by Hunter Shea
Eve fidgeted in her seat, tucking one leg under the other. “You think there’s a chance these things we’ve been seeing and hearing is them?”
“It’s like you’re psychic,” he smiled.
That smile and the boyish thrill that shone through it started to set her nerves at ease.
“I have another theory,” he added.
“I’m all ears. Just know that no matter what your theory, we’re all sleeping in the same room tonight.”
There, she said it. For once, Eve the mighty caregiver to the world was stating she needed someone to care for her. She hadn’t even given herself a chance to think it over, which would have inevitably led to her never voicing her true feelings. She felt lighter just saying it.
John never even hesitated. “Not a problem. I’ll move my and Jess’s beds into your room because it’s bigger. We can even make a big deal out of it for the kids, like a campout or something.”
In the midst of all this madness, she wondered, how can he be so sweet, and with such ease?
“Okay,” he continued, “on to theory number two. It seems that whatever is here, be it the Bolsters or something else, it tends to get more riled up, for lack of a better term, when someone from town is here. Judas has been a lightning rod for it, then that girl Mai and Muraco. I was thinking of asking them all to come here one night, create a kind of lure and wire the entire house for video and sound. If it follows the pattern, I should get enough in one night to last a lifetime of study. The next day, we pile into the Jeep and head back to Anchorage for a flight home. Jessica’s getting homesick and it’s not so much fun up here for all of us with the non-stop rain. So, what do you think?”
Eve wanted to hug him. The splendor of nature was starting to lose its appeal, going to town was about as pleasant as a root canal and now just being in the house was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
Relieved, she said, “I think you’re a genius. And I truly hope you get all the proof you can handle.”
“So long as we’re looking at Shida in the rearview mirror by the following morning, right?”
“At this point, I think I’d be too afraid to look back.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jessica hadn’t realized how much she missed Long Island until her father sat her on his lap and told her they were going home within the week. All of a sudden, she missed Allison so much it hurt just to think about all of the fun she was missing out on.
What’s Allison doing now? She thought.
Does she miss me? Does she have another friend? Will she still want to play with me?
Her mind was a whirlwind of questions all through dinner and the more she thought, the more terrified she became at the prospect of losing her best friend in her absence. She barely touched her Italian wedding soup, her second favorite next to mac and cheese, too lost in thought to bring the spoon to her mouth. Instead, she pushed the little meatballs around with her spoon and stared into the bowl like it was some kind of magic mirror that could show her what her best friend was up to at this very moment.
After dinner and a bath, they moved their beds into Eve and Liam’s room. She may have been a little kid, but even she could detect the slight tension that had insinuated itself into their happy home away from home. Regardless, she was thrilled with the idea and suggested they pop some popcorn and bring the TV into the room so they could watch movies. Her father readily agreed and Eve even painted her nails and braided her hair. Throughout the bustle of getting ready for the night, Liam watched from his playpen, alternating between gnawing on the edge of the pen and hopping until he fell on his tush, giggling once he realized all of their attention was on him.
Eve found a funny movie to watch while her father bustled around the hallway, setting up his instruments. She had tripped over one of his recorders one night when she got up to pee, so ever since then he made it a point to keep them out of the path to the bathroom. She heard him open the door to the room at the end of the hall and the slap of his bare feet on the hardwood floor. Jessica sensed something odd about the empty room at the end of the hall, though she’d never heard anything said specifically about it before. Maybe just the fact that it had remained empty when they had spread to every other nook and cranny of the house was reason enough to be suspicious.
Jessica lay across Eve’s belly and watched the movie while Liam quickly fell asleep nestled on his mother’s chest. Her father came in and lay on his bed, which was placed next to her own and nearest the door. She gave him credit for trying to watch the movie, one they had watched together countless times before, until he eventually engrossed himself in one of his books, occasionally writing something in his notebook.
Fully engorged with popcorn, she dozed off and missed the end of her movie. When she awoke some time later, the TV and lights were off in the room, though light from downstairs crept through the doorway. Her father’s bed was empty.
He must be working, she thought. Daddy always works when he can’t sleep.
She looked over at Eve who was sleeping on her back, while Liam rumbled with baby snores in his crib. The gentle rise and fall of his chest was hypnotic, and Jessica felt her eyes drift slowly downward.
As she wafted back to her dreams, a trickling flash of light passed across her closed lids, back and forth, back and forth, bathing her in alternating hues of black and white.
The first thing she thought was that the room was on fire. She rose from her bed with a slight gasp, expecting flames to be everywhere.
Eve and Liam hadn’t moved.
The room was still dark. No flames. No smoke.
“Stupid dream,” she huffed, and turned onto her side, pulling the covers up to her neck. As she rolled over to face the open doorway, she saw it.
Jessica held her breath, afraid to make the slightest sound or motion. Something was outside the room, waiting.
A crackling fury of dancing lights hovered inches above the floor. At times it seemed to resemble an almost human shape before morphing into a basketball sized sphere of silent fireworks, the bursts of light imploding and exploding at a tremendous rate, almost hurting her eyes.
