by Alexie Aaron
Ted walked over and picked a few small leaves out of Mia’s hair. “Tell me what your gut says.”
“My gut says that when I touched the ground of this property, there was energy so strong that it pulled me and Murphy back in time.”
“Could this energy also be fueling the return of the happy alumni?” Ted asked.
Mia’s face pulled into a wry smile. “Do you think Burt’s going to buy that?”
“He’s so high right now after making out with Audrey, I could sell him his own car,” Ted said confidently.
“I do think that there is something more to find here. I’d like to have my father look at it. He’s got the sight.”
“Well then, let’s write up a kick-ass proposal and present it to the team. If I have to pay for PEEPs time, I will. After all, I am quite wealthy.”
“Oooh do tell,” Mia pleaded.
Ted picked up Mia’s necklace and rolled the disk in his hand. “This little orb has been picked up by the military to monitor the men in the field.”
“You sold out to the military, tsk tsk.”
“Yes, I sold out, but it was for good reasons I assure you.” Ted confided, “If we can tell when a solder is in trouble and have the GPS to get to him or her in time…”
“I see what you’re saying… my necklace certainly saved my bacon a time or two.”
“I love your bacon,” Ted said reaching around her. “It’s so hot and…”
“Ahem,” Charles Cooper’s voice sounded from behind them. “Save it for the honeymoon, too much poison ivy around here.”
Mia turned bright red and was lost for words. She certainly wasn’t used to having a parental interest in what she was doing, nor having a father playing the role of protector.
“Where’s the place you fell?” he asked.
“I marked it,” Mia said and proceeded to tell Charles of Ted’s discovery. The three of them walked the area while Charles made notations in his book. “I’m not sure of the relevance to our investigation though,” Mia admitted.
“Could be nothing, could be something,” Charles murmured. He squatted down, took off his glove and picked up some of the dirt where Mia had first encountered the smoke. He dropped it and brushed his hand against his jeans. He put his glove back on, saying nothing.
“Well?” Mia asked, anxious for his validation of her hunches.
“Smelled smoke and felt my eyes burn. I think it was a man who fell,” he said. “I didn’t see anything, but my gift isn’t as strong as yours.”
Mia nodded.
“Oh, before I forget. We found a door,” he mentioned.
“What! Why didn’t you… nevermind,” Mia said, glaring at her distracted parent.
“You want to come and look it over?” Charles asked, already knowing the answer.
Mia grabbed Ted’s hand. “Come on!” she said excitedly.
“Mia, it’s only a door,” Charles cautioned. “In the Valley of the Kings we found a door, and behind that door was sand, just sand.”
“I have a hunch that this door holds back more than sand, dear Father,” Mia replied. “It holds secrets.”
“Chills,” Ted said. “I feel chills.” He pulled Mia closer. “You’re going to have to protect me. Murphy’s not around.”
Mia nodded. “Stick with me, I’ll protect you,” she said, not feeling very confident. She had forgotten she sent the axe man home.
They arrived back at the site to see the students bracing the doorjamb of what appeared to be a cellar of some kind. Floodlights had been commandeered, ready to give light where it was needed. Mia nodded to the arrogant postgrad as she passed her. She didn’t know why the woman didn’t like Mia, but she felt her disapproval each time their eyes met.
Burt stood there holding a camera. Audrey was at his elbow, weighted down with several cameras and a canvas bag full of ghost hunting gadgets. Mike was nowhere to be seen. Mia figured out he had volunteered to watch from the command center. Mike didn’t like damp, dark dirty places.
The ground before the entrance was scraped deeper that the level of the opening. Charles anticipated the swing of the door and didn’t want the dirt to impede its movement.
Mia put her hand on the door. “I’m surprised it isn’t rotted.”
“Looks to me like it was tarred,” Charles said, pointing to the blackened wood. “The hinges are rusted though. Be prepared for them to break apart if they move at all,” he warned.
Mia nodded and stepped back. Charles, armed with a crowbar and two of his huskier students, proceeded to open the door.
Ted put a protective arm around Mia and drew her away as the men went to work. The hinges screamed but held, and soon Charles had the door opened a few feet. He motioned for the men to move the supports in and took a flashlight and stepped inside.
“Mia,” he called. “Stick you head in here, and tell me what you see,” he instructed.
Mia moved around the students and entered the dark hole in the ground. The floodlights cut into the darkness a few feet. Mia watched the ground for any hazards as she made her way to her father. She climbed over fallen beams and large tree roots. She caught a glimpse of Charles’s light blue Cambric shirt. She felt Ted behind her moving gracefully over the debris. She waited a moment for him to catch up.
Charles stood stiffly, his large frame blocking her view. “I think we may have found the children,” he said softly.
She moved around him and stopped. Before her was a tableau that broke her heart. John Ashe sat with his arms around the five other children. She could see the echoes of the terror in their faces. John, however, knowing their fate was imminent, chose to be calm and comfort them. The vision faded, and Mia looked at the bones before her.
Ted put a comforting arm on her shoulder. “We’ve found them. Now we can work on giving them peace.”
