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And Darcy followed

Chapter 14

14

M att lay awake, the picture of Darcy, contorted and gasping, replaying in his ain

She needed to be out of this house

So why didn’t he just make her leave?

He couldn’t deal with it, he knew he couldn’t deal with it, so why let her stay? Figure it out Because he couldn’t bear to see her go So, what? Was he waiting to see if she’d wake up onewas an act, their way of bringing the culprit to justice as rigging the house to h it ht she saw and felt was real to her

He was afraid for her, and he didn’t knohy He didn’t like being away frohosts could hurt people But the living could Why should he be afraid for her then when those she was chasing were ghosts?

He tossed, and turned, and then…

He thought he heard her door open

He lay still, listening for ahe could hear

He rose anyway

The wraithfor the stairs Darcy followed The ghost misted down the stairway in a white haze Darcy paused at the landing

The spirit stopped, looking back Beckoning

Once again, Darcy followed

She scampered down the stairway, and became suddenly aware that she wasn’t just in pursuit of a spirit She reseown, chasing a specter They were both puffs of white, the ghost floating, she actually setting her feet upon the steps Bare feet She hadn’t bothered with slippers

It hadn’t occurred to her that the ghost would lead her beyond the house

But that hat the specter intended

She drifted through the foyer, straight to the front door, and then through it

From somewhere within the house, Darcy heard a door close She hesitated, then hurriedly began playing with the alarm and the complicated locks on the front door, opened it, and rushed out

The spirittoward the stables and the outbuildings beyond

Darcy followed There was a hts illuminated the entry to Melody House But once she passed the stables, the lights dihost was headed toward the old smokehouse

Suddenly, the apparition went dead still Darcy, too, paused

The spirit began to fade, slipping behind the building Darcy ran after it

She came around the side of the smokehouse and discovered that the wraith had indeed disappeared As she stood there, puzzled and frustrated, she heard the snap of a twig So warned her not to ainst the s

Footsteps fell…slowly, furtively She held very still

Closer…

She let her fingers cran the wood of the sed, but it refused to give

Thecurious shadows Shapes that formed and reformed, billowed and withered, like the rise and fall of branches fro trees But then one shadow becae, soft, snapping sound

TheA cord…a strap…of sohtened it, eased it, tightened it, eased it

She’d seen the motion before In a drea ht Darcy ceased to breathe, watching, waiting

Then the shadow moved

And Darcy did, too

She shoved away fro around the other side of it She ran as if all the de back toward the house At first, she heard thundering footsteps as well, footsteps that fell in hot pursuit

The porch, blackened by shadow despite the floodlights, was directly before her She raced up the steps, wincing when her bare foot fell upon a small pebble She started to hurtle herself toward the door, then tried to halt her i in her voice as a massive shadow moved between her and the entry

She crashed hard into the rising shadow, gasping out rather than screa, but in a frenzy and ready to rip away and screaers bit into her shoulders

"Darcy!"

She froze Matt

"Darcy!"

Matt Had he been behind her? Had he been the shadow she had seen? Impossible, he’d still be behind her Unless he had doubled around, leapt the railing, and sped around the porch She was fast That didn’t ht not be faster

She had heard footsteps, and then…

Nothing