The Suicide Forest (The River Book 5) by Michael Richan

very
much, and it threatened your mother when we tried to help her.”
    “So it’s to protect her from you ,” Evie said.
    “In a way, yes,” Steven said. “Do you know what’s going on
here?”
    “What, in the house?” Evie asked.
    “Yes, the house,” Steven said. “The bangings. The attacks on
your son and mother.”
    “No, I don’t,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
    “But you know something is wrong, don’t you?” Steven asked.
“You have the gift. You can tell something is off.”
    “Listen,” Evie said, “the only reason I’m even talking with
you is her,” nodding to her mother. “She’s scared out of her mind. I think you
two are the reason.”
    “We’re not the reason,” Roy said. “Whatever is here, it was
going on before we showed up. We’re helping because June asked us to.”
    “Because you brought her a book,” Evie said.
    “Yes,” Roy said.
    “How much did you charge my mother for whatever she’s
holding?” Evie asked.
    “Charge?” Steven said. “That’s not what we’re doing here.
We’ve been all over the Sound running down answers to the problem here, and we
haven’t asked June for a dime. And don’t intend to.”
    “Then why are you here?” Evie asked, becoming agitated.
    “We’ve already told you,” Roy said. “To help.”
    Evie turned to June. “Why now?”
    “They brought me the book of your great-grandfather,” June
said, “so I knew they had the gift, like your father. If Mark were here, we
wouldn’t be going through this. He’d put a stop to it. So I asked them to try.”
    “What I don’t think my mother has told you,” Evie said,
turning back to Steven, “is that the bangings have been following us for years.
And she holds me responsible.”
    “That’s not true,” June said. “I don’t blame you. I just wish
you’d help get rid of it, that’s all. I know you could if you wanted to.”
    “She used to pressure my father this way, too,” Evie said to
Steven and Roy. “Anything she didn’t like, she’d grind on him until he gave in
and fixed whatever she wanted fixed.”
    “Look,” Roy said, “I’ve had a look at what’s here, what’s
causing the bangings. You’re in a lot of danger.”
    “Are we?” Evie asked, sarcastically. “Tell me, what do you
think is the problem? What have you seen?”
    “We saw one of the entities hold a knife to your mother’s
throat,” Roy said.
    “That was because of you,” Evie said. “You caused that.”
    “So you do know what is going on,” Steven said.
    “No,” Evie said, “I want to hear it from you. From the heroes
come to save the day.”
    “There are three entities,” Roy said. “One of them is major.
They’re all fighting for something. We don’t know what, yet. But we do know
you’re the door, you’re the reason they’re here.”
    “And what do you propose?” Evie said. “You want to exorcise me?
Is that it? You want to exorcise the house?”
    “No,” Steven said, “that’s why we wanted to talk to you, to
find out why they’re here.”
    “And then exorcise the house,” Evie said.
    “Maybe,” Roy said. “Depends on what we find.”
    “Why don’t you just exorcise it now?” Evie said. “Go ahead.
I’ll wait in here.”
    “We don’t know yet if an exorcism is the right way to go,”
Roy said. He reached inside his jacket pocket and shook the jar. He could feel
the rosemary sprig within it bouncing against the glass. Hurry up and work! he thought.
    “This is a waste of time,” Evie said. She turned to June.
“Would you please let me handle things my own way? They’re just meddling, they
don’t know what’s going on here, and they likely never will. Tell them to go
away, we don’t need them here.”
    “I will not!” June said. “I’m tired of living with it, Evie.
I want something done about it. Steven and Roy are welcome here anytime as far
as I’m concerned.” She turned to Steven. “Please don’t let Evie dissuade you. I
and