It was almost ten o’clock at night before they had the flowers finished and stored in coolers. Kirchel, Nathan, and Anthony still had to deliver them to the caterer’s, but first Kirchel drove Erin back to the house.
“You’re sure you don’t want me to go with you and help?” Erin asked as they got out of the car.
Kirchel shook her head and started to unlock the door. “You’ve already done plenty for today. I don’t want you to get too worn out.”
They went inside, and Kirchel flipped on the kitchen light. The remnants of their rushed supper from a few hours before were still scattered over the table. Kirchel looked at them with a small sigh and then turned back to face Erin.
“You’ll be all right staying here by yourself, won’t you? It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, and Nathan gave you the number for his cell phone in case you need anything.”
“I’ll be fine,” Erin reassured her. “You go worry about your flowers. I’ll just clean up the kitchen and then go to bed. I won’t get into any trouble—I promise.”
Kirchel gave her a tired smile. “Thank you, Erin. You really are a dear.”
Erin didn’t say anything. The truth of the matter was that she had been trying to be on her best behavior ever since Saturday. She had accepted her father’s assurance that Kirchel was all right, but she still didn’t want to take any chances. She had absolutely no desire to join the skulls in the cupboard upstairs.
“Well, I’d better get back and see if they’re done loading the flowers in the van,” Kirchel said. She looked anything but enthusiastic about the prospect.
“Why do you hate doing wedding flowers so much?” Erin asked before she could stop herself.
Kirchel raised her eyebrows. “Because brides are some of the worst customers you could ever have to deal with—second only to their mothers. They never know exactly what they want—or what they want isn’t feasible—and even if they do get something reasonable figured out, you can be sure they’ll change their minds at least twice before the wedding.” She shook her head and turned back toward the door. “It’s a nightmare.”
“But back in the shop, Sarah said….” Erin broke off. Kirchel had turned around and was looking at her, eyes dark and intense. “Never mind,” Erin said quickly. “I didn’t mean…. It was nothing…. I just….”
“Sarah said I don’t like weddings because I had a romantic experience that turned out badly,” Kirchel said quietly, cutting into Erin’s stammering. “I know. It isn’t the first time she’s voiced that theory.” She turned back toward the door into the laundry room and put one hand on the doorframe, leaning against it. The side of her face that Erin could still see looked exhausted and, for the first time, old. “Life isn’t always fair, Erin. Sometimes the thing you want the very most is the one thing you can’t have. And not all stories have happy endings.”
Erin wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She thought for a moment, running the tip of her tongue over her lips. “Lots of books have sad chapters,” she said finally, “but they still turn out all right in the end. How do you know you’ve really gotten to the end of your story?”
Kirchel smiled wryly. “I like your optimism, Erin. But this isn’t a book. Things can’t always turn out right in real life.” She started toward the door again, picking her purse up from the top of the washing machine as she went past. “I’ll be home around midnight. Don’t wait up for me.”
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Half an hour later, Erin was finally able to flop down on the welcoming softness of her bed. It had been a long day. She had spent more than twelve hours helping Sarah and Kirchel get the flowers ready. Her fingers were sore from being pricked by rose thorns and corsage pins and still felt coated in wax from the floral tape, in spite of the thorough washing she had given them. She had thought flower arranging was fun when Kirchel started teaching her how to do it a few days ago, but being a full-time florist was obviously harder than her cousin made it look.
Erin reached over and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. The room was dark now, except for the occasional flicker of lightning outside the window. There was an especially bright flash just as she was sliding underneath the covers, and she froze, looking over toward the window. For a second there, as the lightning went by, it had looked like there was someone standing in front of the window seat. But it had been so fast. It was probably just a trick of the light.
Another bright flare streaked across the sky, closely followed by a crash of thunder, and in its light, Erin saw the outline of a tall figure with long, tangled hair and a narrow, skull-like face.
Wraith was back.
Taking deep, steadying breaths and fighting the urge to panic, Erin hunched down and buried herself underneath the blankets. Maybe if she just ignored him, he would leave again. But the familiar feeling of darkness and fear was already creeping over her, along with a powerful urge to get up and run.
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She was out of bed and to the doorway almost before she realized she had moved. She paused out in the hall, breathing rapidly and fumbling for the light switch. It was all right. She would just turn on the light and go back in the bedroom, and he would be gone. It had happened like that before. Everything would be okay.
Her searching fingers finally found the switch and pushed it up. Blinking at the sudden light, Erin looked around her. Wraith was standing in the bedroom doorway, just a few feet away, watching her intently. Erin swallowed hard and took a step away from him. He took a step toward her, his grey eyes never leaving her face. She was afraid, as she always was when she saw him, but she also felt a peculiar need to keep moving. It was almost like someone was pushing her.
