by Alexie Aaron
“So you can see ghosts?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Anyone else in your family see them?”
“Don’t know. Ma’s never said, and my dad’s gone,” Dave said. “Let’s not get into this now. I can see ghosts and don’t know why the fuck I can, but there you have it.”
“Well that was rude,” Mia chided.
Audrey waved it off. “So Dave initially was able to walk right into the school,” she pondered, “and was thrown out after the entity caught on that he could see him. This explains his ban, but what about you, Mia? What kinds of things stop you while you are in your… persona?”
“Moving water is the only thing I’ve come across so far,” Mia confessed.
“There has to be more than that,” Dave mused, “otherwise everyone would be doing it. What are you when you are out of body? A ghost?”
“A soul,” she answered. “It seems we have to get everyone up to speed before we can move forward. There are so many pieces to this puzzle. I don’t know where to begin,” Mia said honestly.
“All this information has my brain scrambled too. Let’s start with the beginning,” Audrey said and pulled an iPad out of her purse. “I’ll take notes.”
Mia smiled and nodded to Dave. “You start.”
“It began with this classroom we walked into…”
Chapter Ten
Burt turned the corner, and no one was there. All nine of the group had disappeared without a sound. Ahead of him were ten doors with frosted glass panels, five on each side of the corridor. He tried each knob as he walked down the hall. They were locked. After the ninth try, a door opened up on his left. He walked in, and the door shut behind him. He was in an eight by eight cell of a room. Inside the room contained a desk and a chair. A booklet lay on the desk with a pencil. He picked up the paper and began to flip through the pages. It was a personality test, the type he had taken for a few jobs he applied for in his youth.
Burt sat down and read the first question.
If you saw a stamped envelope on the ground next to a post office box, what would you do?
Burt rolled his eyes and selected Put the envelope in the box.
You witness a person cheating on a test. You would…
He looked at the choices.
Tell the person auditing the test.
Don’t tell, but take time to discuss this bad behavior with the cheater.
Do nothing.
Burt knew the right answer was to tell, but he wasn’t a squealer. He chose the middle answer and moved on.
You witness someone doing harm to themselves, you…
Again he scanned the answers and chose Stop them.
The booklet was missing a few pages. On the inside of the back cover he found scrawled in pen one last question.
Why didn’t you call the police?
Burt was surprised. It demanded an essay answer. He started to write when the pencil was pulled from his hand.
“Vocalize,” a voice hissed in his ear.
“I wanted to resolve this problem without getting the teens into trouble. I thought I could rescue them and help you at the same time. Why are you doing this?”
The light went out, and the door opened. Burt felt the chill of the entity but knew it wouldn’t be answering him. He got up and walked out into the hall. He saw he wasn’t alone. Richie, John and Ted stood there waiting.
“Where are the others?” Burt asked Ted.
“I don’t know. You’re the last one to come out. We were just about ready to head down the hall.” He pointed to the flashing light and asked, “Shall we?”
Burt nodded, forcing down his worry as he walked. They passed an expandable gate that was inching out of the wall. He walked towards Ted and the boys, and the gate closed after them. The boys turned to walk on, but he said, “Wait a moment.”
The four of them witnessed the doors of four rooms open and Josh, Chuck, Cid and Mike exited. Burt watched as the quartet turned and looked down the hall at them on the other side of the gate. Cid jogged down and began fiddling with the gate, trying to open it.
“What were your answers?” Burt asked.
“Mail envelope, tell, stop them, and to the oral question asking why I didn’t call the police, I said, ‘I came to get the boys out,’” Cid answered.
“You?” Burt asked Chuck.
“Same as this guy’s, but my last question was, Why was I here? I told it I came to steal copper wire. I thought honesty would score me some points,” he explained.
“Me too,” Josh said.
Mike sighed. “I think we’ve been sorted. My answers were similar to Cid’s.”
The lights flashed at either ends of the hallway.
“I guess we better get moving,” Mike told Burt. “I’ll stick with these guys; you take care of your bunch.”
“I will. Good luck,” he said, meaning it.
Mike motioned to Chuck to lead the way. Cid fell back with Mike. He glanced back at the retreating forms of their friends. “I hope they’ll be okay,” he said softly.
“I think they’re the A team. We’re the B team,” Mike whispered.
“Dudes,” Chuck called, getting their attention. “The gym door is open. I hope we don’t have to do more physical tests.”
He and Josh waited, and the four of them entered the gym together. The room was empty of apparatuses. The door closed behind them. The lights began going out, and the outside door opened.
Mike took it all in and shouted, “It wants us out. Run before it changes its mind.”
The four of them ran out of the gym into the cold night air. Mike turned and saw the door slam behind him. He heard a commotion as Mia burst around the corner.
“Oh my god, I couldn’t believe it. You’re out, you’re safe. Where’s Ted and Burt?” she asked Mike as she hugged him.
Mike patted her back and said, “They’re okay but still inside. The entity rejected us for being honest.”
