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“I have no reason to believe they didn’t,” Vince said. “They were in this room when I opened it up for the first time. Dirty,torn, and covered with spider webs, but Jess took everything and had it all restored at Giorgio Ballucci’s repair shop.”
Giorgio and his team of brilliant craftsmen and craftswomen were miracle workers with everything from cracked stained glass, to jewelry, to furniture. People came from all over the area, and some from out of state, just so his team could repair their most treasured items.
As I gazed at the display, a sudden memory ripped through my thoughts. “I remember that black dress on that smaller doll. Carrie Ann was holding that doll when we saw her. Holy shit.”
A storm raged outside, and lightning lit up the windows for a moment, right before the house rumbled from thunder off in the distance.
“I don’t remember her holding a doll,” Bram said. “But she was sitting on that horse. I know that for sure.”
“That’s not what I saw. She was sitting in front of the windows, cross-legged, sticking pins in the other doll with no face and the red dress. I remember thinking that doll represented her mother,” Freddie whispered as if someone else might be listening to us.
“All I saw was blood pouring out of her open mouth,” Vince said. “I don’t think I can do this.”
Then he calmly walked out of the room.
“Vince!” I called after him. “Vince!”
None of us had ever talked about what we saw that night, so this was the first time any of us compared notes.
“Let him go,” Freddie said. “Obviously, he had the worst sighting, and it still upsets him.”
“I had no idea we all had a different vision of Carrie Ann,” I told them, feeling my heart race, while the rain pounded the roof. I knew we were in for a big storm tonight, but for some reason, it sounded even more threatening from inside this room.
“That’s because we never talked about it before,” Bram offered.
“Too scared,” Freddie said. “Let’s not do this. Luna, if you don’t want to be in the casket during the race, that’s fine. This is too much.” And he walked out as well.
The windows lit up again from the crack of lightning, only this time, the thunder boomed.
I gazed up at Bram. “Are you going to bail as well?”
“Why don’t we close this down for now? We can stay in a different room tonight. Or we can all go home. Either way, we shouldn’t stay here. It’s too damn disturbing and brings up too many bad memories, not just of that night. I’m sure we all have more shit that we’ve never talked about.”
He was right. I’d seen Carrie Ann through the windows, walking around in other rooms inside the house, even when it was still boarded up. Like I could see through the wooden barriers. I’d seen her out by the willow tree on countless occasions, and every time I saw her, she was always carrying the doll in the black dress. Now I wanted to know what else the guys had seen.
“Okay. This room makes all of us a little twitchy. Let’s see what Freddie and Vince think, but yeah, I’m willing to spend the night here… and not in this room. Besides, I want to know what else you guys have seen. Let’s compare notes. Maybe there’s more to Carrie Ann’s story than we think. And maybe she wants us to stay and help her to make peace with the past.”
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, the rocking horse moved.
A sharp flash of lightning lit up the entire room, and the thunder was so loud, I let out a little yelp and went right for Bram.
“Shit,” Bram said, his strong arms wrapping around me, and the lights went out. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Bram 3
I’d hugged Luna many times in my life, even kissed her a couple of times, not a girlfriend-boyfriend type of kiss. More like a friendly peck.
But hell, this hug stirred up feelings that were better left unmixed. Then she pressed up against me a little too close, and she brushed my cock with her hips.
Immediate erection.
I didn’t know whether she felt it or not, but if she did, I was in deep shit. We were friends. These things weren’t supposed to happen.
“I can’t see a thing,” she said, stepping away.
“We can use our phones.” We pulled them from our pockets and tapped on the flashlight, making everything even spookier.
“Follow me,” I said, holding my hand out for hers. “I think I know the way downstairs.”
