Read Online Poltergeist II - The Other Side by James Kahn - Free Book Online

help! We just want to be left alone!” He was near hitting the man, just to have something to do.
    Diane sensed this and wanted to defuse it before Steve got himself into something else he couldn’t handle. Besides, she felt an intuitive trust for this Taylor, and she was desperate to trust. “Steve, please . . . calm down now, honey . . .”
    “Please what?” Steve clenched and unclenched his fists. “Maybe it’s no coincidence that this guy shows up when everything starts getting funny again.” Steve distrusted himself totally now, distrusted his ability to reason, to cope, to act, and so he naturally distrusted everyone else. “Now, get in the car, Diane.”
    Diane spoke to Taylor, though. “Why did Tangina send you? Why didn’t she come herself?”
    “My kind of job.” Taylor shrugged. “When you have a special problem, you call a specialist.”
    “Diane, this is ridiculous,” Steve said in the staccato tone he used when he had to try to substitute the force of his voice for the force of conviction. “Now, come on—”
    “Steve, let’s try to handle this sensibly,” Diane pressed.
    “Sensibly!” he rasped. “What’s sensible about anything that’s happened? Nobody can help us, Diane.” This is how he felt—beyond help. “I want to get out of here—now.” His voice was taking on a surly edge.
    “And go where?” Diane shouted, near her own breaking point. She knew Steve had nowhere to go. “Steve, it followed us here. It will follow us anywhere we go.” She squeezed his arm to make him understand. “We can’t keep running.”
    Steve looked up to see Carol Anne, Robbie, and E. Buzz standing beside the impassive Taylor. They’d cast their votes. And their sad faces bespoke an eloquence Steve couldn’t answer, for all his anger and shame.
    Ninety minutes later, in the gray hour of the wolf, they stood once more in their own front yard, staring mutely, uncertainly, at the big family house on Grover Lane.
    The haunted house.
    They sat on the front lawn as the sun came up and for another hour besides as Taylor went through the house, room by room—to explore, to sense, to fathom.
    The living room felt safe at its core, though its closets twisted back into bottomless unknowns. The kitchen was warm, the dining room neutral. Upstairs he was drawn to Jess’s room: clear, untroubled. He closed his eyes and envisioned the spirit who had resided here: it was the woman he’d seen beyond the Canyon of Shadows, the woman who’d gone into the Light—the one who’d wanted to protect the young girl. Taylor instantly understood that this woman’s presence, in life, had protected the young girl. Now, with her spirit gone Beyond, the girl was in danger. This was the reason the Beast had been able to enter the house.
    He checked out the bathroom—a dangerous place, full of omens. He walked into the master bedroom: a trace of evil lingered here, as if the Thing had recently been by and left its scent.
    He almost lost his balance on entering the children’s room—it reeked that much.
    The children’s room was obviously where the Evil One had made its lair.
    Finally he walked around the back yard, around the garden. This was the center of harmony of the house, the place where the patterns were unmarred. He walked under an arbor of grapes and let its serene beauty give him sustenance. Here he would make his camp.
    When he returned to the front yard again, to the Freelings, he was smiling—this house wasn’t clean, but it was defensible.
    E. Buzz barked happily at him, wagging his tail.
    “It’s okay?” said Diane, standing up. “You’re sure?”
    “E. Buzz agrees.” Taylor smiled. “It’s okay for now.”
    Everyone entered the house except Steve and Taylor. Steve was skeptical.
    “Great.” He nodded. “The dog agrees. That’s terrific.”
    Taylor understood that Steve had to feel superior in some way, and he didn’t mind being a laughingstock for a while. It was good to laugh. The man