The Guest House Hauntings Boxset by Hazel Holmes (novel books to read txt) 📕

“I just have some questions,” Dell said, pulling up a chair next to her bedside. When he sat, he folded his hands in his lap. “Do you remember what happened before I found you?”

Sarah wasn’t sure she should tell him the truth, and even if she did, she wasn’t sure he’d believe her. After all, what had she seen? Ghosts? Demons? Some madman trying to sacrifice her to an evil spirit? And then she remembered the bodies.

“Are you all right? Do I need to bring the doctor back—”

“I’m fine,” Sarah said, head still down. “I just want to leave.”

Dell leaned back in his chair, unable to get comfortable. “Well, before you leave, I need to know what happened. I ran the license you gave me, and it turns out Maggie Swillford is a real person who hasn’t been seen by any of her friends for over a month. I need to know what you saw, Sarah.”

Sarah went cold, and her heart monitor spiked. “How do you know my name?” The words escaped her lips in a whisper.

Dell gestured to the table by the door. “Your backpack. Found your ID inside. The doctors wanted to check to see if you had any medical history they needed to be aware of.”

The color drained from Sarah’s face, and her stomach turned. “Oh, God, no.” She shook her head, her expression pained. “No, no, no, no, please, no.” She rocked from side to side.

“Sarah, what’s wrong?” Dell asked.

Sarah’s breaths grew shallow, and she looked at Dell. “Did you run my name through the DMV? Did you run my license?”

Dell fidgeted uneasily. “Well, yeah, but—”

“FUCK!” Sarah balled her fists by her head, the burst of fear and anger flushing her pale cheeks with color. “He’s going to find me. He’s going to fucking kill me.”

“Who’s going to find you? Who’s going to kill you?”

The sobs rolled out of her, and she shrugged her shoulders, knowing that it didn’t matter anymore. “My ex-boyfriend.” She sniffled, wiping her nose and forcing herself to regain some composure. “He killed a woman. Probably killed a lot of people. But I saw him do it one time, and he gave me these to keep quiet.” She pointed toward the bruises that still lingered on her neck, easily visible in her hospital gown.

“What was his name?” Dell asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sarah answered, her tone dismissive.

“Sarah, I can help. If he hurt you—”

“He’s a cop!” Sarah threw the words in his face. “He’s a detective, and he’s got a whole fucking crew around him. He’s got people everywhere. The DA’s office, Internal Affairs—he’s like a mob boss.” She turned away, looking toward her backpack on the table.

“Sarah, I can help you.” Dell reached out and placed his hand on her arm. “If this guy is a cop, I can protect you. I promise.”

Sarah scoffed, her eyes bloodshot from the tears, and from the exhaustion, and from spending an entire life fighting off trouble. “No. You can’t.”

Dell let her go and then leaned back in his chair. “Listen. I need to make a call. Just, hang on a second, okay?”

Dell left, and Sarah’s company dwindled to the beeping machines that were hooked up to her body. She lifted the blanket and peered down to examine her foot then grimaced at what she found.

The flesh was blue and icy, almost as if it were frosted. She lowered the blanket and shut her eyes, wondering what in the hell she was going to do next, but knew one thing that could help.

Slowly, Sarah crawled out of bed, wheeling the machines with her to avoid another attack from the nurses, and reached for her backpack. She removed her jeans from inside and sighed relief when she found the photograph still folded in the left pocket.

Sarah carefully unfolded the picture along the well-worn creases and smiled. It was the last picture taken of her parents. She didn’t know when or where it was taken, but her father had Sarah on his shoulders, and her mother was clutching his arm, looking up at Sarah.

All of them were smiling, even Sarah. It was a moment frozen in time, and it was proof that she could have had a better life if she’d never been orphaned. Never in her fifteen years in the system was she able to recreate the happiness that was in the photo.

As she grew older she noticed which physical features she’d inherited from her parents. She had her mother’s nose and eyes, but she had her dad’s smile and ears. It was the only connection that she had to them. She didn’t know if they smoked, or drank, or what foods they liked. She didn’t know if she got her love of music from either of them, or her irrational fear spiders. She knew nothing about them save for what the photograph offered.

Sarah folded the picture back up and then kissed it before sliding it back into the false bottom of her backpack, and then tell stepped back inside.

“All right,” Dell said, reaching into his pocket and removing a pen and paper. He returned to his chair and looked up at her. “Are you ready to tell me what happened?”

She doubted that he would really be able to keep her safe. He didn’t understand what was chasing her. And now, with whatever happened to her at the Bell Mansion, she had an entirely new stack of problems.

And whenever Sarah had faced these types of odds before, she always did the one thing that she knew best. She ran.

Iris Bell sat in her room on the fifth floor at her makeup table, running her brush through her white and silver hair. Some of her strength had returned, and she was finally able to climb out of bed.

Like Iris herself, the mirror had faded, losing most of its shine over the decades, but she could still catch her reflection, not that there was much