Possession (24 page)

Just like Hector had done with me the night of my
ice bath, he started squeezing. I watched as Luke’s breathing slowed and his
face turned pale.
Hector’s going to
squeeze Luke to death.

I have to do
something. I have to stop him.
I forced myself to my feet, stumbling
forward. My hands clawed against Hector’s arm. I pulled and yanked and tried to
pry it loose. And then, Wendy was beside me. She had a big, old-fashioned tape
recorder in one hand, and she shoved it into mine without a word. Dr. Barton’s
tape recorder? I recognized it from our sessions. It was then I realized we
were in front of the doctor’s office and the door was wide open. Wendy had
found me a makeshift weapon. I looked down at the recorder, then bent my arms
back, stood on my tiptoes, and swung it like a baseball bat into the back of
Hector’s skull.

Nothing happened, and for a moment I feared that I
hadn’t done any damage to the giant. And then, ever so slowly, Hector’s arms
loosened and his body slid toward the ground.

I looked over at Larry. He lie unconscious on the
ground as well, his chest still rising and falling. Luke hadn’t killed him, and
I honestly didn’t know if I felt relief or disappointment.

Luke was on his knees, gasping in mouthfuls of
air. I knelt down in front of him and put my face close to his.

“Are you all right?” I whispered.

He nodded his head.

My hand covered his bruised knuckles. “I thought
you were going to kill him.”

He was finally breathing normal again. “I was
trying to. Colina, when I saw him touching you…”

“I’m all right.”

Luke’s hand came up and gently touched my cheek.
And then he rose to his feet and helped me to mine. His arm slid around my
waist, and he pulled me tight against him.

I looked at the two men lying unconscious on the
hallway floor. I whispered, “What happens when they come to?”

“We’ll find something to tie them up with. We can
put them in an empty room or closet. With any luck, no one will stumble across
them until we’re out of here.”

Wendy was leaning against the wall. “So,
this
is the boyfriend.”

“Luke, this is Wendy. Wendy is a—”

Luke interrupted me. “A reader. I know.”

His words surprised me. How can he know?

Luke let me go and walked over to Larry. “We’d
better get them out of sight before someone comes along.” He leaned down and grabbed
Larry under the arms. “See if any of the rooms are unlocked.”

I pulled out Mildred’s keys. “I can open anything
with these.”

Luke dragged Larry down the hall. He put him in
the janitor’s closet. It took all three of us working together to get Hector in
the closet alongside Larry. Luke found a roll of duct tape on one of the
shelves and used it to bind both men’s hands and legs. And then he carefully
put a strip of tape across each of their mouths.

He looked down at Larry’s bloodied and beaten
face. “I would’ve killed him.” He grabbed my hand. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“He didn’t hurt me.” I turned away and shuddered
at the memory of Larry’s sloppy kiss and groping hands. “I’m fine, honestly.” I
squeezed Luke’s hand. “I don’t want to think what would’ve happened if you
hadn’t come along.”

Wendy looked down at Larry. Disgust filled her
face. “He’s forced himself on girls before.”

I was going to ask the question, but she answered
before I could. “No, not me. I’m not his type. But another girl. He did things
to her.” Wendy took a step forward and kicked Larry between his legs with a
crushing force. “Creep! You deserve to die.”

I leaned my body into Luke’s. “How’d you find us?”

“Something pulled me here. Someone.” Luke looked
around. “There was a spirit. It was in the room when I woke. It called to me, told
me you were in danger and led me here to you.”

“But how did you get out of your room?”

Luke pulled out something that looked like a
hairpin. “Mildred sometimes comes to visit after you leave. She doesn’t sleep
much. She taught me how to pick locks.”

I always assumed Mildred went back to her room
when she dropped me off at mine. I couldn’t help but smile at the image of her and
Luke hanging out together, picking locks. “Did the spirit tell you anything
else, anything that would help us find the killer?” I asked.

He gave my hand another squeeze. “No, nothing
about Dr. Barton—”

I interrupted him. “I’m not sure it’s the doctor.”
He turned and looked at me. “I’m just…not convinced it’s him.”

