Limbo

ASHLEY:

July, 2014

I glance out the window as the van comes to a stop in front of the huge Victorian house that will be our "home away from home" for the next couple of months. CC leans forward to look past me, and blurts, "Holy shit, it's fuckin' Rose Red! I'm glad I'm not the one having to worry about paying the utility bills for this place!""

"Twelve bedrooms, fifteen bathrooms, and a formal dining room, I've been told," our producer, Bob, announces from the driver's seat. "They just got all the permits to open up, so we'll actually be the first guests."

We've been working on our new album for the last couple of months, but we recently hit a point where everything seemed to stall out, and nothing was really moving forward. So Bob made the suggestion that we try a change of scenery and go somewhere outside of LA to work for awhile, to see if it might help. We agreed to give it a try, so he booked time at a studio here in Canada, and set it up for us to stay at a new bed-and-breakfast that a couple of his friends have just opened up.

As we start to get out of the van, the front door opens, and a tall bald guy, with a gray-streaked goatee, steps out onto the porch and waves. Bob waves back, and calls out, "Hey there, Charlie! Are you ready for your first guests?"

"I think we are, as long as there aren't any repeats of the Great Prank War of '86," the guy responds.

"Nah, these guys aren't nearly as destructive as those lunatics were. I'm pretty sure Susie doesn't have to worry about her dining room furniture."

We all climb up the steps with our bags, and Bob says, "Hey guys, this is my friend Charlie O'Brien." Then, as a slim Japanese woman steps out to join us, he continues, "And this lovely lady is his wife, Susan." He introduces all of us, and Susan holds open the door, motioning for us to step inside.

As we walk into the living room, the first thing I notice is the stone fireplace that takes up most of the far end of the room. The thing is fucking enormous, nearly big enough for all of us to stand in at the same time, I'm almost willing to bet they could fit most of a tree in there. "Does this thing actually work?" I ask, pointing to the monstrosity.

"As far as we know, yes," Susan replies."But we're definitely planning to have it checked again before the weather gets cold enough to use it. It isn't the only source of heat that we have, of course, and I assure you that we do have central air, so you should all be comfortable."

That's right, we have everything set up for you folks," Charlie chimes in, pointing toward the staircase. "If you'd all like to go up and put your things away, the keys to your rooms are over there on the pegboard, with your names on the tags."

We walk to the foot of the stairs and start picking out our keys, then troop up to the second floor to look for our rooms. Glancing at the tag, I see that I'm in room number five, which turns out to be in one of the corner turrets. I put my bags down, and from what I can tell at first glance, I think I'm gonna be very comfortable here. There's a queen-sized bed, a nice overstuffed chair, a desk where I can set up my laptop, a small refrigerator, and one hell of a view when I pull back the curtains. There are two other doors, besides the one going out to the hall, and when I open them, I find a decent-sized closet, and a full bathroom with a shower and a tub.

I set my laptop up on the desk and plug it and my phone both up to charge, then go back into the hall. Andy pokes his head out from the room across the hall from mine and says, "I've actually got my own bathroom in here. How about you, dude?"

"Yeah, I do, too."

"I'm pretty sure we all do," Jake interjects. "With the ridiculous number of bathrooms Bob was talking about, my guess is that there's one for every room."

We wander back and forth for a few minutes, checking out each other's rooms, until Bob yells at us from the stairs. When we head back that way, he informs us, "Since we're the only ones here, Charlie and Susan have invited us to join them for dinner tonight, even though they'll normally only be serving us breakfast. It'll be a while before it's ready, so does anybody want to head into town to the store to get some snacks and stuff to keep in your rooms while we're waiting?"

"Y'know, that sounds pretty good," Jake responds, and the rest of us agree, so we troop back out to the van, and drive further down the road. A couple of miles from the house, there's a small cafe, which appears to be fairly busy.

"Wow, they got that up and running pretty quick," Bob observes. "The first time I was out here after they bought the place a few months ago, there was nothing there but the burned-out shell of an old farmhouse."

