The Curse of Redwood (Ivy Grove #2) - Jaclyn Osborn Page 0,63
There was nothing human about him now. Not his body or his mind.
“I told you this is no place for the living. It’s a graveyard for dead things.”
Tears fell down my cheeks as I recalled his words. My beautiful Z. He had become one of those dead things; a shell of what he used to be. Regret and shame slammed into me for how I’d behaved. I had made him like this: broken.
“Zeke?” I cautiously approached him.
He didn’t register my presence. He just stared outside and quietly whined. That’s when I noticed what he was looking at; the place that used to be his garden. The place he had sat in my vision and read stories to an unknown man.
Philip.
That’s the name he’d said—the man I reminded him of.
When I touched his arm, my hand passed through like he was made of smoke. I couldn’t talk to him, couldn’t touch him. My vision blurred so much I couldn’t even see him anymore.
“Zeke? Please snap out of this,” I softly cried. “I’m sorry for upsetting you.”
His ability to hold a solid form relied on his emotions. But I hadn’t realized his mind could go too. He hovered a few inches off the floor, his feet not even touching. The most unsettling thing was his pale eyes. They reminded me of a corpse.
“Ezekiel,” I said, reaching for him again. When my hand went through him, I tried again. Then once more. Anxiety bubbled inside of me, and my tears fell faster. “Please.”
“He’s lost to you now, my boy,” an unfamiliar voice said from behind me.
I gasped when I saw the man who’d spoken. Blood splattered the front of his dinner jacket, and his short dark hair was slicked back. A very thin mustache curved along his upper lip. He looked to be in his late twenties and was very handsome. The axe he carried over one shoulder made it hard to focus on much else, though.
“What do you mean he’s lost?” I asked, once able to find my voice.
“He’s gone where all of us go,” he answered, striding forward with a small bounce in his step. “When our grief becomes too much anyway. In that state.” He motioned to Zeke. “He’s stuck in a perpetual sorrow, reliving his greatest pain. He’s unable to focus on anything else. It takes us over completely. Haunts us. Think of it like a bad dream you cannot awake from.”
“Will he ever wake up?”
“Eventually.” The man shrugged and lifted the axe, swinging it in front of him before resting it at his side. He smirked at me. “Do not be alarmed, my dear boy. You’re safe from my axe. The master’s given us all orders, you see. You aren’t to be harmed.” He broke out into a laugh. “Though, some in this mansion will do all they can to disobey. You’ve become quite the spectacle to us, a living person in our midst.”
“The master?”
“Master Warren,” the man responded, nodding to Zeke. “The curse binds us to him. He’s the cause of the bloody thing after all.”
My mind whirled at that. “He is?”
The man moved even closer. “There’s much he hasn’t told you, I see. That’s all good and well. You’ll know soon enough, I’m sure.”
Zeke caused the curse? How?
“Your name is Jasper Davies, right?” I asked, as it finally hit me. Florence had told me and Ben about a wealthy young businessman who’d killed his entire dinner party before slaughtering his family with an axe.
“Correct, my boy!” Jasper swung the axe again, and I flinched at the sharp whoosh of air it caused. “You know. I can blame the curse for forcing me to kill my darling wife and children… but killing my guests? That was entertaining. I never liked the stiff bastards anyway.”
A maniacal laugh ejected from him, and the axe swung back and forth again. Swish, whoosh. I stepped backward to put distance between us. He’d gotten awfully close to me during our conversation. I wasn’t sure I could trust him. The man was mad.
Not all ghosts were the same. Some kept semblances of who they used to be, while others became more malicious. Twisted in both soul and body.
Was Jasper the latter?
“Zeke,” I said, not taking my eyes off Jasper. The handsome man smiled as he treaded across the floor. With each flash of lightning, he appeared closer to me, his smile growing even more sinister. “Please come back.”
Jasper feigned hurt. “My dear boy, I’m greatly offended. You do not enjoy my company?”