“What do we have here?” Johann said as he picked up the small paperback book and opened it.
“Johann, isn’t that tampering with evidence?” Robert’s eyes were wide, and he was reaching for Johann’s hand that held the book. Johann looked at him and smirked.
“Yes. But, we’re the Secret Service, remember? We can do whatever we want in the name of national security.” He went back to looking through the text. “We need this. It’s her journal. If there’s any information in here about the last few days, we need to have it.” He closed the book and held it tightly in his hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”
The two exited the room and walked down the steps. As they came to the police officer at the door, the officer saw the book in Johann’s hand.
“Where do you think you’re going with that?” the police officer asked. He put his hand up to stop Johann and Robert. Johann put his head down and looked at the officer over the top rim of his glasses.
“This is her journal. It has highly classified information in it, and it’s going back to Washington with us. You have a problem with that, Officer?” Johann said, staring at the policeman. The officer swallowed hard to try and hide his intimidation. He locked eyes with Johann in an attempt to stare down the demon hunter. That failed. He lowered his arm to let the two men pass.
“No, sir. I just wanted to know. I guess national security wins out,” the officer said weakly.
“Thank you. You’re a fine citizen. You should apply to the Secret Service. We could use more men like you,” Johann said as he and Robert walked out the door.
The two demon hunters walked smartly back to the waiting Mustang. When they got in the car, Johann handed the journal to Robert to hold for the trip back to the motel. Instead of driving past the house, Johann pulled out of the parking spot and turned around to go back the way they came.
As they drove away, Johann unbuttoned his jacket and loosened his tie. He looked over at Robert who had already done the same. Robert could feel his muscles relax as the tension left him. He was trembling lightly as he let out an audible exhale.
“You weren’t nervous, were you?” Johann asked with a half-smile. Robert looked at him and drew his brows together.
“What do you think? It’s bad enough to impersonate a police officer, but a government agent?” Johann chuckled lightly. He found his friend’s discomfort more than a little amusing.
“Piece of cake,” Johann said. He looked at Robert. “Don’t worry. After you’ve done this a few times, you’ll get used to it.”
Robert rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. Can’t wait for that.”
“No problem. As long as you act like you belong there, the cops don’t ask questions.”
“Are you serious? They can’t really be that gullible, can they?”
“Okay. Let me clarify. Patrol officers won’t question you because they don’t want the paperwork. Now if that guy would have been brass, we might have had a little problem. I might have had to rough him up a little more.” He looked at Robert who was staring at him in disbelief. “Verbally, I mean. I would have had to verbally rough him up a little more.” He gave Robert a smile. “Still. I’m proud of you. You did good, Bobby.”
Robert turned and grimaced at Johann. “Don’t call me Bobby. I hate Bobby. Just call me Bob.”
“Okay, Bob. Whatever you say. I’m still proud of ya,” Johann answered, smirking. Mental note to me. Hates being called Bobby.
-7-
Johann and Robert had been back in the motel room and going through the deceased mayor’s journal for several hours when Belinda and David arrived. Robert opened the door to allow the two to enter.
Johann looked over at them as they came in and sat on the beds. Jeez. How tiring could it be to watch someone get sworn in?
“Is it really that tiring, guys?” Johann asked. Belinda looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah. There’s more to it than just sitting there and watching, you know. We have to arrange who we’re going to talk to, get permission from all the pertinent people, schedule the interviews—” Belinda started
“Okay. I just asked,” Johann interrupted, putting his hands up in surrender. He turned his attention back to the journal that was in front of him on the table.
“We did notice something odd, and found out some juicy information, though,” David said. Belinda looked at him and drew her lips into a tight straight line, indicating he should stop talking. He looked at her and raised his eyebrows.
“No, Belinda. You said yourself that you thought it might be important.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Belinda said, scratching her head. “I’m sorry. It’s just my reporter instinct to stop anyone from revealing anything before I could.”
“What was odd, and what’s so interesting?” asked Johann. Belinda turned her attention to the demon hunter.
“What was odd was we noticed that when he was sworn in, the mayor didn’t actually touch the Bible. He floated his hand about an inch away from it,” Belinda said. Johann lifted his eyebrow and stroked his mustache.
“That is weird,” Robert said.
“Also, remember I said in my dream there was something wrong with the water?”
“I remember that,” Robert said.
“Well as it turns out, this new mayor wants to build a new water treatment plant on the outskirts of town.”
“So, there really is something wrong with the water?” asked Johann. The reporter looked at him sideways.
“No. Evidently the water is just fine.”
Johann and Robert looked at each other, then back to Belinda. Johann knitted his brow and narrowed his eyes.
“And that is important because…?” Johann asked. Belinda looked at David, then back to the two demon hunters.
“That’s important not because he wants to build a new plant. It’s important because of where he wants to build it. I overheard some of the townspeople talking, and evidently the site he chose used to be a church. It struck me as odd that the people would be so upset about this, so I asked around.
