CHAPTER 14

0200, Gary Darvill's home
Ocracoke Island

"Look, I'm telling you, son," Gary Darvill said, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "I'm not involved in anything. I've been bringing up wreckage, sure. That's my job. And yeah, I'm making a bit of extra cash off the tourists, but that's it! I don't know anything about summoning ghosts!"

Bennett thought he looked honest. And very shaken. She glanced at Dean and could see some of the mistrust fading from his eyes. She chewed her lip and cast a nervous glance out the window of Darvill's little house. The storm was raging beyond the walls and every once in awhile the entire house shook with the force of the wind.

Dean said, "Alright. So talk to me then. This Flaming Ship. It never used to show up out of season, right?"

"Never. For decades, people have reported seeing it." Gary said, rubbing his hands up and down his shirt as his eyes darted from the window and then back to Dean's face. "I've seen it my whole life. But only in September."

"Why is it showing up now?"

"I don't know! I don't! I swear. It just showed up and then the wreckage…"

Dean narrowed his eyes, "The ship showed up first? Then you started finding the wreckage? You're absolutely certain that's how it happened?"

Gary nodded hastily, jumping a bit as thunder boomed above them. He said, "That's right."

Bennett looked at Dean and said, "If it isn't the wreckage that's bringing the ghosts and the ship…"

"Then something caused the ship to start appearing," Dean nodded, "which then caused the wreckage to come up."

"What are you talking about?" Gary said, almost yelling.

Bennett felt sorry for the guy. They'd wakened him from a dead sleep and invaded his house asking him questions about ghosts and deep sea wreckage and Dean was clearly scaring him. Trying a gentler tact, she said, "Mr. Darvill, something very strange is going on here and we're just trying to figure it out. Anything you can tell us about the wreckage would be helpful."

Dean stared at her while Gary caught his breath and Bennett asked, "What?"

Grinning, Dean folded his arms across his chest and said, "You are so perfect for my brother, Bennett."
Not entirely sure what he meant, she just returned her focus to Gary and said, "When did you start bringing up the wreckage?"

"The day after the Flaming Ship first appeared." Gary said shakily. "I...I was out on my boat and saw something floating in the water. After that...I just kept finding more stuff every time I went out. So I took it to Miss Corprew at the Museum. She's always been interested in the wrecks. She's always trying to do right by the history of this island."

"What do you mean by that?" Dean asked, instantly jumping at Gary's words.

Gary jumped again, this time at the force in Dean's tone. He said, "She...she's very...very into history. And she loves this island. Her family for generations back has lived here. And she's wanted to make that museum something special."

Bennett asked, "Was she happy about the stuff you brought her?"

Gary nodded, "She was happier than I've ever seen her." He wrinkled his nose and added, "Bit of a loner, that girl. Never had much of a life. Always stuck in the past. I think it was like Christmas for her, getting those artifacts. And then when I kept finding them…"
Dean said, "She kept getting happier. Mr. Darvill, did Miss Corprew ever say anything that would make you think she was somehow involved?"

"Involved?"

"Involved in maybe bringing the wreckage up?" Dean questioned.

Gary frowned and said, "She doesn't do the recovery of the pieces…."

"That's not what he meant," Bennett explained, trying to figure out the best way to get the information they were after from the man. She asked, "Did Matilda ever say anything that would make you believe that she was doing something that caused the Flaming Ship to appear?"

The lighting flashed and illuminated the man's pale face as all the lights went out in his house. Gary's eyes widened and he said, "There was this one thing…"

"What one thing?" Dean prompted, fiddling in his coat for a flashlight.

Bennett held her breath, watching Gary closely in the bright light of the near constant flashes of lightning. He said, "Matilda did say something odd one day. She said she was going to make the island famous and if she'd known it would be so easy, she would have tried the book sooner."

"Book?" Bennett asked, "What book?"

Gary shrugged, "I don't…"

He never finished his statement because, just as a flash of lightning lit the room, a bullet tore through his head.

Ocracoke Museum

"Nothing." Sam reported, coming around the corner and meeting Casey at the door of the office.

"Me neither." She said, hands on her hips. They'd arrived at the museum and quickly searched the grounds for any sign of Matilda Corprew. Lighting lit the room almost constantly now and Casey clicked off her flashlight. Sam was moving back into the main room and she followed him. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for answers." Sam said, "Looking for anything that might be causing this."

