by Terry Spear
Seeing them, too, Hunter said, “We move, fast.”
That’s when the air grew frosty, and Alana said, “Indigo.”
A mist swirled about them next, and she smiled. “Samson,” she whispered.
Celeste stared at the frosty mist in their hair and shivered.
“The gang’s together again. Let’s go,” Hunter reiterated. “Jared, get us a taxi, quick.”
***
After wiping the driver’s mind of having given four demons a ride in his taxi, along with a frigid cold presence in the back seat—although Hunter had told Indigo to take a hike—and a mist that surrounded all of them, they were now back at the hotel room.
“Pizza?” Celeste asked. “I’m starving.”
Samson turned the television on and was watching the news. Paranormal crews had come in from all over the States to analyze the photographs and video taken at the hospital to determine if real paranormal activity had taken place.
Everyone stared at the television. “We all look so grim faced,” Jared said. “We should have smiled for the camera.”
“I had to watch this all day while I awaited your return to the area,” Samson said sourly.
Hunter took Alana’s hand and moved her to the bed. “You never got your rest, did you?”
She shook her head. As soon as she climbed onto the bed, he sat next to her and cuddled.
Indigo made a chilling pass over them, and Hunter scowled. “I will learn how to exorcise ghosts before long, Matusa. Count on it.”
“Order some pizza for us, Jared. I’m hungry, too,” Alana said.
“The Matusa knows Alana’s staying here,” Samson said, his tone of voice still grumpy. He gave Hunter a dirty look. “How could you have taken Alana to the morgue and nearly gotten her arrested?”
“We discovered the name of the summoner,” Hunter said, stroking Alana’s hair.
She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him.
“So why aren’t we going to his place?” Samson asked.
“Police are probably watching it,” Hunter said.
“Oh.” Samson changed the channel to another breaking news story.
Alana didn’t mind him switching channels now, not with Hunter here. She felt calm and relaxed for the first time since her ordeal at the zoo.
A news commentator said, “Unidentified man found dead in tree in park near hospital. Cause of death unknown.”
“Pennel,” Alana said quietly.
The newsman said, “Authorities say eyewitnesses have allegedly seen more blue-green lights in the park.”
Grainy film capturing the portal lights appeared on the news report and then four people all tangled together on the ground suddenly materialized.
Alana groaned as she watched her camera version self look up at the tree where Pennel had fallen, and then the others with her had all looked that way.
“Walkers in the area said the group of two women and two men walked off in a southerly direction. Police are still searching for them.
“In other news—”
Samson clicked the controller and found a channel where paranormal investigators on a panel were discussing the situation in Baltimore.
“In paranormal investigations, we use the very latest of paranormal investigative equipment that in laymen’s terms can locate hot and cold spots and electronic magnetic impulses, the thermal imaging camera, EMF radiation reader and temperature readings. If you look closely at this video tape, you can see the man and woman were headed straight into the shimmering lights. You would expect they would walk right through them and we’d see them on the other side of the lights. But they didn’t. As if to prove what we had seen, another couple joined them. They vanished as if going through a doorway. Then the doorway shut, and the opening was gone. You can observe where the police walked all over the same spot where the lights had been and nothing was there any longer.”
“It’s a fake,” another expert on the paranormal said. “You can see by the way the lights waver, it’s not really uniform as it would be for a stable opening to any other reality. The first girl and guy don’t step into it as if they’re walking through a doorway, but move as if it’s an optical illusion. You can see the way their feet don’t quite go into the opening. When the person or persons tampered with this film, they missed fixing that oversight.”
“You’re saying that the dozen or so spectators either happening to glance out the hospital windows and curiously watch what the police officers were doing in the parking lot, or visitors or employees or patients who were leaving or going to their parked cars witnessed the blue green lights as one big hoax?”
“What I’m saying is that people will see what they want to see. There was an atmospheric shift in the weather, the odd cold air mixed with warmer air, the shimmering projection off both people and lights made everyone who saw the spectacle believe they’d witnessed some alien activity. It’s a form of mass hysteria. You can’t deny there are reports all over the world of sudden blue green lights appearing and people disappearing into them.”
“I beg to disagree. In my estimation, these are beings from another planet who have disguised themselves to look like humans. The occurrences are genuine and if we neglect to consider them as such, the human race could be put in harm’s way.”
Alana shook her head.
Samson switched the channel to another news site, while Jared asked everyone what kind of toppings and pizza crust they wanted.
“Since you came from the demon world,” Celeste said, pulling up a chair next to Samson, “how did your food compare with ours?”
“It’s different,” he said. “Different tastes, textures, appearance. But just as good.”
“We saw some gray squishy stuff in Pennel’s fridge. What would that have been?”
“Sounds like squib. A delicacy. Tastes like shrimp and brown gravy.” Samson said again to Hunter, “What about Thorst? He knows Alana is staying here.”
“He’s welcome to pay her a visit. Anytime.”
