The Girl in the Darkness

by John Triptych

  Logan’s eyes opened wide. No! He wanted to say something as Kim pulled out her cell phone from underneath her jacket and started inputting her boyfriend’s number, but he couldn’t think of anything to say to stop her. His heart started to sink with a heavy anchor of disappointment.

  Kim held the phone to her ear for a minute before sighing and turning it off. “He’s not answering. I bet he’s getting that bong hit right now. This is so stupid.”

  Erin had somewhat recovered from her initial shock at seeing the face by the window, but now she was as scared as Ava was, if not more. “Let’s j-just wait out here then.”

  Ava nodded in swift agreement. It was cold but it was better than going inside. “I’m okay with that.”

  Logan knew he had to do something to get them into the house. It was the only thing he could think of, but he figured it was better than nothing. He got off the bicycle and placed it on the ground. Taking out his flashlight, he shined a beam to the front door. “What a stupid ghost. Scaring the three of you like that. Wait here, I’m going to destroy it.”

  Erin reacted by walking over to his side. “Logan, please don’t leave us out here alone.”

  Ava stood beside him and nodded. “Yes, please stay here until we get picked up. Please.”

  Logan couldn’t help but smile at her. Ava’s eyes were like deep blue pools of concern for him, even in the twilight of the evening, and for a short moment he felt lightheaded. So this was how someone felt when they were in love. This was a new sensation, to be fawned over by two girls, and it boosted his ego into the stratosphere. A part of him figured that he had done it, and now he could just easily hang out with them until Kim’s stupid boyfriend returned. Then he remembered Hunter’s advice: he needed to really prove himself in order to impress the entire school. He decided to go in, and show them just how tough he was. Who knows, he might even impress Kim too once he showed her that he could take on the “ghost” living in this old house. Logan gave Ava a confident wink. “It’s okay. I beat this ghost once before, the only thing that stopped me from totally wiping it out was because I didn’t have any holy water the last time. Now that I’ve got it, it’s time to finish this.”

  Turning around he started making his way slowly to the steps on the porch. The three girls behind him started a furious debate.

  “If he wants to go in there, then let him,” Kim said. “I’m waiting for my boyfriend right here.”

  Ava kept looking back and forth between her friends and Logan. “We can’t let him go in there by himself. Maybe we could help him?”

  Kim rolled her eyes. “How? If something happens to him, we’ll get it too!”

  “I-I think we better stay with Logan,” Erin said sheepishly. “I think we’re safer with him.”

  “We’ll be safe out here,” Kim said. “That ghost won’t leave the house.”

  Logan walked up the short steps and stood in front of the door. “I’m going to take you down, ghost!”

  Erin looked around nervously. The trees at the side of the property looked more ominous than ever before. She could sense something in the shadows. The only one who had any confidence was Logan, and she felt more secure if he was close by. Zipping up her jacket, she started walking towards the front door. Ava trotted quickly beside her until they got to the porch.

  Kim called out to them. “Hey, where are you two going?”

  “We’re staying with Logan,” Ava said.

  Not wanting to be alone by herself, Kim rushed forward to catch up with them. “Wait up!”

  Logan took out a couple of clothespins and started fiddling with the lock. It was all make believe, the door was already open. After about a minute, he stowed the pins back underneath his jacket, then turned the knob. The door made a slight creak as he pushed it inward.

  Ava was observing his every move. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

  Logan smiled at her before stepping inside. “From my grandfather. He was in special forces during Vietnam.”

  The three girls kept silent as they walked in right behind him. All of them had their flashlights out, and the girls were shining theirs in wildly different directions, with the vain hope that the ghost wouldn’t show itself when exposed to their beams. Logan held his flashlight with his right hand while his left carried a small plastic bottle of water.

  The boy stood in the center of the living room as he shined the light at the wooden staircase. The three girls stood cowering by his side. Logan stamped his feet three times on the oak flooring. “In the name of Jesus and the Holy Ghost, I command you to show yourself, spirit!”

