arms around Trisha. There was murmuring through the diner and finally a voice spoke. Loudly. ‘Trisha?’ Trisha drew back and simply stared at Michaela instead. She angled her head toward the speaker, not taking her eyes off Michaela. ‘It’s all right Mom; I’ll just be a minute, okay?’ Trisha grabbed Michaela’s arm. ‘Come and sit down, all right? Before these people here get neck strain trying to see who you are.’ She shook her head. ‘I cannot believe you are here.’ She led Michaela to a booth along the wall and they slipped into the seats, twisting round to face each other. Michaela twined her fingers in Trisha’s. She cleared her throat. ‘I’m sorry about the phone call the other night,’ she said. ‘I was being a bitch, you were right.’ Trisha was still staring at her and though she was just an apparition and would disappear at any moment. ‘Trisha?’ Michaela was suddenly uncertain. And hot. She untangled her fingers and shrugged out of her jacket. When she looked back, Trisha was still staring. ‘Trisha? You did want me to come, didn’t you?’ Trisha blinked. ‘You came because of that? Without even knowing why?’ she took a breath and blew it out between her lips. ‘Holy shit,’ she said. Michaela shrugged. She took Trisha’s hands. ‘I missed you Trish. I’ve been missing you for months. So I came over. I’m sorry I didn’t say I would when you called.’ She ran out of things to say and gave a quick smile. Trisha took her eyes off Michaela and took a quick look around the diner. Everyone had gone back to their coffee and food. Turning back Trisha took Michaela’s face in her hands and gave her a hard kiss on the lips. She kept her hands in place and shook her head. ‘I just cannot believe you came,’ she said. ‘This is such a shock; when I saw you standing there in the doorway I thought I was hallucinating for fuck’s sakes.’ She ran her hands over Michaela’s short hair. ‘But here you are, just because I asked. You don’t even know why.’ She sat up and grinned. ‘What if I was just drunk and being an idiot when I called? And you came all this way for nothing?’ Michaela leaned forward and kissed her, a softer touching of lips. ‘It was morning here when you called. You were just about to start work, remember? Not drunk,’ she said. Trisha laughed. ‘Too clever by far,’ she said. ‘Just the way I remember you.’ She grasped Michaela’s hand. ‘I have to get back to work before Mom starts in on me. You hungry?’ Michaela realised she was. ‘Starving,’ she said. ‘Coffee be great too.’ Trisha stood up and nodded. ‘Coming up,’ she said and smiled. ‘I just cannot believe you’re here.’

Chapter Seven

There was a problem. Trisha didn’t finish work until after nine, and Michaela was ready to drop. Trisha slid into the seat opposite her and fiddled with her dishrag. ‘Would you be all right with taking a room at the hotel?’ she asked. ‘Just for tonight, I promise. Only I don’t finish work for hours yet and what with living at home, it’s all a bit awkward to arrange without warning.’ She screwed her face up and reached for Michaela’s hand. ‘I’ll come over after I finish here? Is that okay?’ Michaela turned Trisha’s hand over and looked at the soft palm, the curve of fingers. She smiled. ‘Of course that’s okay. I don’t want to cause any trouble with your mom.’ Trisha pressed her free hand to her forehead. ‘You’re not going to cause any trouble,’ she said. ‘I won’t let there be any trouble, because I reckon you’re the only one with a shit show in hell of figuring out what’s going on.’ She stood up and smiled. Michaela thought she looked tired. ‘I’ll give the hotel a call. It’s only a block down. I wish I could come with you now, Michaela, but it’ll be the evening rush soon.’ Michaela looked around at the almost empty diner. ‘A rush?’ she asked. Trisha barked a laugh. ‘Actually yeah. Anyway, I’ll organise to take tomorrow off and I’ll come down after work, okay? You don’t need to wait up or anything if you’re absolutely whacked. Maria at the desk will give me a key.’ She leaned down and gave Michaela a quick kiss. ‘A block down,’ she said. ‘On the corner, you can’t miss it. I’ll see you after, okay?’ She grinned and the old Trisha Michaela remembered was looking at her. ‘Can’t believe you’re here, babe,’ Trisha said. ‘Fuck me Freddy but it’s good to see you.’

The day outside the diner was dimming towards twilight. Michaela shrugged down into her jacket and looked around. Across the street a drugstore and hair salon butted up beside each other. A dispirited second hand bookshop lurked in the shadows on one corner. None of it looked especially prosperous, as though these businesses had been sitting hunched over the same customers doing the same business for so long no one could remember why anymore. Michaela shook off her fanciful thoughts and got back into the car, driving the couple hundred yards to the hotel. She cast a glance over it before pushing open the door. She’d been right to think the word hotel hadn’t meant five star tourist trap. It was old instead, bar, restaurant and accommodation. She went in and looked around the foyer. A murmur of voices from the right and she looked through the windowed door at a trio of old men warming a row of stools at a polished bar. She backed away and rang the bell for service. The room was small, but clean and tidy, and this one had its own bathroom, though it looked like it had probably been a closet in a past incarnation. Michaela thanked the round young woman who had shown her up and the woman giggled happily and asked if Michaela would be wanting some dinner. Michaela shook her head. ‘No problem,’ the woman said, giggling again. ‘I’ll let Trisha up when she’s off work, that be all right? She said you’re a friend of hers.’ Michaela put her satchel down on the bed and made an effort to smile at the cheerful young woman. ‘That would be great if you could,’ she said. ‘Trisha and I haven’t seen each other in ages.’ She looked down at her arms. No ink showing. The woman gave a bit of a wave and slipped out the door. Michaela closed it behind her and leaned against it. She took a breath. She was here. She’d really done it. Packed up without a moment’s warning and flown all this way because of one half-assed phone call. Was she crazy or what? Then she thought of Trisha’s expression in the diner. Shock, she thought, naturally enough, and quite a bit of delight in there too, which was definitely good, but the other? She thought maybe it had been relief, and that was the one that made her pause as she stood there, head leaned back against the door, eyes closed. Relief was puzzling, because that meant something was going on. Something Trisha thought Michaela could fix. And that was definitely a worry. She yawned, checked her watch, still having to dig it out of her pocket. No wonder she was tired. At home it was the middle of the night. She’d have a shower, lie down, watch a bit of TV before Trisha turned up. Good plan. She rubbed her face and went to her bag for toiletries. She fell asleep watching a movie she couldn’t for the life of her follow. She woke with the sensation of someone watching her.

Chapter Eight

She peeled her eyes open, head muzzy with sleep. The light was still on, the TV droning in the background. She smiled. Trisha was looking down at her, a matching smile on her face. Michaela moistened her lips. ‘You’re a vision,’ she said. ‘I fell asleep and now I’m dreaming. Wish I could dream like this every night.’ Trisha started laughing. ‘You always did say the most ridiculous things,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you remember how to shut me up,’ Michaela remarked, a smile playing around her lips. ‘Do you remember, Trisha?’ The smile disappeared. ‘I remember.’ Trisha slid down onto the bed next to her, propped up on an elbow. She reached out a hand and touched Michaela’s face, hesitantly at first, the expression on her face now one of concentration. Then she smiled, just a lifting on one corner of her mouth and flattened her palm against Michaela’s cheek. She nodded. ‘I remember too,’ she said. Michaela reached up and touched Trisha’s face. Drew her down to meet her lips. Brushed them against Trisha’s own and whispered against them. ‘I never stopped remembering,’ she said, then kissed Trisha properly, pushing her back against the pillows and flipping over until she lay on top. Trisha twined her arms around Michaela’s neck and Michaela was undone completely. She kissed lips, eyes, neck, lips again. She ran her hands over Trisha, seeking the heat of her skin, slipping under the tee shirt Trisha had changed into sometime and sighing against her as they found the warm silk of skin. Trisha squirmed and pulled her tee shirt off, Michaela sitting back to watch, eyes dark with wanting. Trisha’s skin was pale and perfect. Michaela’s eyes looked over everywhere her hands wanted to go. She leaned forward and brushed the strap of Trisha’s bra off her shoulder, then kissed the gentle slope of breast. Trisha reached for her, and Michaela let her pull off her own tee shirt so that she sat before her in only her underpants. They smiled at each other. ‘It’s good to see you baby,’ Trisha said.

Afterwards, Michaela lay sprawled and very pleasantly exhausted across Trisha’s chest. She was listening to the delicate beat of Trisha’s heart. Trisha lay against the pillows, a hand stroking Michaela’s hair, shoulders. ‘When did you get the tattoos?’ Trisha asked. Michaela held up a wrist and looked at the blue snakes entwined around it. Two of them writhed around her forearm, twisting around so they each held the other’s tail in their mouth. Trisha ran a finger over them. ‘Few months back,’ Michaela said. Trisha placed her thumb over the pulse in Michaela’s wrist. ‘They’re… fascinating,’ she said. ‘And kind of awful. You’re obviously not planning to get any sort of job where you have to show your arms.’ Michaela lifted her head and laughed. ‘Since when are you so practical?’ ‘Since I started waitressing in a small town diner. Do they mean anything?’ Michaela rolled onto her back. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Snakes are this pretty loaded symbol, of course. Most people when they think of the snake think of Adam and Eve and the snake in the garden of Eden.’ She paused and looked at her arms. Sometimes she couldn’t decide whether she’d drawn something true on herself or actually disfigured herself. She snorted and Trisha raised an eyebrow. She carried on. ‘But the symbol of the snake is much older, and it’s a really matriarchal symbol, you know? It symbolises birth, death and rebirth. Change and growth.’ She stopped and shrugged. ‘What about them eating their own tails?’ Trisha asked. ‘That just means that everything’s connected; life, death, the universe, it’s always changing, growing, but the fact that it is always changing is invariable.’ Michaela stuck her arms behind her head. Trisha cupped her chin in a hand and laughed, but it was a strangely humourless sound. ‘I would be tempted to say what a load of bullshit, except I’m becoming more and more aware that the world is full of really strange, scary shit, so I’ll go along with you, no problem.’ Michaela pushed back a stray corkscrew curl from Trisha’s face. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Strange, scary? What is it, Trish?’ Trisha lay her head down on Michaela’s breast and licked a lazy tongue over a nipple. ‘Not now,’ she said. ‘Not yet, okay. Let’s just make this reunion night, enjoy ourselves. Get some sleep even.’ It was Michaela’s turn to run her fingers through Trisha’s hair. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Sure. Come here then gorgeous.’ Trisha wriggled up the bed and they lay face to face on the bed, fingers exploring the planes of a face, lips meeting and kissing and talking their own language. Sometime during the night someone got up and turned off the lights and they lay back in the bed, silver limbed in the moonlight, arms and legs entwined, both breathing the soft air of sleep.

Chapter Nine

Michaela was hungry. Famished, in fact. She looked down at Trisha still asleep among the rumpled sheets and trailed a hand over her soft skin, leaned down and kissed her awake. Trisha blinked and stared up at her. ‘Morning, glory,’ Michaela said. ‘I should be in bed ravishing you right now, but I’m starving. Honestly, I could eat a horse and chase its rider. Had hardly anything except at your Diner last night and if I don’t eat something soon I’m going to swoon like a pretty Victorian maiden.’ Trisha was sitting up now, the sheet in her lap, full breasts beautiful in the band of light showing through the curtains. She rubbed her face. ‘What on earth are you going on about, Michaela?’ Michaela knelt down beside the bed and wrapped her arms around Trisha’s waist, burying her face in those beautiful breasts. She took a nipple in her mouth and rolled her tongue over it until it hardened in her mouth. She kissed it and leaned her head back to look at Trisha. ‘I’m wide awake, babe. And as much as I think I’d like to get back into bed and do reunion night all over again, my stomachs rumbling fit to shake the whole building.’ She kissed Trisha on the lips. ‘Know anywhere good to eat?’ she asked. Trisha laughed and looked at Michaela, fully clothed. ‘Okay, I get the picture. Can I have a shower first?’ Michaela grinned. ‘You can have anything your heart desires,’ she said and stood back to watch while Trisha climbed from bed and headed toward the bathroom, admiring the sway of female hips. She stretched and smiled. She hadn’t felt this good in how long? Months? The shower was running now and Michaela grinned again and pulled her tee shirt off and was undoing her jeans as she walked to the bathroom. It wasn’t even eight in the morning when they emerged from the hotel, Michaela carrying her suitcase to stash in the car. The morning light was a fresh, cool wash upon the day and they walked down the road to the Diner. Trisha sighed. ‘What’s the matter?’ Michaela asked. Trisha just shrugged. ‘Reality,’ she said. She took a breath and blew it out between pursed lips. ‘I feel way too good to deal with anything today.’ She looked up at Michaela. ‘Let’s just pack a lunch and blow this joint for the day, how about it?’ Michaela stopped walking. A blue and white pick-up drove past and pulled in at the diner the block ahead of them. There wasn’t any other traffic on the road. She laid a hand on Trisha’s shoulder, turning her to examine the expression on her face. ‘I don’t think you should put off telling me,’ she said after a moment. ‘Whatever it is, and you can’t tell me something isn’t going on, you’re jumpier than a kitten after string. You’re just going to stew and I’m just going to wonder, so you’d best just tell me, Trisha babe. You’d best just tell me why you called and told me you needed me here.’ She smiled and pushed a curl from Trisha’s cheek. Trisha grimaced and sighed. ‘Yeah, I know. You’re right.’ She turned down the street. ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you to my mother. We’ll have something to eat and take it from there.’ She turned and looked back at Michaela and Michaela didn’t see even a ghost of a smile on her face. She looked pale and upset. Michaela nodded and they walked together down the street.

Trisha’s mom greeted her matter-of-factly, wiping her hands on her apron first before sticking them under her arms. ‘So you’re the one Trisha reckons can help. Do you know what’s going on?’ Michaela cast a glance at Trisha. ‘I haven’t told her yet, Mom,’ Trisha said. ‘We’ll have some breakfast then go back to the house and I’ll fill her in, okay?’ Trisha’s mother looked from one to the other. ‘Where’ll she be staying?’ she asked. ‘With me, Mom,’ Trisha said, a warning tone in her voice. ‘She’s come all this way because I asked her to; we are not going to make her stay at the hotel. Besides, what use would that be? She’d never see anything.’ Michaela raised her eyebrows at this titbit, but Shirley Motton simply sniffed and turned back to her cooking. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want no funny business in front of Caro, you hear? She’s problems enough without having to deal with yours.’ Trisha stared at her mother, then grabbed Michaela’s hand and led her out of the kitchen. ‘Sorry about that,’ she whispered. They sat down in a booth and a girl in waitress uniform with a carafe of coffee came up.’ ‘Hey Trisha,’ she said. ‘You two want coffee?’ Trisha nodded, pushed their cups forward. ‘Diane, this is my friend Michaela. She’s come all the way from New Zealand to stay a while.’ Diane nodded and poured coffee. ‘Nice to meet ya,’ she said. ‘You want something to eat too?’ They ordered the breakfast special and Diane wandered away. Trisha cast a glance around the diner and took Michaela’s hand. ‘Sorry about Mom,’ she said. ‘She’s better about it than she used to be, but mostly because I’ve been keeping it out of her face.’ Michaela shook her head. ‘Don’t worry about it. My mother dropped me off to live with my grandmother when she found me kissing my best friend. I was fourteen. So I know how it goes, for sure.’ she squeezed Trisha’s hand. ‘How’s Caro?’ she asked. Trisha took her hand away and leaned her head on it. Caro was her sister. ‘Caro’s okay,’ she said. ‘She’s fifteen now and Mom thinks she’s some sort of angel child just ripe to be corrupted by her big sister.’ She shook her head. Michaela laughed. ‘Is there any such thing as a fifteen year old angel?’ Trisha smiled. ‘Caro’s probably as close to one as you could get, actually. She’s really bright. I don’t know how Mom managed to produce her. She’s better than the rest of us put together, that’s for sure.’ Michaela looked at her. ‘Don’t underestimate yourself,’ she said. Trisha just shrugged. ‘Here’s our food,’ she said.

Chapter Ten

After breakfast, Trisha led them out through the kitchen to where her car was parked behind the building. It was an old ’78 King Cobra Mustang. Michaela looked it over and whistled. Trisha smiled. ‘Not bad, is it?’ she said. ‘It was my dad’s. He gave it to me just before he died.’ Michaela was surprised. ‘We don’t know much about each other, do we?’ she said. Trisha shook her head, and Michaela thought again there was something so tired about her friend. It wasn’t the same Trisha she’d met last year up at the lake. There wasn’t near so much swearing and posturing and that was just for starters. ‘We don’t at that, Trisha agreed. ‘My dad died of bowel cancer when I was Caro’s age.’ She shrugged. ‘At least I didn’t have to have him kick me out and swear to have nothing more to do with me.’ She looked down at the car. ‘I couldn’t have handled that.’ She shrugged and unlocked the door. ‘But hey,’ she said. ‘Life goes on well after you’re done living, right?’ ‘So, where are we going now?’ Michaela asked once they were in the car. ‘I’ll drop you off at your car and you can follow me home,’ Trisha said. ‘And with a bit of luck the ghosts will jump out and say boo and you can just see them for yourself without me sounding like a dick telling you about it all.’ Michaela’s eyes widened. Ghosts? Not for real, surely? She wanted to ask, but some instinct told her not to rush. Trisha was concentrating on driving now, but she was looking almost green in the brightening fall light. Michaela reached out instead and lightly touched a shoulder, then looked out the window at the town. It was built crouched on the side of a wide green snake of a river. Main Street behind them, the town straggled and lingered like a naughty child after school. Everywhere there were trees showing their fall kaleidoscope of brilliant reds and oranges. ‘The trees are pretty,’ Michaela said. Trisha snorted. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘But not pretty enough to make us one of those rich little tourist traps.’ She shrugged. ‘We get our share, I suppose, but they’re only passing through to somewhere better. Taking the scenic route off to see the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.’ She turned the car down a residential street and pulled into the driveway of small ranch house looking neat and prim under a new coat of paint. ‘Well,’ said Trisha. ‘Here we are. I painted the place during the summer. Tidied it up a bit. Mom doesn’t get much time for stuff like that. She’s down at the diner every day of the week.’ She looked over at Michaela and Michaela thought she could see shadows in those lovely eyes. ‘Come and meet Caro,’ Trisha said.

Trisha’s young sister was probably the most beautiful teenager Michaela had ever set eyes on. The same dark curls and light olive tint to the skin as her sister, but instead of Trisha’s short stature and generous curves, Caro was tall and slender, with jean clad legs that went all the way to heaven. She smiled shyly at Michaela and her eyes were a clear, deep green. Trisha was watching Michaela look at her sister, a smile playing around her lips. ‘You’ve got a stunned mullet look on your face, Michaela,’ she said. Michaela turned glassy eyes towards her amused girlfriend. ‘This is your sister?’ she asked. Trisha laughed. ‘Real polite, babe.’ She put her arm around her kid sister’s shoulder and gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘Yup this is the kid. The hope and dream of the family aren’t you, gorgeous?’ Caro laughed and blushed at the same time and Michaela realised this girl was the real deal. Beautiful and somehow at fifteen, still unaffected. Trisha was still talking. ‘But it’s not her looks going to get her far, is it sweetheart?’ She turned to Michaela. ‘Caro’s making the top grades in the school. She’s a real swot, but that’s not the reason. She’s a bright kid. Really bright.’ Trisha gave Caro another kiss and stepped back toward Michaela. Her face was serious again. ‘I have high hopes for Caro. She has a real chance to make it in the world.’ Trisha was looking suddenly fierce now. ‘Nothing is going to ruin it for her, okay?’ Michaela looked back at Caro’s green eyes and bright red face and nodded. ‘Okay, I hear you, Trisha,’ she said. But she wasn’t really sure what she was hearing. Trisha seemed to realise it. She took a breath and lightened up. ‘Come on, let’s put your bags away,’ she said and led the way down a narrow hallway. Michaela looked around at the house as she followed Trisha. It was clean and tidy but frayed around the edges. The carpets were worn, the furniture old though serviceable. Someone had arranged some fall branches in a vase to brighten up the place, but behind the cheerful gesture, the house seemed sad and dark. Michaela shivered, telling herself not to be fanciful. It was Trisha’s brief mention of ghosts before that had the hairs on the back of her neck all fluffed up. Trisha pointed to a door. ‘Bathroom,’ she said and opened a different door. ‘It’s not the Hilton,’ she said and indicated Michaela to go in. Michaela put her bags down and turned around. ‘Are you sure I should be staying here with you?’ she asked. ‘Your mom didn’t seem too keen on the idea. It’s okay, you know, if I have to go back to the hotel.’ She looked around the little room, also clean, bed neatly made. Trisha rubbed her forehead with the heel of a hand. ‘You have to stay here,’ she said. ‘Mom’s okay with it, really. She understands the necessity. She’ll put up with it at least, though if there was a spare room, she’d probably insist you sleep in there.’ She looked back down the hallway behind the open bedroom door and her face had that tired, wan look again. Michaela looked at her, and remembered the day she and Trisha were locked in the Gardener’s rank and dark swim house, unable to get out. Then she realised. Trisha wasn’t just tired. Trisha was afraid.

Chapter Eleven

Trisha sank down on the double bed that took up just about all the space in the room. She lay on her back and drew a hand through her hair. Looked up at Michaela and tried on a smile. ‘Guess it’s time,’ she said. Michaela was feeling torn between wanting to hear what was going on and simply picking up Trisha and dragging her way the hell out of it all. Back to the hotel room for starters, then out of Dodge all together. But it wasn’t going to be the second option. She’d seen the way Trisha had looked at her sister – a fierce pride and a desperation that the girl be okay. Michaela leaned over and kissed Trisha lightly on the lips then settled down on the bed too, a waiting expression on her face. Trisha scrunched her eyes closed. ‘I don’t know how to start,’ she admitted. ‘It’s going to sound crazy no matter how I put it.’ She opened her eyes and Michaela was worried at the defeated look she saw in them. Trisha shrugged. ‘I don’t know what to do, babe,’ she said. Michaela stroked Trisha’s hair. ‘Isn’t that why you asked me to come out. So we can figure out whatever it is, together?’ She smiled. ‘We already know we make a pretty good team. Whatever it is, it can’t be worse that we’ve dealt with before.’ Trisha sat up. Her hand snaked out and grabbed Michaela’s arm. ‘It is worse. Michaela it’s worse because I don’t know what’s doing it! It’s all smoke and mirrors, you know?’ Michaela shook her head. No, she had no idea, but it was time to find out. She unhooked Trisha’s hand and kissed the white knuckles. ‘How about we make a coffee, sit down together, and you can fill me in. From the beginning.’ Trisha nodded, leaned her head against Michaela’s shoulder. ‘Glad you’re here, babe. Because I sure don’t know what to think anymore.’ There was a knock at the bedroom door. Trisha jumped up and opened it. Caro stood in the hallway, a backpack in her arms. ‘Trish,’ she said, a hesitant smile on her lips as her eyes flicked past Trisha to Michaela. She cleared her throat. ‘I’m just going down to the library to study, okay?’ She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. ‘I hate being here now, okay? I want to get out of the house.’ Trisha nodded. ‘Make sure you’re home in time for tea, all right? Do you have your phone with you in case I need to get hold of you?’ Caro nodded and backed away down the narrow hallway, giving a tiny wave to Michaela. Trisha looked after her, then turned around and sighed. ‘Let’s make that coffee,’ she said.

The kitchen was tiny. Trisha apologised for it only being instant coffee and Michaela nodded, not minding at all. She was far more interested in finding out what was on Trisha’s mind. ‘Do you mind if we take these outside?’ Trisha asked carrying the mugs out of the kitchen. ‘It shouldn’t be too cold out. And I would feel much better talking about all this outside of the house.’ Michaela took one of the mugs and nodded, following Trisha out a back door and into the yard. Down the back, a wooden table and chairs looked like they’d been placed as far from the house as possible. Trisha led her toward them and sank into one of the chairs with a tiny groan, rummaging through the pockets of the jacket she’d grabbed on the way out. She drew out a battered pack of cigarettes. Michaela took the other chair and shivered. There was a cool breeze, despite the bright blue sky. ‘I’m going to go inside and get my jacket,’ she said. ‘It’s a bit chilly out here.’ Trisha nodded, cupping a hand around the flame as she bent to light her cigarette. Michaela patted her on the shoulder and headed back to the house.

