by B L Maxwell
“Okay, go ahead.”
“First, we’ll need to do a spiritual cleansing on you and the restaurant.”
“Is this something I’ll need to prepare for? Or will you be able to plan for everything?” he asked.
“We’ll bring everything, it’s mostly burning sage and other herbs to force out any bad entities that may want to make it harder for us to convince them all to leave.”
“What else?” Dean asked. So far, he was taking this all amazingly well.
“You’ll need to go with us into the basement. I think—”
“Fuck that,” he said before I could finish.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not going down there. I haven’t been down there since you guys first came and you said there were multiple spirits.”
“Dean, you have to. Without you, it can’t be done. I’m not sure what’s waiting for us down there, but I know it’s not good. And believe me, if we could do it without your help, we would. Hell, if I could do it without putting Wade in danger I would. But we have specific instructions, and we’ve seen how it works out when we don’t follow them. I don’t want to unleash something else even more powerful.” When he was silent for a few seconds, I pulled my phone from my ear and looked at it, thinking he must have hung up.
“I’ll close the place tonight, can you do it then? If I wait any longer, I’ll back out. Do it as soon as you can, Jason.”
“We’ll be there. Let me talk to Wade and Jimbo and see what time we can all be there. And Dean, we need to do it before dark, I can’t stress that enough.” He hung up, and I met Wade’s worried gaze.
“What did he say?” he asked, struggling to sit up. I pulled him close and told him everything, and without even asking, I knew he’d be ready to go whenever I asked him to.
Chapter Thirteen
Wade
I listened as Jason told me everything he’d talked to Dean about. I wasn’t sure I’d be physically ready so soon, but I knew if we waited any longer to begin, we’d have no chance of succeeding. I could tell by the urgency in his voice he knew it too.
“Call Jimbo, if he can be here today, we need to do this. Let’s make it clear to those assholes that we’re not afraid of them, and we have some tricks up our sleeve too. There’s a few of your toys you need to bring,” I said, and flinched when I tried to get up off the couch.
“Let me help you,” Jason said, and very gently helped me to my feet.
“Thanks, I feel like I got hit by a truck.” He stopped and turned to face me, looking at me as though he was checking I wasn’t injured more. Ducking his head, he very carefully wrapped me in his arms and pulled me close. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be better this time, I can feel it.”
“I won’t ever forgive myself for you getting hurt, I still can’t believe you fell down into a mineshaft.”
“Jason, you got hurt when I was watching out for you. I know how easy it is for shit to happen. You didn’t hurt me, and you didn’t let me be hurt. It just happened. And we won’t let it happen again,” I said into his hair as I tried to hold him tight to me without causing myself intense pain.
“We’ll look out for each other, we’ll slow down and make sure we do everything right,” Jason said.
“That sounds perfect. How about we call Jimbo and make sure he can go later. If he can’t, we’ll need to reschedule.” We walked into the kitchen, and Jason set his phone on the counter, dialed Jimbo, and put it on speakerphone.
“What the fuck do you want, Jason? I’m busy,” Jimbo snapped, no greeting—his usual.
“Hey, Jimbo, we talked to Dean and he said we could go back today. I wanted to check if that’s good for you?”
“Fuck,” Jimbo mumbled. It sounded like he set his phone down for a second, and the sounds of him cooking and barking out orders were loud and clear through the line.
“Well, can you make it?” Jason asked.
“Yes, I don’t like it, but what else can I do?”
“Thanks, man, don’t forget to bring your stone,” I reminded him.
“I always carry it, I’m not risking it,” he replied.
“I’ll tell Dean today works, if you can get down here early, that’s even better. I don’t want to be in the basement after dark,” Jason said.
“No shit, I’ll be there as soon as I can get someone to cover me for lunch.”
“Thanks, Jimbo, see you soon,” I said, and he hung up without another word. I called my work and let them know I’d be taking the next couple of days off. After I explained to them I was injured, they were more than happy to give me the time off. Hopefully by Monday I’d be ready to go back.
“Wade, can I ask you something?” Jason started, seeming very unsure of whatever it was he wanted to ask.
“Anything, what is it?”
“What did you see down there?”
“I’m not sure, I know what I think it was, but I’m not sure if that’s right or not.”
“What?”
“When I was down there, something else was in there with me. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it, and the EMF detected it. But before it found me, someone else did.”
“What do you mean?” Jason asked.
“Remember the little girl we filmed on the stairs at The Vineyard House?”
“With the long braids? Yes.”
“She was there, she told me I needed to get out of there before ‘he’ got there. That she’d keep him busy so I’d have time to get out.”
Jason gave me a shocked look before he responded, “She helped you get out?”
“She kept whatever is down there busy so I had a chance to climb out.”
“What do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure, but it was dark, not only in color, but the way it felt. It felt like it sucked all the light out of the area and was ready to draw anything out of me it could get to.”
“Like a vampire?” Jason asked.
“Maybe, I’m not sure, I just knew I didn’t want to be down there with it.”
