The Curse of the Old Woods

by Elizabeth Andre

  Feeling a twinge of disappointment at having to sit this one out, Maya said, “You guys should come back with some interesting stuff.”

  Julie looked at her. “I hope so, but you won’t be sidelined for long, you know. Besides, I wanna see you in action again, as scary as it is.”

  Maya flashed a quick smile at her. Julie was very appealing, but she had to keep her head in the investigation and not in wondering what it would be like to be held and kissed by her.

  ****

  Penny was able to be home with Maya for a couple of hours before Steve picked her up. She prepared for a possible encounter with Mike and chatted about her new girlfriend. Apparently, Penny’s new girlfriend was auditioning for the best dance company in town the next day and was periodically texting Penny to calm her nerves. Maya asked how the girlfriend felt about Penny helping out Maya with the paranormal investigations.

  “She thinks what we do is strange,” she said.

  “We’re not hurting anyone. Would she like it better if you were a stripper or were helping me run a shoplifting ring?”

  Penny giggled. “She might. So, are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m sure.”

  After Penny had left Maya flitted around the apartment. She started her laundry, then watched the latest episode of Queer Ghost Hunters, a cool web series on YouTube, while she ate a quick dinner. A welcome distraction came in the form of flirty text messages from Charlie, the cutie from the forest service office the other day. Eventually, Maya asked if she could call her. Charlie said yes, and they talked for about an hour. Charlie had been working for the forestry service since high school, although she was completing her prereqs so she could enter nursing school. She had a dog named Butler and a hobby of making trophies.

  “I mean, who doesn’t deserve a trophy for all sorts of things?” she said.

  Maya told her about her dream to one day completely take over Steve’s paranormal investigation business, quit Zaxy-Mart, and ghost hunt full time. They made a date to have lunch next weekend. By the time Maya went to bed that night, she had gotten over the disappointment of being unable to go out to Mike’s cottage with the others. She’d had a pleasant evening. Charlie was really cool, very attractive, and definitely potential girlfriend material. Perhaps most importantly, Charlie was single. Maya didn’t even have to ask about her status. Charlie worked it into the conversation. She made a better dating prospect than Julie who sort of seemed to be single and sort of not. Maya needed and wanted more certainty than Julie could offer.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Reconnoiter at Mike’s

  Julie paused for a moment in front of the owl-shaped door knocker on Mike’s door. The knocker was heavy and somber and, much like the rest of the house, it looked old but not weathered. She banged the knocker down three times but heard nothing from inside the cottage.

  She stepped back and turned toward her fellow ghost hunters. Jason was playing with a purple gemstone. Steve was looking at his EDI. The readings were low but indicated some paranormal activity. Penny had gone the extra mile to prepare. She was wearing a tool belt she had customized. In pockets designed for pliers and wrenches, she had placed sage sticks and vials of some of Steve’s blessed salt.

  “You know, there’s no evidence that this entity is a vampire,” said Julie, pointing to the wooden stake that was hanging where a hammer usually would.

  “Yeah, I know, but just in case,” said Penny.

  “So, your girlfriend likes the handywoman thing?” Julie said.

  Penny shrugged. “Honestly, she likes me in or out of anything. It’s nice, you know, having someone who really digs you.”

  Julie remembered when her and Gabi had been at that stage in their relationship, when they couldn’t get enough of each other. What they were doing now—the friends with benefits thing—didn’t feel like that at all, now that she thought about it. They weren’t really friends, and it sort of felt like she was doing it in the way that someone who doesn’t really care about food mindlessly eats because it’s a necessity, not because they get true pleasure from it.

  Steve handed Penny one of his pistols with salt-filled bullets. She struck a pose.

  “If my girlfriend could see me right now, she’d think I was so badass she wouldn’t be able to resist eating me out,” Penny said. “And more.” She continued posing like she was being photographed for a girlie calendar.

  “Are you sure you really want her to have a gun?” said Julie to Steve.