“If not the doctor, then who?” He looked at Wendy,
then back to me. “Do you have any idea who else it could be?”

I suddenly couldn’t meet his gaze. “Uh…we don’t
know. We can’t get any answers from the spirits. They aren’t coming to me.
Wendy thinks they’re frightened. She thinks the killer’s spirit has dominated
them and he’s made them too afraid to help us.”

“We were coming to get you. We have to head to the
old part of the hospital to get a Ouija board,” Wendy added.

“What are you going to do with a Ouija board?”
Luke demanded.

“The spell you did at Pagan’s house,” I explained.

He looked at me as though he couldn’t believe what
I was saying. “You want to
force
a
spirit forward?”

“It might be the only way to get some answers.”

He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

I reached out and touched his arm. “You can do it.
You did it before.”

“When I was
myself
.
When I had my powers.” He looked angry. “Now I’m stuck in this body. Dean never
finished the rituals. He’s wide open.”

I gave him a reassuring smile. “I know you don’t
have your magic, but you’re strong.”

There was fear in his eyes. “The spell is
dangerous. I could
try
to do the
spell, but without my magic, without my normal control…I don’t know what will
come when I put out the call. If something comes that’s evil…I don’t know if I
have the power to force it back.”

“We have to find out who the killer is.”

He growled. “I thought you didn’t care. I thought
the plan was to get out of here.”

I started to explain to him. “We aren’t leaving—”

He raised his hand and stopped me. “Until tomorrow
night, I know.” He gave me an odd look.

I gasped. “How do you know?”

He had an odd look on this face. “I can hear
things now…”

My stomach clenched at his words.

He gave me a hard stare. “I can hear things going
on around me when I’m not in control. Just bits and pieces, but I
can
hear.”

“Since when?” I demanded.

“Since the last time I surfaced.”

I became acutely aware that Wendy was watching us.

Does that mean he heard the conversation Dean and
I had? Did he hear Dean proclaim his feelings for me? My mind shied away from
that disturbing possibility, and I quickly changed the subject.

“You’ll just have to trust me. It’s really
important we find out who the killer is before we go.” I wanted to tell him
why. I wanted to tell him that the killer could be inside him, inside Dean.
That I couldn’t leave until I knew for sure. I couldn’t take the chance and
release something evil into the world again.

“We should get going,” Wendy said. She looked down
at Larry and gave him one last kick before she headed out the door.

“We have a lot of things to talk about.” Luke said
while giving me another hard stare.

I nodded my head.
I haven’t done anything wrong
, I reminded myself.
I can’t help the way Dean feels about me.

Then why do I feel so guilty?

* * *

We were almost to the vacant part of the hospital when Luke
suddenly stopped.

“The electricity no longer works in that part of
the hospital. We can’t go in there without flashlights.” He held out his hand.
“Give me the keys. I’ll go back and rummage through some of the supply
cupboards. I’ll see if I can find some flashlights or candles.”

I handed over the keys.

“Stay out of trouble until I get back.” He leaned
in and gave me a kiss.

I kissed him back, and when we broke apart I
looked deeply into those gray eyes. I didn’t see anger or judgment—Luke
wasn’t mad at me. When we were alone again, I would try to explain what
happened.

Wendy and I stood in the hallway, waiting. Luke
took so long to come back that I had started to worry. I gave a loud sigh of
relief when I finally saw him walking toward us, two flashlights in hand.

“I could only find two.” He handed one over to
Wendy.

“You were gone a long time,” I said.

He gave me a smile. “Sorry about that. It took me
forever to find these.”

We made our way down the hall and then up a set of
stairs through another long hallway, until we finally pushed through a set of
doors and found ourselves at the entrance of the old wing of the hospital. I
realized that it had taken almost no time at all to get there, and we hadn’t
gotten lost once. The hospital always seemed to be fighting me; I was always
losing my way. Why did I suddenly find it easy to navigate?

