Old Bones (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Clever. Mia thinks you’re a genius. Have this farmer take me to her. We must find her soon. I can only hold on to this body so long.”

  Murphy pulled open the car door, and the gray lady stepped down out of the cab. Murphy coughed and glared at Ted. Ted got out and ran around the vehicle and caught the woman as she stumbled, not used to walking in Mia’s body. He also dropped an energon cube for Murphy. The gray lady watched in amusement as the farmer connected his axe with the energy device.

  “Smart that,” she said.

  “Do you have a name?” Ted asked as he helped her up the stairs of the loading dock.

  “Refugia, but call me Judy. I’ve always wanted to be a Judy.”

  Ted looked at Mia and watched as her face changed slightly as she talked.

  “Mia went towards the vortex,” Murphy managed after he drew as much energy as he could.

  “Vortex, explain please.”

  “We think it’s a portal of some kind. It looks like thick blue water, and it pulses with light.”

  By the time they reached the stairs down, the gray lady had full control of Mia’s muscles. She didn’t move like Mia; Judy glided gracefully as if she wasn’t in contact with the ground.

  They walked down the passage. Ted heard Burt and Cid talking to someone whose voice he didn’t recognize.

  They turned the corner.

  Looks of relief and surprise filled the men’s faces.

  “Mia, we thought we lost you!” Cid said moving towards her.

  Charles, Murphy and Ted said quickly, “Not Mia.”

  Burt did a double take. He saw Mia’s face and body but instinctively knew something was not right.

  “Gentlemen,” the woman started with a clipped accent, “I regret to inform you that Mia did not make it back to her body. Hello, are you ill?” she asked, looking at Charles. She knelt down. “Ah, the father, Charles, I believe.” She put her hands on his face and looked into his eyes. “Tell me,” she instructed. “Open your mind, and tell me what has happened to you.”

  Ted and the others watched as Judy locked Mia’s eyes with her father’s. After several minutes she looked up. She didn’t look happy. She next moved her hands over Charles’s limbs. “This man needs water and food. The sooner the better, but he will be fine,” she pronounced.

  “Mia?” Ted asked.

  “I don’t know how much you’ll understand. You are but human.”

  “Try us,” Ted challenged.

  “Charles came in contact with an emerging deity. For some reason, this deity’s image was wiped from the minds and homes of his followers. He captured Charles to find out why this had happened. The emerging… let’s call him Ed, has the ability to walk through time. He can travel back and forth by use of this vortex you saw. He sleeps in his timeline when he is here in yours. This explains this.” Judy pulled from Mia’s pocket the piece of sandstone.

  “See, his eyes are closed. Nice depiction, good artistry.” She frowned and handed it to Charles. “It’s the yellow, isn’t it? Yellow fades. His memory faded with it,” she said.

  “Mia?” Ted reminded her.

  “Oh yes, sorry. Mia was in a solid state when she was pulled into the vortex by Ed. She is no doubt back in his time.”

  “So she’s alive?”

  “That’s tricky, as her body is here with me.”

  “What do we do?” Ted asked.

  “Go get her of course. Well not you, too emotionally involved. She looked at Cid and shook her head. “No, you’ll just distract the virgins. Now you there,” she said, addressing Burt, “would do fine, but there is one problem, the trip will kill you. Otherwise you’ve got knight written all over you,” she said to him.

  The sound of the sliding of Murphy’s axe against the crumbling cement alerted her. She looked over at him and smiled. “Now you, beautiful creature, you’ll do fine. I can take you with me. Gentlemen, I advise you to stand back.” She waited until Ted and Cid lifted Charles out of the way and back behind the tripod. Burt stepped back and put his back to the wall. “Good, hang on.” She moved her hand in front of her and said words that were so different that they sounded more like birdsong than language.

  The ground shook, and the space beyond the broken wall flashed with light before the blue mass appeared.

  “You did say pulses of light not flashes?” she asked, yelling her question above the noise of the whirling portal.

  “Yes!” Cid called back.

