"She's alone with her mother. I see her hiding but she's scared," Geneva said, her eyes closed. "She's afraid."
"So am I. I don't like this," Abby whispered, stepping closer to Alex.
He took hold of her hand. "Don't worry, Abby. I'm here."
"Alex, remember that letter we found?" Abby asked.
"The one from Maggie to Lionel?"
Abby nodded. "That must be what set him off."
"He never saw that letter," Geneva said loudly. "I see a woman trying to return a gift but he doesn't want it. He knows it means the end. He thinks it's his decision to make...not hers. She was cheating on him. He knows it now and he wants revenge. He's attacked you too. He'll attack any woman living in this cabin."
Abby closed her eyes as images of her last fight with Bryce began unfurling themselves in her mind. Her therapist had once warned her that it was possible for her memories to return. She had tried breaking up with him but it had only upset him. Bryce had accused her of cheating on him before he raised his fist and hit her.
"Is it just me or is it getting colder in here?" Abby asked, shivering.
Alex tightened an arm around her. "Are you okay?"
Abby wasn't sure how to tell Alex she was remembering the night she killed Bryce in self-defense.
"They're both trying to talk to me." Geneva was squeezing her eyes shut. "The girl is warning me. He's coming."
"Who's coming?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. She didn't say. It felt like someone bad. Someone very bad. Someone evil."
A loud banging on the door caused them all to stop talking. Geneva gasped, clearly still communicating with the ghosts.
Three loud bangs against the door urged Alex to move forward. He opened the door to see a scowling Sheriff Don.
"I hope you realize I'm about to arrest all of you for interfering with a crime scene." Sheriff Don pushed himself forward. "I don't know what you all think you're doing but it's got to stop! Now."
"This is my cabin, Sheriff," Alex said, straightening his spine. "If I were you, I'd be careful. I am a Carter after all. I might just see to it that you lose your position as sheriff."
"Why you little--" Sheriff Don shoved Alex against a wall his fists holding tightly to Alex's dress shirt. "You think you can threaten me?"
"Stop! Stop it, Don!" Zachary shouted from the doorway as Chuck helped navigate his wheelchair.
"Shut up, Zachary! The Carters have had their way for far too long. Do you think money is everything? It's not!"
"Please stop!" Abby tried to pull the sheriff away from Alex. "We just want to know the truth. We want to know what happened to Crystal."
"What happened to Crystal?" Sheriff Don asked, tears forming in his eyes. "You want to know what happened to her? That's easy! She was killed! We've been through this before! We all know what happened. Lionel Carter and Maggie were having an affair. For whatever reason, he came here when I wasn't home and killed Crystal. Maggie, finally realizing some loyalty, killed her lover. End of story!"
"That's not true."
The voice was almost drowned out by the rain.
"M-Maggie!" Zachary shot a glance at his brother to gauge his reaction.
"Maggie?" Don's grip on Alex loosened as he turned to face the petite woman standing in the doorway.
"Felicia, what's going on? Why are you here? Why is she here?" Alex asked. "Did she just talk?"
"Your parents sent me here but your mother asked that I bring her along with me," Felicia answered, pointing a thumb at Maggie Caldwell.
"You forced me to come," Maggie corrected her.
Felicia shrugged. "Potato, potahto."
"Why would my parents send you here?" Alex asked.
"I apologize for not informing you, Mr. Carter. They were worried." Felicia nodded to everyone before stepping forward.
"He doesn't like her," Geneva said, pointing at Maggie. "He's upset that she's here. He's upset that all of you are here."
"Upset? What the hell is she talking about?" Don asked, turning towards Geneva. "Is this the psychic?"
"If you want to know the truth about what happened, I'm ready to talk," Maggie said, her voice stretching across the room. "You don't need a psychic to know what happened that night. I realized on the way here that I've been punishing myself for the affair and for Crystal but I've suffered far too long."
"Of course you'd say that," Don snarled. He had let go of Alex and was walking towards Maggie. "Because of you, our lives were ruined. Did you really suffer long enough? What about me?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," Maggie said.
"I don't? I've lived with the pain of Crystal's death all my life. With the guilt of not being able to save her."
"Ms. Maggie, did you kill Lionel?" Wally asked. "He was my father."
All eyes were on the petite woman as she stared at her former husband.
"No," she answered.
An audible gasp filled the room.
"If you didn't...then who did?" Abby asked.