“I think we should both do another spiritual cleansing here, right now. When we get to Dean’s we’ll do it again. But I’m not taking any chances, we’ll clear our auras of any negativity, then fill up on some good energy before we go. We’ll have our stones, so that’ll help too.”
“I knew you’d know what to do, now let’s get going on preparing for later,” I said, while I hoped, deep inside, we really were ready this time.
Chapter Fourteen
Jason
Wade fell asleep again, not long after we’d talked. I took the opportunity to gather the ovilus and a spirit box to take with us. We didn’t normally use these because they were very loud, and so far the places we’d gone to hadn’t wanted it to be made public that we were there investigating. I hoped they might help us get some insight into what was haunting Dean’s restaurant, and why it was still there. I picked up the stone that had been chosen for me: black tourmaline. I hoped Janis was right and it helped protect me.
I gathered everything I’d need to cleanse the house and started in the back bedroom. I carried the smoking bundle of herbs in an abalone shell and fanned it around the room with a feather, making sure the smoke went everywhere. When I made my way to the living room, Wade was awake and sitting up. He watched me as I wafted the smoke around the room, and as I opened the front door and wafted some out, hoping anything bad followed it outside.
“We’ll need to do a spiritual cleansing, hopefully it works. I keep thinking about Janis saying we would be infected by any spirits we may encounter. Where’s your stone?” I asked.
Wade felt for his pocket. “It’s in my pants pocket. I put it in there before we left.”
“At least you remembered, I can’t believe I forgot. I’ll get it for you.” I walked into the bedroom and picked up the shorts he’d had on yesterday, they were blood-stained, muddy, and wet. I dug in his pocket and found his stone tucked in his right front pocket.
“Here you go, it was rig
ht where it should have been. Do you think these stones are strong enough to really protect us?”
“I’m not sure, I don’t know much about using stones for protection, but I trust what Janis says. She knows what she’s doing, and she wouldn’t tell us to do something just to mess with us. I think we had problems because we did exactly what she said not to do,” Wade said as he reached for his stone.
“Red jasper, did you look it up to see what it protects from?” I asked.
“No, did you look up yours?”
“No, let’s check it out, maybe there’s something else we can do to make it stronger, or protect against other things,” I said.
“Jimbo said he has his own stone, but what about Dean? We’ll need to get him something for protection,” Wade said, still grimacing with every movement.
“It says amber is a good choice, it can change negative energy into positive. Now where can we find some amber?” I said, more to myself than expecting Wade to have a solution.
“Send Jimbo a text, he’ll probably know where it can be found. He knows way more about the spiritual world than he wants to admit.” I fired off a text to him and didn’t get a response, but I didn’t expect one. He was probably driving here from Coloma.
“I want to bring the ovilus and a spirit box. I’d like to see if we can get any of the spirits there to speak to us.”
“They will, they’re not even trying to be quiet or stay hidden. They seem to want to be heard, but I’m not sure why. The little girl helped me, but I don’t understand why she’s here. She should have moved on with the Chalmers,” Wade said. “You might get more than you bargained for if we give them a way to openly communicate with us. We can’t take any chances, Jason, we’ll have to be completely sure of every last detail.”
“We will, and we’ll make sure Dean is with us. I know he’s not comfortable with going down there, but he has to go, or we won’t be able to help him.” My phone chimed with a text. “Jimbo’s on his way, he said he’ll stop at Janis’s house and get an amber stone for Dean.”
“Great, I’m going to find some ibuprofen, and maybe something to eat,” Wade said as he struggled to stand, and swayed a little once he was on his feet, before he got his balance.
“You sure you’re up to this? We can put it off for a few days.” I reached out to help him, but he pushed past me as he walked to the kitchen.
“I’m sure, and we can’t wait. The longer we put it off, the harder it’s going to be to convince them to leave. And we need to figure out who or what the master is. I still have no clue about that one,” he said, his eyes going unfocused as he appeared to be remembering something.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, and shook his head, which threw him off-balance.
“Babe, be careful.” I came up behind him and nuzzled into his neck. “I don’t want you hurt any worse than you were.” His head dropped forward and he laced his fingers with mine and held our joined hands to his chest.
“I’ll be careful, and I won’t go off on my own.”
I kissed the side of his head, and after eating and double-checking we had everything, Wade talked to Janis. Hopefully he got some good advice while we waited for Jimbo to arrive, and I made sure we had everything packed in the car. He drove up just as Wade was hanging up, and we all set out together for The Hitching Post.
Dean was waiting right by the door and let us in as soon as we walked up. “Anxious today?” I asked him.
“I don’t like this at all. I really want to get it over with and put this all behind me,” he answered.
“Jimbo has a stone for you, they’ll give us all a little boost of power and protection. Jimbo? You have the stone for Dean, right?”
“Yeah, I talked to Janis, and she agreed that amber would be best for you,” Jimbo explained as he stepped over to Dean. It was the first time he’d been civil to the guy since we’d been helping him.
Wade and I stood by as he explained to Dean that he should put the stone in his right front pocket and keep his thoughts positive. “We’ll need to do a cleansing up here before we go down,” Jimbo instructed.
