Fear stole her breath away as she raced from vacant room to vacant room, desperate for a way out. It was coming. She was running out of time.
She heard a laugh so deep it rumbled throughout the entire house, trembling the very foundation. It seemed to come at her from all directions, giving her no clue as to where the beast was hiding.
For she was certain it was no mere spirit she faced this time. It was a monster—a violent, bloodthirsty being released from the bowels of Hell itself.
And it wasn’t going to stop until it consumed her very soul.
The doors all around her in the upstairs hallway suddenly slammed shut in unison, the echoing bang shuddering deep down to her bones. A shadowy mass emerged from the darkness, pulsating with vehement hate. An abhorrent, reddish-black skeletal figure formed within the shadow, with an empty face save for a hideous mouth spread wide in an evil grin. Rows of sharp, pointed teeth smiled out at her. Spindly hands grasped the air as the malevolent laugh vibrated through the hall yet again.
Jackie whirled around to run, only to scream as fire ripped the skin of her back to shreds. It burned with all the vicious heat of Hell, and she knew the beast had her. Its claws closed over her throat and abdomen, dragging her into its nightmare.
She jolted awake, a scream lodged in her chest. The burning on her back continued, and she frantically reached around to feel her skin. She was suddenly aware of Alex beside her, still half-asleep.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She struggled to catch her breath, tears streaming down her cheeks as she leapt from the bed and ran for the bathroom. She flicked on the light and removed her shirt, turning to inspect her back in the mirror.
It was just as she feared.
Her hand came up to cover her mouth, barely muffling a horrified gasp. Alex was at her side in seconds, following her gaze to the reflection in the mirror.
She saw his eyes widen at the sight of three vertical scratch marks, vividly red against her dusted gold skin. She could see him struggling to process it, to understand the how and the why.
To her, it was all so clear.
“It’s a mocking of the Holy Trinity,” she mumbled, the burning sensation subsiding. She pulled her shirt back on, her knees trembling as she lowered to the floor of the bathroom. She rested her head against the wall and sighed. Gatsby trotted in, a low growl humming in his throat as he climbed into her lap and licked her face.
Alex stared down at her, at a loss for words. “It did this to you? In a dream?”
Jackie nodded, shutting her eyes wearily as she rubbed Gatsby’s soft fur. “We’re dealing with a demon, Alex. I’m sure of it.”
She felt him sit beside her, his arms encircling her body. He held her close, kissing the top of her head protectively.
“You’re not going back into that house,” he murmured, caressing her waves of black hair. She could feel the fear and anger radiating off him. “It’s affecting you too much. It’s not safe.”
“You don’t have to protect me, darling,” she reminded him, even as she leaned into him for comfort. “I can handle this.”
“I don’t think you can,” he protested, urging her to look at him. “I’ve seen you struggle night after night with these nightmares. Now it’s hurt you—physically hurt you—and you want me to just pretend like it’s all okay? It’s not, Jackie. None of this is okay.”
She gathered Gatsby into her arms and stood, avoiding Alex’s gaze. “I have to follow through with this, whether you like it or not.”
“Why?” he demanded, rising to meet her. He followed her into the bedroom, crossing his arms. “Let us call in a priest or something. Why do you have to go back there?”
“For the same reason you do,” she replied firmly, setting Gatsby down so she could change into a fresh outfit. She wasn’t going to fall back asleep at this point, and the investigation was only hours away. “Because I want to help, and because I have to see it through till the end. My role in this is far from over.”
“Well, we’re still calling a damn priest,” Alex grumbled, far from happy with her decision but seeming to understand he wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“I agree. A priest will need to bless the house,” Jackie explained, going to him with a solemn smile. “We’ll continue with the investigation tonight. We need to find out as much as we can about this demon before we can successfully banish it.”
Alex hugged her tightly. “I still don’t like you walking into the lion’s den like this.”
“I know.” She kissed him tenderly. “No one said this job was an easy one.”
