Poltergeist II - The Other Side by James Kahn Read Free Book Online Page B

face until he found the one he sought—the evil one, dressed in black, with eyes like moss. Taylor watched him approach a young, lost girl and try to befoul her spirit with self-mutilation. The girl wavered.
    Taylor was about to intervene in this obscenity when he noticed someone else observing the interaction: an old woman, heading toward the Light. She’d stopped in her journey, though, to watch the young girl confront this monster of a man.
    Taylor approached the old-woman-spirit. “Do not watch this shameful display,” he told her. “Go into the Light, if that is your journey.”
    The old woman’s lip quavered. “She’s my granddaughter,” she said, nodding toward the young girl. “She needs my help.”
    “I will help her,” Taylor promised. “But if your journey is into the Light and you do not go, you will wander here in the Dark Canyon forever with the Evil Ones—like that thing.” He pointed at Kane, who was now ripping out pieces of his own lung with his teeth and eating them in front of Carol Anne, trying to force her into submission through horror.
    Taylor moved between Kane and Carol Anne. “Perhaps it is for me to touch your heart.”
    Kane backstepped with a grimace. “You . . .” he growled.
    “And you,” Taylor answered flatly. He looked momentarily at Carol Anne. “Be not afraid.” Then he reached into his medicine bag, pulled out an ancient obsidian lance tip, and, quicker than thought, touched it to Kane’s heart.
    Kane screamed, making no sound. His heart was punctured where it had been touched. Out poured first vile smoke, then thick matter that curdled in the light, then putrid snakes and newts, all wriggling to get free, tearing the hole open wider as they squirmed away.
    Then Kane just diffused into the ether and was gone. When Jess saw this she rested easier and called thanks to Taylor, and she continued her journey into the Light.
    Taylor turned to Carol Anne. “Go now,” he said, pointing to where Sceädu still lay, enchanted by Taylor’s song.
    Carol Anne stared in wonder a long moment at Taylor; then she scampered over to Sceädu and jumped through.
    And the rest of her sleep was dreamless.
    Taylor, too, returned to the Upper World. But when he opened his eyes, sitting atop the cold stone obelisk, the wind had died down, the fire was out, the smoke was gone.
    And Sing-With-Eagles was nowhere to be seen.
    Ten o’clock the next morning, Steve was on the phone to the family lawyer. “No, Diane found it this morning . . . Yeah, in her sleep, very peacefully, the doctor said. No, he just left. Okay, we’ll be in touch. Yes, I will.” He hung up and turned to Diane, who was crying as she did the dishes.
    “God, I wish I hadn’t behaved so badly last night,” she said. “I mean, my last words to her were angry.”
    “Di . . . she knew you loved her.”
    “If I only had one more day . . .” She turned from the sink to wipe her hands, angry at herself.
    The kids were standing in the doorway, listening.
    Diane tried to get herself under control. “Gramma passed away last night . . .” she began.
    “She died?” said Robbie, startled.
    Carol Anne felt the knowledge of this strike her like a slap in the face; her regret was edged somehow with fear.
    Diane started crying again.
    “Kids,” said Steve, “your mom needs some hugs.”
    And they all wrapped arms around one another, crying and comforting and not comprehending the vast, heartless mystery of death.
    That afternoon Diane walked through her mother’s garden, looking for meaning in memory.
    She remembered herself as a small girl in the same garden, helping Jess plant the first flowers: the same rose bush that blossomed beside her now. Jess had hugged her then, and she remembered thinking: I will never be happier.
    She sniffed a yellow rose, closed her eyes; the memory engulfed her, brought tears again as the wind rose and dropped petals in her hair. They felt like her mother’s fingertips, touching her