Casey nodded and handed him a logbook. "This is what Matilda was using to catalogue her findings. Nothing's been shipped out yet, but the earliest findings are already crated up in the back. If a piece of wreckage has caused all of this, it will be one of the earliest findings."

"I'll get started on that. What about you?"

"I need to find Matilda." Casey said simply. "I'll be back as soon as I can, ok?"

Sam nodded, "Just be careful."

Casey grinned, "You too. I'll be back in a minute or two."

The first thing she did was return to the bar. It was a scene of mass chaos and Casey was careful to not allow her presence to be noted by anyone. One of the perks of her angelic heredity. A split second of listening, she learned all she needed from the rescue workers. The island was on virtual lockdown. The storm was so intense that there was no way off the island and no chance of rescuers coming to the island for a good long time. Everyone was seeking shelter in the more modern buildings on the west side of the island and Casey spared a couple fractions of a second to deposit the stragglers to the shelters.

And then she was back at square one. Because she had no idea where Matilda was. For a moment, she almost called for her father, but shook her head. He was busy and she didn't even begrudge him that right now. If she'd been learning anything of late, it was that she probably needed to give her loved ones a little more trust and forgiveness. She'd also been learning that she was every bit as strong and capable as her mother had always said she was. So Casey closed her eyes and focused on the memory of Matilda Corprew.

Her eyes flashed grey and she immediately found herself standing on the deck of a Flaming Ship.

Ocracoke Museum

As soon as Casey had left, Sam had turned to his task and opened the first crate. And then he paused. Because something just didn't make sense. It wasn't anything concrete. Wasn't anything but a gut feeling. He dropped the logbook and turned back to Matilda's office. Flicking his flashlight back on, he said, "Makes no sense."

He started opening drawers and cabinets, not even sure what he was looking for, just knowing it wasn't in the crates of recovered wreckage. There was a small part of his mind that was nagging at him that he shouldn't be quite so sure. Maybe the wreckage washing up did cause all of this, the doubting part of his mind said. Sam shook his head and wrenched open a small closet door.

"If wreckage washing up caused this, then why didn't it cause this a long time ago?" Sam said to himself, yanking boxes out and dumping them on the ground. "More likely she did do something to cause this."

It was starting to make more sense the longer he thought about it. Wreckage from ships turned up on beaches all the time. He'd even read in one of the flyers Bennett had picked up along the way that there were shipwrecks you could see in the sand up the beach. Sure, maybe the wreckage from the actual Flaming Ship had somehow just started to wash up, but Sam had a feeling that it was much more likely that Matilda had been helping the situation somehow. In his experience, freaky stuff like this didn't always happen on its own.

Far too often, innocent or not so innocent people had a way of assisting the process.

Almost ready to leave the office that he'd torn to shreds in less than a minute, Sam caught sight of a file folder under the large calendar on the desk. He pulled it out and shined his flashlight on it as he opened the folder. And read the letter.

"With our fondest regards, Ms. Corprew, the City of Ocracoke would like to wish you the best in your search for future employment."

Sam read through the formal letter, understanding dawning as he realized it was both a termination of her employment and an official notice that the museum would be closing. Flipping through the file folder, he found another letter. This one from the National History Museum in New York City. The letter was a rejection of her application for employment. Another letter, from the Smithsonian, regretted to inform Ms. Corprew that the few artifacts of the Ocracoke Museum would not be needed. Sam shook his head, feeling an inkling of the frustration he figured Matilda had felt reading the letters.

The last letter in the file was from Casey's museum in Chicago. It was a glowing note describing the value of the latest findings from the Ocracoke Museum. It was dated just after the Flaming Ship had been reported to be first seen out of season and Sam felt like the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. The only thing still missing was, of course, the key piece.

"How did Matilda get the wreckage to start appearing?" Sam said, closing the folder and carefully sliding it back under the desk calendar. Having a bad feeling about some of the methods the curator might have been using, Sam looked around the museum. Where would she keep it? He still wasn't sure what it was, but he had a feeling it was a charm or a book of spells. Walking back out into the main room, he decided it was probably witchcraft.

Dean was going to be thrilled.