* * *
Evening arrived, bringing with it a calm, cool breeze. The sky was cloudless and a deep, cerulean blue, with a speckling of stars just starting to peek through.
Ian parked the van in front of The Abby Ford House and cut the engine. The four of them sat in silence for a long moment, as if knowing what awaited inside would haunt them in ways they hadn’t experienced before. The foreboding feeling followed them as they walked up the pathway toward the house.
Grace reached for Ian’s hand, grateful things were back to normal between them. They glanced at each other, and she saw the apprehension behind the excitement in his eyes.
“Ready for this?” he asked.
She cocked her chin. “I can hang, ghost hunter. Don’t worry about me.”
He squeezed her hand, then guided her up the front steps and opened the door for her. She went inside, followed closely by Jackie and Alex.
She noticed Alex being extra protective of Jackie, but didn’t know why. Neither of them seemed open to talking about it, though she could tell even Jackie was more worried than usual. Whatever it was, it had her scared.
If Jackie was afraid, then Grace knew she’d be a damn fool not to be as well. If only she knew exactly what it was she had to fear…
Barton was there to meet them. “I’ve sent everyone home. The house is completely empty,” he began, motioning to the parlor around him. “For the next several hours, it’s all yours. Good luck.”
They shook hands with him in turn. Moments after Barton left, the door opened again and Mia and her crew entered, carrying bags of equipment.
Grace braced herself for the jealousy, but was pleased to find it had dimmed to almost nothing. The woman may have been fearless and beautiful, but she didn’t have Ian’s heart. In the end, that was all Grace cared about.
“Hey, guys.” Mia grinned as she stared around the house. She rested her hands on her hips, taking stock. “This is some place. You can really feel the dark energy.”
Ian nodded. “We’ve got cameras set up on the first, second, and third floors. Why don’t you set up in the basement and see if you can catch anything down there?”
“Barton said the slaves who lived here back in the day were kept down in the basement when they were being punished,” Alex told Mia, a sad smile on his face. “Jackie’s seen them, a man and a woman. Hopefully you can communicate with them.”
Mia glanced at her two friends, her grin widening. “They’ll talk to me,” she replied confidently.
Her eyes shot to Grace, seeming to note the way Ian held her hand. Dark amusement flashed over her features before she addressed Ian. “You got a nerve center yet?”
“In the kitchen,” he explained. “Grace and Jackie will be in there, watching us on the screens as we do the investigation. We’ll regroup there at midnight.”
“Sounds like a plan. Why don’t you show us the basement?”
Before Ian could do more than blink, Mia had hooked her arm in his and dragged him away from Grace. He sent Grace an apologetic look before continuing to the basement door down the hall, easing himself away from Mia as he went.
Grace stared after them, shaking her head. When Jackie came up beside her, Grace smiled. “She can’t help herself, can she?”
“I’d say she’s quite jealous of you, darling,” Jackie mused.
Alex rolled his eyes. “Women,” he muttered, tho
ugh there was affection in his voice. He gave Jackie a wink then grabbed his camera and backpack before moving into the living room.
“I get the sense things are better now between you and Ian?” Jackie ventured, nudging Grace playfully. For the first time in days, there was true happiness in her dark eyes.
Grace returned the smile. “Yeah. We’re cool.”
“I’m glad.” Jackie hugged her. “We need harmony if we are to face this demon.”
“Wait, so it really is a demon?” Grace asked, easing away from her friend.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Jackie glanced around the parlor, and Grace wondered what horrors were visible to the medium’s eye. “I didn’t want to worry you before, but it came to me in a dream and scratched me. We are facing something not only evil, but violent.”
Grace’s lips parted in shock. “What do you mean scratched you? How?”
Jackie turned and lifted the back of her blouse, displaying the three long scratches. They hadn’t drawn blood, but Grace could only imagine how painful they must have been. She touched them lightly with her fingertips, mortified.
