Puzzle (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  The youngest of the fallen got to his feet and stumbled towards Mike. He poked at him to see if he was real.

  “Dave sent us,” Mike began. “We’re PEEPs. We’re here to help.”

  “Dude, if you don’t get out of here, you’re going to die,” Troy warned.

  Mike brushed past the kid, well aware that it wasn’t fear dilating his pupils. He knelt down next to a large, solidly built boy who was trying to get to his knees. “Whoa there, let me make sure nothing’s broken,” he cautioned the boy. “I’m Mike,” he introduced himself as he moved his hands over the teenager’s limbs. “I don’t feel anything broken, but take it slow, it looks like you had a hell of a tumble.”

  “Chuck Dupont, Charles actually, but Chuck’s not as lame,” the boy said as if they were meeting on the field of play and not in a haunted school.

  Mike held out his hand, and Chuck grasped it firmly.

  “That’s Josh on the floor. You’ve met Troy. Richie and John are the guys holding Mason. We’re trapped here. There’s something with a bad attitude playing games with us. Don’t anger it. It has a mean streak,” Chuck warned Mike.

  Mike nodded.

  Ted and Cid crossed the basketball court and helped the teenagers return Mason to the bottom seat of the bleacher. Ted reached into his pocket and opened a bottle of holy water, the only water he had. As long as Mason wasn’t a demon, it would help to keep him alive - it was after all just H2O. Mason sipped the water slowly. His face was a mass of bruises, and from what Ted could determine from a quick glance, the rest of the kid enjoyed few spaces of non-contused skin. There were no broken bones that he and Cid could feel.

  “What happened to you?” Ted asked.

  “Truck ran over me, backed up, did it again and again,” Mason said in a very low tone.

  “His bad attitude, that’s what happened,” explained one of the boys. “My name’s John Larsson.”

  Ted looked at him and spotted the callused fingers of a full-time gamer. “Ted, Ted Martin, and this is Cid Garret.”

  “This is Richie,” he introduced. “Don’t know his last name.”

  “Delgado,” Richie filled in.

  “Richie, we have a friend in common. Mia Cooper, stunning blonde…”

  “I know Mia. She talked to me and Dave in the hospital. Where’s she at?”

  “She’s with Dave, trying to find a way in here. The building won’t let her or Dave in.”

  “Whatever this thing is, it dragged Dave out of the room. Troy said it threw him out of the building. It kept calling him a cheater. Dave don’t cheat, he can’t help seeing what he sees,” Richie defended his friend.

  Burt knelt over Josh and lightly tapped his cheek. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Josh opened his eyes and took in the husky guy with the glasses that kept sliding down his nose. “I’m living. That’s all I’ll commit to at this point. Who the fuck are you?”

  “Dave called us, thought we could get you safely out of the school before the police got involved,” Burt explained. He extended his hand and helped Josh off the floor. “I think we should compare notes and see if we can find a way out of here before someone else gets hurt.”

  The words no sooner left his lips when the lights went out.

  ~

  Murphy scratched his axe on the concrete beside the PEEPS vehicle. Mia was quick to respond and hopped off the back of the truck smiling at him.

  “What’s up?”

  “More blue coats,” he said and motioned her to follow him.

  She raised a finger and called into the command center, “Dave, I’m going to reconnoiter with Murphy. Do you want to come?”

  “You go, that dude scares me,” Dave said. “I’ll watch the cameras.”

  “Cool beans,” Mia replied. She nodded to Murphy and followed him into the grove of trees.

  She heard them before she made out their almost transparent forms huddled around a blue fire. Mia had heard of blue fire before. She knew it wouldn’t provide heat for a living being, but it seemed to comfort the dead. This was the first time she had laid eyes on it. William stood up as she approached. Even in death, his manners dictated that he should rise in the presence of a lady.

  She motioned for him to sit and took up a squatting position near him. Murphy stood at her back.

  “William, I am surprised to see you have so many friends here.”

  “All lost,” he moved his hand as he pointed out the group of men. “We can’t move beyond this place. We’re stuck.”