Mia let go and stood back. “Well, that’s unexpected. I’m so glad you guys are safe.” She hugged Cid before grabbing his hand like he was a child. “I so need you guys out here. Dave’s been trying, but he’s trying. Wait, that didn’t sound right. Audrey’s here,” Mia babbled, trying not to break into hysterics because Ted hadn’t made it out.
Cid stopped and nodded with his head for Mike to take the others to the command truck. When they were out of sight he said, “Go ahead and cry.”
She did. Great sobs shook her whole frame as Cid held her.
“The four inside are the smartest, the keenest and the best. Don’t worry, Mia. He’ll be okay. Ted’s amazing. Remember he’s Batman,” Cid cooed.
Mia sniffed and rubbed the tears and snot off her face with her sleeve. She sniffed again before talking, her voice was shaking when she confessed, “It’s just that I feel so helpless. I have all this, um, power and can’t use it to help him. Cid, what will I do if I lose him?”
“It’s not going to happen, but you have us. Lean on us, Mia, we’re your family. Even Mike, think of him as your dirty old uncle if you must, but know that he cares.”
Mia smiled. “Thanks, I needed that image. Dirty old Uncle Mike, hitting on the women, day and night.”
“What a fright, is our Uncle Mike,” Cid added to the rhyme. “Come on, we have plans to make, info to share, and I need some of Ted’s coffee before I keel over.”
“We have food,” Mia told him. “Barbecue.”
Cid took off running, pulling her along with him. “Barbecue, here I come!”
~
Burt followed the others into the room. He looked for the light switch. He found it, but he knew what the room was before it was illuminated. The odor of sawdust filled the air. They found themselves in Woodshop. It was filled with dangerous machines and stacks of wood. On the board was a diagram.
“Is that what I think it is?” Richie asked. “A coffin, we have to build our own coffins? For fuck’s sake.” He looked over at Burt. “Why?”
“Something about Why was I here?”
“How did you answer it?”
“I had no place better to be. I was honest. I’m going to die because I told the effing truth.”
“John, I take it you had the same question?” Burt asked him.
“Yes, sir. I said I was in between games.”
Burt nodded. “My question was, ‘Why didn’t I call the police?’ I told it I was here to help get you guys out and help it at the same time. Ted, what did you say?”
“I think it thought I was a kid, I had the kid’s test. I answered Why was I here? with Why not?” Ted winced. “It was the first answer that came to mind,” he explained.
“I think this is kind of a punishment,” Burt explained. “Let’s build these things and get the hell out of here.”
Ted looked over at Richie and instructed, “Dude, you need bigger boards, unless you’re going to cut your legs off?”
This caused Richie to drop his boards. The noise covered up Burt’s laughter. John looked over at him and put his finger to his lips and winked.
Burt quickly sobered up. He wondered what the other group was doing right now. What kind of hell was Mia going through trying to keep it all together? Did Mason make it or did he die? He pushed the last one to the back of his mind with the other worries. He wasn’t the handiest of people, but he could follow instructions. He listened as Ted instructed the other two on how to build a custom coffin. He prayed he would not find a use for his.
~
Homer arrived not long after the four were set free. He told them that Doc would stay at the hospital until Mason was conscious. Mason’s brother promised him a ride back.
Chuck was upset to see the Dave-sized dent in his passenger side door. Dave offered to pay for it, but he wouldn’t have the money until summer. Chuck shook his head. “Don’t worry; I’m sure it’s insured. I’m going to take Josh home. Hope the others make it out. Call me. Until then, I don’t know anything, I wasn’t here and neither was Josh.” He got in the truck and backed out, careful to avoid the other vehicles.
Dave watched them leave. Richie, his anchor, kept him there. He looked at the group of adults that were huddled inside the back of the small truck. Cid was covertly fixing the settings he and Mia had screwed up. Cid confided in Dave that he didn’t know how the cameras worked the way they set them up, but they did. Dave watched as Mia excused herself, hopped out of the truck and headed for the woods.
Dave fell in step behind her.
She turned around and told him. “I’ve got to pee, I’m not running off.”
“You’re going to pee in a wood full of Civil War vets?” he inquired.
She stopped. “Well now that you put it that way, do you have a suggestion?”
“There’s some bushes just beyond the car park. I think it’s got cover enough. I’ll be your lookout,” he offered.
“I don’t know…” she hesitated.
“Hey, sister, if I wanted to take a peek at your goods, I had plenty of time when you were out of body,” he snapped. “How about a little trust here?”
“K,” Mia said and followed him to a circle of arborvitaes. “It has outhouse written all over it,” she said as she stepped inside.
~
“I’ve found it!” Audrey shouted. “I’ve got a set of blueprints for a school similar to this one, built around the same time by the same company, three counties from here,” she qualified.
Mike leaned over and looked and nodded. “It looks the same on the bottom floor. Where is the furnace room?”
Audrey moved her finger over the plans and shook her head. “Not on the first or second floor. Darn, this cube has a basement.”
“Okay, this is just me having a fit here, but how the hell did this place make code? Shouldn’t there be an entrance to it somewhere? How did they get fuel and shit down there?” Mike questioned.
Cid leaned over and asked, “May I?”
Audrey handed him the iPad.
