Rancor: Unrestrained, Book 2 (Haunted)

SEVEN

Ethel waited in her car at the end of Sandpiper Bluff's long driveway. Claudia would be getting off the bus soon and she would give her a ride through the forest to the apartment building. The old sanatorium sat over half a mile away from the road on the edge of a bluff. It was typically refreshing, but this day, the day she and Claudia were planning to go down into the basement and look for items left in Debbie and Margaret's lockers decades ago, and then retrieve the crystal ball, was different. The air was thick and muggy, making breathing difficult. Ethel felt that the spirits, Debbie and Bruce, knew what they were up to and were preparing for it. Preparing to stop them.

The bus rumbled down the dirt road, stopping in front of the driveway. Ethel got out of the car to assist Claudia down the bus stairwell. Ever since the incident in 1969, when the demon came through the crystal ball and momentarily possessed Claudia—before taking up residency in the hospital—Claudia was left nearly blind, forcing her to wear thick cataract glasses and use a white cane.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Claudia said, her voice loud and whiny as she resisted Ethel's help. "I'm not blind, you know."

"Good to see you again, Claudia," Ethel said, grinning. "Good to know you haven't changed; you're as cranky as ever."

"Good to see you too, you old bat," Claudia said, walking toward Ethel's clunker. "I can't believe you talked me into this."

Ethel lifted her below-the-knee gypsy skirt and climbed into the driver's seat of the suffocating car. She turned the ignition. Hot air from the vents blew into their faces.

Claudia lifted her edematous legs inside the car and then closed the door. She took off her shawl and sat it on the seat between her and Ethel. "You don't have air conditioning?" she grumbled.

Ethel looked over at Claudia's swollen lower extremities and beige compression stockings that stretched underneath her mid-calf Capri pants. "We don't have far to go."

Claudia shook her head. "I know how far we have to go. I've been here before, you know."

Ethel put the sedan in gear and drove slowly down the driveway. The pine and oak trees cast dark shadows along the narrow path; the shade did not come close to making up for a failing air conditioner.

When they rounded the last curve in the driveway, the old sanatorium came into view. Claudia wiped perspiration from her brow as they left the shaded tunnel of trees and drove into the afternoon sun-soaked parking lot. They sat in the car looking at the old building and its once grand wraparound double-deck porches.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Claudia said, squirming in her seat.

"All we have to do is find the lockers and get one of Debbie or Margaret's personal items." Ethel cleared her throat. "And we have to get the crystal ball."

Claudia twisted her cane into the car's dirty carpet. "Let's just get this over with."

Ethel and Claudia got out of the car. Claudia began wheezing as she plodded toward the sidewalk.

"Are you okay?" Ethel asked, walking up next to her.

"I'm fine," Claudia said, waddling along. "Let's just get somewhere cool. You do have air conditioning in your apartment, don't you?" She stopped and looked at Ethel.

Ethel avoided Claudia's glare. "Well, no. But I don't need it; I get the cool breeze that blows in from the lake."

Claudia looked at the surrounding trees. Not even an oak leaf was twitching or a pine branch swaying. "Nothing is blowing off Lake Michigan right now. There is no moving air. The only breeze is from the flapping wings of those old crows flying away from this dump."