Unquiet Souls

by Christine Pope

  He began to walk in that direction — and at once the cold descended, even more intense than the times she’d previously experienced it. She heard Colin curse, and Susan let out a gasp.

  Heart pounding, Audrey said urgently, “Michael.”

  “I know.” His free hand wrapped around the cross he wore around his neck. “The light of God surrounds us,” he began.

  Shrieking laughter came from all sides, and Audrey winced. Imitating him, she grasped the cross she wore, along with the amulet of black tourmaline he’d given her. Maybe it was only the contrast with the iciness of her fingers, but it almost felt as if the stone was heating up as she held it, absorbing the dark energies that had come here to do battle.

  “The love of God enfolds us!” she cried out, brandishing the graffiti remover with the hand that wasn’t holding the amulets. She pushed down on the spray tip.

  Clear liquid streamed out and downward, hitting the spell circle next to where Audrey stood. At once, the laughter around her and Michael turned to cries of rage. Something struck the can from her hand, sending it flying against the wall, and she gasped and took a step backward. Thank God the thing hadn’t touched her, only the can. Even so, her flesh crawled at the thought of something inhuman being close enough to make contact like that.

  “The presence of God watches over us,” Michael said loudly. He also pointed his can of graffiti remover down at the circle and began to spray at the painted surface.

  The shrieking turned into guttural growling, as if a wounded animal crouched somewhere nearby. If anything, this sound was worse; Audrey could feel the hair on the back of her neck standing up, adrenaline surging through her veins, telling her to flee.

  But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t leave Michael here to do this on his own.

  The lights went out, and Audrey screamed. To be fair, it was more of a high-pitched gasp than an actual scream, but still. Somewhere up the stairs, she heard Colin curse again, and, incongruously, she hoped they’d be able to edit that out. He was standing next to Susan, so the boom mike had to have picked up everything.

  Or maybe they wouldn’t get rid of the swearing. This was for cable, after all.

  The darkness didn’t last long, though, because Colin and Michael clearly had realized this was a possibility and had contingencies planned. A pale glow suddenly drifted down the stairs, and Audrey saw that either Colin or Susan had stuck a couple of tap lights to the walls of the stairwell. The illumination they provided wasn’t nearly as bright as what the fixtures overhead had given off, but it was enough to see.

  Not that Audrey really wanted to see what was going on right then.

  Something was moving in the shadows in the corners. Or rather, the shadows themselves seemed to be moving, growing darker and more solid, coalescing into terrible, monstrous shapes. She couldn’t see any details; she didn’t want to.

  “Wherever we are, God is!” Michael shouted. “Audrey, keep going!”

  She dropped to her knees and scrabbled for the spray can. Luckily, it had only rolled a foot or so away. Her fingers latched on to it, and she whispered, “The light of God surrounds us. The light of God surrounds us.”

  Somehow, she couldn’t seem to get past that first line. It didn’t matter, though, because she had the spray can in her hand now. Gritting her teeth, she pressed down on the nozzle, used the sole of her boot to help erase the outlines of those circles, all those evil-looking symbols and foreign letters.

  The pressure had returned, roaring in her ears. Now she couldn’t hear what Michael was saying, couldn’t focus on anything except doing her best to remove the circles. The largest one was completely gone now, the one next to it more than halfway there. A complete circle still remained, though.

  Audrey cast a frantic glance over one shoulder, caught a nightmarish glimpse of some…thing…looming over Michael. He’d let go of the spray can and instead held what she thought was one of his vials of holy water. She couldn’t tell for sure in the gloom, but surely that must be what he was using, one of his last defenses against these beings of darkness.

  A shriek, followed by more of that horrible, guttural moaning. She guessed that Michael had flung some of the holy water at the demon, although she couldn’t stop what she was doing to take a closer look, had to keep working.

