The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) Read Free

in a manner of speaking. I’m not sure the things that happen there impact
them the same way they impact a visitor. And I think, in the case of the little
girl, she’s so far gone, nothing would impact her.”
    “Gone? What do you mean?” Steven asked.
    “Father,” Roy said, “it would be helpful if you’d back up and
tell us everything. From the start.”
    “Alright,” the priest said, taking a deep breath and leaning
back in his chair. “One night I got a phone call from a woman who was very calm
and polite, explaining that she wanted her home blessed. When I took her address,
I saw that she was in Cannon’s parish, and I mentioned that to her, but she
seemed insistent that I do it. I thought maybe she didn’t like Father Cannon.
Anyway, I went to her house, and met with her family. Nice husband, two pretty
girls, about nine and five years old. The husband was a little dismissive – I
don’t believe he was Catholic. But she was kind and welcoming. Barbara is her
name, and she asked if I would bless the house for her, as we had discussed on
the phone. She said they’d just moved in a few months ago, and had neglected to
have it blessed when they first arrived.
    “What I didn’t know is that she’d already attempted to have
the house blessed twice before,” Father Wynan continued. “I started going
through the house, and I began to feel uncomfortable. What I felt is hard to
describe, but if I had to choose a word, I’d say it was foreboding. As I went
from room to room, I felt a rising dread, and a knot beginning to form in my
stomach. By the time I reached the rooms on the top floor I was completely
unnerved, let me tell you. The air seemed thick, and everywhere you looked,
things were wrong. I don’t mean things were in the wrong place. I mean it felt wrong. You know how things are supposed to feel. The rooms in that house felt
completely foreign, as strange as if I was walking on another planet. I know
that must sound bizarre to you gentlemen, but I’m telling you, it was unearthly
– like I was in a mental fog. And there was movement in the air. I couldn’t see
it, but I could feel it, I could feel the air pressure change as things moved
by, in front of me. I remember reading something about that type of thing back
when I was in the seminary. Definitely evil, something not of God. It scared me
then, when I was young, and it scared me when I was in that house.” He stopped,
and sighed. “You must think I’m insane.”
    “No, not at all,” Steven said. “Please continue.”
    “Well, if you’re friends of Dixon, I expect you have some
knowledge of these kinds of things. Dixon always seemed to. I’m very wary of
it, I don’t like the dark feelings associated with this kind of evil. So,
anyway, I finished up the blessing as quickly as I could, and walked back
downstairs. I found it much easier to breathe down there, though the feeling of
dread was still present.”
    “Could you sense the movement when you were downstairs?” Roy
asked.
    “No,” Father Wynan replied, “that was only upstairs. In the
rooms.”
    “Please, go on,” Roy said.
    “Well, she asked if I would come by and visit them in a day
or two, to check up on them. I could tell she was troubled – something was
weighing on her mind that she didn’t tell me. I said I would, and left. Went
back a couple of days later. This visit was also in the daytime, right around
supper, like the last visit. Got the same feeling when I entered the house. The
girls were upstairs playing while we visited downstairs in the living room.
Several times I heard a banging from upstairs, and Barbara would comment on how
loud the children were. I could tell something was wrong, so I asked her if she
needed help. She broke down in front of me, saying she thought there was
something evil in the house. She described several things they had noticed that
disturbed them; windows that opened on their own, shadows on walls that
shouldn’t be there. She