  “Did a battle occur here?”

  William shook his head. “I know I died in battle but not here. I don’t know why we’re here.”

  Mia looked at the weary soldiers of various ranks. They were mostly young men. Sadness radiated from them. She watched as each of the men tried to communicate but was too weak to do more than generate the thinnest image before disappearing again. A thought occurred to her, but she would need to research her idea. Right now, her priority was the men and boys trapped inside the building.

  “I’ll help you all if I can. Right now, hold tight and try not to expend too much energy,” she told William as she stood up.

  He stood up and looked down at her, a question filling his facial features.

  “I think you are trapped here. I need to find out how and why first,” she explained. “The building has a powerful entity in it, I suspect enhanced with the energy of these men. William, how come you are not depleted like the others?”

  “I don’t rightly know, miss. But I can’t move from here but a few dozen yards.”

  Mia’s face lit up. “Do me a favor. I want you to walk with Murphy. Go as far as you can before you feel the pull backwards. Go in every direction. I want to find the center of this tether of yours. When we do, there may be some answers there.”

  “You want to find the end of my chain,” William contemplated.

  “Yes. Until then I have to work on getting the humans out of that building.”

  “We all are chained in the same way,” William said.

  Mia was about to ask him to clarify when he faded away. “I guess I’m on my own here.”

  CRACK!

  “Sorry, Murph, I’m not alone. I have you,” she corrected. Mia turned around and gazed into Murphy’s gray eyes. “Forgive me?”

  Stephen Murphy looked into her eyes and held on for a moment before smiling. He tipped his hat, and he too faded away.

  “Great parlor trick,” Mia called after him in an irritated voice.

  “Mia, come in,” Dave’s voice announced in her ear.

  “Go ahead,” she said as she navigated around the brambles to find her way out of the copse of trees.

  “I hear a car, get your ass back here,” he ordered.

  She wanted to tell him he wasn’t the boss but instead let it go and said, “On my way.”

  Mia reached the back of the building in time to see Homely and Doc alight from a paneled van.

  She ran over and hugged each man as she took in the aroma of food. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

  Doc’s eyes darted back and forth as if looking for paparazzi. The happily married man seemed worried.

  “Doc, don’t have a coronary, she only loves us for our food. We brought pulled pork sandwiches and baked beans.”

  Mia walked over to Homely and fell to her knees. “I worship the ground you walk on, sir.”

  Homely blushed and told her, “Get up, you’re embarrassing me and confusing the boy over there.”

  Dave stuck his head out of the truck and looked on in amusement. He gave a shy wave to the men. One had helped him through rehab, and the other had been responsible for his rescue off the roof of a bar surrounded by two rival ghostly motorcycle gangs.

  “How are you holding up, Mia?” Doc asked, walking towards the command vehicle.

  “I’m not used to being the lady in waiting. The building won’t let me or Dave in. I’d like to try to move out of my body but promised not to do so unless you guys
were here,” she explained.

  “Eat first, you look exhausted,” Homely said, passing by her, carrying a large cooler with several tin banquet-sized containers on top.

  Mia caught the scent of food and followed like a zombie after brain matter.

  Chapter Eight

  Burt turned on the EMF reader in his glasses and pivoted slowly to locate the entity. The gymnasium seemed much larger in the darkness. By the time he located a strong reading, it was too late.

  Mason felt hands on his legs and assumed incorrectly that they were going to move him again. He was yanked off the bleacher, and he saw stars as his head hit the floor. “Help!” he screamed as he was dragged quickly away from his friends.

  Burt followed the trail of bright green, running into Troy as he ran. The entity was heading for the outside wall. The door to the outside burst open. “The door’s open, run for it!” he called. He reached it as it was closing. Burt put his back to the closing door and his feet on the doorjamb, wedging himself in. “I can’t hold it much longer, run, damn it, run!” he ordered.

  Burt felt icy cold hands pulling at him, but he held on. The hands punched, but he did not budge. He saw the youngest kid, Troy, make it out before the entity hit him so hard he lost his grip. Rough hands flung him across the room. He saw the door slam shut which such force the noise reverberated along the metal bleachers for minutes after.