  Loud thumping noises could suddenly be heard coming from above. Erin shrieked in terror as she hid behind Logan. Kim’s flashlight beam started wavering as her hand trembled. Ava stood less than an inch at Logan’s right side as she instinctively grabbed his arm with her free hand. The boy stiffened as a feeling of warmth spread through his body despite the cold of the night.

  A shrill laugh was heard coming from the top of the stairs. The grating voice that accompanied it was high-pitched and discordant. “This is my home! I curse yooouuu!”

  All three girls started screaming. Kim looked back at the open doorway and was tempted to make a dash for the safety of the outside, but Logan stood his ground. She quickly decided she didn’t dare go out there by herself out there. Both Erin and Ava hugged Logan and held onto his arms.

  Logan nearly fell to one side as the two girls were quite heavy. He looked at Ava, then to Erin. “Point your beams by the foot of the stairs. I’m going to sprinkle it with holy water.”

  Ava, Kim and Erin were still shrieking but they did as they were told. After stowing his flashlight back in his jacket, Logan reached over his shoulder and pulled out a highway road flare from his backpack. It was a long red stick with a plastic ignition at the end. With his other hand, he opened the vial of water and started sprinkling it a few feet in front of him until it was empty. An ear-splitting scream came from the stairs once more.

  The girls screaming intensified as Logan struggled to light the road flare. He remembered his dad using one of those things once when their car broke down along a darkened road. He took off the plastic tip, flicked it away and pulled out a small lighter from his pants pocket. Angling the lighter near the top of the flare, he was able to instantly ignite it, and in less than a second, the flare cast a reddish flame that created a dramatic effect on the whole scene. Both Erin and Ava backed away as the Logan began to wave the flare back and forth.

  “I cast you back to hell, ghost,” Logan said as he held the flare out in front of him.

  Due to his inexperience, the boy’s grip was too close to the crown of the flare, and as soon as it got to a full burn, the tip of his thumb got scorched. Logan yelped as he inadvertently let go of the burning torch, and it sailed backwards across the living room before landing on top of a can of paint thinner by the window. The building contractor was due to refurbish the place next week, and the one of the workers had left a soaked rag on top of the cans. As soon as the flare fell onto the coarse cloth, it instantly ignited, sending a growing column of flame that spread to the thick old-fashioned curtains.

  As the flames began to spread, Kim and the other two girls had had enough. They all ran screaming past the door and out into the night. Ava grabbed Logan and started pulling him with her, but as soon as they both made it out onto the porch, he realized that his friends were in danger.

  “Logan!’ Ava said as he pulled away from her and ran back through the door.

  His mind panicking, Logan tried to run up the stairs but the fire had spread, and the living room was now being engulfed with smoke. The flames were getting close to the door. He cupped his hands and started yelling at the top of his lungs. “Zack! Hunter! There’s a fire, you’ve gotta get out of there, right now!”

  Ava ran back in, and she grabbed Logan by the elbow. “We’ve got to go!”

  Tears were falling down his cheeks. He could no longer see the foot of the s
tairs. The dense, acrid smoke was making him cough. “Zack! Hunter!”

  The boy’s legs buckled, and Ava was able to pull him out, just before the flames spread over the doorframe. They both staggered out from the porch and joined the other two girls on the driveway. Kim had pulled out her cell phone and was already calling the local emergency services.

  Logan started retching from the smoke. No matter how hard he coughed, he just couldn’t get the burnt smell and itchiness out of his lungs. Just as he was about to fall on his knees in despair, he saw Hunter and Zack come running out towards him from behind the house. The two boys ran up to him, and they all hugged each other as the flames consumed the house.

