by Alexie Aaron
The trainer advanced on Mia. She whipped a salt star at the man, hitting him in the chest. He screamed in pain and stopped.
"Go now, and you'll feel no more pain," Mia promised.
"You'll pay," he said, running at Mia, preparing his hook to sink deep into her flesh.
Murphy stepped in front of the charging man and swung his axe.
The trainer felt the cast iron cut through his chest. The pain was blinding, and soon he was no more.
Mia ran over to where the salt had been breached by the water. She piled several stones to bridge the gap and spread a generous layer of salt on top before she took another full breath.
Ted crossed the mill quickly and looked at her construction job. He made a few improvements before he scooped her up in a hug. "That was fabulous."
"It was temporary. The storm is fueling the creature. He will be back."
"Any news from Jake?"
Mia shook her head. She pulled out her phone and showed that it didn't have any bars. "Must be the storm."
"I could go..."
"No!" Mia said a bit too loudly. "Stay. Stay, and keep me safe."
"Mighty Mouse, Murphy is here..."
"I need you. Ted, it's your voice in my ears when we are investigating that gives me courage and your brain that sees so much more than I do. Like my bridge," Mia said, looking down. "It's not a pile of stones anymore; it works."
Ted, who was smart enough to listen to Mia, smiled down at her. "I'll stay. But what are we going to do? The storm isn't waning anytime soon."
"We keep plugging holes and think of a better way of protecting Bilbo... Damn it, that's it. Remember Burt's vest?"
"Iron and silver... I see what you're getting at, but that's a big guy. Not even Cid can crochet that fast."
Mia started laughing. "Yes, I guess I went too far."
Murphy appeared at Ted's side. Mia looked over at him, and he was fading.
"Ted, Murphy needs an energon cube."
Ted pulled out of his pocket the latest improved cube. It wasn't as large, but it was twice as powerful. He activated it and put it on the floor. Murphy slid his axe blade into the groove and took on all the energy. He nodded a shy thank you before disappearing again.
Burt walked over. He was holding a small digital camera. "I can't believe what I just saw. Mia, that guy outweighed you and Murphy together."
"He was a spirit. He weighed nothing," Mia said.
"Now look who's being pedantic," Burt teased. "Would you like me to explain what just happened to Jane and her people?"
"Why?"
"Mia, if I could see Murphy and that monster with the hook, then they could."
"Oh. Then Bilbo saw him too," Mia said, looking over at the elephant.
"Probably," Ted said. "I could ask him, but I only speak Asian elephant."
Mia lifted an eyebrow.
Burt tried not to laugh. Ted was something else. Instead, he soberly said, "Jane's as close as it gets to an elephant whisperer. I'll consult with her."
Mia, who was still glaring at Ted, nodded. "Please." Mia's pocket vibrated. "Oh my god, how did he?" she asked, pulling the phone out. "It's from Jake."
Ted pulled out his phone and shook his head at his lack of service. "He must have found another way."
Mia looked into the eyes of Marvin the Martian. "He didn't send the information; he came here himself," Mia said, staring back at Jake. "Well?"
"I've come to report on Harvey Batch. He lived..."
"Skip ahead to his death please," Mia said impatiently.
Marvin looked at Mia and she back at him, but he complied.
"Harvey Batch was trampled to death after he assaulted three elephants. Since no one elephant could be pinned for the crime, they all were exonerated. Two elephants were injured in the attack: a female who later died and Bilbo the Magnificent. Bilbo suffered several injuries to the back of his left ear but survived the attack."
"Where was Harvey buried?"
"Batch was cremated and his ashes spread around the center ring of the circus."
"Damn. Can you show me any pictures of the... er... attack."
"Here is a crime photo. Harry is the mushy thing oozing in the foreground."
Mia looked at the dead trainer and the horrid hook he still had in his hands. There was something incomplete about it. "What happened to the hook?"
"The hook was destroyed."
"Damn. Wait!" Mia squinted. "Magnify the top of the hook please?"
"She who should wear glasses..." Marvin started to rhyme.