Trying to decide the most likely place for her to hide something that powerful, Sam found himself flying backwards and through a window. Landing hard on the concrete sidewalk behind the building, he struggled for a desperate breath. The pain was localized at his shoulders and upper back, and his vision blurred as he tried to move and breathe and figure out what had happened. But he was too stunned to do any of the above.

And he sort of regretted it when he saw the ghost standing above him; her pale features twisted in hatred as she lowered an axe toward his head.

The Flaming Ship of Ocracoke

Despite the urgency she felt, Casey couldn't help but pause for another fraction of a second and take in the terrifying, yet oddly beautiful sight. Flames rose from the deck beneath her feet and reached for the dark clouds and fingers of lighting above her head. The ship was something out of a movie and she thought about watching Moby Dick with Granny BeaBea when she was just a kid growing up in the middle of corn and wheat fields. She'd never even seen anything bigger than a pond before they'd watched the movie and her brain had struggled to keep up with the idea of a body of water big enough for such a monstrous creature to live in….and big enough for such massive ships to sail on.

Shaking her head and marvelling at the sight, Casey still felt her skin crawl as she realized she wasn't alone on the ship. Ghosts were moving around her, oblivious to her presence. They were all dressed in the clothes she would have expected from the time period of the Flaming Ship. Moving forward, her presence still shielded from the ghosts, Casey focused on Matilda. She was here. Somewhere.

Knowing she'd only been gone from Sam for a few minutes, Casey didn't want to waste any time getting back to him. This was turning out to be much bigger than any of them had expected. The fact she was standing on a flaming ghost ship was proof enough of that. Carefully moving forward, Casey focused her attention on a quiet voice she could just make out. Frowning, she realized it was Matilda's voice, but not Matilda's mouth saying the words.

Localizing the sound, Casey found herself within the ship and staring at Matilda. Only it wasn't Matilda exactly. She'd never seen anyone possessed by a ghost, but she'd learned plenty of the lore and the dark substance dripping from Matilda's eyes, nose and mouth was definitely ectoplasm. She could hear Matilda screaming within her own mind even as her body was possessed by a vengeful spirit.

The vengeful spirit of the Flaming Ship's Captain.

Gary Darvill's House

Dean heard Bennett scream at the same second he saw Gary Darvill die. Throwing himself to the right, he grabbed Bennett and dragged her to the floor. He heard the breath rush out of her, but didn't hesitate in pushing her out of the room and up against the wall of the kitchen. She was flat on the ground and he carefully dared a look back into the living room; his gun in his hands and the flashlight he'd been looking for on the floor near their feet.

A glance in the other room revealed nothing but the sight of Darvill's body on the carpet. Taking a deep breath, Dean looked back at Bennett and whispered, "You ok?"

He got a thumbs up for a reply and he nodded, slithering toward the kitchen window. Hearing her moving around behind him, he kept his eyes trained on the window and whispered over his shoulder, "Stay down."

Glancing through the window, he cursed under his breath at the sight of the storm. It had been bad before, but this was ridiculous. Branches the size of his brother were being snapped off the trees like toothpicks and, even though Darvill's house was on top of a steep rise, Dean could see the ocean waves already cresting the hill. What he couldn't see, was any spirit activity.

A bullet impacted with the wall just above his head and Bennett squeaked out a fearful exclamation as she slithered toward the other end of the room. He threw himself after her, following her into the hallway. No windows. The hall opened up to the kitchen and lead down toward the bedroom and bathroom. It wasn't much but it was at least windowless.

"Is it a ghost shooting at us?" Bennett whispered, her hands shaking as she fumbled with something.

"Probably." Dean said, trying to see what she was doing. "What is that?"

Bennett held up a container of salt. She grinned and said, "Got it from his pantry."

Marvelling at how quick she was, he grinned back and said, "Good idea. But last resort, ok? These ghosts are shooting at us and that salt isn't going to go far."

"What are we going to do?"

"Get out of here for one thing." Dean said, wondering how exactly they were going to do that. He felt a chill run up his spine as he heard footsteps and voices in the living room.

Bennett's eyes were huge in the dim light afforded them in the hallway and Dean couldn't blame her. He waved her forward, a finger to his lips and she rose to a crouch and darted to the other end of the hall. Dean followed her into the bedroom and closed the door until only a crack remained. Nothing was following them. Yet. He looked around the room. Small. Not a good place to mount a defense. But with one window, it was a good place to mount a hasty retreat.