  Six

  Detective Addison Draper parked her car by the side of the road before getting out. There wasn’t much room in the driveway beyond since it was occupied by a number of fire trucks. The early morning sun was partly obscured by the trees and the wisps of smoke from the still smoldering house. The front of the place was completely gutted by the fire that had occurred last night, before the county’s fire and rescue services were able to get it under control. Around a dozen firefighters were still going through the blackened debris, making sure the ruins was safe enough to venture into. She walked down the driveway and noticed her colleague Mike Arnold talking with the representative from the fire marshal’s office, Walter Roche.

  She walked up to them with a steaming cardboard cup of coffee in each hand. “Good morning you two, I bought you guys some coffee.”

  Detective Mike Arnold eagerly took the offering from her hands. His ill-fitting suit needed a fold and press. Like most of the cops in the county, he was barrel chested; what set him apart was an orange blond crew cut. “Thanks a million, Addy. What about you?”

  Addison smiled as she offered the other cup to the fire engineer. “Drank mine on the way over.”

  Engineer Roche had a thick brown moustache and a shaved head. He took the cup with a toothy grin. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  Addison smiled back and placed her hands on her hips. “No problem,” she said. It had been a busy week. In addition to several acts of vandalism at a number of remote properties she was looking into, she also had to investigate one concerned woman whose husband was stalking her in the dead of night, despite the restraining order she had filed against him not to approach her. On top of all that, Addison had to answer Brenda DeVoe’s incessant phone calls to her desk, asking her if there were any new developments about the cat earring that had been found. After a few days, the fingerprint analysis had been inconclusive, and Addison had to break the news to her in person. Brenda became silent, and the dejected look on her face pretty much took away the one hope that she had of finding her daughter. Addison had felt sorry for her. While Brenda’s husband seemed to have moved on with his life, she was still stuck in some sort of limbo; the woman seemed only half alive when Addison told her of the results.

  Now she had another damaged property to investigate. It looked like she would have to miss tequila night with Stephanie again.

  Engineer Roche took a few sips of the hot beverage before gesturing at the two of them to follow him. He walked over to the side of the porch and pointed at what was left of the blackened door frame. “Okay, let’s get to it. The fire was caused by a road flare that had fallen onto a rag soaked with thinner. The construction crew was to commence some repairs on this property in a few week’s time, so there were cans of paint and other highly flammable materials around. A bunch of kids were inside the living room last night, and they admitted it was all an accident.”

  Addison stood in front of the steps. The smell of charred wood still permeated the air. “What were these kids doing in a vacant house at night?”

  Mike craned his neck until it popped slightly, loosening up the tense muscles. He had been up all evening at the scene not long after the fire started. “Seems to have been some sort of Halloween trick, at least that’s what they told me.”

  Roche crooked an eyebrow. “Halloween? That was half a year ago.”

  Mike shrugged. “Well, it seems that a bunch of girls were dropped off by a boyfriend here last night. They had flashlights and thought it was a haunted house and all that. Some boys knew about what they were gonna do and hid in the house to wait for them.”

  Addison thrust out her lower lip. “So they were going to scare them.”

  Mike nodded. “Pretty much. One of the boys had a road flare. He had no experience when it came to using it and ended up burning his thumb. When he let go, the torch landed on a pile of varnish cans and boom. They were lucky though, and managed to get out just in time. This house wasn’t so lucky.”

  “Where are the kids now?” Addison asked.

  “In the custody of their parents,” Mike said. “All around thirteen years of age. Except for that one high schooler who drove in while the fire was being put out. He tried to get one of the girls to leave with him, so we had to intervene. We could smell alcohol and marijuana on his breath so we took him in.”

  Roche took another sip of his coffee. “You going to charge him?”

  Mike shrugged again. “I dunno. He’s still a minor too. I guess that’ll be up to the sheriff and the DA if they want to do something about it.”

  Roche shook his head slowly. “Damned kids. I’ve got a boy who’s six and I tell you, seems all the young ones these days don’t have any discipline.”

  “I guess we’ll have to contact the owners of the house and the insurance company,” Addison said, looking at the fire engineer. “How liable are the kids going to be?”

