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“You’re no lightweight you know,” Cody shouted back. “This is a one man job up here. And Katherine’s playing Knights of the Round Table with the fucking ghost, so I’m a little distracted.”
“Hurry it the fuck up!” Katherine said, her voice edging toward hysteria. “She’s getting angrier every second.”
“Dave better fucking appreciate this,” Oliver muttered, then screamed as he plummeted several feet before Cody stopped his fall. The bottom of his left shoe tapped the top of the skull, and he screamed again as he spun in the space above the skeleton.
“Sorry,” Cody called down. “Almost got tagged by the ghost. You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m almost to the bottom. Another few feet should do it.” He hastily added, “Slowly!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Cody said. Oliver thought he heard him mutter something about persnickety cub reporters, but he couldn’t be sure. And ‘persnickety’ seemed like a pretty big word for Cody.
With slower, smoother movements, Oliver descended deeper. He held the flashlight as steady as possible, taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart and thoughts as he dropped lower into the well. It was time for him to be objective about the situation. He needed to put aside his fear and revulsion at what he was about to do and examine things objectively. He was a reporter, after all. Being objective should be his default.
Trying to keep that frame of mind, he examined Rebecca Hawkins’s body as he was lowered. It appeared to be sitting with its back against the wall in a few feet of dark, still water. His feet hung a couple of inches above the surface, and he shuddered as he wondered what might be waiting underneath. What if there was some opening directly beneath him ready to swallow him up as soon as tried to put his feet down?
“Stop it,” he scolded himself in a harsh whisper, then pushed his glasses back up his oily, sweaty nose and resumed his inspection of the remains of Rebecca Hawkins.
The skeleton looked intact, which was a win for them. If his research was correct, they needed to burn the entire body, so every toe and finger bone would have to be accounted for. He really hoped everything was still in its place and connected, because he did not want to have to feel around on the bottom of the well for loose bones.
He descended again, and his feet touched the surface of the water, sending ripples across it and causing some scraps of material to wave gently in the glow of the flashlight. It looked like it might once have been a dark color, maroon maybe? Like the sweater worn by the ghost? He wondered if the matching headband was down in the water somewhere as well, having come off years ago when her hair finally fell away from her skull.
What a sad and terrible fate. What a horrible final resting place. No wonder Rebecca Hawkins still haunted that damn motel.
“Watch out!” Cody shouted above ground, and Oliver dropped fast, plunging into the freezing water.
Caught off guard, he went underneath the surface and for a few terrifying seconds, thought he truly had dropped into a hole in the bottom of the well and was about to go down to an icy, watery death. But then his flailing feet touched the uneven rocks at the bottom and he pushed himself to a standing position in hip deep water, sputtering and gasping for breath.
“What the fuck?” he shouted at the murky circle of light above him.
“Sorry,” Cody said. “We’re kind of busy up here. You at the bottom?”
“Yeah, and it’s fucking gross and cold.”
“I think you got the better end of the deal,” Cody shouted back. “Get your ass in gear and get the rope around her. She is super pissed up here.”
“Great.”
Oliver raised one arm then the other as he slid the rope over his head. His armpits felt raw from his descent, but he couldn’t dwell on that right then. He clamped the flashlight under one arm and, shivering in the icy water, made a face as he examined the position of the body. Nothing for him to do now but work the rope over the skeleton and under its arms, just like Cody had done to him.
He licked his lips, blew out a shaky breath, then took a step toward the skeleton.
The skull turned to look directly at him, and then the skeleton lurched into life. The arms lifted out of the water, algae dripping from the bones as it reached for him.
Oliver screamed. It wasn’t a shout or a yell, it was a full-fledged scream. And it wasn’t a manly one, either. It was the high-pitched scream of terror. His entire body went cold and his mind blank as he scrambled back from the skeleton, losing the flashlight and his hold on the rope. The hard, slick fingerbones brushed his cheek, and he screamed again and flailed at it, pushing the arm away as his back slammed against the stone wall behind him.
Something sprinkled down over him and he jerked aside. It felt like icy pellets of snow, but it was May, so it couldn’t be snowing, could it? Across from him, the skeleton shook and white wisps rose from the top of the skull. After a final, rattling shudder, it sank beneath the surface of the water. He screamed again and looked up toward freedom.
“Get me out of here! It’s alive! She’s alive down here!”
“It’s all right,” Cody said. “The ghost went after you this time. I poured salt over you and the skeleton. She took over her old body for a minute to try and stop you, but she’s gone now.”
“What the fuck?” Oliver gasped and panted as he held a hand over his pounding heart. “What the fuck?”
“Ollie, I know that was awful and terrifying, but we don’t have much time,” Cody said in what passed for a patient tone on his part. “We need you to get the rope around the skeleton so I can haul it up here and burn it.”
“What the fuck?” Oliver said again, staring at the skeleton beneath the water. He’d dropped the flashlight, and it shone its bright beam right at the body, making it visible beneath the water. The skeleton lay still, skull thankfully turned so the eye sockets looked away from him.
“I know, Ollie,” Cody said. “I know. But we need you to pull it together.”