Taking a closer look through the window, I reply, "It looks like they've just parked a couple of those pre-fab buildings out there and connected them together. That probably helped speed up the process. I'm just kind of surprised that they're this busy, being so far out of town."

"Yeah, that is a bit odd. The food must be pretty good," Jinxx remarks. "When the B and B gets going a little better, it might work out for both of them."

A few minutes later, we get into town, and pull into the parking lot of an IGA store. Heading for the corral at the front of the store, everyone grabs a cart and starts working their way through the aisles. I pick up some fresh fruit, granola, juice, bottled water, and a few other items, before going to the liquor department and grabbing a case of beer. Since we're trying to actually get some work done while we're here, we've agreed to seriously limit the party atmosphere, but I don't see that one or two beers a day will be a problem.

I wheel my cart up to the checkout, and wind up in line between Bob and CC, while the other guys are in the next lane. As Bob is putting his stuff on the conveyor, the Native American lady working the register says, "You fellas must be new in town, I haven't seen you all around here before. You guys working on the new highway project?"

"No, we're going to be doing some recording in the studio a few blocks over," he answers."We're staying at the new B and B up the road."

When he says this, her expression changes, she mumbles something under her breath, and bolts from the register. The clerk on the next lane picks up a phone and pages the manager, then continues ringing up Andy's order. An older man arrives a few seconds later, she says something to him that none of us can make out, and he comes around and takes over scanning Bob's things.

"Is everything all right?" Bob asks him. "Did I say something wrong?"

"It's all right, sir," the man answers. "Since you're from away, there's no way you could have known. You'll have to excuse Geraldine, she lost her boy last year, and the subject is still a bit touchy for her. For the whole town, actually. But I have to say, I think maybe that hotel wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe it'll help everybody forget what the place was before."

We're all looking at each other, thoroughly confused, by the time he gets to my stuff. "It's too bad about her son, we're all sorry to hear about that," I say. "But do you mind if I ask what exactly that has to do with the B and B?"

"Because that's where the bastard that had him and the others killed used to live," he tells me solemnly. "Had 'em killed down the road, then they waltzed right back there like they didn't have a care in the world. The only reason the place is still standing is because the RCMP had patrols put around the place after somebody torched the place where they did the actual killing."

"Did they tell you boys that the place is haunted?" the woman at the other register wants to know. "My cousin worked on the construction crew they hired to do the remodeling, and he says that they heard all sorts of noises, and that tools would move around when nobody was there."

"Seriously now, Helen," the manager sighs. "That house is as old as Metheuselah, so of course it's gonna make noises. And forgive me for saying so, but your cousin Grady would probably lose his own butt if it wasn't attached to him."

We finally get everything paid for and go back to the van, where Jinxx is so excited that he's practically vibrating the entire way back. He has a thing about ghosts and stuff like that, and having them say that the place might be haunted was like waving a piece of tuna in front of one of his cats. He wants to go talk to Charlie and Susan about it as soon as we get back, but Bob takes hold of his arm and says, "I understand that you guys would like to know what that was all about, because I kinda would, too. But if you don't wait 'til after dinner to bring it up, and you spoil the nice meal they're making for us, I swear to you that I will personally march right upstairs and piss in your suitcase."

Everybody laughs when he says this; everyone, that is, except Bob. "Damn, you're serious, aren't you?" Andy asks.

"As a fucking heart attack."

We all go back upstairs and put our stuff away, and Charlie calls everybody down to the table a couple of minutes later. When I get down to the dining room and grab myself a seat, I see that they've put out a nice meal of fettucine alfredo with chicken, garlic bread, and a salad. The rest of the guys finally get into their seats, we pass around the food, and listen to Charlie and Bob tell some stories from when they used to work together back in the eighties. As it turns out, the prank war that Charlie mentioned earlier involved some in-studio antics by the guys in Motley Crue, which resulted in their management having to shell out for some ruined studio equipment, and almost got them banned from coming back into the country.

