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Archibald jumped up on the bed and pressed his whiskered face into hers. She kissed his furry head. “What am I gonna do about this mess, pal?” she asked the cat as he purred.
Theta poured Archibald a saucer of milk. There was a knock at her door. Theta tensed: What if it was Roy? What if he’d smooth-talked his way past the doorman like she knew he could do?
Theta opened the door to a distraught Miss Addie.
“I… I can’t find it. I can’t find my apartment,” Miss Addie said, running a trembling hand through her loose gray hair.
“Come on,” Theta said, throwing on a robe. “I’ll take you back.”
It was heartbreaking, Theta thought, the way Miss Addie could be so clear about some things and then her mind would lock up and she’d sit blinking out the window at the day, getting frustrated or angry or silent. Theta had been making a habit of stopping in to see the Proctor sisters each evening. She liked the way they took care of her, liked listening to their tales of days gone by—A great big steam train… Well, by the time I arrived at Aunt Martha’s that pink dress was coated in coal dust—but the tales that thrilled her the most were their stories of the paranormal. They told her about the charms they’d made—this one is for strong blood and this is for good sleep—the babies they had helped midwife back in Virginia, the spells they’d cast: for love, for courage, for safe passage both in life and in death. About the ways of salt and sage, of candles and earth, of clapping and bells.
But what is most important is intention, Miss Addie had cautioned. You must work always to understand your own heart so that it cannot be used against you. Know yourself here and here, she’d said, pressing the tip of her gnarled finger just above Theta’s heart and then to her forehead.
As they waited now for the elevator, Miss Addie suddenly stiffened. “He’s here,” she whimpered. “Oh, we must hurry! There’s not a moment to waste!”
They rode the elevator to the Bennington’s crumbling basement and stepped out into the gloom. Theta jumped as the golden doors closed behind them and the elevator rattled back up. It was very dark. The only light came from the weak glow of street lamps leaking through the high clerestory windows. Theta toggled the light switches but they didn’t work.
“I don’t think we should be down here, Miss Addie,” Theta warned.
“My salt!” Addie said, reaching into her pockets and coming up empty-handed.
Theta pressed the button for the elevator. “It’s okay, Miss Addie. Let’s go back upstairs and have tea. There’s nobody…”
Theta strained, listening. There it was—a shuffling, scraping noise somewhere deep in the basement. Mice, she told herself. Because lies were the only defense she had. Even though her heartbeat said otherwise. So did the gooseflesh rising up the center of her back. She’d just detected a smell. Rot. Decay. Death.
Theta pressed the elevator button repeatedly. The elevator sat at the tenth floor as if she hadn’t called for it at all. “Miss Addie, let’s get out of here. We’ll take the stairs.”
Miss Addie mumbled incantations under her breath, stopping short as one word whispered out of the darkness like a long-held desire: “Adelaide…”
“Wh-what was that?” Theta asked. Her knees buckled slightly. Her mouth was dry as sawdust.
“It’s him,” Miss Addie said, terrified. “It’s Elijah.”
The basement suddenly seemed enormous and too small at once. The shuffling grew louder until Theta wanted to scream. In the dark, she made out a tall figure, coming closer. The figure stepped into a shaft of street light. Theta gasped. Elijah might have been handsome in life. In death, he was a hideous specter. Maggots crawled from the wounds on his body and fell to the basement floor with a plop. His Confederate uniform was eaten through with rot, the few remaining buttons tarnished. His face was skeletal, half of his cheek eaten away so that Theta could see through to the teeth inside, the black drool dripping from the sides of his cracked, pale lips. Monster, she thought.
He spoke: “You did this to me, Addie. You brought me back.…”
“I didn’t mean to,” Miss Addie whispered. “I loved you so.”
“You’re the reason I have no rest.”
Miss Addie put a hand to her heart. Theta didn’t know if she was more afraid that Miss Addie would die right there or that she’d die and leave Theta all alone with the terrifying Elijah.
“I have come for you, Adelaide. You are mine, my love. We will be together forever and ever.…”
“No, please. It was a mistake! I don’t want it,” Miss Addie cried.
Elijah did not like this. His voice became angry: “Too late, Adelaide. You made the bargain. Now you must honor it. Or have you no honor, Adelaide Keziah Proctor?”
A disorienting chorus of whispers shot around the basement: “The old bitch. Bitch. Thinks she has power. Kill the bitch. Suck the power from her veins. She should pay for what she did. Old bitch. Show her no mercy!”
With a growl, Elijah reached for Miss Addie, and Theta thought of Roy. Monsters. Fury rose up inside her. Flame engulfed her arms as she screamed, “Get back!”
Elijah stopped where he was, a grinning menace.
“Get back, you son of a bitch!” Theta growled. It was primal. She was primal.