  She nodded and turned her back to the men and took off Mia’s clothes. Burt watched as the tattooed wings moved along Mia’s back until full wings formed. He heard the others gasp. To them the wings just sprouted. She moved slowly towards Murphy. “Stand still,” she instructed.

  Murphy did as he was told.

  Judy moved around him and covered him with her wings. She morphed into a large black bird, but in seconds, it had reduced in size similar to a crow. The bird flew to Ted and dropped something at his feet before flying into the vortex. The vortex once again disappeared, and all was quiet.

  Ted bent down and retrieved Mia’s engagement ring from where the bird had dropped it. He sat down and cried. Burt put a hand on his shoulder, understanding.

  Cid squatted down in front of him. “Here’s the place where I’m supposed to say something smart. But I’m gobsmacked at the moment,” he admitted. “That was so cool. I’m sure she’ll find Mia and bring her back. I don’t envy Ed when the two of them get together.”

  Ted wiped his face with the bottom of his t-shirt and said, “Asshole.”

  Cid smiled. He knew his friend was going to be fine. “Oh, Ted, let me introduce you to your future father-in-law. Doctor Charles Cooper, this is Theodore Martin, genius and confirmed nerd.”

  Ted looked over at the older man and nodded.

  Charles nodded back saying, “We got your engagement notice, and sorry we couldn’t make the party, perhaps the wedding.”

  Ted got up and walked over to the man. “Mia would like that very much.” He reached down and assisted Charles to his feet. “We better get you home to Amanda.”

  “If it’s not a bother, I’d like to wait for Mia. Just loan me a phone. That lunatic smashed mine.”

  “I’ll give you mine. I left it in the truck. The camera will alert us if anything happens here,” Ted said numbly.

  Cid looked at Burt as the two men in Mia’s life bonded. They followed them at a discrete distance, listening to their conversation.

  “So tell me, how was it hanging with a god?” Ted asked.

  “Fucking pain in the ass. I’d rather have been buggered sideways until unconscious. The guy dragged me all over the fucking Midwest looking for a portrait of himself. When he saw his reflection I thought he was going to shoot his wad.”

  Burt looked at Cid and whispered, “This is who Mia got her colorful phrases from.”

  “Sounds like it,” Cid agreed.

  “He drags me up to butt fuck nowhere in Wisconsin just to show me he aint there. I could have told him that and saved us the trip,” Charles complained.

  “Some people just have to find out for themselves. Probably suffers from WTFIAG syndrome.”

  “WTFIAG syndrome? Never heard of that.”

  “Why the fuck aint I god, syndrome,” Ted explained.

  Charles roared with laughter. “I’ve worked for a few of those before.”

  “Haven’t we all.”

  “How’s this Burt guy as a boss?”

  “He’s a great boss, a bit of an asshole, but there you go,” Ted said.

  Cid started laughing and hissed, “Ted knows you can hear him, he’s…”

  Burt waved away the explanation. “I know.”

  “That guy carried you the whole way?” Ted asked as he pondered the stairs and worried about Charles’s condition.

  “Only when I couldn’t walk anymore.”

  “You think you can make it up there? Cid and I can help you with a cross-hand lift,” Ted offered.

  “Nah, just g
ive me time, I’ll climb alright. That Judy did something to me; I feel stronger with every step I take.”

  “Good Juju,” Ted told him.

  “Thank god for that. Bad Juju would be, well, fucking bad wouldn’t it?”

  “Charles, have you been drinking? You’re sounding a bit…”

  “Odd? I was born odd. I can play the game and be the professor when I’m rested, but right now I smell like a camel herder, and all I’ve had to eat was half-cooked rabbits, so we’ll have to settle for odd.”

  “It’s hard not to like the fella,” Cid said. “I was in full bromance after the bugger-me-sideways comment.”

  “You’re too easy. I held out until he admitted to being born odd,” Burt said, looking up at the pair as the made their way across the dangerous floor. “Mia is an absolute miracle considering her parentage.”