“Evidently, the church was destroyed over a hundred years ago. The local legend is that a demon had possessed some of the people in town. They were all brought to this church for a group exorcism.
“The battle was so hard fought that the entire church ended up engulfed in flames. Not only were the possessed people and the priest killed, but the demon was trapped on the grounds. People believe that if the site is disturbed and the remains of the church removed, the demon will escape.”
Johann and Robert again looked at each other.
“That makes sense,” Johann said, turning his attention to the journal. “Here, listen to this. ‘I had a meeting tonight with Malcolm. He wants to build a new water treatment plant. While I think that’s a great idea, I told him we can’t put it where he wants it. He wants to put it where the old church ruins are on River Road. He argued that having it so close to the river would be a plus. I agree with that, but I can’t let him unleash that evil if it really exists. He didn’t take it well that we need to find a different location. I don’t know what’s worse, the wickedness in that place or his temper.’ Now, we know why she had all that stuff in her room,” he said looking at Robert, who drew his mouth into a straight line and nodded.
David and Belinda looked at them and knitted their brows. “What stuff?” the reporter asked. Johann looked over at her.
“Bob and I got into the house today—”
“How did you do that?” interrupted David.
“That’s a whole other story,” Johann said. “Suffice it to say cops around here don’t ask a lot of questions when they’re intimidated. Anyway, we got into the house, and we were searching her room. Bob found a jewelry box full of cat’s eye and sapphire jewelry. I found a partially burned bundle of sage in her closet. All of those items are known to drive away evil spirits. Now we know why she was expecting demons. Her vice mayor was going to unleash one. Whether he knew it or not is somethi
ng we have to find out.”
“So, what was it you were just reading?” Belinda asked.
“Oh, that’s another thing we found. A book on deciphering dreams, and this,” Johann held the book up for David and Belinda to see. “Her personal journal,” he said with a smug smile.
“I’m not surprised she had that book on dreams,” Belinda said. “Becky said that her mother was having nightmares and wanted to find out what they meant.”
Johann looked at her quickly. “You talked with the kids?”
“No. Not both of them. Just Becky.”
“Did she say how long the mayor was having these nightmares for?” asked Johann.
“She said that she noticed her mom didn’t seem to be sleeping right about three weeks ago. She said her mother didn’t say anything about it until about two weeks ago when she told Becky she was having nightmares. She also said that she knew her mother was trying to ward off evil spirits in the house, even though the mother never told her that.”
“If her mother never told her that, how did she know?” asked Robert.
“She said she noticed her mother had suddenly decided to buy a lot of jewelry with, as she called it, special stones. She also saw her mother burning sage in the house one day. She said she has friends who are into witchcraft and the occult, and when she told them what her mother was doing, they told her what it meant.”
“Oh great. Even stronger ties to the occult. Just what we need,” Robert said sarcastically.
Johann turned his attention to the journal and started going through the pages.
“So, about a month or so ago was when it started. Let’s see what we can find,” Johann said. He thumbed through the pages looking for anything that might mention the start of the nightmares. He stopped suddenly and brought his finger down hard on the page. Belinda jumped from his sudden motion.
“Ah-ha. Here it is. This entry in her journal was from a month ago. Listen to this. ‘Against my wishes, Malcolm had a contractor go out to the burned church and start removing the rubble. Whether I stop him now or not is irrelevant. The damage is done.’ I’m afraid he may have removed enough rubble to free the malevolence.” He turned the page to see what the journal entry for the next day was.
“And here’s the proof. ‘I didn’t sleep well last night. Had a nightmare. Haven’t had one of those in years. Awful night. Also had a meeting with Malcolm today. I told him I didn’t approve of him having that contractor remove the rubble—of course, I didn’t dare tell him why. He said it made the town look cleaner with all the debris removed. He’s right, it does look cleaner, but is that legend true? I think we all need protection. I will pray.’ That was the day after they began to remove the rubble.”
Everyone in the room was silent for a moment and looked at each other. Belinda could feel her skin tingle.
“I think we have another problem,” she said.
“What’s that?” asked Johann.
“Becky said she’s been having nightmares lately, too. We should keep an eye on her.”
Johann sat back in his chair and stroked his mustache. His eyes went from Belinda, to David, to Robert, to Belinda, then back again to the journal as he thought.
“We do have to keep an eye on her. The demon’s gonna come for her, no doubt. But what can we use as an excuse? If it really is a Night Mare, like I suspect, then it can only get her when she’s asleep.”
“We could try something novel. We could try telling her the truth,” David said. Johan looked at him and raised his eyebrows.
“Really? Just walk in there and say, ‘Hey, we’re here to protect you because we think a demon’s going to come and get you.’ You really think she’s gonna believe us?”
“Why not? She already knows about the legend of that church. She knows what happened to her mother, and how her mother was trying to ward off evil spirits. Why wouldn’t she believe us?”
“What about a salt circle around the area where the church was? Could that work, Johann?” asked Robert. Johann twisted his mouth in thought.
