Mind Fray

by Alexie Aaron

  Mia stopped at the threshold. She squatted down, placing a gloved hand in the spot the bubbling mass had been. She didn’t see anything. She looked at the door closely and saw a faint marring of scratch marks. These were feline. She stood up and saw larger grooves cut into the door. These were not feline. She walked down to the guest bedroom and examined the door there. Similar large scratches were cut into the soft veneer of the door. She took a few pictures with her iPhone of both doors before seeking out Mike.

  She found him in the bathroom, or what was left of it. The under-cabinet was destroyed. It was a miracle that it still supported the twin sinks. Mia reached under and turned off the water to both sinks, just in case the counter collapsed. “He ripped her out of here. She’s five eight, and that’s barely big enough for me to squeeze in. She must have been terrified.”

  “What would have happened if he wasn’t here to save her?” Mike asked, not expecting an answer. He was careful of his footing. There was broken glass everywhere. Pebbled glass and sliver shards made it a hazardous place to be in. “Let’s get a few shots of this and clean up the mess. I’d hate to have the Madisons return to this carnage.”

  Mia stood up and took a few stills before turning on the video. She slowly scanned the area. She thought she caught something out of place in the mirror, but when she moved the iPhone back, she didn’t see anything amiss other than the wreckage of the bathroom reflected in the mirror. The curtain rod was pulled from the wall, leaving a huge hole where the hollow wall screws had originally held it in place. Cid would have a field day in this house. All the things that the builders and homeowners did wrong would distract the investigator from actually investigating. Minutes after arriving, he would drop the camera and jog to the truck and back, donning a tool belt.

  Mike returned from the kitchen with a broom, dustpan and a cardboard box into which he inserted a doubled garbage bag. “Why don’t you step out, and I’ll clean this up?” he suggested.

  “You’re a prince,” she said as she walked carefully by him. “I’ll go look for Kim’s smart phone. She said it flew off the end table. It must be on the ground somewhere,” Mia said, lifting up the sheets and piling them on the bed as she walked around. She picked up the debris as she came across it. The broken clock and bedside lamp would need to be replaced. She found a few empty boxes of candy. The couple must have been fond of munching chocolates in bed, Mia guessed. She didn’t find the phone on the bedroom floor. She decided to call the number Max supplied.

  She felt the vibration before the digital ringtone played. The sound came from under the bed. Mia got on her hands and knees and tried to reach the phone but came up empty. She got on her belly and wiggled under the bed, her hand outstretched in order to grab the phone which had now gone to voicemail. It was just a bit past her fingertips. She pushed herself towards it with her toes.

  The sheets fell off the bed in a thump. Mia figured that she must have jostled the bed as she wiggled under the low space. She didn’t see them twist into ropes and snake their way towards the prone investigator until one had wrapped itself around her arm.

  “Let go!” she shouted as she felt the grip of the cloth upon her skin. She pulled hard against the material with her free hand. It too became caught up in the twisting cotton. “Mike! Help me!” she called as both of her arms were quickly immobilized.

  Mike ran from the bathroom with the broom still in his hands. He dropped it, seeing Mia’s exposed legs being pulled under the bed, tangled in a twisted sheet. He grabbed for her ankles and succeeded in getting a firm hold. He unwound the cloth and pulled back, and for a moment, there wasn’t any give. He too was being pulled under. He twisted around and put each foot on the bedframe and pulled hard. Mia moved towards him. Another tug and Mia shot out from under the bed into his arms. He scrambled to his feet, picking up a stunned Mia, and ran out of the room.

  He ran out of the house and slammed the door after him. He sat down on the porch with Mia still slung over his shoulder. Mia carefully moved off Mike’s back and sat down beside him, rubbing her wrists.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I couldn’t get to my salt. I didn’t have any warning. One minute I was reaching for the phone, the next I was being trussed up for the spit.”

  “What was it?”

