The Guidance - By Marley Gibson Page 0,80

continues to hold his hand as her breathing returns to normal. "He showed me everything," she manages to get out. "He went crazy with worry for Ada, to the point that he went AWOL from the army."

"Holy crap," Celia exclaims.

I notice Loreen lean into Father Mass and put her head on his chest. He shushes into her hair, pushing it away from her face. She continues though. "H-h-he stole a fellow officer's horse and rode for a week to Radisson with hardly any food or water. By the time he got here, he was completely mad. H-h-he saw that Ada was married ... to Kenney. Fair took his pistol and was going to shoot Kenney, but it backfired in Fair's face and killed him instantly."

I slink away, my own knees wobbly, and sit on a nearby chair to collect myself. The team is taking in this information as Loreen regains her composure. Fair has faded away, but he's not gone. I still sense his essence plainly. I guess we all need a break.

Taylor reaches into the hip pocket of her jeans and pulls out a small pack of Kleenex. She dabs her eyes with one and then passes them to Becca.

"Are you kidding me?" Becca shakes her off and puts the headphones on. "I don't know what exactly the two of you were talking to, but the recording software is picking up shit left and right. We've probably got a ton of EVPs on here."

I will my erratic heartbeat to calm the hell down. "That's good."

Celia's face is buried in her computer screen; the light blue glow highlights her features. "The whole time you were talking to him, the barometric pressure was slowly dropping, as was the room temperature."

"It's freezing in here," a quiet and removed Stephanie whispers.

"Yeah, I feel it too," Jason adds. I can see chill bumps on his bare arms, and I know that Fair isn't far away.

I steady myself for the next wave of information and interaction. "Major? Nathan?"

Nothing.

I stare down at my feet as a swell of roiling emotion coats me in a cloak of unhappiness. I suppress the urge to cry like a baby, tamp down the hot tears that threaten behind my eyes. "You can't stay here, Major. You have to move on."

Through all of this, Courtney sits perfectly still, staring as the events unfold around her. She's quietly bawling too. Red splotches cover her pretty face, and her eyes are absolutely bloodshot. Her breathing is shallow and staggered. Is this her, or is it Fair? I can't tell anymore.

I am sure about one thing, a fact that stands at the forefront of my thoughts, though who put it there, I don't know. What I do know is that Major Nathan Fair is still stuck around the Crawford manor here on Crow Lane because he took his own life.

He has a century and a half of unfinished business that he must understand before he can be at peace. "You can't keep doing this. You can't stay around anymore. This isn't right for the people who live in this house. It's not fair to torture people because your life fell apart and you killed yourself."

"It wasn't like that," he roars.

I don't back down though. "You've got to move on, Major. Leave. Courtney. Alone."

He appears behind her and strokes her hair. "I can't do that. She invited me in. And she reminds me so much of my Ada. So young. So lost. She needs me."

I tell the team, "He says he's staying with Courtney because she reminds him of Ada."

"That explains a lot," Celia notes.

I take a step in Fair's direction. "I really must insist that you leave Courtney alone. She doesn't want you around anymore. She asked for our help."

"No, she didn't. She's just like Ada. She needs punishing. Ada has to pay for not staying loyal to me and our love. I've been waiting for so long for someone to invite me in." His voice isn't growling now; rather, it's quite melancholy, as if he doesn't actually want to hurt Ada at all.

Loreen must hear him again because she says, "The girl isn't Ada and she no longer wants you around."

Miss Evelyn bursts into the room and hands something to Becca. "I couldn't stand watching what y'all were doing so I went up in the attic to see if there was anything else I could find. This was wedged between two old trunks."

"What is it?" Taylor asks.

"It's another one of Ada's journals," Becca