After everyone finishes eating, Susan and Charlie take the dishes to the kitchen, then come back to join the rest of us in the living room. When they sit down, Bob hesitates for a second, then says, "Hey, Charlie, there's something we'd kind of like to talk to you about, if you don't mind." Charlie and Susan look at each other, then back at him, and he goes on, "One of the ladies at the grocery store got a little upset when we mentioned where we were staying, and there was some talk about something that happened here. Do you know what they were talking about?"

"Yes, we do," Susan sighs. "We were sort of hoping that you wouldn't hear about it, because we were afraid that you might not want to stay. But since you have, the truth of the matter is that there used to be a religious cult that lived here on this property, who committed several murders a little over a year ago."

"The majority of them are in jail, for one thing or another," Charlie chimes in. "The others took off for parts unknown, and haven't been seen around here since then. And in case you were wondering, nobody actually died here, as far as we know. They were killed a little way down the road, right outside where they built the new cafe."

"One of the store clerks said that people think this place is haunted," Jinxx blurts out, earning himself a scowl from Bob. "Have you seen anything that might make you believe that?"

"Well, I haven't actually seen anything," Susan says, a bit reluctantly. "But we have found things in places that we know we didn't leave them, and one night we were down by the cafe, and when we looked up here, the living-room lights were flashing on and off. Charlie called the sheriff, we met them back here, and when they went in they found a power drill that one of the workers had left plugged up was shooting out sparks, and very close to catching fire. So I'm inclined to think that there might be something to it, yes."

"Any idea who it's supposed to be?" CC queried.

She motions to Charlie, and he gets up and leaves the room. As we hear him moving down the hall, she says, "I think we can narrow it down to two possibilities. There were four people killed that night, but only two of the bodies have been accounted for. There are a man and a woman still missing, and it could be either of them, I suppose."

As Charlie comes back into the room, Jinxx asks, "Would it be okay if I have my girlfriend bring my ouija board when she visits, and we can try to contact whoever it is?"

"Absolutely not!" Susan replies emphatically. "I refuse to allow one of those things onto this property, and if I find out you've brought one, you will be asked to leave immediately. There's no telling what one of those things can call up!"

He looks a bit startled at the response, but just nods and says, "Okay, we'll just pretend I didn't ask, then."

Charlie comes over to the couch where we're all sitting, holding some papers in his hand. He hesitates briefly, then lays them on the table, saying, "This should explain everything, including the other reason we didn't bring it up. You may already be aware of this particular incident."

Jinxx grabs the top piece and unfolds it, almost instantly letting it drop from his fingers. "Holy shit!" he yells, looking totally shocked. "That was here?"

Andy picks it up and smoothes it out on the table, so we can all see what he's talking about. And when he does, we all stare at each other with our mouths hanging open, then turn to look at the newspaper headline again, "Five Shot After Rock Concert", and the pictures lined up underneath, including that stunning face I recognize immediately. The girl who turned me down at our last concert here, because she was married. I think back to the news report we heard that morning on the bus, and ask, "So they never found the two that weren't in the car?"

"No, they didn't," Charlie says. "Apparently they had dogs and everything roaming around here and at the murder scene for weeks afterward, and never found any sign of them. That's why Suze thinks that it would be one of them if there were actually a ghost. They both grew up here, and the girl was the cult leader's daughter. The theory is that it was retaliation for them leaving the group, and the others just got in the way."

We read over the articles, passing them back and forth for awhile, until Susan informs everyone that she's ready to turn in. Charlie takes them back to put away, and we decide to go ahead and try to get some sleep ourselves, so we can get an early start at the studio. I get up to my room, strip off my clothes, and go to take a nice, hot shower.

When I finish, I towel myself off, dry my hair, and head toward the bed. I climb in, and just as I get ready to turn off the light, I remember that I left my stuff on the chargers. So, I climb back out of bed and walk to the desk, only to find both chargers unplugged and curled up neatly on top of my laptop.

"Okay, then," I mumble as I head back to bed. "I'll have to remember to thank Susan for that in the morning." Then I put it out of my mind, turn off the light, and look out the window at the stars until I fall asleep.

Notes