Lost in the Echo Read Free

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    “Anything?”
    Cash didn’t answer. He stretched up as tall as he could on the stepladder, right up on his tiptoes, looking over the top of the bell.
    “Well?” Griffin asked, crossing his arms as he stifled a yawn. He was more than exhausted, and he knew that this slight reprieve wasn’t going to last.
    They were up at the top of the church, right beside the bell. Cash was inspecting it on Griffin’s behest, despite the fact that Winslow and Dodge had already given the steeple a once over.
    Cash started down the stepladder, shaking his head. “Winslow was right. It’s just an ordinary bell.”
    “How can that be possible?”
    Cash shrugged. “You got me. But nothing’s rigged up to the bell. No wires, no cables, nothing. And you’d need some pretty sizable electronics to get this bell moving the way it has been. I checked the walls with a noncontact voltage probe. There isn’t a single electrical wire in the steeple.”
    Griffin turned away and stared out over Refuge, at the endless ocean that surrounded them. Under different circumstances he might find the view breathtaking. Hell, it was breathtaking, especially since this world’s bright sun and high winds had all but scoured the ash away, but he didn’t have time to appreciate the beauty and awesomeness of the sight. He’d already snapped a picture of the view with his phone, but that was it. There was no telling when they would shift again. So far this world didn’t seem dangerous, so they needed to learn as much as they could before things changed again.
    A hand fell on his shoulder, Cash giving him a slight squeeze.
    “Are we good here? I want to get back to Laurie.”
    Griffin nodded. “I appreciate it.”
    “Wish I could give you some answers, but right now I’m at a loss.”
    “It just doesn’t make sense. Every time before we shift, this bell starts ringing like crazy.”
    Cash gave him a curious look. “Shift?”
    “Winslow’s term.”
    “Well,” Cash shrugged again, “like I told you, I wish I could give you some answers, but there’s nothing in this place that suggests it’s part of what’s been happening—if you ignore the whole bell ringing thing, of course. Who knows, maybe Dodge is right? Maybe it’s supernatural?”
    “Ghosts then?” Griffin said with a shake of his head.
    “I think Dodge would say demons. But I really wouldn’t know about that. What I do know is that no one here can explain what’s happening. So maybe we shouldn’t rule out the unexplainable.”
    Griffin released a breath. He nodded again. He appreciated everything the electrician had done so far, especially after what he had just gone through at the radio station and the diner.
    They started toward the stairs, Cash carrying the stepladder, when something changed in the air. A slight trembling started beneath their feet, traveling into their bodies. The air around them became thinner. The bell that Cash claimed wasn’t connected to anything other than the usual rope started swaying.
    With a flash of anger, Griffin gripped the bottom of the bell and attempted to hold it still. But the massive weight nearly pulled him out over the hole. He let go, but his right hand remained stuck to the bell’s surface. Not my hand , he realized. My wrist! He was wearing a watch. The metal band was stuck against the bell’s surface—the bell’s magnetized surface. He wondered briefly how a brass bell could be magnetized, but quickly decided a small town church probably hadn’t sprung for a pure brass bell. The metal likely contained iron as well.
    As his body leaned out over the hole beneath the bell, Cash caught his belt and kept him from falling. As the bell swayed back, Griffin yanked his hand free of the watch. Cash tugged him back to his feet, and the pair stared at the watch, fastened securely to the bell, which was picking up speed. Griffin admitted defeat, decided his watch was a lost cause, and shouted, “Go!”
    Cash hurried down the