Abandoned by Abigail Livinghouse (the little red hen ebook txt) 📖

afternoon’s events.

 

Tessie hadn’t told her parents where she was, which probably would only get her into even more trouble, but she didn’t care. She was already in way too deep, might as well keep on pushing her luck.

 

Chip leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “Now tell me, what is going on with that house of yours?”

 

Tessie placed her clasped hands on the wooden tabletop. She sighed, almost in exasperation. “A whole shit load of crap. Believe me, you don’t want to know.”

 

 Chip’s eyes darkened, all traces of humor wiped clean from his features. “Believe me”, he said in a deep, grave voice, “I want to know.”

 

 She swallowed, realizing that Chip was the only person she could tell. He was the only one who knew she was psychic, well, the only living one. She could try to play the spirits off as a trick of the light, or maybe a hallucination, a weak excuse, but a plausible one, one that made about a speck of sense.

 

But no matter how much she could try to downplay it, he knew that there was something going on in the house, and he knew she was psychic. Tessie ran her hands through her curly hair, which only got even curlier as she let it fall onto her shoulders. Chip was the only person who knew about this, the only person who could know about this. She just hoped he wouldn’t tell anyone. She hoped she could trust him.

 

Tessie took a deep breath, then told him everything she knew, starting with the notebook filled with Cyndi’s life story, the odd feeling she got whenever she entered the school, her visions, the research she had done, everything. She told him everything up until Cyndi appeared, which he was there for. Now he knew what had happened. He knew absolutely everything.

 

 Tessie sat back in her chair, letting out a lungful of air. Telling Chip hadn’t made her feel any better. If anything, it made her feel worse. Chip had information now that if he used it against her could land Tessie in a mental hospital, wrapped in a strait jacket with doctors watching her through surveillance cameras. Paranoid? You try telling doctors about visions and ghosts, and not get yourself sent off to the psych ward.

 

Chip rubbed his jaw tentatively, thinking. “Well”, he said after a few seconds of thought, “that sucks.”

 

Suddenly Tessie was laughing. She doubled over, clutching her midsection which was erupting in side stitches from her bursts of laughter. She had tears streaming down her face, which she wiped away with shaking fingers. Chip cleared his throat, looking slightly irritated.

 

“Is there something funny?” He asked her. She shook her head, breathing in and out quickly, still drying her eyes.

 

“No.” She got out breathlessly. “It’s just the way you said it.”

 

She shook her head again, fighting off another fit of giggles. She had just poured her secrets out to him, and he said “that sucks”. Tessie couldn’t believe it.

 

“Call me crazy.” She said, her laughter dying away. “But I expected a little bit more of a reaction.”

 

Chip shrugged indifferently, beginning to get up from the table. Tessie stood. Chip eyed her for a moment before flashing a devil-may-care grin.

 

“I’m more of an actions speak louder than words kind of guy. Here”, he tossed Tessie her keys, she barely caught them.

 

“Where are we going?” She asked.

 

His smile grew more mischievous. “Library. We’re going to be playing Ghost Busters for a  little while.” 

Chapter 17

“Wait. What?” She wasn’t sure if she had misheard him, but she was pretty positive he had said Ghost Busters.

 

He was already at the front door, opening it and stepping outside. Tessie had to hurry to keep up with him.

 

 “Whoa, what did you say? Hold on.” She closed the door behind her, then jogged across the lawn to where Chip was headed, the barn behind his house.

 

It was a large shack, so poorly built that you could call it a shack, it looked no more than a few boards of plywood nailed together. There were gaping slots where you could see through like there wasn’t even a barrier there. Chip opened the passenger door of a rusty old Toyota, gesturing for her to get in.

 

“You got shotgun.” He said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

 

 Tessie folded her arms across her chest, not moving an inch. “Not until you tell me what exactly we’re going to do at the library.”

 

Chip sighed and slammed the door. Specks of rust showered the ground from the little impact. “We’re going to research on how to get rid of spirits. From what you told me, we’re dealing with a nasty case.” He said.

 

 “I’m not a total couch potato, if that’s what you’re thinking, or the simple farm boy type either. I go to the library like any other nerd. And the library is the place to go when your Wi-Fi isn’t working.”

 

 Tessie almost laughed but kept her expression blank. “We’re going to get rid of them?” She asked.

 

Chip’s eyebrows rose in surprise. For once, he was speechless. After a moment of silence he said, “Isn’t that what you want?”