  “Come on. We need to get to work,” he said, stuffing the other pistol down the back of his pants much to Jason’s apparent disappointment. “It doesn’t sound like Mike is here, so we have an opportunity.”

  Penny moved over to the front window and peered inside. “It’s so dark. But it looks like he’s got a lot of furniture.”

  The sound of a branch falling from a nearby tree startled them all. The readings on Steve’s EDI suddenly spiked, and Jason wrapped his arms around Penny only to have her wriggle free.

  Julie knocked again, louder this time. She waited a few moments, hearing nothing to indicate Mike was home. She turned the doorknob. It was unlocked. She beckoned the others to follow. Julie put her index finger to her lips. Then, so very carefully, she turned the doorknob all the way while pushing the door open as quietly as she could. The hinges creaked a little but not too loudly. They stepped over the threshold with Penny closing the door behind them.

  Once in the living room, Jason’s EDI lit up. Every single surface seemed covered in paranormal energy. Penny started filming. Julie fished her night vision goggles out of her messenger bag but didn’t put them on right away. She wanted to let her eyes get used to the darkness before resorting to using them.

  “You’ve been here before, so you lead the way,” Penny whispered to Julie.

  Mike didn’t seem to be home, so Julie became bolder and moved more confidently. She stepped out of the living room with Penny trailing behind her and into a short hallway where Julie was forced to snap on her night vision goggles. The walls were bare with dark streaks on one wall near the baseboard. The guys were whispering in the living room, and Penny started narrating the scene for the camera. Julie shushed her again.

  “What? He’s not here,” Penny whispered.

  “As far as we know,” said Julie. “Let’s keep it quiet for the moment.”

  Penny scowled but resumed recording video footage.

  Julie found the bathroom. She ducked in to take a quick look around. Nothing much out of the ordinary, although she noted that Mike used a straight razor for his shaving needs and the products that, while still manufactured, were all old brands. In the soap dish in the shower was a dark colored bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo. There were no prescription bottles that would have given Julie a clue about Mike’s well-being. The medicine cabinet was equally dull with nothing stronger than a half-empty bottle of anti-allergy tablets.

  Julie stepped out of the bathroom and continued down the hall until she reached two closed doors, one on each side.

  “Which one will it be viewers?” said Penny, triggering a grumble from Julie.

  Julie recited eeny-meeny-miny-moe to herself and chose the door to the left to open first.

  “You wait here,” whispered Julie to Penny as she entered the room.

  It turned out to be a bedroom. The bed was an old fashioned four poster, and it looked like a short person would need a step stool to get up on it. Julie wondered if it was a family heirloom. As in the living room, here there was a sort of museum quality to everything. Even without the benefit of light, the furniture, the knick knacks, they all seemed to have the air of things misplaced in time, like they weren’t really supposed to be here. Julie, who had never really paid that much attention to lines in furniture, could see by the shape of the desk and chair that they were not contemporary. She went to the bureau and carefully opened the top drawer. Other than underwear and socks, the drawer seemed to be a catch-all. She found buttons, rubber ba
nds, a Swiss army knife, a few coins, a travel-size alarm clock, a comb, and a sewing kit. One drawer held dozens of flashlights, all different kinds. Another drawer was filled with pens from all over the world. Julie wondered if they had been lost in the woods, and Mike had found them.

  She walked over to the closet and heard something that sounded like scraping. She stood still for several seconds before hearing it again. She couldn’t tell where it was coming from at first. She heard it again and realized it must be coming from below where she was standing. The cottage didn’t look like it had a basement. Maybe there was a crawl space? She reminded herself to breathe. She decided that the scraping sound could easily have been the sort of sound an old house like this would make with a few extra people in it. That’s why old houses made for good ghost stories. They were always making noises, in the dark especially. People scared themselves into believing they were something other than just old house noises. She stood as still as she could for several more seconds. The sound did not repeat.

