Darker than Dark (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

Mia felt a lurch when Cid turned into the lot. He stopped, and Mia threw open the sliding door and grabbed the rolls of cable Ted tossed out at her. Cid bounded over and asked what he could do.

  Mia explained their plan and his face lit up. “This I can do. You get as many cars in here as possible. The rubber tires should insulate us.”

  Ted popped his head out of the truck inquiring on their headway. “I got this, tell the cops to stay in their vehicles once they arrive. I’m going to go Tesla all over this place.”

  Mia looked at Ted. “He means he’s going to build an electric cage around us.”

  Mia felt one of her charges move up the pack. She swung it around to her front and lifted the lid.

  Ted watched opened-mouthed as she had a conversation with whatever was in the pack. “You two sit down there and behave or I’m telling your mother, and if you could not act like snakes I would be happier. No, not bugs. Honestly, you two must be boys. How about bunny rabbits? That’s, ouch, a porcupine.” She dropped the lid.

  “Let me guess, Beanie and Bubba,” Ted said.

  Mia smiled weakly. “Yup.”

  “Hell of a time to babysit, dear,”

  “Yup.” She peaked in the bag. “That’s better, kittens. You want to see?”

  “Another time,” Ted said and got back to work. He and Cid worked furiously while Mia stayed out of their way. As the others arrived, she parked them in like sardines, keeping a distance between them and the twelve foot high chain-link fence.

  John got out of his vehicle dripping wet. Mia ran back in the truck past Ted and came back with blankets. “Did you get them out of the creek?”

  “Yes. Where’s Martin and Braverman?” Ryan asked.

  Cid, who was clinging to the top of the fence, pointed to a set of lights that were weaving down the road. Burt and Mike ran up and manned the gates. It seemed like hours but it was seconds before Whit’s cruiser spun around before he regained control on the ice and made the left turn. Mia climbed back into the truck and watched as the cruiser was pulled inside and the gate closed. Mike wound some chain up and down the length of the opening and ran like hell back to the van. Burt held open the door. As soon as all were insulated, Cid threw the switch.

  The sides of the fence crackled, and above them small streams of electricity moved overhead. Mia’s hair raised, and she moved away from the metal walls of the truck.

  Within seconds Mia and Ted, who had abandoned his console or get fried, witnessed a dark mass hit the gate like a tidal wave. The gate held, and the first to contact the electricity turned to ash and fell. DTDs tried to climb the sides and were thrown off by the electric charge. They moved back. Cid, whose rubber boots and gloves protected him from shock, moved slowly examining each corner and side, looking for a weakness.

  Ted pointed to a mass of DTDs that had found a pliable sapling. They pulled it backwards, and a few dark masses climbed to the end. They let the tree go and launched the warriors over the fence. They hit the invisible cage of electricity and fried. Their ashes rained down on Whit and Tom’s cruiser.

  “Notice how they are learning each time,” Ted pointed out. “They never repeat an error. I suspect they were the ice.”

  “I think you’re right,” Mia said. “I was holding my breath until the last cruiser made it in.”

  “It’s a good thing they made it into the cage in time. I don’t think they would have survived long out there.”

  Mia remembered something and dug into her pocket and dropped a solitary ear com into Ted’s hand explaining, “Whit heard what I said in the bedroom to Beth.”

  “Shit, Mike’s com,” Ted realized. “You know he’s going to punch me in the nose.”

  “I don’t think so. What is this fixation you have with being popped in the shnoz?”

  “The mean boys would hit me when I refused to do their homework. Or made fun of them, or looked at them funny. Need I go on?”

  “No. The mean girls would just pretend I didn’t exist. One of the homecoming court pinched me in church once. I screamed in pain. I was banned after that.”

  “If they could see us now, standing here under a star filled sky. You cradling Beanie and Bubba, while I protect you from frying black worms.”

  “This is so romantic,” Mia said. “You wanna see the little beasts?”

  “Sure, why not.”

  Mia opened the lid of the pack, and sitting in the bottom were two skunks. “I wondered why they stopped purring.”

