Melanie gave Josh a sideways glance. "You know owls don't flock, right? I mean, they do gather in small groups called parliaments, but they don't travel at night in big flocks."
"Interesting," Josh said. "I'm really not sure what it was. Maybe condors or something?" He watched as Melanie and Randy looked at each other and raised their eyebrows.
"Joshua," Melanie said in a motherly voice. "I think we talked about this. You are supposed to tell us about anything you experience that could be deemed as unusual. As far as I know, exactly one condor has been spotted in New Mexico in the past fifty years. Would you care to elaborate?"
"I'm sorry," Josh said. He actually did not mind her playful chiding. He had agreed to be as open as possible about anything he experienced on the ranch, since he'd grown so found of them both. He wanted them to share their insights and experiences with him fully, so he needed to do the same in return. "I'm new at this," he continued. "So, I did wake up in the middle of the night and look out. There was a big flock of unusual looking things filling up that tree over there." He pointed with his spoon. "They looked creepy, but I didn't think they were otherworldly enough to share." He decided to omit the part about the bright light waking him up. He wasn't sure why.
"Josh, I know your stance on this whole paranormal thing, and I respect that," Melanie said. "But I also believe you when you say you'll listen to us with an open mind, when we share our thoughts. So, bear with me for a minute." She chewed for a minute, seemingly looking for the right words. "From everything I've gathered over the years, it seems like Skylar Ranch has a lot more going on than just grey man visitations and cow abductions. This place has long been rumored to serve as some kind of testing ground for—how should I say—experimental creatures."
"What she's trying to say is," Randy interrupted, "there's been reports of some creepy dang critters skulkin' around here at night."
"That is correct," Melanie said. "Animals have been sighted that don't seem native to this planet."
Josh swallowed involuntarily, exposing the awkwardness he was feeling. He liked these two, but he wasn't exactly on the same page with them. He'd have to be careful not to offend them. For the moment, though, he had to admit that the idea of animals from other planets was fascinating. After all, humans had sent everything from mice to monkeys into space for experimentation over the years. Why wouldn't beings from other planets to do the same? "Interesting," he said. "And logical, I suppose."
"So anything weird that happens, we want to know," Melanie said.
"Even dreams?" Josh said. "They've been insane lately." He wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere or his own emotions causing the strange dreams he'd been having, but lately they were lucid and very odd.
"I dreamed about you the other night," Randy said, lifting his eyebrows a few times.
"Please don't tell me any more," Josh said, feigning disgust. "But, seriously, I've had some weird stuff going on in my head."
"Spill it," Melanie said.
"Well, I dreamed I was sitting in this chair, and there were weird little creatures standing around me. They were showing me scenes from my childhood, when I was crying. In one, they were showing me a time when I was real little, and I thought I could get away with stealing the neighbor's new puppy. I was so jealous of that puppy. So anyway, I kidnapped it and put it in my room. Of course, my mom figured it out pretty fast. I had to return the puppy, and it broke my heart."
"No way," Randy said. He looked rattled.
"Seriously," Josh said. "Then they started asking me lots of questions about how I was feeling, like why that whole thing made me cry. It was weird, like they wanted to understand what it was like to be sad. My sadness seemed to frustrate them. It was really creepy, to be honest. Then another time—"
"Don't tell me," Randy interjected. "They showed you a time when your football team moved to Baltimore. It was the Browns, right? They asked you why you were crying and you said you were sad for the whole town."
Josh felt like all the air had left his lungs at once, like someone had just punched him in the chest and knocked the wind out of him. "How the hell did you know that?"
"Because I was there with you," Randy said.
Josh felt sick, like his beer from the previous night was trying to rise back up from his stomach. "Are you two messing with me?" he said. He felt sweat popping up on his face, and his heart was thumping in his chest.
Melanie sat with her mouth hanging open a little and looked back and forth, from Randy to Josh. Her face was pale white. "Gentlemen," she said. "I think you two have had some nighttime visitors."
15
Methodological Weakness
"Dad! Come in here!"
The sound of his son's voice caused Jerry to drop the glass of milk he was holding, allowing it to crash to the kitchen floor, splattering a white flower shape across the slate blue tiles. He ran to Luke's bedroom, where he found the boy curled up in the far corner of his bed. His face was white with fear. "What happened?" Jerry shouted the words, sounding a little more frantic than he'd intended. He wasn't very good at quelling panic, lately.
"It's back," Luke said. He sounded so small, at the moment. "I heard your voice. I thought you said something to me from the bathroom. It sounded like you were calling me in there, so I walked in. You weren't there, so I started to leave. Then there was that really bad smell. And then, when I started to leave, I saw the shower curtain move, like somebody was in the bathtub."
"It's okay," Jerry said. He didn't really know what else to say. He sat on the bed next to his son and wrapped his arms around the child.
"But I saw it, Dad. It pulled the curtain back a little, and there was this blurry image, like it was taking form. It was so scary."
"Listen, son," Jerry said. He was trying to still his own heart to keep from frightening his son even more. "I think you should have gone with Vivian to her mother's house. This was a mistake, you staying here. I'll deal with this thing on my own."