Mia shook the phone and watched as Marvin slid from one end of the iPhone to the other. "Magnify..."
"I heard you," Jake as Marvin griped.
The hook wasn't sound. The end of the metal had a crack, and part of the hook was missing.
"Are there any photos of the wounded animals?" Mia asked.
"Yes, which animal?" Marvin asked.
"Bilbo the Magnificent," Mia replied.
Jake showed her the bloody photos. She whimpered when she saw how deep some of the wounds were. "He must have been a madman."
"Would you like to see the psychiatric file on Harvey Batch?"
"No!" Mia growled and amended, "No thank you, Jake."
Marvin filled the screen once more.
"Thank you for risking yourself to bring me this information," Mia said.
"It was my pleasure. Now I'm off to see if I can find my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator."
"You do that," Mia said, no longer paying any attention. She stood there thinking.
Ted, who had witnessed the whole exchange, waited patiently. He was flabbergasted that Mia took the whole Jake excursion through the storm for granted. He had to travel by power line and then a jump through the electricity-filled air at the precise moment. Perhaps Mia thought it was magical. But Ted knew it was science, weird science, but science.
"Ted, what if I was to ask Jane if I could examine Bilbo up close and personal?"
"That would be up to Jane."
"No, would you be alright with it?" she asked.
"Me?" he squeaked. "You're asking me? Go for it. I'll pick up the pieces later."
Mia smiled wide and said through her teeth, "Good to know." Mia walked over to Jane, muttering something to herself. Ted caught the words mother of his son and squashed like a grape.
Jane looked at Mia and raised her hands. "What a wonderful display of paranormal, tag team battle! Is it over?"
Mia shook her head. "Not as long as part of Harvey Batch exists."
"I don't understand. That Murphy fellow dispatched him."
"Only temporarily. He will regenerate and return," Mia said and then explained, "Ghosts that are not interested in moving on, who are determined to bother and possibly hurt the living, have to be dealt with in other ways. One way would be to burn their remains, but I understand Harvey was cremated."
"Then how is he, well, a ghost?" Jane asked.
"Sometimes an object that they hold dear, in this case that horrid hook, contains their essence and acts as their tether to this plane of existence."
"Mia, I assure you that that hook was destroyed."
"Not all of it." Mia pulled up the close-up of the hook. "This piece here must have been lost when Harvey died."
"I'm sure anything associated with the death of Harvey Batch was taken care of years ago."
"Tell me about the wounds on Bilbo?"
"I wasn't his caregiver at the time. What are you looking for?" Jane asked.
"I'm working on the assumption that a piece of the hook is still inside of Bilbo."
"Mia, Bilbo is full of scars from his lifetime of bad treatment. If it's there, we would need an x-ray or an ultrasound to find it."
"I can find it."
"How?"
Mia took off her glove. "I can sense evil with my hands. I'm hoping that when I move my hand along Bilbo, I'll be able to find the missing piece of the hook."
Jane looked at her skeptically.
>
"Let me at least try," Mia pleaded. "It will stop the thing from abusing Bilbo. It can't keep coming back to torment him if I can extract the piece and destroy it."
"You're asking a lot."
"I know I am."
"How serious are you?"
"Very serious."
Jane looked at Mia for a good long while before she nodded her head. "Let's see if we can find it before we talk about removing it."
"Fair enough," Mia said.
Jane walked over to Bilbo. She let his trunk take in her scent before she instructed him to lower his front to the ground.
Mia accepted a leg up from one of the assistants. She took off her glove as she moved over the scars behind Bilbo's left ear. It was on her fifth pass that she picked up an image. The vision flashed so fast that she almost forgot why she was seeking it out in the first place. She moved her hand back to the spot and closed her eyes.
The images of a madman repeatedly jabbing his hook into Bilbo flooded her senses.
"Poor Bilbo, poor dear," Mia said, pushing the horrible picture away from her conscious mind. "It's here. Give me something to mark the spot."