  Ted reached in and one of them regained their natural form and coiled around his hand. “Come to Uncle Teddy, I won’t hurt you,” he said in a soft voice. He lifted out his hand and looked at the now coiled DTD and said, “You need to stay quiet. You need to hide from the others. Do you understand?”

  The coiled creature mimicked Ted’s face and nodded and said, “Bee bee bee.” “Thank you, Beanie.” Ted put him back in the pack. “That goes for you too, Bubba.”

  Cid walked in front of the back of the truck and said, “I think its holding, but I worry that Com Ed’s going to brown us out at any minute.”

  “I never thought of that,” Mia said alarmed.

  “But if the DTDs don’t know it, then we could be safe,” Ted pointed out.

  “Ted, come in,” John Ryan’s voice barked from the computer’s speakers.

  Ted walked, picked up a pencil, held the eraser and touched the com link. “Ted here.”

  “I called Com Ed on my cell phone. Told them we needed them not to fuck with the flow out here.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “Do we have an ETA on how long were going to be stuck in here?”

  “Ever been attacked by Indians, sir?”

  “Can’t say that I have. You mean these oily black things are… Boggles the mind, over.”

  “Ted, out,” he said and moved back over to Mia. “I feel bad I didn’t tell you to sit down in the front of the truck while we had a chance.”

  “There’s a rubber mat rolled up under the table. Let’s see if we can move it without frying our innards.”

  They managed to move the mat, roll it out and sit down back to back. Cid continued to walk the perimeter of his cage. Mia and Ted decided to play I Spy.

  “I spy something silver,” Ted said.

  Mia looked at the hundreds of feet of cyclone fencing and said, “Is it that chain, four from the top on, six from the left?”

  “No.”

  “Eight from the right, twelve from the top?”

  “Did you say twelve from the top?”

  “Yes.”

  “No.”

  “Teddy Bear,” Mia said.

  “Yes, dear?”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “I know, dear,” he said and added. “I’m your asshole.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  The Iroquois moved across the creek. Careful to not leave evidence of their movements this time. They sought out the Illini. They smelled blood on the wind and found the mutilated corpse of a white man. They studied the markings carved into his remaining flesh and conferred amongst themselves. Marks of war. They had left this message for them. The hatred of their act had not been forgotten, and it certainly hadn’t been forgiven. As the sun rose, they retreated to consult with the Great Spirit.

  Mia blinked as the glare of the rising sun glinted off the window of one of the police cruisers. “Ted, the sun’s up,” she said and felt him start to wake. They had linked arms so one of them wouldn’t fall onto the metal truck bed and be shocked.

  “Cid, I think we can power down,” Ted called in the direction of the building where Cid had taken refuge when he could no longer stand.

  They heard a few pops and slams before Cid emerged and said, “Let them know that they may get hit with a few jolts of static electricity, but the power is off.”

  Ted got on the com and relayed the information. Mia watched as the doors to Whit’s and Tom’s car opened. They stretched their stiff muscles. Whit walked over to Mia and offered her a
hand down from the truck.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Did you get some sleep?”

  “A few hours. Tom and I took turns. Didn’t want to touch any metal. Do you know how much metal there is in that sheriff’s car?”

  “Nope, you want to look behind me?”

  “Okay, fair trade. I better go and see what the boss wants to do now. You going to be okay?”

  “For now, I guess. Keeping busy. Trying to figure out a way to stop whatever is happening here. My knowledge of Illinois prior to 1650 is a bit fuzzy,” she admitted.

  “You never studied. Actually, Tom was into that type of thing. He was telling me all about it while we watched the DTDs fry themselves.”

  “Cool beans.”

  “I’ll talk to you later,” Whit promised.

  Mia watched him leave before turning around and looking at Ted. He was busy, his fingers flying across the keys. She patted her pack and looked inside. Beanie and Bubba were still but pulsing. She closed the top and headed for the van. Mike waved her off as Burt was taking a piss against the fence. She turned around and wandered back to the truck. She climbed up and opened a few cases and straightened the contents. She had to move pieces and cameras around until she had the right containers. This kept her busy until John Ryan decided their next move.