One of the other doors in the hallway was open and Michaela poked her head in out of curiosity. She guessed it was Caro’s room. The walls were papered in posters from the Twilight and New Moon movies, pretty, pale-skinned vampires looking down at her. Other than that it was a poky, dark little room and Michaela felt a pang of guilt for being nosy. She turned back and walked the rest of the way to Trisha’s room, wondering if she really shouldn’t just take a room at the hotel again. There wasn’t going to be any such thing as privacy in this house. She looked around for her jacket. She would wait until Trisha had explained what was going on before she decided about the hotel room. She found her jacket on the floor and glanced down the hallway. What was that? Michaela blinked and looked again. Just a shadow. For a minute she thought something had been there, watching her from, from where? The doorway of Caro’s room? Michaela rubbed at her sleeves. The hairs on her arms were standing up. She looked down at herself, then swung her head back towards the hallway. Something moved there. She was sure of it. She stepped over to the doorway and put a hand on the door jamb, eyes scanning the dim hallway. Nothing there. Except for the prickling on the back of her neck. She debated shrugging it off, picking up her jacket and going back outside where Trisha sat smoking, and where her coffee was going cold. Instead she took a few steps forward, moving slowly, cautious. With the doors closed, it was almost dark. Had it been this dark before? Michaela wasn’t sure. She walked down to Caro’s room and pushed the door open wider. The room was full of shadows. Ignoring the faces on the walls, Michaela stood still, only her eyes moving as she looked around the room. There. Over there beside the bed. Michaela could feel her heart beating against her chest. There was something there. Something that didn’t belong, shadows piled upon shadows. One dark, tall, vaguely human shaped. Michaela looked around; there must be something in the bedroom to throw that shadow. But she knew already she wouldn’t find anything, this wasn’t anything ordinary, and the hairs standing up on the back of her neck seconded the opinion. She watched it. And as she watched it she would have sworn it was staring right back at her. She refused to move, watching it, refused to blink and all at once it shrank back into the corner of the room, into the shadows cast by the furniture, and disappeared. Michaela backed out of the room in shock.

Chapter Twelve

Trisha looked up. ‘What took you so long? Your coffee will be cold.’ Michaela drew her jacket tighter. She was shivering. Sitting down beside Trisha she picked up the coffee mug and wrapped her hands around its luke-warm sides. She took a sip. Trisha was looking at her. ‘You okay? You look kinda weird.’ Michaela leaned over. ‘Give me one of your cigarettes, okay?’ Trisha frowned. ‘What the hell? Michaela, you don’t smoke.’ Michaela merely shrugged and Trisha pushed the pack towards her. She dug into the pack and pulled one out, lighting it and taking a breath of smoke. She didn’t cough, but grimaced and blew it out. ‘Bloody hell, these are disgusting,’ she said. Trisha was looking confused. ‘Are you all right, Michaela?’ She gestured for the cigarette. ‘Give me that, you silly bitch. You don’t smoke, and take it from me, you don’t want to start.’ Michaela handed over the cigarette and went back to her coffee. It wasn’t hot, but it was better than nothing. She thought about the hallway, and the shadow, the shadow thing she’d seen in Caro’s room. ‘There’s something in your sister’s room,’ she said. ‘That’s why you wanted me to come over.’ Trisha gaped at her. When she spoke, her voice was high and thin. ‘You saw it?’ ‘I saw something,’ Michaela replied. ‘What it was, I have no idea, but I didn’t like it.’ She looked down at the dregs of cold coffee. ‘It didn’t feel like a ghost,’ she said, thinking of the time years ago when she’d seen a ghost for sure, standing in the doorway to her own bedroom, looking for all the world like an old- fashioned, half- erased photograph of a gentleman in a top hat. She’d had other experiences since then, but that had been the start of it. But she’d seen nothing like this. ‘What is it?’ she asked Trisha. Trisha was sitting staring at her, a wide grin on her face. She jumped up from her chair and punched the air. ‘I knew it!’ Trisha said, doing a little two-step. ‘I fucking knew you were the right person to deal with it.’ She grabbed Michaela’s face and kissed her smack on the lips. ‘I love you, Michaela.’ I love you? Michaela tucked that nugget away for later perusal. She shook her head instead. ‘You’re going to have to tell me what you know,’ she said. ‘I saw something, but I’m not even sure what, so don’t go getting too excited yet.’ Trisha was shaking her head too. ‘No fucking way, Michaela, I don’t care. You’ve been here all of five shitting minutes and it showed itself to you. I knew I was right to call you.’ She took a drag on the cigarette and pulled her fingers through her hair. ‘I don’t know what it is, babe. All I know is we gotta get rid of it. I don’t like it, and Caro is scared out of her fucking mind, I’ll tell you that for free.’ Michaela held up her hands. ‘Slow down Trisha. Let’s start at the beginning, okay?’ She eyed the house. She would have liked another cup of coffee, but truthfully, she didn’t much fancy the idea of going back into the house. She shivered again as she remembered the sensation of being watched, of that dark shadow like cancer on an x-ray. ‘How do you guys manage to stay here?’ she asked without thinking. Trisha slumped back down in the chair beside her. ‘Where’re we going to go, babe? Don’t have any choice.’ She flicked the cigarette away and inched her fingers towards the pack for another. ‘I could leave, sure. But what about Caro? She can’t go anywhere. And Mom’s as useful as tits on a bull.’ ‘Has she seen it too? Your mom, I mean?’ Trisha nodded and pulled a cigarette out. ‘She’s seen something, anyway. None of us knows what to call it.’ Michaela looked up at the sky, thinking. ‘What do you see?’ ‘Some sort of black shadow fuck.’ She shuddered and took a deep drag on the cigarette. ‘It lurks around. Caro complains it watches her at night. Stands by her bed and watches her. Fuck, just the thought of that scares me to death. What the hell is it?’ Michaela shook her head. She had no idea. She was still amazed she’d even seen anything. How weird was it to just walk into a place and see something like that straight away? Almost as if the thing had wanted her to see it. Or it had wanted to take a look at her. Which was worse? She looked at Trisha. Trisha’s exhilaration had left her and she looked pale and drained again. ‘Have you seen anything else?’ Trisha seemed to understand what she was asking. She shook her head. ‘Just the shadow. Though sometimes I think there’s more than one of them.’ She took another puff on the cigarette and stared off into the distance. ‘Sometimes I’m sitting at the table, okay? Late at night, I can’t sleep. I’ll see something out of the corner of my eye. Movement. A dark blur or something. Turn around and there’s nothing there.’ She moved her dark eyes until she was looking at Michaela again. ‘Just shadows, babe,’ she said. ‘But there’s nothing there throwing these shadows.’ Back into the distance again. ‘And I don’t think they’re friendly either.’

Chapter Thirteen

Michaela tried to think logically. There were things she needed to know if she was going to make a start on getting to the bottom of this. If she even wanted to, that was. She remembered the sensation of being watched, of turning around and seeing that inky mass of shadow lurking in the depths of the bedroom. A shadow, she thought, could hide anywhere. Move anywhere. But shadows were just patches of darkness caused by objects blocking the light. She looked down at the ground. There was her own shadow, long and vaguely Michaela-shaped, flattened against the grass. Harmless. Not a normal shadow, then. Michaela almost smiled to herself. Well, duh, not a normal shadow. So what did that make it? An entity of some sort. Michaela looked across the table at Trisha. She looked beautiful in the slanting sunlight. Even puffing nervously at yet another cigarette, left leg juddering as she tapped her foot. Her customary bravado was missing, but she was still beautiful. Michaela would have come all this way just to sit right here and look at her. An entity of some sort. This wasn’t good. But it did bring to mind the next questions to ask. Michaela picked up Trisha’s lighter and fiddled idly with it as she thought. She was aware that Trisha was looking at her, but she didn’t open her mouth just yet. If it were an entity of some sort, well then, what sort was it? And why was it here? Did it want something? Was it already getting something? Jeeze, that was a bad thought. Michaela tapped the lighter against the table, in time with Trisha’s foot. The last question, of course, was how do you get rid of it? That was the one you really wanted to hit on the head. Michaela looked up. ‘Let’s go have another look inside,’ she said. ‘Maybe I can look in Caro’s room?’ She picked up her empty mug. ‘I’d love another coffee too.’ She stood up and Trisha stepped forward and wrapped her arms round her. Michaela put down the cup and hugged her back. ‘What’s this for?’ she asked. Trisha looked up at her face. ‘You believe me, don’t you? That something’s there, that something’s going on?’ Trisha’s eyes were moist and Michaela suspected she was close to tears. Somehow that was the worst thing of all. That Trisha, so cocky and sure of herself, was scared. Michaela tipped her head down and kissed the woman in her arms. ‘Yeah, I believe it,’ she said. ‘Of course I do. I saw it.’ But Trisha was shaking her head. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘Most people, even if they’d seen something, wouldn’t believe it even then. You, you just accept it and start puzzling out what it could be.’ Michaela tightened her arms, but Trisha wasn’t finished. ‘You’re amazing,’ she said. ‘Last year, by the lake, you figured out what was going on and I know you’ll do just the same this time.’ Michaela frowned and took Trisha by the shoulders. ‘For starters,’ she said, ‘last year at the lake it was both of us who did that, both of us who figured out what was going on and we both did something about it.’ She was shaking her head now. ‘And this is different. You know it is; this is no hoax or anything, you know that. And I may not be able to get to the bottom of it in a million years. We may not be able to figure it out at all, this time.’ Trisha stared at her. She shrugged. ‘You will,’ she said. ‘If anyone can, you will.’ She turned toward the house and sighed. ‘Shall we go in?’ Michaela followed her in and wandered around the house while Trisha made more coffee. She opened every door and peered into the corners. She felt terrible snooping around the house but Trisha just told her to go ahead. But there was nothing to see anyway. Whatever had been here before, it didn’t seem to be around now. Michaela went back to the kitchen and took a sip of her coffee. ‘When did it start?’ she asked. Trisha shrugged. ‘Few months back, I guess. Something scared the shit out of Caro one night and she came barrelling into my room babbling about someone watching her. I searched the whole fucking neighbourhood that night.’ She took a sip of her drink. ‘Didn’t find anyone, of course. It kept happening though. Someone dressed in black, Caro kept saying. A shadow man, she said, except I didn’t know what the fuck she meant by that. ‘Then one night I was up late, worked the late shift at the diner, too wired to sleep. I was sitting over there.’ She gestured at the dining table. ‘Saw something. Out of the corner of my eye at first, just movement. Something dark. Shadows.’ Trisha shuddered at the memory. ‘Shadows like out of some fucking horror movie, gathering just out of sight, watching.’ She sighed, shrugged. ‘And it’s been the same story ever since. I only see them out of the corner of my eye, but Caro says they stand around her bed and watch her.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘Can you imagine how terrifying that must be?’ Michaela thought about what she’d seen. Would she want to wake up in the middle of the night and see that looking down at her? No way, and she’d woken up to see other things. Ghosts. That shadow in the hallway and then the bedroom though; that wasn’t any ghost. She didn’t think so anyway. It had felt, for that moment, like something with absolutely no vestiges of humanity. She looked around. ‘I don’t think there’s anything here at the moment,’ she said. ‘Not that I can see anyway.’ Trisha moved past her to go outside. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘It’ll be back tonight.’

Chapter Fourteen

Trisha broke the silence that had descended over them as they sat outside staring back at the house. ‘So what do we do first?’ she asked. She blew out a stream of smoke. ‘Ugh I’m smoking too damn much.’ Michaela laughed and reached over, tugged on a curl. ‘Don’t think now’s exactly a good time to try quitting,’ she said. ‘Yeah, ain’t that the truth.’ Trisha stubbed the cigarette out and sighed. ‘Let’s get out of here babe,’ she said. ‘We can drive over to Kenosha. There’s a bar there, has live music on Saturday nights. We can drink too much, dance too much then find a room and fuck till the sun comes up.’ She looked over at Michaela. ‘What do you reckon?’ Michaela leaned over and grabbed Trisha by the back of the neck, pulling her close enough to kiss, which she then proceeded to do, exceedingly thoroughly. When done she looked into Trisha’s dark eyes and smiled. ‘I especially like the part about fucking until the sun comes up,’ she said, ‘but perhaps my gorgeous woman, we should take a rain check on that particular plan.’ Trisha stuck out her tongue and they both laughed. ‘Ah, fuck it all, you’re right of course,’ Trisha said. Then she looked at Michaela. ‘But it’s a date for next Saturday, all right?’ Michaela grinned. ‘Deal,’ she said, then sobered. She fingered Trisha’s long curls, winding them around her long fingers. ‘Trisha?’ she said. ‘I know we had last night together, but I’m not interrupting anything, am I?’ That wasn’t quite what she wanted to know. She cleared her throat and tried again. Trisha was looking at her curiously. ‘Are you seeing anyone, is what I guess I’m asking. I mean, if you’re seeing someone, you’re under no obligation to me. To go to bed with me, I mean.’ She gave up, subsided in silence. Trisha was staring at her, fine arched brows raised. She looked momentarily uncomfortable before curling her mouth up in a smile. ‘It’s okay,’ she said. She swept an arm around. ‘Have you noticed the size of this place?’ she asked. ‘Place isn’t exactly swarming with potential dates.’ Michaela nodded, embarrassed. But she’d had to ask. She just didn’t think Trisha was the type for celibacy. She leaned back against the chair. She was tired again and checked her watch which was still on Antipodes time. No wonder she was tired. Maybe she should eat something. ‘I need something to eat,’ she said. ‘What about we pick Caro up from wherever she is and grab a bite to eat. I could ask Caro some questions.’ ‘She’s at the library,’ Trisha said, looking preoccupied. ‘What’s wrong?’ Trisha shrugged. ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Bit tired, I guess.’ She stood up and stretched. ‘Yeah okay, let’s do that then. I could do with something to eat too. Although maybe not at the diner, all right? I’m sick of that place.’ ‘Which reminds me,’ Michaela said. ‘Do you have to work?’ Trisha shook her head. ‘Told Mom I was taking a few days off. She said she’d get someone to cover.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ll have to go back after the weekend probably.’ Michaela nodded. ‘No problem,’ she said. Trisha stuck her cigarettes in her pocket and picked up the mugs. ‘I’ll put these away,’ she said, ‘then we’ll go, shall we?’ Michaela nodded and watched Trisha walk towards the house. She looked around at the tiny back yard, the fence that needed a paint and a narrow strip of garden where someone had made a mostly futile attempt to brighten the place up. It wasn’t much of a place, but she guessed it was enough. A roof over your head. Except for those shadows. Michaela chewed on her lip. What was she going to do, for crying out loud? What was there that she possibly could do? Trisha was dreaming if she thought Michaela could not only figure out what the hell they were, but get rid of them as well. She was tired. She only had to think logically about the problem, and she’d be able to make some headway on it at least. That’s the way things worked. But she needed something to eat, and she needed to get over this jet lag as well. Rubbing her face, Michaela walked over to the car to wait for Trisha. Oh God but it was good to see Trisha again. It made her realise just how damned much she’d missed her the last eight months or so. But that wasn’t the thing to think about either. There was an orchard at home with her name all over it. Responsibilities. She had them back in NZ, Trisha had them here; what bloody hope was there? Trisha came down the steps, car keys in hand. She stopped in front of Michaela. ‘Ready to go?’ she asked. Michaela nodded. Then changed her mind. ‘Wait a minute,’ she said. ‘I just want to do this first.’ She buried her fingers in Trisha’s dark tangles and bent down until their lips touched. She lingered there, just a press of lips against each other, closing her eyes, feeling the strong swirl of emotions fill her. Trisha’s arms snaked around her neck and Michaela lifted her slightly, pulling her against herself and kissing her properly now, feeling all the frustration and sadness of the last few months pushing tenderness aside. She stopped and pulled back. Trisha opened her eyes and stared at her. ‘Wow,’ Trisha said, some color in her face now. ‘What was that for?’ Michaela shrugged. ‘Let’s go get something to eat, okay?’ Trisha stared at her. ‘Okay.’

Chapter Fifteen

The library was a surprisingly pleasant, modern building, slung low to the ground, windows curving around the perimeter to let light in. Michaela waited in the car while Trisha went in to get her sister. She adjusted her long legs in the foot well and tapped her fingers nervously, wishing she wasn’t so tired. She felt punchy, her eyes gritty. Hopefully some food would help. Trisha and Caro returned to the car, looking like they were arguing over something. Caro scrambled into the back seat and sat silent. Trisha started the engine. ‘Let’s grab a meal at the hotel, yeah?’ she said. ‘I don’t think I can stomach more fried food at the Diner.’ There was a snort from the back seat and Trisha’s face tightened. Michaela wondered what they’d been arguing about. She decided she didn’t care, it would only be some sort of sister thing she didn’t understand. She rubbed her eyes. If she didn’t get something to eat shortly she was going to fall asleep where she sat. ‘Wherever you want to eat is fine by me,’ she said, then lapsed into a silence to match everyone else’s in the car. She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.

The food was good. Michaela could feel her head clearing as she ate. ‘God did I need this,’ she said. She looked at the other two, both of them merely picking at their food. ‘All right,’ she told them. ‘What’s going on with you two?’ Trisha looked up. ‘Nothing,’ she said. She pushed her plate away. ‘Guess I wasn’t that hungry after all.’ She looked at Caro. ‘What about you?’ she asked. Caro looked up from her plate and shrugged. ‘I’m fine,’ she said, staring at her sister. Michaela looked at them both, feeling like something was going on. Maybe Caro had been talking to someone at the library Trisha didn’t like. Who knew? She cleaned up what was left on her plate. ‘You want a drink, Trisha?’ she asked. Trisha nodded. ‘Yeah, a beer thanks.’ ‘What about you Caro, you want a Coke or something?’ The girl shrugged, so Michaela went off to get the drinks anyway. She thought about the house and wondered how to broach the subject and ask the questions she needed to when Trisha and Caro were clearly fighting about something. Well, she decided, they would just have to get over themselves. She picked up the drinks and went back to their table. The plates had been cleared away and Caro was fiddling with a napkin. Trisha was leaning back in her chair, arms folded. Michaela set the drinks down. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘What’s going on between you two? Do I even want to know?’ She sat down and swallowed a mouthful of beer. ‘We really need to be on the same side here, you know.’ Trisha sighed and sat up. ‘Sorry Michaela, we’re just having a bit of a disagreement.’ ‘Yeah, cos you’re being a bitch,’ muttered Caro. Trisha spoke before Michaela could. ‘For fuck’s sakes Caro, shut up.’ Michaela looked from one to the other. ‘I’m tired,’ she said at last. ‘I flew half way round the world yesterday and I’m just a wee bit jet lagged, so can you two please sort out whatever it is so we can get on to the real issue here? I need to get some sleep, but damned if I’m going to want to sleep in that house without just a couple of questions answered.’ She lifted her glass and drank. The sisters looked at each other. Caro shrugged finally and picked up her Coke. ‘Sorry babe,’ Trisha said. ‘We’re all a bit strung out, I guess. Caro was looking at Michaela. ‘Trisha told me about last year, you guys saving that old lady from her son. It’s really cool that you figured out the lights and ghost and shit were fake.’ ‘Jeeze Caro, watch your language.’ Trisha seemed genuinely offended. Caro gaped at her, then started giggling. ‘You’re telling me that?’ With that, the tension around the table evaporated. Michaela looked at them, both of them giggling like a pair of lunatics. ‘I just do not understand women,’ she said, shaking her head. That made them laugh harder, Caro laughing and choking on her Coke. Michaela stared, then replayed her own words and started laughing too. They were gathering looks from the people around the other tables when Michaela rested her head in her hands and made an effort to pull herself together. ‘Come on guys,’ she said, smothering the last of her laughter. ‘Oh God, my sides are sore from laughing.’ Trisha wiped her eyes and Caro stifled her giggles, looking at Michaela’s arms. Her sleeves had slipped back to show the blue lines of her tattoos. ‘Cool ink,’ Caro said. ‘What’s it of?’ Michaela shrugged and pulled back one sleeve to show Caro the snakes around her wrists. Caro put out a finger and traced the lines. ‘They’re amazing,’ she said. ‘Snakes are such awesome symbols, you know. The power of regeneration and all that. This is just like the old kings and chiefs had around their arms, to symbolise their relationship to the land and the cycle of the seasons.’ She looked up at Michaela. ‘What?’ she asked. Michaela pulled her sleeve down. ‘You’re amazing,’ she said. ‘Most people wouldn’t know that stuff.’ Caro shrugged. ‘I like magic and symbolism and stuff. It interests me.’ She gave a sly smile. ‘I found this cool book in the library a while ago. Mists of Avalon. Written ages ago, but it was really good. King Arthur had tattoos just like that.’ ‘Told you she was bright,’ Trisha said. ‘Totally annoying what with knowing every damn thing, but you gotta give her points for getting stuff right.’ Michaela looked at Caro more closely then looked around to see if anyone was sitting near enough to them to hear, then turned to Caro. ‘I was at your place today,’ she said. ‘I saw it. The shadow thing. It was watching me from the hallway then disappeared into your room.’ Whatever Caro had been expecting to hear, it clearly wasn’t this. The blood disappeared from her cheeks, giving her a shocked, sallow look. ‘You saw it?’ she said. ‘In broad daylight, just like that?’ Michaela nodded. ‘Not only that, but I saw it before Trisha even told me what was going on.’ She thought about what Caro had said about the tattoos. ‘Do you have any idea about what it is?’ Caro nodded. ‘I found hundreds of stories about them on the internet.’ Michaela and Trisha stared at her.

Chapter Sixteen

They got out of there within minutes, all of them talking at once. Until they got back home. Trisha parked the Mustang in the driveway and silence fell in the car. ‘I don’t like it at home anymore,’ Caro said after a moment. ‘I wish I was old enough to go away to college already,’ she said. ‘You’d miss Mom,’ Trisha said in a way that made Michaela guess she’d said the same thing several times before. ‘Mom’s never around,’ Caro replied. ‘She’s always at her precious Diner.’ Still staring at the house. ‘The Diner is what pays for your food and clothes.’ Caro snorted. ‘Food maybe. I have to work there to pay for my own bloody clothes.’ Caro was crouched forward between the two front seats. Trisha took one of Caro’s hands and squeezed it. ‘You’ll be away to college before you know it, kiddo.’ ‘Sure.’ Caro’s knuckles whitened in Trisha’s hand. ‘But let’s leave now, all right? We can get an apartment somewhere, I’ll work part time after school, we’d manage fine, you know?’ Trisha took her eyes off the house and looked at her sister. Michaela shifted in her seat. ‘Mom would never let you leave with me,’ Trisha said. ‘You know she wouldn’t let you do that.’ ‘Mom won’t even be home tonight,’ Caro replied. ‘I’ll bet you anything you like she’ll sleep above the Diner. She refuses to rent out the apartment above it because it’s where she prefers to live.’ Trisha didn’t say anything. Michaela gave them a minute then cleared her throat. ‘You want to show me what you found on your computer?’ she asked Caro. ‘Yeah, sure. Whatever.’

The lights sent the shadows fleeing to the corners of the room. Caro disappeared into her room. ‘You want a coffee?’ Trisha asked. ‘Please,’ Michaela replied. ‘Does your mom really sleep over at the Diner? She asked. Trisha moved around the kitchen. ‘Since I’ve been back, yeah. But Caro told me she was spending a three or four nights a week there before that too.’ She spooned instant coffee into the mugs. ‘I don’t think we’ll see much of her.’ She stirred in the hot water and carried Michaela’s cup to her. ‘It’s why I’m still here.’ ‘Thanks,’ Michaela said, taking the cup from her and setting it down on the table. She smoothed Trisha’s hair back from her face. ‘You’re doing the right thing,’ she said. Trisha stared back at her. ‘I know.’ Michaela nodded; she deserved that. ‘I wish I’d known earlier.’ Trisha shrugged. ‘What was the point of telling you? By the time I knew how things really were here, you were gone back to New Zealand when your grandmother died.’ Michaela rested her forehead against Trisha’s and gazed into her eyes. ‘Nothing’s ever easy, is it?’ she said. She drew Trisha closer and wrapped her arms around her, finding her lips. A voice interrupted them. ‘Get a room, guys, jeeze, this is supposed to be G-rated around here. Save the hot and heavy girl on girl action for somewhere else. ’ They drew apart, Michaela feeling a blush spread over her face. ‘Zip your mouth, little sister,’ Trisha said and Caro shot her a look Michaela couldn’t make out. Caro was holding a sleek silver laptop. Michaela nodded at it. ‘Show me what you have,’ she said. Caro put it on the table and opened it. She fiddled round with cables a moment. ‘We’ve only got a dial-up connection, so I have to plug this in. It takes so much longer with dial up,’ she said. ‘Nice computer,’ Michaela said, watching it boot up. ‘Yeah, I got a really good deal on it,’ Caro said. ‘And really bloody sore feet waitressing to pay for it.’ Michaela laughed, she couldn’t help it. ‘You sound just like your sister,’ she said. Trisha was scowling. ‘I told you to mind your language.’ ‘Don’t be such a hypocrite,’ Caro told her. ‘Besides, I am nowhere as bad as you.’ Michaela laughed again and looked at Trisha. ‘She’s right babe, no one I’ve ever met has quite your facility with language.’ Trisha pulled a face and dug around for her cigarettes. ‘Ah fuck up the both of you,’ she said. They all laughed and Michaela decided that despite the fact she was dog tired and somewhere in this very house there was something quite strange and awful, despite all that, at this very moment, she wouldn’t have wished to be anywhere else. Caro was sitting at the table now, typing into the search engine. The page changed with a few clicks of Caro’s mouse and the screen went black. Michaela leaned forward as she watched the page load. Black background, gold lettering for the title. She gave a low whistle. ‘There’s a whole site dedicated to this?’ she asked. ‘Yeah,’ said Caro. ‘There’s this site, and hundreds of others.’ Michaela saw her shudder. ‘Those things in my room, that thing you saw today, Michaela, everyone’s seeing them.’ She pointed at the page. ‘Everyone’s seeing them, but no one knows what they really are.’ Michaela stared at the title and image on the screen in front of her. Trisha walked around the table until she could see too. ‘You never showed me any of this, Caro,’ she said. Caro shrugged. ‘Too freaky,’ she said. They lapsed into silence then. Michaela lifted her eyes from the screen and looked around the room. Suddenly the electric light seemed very yellow and dim against the darkening afternoon pressing against the windows. The hallway was shadowy behind the partly open door. She looked back down at the screen. ‘Okay then,’ she said. ‘We’ll start with this.’ Her voice sounded steadier than she felt. She read the heading on the page again. The Official Shadow People Archives.