  “A twisted up sheet. I didn’t see any entity. It had to be there, but from my perspective, all I saw was Egyptian cotton.”

  “I’d say we can qualify this as an active haunt,” Mike said, pulling out his cell phone. He typed a few notes into it.

  Mia scanned the video she shot and nodded. “There,” she said. “I thought I saw something. See in the corner of the mirror. It’s a man with glasses. The bastard’s smiling. He’s looking in the window.”

  “Mia, there’s no window in the bathroom,” Mike pointed out. “Just a tiled-in shower tub combination.”

  Mia handed the phone to Mike, and he ran the video. Clearly reflected in the mirror was a nineteen nineties style bathroom with a window where a man stood leering in. “Is the entity manufacturing this?” he asked.

  “I don’t know what it is. I thought it was possible that Kim projected her fear during the original encounter, but now, I’m not too sure. It wouldn’t leave a residue that would last this long. Not one we could film. Not unless her fear was so deep-seated that it created a lasting echo.”

  “But echoes are usually found where the incident happened in the first place,” Mike reminded her.

  “You’re absolutely correct,” Mia said. “Run it forward to the second time I passed the mirror.”

  “It’s gone.”

  “Yup. Blows away my theory,” Mia said.

  “Let me ask you a weird question.”

  “No questions are weird,” Mia said, giving her permission.

  “Have you ever had a bad experience being tied up?”

  “I don’t think being tied up would be a good experience.”

  “In the bedroom, you know…”

  “Oh,” Mia said, catching on. Her face reddened. “I’ve never done bondage if that’s what you’re talking about.”

  “Well, that destroys my theory that the entity is grabbing at past terrors and using them against us.”

  “Wait. You may have something there. I’ve been on the uncomfortable end of a prank once. I was lassoed as a kid like I was a calf. The neighborhood bullies were going to tie up my legs too and drag me with their bikes, but Ralph came out of the house to see what all the shouting was about and rescued me.”

  “Oh my god, that happened? That, Mia, would qualify as a traumatic event.”

  “You asked me if I had a bondage gone wrong.”

  “No, not at first,” he qualified.

  “You’re right. That happened so long ago, I’d forgotten it. Ralph saved the day. The boys were punished by their fathers, and aside from some scrapes and loss of my dignity, I was alright.”

  “Why did they do that to you?”

  Mia sighed. “Mike, I was the town freak. When you’re the freak, you’re fair game and prime meat for the bullies and evil little bitches to pick on.”

  “What would have happened if Ralph wasn’t there?”

  “I really never thought about it,” Mia said. “I expect my mother would have missed me in a few days. My dad, if I remember right, was on a dig somewhere and had asked Ralph and Bernard to look in on Amanda and me to make sure we were eating. Amanda doesn’t eat when she’s writing,” Mia explained.

  Mike reached around and drew Mia in and hugged her. He stroked the back of her hair as if she was a child. Mia let him do it because she knew it wasn’t sexual but parental. She knew, in his screwed up way, he was trying to take away the pain of her childhood. She gently pushed at him until he let her go.

  “Mike, I’m alright. I survived.”

  “Gee, Mia, I’m sorry,” he said, letting her go. “I didn’t mean to…”

  “I know. Thanks, if you were my brother, no one would have touched me,” Mia said with certainty
.

  “Those boys would have learned what having a handlebar colonoscopy felt like,” he said.

  “Ew and ouch and ew,” Mia said standing up. “Great visual but whoa.” She wiggled around.

  Mike laughed, watching Mia deal with the image he put in her mind. “Now what?”

  “We lock the door and make it off limits until we can figure this out. It’s a full team investigation. Full, as in bringing in Murphy. I’m not going in there unless I have Murph and his axe on the premises.”

  “Don’t get mad at me, but in your present condition, you shouldn’t be in there at all.”

  “Mike, the baby is fine,” Mia argued.

  “But what if the ghost decided to punch you in the gut? I’ve been on the receiving end of a few of those.”

