Puzzle (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Ira wheeled around and faced a young man in patched blue uniform. He had his hat in his hand. Ira recognized the brass infantry horn adorning the Jeff Davis hat. This wasn’t a man but a ghost from the Civil War.

  “You can see me?” Ira asked.

  “Not when your fidgeting, you’re just a blur. Calm down, slow down and tell me what has got you crying. You lose someone?”

  “Difficult to say. I think I lost me. I’m trapped here and can’t get home.”

  The man smiled and held out a hand. “Then you’re one of us. My name is Andrew Morgan, and I’ve been dead and lost for neigh on one hundred and fifty years.”

  “Ira Levisohn,” he said and tried to grasp the ghost’s hand but couldn’t. “Sorry, don’t know why, but I’m not solid enough.”

  “You a Jewish boy? The reason I ask is I never met a Jewish boy before. Back where I’m from we’re all Methodist.”

  “Dad is, mom’s not. I don’t have a religious affiliation at present.”

  Andrew nodded his head in understanding. “Just say not practicing, it is less confusing for the others,” he advised.

  “Wait, what did you say? There are others?” Ira asked excitedly.

  “Sure are. They are, at present, chasing down the bastard that trapped us here. He’s a nasty piece of rubbish. Big booger with a broken neck.”

  “Coach King,” Ira told him. “He’s an arrogant son-of-a-bitch. Last thing I remember is he forced me to run until this happened.” He turned and displayed his semitransparent state to the young soldier.

  “Boy, you’re welcome to put your bedroll next to mine. I’ll look after you until we find a way out of this mess we got ourselves in. There is a little woman out there with a glowing cube. It gave us the energy to move away from the fire. Soon, we will be on our way home. I suppose we could take a detour and set you right too,” he offered.

  “I’d like that, Andrew. This woman wouldn’t be named Mia would she?”

  The shock on the man’s face answered his question.

  “I met her fiancé… well… not exactly met, but I gave him a message to let them know I was here. I heard them talking about her. I wondered what she was like.”

  “Dressed like a boy and walks out with an axe-carrying ghost. Not someone you want to mess around with. Surprised she nabbed herself a man,” Andrew commented. “She’s yea tall.” He held his hand at his chest. “She’s got white hair, piercing green eyes and bossy.”

  “Oh. I had a different picture painted of her.”

  “Sorry,” Andrew said.

  “You mentioned others…”

  Andrew put his hand to his head. “Plumb forgot about my company. We serve under Cap’n Shelby. We were transporting a prisoner, mean monster, when he got the best of us. That’s all I remember, and then I wake up here, chained to these parts with the others. Don’t know what happened to the prisoner though.”

  Ira was fascinated. If this was a dream, it was a great one. The man before him couldn’t have been much older than a teenager, but he had a haunted look to him. The hard times of war had taken his youth and left lines and dirt in the place of youth and milk. “I’d love to meet your friends, sir.”

  “Well, come on then. Last I saw, they were chasing down that oaf on the first floor. Maybe we can catch up and do a little chasing ourselves.”

  Ira nodded and followed the man out the door. He was careful to not move too fast as Andrew couldn’t see him otherwise. They passed through the door to the stairs and started down.

  A piece of pink paper laid half in and half out the door. Ira tilted his head to read it as they walked by.

  Ira, we have not forgotten you.

  We will be back.

  PEEPs

  He was about to mention it when he spied Coach King walking towards them. He turned to run, but Private Morgan stepped behind him. “Where you going, boy?”

  “You said you were with Captain Shelby,” Ira accused.

  “I was, but only until I saw my chance. Yonder inside that big shell of a man is my half-brother Trevor Deville. I couldn’t see him hang so I liberated him. Funny thing though, he ended up hung anyway.”

  “Shut up, Andrew,” a voice came out of Coach King’s mouth that did not sound at all like the man Ira remembered. “What’s this?”

  “A hostage. We can use him to get out of here.”