  The closet was a disappointment with three forestry department uniforms, four pairs of jeans and a half dozen button down shirts. There was nothing nefarious in it as far as she could tell. She closed the closet doors and headed out into the hallway. The hallway seemed darker and longer. It was also quiet. She couldn’t hear the guys in the living room. There was no sign of Penny. She walked back down the hall to the living room. Empty.

  “Pen? Where are you? Just call out and let me know you’re okay. Penny? Steve? Jason? Where is everyone?”

  She walked from the living room into the kitchen where she ran into Penny coming out of the mud room. Penny jumped and let out a shriek, knocking off Julie’s goggles.

  “Damn! You scared me, Jules!”

  “I scared you?” Julie said as she picked her goggles off the floor. “When I came out of the bedroom, you weren’t there. I couldn’t find Steve or Jason either. Where is everyone?”

  She tried not sound panicked.

  “Did you really expect me to just stand around here waiting for you?” Penny asked, incredulous. “And Jason and Steve went outside to look around. They weren’t waiting for you either.”

  Julie stood there for a moment with her goggles in hand. She listened for sounds that weren’t there.

  “What’s wrong?” said Penny. “Did you see a ghost?”

  In the darkness of the kitchen, Julie wasn’t sure if Penny was making fun of her or truly concerned, maybe both.

  “I heard something when I was in the bedroom.”

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the back door. They jumped toward each other, ending up in an awkward embrace, but pulling away just as fast.

  “That can’t be Mike,” Penny said.

  Julie agreed, deciding to pretend the accidental body contact never happened. She didn’t want to acknowledge she was scared. “Doubt he’d knock on the door of his own house.”

  More knocking. The door creaked open. Then, a raspy voice said, “It’s coming from inside the house.”

  Penny shrieked. Julie rolled her eyes. The man approaching them laughed.

  “Damn it, Steve!” Penny punched him on his shoulder.

  “Ow. I can’t believe you still fall for that,” he said.

  “Yeah, it’s an oldie but a goodie, just like you,” Penny retorted.

  “Steve, where’s Jason?” Julie asked.

  “He’s out by the barn. Come on. We found something.” Steve started walking to the back door.

  Julie had wanted to go back to the bedroom to give it another look. She didn’t like thinking she may have missed something because she got jumpy. Old houses always make noises, she thought, and they don’t mean anything. Usually.

  When they got to the barn, Jason was grinning from ear to ear. He bounced on the balls of his feet like he was on a mini trampoline.

  “What are you so happy about?” Julie asked.

  “I think we’ve found the center of paranormal activity!” He could barely contain his excitement and beckoned them all closer to him. “Steve and I discovered an amazing amount of EDI activity here, which isn’t a big surprise, but something really interesting happens when you go into the barn.”

  He pushed open one of the doors and stepped inside. Julie, Penny and Steve followed. The air outside was sultry, but Julie immediately felt a drop in temperature. Goosebumps rose rapidly on her arms. Her hair stood on end. A shiver ran through her body.

  The barn was filled with farm and landscape equipment, like lawn mowers, a scythe, a roto-tiller, a few hoes, and trowels. The tractor that sat in the middle of the structure could charitably be called vintage. Where the floor wasn’t obscured by the equipment, it was bare and dusty. Julie sneezed. It got colder as they moved deeper inside.

  “Why would this be the center?” Julie asked. “This is at least half a mile from the well where Katie died and where we’ve seen her.” She moved cautiously toward the ladder that led up to the hay loft. She snapped her goggles to her head.

  “When we’ve been at the well, our readings have shown that it’s a pretty active site, too,” Steve said. “If we got closer to the well, maybe even go down into the well, we’d probably get temperature readings like the ones we’re getting here.”

  “You mean frigid compared to normal June temps?” Penny asked.

  “Exactly like that,” Julie said. “I wonder what’s up there.” She gingerly set one of her feet on the first rung of the ladder.

  “Be careful, sis.” Jason walked over to the ladder just as Julie started climbing it. He took a firm grip of the ladder’s sides.