  “Damn, I didn’t think,” Mia admitted sheepishly. “I’m pretty much useless then.”

  “No, you’re still our eyes, but maybe from the other end of the video feed,” he suggested. “It would be only when we are in the presence of violent entities.”

  Mia looked at him and nodded. “Thanks for caring, Mike.”

  “Someone’s got to look out for you when Ted’s not around. I’ve nominated myself,” he said. “Do I hear a second?”

  “I second that,” Mia said, patting him on the back. She looked back at the house and scratched her head. “I’m a bit baffled. I should have been able to see it coming. I saw it through Max’s eyes when I read his memories. What kind of hold does this entity have on this house?”

  “Maybe Audrey can suss something out. We ought to take a look at that empty lot while we’re here,” Mike suggested.

  “I’m not so sure that’s wise,” Mia said.

  “It’s broad daylight,” Mike pointed out. “What could happen?”

  Mia lifted up her red wrists.

  “Oh right. We’ll wait until we have a full team.”

  “With protection on. Cid’s vest for a start. Lots of salt. And…”

  “Murphy,” Mike added.

  ~

  Audrey looked up from her notebook, bleary-eyed. She had found a small treasure trove of information at the community college library. Someone had donated their accumulation of local lore to the campus near to where the Madisons lived. Amateur biographers were an often untapped source of information. Most academics couldn’t get past the bad grammar. Audrey was made of sterner stuff. She wouldn’t let an overuse of adverbs deter her from her quest.

  She normally used her laptop to take notes, but since the recent invasion of Jake into PEEPs, taking any computer device into a quiet zone was hazardous. She was just going over her notes at her local Starbucks when Jake found her the first time. He blared “I’m too Sexy” from the Sony’s speakers. The barista dropped the latte she was handing a customer, and two dozen employees and patrons glared at her. She mumbled an apology as she quickly packed up her gear and left the coffee shop.

  So she was back to using a pen and paper to copy her findings with. She did take a chance on scanning some pictures into her phone, but only after jamming a set of earbuds into the headphone jack, just in case.

  She rubbed out the crick in her neck.

  “May I be of some assistance?” a familiar voice asked.

  “Not unless you’re majoring in massage therapy,” she said, looking up to see her boyfriend Matt standing over her.

  “How about a medical degree paid for with blood, sweat and my mother’s tears?” he asked.

  “Well, okay, but try not to screw anything up,” she teased.

  Matt set down a large aromatic hamper on the table before he flexed his fingers and started to massage Audrey’s neck.

  “What’s in the basket?” she asked.

  “Shhhh, I’m working here,” he complained, using his thumbs to break up a group of knotted muscles.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Your message on my voicemail.”

  “Mmmmm,” Audrey purred as the knot released, and Matt’s hands were causing more than relief.

  He stopped and kissed the top of her head before plopping down in the seat beside her. “Do you have time for lunch?” he asked.

  “I always have time for lunch,” Audrey said, reaching out to open the hamper.

  Matt lightly slapped her hand away. “No eating, drinking or fornicating in the library. Can’t you read the sign?”

  Audrey looked up, and sure enough some student had penned in fornicating on the printed sign. “Well, give me a minute, and I’ll meet you out in the quad for some fornication, oh, I mean lunch.”

  “I bet you meant lunch,” Matt said saucily. He got up and grabbed the basket.

  Audrey chose to just take a picture of the last page of the pamphlet instead of copying the information down. She gathered her borrowed materials, put them on the counter for the grad student to return to the archives, and rushed outside to find Matt had secured a spot under a large tree. She smiled at the use of the traditional red and white checked tablecloth on the picnic bench’s tabletop. He had placed two covered plates side by side. She squeezed in beside him. “What’s for lunch?”

  “I thought the coolness of the day deserved a little pasta and copious amounts of wine.”

  “You brought wine on campus?” Audrey asked, looking around.