  “Why would you want to leave, Andrew, you just got here,” Deville asked. “I’ve been having fun looking for a new meat puppet. This time I found me a smart fella, tall and quick on his feet. He was the best of the bunch of recruits. There was this other young one, you might like to inhabit. I lost them when you idiots charged in here. I figure, we wait until things are still and go out there and drag in our fresh bodies.”

  “Dear brother, why go out when we have bait?” Andrew said, holding up a wrinkled pink paper he picked up off the floor.

  Ira turned to run. But he had the outside wall to his back and the two brothers in front of him. He tried to push through the wall, but it wouldn’t give. Instead he willed himself once again into the floor.

  “Where’s the bait?” howled Deville.

  Andrew whipped around and stared behind him. “He’s gone.”

  “He can’t leave. I put the four protections into place. He may have slipped through your fingers, but he’ll never leave this building,” Deville snarled.

  Ira looked up at them from the familiar prison. He waited until they moved down the hall, flexing his finger to remain mobile. When he no longer sensed their presence, he reached up and pulled himself out. He needed to warn the people outside of the danger within. But first he needed to find Captain Shelby and warn him of the enemy that walked amongst them.

  Chapter Twenty

  Mason sat on the ground, a pile of bricks to his side. He shifted and moved them until he saw the original pattern. A shadow cut into the meager early evening light that penetrated through the trees.

  “You’re standing in my light, dude.”

  “Whatcha doing?” a very female voice asked him.

  “Sorry, Mia, could you shift over? I’m trying to make it easier for the high-wire act by sending them up bricks in the order they need to be laid.”

  “Smart thinking, you want my help?”

  Mason was going to tell her to fuck off but decided to build a bridge instead. “I’m looking for a half piece. I tried all the other ones, and it doesn’t fit.”

  Mia looked at the bricks around the hole and the placement. Her moss green eyes lit up. “I remember now. I started to pry that off, and Murphy ended up pulling it free with his axe. It flew while the other bricks fell straight down.” Mia walked up to the building and centered herself under the open window space. She then moved her hand this way and that. She pulled out her flashlight and began shining it in the direction she remembered the brick being launched in.

  Mason got to his feet and followed her into the woods.

  “Somewhere around here, I believe. Murph’s quite strong, I bet it had to fly fifty feet before it landed,” she said as she pulled brambles up and looked under the berry plants.

  “Doesn’t help that the leaves are the color of the bricks,” Mason said.

  “Dead leaves, dead building, dead on,” Mia recited. She moved the flashlight and a glint of metal attracted her eye. “Well lookie here.” She got on her knees and began to tug at something. “It’s not the brick so keep looking,” she told him.

  Mia shifted her weight and tugged hard. The earth gave up its treasure, sending Mia flying backward, landing hard on her behind. She started laughing.

  Mason moved to help her up. “Are you alright?”

  “Oh yes, just injured my pride,” she said and giggled. “What do you think this is?” she asked him.

  Mia held up a metal box similar to an old lunch box. It was flat on one side and rounded on the other. It had a metal handle and a dirt-encrusted latch. Mia rubbed off most of the soil and found a few state names scratched on the bot
tom.

  “It looks like a mess kit,” Mason said. “Patrick collects stuff like that. Oh, shit, he’ll be back soon. We better find that brick.”

  “Hold on,” Mia said as she shifted her bottom. “Here.” She held up the piece they were looking for. “I landed on it.”

  It was Mason’s turn to laugh. “That’s putting your whole body into the job.”

  Mia smiled and joined in with the laughter. She accepted his hand up, and the two of them walked back to finish Mason’s project.

  Murphy moved out of the shadows. He looked at the hole left by the extraction of the tin bucket and dug around a bit with his axe. His cast-iron axe found more metal. He began to dig and unearthed something he hadn’t seen for a while. It was a Springfield rifle with the bayonet affixed. This didn’t make any sense. Sure, he’d found discarded weapons sometimes in the old woods before, but this was buried stock to blade upright in the ground. He looked at the setting sun, and it was in line with the hole he found the weapon in.

