Gypsy Magic - J.R. Rain Page 0,62
side of the fridge.
At the height of its glory, the kitchen had to have been breathtaking. The cabinets were painted a cream color to offset all the copper accents and kitchen equipment. The ceiling tiles were copper, as well, though many of them were now missing.
“I feel something… pulling me towards the ceiling,” Bailey said, her eyes closed again and her arms outstretched before her.
“Like there’s something up there?” I asked as I looked up at the hole in the ceiling. There was nothing but darkness within it, but the hole was large enough to fit a person.
“Yes, I just feel something pushing me toward the ceiling,” Bailey answered. “Like we should check it out up there.”
I turned away from her, ignoring the prickling sensation at the base of my skull that told me running would be wise. Instead, I crossed over to the metal ladder and began moving it over, beneath the large, gaping hole in the ceiling.
I took the first step as Marty’s voice stopped me.
“Poppy, let me go up.”
“It’s okay,” I said and took another step. I felt the same draw Bailey was talking about—this need to climb up the ladder and find out what was in the hole. Yet, I couldn’t feel anything else that might hint to Danny. Strange...
“I’ll catch you if you fall,” Marty said with a tentative smile as he steadied the ladder with his large hands.
I nodded, throat too tight to speak. My arms and legs felt numb, like I was a limp marionette being manipulated by an unseen hand. The open window let in a frigid breeze that lifted my hair, the collar of my blouse, and sent more goosebumps rippling across my skin. I took a few more steps up the ladder and then felt a shiver of fear race through me.
I heard Bailey crack her knuckles and turned to watch her sink into the only remaining kitchen chair that was standing upright. Her eyelids fluttered closed again and she began mouthing words I couldn’t hear. Cold swelled in the room, raising goosebumps on my arms.
“Danny Clemmons, hear my voice. I am a beacon, your vessel and your voice on this side of the veil. Come to me now, and tell us what happened to you,” Bailey said.
The wind picked up, so arctic that it seemed to slash through my clothes and sink deep into my skin. This was no simple cross-breeze. The feeling of numbness intensified with every step up the ladder, until my fingers felt like clumsy gloves. I gritted my teeth and hauled myself up to the last rung of the ladder, shifting my upper body into the hole itself. Now bathed in darkness, I blinked repeatedly, waiting for several seconds as my vision struggled to adjust.
When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw something... a white sack leaning against the far end of the space.
“There’s something back there,” I said. “It looks like a sack of something.”
“Can you reach it?” Marty asked.
“No, not without crawling all the way in.”
And that was when I heard a low growl coming out of the darkness inside the space. I felt my heart start to beat in earnest as something crawled out of the darkness, something massive and vaguely animalistic. Something covered in fur. I wasn’t sure how the thing was even managing to stay inside the space, without breaking through the ceiling to the kitchen below.
But, I also didn’t want to stay and figure it out.
Before I could start scurrying down the ladder again, a strong, cold hand seized me by the ankle and whipped me from the gap like an adult preventing their misbehaving toddler from climbing back up a slide. I fell backward with a yelp, losing my footing on the ladder as Marty struggled to keep it stable.
But it was too late. My feet slipped off the ladder and starbursts flashed before my eyes as soon as my head made impact with the cupboards behind me. Then the world started running in streamers of color as I hit the ground… hard.
Chapter Eighteen
Marty was standing right in front of me, close enough that I could reach out and touch him. And he was staring at me. Before I knew what was happening, he leaned down and enclosed my lips with his. And his lips were warm, full. His tongue took me by surprise as it pushed past my own lips and then mated with my tongue.
I heard myself moan as I collapsed against him, cradled by his strong