I gasped and sputtered, blinking that thick, oily water from my eyes, only to see Bodhi floating before me, his lips moving frantically as he said, “You have to stop looking. Now! Turn toward the wall and she’ll have no choice but to release you—it’s the only way! Do it, Riley, do it now! Please.”
But I didn’t.
I didn’t turn toward the wall.
And if you asked me why, well, at the time, I wouldn’t have had an answer.
I guess some things are just automatic.
Instinctive.
Some things you just do, despite the fact that your entire being is shouting against it.
Some things just don’t make any sense, until later.
Much later.
And this, as I would soon learn, was one of those things.
20
Bodhi was furious. Truly furious. Eyes narrowed and glaring at me as he shouted: “Dang it, Riley, I’m your guide, which means you have to do what I say!”
Which was soon followed by: “This is exactly why I didn’t want to bring you here. This is my task, not yours. I’m the only one who can take care of this. So, for the last time, please, I’m begging you, turn away!”
But even after all that, I still didn’t stop looking. I just stayed right there in place, floating, struggling to keep my head above water as the seas finally calmed down all around me, glad my dog had the good sense to sit this one out too.
“What’s this about?” I asked, my voice sounding small, scared, and needy in a way that embarrassed me and aggravated him. “And where exactly are we right now? I don’t get it.”
Bodhi looked at me, his hair damp and clinging to his cheeks, having lost his jacket in the current, and I couldn’t help but hope that the nerd glasses had gone along with it.
“We’re in her world now,” he said, voice resigned like a sigh, clearly sick of arguing with me. “And it happens to be a dangerous one. One that is no place for children, and certainly no place for the faint of heart. So please, if you refuse to do what I ask, if you refuse to turn away and save yourself, then at the very least stay quiet. The water should stay calm now. Calm enough for me to leave you here on your own. But I’m warning you, Riley, no matter what happens next, no matter what you see or hear, do not head toward the rock. No matter how dire it may seem, you are much safer here. So please, just do what I say and stay put. Do not get involved no matter how bad things get. Okay? Can you do that for me?”
I nodded. Unsure if I could really follow through and keep a promise like that, especially if things really did get as bad as he seemed to think they would. Not to mention if the waters went all crazy and churning and scary again, then the rock would be the first place I’d head. But knowing he needed me to agree in order to get on with his task, I nodded my assurance, even though I wasn’t sure if I could actually live up to my promise.
I watched as he floated away, cutting through the current as easily as a fish, before climbing onto what appeared to be a small, lonely island somewhere out in the distance, and what further squinting revealed to be a large, jagged rock jutting out from the sea.
And that’s when I saw it.
And I’m pretty sure that’s the same moment he saw it too.
The second he climbed up and secured himself there, we both watched, from our own separate vantage points, the exact cause of the ghost lady’s anguish for the last several hundred years.
She was a murderer.
A child killer.
Or at least that’s what everyone said.
Falsely accused of what was pretty much the worst crime a person could ever commit—that of killing her very own children.
Her three beloved sons, whom I immediately recognized as the golden-haired Radiant Boys I’d just crossed over a few moments earlier.
Only thing was—she was innocent. She’d done nothing of the sort.
She was merely a poor widowed mother left to take care of her sons on her own, forced to find work right here at the castle, and just naïve and innocent enough to trust the wrong person to look after her boys while she was gone.
A stable hand who promised to take them on a so-called fishing trip where instead of baiting a line, he drowned all three of them. Cleaning up nicely and planting just enough evidence to make it appear as though she’d done it—only to vanish nearly as soon as he’d come, never to be seen or heard from again.