Chapter Seventeen

Trisha sat perched on the window sill, her feet on the table and the window open so she could lean out and smoke. Caro went off, muttering something about having a shower. Michaela bent over the laptop, reading from the screen, a frown creasing her brow. ‘Maybe Caro’s right,’ Trisha said. Michaela clicked the mouse on another link. ‘Right about what?’ ‘Leaving. Maybe she and I should pack up and go somewhere else. I could look after her as easily as myself.’ Michaela looked up. ‘How old is she?’ Trisha stubbed out her cigarette in a saucer she was using as an ashtray. ‘Fifteen,’ she said. Michaela looked back at the computer. ‘Doesn’t she need to be sixteen to leave home? Otherwise you’ll run into all sorts of shit with your mother. You can’t really be serious about taking her away from her mother anyway, can you?’ ‘She’s sixteen in two months. And you know what? Mom’s never home, Caro was right about that. And even when she is, she’s sleeping. Caro had been pretty much raising herself until I got here. I should have known, you know? I should have known what it would be like for her.’ Michaela stopped reading. ‘How could you have known?’ she asked. ‘You got kicked out, if I remember what you told me. How were you supposed to stick around for your little sister if you weren’t even allowed in the house?’ Trisha lit another smoke. ‘I still should have come back earlier,’ she said, blowing twin streams of smoke out her nose. ‘I should have stuck around anyway.’ Michaela watched her. ‘There’s no point thinking that way, babe. You came back, and you’re not too late. Look at her – Caro’s the most together 15 year old I’ve ever met, and this is despite everything. And I reckon you probably came home at just the right time.’ Trisha sniffed. ‘Yeah, I suppose so. It’s the way it’s turned out anyway. But when she’s 16, if she wants to go, I’ll take her.’ She pulled at the cigarette again. ‘I’m going to go bat shit if I have to stay here much longer.’ Michaela looked down at her hands. ‘Where are you going to go?’ Trisha shrugged. ‘Dunno babe. Out of this shit hole for sure. Somewhere with more than two streets.’ Michaela wondered if the small town she lived in would be counted as a shit hole. It might have more than two streets, but it wouldn’t be many more. ‘What’s it like at your place?’ Trisha must have read her mind. Michaela shrugged. ‘Beautiful, I guess,’ she said. ‘I’m not far from the sea, and on the other side there’re mountains and rivers. Lot of tourists in summer.’ She shrugged and mentally kicked herself. Could have talked the place up just a bit, surely? ‘It’s a small town, though, right?’ Michaela nodded. ‘But Nelson’s half an hour away, lots of shopping and places to go there. Or you can take a ferry across to Wellington, which is the capital.’ She stared at the computer screen, not wanting to see Trisha’s expression. ‘Sounds nice,’ Trisha said. She scooted down from the window sill and sat next to Michaela. ‘You finding anything useful?’ she asked. Michaela thought about it. There was an awful lot of information here, but it was all of the same sort. Eyewitness reports for lack of a better term. She rubbed her eyes. ‘Well, I guess so,’ she said. ‘It’s a start anyway, but I’m getting too tired to make any sense of it.’ She looked around the room. ‘I can’t see or sense anything here at the moment, can you?’ Trisha leaned against her and shook her head. ‘No, but I don’t even want to.’ ‘How does Caro manage to sleep at night?’ Michaela asked. ‘With the light on, I think,’ Trisha replied. ‘And some nights she’s not the only one.’ Caro came into the room, carrying a hairdryer she plugged into the wall. ‘What do I manage to do?’ she asked. ‘Michaela was just asking how you manage to sleep at night, with this, you know.’ She gestured at the computer screen. Caro pulled a face. ‘Badly,’ she said. ‘With the light on half the time, and the other half I’m buried under the blanket wishing I was anywhere on earth but in this house.’ Michaela frowned. ‘Do you think they, these shadow people as these people call them,’ ‘Or shadow fucks, as they’re more commonly known,’ Trisha said. ‘Yeah, whatever,’ Michaela said, still looking at Caro. ‘Do you think they’re attracted to the house?’ She didn’t quite want to add the rest of her question – or are they attracted to you? But Caro was right there with her. ‘Do I think they’re attracted to the house, or to me?’ She fiddled with the hairdryer, thinking about it. ‘I want it to be just the house,’ she said at last. ‘But I really don’t know.’ She pointed at the laptop. ‘Everyone talks about seeing them, but no one seems to have any theories about what they are. Or what they want.’ She shuddered. Michaela rubbed her face. ‘It’s a lot to think about,’ she said. ‘And I’m too bloody tired to think straight.’ She looked at the webpage again then closed it down. ‘I need to sleep off this jet lag,’ she said. ‘Then I have some ideas for tomorrow.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I don’t even know what day it is,’ she said. ‘It’s Saturday,’ Caro said. ‘School again the day after. And in a few days it’s Halloween.’ ‘Right. Okay then. Will you be okay tonight?’ Michaela asked Caro, who simply shrugged a yes. ‘Sorry guys,’ Michaela said, ‘but I’m dead on my feet here. I feel like I’ve been here a week already and awake for every minute of it.’

Chapter Nineteen

Michaela woke with the sun and no memories of the night. She’d fallen into bed and straight to sleep. Opening her eyes, she couldn’t for a moment figure out where she was, but Trisha breathing in the bed next to her made her remember. She rubbed her face and leaned over Trisha, still sleeping soundly. She smiled and pulled back a strand of long hair from Trisha’s cheek. She was wide awake. She checked her watch and swore lightly under her breath. She really needed to change her time zones. Looking around she guessed it was still early. The light was only the dimmest glimmer from the window. The rest of the room was shrouded in shadows. Shadows. She thought of the website’s shadow people. It was an ugly thought to be watched by great gummy black shadows, some of them apparently with red eyes. What the hell were they? There was something almost vampiric about it. Not that she expected that to be what they were. It was just the gathering round, watching, bit. What did we have that they were so interested in? Michaela brooded on that as she slipped from the bed. She needed to pee and she wanted coffee. Coffee helped her think. And she was here for a reason, after all. Not just a pleasant holiday reunion with an old lover. She looked back at Trisha and suppressed the urge to go back to bed and gather the woman in her arms and not let go until she agreed to come home with her. Michaela groaned. She did not want to feel that way. Far far far too complicated. There was no way Trisha would want to go back to New Zealand with her. And there was Caro to consider now too. Michaela refused to think about it and fished around in the gloom for some clothes instead. The house was quiet. The door to Caro’s room was closed. If there was anything lurking around at the moment, Michaela couldn’t see it. She hurried instead into the bathroom to relieve herself. Then she would make coffee and plan what she was going to do. God, what was she going to do? She drew the curtains in the living room, wondering if Trisha’s mother had come home. She hadn’t heard anyone, but she might as well have been in a coma last night for all that was worth. She glanced back down the hallway but all the doors were shut. She shrugged and went back to the kitchen. She knew what it was like to have an absent mother. She’d been fourteen when her own mother discovered the magazines. Michaela had found them in the trash. Skin mags, only a couple of them, soft stuff, mostly boobs and provocative poses. She’d been fascinated by them, her skin feeling hot and flushed when she looked at the naked women inside them. But her mother had been furious and Michaela had been too startled by their discovery to lie. Instead she’d told her mother she liked the pictures, and no, she didn’t like boys at all and she didn’t think she ever wanted to get married. Most mothers would probably have blown it off, but not Elizabeth Perdue. She watched her daughter like a hawk ever after that. It was inevitable, Michaela supposed that her mother would have caught her out eventually, walking into Michaela’s bedroom one day to discover her daughter kissing another girl. Elizabeth had loaded Michaela into her car and drove seven hours to leave her daughter on her mother’s doorstep like an abandoned puppy. Michaela could still hear the yelling that went on that day as she huddled on the porch with her arms around her grandmother’s dog. Her mother never even looked her way when she finally came flying out of the house letting the door slam behind her. Seconds later it was just Michaela, the dog, and her grandmother. And that’s the way it stayed. Michaela shook herself and poured the hot water. She must still be muzzy with sleep, she decided, to be remembering things like that. Waste of time. She had other, much more important things to think about today. Outside the window, dawn was a yellow smear across the sky. She leaned against the bench and sipped her coffee, watching the light spread. She shouldn’t have thought about her mother. She screwed her eyes closed and blew out a breath. What had she been thinking about before? Ah, the relevant question. Why were the shadow people watching? What did we have that they were so interested in? Okay, that was two questions, but it was a start. Caro’s laptop was still on the table. Michaela checked that the cables were all still plugged in and turned it on. She smiled to herself when she saw it was password protected. Smart kid. She turned it off and went back to the bedroom for her own. Swopping the dial-up over to her own computer she started it up. She checked her email first, and answered a short one from Heyward, the orchard’s manager, then opened up Firefox and went on the Internet. She Googled ‘Shadow People’ and whistled when the results loaded in 2.4 seconds. Caro had been right. People were seeing these things everywhere. She clicked on a link and watched the page load. She sat down and reached for the coffee mug, scanning the page as she did. The cup was empty. She let the page finish loading while she went to the kitchen to make more coffee. There was so much information. Caro was right, though. Most of it was people writing about their experiences, usually with no attempt at using correct grammar. But in a weird way, that made it more convincing. These were just ordinary people, living ordinary lives, and all of them seeing something so extraordinary, so strange, that Michaela didn’t know what to think of it. After an hour and two cups of coffee, the sun had made it to window height and Michaela had a page full of scribbled notes, a thousand questions and still no real idea of what was going on. She stretched and yawned. She was hungry. Too much coffee on an empty stomach was not good. She listened to the house but it was quiet, the two sisters still sleeping. Michaela wandered into the kitchen and checked out the cupboards. They were pretty bare. She laced her feet into her boots and hooked her jacket from the back of the couch. She’d go find a bakery or something. Bring back something good to eat for breakfast. She had a hankering for something with lots of sugar. And then, she would ask a few questions.

Chapter Twenty

Michaela decided to walk back into town. She was used to more exercise. It was quite a hike back into town and Michaela looked around as she walked and saw few signs of life. But it was Sunday morning, she remembered. The breeze was fresh against her skin and she found herself enjoying the exercise. There was no bakery, only the diner. Feeling a little apprehensive about meeting Trisha’s mother again, Michaela nevertheless swung the door open and stepped in. There was only one other person, a thick-set man slurping coffee by the window. The coffee smelt good, but surely Michaela had had too much already. Trisha’s mom came to the counter to serve her. ‘Good morning,’ Michaela said politely. Mrs Motton stared at her. ‘What can I get you?’ she asked after a moment. Michaela made an effort to smile. ‘An orange juice, please, and something I can take back to your daughters for breakfast.’ Trisha’s mom stared at her, then nodded toward the drinks refrigerator. ‘There’s orange juice in there,’ she said. Michaela opened the fridge and got a bottle out, placing it on the counter. ‘You must work very long hours here,’ she said. The older woman shrugged. ‘Someone has to pay the bills.’ Michaela nodded. ‘I suppose so.’ Shirley moved away, put some cinnamon rolls in a bag and handed it over to Michaela. ‘I won’t charge you for that,’ she said. ‘But you’ll have to pay for the juice.’ Michaela checked the price advertised on the fridge and dug some coins out of her pocket. ‘Thank you very much, Mrs Motton. It’s been nice seeing you again.’ Trisha’s mother snorted. ‘Tell Trisha she’s working the early shift tomorrow.’ Michaela nodded and left the diner, carrying the bottle of juice and paper bag of rolls. The rolls smelt terrific. Whatever else might be said about Trisha and Caro’s mother, she could obviously cook. But Michaela didn’t think they would ever be great friends. She sighed. She had to go home in a couple weeks anyway so it hardly mattered. The walk back to the house seemed to take less time. The town was waking up now and several people eyed her as they drove by. There was a car pulled up behind Trisha’s Mustang. Michaela glanced in as she walked past. An iPod with pink headphones lay on the passenger seat. Trisha was up. Caro too. Caro was sitting at the table and Trisha was talking to a blonde in denim skirt and white sandshoes. Except Trisha stopped talking when Michaela stepped inside. Everyone looked at her. Michaela took one look at all the faces and realised what she’d stepped into. She stood in the doorway a moment, looking more closely at the blonde, who glared back, high spots of colour on her cheeks. Still no one said anything and Michaela stepped further into the room, hands full with bottle and bag. She walked over to the table where Caro was and set the things down. Before she could open her mouth to say anything the blonde spun around and flung herself out the door. ‘Bitch!’ she said as the front door slammed closed behind her. Michaela looked at Trisha. ‘Why didn’t you tell me when I asked you?’ she said. But Trisha didn’t answer. She turned instead and disappeared down the hallway. ‘I told her she had to say something. To one of you, at least,’ Caro said, and pulled the paper bag toward her, peering in. ‘Yum,’ she said. ‘Mom makes the best cinnamon rolls, you gotta give her that.’ Michaela had closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and opened them. ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I have to talk to Trisha.’ ‘If it’s any consolation I think she likes you better.’ Michaela ignored this and unzipped her jacket, feeling suddenly hot. She walked down to the bedroom. Trisha hadn’t closed the door and she went in. Trisha sat on the bed, her back to the door. She didn’t say anything. Michaela laid her jacket on the bed and leaned against the wall, looking at the other woman. She sighed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me, babe, when I asked if there was anyone?’ Trisha surprised her by laughing. ‘Jeeze what a fucking mess this has turned out to be,’ she said, twisting round on the bed to look at Michaela. ‘Julie and me, we weren’t serious. Not on my part anyway. Just fooling round, I thought. Spending some time together because there’s fucking no one else in this shitty little town.’ She pulled a face and got off the bed, coming to stand in front of Michaela, eyes searching her face. ‘You and me, that I thought was serious. Those months we spent together, those I thought were serious.’ She sighed. ‘Then I had to go home, and you fucking disappeared, and it all fell apart. Never for one minute did I think I was going to see you again. Even that morning when I rang you.’ She stopped and shook her head. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight when I asked you to come. I was just freaked out from the night before, and I guess it’s still you I think of when I need someone.’ Michaela reached out and stroked Trisha’s hair, ran her fingers lightly over her cheek. She bent and kissed Trisha’s upturned face, her hand moving behind to hold her neck. Trisha’s hands came up and held Michaela’s face. Michaela gathered her up in her arms and held her tighter. Trisha kept kissing her. Moaning lightly in her throat, Michaela picked up the smaller woman and laid her on the bed, kicking the door closed. Trisha looked up at her, eyes luminous in the morning light. Michaela knelt over her and kissed her again, leaving a trail of kisses over her face and neck. She teased her fingers under the dressing gown that Trisha wore and pulled the sash undone. Trisha smiled at her and reached down to tug at Michaela’s tee shirt, pulling it over her head and off. Michaela lay down, pressing skin to skin, following Trisha’s curves with an inquisitive hand. Trisha fumbled with button and zip on Michaela’s jeans and in a few moves they were both nude, mouths hot and hungry on each other. Trisha slipped an arm around Michaela’s neck and kissed her, pushing the fingers of her other hand deep between Michaela’s parted legs. She arched her body as Michaela reciprocated, finding each warm, wet and ready. They looked at each other, keeping eyes open and locked as they rocked together, climaxing within moments of each other, lips coming together in a kiss of shared breath.

Chapter Twenty-one

They lay, arms and legs wrapped around each other. ‘Wow,’ Trisha said. ‘That was intense.’ Michaela smiled against Trisha’s hair, which was tickling her nose, but she didn’t feel like moving. Not a single inch. ‘I want to do that again,’ Trisha said. ‘You hearing me?’ Michaela smile widened. ‘I’m hearing you,’ she said. ‘Yeah. I want to do that, and other things a whole bloody lot more times.’ Trisha shifted so she could look at Michaela. She shook her head slightly, looking serious. ‘What are we going to do, babe?’ she asked. Michaela stopped smiling and just looked at her. ‘I don’t know.’ Trisha sighed and tucked her face into Michaela’s neck. ‘I don’t know either, fuck it all.’ Michaela closed her eyes and held Trisha tighter. What on earth were they going to do? ‘You can come back to New Zealand with me,’ she said before she even knew she was going to speak. Trisha lifted her head and looked at her. ‘What about Caro?’ she asked. ‘Caro can come too.’ Trisha shook her head. ‘We can’t just go to the other side of the world.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Why don’t you stay here?’ ‘And do what?’ Trisha shrugged and rolled over on her back, letting go of Michaela. ‘We’ll work something out,’ Michaela told her. ‘Yeah, sure.’ Trisha got up and started looking for clothes. Michaela pulled her back towards the bed and kissed her. ‘We will work something out,’ she repeated. Trisha pulled away. ‘Fuck!’ she said. ‘Like fucking what? You won’t come here and I can’t go there, so we’re fucking stuck living a million fucking miles away from each other.’ Michaela looked at her, then bent to pick up her own clothes. ‘It’s not that I won’t come here, Trisha. I have a whole business to run back at home. I can’t just up and forget about that. I have ties there. What sort of ties do you have here?’ Trisha glared at her. ‘My sister? Remember her? I’m not leaving her here with a fucking mother who lost interest years ago. And I’m not fucking off on her while all this creepy shit’s going on that’s for bloody sure.’ Michaela tugged her jeans on. ‘She can come too! I’m not asking you to leave her here. Jesus Christ, Trisha, will you be reasonable for one minute?’ Trisha yanked at the buttons on her shirt. ‘Don’t tell me to be reasonable,’ she said, her voice suddenly low. ‘Don’t fucking patronise me, just because you’re the fucking big hot shot who thinks she can solve every fucking problem.’ Michaela gaped at her. Where did that come from? ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Trisha,’ she said. ‘What the hell are you talking about, Trisha?’ But Trisha just shook her head and stalked out of the room. Michaela heard voices in the living room, then a door slammed. A minute later Trisha’s Mustang started and screeched out of the driveway. Michaela sat back down on the bed. Well. That hadn’t ended up so well. She smoothed the sheet down, then got up and made the bed, moving on autopilot, wondering what Trisha was so upset about. She shook her head, nothing was ever easy, was it? Out in the living area, Caro was still sitting at the table. She looked up and grimaced when she saw Michaela’s face. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘My sister can be a real bitch sometimes.’ Michaela shook her head and sat down at the table. ‘I’m in love with her,’ she said. There was a moment’s quiet, in which Michaela could hear the mechanical hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. ‘Huh,’ Caro said. ‘You’re in deep shit then, my friend.’ Michaela looked up and couldn’t help it, she started laughing. Caro stared at her, eyes wide, then began laughing too. ‘Ah fuck,’ Michaela said. ‘Deep shit is right.’ She looked around as if just seeing the room for the first time. She needed coffee, and she was hungry. ‘Any rolls left?’ Caro nodded and pushed the bag her way. Michaela took one and bit into it as she stood and went into the kitchen. ‘How did you sleep last night?’ she asked. At the table Caro fiddled with her computer and shrugged. Michaela looked at her as she got a clean mug out of the cupboard. ‘No, I’m serious,’ she said. ‘I want to know.’ Caro gave her a smile. ‘I kinda read the notes you made,’ she said. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’ Michaela leaned against the doorway, waiting for the water to boil. ‘I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘What do you think?’ Caro pulled the note pad over. ‘No one really has a clue, do they?’ she said. ‘The theories are pretty far out.’ ‘Yeah. Everything from time travelling aliens to demons.’ Caro shook her head. ‘I’m not sure I believe in either. Though I don’t suppose there’s any reason that aliens shouldn’t have discovered time travel if they’re managing to zip around the universe anyway.’ Michaela smiled. She was beginning to like this girl. Caro was still talking. ‘What do you think about this one? I’ve never really got the idea of archetypes. What are they?’ Michaela walked over and skimmed her notes again. ‘Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts when I realised we were talking about shadows,’ she said. ‘Archetypes are a Jungian idea.’ She looked at Caro to see if the girl was following. Caro shrugged. ‘Carl Jung. Initially Freud’s student but lots smarter, I reckon. Invented psycho-analysis.’ Michaela continued. ‘Archetypes are like human patterns of thought and behaviour that cross every racial and cultural divide. They’re simply common to the human condition. Jung was a big supporter of what he called the ‘collective unconscious’, a system of basic human thought and behaviour that reached deeper than anything we can pinpoint from our upbringing, or even temperament.’ Caro nodded again. ‘How come you know all this stuff?’ she asked. Michaela shrugged and went to make her coffee. ‘It interests me,’ she said. ‘I do a lot of reading.’ She came back in and sat down. ‘The shadow archetype is one of the big ones,’ she said. ‘It’s like the darker side of us. The aspect of ourselves we cut off when we learn to interact with the world around us and become civilised.’ She paused, gathering her thoughts. ‘The shadow isn’t civilised. It’s all instinct and doesn’t differentiate between codes of behaviour or make moral judgements. It just is.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘And most of us cut it off from ourselves completely; we don’t accept we have this aspect to us, we turn away from it, but turning away from it doesn’t mean it’s still not there.’ Caro was chewing her lip. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I kinda get that. But do you think that’s what the shadow people are?’ she shrugged. ‘I hate the thought, that I’m just kind of projecting these things myself; that it’s because I haven’t done some sort of psychological bullshit work on myself that these things are staring at me from the corners of my room every night.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘And it doesn’t explain why there are more than one of them.’