Jane tossed Mia a tube of lipstick. Mia circled the spot and slid off of Bilbo. She let him run his trunk over her while she told him he was a good boy.
"What now?"
"You dig that out of him," Mia instructed. "And Ted will destroy it."
Ted, who heard his name, looked over at his wife and saluted.
"Mia, I don't have the right equipment. I need a sterile room and..."
"In the meanwhile, Bilbo is attacked again and again." Mia stood in front of the bull and asked, "Bilbo, do you want Harvey to go away forever?"
Bilbo nodded his head and trumpeted. Little Suzy walked over to see what was going on.
Mia turned and looked at Jane. "Well?"
"I don't want to hurt him," Jane confessed.
"I'll do it," Mia volunteered. "It's not far from the surface. I just need something to numb the area, a sharp knife, and a strong magnet."
"Where are you going to get a magnet?" Jane asked.
"My husband probably has one in his pocket," Mia said confidently. "He has a junk drawer full of odds and ends on him."
Jane walked over to her people, talked with them for a few minutes, and came back and reported, "We'll do the surgery. You get ready to destroy the piece of metal," Jane instructed.
Mia nodded, stroking Bilbo's trunk. "It won't be long now, big boy. Not long at all."
Another flash of lightning accompanied by a loud rumble reminded them that, at any time, Harvey Batch could return. And this time, he would be mad.
Chapter Eight
Audrey forced herself to leave what she had mentally named The Enchanted Courtyard. The sounds of the approaching storm herded them through the lower half of the mall in the direction of the security offices.
Cid stopped and grabbed Audrey's sleeve. "Turn around slowly. I'm hearing footsteps."
"Are you sure it's not ours echoing off the tile?" Audrey asked as she turned.
Behind them were five distinct shapes. Audrey was certain that Mia probably could have made out more than the swaying gray forms.
Cid activated the GoPro on his shoulder while taking digital pictures of the phenomenon. He heard music, familiar, but something he hadn't heard recently in his adult life. A beautiful young female was singing mournfully, "Don't your feet get cold in the winter time? The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine..."
Cid turned to Audrey, but she didn't appear to be hearing the music. Memories of Cid's mother singing along with the Eagles on the radio in the kitchen flooded his senses, and he joined in with the chorus, "Desperado, why don't you come to your senses..."
"Cid?" Audrey put her hand on his sleeve and shook his arm. "Cid."
"Your prison is walking through this world all alone," he continued.
Audrey had both hands on him now and shook him hard. "Come back to me. Cid, listen to my voice. Damn it, Norm, Dev, help me get him out of here."
"Come down from your fences..."
Norm, acting on his previous law enforcement training, grabbed Cid's arm and twisted it behind him and forcefully walked him towards the office while Dev ran ahead and opened the gates, closing them after Audrey caught up.
Cid kept singing, oblivious to what was happening to him. It wasn't until the song had ended that he came around. He looked around him, surprised to see the concerned faces of Audrey and the security team. To him, it had been a memory.
"How did I get here?" he asked.
"Do you know where you are?" Audrey questioned in return.
"The security office of the Double Tree Mall," Cid said. "I remember hearing music... no, a voice singing a cappella. It made me think of my mother singing along with the Eagles. Next thing I know, I'm sitting here."
Audrey picked up the GoPro and checked to see that it was on. She reached into Cid's pocket and pulled out his cell, accessed the right app and replayed the footage. Dev and Norm crowded in behind them to see.
Before them was a small group of teens. The boys were dressed in light blue leisure suits and the girls in empire-styled white gowns with matching blue ribbons tied around the high waist. They swayed in unison as one of the girls sang.
"Mother of God," Norm said. "I saw nothing."
"Me neither," Dev proclaimed.
"I saw gray images, but I didn't hear anything," Audrey supplied.
"All I saw was my mother singing in the kitchen, serving me Fruity Pebbles," Cid said.
The low rumble of thunder in the distance added to the chill in the air.
"Ms. McCarthy, I think that Dev and I would like to close up before the storm hits," Norm said.
