Ethan Greywater's Arc

Chapter 16 of 17

Margaret's hand was warm in his. Ethan turned to tell her it was done. Then he felt the cold at his back. The door he had crossed still stood open behind him. Its light spilled into the haunt, and the light had drawn something out. A shape pulled itself through the glow. Chains dragged behind her, scraping the threshold. Her hair hung wet and black over a face lit from within. Ethan knew her. She was the chained woman from the haunt, the one who had gripped him at this same door and begged him not to leave. He had given her a piece of her own grave marker. She had let him go. Now she had followed the open light out, straight toward the peace he had just won. "You left," she said. Her voice shook. "You all leave." She reached for him, chains rattling, trying to haul herself across to his side. "Vera," Ethan said. He stepped between her and Margaret. "You're free. I gave you proof someone mourned you. You don't belong here." "I belong wherever I'm not alone." Her fingers caught his sleeve. The cold of her grip reached his bone. If she crossed, she would drag the haunt's sorrow into the afterlife, and the door would never close clean. Ethan pried her hand loose. He had nothing left to give her. Then his fingers brushed something hard in his coat. He drew it out. A key, carved from pale bone, worn smooth by years. He did not remember taking it. It had clung to him like the gravestone shard once had. He looked at the door. Its frame held a lock he had never noticed. The key and the lock were made for each other. "Vera," he said. "You can't follow me. But you don't have to stay chained either." He held the key where she could see it. "This locks the door. After this, no one crosses. Not me, not you. The haunt stops pulling." She went still. The light in her chest flickered. "If you lock it, you can't come back." "I know," Ethan said. "I'm not coming back. And neither are you. You can rest in the haunt now. It's quiet. The curse is gone. Nothing holds you but the chains, and you can set those down." Her grip loosened. She stepped back onto the haunt's side of the threshold. The chains slid from her wrists and pooled on the ground. For the first time her face eased. Ethan passed the key to Margaret. Only the living or the soul beyond could work the door. Margaret's hand steadied his. Together they fit the bone key into the lock and turned it. The light folded shut. The door sealed. The haunt dimmed behind the glass and went dark. Vera stood alone in the quiet, unchained, and did not reach for them again.