Dead of Winter by Sean Harris

Author:Sean Harris [Harris, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Paranormal, Demons-Gargoyles, Ghosts, Action-Adventure
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2015-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“You’re runnin’ out of time, Allysen.”

I’m dreaming once more, only this time I am myself. Rose is with me. We stand in the Black Pine Woods near the shack where Harry and I found the trap door. The night is clear and cold. I can feel the frigid air as it seeps into my clothes and caresses my skin, but I don’t know if it’s real. I can’t tell if it’s really cold or if it’s just my mind filling in the blanks. Regardless of the truth, I shiver.

A full moon shines in the night sky above, illuminating the snow with the brilliance that nearly matches daylight. The barren tree branches reach out like skeletal hands and cast grotesque shadows cross the frozen ground. This place isn’t real. It only exists because Rose shows it to me. As I stand in the imaginary snow that numbs my feet, it occurs to me that I am the only living creature here. The thought does not comfort me.

Rose gazes at me with a mixture of impatience and expectation. As always, she is dressed in a long skirt and a long-sleeved, linen shirt. I look down and see that I am wearing the same sweater and jeans I had on when I went to sleep on the couch. Neither one of us is wearing shoes and I can tell that Rose is as bothered by the fictional chill as I am. She hugs herself for warmth. I hope this will be a short conversation.

“Time is runnin’ out,” she says again.

“For what?” I ask. “I’ve done everything you asked of me. I found the shed with the trap door where you said you were. I found you on the Line. I even found Belson. What more am I supposed to do?”

Rose scowls at me. “You’re so close to figurin’ all of this out, Allysen. Painfully close. All you need to do now is connect the dots. You have everything you need to know. Figure it out, girl.”

“What’s left to figure out? I know the story. Belson was stealing claims from other miners and using his brother-in-law to help cover his crimes. You heard the miners talking about it, and they killed you to keep you quiet. They killed you to protect Belson and they got away with it. But the law finally caught up with him, Rose. Belson went to prison. He got his punishment. It was long after you died but he paid for what he did. He died behind bars. Alone, broke and ruined, unmasked as the fraud he was.”

“It’s not enough, Allysen,” Rose says. Anger and vengeance burn in her eyes. “People need to know what he really was.”

“They already do. It’s over. You need to accept that or you’ll never be free to move on. Rage can tie you to this world as easily as those two miners can.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she thunders. The rage in her voice is so sudden and so complete it startles me.

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