  ~

  “West door is opening!” Mia said, getting to her feet. “Dave, watch the monitor and call out what is happening. Men, you are with me.” Mia ran out and jumped down, running full out around the building. She saw a crumpled form not far from the open door and another crawling fast outside before the door slammed.

  “Mia, it’s Mason on the ground, and Troy just made it out. Burt was holding the door open but was quickly removed. As far as I can tell, no one else made it out,” Dave reported via the ear com.

  Mia reached the boy on the ground. “Mason, can you hear me?” she said as her hands moved over his body. “Doc, I need you,” she called to the approaching men. “He’s got a pulse, but it’s not strong.”

  Doc dropped to his knees and examined the boy. Mia got up and turned on her flashlight in the direction the other boy ran. “Troy!” she called. “We’re here to help you.” She caught movement to her right and found the teenager on his knees, vomiting on the ground.

  Homer ran over to her. “Doc says we’ve got to get the kid to the hospital pronto. How’s this one doing?” he asked.

  “Dry heaving at the moment,” Mia replied. “Take Mason in, maybe this one too. Try to get as much information as you can out of them.” Mia stopped and said, “Please.”

  Homer was touched by the regard she gave him, even if it was an afterthought. He knew from their previous experience, and all Burt had told him about her, that Mia wasn’t used to much social interaction. “I’ll let you know as soon as I know. We may have to involve the police,” he cautioned.

  “Then do it. Personally, I’d rather have a legal battle then dead PEEPs. Besides, I know a good lawyer that owes me a favor,” she informed him.

  “Call him. Give him a heads up just in case,” he suggested.

  “Troy, can you walk?” Mia asked gently.

  “Yes, ma’am, I can. It was horrible in there. If it wasn’t for that big guy, I would still be in there. Dave, where’s Dave?”

  “Dave’s in the truck. Hurry, we have to get Mason to the hospital. You may want to come along, you don’t look so well.”

  “Just coming down, lady,” Troy said. “It’s been awhile since my last hit.”

  Mia winced. “I think you better go along with the others. Mason’s going to need to see a friendly face when he wakes up,” Mia conned him, knowing that Troy would be taken in hand the minute he set foot in the ER.

  “Yeah, I’ve got his back,” Troy lied. He knew that in hospitals there were drugs, and he was meaning to score some.

  Homer had the van already started when Mia reached them with Troy. Dave whistled, and she jumped in the back of the command truck, relieving him so he could see his friends.

  “He looks horrible,” Dave said as the interior light came on when Troy opened the side door. Doc was holding Mason’s head on his lap.

  “We’ve got to go. He’s breathing, but I fear he’s got internal bleeding. Jump in, if you’re coming.”

  “No. Richie is still in there, and Mia’s alone. I’ll stay here. Call us. Keep us in the loop, Doc,” Dave pleaded.

  Troy got in, and Dave shut the van door. Homer backed out. As soon as the van was in drive, he wasted no time leaving the school lot.

  Dave stood there a minute watching the taillights disappear. He thought about how his bad choices had led him and Richie down this path. “For god’s sake, I’m almost an adult, and I’m still acting like a child,” he chided. “From now on, I’ve got to think before I do things.”

  The sounds of metal tapping on concrete seem to punctuate his vow. He turned to see Murphy and William standing there, an old man with an axe and a young one in uniform. Both of them seemed to understand the hurt he felt inside.

  ~

  The lights came on. Burt raised his head from the floor and counted the males in the room, four PEEPs, four teens.

  Mike ran over and knelt down next to Burt. “You got two out.”

  “One. The entity took the other one. It dragged him by his feet. I hope the kid is still alive, but he wasn’t moving when I last saw him,” Burt told him.

  “Ted, Cid and John think we’re in a video game of sorts. We’re being controlled by locked doors.”

