River: The Suicide Forest Part 4

"Alright," Jason said, and picked up his fork. "I'll wait."

They ate in silence for a moment, until Steven raised a new subject and their conversation turned. Steven could tell Jason was still angry, giving him short answers to his questions and not really opening up about anything. At the end of the meal, Steven gave Jason a big hug that was tepidly returned, and they parted cordially.

As Steven drove to pick up Roy, he considered telling Roy about Jason's dream, but he decided not to. Roy would just push him to tell Jason now, and Steven wasn't ready. Roy might even go around him, and talk to Jason directly. No, Jason is my child, Steven thought. He'll find out from me, and he'll learn from me. That's my right as a father. I'll have to figure something out soon, though. He won't be patient forever.

Steven and Roy arrived at June Williamson's house an hour later. They drank some of Roy's protection in the car before approaching the house. June invited them inside.

"Do you have the token?" Steven asked June. She held her hands up to show him palms pressed tightly together.

"Good," Steven said. "Unfortunately, you'll need to keep doing that while we're here. It's to protect you."

"Whatever you say," she said, giving him a weak smile.

"How have things been?" Steven asked.

"Worse," she said, sitting in a large overstuffed chair. "Robbie spent the night with me. He said he felt hands in his bed."

"Who was in the house last night?" Roy asked.

"Just the three of us," June said.

"Might your daughter have had someone over?" Steven asked.

"No," June said. "No one was over."

"Your daughter has her own room?" Roy asked.

"Yes," June said. "We each have our own room. Robbie came into my room around 2. He was crying. Of course it didn't wake Evie up, nothing ever does. I let him sleep in my bed for the night. When I went into his room in the morning, it was trashed."

"Can we see the room?" Steven asked.

"Sure," June said, rising from her chair. "Come with me."

They followed her down a short hallway and turned at the first door on the right. Inside, the floor of the room was covered with toys and clothes. There were posters that had fallen from the walls.

"I started putting things back," June said. "Got the mattress back on the bed, and made it. Put some things back on his desk. But you can see there's still a lot more cleaning to do."

"Boys' rooms are often a mess," Steven said.

"No," June said, "not like this. And not Robbie. It's normally very clean. I know when he went to bed it was in perfect shape. Something happened."

"Alright," Roy said, leaving the room and walking back to the living room. "There's a couple of things we need to do while we're here today. Then we're coming back tomorrow."

"What do you need?" she asked, following them back.

"First there's this," Steven said, producing the small lantern Judith Duke had given to them. "I need you to leave this somewhere in the house overnight. We'll come back and get it tomorrow."

"Should I put it in Robbie's room?" June asked.

"No, anywhere in the house will do," Steven said.

"I'll leave it in my room, then," June said. "Best if Evie and Robbie don't see it."

"They're unaware that we're helping you?" Roy asked.

"Yes," June said, "and I think it's best that way. Evie becomes quite upset whenever anything about the gift is discussed, and even more so if Robbie is around. So I'd just as soon keep her out of it, if we can."

"Alright," Steven said. "The other thing we'll need is some privacy. My father needs to conduct another trance, but this time he'll need to do it in private."

"Oh," June said. "Would my bedroom work?" She rose, and led them down the same hallway to the second door on the left. "Here it is, is there enough room for you?"

"We're going to need a chair," Steven said. "Can we use one from your kitchen?"

"Yes, I'll get one," June said, turning to leave.

"Can you manage it without dropping the token?" Steven asked.

"Yes I think so," June said, already going down the hallway.

"I'm still not sure I'm going to do this," Roy said. "Feels creepy to get naked in a strange woman's bedroom."

"Many people might consider it a turn on," Steven said.

"I do not," Roy said. "Do you think there's enough room here to draw the circle at the foot of the bed?"

"I think so," Steven said. "We'll put the chair in the middle, draw the circle around it, and then I'll leave you to it."

"Oh no," Roy said. "You're staying in the room to watch me."

"No, I'm not," Steven said. "Judith specifically said I have to leave you alone for this to work. The circle will protect you."

June returned with the chair, and Steven took it from her and sat it at the base of the bed.

"We're going to pour some charcoal over the carpet here," Steven told her. "I think it will just vacuum up after we're gone. Is that alright?"

"Yes," June said. "Whatever you need to do."

"Would you excuse us?" Steven asked June. "I'll join you in the living room in just a minute."

"Alright," she said. Steven followed her to the bedroom door, shutting it behind her.

"You strip down, I'll start the charcoal," Steven said.

"Hmmpf," Roy said, and began removing his s.h.i.+rt.

Steven removed a lunch-size brown bag from his backpack, and began lightly pouring the mixture in a circle around the chair. When he was done, a naked Roy stepped into the circle and sat in the chair.

"You remember what to do?" Steven asked.

