Paranormal Solved

by Grace Fleming

  He managed to get a second hand on the gun, and pulled on the barrel slide to lock a bullet into the chamber. Twisting his body fully around, he took aim at the base of the creature's head and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed its target and hit the creature in the muscle of his left shoulder. David had a sick feeling when he saw the small puff of hair and blood burst away from the skin. It looked like just enough damage to piss of the giant creature. The ape-beast dropped David's foot and let out another of the soul-piercing screams that he'd heard in the morning. It turned to look at David with the furious scowl of a demon. David tried to control his shaking hands enough to pull back on the slide again, and just as the bullet clicked into place, the beast reached down to grab him by the head with both hands. A sudden image of Chaz's headless body flashed in David's head, and he knew that he was within a second of the same fate. As the creature straddled David's body, he realized there was one opportunity that would either buy him another minute of life, or cause him a fate worse than having his head twisted off, as the creature's enormous, gallon-sized testicles swung twelve inches from David's face. He reached the gun upward to within a few inches of the smooth, grey skin, and pulled the trigger.

  Blood showered over him as one of the enormous testes shattered and flew away. Again, a scream from the pits of hell reverberated through David's body, as the animal jumped and released his head. It was only a temporary reprieve, as he felt a single hand grab him by the hair and he felt his body lifting from the ground. Instinctively, he cradled the gun in his grip, in the hopes of holding on to it long enough to get another shot in. The creature drew back his arm, while David's body flapped in the air. With a whiplashing thrust, the beast released him, thrusting him through the air with the velocity of a slingshot. In this violent thrust, the gun ejected from David's grip, but a wild shot exploded and hit the beast below the eye. David saw it falling backward as his own body hurtled through the air.

  A loud whoosh expelled from his lungs as his torso hit a tree trunk, stomach first, and his head and legs wrapped around and slapped at the bark in a violent smack. As he hit the tree, he heard bones breaking in his body. There was a brief scraping sound as he slid to the base of the tree, and then he hit the ground with a thud. Through a bloody, red haze, he could see the giant animal slumped twenty yards away. There was a pool of blood around the beast, and he was still.

  At first, all was quiet. Then, David saw a second beast, and then a third, smaller one, approaching in a spider crawl through the trees on the far side of the red beast. Just let me die now, David thought, but then he realized that the creatures were headed for the dying animal. They seemed to approach warily, glancing back and forth at David and the wounded creature. Once they reached him, they each grabbed a leg, and they stood up to drag the animal away into the trees. David could hear whooping sounds and howls all around him, but the sounds were fading off into the forest. Then a sharp pain sliced through his chest, and his vision went black.

  29

  Colleagues

  David didn't know where he was. All he could see was a pinkish light in his eyes, but he couldn't make out any distinct shapes. He tried to move, and pain shot through his body, causing a surge of nausea. Then he remembered. He started trembling all over, remembering that the last thing he remembered was the attack of the giant ape-like creature and his body crashing into a tree. He heard a stirring in the dirt a few inches from his head, and he prayed that he would just die now, before he had to endure any more of the terror.

  Then a soft hand brushed through his hair, pushing the blood-stiffened bangs away from his face. Someone was wiping his eyes with a cloth.

  "Don't move," came a familiar voice. "Help will be here shortly."

  It was a man, but David couldn't place the person behind the words. He felt it was someone he knew well, but how could it be? He could still smell the dirt of the forest. He was still tangled in his same position, with his broken body twisted around the base of a tree. Was he dreaming?

  A blurry face came into view with the next swipe of his eyes, and he saw a face that he knew well. It was Josh.

  "What—what are you doing here?" David said. Each word created pain to shoot from his chest through the lengths of his arms.

  "Don't try to talk, buddy. You've got some serious injuries, there."

  David moved his eyes downward, and quickly wished he hadn't. He saw a bone protruding from a gash in his torso. The sight caused another wash of pain to spasm through his body. "But how—" David said. He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating, because he couldn't make sense of the fact that Josh had found him at the base of a tree in the middle of nowhere. "How did you find me here?” It was an effort to push each word from his throat.

  "My friends told me," Josh smiled. "Now hush."

  Suddenly, a new panic rose in his chest, and he started to breath more rapidly. He was happy to see Josh, but he was terrified that the creatures would return. "Josh, it's dangerous. There are things in the woods."

  "I know," Josh said. "I know it all. It's okay. They're gone now. Help is near."

  David allowed Josh's words to comfort him. He had no other choice, since he felt himself slipping back out of awareness. He looked up at his friend, but he appeared to be looking through a small pinhole, now. Josh's face was surrounded by darkness. David knew he was losing consciousness again. Through his pinhole vision, he watched as Josh walked a few feet away and picked up the gun that David had dropped, earlier. He lifted the gun over his head. David heard a loud bang, and then the world went dark once again.

  There were voices again. He opened his eyes once more, and saw another face that he recognized, but he didn't know this one so well.

  "Dude, you're going to be okay," he said. "Remember me? It's Kenny."

  It was the guy he'd seen first at the camp meeting, and then later on the plane. He was one of the men who had been following them.