“God, Jackie, I didn’t even realize stuff like that could happen…I’m so sorry.”
“It’s nothing to apologize over,” Jackie chastised, lowering her shirt and facing Grace once again. Her expression was brave and determined. “I just want to warn you to be extra cautious. I’ve brought you something to wear just in case.”
She dug into her purse and lifted out a small silver cross necklace. Without hesitation, she slipped it around Grace’s head, letting it fall just over her heart.
“Don’t take it off,” Jackie instructed. “I know you don’t really have faith, but it couldn’t hurt.”
Grace fingered the tiny cross, biting her lip nervously. She certainly wasn’t going to scoff at something that might keep the demon at bay, even if she had doubts about its effectiveness.
At this point, she’d take any protection she could get.
* * *
Within the hour, the Paranormal Phoenix crew was set up in the basement with their cameras broadcasting wirelessly to the nerve center in the kitchen. Grace and Jackie took a seat before the two computer screens, each displaying four camera angles at once. One was Alex’s camera as he followed Ian, while another was Ian’s own camera. A third was Brian’s camera keeping tabs on Mia, and the others were all static night vision cameras set up throughout the house and basement.
With the outside world black with night and the house shrouded in darkness, the investigation began.
Ian headed upstairs to the third floor, eager to start there. Jackie had been drawn to one bedroom in particular, the room where she’d had a vision of a woman using a Ouija board. According to her, it was the epicenter of the negative activity within the home.
Alex followed close behind, filming his every move. Ian used his own camera’s night vision to help him navigate the stairs and the landing above. Immediately upon setting foot on the third floor, a cold chill swept over him. It was almost like stepping into an icy fog. He could feel goosebumps pop up on the skin of his arms.
He shot a look over his shoulder at Alex. “Feel that?”
“Yeah,” Alex replied, scratching the back of his neck. “Something’s up here.”
Ian paused in the hallway and drew out his digital recorder. He flipped it on, noting the time and location, and held it out for the spirits to speak into.
“What is your name?” he asked boldly, unsure if he would be communicating with one of the innocent spirits or the demon. He let a few seconds go by before he posed another question. “Do you want to hurt the living?”
After a moment of silence, he heard a creaking sound from further down the hall, followed immediately by the sound of hollow footsteps. He could see nothing but blackness with his own eyes, so he focused the camera on the area and, seeing nothing but the empty hallway, he waited with bated breath.
The disembodied footsteps stopped. All was quiet once more.
His heart raced as he looked at Alex. “That was loud.”
Alex simply nodded, speechless. Ian turned off the recorder, then rewound it to play back the questions he’d asked. He held it up to his ear and listened. Alex hovered close by, filming.
“Do you want to hurt the living?”
A warbled response followed, quiet as a whisper. “Nice try.”
Ian’s eyes widened as they met Alex’s. “Did you hear that?”
“Sounded like it said, ‘nice try.’”
Ian pursed his lips, wondering if this was a direct, mocking response to his question. It could have been the same spirit who had made the footsteps. His temper sparked as he turned the recorder back on and addressed the darkness once again.
“If you think my questions are stupid, then why don’t you show yourself to us,” he challenged, his voice echoing throughout the upstairs. “Come show me what you’re made of. I’m not afraid of you.”
The door to the bedroom where Jackie had her vision suddenly slammed shut as though pushed by a violent force. Ian nearly jumped out of his skin, his camera shaking as he tried to see down the hall.
“What the hell was that?” Alex demanded, his voice tight with panic. “Did the door just slam shut?”
“Yeah, the one at the end of the hall,” Ian panted, his body still recovering from the shock. He glanced at Alex with a hard smile. “Guess we got its attention.”
“Why don’t we try the Spirit Box?” Alex suggested, already pulling the device out of his backpack. He traded it for Ian’s camera, which he tucked away in his bag.
Ian switched on the small, round device. It emitted waves of static white noise, rushing through hundreds of radio frequencies in rapid succession. In the past, they’d used it successfully to speak with spirits. He wondered if he could get this one to talk.