Mia looked around the space, trying to push the faces of the children out of her mind. She examined the dirt walls and looked at the ceiling of roots and tarred timbers over her. “They must have sought refuge here when the trees caught fire. They managed to escape the flames, but the smoke found its way under the door,” she said sadly.
“Why weren’t they found?” Audrey asked from behind them.
Charles stepped aside and turned and addressed her question. “I imagine the building above them collapsed, and if the searchers didn’t know about the cellar, they would have assumed the children were consumed by flames.”
“Their father was incarcerated,” Audrey explained. “So they had no one to insist on words being said even though there seemed to be nothing to bury.”
Mia sensed a movement in the ether. “Ted, perhaps it’s time to drop an energon cube,” she suggested. “Between my father and me, we may be able to communicate and find out what really happened here.”
“Let me give my students a dinner break,” insisted Charles. “They are archeologists and not skilled in, nor do they have the temperament for, this type of activity.”
Mia nodded. She inched over to the space where the bones were piled and waited for her father to return. Burt quietly filmed while Audrey took shots of the bones with the various cameras hung around her neck. Ted stayed near Mia. He had one hand on her at all times, not trusting the paranormal world not to take her from him again. Mia felt comforted by this. Murphy having her back may have made her feel brave, but Ted gave her the emotional security she needed so much: the feeling that if she disappeared, she would be mourned and missed, the feeling that someone would move mountains in order to find her.
“Okay, I’ve sent them away,” Charles said as he returned. “Ted, it’s up to you now.”
Ted reached into his pocket and pulled out a cube of stored energy. It was enough to power the space station for thirty-six hours. He turned it on and carefully placed it near the larger skeleton. “If you can hear me, pick up this block. Inside it is energy you can draw from. It won’t hurt you,” Ted explained.
Mia watched the green glow of the tube. She
sensed the shadows moving in from the edges of the cellar. She gasped as a hand appeared and picked up the cube. The soot-covered fingers gripped the cube a moment before passing it to smaller hands. Mia watched as the cube moved in a circle before returning to the large set of hands.
John Ashe appeared before all of them. He was a boy of considerable height for his age of eleven. His clothes were worn but mended with care. Mia could see the cuffs of his shirt had been turned and the frayed bits hidden. He had brown hair that matched the girl that stood next to him. She looked at John and then at the group of investigators before her and tried to smile. Her dress moved as a younger girl tugged at the hem. She put a comforting hand on the child and said softly, “It’s alright, they can’t hurt us.”
“My sister is right. David, Michael and Honor, you can come out now,” John called to the children still in the shadows.
Charles stepped aside and let the three join the others. He took note of the higher quality of their clothing. “John, are all these children your family?” he asked.
The boy looked at Charles and shook his head, explaining, “Only Dora and Maude. The others are Gilberts. They have run away from their father. I hid them in the old house. We were bringing them food when lightning struck the big tree.”
“Why were they hiding?” Mia asked.
“Their father was drunk,” he said and crossed his arms. “When Mr. Gilbert drinks, he hurts his children. My father may have been a criminal, but he never hurt us when he was drinking,” he said proudly.
“Someone followed you into the woods,” Mia informed them, the memories of the smoke-filled afternoon flooded her senses. “He perished near the ruins of the other house.”
“The witch’s house,” little Maude hissed.
“She wasn’t a witch, silly,” the older girl chided. “She was much more.”
Mia wanted to know more but realized that their time was short. Instead she asked, “Would you like to go to school now?”
All six children’s faces brightened. John pushed a tear away from his face and asked, “Is it possible? We tried for an eternity to leave the woods but couldn’t.”
“We’re thinking that if we carefully move your bones to the school, then you can join the children that have been waiting for you,” Audrey explained.
The children looked at each other and chanted:
Hop one foot to clear the soot
Hop on two to open the flue
Touch the ground three when you can see
John Ashe coming through the trees.
“Yes, those children. It may take a little time. Please be patient. After, we will bury you,” Audrey insisted. “Send you to heaven.”
“Respectfully, ma’am, Himmel is heaven,” John said and disappeared.
Chapter Fifteen
“There’s one thing you can say for these vandals,” Sheriff John Ryan said looking up at the paint-dotted water tower, “they’re getting bolder.”
Big Bear Lake’s water tower stood in a fenced off part of the old downtown area. The reason for the fence was obvious. It had been the right of passage for many a brain-dead teen to climb the tower. The fence, with its obligatory roll of barbed wire stretched across the top, had stopped the sober teens. The juiced-up lads arrived in the ER with barbed wire cuts and angry parents in tow. Still, they could have been amongst the three unlucky ones. During the eighties, three boys successfully climbed the tower only to miss their footing on the way down. They now rested across the street in the Big Bear Lake cemetery.
“Judging by the color array, I think we’re talking four individuals unless they are sharing colors,” Tom said. “They must be using customized weapons to get that height. Unless these boys can fly, I think we are talking some specialized equipment here. I’d hate to get hit with a glob of paint from something that has that range.”
“No one heard anything?” John asked his deputy.
“No, it was done between patrols. There were no witnesses.”