  "I heard the gunfire," Kenny said. "We called the authorities from our satellite phone. They're on their way."

  "Laura?" David asked.

  "What about her? Do you know where she is?" Kenny asked back.

  David had hoped Kenny had found her, but he didn't seem to know anything. "They took her," David said. The awful memory came back to him, and tears streamed out of his eyes.

  "Don't talk no more," Kenny said. "We'll find her. You just keep calm, now. 'Til that help gets here."

  30

  Research Notation

  After keeping vigil for a few hours, Josh finally saw some movement in David's right hand. "About time, man," he said. "They said you'd be waking about an hour ago."

  David opened one eye, but the other remained stuck shut. The open eyeball darted around the room.

  "You look like some crazed, zombie doll," Josh laughed softly. "You awake in there?" He wanted to be present when David awoke; he needed to make sure his friend didn’t lapse into some dark place, mentally. The man had been through so much. But he couldn’t stay with David for very long, he knew.

  David continued to scan the room with his single eye until his second eye popped open. "Josh?" he said. His voice was cracked and gravely.

  "You're in the hospital," Josh said. "Do you remember anything?" He regretted the question immediately, as David's expression dropped and his eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, man," Josh added. "We don't have to think about it now. We're all just happy you're here."

  "Laura?" David mouthed. The sound that came from his mouth was just a dry whisper. "Is she okay?"

  "People are still looking for her," Josh said. He eyed a water pitcher on a table by the window, and moved around the room to pour a glass. He dropped a straw into the cup and lifted the end to David's parched lips. "Don't try to talk too much, just yet. You're drugged up and your body is fucked up. As a matter of fact, I want you to listen to me. I have to be kind of quick." Josh looked out at the hallway. Two men in suits hovered near the nurses' station.

  David responded by lifting a single, di
sheveled eyebrow.

  "There are a few men out there waiting for you to wake up." Josh was speaking in his lowest voice. "They keep pushing the words 'bear attack.'"

  David's eye's widened. "That's not what happened," he croaked.

  Josh placed his hand on David's forearm and squeezed. "I know," he said. "I saw them—those things."

  David seemed to relax back on his pillow a bit. "How did you find me out there?" The words came out in a whispery wheeze.

  "No time for that now," Josh half whispered. “Listen, these guys seem pretty official, like federal types. And this is starting to hit the news big time, with the TV show being involved, and all. Whatever they say, I don't want you to argue with them. Just go with it, for now. Agree with everything they say.”

  David nodded in agreement, but his expression made it clear that he was annoyed and confused. "But, why are they here?” he asked.

  Josh could hear the two men walking up the hallway. “They don’t want you talking to the press." He reached into his pocket, then slipped a note he'd prepared beneath David's blanket. "Read this later," he said. "When Jerry comes. He’s on his way."

  At that moment, one of the suit-clad men poked his head through the door. "Did I hear voices in here?" he asked. He glanced around the room and flashed a brief, official smile in David's direction. Josh took this as his cue to leave the room.

  31

  Contrasting Conclusions

  Josh had been acting pretty weird, but he had been right about these guys. David could tell that they took themselves pretty seriously, the way they hovered above him in their suits, refusing to take a seat. After everything he'd been through in the past twenty-four hours, David had no plans to entertain an argument. These guys could think anything they wanted to think. He didn't give a shit.

  "Mr. Blystone," one said. The two men looked pretty much alike, although one was wearing a black tie and one wore a blue, striped one. "I know you've been through a lot, but we need to let you know that there is an investigation ongoing."

  Investigate away, David thought.

  "At this point, we have no reason to suspect you of any wrongdoing," black tie man continued.

  Wrongdoing? What the hell was this man getting at? David's muscles clenched.

  "One of our guys found a GPS watch, not far from the place where your injury occurred. It was traceable."

  "Laura was wearing that!" David croaked. "Has she been found?" Trying to speak out caused his muscles to spasm, which caused streaks of pain to radiate through his torso.

  "Not at this time. We only found the watch. My point is, they noticed that somebody had left a marker at a specific coordinate. Do you know anything about that?"

  "Yes," David said. It was their campsite. It was the marker to indicate where the headless body of Chaz Galliher was stuffed into a tree. His gut lurched.

  "I assume you know that our men did locate the remains of a male victim at that location. We have not made official identification at this time. Did you see what happened to this man?"

  "No," David said. It was true. He hadn't actually seen what happened to Chaz. "I think—," David croaked. "It looked like he was pulled from his tent."

  Mr. Blue Tie spoke up. "That's consistent with our theory," he said. "When our men got to him, there wasn't much left. He was—consumed. We believe that a rogue bear attacked the individual, and then tracked you and Miss London before finally going after the two of you, one at a time." Both men stared sternly into David's eyes, as if they were daring him to speak. "Do you have any memory that would be inconsistent with this scenario?" Blue Tie asked.

  "None," David said.

  "Good. We don't see any reason to consider that anything criminal went on out there. Not at this time." The man flashed another syndicate smile and turned to his partner. "I think that's it," he said. The two of them nodded and left the room.