“I have everything we need.” I took out my go bag and handed Wade and Jimbo some bundles of herbs. Jimbo handed a feather to Dean and showed him how to fan the smoke everywhere in the restaurant.
“You’re sure this will help?” Dean asked Jimbo.
“I hope so, these guys know what they’re doing, listen to them. They won’t let you down, we just need to do what Janis told us,” he replied, raising his voice to shout that last bit to Wade and I. We looked at each other and smiled. When we were finished, we all stood around a table that held the equipment we’d use this time.
“Okay, everyone has their stones?” Everyone patted their pockets and nodded. “I want to take the ovilus and a spirit box. Jimbo, are you okay to take the ovilus and an EVP meter?”
“Fuck, if I have to.”
“You do.” I stared him down, and he slumped and reached for the two devices.
“Wade, you and I will take the spirit box and a recorder. We don’t want to miss any clues we might get while we’re down there. Everyone take a flashlight and extra batteries, I’m not getting stuck in the dark again. We’ll all be staying in the basement, I don’t want anyone wandering into the other area. We’ll also take some herb bundles and attempt to cleanse the area, but since it’s not completely separate from the outer area, I don’t see it working.”
Everyone nodded, and we started to move to the basement door. I stood with my hand on the knob, then turned to face them. “Everyone be careful. Wade, especially you.” He nodded and leaned in to press his lips to mine.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Chapter Fifteen
Wade
I stood close to Jason’s back as he opened the door to the basement. It looked like it had the first night we’d come; the light was on and illuminated the stairway that led to the dirt floor beneath. Jason reached back and squeezed my leg.
“Stay close,” he whispered, and I squeezed his shirt tighter to signal I’d heard him.
We all made our way down, one after the other, and when we entered the basement, nothing seemed out of order. The boards that had separated the basement area were still knocked loose, from where I’d gone through before Jason and Jimbo had rushed through to help me. A shiver wriggled down the length of my body, and I knew I was sensing what I couldn’t see.
“Where do you want to use the spirit box?” I asked Jason.
“I think we should go to the farthest corner, while Jimbo and Dean stay near the bottom of the stairs.” I nodded and clung to him as we slowly made our way to the corner. The basement wasn’t huge, but it was large enough that we’d be challenged to hear Jimbo and Dean. They stood together and took out the ovilus, and Jimbo seemed to be explaining how it worked while Dean looked on.
“They’re cute,” I said to Jason. He stopped messing with his own gadget to look over at them.
“Yep, but Jimbo’s a dick. No one will put up with that shit.”
“Maybe he just needs the right person,” I said as I watched them. Jason turned to look straight at me before dissolving into laughter. Jimbo and Dean both looked up from their device, confused looks on their faces. “Don’t mind him, you know how he gets, Jimbo.” I tipped my head in Jason’s direction, which made him laugh even harder.
“Not the time, Jason,” I said, trying not to move my lips. He fought for control, but it still took him a full minute before he was ready to get down to business.
We stepped closer to our corner, and Jason turned on the ovilus. It immediately crackled to life with the sound of stilted static. I turned to Jason. “What should we ask?”
“Let’s see if we pick anything up without asking first.” He waved it around the area, and it would go quiet for a moment before blaring back to life.
“Can you make anything out?” I asked.
“No, just static.” He walk
ed toward the far corner, the one he’d gone to when we’d first come down here. The ovilus crackled with static then sputtered to silence. It was so quiet I was about to suggest Jason to check the battery, but then I thought I could just make out a word, or really a name.
“Wade?” My name? I would have sworn that’s what I heard. Jason turned and met my gaze.
“Waaaadeeee,” it said again, this time more clearly, and drawing it out, sounding more like a hiss than someone speaking my name.
“What do you want?” Jason asked.
“Releeeeeeease,” it said, once again in the hissing voice that didn’t sound quite human. I looked at Jason, and saw my fear reflected back at me.
“Wade,” he whispered. “Come here, closer.” He held his arm out for me, and I slid right into his side. “Are you okay? Any pain?”
“I’m . . . okay. It said my name,” I whispered back.
“I heard it, but stay with me, we’ll be fine. Do you feel your stone?” I felt outside my right pocket and could make out the lump of red jasper that was tucked safely inside.
“I have it. You have yours?” I asked, needing to know he was safe too.
“I do, and I have you, we got this, Wade. Don’t let the spirits shake you, that’s what they’re trying to do,” he said.
“Are there many here? I can get wisps of their emotions. They’re afraid, but not all of them. I can feel one that’s angry, it has the strength to rip a hole into our world if it wants. It’s waiting for something, but I’m not sure what.”
“Are you safe?” he asked. He looked terrified but determined, and I raised my hand to his cheek, hoping to give him a small amount of comfort.
“I am now.” The ovilus crackled to life again with another message.
“Nooottt saaaaaaaaaaaaaffe.” Jason pulled me close enough to make my ribs scream in pain. I looked across the basement at Jimbo and Dean, just in time to see Jimbo flung against the brick wall.
