by Alexie Aaron
"Men!" Mia snarled, brushing by him.
He looked at her retreating back, then over at Ted, and wrinkled his brow.
"It's all on me, dude," Ted said. "Want to come and make some fire with us men?"
He nodded, pleased to be included in some endeavor that didn't involve Mia, until she apologized.
Mia watched Jane prepare Bilbo for the extraction of the broken bit of hook. The doctor held a cloth saturated with a numbing solution tightly to Bilbo's skin before she shot anesthetic in and around the target area. All the while, she talked softly to the elephant who lay on his right side. Little Suzy watched, interested but not alarmed by what was taking place twenty feet from her. As long as no one came at her with a needle, she would cooperate and stay docile.
Mia admired the courage of not only Jane but the two volunteers, of whom Mia ashamedly didn't know their names. Mia wasn't naturally a sociable person, but living in such close quarters, she could at least make an effort. She promised herself to make some small talk and get to know the volunteers that were risking their lives keeping Bilbo calm while Jane operated on him.
Her pocket vibrated. She pulled out her phone to see Marvin's eyes once again staring back at her.
"The operation is beginning," she whispered. She lifted the phone and turned the camera on.
Jake, in the guise of Marvin, seemed satisfied.
Outside, the rain had momentarily eased. Burt pulled the laundry tub away from the long weeds where he had found it. The flora surrounding the tub was wet, but considering the heat the flares would give off, Burt feared they would still be flammable. He walked over to a small patch of gravel and set the tub down. He kicked the stones around the base to give the tub some stability. He caught movement in his peripheral vision. Burt turned and saw Ted had left the mill and was heading for the vehicles. He assumed the tech was gathering the needed road flares.
A scratching of steel on stone beside him startled Burt. He turned around and was baffled until he heard the familiar whistle. "Hello, Murphy. I hope this will suffice. I'm sure Ted will tell me if I'm wrong."
Murphy responded with an ominous whistle.
Ted walked back over with an armload of flares he had protected in a clear plastic bag. "I see Murphy's joined us. Ah, Burt, Mia's in a mood," he warned. "Poor Murphy caught a Ted's-in-trouble backdraft."
Murphy whistled again.
"Ted, however did you get into trouble? Wait, don't tell me," Burt said and put his hand dramatically on his temple and said, "I sense you corrected her and made her feel dumb."
Ted was so amazed, it showed on his face. Murphy too was surprised.
Burt lowered his hand and grinned. "You may have forgotten that, like you two gentlemen, I've spent awhile with Mia."
Ted and Murphy looked at each other and then back at Burt and nodded.
"I'd say, let's form a Men against Mia club, but Mia really is worth all the bitchy moments, isn't she?" Burt asked.
Ted couldn't disagree so he kept quiet. Murphy, still bruised by Mia's rebuff, tapped out in Morse code. "You can have her."
"Have who?" Tom, schooled in Morse code, asked while walking over.
"Mia," Ted answered.
"Murphy's given up on Mia?" Tom questioned. "Baptize this unbeliever in the river, quick before I drown."
"She was snotty to him," Ted reported.
"She's probably just tired. She went through hell before you guys arrived."
"About that, whose idea was it to come here?" Ted asked.
"Mia's. But she was right. I couldn't protect the elephants over at the Schumacher homestead."
"But why here?"
"Closest," Tom replied and picked up on Ted’s train of thought. "Oh no, Ted, Mia didn't purposely come here so she could challenge Two Face Tony. Although she was prepared..." Tom's voice fell off.
"Bad Mia," Murphy said.
"She's been playing with that green chalk since she came back," Ted said.
"Hold on, guys, you're thinking that Mia intentionally came here so she could kick Two Face Tony's ass?" Burt asked for clarification. "What if she did? Wouldn't each of you want to deal with the guy that pushed you into your locker and locked it, or stole your lunch money, embarrassed you in from of your date. I certainly have a few scores to settle, and if a little piece of chalk and some Latin would take care of it, sign me up."
"I'm just worried for her," Ted admitted. "This demon gene thing has her..." Ted stopped, realizing what he just let slip.
Murphy frowned, knowing that Mia would not be pleased for the others to find out about the demon part of her. He felt guilty about urging the boys on, and he knew he had to do something quick. He drew on his energy reserves and pushed through the veil and spoke, "You mean the demonic genetic manipulation that Angelo's people do, has her worried," Murphy said, not sure he fully understood the words he was using. "Cid and she were talking about it during NOVA," he explained.
Burt looked in the direction Murphy's voice came from and said, "I do believe that is the most I've heard from you. Do you know you sound a bit like Henry Fonda?"
"No, he sounds like Burt Lancaster," Tom said.
Ted closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he nodded his thanks to the ghost.