Chapter Twenty-two

Michaela stood in the doorway, half-eaten roll in one hand, coffee in the other. She was silent, thinking. More than one of them, Caro had said. And definitely entities. The one Michaela had seen when she first arrived – that hadn’t felt mindless. It was more as though the thing was taking a deliberate look at her. And had it been an accident that she’d seen it as it did so? Michaela wasn’t sure. Caro was still looking at her, waiting for her to speak. She put her coffee and roll on the table and pulled out one of the chairs, sitting down and stretching out her long legs, she laced her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. Her thinking position, Trisha had called it. ‘We’re not asking the right questions,’ she said after a minute or two. Caro was shaking her head. ‘We want answers, not more questions.’ ‘Sure,’ Michaela said. ‘But what do you have to do to get the correct answers?’ Caro understood. ‘Ask the right questions,’ she said. Michaela gave a little laugh. ‘Franz Kafka said “a first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die”. ‘That’s not exactly very encouraging, is it?’ Michaela sat back up. ‘Actually, I’ve never been able to decide whether it is or not,’ she said. She looked at her page of notes and wondered where Trisha had gone. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘When did you first notice these shadow people?’ Caro yanked on a curl of hair as she thought about it. ‘A few months back, I guess,’ she said at last. ‘But it was just something I was seeing out of the corner of my eye, to start with. I didn’t give it much thought.’ ‘When did it start bothering you?’ ‘When I started getting this creepy feeling whenever I went into my room, that it was really crowded in there. that I wasn’t the only one in there, you know?’ Michaela nodded. ‘Okay, so the phenomenon was fairly unobtrusive to start with then worsened. I wonder what the triggering event was?’ Caro frowned. ‘What do you mean triggering event?’ ‘Well, think about it. Something must have happened to bring these things here, and that something most probably had to keep on happening to keep them here and getting stronger.’ Caro was silent. ‘You and your friends didn’t do anything like mucking around with an Ouija board or anything, did you?’ ‘No way.’ Caro was shaking her head. ‘No way am I dumb enough to play with one of those. Everyone knows they’re dangerous.’ Michaela laughed. ‘It’s a human condition, I think, to be drawn to danger.’ But Caro was still shaking her head. ‘I haven’t done anything. I’m thinking about it and it can’t be anything I’ve done. This year has been the pits. Dead dull – all I do is go to school, come home and go to work at the diner. In fact, I’m due at the diner this afternoon.’ She gave a dissatisfied sigh. ‘Okay,’ said Michaela. ‘Fair enough. What about people at school. Is there anyone there with something against you?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘People can be unbelievably mean and even more unbelievably stupid. I know that sounds awful, but what if someone did something, maybe as a prank, but it got out of hand, and had real consequences?’ ‘I can’t think of anyone who would do anything like this to me. And how would they anyway? I mean how? There’s no dial-a-freak show in the phone book is there.’ Michaela laughed. There was a family resemblance between Caro and her sister, that was for sure. ‘Something triggered this off,’ she said. ‘Either something someone did, or a change in circumstances within the house and your room, I don’t know. But there must be a reason, however far-fetched it is.’ ‘Eliminate every possibility and what’s left, no matter how impossible, must be the truth?’ Michaela grinned. ‘Sherlock Holmes. Exactly. Absolutely exactly.’ Caro smiled back and Michaela thought again what a stunning girl she was. Smart too. It was no wonder Trisha was so protective of her. This girl could go far in the world. Given the chance. ‘Would it be all right,’ Michaela asked, ‘if I could have a look at your room?’ Caro nodded, and they got up and walked down the hallway to her room. Michaela looked out the windows on the way past, aware that part of her was still wondering after Trisha. Where was she? And why the hell had she taken off like that? She sighed and followed Caro into her room. Caro drew the curtains while Michaela stood in the middle of the room and looked around. She guessed it was a pretty typical teenage girl’s room. Posters on the wall. Set of drawers covered in hair brush and ties. Not a lot of make-up though. Lots of books. Bed in the middle of the room, an armchair beside it, next to the window. ‘What do you say to me staying in that chair tonight?’ she asked. Caro looked at it, surprised. ‘While I’m asleep, you mean?’ ‘Yeah. I want to see if they will come out while I’m there.’ She remembered the shadow in the hallway, and thought there was a chance they would. Maybe. Caro looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep with you there,’ she said. ‘I’ll come in when you’re already asleep.’ ‘Okay. Do you think you’ll be able to see them?’ Michaela took another look around. The room looked perfectly cheerful and normal in the sun from the windows. ‘I have no idea,’ she said. ‘But it’s worth a try, don’t you think?’

Chapter Twenty-three

Michaela sat outside waiting for Trisha to come back. She was tired again. Tired and just a little edgy. She was having trouble understanding why Trisha had taken off like that. But then, had she ever fully understood the volatile Trisha? She suspected that was part of the charm. She’d checked her email again before coming out to sit in the fall sun. Another email from the orchard manager, sounding pretty pissed that she’d taken off. Several decisions needed to be made, he’d said. She knew she should be back there; it was going to be her first season solely in charge. She tipped back in the chair and thought about the orchard. It wasn’t exactly what she was planning to do with her life, was it? After all those years away at university, she wasn’t just going to be an orchardist, was she? Why didn’t she sell up? She could sell the place and look for work here. She thought of the tiny town she was now in and gave a laugh. The only work she could probably find was on one of the orchards she’d seen from the car. How was that for irony? Not really an option. At home she owned the whole show. Here she would just be a picker, climbing a ladder during the season and nothing more. She wasn’t qualified to teach in the States, she couldn’t use her degree for that. What a bloody mess. And where the fuck was Trisha? She let the chair fall forward and stood up. She felt a lot like a caged animal. Trapped and all this energy making her edgy. She took a calming breath. Wouldn’t do to be blowing steam from between the ears when Trisha finally turned up. And just like that the Mustang turned into the drive and parked beside the house. Michaela stood where she was, hands tucked into jeans pocket, rocking back on the heels of her boots. What sort of mood was Trisha going to be in now? Trisha climbed out of the low-slung car and walked over. She stood in front of Michaela, not saying anything. They simply looked at each other. Trisha sighed. ‘I wasn’t ready for this,’ she said. Michaela frowned. ‘For what?’ she asked. ‘Seeing you again, it’s made me realise some things.’ Michaela could see this wasn’t going to be easy, whatever way it was going to go. ‘What sort of things?’ Trisha shifted as she stood. ‘Ah fuck it, Michaela. I love you, all right? I don’t want to lose you again, we have to work something out, okay? I mean we really have to.’ Michaela stared at Trisha in surprise. She’d never heard Trisha say that before. Not seriously like this anyway. Not in a way that meant anything. Trisha was going red and looking increasingly uncomfortable. ‘Say something already,’ she said. ‘Jeeze, Michaela.’ Michaela took a step towards her and brushed the hair out of Trisha’s face. She cupped the blushing face in her hands and kissed her. She smiled into Trisha’s eyes. ‘I love you too,’ she said. ‘And we’ll work something out, for sure.’ Trisha nodded, then smiled and nodded again. Slipped her arms around Michaela’s neck and hugged hard. ‘I’m sorry about taking off, babe,’ she said. ‘I was just overwhelmed. Had to sort myself out.’ Michaela hugged back and kissed Trisha’s hair. ‘It’s no problem,’ she said. ‘Absolutely no problem at all now.’ She lifted her up and swung her round. ‘I love you so much Trisha. I am never letting you get away from me again.’ She put Trisha down and they stood, fingers entwined, grinning at each other. Caro came down the back steps and walked over. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. Trisha turned around and shrugged. ‘Nothing, baby sister. Just getting a few things sorted.’ She looked back at Michaela and shrugged. Caro examined them both through narrowed eyes. ‘You guys have made up,’ she said and glared at her sister. ‘What about Julie?’ she asked. Trisha shook her head. ‘It was never serious with Julie and me.’ Caro nodded. ‘Don’t think she would have agreed with you there, but okay, I can swallow that.’ She looked at the pair again. ‘You two look good together,’ she said. ‘But don’t you guys live on the opposite sides of the world?’ Her eyes widened. ‘You’re not fucking off and leaving me here, Trisha,’ she said. ‘Don’t you dare tell me you’re doing that.’ Trisha let go of Michaela and slung her arm around her sister. ‘I’m not doing that, don’t worry,’ she said. She shot a look back at Michaela. ‘We haven’t figured out a way around that particular obstacle yet, but I ain’t leaving you, little sis, that’s for damn sure, all right?’ Caro nodded and poked Trisha in the ribs. ‘Never thought I’d see the day,’ she said, grinning now. Trisha looked perplexed. ‘What day?’ she asked. Caro was laughing. ‘The day you’d admit to falling in love.’ ‘Hey,’ said Trisha, poking Caro back. ‘Who said I’ve admitted any such thing?’ Caro stopped laughing and gave her sister a hug instead. ‘It’s written all over Michaela’s face,’ she said. ‘And it’s very cool news.’ She stepped back and grinned at Michaela. ‘We should celebrate,’ she said. ‘I know, let’s go to Kenosha and eat at that Chinese place they have there! I love the food there.’ Her face fell. ‘Shit, I forgot. I have to work this afternoon.’ She turned to Trisha. ‘Mom says you’re back on tomorrow morning as well.’ They walked back inside together, Trisha’s hand sneaking out to find Michaela’s and twisting her fingers around hers. Michaela raised it to her mouth and kissed Trisha’s knuckles. It was going to work out; all of it, it was all going to work out. She was sure of it. Caro was first in the door and she stood frozen, blocking the way. ‘Move,’ Trisha said. ‘What’s the matter?’ Caro moved. She was looking around the room. ‘It’s dark in here,’ she whispered.

Chapter Twenty-four

Michaela pushed past into the room and looked around. ‘I can’t see it,’ she said. ‘Did you say it was dark?’ Caro was shaking her head. ‘I don’t know now. I’m sure it was dark in here before.’ She peered around the room. ‘Maybe my eyes were dazzled from being outside or something,’ she said. Trisha looked around, frowning. ‘It all looks normal to me,’ she said. ‘What did you see when you first stepped into the room, Caro?’ Confusion spread across Caro’s face. ‘I don’t know,’ she said again. ‘The room was just dark. Like it was night time or something.’ Michaela looked around the room. It was all normal in here now. The shadows all had matching objects. That she could see anyway. But Caro was looking suddenly pale. She shook her head and walked stiff legged over to the table and sat down. ‘I feel sick,’ she said. Michaela and Trisha followed her into the room. Michaela went through the archway into the kitchen and poured Caro a glass of water. ‘Look at this, you two,’ Trisha said. She was standing in front of Caro’s open laptop. Michaela gave Caro the water. The girl was pale and sweating. ‘What is it?’ Michaela asked, examining Caro, who looked like she was in shock. ‘You gotta see this,’ Trisha said and turned the computer around so they could see the screen. Caro dropped her glass of water. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked, her voice little more than a whisper. Michaela stood up and leaned closer to the picture on the screen. ‘What is this? How was it taken?’ she asked. ‘I had the webcam on,’ Caro said. ‘It’s horrible. Get rid of it.’ Trisha turned the screen away from Caro. She met Michaela’s eye and raised her eyebrows. Michaela gave a slight shake of the head and looked down at Caro, who was hunched over, staring at the glass on the floor. Trisha came over and put an arm around her sister. ‘Let’s get you over on the couch okay?’ she said. Caro stood up, still pale and shaky and walked over to the couch, leaning into Trisha as they went. She lay down on the couch and Trisha tucked a blanket around her. ‘Lie here, okay, while I mop up the water and talk to Michaela?’ Caro gave a small nod and Trisha walked back over to the table where Michaela was already wiping up the spilled water. She stared at the picture on the screen. ‘You got any ideas?’ she asked. Michaela put the towel in the kitchen and came back for a closer look. She shook her head. ‘Sure isn’t like the last mystery we solved,’ Trisha said. ‘You’re right there,’ Michaela agreed, both of them speaking quietly. ‘I really don’t see how a person could be doing this one.’ She thought of Gardener’s terrible plan to hurt his mother, and almost wished this was along the same lines. But she didn’t think it was. The picture on the screen, caught in a freeze frame by the webcam, which was now off, sure didn’t look to be some sort of elaborate hoax perpetrated in the few minutes that Caro was out of the room. She wondered if perhaps Caro had taken this photo herself. Some sort of cry for attention, perhaps. Except Caro was lying on the couch in shock. Michaela pressed down a couple keys and saved the picture to the hard drive. Later she would ask Caro to email her a copy, so there was less chance of losing it. She peered at the screen. It showed part of the room they were standing in. The camera had been at a slight angle, capturing perhaps a third of the room and the front door. The depth of field was strange, almost as though a fish-eye lens had been used, the room strangely distorted and bubble-like. But that wasn’t the worst thing. The walls were black. She looked up at the real version, papered in a light floral pattern, then back at the photograph. Shadows climbed the walls, congregating in the corners, their darkness looking dense enough to reach out and touch. The front door was open and there the shadows were worst, as though they were coming through the open door in droves. Michaela reached out a finger and traced the almost human shape of one of the shadows. ‘Shadow people,’ she said, ‘just like on those Internet sites.’ Trisha was standing behind her. ‘Yeah, but what are they? What does it mean?’ Michaela shook her head. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. Trisha looked back at Caro, lying still on the couch. ‘Well, we’d better find out, and quickly,’ she said. Michaela sank down onto the chair and rubbed her face. Where the hell was she supposed to start? She remembered what she and Caro had been talking about. Ask the right questions and you would get the answers. But what were the right questions? Trisha was checking on Caro. ‘She’s gone to sleep,’ she reported. ‘Is that normal?’ ‘Shock puts some people out. Probably the best thing she can do.’ Trisha looked at her watch. ‘Yeah, except she’s supposed to be at the diner in a couple hours.’ She came and sat next to Michaela. ‘I’ll do her shift if she’s not up to it. We can’t let her sleep in her room anymore you know.’ Trisha sighed. ‘I don’t know if I even want to sleep in my room anymore.’ Michaela nodded. ‘I was going to spend the night in Caro’s room,’ she said. ‘See if I could see anything.’ ‘You want to still do that?’ Michaela looked at the photo. ‘More than ever,’ she said. ‘I don’t know,’ said Trisha. ‘You’re braver than me then.’ ‘It’s not bravery, believe me babe. Caro’s the brave one; this has been going on for months, she said, and she’s slept in there every night.’ ‘Guess there wasn’t much choice.’ Michaela leaned over and gave Trisha a kiss. ‘We’ll figure it out,’ she said. ‘Where do we start?’ Michaela looked back at the photo. ‘At the beginning,’ she said.

Chapter Twenty-five

Trisha was rummaging around in the fridge for something to eat for lunch. ‘There’s nothing here to eat,’ she said in disgust. ‘Guess I’ll have to go down to the bloody diner to get something. I wish Mom would bring some food home every now and then.’ Michaela looked up. ‘Do you know anything about this town?’ she asked. Trisha pushed her hair behind her ears. ‘Not a fucking thing,’ she said. ‘You’re not thinking some sort of poltergeist garbage, are you – the house on an old Indian burial ground or something?’ Michaela pushed her chair back and stretched. ‘I don’t know what to think,’ she said. ‘There are plenty of stories about these shadow people on the Internet, and a few theories, but the theories are really out there. I feel like I’m trying to do a puzzle without having all the pieces.’ ‘So what pieces are you missing?’ Michaela thought about it. ‘The trigger,’ she said after a while. ‘Trigger?’ asked Trisha. ‘Yeah. What set this off? You don’t have everything normal one day and totally screwy the next. So what happened?’ ‘Did you ask Caro this?’ Michaela nodded. ‘Yes, but we didn’t get a real chance to think about it. She said it started a few months ago. Can you remember anything that might have happened then?’ ‘To Caro, you mean?’ ‘Well, mostly, because it’s undoubtedly centred around her. But not just her. Anything at all out of the ordinary that happened then.’ ‘Three months ago would have been July.’ She shook her head. ‘Can’t think of a damned thing.’ Michaela’s eyes were sore. She squeezed them closed and told herself she was going to have to go to the optometrist sooner or later. Sooner would be best. She shut down her laptop. ‘I need a break,’ she said. ‘And I need to talk to Caro. The answer’s going to lie with her, I’m sure of it.’ Trisha came over and looked at Caro still sleeping on the couch. ‘Why her, do you think? She’s just your usual kid, you know. Brighter than you want to think about, but she’s a good kid.’ Michaela nodded. ‘I like her a lot,’ she said. ‘But the phenomenon are focused around her, you can’t deny that.’ Trisha leaned against Michaela. ‘Maybe babe, but I sure don’t have to like it.’ She pointed at the photo frozen on the screen of Caro’s computer. ‘And I sure as fuck don’t have to like that. That’s way worse than anything that’s happened before.’ ‘It’s escalating,’ Michaela said. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘The first time I came here, I saw that shadow in the hallway. I thought at the time that it was deliberately letting me see it, but I’m beginning to wonder if instead it was taking a look at me.’ She gestured at the picture. ‘Now this, it’s like they’re gathering, and not only gathering, but showing us. Like a show of strength.’ ‘Like for some sort of showdown, you mean?’ Michaela frowned. ‘I’m not sure what I mean,’ she said. ‘I’m pretty much just thinking out loud. But yeah, you may be right – for some sort of showdown.’ ‘I gotta say, Michaela, that doesn’t sound good to me.’ She looked at Michaela, her face serious. ‘I think we should pack up and get out of here.’ There was movement from the couch and Caro’s head appeared. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked, sounding panicked. Trisha shook her head. ‘Nowhere,’ she said. ‘Nowhere without you anyway. Michaela and I were just discussing whether we would be better off getting out of the house for a while.’ Caro came over and shuddered at the picture on her laptop. ‘Where would we go?’ she asked. Michaela interrupted. ‘I don’t think we need to go anywhere,’ she said, hoping like hell she was right. ‘I think we should just get on with things like normal.’ Trish looked annoyed. ‘Look at that photo, babe. There’s nothing fucking normal about that. I don’t know. I really don’t know that we should stay here.’ Caro cleared her throat. When she spoke her voice was unsteady. ‘That photo scares me,’ she said. Trisha put her arms around her. ‘You and me both,’ she said. Michaela stared at the picture. Then at the room around them. Were the shadows in the picture still in the room? Were they clustered around the walls and corners, perhaps listening in to their conversation? She didn’t know. She couldn’t see anything. ‘In stories, shadows like those usually cluster around areas where bad things have happened or are going to happen. They’re the spirits that feed off disaster, and the spirits that take us down to hell.’ Trisha and Caro were staring at her in horror. She shouldn’t have said that out loud. She tried to make it better. ‘But that’s only in stories and horror movies.’ She looked at Caro. ‘You’ve read the accounts on those websites. They’re everywhere and nothing ever seems to happen around them.’ But Caro was shaking her head. ‘But we don’t know that for sure,’ she said. ‘Just because the people who saw them didn’t say anything doesn’t mean that nothing happened. They could have gotten sick, or had bad dreams, or argued with each other, and just never put two and two together.’ She turned to Trisha. ‘Why are they here?’ she asked. ‘Why are they after me?’ Trisha blanched. ‘We don’t know they’re after you,’ she said. ‘We don’t know anything about them.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘But I’ll tell you one thing – we are not staying here any longer. No way. Not now I’ve seen that photo.’ Caro turned to Michaela. ‘Is that right? Are we going to find somewhere else to stay?’ Michaela shrugged. ‘What if they follow us?’ she asked.

Chapter Twenty-six

‘Oh for fucks sakes,’ Trisha said. ‘That is not helping, Michaela. What’re you trying to do – scare us half to fucking death?’ Michaela looked at Caro who was standing with her sister’s arm wrapped protectively around her, her face frozen in fright. She didn’t want to scare them, not any more than they already were. But she did think she had a better chance of getting a look at these shadow things if they stayed here. ‘I’m not trying to make it worse,’ she said after a minute. ‘How about a compromise?’ Trisha raised her eyebrows. ‘We stay here tonight, I spend the night keeping watch in Caro’s room, and tomorrow if you still feel the same way, we can get rooms at the hotel. What do you reckon?’ Trisha shook her head. ‘I reckon you’re nuts.’ She pointed at the picture on Caro’s laptop. ‘Do you not see that? Does that not scare the shit out of you?’ Michaela looked again at the photo. It was frightening in some deep, primal way, but on top of that Michaela felt a far more clear fascination. That photo was amazing. The whole situation was amazing. She wished she had some equipment with her. It would be fascinating to study the phenomena properly – she’d had a look at a couple of ‘ghost hunter’ sites on the net this morning, and she’d love a camera, thermometer and EMF meter at the very least. ‘What are you thinking about?’ Trisha asked, sounding suspicious. Michaela shrugged. ‘I wish I had a camera and a couple other things, that’s all.’ ‘What on earth do you want a camera for? We already have a shot of the shitting things.’ Michaela sat down and ran her fingers through her hair. Outside somewhere a bird was singing in a series of loud whistles. ‘What about if you guys spend the night at the hotel and I stay here?’ she said in a moment. Caro spoke up. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘I reckon we should stick together. And you should interview me or something, and see if we can’t find out why all this is happening in the first place. We have to get to the bottom of it.’ She turned to Trisha. ‘Especially if Michaela’s right about them following us anyway.’ Trisha looked from one of them to the other. Then she flung up her hands. ‘All right. I give up. We’ll stay here. On two conditions.’ ‘What are the conditions?’ Michaela asked. ‘No work,’ she said to Caro. ‘Mom will have to get someone else to cover for us until we get this sorted out. You’re right about us sticking together. All the time.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘If there’s going to be some sort of showdown, I want to know where you all are.’ Michaela nodded. ‘And the second?’ ‘That we go into town and buy some fucking food. The cupboards are bare and the only thing in the fridge is a pot of penicillin.’ ‘All right,’ Michaela agreed. ‘Is there an electronics shop here?’ Trisha snorted. ‘In this backwater town?’ ‘We’d have to go to Kenosha. There’s bound to be one there,’ said Caro. ‘Great. Caro, can you email me a copy of this please?’ Michaela was pointing to the image caught by Caro’s webcam. Caro nodded and sat down at her computer. ‘What’s your email address?’ She tapped away at the keys. ‘The webcam still works,’ she said when she’d sent the email. ‘It switched off after taking the still frame, neither of which should have happened without someone setting it up. Weird. But it’s working again, so that’s something.’ Michaela looked over her shoulder and saw the moving image of both of them on the screen. ‘That’s good. It might be useful later.’ Trisha came back into the room. ‘I called Mom; she is one very unhappy camper.’ She shrugged and looked at the phone in her hand. ‘I had to explain that the health and well-being of her daughter was at stake. She totally doesn’t believe me, but she’s getting someone else to work our shifts. And she’s sleeping over at the apartment.’ Caro closed the top of her laptop and all three of them looked at each other. Outside a bird whistled a cheery song. ‘Well,’ Trisha said. ‘This is it, then. We’re all sorted, I guess.’ She tried for a grin. ‘The ghost hunt is a go for tonight.’ Michaela kissed her and smiled at Caro. ‘We’ll be fine, I’m sure. Meanwhile, we’ll go get some provisions, shall we?’ They were quiet in the car as they crossed the town line. ‘What about school tomorrow?’ Caro asked as they drove past the school buildings. Trisha shrugged. ‘What’re you expecting to happen tonight, Michaela?’ she asked. Michaela wasn’t sure. On the one hand, possibly nothing. But like she’d told Trisha earlier, things were escalating. All she knew was that she wanted to be there to witness what, if anything was going to happen. Trisha wasn’t waiting for an answer though. ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ she said. ‘I keep expecting this to all be some weird dream or something. Or one of those crazy candid camera jokes. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen in real life.’ She threw a sideways glance at Michaela in the passenger seat. ‘It’s just been one big adventure after another since I met you babe.’ Michaela laughed. ‘You think I bring all this into your life?’ Trisha looked serious. ‘Shit like this didn’t happen before I met you, that’s for sure.’ Michaela blinked in surprise. ‘Doesn’t have anything to do with me,’ she said. ‘Gardener would have gone bankrupt and tried to murder his mother last year whether we were there or not. And this, this whatever it is, it was happening before I got here. You called me up and asked me to come over because of it, remember?’ Trisha turned off the road into the parking lot of a mall. ‘I remember,’ she said. ‘But I thought it was you who didn’t believe in coincidences. You called it, what? What was your name for coincidences?’ ‘Synchronicity,’ Michaela replied. ‘Meaningful coincidence.’ ‘Yeah, that’s the one. Synchronicity. And I’m saying shit like this just didn’t happen until I met you.’ She parked and pulled on the handbrake. Caro was looking on apprehensively from the back seat. Michaela leaned across and kissed her girlfriend. ‘If you’re going to believe in synchronicity, then it must be our destiny to be together.’ Trisha laughed and rolled her eyes. ‘Guess I was asking for that one. Come on you two, let’s get this show on the road.’