Not liking his choices, Dean kept an eye out the door and whispered, "Bennett, carefully see if you can get that window open. Just don't get your head in front of it yet ok?"

"Do you want me to try to paint them a picture?" Bennett countered, sitting just under the window, her face illuminated by the near-constant lightning strikes outside.

"You can do that?"

"I did earlier."

Dean grinned, "You just keep getting more and more interesting, Bennett."

She smiled and asked, "So you want me to try?"

A gunshot rang out in the hallway and Dean lunged away from the door. He wound up on his back next to her and he stared up at her as he said in a loud whisper, "Of course I want you to try!"

Bennett giggled and closed her eyes. Dean held his breath, gun trained on the door. But nothing came through it. After a minute, Bennett nodded and said, "I don't know who's out there, or how many of them there are. I can't sense them like demons."

"But you can make them see things?"

"I don't know how to describe it." She shrugged, "It's more like I can create this illusion around us. Maybe everyone can see it."

Dean cautiously got to his knees and said, "Alright. We're gonna hope so." He held out a hand, "Because we need to get out of here."

He pulled her to her feet and then he took a quick peek out into the hallway. Midway down the hall stood an apparition clad in clothes that he'd last seen in a war movie. A war movie about submarines. Breathing out a sigh, Dean said, "I think it's working. We've got a dude out there looks like he walked off the set of Das Boot and he's standing there like he's on a good LSD trip."

Bennett smiled, "So we can go."

"Yes." Dean said, closing the door and pointing to the window. "But that way. We're closer to the driveway and I don't really want to take a chance of walking past him. You're trick is working so far, but spooks have a nasty habit of learning quickly. And all the rock salt and iron isn't going to do much more than annoy them. We need to figure out a way to take them all out."

He peered out the window, relieved to see his Baby sitting right where he'd left her. She was a long way away, though. And with the bright lightning, there wasn't much chance of them making the trip without being seen. Much as he was thrilled with Bennett's ability to hoodwink the ghost, he wasn't sure it would hold up against all the ghosts.

Sliding the window open, he popped the screen out and waited for a moment. Nothing. No gunshots, no sight of anything evil. Just the driving rain. There was a low rock wall along what once had been a garden between them and the Impala. Motioning to Bennett, he waited till she joined him at the window, then pointed at the rock wall.

"Head there. Ok? We go there, then wait. If we're still in the clear, we go the rest of the way to the car." Dean said, eyes ever vigilant as he studied the surrounding area. "You're still painting your picture, right?"
"Yes."

"Good. Keep it up." Dean said, already climbing out the window. "Come on."

A second later and they were both outside the house, crouching down below the window. Dean held his breath, but nothing happened. He said, "I'm going to go first. Wait till I'm at the wall, then I'll cover you as you come."

Bennett nodded, clutching her container of salt. Dean grinned and said, "I'm gonna get you your own shotgun for a wedding present. How's that sound?"

"Awesome!" Bennett returned his grin.

Still smiling, he took off at a run for the low wall. Almost surprised to have made it without being attacked, Dean looked back at Bennett and gave her a thumbs up. She started moving toward him and he kept his gun trained on the house in case the ghost broke free from her picture. He thought he was prepared for everything.

He was a fool.

The Flaming Ship of Ocracoke

Casey sucked in a startled breath.

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know! I didn't mean for this to happen!

Matilda's words, being screamed within her own mind, made Casey wish she could reverse time. In flashes, she saw Matilda's despair at the museum being shut down, her desire to save the museum and make the island famous. Her desperate attempts to find something, anything, that would give her her heart's desire. A move that led her down a dark road. Casey saw the ancient spell book that Matilda had found in a journal from one of the original settlers of Ocracoke Island. She saw Matilda using the obscure spell to raise the wreckage of the Flaming Ship. Only it had raised more than the cursed ship; it had raised the ship and the spirits aboard it. And each time she'd used the spell, more ships and more spirits were awakened.

Casey knew without a doubt that the powerful magic was responsible for the storms as well. Heart pounding in her chest and feeling the heat of the ship despite her angelic protection, Casey realized she could hear the ghost possessing Matilda. His thoughts were less frantic, but no less frightening. Because he had a plan. He wanted to use the spell to unlock all the ships from the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

It made instant sense why he'd possessed Matilda. He was looking for the spellbook. And he'd used Matilda to find it. Casey shivered as she heard Matilda's awful scream as the ghost continued to rip through her mind. He had the spellbook now and Matilda was fighting him with everything she had. Casey caught a glimpse of the spellbook in her mind, safely tucked in the Captain's cabin. And then she staggered slightly under the weight of what else she had seen.