  Roche pursed his lips. “They’re minors, so it will be the parents that will have a limited liability, and only up to a certain point. The insurance company will be the one taking it up the ass. Oops, pardon my French, detective.”

  Addison laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Working with so many men in this job, I'm use to it. Doesn’t bother me one bit.”

  Roche smiled. “Good thing to know you’re just one of the guys.”

  Mike smirked. “Oh, she’s a guy all right.”

  Addison raised an eyebrow at her fellow detective. “Watch it, buster. Did you contact the owner of the house yet?”

  “Just kidding, Addy,” Mike said. “I checked with the mortgage lender, and this house was foreclosed years ago. I think that’s probably what attracted the kids to it since it’s been vacant for a long time. The lender was planning to renovate the house and hired a construction firm to do it.”

  “What’s the name of the company?”

  “DeVoe Contractors,” Mike said.

  Addison’s eyebrows shot up. Jeff DeVoe’s firm was the one handling the restoration. “Really?”

  “Yeah, one heck of a coincidence,” Mike said. “I know you were following up on something with his ex-wife. Missing child, right? I was a deputy when it happened.”

  Addison bit her lip. “Yeah, so was I. I feel sorry for the mom.”

  One of the firefighters at the far side of the burned house held his hand up and started shouting. “Roche, get over here! We’ve found something.”

  The three of them started making their way through the burned out living room, making sure not to further disturb any additional parts of the ruined area. Taking out a pair of latex gloves from her coat pocket, Addison put them on. It looked like she would need to go to the dry cleaners sooner rather than later; Stephanie hated the smell of Addison’s clothes every time she was on a case like this.

  They were soon standing at the edge of a half burned doorway leading down to the basement. The descending stairs had not caught fire, but the air below was damp since a lot of the water the firefighters used to douse the flames with ended up in the lowest part of the house. Beck was the fireman who called out to them, and he led the way. Addison had to hold onto the rickety handholds of the staircase in order to prevent her feet from slipping on the wet steps. A sour, vinegary smell wafted from down below.

  The basement had a concrete floor, and there was a narro
w window near the top of its ceiling, allowing a thin shaft of light into the dimness of the subterranean room. The three of them had flashlights, and they had already activated them, casting beams of bright light to illuminate the understructure of the house. The ground was flooded with an inch of water, and the cold, muddy liquid was starting to seep into Addison’s suede leather shoes. A part of her regretted the decision not to purchase the galoshes she saw at a sporting goods store when she visited the local mall with Stephanie a week ago. It looked like she would need a new pair of shoes after this.

  Beck walked past an old, dirty tub that was filled with discarded plastic soda bottles to the far corner of the room, which displayed a kind of workshop. A worn, wooden table jutted out from the corner, with more than a dozen used plastic containers of drain cleaner on top of it. Above the counter an empty shelf that once contained assorted tools was embedded along the side of the wall. The fireman walked up to it and pulled one of the jutting handles on the shelf and the entire display suddenly parted, revealing a six-inch gap between the rack and the wall.

  Mike scowled in disbelief as he brought his flashlight closer. “What in the hell?”

  Roche walked up to it and examined the divide. “It looks like something is hidden behind this thing.” He knelt down and shined his light at the bottom of the work table. “It’s got wheels. Let’s pull it back.”

  Addison stood out of the way as the three men pulled the entire workshop backwards. No sooner had the gap widened to a few feet when everyone let out a gasp. There was a sealed solid metal door hidden behind the shelf. It was held in place with a sliding bolt fixed with a rusty padlock. For a brief moment, nobody said anything as they continued to shine their flashlights at the door in stunned silence.

  “Jesus H Christ,” Beck said. “What’s in there?”

  Addison moved forward a few steps and tried to pull the bolt, but the padlock prevented her. She turned to look at the others, visions of abducted children in her mind. “We need to get this open.”