Rancor: Sinister Attachments, Book 1 (Haunted)

THIRTY-ONE

Maggie walked into Ethel's spare room. It smelled of mothballs and burnt sage. She wanted to plug her cell phone into an outlet, but she had left the charger in her apartment during the rush to get out; she would go to her apartment in the morning and retrieve it. Until then, she would crawl into bed and forget about the day while Ethel slept on the couch.

She lay in bed, looking around the dark room. The thick walls of the old building dulled the sound of thunder, but not enough for her to forget there was a storm outside. She considered the possibility of spirits reaching through the walls, grabbing her, and carrying her to Hell with them.

Maggie left her bedroom door open, wanting some connection with Ethel, who seemed to know how to keep them safe. She could hear Ethel set a bottle on the end table. She must have swallowed more whiskey, Maggie thought as she turned on her side and closed her eyes.

***

Maggie stood on a dock next to a thirty-six-foot mahogany cruiser. On the deck was Debbie, dressed in a pink and white string bikini and big sunglasses. Maggie quickly looked at her clothes, hoping she was not dressed the same way. She was relieved to see sandals on her feet, and shorts and a blouse covering the rest of her body.

"Are you coming or not?" Debbie asked. She was so giddy that she fell into Bruce, who had walked up next to her.

Maggie heard waves lap against the hull and their hollow swish underneath the dock. She felt a warm breeze against her hot skin. It must be close to ninety degrees, she thought. When she looked at Bruce, he was smiling at her. His belted green and black striped swim trunks suddenly made her realize she was back in time and looking at Dr. Bruce Hancock and Deborah, the nurse.

Bruce held out a hand. "I'll help you, I won't let you fall."

Maggie did not want to get on the boat. Nothing good was going to come from being around Bruce and Deborah. She began turning around and was about to walk away when Bruce reached for her and pulled her into the boat.

"We're all aboard," Bruce shouted toward the helm. He held her close to his body before releasing her and untying the boat from the dock's cleats.

Maggie reassured herself that this was only a dream and that she would wake up in Ethel's apartment soon. When she turned around, she saw a man at the helm. He looked like the man in the photograph in Mr. Zimmerman's office. This had to be Mr. Zimmerman's father. He gave the boat's horn one blast and then left the dock, pulling into the fairway toward Lake Michigan.

"Are you seasick, Margaret?" Deborah asked, leaning against the guardrail. Then she picked up a nautical beach towel and made her way to the foredeck before Maggie had a chance to answer.

Maggie watched Bruce follow Deborah to the bow, like a dog in heat. However, she decided to stay where she was; she did not want to get close to the people who—according to a previous flashback—wanted to blame her for Susan's death. What was the point of this dream? She held her hair, keeping it from turning into a tangled mess, as the captain left the channel and headed toward the open water. The boat bounced and waves splashed until they reached an area far from the shoreline.

The captain turned off the engine and approached Maggie with a bottle of Scotch in his hand and some plastic cups. Maggie stared at the bottle of brown liquid. All she could think of was Claudia's words when she had first met her at Lenny's Grocery. My daddy once said Carl killed a man out there on the water, right there in front of Lake Shore Sanatorium—all liquored up on Scotch, he was.

He handed her a cup with a couple shots. "Here you go, ma'am."

Maggie took the cup from him, and then asked, "Is your name Carl?"