  “I have to agree with you there,” Cid said. “I hope she makes it back. Otherwise Ted’s not going to make it. People die from broken hearts you know.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “That’s because you broke up with her. You didn’t get dumped or lose her to a half-naked god from 1050.”

  “You make a good point.”

  They had reached the second floor and followed the wall until they were at the PEEPs truck. Ted was standing inside the back of the truck with one eye on the camera feed of the vortex area and the other on Charles Cooper who was on the phone with his wife.

  “I’m going to stay down here for a while yet,” he said. “Because I’d like to spend some time with Mia,” he lied. “Mia, your daughter. No, that’s some woman Bernard got to take care of you. I’d really rather discuss this when I get back, but if you insist. We were wrong. The site wasn’t populated by Cahokians, just people that visited there. Well, you’ll have to scrap that paper. Yes, yes, well that’s an idea. Who? No, I didn’t run into Doctor Enrich. She said that? Well, gee, that’s too bad. He seemed like a nice chap. I’ve got to go. I’ll get a new phone and call you when I have the number. Bernard will know how to get ahold of me. Yes, yes. Bye,” he stopped talking and looked at the phone a moment with a strange look on his face.

  He walked over and handed the phone to Ted. “Thank you. So this PEEPs, is it a full-time job?”

  Burt nudged Cid. “Ted’s getting the once over by the in-law now.”

  “He’ll love it. Come on, we better update Mike, encourage him to bring us some food and a change of clothes for Charles. The hotel isn’t too far. Want me to take him back so he can rest?”

  “Let’s play this by ear. For right now, leave him to Ted. We have some footage to put together. I hope the vortex comes out on camera,” Burt said, heading for the command console.

  They squeezed by Ted who was explaining the nuances of ghost communication. “It’s not witch board driven anymore, Charles…”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The pressure was intense. Mia felt no pain, but the pressure in the portal had her near blacking out. She instinctively knew that moving would rip her apart so she kept still. Not daring to blink, she took in the colors around her. The pulsing of lights, orange, red and yellow that seemed to move through her, was the only awareness she had that she was actually moving. The swirling blue wasn’t a solid mass but densely packed air and water. She remembered she had willed her persona to be solid and wondered what would happen if she willed it back to its transparent gaseous form. Would she become part of this portal, never to return to her body again? This fear saved her.

  After what seemed like hours but was actually mere minutes, the pressure was gone, and the only light that assaulted her was from the steady rays of the sun in an unpolluted sky. Mia felt the viselike grip around her waist and twisted quickly, releasing herself. She fell and landed not on the cement of the crumbling foundations but soft grass-covered ground.

  “Get up, dirt digger’s daughter,” commanded a deep voice from above her.

  Mia looked up and shaded her eyes from the sun. His face was shadowed from her, but she knew who he was. He-who-walks-through-time had done just that and brought her along for the ride.

  “Give me a moment,” she said, weighing her options. Mia was weak but sensed that the sun and the strong magnetic pull of the earth were fueling her persona. If she could have a few more moments, then her strength would be back. “Where are we?”

  “We are where we started just moments ago,” the traveler told her. He squatted down and put a hand on her face, turned it towards him to peer into her eyes. “I can touch you, little one. Do not think you can escape me here.”

  “Why have you taken me?”

  “You took something from me; it is only right, I take you.”

  “My father wasn’t yours to take. We are free people.”

  “I wanted answers. The dirt digger was going to give me some.”

  “And when he did, what then?”

  The traveler shifted his eyes away from her, not answering. “Come, we need to move to where it is safe. Your white hair and skin will frighten my people.”

  “They will not be able to see me. I am not mortal,” Mia protested.

  “Another proof then that I am a god. For I can see you, smell you and touch you, little one.”

  Mia started to rise and fell. The traveler caught her and set her on her feet. “Do you want me to carry you?”

  “If you carry me, I’ll scream. Why in the hell do people assume because I am small they can carry me everywhere? I am not a child. I am a full grown woman who is just fine with my feet on the ground, thank you!”