She turned and hurried down the hall toward Kirchel’s bedroom. Kirchel was still gone delivering the flowers, but if she could just get to the bedroom, she could call Nathan’s cell phone. Talking to Kirchel might help her come back to the sane, normal world, where strange men didn’t appear out of nowhere when you turned off the light.
Erin skidded to a halt on the landing, just in front of the door to the bedroom. She hadn’t seen Wraith move—he certainly couldn’t have gone past her in the narrow hallway—but he was already there ahead of her, standing in the doorway and blocking her way. Erin let out an involuntary whimper and turned toward the stairs.
There was a phone in the kitchen, and she had left the light on for Kirchel. If she could just get to the kitchen….
She limped down the steps as quickly as she could, not looking behind her. When she got to the bottom, she turned left and darted toward the light coming from the kitchen at the end of the hallway, but she had only gone a few steps when she collided with someone.
“Kirchel?” Erin gasped, stumbling backwards. Surely it was Kirchel, back from taking the flowers. Please let it be Kirchel….
The dark figure in front of her didn’t speak. It merely moved closer to her. Erin felt the same invisible force still pushing her to move and realized what had happened. Wraith had gotten ahead of her again, and he was blocking her way to the kitchen. She backed further away and turned to head upstairs again. But he was already there, his dark silhouette clearly visible in the faint light coming from the upstairs hallway. Erin spun back toward the kitchen and saw Wraith there again, still standing in her way.
“Stop it!” She took a shaky but defiant step towards him. “Leave me alone!”
But his only response was to step forward, his black outline seeming to fill the entire hallway, still pushing her onward. Erin had no choice but to back away down the hall. She made another attempt to break away when they reached the living room, but he was there, blocking her, no matter which way she turned. At the same time, he kept pushing her, herding her along. Finally they reached the library, where he stood in the doorway, preventing her from leaving.
“What do you want me to do?!” Erin shouted at him, both terrified and frustrated.
In answer, she felt the invisible force pushing her further into the room, toward the far wall where the door into the backyard was.
“I can’t go out there,” she said desperately, fighting to hold her ground and hoping against hope that she could talk him into being reasonable. She didn’t even know if he understood English. “We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm. I’ll catch pneumonia…or get struck by lightning…or….”
But she felt her feet carrying her against her will toward the door, felt her hand reaching out to turn the knob, and felt a cold gust of wind and rain hit her as she stepped outside. She stumbled and nearly fell as her momentum carried her off the porch and onto the cold, wet grass.
Blue lightning was rippling through the black clouds overhead. Rain fell in thick sheets, soaking Erin within seconds. She could hear the wind howling through the pine trees around the house, mingled with an almost constant rumble of thunder. Wraith had followed her outside, and in the glow of the lightning, Erin saw him standing between her and the open door.
“What do you want?” she cried again, her voice breaking with cold and fear. She was shivering violently and her bare feet were already starting to turn numb in the icy grass.
But there was still no answer other than the steady push of Wraith forcing her on. The last thing Erin wanted to do was leave the shelter of the house, but she couldn’t stop herself from moving across the lawn toward Kirchel’s herb garden, with Wraith following slowly after her.
Erin was still walking backwards, keeping her eyes fixed on Wraith as well as she could through the dark and rain. All at once, one of her feet left the grass and hit a patch of mud. She slipped, lost her balance, and fell backwards with a yelp that was drowned in a crash of thunder. A second later, a pair of strong hands had caught her from behind and were helping her upright again.
As soon as she had regained her footing, Erin twisted around, squinting against the rain running into her eyes. Wraith had appeared directly behind her and was holding her arms just below the shoulder. Erin tried to pull away from him, but he held her. Panicking, she fought him with all her strength, thrashing and kicking. She even tried jabbing at him with her elbows, but he seemed unaffected by her violent struggle, maintaining his firm grip on her.
Finally, Erin gave up and collapsed against him, exhausted and sobbing. Wraith allowed her to remain in that position for a minute or two before pulling her around slowly, almost gently, until she was facing away from the house. Then he released her, and she felt again the unspoken but unmistakable command: Walk.
She walked, hunched over against the wind and rain, only dimly aware of the direction she was moving or what lay before her. She sensed that Wraith was still following along behind her, pushing her onward and occasionally steering her to the left or right, but she didn’t turn around to look. Several more times she stumbled and would have fallen if Wraith hadn’t appeared in front of her and caught her. She didn’t try to fight him again, merely allowing him to help her back to her feet before he moved back behind her and prodded her onward. She didn’t even have the strength to be afraid of him anymore. She felt numb, aware only of darkness, rain, cold, and the continual need to keep walking.