  Two circles gone, and then the groan Audrey heard must have come from Michael, had emanated from a human throat. She risked a quick glance to her right, saw that he was now on his hands and knees, that thing crouching over him, clawed hands with impossibly long fingers reaching for his neck.

  She didn’t stop to think. Some mad impulse made her raise the can of graffiti remover she held and spray it full throttle at the demon. All of Michael’s instructions about trusting in a higher power flew right out the window as she screamed, “That holy enough for you, you son of a bitch?”

  It howled in pain, and Michael took advantage of the creature’s distraction to throw another vial of holy water at it. Now it seemed to be shrinking somehow, although in the basement’s gloom, Audrey couldn’t tell for sure.

  “The final circle!” he shouted at her. “Now!”

  She nodded and stumbled over to the third circle, the smallest one. Finger pressed desperately on the nozzle of the spray can — and praying there was enough graffiti remover remaining to do the job — she shot the liquid at the old, old red paint on the floor, watched it dissolve and trickle away in rivulets that looked a little too much like blood.

  Then it was gone, and the shadowy form of the demon was gone, too, dissolving like smoke on the wind. The lights flared on, and Audrey and Michael were alone there on the basement floor, looking at each other in shock. For a long moment, no one said anything.

  From the stairway above them, Colin chuckled. “Looks like that’s a wrap, kids. Michael can do the closing comments later on. Any of you fancy a pint?”

  Chapter 14

  After they packed up their equipment and vacated the house — and Michael sprinkled holy water on the entrance to the basement, just to be safe — the crew ended up at a kitschy Polynesian place in Rosemead called The Bahooka. Although Audrey had heard of it, she’d never actually been there, but Michael and Susan — quiet, capable Susan, who’d kept recording the sound during that entire nightmarish encounter — both agreed it was the best place in the area to celebrate.

  After the first sip of her piña colada, Audrey was inclined to agree. No canned stuff here; the restaurant used fresh coconut and pineapple juice…along with a healthy measure of rum. At another time, she might have cared more about how strong her drink actually was. But she wasn’t driving, and dammit, she’d just faced down a demon and lived to tell the tale. So what if her knees still felt a little shaky now that the adrenaline fueling her during the confrontation was gone? By the time she was done with her first drink, she knew she’d probably be feeling just fine.

  Colin was drinking a beer, because he said he was damned if he was going to have any of the froufrou stuff everyone else was consuming. Michael, snugged up next to Audrey in the oversized booth their group had commandeered, was making serious inroads on his zombie. Kathleen had begged off and gone home, saying she didn’t drink, but Daniela appeared to be making up for her absence, sipping from a hurricane that seemed bigger than she was. And Susan had a Blue Hawaiian, something that looked as calm and cool as she’d been during the shoot.

  “Bloody hell, if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would never have believed it!” Colin exclaimed. Luckily, since it was a Thursday night, the restaurant wasn’t too busy. The little grotto that contained their oversized booth — and which had aquariums filled with neon tropical fish embedded in all the walls — was empty except for their party, which meant they all felt a bit more comfortable discussing what they’d just experienced. “I can’t wait to get that camera back to my place and start editing this episode. It’s going to be spectacular.”

  “Yes, but you know people are going to say we faked it all,” Michael remarked
.

  The thought had crossed Audrey’s mind, but she still raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know…usually shows like this don’t have the budget for those kinds of special effects.”

  He shrugged. “Some people just have to be skeptics, even when the evidence is practically shoved in their faces.”

  Colin took a long pull at his bottle of Dos Equis. “Honestly, mate, I don’t care, as long as the show pulls in enough ratings to get us renewed.”

  Audrey really didn’t want to think about the prospect of another season. Hell, she really didn’t even want to think about the next episode. They were all celebrating now, true, but on Monday they’d have to be back at it again, albeit in a different venue. However, she kept her reservations to herself. Everyone was happy right now, and she didn’t want to throw cold water on the party.