The news commentator said, “In other news, one of the girls who allegedly vanished into the lights this afternoon was Celeste Sweetwater. She and Alana Fainot were the only two that police could positively identify. If anyone knows of their whereabouts, the police hotline number is scrolling at the bottom of the screen.”
“I wonder if my parents are watching this,” Celeste said glumly.
“Foster parents,” Jared reminded her.
“Where’s everyone sleeping tonight?” Samson asked.
Hunter said, “That bed is mine.” He pointed to the other queen-sized bed. “Alana and Celeste will share this bed. You and Jared can get roll-out beds.”
Celeste smiled at Hunter. “If you want to stay with Alana, I’ll share a bed with either Samson or Jared. As long as neither snore.”
“No,” Hunter said.
Alana patted his chest. “He’s a Matusa. He gets his own bed. Most of the time.”
“Yeah, well, it won’t always be that way,” he said, giving her a smug look. “But while we’re all together, that’s how it’ll be.”
“Pizza order’s in. What’s next on the agenda?” Jared asked.
Hunter thought about it for a moment, then said, “You and Samson are going to the summoner’s house.”
“You said the police will be there,” Jared said.
“Yes. You can become invisible, and Samson can slip in under the door in the form of mist.”
“I could go and if the police are there, I could make them forget I’m there,” Alana said.
Hunter shook his head. “No. If there are too many of them, or if they have surveillance cameras in place, you’d be identified once again. We can’t afford them tying you into any more of this. On the other hand… you can convince a taxi driver that none of us exist, so we’ll commandeer the transportation for the mission and wait for Jared and Samson.”
And hoped they didn’t get in any deeper over this whole muddled Matusa mess than they were alre
ady in.
***
Later that night when everything was dark, Jared and Samson arrived at the summoner’s house, courtesy of Alana and Hunter getting a taxi for them. Alana had the taxi driver stop at the next street over, then ensured he would forget he was even there as they waited. Hopefully, everyone in the housing development was asleep, and no one would call the police about a taxi sitting idly on their street when it shouldn’t be.
Samson couldn’t see Jared, but he figured Jared could see the strange misty trail that was Samson as they hurried to the summoner’s house on the next street.
A patrol car sat curbside, and two policemen sat inside drinking coffee.
“Around back,” Jared whispered.
He and Jared slipped over a fence and hurried across the junky backyard filled with rusting lawn furniture and dead plants in clay pots on the patio while the grass was knee-high. The teacher definitely didn’t have a green thumb or an interest in yard maintenance.
When they reached the back door, Samson sifted under the door, glad that so many buildings were not weather sealed like they ought to be, then shifted into his physical form and unlocked and opened the door for Jared. Jared stepped inside, or at least Samson thought he had since he couldn’t see or hear him, then he shut the door and returned to his mist form, just in case cameras had been installed to keep up surveillance on the inside of the house. Although he doubted it would be.
Samson moved to the hallway, unsure which direction Jared was going to go. Then he slipped into an office, looked around to see if any cameras were watching what he was doing. Seeing none, he shifted again. He searched through desk drawers and files in a cabinet, examined pieces of equipment that might have been used to build a portal device, but he didn’t see anything that might be the actual device. Jared would probably know more about what he was looking for though.
After searching through the office and finding nothing, he moved to a master bedroom. The bed was unmade, plastic cups and plates and sacks from various fast food places littered the bedside table. The summoner had been a slob.
Samson didn’t find anything in any of the drawers, closet, or under the bed. He turned and ran into a solid invisible object. “Jared?” he said, his heart racing.
“Nothing in the house,” Jared whispered. “Let’s check the attached garage.”
The two moved that way, Jared opening the door, then they stepped inside. The place was a cluttered mess of a mountain-sized stack of electronic gizmos. No room for a vehicle to park in here.
Jared whistled. “I could have a field day here.”
“Yeah, well, all we’re looking for is the portal device.”
“I have a feeling it’s not here,” Jared said, moving pieces of metal aside to uncover a myriad of electronic devices.
“Why do you say that?”
“He had to be using it at the zoo.”
“Yeah, but it was projected from somewhere, and if so where else would it have been?”
“Someplace close to the zoo? On the zoo premises? I don’t know.” Jared lifted a device, black metal, the size of a bread box. “Hmm, this might be what we were looking for.”
“How could it have gotten under all that junk when he was projecting at the zoo and was found dead there?”
“I believe this might be an earlier device. Which, if in the wrong hands, might be used to make a new device.”
“Does it work?”
Jared considered all the different colored wires attached to nodes and played around with them, connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting them for a quarter of an hour, then a portal suddenly formed. He smiled. “Yep, it works.”
Alana unexpectedly materialized next to the portal and smiled at them. “You found it.”
Jared closed his gaping mouth. “I hate it when you do that.” He turned off the portal opener. “It’s not the one he used.” He frowned at her. “Why are you still here? You’re supposed to return to the taxi once the portal is closed.”
