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“I expect them to be here. We’re going to need backup. Everything I know is on a need-to-know basis right now, and according to my sources, it’s better that we don’t know the specifics. I know time and place, but if one of us were to get apprehended and questioned, what we don’t know might save our lives. Or it could get us killed. Really, it could go either way. I’m counting on your sister and father having a soft spot for you, but we can’t be certain. They are the ones that put you in this situation to begin with.” I followed behind Reid, gathering up the remainder of the ammunition and headed back to the small house we’ve been sharing.
“Listen, Holly, I’ve been doing some research on your friend. The boy? My team sent over some images, and I want you to take a look at them.” Reid pulled his laptop out after we walked into the house, clicking around on the keys and pulling up images.
“Wait, that one, right there.” I pointed at the screen and paused as I took in the grainy black and white image that was pulled up on Reid’s screen. It was the boy from the gate, the boy from my dream, but the photo was old and damaged. The black and white image was faded and the edges of the scanned photo were torn and tattered. He stood next to a woman with similar features, both unsmiling, stoic.
“Who is he?” I asked as Reid’s blue eyes searched my face.
“Holly, this photo is over a hundred years old. The woman was Hubert Anderson’s mistress. And the head cook of the household. She was given this house to live in with her son. The young boy is her son. Better known as the bastard son of Hubert Anderson, the only child he ever fathered. That’s why they were given this house, why they lived when so many others died. The cook, she claimed to be in love with Anderson despite his tendencies. When she got word of his murder, she killed their son and then herself in a fit of rage. This boy has been dead for over one hundred years.” I stood frozen in the small living space of the house as Reid told me the story of my apparition, he chose me.
Why me? Why is he seeking me out? What is he trying to tell me? The warning.
“But, I saw him. He had the key! I felt the warmth from his body. Ghosts are supposed to be cold, Reid!” My words were a shout, but I wasn’t angry. I just wanted to understand.
“I don’t doubt it, I’ve seen enough to know that some things are unexplainable. The boy feels a connection to you for some reason. He sees what we can’t see, he feel’s what we can’t feel. He’s trapped between this life and the next, and for some reason he is trying to tell you something.” Reid gently sat the computer down on the sofa and pulled me into his arms.
Taking a deep breath, I asked my next question, despite stories of spirits and souls trapped between worlds, we’re running out of time.
“So, are you ready to go back into the main house?” I asked, knowing that our purpose has changed, or at least mine has. Yesterday I was studying for a renovation project that was never meant to come to fruition. I didn’t even bother calling Laurel today. This project has always been a façade. Today our purpose is to finish mapping out the layout of the plantation house. Reid and I have both studied the blueprints, but the house has been damaged by fire, and like the elevator, things in that house aren’t always what they seem. We need to walk through and map the layout with our own eyes in case we find ourselves lost in it tonight.
“The better question is, are you ready to go back in?” Reid raised an eyebrow as he pulled back from me and looked down into my eyes with questions.
“Yesterday you dropped us down a secret elevator shaft in the dark. My life flashed before my eyes. Now, I find out that a spirit from another century is trying to give me warnings. What’s the worst that could happen?” I smiled as Reid rolled his eyes at me.
What else can I do but smile? I have a car. I could easily climb in and drive far, far away from here. Maybe call Noel and catch the next flight out of this country. Instead, I smile because I’m very obviously losing it.
Maybe I’m a little insane, because I follow this man into the bedroom and allow him to strap a gun to my waist. I let him wrap a leather band around my calf and feel the cold steel of a knife blade as it lies against my skin. I let him pull a bulletproof undershirt that's too big over my chest, but he tightens it down over me anyway and inspects it with an intense scrutiny.
I watched Reid as he dressed, pulling on a pair of khaki cargo pants and a black t-shirt over his body that’s armored far more heavily than mine. I stared at him as he pulled back on his combat boots and wondered how I was so oblivious to the truth of this man when I met him. Now that I’ve seen this side of him, I can’t see him any other way.
But I guess that’s why he’s so good at what he does.
He’s a trained chameleon, but I see through the front that he wears so easily.
I can see his heart because it was made for me.
He acts like a badass, and truth – he is. But he’s so much more than that, he’s also gentle and caring. He’s a protector. That’s what makes him so damn good at his job. That’s how I know we won’t die tonight. Maybe I’m naïve, but I refuse to believe that tonight is the night we lose the battle against the evil that Reid has fought so hard against his entire life. Despite my bad dream, and the worry that I feel radiating off of Reid with every minute that ticks off of the clock, I feel it in my bones. Tonight, we win.