 

Tessie paused. That’s what she should want. Any sane person would want ghosts out of their house. So why didn’t she? Why did the thought of getting rid of the kids break her heart? They were just kids. They weren’t dangerous.

 

Well, a tiny ignorant part of her that always had to be right said, quite the contrary. They turned your kitchen into a demo sight. They are very dangerous. So? Tessie thought. They needed her help. She couldn’t just kick them out and send them to hell. No. She would help them. Tessie shook her head, coming out of her cloud of thoughts and answering Chip’s question.

 

“No. I don’t want that. I want to help these kids.” At the look of utter surprise on his face, she quickly added. “They’re kids Chip. Children. I could never kick them out. Do you know where they would go?”

 

She didn’t give him time to answer. “Hell. They would go straight to hell. I can’t do that to them. I can’t let it happen.”

 

 Chip’s eyes had widened in surprise, but now, they had darkened with seriousness. “Tessie”, he said and she could hear the lecture coming on.

 

The Tessie, really it isn’t the right thing to do. They don’t belong here. It’s better this way . . . She refused to listen.

 

She spun around and stalked out of the barn, then jogged the rest of the way back to the school. She would handle this with or without Chip. 

Chapter 18

When Tessie got home she slammed the door behind her, only realizing a moment later that there was a piece of paper taped to the front door. She opened it up and tore the note off, reading it as she slammed the door for a second time, making the walls rattle.

 

She couldn’t believe it. Her parents had gone out to dinner. She knew that her parents were dumb, but she didn’t think they were that dumb. She crumbled the note, tossing it in a nearby trash bin.

 

She ascended the stairs, going into her bedroom then slamming that door. She wasn’t surprised to find Cyndi sitting on the bed. Tessie walked over to her desk, taking a seat in the stiff chair.

 

“Are you alright?” Cyndi asked.

 

Tessie let out a bitter laugh. She couldn’t help it. She had just told Chip everything, and now, she wasn’t even sure she could trust him. If it was anything else, including anyone else, she wouldn’t be doing this. She would say that it wasn’t worth it and just walk away. But this was different, with this, she simply couldn’t walk away.

 

“Where’s Conner and Brandy?” She asked Cyndi.

 

The little girl’s eyes darted over Tessie’s shoulder for a moment, then flicked back in front of her. It was barely noticeable, but Tessie noticed. She cast a glance behind her.

 

 “What are you looking at?”

 

 “Nothing.” Cyndi answered too quickly.

 

Tessie sighed exasperatedly, placing a hand on her forehead, creased with worry and tiredness.

 

“Cyndi”, she said, her voice sounding just as exhausted as she was.

 

 She chanced a look at the clock. Almost ten. She felt ready to pass out. She let out her breath slowly and shut her eyes, keeping them closed as she spoke to the child.

 

“Is there someone other than you, Conner, and Brandy here?” She asked, wanting to hear the answer and at the same time not wanting to.

 

Cyndi shook her head, her hands clasped in front of her. Cyndi’s hair was straight as a ruler, a light blonde, light enough to be called white blonde, and her sharp blue eyes watched Tessie with much intelligence. The way the girl looked at things, it seemed like she was always trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible, drinking it up like a man dying of thirst.

 

Tessie shook her head. “You’re lying. Who else is here? I know that you and the others aren’t the only ones.”

 

She knelt down so that she was at eye level with the girl. “Who else is here?”

 

 Cyndi’s eyes locked on hers, and for the first time Tessie actually saw a flicker of hesitation, maybe even fear. Cyndi bit her lip. “Um . . .”

 

 Before Tessie could react, an arm hooked around her waist, and a cold hand clamped down on her mouth. She barely got out a muffled scream before she blacked out, the familiar swirling colors of a vision rendering her helpless.

 

       Tessie found herself standing in a hospital room, the smells of floor cleaner and blood choking her and turning her stomach. She looked around. There were several cots in this room. Women in white uniforms stood over the men lying in the poor beds. Tessie’s stomach clenched at the condition of the people on the cots.

 

Some had terrible, oozing bumps all over their bodies, puss filled boils covering every inch of skin on others, and then there were some men with sweat pouring off of them, their skin white as the sheets they laid on. They wore nothing but underwear, some with blankets pulled over them and others with the blankets thrown off and onto the floor. The whole room was filled with moans from the patients on the cots.

 

Tessie swallowed the bile rising in her throat. This was an old fashioned hospital, which meant old fashioned medicine, which led to most of these people dying. Tessie shook her head, trying to erase these images, only opening her eyes and seeing them replayed