“We dive in,” she says, giving me a small smile.
We look back to see Atlas standing in the dim interior of the house.
We walk through.
I flinch as we go, expecting to feel the hiss and pop of the Veil, to feel ourselves pulled into a place without color or air.
But nothing happens. We just walk in.
“Mind if I close the door?” Atlas asks, pushing the heavy door shut. I watch as Ada and Jay disappear. “Don’t want this place draftier than it has to be.”
I lean over and flick the lights on, but nothing happens.
“There’s no electricity,” he says to me. “It’s been cut off for years.”
“That’s not true, I saw a light on in the upstairs window,” I tell him.
“Did you?” Atlas asks, with a raise of his brow.
I look at Perry. “You saw the light, right?”
She shakes her head. “No, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
Atlas pulls out a couple of small flashlights from his pocket and hands us each one. “Here, this will do. You know, back in the day I used to give guided tours of this place, so you’ll have to pardon me if I revert back into old ways.”
He starts walking down the long hall and we follow. “Now, outside you may have noticed the gables and archways as being stylistically medieval English Tudor, while the interior rooms combine elements from various historical styles including Moorish, Romanesque, Gothic, Neoclassical, and Renaissance.”
“Sorry, are we actually getting a tour right now?” I ask him, shining my light along the walls. “Because I have to tell you, whenever there’s a choice of having a tour guide or going on your own, I always pick the latter.”
“I figured,” he says with amusement. “I thought you would find it interesting.”
The thing is, he is kind of right. This house is batshit. It’s somehow larger than it looks on the outside with the hallway seeming to stretch forever, ending in a giant, cavernous room. A round arch supported by Romanesque columns frames the view.
“Wow, the ceilings,” Perry says in a hush, shining her light up.
The exposed beam ceilings and walls are intricately patterned with painted details, almost mirroring the worn rug that runs down the middle of the hallway. We continue down the hall, the dark room getting closer and closer.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying not to sound afraid, but there’s something about that black, cavernous space that we keep heading toward which makes me feel like my head isn’t screwed on straight.
“I’m trying to take you to where my mother was last seen.”
“Your mother?” I repeat.
“Last seen? I thought she drowned,” says Perry.
He stops and we almost bump into him.
Turns and eyes me. “Yes, Dex, my mother. My mother married Harry after she had me.” He looks to Perry. “And yes, she did drown. But the last place she was seen was here. Last Halloween.” He points into the room. “Sitting in the dining room.”
Chills. I’ve got motherfucking chills going down my spine.
Hell, it’s been a long time since I felt that.
“So, let me get this straight,” Perry says. “You believe the same thing as your stepfather.”
“Believe?” He purses his lips quizzically.
“Yeah. That her ghost is here.”
“Oh. Well, of course her ghost is here. It’s been here since the day she died. I see her all the time.”
“You do?” I ask, and once again, I don’t think the guy is lying.
“That’s right,” he says with a quick smile, his teeth flashing white. “Why do you think I’m giving you the tour?”
“But then why give us one hundred grand if you can just talk to her for free?”
He laughs, the sound falling flat in this place. “Because my father doesn’t trust me. I don’t even think he believes me, to be honest. Maybe because I’m too close to her, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a jealousy thing. Either way, he doesn’t want me doing it.”
“Not even to pass a message?” I ask.
“Who said anything about passing messages?” Atlas says.
“Your father did,” I tell him, getting an uneasy feeling about all of this.
“Oh. I see.” He slides a hand into a pocket and shrugs. “If he has a message for her, then I don’t know about it. It doesn’t matter, he’s here all the time yelling at her, even though he rarely sees her himself.”
I raise my palm. “Okay, okay. This is getting way beyond the thing that we were told. How do I know that you’re not lying to us?”
“You know I’m not.”
“Stop fucking acting like I’m supposed to know you, I don’t. And you don’t fucking know me.”
He sighs tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t the best place for an argument. The more we fight, the more the bad shit will come out.”
“Bad shit?” Perry says, her eyes glowing. “Is that a technical term?”
“Tell us why we’re really here,” I tell him. “Or we’re walking.” And taking the money, but I don’t say that.
He looks us both in the eyes. “Fine. There are no secrets here. My mother is dead, but she hasn’t moved on. She…can’t. For one reason or another. She’s stuck in this house. She just needs a little…push.”
“A push?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. “Which way?”
He grins at me. “I suppose that’s up to her now. At any rate, my father picked you two because you’re somewhat famous and I went along with it because my mother said you would do.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what to make of it. What are we supposed to do?”
“He wants us to open the Veil,” Perry says quietly. “I won’t do it.”
Atlas smiles. “You don’t need to open the Veil, my dear. It’s already open.”
I swallow, my body feeling hot and cold. “What do you mean?”
“Samhain,” he says. “The most powerful day of the year for a witch. The Veil walls are thin, and in here there are no walls.”
That’s why I’m here.
The woman’s voice slices through my head again, my eyes going wide.
“Dex?” Perry asks in concern.
But I can’t move.
My eyes are glued to the space in the dark beyond Atlas.
The graying body of a dead woman slowly disappearing into the black.
Fuck!
“Dex,” Perry says again, sharper now.
You’ll have to come back, the voice says. I know how hard that thought gets you.
Fucking hell, and I do have a fucking erection, don’t I?
We’ll be here. Waiting.
Then the voice stops and I can move again.
“You okay?” Atlas asks, and luckily no one is pointing their flashlight at my crotch.
“I’m fine,” I say, swallowing.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” he says, smirking.
“Well I kind of fucking did.”
“What did you see?” Perry asks.
“Maybe his mother?” I say, pointing to the dark room where, of course, there’s nothing. “I gotta tell you something, I’m not fucking going in there.”