“Seems I can hang around longer, even if I don’t want to. Bring it with you. We’ll destroy it.” She vanished.
“It looks like she can control her astral abilities to some degree now,” Samson said, in an admiring way.
“Ha! She has as much control over it as—”
Flashlights headed toward the garage. Samson moved to the window. “Police,” he whispered. “They must have seen the portal lights through the window.”
“Great,” Jared said. “We’ve got to take this with us. But not right this second.” He hid it under some of the junk, then vanished.
Samson shifted into mist, just as the door opened to the house. Running footfalls headed for the garage. The door into the garage slammed open and banged against the wall. “Don’t anyone move!”
Samson slipped under some metal junk. He had no idea where Jared was. The police officers stared at the unoccupied room, mouths agape. One jerked up a light switch and a florescent bulb shuddered awake.
“This is just too weird,” the one policeman said, holstering his gun while the other switched off his flashlight.
“Yeah, well, you called it in. I said we should wait until we really found out if anything was here. The guys will really rib us about this.”
Police lights flashed outside the windows as three patrol cars drove into the driveway.
Samson cursed inwardly. They had to get the device out of here, but the police would probably be here forever, trying to learn what had caused the blue-green lights to appear.
Six policemen entered the garage, one of them saying, “Where is it? Don’t tell me it just vanished.”
“We saw it through the window,” one of the men said.
“Well? Where is it now?”
Another said, “What have you been drinking in that coffee of yours, Smithers?”
Several chuckled.
“Coffee, Hedrow. We saw what we saw. What the other guys saw in the hospital parking lot. What the maintenance man saw at the zoo. We can’t all be crazy.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Okay, spread out. Search the garage and see if you can find anything that would have projected the lights.”
The men began moving pieces of equipment, fiddling with knobs and buttons, but nothing produced the light.
Annoyed he’d have to keep moving as he was sure the policeman would wonder why mist existed in pockets underneath the equipment, Samson slipped underneath a jagged piece of metal, hoping to get to the door and outside.
Then a policeman came straight for that piece of metal. Hell. If he lifted it, he would see a strange mist. Samson had nowhere else to go. Nowhere else to slide off to without the policeman seeing him.
The light switch cut off.
Samson fled the dark garage through the open door to the house.
“Someone cut the power!” one of the men shouted.
Flashlights sent streams of light all over the room. One of them tried the switch. “Someone turned the light off.”
All the men looked around at each other. No one had been near the light switch. Jared. Had to have been. Good job!
Samson slipped out of the house, hating to have to leave the device behind, but then he figured he’d try and wait out the police. He had to at least make sure they didn’t leave with the portal device.
He settled into a prickly hedge next to the back of the garage and waited.
Jared whispered from somewhere nearby, though he was still invisible. “Samson, are you still here?”
Samson sifted into his human shape, crouched behind the shrubs, the sharp teeth of the glossy leaves scratching his arms. “Here,” Samson said in a hushed tone of voice.
Jared didn’t speak for a moment as he must have been moving toward him. Then he said right next to him, “I figure we’ll wait and see if they discover the device.”
“If they do? What then?”
“We improvise,” Jared said. “Hunter’s usually the one with the plans, but we’re on our own t
his time.”
“They’ll wonder what’s taking so long,” Samson said, wishing they could get word to Alana and Hunter somehow.
“They probably saw the police lights flashing as they drove into the area and know it had to do with us,” Jared said.
Samson considered the problem for a moment. “Yeah. I could go and let Alana and Hunter know what we’re up to, but if I leave you by yourself and you have to stop the police from taking the device from here, you might not manage on your own.”
“So we both stay, watch, wait and oh… no…”
Samson shifted back into his mist form, moved to the window, and peered inside. Two men were looking at the earlier portal device.
“Don’t touch anything!” one of the policemen said.
“If we can activate the lights, we’ll know we’ve got the projector,” another said. “Otherwise we could take this back and find it won’t be what we’re looking for and have to start all over again.”
One of the men said, “A truck’s coming to pick up all this stuff. The earlier sweep through here didn’t reveal any connection with what had happened at the zoo, but with the lights going off in here, that’s a different story.”
Samson and Jared had to act now. Or would it be easier to ride with the portal device inside the truck? Then what? Once the device arrived at the police station, even more police officers would be there. Plus Samson and Jared’s ride was here.
“We grab it as soon as they’ve deposited it in the truck and they’re busy getting the other stuff,” Jared said.
Unless someone remains with the truck, Samson thought.
“Come on. Let’s go,” Jared said urgently.
Samson moved around to the front of the house, sifting through shrubs until he was in view of the direction the police truck would probably take.
“I’m thinking the guy who murdered the victim might have been trying to steal his technology,” a policeman said, as the others gathered in the front lawn to wait for the truck. “Who would have thought a high school science teacher would have been involved in anything so strange?”
“For some criminal purpose. Somehow he projects his lights and an image of people, then makes them disappear. You know what I think?”