Chapter Twenty-seven

Back at the house, with arms full of bags, Caro handed the door key to Michaela. All of them were apprehensive of what might have happened while they were out. Michaela slotted the key in the door and the lock slid open. She pushed the door wide and stepped in. The room was heavy with dust and late afternoon sun slanting in the windows. She scanned the room. Shadows clustered in the corners and under the furniture, but none moved or took on human shape. Michaela shifted the bags in her hands and wished she’d had the video camera before they’d left. Who knew what it would have picked up while the house was supposed to be empty? She put her bags down on the table and smiled at Trisha who was stepping warily inside, a look of suspicion on her face. She stepped forward and took the groceries from her and carried them into the kitchen. ‘Everything seems to be all right in here,’ she said. She looked at Caro, who had gone into her bedroom to check. Caro nodded. ‘Nothing’s moved or whatever,’ she said. ‘Thank God. I don’t think I could handle another shock like this morning.’ They’d stopped for lunch before shopping so Michaela helped Trisha put the groceries away. ‘It’s been a hellishly long day already,’ Trisha said. ‘I know what you mean,’ Michaela agreed. ‘I’ve been up since half past five or so.’ She yawned to prove it. ‘I might see if I can sleep for an hour. It’s going to be an even longer night.’ Trisha looked up at her in the dimness of the kitchen. ‘It’s going to be all right, isn’t it? I mean, this is totally different to the bastard up at the lake last year.’ Her voice was almost a whisper. ‘He might have been a bastard, but at least he was a human one. Not like this.’ Michaela wrapped her arms around Trisha. It felt good to hold her. No matter what, it felt good to be here, holding her like this. ‘I missed you so much,’ she told Trisha in a low voice. ‘Those postcards you sent were like torture.’ Trisha smiled. ‘They were meant to be.’ ‘Hardly fair.’ Trisha brushed her lips against Michaela’s ear. ‘But they were effective weren’t they?’ ‘Still; not fair.’ Trisha kissed her properly. ‘I missed you too. Now, how about that nap?’ ‘I’ll nap if you will,’ Michaela said, searching for the warmth of Trisha’s skin. ‘Yeah, come on then.’ Caro was sitting on the couch with the television on. Trisha led Michaela past by the hand. ‘We’re going to get an hours sleep, okay? We’ll be just down the hall if you need us.’ Caro looked up and narrowed her eyes at them. ‘Just down the hall with a do not disturb sign on the door, you mean?’ Michaela answered. ‘You need us, we’ll be there. In fact, in an hour, come wake us up. We’ve got a lot to do tonight.’ She could tell Caro wasn’t thrilled to be left in the room on her own. ‘If we’ve so much to do, why are you wasting time sleeping then? If sleeping’s what we call it these days?’ ‘It’s sleeping, Caro,’ Trisha said. ‘Michaela’s still not on US time- she’s been awake since early morning.’ ‘Yeah, sure. Whatever.’ Caro turned back to the television.

Michaela kicked her boots off and lay down on the bed with relief. She really was tired. Trisha came and lay beside her, pulling Michaela’s arm around her. Michaela drew her closer and closed her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep. Michaela dreamed she was back home on the orchard. She was walking down the driveway towards the mailbox, Mack following her, head down and tail between his legs. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but he was just a dog, he couldn’t answer. Instead she opened the mailbox and looked in. it was dark inside the old metal box. She couldn’t see if there were any letters so she reached a hand in. The darkness was cool against her skin; cool and almost wet. She frowned and beside her Mack whimpered, his nose almost to the ground. There was something in the mailbox. Michaela drew it out and the darkness inside the box let go of her hand almost reluctantly. It was a postcard. Michaela gazed at the picture on it. It showed three women, and with a start, Michaela recognised herself and Trisha. She squinted at the postcard trying to make out the third woman. She let out a slow breath. It was Caro, but the Caro in the picture looked different. Wearing some sort of long robe, for starters. Like some sort of priestess. She was wearing something around her neck, something that gleamed white like bone. Michaela peered closer trying to make it out, but gave up and turned the card over. The reverse was blank. Mack whimpered again. Michaela bent dawn and examined the inside of the mailbox. Nothing but a dense darkness in there. She looked back at the picture and the sun beating down on her head was incongruous as she saw the picture had changed. Caro was gone, just a shadow as she walked out of the picture. Michaela awoke, sweating, eyes flying open. She looked around the room and settled on Trisha, lying on her side, hair a tangle of black curls over her cheeks. She moved closer to the sleeping woman and tried to remember the dream. Something about Caro, dressed strangely? She struggled to pick up the tattered remnants of the dream, convinced it was trying to tell her something. But all she had left was a bad taste in her mouth.

Chapter Twenty-eight

The weather changed while they were sleeping. Clouds clustered on the edge of the sky and the breeze blew cold. Michaela stood on the driveway looking up at the northern hemisphere stars, realising she could recognise none of them. Trisha was sitting on the front step, smoking. ‘I’ve got a headache,’ she said, sending the cigarette butt flying in a shower of red sparks. ‘This whole thing’s a bloody headache. What’s going to happen tonight?’ Michaela looked over at Trisha. She buried her hands in the pockets of her jeans to keep them warm. ‘Maybe nothing,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to see what I can see. Nothing more.’ Trisha scowled. ‘That’s fine as far as it goes. But can’t we just get this whole shitty scenario over and done with? She rolled her shoulders. ‘I so need a good night out. Something to drink, a bit of dancing.’ She smiled. ‘A whole lot of sex.’ Michaela sighed. ‘I’m with you there, babe. Not exactly the best circumstances for a reunion.’ Trisha fished out another cigarette and lit it. ‘Yeah, but you wouldn’t have come except for this.’ ‘You wouldn’t have asked me except for this.’ ‘Touché. You reckon Caro’s going to be all right? She’s looking pretty stressed.’ Michaela came and sat down next to Trisha. She plucked the cigarette from Trisha’s fingers and took a drag, blowing the smoke out in a grimace. ‘I keep forgetting how bloody foul these things are.’ ‘Quit fucking pinching them then.’ Michaela took a second lungful and passed it back. ‘Caro will be fine,’ she said. ‘How do you know that?’ She put her arm around her girlfriend. ‘Because we will make sure she is, okay?’ Trisha sighed. ‘Yeah.’ They stared out at the clouds erasing the stars from the sky. ‘I never knew the world was so full of weird shit,’ Trisha said after a moment. Michaela nodded. ‘Hell of a wake-up call isn’t it?’ ‘Yeah. How the fuck are you supposed to carry on all like normal afterwards though?’ A shrug. ‘Maybe you’re not.’ Trisha finished the cigarette. ‘Come on babe. It’s cold out here.’ They went up the steps and inside, closing the door behind them. Caro was poking around the bags on the kitchen table. ‘You must have spent a fortune on all this stuff,’ she said. Michaela shrugged and took out the digital video camera. ‘None of it will go to waste.’ Caro stared at her and held up the EMF meter. ‘You’re going to use this again?’ she asked. ‘For what?’ Michaela laughed and looked at the item in her hand. ‘How do you know what that even is?’ Caro tuned it over in her hands. ‘I watched that English program ‘Britian’s Most Haunted’ or something like that. It was such a stupid program, you never got to see anything except some woman who screamed all the way through it.’ Caro started giggling. ‘She swore a lot too, this woman. Could almost put Trisha to shame.’ She stopped laughing. ‘Anyway, they used these to measure some sort of ghost shit.’ ‘Electromagnetic field detector. Used to measure differences in the electromagnetic fields. Apparently, small fluctuations from no apparent sources is supposed to be evidence of spirit activity,’ Michaela filled in. ‘You’re really keen on all this ghost buster stuff, aren’t you?’ said Caro. Michaela looked at the bags of electronic equipment. ‘Sure looks like it, doesn’t it? I think I went a little crazy in the electronics shop.’ Caro handed over the EMF meter. ‘A little? You think?’ she shook her head. ‘What’s it all going to do though?’ This was a more difficult question. Michaela sat down at the table and looked over the gear. Trisha came over and sat a coffee in front of her. ‘Thanks sweetheart,’ Michaela said. She picked up the digital thermometer and took it out of its box. Fortunately it measured temps in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. The most she knew about Fahrenheit was that 30 degrees was zero in Celsius. She’d never got the hang of American measurements. But she was hedging. ‘Well,’ she finally said. ‘The cameras are so we can record whatever is happening. We know these shadows can be captured on film now, and it will be useful to watch them when we can’t be everywhere.’ Trisha interrupted her. ‘I don’t think you’re getting the big picture, babe. The idea is simply to get rid of the fuckers. Not to make a scientific study of them.’ Michaela ran her fingers through her hair. She had gone a little overboard. Most of the stuff she’d bought would never be used again. Unless she set up work as a ghost hunter. ‘You’re right,’ she conceded. ‘I got a bit carried away. This business just fascinates me, is all.’ She looked at Trisha then Caro. They both had identical frowns. ‘Priority one is to get rid of them, okay?’ Trisha nodded. ‘As long as we have that understood.’ She gestured at the bags of gear. ‘This stuff is just a side line because you’re interested, right?’ ‘Right.’ ‘Okay then. Why don’t the two of you get all that shit set up and stuff while I make us something to eat?’ She checked her watch. ‘Damn it’s late. How did we forget to eat, for fucks sakes? Omelettes okay with you guys?’ Michaela and Caro both nodded and Trisha disappeared into the kitchen and began to bang the pots and pans around. ‘You want to help?’ Michaela asked Caro. ‘You bet. Just tell me what we need to do.’ There were two video cameras. One they set up in Caro’s bedroom. ‘How will it film in the dark?’ Caro asked. Michaela blushed. ‘I bought ones with night vision.’ Besides the cameras, there was the EMF detector and thermometer, a tiny digital recorder and a really cool little gadget that worked not only as a motion sensor, but actually filmed whatever tripped the sensor. Michaela had been secretly delighted with that one – buying all this stuff had been kind of fun. She set up the motion sensor and looked around Caro’s room again, wondering if she’d forgotten anything. She put the voice recorder down on Caro’s bookcase. When she came in later she would switch it to record automatically at sound. She sat down a moment in the armchair beside the bed and gazed idly at the books on the shelf, going over her mental checklist. One of the titles caught her attention. Then the couple next to it. She pulled out the first and stared at the cover then flipped it over and read the back. She realised she was holding her breath and let it out in a whoosh of air. Had she just found the trigger?

Chapter Twenty-nine

Michaela walked back into the dining area where Caro had gone to clear the table. She smiled at Caro, not letting on about the gurgle of excitement she was feeling in her belly. ‘How long have you been interested in this sort of thing?’ she asked. Caro looked at the books with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment. She took the one Michaela was holding out and looked at it. Trisha came in carrying plates of food and glanced over at the book. ‘Where’d you get that?’ she asked. ‘I bought it from Amazon.’ Trisha set the plates down. ‘Eat, everyone. How’d you do that, Caro? Don’t you need a credit card or something to buy shit online?’ They sat down at the table. The food smelled great. ‘I told Mom I needed some books for school. She let me use her Visa.’ Michaela tapped the cover of one of the books. ‘I somehow doubt these would be part of the school curriculum.’ Caro was staring at the books. ‘They’re not,’ she said. ‘But last year I stayed with a friend and went with her family on a trip over to Salem.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘Where the witch trials were? There are some great museums there, lots of stuff about the trials and witchcraft in general. We also went to this place which is a like a replica of a proper seventeenth century village. It was very cool.’ Trisha was frowning. ‘When was this?’ she asked. She rolled her eyes. ‘You weren’t here then, Trisha. It was just before Halloween and we had a great time.’ Michaela looked at the books. ‘You must have taken it a bit more seriously though.’ Trisha pointed to one of the books. ‘I bought this one while I was there. Read just about the whole thing on the trip back.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s fascinating. I wanted to learn more.’ She looked almost embarrassed a moment. ‘I think I want to study this sort of thing further. You know, like when I go to college.’ Trisha snorted. ‘What sort of degree would they call that?’ Caro took her seriously. ‘Well, it’s kinda anthropology to start with, and a bit of archaeology and psychology thrown in.’ Michaela sat down and regarded her. ‘You’ve thought quite seriously about this, haven’t you?’ ‘Like I said, it’s fascinating stuff. Up until only a few hundred years ago, people used to see the world in a totally different way. Spirits and fairies and witches were just a fact of life. There was a whole ghostly, spiritual aspect to the world that was just taken for granted. And everywhere there are physical remnants of this world.’ Michaela was interested now. ‘Like what?’ she asked. ‘Like the dead paths,’ Caro said. ‘They were paths built specifically for the spirits of the newly dead to follow. And they were always straight.’ Her face had lit up. ‘They’re all over the world, these paths. In Europe there’s hundreds of them still about. And here, there are things like the Nazca lines in the Peruvian Desert – some people reckon they’re like ritual paths for shamans and the spirits of the dead.’ She stopped talking and looked around the table. The food was mostly untouched on the plates and growing quickly cold. Trisha was looking alarmed. ‘You’ve just been reading about this stuff, right? Not conducting your own voodoo experiments or some such shit?’ Caro shifted in her chair. ‘It’s not shit, and I don’t know anything about voodoo and don’t want to. Jesus Trisha, you think I’m stupid or something?’ ‘No, I think you’re way too bright for your own good.’ Caro looked suddenly near tears. ‘You’re such a bitch, Trisha.’ She stared down at her plate. Michaela judiciously interrupted. ‘It sounds fascinating, Caro. Do you mind if I borrow one of these to read?’ Caro shook her head. ‘There’s one of the dead paths I talked about not too far from here.’ Her hand snaked out and touched the cover of one of the books. ‘I hitched out and took a look at it. It’s actually more of a burial mound, but it has some of the elements to it that they talk about in the book.’ Michaela picked up the book Caro had rested her hand on. She flicked through the pages, stopping at some of the photographs. Ancient burial mounds. ‘The one I went and looked at isn’t in the book,’ Caro said. ‘But it’s real similar.’ ‘When was this? When did you go out and look at this place?’ Caro shrugged. ‘Few months back, I guess.’ Her face paled. ‘You don’t think that’s why, do you?’ Michaela exchanged a glance with Trisha. She thought that was exactly why and could see Trisha was in agreement. But she turned back to Caro and smiled. ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘What did you do while you were there?’ Caro was chewing on her bottom lip. ‘I just kind of wandered around and explored. I wanted to take some photos but my camera wouldn’t work for some reason.’ She shrugged and played with her fingers, looking down at them. ‘What else?’ Trisha’s knuckles were white from clenching her hands. Caro looked up at Michaela. ‘I did some creative meditation, all right? I tried to imagine what it was like when the place was being built, and what it was all about. I tried to open myself up to the place.’ Michaela rocked back in her chair. Here was the trigger all right. It had to be. ‘How far is this place?’ she asked. Caro was looking down at her hands again. ‘Couple of hours away,’ she said. Michaela checked with Trisha. ‘We go there tomorrow?’ Trisha nodded. ‘Definitely.’ She gestured at the electronics boxes. ‘And we’ll take some of this shit and see what there is to see.’ Caro looked up at both of them. ‘What did I do?’ she asked.

Chapter Thirty

Trisha came in and perched on the arm of the chair. ‘You smell good,’ said Michaela, looking up from Caro’s book and taking in the newly showered Trisha. Trisha leaned down and kissed Michaela. ‘Almost got myself a case of the heebee jeebees in the shower. Kept thinking about that webcam photo. My God I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’ Michaela nodded. ‘I’ve been thinking about it all day. Looking around and wondering if they’re here watching us and we can’t see them, or what? Gives new meaning to the idea of jumping at shadows, that’s for sure.’ she glanced down the hallway. ‘How’s Caro?’ ‘She’s asleep. How she manages to sleep in there, I’ll never know.’ Trisha smoothed her fingers through Michaela’s hair. ‘I’m not going to be able to sleep without you tonight.’ Michaela closed the book and pulled Trisha down onto her lap. She felt the warmth of Trisha’s body pressed against her and relished it. After months of empty arms, she finally had them wrapped around Trisha again. She pressed her face into Trisha’s neck and breathed in her scent. ‘I feel like I must be dreaming,’ she said. ‘Why?’ ‘Being with you again.’ She ran the tip of her tongue along Trisha’s breastbone. Trisha dipped her head and caught Michaela’s lips. ‘You and me both,’ she said. Michaela slipped her hands under Trisha’s robe and stroked the silky flesh. Trisha hummed deep in her throat and pressed her fingers under Michaela’s collar. Trisha’s skin was flushed from her shower and Michaela pressed her palms to her skin, soaking up the closeness. Trisha shifted slightly and they kissed, tongues meeting. ‘I can’t believe I’m horny,’ Trisha whispered. Michaela smiled under the kiss. ‘You have no sense of occasion,’ she agreed and moved a hand up Trisha’s thigh seeking the warmth between her thighs. ‘You’re wet,’ she said. She dipped her fingers in the wetness and explored the delicate contours. Trisha tightened her grip around her shoulders and Michaela felt her hot breath against her neck. She slid her fingers inside Trisha and stroked the warm, wet flesh. Trisha’s breath quickened. Michaela ran a series of kisses down the side of Trisha’s face, her fingers still inside her, keeping the rhythm slow, feeling Trisha build up to a climax. She moved her hand and wet fingers slipped out and rubbed instead. Trisha groaned into Michaela’s neck, her legs spreading wider. ‘I want to taste you,’ Michaela whispered. Trisha barely nodded but moved obediently when Michaela slipped out from under her and laid her back in the armchair, pulling the robe to the side and running her tongue over a hardening nipple. Trisha arched toward her. Michaela dipped her fingers back into Trisha’s warmth as she trailed kisses down the length of her beautiful, bare body. She knelt on the floor in front of Trisha, smoothing her legs gently apart and placing her mouth upon her. She flicked out her tongue and lapped at the wetness there, running the tip of her tongue over and around, Trisha arching back in the seat, panting Michaela teased, feeling Trisha moving closer towards climax, keeping her there just on the edge as Trisha’s hands grabbed handfuls of cushions in whitened knuckles. Michaela opened her mouth and sucked, and that was it, Trisha fell over the edge and shuddered to a climax. Michaela tucked the robe closed and smiled, waiting for Trisha to open her eyes. ‘What are you smiling about?’ asked Trisha, eyes still closed. ‘How do you know I’m smiling?’ ‘I can feel you.’ Michaela laughed and kissed Trisha. Trisha rolled into Michaela’s arms and opened her eyes. ‘How did you get so damn good at that?’ she asked. Michaela laughed again. ‘I met you,’ she said. It was Trisha’s turn to laugh now. ‘You’re so corny.’ She looked Michaela in the eye. ‘You want reciprocated?’ Michaela kissed her. ‘More than anything, but I’m going to make coffee instead and read more of that book.’ She smiled. ‘You should be able to get to sleep now.’ Trisha rolled her eyes and sat up properly in the chair. ‘I can’t believe we even did that, when this is going on,’ she said, waving her hand at the room. Michaela kissed her again and stood. ‘When you’re that close to me, you’re all I can think about.’ Trisha looked serious a moment. ‘It goes both ways, you know.’ ‘Good.’

Chapter Thirty-one

Michaela ended up making coffee for both of them. Trisha disappeared into the bedroom and returned with pyjamas under the robe. ‘It’s getting cold at nights now,’ she said. ‘Heading towards summer at home.’ Michaela sipped on her coffee and flicked through the pages of the book, looking for the place she was up to. Trisha picked up the other books from Caro’s room. She looked through the titles. ‘Do you think this has something to do with it?’ she asked. ‘Absolutely positive it does,’ Michaela answered. Trisha was shaking her head and looking around the room. She spotted the second video camera, set up on a tripod and facing out into the room. ‘Oh fuck, tell me that thing’s not on!’ Michaela looked up and grinned. ‘Don’t worry babe, it’s not on. But only because I didn’t think of it.’ Trisha threw a cushion at Michaela then turned serious again. ‘Are they in here now, do you think?’ she asked. ‘The shadow people?’ Michaela looked around the room, gaze lingering in the corners where shadows naturally congregated. ‘I don’t think so, not at the moment. I don’t think they show themselves straight on like this.’ She paused. ‘They lurk, and slink and amass in the dark places.’ She pulled a face. Trisha wore a matching expression. ‘That’s horrible.’ She looked around. ‘Would they come out if we turned off the light?’ Michaela got up and checked the video camera, turning it on. ‘We’ll find out in a minute,’ she said. ‘Oh God, do we have to?’ Michaela shrugged. ‘No, we don’t actually. I don’t think we’re going to find any real answers until we visit this burial place Caro was talking about. Something she did there has made something happen here, I’m sure of it.’ ‘How could she have even gone there? Of all the stupid bloody things to do!’ ‘I bet hundreds of people have been there and nothing like this happened to them afterwards. She wasn’t to know she was doing something with consequences like this. How could she? She said it herself – it’s been hundreds of years since people have lived in a world filled with spirits.’ Trisha was hugging a cushion to herself. ‘I think I liked it better when it was some guy pulling a hoax, Michaela.’ Michaela gave Trisha’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. ‘This is better,’ she disagreed. ‘At least no one’s life is in danger.’ ‘Can you say that for sure?’ Michaela pulled the EMF device out of her pocket and checked the reading. ‘Nothing’s ever for sure, babe.’ Trisha rubbed her face. ‘You’re kind of enjoying this, aren’t you?’ Michaela smiled and checked the temperature. It had dropped a bit, but that was to be expected as the night grew late. She looked at Trisha. ‘You know what? I actually am. Here I am, an English grad, a kiwifruit orchardist, and yet, I’m more interested, stimulated and intrigued doing this ghost hunting thing than I’ve ever been doing anything else.’ ‘Yeah. You’re totally fucked up all right,’ Trisha grumbled. Michaela laughed. ‘I want to turn the lights off now. You going to bed?’ ‘You going to go sit in Caro’s room?’ Michaela shook her head. ‘Not just yet.’ ‘I’ll stay a while longer.’ Michaela flicked the lights off and looked at the viewfinder of the digital video camera as she adjusted the night vision. She panned it around the room, lighting on Trisha’s face and past it to the blank screen of the TV. She stopped and looked past the camera, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. There was nothing to see. She looked back down at the camera and focused again on the television screen. The camera was picking up a shape on the TV screen. She stared at it, wondering if she was picking up the shape of something real, or just a trick of the light. Or darkness in this case. She looked around. There was some ambient light from the kitchen, where the microwave clock glowed, but otherwise it was pretty damn dark. She looked back at the television. She hadn’t been imagining it. There was a definite shadow in the screen. Vaguely man shaped. Head and shoulder shot. ‘What are you looking at?’ Trisha whispered. ‘There’s a shadow figure in the TV screen.’ ‘In or in front of?’ ‘In. Definitely in.’ Trisha inched down to the end of the couch opposite the television. ‘What does the gizmo say?’ Gizmo? Michaela kept the camera trained on the television and pulled the EMF meter out of her pocket. The needle fluctuated unsteadily then settled. ‘It’s reading slightly higher than before.’ Trisha shivered. ‘Christ, you feel that draft?’ Michaela shook her head in the dark and stepped over to the open doorway to the hall. ‘There’s no draft,’ she said. ‘I felt one. Icy, like a blast of wind from outside on a snowy night.’ She paused. ‘It didn’t last. It’s gone now. Like someone opened an outside door.’ Michaela looked back at the television. The screen was grey and blank. ‘Shadow in the TV’s gone,’ she said. She panned the camera around the room again, but shadows were everywhere. Trisha’s eyes were wide through the viewfinder of the camera. She was still holding onto the cushion. ‘I can’t see anything else,’ Michaela said. ‘Go into Caro’s room.’ Michaela turned around and pointed the camera down the hallway. She couldn’t be sure but she thought something had moved, just before she looked. She glanced away a moment, hoping to catch movement out of the corner of her eye. Something touched her on the back and she jumped. ‘It’s just me.’ Trisha. ‘Shit. Okay. You coming?’ ‘Caro’s room. Lead the way.’ Michaela inched down the hallway, Trisha holding onto her shirt. It really was dark here and Michaela had her eyes glued to the camera, following its greenish view of the hall and doors in front of her. She reached out a hand and it came into view, disembodied, glowing softly in the camera’s light. It grasped the door knob to Caro’s room and twisted slowly.

