Groaning, rolling to his side, he looked around.

The woods were dark and empty.

He smiled when he thought he heard the dull thump of bones on wood below.

Tobe hadn’t been shocked to see the thick sheen of ice on the generator. With the way the temperature had been dropping, he should have been checking on it every hour, armed with a blow drier to melt it as fast as it formed.

It was fucked. The ice had to be an inch thick.

He hacked at it with a heavy branch he’d found nearby. The ice wouldn’t give but the branch had split down the middle, the fresh wood forming a dangerously sharp point.

I hope we have enough candles, he thought. There was nothing he could do about the generator until the sun came up. He wasn’t even sure if that would help. Ormsby Island had become a dark, walk-in freezer.

Wait until we get the experts here. This place will blow the mind of every scientist, paranormal nut, man woman and child. You want to know where you go after you die? It isn’t heaven, and death is not the end. It’s all right here, folks. And for a nominal fee, you too can experience the forever.

Yes, things hadn’t gone as he’d hoped. Lord only knew if anything they had filmed was even salvageable. But now, it didn’t matter. They had all the proof they needed, right here on his island.

Turning to go back inside and see what the next fire was to put out, he froze, taking an involuntary step back.

Two ghostly children stood on the patio, holding large knives in their too-small hands. It was hard to focus on their faces, as if an undulating gel swam before them. One moment they were alien—large, silver eyes and open mouths, something not quite right about their bone structure, foreheads a little too high, flat noses spread too thin. The next, snatches of something familiar rose from the ooze, only to be swallowed up again.

The knives they held, there was no dismissing that. The few shards of moonlight glinted off them with deadly certainty.

“What are you doing here?” he said, fingers tightening on the sharp branch.

Can you stab a ghost?

If they come at you, go for the knives! Have to knock the knives out of their little ghost hands. How are they even doing this?

“Go away,” he said, unable to hide the tremor in his voice. “I’m not your enemy. I didn’t do this to you. Step back. Now!”

The children stepped forward, lifting their knives higher.

Hadn’t Jessica said no one’s ever been killed by a ghost? He wished she were here to see this. This would certainly knock her the hell off her high horse.

They came closer. He swung the branch before him, a heavy swoosh cleaving the air between them in two.

Keep your eye on the knives.

One of them ran forward. He lashed out, the jagged point making a high kerang as it connected with the large blade. He grunted with satisfaction as it skittered across the patio.

The other ghost wailed, “No!”

Then another voice. “Stop!”

He turned to face the new intruder.

It was Rusty, his hair gone white as fresh snow.

“He’s a very bad man,” the ghost with the knife wailed, then swung the knife high, running at him.

“Alice, no!” Rusty shouted.

Alice? Tobe squinted at the charging ghost, unable to see any trace of his daughter in the mask of unadulterated madness. All he saw was the knife as it buried itself to the hilt in his thigh. Yowling in hot agony, he brought the branch down as hard as he could.

Chapter Forty-Two

Jessica tumbled over the back door threshold. He hands lashed out, fingers finding the white latticework that framed the door. The mere act of keeping on her feet felt like more than her heart could take. It struggled within her chest, pumping blood to organs and extremities that cried out for rest.

Blinking hard to make the yard come into focus, she gasped at the sight in front of her.

Jason was rolling on the ground, holding his hand, great tears streaming down his face. Tobe reared back from Alice, screaming. When Alice backed away, Jessica saw the knife protruding from her father’s thigh.

In retaliation, Tobe made to crack her skull open with a thick tree branch. Rusty literally jumped between the man and his daughter, taking the brunt of the blow against his upper back. His face smacked against the patio. She heard the sharp snap of his nose shattering, droplets of blood springing from his ruined face like a lawn sprinkler.

Alice shrieked, staring dully at her father.

“Tobe, stop!” Jessica cried. “It’s Alice and Jason! Stop!”

She fell to her knees, the quick bursts from her lungs overwhelming her powerless system.

The tree branch paused, high above Alice’s head.

As if waking from a bad dream, the little girl began to sob, small shoulders twitching up and down with each burst of tears.

Tobe stared down at her, really stared, as if trying to make her out through a frosted window. He didn’t drop the branch.

“Daddy,” Jason said, now on his feet and crying as well.

The branch slipped harmlessly from Tobe’s fingers, clattering behind him.

Rusty moaned, pushing himself to all fours, a barrier between father and children.

The kids are safe. The kids are safe, Jessica thought. If she was going to die, at least it would be knowing that Jason and Alice were unharmed, though the psychological scars from a night like this would forever change them. No one knew that better than her.

The cool brick felt wonderful against her cheek. She closed her eyes.

Time to sleep.

Daddy, please, come take me.

Whatever force had been holding the library doors shut suddenly disappeared. They gave way easily on oiled hinges. Daphne ran from the room, nearly hysterical from worry. My babies! Where are my babies!

She slammed hard into someone in the dark, the other person hitting the floor. They felt too big to be one of the children.

“Go home, go home, go home, go home.”

It was Nina.

“What do you mean?” she asked, not sure in the absolute pitch where the woman lay.

“Time to go home. Go home. Go home.”

She didn’t have time for babbling. Whatever had happened must have short-circuited the psychic. A part of Daphne hoped it was more than a temporary affliction.

Daphne was startled when people came rushing in through the back door. One of them held a flashlight.

“Rusty, clear that table,” Eddie spat. By the wavering light, she could see Jessica in his arms. Alice and Jason were glued to Rusty’s sides. Rusty looked like a far older version of himself. His nose was a bloody mess. He swept the few plates and fruit bowl off the table.

“Alice! Jason!” Daphne cried.

The moment they saw her, they pulled away from Rusty, running into her arms. She squeezed them as hard as she could, burying her face in their hair, raining kisses on cheeks and foreheads.

“I was so worried about you,” she wept.

“We wanted to stop the bad man,” Jason said.

“But we hurt daddy instead,” Alice said.

Both kids went limp in her arms.

“I’m so tired, Mommy,” Alice said, her eyelids fluttering.

“Me too,” Jason said with a yawn.

At that moment, Tobe came staggering into the room. Daphne let out a sharp breath when she saw the knife in his thigh and the river of blood collecting in his shoe.

And though it seemed they had all taken a quick detour to hell, she knew it was not over.

Jessica looked terrible. Her skin had gone waxy and pale, her lips and eyelids tinting bluer by the second. Eddie checked her airways to make sure she wasn’t choking to death.

But he knew that wasn’t it.

The Ormsby EBs had drawn so much from her, there was barely enough left to keep her heart and lungs moving. Looking over at Jason and Alice, unable to keep their eyes open, he knew they wouldn’t be far behind.