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New Winslow S8E28

Noah was walking on the New Winslow town common. It was cool out here, almost autumn-like. A relief from the summer heat. He didn’t quite remember where he was going, but the details of the common were so bright and so real that it instantly reminded him that this was a dream.

So Iris’s plan had worked after all.

Why the town common, though? His coffee with Isabel Rivera on the real town common felt like a dream now as he made his way down the cobblestone path he’d been walking on since he learned how to. He’d staggered down this path in front of the whole town, supported by only Cleo, who was now back in Iris’s shop, sitting with his sleeping body. But right now he was comfortable, like he could take this part of his home back. Put it back where it belonged and make himself a little bit more like him again. The him he liked being.

But first he had things to do.

Noah sat on the same bench he’d sat on with Isabel, noticing the writing carved into it. Probably some kids he went to high school with. Though he was pretty old these days, so maybe it was younger kids that had done this. Either way, the letters seemed to snake around in front of Noah’s eyes as he tried to read them. 

As he tried to interpret them, a shadow fell over the letters. Noah looked up and the kid was there on the bench beside him. Young, serious, wearing an old-fashioned uniform with brass buttons. He looked at Noah with eyes Noah recognized from the mirror. “I don’t know how to get home.”

“I know, Billy,” Noah replied. “They moved your house after you died and your body was in the ocean. I’m not surprised. We have an idea, though.”

Billy continued to look at him. “Tell me something from your room now, not in 1922, that would help you rest if it was back in New Winslow.”

“There’s nothing there anymore.”

“Nothing at all? But they don’t use the room for guests. I remember I was… I was in your room for a moment.”

Billy shrugged, looking so young. “If we can find anything of yours, do you think that would help you rest?”

“Yes,” Billy replied.

He was having a full conversation with the entity that had so far only spoken in repeated pleas, and it felt completely normal. This wasn’t a monster or anything dangerous, it was just a lost kid. “And you’ll help us talk to your friend Samuel? You remember Samuel, right?”

“Sammy?”

The trees were an unsettling array of vivid colors above them. Noah liked this better than when Iris hypnotized him to reach Billy, but not by much. It was still a dizzying experience that sent a tendril of fear deep into his body. But he felt more in control this time. He’d gotten himself here, after all. Despite her assurance that he was in control the whole time with her, he’d felt like he was caught in a current, even before he’d broken through to Billy’s death.

He tried not to see Billy in the water, doomed even as he broke the surface. But Billy was looking at him right now.

 “Is Sammy hurt?” Billy asked.

“He is, yeah,” Noah replied. “He’s hurting really bad and so is his mom. Was she a nice woman?”

Billy smiled, the first time Noah had ever felt anything but fear coming from him. “She was,” he replied. “She was so kind.”

“We want to help her and Samuel so they can rest too, alright? All three of you.”

This was his great-great-grand something or other, but he was only a kid. Billy nodded. “How can I help?” he asked, his voice painfully young. “I want to help people.”

“You need to work with Iris Davies. She’s a psychic medium. If you possess her while another medium takes Samuel, we think you can talk to each other through them.”

Billy shook his head, looking so scared and small that it hurt Noah’s heart. “No,” he said. “No, only you. Please, I’ll talk to Samuel, but no one else. I only want to talk to you and Samuel.”

“Iris is nice, she won’t hurt you.”

“Please no. I can’t. I only want to be with my family. I can’t talk to anyone else.”

Noah sighed. “Look, kid,” he said. “I’m not a medium. I’ve got the psychic powers of a hammer. The only reason you could reach me was because we’re blood relatives.”

“I can only connect to you. Please.”

“Can you even talk to others through me?”

“Sammy,” Billy said desperately. “I can talk to Samuel. And you.”

“Through me, though? Is it going to blow my head up or anything? My friends are already mad at me.”

The kid actually fucking laughed. “No,” he said.

“How do you do it?”

“I don’t know.”

God, he was eighteen, wasn’t he? “Billy,” Noah sighed. “You’re sure you won’t work with someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing? I’m not any good at this. Are you sure you could actually talk through me? I’ve never even seen a ghost.”

The ghost in front of him shook his head. “It won’t work.”

“Why the hell not?”

Billy shrugged.  “Oh, in that case,” Noah said, rolling his eyes with a groan. “Listen, yeah, I’ll do it. If that’s what it takes. And if I can. Sorry bud, but I’m a little skeptical. I said I could reach you myself and I have. But for actually doing all this? I know I told them I could, but I still think it’d go a lot better if you’d just try to do it with a pro instead of me.”

“Can I go home after? I miss my mom.”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “Yeah, let’s get you home. Tell you what? Reach your buddy Samuel for us, talk to him so that we can reach him and his mother, and I’ll help you go home after. Deal?”

The kid smiled through tears. “Deal.”

“And also,” Noah said, remembering what Olivia had mentioned the other night. “I need you to give us a sign outside of my dream. Just so we know it’s not wishful thinking or whatever, okay?”

“Like what?”

