Ronan took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m ready.” He followed behind his daughter as she approached the door to the cellblock. “Uh, how do we get through the locked door?” Shit, he should have realized they’d be dead in the water without a set of keys. “Maybe the tour guides keep a spare key around, like under a flowerpot or something.” He set around to look for a key, when Everly’s laughter stopped him.
“Uhh, Daddy?”
When Ronan looked up, it was to see Everly standing on the other side of the locked door.
“How the hell did you do that?” Ronan asked.
“Daddy, our spirits are here, not our bodies, just walk through the door.” Everly held a hand out for him through the bars.
“So, I just walk straight through the door?” Ronan remembered how solid the door was when they’d walked through it earlier in the day. Could he really just walk through it? As he was pondering the thought, Jude grabbed his elbow and pulled him through the door. “Holy shit!” Ronan spun around, peering through the door back into the hallway where he’d just been standing.
“Bellamy’s cell is this way.” Everly, once again, led the way.
It was on the tip of Ronan’s tongue to stop her and insist he or Jude go first, but they were in Everly’s world now. She was the expert here. He had to keep reminding himself that her body, all of their bodies, were back at the rental house with Ten and Cope, safe and sound.
Orange halogen lights from outside the prison gave the corridor and creepy glow. Ronan found that he could see as well now as he could outside on a sunny day. If he wasn’t so worried about Bellamy Blackwell and Warden Donald Benedict, he’d run through every solid object he could find whooping and laughing. Maybe there would be time for that later, but for now, he needed to concentrate on finding Bellamy and figuring a way to break him free from Benedict’s clutches.
“Mr. Bellamy?” Everly called. “We came to talk to you.”
The cellblock remained silent. He reasoned that since he could see and hear Bertha, he’d also be able to see Bellamy.
“Only you can see us. It’s safe for you to come out and talk to me.” Everly passed through the bars of Bellamy’s cell. “Oh, there you are.” She took a seat on the bunk beside the spirit.
Ronan wanted to run to his daughter, but had to remind himself, again, that she was perfectly safe. Everly spoke to spirits every single day. The only thing that was different now, aside from the astral projection, was that Ronan had a front row seat to Everly’s work.
“How are you here in my cell?” Bellamy asked.
“It’s my spirit that’s here, Everly said. “You remember my Uncle Jude and my Daddy.”
Ronan waved to the spirt. “I don’t know how much time we have here, honey. Let’s save the introductions for later.”
With a nod, Everly turned back to Bellamy. “How did your soul get trapped here after you died?”
Bellamy looked to Ronan, who nodded. “You can tell her the whole story. My daughter is a tough cookie, she can handle it.”
“That last day in the cellblock went by so fast. One minute, I’m standing outside my cell ready to walk out of this place forever and the next, Benedict is giving me extra time to serve for contraband in my cell. Contraband are things that are against the rules. But the thing was, everyone had pictures from home taped up in their cells. Reminders of the life waiting for us when our time was up was sometimes the only thing that got me through the day.”
“I understand.” Everly patted his hand. “What happened after the warden said you couldn’t leave?”
“I got angry. I’d been in this god-forsaken place for a year for a crime I didn’t commit. I should have been in Europe, with my shipmates, trying to win the war, but here I stood, with nothing left to lose. I was going to be dishonorably discharged from the Navy, which meant it would be hard to find a job and would belooked down on by my friends and family. Magnolia Anne said she’d wait for me, but I knew I didn’t deserve her. When the warden said I couldn’t leave, something in me broke. The next thing I knew, I was stabbing the warden. My hands were covered in his blood. He was screaming in pain, but I didn’t stop. Not until he was…”
“Dead,” Everly finished for him. “After than happened, you were shot.”
“Right. I remember falling to the floor and looking into Benedict’s lifeless eyes. Everything went dark and when I woke up again, I was standing beside my body, which had been covered with a sheet. I saw the white light. My grandparents were waiting for me. I went to run to them, when something grabbed me from behind. It felt like claws digging into my skin.”
Everly shuddered. “Benedict?”
“Yes. When I turned around, he looked the same, but everything about him felt different. Darker. Colder. More evil.” Bellamy stopped talking and stared off into space.
“Benedict became a demon when he died. It doesn’t happen very often, but it did in this case,” Bertha said. “I’m guessing he made a proverbial deal with the devil and in return, he was allowed to stay in the prison and continue to torture inmates.”
“Over time, I came to believe the same thing,” Bellamy said.
“Are all of the spirits who died in the prison still here?” Everly asked.
“Yes. Since I died, there were twenty-two more inmates who died within the prison, as well as four more guards. Those guards are still here, but the ones who were killed on the same day as Benedict and myself are not.”
“Twenty-seven souls in total,” Jude said. “Benedict has them all trapped here?”