"That's a good question," Maggie said, still holding Don's gaze. "All these years I've stayed quiet at Crest Ridge. I've had time to over-think...to analyze. I finally realized that it wasn't fair."
"What wasn't fair?" Don asked softly.
Zachary wheeled his chair behind Don. "Don't listen to her, Don. She's a deceitful bitch who can't be trusted."
Maggie ignored Zachary's cruel words. "That I was the only one being punished for my sins."
"Who killed Lionel Carter?" Alex asked.
"You really want to know? It was the same man who killed Crystal."
"Lionel couldn't have killed himself," Alex said.
"No, he couldn't have," Maggie lifted a finger and pointed to Don. "It was him," she slowly moved her finger from Don to his brother, Zachary.
"Zachary?" Don couldn't believe it. "You're lying! He got into an accident that night trying to check on you and Crystal. He never even made it here."
"Should you tell them or should I, Zachary?"
"Shut up Maggie!" Zachary shouted. "You're a lying bitch!"
"What are you afraid of?" Maggie smirked. "I'm sorry, Don. I was never a good wife. I tried to be but it's hard being married to a man who cares more about his job than anything else."
"Explain this so I can understand," Don demanded.
"Maggie--" Zachary's hands tightened around his wheelchair. "You don't know what you're saying."
"Don't I? Everyone thinks that Lionel Carter was a bad guy."
"He was," Don said.
"Yes," Maggie agreed. "He was. So was I. I was a bad wife. A bad mother. A bad person. I was having an affair, Don. I thought I had fallen in love with Lionel Carter. I was even going to run away with him except everything that happened with Evelyn came to light. I always liked her. If I had known, I never would've started with Lionel to begin with. A man who takes a woman against her will is evil." She looked at Alex. "His offspring carry that evilness."
Abby grabbed Alex's hand and squeezed. He looked down and nodded, letting her know he understood she was trying to comfort him.
"Against her will?" Wally asked. "Are you saying that he...that I'm a product of..."
"Ignore her," Don said to Wally before turning to Maggie. "No one wants to hear about your love story with Lionel. We all know it."
"What you don't know," Maggie continued, "is that Lionel wasn't my only lover."
The room was suddenly silent. Again, Maggie held everyone's undivided attention.
She grinned. "There was also Zachary."
"Shut up Maggie!" Zachary shouted. "She's lying, Don! I'd never do that to you. She's a lying whore!"
Maggie took a step back. "That night it was raining. Hours earlier I had talked to Lionel who begged me to run away with him but I wouldn't. I couldn't. I had Crystal and he had ruined Evelyn. I may have been greedy but I wasn't blind. What he did to her was so wrong, I just couldn't. He threatened to come over but I begged him to stay away. I had also talked to Zachary who didn't take the news well that I was going to stay with my husband. He didn't care that you were his brother. He threatened to tell you, Don. He threatened to kill me too."
"Stop this," Zachary roared from his wheelchair.
"Hours went by but the rain kept coming. I was scared. So was Crystal. On a night when everyone should've stayed at home, I ended up having two uninvited visitors."
"Maggie, please stop talking," Zachary begged.
"I didn't know who was at the door but he was angry. I could tell from the way he banged on the door. So I told Crystal to hide and wait for her daddy while I went around the cabin to see who it was. I thought I had seen a man's face earlier and our dogs had suddenly stopped barking. I took a kitchen knife with me and walked around the cabin to see a man waiting for me. It was Zachary and it was so easy for him to steal my weapon."
"You're lying," Don whispered as his watery eyes glanced at his brother. "You're lying."
"He pulled me by the hair and dragged me upstairs. It was like he was after her from the very beginning. As if he knew that him hurting Crystal would be the greatest punishment for me. She was so scared and she didn't see it coming. Her uncle stabbed her. I couldn't move. I wanted to but I couldn't. I failed her as a mother. I remember after Crystal was dead, he yelled at me for cheating on him with Lionel. He thought he was my only lover. He said it was my fault. Crystal's death was my fault."
"Stop it!" Zachary shouted. "You lying whore!"
"And that's when Lionel showed up," Maggie continued. Her voice was detached as if she were telling the story about someone else. "He heard the screaming and he found Zachary on top of me." She brushed away the tears from her reddened face.
"Oh no," Abby whispered.
