The Forgotten Dead by Jordan L. Hawk

Author:Jordan L. Hawk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Widdershins Press LLC

Nigel froze, every instinct screaming at him to get the hell out of the basement and away from the dead trapped in this house.

But no—this was why he was here. Why he’d come back to the Matthews house after all these years. Besides, what sort of survival researcher lost his nerve the first time he was alone with a spirit?

“Just to make sure this isn’t an anomaly, could you please turn the light off again?” he asked, silently cursing the unsteadiness in his voice.

The light turned off again.

“All right.” Nigel’s palms were sweating, and he rubbed them against his thighs. “All right. Um.” For a moment, his mind blanked, every question he wanted to ask vanishing. He needed to calm down. “Okay. Last night, when Oscar talked to you, you said the word ‘protect.’ Are you still here because of your family? Turn on the flashlight for ‘yes’ leave it off for ‘no.’”

The light turned on.

The rational part of Nigel’s mind was ecstatic—he was getting real evidence of an incorporeal personal agency. To hell with his colleagues and their Zener cards, this was what parapsychology had been founded to study.

The rest of him reeled with a mixture of grief and horror. Kind Mr. Matthews, trapped here in this house for decades, stuck in the most terrible moment of his life…he’d never deserved to suffer like this. No one did.

Nigel wet his lips. The air was getting colder, he was certain of it now. “Is your wife here, too? Leave the flashlight on for yes, turn it off for no.”

He expected it to stay on, if only because Mr. Matthews might not realize she’d died while he was trying to get his gun.

Instead, it switched off.

The darkness came as a shock, and he physically jolted. “Where is she?” he asked before remembering such an answer was far beyond the capabilities of the flashlight. “Is Jen here? Turn the light on for yes, leave it off for no.”

Nothing happened. There was only the blackness and the cold, and the unseen presence in the room with him.

“A-and Mike?” Nigel whispered.

The light blazed on.

God. Oh God. He’d known it, of course he had, but it still felt like a sledge hammer to the chest. Nigel swayed, gripping his knees. “Why? Why are you two still here? There’s nothing left to be afraid of, nothing left to protect against! Your wife, your daughter, the man who killed you—”

The flashlight shot across the room and slammed into the wood paneling of the wall. It rolled, its beam flickering wildly, threatening to plunge the basement into darkness again. Nigel swore, and bolted for the stairs.

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