It was energy, just like the boy and the man outside. Except this was different, the violent array of colors captivated her like the blue and red strobe of a police light. She wanted to call out for her father only to find herself mute.
The ball expanded once again, this time retaining its more hominid form. It was no bigger than a small child, and as bright flares of orange flame zigzagged to the exterior limbs, she could make out fingers and knees and finally, a face, a translucent mask rippling with a prismatic display of otherworldliness.
It was the man’s son. The one that watched over her. She knew it as surely as her own name. He was just a young boy, lonely and probably afraid.
She cast a quick glance to see if Eve was witnessing this as well, but she had turned over and all Jessica could see was her back.
The light spirit of the boy stood motionless in the doorway only a few footsteps away.
I should talk to him, she thought. That’s what Daddy says some people do to help lost spirits find their way.
But what should she say? That was something her father hadn’t told her. And what if she was wrong and this wasn’t some boy who simply wanted to be near her?
She looked at the face, the small pug nose, thin lips and sightless eyes. Gathering her nerve, she whispered, “Hello.”
The boy’s body, if it could be called that, was a beehive of frantic lights. There was a momentary flash of white and she could make out a tiny smile on his face.
“Are you the boy with the man who talked to me?”
It floated inches closer to her father’s empty bed, voiceless.
“Is the other boy who comes around the house your brother?”
Liam grunted in his sleep.
And then, almost imperceptibly, the boy nodded his head. The multicolored array of lights that made up his form blinked to a solid yellow and he bl
azed like a tiny sun.
She was startled when one of her father’s EMF meters that had been left in the hallway started to whistle and beep like a town crier. The light boy remained motionless, oblivious to the cacophony at its very feet.
Jessica blurted out, “Daddy, come upstairs and see the boy!”
Her voice startled the phantom and the bright lights dulled as if they had been attached to a dimmer switch. It shrank down to a dull ball of luminescence, crossed the threshold into the room and hovered near her face.
Liam awoke crying and Eve was rustling in the bed, but to Jessica the sounds of their stirring seemed miles away.
The ball of light was no more than the size of a golf ball and as it buzzed by her ear, a cool breeze washed over her.
It spoke to her in the voice of a child whispering at night for fear of being overheard by his watchful parents. “We’ll protect you.”
By the time her father entered the room with the wailing meter in his hand, the light was gone.
“Are you okay, honey?” her father asked, breathless from his dash up the stairs. “Did you see the boy again?”
The EMF meter suddenly stopped, dropping into absolute silence.
Jessica, much to her own amazement, felt a tremendous calm, despite the frantic faces of her father and aunt.
“I think I saw the other boy, Daddy. He was beautiful. It was like looking at the Fourth of July.”
Eve wrapped her arm around her. “It’s all right sweetie. Everything’s all right. “
She turned to her aunt who looked frightened and confused. “I know, Eve. He’s just a boy. He said he was going to protect me.”
Her father sat on the bed next to her and placed his warm hand on her cheek. “Did he say anything else?”
She looked in his eyes and was grateful for the trust she saw in them. Any other parent would have told her it was all a dream. Not her father. He believed in her.
Jessica shook her head. “That was all. I think I scared him when I yelled for you. I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“One thing you don’t ever have to be is sorry, baby.” He gave her a comforting hug. “I love you mucho much. You’re one cool customer.”
“Just like my daddy.”
Leaning into her father’s embrace, she was too young to sense the concern in her father’s voice as he wondered exactly what she was being promised protection from.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The call from John did little to calm Judas’s nerves.
Calling the man all the way up here to live in what they all knew now was a haunted house was strange enough. That same man, an unassuming multi-millionaire with a beautiful, albeit, non-traditional family, getting involved with the likes of Muraco, Wadi, Ciqala and Ahanu took things to an unknown level of the bizarre.
I think whatever’s up here is attracted to the people who live in Shida, he’d said. We’ll just get everyone together this weekend for one final night. It’ll be like building a bonfire to attract a slew of moths.
Bait. That’s what they were going to be. Bait for something from the unknown that scared the living hell out of him.
Normally, he would have told him thanks but no thanks, passed along the invite to Muraco because he could care less about his well being, and spent the night with Teddy getting stoned. That was definitely the safe bet.
Except he’d been feeling crushed by guilt lately and the more he tried to avoid it, the worse he felt. If something happened up at that house to John or his family, he’d never be able to live it down.
So, yellow streak or not, he was going to be there.
He lit up a roach that had been sitting in his ashtray and took a few hits before calling Teddy.
“You want to come to John’s house with me on Saturday? He’s running an experiment and needs some volunteers.” He was deliberately vague, hoping his friend would automatically agree to accompany him.
“No way, man. I wouldn’t be caught dead up there, especially as part of some experiment.”
“It’s nothing crazy, Teddy. Come on, it’ll only be for a few hours. The man’s leaving the next day.”