  Burt sat up and accepted Mike’s help to his feet. “I think they are on the right track. It seems very familiar. But why and by whom is the question. When we answer this, we may find a way out of here that doesn’t involve near death experiences. That kid, Mason, he was one tough son-of-a-bitch to make it this far.”

  “Richie says if he weren’t an SOB then he wouldn’t have been hurt that badly. Says that every time instructions were given, the kid rebelled. I don’t know to be proud of the kid or slap him upside the head,” Mike mused.

  “Let’s play things by its rules until we can see a way out, or a way for Murphy to get in. Then we will let the man with the axe do all the talking,” Burt said, brushing off his pants. “I wonder what this white stuff is?”

  “Salt,” Cid said, walking up. “I think it’s residue from the stuff being pumped through the vents. I tasted it, its salt.”

  “Excuse me, sirs,” Josh Jansen said, approaching the trio. “Do any of you have a ciggy? I’m going through withdrawal.”

  Mike patted his pockets and came up with a squashed pack of filters. “How old are you kid?”

  “Eighteen,” Josh lied.

  “Here’s the deal. I give you one. I’ll ration them.”

  “He’s a kid, and you’re giving him a cigarette. Dumb move,” Burt warned.

  “Look at those yellow fingers and teeth, the kid isn’t a virgin to tobacco,” Mike argued. “We need everyone alert and at their best.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “It will be on my head, not PEEPs,” Mike said firmly and handed the bent coffin nail to Josh.

  Josh grabbed it and ran off before Burt could talk some sense into Mike.

  “Note to Ted, edit this conversation out,” Burt said.

  “Oh shit, I forgot. You are filming, aren’t you?” Mike said, smacking his forehead with his hand.

  “For another hour we are. Unless Ted’s got a way to recharge this thing.”

  Cid who’d been silent throughout the whole ordeal smiled. “The Professor has no doubt thought it out and will come up with something, Skipper. I hope it didn’t involve that nine-volt battery he sacrificed.”

  The crackle of static filled the gym. The sound system was up and running. A gruff male voice announced, “Sit down!”

  Everyone sat down in the spot they were standing.

  “Sit down, together in the bleachers!
” It corrected.

  They got up and moved to sidelines and sat stretched out on the bottom seat.

  The lights went out again. They heard a double set of doors open and the squeak of wheels and the bounce of balls as equipment was being placed in the basketball court. Each male fought the urge to speak. No one wanted to incur the wrath of the entity.

  Burt watched as the mass of green EMT moved across the floor and up to the ceiling. He had a bad feeling about what kind of test could involve such heights. The lights went on, and his fears were confirmed.

  Before them was an obstacle course. The obstacles were stations of physical fitness tests. It started with a balance beam, followed by rings, tire runs, hurdles and - the final test that turned Burt’s blood to ice - a rope climb. He noticed that there weren’t any safety pads on the floor. If he fell, he would no doubt break either a limb or his neck.

  The sound system cracked again. A shrill whistle sounded. “Line up,” the voice barked.

  Chuck, used to these kinds of drills from his football days, took the lead. Josh fell in behind him. Ted and Cid lined up next. After them, John and Richie stood. Mike and Burt took up the rear.

  Chuck turned around and announced, “Dudes, watch what I do, and if I make it, do the same. Remember, you don’t have to be strong or thin to succeed, just determined,” he coached. He turned and prepared himself by doing a few stretches.

  The whistle sounded and the test began. Chuck mounted the balance beam and walked across. At the end he simply jumped off. Next, he pushed a set of block steps up and climbed them. He took a hold of each ring firmly and kicked the steps away from him. He dangled a moment before raising himself up until he had his arms locked and the rings stilled. A whistle sounded, and he lowered himself and jumped down, replacing the steps before he left that station. He then navigated the tire rings by running while lifting his feet into and out of the rings. He was breathless after and gave himself a moment to rest. The whistle sounded a warning, and he stepped up to the mini track and began to run. He approached the hurdle and shot his foot out while raising the trailing leg, bending it to clear the hurdle. He paced himself and cleared the remaining three before he allowed himself to slow to a stop in front of the rope.