by Gillian Zane
“I need to get out of here,” I almost sobbed the words.
I felt the slight tingle of someone else’s sadness and looked up to see the girl, alone. The boys had left her. She stood by herself, fearful, but something like hope shined in her eyes.
I untangled myself from Drake’s arms, going by instinct again. I held my hand out to the girl. At first she did nothing, only stared at my outstretched hand like it had fleas. Then resolve crossed her face and she took my hand. The energy that was threatening my insides with its intensity was transferred easily to her. She became more visible, more alive.
She laughed with pure joy and looked at me with grateful eyes.
“I haven’t seen the colors in so long.” She looked around the drab room, full of grays, and tans. There was a toy sticking out of a box, bright pink and vibrant. Her gaze fell on that toy.
“What’s your name?” I asked, ignoring the calls from the other side of the door. Knowing I would have to make this quick.
“Mary Johnson,” she said, looking at her hands.
“Who were those boys, Mary?”
“My brothers, Emmett and Charles. Emmett, he’s just a boy, just a young one, but Charles was old enough to get a wife, but Pops never thought he was ready. Said he didn’t have the sense to run his own house.” She wandered over to the box and looked down at the toy.
“Well, what do you suppose,” she said in an awed voice.
“Why are you here, Mary? Why haven’t you moved on?”
“Moved on?” she repeated dumbly.
“Haven’t you thought about leaving, going where you’re supposed to go after you die?”
“Oh,” she said quietly. She looked at her hands again, a nervous habit. “I can’t really tell you why, ma’am. One day, we was just like this. Mamma and Pops, they went to town, and Charles, well, he got mad at them. He didn’t like the new house, even though we had more money now with Pop's business doing a lot more work. He got mad, but we talked him into not being so mad and we all went to bed. We woke up like this, and we had to find Mamma and Pops, but we never could. And then the lights started to fade, the colors went away, and we were here, and we’ve been here since,” she said sadly.
“I can help you find your mom and dad,” I said with no self-doubt.
“Cas!” The yell was much louder and the door shook.
“We have to go,” Drake said.
“You’ll help us?” Mary said, and a hopeful innocence washed over her face, instead of the dark, aged pain I saw there earlier.
“Yes, but I have to go.” I patted the girl’s shoulder and she looked awed at the fact I could touch her. Then Drake’s hands were on me, a whisper of movement and the feeling of being sucked through jelly again. The pounding became louder, and my hand could touch the door handle instead of going through it. I yanked it open.
Four living figures rushed through the door and surrounded me. Cameras were pointed at my face.
“What happened?”
“Why didn’t you open the door?”
“Did you hear us? We’ve been banging on the door for almost half an hour.”
“What did you do?”
“Was it the dead?”
I needed everyone to settle down. I was a bit unsteady on my feet and felt nauseous from the transition.
“She looks sick, guys, back off.” Teddy’s voice. He set his camera down and grabbed my arm, leading me out of the hallway and into an adjoining room. There was a chair off to the side and he sat me in it. It wasn’t that comfortable, but it was better than standing. We were in some kind of sitting area that looked dated and forgotten. It didn’t seem like part of the house we had been in earlier.
I knew from this point on I had to get my story down straight. I had already begun to formulate a plan in my head as to how to get Raul and Roselle dealt with, and exposed, preferably on camera was my aim. That meant my story had to be tight to get them positioned in exactly the right moment for maximum delivery. This was going to be a little more complicated than my last cases, since this was going to be like a stage show. Theatrics, Raul had called it, something I had never been a big fan of.
Everyone took seats around the room, all eyes and cameras on me.
“There are three of them,” I said with a calm voice that didn’t reflect the emotions churning inside me. I felt a cold brush of air at my left shoulder and knew Drake was at my side. It reassured me, even though I couldn’t see him.
“They’re siblings,” I continued. “Their surname is Johnson, two boys and one girl. They died in their sleep, I don’t know how, it was sudden though. Maybe a fire, or something worse. There’s something else here, holding them. I haven’t figured out what it is though, it might just be their confusion.” I puffed out a dramatic sigh and looked around the room at the group staring fixedly back at me.
“What happened in the hallway?” Raul asked skeptically.
“My spirit guide, he helped me cross over, so I could talk to the spirits,” I said honestly. They would interpret it however they felt like it.
“One of the brothers is angry, very angry, there was a confrontation,” I said.
“Is your spirit guide, okay?” Roselle asked, barely able to hide her contempt.
“He’s fine,” I said and looked at Drake. My glance was not unnoticed. I saw Roselle roll her eyes. I hope they got that on film. If I was a skeptic it would sound pretty out there too. All of this happened off camera behind a locked door. Which I did not lock, though.
“I didn’t lock that door,” I said, voicing my thoughts.
“I only closed it,” Teddy backed up my story.
“Where’s this angry spirit?” Raul asked. “Can you still sense him?”
“He fled. I don’t know where he is,” I answered.