He wasn’t the ghost here, how the hell should Noah know? “Umm…” He thought for a second, feeling the chill breeze on his face as leaves scattered on the sidewalk in front of them. “Iris has a spirit board out and she put up a beacon for you. Can you see it?”

“Yeah.”

“Then get her attention. Tell her on the spirit board that you’ll do it. That’s all you have to do, you don’t need to talk to anyone beyond that.”

“Do I ha-”

“Yes.” Noah was only a little sorry about the frustration in his voice. “Billy, please. Just this one thing and I’ll let you blow my head up as many times as you like if that’s what it takes, alright?”

“I don’t want to blow your head up.”

“That’s a fucking relief.” God, Andrew would be so mad.

“How are we related?”

Noah looked over in surprise. “You don’t know?” he asked.

“Are you my uncle or something?”

Noah laughed. “No, kid. I’m like your great-great-grand-nephew or something. My mom’s grandmother was your cousin. Katherine?”

“Katherine’s a baby.”

“She lived to be eighty-three. But we have a deal?”

Billy nodded seriously. Then he got up and left, leaving Noah alone on the town common. He’d try and wake up in a few minutes, but for now he was going to sit and enjoy the stillness. Dream or no, the breeze was nice.

——

Iris hadn’t considered the fact that she would basically just be waiting for Noah to wake up and that could take hours. She should have done this somewhere else so that they could open the shop. Yet again, she’d dropped the ball there.

Right now she was going over some paperwork behind the counter, occasionally glancing over at the others. Noah hadn’t woken up yet and Andrew had stayed within two feet of him this entire time. So had Cleo, who Iris had to admit she was a little terrified of. She knew Cleo was here instead of Olivia and she didn’t blame Olivia for being protective of Noah and mad at her. It wasn’t like Iris was short of reminders of what she’d done. 

Movement on the spirit board caught Iris’s attention about four pages in. The planchette was moving, spinning in lazy circles just above the YES printed at the bottom of the board. “Andrew,” Iris hissed, motioning for him to come over. 

He hurried over. As Iris watched, the planchette drifted over to the YES, spinning in lazy circles around it. 

They looked at each other, wide-eyed. “He did it,” Andrew said. 

Iris put her fingers lightly to the planchette. “Billy,” she said. “Billy, can you hear me? You’ll do it? You’ll work with me?”

O-N-L-Y-H-I-M.

Oh no, this again. But he’d just talked to them on the spirit board. “But the board,” she said, trying to ignore the growing concern on Andrew’s face. “Is that you saying you’ll do it? Will you work with me on this?”

“O-N-L-Y-”

“Billy, please-”

“ONLY HIM!” Noah shrieked suddenly, his eyes flying open. Andrew vaulted the counter with a fluid motion that surprised her even through her shock. And now Noah was sitting up, looking around the shop.

“I hate this fucking place,” he muttered, putting his head to his knees. 

Iris tried not to feel hurt by that as she also attempted to steady her racing heart. She passed Noah a water bottle, which he cracked and drained before looking at all of them. 

“Billy’s in,” he said. “He told me he’d do it if we’ll help him go home after. But there’s a catch.”

“Would that catch be that he’ll only work with you?” 

Noah looked at her cautiously. “How did you know that?”

She didn’t expect both Andrew and Cleo to start laughing. Noah turned to look at them, then turned back to her as she tried and failed not to laugh too. “It’s not funny,” Andrew said, wiping his eyes. “But yes. Um, Billy informed us he will only work with you.”

Noah rubbed his throat. “Ah. And that’s a problem because I’m not a medium.”

“Are you sure you never have been?”

Noah just looked at Iris for a long moment, and the longer he was silent, the stupider she felt. “No,” he said finally. “No more than you’ve seen. And you’re the one who said-”

“I know,” Iris interrupted. “I know, I know what I said. But I was just hoping that maybe…”

“I promised him I’d try to be his vessel,” Noah said. “He accepted that, but I’m not sure he would actually work with someone else when push came to shove. If it doesn’t work, is there a way to make it work?”

Andrew looked warningly at him, but Noah seemed almost reluctant as he asked. And she could see Andrew realize that too.

“There are ways,” Iris said. “But we should probably take a break from here.”

She wanted to keep going, but this felt too big. And she didn’t want to push her luck, not when so much was on the line. She knew there was no way that Billy would be able to talk through Noah as he was now. 

She expected Noah to argue with her, but he just nodded and stood up. “I should go talk to Liv, anyway,” he said.

Once the shop was empty, Iris put the wards back up and tried not to feel so alone.

———-

CONTINUE TO EPISODE 29

———–

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The Northern Worcester County branch of the Foundation for Paranormal Research is one of the organization’s top investigation and cleanup teams. So when a case comes in involving a century of mysterious disappearances, they figure they’ll be done before their lunch break is supposed to end. Investigators James and Amelia go to the site while their coworkers remain behind. But in seconds, Amelia vanishes in the cursed house and the others are forced to find her with no help from their bosses. Will they be able to get her back or will the house claim one final victim?

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