Chapter 1
The stench of fresh blood engulfed Madeline. She stormed into the living room of a country house in the middle of the Australian outback. With one hand still clinging to a fish basket and the other gripping a fishing spear, she approached the entrance of the adjacent reception room with caution.
She wanted to call out for Jo but thought that would be unwise.
It had been Jo’s idea to travel all the way from New York for an exotic celebration of Jo’s eighteenth birthday. Madeline hoped it didn’t turn into the last trip of her life.
Madeline went out for the afternoon to take lessons from an Australian Aboriginal on how to catch fish the ancient way. They were going to have a surprise dinner for Jo tonight—a surprise because Jo disliked fish and Madeline didn’t cook.
Luckily for them, the dinner was Zach’s idea. He was their mutual Australian friend. Zach would turn twenty-one soon and planned to put the cozy kitchen of the small guest house to good use to celebrate a double birthday.
Blood.
It was all she could see in the reception room—amid the broken furniture.
Hesitating no more, Madeline yelled, “Jo!”
A cacophony of sounds—crashing glass, pots, pans, and other kitchen objects and a bloodcurdling scream—came in response, sending Madeline racing toward the kitchen.
More blood.
That was what she found. At the corner of the kitchen, Jo was on the floor, unconscious. Zach stood next to her, guarding her immobile body.
Zach’s shirt was soaked in blood. He didn’t look like he would be able to stand for long.
Larry, the host of the guest house, brandished a knife with one hand and held the other hand to his ear, screaming as if his head was going to explode. He reeled back and forth, crashing into the kitchen furniture and knocking it over.
There was no sign of his wife and children, but Madeline saw blood trailing out of the kitchen and through the door leading to the family room.
Larry was in his late sixties, a soft-spoken man and kind father and husband who had housed them for three days. That had been Larry before she’d finished her fishing lesson. But it wasn’t the Larry before her now.
Zach was cornered. “Run, Madeline,” Zach yelled.
She stood right at the door, not moving. She knew what was going on. “Is Jo alive?”
“Yes. Run, Madeline! He’s insane. He’s not listening, so don’t even try to talk to him.”
Larry directed his bloodshot eyes at Madeline. There was no humanity in him that she could see. The devil had taken over. An explicable smirk crossed his face as he approached her.
“Run, Madeline!” Zach yelled again and this time he captured Larry’s attention. The old man swung his head back toward Zach.
Madeline threw the fish basket at Larry, hitting him in the head.
As soon as the basket left her hand she could smell it—the metallic stench from her ghost.
Larry turned to walk toward her, and Zach took the opportunity to charge him from behind. Larry suddenly swung back, and the knife in his hand slashed at Zach’s abdomen. He grabbed Zach’s neck with one hand and waved the knife with the other.
He was going to slaughter Zach.
Madeline knew Larry’s strength was not his own. It was not his soul inside his body. “Larry, stop!” Madeline said firmly.
He released Zach instantly, dropping him to the floor unconscious to lie next to Jo. Then he turned to Madeline. Smirking, he walked toward her like a zombie. He didn’t even threaten her with the knife to give her an excuse to kill him in self-defense. He simply staggered toward her with a crazed smile on his face.
In his eyes, she could still see the pledge of the kind old man who had been their friend for the last three days. She knew he was innocent.
He must have been the one who killed his wife and kids. But his body was only doing what it was being told to do.
The metallic stench of her ghost grew stronger. It was not the first time the ghost had possessed men to kill. All she had to do to end all this was to kill the man in front of her.
Once and for all, it would end.
But the old man was innocent.
She had never been able to do that, to end it, and the ghost kept coming back. Disaster after disaster. And people would continue to be murdered until she killed the host the ghost possessed.
Larry continued to approach Madeline.
“Don’t come any closer.” She stepped back.
Larry kept coming. She could see his eyes had started to clear. Once that happened, he would return to normal and see what he’d just done. Most often, the men, after being possessed, went insane and eventually killed themselves.
“Your last chance, Madeline. Keep your virtuous soul, and more people will die,” an ancient voice echoed in the air.
She had to kill this innocent man for the craziness to end. The ghost had been telling her that for years—it would continue to kill until she killed an innocent man. But no matter how she tried to justify it, in front of her was a helpless man whom she had no right to kill.
Larry took another step toward her.
“Time is running out, Madeline. Next time, it will be worse,” the ghost chanted.
“Stop, Larry!”
She yelled at the old man, but he kept advancing. She raised the fishing spear, pointing it at his heart.