"You can't, Dad," Luke said. "That book said that two or more people have to work together to make him go away. We have to do it together. We just need a bible."
At that second, there was a loud pop and the room went dark.
"What happened?" Luke shrieked. Jerry held his son tighter.
"It was just the lamp, son." Jerry was trying to keep his voice from trembling.
"It's not, Dad. It's him." Luke was trying to whisper, but the words came out in a high pitch. "He made the lights go out."
Jerry started to speak, but the words were cut off by a foul smell that seemed to extinguish the breath in his lungs. In the darkest corner of the bedroom, there was movement. To Jerry's horror, a shape began to take form. It was the same, grotesque shape that he'd seen weeks earlier, at the conference. It was about two feet tall, and it had the vague shape of a human, except for the head and neck, which were elongated and lizard-like. The skin was translucent but scaly, and there appeared to be a slime oozing from beneath its scales as the creature rocked back and forth.
Jerry's mind raced. He wanted to run from the room, but he knew his son would not be able to move. He could tell by the rigid feel of his body that he was frozen with fear.
"Do you see it?" Luke whispered.
"Try not to look at it, son," Jerry whispered. "It will go away soon."
As soon as the words were spoken, the thing in the corner started to hiss. It was a low, gurgling hiss at first, then, slowly, the sound increased until it became a growl. The creature took a step forward.
Then it was gone.
Jerry sat holding Luke for several seconds before they both realized that they could move again. The room appeared to be a bit lighter, and the smell was gone. The puddle of slime that had surrounded the creature had also disappeared.
"Dad," Luke said, breaking the silence. Jerry just looked down at his son, hoping he could find words for whatever question might come. "We have to do something," the boy continued. "We need to get rid of it. We have to do the thing."
"I know," Jerry said. "But it will be scary."
"We have to do this," Luke said.
Jerry knew the kid was right.
Of all the things Jerry had planned on doing with his son in his lifetime, an exercise in expelling demons was not one of them. Jerry had decided that they should wait until morning to conduct the ceremony. Even though it would most likely be a while before the creature showed up again, neither of them really wanted to take the chance. He'd also decided that they needed to spend the night in a hotel and get a good night's sleep, because he knew they'd never be able to sleep in that house, after the incident. According to Nilsson's book, all they had to do to get rid of this thing was position some candles around the house and command the entity to leave. Apparently, the little creature would disappear for good, as long as there was a ceremonious command. Jerry should have taken care of this before now, but he kept hoping that everything would stop on its own.
He pulled into the driveway and put the car into park. They sat there in silence, staring at the house. "You don't have to do this with me," he said.
"We're doing this together," Luke said with authority. Jerry couldn't believe how his son was handling this whole thing. He was terrified, himself, and he'd seen a whole damn lot in his life, so he couldn't imagine how his son felt.
"I'll light the candles," Luke said. "We'll do it in the living room, ok? Not my bedroom?"
"Of course," Jerry said. Again, his heart sunk.
Jerry unlocked the front door and entered before Luke, just to make sure nothing was waiting there to jump at them. It was a silly precaution, but it was clear to Jerry that nothing was really out of the question, at this point. As he entered the living room, Jerry could swear there was a heaviness looming in the air. He didn't mention it, but he suspected that Luke sensed it, too, from the concerned look on his face. He took a handful of small candles and placed them around the room, while Luke followed behind with a lighter.
"Dad," he said, as he hesitated at the end of the hallway that led to the bedrooms. "Do you smell something over here?"
Jerry began walking toward the hallway, but the smell hit him halfway there. "I smell it," Jerry said. "Are you ok?"
"Let's hurry and get started," Luke said.
Jerry watched as his son lit the last few candles. He then took Luke by the hand and led him to the middle of the living room, which glowed softly, now, in the midst of thirteen candles.
"The Holy Bible!" Luke said. "We need it!"
Jerry couldn't believe he'd forgotten it. "It's there on the coffee table," he said. He could swear that the smell grew stronger with the mention of the Holy Book. He dropped his son's hand and took three steps toward the Bible. As soon as his hand touched the Book, a horrific growl exploded in his ears.
"Dad!" Luke screamed. He was pointing up the hallway.
Jerry followed Luke's gaze, and there on the far end of the hallway, he saw the creature, looking more putrid than ever in the full light of day. He could see, now, that it had long fangs hanging down from its drooling mouth. The creature took a a step forward, leaving a trail of slime from its seeping body.
"It's coming!" Luke screamed.
Jerry grabbed the Holy Bible and held it outward, thrusting it in the creature's direction. In that moment, a wave of hot air rushed from the hallway, and the front door burst open. The creature howled and took a few quick steps forward.
"Run!" Jerry said. To his horror, his son appeared to be frozen into place. Jerry was shivering all over and weak with fear, but he knew he had to get his son out of the house. He managed to rush toward Luke and grab him by the arm. He pulled the boy behind him as he ran out the front door. They ran all the way to the car and jumped in.
They sat there panting, side by side.
"You don't have the keys, do you?" Luke asked.
"Nope," Jerry said.
Again, the two sat there in silence, staring in disbelief at their house, until Luke broke the silence. "Are you okay, dad?"