  Anything criminal. The words reverberated in his brain. If he hadn't already seen his belief system being rocked upside down over the past few days, he would have been surprised. These men, who seemed to represent the law or the government in some kind of way, had just fabricated a story and pressured David into playing along. And the thing was, he didn't even care. He hurt too much, inside and out, to give a damn what people thought. Besides, nobody would ever believe him, no matter what he did. That was the cruelest irony; he had finally found his way around to Laura's side, and he was left alone, now, to tell her story. And he didn't know if he'd ever be brave enough to tell it. He was just realizing how brave she was.

  He moved his head slowly around the room, trying to find a clock. Someone had placed his phone on a charger, but it was on the bedside table, and David knew it would be too painful to reach for it. He looked to his side, and realized that there was a TV remote attached to his bed rail, just within finger reach. He managed to press the button to bring the screen to life. To his relief, a news anchor appeared on the screen. He wanted to know if this was hitting the news, yet. It wasn't long before he had his answer. After a few minutes of political updates, the anchor began announcing the news of the day.

  We're still following a story out of California, where we're hearing that a crew from the popular cable television show, Sasquatch Encounters, has suffered a tragic encounter with an animal, and police are saying that this was an attack from an apparent rogue black bear. Initial reports are that the attack has resulted in at least one fatality, but it's not clear who the victims are. We do have reports that Laura London, the star of the show, was present on this apparent expedition, but we have no specifics on her condition. The crew was accompanied by a university professor, Dr. David Blystone, of Gratis, Ohio. Dr. Blystone is in critical condition.

  Good god, David thought. His family must be terrified. He tried to reach for his phone, but the pain took his breath away.

  "Can I help you with that?" a voice came from the doorway. Staring back at David was the goofy face of Jerry Price.

  32

  The Final Say

  "What the hell are you doing here?" David managed to croak. He'd discovered that it didn't hurt to talk quite so much if his head remained perfectly still.

  "I wasn't actually that far away when I read about you on Facebook," Jerry said as he settled into a chair and gazed upward at the television attached to the wall. "I see it's all over the news."

  David rolled his eyes and nodded. "So where were you? When you heard?"

  Jerry looked uncomfortable, like he was trying to think of what to say next. "I was actually in New Mexico yesterday. I caught an early flight to get here.”

  "Why?" David said. Jerry's face was uncharacteristically serious. He was usually the one to find humor in every situation, so his vibe was unsettling.

  "You doing okay?" Jerry seemed to avoid the question.

  "No," David said. "Not really. But I appreciate you coming here." He wondered if there was any way that he could tell Jerry, or anybody other than Josh, about what had really happened.

  Jerry stared at David with wide, searching eyes, like he had something big to say, but couldn't make the words come out of his mouth. "Listen, man. There's some stuff I need to tell you, before anybody else gets to you. I need to start with Josh." Jerry was sitting on the edge of his chair, now, with the nervous look of a child who was about to confess something.

  "Yeah, he seemed a little odd when we spoke," David said.

  "Oh," Jerry said, looking a little perplexed. "I don't know when that was, but yes, he's been acting really odd for a while. He actually told Crystal to stick her job up her ass."

  David tried to stifle the painful laugh that tickled at his throat. "That’s been a long time coming," David said. “Good for him."

  "David, Josh is dead."

  For a moment, David stared at Jerry's face to see if he was joking. Surely, even Jerry wouldn't joke about a thing like that under these circumstances. "No, he is not," David said. "And that's not funny."

  "It's true," Jerry said. He was actuall
y tearing up a little. "I didn't want to have to tell you like this, but I knew you'd find out as soon as you picked up your phone. They've sent out an announcement to our work email. I'm really sorry to do this, after all you've been through."

  David laughed softly and shook his his head slowly from side to side. "There's been a mistake," he said. "He's here in the hospital, or he was a minute ago. In fact, he told me you were coming."

  Jerry's face was stone white. "David, listen to me. That's why I was in New Mexico. I went with Crystal to identify the body."

  A cold chill crept through David's body. Jerry was really serious. The drugs, he thought. He'd heard about strong pain medication causing hallucinations. He must be on some powerful-ass drugs. "You're really sure?" he asked. He thought back to his conversations with Josh. Could he have imagined all that?

  "I'm sure. Someone saw his car going off a cliff. He went off the road into a river. Skid marks on the road seemed to indicate that he swerved to avoid something. I had to fly out to help Crystal with the identification." Jerry's demeanor changed. "That bitch was more annoyed than distraught, though. I swear, I’ve come to hate her. Do you know they were related—Crystal and Josh?”

  “What?” David said. He was still in a numb fog. "I guess that makes sense, now that I think about it. She always acted weird about him.” He was still trying to remember his full conversation with Josh.

  "Well, she's pissed about our little experiment and afraid everyone will find out he was out chasing UFOs and you were out chasing Bigfoot. And now everything is all over the news. She's such a bitch. Damage control, that's her main concern. In fact, she could have come with me to see you. She was with me when I read the news about you, but she just flew home."