  Besides, Colin continued, not giving any of the others a chance to comment. “I’ll throw together a rough edit over the weekend, see where we’re at. We might need to add a few pickup shots, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “‘Pickup shots’?” Audrey echoed.

  “Things to fill in the narrative, add some detail…maybe make the transitions a bit smoother,” Michael explained. He reached for his zombie, the sleeve of his jacket just barely brushing against Audrey’s arm. Still, even that light touch was enough to send some happy endorphins flooding through her.

  “We’ll have to go back to the Whitcomb place for those?” she asked, and couldn’t quite keep the alarm out of her voice.

  Colin chuckled. “No worries on that front, sweetheart. Chris shot a bunch of footage of the place before he ran out on us. I’d just film you and Michael in front of a green screen in the studio for any bits we might need and put whatever footage looks best behind you. Easy. Same thing for any of our other location shoots — I’ll get a library of backgrounds so we can do pickups for every episode as necessary.”

  She let out a relieved breath. “Oh. That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “Piece of cake,” Colin told her.

  Yes, going into a studio and shooting her and Michael doing a few expository bits and pieces sounded infinitely easy compared to their recent confrontation with the demons. Even though she was sitting in a safe place — the restaurant had been around for years and years, but it felt as though only happy energy had collected here — Audrey had to hold back a shudder. Was the world even ready for something like this? Most ghost-hunting shows she’d seen watched only had a few EVPs — electronic voice phenomena — and maybe an object appearing to move on its own as their only real evidence for supernatural activities. Colin had captured a couple of honest-to-God demons on film — or at least, on a memory card. Would people be able to accept what they saw, with all its implications, or would they, as Michael had said, think that the basement battle was anything other than Hollywood tricks?

  In a way, she hoped it was the latter. Sometimes, ignorance truly was bliss.

  “And we’re set for Tucson,” Colin went on. “Got the final sign-off from the B&B’s owners, so we all need to caravan there over the weekend.”

  On Sunday, Audrey thought. Saturday, I have clients to see. But she could work all that out with Michael. Now she looked forward to the road trip, even though she’d been dreading it before. Maybe he’d finally feel comfortable opening up to her about his past if they had to spend that much time alone in a car together.

  “Where are we staying?” Daniela asked. She was nearly to the bottom of her hurricane and looking a little wistful. Hopefully, the waitress would come by soon for a round of refills, because they’d all made serious inroads on their drinks.

  “At the B&B itself,” Colin replied. “Not many paying guests these days, thanks to the disturbances, so the owners are putting us up for free.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the best idea — ” Michael began, but their producer waved a nonchalant hand.

  “It’ll be fine. From what you’ve told me, it’s all nuisance stuff, anyway — things getting moved around, doors and windows opened and closed, that sort of thing.”

  “Crosses being turned upside down,” Michael said ominously.

  “Nothing to it,” Colin said. He looked supremely unconcerned, especially for a man who’d just been confronted by the evidence that all of this was real, not something merely being played for ratings. “Besides, if we’re all on-site, we won’t miss any activity if it happens in the middle of the night, will we?”

  Audrey had no idea how Colin could be so blithe about the situation. After all, he’d been down in that basement with the rest of them, had to know what they were up against. Then again, maybe being behind the camera had given him a measure of detachment. And she could guess that he was thrilled about getting everyone free accommodations, rather than having to spring for hotel rooms for his crew.

  For a moment, Michael looked as though he was inclined to argue further. But then he gave a small lift of his shoulders and drank some more of his hurricane. At the rate he was going, he’d be done around the same time as Daniela.

  Or Audrey herself. She’d also made a serious dent in her piña colada. Luckily, the waitress appeared then and took orders for another round of drinks and some food to soak up the alcohol. Michael and Susan offered helpful advice on what to get — ribs and crab puffs and a few other highly caloric but tasty-sounding options — and the waitress wandered off toward the kitchen. At least, Audrey assumed that was where she was headed. The restaurant was a maze, full of dark corners and sharp angles and unexpected little alcoves. Good thing that Michael seemed to know the place well, as she had a feeling she’d have to rely on him to guide her out of there by the time the night was over.