  “No one checked my thermos.”

  “Around here, I expect thermoses hold coffee,” Audrey said, accepting her tin cup of merlot.

  “It’s college; I expect thermoses hold just about everything,” Matt said.

  “It’s community college; most kids drive here,” she said and pointed out the vast parking lot to the side of the buildings.

  “Well, here’s to the kids that don’t,” he said, lifting his cup.

  “This will be the first time I toasted bus riders, but here’s to the long-suffering token-stuffing students.” Audrey tapped her cup and sipped the wine. It had a strange metallic taste to it, but she would die before mentioning it to Matt. “I thought you had office hours today?”

  “I do, but I normally give my office a long lunch. One hour to catch up on notes and one hour to eat. That gives me two hours to spend with my best gal.”

  “Your best gal appreciates it.” Audrey put a forkful of pasta in her mouth. It was wonderful. “Mmmm.”

  “I got it at this little place on 5th Street.”

  “Mmmm,” she said, chewing on another forkful.

  “Yes, I do think we should have six kids.”

  Audrey coughed, almost choking on the penne. She took a drink of wine to wash down the clump of food before she asked, “How did you get that from mmmm?”

  “I’m skilled in the art of understanding children with thermometers in their mouths.”

  “I thought you used those ear thingys.”

  “Oops, you caught me. What do you think, six, seven children?”

  Audrey looked up into his dancing eyes and identified the mirth there.

  “As my friend Mia is now fond of saying, ‘Let’s see how the first one comes out.’”

  “How is she feeling?”

  “Four days without barfing up her breakfast as Mia is fond of telling anyone within earshot. She is, however, feeling supercharged sexually.”

  Matt blushed a bit.

  “Sorry, too much information?”

  “No, just too much for a picnic in a schoolyard.”

  “Ah.”

  “So she’s in her second trimester. It’s very normal to…”

  “Not make it home, pulling into the nearest hotel, and spending eighteen glorious hours there?”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, she had just finished crossing over her cousin’s husband and was traveling I90 back when Ted got this grand idea.”

  “I expect Ted’s enjoying the change.”

  “Oh, I expect he is,” Audrey said and broke down into a fit of giggles.

  The two of them ate in companionable silence. The breeze was cool but helped with the hot flush the wine brought on. When
they had finished. Matt packed up the leftovers and traded the wine thermos for one filled with espresso. He opened up an Eddies cheesecake and handed Audrey a fork.

  She dug into the dessert with her plastic fork, and just before she put the morsel in her mouth, a glint of gold stopped her. She dissected the bit and found a small green pin. She looked up at Matt, and he asked, “Will you go steady with me?”

  Dumbstruck at the romantic gesture, Audrey just nodded. Matt took the pin and put it in his mouth, sucking off the cheesecake before wiping it first on his shirt and then pinning it to her sweater.

  “My father pinned my mother with this fraternity pin. I didn’t have a fraternity, but I do have his pin.”

  “This is your mother’s, Matt…”

  “She thought it was a great idea. I got brownie points for romance.”

  Audrey leaned over and kissed Matt tenderly, conscious that they were in public. “Thank you. I will treasure this.”

  Matt’s iPhone alarm went off. He looked at it and said, “I’ve got fifteen minutes to make it back to the office before the nurses rebel and take over the place.”

  “Are you okay to drive?”

  “I’m not driving, I have a…” he looked around and waved at the cabbie who waited patiently at the curb of the library’s sidewalk, “Cab waiting.”

  Audrey walked him over to the cab, and they kissed before he got in. She watched the taxi pull away dreamily. She dug into her purse for a mint and sucked on it as she made her way back to the library. She had two hours to finish her research and sober up before she was expected at her parents’ for dinner. Audrey fingered the pin and giggled as she saw the pin was still carrying a bit of cheesecake on the face. She wiped it off and smiled, remembering the kiss. “Could life get any better?”