“That doesn’t make what’s gonna happen on Saturday night any less creepy. Dude, if I was you, I’d stay away too. This isn’t a game.”
Judas sighed heavily. “You’re preaching to the choir. Hey, forget I asked you. It’s no big deal.”
He could hear Teddy tapping a pen against a desk. It was one of his many nervous habits. Most people thought the stereotypical pothead was a loose dude in a mellow mood. What they didn’t realize was that deep down, most were nervous wrecks, which is where the need to smoke a joint came in.
“Look, I’m real sorry,” Teddy said.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Me, I’m obligated to be there, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“I told John I’d go find Muraco and ask him and the other assholes if they want to be there Saturday night. Why don’t you swing by later?”
“How about I come with you to find that asshole? I figure it’s the least I can do. Being surrounded by the quote-unquote wolf pack isn’t anyone’s idea of fun.”
Judas showered and changed into clothes that had been washed and dried but piled into a heap on a beanbag in his bedroom. The wrinkles in his cotton shirt looked like a big city road map.
Maybe it’s time for me to finally get off my ass and get out of Shida, he thought as he inspected himself in the mirror. He used a blue rubber band to tie his hair into a tight ponytail.
There’s a chance that if I ask John, he can hook me up with something in New York. I’m sure he’s got loads of connections. Anything but his line of work.
He drove over to Teddy’s house daydreaming about what life in New York would be like. In his fantasy, he had a well-paying job as a sound technician for one of those big music halls where he could see concerts for free and hang with the stars. Every girl had a perfect body and they all wanted a piece of him. He’d take them back to his brownstone apartment in the Village and soon the clothes would be off. There were weekends in Central Park just lounging around on the lawn or watching the toy motor boats in the pond. Wild parties on weeknights.
Teddy was waiting for him outside his place. He was leaning against the front fender of an old Chrysler and the metal made an audible pop when he pushed away to get in Judas’s car.
“Where should we check first?” he said.
“It’s still daylight, sorta,” Judas said, looking out at the gray afternoon clouds. “Don’t they sleep in coffins or something during the day?”
Teddy laughed. “Vampires sleep in coffins. They’re just miscreants. They probably curl up in cardboard boxes.”
Judas drove past Wadi’s house and saw that no one was home. Same for Ciqala and Muraco.
“You think they’re at Mai Smith’s?” Teddy asked.
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that first.”
“That’s why you brought me. We’re a team, like Jake and the Fat Man.”
Sure enough, Muraco’s car and several dirt bikes were parked outside Mai’s house. He hated to disrupt their afternoon delight, for lack of a better term, but he also wanted to get it over and done with.
He parked the car and they milled around the front yard. Teddy touched the handle of one of the bikes and looked like he was contemplating taking it for a ride.
“Don’t even think it,” Judas warned.
“What’s a little joy ride between friends?” he quipped.
Judas took a deep breath and blew out a cloud of smoke. It was starting to feel like snow. Not a good sign. It was too early for snow. If he had any inkling of making his escape from this town, it would have to be soon. Waiting too late would leave him snowbound.
He rang the bell while Teddy waited at the bottom of the steps. He could hear the TV blaring inside. The door opened a minute later, just before he was about to ring the bell again.
Muraco answere
d, a cigarette scrunched in the side of his mouth. He was shirtless and sporting grease-stained jeans and leather boots.
“What are you doing here?” he huffed. His breath reeked of whiskey.
Damn good question, Judas thought.
“John Backman wanted me to find you.”
“What for?”
Mai could be heard laughing in the background, followed by a catcall from Wadi.
Standing face to face with his lifelong tormentor was not getting any more comfortable. He’d spent so many years cultivating his mind to just block the thug out whenever he came near, it was hard to engage him in actual two-way conversation.
Luckily, Teddy piped in, “He said he’d like you and the rest of your gang to come to his house Saturday. Something about an experiment.”
Muraco flicked the cigarette into the yard. “Yeah? What kind of experiment.”
Teddy shrugged his shoulders.
“He wants to see if the spirits in the house are attracted to people from the town. He already knows that weird shit happens when you or me are around. Maybe with more people, something big will happen,” Judas said.
Muraco closed the door and sat on the top porch step, oblivious to the cold. He motioned for Judas to sit beside him, which he did, reluctantly.
“I broke into my parents’ place yesterday,” he began.
He has to break in to his own parents’ house?
“They don’t let me come by anymore, so I had to wait until they left for the bar to get in. I was alone. I remember as a kid that my grandmother kept a journal about everything. That old coot was writing all the time. Her and my grandfather came here just when the town was getting started, so I figured there might be something in one of those journals that might interest Backman. She died when I was, like, fifteen, but I know my mother keeps all her stuff in this big plastic box in their closet. I’ve seen the journals there before, like twenty of them, when I’ve gone in the box looking for shit to pawn.”
He paused and looked them in the eye, daring them to judge him. When he realized they were only waiting for the conclusion to the story, he continued.