  He looked over at Mia, but she was busy with the young battered man. He didn’t want to disturb them. He instead moved quickly to the command center and scratched along the side.

  Ted walked to the edge and jumped down. “What can I do for you, Murphy?”

  Murphy pointed to Ted and then to him and then towards the front of the building.

  “Give me a minute.” Ted hopped back up and picked up an iPad and after a few key strokes transferred control to the small thin tablet. He hurried off the truck and followed Murphy, his long legs breaking into a run as the ghost increased his speed.

  “What the fuck is that?” Ted said panting from his run. He bent down and ran his hand over the rifle. “Where did you find this?”

  Murphy indicated the place. Ted’s eyes moved from it to the rifle. “I see your quandary. If this Springfield rifle had been buried a hundred and fifty years ago, it would be as deformed with corrosion and wood rot as your axe was. Rusted metal would all that would be left. But it’s almost as if it hasn’t seen but three winters at most. Did you find anything else?”

  Murphy shook his head, but he pointed to Mia who was still concentrating on the reassembling of the window bricks. Beside her was a tin mess kit.

  Ted touched his ear com and spoke softly, “Mia, darling, stop playing blocks and turn around.”

  Mia pivoted and smiled. “I see you and Murphy in the woods. Spying on me or just playing hide and seek?”

  “Neither. Come on over and bring that kit with you.”

  “K.”

  Ted watched as Mia excused herself, picked up the pail and walked over.

  “Whatcha doing in the woods? Hey, look what I found,” she said, displaying the Civil War mess kit proudly.

  “Look what Murphy found,” Ted said and stepped away to reveal Murphy’s prize.

  “Oh my lord, that looks almost new. Was that buried…”

  “Just below the mess kit according to Murphy.” Ted went on to describe how it was buried. “Do you think it has something to do with the… Okay, stupid question.”

  “May I?” Mia asked Murphy. He nodded and let Mia pick up the rifle. She shone her flashlight along the stock and then handed it back to Murphy. She upturned the kit and under the etched state names was another name. “Deville,” she read out. “Here it looked like Devil, but the etching on the stock of the barrel says Deville. I say we are in the possession of personal effects of a soldier named Deville. Why they are so cared for baffles me. Being buried in such a way tells me that black magic is at play.”

  “There’s no such thing as magic, pumpkin,” Ted reminded her.

  “Tisk tisk, magic before science…”

  “All in compliance,” Ted answered.

  “Science before magic…”

  “Things could get tragic,” he ended.

  “If we believe that Murphy stands before us then we can’t discount that magic, both good and bad, has some kind of hold in this world. Whether it’s the manifestation of evil or good, it exists,” Mia said solemnly.

  Ted wrinkled his face. “I’m not buying it.”

  “Think of it this way. Someone has found a way to manipulate atoms in such a way to change things, like splitting one…” Mia let the thought hang in the air awhile.

  “You almost had me. Okay, if this is magic, can we move it?”

  Mia held up the tin bucket and looked over at Murphy who was looking down the sight of the rifle and admitted, “We already have. I think we ought to secure this like we did the dueling pistols at the Hoffman house.”

  “But if it has something to do with the creature inside then salt won’t affect it.”

  “Shit, you’re right.” Mia thought a moment. “Lead. A lead box?”

  “Worked for Kryptonite.”

  Mia started laughing. “You don’t believe in magic, but yet you find that comic book references hold scientific weight.”

  “Yes, of course. I’m a nerd.”

  “Board certified,” Mia said under her breath.

  “Pardon?”

  Mia ignored him and walked over to Murphy. “Murph, can I have the rifle? I’ll keep it safe,” Mia said.

  Murphy reluctantly handed it to her. He motioned that he was going to watch the builders and left.

  “Let’s get these items into lead as soon as possible and see what happens.” Mia handed him the rifle.

  “Ah, now you’re talking, cause and effect. You really are brilliant, Professor Cooper.”

  Mia winced.

