Inevitable by Michelle Rowen

around.
    They followed him up the stairs again to the fourth floor, watching as Harold disappeared through a wall into a room with a closed door. To their right was the wooden banister that looked down to the lobby. Higher up, the large chandelier flickered ominously from where it hung from the very center of the ceiling. Ryan tried the handle of the door and wasn’t surprised to find it locked. He looked over his shoulder at Emma.
    â€œSo now what?” he asked.
    â€œI honestly don’t know. I’m open to suggestion. Exorcism? Maybe come back a little later?”
    â€œNo.” Ryan pressed his hand against the closed door. “This guy isn’t bad to the bone. He’s just misunderstood, even by himself.”
    â€œWhich means what?”
    â€œHe’s still in love with his wife. That’s why theiranniversary is such a big deal. But something’s keeping them apart. Something he feels he did wrong. He’s punishing himself for it.”
    Emma looked at him quizzically. “How do you know he’s still in love with her? I didn’t think you could sense any emotion from spirits.”
    â€œI can’t. But I saw it in his eyes when you mentioned her name. He looked like it was tearing him up inside. And there’s only one thing that can do something like that.”
    â€œAnd that’s guilt?”
    â€œYes.”
    Emma leaned against the railing across from him and glanced down to the lobby before returning her attention to Ryan, her face bathed in shadows. “What’s he guilty of?”
    Ryan wracked his mind. “I don’t know. But something has been eating away at him for all of these years and keeping him from the woman he loves.”
    â€œWait a sec.” Emma frowned.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    She glanced around the hallway, the long mirror along the wall, the peeling wallpaper, the red carpet, the banister she held on to. Her gaze finally fell on the door of Harold’s room.
    â€œSomething’s happening. I can feel the energy growing in there. His anger is manifesting…”
    Ryan frowned. “Manifesting into what?”
    Her face was pale. “Something bad.”
    Suddenly the door Ryan stood in front of burst open and what felt like a blast of energy exited like a metaphysical punch.
    The railing Emma leaned against splintered and fell away like it hadn’t been more solid than cardboard. It wasthe only thing between the fourth-floor landing and the drop to the open lobby far below.
    Emma shrieked as she lost her footing and began to fall.
    Ryan didn’t think, he simply reacted, closing the distance between them in a split second. He grabbed for Emma’s hand just as part of the broken wooden banister crashed to the ground floor.
    Emma dangled off the landing, staring up at him with fear. Harold’s anger had hit them like a wave of powerful negative energy. He’d been trying to kill Emma.
    â€œDon’t let go of me!” she cried.
    â€œI won’t.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t have come here,” Harold was suddenly beside Ryan, looking down at Emma as she scrambled to keep a hold on Ryan’s hand. There was a mix of guilt and fury on the ghost’s face. “I should be alone, always alone. I don’t need the reminder of what I’ve destroyed with my mistakes.”
    â€œShut the hell up,” Ryan snarled. He needed to focus all his concentration or Emma was going to slip through his grasp and fall sixty feet to the lobby floor. “Give me your other hand. Now, Emma. Do it!”
    Their gazes locked and there was a sheen of perspiration on her forehead. One of her high-heeled shoes fell off her right foot and fell to the ground. She reached up with her other hand and he grasped it tightly.
    He forgot about absolutely everything else—his troubles with PARA, his weak psychic ability, his search for the truth, the lust potion that made everything that much more