He flipped a few pages and pointed out, “We couldn’t see it because we didn’t take the time to look for another entrance. It looks like there’s an entrance to the lower level fifty feet from the gymnasium of this school. There should be an access road leading to it. Where’s Dave?” Cid got up, handed the iPad to Audrey and hopped off the truck in search of him.
He could hear them arguing before he saw them.
“I told you I had no idea there were rabbits in there.”
“Have you ever peed on baby rabbits, poor things,” Mia said. “I couldn’t stop. They looked very disgusted at me as they left.”
“I would be too,” Dave agreed. “Hello, Cid, I was taking Mia for walkies.”
“I gathered. Before you go back. Do you know of an access road? We think there is a way into the basement, but it’s offsite by about fifty feet.”
Dave stopped and thought a moment. “We came through the west woods so it isn’t in that direction. Mia and I were just over there. That leaves the east side. Come on.” Dave took off running with Mia and Cid on his heels.
The slope downward was a surprise. No one would have seen it from the car park in the dark. They ran down the hill and onto a cracked and pitted slab of concrete. They worked their way towards the school and were rewarded with a double set of green metal doors. There was a thick chain holding the doors tightly together. If the lock failed, no one would easily get through that chain. The two ends were fused together.
Mia dropped to her knees and used her mini light to shine under the doors. She frowned and got to her feet explaining, “There’s a thick line of salt and brick just two feet inside the door. If I had a ruler, I might be able to disturb the salt, but the brick has me worried - although it does explain a few things.”
Dave and Cid looked at her while she gathered her thoughts.
“I’ve been thinking about why Dave and I couldn’t penetrate the building. There is an old protection hex, if you will, about someone wanting to do harm can’t cross a threshold of brick. But in Dave’s and my case, we don’t want to do harm. Could there be other protections that can be thrown against us because of the gift of sight? I don’t know. I have little to no knowledge of black magic. But why is the entity inside protecting itself from the ghosts outside? I don’t think it knew about Murphy when it set those protections into place.” Mia stopped and asked, “Am I making any sense?”
“I see where you’re going,” Dave said. “The Civil War ghosts. Why would it be afraid of them, unless, it did something to them…”
“Whoa there, buddy, Civil War ghosts?” Cid asked.
Dave and Mia took turns bringing Cid up to speed about their and Murphy’s encounter with the lost Union soldiers. He felt a bubble of excitement rise as Mia mentioned the blue fire, but he managed to stay quiet until they had finished. “So you’re thinking he may have messed with these ghosts’ remains.”
“Black magic uses bones, at least in the movies it does,” Dave voiced.
“Movies, really…” Mia challenged.
“Hey, they had to get it from somewhere,” Dave argued.
“Ever hear of fiction?” Mia shot back.
“Guys…” Cid started. “You’re getting off track.”
Mia glared a moment at Dave and mouthed fiction before she turned and spoke to Cid, “Remind me to ask Homer if he’s heard of any tombs of unknown Civil War soldiers that may have been broken into… How long has it been since the school’s been closed?”
“Just under a year,” Dave supplied.
“Within the last few years, I’d say. Black magic takes time to learn. I think something dark was brewing before that kid died,” Mia theorized.
“Mia, this may be nothing, but Ted and I noticed that the Clinton Cougars had collected a lot of trophies in the last several years. Track and field and cross-country. They were divisional baske
tball champs too.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not following you,” Mia said confused.
“Some schools get a lucky streak and win in one sport or another. Rarely, considering the ages of the kids in middle school, will there be a dynasty in three sports. The odds are against it,” Cid explained.
“Bodies are growing at crazy rates. Most boys in my seventh grade hadn’t put on much muscle and weren’t very coordinated when the growth spurt kicked in,” Dave shared.
Mia looked relieved when he finished talking. She looked at Cid and said, “I thought for sure he was going to say something about balls dropping.”
Cid, trying to be sensitive, held in his laughter, but his eyes danced in amusement.
“Sorry, Dave,” Mia apologized. “So, if we’re right about black magic, and Cid’s right about the dynasty in sports then…”
“The gym teacher is the ghoul playing games in there,” Dave announced.
Chapter Eleven
Murphy waited for Mia on the rise. He tipped his hat to the young man. His intention was to be friendly, but he only managed to cause Dave to give him a wide berth. Mia shook her head at the teenager as she walked over to greet Murphy.
“He’s kind of an ass, don’t be offended,” she told him.
Murphy shrugged.
“How’re our boys in blue?” Mia asked.
“So-so,” he answered in as few words as possible. Murphy’s deep voice, unused to speech, was gravelly as if he needed a shot of whisky to clear away a century of phlegm.
“We’re building a theory that the entity in there was, is, practicing some kind of dark magic. Maybe used the bones of the soldiers - but this is just a theory, mind you - in the rituals. I think he’s scared of them getting in that building and getting some revenge. Have any of them said anything?”
He shook his head no but said, “Spade.”
Mia looked at him oddly a moment. Her mind raced with all reasons for why Murphy would need a shovel. Or was he talking about cards? “Come again?” she asked.