  “Mia, you did good last night,” Ted said, turning around in his chair. “You held your cool and helped me to keep mine.”

  “Gee thanks, Teddy Bear. Us freaks have a natural ability to be calm in crises.”

  “That we do.” Ted yawned. “I’d kill for some coffee, even yours.”

  “There you go spoiling me with your compliments again,” Mia sighed.

  “Hello, PEEPs. How’d you fare last night?” Mike asked, hauling himself up into the truck.

  “Oh you know,” Mia started. “Same old stuff. Tried not to electrocute ourselves, you?”

  “Burt and I had a partners meeting. Decided to fire Beth. Wondered if Cid would be interested in her spot.”

  “Dunno, you should ask him,” Ted suggested. “What about Mia?”

  “Mia’s shit at research.”

  “That I am,” she agreed.

  “How about being a fulltime lead investigator and Ted’s babysitter?”

  “Do you have dental?” she asked before launching herself at Mike.

  “I guess that’s a yes. I’ll go tell Burt. He thought you’d turn us down and tell us to go to hell, so he sent me to smooth the waters.”

  “You are a smooth operator. He made a good choice,” observed Mia. “Um, when would I have to relocate?”

  Mike’s face lit up. Ted turned around in his chair.

  “You’d relocate for us?”

  “It’s a hell of a commute otherwise,” Mia pointed out.

  “Actually we were thinking of buying April’s place and moving out here.”

  “Can’t,” Ted said.

  “Why?”

  “April’s place is sold.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep, I close on it in two weeks,” Ted informed them. “I intend to remodel one of the outbuildings into an office. I could rent it out to PEEPs.”

  Mia looked up at Ted. “Why April’s place?” Mia asked curious.

  “Heard it was haunted, thought I’d get a good price, which I did. I told you I was thinking about it.”

  “He did,” Mia agreed. “You know I own the bottom half of your driveway.”

  “I do. About that. Since you own it, I expect you to keep it cleared,” he said smartly.

  Mia laughed, shook her head, climbed out of the truck and walked away.

  Mike patted Ted on the back. “How did you know?”

  “That you guys would move out here? Most of our cases were here.”

  “No, know that she likes you?”

  “She’s always liked me,” Ted dismissed.

  “No, she likes, likes you,” Mike said in a husky voice.

  “Oh, I didn’t. I hoped, but I didn’t know. I just wanted to be around to wear her down. And if we survive this investigation, I’m going to marry her. So get used to having two Martins working for you.”

  “Does, Mia know this?”

  “She knows that it’s inevitable. Sooner or later she’s going to figure out what a fine catch I am. And then all my dreams will come true.”

  “You know that Murphy…”

  “He hits on her all the time. So do you. I’m confident that she will see that you two losers may be handsome but aren’t the kind of fellas to let her be herself.”

  “Are you calling me and Murphy chauvinists?”

  “Murphy, yes, but you, Mikey, you, like Burt, need to be number one. I don’t need that. I’m happy with a supporting role, always have been.”

  “Can you protect her?”

  “Mia can take care of herself. I can’t worry about what ifs. If so, then there won’t be time for other things.”

  “I can see you’ve thought this through.”

  “Since the moment I met her, I knew,” Ted said.

  Mia who was eavesdropping, which was the Martin family way, smiled and wiped a tear away from her face. She had never felt more cherished, loved and admired. How had she missed this? Her mind whirled as she accessed memories, but she had been too focused on other things to see what was plainly in front of her. She walked away from the truck and over to John Ryan’s cruiser and tapped on the glass. The window opened.

  “Gentlemen, can I interest any of you in a change of clothes?”

  Three hands shot up.

  “I’ll be right back.” Mia climbed aboard the truck and found the box with the PEEPs sweats in it. “Alright if I give a few sets to the battle-weary deputies that crashed into the river?”

