The Spite House(94)

Eleanor and Owen had given themselves to the house completely and bonded with it. They were fueled by the hatred that originally cursed the land. The malice that pooled in Degener, Texas, leading men to commit mass murder, and go unpunished. And the rage that led murdered men to seek vengeance beyond death. On it went, through Peter Masson, into the house he built, and into his niece and nephew. The children did not just hate their uncle and the Houghtons, but the men who cursed and haunted the Houghton family, too. And they had spent a century growing stronger, planning their chance to make them all suffer.

This Eric knew that Eunice was doomed. Death wasn’t the end of her pain. She belonged to the house, to the children. He couldn’t save her, but he might save her cause. She floated in his grasp, the camera capturing it all. Bottomless fear contorted her face until she found a scream she didn’t have the strength for, and she let it go as she died.

The storm of rage that encircled the house rushed inside as Eunice died, then became something else when it tried to abscond with her spirit. No longer a multitude working together, but a compressed and horrified one. A singularity of despair. The children still laughed but that sounded like screaming now, too, and Eric felt like the last man in the world on the last night of the world, watching the sun burn out. Because there was no one else there who shared his perspective, who felt sorrow for all of the dead. None of the living, scared as they were, could be as afraid as he was of the children.

Eunice, the vengeful twelve, and Peter Masson were all sucked down into the darkness of the house. The children gleefully followed to drink in their fresh terror and agony, and they took with them all of the noise and almost all of the cold, save for the chill that still emanated from the specter of Richard “Eric” Emerson.

With everything quiet again, Millie Steen found the courage to approach Eunice’s floating body. Dana reached out to stop her and said, “Don’t,” but she walked up and took the burden from Eric’s arms.

He sighed and she stepped back quickly, like she heard him; then she turned to the people blocking the door and barked at them to move. She ran with Eunice outside, and the others followed.

This Eric’s phantom pain subsided now, and the overwhelming emotions of all the others spirits departed as well. The quiet gave him a moment to remember his purpose. He had fulfilled his end of the deal made with Eleanor and Owen. He was now free to watch how they controlled the house, and roam all of its spaces. He could dig through its secrets. Listen to what it might know about the dead, the returned, the bridges and doors that connected life and death. Learn how to walk through those doors with purpose, cross those bridges back and forth at will. It would take years. He had that. He wouldn’t age here, not the way his living self would on the outside. Time would feel weightless to him here. He also knew he would not pursue this completely alone.

By making Eunice’s death the spectacle she wanted, he ensured others would come to the house. Lives that the children might take, which gave him more chances to see how they did it. And even if those others never arrived, there was someone else he knew would always be with him.

His living self, the part that left him behind, dreamed of him already, and always would.





CHAPTER 45



Eric



At Dess’s insistence, Eric watched the footage of what transpired at the Masson House when Eunice died. They watched it together once, on one of the many cable news broadcasts turning the video and its aftermath into a twenty-four-hour story. He saw Eunice calling his name, talking to him as if he were there when he wasn’t visible on camera or to anyone else in the room. He watched her cry out and collapse, then appear to levitate for several seconds before finally succumbing to her heart attack.

There was debate about the video’s authenticity. It wasn’t surprising. An old multimillionaire obsessed with the afterlife faked her death along with footage meant to prove the existence of the supernatural. It wasn’t the most ludicrous conspiracy theory you could find online. As Eunice had predicted, however, Neal Lassiter vouching for what he saw gave the video enough credence to be treated seriously by most.

“I can only report what I observed,” Neal said. “That’s the scientific, rational approach, and what I observed is exactly what you see in the video.”

That was his official statement on the matter. All he had said since was that he had lost a friend and would appreciate everyone respecting his privacy. Maybe in a month or two he would retract that official statement, start looking for “logical” answers to what he witnessed. Dana said she didn’t think it was likely, though.

Busy as she was, Dana made sure to call Eric after Eunice passed to assure him nothing had changed. He would still have the full financial support promised to him. She had a question for him, as well. “Eunice thought she saw you in the house that night. She even spoke to you. Do you have any idea why?”

“No clue,” Eric said. She might have guessed he was lying, but she didn’t press it, and he didn’t care one way or another as long as it didn’t impact their agreement.

“Neal is going to pull together a team to do some more research in the house,” Dana said. “Eunice earmarked some funding for him, and it’s all he can talk about whenever I talk to him.”

“You’re telling me this because?” Eric said.

“You’re connected. And Eunice, bless her, she kept things from you. I don’t want to do that.”