"Yes," Roy said. "Let's hurry this up. It's cold in here. Put on the blindfold."

"You can't have the blindfold," Steven said. "You have to do it without it. She said you could not be wearing any kind of clothing."

"G.o.dd.a.m.nit," Roy said. "Fine then - yes, I remember what to do. Let's start."

"Alright," Steven said. "Yell if you need me. I'll be listening."

Roy nodded, and Steven walked out of the room. He went back down the hallway and joined June in the living room.

"Everything OK?" June asked.

"Yes," Steven said, sitting on the sofa. "He's about to try another trance. I'll need to listen for him in case there's any trouble, so we'll need to be quiet out here while we wait."

"Alright," June said, sitting back in her chair.

They waited in silence, June twisting the token back and forth between her tightly pressed palms. More than once while he was sitting in the sofa, Steven wondered what was happening with Roy, and he felt the hair go up on the back of his neck. He was trying to think of a blank wall, per the instructions from Judith, but he'd never been good at clearing his mind or meditating. His mind always ran a million miles an hour.

After twenty minutes, they heard the bedroom door open. A fully clothed Roy emerged carrying the kitchen chair, which he walked into the kitchen to replace before joining them in the living room.

"How'd it go?" Steven asked.

"June," Roy said, "we'll be back tomorrow to pick up that lantern. I will need to speak with your daughter. Can we come at a time when she'll be here?"

June looked worried. "Well, she's here in the mornings until 10. If you come before then, you should run into her. Should I tell her you're coming?"

"No," Roy said. "I'll explain everything to her when we arrive. Let's go, Steven."

"Are you sure you need to involve her?" June asked. "I was hoping we could keep her out of this."

"I'm sure," Roy said.

He must not want to explain in front of June, Steven thought. He rose from the sofa and followed Roy as they made their way out the front door, said their goodbyes to June, and got in Steven's car.

"So?" Steven asked. "Did you find it?"

"The only thing I saw," Roy said. "Was the daughter. And I have a hard time believing I needed to be naked to see that."

"She's the opening?" Steven asked. "She's the Ouija board?"

"Don't know," Roy said. "But I can tell you I don't care for the vibe I got. The trance was very uncomfortable, just like the last one."

"Now you know how I feel," Steven said. "That's the vibe I get whenever we're in there. So I'm guessing the token worked no threat to June's life this time?"

"None," Roy said. "But this trance Judith had me do was very specific. I might have seen more had I just conducted a regular trance. I would have tried one, after I was done with hers, but like I said, the vibe was very bad. I just wanted to get out."

"What now?" Steven asked. "Go back tomorrow and pick up that lantern, then back out to Gig Harbor?"

"And meet with her daughter tomorrow," Roy said. "See what she knows."

"I'd like to talk to you, but I'm in a hurry," Evelyn Williamson said after shaking both Roy and Steven's hands. She turned to go into the kitchen.

"We need a moment of your time," Roy said. "In the interest of the safety of your mother and your son."

Evie walked back from the kitchen. "What is this?" she asked. "Some kind of threat?"

"We're not the threat," Steven said. "Something in the house is."

Evie rolled her eyes and walked back into the kitchen. "You're both wasting your time, and I have to be somewhere in ten minutes."

"Evie," June said, following her back into the kitchen, "please listen to them. They know what they're doing."

"Why are you holding your hands like that?" Edie asked her mother.

Steven and Roy followed June into the kitchen. Edie was pulling leftovers from the refrigerator and placing them in a padded lunch bag. She saw them enter the room and stopped.

"Really?" she asked them. "Now?"

"It's important," Steven said. "People have already been hurt."

"Whatever," she said, resuming her packing, "Talk while I get ready. I'm going to be late."

"You don't work until 10," June said. "Why are you packing up so early?"

"I have appointments," Evie said, grabbing a briefcase from off the floor and placing it on the kitchen island. She opened it and began ruffling through folders inside.

"Your mother asked for our help," Roy said. "We've been looking into the bangings."

"What bangings?" she said, her focus on the briefcase and the papers she was shuffling.

"We've heard them," Roy said, "and your mother has heard them. So has your son. They were both attacked the other day, you can still see the bruises on your mother. Your son's room was ransacked. There's something wrong here."

"There's nothing wrong here," Evie said, continuing to move papers around in her briefcase. "My mother fell, and Robbie needs to clean his room."

"We know you have the gift," Steven said. "Both Roy and I have it too."

She turned to her mother. "Why did you invite them here? You know how I feel about these things."

"We need the help, Evie," June said. "I know you don't want to see it, but there's something wrong here. Your father would have known what to do, but I don't have a clue."

"No, you don't," Evie said, "if you think they can do anything to help."

"I've consulted an expert," Roy said, "and with her a.s.sistance I think we can get to the bottom of it. But the next step is you."

"Me?" Evie asked. "I'm not involved."