  “You’re a member of the team now, dear,” Ted pointed out. “You don’t have to ask.

  “Cool beans!” she said and hugged Ted from behind on her way out of the truck.

  ~

  Mia walked to her truck. She poked around the wheel wells and checked under the seat six times before starting the engine. John Ryan had cleared them all and allowed them to leave the farm. The men were headed to the motel, Mia to April’s house to meet with Murphy then home. Beanie and Bubba squirmed but stayed in Mia’s pack while she drove. She eliminated the back way as she wasn’t sure what was manifesting in the north woods. She chose instead to go east and south and hit the highway west to Big Bear Lake and then up to the hollow.

  It had been an eventful twenty-four hours. But most investigations seemed to consume time and energy at an alarming rate. Her present energy was waning, and so she pulled through the Starbucks at the edge of Wheybridge. She almost had a heart attack when she heard the price of the venti house special with a double shot of espresso and three sugars. Mia forked over her last tenner and told the clerk to keep the change. Why should the barista lose out because Mia lost a bet with Mike over shoveling dirt?

  She opened the lid and inhaled the aroma of the steamy black poison, before shutting it and turning back on the highway. She passed the motel and wondered if Beth was resting comfortably or was she worried about the PEEPs men that didn’t come back last night? Mia shook the negativity out of her head. Instead she started humming a song and smiled with an idea.

  “Bee is for Beanie,” she sang and repeated it several times. “Buh is for Bubba, bubba bubba bubba.”

  The sack seemed to squirm with delight. Soon she heard her words echoed along with giggles that sounded suspiciously like her own. When the DTDs calmed down, she spoke to them, “Beanie and Bubba, this is very important. You have to be quiet once I put the pack on. I fear I will be traveling into the territory your mother is worried about. I will only be there briefly, please be good. Do you understand me?”

  The sack rolled a bit back and forth and a duet of, “be good,” sounded out.

  “Thank you.”

  Mia turned off the main road and headed for April’s house. “I guess I will have to start calling it Ted’s house soon,”
she said to herself. “Murphy’s farm, but Ted’s house.” She wondered if he would change the prissy décor that April had worked so painstakingly on. Money was tight so he would probably do it himself. Would there be comic book posters thumbtacked to the walls? She shook her head and smiled.

  “Be good,” the DTDs sang.

  April’s drive had not been plowed, and it didn’t look as she or anyone had been there in a few days. Mia pulled the truck into the drive, drove up to the house and pulled it around and headed it back out before parking it. She snatched the pack, put it on, picked up her coffee and opened the door. The sun had warmed the interior of the truck, but it was still very brisk outside. On impulse she reached back in and grabbed her combination ice scraper and snow brush. Mia’s feet crunched through the icy top layer of snow into the softer stuff as she worked her way towards Murphy’s mausoleum.

  A few curious male Juncos flitted through the trees, curious what the creature was that had a brush for one arm and a steaming cylinder for the other. It smelled like sugary fire.

  By the time Mia reached the snow-covered marble tomb Ted had helped her build, her pants were soaked through. She opened up her coffee and took a long drink of the caffeine-charged sugar-enhanced brew. She clapped the lid back on and proceeded to brush off the snow. She worked until she had the monument cleared of the white snow. She walked over to the chamber and scraped ice away from the control panel. After two tries it opened and was still active. “Ted’s a genius,” she said which started the DTD’s singing, “Ted’s a genius,” until Mia shushed them. “Be good,” they sang once and were quiet.

  Mia keyed in the code, and the small chamber opened. She drew out the canvas bag and noticed that rust had darkened where the cast-iron axe head had rested. She opened the bag and found more rust. She sat back on her heels and ran the reasons this could be happening through her head. Cast-iron oxidizes. But this hadn’t before. It hadn’t been encased in marble in snow before. But it had rained. The chamber wasn’t air or water tight. There was something that had been nagging at her for a few days now. How had Murphy been able to venture so far from his tether to begin with? Had Murphy moved beyond his earthly tie?