"Lionel was a monster for what he did to Evelyn but I think a part of him really did care about me. He pulled Zachary away from me and I felt so dirty. So worthless after that. I watched the two of them struggle for the knife I had earlier. Finally, Zachary stabbed Lionel. He stabbed him and then he ran into the rain...as if that would cleanse him of his sins."
"That's impossible," Don said. "Zachary was in an accident that night. He told me it was because he was trying to check on you and Crystal."
"How do you know it wasn't because he was trying to cover up the fact that he had blood on him? Or to make up an alibi?" Alex asked. "I'm sure he was a mess the night of the accident."
"My brother wouldn't cripple himself on purpose!" Don cried. "He didn't sleep with Maggie."
"Then why isn't he defending himself?" Abby asked.
"Say something," Don pleaded to Zachary. "She's lying, right?"
"You're supposed to be the sheriff," Maggie said. "Do your job and arrest him. He murdered our daughter!"
"Our daughter? Didn't you just admit to sleeping with anything on two legs?" Don scowled.
"I had a paternity test done. Didn't you ever look at the results?" Maggie asked. "She was yours and he killed her."
"Did you?" Don turned back to Zachary, stepping close to him. "If you can't defend yourself, I'm going to have to arrest you."
"Defend myself?" Zachary laughed bitterly. He turned to Maggie. "You turned out to be nothing but a lying whore."
"So you've said several times tonight but it's time you were punished for your sins, Zachary," Maggie whispered.
Outside the rain pounded against the cabin while thunder rumbled loudly in the sky.
"You think I've been having a blast the past twenty-five years? That I haven't suffered?" Zachary spat. "All my hard work in trying to keep the past hidden and then suddenly you show up out of nowhere? I should've killed you years ago. Maybe it's not too late." He grabbed the gun from his brother's holster and jumped out of his wheelchair.
"Zachary!" Chuck, Wally, and Don all shouted in unison to see their friend and relative not bound to his wheelchair.
"Surprised?" Zachary aimed his gun at Maggie. "You said I haven't suffered? Try pretending to be paralyzed? Having to sneak around my own house, afraid someone would stop by and find out the truth."
"That's impossible!" Don shouted. "The doctors ran tests!"
"Only at the beginning. You stayed behind when I returned to Bayless. Once they declared me paralyzed, they gave up on me but one day I felt a tickle. I hired someone to come in and help me with physical therapy on weekends until I was able to handle it on my own. Slowly but surely I was able to walk again. If I had done something so wrong that night, surely God wouldn't have allowed me to walk again. I did you a favor, Don. I exposed her for the unfaithful woman she was and I got rid of the man who hurt our sister."
"And Crystal? What about that innocent child? All these years, you've lied to me." Don's voice cracked. "Why?"
"Because we had a deal," Maggie answered for him.
"I'm so confused. Does this mean Zachary killed Lionel?" Wally asked.
"Some deal. You promised me years ago that if I stayed in that wheelchair, you'd stay quiet," Zachary told Maggie as he pointed the gun at her. "I've kept our past hidden. I even got rid of those two reporters for getting too nosy."
"You killed the reporters?" Abby gasped. "And you tried to scare Alex and me away by breaking into the cabin."
The lights flickered as the rain outside became heavier. Abby rubbed her hands together, as the room became even colder.
"Stop!" Geneva shouted. "He's getting more upset!"
Zachary pulled the trigger and screams bounced around the room. A clap of thunder echoed outside and Zachary tried to make a run for it. He couldn't open the door.
"What the hell is this?" Zachary shouted as he struggled to pull open the door. He swung around to the scared people in the cabin. His brother was on the ground, holding Maggie, trying to stop the bleeding. Zachary felt something push him up against the doorway. He tried lifting his arms but couldn't.
"Look!" Abby pointed as Zachary was slowly being lifted by some invisible force.
He dropped the gun as he tried to move his arms but couldn't. Something was choking him. His face was turning purple and his eyes began to bulge. He attempted to take a final gasp of air before his body went limp and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
The room that was freezing moments before suddenly felt normal.
"Zachary!" Wally rushed forward to check his pulse. "He's...he's dead."
"What's going on here?" Chuck cried.
"He's had his revenge," Geneva answered, looking around the room. "Lionel has left."
"What about Crystal?" Abby asked.
"She still needs help crossing over," Geneva answered.
Maggie placed a hand on Don's cheek. "Help our daughter. She's been waiting for you."
She closed her eyes and she went still.