"Please excuse us being rude and rushing you out the door," Dev said, pulling Cid's chair out. "I don't think any of us want to be caught here during a thunderstorm."
Audrey nodded. "I'll arrange to view the remaining mall after I talk to Sergeant Sparrow and my colleagues at PEEPs."
She took Cid's hand firmly in hers.
Cid felt a bit ridiculous, but he let her guide him out of the building to where he had parked his truck. He opened up the passenger door for Audrey, but she shook her head, insisting that she drive.
"Okay,” he said, getting in.
Audrey climbed in the truck and took off her hard hat, handing it to Cid. She next pulled the truck's seat as close as she could to reach the pedals. She gunned the engine which made Cid laugh. Obviously, this was her first time driving a truck.
"Cut it out, mister," she warned.
Cid started humming the song he had sung.
Audrey looked over at him and made a decision. She wasn't going home without having someone check Cid out for possession. She exited the mall parking lot and headed towards Chicago and Father Alessandro.
~
"If they extract it..." Ted started.
"When," Mia corrected.
"It's steel. There's not much I can do here to destroy it," Ted said, scratching his head. "We could grind it down. Steel melts at 1510 degrees Celsius, but in the end, it will remain steel but liquid until it cools down, and then it will be steel again."
"How about grinding it down and mixing it with salt?" Mia asked.
"Considering the pain the fellow went through when you tossed a salt star at him, I expect that would be a sadistic way of getting rid of him, Mighty Mouse."
"Let's go back to melting the steel. It would purify it. That could work. Damn, I really don't know."
"Hey, Burt!" Ted called.
Burt turned around.
"We could use a consult here," Ted said.
Burt walked over, surprised that Ted and Mia needed to consult him about anything. Between the two of them, Ted had a wealth of scientific knowledge, and Mia had a lot of experience in the paranormal arena. What could he possibly add to the discussion?
"We have a problem," Mia started and proceeded to fill him in on the plan to destroy the las
t remaining piece of the hook and, in doing so, destroy the ghost of Harvey Batch.
"I think you have something with the melting. The supposed spirit attached himself to the object, but he didn't become the object," Burt said. "I think the essence of Harvey Batch will burn off. Remember, Mia, when we burn the body of the ghost, there still is ash, but it no longer tethers the spirit to this plane. Harvey will either cease to be or wander the earth in the wind. He will have no power."
Comforted by Burt's words, Mia felt the panic leave her. "The question is, how do we get a fire hot enough to melt steel?"
"Road Flares," Ted and Burt chorused.
Ted explained, "A road flare ignites at 191 degrees Celsius but burns at 1600 degrees. That's more than enough to melt the small piece you mentioned."
"We'll have to do it outside, away from the elephants. It wouldn't do to frighten the creatures," Burt said. "I remember seeing a discarded laundry tub. That will contain the heat for the duration we will need."
"But it's raining out there. Won't the fire be extinguished?"
Ted gave her a look that he reserved for Mike. "Honey, road flares burn in the rain."
Mia flushed, embarrassed.
"I'll go and retrieve the tub," Burt said and left.
Mia got up and hugged her husband. "Do you have a road flare in your pants?" Mia asked Ted.
"No, I'm just happy to see you. Of course I don't, but I do have some in the emergency kit in the car," Ted said, releasing his wife.
"Before you leave, I need a magnet," Mia said, holding her hand out.
"That I do have," Ted said, searching his pockets. "Actually I have two." He placed the said magnets in her hand. "What are these for?"
"I hoped that they would draw the piece of the hook out of Bilbo's hide without much cutting.”
"Nope, won't work." He looked at her crestfallen expression and quickly added, "However, it will be a safe place to hold the shard so we don't lose track of it on the way to the burning."
Mia couldn't get mad at Ted for her ignorance. "I thought, since an MRI would rip metal out of you..."
"I see where you were going with that, but I don't have anything that strong. At least, not in my pants." Ted broke into a fit of giggles.
Mia threw up her hands and walked off. Murphy chose that inopportune moment to appear before her.