Chapter Thirty-two

Michaela pushed the door open. The darkness in the room came out to greet them and Michaela felt Trisha’s grip tighten on her shirt. ‘You all right?’ she whispered. ‘Yeah. What’s it look like in there? I can’t see a damn thing.’ They took a few steps forward into the room. Caro lay in the bed, blankets tucked up around her ears, breathing steadily. ‘Caro’s okay,’ Michaela said. She panned the camera around the room. Everything looked ghostly in the green light in the viewfinder, but nothing moved or seemed out of place. The room was wreathed in shadows but none of them moved. Michaela turned to Trisha. ‘Can you turn the bathroom light on, babe? I want just a little bit of light.’ Trisha nodded and turned back into the hallway. Michaela heard the snap of the light switch in the bathroom. The room brightened a little. ‘I left the door open a fraction,’ Trisha said, back at Michaela’s side. ‘Excellent.’ Michaela felt uncomfortable being in the room like this with Caro sleeping in front of her, but she bent to the camera again and continued her survey. She looked toward the curtain, certain she’d seen something move. Trisha tugged on her elbow. ‘Over there,’ she hissed. ‘Under the wardrobe door.’ Michaela swung the camera over to the wardrobe. ‘Oh shit.’ Trisha was holding hard to her elbow now. ‘Oh fuck me Freddy it’s like some awful stain.’ Michaela watched through the camera. It was like a stain. The wardrobe was leaking dark matter. Under the door a black shadow was spreading, somehow almost oozing. Michaela had a mad desire to reach down and touch it, but Trisha’s touch kept her in one spot. She held her breath and watched. She hadn’t been sure at all that they would see anything. But maybe she’d been right when she’d said the phenomena were escalating. Because here it was right in front of her eyes, and that shadow was definitely spreading. It came shapeless from under the wardrobe door, spread across the floor and up the wall, a blackness staining the room. Heading up the wall beside the bed, it grew taller, almost toward the ceiling. Michaela adjusted the focus on the camera, panning back to fit it in, hoping like hell it was recording. ‘It’s going toward Caro,’ Trisha whispered. ‘I want Caro out of there.’ Michaela nodded but neither made a move to wake the sleeping girl. ‘Fuck! Michaela look!’ Where? Michaela panned the camera around the room and saw straight away what had alarmed Trisha. From behind the curtains another shadow was materialising, spreading across the wall, growing taller. ‘We gotta get the fuck out of here,’ Trisha said. Michaela was mesmerised. ‘Wait a minute,’ she said. Both shadows were spread against the wall beside Caro’s bed now. Michaela watched as they seemed to draw themselves together. She could see the shape of head and shoulders on them now. She could also feel her heart pounding against her ribs. She heard a low keening and realised it was Trisha. The shadows were tall against the wall now, and the one from the wardrobe began to bend down as if to look at the girl sleeping in the bed. ‘Michaela, there’s more of them.’ Michaela looked back at the wardrobe and Trisha was right. More were flowing out from under the door. More were coming from behind the curtains. And the one on the wall was bending over, almost touching the pillow. Trisha reached out and flicked the light switch. Light flooded the room. She leapt forward to the bed and grabbed Caro by the shoulder. ‘Wake up! Caro, wake up!’ Caro raised her head and Trisha flung back the blankets, grabbed her sister’s hand and wrenched her from the bed. They stumbled past Michaela and out of the room. Michaela had flattened herself against the wall when the light had snapped on. Still holding the camera she watched in horror as the shadows drained from the room. They were fast, and she got the image of something dark and slippery, something that had reached out from another dimension. She swallowed, heart pounding, and rested her head back against the wall, eyes wide now, adjusted to the light, staring at the crack under the wardrobe door. She glanced at the curtain, and almost thought she saw it move. On leaden legs she took a few steps forward until she stood in front of the wardrobe. She could hear voices from the living room. Trisha and Caro. In the bedroom it was silent save for her own harsh breathing. She stared at the door. Why was it always wardrobes, she wondered? The bogeyman had hidden in wardrobes when she was small and obviously nothing much had changed. She grabbed hold of the door handle and pulled it open before she could change her mind. Something dark fell on her and she staggered backwards, tripping over onto the bed. Her breath hissing between her teeth she fought to get the dark thing off her. She flung it away and looked at it lying on the bedroom floor. A coat. A black duffle coat. Fallen off its hanger when she wrenched the door open. Michaela shuddered. ‘Fuck me Freddy,’ she muttered, cribbing one of Trisha’s favourites. She looked back at the open closet. Just a closet. Clothes hanging in an untidy row, the floor littered with shoes and bags and other pieces of Caro’s life. Just a closet. Michaela sat forward on the bed and rubbed her face. The camera was lying on the floor at her feet. She picked it up and checked it. It looked okay. ‘Michaela?’ Trisha was calling her. She got to her feet and made her way, slightly unsteady, to the door. She saw the other video camera still on its tripod in the corner of the room. She’d forgotten about that one. And the voice recorder on the bookcase. She walked quickly over and switched the voice recorder on. Then she picked up Caro’s robe from the end of the bed and walked to the door. She turned off the light and pulled the door closed.

Chapter Thirty-three

Trisha and Caro were huddled on the couch, though Trisha was throwing dubious glances towards the television. ‘I feel like they’re everywhere,’ she said when Michaela walked in. ‘Are you okay? What were you doing in there?’ Michaela leaned down and kissed her girlfriend. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘How’s Caro?’ Caro looked up and answered for herself. ‘I’m all right,’ she said. ‘Though Trisha gave me a huge fright pulling me from bed like that.’ ‘Trisha was incredibly brave, getting you out of there like that.’ ‘Yeah, except she won’t tell me what was going on.’ Michaela looked down at the camera in her hand. ‘Maybe this will tell us.’ ‘Fuck this,’ Trisha said and got up. She went to the kitchen and turned on the lights in there and over the table. Then she walked back into the living room and flicked the television on. She muted the sound and looked at Michaela and shrugged. ‘You said there was one in there before,’ she said in her own defence. ‘If it’s still there it doesn’t stand a chance against Jerry Springer.’ Michaela grinned and walked over to Trisha, enveloping her in a giant hug. They stood there a moment, wrapped around each other, then stepped back, Michaela still holding the camera. ‘You ready to watch this?’ she asked. ‘I am never going to be ready to watch that,’ Trisha answered. ‘Right there with you, hon. But we’re going to watch it anyway, aren’t we?’ Trisha gave a tired laugh. ‘You’re the ghost buster, babe.’ She looked around the room and Michaela read her mind. ‘You want to get out of here?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know. Part of me thinks we should go get a room somewhere. How do people do this shit?’ Caro spoke up. ‘Will someone tell me what is going on?’ she asked. ‘The lights are all on, Trisha. I can’t see anything here, can you?’ Trisha looked at her little sister. ‘It ain’t the things I can see I’m worried about.’ But she looked over at Michaela. ‘I guess we’re all right here, as long as no one turns the lights off. I’m going to make coffee, you want some?’ Michaela nodded and walked over to her laptop still hooked up on the dining table. ‘Yes please. With a liberal dash of bourbon.’ ‘And I’m right with you there.’ Caro came over to the table, pulling on the robe Michaela had brought out from her room. ‘What’s going on in my room?’ she whispered. Michaela looked at her, surprised. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘You turned off the light and closed the door. I thought you would have left the light on. There still a camera recording in there?’ Michaela nodded and after a moment Caro nodded too. ‘Tell me why Trisha dragged me out of bed, she said. Michaela searched Caro’s face. She was pale but seemed otherwise composed. How would she react when she saw what was hopefully on the tape though? She’d had a shock earlier in the day already. ‘I can show you,’ Michaela said. ‘But are you sure you want to see? It’s, well, I mean, it’s in your room.’ ‘I want to see. I’ll be okay.’ Michaela gave her one more searching look then nodded, satisfied. She would want to see too, if roles were reversed. She plugged in the USB cable and opened up the right program on the computer. Within moments an image of the room they were standing in showed up, glowing green, on the screen. In the bottom right-hand corner the time counted off in seconds. Trisha came around the table and handed Michaela her coffee. Michaela took a sip and just about coughed. ‘Where’s the coffee in my bourbon?’ she asked. ‘Where’s mine?’ Caro complained. ‘Shut up the both of you; let’s see what the camera recorded.’ They stood in a row, watching the camera pan around the room in jerky movements. Her technique needed a bit of work, Michaela thought. The picture froze on Trisha sitting wide eyed on the couch then moved past, past the television then reversing until the television came into focus. On the screen, something showed, a shadow doing what should have been impossible, lurking, man-shaped inside the set. They watched the tape straight through then set it back to the beginning and watched it again. Caro was chewing on her fingernails by the second time through. ‘What are they doing?’ she asked as on the screen the shadow man bent over her sleeping form. ‘What do they want?’ Michaela put an arm around the girl and squeezed. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But we’re going to find out.’ Caro was shaking her head. ‘They don’t want anything good, do they?’ ‘We don’t know that.’ She pointed at the screen which was paused on the image of the bending shadow. ‘What’s it going to do? Suck my life force from me while I sleep? What the hell is it doing? What does it want from me?’ The picture on the computer was disturbing. Michaela stood and examined it in silence. She didn’t have the answers for Caro. It looked ominous. She turned to Trisha, standing silently on her other side. ‘What sort of feeling did you get from them?’ she asked. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Did they feel friendly and harmless to you?’ Trisha shook her head. ‘No. they felt dark and awful. And somehow relentless, you know? Definitely threatening. That’s why I think we should get the fuck out of Dodge.’ Michaela hadn’t found them particularly pleasant either. Their aura was one of darkness all right, and a very dislocating sense of other-ness. They didn’t feel like human spirits. Or anything that had once been a human spirit. They were far more elemental than that. ‘Turn it off.’ Caro sat down at the table and rubbed her arms. ‘I don’t want to look at it anymore; I just want to know what we’re going to do next.’ Michaela did as she was asked and turned off the footage from the camera. She thought about the other one still in Caro’s room and wondered if it were recording anything. She would leave it a while longer. Instead she sipped at her coffee and thought about Caro’s question. She looked at Trisha. ‘Tomorrow we go to this effigy mound, yeah?’ Trisha nodded. ‘And if we figure out what you did there, Caro, maybe we can figure out how to get rid of those fucking things.’

Chapter Thirty-four

Michaela pushed back from the table and stretched. She didn’t think she’d been this tired since pulling all-nighters studying for exams. She blinked at the computer screen and rubbed her eyes. Maybe she should pour another coffee. Trisha and Caro were asleep on the couch, wrapped in blankets Trisha had pulled from her bed. Michaela checked the time. She’d been working all night, perhaps it was time for a couple hours sleep. They’d stayed up talking for a few hours last night, after the events in Caro’s room. Everyone was reluctant to go to sleep, but eventually the pauses were longer and Caro especially was yawning. Michaela decided to insist they bed down for the night. She would stay awake longer, do some work, and keep watch. She’d hadn’t been aware of anything more happening, but then they’d kept the lights on and Trisha had closed the door to the hallway when she’d come back in with the blankets. Michaela ran her hands through her hair and wondered if she should get the other camera now and play it back on her laptop,. But she was tired. A rest first, it was going to be a long enough day as it was. She’d failed to find anything substantial trawling around the net. Lots of weird stuff, no shortage of that. No shortage of accounts by people who certainly sounded sincere. Shadow people, ghosts, poltergeists and Bigfoot, she’d found them all knocking around the Internet. Now she was almost cross-eyed from the sheer bulk of information. It had become clear fairly early on though, that she was finding the same stories and theories over and over. And nothing that really helped. Somewhere around four in the morning she’d tried finding out where they might be going when the sun came up. There were burial or effigy mounds all over the state, from what she could see, but she didn’t have a good enough idea of where she was to figure anything out. She’d wait and see instead. She stood up and stretched again. The house was cold and she spent a moment longing for the warm spring days at home. She wondered what Trisha would think of the place. Deciding to leave that thought for later too, Michaela picked up one of the spare blankets and wrapped it around herself, dropping into the armchair and closing her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep.

The sun climbed high enough to peer through the chinks in the curtains. Caro was the first to wake, emerging from the wrappings of blankets like a butterfly from chrysalis, blinking the sleep from her eyes. She stuck a toe into her sister. Trisha groaned and rolled over on the couch and promptly fell off. ‘Shit!’ she sat on the floor looking dazed. Caro peered down at her. Trisha leaned back against the couch and groaned. ‘We are not sleeping on the couch again. We either sort this mess out today or we’re finding somewhere else to stay.’ Michaela woke up halfway through Trisha’s words. She yawned and looked around. ‘Morning gorgeous,’ she said. ‘What are you on about?’ Trisha pulled a face. ‘I said, we’re sorting this out today or we’re moving.’ Michaela stretched. ‘Better get on with it then, I suppose. Caro, did you manage to get some rest?’ Caro was sitting up on the couch, hair a mass of dark spirals around a pale face. She nodded. ‘Okay considering Trisha was squashing me half the night.’ She got up and pulled the curtain back, sending sunlight streaming in. She waved her hand through the streams of golden dust. ‘Are we still going to see the mound today?’ Michaela looked at Trisha. ‘That’s the plan,’ she said. ‘Right?’ ‘Definitely.’ Trisha hauled herself off the floor. ‘Anyone feel like breakfast?’ She looked at the others. ‘Me neither. But I do need a shower.’ She opened the door to the hallway. ‘God, I hate this place now. It feels bad, being here.’ She took a deep breath and disappeared down the hall. Her voice trailed back. ‘If I’m not back in 10 minutes, call the ghost busters.’ Caro snickered. ‘We are the ghost busters.’ She looked at Michaela, her face serious again. ‘Can I ask you something?’ Michaela was standing up, feeling like her clothes were growing on her, she’d been in them so long. ‘Of course,’ she answered. Caro hesitated. ‘You and Trisha are going to be together, right?’ Michaela nodded and smiled. ‘Well, you aren’t going to stay here, I mean, I know that, but…’ ‘But what about you?’ Caro nodded and Michaela saw just how young the girl really was. She went over and put an arm around Caro’s shoulder and hugged her. ‘We won’t be going anywhere without you, okay?’ Caro swallowed. ‘You guys won’t want me tagging along though. But Mom, she’s never around and I, I don’t know, I don’t really want to be left alone.’ Michaela moved and looked Caro straight in the face. ‘Trisha and I have talked about it, okay? We both agree you can’t stay here without us. So no matter what we decide to do, you’ll be part of the plan.’ A smile broke out on Caro’s face and she nodded. ‘But won’t you have to go back home?’ she asked. ‘Yes. No matter what, I will have to go back. But what we’re going to do in the long run, that hasn’t been decided yet.’ That was an understatement. It hadn’t even been mentioned yet. Was it only yesterday Trisha had told her she wanted them to be together? Michaela smiled and spread her fingers through her hair. ‘I’m going to make coffee. You want an orange juice or something?’ she asked. Caro trailed her into the kitchen. She accepted a glass of juice and leaned against the bench, watching Michaela make coffee. ‘Did you look through any of those books last night?’ she asked. Michaela nodded and poured some milk in her cup. ‘They’re really intriguing,’ she said. ‘I’m really interested in that stuff,’ Caro said. She glanced at the other room. ‘Even this shadow people stuff? It’s really freaky and scary, but kinda interesting too, you know?’ She looked down at the floor. ‘Don’t tell Trisha I said that, okay?’ The jug boiled and Michaela poured the water into her cup. She was fairly sure at this stage she had coffee instead of blood pumping through her system. ‘I won’t tell,’ she said. ‘And you’re right – it is interesting. It’s fascinating stuff. It makes you realise there’s a lot more going on in the world than we know about. I love that.’ Michaela shrugged and subsided into silence. She took a sip of the coffee. It was bitter; she’d forgotten to add sugar. ‘I can understand you wanting to study the stuff in those books,’ she said. ‘I think it’s a great idea. But I think you’re going to realise in a hurry that it’s not just academic stuff. It’s real, and because of that, actions have consequences.’ Caro was frowning. ‘What do you mean?’ Michaela stirred the sugar into her cup. ‘Well, actions always have consequences, one way or another, but what I really mean, is that when you start experimenting with consciousness, or the spirit world or whatever, things might happen that you never expected.’ ‘Like the shadow people turning up because I visualised the effigy mound as a doorway into the world of shamans and spirits?’ There it was. The trigger. Michaela nodded. ‘As unbelievable as it seems, I think the shadows are a direct consequence of that visualisation you did.’ ‘But how? I mean, I can’t be the first person to imagine that kind of thing.’ Michaela shrugged. ‘And we don’t know what anyone else has experienced. All I can guess is you were in the right place at the right time, doing something that caught their attention for some reason, and now they’re here, sniffing around.’ She thought about it for a moment. There must be more to it than that. It was so hard to think this way, as though the impossible were not only possible, but highly likely. ‘And maybe you were the right person in the right place,’ she added. Caro was blushing. Michaela looked at her. ‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘What you said about right person at right time. Maybe you were right.’ She chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I went there at Midsummers.’ She blushed harder. ‘And my period started while I was there.’ Michaela leaned back against the kitchen bench and thought about this. She sighed. She just didn’t know enough about all this. There was so much to think about and learn, but no time to. If they were going to be able to do anything, it was all going to be off the cuff, and Michaela was secretly afraid that would be more dangerous that anything. She rubbed at her face. ‘I need more time,’ she said. ‘I can’t figure everything out.’ She stood up. ‘I need to make notes. A timeline. I think so much better when I’ve things written down.’ Caro followed her into the dining area where their laptops still stood on the table. ‘I’m going to get dressed then I’ll help,’ she said. Michaela looked up at her. ‘That would be great. Two minds are always better than one. We will probably have to do it on the drive to the mound though.’ She remembered something. ‘I need to get the second camera out of your room, okay?’ Caro nodded and they both headed down the hallway to Caro’s room. The shower was still going. Michaela stopped outside Caro’s room and glanced at the girl before opening the door. The colour had returned to Caro’s cheeks and she looked only mildly apprehensive about what might be behind the door. Michaela swung the door open and they both peered in. ‘It looks like normal,’ Caro said. ‘Yeah. Good.’ Michaela stepped in and opened the curtains. Caro bent over the camera on the tripod. ‘I’ve just switched it off,’ she said. ‘These cameras are so cool. Are we going to have a look at what’s on it?’ Michaela picked up the voice recorder and switched that off too. It was a digital one so she couldn’t tell if anything had been recorded. It didn’t matter. She looked around the room. It was impossible to tell that just last night shadows had crowded around a girl in the bed. She shivered anyway and walked over to the wardrobe, pulling the door open. Nothing. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I guess everything’s back to normal in here.’ Caro was at the door. She looked back in the room. ‘Yeah, until night time again.’ They left the door open and Caro took the camera back to the kitchen. Michaela opened the door to Trisha’s room and slipped in. Trisha was dressing. Michaela wrapped her arms around her and bent down to bury her face in Trisha’s warm neck. She smelled good. ‘What’re you doing?’ Trisha asked. ‘Smelling you,’ Michaela said. Trisha wriggled around so they were facing. She placed her hands on Michaela’s cheeks and smiled. ‘I love you,’ she said. A grin spread across Michaela’s face. ‘I am never going to get tired of hearing that,’ she said. Trisha pinched her cheeks then. ‘You’re supposed to say it back, babe, not make some smart comment.’ Michaela organised her grin into a chastened look. ‘I’m sorry. I love you too.’ She squeezed the smaller woman and Trisha gave a squeal. ‘All right already, give it up, you great lug. You need a shower.’ Michaela let go and kissed her instead. ‘I’ll go and have a shower,’ she said. ‘Then we’ll head away, shall we?’ Trisha nodded, serious again. ‘I want this over with, Michaela. I know this ghost busting shit is right up your alley, but I’d rather it was someone else’s ghosts we were busting, you know?’ ‘I know. We’re close, I think. I’m getting a handle on it. We’ll have more idea what to do after today, I think.’ Trisha stared at her. ‘I hope so babe. I’d really rather start planning what we’re going to do about us, you know.’ Michaela grinned again and grabbed Trisha, lifting her off her feet and planting a big kiss on her lips. ‘I’ve some ideas about that too,’ she said. Trisha laughed. ‘Have a shower, get dressed and let’s go. You can tell me all your big ideas on the way.’

Chapter Thirty-five

‘How long will it take us to get there?’ Michaela asked. She had the roadmap open on her lap. Caro sat forward between the two front seats and looked at the map. ‘It won’t show on there,’ she said. ‘It’s not part of one of the mound parks, I found some reference to it on the Net and figured out where it was by looking on Google Earth.’ ‘It’s on private property?’ Caro shrugged. ‘I guess. Maybe. It’s in this kind of wooded area. Not farm land or anything. Took me a couple hours to get there, but I was hitching.’ Trisha glanced at her. ‘Hitching? I thought you said you took the bus? Don’t you know you’re not allowed to hitchhike?’ ‘I said I hitched and I made it there and back, didn’t I? No harm done.’ She squeezed an arm between the seats and pointed at a small dot on the town. ‘It’s about half an hour outside of that place. Walking.’ Michaela looked at the map. Judging by the size of the dot, it was just a one horse town.’ ‘Gas station, pub and dairy,’ Caro said, as though reading her mind. ‘Wasn’t anyone about on the street when I was there.’ She pointed again. ‘Take this road and I guess it’s a few miles down, then off the road for about a fifteen minute walk through the woods.’ ‘Through the woods? How the fuck did you manage not to get your idiot self lost?’ Trisha’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel. In the back seat, Caro shrugged. ‘I was prepared,’ she said. ‘Had a compass with me. And a typographical type map with me I printed off the Net.’ She rummaged in her back pack a moment and passed a creased piece of paper over to Michaela. ‘Do you have the compass too?’ ‘Of course.’ Michaela smoothed out the paper. The typography showed gentle hills and swells in the land, largely covered in trees. In the corner, a road she guessed led to the one horse town. ‘You really were well prepared to look for this place,’ she said, unable to help the admiration in her voice. ‘A fool, more like,’ Trisha interrupted. ‘Hitching, walking in the woods, good grief anything could have happened.’ Caro pouted. ‘Well nothing did, so there you go. You’re not my mother, quit acting like you are.’ ‘No, your mother doesn’t have a clue what you’re up too.’ Trisha slowed the car and turned onto a two lane back road. ‘Just as well I came back, that’s all I can say about it.’ Caro leaned back against the back seat and stared out the window, arms crossed. Michaela was looking at the map still, but couldn’t see anything helpful. She folded Caro’s map up and passed it back to her. ‘We’ll need that,’ she said. ‘Good thinking to bring it with you.’ Caro gave a smile and replaced the map in her backpack. Michaela rested her hand a moment on Trisha’s thigh, gave it a pat then sighed and opened the laptop she’d brought with her. They hadn’t stopped to watch the recording from the second camera before leaving, agreeing that finding the effigy mound before the day got too late was the priority. Michaela had the camera in her bag on the back seat beside Caro. Along with a couple other bits and pieces. Caro leaned forward and watched with interest as Michaela found and opened up the right programme. ‘How come you could afford to buy all that gear, Michaela?’ she asked. Michaela shifted slightly in her seat. The subject of money embarrassed her. ‘My grandmother left me some money when she died,’ she replied. ‘Lots?’ Trisha just about choked in the driver’s seat. ‘Caro!’ she said. Then turned to Michaela. ‘Lots?’ she echoed. Michaela guessed there was no avoiding the issue. And if she and Trisha were going to be together, it would come out anyway. She cleared her throat and stared down at the computer. ‘Yeah, quite a bit,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know when I was a kid living with her, but Gran was pretty astute when it came to business, and she didn’t have much but the orchard to spend money on.’ Trisha gave another sideways glance. ‘How much is quite a bit?’ Michaela laughed. ‘You’re not supposed to love me for my money,’ she said. Trisha gave a sly smile. ‘I don’t love you for your money babe, but I might just marry you for it!’ Caro hooted with laughter in the back seat and Michaela groaned. ‘Go on then,’ Caro said. ‘I want to know if we’re going to be rich.’ ‘Not rich, and what’s this we, anyway?’ Michaela asked, pulling at face at Caro and grinning. ‘How much?’ asked Trisha. Michaela gave in. ‘About a million in investments and cash. Then there’s the orchard, which is probably worth another couple million.’ No one said anything. Trisha pulled the car over and stopped on the side of the road. She pulled on the handbrake and turned to Michaela. ‘How much did you say? Did I hear you say two or three million dollars?’ Trisha’s eyes were wide. Michaela nodded. ‘About that, yeah.’ ‘You didn’t seem that rich when we were together?’ ‘I wasn’t that rich when we were together. It was a surprise to me too. I never had any idea my Gran was that well off. I knew the orchard was worth a bit, but I didn’t know about the rest. My grandmother believed in working hard. She made sure I had everything I needed while I lived with her, but anything I wanted on top of that I had to work for.’ Trisha rested her hands on the steering wheel and stared out the front windscreen. ‘Well fuck me Freddy,’ she said. ‘From now on babe, you’re paying for dinner.’ She grinned and accelerated back onto the road. ‘Well fuck me.’ She was shaking her head in amazement. ‘I have a rich girlfriend.’