  When she got to the top, she found herself in a hay loft, which, under different circumstances, might have been a romantic spot. There was a large window directly across from where she had emerged from the top of the ladder. She crossed the hay loft floor to the window and looked out. For a moment, she forgot why she was there. She allowed herself to take in the sight of the cloudy night. When she leaned out and looked to her left, she could see lightning bugs darting in and out of blades of tall prairie grass in a clearing near one of the small ponds that dotted Promontory Woods. Looking to her right, she saw the cottage and small shed in the backyard. Beyond that, she could see part of the parking lot. She wished Maya was there with them, that she was sharing this adventure with her tonight. She wondered if Maya would have come up into the hay loft with her if she’d been here. Julie smiled. Of course she would have. She probably would have raced me up that rickety ladder. Then she would have talked to whatever ghost was up here.

  “So, what’s up there?” Jason shouted.

  Startled, Julie regained her focus and walked back toward the ladder. She stumbled slightly and a wooden plank creak ominously. She deliberately hit the spot again triggering the same creak.

  “What was that noise? Are you okay, Julie?” Penny yelled out.

  Julie leaned over the edge of the hay loft peering into the cold darkness below. Jason looked up from the base of the ladder. His skin and teeth were bright green because of the night vision goggles. Penny was next to him and pointed her video camera up at Julie.

  “Say something for the viewers,” said Penny.

  “I’m fine. It’s just a creaky old bit of wood flooring. And no, there really isn’t anything up here.” She felt a little miffed to have been pulled out of her imaginings about Maya. Then she felt miffed that her imaginings would probably remain just that—something to think about wistfully as the mood struck her. She wasn’t even sure Maya was into her.

  “Any difference in temperature up there?” Steve asked as Julie climbed back down the ladder.

  Julie said, “Maybe a little warmer, but it’s still cooler than what it should be at this time of year.”

  When she got to the bottom, she stumbled a little over a loose floorboard and knocked over a metal bucket with a loud clang. The water that had been within formed a puddle on the floor. “Damn,” she said as she set the bucket upright again.

  Then the temperature in the alre
ady chilly barn dropped suddenly.

  “Whoa!” Jason said.

  Julie peered over his shoulder to get a good look at the readings on his EDI meter. The temperature reading was 46 degrees Fahrenheit. “What was the temperature the last time you looked?”

  “58. That was about 20 minutes ago,” Jason said.

  “It’s getting colder.” Penny breathed through her mouth, producing a cloud of her own breath. Julie saw her shiver. She started shivering herself.

  “Thirty-eight degrees!” Jason said.

  “How low can it go?” Julie asked, hoping it wouldn’t go any lower. She wasn’t dressed for anything below 60, and she was cold.

  They huddled together and held their breath.

  “Thirty-three degrees!” Jason was sounding more and more excited.

  The temperature took another significant drop. Julie felt it in her toes and fingers. Her nose was freezing. The air felt midwinter cold, like a middle of February day when the air still hurt your face, the kind of cold that killed the homeless and college kids who got drunk at parties and tried to walk home wearing nothing but leggings and a T-shirt. Julie could feel the wooden barn floor getting colder and colder through her shoes.

  “We need to go,” Julie said.

  “But we still don’t know what Mike has to do with all of this,” Jason said through chattering teeth.

  She looked down at the floor. Frost was starting to form everywhere.

  Penny was walking around, still filming, when she hit a patch of ice near the bucket that Julie had knocked over. Her feet slid out from underneath her and she landed flat on her butt. “Ow! Shit!”

  Jason and Steve pulled her up. Penny wiped off the seat of her shorts.

  “We really need to go,” Julie said again. “I think we know enough.”

  They turned toward the barn door. It looked farther away than when they had entered. The distance they would have to cross to reach it seemed to be growing and getting even colder.

  Frost moved up from the floor and crawled up the walls. When Steve shone his flashlight on the wall next to one of the barn doors, Julie saw that the frost resembled the vines that had wrapped around her and tripped her up, the vines that had looked like arms.