  The traveler looked down at her, and his hideous, sharpened teeth gave her a jack-o’-lantern smile. “Have it your way. Come, it is time I woke up.”

  Mia followed the traveler through the small clearing and into a grove of trees. When they exited, she was surprised to find a village. No one looked at them as they passed. They were busy maintaining cooking fires, skinning rabbits and deer and grinding corn. Mia entered a hut made of wood, mud and thatch. She saw in a dark corner a large, raised sleeping platform, and on it rested the flesh and blood form of the traveler. He looked at his body, pleased to see that it had been maintained. He looked back at her and said, “You have nowhere you’ll be safe in this world. Stay here,” he ordered.

  Mia watched as he sat down and moved into his body. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. He wasn’t a god but a man who could bilocate. He was nothing more than an ancient OOBer. But, she argued with herself, if he was a mere man with the ability to bilocate, how could he move through time?

  ~

  The color of blue the sky held amazed Murphy. He set his axe down and wished he could breathe in the air which promised to be sweet. All around him, the glade hummed with life. Woodland rodents watched their spring-born offspring with a wary eye to the sky, not worried by the transparent man. Judy flew off in her large bird form promising to return. He wasn’t concerned. As long as he was in the same place and time as Mia, he would be fine. There were trees here that he hadn’t seen in a long time, a new forest, and a world that was just waking up to be explored.

  He heard a flapping of large wings and watched the glade mothers shelter their young. Judy circled the area and dropped a bundle from her large talons before landing. She turned her back to the farmer as she morphed into Mia’s slight frame. Quickly she donned the stolen garments to protect the human body she presently resided in. Upon her head and shoulders she placed a thin piece of deer hide, the ends trailing over Mia’s large breasts. At her waist she wore a skirt of heavier hide. Her feet were bare.

  “I hope I have this right,” Judy said, adjusting the clothing. “I must protect Mia’s skin and hide her white hair, lest I be mistaken for a witch and burned for it.”

  Murphy didn’t answer her. He knew he had to conserve his energy. They still had to find Mia and the traveler, who had a sizable head start.

  “I spotted a village not too far from here. Let’s head there first.”

  “Stolen clothes,” Murp
hy said.

  “I got these further afield. There is a big city across the river. I took them from a merchant’s stall. I left some beads that I took from another stall. Hopefully, I haven’t caused a war in the process,” Judy said with a smirk.

  Murphy picked up his axe, and the two of them started walking.

  “I’ve picked up a little of the lingo. It’s rather an easy language, not many words, expression and sound being the determining factor between like words.”

  Murphy didn’t understand all that Judy was babbling about, but he nodded anyway. He got the idea that it had been a long time since this gray lady had anyone to talk to. He felt a bit sorry for her that it was him she’d chosen to converse with. She reminded him of an aunt he had. She could talk the paint off the barn when she got wound up.

  “Our first job is to find Mia, get her back into this body, and get the hell out of this timeline before we do too much damage,” she said, slowing her pace. She turned to Murphy and asked, “Do you feel different here?”

  “Stronger.”

  “Me too. It’s as if the gifts I was born with have been supersized. Things I haven’t been able to do for years, I can do with little effort.”

  Murphy looked puzzled. “Explain.”

  “Watch,” Judy said. She rubbed her hands together, and a fireball appeared suspended between them as she pulled them apart. She extinguished the flames. “And this,” she said as she moved her hand over the ground. The grass started growing and mushrooms popped out of the shadows.

  Murphy pushed his hat back on his head, impressed. “Magic.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Actually it’s science, natural science but science,” she explained. “I take the elements and speed them up, nothing more. Parlor trick basically.”

  Murphy had been in quite a few parlors in his time but had never seen anything or anyone like Judy before.

  “If you believe in God, Stephen Murphy, then you have to believe in science, the two are interchangeable.”

  Murphy wasn’t sure what she was getting at but didn’t know enough to argue with her. He pulled his hat over his eyes and started walking.