  “Sorry, too many Professor Coopers already.”

  “Amen to that,” she said and let the error roll off. “Come on, genius, do your stuff and find us a lead box long enough for this rifle.”

  “Well , I think I know a guy…”

  “Not Angelo,” Mia qualified.

  “No. This is a comic book guy, thinks he’s Superman.”

  “No…”

  “Yes. Cid has a lead-lined box he keeps his comic book collection in. It’s back at the house, but he could get it to us in a few hours.”

  “How long has he been asleep at the motel?”

  “Three hours.”

  “That’s enough for Superman,” Mia said. “Call him.”

  “Yes, ma’am! Speaking of boxes, you know we had to build our own coffins in woodshop? Seems symbolic somehow,” Ted mused.

  “How many coffins?” Mia asked, interested.

  “Four, one for each of us,” Ted answered.

  “Are you sure they were for you guys?”

  “Don’t know, thought so at the time. Richie’s and mine needed extra wood, cuz we’re giants.”

  Mia smiled. “Good looking giants too.”

  “Richie is a child, leave him alone. You’re mine, woman,” Ted said half in jest.

  “Dope. Where was I? Oh yes. The wood was laid out for you…” Mia fished.

  “Actually it was, in four piles. I had to scrounge around and get enough wood to extend the coffins to fit the kid and me.”

  “They weren’t for you,” Mia pointed out. “The puzzlement is why only four.” She stopped moving, closed her eyes and was silent.

  “Earth to Mia, vocalize all of your thoughts; I’m not following you,” Ted complained.

  “There were five soldiers given the task of bringing another to justice. You made four coffins, which could be just a coincidence, but if not, and it’s the entity wanting them for his enemies, four coffins for a squad of five…”

  “You mean, one of them wasn’t one of the good guys,” Ted realized.

  “I energized five soldiers and sent them in there. One wasn’t on our side. Now we have two bad entities, and one is hiding in plain sight,” Mia lamented.

  “Audrey’s got Homely’s research. She drove Mike to get us some supplies. They should be back soon. If we can put names to the soldiers, maybe we will be able to sort this out,” Ted said. “In the meanwhile, Murphy’s got to be informed that all is not right with his band of brothers.”

 
“I’ll talk to him.

  Ted left carrying the rifle and the mess kit. Mia walked over to Murphy who stood watching Homely and Patrick set up their gear.

  She concentrated and reached out and touched his arm. He turned and looked down at her fondly.

  “I have something important to tell you.”

  Murphy nodded and extended his elbow, and Mia took it as they walked away from the building. When they had gone what Mia felt was a safe distance, she unburdened herself to him. He listened and looked several times back at the building.

  “One of them is dangerous. I just don’t know who yet. Be careful. You may also want to let Captain Shelby know if you see him.”

  Murphy nodded. He turned and pointed to Mia and shook his head.

  “But it is my fault,” she insisted. “I sent a turbo-charged spirit into that school. My error, my fix.”

  Murphy shook his head again. He pointed to himself and then to her.

  “Okay, our fix,” she said and smiled. “Thank you for having my back.”

  Murphy tipped his hat and motioned that they should return. Mia walked next to her friend and began to feel stronger. Sleepiness was replaced with determination. She had been fooled by a spirit, and she’d be damned if she would let him get away with it. She was going to rescue Ira and get justice for the damned.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Audrey slowed the car as they passed the front of the school. The re-bricking of the window was almost completed. She and Mike watched as Homely and Patrick with the help of Mason and Doc - who were feeding them bricks as fast as they laid them - worked feverishly to be finished before nightfall. They were losing light fast. Mia had climbed up on the roof and was hanging over it, holding one of Ted’s mega lights.

  “Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” Mike commented.

  “Don’t let the Union get drift of it,” Audrey said as she continued to the back of the building.

  They found Ted busy downloading images and audio from Burt’s eyeglasses. He waved his hand absentmindedly until he caught a whiff of food.

  “Is that a hamburger?” he asked.