The spellbook was warded.

That was going to be a big problem. Casey reached out with her powers, trying both to shield Matilda, find a way to release her from the ghost's possession, as well as figure out exactly what type of warding was on the spellbook. As if that wasn't enough to have on her mind, she was distracted by the realization that more of the ghostly armada was already landing and beginning to take over the island. She felt them heading toward the museum and spared some of her attention and power to do what she could to shield the museum.

Matilda screamed again, drawing Casey's attention back to the situation on the ship. Casey focused on drawing the evil spirit out of Matilda, but the ghost knew what she was doing and stopped fighting. Almost breathless with the relief, Casey was staggered when Matilda's screams were silenced and she slumped to the deck, dead.

Failure swept over Casey like one of the churning ocean waves at the sight of the girl's crumpled form. All she'd ever wanted was for the museum to be a success and, dreadfully terrible choice to use witchcraft to make that dream come true, Matilda hadn't been a bad person. Casey's hands tightened to fists as she stared ahead at the cabin where she knew the spellbook was stored. The ghost who had been possessing Matilda was swirling before her in a grey-green haze and taking on its true form.

Casey felt heat on her skin as renewed flames began leaping all around her. In that moment, she knew she needed to get off the ship and regroup. Because this spirit was incredibly powerful and the spellbook he had locked away in his cabin was carefully warded against any number of beings; demons and angels alike. She could work through the warding, given time and opportunity, but right now, her powers were being stretched almost to the breaking point. Before the ghost could fully regain its form, she left the ship and returned to the museum.

Arriving inside Matilda's office, Casey realized she could hear what sounded like a scuffle just outside the room. Instantly outside, she was just in time to destroy the angry spirit who had been about to take Sam's head off.

"Thought I told you to be careful." She said, leaning down and helping him sit up.

"I was being careful." Sam shrugged, rubbing his neck. "It just got a bit hard to keep up with all of them."

Casey looked around, "How many were there?"

"After the woman with the axe," Sam said, struggling to his feet, and putting a hand against the building, "there were at least ten others. I had enough rounds in my gun to get rid of the first few, but...it's probably a good thing you showed up."

"Of course it was." Casey grinned, "You alright?"

Sam nodded, "Just bruised. Did you find her?"

Casey touched his shoulder and they were instantly back inside, out of the rain. She sighed and quickly explained what had happened. "We need to figure out a way to send them all back to Davy Jones' locker. And quickly. I'm shielding us right now, but we've got to deal with that captain." She said, shaking her head. "He's got extreme powers, Sam. He's stronger than any ghost I've ever seen."

"Could Matilda's spell be enhancing his abilities?" Sam asked, "A spell powerful enough to raise ships from the deep...if it's focused incorrectly…"

"Like by an amateur."

"Yeah," Sam nodded, "Who knows what Matilda might have done."

Casey said, "I'm going to do what I can to put a protective spell over this building, Sam. And then we need to figure out a spell that will get rid of them all."

"We're not going to be able to just salt and burn the remains."

"No, we're not." Casey agreed, walking over to Matilda's desk. She said, "Help me move the desk, Sam. I was able to hear some of Matilda's thoughts. She had all of her equipment under her desk under the floorboard. Maybe we can find something we can use."

Gary Darvill's House

It all happened so quickly, there wasn't anything he could have done about it. Dean's heart jumped into his throat as the massive branch came out of the blackness of the night on a wild blast of wind. There'd been no time to shout a warning, no time to react at all. The branch slammed into Bennett's side and she went to the ground hard. Dean ducked as the branch tumbled past him and then he was rushing the short distance between them.

"Bennett!" He shouted above the wind, all thoughts of the ghosts momentarily out of his mind. Because his brother's girlfriend, fiancee, was lying in the wet grass, unmoving. Reaching her side, he was almost terrified to touch her for fear he wouldn't find a pulse. It was there, though, reassuringly beating under his fingertips as he spoke. "Hey, hey, come on, Bennett, no time for a nap."

Shaking his head, he was one split second from calling for Casey when another shot rang out in the darkness.