“Son, there were witnesses, but none of them are talking,” the sheriff said surveying the headstones of the graveyard.
“Not to us.”
“You don’t think the Cooper girl would help us out here?” he asked.
“Mia goes miles out of her way to avoid this place. I doubt she would volunteer to converse with the residents,” Tom said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one to ask her. Besides, what are the odds the dead know the paint ballers well enough to identify them. And then there’s the trouble of the lineup…”
John Ryan started to laugh and patted Tom on the back. “I see your point. We’ll have to depend on good old-fashioned police research to track these fellows down.”
“I’m on it. Back to the computers for me,” Tom said walking away, leaving a muttering sheriff looking up at the structure.
“They must have shot the projectiles in the air and let gravity land them on top of the thing,” he said. “Part of me hopes the paint is water soluble, and part of me fears what the damn thing is going to look like after it rains this afternoon.”
~
A roll of thunder vibrated through the woods. The archeology team had long since vacated the site. After the bones were extracted by the coroner, there was little to interest the students. Charles had started to excavate the area where Mia thought a body had fallen, but he had only scratched the surface when it started to rain. He huddled inside the command vehicle with Mia and Ted.
“I think we’re calling it a day,” Ted said, listening to Mike’s and Burt’s conversation. The partners had sheltered inside the lobby of the school. Audrey was sent packing with a new line of research to perform.
“When will we know if the removal of the bodies freed the children?” Charles asked his daughter.
“Tomorrow is the hundredth anniversary of the first Appreciate Life Day. I’m going to be here to see if John Ashe and the rest arrive to be amongst the children who have assembled here. I pray that they all ascend because, frankly, I have no clue how to deal with them otherwise,” Mia admitted.
“From the bits of conversation I’ve been a party to, I get the idea that this school will continue to receive visitors,” Charles said.
“Let’s hope they contain their wanderings to the halls of the building and out of the neighborhoods. The people there have been more than accommodating, but I feel they will pick up their torches and pitchforks if this continues,” Mia said, rubbing her temples.
“You can’t save them all,” Charles said, putting an arm around his daughter. “If Himmel is their idea of heaven then let it be. The new owners of the building will either learn to embrace the antics of the spirits or seek out another solution.”
“Tearing the building down and building over it won’t stop the visitations. The children see everything as it was and not as it is. To them, the Ems are still teaching. Only a few seem to understand they are existing in two time periods.”
“That’s a novel way of looking at it,” Charles commented.
Ted turned around. “I just got the pack-up order from Burt. We’re to be back here at seven in the morning to set up, rain or shine. Charles, it’s up to you if you want to wander over and take in the festivities.”
“If it’s good weather, I’ll bring a small team to excavate the area we started on. The house, however, will have to be worked into the schedule at a later time. I’m afraid, Mia, I don’t see anything happening there until after the spring thaw.”
Mia tried not to let her disappointment show in her face. “We have a wedding coming up, and I will have to put my curiosity on the back burner for a while anyway. Ralph would have a fit if I miss any more fittings,” she confessed.
“Whatever is there, has been there for over a hundred years. I think it will wait a few months. Perhaps tomorrow’s events will either bring it out or settle it down,” Charles said.
“You are wise, Father,” Mia said.
“Wise and late for dinner with your mother,” Charles said, looking at hi
s watch. “It’s been fun. See you tomorrow.”
Ted shook hands with his soon-to-be father-in-law. “Drive carefully, the roads are covered with wet leaves,” he cautioned.
Charles nodded as he climbed out of the truck and ran to his jeep in the increasing rainfall.
Ted lowered the back sliding door to protect the equipment from the blowing rain. He put on the lights and took a moment to study Mia. She was exhausted but wired on caffeine. Her face was tense, and he could tell that her head was hurting. He had no idea the trauma she went through when the visions took hold. All he could do was be there for her, watch for signs she was failing, and bust a gut to get her medical help as soon as possible.
The PEEPs team had made a friend with the resident ER doctor, Dr. Walters. He seemed to be able to suspend his beliefs long enough to administer to the ghost hunters when needed. He had dealt with everything from ice burns from spirits touching the investigators to mending Burt after he had been assaulted by a gang of Cold Creek Hollow denizens. Presently, he was working with Ted on a couple of pet projects. They were adapting many of Ted’s inventions to benefit the medical community while fine-tuning them for PEEPs.
“Head still hurting?” Ted asked. He tenderly touched Mia’s forehead and was happy to feel the coolness of her soft skin.
“I have all this noise in my head.”
“From the school?”
“Yes, I think so. I’m like a radio receiving all these transmissions without the ability to turn down the volume. I’ll be very happy to see the completion of this investigation.”
“Well, give me five minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Let me help, and it will take you ten minutes,” Mia said, picking up several items from the console top, not having a clue what they were or where they went.
Ted bent down and kissed her on top of the head. “How about you call Ralph and tell him our decision on the wedding cake.”
“What was our decision?”
“You know, I love the cherry nut…”
Mia smiled. “Then cherry nut is the flavor, damn the allergies. Let them eat cupcakes!”
