Page 50 of The Spirit Key
He held me up as he slipped the key into the lock, and I grinned at the analogy. He was what kept me on an even keel.
As soon as the door swung open, he hauled me to the couch and sat me down.
“Is it wrong I’m enjoying your manhandling?”
He grinned, then pushed me down, resting my head on a throw pillow. “Close your eyes. If you can sleep, do it. I’ll get you something to eat.”
“Oh, I don’t need anything.” I tried to sit up, but the room wouldn’t stop spinning. “Okay, maybe it’s not a bad idea to relax a bit.”
“Yeah, thought you might see things my way. You’re too pale, and you’re shaking.” He stepped away for a few moments, then came back with a bedspread, which he put over me. “I’m going to make some soup, because I don’t want to give you anything heavy right now, okay? It’ll be a bit before food is done, so try to rest.”
I think I nodded, but the way everything was moving, I couldn’t be sure. “I have to tell you something….” Tim needed to know.
“We can talk later. Rest or I’ll tie you up and gag you.”
“Ooh, talk dirty to me, Daddy.”
He didn’t so much as crack a smile.
“Seriously, we have to talk. I think…. No, I’m sure I know what’s inside of you.”
Thatcaught his attention. He lifted my legs, sat down, and then lowered them onto his lap. “Go on.”
My vision was swimming and it was hard to focus. “Elizabeth…. She was another one of his victims, I think. She was strangled, just like the boy I saw. A lot of this is guesswork, but I think he’s got a thing for children with blond hair and blue eyes. The thing is, when I was standing there and he was strangling me? It didn’t look like the guy who killed the boy, and it looked nothing like what came out of you.”
He crossed his arms and pinned me with a not-so-subtle glare. “So what are you saying?”
I swallowed hard. “I could be wrong, but I think that this ghost? He somehow enters a body and drains it of energy, making it more susceptible to his influence. Once he has control, I think he’s going out and killing these kids. When the host gets caught or dies, he moves on to another person.”
Tim’s eyes were like saucers. “But you said ghosts couldn’t leave an area they died in.”
True, I had said that. “But your mother did it. She used all her energy to get to me so I could come to you. What if she knew there was something there, trying to take control of you? What if, when she died, she felt his presence in you, and that’s why she didn’t move on? What if—”
Tim’s expression told me he wasn’t buying my theory. “That’s a lot of what-if.”
I scratched my cheek. “I don’t have any definitive answers. A lot of what I know—or thought I knew—came from watching ghosts out of the corner of my eye while still trying to avoid them. They develop a pattern in their lives, and I always thought they stayed where they died. Maybe it’s more that they’re reenacting their last moments of life, or maybe they’re kind of stuck in a loop.”
“Huh?”
“Mr. D goes to work every day at the same time. He’s done it for thirty years. One day, as he’s heading into the office, an Acme safe falls on his head and kills him. Maybe Mr. D, who left a stack of unfinished paperwork on his desk, now follows his habits, walking to work every day, doing his paperwork, and then heading home, where he curls up in bed, his cat sitting on his chest, until his alarm gets him up to start the cycle all over.”
“How can a cat—”
I frowned at him. Leave it to Tim to take something that could be life or death and make light of it. “Seriously? From that entire conversation, you focus onthat?”
He shrugged. “I like cats. If I know Fluffball is going to be able to still love on me after I die, I’ll consider getting one.”
With a sigh, I shifted a little, trying to sit up.
“Just lay there.” He grabbed a foot and started rubbing it. God, it was amazing. His strong hands were good for so many things. “So why do you think it’s inside me now?”
“I’ll be honest, this is all speculation. When your mom got sick, how did you feel?”
His eyes went dark, and I could sense the thing inside him pushing up. “How the hell do you think I felt? What kind of stupid question is—”
“Tim!”
His eyes cleared and he drew in a sharp breath. “Sorry. The feelings are still pretty raw.”
