“What happened?” Jennifer said when she came to.
“We don’t know. You collapsed, right after you said,” John looked up at Gabriel, and then back at her, “or Bobby Lee said, ‘up there’s the warden of this prison.’”
Jenny suddenly stood and looked up the stairs. The strange twinkling reached the second floor landing and continued to the right, toward the hallway.
“Bobby Lee, it’s bad. Don’t go up there,” she called out.
The camera and soundman were slow to react to Jenny, still trained on the entity that was Bobby Lee as it disappeared into the hallway above. Soon the camera had Jennifer framed and the soundman was recording and sending out her scared voice to the nation. On live television the screen was split in two, showing both Jenny and the orbs as they moved to the opposite stairway.
The roar of thunder shook the house and the lights dimmed once more.
“Okay, everyone has to leave with the exception of the first team. Kelly, take Peterson and Lindemann out of here. Detective, you and Jason Sanborn had better beat a retreat on this one also,” Gabriel said as he left John and Jenny’s side, “John, you’ll do your Dream Walk in the ballroom with Jenny, Leonard and George, with the doors locked.”
“And your plan is?” Damian Jackson asked, still looking up the staircase at the spot where the strange gleaming orbs had vanished.
“I’m going to do what I came here to do, Detective Jackson — I’m going ghost hunting.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that, Professor,” Julie Reilly said.
Detective Jackson watched as Gabriel went toward the ballroom followed by John, Jenny, and the camera team. “Exactly my thoughts,” echoed Jackson. He removed his nine millimeter automatic from his shoulder holster and made sure the safety was on.
Gabriel stopped at the doorway and looked at Jackson and then the gun.
“I don’t think that will do much good with what we’re up against, Detective.”
Jackson smiled, and then brushed past Kennedy and entered the ballroom.
“For what I’m hunting, it will.”
TWENTY-ONE
John stretched out on the largest of the four sofas. Jenny tried one last time to talk him out of doing the Dream Walk, but he only smiled and placed his giant hand on her cheek.
“This is what I do,” he said, and then lay back against the hand-stitched throw pillow.
Gabriel entered the room while looking back one last time at Kelly Delaphoy, Jason Sanborn, Lionel Peterson, and Wallace Lindemann, who were standing just outside of the two large ballroom doors. Only Lindemann and Peterson looked anxious to be on their way. Kelly Delaphoy stepped forward.
“I think one of the producers should be on hand for whatever happens.”
“Forget it Kelly, get these people out of here,” Kennedy said. He nodded at Leonard, who moved to close the double doors. An ominous streak of lightning flashed through the French doors and lit up the shadowed room brightly.
Kennedy reached into his coat pocket and brought out the small bottle of pills that Jenny had returned to him. Just four of them would be enough to send John into a coma; five would stop his heart. He took a deep breath and shook out two of the sleeping pills. George Cordero came over with a glass of water from the bar. Gabriel smiled as he looked down at his oldest friend. He held out his hand and dropped the two small pills into John’s own.
“Is this enough?”
Kennedy nodded his head. “Jenny, do you feel anything from upstairs?” he asked to break the tension. Kennedy could feel the camera on him and knew the microphone picked up his question.
Jenny shook her head.
“I do,” George said as he looked away from Lonetree. “Bobby Lee is terrified. I think he’s moving closer to the third floor, but I can’t be sure. For a ghost, he seems to have a fear of something worse than the death he faced when he was alive. I’m not sure, but I think Bobby Lee’s backed off and is hiding…yes, he’s stopped.” George opened his eyes. “That’s all I’m getting.” The camera zoomed in on his dark countenance. A rumble of thunder accented his foreboding words.
John squeezed Jenny’s hand and popped the two pills into his mouth.
“I haven’t had this much anticipation about pills since an acid trip in college,” he whispered so only Jennifer could hear. She didn’t smile. John drank from the glass that George had given him, and then handed it to Kennedy.
“Good luck, buddy.”
“Listen, maybe you should hold off on this third floor trip until I find out what we’re dealing with.”
“Before my last visit, there had never been one documented case where an entity hurt a human being.”
“Just my thought exactly,” Jackson said. “I believe your earlier excursion into this house a few years ago was also a human on human encounter.”
Just at that moment, the lights in the ballroom went dark. The cameraman switched back to his ambient light settings and everyone in the ballroom moved silently toward the couch. Thunder rumbled the floorboards under their feet.
“I don’t think whatever’s up there is going to give you the time, John. But with us up on three, we may be able occupy it long enough for you to get some answers.”
“People, we have activity up on the third floor,” Harris Dalton said from the production van. “The lights in the hallway are acting like strobes, playing hell with the camera view. We also have what sounds like mumbling coming from the recorders, both on three and in the subbasement.”
“Time to go,” Gabriel said. He pressed his hand to his ear so he could hear Harris better. “Dalton, did Kelly get the people outside?”
“What?”
“Did Kelly get—”
“I heard what you said; our outside cameras have not shown anyone leaving the house.”
“Damn it.” Kennedy straightened from John’s side and looked at Jenny, and then to Leonard. “Watch him close.” He looked at his watch. “He’ll be out in about two minutes. Leonard, lock the big doors after we leave, and if something gets in here, don’t be a hero. Get everyone out, any way you can.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m thinking about splitting as soon as you’re out that door, Doc. If that thing up there wants in, it’ll get in.”
“He’s right,” George said. “Its power is building. It’s getting stronger.”
Gabriel looked at the dark faces around him. He switched on his penlight and studied each member of his team in turn.
“Let’s go.”
Kennedy, Julie, Jackson and Cordero left the ballroom preceded by the camera and the soundman. The large living area was dark, with only the brief flash of lightning illuminating their view of the staircase. Gabriel moved the small light around. Wallace Lindemann stepped through the swinging doors from the kitchen, his face slack and white as he hurried to the front door. The camera man sped to the front doors and zoomed the ambient light lens onto Wallace as he tried the doorknobs.
Kennedy followed the camera team as Lindemann started pulling on the door. As he did, Lionel Peterson came through the kitchen doors, far more calmly than Lindemann, but in a hurry nonetheless.
“Where are Kelly and Sanborn?” Gabriel asked.
Lionel shied away from the camera’s lens and joined Wallace at the door.
“The damn thing won’t open,” Lindemann cried. He slammed his body into the thick door.
“Calm down and turn the handle, you idiot,” Peterson said as he leaned in and tried the handle himself. It turned in his hands and he even felt the click of the locking mechanism as it gave way, but the doors remained tight to their frame. He pulled, as did Lindemann, but the doors were frozen shut.