“I don’t think this is the environment for it, John. You’ve never Dream Walked in anything like Summer Place. I don’t trust it — or, more to the point, I don’t trust whatever lives here.”
“What if Summer Place clams up? What if it goes dormant again?” John asked. Jenny took his arm and shook her head no.
“Then it goes dormant,” Gabriel said, feeling the camera on him and knowing the CEO and others were cringing at his words. “I’m not losing anyone here tonight.”
“I’m not a student, and I’m going into this with my eyes — well, while not open, they will be aware. I’m doing it.”
The rumble of thunder ripped outside almost on cue. In the corner, Damian Jackson listened to the men. He didn’t understand anything that was being said, but he did see one thing: for the first time, Professor Gabriel Kennedy looked scared. Of what, Jackson didn’t know, but he saw the defiant professor vanish, replaced by a man with memories of a night long ago etched on his face.
“Jenny, do you still have the sleeping pills I gave you at the hotel?” Gabriel asked.
Jennifer was silent. While she thought about what was being proposed, Kennedy turned to Kelly Delaphoy.
“Call Dalton and tell him to get to that EMS truck. Get me thirty CC’s of adrenalin and two one-milligram doses of epinephrine or atropine, whichever he has. Bring in the defibrillator, also.” He looked up at the others. “We may have to bring John out of his deep sleep fast, and I don’t know if his heart will be able to take it,” he explained. His eyes locked on Jenny’s. She reached into her bag and angrily pulled the small bottle of pills out, and tossed them to Gabriel.
“We had better hurry; I don’t think our host is too happy we’re not leaving. Feel it?” George asked. He pulled his coat tighter around his chest.
“It is getting colder by the second,” Julie said into her mic.
The lights flickered as a streak of lightning illuminated the outside world.
“Okay, we’ll go with John’s plan.”
As Julie Reilly explained to the television world what was going to happen, Jennifer felt a small twinge that signaled the first assault of a massive headache. Deep down, she knew what it meant.
“Jenny, what’s wrong?” Gabriel asked as John reached out to steady her.
Leaning heavily on Lonetree, Jennifer brought her right hand up to her temple.
“I think…I think we’re about to have company.” She stumbled, with John’s support, to the couch.
“Who?” Leonard asked, afraid of the answer.
“Bobby Lee McKinnon.”
Jennifer stood from the small loveseat. She looked into the lens of the camera pointed right at her, and then looked at John Lonetree, who was holding her hand. She gave him an odd, curious look and then shook her smaller hand free from his.
“Whoa there, man. Comfort is one thing, but I’m getting a vibe that says you have a much darker intent, and at Jenny’s expense.”
John stood up so suddenly that everyone took a step back. The voice that had commented on John’s affections was deeper than Jenny’s; still feminine, but booming, as if it were coming from a male. She looked around the room.
“You people are playing with fire here. This ain’t ol’ Bobby Lee you’re dealin’ with, this is blackness,” Jenny said in that strange voice. She paced to the French doors and looked out at the storm-tossed bushes and awnings. “I knew you would get Jennifer into some kind of trouble, so I bugged out for a while.” She turned and looked into the camera which had followed her to the doors, and smiled a creepy and tired-looking grin. Jenny placed her hands into her hair and brushed it back, creating what momentarily looked like an old fashioned Pompadour with a large curl breaking free at the front.
“Oh, shit,” Leonard said, watching from his keyboard.
“Jenny may hate my guts, man,” she said, turning her blue eyes to Kennedy, “but I didn’t come vistin’ her just to see her eaten by that thing upstairs.” She snapped her fingers to a beat only she could hear. “She’s my Angel Baby. I guess you can call it an attachment of necessity. So if you don’t mind, Doc, we’re splitsville.”
They all watched — including the number one camera — as Jennifer started for the double doors of the ballroom. Julie Reilly explained in hushed whispers what was happening to Jennifer. John made a move as if to stop her, but Gabriel held a hand up. Jenny stopped at the door and looked back at the amazed faces of the others. Then she looked at the camera and winked.
“If I was you folks, I would be on the next train to music city, because somethin’s comin’ for you.’”
With those words Jennifer turned and walked out of the ballroom, this time brushing Damian Jackson out of the way just as he had done to Lindemann a moment before. Kennedy quickly followed and watched as Jenny slowly moved toward the front door, looking at the room’s décor as if she had never seen any of it before. Then she stopped at the large staircase.
“Roll over Beethoven,” she said, looking up the stairs.
“Guys, the sewing room door just opened up on three,” Harris Dalton said from the van. The live picture switched to the third floor. “The thermal imager is picking up a bright blue form standing inside the room, motionless. Hell, I swear whatever it is, is looking right at the camera.”
Gabriel slowly stepped from the ballroom, quickly followed by Julie, Kelly and the others — even Wallace Lindemann and Lionel Peterson joined them in the brightly lit living room.
Jennifer placed a hand on the banister. She seemed to be transfixed on something near the second floor landing.
“Powerful,” she said. Her words barely picked up on the parabolic microphone.
“Sound, boost your gain,” Harris called from the van. The sound man didn’t move, concentrating on the scene before him. “The figure is still in the doorway. The camera is clearly picking it up. It’s a human form, large and framed exactly in the middle of the open door.”
“Angry.” Jenny turned and looked at Gabriel. “He blames you. He wants you out.”
“He? Who are you talking about, Bobby Lee?” Kennedy asked.
“Hell man, I’m not sticking around to be introduced to this cat, he’s like — like, not of this world.” Jenny started to back away but stopped. She once more grabbed hold of the banister and then actually took a step up the red carpeted stairs.
“I’m not letting her go up there alone.” John Lonetree stepped past Kennedy and made his way to the staircase. He took Jenny’s hand, and she stopped and turned.
“Man, you’re startin’ to freak me out a little here. I don’t swing that way,” she said in her husky voice.
“Yeah, but Jennifer does,” John said, still not releasing her hand.
A look of relief came over Jenny’s features and then she nodded her head.
“Yeah, man, I hear ya. If anyone needs someone, it’s this chick, let me tell ya. But right now, if you don’t mind, it’s still creepy.” Jenny pulled her hand free of John’s and took another step up. “Man, this place feels like a prison, and up there’s the warden.”
“Stop,” John said. “Not alone. Don’t go up alone.”
“Follow if you want,” Bobby Lee said, and just as the words escaped Jenny’s lips, she collapsed.
Small, firefly-like orbs appeared, dancing in the air where Jenny had just been standing. John took a step toward the stairs and the sparkling objects moved upward. Looking apprehensively at the strange phenomenon, Lonetree pulled Jenny off the step and onto the carpeted runner at the base of the stairs.
Gabriel joined him but kept his eyes on the strange sight, taking the stairs very slowly. The entity would stop and seem to hesitate, but then keep moving upward.