Joe brought the horse to a halt in front of Gram and said, “They’re in the Express station. The two women.”
Gram turned and said, “I think they’re in the Express station. We need to hurry.”
If Orly wondered why Gram thought what she thought, he didn’t ask the question.
If we hadn’t stepped into the woods in the first place, we could have gotten to the station quickly and easily. But now we had to decide if we wanted to continue through the woods and take a roundabout way to the station, or backtrack and go the other way. Time-wise it was probably sixes. Gram chose to keep moving forward, so we followed behind.
Though we moved quickly, it felt like our feet were having to be pulled from thick mud. It was only a minute or two later when we reached an edge to the dense woods. We stepped out into the clearing and hurried to the Express station. When we reached it, Orly stepped in front of Gram and put his hand on the door.
“Why don’t you all just cross back over to the campsite. I’ll go in and see if they’re in there and what’s happening. You all try to get ahold of the police again.”
“Excuse me, Orly, but I’m not waiting for anyone,” Jake said as he gently pushed Orly aside and opened the door. He was in a second later. Orly followed him. Gram and I looked at each other and the ghosts. We weren’t waiting either. Another second later, Gram and I and the ghosts, the horse included, joined the others.
Unfortunately, we walked into a situation that was much more dire than any of us had predicted. If we would have taken at least a moment to hoist ourselves up to a window so we could see that a gun was being held to one of our visitors’ heads, we might have all chosen to stay outside instead and make that extra call to the police. And even more unfortunately, it became quickly clear that we weren’t going to be allowed to escape.
“Stay back, Isabelle,” Jerome said as he put himself in front of me. I quickly put my hand through his arm.
“How many more are out there?” Vivienne said. One of her arms was tight around Esther’s neck. The other hand held the gun, and currently it was aimed at me.
“The police are on their way,” I said.
Esther’s fair skin was even paler than normal, and she was bleeding profusely from her arm. I assumed she’d been shot. I didn’t think I’d heard gunfire, so I wondered if she had been shot before we’d returned to the campsite.
“Then we have only a few minutes. Here’s what’s going to happen: You are going to let me and Esther get out of this building, and then I’m going to leave. I’ll leave her where you all can find her and get her to a doctor.”
“Fine, Vivienne,” I said. I hoped it would actually play out that way and no one else would get hurt. The space was too small for us all, and gunfire could be extra deadly.
“What’s going on, Vivienne?” Orly asked. “What’s the paper on the floor?”
I truly hadn’t noticed the piece of paper, and I wished Orly hadn’t either. If only we could just get out of there.
Vivienne laughed. “Ask her.” She squeezed her arm a little tighter around Esther’s neck. Vivienne nodded to the piece of paper close to her left foot.
“Esther?” Orly said.
Esther shook her head. She either didn’t want to tell what the letter was, or she couldn’t because she was in shock or in pain—or both.
“It’s what brought her here,” Vivienne said as she kicked the letter away.
It floated in the air a second and then it landed at Jake’s feet.