“He fled the house, you think you cast him out, or he’s still around. Are you sure it’s one of the siblings, it could be pretending to be a sibling?” Raul questioned me.
“I don’t think he’s gone, he’s just worn out, he used up a lot of energy.” I didn’t mention that I sucked out a good bit of that energy.
“Energy,” Raul said, lost in thought.
“Well, if he’s still around, let’s give it some more of that energy,” Roselle said with a knowing smirk.
14
Emmett James Johnson
“Mary, is your name Mary?” Roselle’s over the top voice projected through the room. We had set up on the second floor in the master bedroom. She had her radio looking device turned up on high and it was making an awful feedback noise.
“Can you tell us if you were murdered?” Raul asked without enough pause to hear anything on the radio. “Was there a fire?”
Even if Mary was around, she wouldn’t have enough time to answer between the questions they were firing into the air.
I tried not to look annoyed as I paced the floor, Drake watched me from his perch in the corner. It was making me nervous. Not being able to discuss the case with him, or the fact there were ghosts, and this other realm, the in-between that I didn’t know anything about.
“What’s this doohickey?” It was the voice of the boy, but I didn’t see him for a few moments, his voice led, and then he appeared. He was more visible than he was last time. I could see the seams on his pants, the pattern of the fabric, and a slight stain on his white shirt.
He looked at me and smiled sheepishly.
“Still see me?” he asked. I nodded and his grin widened.
He poked at the radio which squealed with sound in reaction.
“Hello doohickey,” Emmett said into the radio.
The radio made a specific sound and the team moved closer.
“Did it say doohickey?” Teddy asked and the twins looked at him and scowled. They kept reiterating that he was to remain silent, but he wasn’t having none of it. He told me in confidence he was hired by the production company and not the twins. He followed the company's directives and not the twins', until he was told otherwise. He
also said this stuff fascinated him. He was having the time of his life on this job.
“That wasn’t doohickey, that sounded like a name, Dawn Hickman?” Raul correct with a huff.
“Play it again,” Roselle said, and they rolled back the recording devices that were everyone held in their hands. They played it over and over again until they finally agreed it sounded like doohickey.
“This is stimulating.” Drake was amusing himself by touching the twins and making them shiver. When that didn’t get any voiced reactions, he moved to the cameramen. This worked much better. Every time he touched them they would turn to each other and ask, “Did you feel that?”
This resulted in the twins glaring at them even more and Drake laughing hysterically. It was refreshing to see this goofier side of Drake. His laughing even came over the radio once or twice, which had everyone in the room scratching their heads.
“If there is someone here, can you do something to let us know you’re here?” Roselle said, going with the typical ghost hunter spiel. There would be a creak of wood or the clink of something and everyone would turn.
“Why don’t you try, Cas?” Raul stood and began to pace. “Like you could do any better.” I wouldn’t have heard his muttered follow-up if the air conditioner hadn’t suddenly sputtered to a halt and left the room eerily quiet. I stood and made a sarcastic bow.
“Hello, is someone there?” I whispered. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”
“I thought you could see me, witch.” The boy was shimmering back and forth near the radio. I heard the distinct word “witch” come across the radio and groaned.
“Did you hear that?” Teddy said excitedly.
“Witch,” Roselle said.
“The others want to know that you’re here. I know you’re here, but can you let them know? So they can believe?”
“Is this really what y'all do for entertainment these days?” Emmett yawned the question and I tried to restrain my smile.
“What’s your name?” I asked, ignoring his little boy petulance, even though I wanted to laugh at his antics. He was now standing on the table trying to kick the radio device.
“Say your name loud, boy, so they can hear you,” Drake urged.
“Emmett,” he said as I pushed a little power into him. It came loud and clear over the ghost radio. “Hot dang!” he exclaimed when he heard his voice through the radio. It was perfect. It even picked up the inflection of his accent. I had been skeptical about these gadgets, but they picked up Emmett perfectly.
There was a literal gasp in the room as everyone stared at the ghost radio.
“What’s your full name, Emmett?” I asked.
“Emmett James Johnson,” he said with a huge smile on his face. He was jumping around the room like an excited child. Which I guess he was, only a dead one.
“Are you seeing this?” Teddy cried and we all turned to him, his eyes were fixed on Emmett.
“What do you see?” Roselle stood up and looked where Teddy was indicating. Emmett held still as a scarecrow, like he had been busted misbehaving and didn’t want to draw the teacher’s attention to him.
“They see me?” he asked with a look of shock on his face.
“I caught it on video.” Teddy put the camera down and they began the tedious back and forth process on the view finder to see the shadow that was Emmett.
“This is going to take forever,” I muttered and sat back down.
“Bet if I done beamed one of these guys in the head with something they’d get all excited,” Emmett laughed and jumped on the sofa between Roselle and Raul as they stared down at the tiny camera viewfinder. I could see him so much better now that I had given him a bit more energy.
More energy. That wasn’t a bad idea. I had a thought.
