“Sebastian?” Linda’s heart raced as the distinct sound of an animal whimpering came from inside the tunnel. “Sebastian,” she called this time, frantic. The whimpering got louder.
Jeff opened the gate and the two rushed inside the dark, wet tunnel. Thank goodness Jeff had remembered to grab a flashlight.
When they came up to the whimpering dog, Linda fell to her knees and gasped. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Neither could Jeff. Tied to a gurney, with an IV needle sticking out from his rib cage, was Sebastian. Linda screamed in horror and rushed to his side. Her hands were shaking and Jeff stopped her from causing more damage to Sebastian.
Jeff helped Linda take a deep breath, reminding her that Sebastian needed her sane and not crazy right now. She nodded, unable to talk around the knot in her throat. Jeff stepped back over next to Sebastian, while Linda knelt down beside him and placed her head on his.
“Lay still, big boy. It’s going to be okay.” Her whispered words of encouragement were broken by the quiver in her throat. It didn’t stop her. She wanted Sebastian to know she was there.
“I got it,” Jeff exclaimed, while holding up the needle.
Linda looked up, double-checking that what he was saying was true. When she did, a shadow at the end of the tunnel caught her attention. She stood to her feet, ready to yell at whoever may have hurt Sebastian. Linda came up short, though, when the woman dressed in white stood peering through the tunnel at them. When Linda took a step in her direction, the nurse disappeared.
“What was that?” Jeff asked, while staring wide-eyed at the now empty tunnel.
Linda turned to Jeff and simply said, “We have to leave.”
Jeff carried Sebastian out of the tunnel while Linda followed. Linda tripped, twisting her ankle. “Ow, Jeff!”
“What’s wrong, honey?”
“My…ankle, I twisted it pretty badly.”
“One minute, honey, let me lay Sebastian on the grass, and I’ll come carry you out.”
But a minute was too late. The tunnel door slammed shut, trapping Linda. “Jeff! Help me! Help! Jeff!”
Jeff pulled on the tunnel door but it wouldn’t budge. His hands were shaking as he tried to insert the key. The key no longer worked. “Linda! What is going on! Linda!”
Jeff’s voice rose to a scream as he saw a woman with a needle lunge at Linda. He felt someone grab him from behind. He felt an excruciating pain pierce through his back, and he fell to the ground in agony. He saw a man in a dirty lab coat bend over him, and he remembered nothing else.
“Jeff! Leave him alone!” Linda lunged at the nurse and fell through her. The nurse vanished, and the sharp instrument crashed to the floor of the tunnel.
She desperately banged on the tunnel door. It opened suddenly, sending her to the ground. She hobbled over to Jeff, who was still unconscious, and pulled a large needle from his back. The doctor had vanished, and Sebastian limped over to Jeff, licking his face.
It was thirty minutes until Jeff came to, wincing in pain as he tried to sit up. “Linda! What happened! Are you okay?”
“I will be. We will be.”
“Melissa was right.” His face fell. “If anything had happened to you…”
“Nothing did, honey. It’s okay. It will be okay. We need to talk.”
Chapter Eight
April 29th
“I hate that we couldn’t work this out,” Melissa said and picked up the paperwork off the table to put in her briefcase.
“Me, too,” Jeff mumbled.
Linda hated this. She hated that everything they had hoped for was slipping out of their fingers. But no matter what they did, there was nothing that was going to change the facts. Fact one, this place was dangerous. Fact two, she couldn’t stand the idea of living somewhere that was haunted like this place was. The patients who had previously lived there were angry, not that she blamed them. She would be angry, too. However, she couldn’t take the risk of what they may do to release such anger. Which brought fact three to attention. They couldn’t risk opening a business knowing what they knew now. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the list of lawsuits.
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can say or do to change your mind? I promise this place will bloom with business once…”
“Thanks for trying,” Linda interrupted, “but you know as well as I do this place isn’t good for business. It would be a nightmare, followed by many court dates.”
Melissa nodded. “I understand.” The way she said it made Linda think she did understand, but that she also didn’t care. She held out her hand, expectedly, and Jeff placed the keys in her hand. “Please be sure to lock up once you are finished.”
Before Linda or Jeff could reply, Melissa turned on her heels and headed for the door. Linda wished there was something she could say to the woman, but she had a hard enough time reassuring the love of her life everything would be fine, let alone some practical stranger. The only interactions they had had with Melissa were when finalizing the deal on the hospital and then again when closing it.
Linda turned to Jeff. She started to apologize, again, but he held up his hand.
“It’s okay, Linda Bear. It’s a minor setback. For now, we will go back to the city, gets jobs, and keep an eye on the market. Once this place sells and we get most of our money back, we’ll try again. By then, maybe we will have more than we started with.”
“Does that mean you’re going to start buying lottery tickets again?” she teased.
Jeff smiled. “You know it. I’m still holding out for millions.” He pulled her into a hug. “Plus, we might be able to save money this time. That loft apartment we found was pretty cheap.”
“It was a good thing we paid our car off, too,” Linda stated.
Jeff kissed her on top of the head. “It’ll all work out, Linda Bear. You’ll see.”
Linda wrapped her arms around Jeff’s waist and held tight, as Sebastian nestled at their feet. “Thanks for believing me,” she whispered.
Sebastian had been getting stronger since his release from the vet on the day they had found him in the tunnel, although he was terrified to venture outside by himself and stood close to the house when he did.
The vet had been shocked after examining the dog. He had two broken ribs and traces of paraffin wax and olive oil had been found in his lungs. The vet had told them if they had not found Sebastian when they did, he would not have been found alive.
After getting Sebastian in the house and cleaning him up, feeding him, and cuddling him with lots of love and kisses, Linda had broken her silence and told Jeff everything. He had listened and never once questioned her sanity. When she was done, Jeff analyzed the logistics of the place being haunted and accepted it as fact. He said anger and distress could cause a lot of pain, pain that could go beyond the grave.
Linda’s love for Jeff grew beyond limits after that. He truly was there for her, through thick and thin and all the craziness in between.
***
Jeff loaded the last box into the back of the rental truck. Sebastian yelped at the birds flying by from the backseat of their car. She hated that Sebastian wouldn’t have the freedom to run and romp like he had there. But the thought of him tied to that gurney squashed that sad fact. He was better off going for walks to the dog park and staying cooped up in a loft apartment, rather than being tortured by things he couldn’t fight back against.