Page 30 of Stronger Than Blood
“Welcome,” she said, smiling until she caught sight of Mick’s face. “Is everything okay?” she asked, looking at me.
When I shrugged, she led Mick into the room and sat him in the chair across from the bed. “Mick, I can tell something has happened. Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “You… you said you can see ghosts. Are you… um, you’re really able to do that?” She nodded slowly but didn’t respond verbally. “So, can you stop them? Make them go away?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Sometimes, we can encourage them to cross over, but no, I’ve never been able to force a spirit to leave without them wanting to.”
Tears slid out of his eyes, and I moved toward him before Madam stopped me. “Mick, tell us what’s happened.”
“I’m being hunted.”
“Hunted or haunted?” I asked and got a pointed look from Madam.
Mick looked me in the eye and said, “I’m being hunted, and for some reason, he can move around now. I felt him in my apartment.”
Chapter twenty
Mick
Madam sighed. “You need to tell me the whole story, and Rory, you need to go get cleaned up. I’m guessing the surprise your uncle had for you will have to wait. If you’re being hunted, like you said, we better get to the bottom of this first.”
Rory hesitated. I knew he wanted to hear the whole story, and I had told him most of it, but… maybe not all. Mostly because after the incident when he touched me and all the memories came flooding back, I wanted to avoid all of that. Of course, now that I thought about it, I wondered if maybe that’s what released him. Maybe Rory was allowing his spirit to seep out of the house where he’d been confined until now.
Luckily, Rory left before I could confront him with that theory. Madam Bellamy made me a cup of coffee with the fancy hotel machine, fixing it how I liked. Despite the heat and humidity, my hands were still cold from earlier, so I let the heat warm them.
“I-I was sitting in my grandmother’s lap when she was shot…” I began and spent well over half an hour telling her in detail what’d happened with Preston Garrison, the nightmares that started after that, and then the haunting when I returned to thehouse. I told her more than I’d ever told anyone. I was afraid people would think I was crazy. Hell, the school counselor had wanted to put me in a hospital and get the proper medications and would’ve if Granny Ida hadn’t intervened.
But after the incident with Rory, then feeling the monster in my apartment that morning, I felt that if there was any chance this woman could help me, I needed to put it all on the table.
“When did your great-grandmother go into the hospital?” she asked.
“Two weeks ago today, actually,” I said.
She nodded. “And she’s the one who shot him, the one who saved you?”
The tears slipped out again. “Yes, she’s the one who saved me… and all of us.”
Madam Bellamy took a deep breath then stood up as she released it. She went to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water. “Here, you should drink this,” she said. “I can feel your exhaustion, and part of that is dehydration. You will have to do a better job taking care of yourself if you wish to keep this monster at bay.”
She took my almost full coffee to the sink and poured it out, then tossed the cup before coming back to sit across from me. I knew internally that it was to give me some time.
“This… we’ll just call him an entity because it's important to keep your emotions under control when you’re around him or speaking of him. This entity has been drawing power from your fear since that day. Of course, that’s no different from when he was alive. I can feel his hunger to scare people, to scare you in particular. Your great-grandmother was likely the only thing keeping him contained, and now that she’s moved out of the house—”
“He’s able to come after me.”
“Yes and no. The dead don’t have that much power over the living. The truth is, they are misplaced. Our dimension isn’t meant for them, and the longer they stay in it, the weaker they become unless they are able to cause the living to react to them… give them energy. In your case, your fear feeds the entity. But your great-grandmother’s will weakened it.”
“Someone told me once that he’s a demon,” I said, and she nodded.
“What we call demons are often just nasty spirits. Although, there’s something about those who can draw more negative energy to them. But I can feel this entity coming off you, and I don’t think he’s reached that level… at least not yet.”
“Can you help me?” I asked.
She studied me then and nodded. “I can offer you support and suggestions. I can even be physically there when you confront the entity, which, yes, you’ll have to do if you ever hope to have peace. But I can’t do the work for you… I can’t face your fears for you either.”
My stomach tied in knots. “I’ll have to face him?”
She nodded. “Sooner or later, yes. But I would also like to speak with your great-grandmother. She may also be able to offer some insights into how to make that confrontation easier.”
