The Blackham Mansion Haunting (The Downwinders Book 4) by Michael Richan

anything like that. Album artwork and packaging was a much bigger
deal back then. Of course, now with digital downloading, there’s practically no
artwork at all. It’s a shame.”
    “Yeah, this is like a collector’s item,” Winn mused, folding
the newspaper back together so it could slide back into the album.
    “You were raised on CDs, I take it?” Winston asked.
    “My mother had some LPs, but we had no way to play them,” Winn
replied. “So, yeah, just CDs.”
    A soft buzzing erupted from the other room. “That’ll be the
blood,” Winston said, turning to leave the room once again. “We’ll have some
answers here in a moment.”
    David joined Winn, watching as he tried to fold up the newspaper
correctly. “What are CDs?” he asked.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Winn replied, suddenly feeling
old, trapped between the nostalgia all around him and David, who only knew
music played through an iPod.
    “Yeah, I’m kidding,” David replied. “I know what CDs are. My
parents had a few.”
    Winston returned from the other room, looking at a small
scrap of paper. “I was right, I’m afraid.”
    Winn slid the album back onto the shelf and the two of them
walked to Winston.
    “It’s a type of paralytic that delivers an initial burst of
paralysis and memory loss,” Winston said, “then responds to an outside force
and grows like a poison in the system. It’s reproducing in you right now,
becoming stronger. As your memories return, it’ll increase in strength until
you’re completely paralyzed and your heart stops.”
    Winn saw David turn white at the news. He was afraid the kid
might throw up.
    “What’s the cure?” Winn asked.
    “Stop the outside force that’s causing the replication,”
Winston replied. “That might be something you can ingest, or something that can
shield you from whatever the force is. You say you remember being stabbed by
something?”
    “Yes,” David replied. “Something pierced my chest.” He
illustrated by reaching up to his torso with his hand.
    “Like a spider,” Winston said, “biting its prey, immobilizing
it so it can devour it. Something in that house bit you and injected this
substance into you, I expect.”
    “Then why is he here, and not still in the house,
immobilized?” Winn asked.
    “No idea,” Winston replied.
    “What can he take?” Winn asked. “As a cure?”
    Winston looked down at his piece of paper. “With this
chemical makeup, there’s a thousand different possibilities. Each would take
time to make. Your best bet isn’t to look for an antidote; it’s to stop
whatever force is causing the pathogen to replicate inside him. His body’s
natural defenses can clean it out if it stops growing.”
    “You mean, find the thing inside the house that bit him,”
Winn said. “And kill it.”
    “Precisely,” Winston replied.
     
    ▪ ▪ ▪
     
    Winn pulled into Carma’s driveway. David had been asleep
since they got in Winn’s Jeep at the airport and was still out. As he parked
the car and turned off the engine, Winn looked over at David, feeling sorry for
him. David had passed out twice on their trip back, thankfully not during the
security line at the airport in Missoula. Winn had been there to catch him each
time he dropped, keeping him propped up until they could find a place to sit.
David usually regained his senses within a few minutes, apologizing and looking
a little flush each time he found himself saved by Winn. Then he’d relate more
visions of a figure crawling over him, stabbing his chest with something sharp.
Each time David seemed weaker. Now, lying against the inside of the Jeep, the
kid looked wiped out. Winn reached out to shake him, but he didn’t wake. He
felt for a pulse and was relieved to find it normal and strong. Winn walked
around to the passenger side of the Jeep and opened the door, then lifted David
out of the vehicle and walked him to the house. Winn remembered how irritated
he’d been with David when