Emmett kept jumping, but lost his balance and fell back. I gave him a little more energy and he crashed into the table behind the sofa instead of going through it and everything on top of the table came crashing down.
The entire room jumped to their feet, including Roselle and Raul who were looking at each other in stunned surprise.
“Was that you, Emmett?” I asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” came the clear reply in the ghost radio.
“He’s so polite,” Raul said with incredulity.
“Can you do something else for us, Emmett?” Roselle asked. And unlike her brother, she looked intrigued. I made the vase that had tumbled to the ground fly across the room and slam into the wall near the other camera man. He screamed. It was loud. The crashing of the vase had nothing on that scream.
“That wasn’t me,” Emmett said, surprised when he heard his own voice come through the radio, a faint “wasn’t me.” He was beginning to fade again. He had used up too much energy too quickly.
“You heard that, it sounded like ‘wasn’t me’,” Raul said.
“I heard that too,” Teddy affirmed. He was picking glass out of his counterpart's shirt sleeves.
“If it wasn’t him, then who or what was it?” Gregor asked, looking around the room for other things to come flying at him.
“Did anyone get that on film?” Roselle barked when she noticed neither one of them had their cameras up.
“Mine’s on, but it was pointed at the radio,” Teddy said, looking abashed. The other cameraman picked up his and shook his head.
“My battery is dead. I had a full charge too.”
“This is ridiculous!” Roselle screamed.
“It’s getting late, Roselle,” her brother tried to calm her. “We should probably get some rest. We have the family interviews and séance tomorrow. And I want to do research on the last name Johnson.”
“But, it’s just getting good.” She stood and with not even a nod at the rest of us, walked out of the room.
“My battery is shot too. Weird.” Teddy put his camera down.
“Did you two morons not think to bring back-up batteries,” Raul asked in annoyance.
“I’ve already gone through two batteries,” Teddy said with a shrug.
“Fine, probably for the best we call it a night,” Raul said with a pinched scowl.
The cameramen and Raul began to pack up all their gear and I took the time to gesture for Drake to come closer.
“Can you stay behind and fill Emmett in on what’s going down? I’ll meet you back at the shop.” I saw Emmett lingering near the wall looking kind of lost and sad that the attention wasn’t on him anymore.
“I’ll meet you in Afterlife. There’s no reason you have to go back to that shop, right? Unless it’s to avoid me, which you’ve been doing very well for the last few days,” he countered me.
“Didn’t your mother tell you?” I tried not to roll my eyes with the word mother.
“Tell me what?”
“I can’t go back to Afterlife until this case is closed. Direct order.”
“What? Why would she do something like that?” I could only shrug in response. I didn’t even want to try to figure out Persephone’s intentions.
“Did you say something, Cas?” Teddy asked.
“Nope,” I replied. I glanced at Drake and he nodded a goodbye. Hopefully, tomorrow this case would be wrapped up.
15
Three Reasons
Pacing the small square footage that was the back apartment of the shop wasn’t helping me think. There were only a few things I could do to wrap this case up and deliver the twins the karma they deserved. Then there were the teens that lived at the Saint James House. How did they fit in this picture? How could I help them and wrap up my case? Was it even possible?
A quick internet search on the property garnered zero results. There were no former residents listed besides the one who had built the house, who happened to be the original owner. A search on the last name Johnson, then Mary and Emmett Johnson also returned zilch. Not even an urban legend of hauntings, or a tragedy involving those names came up. The house was purported to be haunted by soldiers of the civil war that were housed there and might
have died because of battle wounds, since there was documentation of quartering. The internet was a dead end.
Real information on the owners or on the children’s deaths would have to be found in old newspaper reports, which I could only find by going to the local library. An old obituary, or maybe a news report on a family losing all of their children, would be my only way to get information on the kids.
What would that prove, though?
That they existed? I already knew that they did. Drake confirmed it just in case I doubted myself. If I did find information, what then? It would prove to the twins that the children existed, affirm I wasn’t off my rocker? Make them believe there were children that haunted the halls and not some random demon.
Doubt they would even believe me if I found that they did exist. They’d probably say I did preliminary research and got their names from that. Plus, I didn’t care about proving anything to the twins.
It might help with the owners of the condos, help them get proof, but again, what would that do? My goal was my targets and karma would not be served by showing them I was legit.
The way I would get the twins their karmic retribution would be by exposing them on camera. That was the plan from the beginning. They would be exposed to the world as frauds and perverts. It was the only way to get maximum effectiveness. Their careers as ghost hunters had to be ruined, and their habit of illegally filming underage girls would hopefully land them in jail. All of this could be accomplished with some careful maneuvering.
This is where my self-doubt came into play. Accomplishing this would take a good bit of theatrics. Theatrical improv, and I wasn’t an actress. Could I really pull this off? I was a good liar, a damn good liar, but that was well-removed from a long con like this. This would take an Oscar worthy performance. Castalia Rosso, psychic medium!