Don choked back a sob. "How? How am I supposed to help Crystal?"
Abby walked over to a cabinet she had stored papers in days ago and pulled out a manila envelope. She walked over to Geneva and took the ragdoll from the medium.
"Here," Abby whispered, holding out the two items to Don. "I always heard Crystal when I was in the pink room. You might want to start there."
"The pink room? You mean Crystal's room?"
Abby nodded. "Go on."
"I haven't been up there since she died."
"Don't you think now is the time to finally let go of the past and move on?"
Don sighed as he looked at his brother. "I didn't even know him. He deceived me."
"You can mourn him later. Crystal's been waiting much longer." Abby continued holding out the doll and envelope until Don took them.
Don slowly walked upstairs and waited in the doorway of the pink room.
"Crystal?"
He took a tentative step forward. "I'm sorry for taking so long. I just wanted to let you know that I loved you and...and I'm sorry I couldn't protect you that night."
He opened the envelope and pulled out the paperwork. It was a paternity test proving he was Crystal's father. A sob escaped him as he fell forward and began bawling on the ground. "I'm so sorry, baby girl. Daddy's so sorry."
A tinkle of laughter filled the air around him and Don looked up to see Crystal, a faded version of herself shrouded in a golden light.
"Crystal?" He rubbed his eyes and she nodded. "Daddy loves you. You know that, right?" Again she nodded. He remembered Maggie saying she told Crystal to wait for her father. "I don't want you to wait for daddy anymore. It's okay to go to the light. You hear me, baby girl?"
Crystal nodded and Don felt something warm touch his shoulder. It was Crystal reaching out to say goodbye. Don closed his eyes as the light around him faded, cloaking him once again in darkness.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Geneva took a breath of relief.
"She's crossed over," the medium said. "This cabin is spirit free."
"The deputies are on the way," Chuck said, putting away his cell phone.
"I do believe a viable explanation for his death is needed," Felicia said dryly, pointing at Zachary. "Perhaps we should say Maggie Caldwell killed Zachary Caldwell after he shot her?"
Everyone stared at her aghast.
Felicia straightened her shoulders. "I apologize. I didn't realize there was someone among you who wanted to explain a ghost killed Zachary Caldwell."
When no one stepped forward, Felicia muttered, "That's what I thought."
"We should go with what the lady just said," Wally said, nodding. He was pale as he stared at his uncle, Zachary. "This night has been so weird." He swiped his hand across his eyes as they moved between Maggie and Zachary's lifeless forms.
"Mr. Carter?" Felicia's voice was loud and clear.
"Yes?"
"I expect a raise after this week," his secretary called out before going outside to wait for the police.
"Noted," Alex replied back. He turned to Abby. "Are you okay?"
Abby still looked shaken up from the whole experience. Abby glanced at Zachary and Maggie. They had lived their lives hiding their sins and punishing themselves. She didn't want to do the same. She didn't want to punish herself anymore because of Bryce.
He was dead. The events that led up to his death were clear now. She remembered him threatening and hitting her. She even remembered pleading with him to let her go. He had said she'd have to kill him first. Bryce had grabbed a large knife and forced her hands around the handle before placing it close to his chest. Bryce never believed she'd go through with it. Abby remembered his last words, "One of us is going to die tonight. It's the only way I'm letting you leave me. If you don't kill me, I sure as hell will kill you."
That's when she lost herself in fear and blocked out what happened next.
The police had found her beaten and huddled behind her sofa, the knife still in her hand. They were surprised she had survived. Later, they explained that the Grand Jury believed she must've stabbed him in self-defense. Her therapist had tried to convince her she had been fighting for her life.
Abby had thought about pushing Alex away because of her fear of relationships. There was no guarantee that he wouldn't hurt her emotionally in the future but she wasn't going to let that fear stop her from exploring her relationship with him. She felt his palm against hers. It was filled with warmth. Never again would she punish herself. Never again would she let the past rule her present.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked again.
She squeezed Alex's hand in return and answered, "No, but I will be."
THE END
Thank you so much if you made it this far!!!! If you liked this story, do follow me by clicking the follow button on my profile. That way you can get updated when I post a crazy new story.
Don't forget to check out my newest story, When Evil Comes Back. ❤❤❤
I don't have an official epilogue but the bonus chapters that follow will give you a glimpse as to what happens next to Abby & Alex. Trust me, you don't want to miss them.