They headed for the bedroom. Ian held the Spirit Box at arm’s length, pausing once to cover the speaker and ask a question. “Are you human? Or are you a demon?”
Nothing but white noise came through. It emanated throughout the upstairs, the crisp, grating sound of it raising the hairs on the back of his neck. He walked until he came upon the door that had suddenly shut on its own, his breath stalled in his chest.
He reached out tentatively, knowing he had no choice but to face whatever lay on the other side, if it was even still there. His hand found the doorknob and twisted as he shoved the door open.
A dark room greeted him, but he only had a moment to register this fact before a shadowy mass in the shape of a man blocked his vision and launched itself at him.
He stumbled backward with his hands instinctively raised, a scream caught in his throat. Alex’s startled voice rang out somewhere in the distance, drowned out by the fear and adrenaline pounding in his system. He thought he felt the entity push past him and escape down the hall, so he did the only logical thing—he held out the Spirit Box and chased after it.
“Face me, demon!” Ian commanded over the garble of white noise. It was then that a sound unlike any he’d ever heard before came through the speaker—a low, guttural growl, more closely resembling the gurgle of a toad than of a dog. It was a sound he knew instantly was not of this world.
The demon was willing to talk, after all.
All at once, the atmosphere on the third floor changed. An oppressive, revolting energy that hadn’t been present before settled over them like a heavy, wet blanket. Nearly choking on it, Ian motioned for Alex to follow him back to the stairs, needing to escape. The air in his lungs felt like it was being squeezed out, and spots danced behind his eyes as his vision wavered. He stumbled down the stairs, making his way into the kitchen.
Grace and Jackie were waiting, white as sheets.
Grace leapt from her chair and went to Ian, her entire body trembling. “T-that growling sound…what the hell was that?”
“The demon,” Jackie answered, standing beside Alex, who looked just as shaken as Ian felt. “It responded directly to your c
hallenge. I can feel it openly now. It’s no longer avoiding me.”
Ian drew Grace close to him, his heart still pounding. He managed to release a long breath, fearing he had only made things worse.
“If it’s out in the open, then we can banish it, right?” Ian asked, looking to Jackie for confirmation.
Jackie’s shoulders lifted and fell on a sigh. “I believe so. It’s very strong. Stronger than anything I’ve ever faced before. It may take quite a bit of time and patience to send it on its way.”
“It’s probably time that we call in a priest,” Alex suggested, earning a nod of agreement from Jackie.
“A priest may be able to identify the demon. If we can learn its name, it’ll be much easier to control,” Jackie explained.
Grace shook her head, a bewildered look in her eyes. “Demons, priests. Next you’ll tell me we need to do a full-blown exorcism or something.”
Ian glanced down at her, attempting a smile. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The basement door opened down the hall and Mia emerged, followed by her crew. They were chattering excitedly as they approached the kitchen.
Mia’s electric eyes immediately went to Ian’s the second she came into the room. Her smile brightened. “Well, shall we compare our findings? Or are you ready to concede?”
Ian wanted to be amused, but found he couldn’t stomach it. “Unless you came in contact with a malevolent demon, I think I’ve got you beat.”
Her brows shot up. “Really?”
He gave a curt nod, feeling the need to sit down. He collapsed into the chair Grace had occupied moments earlier, kneading the tension at his temples. His chest was still tight, even though his breathing came easier downstairs than it had on the third floor. Pushing through the discomfort, he tapped into the computer to review the footage from his and Alex’s cameras.
Everyone gathered around to watch the replay on the monitor. Ian saw himself in Alex’s camera, jumping at the sound of the door slamming. As always, it was surreal to see it from his partner’s perspective. If only Alex had caught the menacing shadow figure Ian had seen with his own eyes moments later…
Of The Ashes: A 'So Fell The Sparrow' Sequel Novella Page 6