“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked Wendy.

Wendy nodded her head. “I do. There’s a place not
far in where patients stash stuff. Things they don’t want the staff to find.”

We came upon a door. On the wall next to it was a
painted crescent moon with a few stars scattered around.

Wendy pointed at the drawing. “This is it. Silva’s
sign. She said to look for the same mark inside, but high up on the wall. She
hid the board in one of the air ducts.”

The room was huge. Pieces of moldy plaster dangled
from the ceiling, hanging from bundles of wire and broken ducts. Obviously
there had been a leak in this part of the building at one point or another, but
it seemed dry now. Broken and discarded junk littered the room, making it hard
to pick any one thing out of the jumble. I went with Luke, and Wendy moved to
the other side of the room.

Luke’s flashlight slid across the wall. “Not over
here,” he called out.

Wendy shouted in excitement. “Found it!”

Luke and I walked over to where Wendy stood. About
five feet above our heads was an air duct grate with a small crescent moon and
stars painted next to it.

“How does she get up there?” I asked, looking
around for something to stand on. The room was full of old furniture and
equipment. It would be easy enough to stack some things on top of each other
and make a makeshift ladder.

But before I could suggest it, Wendy looked at
Luke and said, “Can you give me a boost?”

Wendy put one foot in Luke’s cradled hands, and he
gently lifted her into the air.

She steadied herself against the wall as she rose.
She pulled off the grate in front of the duct and handed it down to me, then reached
in and pulled out a large blue plastic shopping bag. Luke gently lowered her
down.

Wendy put the bag on the ground and started
rifling through it. “Success.” She pulled out a large piece of white silk. She
unwrapped the silk to reveal the board laying nestled within it.

Wendy wrapped the board back up, pushed it back
into the bag, and handed it over to Luke.

“We’ll do the spell and hopefully get some
answers,” I said.

Luke tucked the bag under one arm. “I’ll need the
medallion.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have it. Last time I saw
it, it was in the tub underwater, laying next to Dean.”

Luke looked thoughtful for a moment before saying,
“It might be in Barton’s office.”

I turned to Wendy. “If it’s not, can you find
one?”

Wendy shrugged her shoulders. “I can ask around,
but if no one has one stashed somewhere in here, it could take days before we
can get it smuggled in.”

“We don’t have days. We’re leaving tomorrow night.
We have to do the spell tonight.”

Luke put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll search
Barton’s office. If one of the staff found it, I’m betting they would give it
to him.”

Wendy lifted her shirt and pulled out the paper
she had tucked against her stomach.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She looked around the room. “This is as good a
place as any to find your friend. At least here we don’t have to worry about a
nurse walking in.” She carefully unfolded the paper.

I had forgotten all about Mildred. Again.

Wendy pulled the crystal necklace from her pocket.
“It’s a layout of the hospital. You can really get anything in here if you know
the right people to ask.”

“How does it work?” I asked.

“I hold onto the necklace by the chain. I put it
over the paper. I ask where Mildred is, and I slowly move the crystal across.
The crystal will start to move in a circle as I get close to her location. When
I’m over it, it will start spinning fast.”

I had never seen magic like this done before. I
leaned closer.

Wendy closed her eyes and whispered a few words.
She opened her eyes. “It’s a prayer of sorts.” She looked at both of us. “Now think
of Mildred. Picture her in your minds.” She started to move the crystal slowly
over the paper. Nothing happened. She moved it from one side to the other, then
slid it up higher and did it again. It took five passes back and forth before
the chain started to vibrate.

“We are getting warmer,” she said, moving the
crystal slowly along. The crystal started to twirl in a circle, and as she
moved it farther down the paper, it started to spin. “Bingo.” She put her
finger down below the spinning crystal.

I leaned forward and focused on where her finger
pointed, “East wing, in one of the padded cells on the right hand side of the
hall, toward the back.” I looked over at Luke. “They must have caught her
roaming the halls that night we went to your room. But why keep her in there
all this time?”
And how did her things
end up on my bed?