  They chatted about the upcoming trip to Tucson. Although Audrey had to admit she wasn’t overly thrilled about having to sleep in a bed-and-breakfast that might or might not be infested with demons, it was interesting to hear Michael talk about the location, about why it might suddenly be suffering these supernatural activities after so many decades. Apparently, the original building had been constructed in the 1870s and added to over the years, which gave ample opportunities for hauntings. However, by all accounts, things had been quiet there on the paranormal front up until only a year ago, which was when the current phenomena began.

  “Has anyone actually seen anything there?” she asked. “Or is it just stuff getting moved around?”

  “The owner reported cold spots and strange smells,” Michael replied. “That’s one of the reasons we decided it would be worth investigating. Otherwise, it’s just standard poltergeist activity, something better suited for regular ghost-hunting shows.”

  Frankly, Audrey had already dealt with enough strange odors to last her a lifetime. But, given the very nature of their project, they had to focus on the more extreme haunting situations and hope the gamble paid off.

  The waitress returned with the second round of drinks, and the conversation got even livelier — or at least more ghoulish. Colin and Michael started trading ghost stories, with Daniela chiming in about the time she saw her grandmother’s spirit wandering up and down the hall in the house where she’d lived with Daniela and her parents.

  “She was looking for something, but when I tried to talk to her, tried to say, ‘Hey, abuela, what are you trying to find?’, she just disappeared.” Daniela shrugged and took a long pull through the straw of her drink. “It was creepy, but I didn’t get a bad feeling from her. And then after about a year, she just disappeared.”

  “She’d probably finished working through whatever issue or problem had kept her on this plane,” Michael said. “It’s best when it happens that way, when the departed don’t need our help to guide them to the next world.”

  “‘Next world’?” Daniela echoed. “You mean like heaven?”

  “That’s how most people think of it, yes.”

  Daniela stared at him for a moment, as if trying to process what he’d just said. “Well, how do you think of it?”

  �
�I’m not sure yet,” he replied. “I just know it’s there.”

  “You are being far too serious,” Colin said. Audrey noticed how he’d shifted a little closer to Daniela…and how she wasn’t making any effort to move away from him. Fraternizing with the boss? Maybe.

  As if she was in any position to comment. They were all adults here…or at least pretending to be.

  The food came, and was a lot better than Audrey had expected, given the kitschy nature of the restaurant. Everyone ate, and ordered another round of drinks, then ate some more, and got some more drinks before they all realized they were completely sloshed. Or rather, Colin and Daniela and Michael and Audrey were. Susan had quietly switched to water after her first drink, so she offered to drive Daniela and Colin home, since they both lived in Hollywood, or at least someplace Hollywood-adjacent, like Colin’s house in Los Feliz.

  Before the age of Uber and Lyft, Michael and Audrey might have been in trouble. But after ascertaining that it was okay to leave his SUV in the parking lot overnight — as long as he came back to retrieve it by opening time the next day, which was eleven o’clock — he used the app on his phone to call for a vehicle. Susan and Daniela and Colin waited with them until their Lyft arrived, and the evening ended with the two of them waving rather blearily at the others as the car pulled out onto Rosemead Boulevard.

  Since the driver already had their destination, thanks to the app, he headed northward, toward the 210 Freeway. Audrey didn’t remember putting it there, but somehow her head had ended up on Michael’s shoulder. Which was fine — it felt good there, felt right. He held her hand as they moved along, traffic still thicker than she would have imagined it might be at almost ten o’clock at night.

  Eventually, though, they were pulling up into the driveway at Michael’s house. He fumbled with his phone so he could leave the driver a tip, and then the two of them got out of the car, stumbling a bit as they made their way up the front walk. More fumbling as he got out his keys and unlocked the front door, but then the two of them were safely inside.