Limbo

ASHLEY:

I sprawl out in one of the living room chairs, while Bob and his wife sit on the sofa, watching the rest of the guys cluster around the front windows, waiting for Charlie's SUV to come down the road. They got into a bit of an argument last night over who would go pick the girls up at the airport today, so Charlie finally said that he and Susan would do it, and they could all wait here, instead of fussing about it.

"Here they come!" CC yells, popping out from behind the curtain and dashing toward the door, with everyone else hot on his heels. We laugh when they get sort of stuck in the doorway for a second, and almost end up falling out onto the porch before pulling it together and stampeding down the steps like a herd of buffalo.

I get up from my chair and walk to the window, looking out to see Jinxx already lip-locked with Alice, and CC twirling Tiff around in a circle, while Andy and Jake wait impatiently for Juliet and Ella to emerge from the vehicle. Bob glances at me, and says, "We're not getting anything done this weekend, are we?"

"Highly doubtful. But at least maybe this will mellow everybody out a little, and they'll be able to concentrate a bit better when we do go back to the studio."

After a couple of minutes, they all walk into the house, and the girls say hello to me and Bob, and get introduced to Angie before the guys take them upstairs to drop off their bags. Susan and Charlie come inside, and she's just brought up the topic of what to do for dinner when we hear a commotion at the top of the staircase. We all bolt up the stairs to find Alice in tears, and Tiff looking pretty shook up, while everyone else just seems confused.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Charlie inquires.

"I have no idea," Andy tells him. "We came upstairs, and Tiff said something about feeling weird. Then Alice walked up behind her and just started crying."

"Sweetie, tell us what's wrong," Jinxx coaxes. "Why are you crying?"

It takes her a few seconds to compose herself, but after wiping her eyes she says, "I'm not sure myself. I just came up to the landing, and all of a sudden, for no reason I can think of, I just felt so unbelievably sad. It only lasted for a few seconds, but I couldn't stop myself."

"Yeah, I kind of felt that, too," Tiff adds. "I guess it hit her harder than it did me, but she's right, something just felt really miserable. Maybe that woman at the airport was right about this place."

"What woman would that be, babe?" CC asks.

"Just some woman working at the magazine stand. Apparently she lives around here somewhere, and she was telling anybody who'd listen about somebody finding bodies, and how the house is haunted."

We all just look around at each other for a second, then Susan lets out a sigh and says, "Okay, guys, help them get settled in, then go ahead and come on back down. We might as well get them up to speed before the rumors start getting more garbled."

She starts back downstairs, and they head for the bedrooms, while the rest of us follow Susan. She goes to the kitchen to get some drinks together, and Angie goes along to help. While they're doing this, I decide to text Melissa and see if she wants to join us for dinner tonight, so I don't have to sit there feeling awkward being the only one without a date. She texts back almost immediately, and says that she'll be here in thirty minutes or so, and sort of hints that she might be up for a bit of "after-dinner entertainment". I don't give her an actual response to that just yet, since I'm still not sure that Susan would be okay with her staying over, deciding that I'll talk to her when she gets here about the possibility of going to her place instead.

Eventually everyone comes back downstairs and grabs a drink before finding somewhere to sit, and Charlie starts telling the girls about the murders down the road. Juliet and Alice remember meeting Rachel and the others, and hearing the news on the bus that morning, and are kind of startled to find out that this is where it happened. We then go on to tell them about the break-in, and how I was able to communicate with Rachel after I got back from the hospital, about the necklace, and the fact that it's gone missing. I even admit to my last conversation with her, and my thoughts that she was trying to keep me here with her, which earns me some rather exasperated looks.

We then tell them about finding the bodies in the well, and the fact that Whitworth called yesterday to tell us that they'd confirmed with dental records that the other body was Rachel's mom. When we finish, Angie looks at me for a second, then says, "Ashley, it sounds like there's something you haven't considered. If this girl is so desperate to have someone here to keep her company, then why would she bother to save you in the first place? It seems to me like it would have been easier to just stand back and let those guys finish you off, and then try to make friends with your ghost."

I can't even form a response to her words, because they feel like a punch in the chest. Why the hell didn't I think about that? Why would she have gone to that much effort to stop those guys just so she could take me out, or get me to kill myself? Holy shit, I've fucked things up even worse than I ever thought, and now there's not a damn thing I can do to fix it, since they've taken the medallion.

I get yanked back out of my thoughts by the sound of someone knocking on the front door, and look up to see Melissa peeking in through the window. Charlie goes to answer it, and she bounces in, coming over to sit on the arm of my chair. She drops a kiss on my cheek and chirps, "Hi there, hon! I'm glad you called, I've missed seeing you the last few days!"

I give her a little squeeze, and introduce her to Angie and the girls, then try to make it look like I'm actually paying attention to the conversation, instead of mentally calling myself every name under the sun for being such a miserable fucking excuse for a human being. I think she's going to be disappointed later, since I'm pretty sure I'll be sending her home alone after dinner. Right now, in my current state of mind, I'm not sure I could do anything if I tried.

After a bit of chatting, we decide to go out for dinner, and Melissa makes a joke about not being able to get away from the cafe even on her day off. So I tell her, "That's okay, it'll just be a change of pace, with someone serving you for a change."

She agrees, and we start working out the details of transportation, deciding that Jake, Ella, Bob, and Angie will ride with Charlie and Susan, Andy, Juliet, CC, and Tiff will take one of the cars, and Melissa and I will ride with Jinxx and Alice. Charlie and his group get their stuff together and head out to the SUV, followed by Andy and his bunch.

Jinxx remembers that he's left his phone upstairs, so Melissa asks to use the restroom while he goes to get it. I point her toward it, and go to double check that the alarm is set. Jinxx comes back down a minute or so later, and we stand in the living room waiting for Melissa to finish.

"Is she redoing her face or something?" Jinxx inquires after a couple of minutes.

"Hell if I know. But since we're waiting, I'm gonna go double check the back door. Be right back."

I head through the dining room and into the kitchen, and reassure myself that the door is actually locked. But, as I turn to go back, I hear a low voice from the small hallway that runs between the kitchen and Charlie and Susan's rooms, so I go to check it out. As I start to turn the corner, I glance at the mirror hanging in the hall, and see Melissa with her phone to her ear, sort of pacing back and forth.

"Yeah, we're going out to dinner, and everybody will be gone, but they've got the whole place wired now," I hear her tell someone. "So just sit tight. I'm pretty sure I'll be invited for a sleepover tonight, so I can just let you in after everyone goes to sleep. It has to be somewhere, and if they'd found it, you'd already know, since they probably would have given it to that bastard Whitworth, like they did the damn guns. So just be cool, and I'll call you later."

Holy fuck, she's one of them!

Now I feel even stupider than ever, and my first thought is to get back to the living room before she realizes that I've heard her. But before I can move, she glances up into the mirror, and tells whoever she's speaking to, "It looks like I'll have to call you back later. Something just came up."

Notes