Jerry was caught off guard by the question. He couldn't believe that this was Luke's first concern after the ordeal he'd just been through. He searched for something to say. "Son," he said, his breath still panting. "Did I tell you that I worked at a nudist colony when I was about your age?"
"No," Luke said, with his face twisted in quasi-disgust. Jerry could tell that his son was aghast and confused by his father's inappropriate timing.
"Yeah," he said. "The first week was the hardest."
"You are such an idiot!" Luke said. But Jerry was glowing inside. He'd managed to make his son laugh.
16
Consulting the Expert
It was almost awkward, the way Jerry and Luke sat and stared at each other in silence, communicating only occasionally with eye gestures. The weird little creature had been alone in the house for the past few days, while they'd stayed in a hotel. But today, while they waited for their visitor to join them at the house, they'd both seen it, scampering and darting in and out of the dark corners of the rooms. So they sat there in silence, waiting to see if the thing would show itself fully again. It was trying to scare them, Jerry knew, because their fear energized it. He could tell that fear was the creature's nourishment.
"Was that a car door?" Luke asked, breaking the silence and giving Jerry enough of a scare to make him jump.
Jerry twisted his neck around to look out the front window into his driveway. "Nope. It will be a few minutes."
"What's this guy's name, again?" the boy asked. Jerry could hear the nervousness in his son's voice.
"Dr. Nilsson," Jerry said. His mind drifted back to the day, not so long ago, when he'd first heard the man's name, and he'd considered Nilsson to be the biggest crackpot on earth. Since then, he'd had to face the stark reality that there are things happening in the world that defy explanation and wreak havoc on his belief system.
"You really think he can get rid of this thing?" Coming from his child, the words melted Jerry into a sad little puddle on the couch. He felt horrible for bringing this—whatever it was—into their lives. He had no idea how this experience was going to affect his child in the long run, but he knew the impact would last for the rest of Luke's life, in some capacity.
The most disgusting part was the way it could mimic voices. Visually, it would come and go, but even when it was invisible, it would mimic the voices of their loved ones. Somehow, that intensified the fear. It had been mostly confusing at first, when the voices first started. Jerry would be in his bedroom and hear his wife calling him into the kitchen—but when he got there, he'd realize she wasn't in the house at all. Then it started with Luke. His son would come into the room and ask Jerry why he'd been messing with his head, accusing Jerry of hiding and calling his name. They eventually realized that it was the creature making the voices. And things eventually turned sinister. Jerry was stepping out of the shower one morning when a disembodied voice sounding just like his younger sister made some rather inappropriate comments about his physique. That was the first sign that things were going to get nasty. And then there was Jerry's wife. She'd had a hard enough time trying to believe that Jerry and Luke were seeing some kind of creature lurking around the house, but when she heard the little bastard calling her a dirty bitch using Jerry's voice, things got really interesting. He'd tried to explain everything to her as well as he could, but she was having a pretty hard time wrapping her head around it all. And that was pretty damned understandable, after all. They'd all agreed that it was best for Vivian to go away for a while, so Jerry could work on making this thing go away. The fiasco from days earlier prompted a panicked, humiliating phone call and apology to Dr. Nilsson. Thankfully, Dr. Nilsson responded well. Jerry didn't know what he would do if it weren't for Nilsson.
It was terrifying to know that the man considered this being to be a demon. The methods described in Nilsson's books were actually rituals designed to rid a household of the evil little entities, so Jerry was willing to try anything, but he re
ally didn't like the thought of having a demon in his house. He couldn't believe things had come to this point. He was living a horror film.
The sound of his phone ringing made Jerry jump again. He hadn't felt this nervous since he was a little boy imagining ghosts in his closet. He supposed he'd always had some corner of his mind open to the possibility of paranormal activities, since his mother and grandmother both claimed they could see things others could not. Dead people, to be specific. Jerry had pushed all of that to the back of his mind, long ago.
It was Josh calling. He remembered that Josh was going to get back to him about hallucinations. This was not a conversation that interested Jerry at the moment. Instead of answering, he sent the call to messages.
"Call me when you can, buddy." Josh's words appeared in the message transcript. Jerry had no desire to talk with any of his colleagues at the moment, so he put his phone on silent mode and slipped it into his pocket. It was just a few seconds later that the doorbell announced the arrival of Dr. Nilsson.
Luke must have heard the man pull into the drive, because he was at the door before the chime stopped ringing. As the man entered the room, Jerry noticed he had the same calm confidence and erudite manner as he'd shown at the conference; the difference was that Jerry was actually willing to show deference to the man this time, and be open to hearing what he had to say. At the moment, he seemed to be the only person in the world who could accept and explain what was happening to Jerry's family.
"I have to thank you for taking the time to come out to meet us," Jerry said, as the man entered his living room. "I'm very grateful—and sorry I didn't listen before."
"Not to worry," Dr. Nilsson said. "I feel responsible. I fear that I inadvertently exposed you to this predicament. These things attach themselves to humans, you see. They can jump around, from person to person. It seems that this particular being found you to be much more interesting than me. May I sit?"
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