Chapter Twenty
Since I am grounded, I'm not allowed to have my phone, computer, or my iPad. I'm also not allowed to see Lacey… or Tate, technically. But the benefit of having an otherworldly boyfriend is that your parents can't see him if he doesn't want them to. Which means I still get to see him every night, when he comes to my room to sleep.
"Troy and Bryan broke that teapot," Tate tells me. We are veiled beneath my sheets, having pulled them over our heads to muffle my voice so no one will know I'm still awake or that he is here.
"Who are they again?" It's hard keeping track of all the ghosts in the house.
"The twins. Little redheaded boys. I know it was them because my sister told me about it when they died. It was before we lived in the house, we were still living next door. I'm not sure that I was born yet, but when I was a little kid Ade told me that when she was little some twins were going in to mess with the house and she told them they would regret it. They never came back out."
I shivered and Tate pulled me closer to him.
"Do you know how Hayden died here?" I can feel Tate's nod rustle the pillow we're sharing even though I can't really see his face. "Tell me."
"I don't think talking about people dying is very good pillow talk," Tate laughs.
"No," I agree. "But she knows I know about them. And she can know anything she wants to about me, because she can be anywhere. It's not fair. I should know about her, too."
Tate sighs and leans down so that his lips are on my ear, dropping his voice into an even quieter whisper.
"Before the Harmons moved here, when they still lived in Boston, Ben Harmon was having an affair with Hayden. That's the whole reason they moved to California, so Ben couldn't cheat on Vivien with Hayden. But Ben went back to Boston because Hayden was pregnant. She was supposed to get an abortion, but she never did. She came here instead, to confront Ben and tell Vivien that Ben was the father of her baby."
"Did Ben kill her? Or Vivien?" I ask, a shiver running down my spine.
"No, they didn't. Ben knew about it, though. He's the one who built the gazebo out back, over Hayden's grave. Larry Harvey killed Hayden. Hit her with a shovel and buried her out back."
Suddenly I don't like the gazebo anymore.
"Who's Larry Harvey?"
"He used to live here, after my dad left. We couldn't afford the house anymore, so we moved. He burned his family in this house, his wife and his little girls. They sent him off to a psychiatric ward for a long time, but when he got out he came back to this house… he wasn't all there. He hasn't been back since the Harmons died and I hope he never returns."
Something dawned on me. If Hayden didn't get an abortion while she was alive, that meant she died pregnant and was still pregnant. Having to 'live' for all eternity with your dead baby inside you sounds so sad. I tell this to Tate and I feel him place a kiss on my forehead.
"You're always so sweet, Callie. It sucks for her, but you can't be feeling bad for her. She tries to hurt you, remember that. She'll try to play that card against you eventually. She does with everybody."
Another condition of mine and Rhett's joint grounding is that we have more chores than usual. Moira doesn't trust as to do as good of a job as she can at cleaning, so we work with Moira as a kind of impromptu boss.
I'm mopping the downstairs hardwood floors with some kind of concoction Moira makes herself when something crashes down in the basement. Dad is down there, looking for where he stored the Christmas decorations. It might be overreacting, but my first thought is Thaddeus.
I drop my mop and take the stairs into the basement as fast as I can.
"Dad!" I call, but where I am expecting gore and screams, my dad is tangled in some tinsel and laughing.
"Callie-Bug, you want to give your old man a hand? I don't even know how I managed to do this!"
My fear must be plain on my face because Dad stops laughing to ask me what's wrong.
"Uh… nothing, Dad. The noise down here just scared me is all." A whole shelf full of boxes had crashed to the floor when Dad had tried to move things around.
"You've been pretty jumpy lately. Is it because of that break in? Or the tea pot? Because we're having a home security guy come later this week and install some alarms. I know your mom isn't on board with the idea, but I believe you and Rhett when you say you didn't break it."
"It's scary," I say honestly.
"I know it is, Callie-Bug. But after the alarms are in, for sure no one will be able to get in here without us knowing."
I give my dad a hug before I can even think about it. He's just so clueless. My whole family is. And I want them to stay that way. They don't need to see the things I have or be touched by these malevolent spirits or know about the very corporeal threat in the basement.
"It's going to be okay, Callie," he says.
Oh, daddy, I think, you don't even know what I'm scared of.
When the entirely too long grounding week is over, I jump at the first opportunity to leave the house—Christmas shopping with Lacey.
"What are you gonna get that boy toy of yours?" Lacey asks, sipping an iced hot chocolate. I don't even know how that makes any sense, but I've lived in California long enough not to question the trends.
"Some records, I think. He likes that kind of thing. So we'll have to go downtown after we finally get out of the mall." It is crowded as all hell. You can't hardly take a step without tripping over someone's feet or stroller or shopping bags.
"You're not going to spring for something a little more… personal?" Lacey asks with a suggestive wink that makes me blush.
"I'm pretty sure it's sacrilege to dole sex out as a Christmas present." Honestly, I just wasn't sure how that would work with Tate being, well, not exactly human. Or if it could happen at all.
"Come oooon," Lacey all but whines. "He's gorgeous! You should be jumping his bones every chance you get!"
I give Lacey a shove that almost sends her into a mall kiosk selling Christmas themed cell phone covers. We dissolve into laughter as the twenty-something guy working the kiosk glares at us.
On Christmas day, the Langdon and the Richards are again under one roof, celebrating the holiday in the grand living room that has seen many a death and the birth of Vivien's twins. One is still a newborn, having died moments after birth, and is swaddled in Vivien's arms.
The other recently turned four quietly. After all, Constance can't risk throwing a birthday party when the guest of honor is liable to kill the partygoers. Now the tiny murderer is sitting on his father's lap, opening presents and clapping his hands while Callie swoons over the image of her boyfriend and his 'little brother'.
"Honey," Ben Harmon says, slipping his arm around his wife's shoulders. "You don't need to watch this." Vivien does not know she's crying until Ben wipes the tears from her cheeks.
"I know," Vivien says with a small sniffle. "It just makes me sad that this… monster gets to grow up and our children don't." It is no secret that Vivien does not consider the child hers. If anything, she was nothing more than the unknowing vessel of evil and feels no love for the creature that once inhabited her womb.
"Even before he was born, he tried to kill our son. He killed that nanny days after he turned three. Now Constance and Tate let him kill animals, but how long will that be able to last? What if he kill Constance?"
Ben gives a humorless laugh. "We can only hope something like that happens."
"No! She's the only thing keeping him subdued. I should have done it on Halloween. I shouldn't have backed out. I'm going to do it next year."
"Vivien," Ben sighs. "What are you talking about?"
"Killing it!" Vivien says a little too loud, a little too forcefully. Not loudly or forcefully enough to attract the attention of Tate, who is distracted by his son's giggles, but enough that Rhett's head pops up and he looks around the room.
"What is it, honey?" Mrs. Richards asks, but her son only shakes his head.
"I just thought I heard something. Must have been the house settling or something."
Ben takes the baby from Vivien, who has been awoken due to her outburst, and begins talking to him softly to soothe him.
"Hopefully," Ben says, "the family will be out by that time next year. They've been hard to scare, but I think Hayden might be on the right track with their daughter."
Just then, when Callie turns to look at the tree, Hayden makes herself appear in the reflection of every glass Christmas ornament on the tree. The color drains from Callie's face and she turns her eyes away, forcing a smile when Michael pats her leg to show her his new book.
Vivien and Ben can plainly hear Hayden's cackle echo through the house. Judging by the little start Callie gives, so can she.