Chapter Thirty-six

They rode in silence for the next five minutes, and Michaela turned her attention back to the computer. ‘The options are endless,’ Trisha said. ‘What?’ ‘I said, the options are endless. Here I was thinking we had bugger all choice about what we did next, where we went and so on, but all the time, we had all these options I never dreamed of.’ ‘How’s that?’ Caro asked from the back seat. Michaela answered. ‘The thing that having money really allows,’ she said, ‘are choices. If you have no money, your choices in life are severely limited.’ She twisted around in her seat and looked back at Caro. ‘Trisha’s just getting used to the idea, that maybe she won’t have to work in a diner all her life.’ She laughed. ‘You guys are really going to be together?’ Michaela and Trisha looked at each other. Trisha snaked a hand over and grasped Michaela’s. ‘Yes,’ they both said at the same time and laughed. ‘Cool,’ said Caro. ‘Don’t forget you’re taking me wherever you go.’ Trisha grinned. ‘What if we don’t go anywhere? You need to finish school, remember.’ Caro pouted. ‘I can go to school anywhere,’ she said. Let’s get out of boringsville.’ Michaela was thinking. ‘Come back to New Zealand with me,’ she said. ‘Both of you.’ She shrugged. ‘I have to go back no matter what. I really want you to come with me. We can decide what we want to do after that, but in the meantime, I have the orchard to run. It’s coming up summer at home, fruit season.’ Trisha was shaking her head. ‘Mom will never let us take Caro away.’ ‘You’re not going without me – you promised!’ Caro looked totally alarmed. Michaela spoke up. ‘No offense, Trisha, but it doesn’t seem like your mother is really worried about her daughter.’ Trisha tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. ‘She’s not around at the moment because you’re here. She can’t turn a blind eye to the way I am if you’re staying in the house. She cares about Caro.’ ‘Not much,’ said Caro. ‘Enough not to let you move to the other side of the world. Or anywhere, for that matter.’ Caro had her arms folded. ‘I’m going and she can’t stop me. She’s hardly ever home and we all know it. I’m sixteen in five weeks and what’re a few weeks? She’s not going to do anything when she knows I’d just pack up and leave the day I turn sixteen anyway.’ Caro sat back, a determined look on her face. Trisha glanced around then back at the road. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘We’ll argue about it later, all right? We’ll work something out, I’m sure. Now, are we almost there?’ Michaela looked out the window. They were surrounded by farmland. A grassy ditch ran on each side of the road and beyond it were paddocks, some with cattle, others showing the stubble from freshly harvested crops. ‘Where are we?’ she asked with a laugh. Trisha pointed to the map. ‘You’re the navigator.’ Michaela picked up the map and scrutinised it. ‘Wouldn’t have a clue,’ she decided after a minute. ‘Useless,’ Trisha said with a shake of the head and a quick grin. ‘We’ll be there in about an hour.’ Michaela nodded and looked out the window again. It looked a lot like home, she decided. The land was fertile, good farmland. She startled and saw a hare leap out of the ditch and dodge under their wheels. There was no bump, maybe they didn’t hit it. She shrugged and turned to her computer again. This time no one interrupted her when she clicked open the program and brought up the recording made by the video camera in Caro’s room. It was strange. Michaela fast forwarded through the ten or so hours of recording, then went through it again. And a third time. By now, Caro was leaning forward again, watching with interest, and the same puzzlement on her face that Michaela felt. Trisha looked over. ‘Well?’ she asked. ‘There’s nothing on it,’ said Michaela. Trisha frowned. ‘What do you mean nothing? Didn’t it record properly?’ Michaela slowed the recording to real time speed and watched. ‘It recorded,’ she said. ‘But it didn’t record anything.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ asked Trisha. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Michaela tried again. ‘I mean it recorded, but the picture is just black. Just darkness.’ Caro was watching from the back seat. ‘Stop it there a minute, Michaela,’ she said. ‘Go back a tiny bit and play it in slow motion.’ Michaela played it slowly forward, squinting at the screen. ‘That’s a bit freaky,’ she said. ‘What’s a bit freaky?’ Trisha asked, trying to see the screen despite the fact she was driving. Caro answered. ‘It looks like faces,’ she said. ‘Just faint faces in the darkness.’ Michaela replayed it again. ‘They are faces,’ she said. ‘And they’re not just faces, they’re our faces.’ ‘From when we were in the room, right?’ asked Trisha. Michaela shook her head, then realised she had to answer. ‘No. Not from then. The faces are looking right at the camera. We never did that. In fact the camera shouldn’t have caught our faces at all, not the way it was positioned. And it doesn’t show the lights going on and you getting Caro out of her bed or me checking the wardrobe or anything.’ She paused. ‘It doesn’t show anything that happened. It’s just blackness except for the one bit where you can just make out our faces like shadows in the dark.’ ‘That sounds scary,’ Trisha said, a trace of nervousness in her voice. ‘It’s horrible,’ Caro said from the back seat. ‘I don’t like it. Turn it off Michaela, it makes me feel weird, like I’m going to be sick or something.’ Michaela was feeling the same. Her stomach was churning and sweat broke out on her forehead. She felt nauseous. ‘Turn it off, please,’ Caro said. ‘Pull over,’ Michaela told Trisha, snapping the screen of the laptop down on the eerie footage. Trisha raised an eyebrow but pulled over. Michaela stumbled from the car and bent over in the tall grass. She’d only had coffee for breakfast but that and half her stomach lining ended up on the ground. And then she was dry retching, suffering suddenly from vertigo and feeling like the world was spinning out of control under her feet.

The car door opened and Trisha was beside her. She reached a hand out and found support. She steadied herself against her girlfriend and rested her forehead on Trisha’s shoulder. ‘Oh my God,’ she groaned. ‘Are you okay?’ Trisha asked. Michaela wiped her mouth. ‘Need to sit down, babe.’ Trisha led her to the open car door and lowered her onto the seat. Michaela stuck her head between her legs and groaned again. Caro was sitting on the grass beside the car, looking pale. ‘Are you all right?’ Michaela asked her. ‘Queasy,’ Caro replied. ‘What’s going on?’ Michaela shrugged, still with her head down. She straightened up and caught Trisha’s concerned face. She tried a sickly grin. ‘I’m okay honey,’ she said. ‘Don’t think my legs are ever going to support my weight again and half my internal organs are over there in the ditch, but I think I’ll live.’ Trisha looked at her. ‘If you can make a bloody speech like that, then I have to agree with you. You’re definitely going to live. But what the fuck caused this?’ Michaela shook her head and ran a hand over her face. Her skin was clammy. ‘The recording,’ she said. ‘Got a huge case of vertigo watching it.’ She turned to Caro. ‘Same with you?’ ‘Yeah. I was watching it then suddenly felt like the world was collapsing in on itself or something.’ She shook her head. ‘Made me feel sick.’ Michaela tucked her feet back inside the car. ‘Let’s go, shall we? Time’s wasting.’ Trisha gave her one more look then helped Caro back up and into the car. ‘Do you think we should turn back?’ she asked. ‘No.’ Michaela placed the laptop on the floor out of the way of her feet. ‘No, I think we should keep going. Visit this mound. See what there is to see.’ Trisha got in behind the wheel. ‘What if there’s nothing to see?’ she asked. ‘Do we even have the slightest idea what we’re doing?’ No one replied. Trisha sighed, shrugged and started the car. She pulled out onto the highway and drove down the road.

Chapter Thirty-seven

They parked the car as far off the road as possible. Michaela was still feeling unsteady on her feet but she assured Trisha she was fine to walk. Trisha scanned the woodland in front of her. ‘Hike, you mean,’ she said. Michaela shrugged. She took the water bottle Caro held out to her and drank deeply. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘You know which way to go?’ Caro nodded and pointed. ‘That way.’ Michaela checked the car was locked. The last thing she wanted was the laptop with that horrible film on it to be stolen. She nodded and turned on the video camera she held. ‘Let’s go then,’ she said. They clambered over the fence and set off into the woods, Caro leading the way. Trisha walked beside Michaela. She looked at the camera Michaela was holding and frowned. ‘Is the sound on?’ she asked. Michaela switched it off so they could talk. ‘You okay?’ she asked. Trisha rolled her eyes. ‘It’s me who should be asking you that. God, I should never have called you and asked you to come.’ Michaela flinched. ‘Why would you say that?’ she asked. Trisha took her hand and squeezed it. ‘Because now I have to worry about you on top of everything else.’ Michaela laughed. ‘You don’t need to worry about me. I can look after myself.’ Trisha shrugged. ‘Yeah that’s how come you were puking your guts out on the side of the road before.’ Michaela looked at her and shook her head. ‘How could you have foreseen that?’ Trisha looked severely aggravated. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘And it pisses me off that I don’t know what’s going on here. This is way beyond anything I could ever imagine.’ She turned to Michaela. ‘What exactly is going on?’ she asked. Michaela shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But we’re going to find out and we’re going to fix it.’ She grinned. ‘And then we’re going to live happily ever after.’ Trisha rolled her eyes. ‘Anyone ever tell you that you are a hopeless optimistic?’ They stumbled upon the mound after fifteen minutes of walking. Michaela looked around. The effigy mound was little more than an oval rise in the middle of the trees. ‘Is this it?’ she asked. Trisha was glancing around, looking puzzled. ‘There’s hardly anything here,’ she said. ‘This is what’s caused all the problems?’ Caro shrugged and walked around the outside of the mound. ‘What were you expecting?’ she asked. ‘Something a bit more earth shattering than this,’ said Trisha. Michaela couldn’t help but agree. It was a very unprepossessing sight. Little more than a raised hillock. She followed Caro around the perimeter. It was a uniform shape; she had to give it that. An oval, almost but not quite egg-shaped. She wanted to climb up and stand on the mound but hesitated, wondering if that was appropriate. Then with a shrug, decided to anyway. It was cool in the woods, but beautiful with the light playing in the red and gold leaves. Michaela stood on top of the small mound and looked around. ‘What were these mounds for?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know exactly,’ Caro replied. ‘They’re old. Really old. And probably shamanic in purpose.’ ‘Shamanic?’ Trisha was standing with hands on hips facing out into the trees. ‘Yeah, remember how I said last night that people used to live in a world populated just as much by spirits as people? Well, shamans were the go-between guys in the old days. They could travel between the worlds of the spirit and people.’ ‘And these are the dudes who built these mounds?’ Trisha was still looking away. ‘Maybe,’ said Caro. ‘I think so anyway.’ Trisha threw her a quick glance. ‘You know sis, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. All this ‘I think so stuff’ doesn’t get you anywhere but into trouble.’ Caro’s face reddened and Michaela could see she looked close to tears. But Trisha had turned back out to watch the trees, like some sort of sentry. ‘What are you looking at?’ Michaela asked her. Trisha shrugged. ‘Keep thinking I see something, is all. A dog or something.’ She turned around and looked up at Michaela who was now scanning the woods in the direction she had been looking. ‘Woods and forests and the like creep me out now, ever since that carry-on at the lake last year.’ Michaela caught movement off to their right. She watched but could see nothing. An animal of some sort, she guessed. Not what they were here for anyway. She turned in a circle. Something was strange about the way the trees were growing around the mound. She stopped and frowned, trying to figure what it was. Turning slightly she realised there was some sort of track leading away from the mound. She walked down from the mound and took a few steps along the track. It was much harder to see from down on the forest floor, but narrowing her eyes, she could just make it out. It went in a straight line. The others were watching her. ‘What have you found?’ asked Trisha. ‘A faint track,’ replied Michaela. ‘It goes straight through the trees, look.’ Caro and Trisha fell in behind her. The track led a hundred feet into the woods and petered out in a small clearing. A clearing which held another, smaller mound. Michaela toured around the outside of this one. This one was a circle. ‘I wonder what significance these mounds had,’ she said. ‘They’re not actual burial mounds, are they? And why the straight path between them?’ Caro spoke up. ‘The path would be a spirit path probably. A path the spirits would follow from one place to another, and also a path for the shaman to follow on one of his out-of-body journeys.’ Trisha turned an enquiring eye upon her younger sister. ‘And all this helps us how?’ she asked. Michaela looked around. Trisha was right. It was interesting for sure, and there was a certain, hushed atmosphere about the place that was a little spooky, but there was nothing really to see here that shed any light on the infestation of shadows back at the house. ‘So go over what you did while you were here last time, Caro,’ she said after a moment. Caro’s face darkened and she led then back to the first, larger mound. ‘I just kind of looked around,’ she said. ‘You know, wondering who built the mounds and what for.’ She shrugged. ‘Then I decided to sit down and try to visualise what it was like when the place was being used. For whatever it was used for. I pretended I was a priestess or something.’ Michaela ran her fingers through her hair. ‘Show us where you sat and did that,’ she said. ‘Sit down and do it again. Describe what you were thinking.’ Caro gave them an embarrassed look and sat down against the mound. Michaela couldn’t help but notice the girl was right at the head of the track. The spirit path, Caro had called it. Right in the way of any traffic, Michaela thought. Presuming of course, there was still traffic along these old ways. Michaela was aware that she was groping in the dark, making one intuitive leap after another. Doing nothing more really that following vague associations in her mind. She rubbed her arms and caught sight of the snakes twining themselves around her wrists. The blue ink shined in the soft light. She looked back at the mound and the path that she knew was there, invisible from this vantage point, but there nonetheless. Caro was sitting on the ground, her pack in her lap. She looked awkward and uncomfortable. Michaela smiled at her but stayed silent, trying to recapture the flow of her thoughts. What was it she’d been thinking? Right in the way of traffic. That had been it. Caro was sitting right in the way of any traffic. Michaela shook her head. That was ridiculous. What sort of traffic, for crying out loud? Spirits, Caro had said. The shamans followed the paths on their trips out of body, going from our world to the world of spirit, the two worlds nudged up close against each other and anything possible in places where the veil was thin. Michaela knew little of shamanic practises but thought maybe that didn’t matter. She opened her eyes and looked around. Was it possible that some residue of power clung to this place? Was it possible the spirits still used the path? Michaela shivered at the thought. The afternoon had turned very still among the trees. A hush had fallen over the clearing as though even the breeze was holding its breath while Michaela tried to keep hold of her nebulous thoughts. She wondered if places once powerful and significant could still attract traffic, for lack of a better word. If places like that were the easiest places to cross from one world to the other? And if they were, was it also possible that a young woman, in one of these places at a time of year also significant, could have presented herself as a very interesting distraction, and attracted the attention of those travellers? Michaela rubbed her face. ‘Jesus,’ she said. ‘Caro, get up, will you?’ Caro scrambled up from her seat at the foot of the path. ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘I thought you wanted me to tell you about what I did?’ Michaela nodded. ‘Yeah, I did. I do. I just need to think a moment first, okay?’ Michaela closed her eyes again. She had a strong feeling she was on the right track. But it was so farfetched. She shook her head. Believing this would require a major shift in world view. She thought about what she’d seen so far. The shadows in Caro’s room, caught on tape the other day, for God’s sakes. Was there any choice but to believe in this other world? She almost laughed. All right, say she was right. What then? How were they going to undo what was done? How were they going to shift attention away from Caro again? Was it even possible? Michaela opened her eyes and saw Caro staring at her, face pale under the mass of dark hair. She glanced at Trisha, who was still peering out into the trees, a frown on her face. ‘What is it, Trisha?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know,’ Trisha said. ‘I just keep getting this weird feeling we’re being watched. And every now and then I hear a twig breaking or something like someone is walking around out there.’ Michaela looked around, alarmed. What would be out there? She amended that. What would be out there all three-dimensional, breaking sticks underfoot? She walked over to Trisha and looked in the same direction. Trisha shook her head. ‘I think it’s only a dog or deer or something. I’m just freaking myself out.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘Do we need to stay here much longer?’ she asked. Michaela looked over at Caro. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ve had a few ideas, from seeing this place, but I’m not sure what we can do here. We might have to come back though.’ Trisha nodded. ‘I want to head back to the car then, okay?’ ‘You really think there’s something out there?’ ‘Something. Don’t know what though. It’s keeping its distance.’ Michaela had a frightening thought. ‘It’s not a bear or something is it?’ There were no bears back home. Trisha shook her head. ‘Don’t think so,’ she said. That was enough for Michaela. ‘Let’s go,’ she said. ‘Don’t think so just isn’t positive enough for me.’ They grouped together and headed back towards the car, walking with wary steps. Michaela glanced back at the effigy mound and thought about the dead straight path heading away from it to the other mound. She had some thinking to do, but she was sure she was on the right path. No pun intended.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The feeling of being watched grew as they walked. Hurrying now, Michaela hoped like hell they were going in the right direction because she had no idea. She just followed Caro who looked like someone who knew where they were going. ‘We’re being followed,’ Trisha said. Michaela wiped cold sweat from her face. Please God, she thought, let it not be a bear. ‘It’s not a bear,’ said Trisha. Reading her thoughts. ‘What is it?’ ‘I don’t know.’ They reached the fence and tumbled over it, rushing for the car. Trisha unlocked it and the three of them fell inside with sighs of relief. ‘That was freaky,’ Caro decided. ‘What was following us, Trisha?’ Trisha shrugged and slotted the key in the ignition. ‘Dog or something,’ she said. ‘Didn’t get a look at it. Was just damned spooky.’ She started the car and turned around on the narrow road and headed the car back towards the small town up the road. Michaela twisted around in her seat towards where they’d come out of the woods. Something stepped out onto the side of the road and she gasped. ‘Holy fuck can you see that? Trisha, in the rear vision mirror!’ ‘What? What is it?’ The indistinct figure turned back into the woods and disappeared from sight. Michaela turned back around. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It was like some sort of dog.’ She paused and Trisha looked at her, eyebrows raised. ‘It was on two legs,’ Michaela said at last. ‘Bullshit!’ Michaela shivered and looked down at her hands. ‘I think I need a nap,’ she said. ‘I could have sworn it was standing on two legs.’ Trisha was shaking her head. ‘Not possible, babe. Did you see it, Caro?’ ‘I don’t know what I saw. Something. A dog maybe, or a skinny bear. It was gone so quickly, I really didn’t get a look.’ Michaela leaned back against the seat. Fatigue swept through her as her heart finally slowed. Boy oh boy she’d had enough drama to last a lifetime now, she reckoned. Whatever it was she’d just seen, she was sure glad it had been once they were in the car. ‘What are we going to do now, babycakes?’ Michaela gave Trisha a wan smile and wished she could just lie down with her head in her girlfriend’s lap and drift off to sleep. ‘I need a decent sleep,’ she said. ‘I don’t think we’re going to get that at home,’ said Trisha. Michaela sighed. ‘You’re right. But if I don’t get some proper sleep, I’m not going to be able to think straight.’ She rubbed at her eyes. ‘Perhaps we could stay somewhere else,’ Caro said from the back seat. ‘Who knows, maybe the shadow men wouldn’t follow us if we were somewhere else for the night.’ Trisha shrugged. ‘You want to try it?’ she asked. ‘Worth a go, surely? Then we can plan the next step and take it from there.’ Michaela nodded. ‘Okay. Let’s find somewhere else to stay then, just for a night.’ She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The motion of the car lulled her into a doze. She thought about the weird creature she’d seen when she looked back at the woods. It had been so strange; she’d never seen anything like it in her life. If only she’d still had the camera on. This reminded her, she still hadn’t listened to the recording made last night in Caro’s bedroom. In fact she’d barely glanced at the recorder. Another thing to do. The list was getting too long. She needed some sleep. In a bed. All night. With Trisha tucked up beside her. Perfect. She drifted off deeper, face creased in a frown. When she woke, Trisha was pulling to a stop in front of a hotel. ‘Where are we?’ she asked. ‘Back in Kenosha, sleepyhead. Come on, I’m starving. Let’s get a room and see if we can find something to eat.’ Michaela got out of the car and stretched. It looked nice here. She smiled as she looked around. ‘This looks like a very nice place,’ she said to Trisha. Trisha grinned. ‘It is thanks, babe. May I suggest you get your credit card out and ready?’ She came round the car and kissed Michaela, a quick but warm pressing of lips. ‘Wait until we get a room, you guys,’ Caro complained. Trisha laughed and cuffed her sister around the ears. ‘Hush up or no dinner for you.’ She leaned in the car and picked up the video camera and Michaela’s computer. ‘Let’s go make ourselves comfortable, shall we?’ They ended up not with just a room and bed, but a complete suite. Michaela followed a gleeful pair of sisters up in the elevator and along the hallway to their rooms. Caro and Trisha whooped and danced in between the furniture. ‘Look!’ squealed Caro, ‘A fruit basket! Holy shit how much did this room cost?’ Michaela looked around. ‘Not room, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘Suite. Jesus Trisha, you don’t think you might have gone just a little bit overboard, do you?’ Trisha grinned and dragged Michaela into the room and flung her arms around her, kissing her deeply. ‘We deserve it,’ she said. Michaela looked at Trisha and couldn’t help but smile. Hell, maybe they did deserve something of a treat. It had been a pretty stressful few days. A bit of luxury wouldn’t go amiss. She tugged on Trisha’s hair and kissed her. ‘Are we going down to the restaurant, or do we order room service?’ She looked from Trisha to Caro. Caro giggled. ‘We’re not exactly dressed for a place this fancy.’ ‘Room service it is, then. Why don’t you guys order? I’m going to have a shower.’ She looked around again. ‘Bet this place has a great shower.’

Chapter Thirty-nine

It did have a great shower and the room service was excellent too. They ate at the dining table which sat littered with plates when they had finished. ‘That was the most brilliant meal I’ve ever had,’ Caro announced. ‘I absolutely couldn’t eat another bite.’ ‘Considering that I’m sure you’ve just eaten the equivalent of a buffalo, I’m not surprised,’ Trisha said, her own face betraying satisfaction with the meal. Michaela smiled at both of them. She was feeling a bit better now. The nap in the car, a hot shower which had been more of an aquatic massage, thanks to the excellent water pressure, and now a terrific meal; she was feeling all right. She cleared the table and got out her laptop. Trisha groaned. ‘Can’t we have a break from that just for one night?’ Michaela shrugged. ‘Just give me half an hour,’ she said. Trisha shrugged. ‘I’m going to watch a movie,’ she said. ‘Caro, what about you?’ Caro looked conflicted a moment. ‘Movie,’ she said. ‘Sorry Michaela.’ Michaela looked up from the screen. ‘No problem,’ she said. Caro and Trisha threw themselves onto the couch in front of the television and squabbled over which movie to watch. Michaela pulled the digital voice recorder from her pocket and plugged it in. She scooped a set of headphones out of her laptop bag and plugged them in too. She ran through the recording. Nothing. It hadn’t recorded anything. Michaela tapped a fingernail on the table and thought about it. Weird. Definitely weird. The device was designed to record when there was noise. She checked the numbers on the program. According to that, it had recorded for three hours and twenty five minutes. But it had recorded silence. She picked the recorder up and examined it. Perhaps it was faulty. But she didn’t think so. It had been fresh out of the box when she left it on the bookshelf in Caro’s room. Brand new. It was a little like the camera, she decided. Recording nothing, which in itself was something. The recorder should at least have picked up Caro and herself talking when they went into the room in the morning, but like with the camera, there was nothing. It was as though something was running interference. She leaned back in her chair. The strange thing was, that this was just more proof. Not the sort of thing that would stand up in some lab, sure, but to her it was incontrovertible proof. She sighed and logged onto the internet. Proof of what, though? That was the million dollar question. Caro and Trisha laughed at something on the television and Michaela took her headphones off, saved the silent recording and opened up the Google search page. She thought for a moment, then typed in effigy mounds, map, Wisconsin and hit search. One of the search results caught her eye. She clicked on it and a page loaded, a red background, two outline drawings of the state, the top marked with the sites of effigy mounds and there were a lot of them. But the lower map was the one that really made her sit up. Again, the state outline, but this one was titled differently, though most of the marked spots were in the same places as the mounds in the top map. This one was titled ‘Dogman sightings’. She scrolled down the page and found the link to the sites homepage. She clicked on it, wondering where it was going to take her. Another red background, this one with a big title. She stared at it. The Beast of Bray Road. And there was a picture. A dog, long muzzle, big teeth, tall, ugly and standing on two legs. Michaela ran her fingers through her hair. This was getting frighteningly weird. She scanned the text. Sightings of a man-dog creature, spanning a period of years, spread across the southern part of the state. She read on. Then clicked back to the map. Very definitely weird. The maps were almost exactly the same. She wondered where their own effigy mound was. She moved the mouse and the little arrow pointed to where she thought they were on the map. ‘Caro?’ she said after a moment. ‘Do you have your map that we used today?’ Caro looked over and nodded. ‘It’s in the outside pocket of my bag,’ she said, pointing. ‘Just grab it if you want.’ She turned back to the television. Michaela unfolded the map and smoothed it out in front of her. She needed a more detailed map of the state. Maybe she could pick one up in the morning. She looked back at the computer. Or not. She was just getting herself side-tracked here. Or was she? Chewing on her lip, she gave it some thought. If these things, these beasts, were being seen like this, in clusters around these effigy mounds, then chances were it meant there was still some sort of power attached to the mounds. Which brought her back to her earlier thinking. If they were still places of power, then there could be some sort of traffic. If that were the case, it was more than possible a young girl could sit herself down in the path of that traffic and prove herself quite a distraction. Okay. So Caro had caught the attention of these shadow men. What could these shadow men actually do? She thought about all the stories about them she’d read so far. Most of them were tales of being watched. Just watched. There was no real interaction except for those who said they were sat upon, suffocated and the like. Michaela had dismissed those ones, though. They were too consistent with the symptoms of sleep paralysis. But back to the point. These shadow men were watchers. Michaela considered the evidence from the webcam and video cameras. They were real enough, she had no doubt about that, and they could be seen. They could even influence their environment to some degree, judging by the voice recordings and the darkness the second camera had recorded. But on the whole, they seemed just as interested in us as we were in them. Michaela looked over at Caro and Trisha laughing and relaxed on the couch. The big question really was how were they going to rid Caro of the shadow men’s unwanted attention? That was that question that Michaela simply didn’t have an answer to. She sighed and shut down her computer. She was tired again. Yawning, she put everything except the video camera away. ‘I’m going to set this up in your room, okay Caro?’ she asked. Caro looked up and a frown crossed her face. Then she nodded. ‘Okay, but I don’t think they’ll come here, do you?’ Michaela shrugged. She hoped not, that was for sure. ‘I’d like to set it up anyway,’ she said. ‘Just in case.’ Caro nodded and turned back to the television. Michaela went into the second bedroom where Caro would sleep and set the camera on a set of drawers. She would tell Caro to turn it on when she went to bed. Bed. That sounded like just the place. She leaned over the couch and wrapped her arms around Trisha. ‘I’m going to bed, okay babe? Caro, I put the camera in your room. Just turn in on before you get into bed.’ She kissed Trisha. ‘I’ll be in shortly,’ said Trisha. ‘This is almost finished.’ Michaela nodded and went into their bedroom, desperate suddenly to slide between the crisp cotton sheets. She was asleep within minutes.