“No. I don’t think so. For one thing, we would need a hell of a lot of salt for that. But more importantly, if the demon has been doing this, then it’s already out. All we would be doing is wasting salt and time.” He looked at David. “I think Dave might be right. We may just have to go to her and tell her the truth. If she has friends who are into the occult, she just might believe us. Worst case scenario she’ll think we’re crazy, and we’ll have to find another way. I think we should go pay her a visit.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“I think tomorrow would be better,” said David.
“Why is that?” asked Robert.
“She’s pretty busy, today. She’s arranging the wake and funeral,” said Belinda.
“Do you know when she’s planning the wake for?” asked Johann. Belinda looked at him. “Tomorrow.”
“Okay. I think the four of us should go to pay our final respects tomorrow, and also talk with Becky. Hopefully, that thing won’t get her tonight. Keep our televisions on and tuned into the local news. If anything happens, we need to know about it,” Johann said.
“That’s a good idea,” Belinda agreed.
“Also, I think Bob and I should go out tonight to where that church was and look around,” Johann added.
“What would we be looking for?” asked Robert.
“We’re going to make sure there is no demon or any kind of evil spirits out there. If there are, then we might be dealing with something else here that has nothing to do with that place.”
“How are we gonna know if something is there or not?” asked Robert.
Johann went over to his bags and took out a small device. It was about the size of a small handheld radio. It had four little lights on the top and a meter on the side. He walked back over to the group with it in his hand.
“With this,” said Johann. He turned it on to test it. The lights lit briefly then went out. The needle on the meter was on “0,” and it emitted a faint but steady static sound. Johann turned in a half circle to check the immediate surroundings, then turned it off again.
“What is that thing?” asked Robert.
“This, my friend, is an EMF detector,” answered Johann. Robert’s face lit up. He knew what an EMF detector was and what it was used for. He had never seen one.
“I didn’t know you had one of those,” Robert said.
“What’s an EMF detector?” asked Belinda.
“What this does—” Johann started.
“Spirits and demons give off what’s called electromagnetic frequencies. These are referred to as EMFs. This little gadget helps to detect those frequencies. If we’re using one in an area where nothing else like power lines, or electric appliances, are giving off EMFs, then the only thing that could be giving them off would be a wraith or demon,” Robert interrupted. Johann looked at him surprised. Robert looked at him and smiled.
“Didn’t think I knew that, did you?” Robert asked.
“Nope. Had no idea,” Johann said, shaking his head. “Why did you ask me what it was if you knew?”
“I knew what they were, but I never saw one before,” answered Robert.
“So, with that you’ll be able to know if the demon is still at the church ruins or not?” asked Belinda.
“That’s right. Bob and I will go there tonight and take some readings. If we get some response, then maybe that thing is still trapped, and we’re dealing with something else. If there’s no response, that will either mean the thing escaped, or it never existed,” Johann explained.
Robert looked at him. He didn’t relish the idea of going demon hunting tonight, but he didn’t want Johann to possibly think badly of him. Besides, he knew that he could count on being relatively safe with Johann there, right? After all, Johann did keep his word and protect him in Bucktown, just like he said he would. Still it is wrought with danger. Anything can happen on a hunt…anything.
Johann looked over and saw that Robert was staring blankly
into space.
“Bob,” Johann said, snapping his fingers. “Bob, you alright? What’s on your mind?”
Bob blinked several times rapidly and looked around the room.
“What? Oh, nothing Johann. I was just thinking.”
“We can see that. What were you thinking about?” Johann asked as he leaned a little closer to Robert. “You’re not going to get cold feet on me, are you?”
“What? No,” Robert said, forcing a smile. “Of course not. I guess I just wasn’t ready to go out hunting tonight…” his voice trailed off.
“We always have to be ready to go on a moment’s notice. You’ll get used to it,” Johann said, trying to calm his friend’s nerves.
Robert looked down at his lap. He almost felt ashamed of himself for feeling the way he was.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it,” he said weakly. Johann reached over and put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. Robert looked up and locked eyes with Johann.
“I promised you and your brother that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, remember?” Johann asked. Robert looked down at his lap and nodded. “So, don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen to you. But we are going to kick some demon ass…again.”
Robert looked at Johann, then at Belinda and David. He was feeling some new found strength in Johann’s words and he liked it. He remembered the feeling in Mountainview when that shoulder holster went on for the first time. The same feeling of strength and invulnerability that was beginning to make its way through him now. Robert knew there was only one question that he had to ask.
“Do I get to use the new shotgun?” Robert asked.
“If we find something, yes you will get to use the new shotgun. With the new salt shells,” Johann said. “Which reminds me, we better get to work and make some.”
“Look. I don’t know what you guys are gonna make, and I don’t wanna know what you guys are gonna make. Dave and I are going back to our room. We’re beat,” Belinda said. She and David got up from the bed they were sitting on and walked out the door.
Night Mares Page 7
