Page 16 of Lake Hollow Curses

I shrug. “He had to remove spyware and reroute the video storage. I don’t understand any of it, but Skip was losing his mind over it. Now hopefully we’ll find out who is responsible for the vandalism.” My attention is pulled to the door when a group of teenagers enter laughing and joking with one another.

“Huh. Spyware?” Charlie asks while he tucks the gifts I gave him in his shorts pocket. “That’s interesting.” His tone is light, but his furrowed brow and the way he is staring at the table give me the impression he’s processing something. Focusing his beautiful sky-blue eyes at me, he warns, “Please be careful. I said it before, but if you can avoid it… don’t be alone with him. With Wilder. There are some things not adding up here.”

“I’ve been hearing a lot of that lately. Be careful I mean.” There is a long history between Charlie and Wilder of contention. It’s not really for me to mend things between them. He’ll see that he was wrong, eventually. “One of my favorite things about you is that you’re protective of the people you care about. You don’t need to save me from Wilder.”

Before we leave, I pull the old Altoids tin I keep in my purse out, taking out two of the googly eyes inside to place on the mayor’s wife’s face displayed on her real estate flyer hanging next to the door. “You are adorable, Rem. I love that you keep those in your bag,” Charlie whispers.

He talks me into letting him walk me back to the cabin, telling me that it’s for his peace of mind. It’s hard to put up much of a fuss when spending time with Charlie makes me feel like everything will be alright with the world.

There are days I wonder if all the chairs pull up to my table. Freaking faily on the daily lately. I forgot Father Lowe was stopping to bless the cabin this afternoon. He’s waiting with Ceily when I return with Charlie, alongside a miserable looking Wilder, who has a bruise forming on the side of his face. Awkward is a safe word to describe the atmosphere. Both my guys eye one another up like apex predators, the cheery Father Chris comments several times about my ‘unconventional’ pets while Ceily tries to push her cookies on us.

“Oh, no, no I just had ice cream, I’ll pass.” She’s hard to say no to, but I’ve made the mistake of accepting her fingernail clipping, asphalt treats before. That may not be the ingredients, but it’s got to be close. “I’m happy to get started. Last night was rough. Winifred was restless.” I can’t call her Katie around Charlie.

“What happened?” Wilder asks me perplexed.

Fair enough, because I neglected to share. It’s become commonplace to have strange things going bump in the night around here. “Scratching or scraping sounds, but I don’t know where it was, Droolius was whining and pacing near the door, the Hops were all squeaking… it was a whole ordeal.” Once Skip gets word back about the rental home on the southside of Lake Hollow, he’s sure to hightail us out of here.

I’ve grown attached to the cabin though. To being near Wilder and Grady. I’m even sad that Father Lowe may be able to help Katie’s spirit leave. But she deserves rest, she was able to get her diary where it needs to be.

Charlie checks in on my froggie friends. “Is this one, okay?” He points to Sir Hops A Lot who likes to try squeezing through tight spaces, but gets stuck, usually at weird looking angles. It’s his thing.

“Mmm... spatially challenged.” I bloop him through the bark covered tunnel before wandering over to Ceily and Father Chris deep in discussion about blessings versus exorcisms. I’m having nightmares tonight, no doubt.

“...back a few years ago. Don’t you remember?” Ceily leans more heavily on her cane. “Half the town council was livid.”

Dare I ask? “What happened?”

“Father Connelly performed a ceremony at Lakeside Park to bless the lake, but it was presented as a casting out of all evil spirits that dwell within the lake. There was controversy over that implication.” She waves her hand while rolling her eyes. “Pure lunacy. Half the town wanted to ban anyone from swimming in the lake because they felt the Lakeside Park energy doohickey was proof of a demon portal, and the sane half just wanted everyone to shut up already.”

With Charlie on one side of me, Wilder on the other, we watch Father Lowe walk into each small room of the cabin repeating his prayers. “Lord, send down your mercy and your blessing upon us here and upon this house. May your angel of mercy watch over it and keep all who live here safe from anything that is evil. May he guide us into the fulfillment of your holy will, teaching us to observe what Christ has taught us.”

He breaks out a fancy looking jar, a worn bible, and recites another prayer. Ending it with, “In the name of Jesus.” He then sprinkles water from the jar around the cabin.

It’s not lost on me that Wilder is being more overt in his affection with Charlie here. He keeps a hand on my waist, or arm. Likewise, Charlie has been doing the same. I can’t say theattention sucks, but they are definitely trying to send a message to each other. Wilder laughs, lightly, under his breath.

“Now what?” I poke him in the side.

“Just watching a bit of theater.” He gives me a half smile.

“I think we might actually agree on something.” Charlie leans in to say, “But if it makes you feel better then who cares if it’s just some parlor tricks.”

It’s worth a shot. Most of what he says could be mumbo jumbo, but on the off chance that it works to free the spirit I believe is here, then chant away.

A chill rolls through me, a nervous laugh escapes. How is this real? I can’t be as flippant about this as Charlie, or skeptical as Wilder. I know a spirit has been here… Katie or someone else. There may be a second less friendly one, too. Father Chris’ normally jovial talking becomes serious fervor as he does the prayer again.

Ceily comes to stand by me when Charlie moves behind me placing his hands on my shoulders. She grabs my arm. “The Lord will hear him.” I think the whole group of cabins at The Bends hears him, but I don’t know about the big guy.

Chapter Twelve

Cal Truitt

“Is the life hack in the room with us?” I ask Skip while scratching my neck. Each day drives home the point that this man is living with his head in the clouds.

I’m in a chronic state of bewilderment around him. “That’s going to make it more difficult, not easier.” He’s met with me three times today about an ‘innovation’ for mini putt ball retrieval. He’s making me itch.

Glancing out the window at the back of his office, I keep hoping to spot Remi. She teamed up with Keenan on the mini putt course today, leaving me to deal with both Kami and Nat on bumper boats. Neither of them is interested in being helpful, the mess created by Skip’s impromptu meetings hasn’t helped. “I wouldn’t ask that last maintenance person you hired and then fired. He was an inbred tennis ball of a human being. That’s how you almost got electrocuted, remember?”

He taps his pen against his lips, his eyes closed, “Oh, yeah. Do you think Charlie could figure it out?”

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