Chapter Forty.

In her dream, she was suddenly tumbling down a hillside. The ground was shaking underneath her. The shaking didn’t stop. ‘Wake up Michaela! Holy shit, wake up already!’ Michaela opened her eyes. Trisha was shaking her by the shoulders. She forced the dream away and herself awake. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, grabbing Trisha by the hand. She could see Caro at the end of the bed too, her face pale under her heavy, dark hair. ‘You gotta get up. They’re back.’ Michaela looked around and groped for her jeans. The room was ablaze with electric light. Through the bedroom door she could see the rest of the suite similarly bright. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked. Caro was chewing on her fingernails. Trisha handed Michaela her shirt. ‘We were just watching TV. The movie had finished and you were asleep. Most of the lights were off and then it was just like at home. Shadows started moving, but you could only see them from the corner of your eye. But that was bad enough.’ She shuddered. ‘We could feel them, in the corners, watching us; it felt like there were hundreds of them.’ She sank down on the edge of the bed. ‘It was horrible, Michaela. Caro leapt up and we started turning on all the lights. What’re we going to do?’ Michaela took in their drawn, white faces and knew they had to do something. She looked around for her boots, eyes drawn to the corners of the room, where she could have sworn she felt them waiting. She shivered all of a sudden. Caro asked again. ‘What’re we going to do?’ She stuck her fist back in her mouth. ‘They’re not going to go away, are they?’ Michaela stood up, socks on now, shoving her feet into boots. ‘Get your shoes and jackets on,’ she said. ‘Where are we going?’ Trisha asked, but she was already looking around for her shoes. Michaela leaned down to do up her laces. ‘We’re going to take them back,’ she said after a moment. There was a slight popping sound from the other room, and the ceiling light went out. Caro squealed in fright and Trisha clamped a hand on Michaela’s arm. ‘What the fuck?’ she said. Another popping sound, and another light out. The suite’s small lounge grew dark through the doorway. ‘Shoes, jackets, now,’ Michaela commanded, standing up and drawing Trisha with her. ‘Get your car keys.’ Trisha nodded mutely and Michaela pushed past to Caro. ‘Caro?’ she hissed. ‘Get your shoes on.’ Caro shook her head, eyes gripped by the dark room. ‘They’re in there,’ she said. Michaela put an arm round her. ‘I’ll come with you.’ They went through into the next room, lit now only by the television. Caro moved round by the couch and groped on the floor for her shoes. Michaela stood by her, willing her to hurry up, eyeing the corners of the room where the shadows seemed to grow and darken, gelling together into solid blackness. The light in the bedroom went out. ‘Trisha?’ Trisha appeared in the doorway. ‘The keys are on the table,’ she said. Michaela glanced down at Caro, still pulling on her shoes. ‘Are you ready?’ she asked, tugging on the girl’s sleeve. The television screen went back. Trisha gave a startled shriek from the doorway. ‘We have to get out of here now,’ hissed Michaela, pulling Caro through the sudden blackness to where she hoped the table was. The darkness enveloped her, as though it had form and mass, pushing at her face. ‘Trisha?’ she called. ‘Where are you? Find the door.’ She heard movement, hoped it was Trisha groping towards the suite door. Caro stumbled behind her and Michaela could hear the harsh sounds of her breathing. Her bag was on the table. And the keys, somewhere. She crashed into something, hitting her shin. She bit her lip on the pain and stuck a hand out, groping, relieved to find the tabletop under her fingers. She swept up her bag, slinging it over a shoulder and reaching back for the keys. Where were they? ‘Michaela?’ Trisha’s voice was almost unrecognizable. ‘Keys,’ Michaela said into the darkness. ‘Where the fuck are the keys?’ She could feel movement in the darkness of the room, hoped to God it was Trisha or Caro. Caro moved to her side, hands sweeping the table, looking for the keys too. Her hand touched something that jangled and she grasped them. ‘Found them,’ she said, her voice an outrush of held breath. Michaela grabbed hold of her. ‘Don’t drop them,’ she said, already turning them towards what she hoped was the door. The air seemed to be growing thicker. She bit down on her panic. Just imaging it, she told herself. A breeze of something fanned past her face and she gave a startled yelp. The darkness was filled, and writhing. Hand clamped on Caro’s arm, she dragged the girl forward. ‘Trisha?’ she called, throat filling with syrupy darkness. ‘Where are you Trish?’ Something bumped into her. She flung out a hand and was relieved when it struck something warm and solid. ‘Trisha? That you?’ The warm body grabbed her back. ‘I can’t find the door.’ It was Trisha and Michaela hung onto her. ‘It has to be here somewhere,’ she said, struggling for calm. She peered into the dark room, straining her eyes. There must be a chink of light somewhere, just the smallest reflection from a window where the drapes weren’t fully closed. But there was no light anywhere. And the darkness was pressing closer. She tried to remember the room, picturing it in her mind. It wasn’t that big, for fuck’s sake! Where the hell was the door? Hell, where was a wall? She surged forward, taking the other two with her. She could feel the shadows reaching for them, grasping with their inky fingers… A wall. She let go of one of the girls, no longer knowing which one. ‘Hang onto me,’ she commanded, letting her hand sweep the smooth surface and moving along it. The door must be close. Her hand closed over the door knob and her knees just about buckled with relief. She twisted it but it didn’t budge. ‘I can’t get the door open,’ she whispered. A hand slid down over hers, grasped the door knob, did something, twisted it and it turned. ‘Move back!’ Trisha yelled. ‘It opens inward.’ They stumbled back, the three of them entwined in the twisting darkness and Trisha yanked the door open, letting a welcome oblong of light spill into the room. Through into the hotel hallway, Trisha banged the door shut behind them and staggered back against the facing wall. All three of them stared at the closed door, their breathing hitching. ‘Oh fuck.’ It was Trisha. She was staring down at the bar of blackness under the door. She groped for Michaela as they watched in stunned fascination as the blackness bulged beneath the door and began to ooze under the gap and into the hallway like an oil spill. There was a fizzing and a popping and the hallway light beside them burst in a shatter of glass and went out. The stain grew larger in the dimmer length of corridor. ‘We’re outta here,’ Michaela said, pushing the other two in front of her and towards the exit. Within seconds the three of them were running.

There was no one at the reception desk when they ran past and pushed the doors open, tumbling out into the night. Probably just as well, they would have been a suspicious sight, Michaela was sure, three wild, disheveled women running as though the hounds of hell were chasing them. They backed away into the car park. ‘You still have those keys, Caro?’ Michaela asked, her voice barely a croak, her throat dry. Caro didn’t even answer, just held the shining bunch of keys up. Michaela nodded at her and turned towards Trisha. ‘Where’s the car, babe?’ They walked off, huddled together, looking for the car. Trisha saw it first and pointed it out. Caro gave her the keys and the doors were unlocked and they all clambered in, feeling a little safer. ‘Where are we going to go?’ Trisha asked at last. She looked over at Michaela sitting in the passenger seat and her face was starkly pale in the yellow car light. Caro spoke up from the back seat. ‘We can’t go home,’ she said. ‘Those, those things will just follow us, I know they will.’ She stifled a sob and set her face. ‘They’re going to follow me wherever I go aren’t they?’ Michaela tried to smile at her, but she was afraid it would have looked more of a grimace than a reassurance. ‘We have to get rid of them,’ she said, knowing the other two women weren’t going to like what she was about to say. Hell, she wasn’t thrilled with it either. Caro was struggling not to cry. ‘How?’ she asked. ‘We don’t even know what they are? How are we supposed to get rid of them?’ Michaela shifted, uncomfortable. She looked at Trisha. ‘We know where they came from though,’ she said. ‘We can take them back.’ Trisha’s face creased in a frown and she started shaking her head. ‘Oh no. No way. Michaela you have to be fucking kidding me,’ Caro swiped at her eyes. ‘What?’ she asked. Trisha was still shaking her head. ‘You can’t be serious. It’s the middle of the night. Middle of fucking Halloween night, no fucking less. There’s no way we’re going back there.’ Michaela ran her fingers through her hair. There was no way she wanted to go back there either. Not when something had been stalking them last time, something that was not a bear, but was probably worse than a bear. And she didn’t have a clue what they were supposed to do when they got there, but it was the only idea she even thought might be worth something. ‘What?’ Caro repeated, looking from one of them to the other. ‘I don’t think we have a choice,’ Michaela said to Trisha, her voice gentle. ‘And I think the fact that it’s Halloween will be in our favor.’ She looked at Caro. ‘It was Midsummers when you went there and were noticed. If we can lead them back there, perhaps they will go back to what they should have been doing.’ She watched horrified comprehension dawn in Caro’s dark eyes. ‘Or something,’ she finished, aware of how lame her argument sounded. There was silence in the car. Trisha had her hands set on the steering wheel, gazing out into the dark night. ‘I really, really need a smoke,’ she said at last. Michaela opened the glove box and passed her a pack of cigarettes. Trisha shook out a smoke and groped around for a lighter. She cranked the window down a little and blew out a stream of white smoke. ‘Okay then,’ she said and turned the key in the ignition. ‘Let’s do this thing.’ Michaela nodded as they backed out of their parking space and pulled out onto the road. She swiveled in her seat and tried to smile reassuringly at Caro. If only she felt as confident as she was trying to look.

Chapter Forty-one

Michaela was tempted to pinch one of Trisha’s cigarettes. But her stomach was churning enough already, she’d probably be sick at the side of the road again if she tried to smoke. But her nerves were jumping; she didn’t think she’d ever been this nervous in her life. Not even last year when they were chasing a madman through the bush. Her mind kept playing images from the website in her mind. Images of a dog man that walked on two legs and didn’t even look a little bit friendly. ‘Should have brought a bone,’ she muttered, trying to get comfortable in her seat. Trisha glanced at her. ‘What was that?’ Michaela shook her head. ‘Nothing, just talking to myself. Trying to convince myself we’re not totally crazy.’ Trisha wasn’t any help. ‘Babe,’ she said. ‘We’re absolutely fucking nuts. But why let that stop us?’ She grinned unexpectedly in the light from the dash. Michaela couldn’t help but return the smile. ‘We’re going to deserve a holiday after this,’ she said. ‘Honey, you can bet your sweet ass on that one.’ Michaela checked on Caro, sitting white-faced in the back seat then settled down. They were doing the right thing, she was sure of it. Besides, as far as she could tell, this was their only option. These shadow things would just follow Caro around if they didn’t find a way to send them back to wherever it was they came from. Just had to put them back on the right path and remind them of their real business. Whatever that was. But when Trisha finally pulled off the road and parked, Michaela stared out at the dark mass of trees and suppressed a shudder. Please God, she thought, just keep the wolf thing away from us. Trisha lit another cigarette. ‘Are we ready?’ she asked. Caro scooted forward. ‘I still don’t understand what we’re going to do,’ she said, wrapping her arms around herself. ‘We’re going to boot these fucker’s asses back to where they came from,’ Trisha answered. ‘But how?’ Caro persisted. ‘And how do we even know they’ve followed us? Nothing’s going to happen if the shadow men are still waiting for us back at the hotel, or the house or whatever.’ Trisha pointed her cigarette at Michaela. ‘You want to field this one, babe?’ Michaela turned to Caro. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘We don’t actually know if this will work. We don’t know if this will work.’ She tried to smile. ‘But I think they will have followed us, and I think this is the right thing to be doing.’ She shrugged. ‘I can’t think of what else to do and this makes sense. And it’s Halloween.’ Caro looked miserable. ‘When the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest,’ she said. Trisha stubbed out her smoke. ‘If we don’t get a move on, it won’t be Halloween for much longer.’ Michaela reached into her back pack and took out the flashlights. There were only two so she gave the other to Trisha. They sat and looked out the windows. ‘Ready when you are,’ Trisha said, but her voice was tight. Michaela took a deep breath. ‘Okay then,’ she said. ‘Here goes nothing.’

It was far worse outside actually in the dark than sitting in a nice safe car looking at it. It was also cold. None of them had had time to pull on jackets and a cold damp seemed to seep up from the ground. The path was narrow, forcing them to walk single file when they would much rather have huddled into a tight knot. Michaela forced herself to lead the way, ears straining for any sounds not being made by the three of them. She took deep breaths and shone the flashlight ahead, trying to keep her hand from shaking. Behind her, Caro was clinging on to the tail of her shirt and Michaela could hear the hitching sobs of her breathing. All around them the trees reached gnarled fingers towards them from the darkness and Michaela cringed at every touch. Were they doing the right thing? She nodded to herself, she was pretty sure this was their only real option. But wandering through the cold night with just a puny beam of light to guide them, and knowing a strange beast was on the prowl in the area, there was no way that it was a sensible choice. ‘What’s that?’ Trisha hissed, pulling them to a stop. Michaela strained her ears to listen. ‘I don’t hear anything,’ Caro whispered. Trisha traced a circle in the trees around them. She shuddered and flicked the flashlight beam in front of them again. ‘Don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’m just spooking myself. Let’s get moving again.’ They stumbled forward. Michaela couldn’t tell how far from the mound they still were. Everything looked different in the darkness. She hitched in a breath and let out a frozen puff of air. It was getting colder with every step they took. A branch swatted her in the face and she clamped down on a sudden scream. God help us, she thought. We’re out of our minds. But the scene in the hotel room flashed though her head and she straightened her shoulders and stepped forward again, the others crowding at her back. There was nothing else for it. They had to do something. And this was the only thing she could figure. A thin voice from behind her. ‘We’re there.’ Caro was still gripping the back of Michaela’s shirt. She tugged on it. ‘Look, the clearing’s just in front of us, see?’ Michaela swung the flashlight around. Caro was right, they were here. Trisha stepped up beside her. ‘Now what?’ she asked. Michaela cleared her throat. ‘Let’s have a look around,’ she said, not wanting to admit she didn’t have a plan for what came next. Maybe something would come to her. As long as it wasn’t covered in fur and walking on hind legs. They moved forward in a huddle, twigs snapping under their feet. The clearing was tinted slightly with stray light from the moon, the mound showing silver green flanks in the torch light. ‘Where’s the path to the smaller mound?’ Michaela asked. Caro held up a pale hand and pointed. ‘Over there, I think.’ Michaela nodded. ‘What’s the time, Trisha?’ There was a small blue glow as Trisha checked her watch. ‘Almost midnight,’ Trisha said, uncharacteristically reserved. Michaela wrapped an arm around Caro. ‘Are you feeling brave, Caro?’ she whispered. ‘No,’ came the strangled reply. ‘Not even a little bit.’ Michaela squeezed the girl’s shoulders. ‘You’re going to have to be, okay? We have to fix this.’ Caro shivered against her. ‘How?’ she asked. Trisha was looking at her too. Michaela shone her light on the vague, shadowed path from one mound to the other. ‘You have to go sit down,’ she said to Caro. ‘Just like you did before. I think maybe that will lead the shadows back to the path.’ She swallowed. ‘And with a bit of luck, I think they might continue on their way. Somehow.’ It seemed a pretty weak plan, now she was hearing it out loud. Caro was shaking her head. ‘I don’t want to.’ Trisha spoke up. ‘You have to, little sis.’ ‘We will be right here with you,’ Michaela said. ‘We won’t go anywhere, I promise. Right here with you.’ Caro wiped her eyes with a fisted hand. She nodded. ‘I have to, don’t I?’ she asked. ‘I started it here, somehow.’ She looked around at the darkness. ‘I have to fix it somehow.’ She took a stumbling step forward and looked back at the women. ‘You’ll be right here?’ she asked. ‘We’ll come stand right beside you.’ Michaela said. ‘Sit down where you did last time. In fact, just do everything you did then.’ Caro gave an unsteady laugh. ‘It was daylight then. Sunny. Somehow I don’t think it’s going to feel the same this time.’ She took another few steps forward and Michaela could see she was trembling. Trisha was scanning the trees with the flashlight again. Michaela looked at her. ‘Anything?’ she asked. Trisha shook her head. ‘Just shadows and trees and shit,’ she said. ‘Don’t know if they’re just shadows or shadow things. Can’t tell.’ ‘Okay,’ Michaela said. ‘You go on the far side of Caro, and I’ll stand this side so we’re flanking her.’ Trisha nodded and gave Caro a squeeze. ‘Right over here, baby,’ she said and took her place on the other side of her sister. Michaela stood opposite her, watching Caro sit herself gingerly down on the ground, her back to the mound, facing the track. ‘Okay,’ Caro whispered. ‘What do I do now?’ Michaela glanced over at Trisha. ‘We’re going to turn the lights off now, okay?’

Chapter Forty-two

The darkness rushed in on them. Michaela felt a momentary sense of vertigo and resisted the urge to snap the light back on. She forced herself to be still instead, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim moonlight. She could hear Caro’s breathing as the girl struggled to keep calm. ‘That’s good, Caro,’ Michaela told her. ‘Relax as much as possible. Close your eyes and imagine the path between the mounds again. Just like you did the first time.’ ‘The dead paths,’ the girl on the ground responded. ‘Where the shaman travels, where the spirits walk, where shadows from the other side cross over.’ Trisha cleared her throat on the other side of Caro and Michaela flashed her a warning look. She didn’t know if Trisha intercepted it, but they both remained silent. Michaela stood, not quite holding her breath. What was going to happen? Was anything going to happen? She didn’t have the slightest idea so she stood there, trying to calm breathing and mind. On the ground beside her, Caro had her eyes half closed, sitting cross legged, facing the path. Trisha gasped. She nodded towards the path. Michaela turned to look. It seemed lighter than before. The moon must have come out from the clouds for the track glowed lighter, silvery white as though a mist hung in the light there. Michaela held her breath. The track grew lighter and lighter. Mist was swirling, visible off the ground now. Michaela could feel her heart beating painfully in her chest. She released her breath slowly, not wanting to disturb anything. On the other side, Trisha made a sudden movement and Michaela followed her lover’s glance. The track may have been lighter, but there was something dark there as well. At the far end of the track, something was emerging from the light by the far mound. Something dark. Shadows. Michaela felt her heart stutter and a cold sweat sprouted on her brow. She swallowed and forced herself to stay rooted to the spot. They were definitely shadows. Pressing in from the depths of the woods. Breaking off from the surrounding darkness to press together on the other end of the path. The mist shivered on the path and seemed almost to undulate in front of them. Michaela felt faint as she realized the mist wasn’t just water vapor - something else was in there with it. Foggy white shapes moved down the path from the effigy mound towards them. Closer and closer they came until Michaela was sure Caro, and even she and Trisha would be swallowed up in shapes. She held her breath as they reached Caro, but they didn’t even pause. They swept over Caro’s head and up to the mound at her back. Michaela turned and watched them linger on the back of the mound then sink away into thin air again. Two, three, four of them. A dozen. So many that it seemed mist again, heavy fog lit from inside itself, moving, swirling up the path from one mound to the other. She looked back down the track again. The shadows? Where were they? They were there, gathered still at the end of the track. She could see them through the wraith-like shapes of fog. Trisha’s voice hissed out. ‘They’re coming,’ she said. Caro’s head had been bowed over her knees, but she lifted it now and stared down the track. The shadowy forms had begun to advance, like a dark hole in the fog. Michaela stood, fascinated, terrified, her heart stuttering in her chest. She could make out odd shapes like limbs as the dark mass moved towards them, coming closer. Coming closer! What would they do when they came upon the three women? And Caro in their way! Michaela’s throat felt suddenly dry and she stared at the approaching forms. It’s working, she thought. It’s really working – they’re back on the path. Now they were in the clearing, coming closer to the mound, to Caro. Caro was sitting up now and staring at the advancing dark shapes. Watching them bear down on her. Almost on top of her. Michaela’s breath was coming quickly now, her heart hammering at her ribs. She half bent to grab the girl from the ground, but Caro was quicker. The shadow forms almost upon her, she ducked her head and rolled off the path, out of the way. Michaela’s heart stuttered as the shadows seemed to pause. Keep going, keep going, she mentally urged them on. After an interminable second, they passed. On up the sides of the mound and disappearing into the air, the same way the misty white wraiths had. With that the spell was broken and Michaela collapsed onto the ground next to Caro. She squeezed her eyes shut and groped in the darkness for the girl. Caro found her and wrapped her arms around Michaela. They clung together. ‘Are you all right?’ Michaela whispered, opening her eyes and finding Caro’s white face. It bobbed up and down in a nod at her. Michaela nodded back and hugged her. ‘Did you see that?’ It was Trisha’s voice, low and awed. ‘Did you see that?’ she repeated. ‘Holy fucking shit, did you see that?’ Michaela stifled a laugh that would have sounded dangerously close to hysterical and reached up for her girlfriend. Trisha’s hand grasped hers and pulled her and Caro up from the ground. They stood with arms around each other. At last Caro spoke. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’ she asked. Michaela could only nod. She looked around again at the clearing, dim again with ordinary moonlight. She untangled herself and flicked on the flash light again, sending the beam down the path. There was nothing there. She turned the beam on the two sisters. Trisha was grinning. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ she said.

Chapter Forty-three

Michaela carried the tray of coffees and a glass of lemonade to the table. They were in the airport lounge waiting for the plane to board. ‘Where’s Caro?’ she asked Trisha. ‘Over there checking out the cute guy,’ Trisha replied. Michaela tracked across the room until she found the teenaged girl, standing on the viewing platform chatting to a boy of about the same age. She smiled and sat down. ‘You okay?’ she asked her girlfriend. Trisha grinned at her. ‘Hell yeah,’ she said. ‘It is going to be summer where we’re going isn’t it?’ Michaela rolled her eyes. ‘No regrets then?’ Trisha shook a headful of wild curls. ‘Not even one. I think Mom might even have been kind of relieved when I told her what Caro and I were planning to do.’ She shrugged. ‘Didn’t offer any objections anyway. Even though Caro’s not sixteen for a month or so.’ Michaela looked out the window at the girl again. Caro looked good. Like she’d been sleeping well. Like she had nothing to worry about anymore.’ ‘I’m glad,’ Michaela said. ‘I’m glad it worked out all round.’ She reached over the table and tugged on a stray curl. ‘Thanks,’ she said. Trisha looked surprised. ‘Thanks for what? It should be me thanking you, that’s for shit sure.’ Michaela shook her head. ‘Thanks for getting into trouble and dragging me over here to sort it out,’ she said, a sly smile stretching over her face. Trisha grinned. ‘Cheeky bitch.’

The loudspeakers announced their boarding call and Caro wandered back in. ‘Are you ready?’ Michaela asked her. Caro laughed. ‘Am I ever. That guy I was talking to says he has his holidays in Nelson every summer. He’s offered to teach me to surf.’ She looked at Michaela. ‘Nelson is where we’re going isn’t it?’ Michaela pulled a face and nodded. ‘Surfing?’ she said and picking up her bag and the newspaper she’d bought earlier, followed the other two towards the plane. Once they were settled in their seats, she took out the newspaper and opened it to the headline that had snagged her attention. ‘HALLOWEEN PRANK? DOGMAN SPOTTED AGAIN.’

Connect with Me Online:

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this; feel free to check out my other Smashwords stories and keep an eye out for new titles. You can find me here: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kategenet

You can also drop by for a coffee and chat at my blog:

http://www.themisbehavingmind.com

or catch me at http://twitter.com/#!/kategenet