"I was Stephen Murphy before they were Fonda and Lancaster," Murphy said proudly.
"Thank God for that," Mia said, walking over, lifting her palm up to test for raindrops. "The operation is underway. I'm just checking on the fire pit." She saw the guilty expressions and asked, "Okay, this isn't one of those Mia-bashing parties I walked into uninvited? I fully understand if it is. Murph, I apologize for salting you out of the mill. Thank goodness for Burt being on the ball," she said, patting Burt on the back. "Burt, you and I are alright, aren't we?"
"Never better," he responded, blushing.
"Tom, I'm sorry I put you in the middle of an argument I was having with Two Face Tony. I acted childishly and will be paying for it for quite a while. Thank you for having my back."
"Consider it a bit of redemption for me, Mia," Tom said gallantly.
"That leaves my husband." Mia got on her knees and put her hands together. "I take it for granted that you’ll tell me what I need to know, and when you tell me, I punish you for it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for running away to this circus, abandoning you with our child. I'm only partly human, but that part is a miserable bitch sometimes. Please forgive me."
Burt sensed Mia was posturing, but he kept it to himself. Ted had to be feeling pretty guilty by now. Mia may not do it often, but she was a master at manipulation, especially when it came to the paranormal.
Ted squatted down. "Mia, you're embarrassing me."
"Good," Mia said, popping up. "Okay, now I need a volunteer to wait for the steel shard and deliver it here."
"I'll do it," Burt said, leaving and walking quickly back into the mill, stepping over the thick line of salt.
"I'm surprised you didn't just stay and do it yourself," Ted said, still smarting from Mia's backhanded apology.
"The wind has changed, and the storm is lashing back on itself. I heard their footsteps," Mia said, rubbing her arms.
"Whose footsteps?" Tom asked.
"The Wanderers. They are hidden just beneath that veil of water," Mia said, pointing south.
The men looked, and beyond the trees, they saw the sky had darkened.
"We need to protect Ted when he gets the hook," she said to Murphy and Tom. "He'll be defenseless. He can't see them."
Mia drew out her sawed-off shotgun. She handed it to Tom, along with a handful of rock-salt cartridges. "Ted, Murphy is going to need to top off. That Fonda/Lancaster hogwash must have all but drained him dry."
Ted pulled out another energon cube and tossed it to Mia who activated it and set it down for Murphy. Mia walked over to a pile of scrap and selected a rusted iron rake that had seen better days. She gripped it and walked to the edge of the woods and waited.
Chapter Nine
The wind had
picked up, blowing Audrey's hair into a wild ‘fro. She and Cid had just made the church steps when the rain began to fall. Seven steps up brought them to the majestic wood doors. Cid opened one of them, pulling Audrey with his free hand into the building after a gust of wind pushed her backwards.
"Gee thanks, Superman," she said.
Cid, used to the nickname, replied, "You're welcome, Lois."
While Audrey sorted her curls, Cid looked around the narthex. The wood shone from many polishes, and the carpet was worn but clean. Cid got the feeling that the church was economizing. He could respect anyone who could live within a budget.
Audrey walked over to a small alcove, dipped her hand in a font containing holy water. She first touched her forehead, her breast, her left and then right shoulder before she advanced into the nave.
Cid almost tripped over Audrey as she knelt before proceeding down a side aisle, heading for the confessionals. He stopped, very aware that with his sensitive hearing, the privacy of the confessional would no longer be private. He turned around, walked back down the aisle, sat down in the farthest most pew, and waited.
Audrey waited until the parishioner had exited the confessional before she tapped on the priest side and asked, "Father Alessandro, are you in there? Your secretary, Nancy, thought I might find you here."
The door opened, and Father Alessandro stepped out. It took him a moment to remember the curly-haired redhead before him. "Mia's friend Audrey," he said.
"Forgive me, Father, but I'm in need of your counsel," Audrey explained. "Private counsel."
"Come," he said.
Audrey turned around, but Cid was not behind her. She spied him in the back corner of the nave. She waved him over, irritated.
"Be patient, Audrey, he didn't want to overhear anything," Father Alessandro explained.
Audrey nodded. "Sorry, Father."
Cid walked over, extending his hand to the priest. Father Alessandro grasped it with a firm hand. "It's good to see you, Cid. Have you come to steal my holy water?" he asked teasingly.
"No, sir. I do feel like a bull in a china shop though," he admitted. "I nearly fell over Audrey on my way in."
"Come along. Let's find a more comfortable place in which to talk."
He led them into a side chamber and closed the door.
A smartly-dressed woman appeared.
"Nancy, bring us some coffee, nice and strong. I sense fortification is needed." Father Alessandro looked at the pair standing awkwardly just inside the door and said, "Sit. Your knees do bend, don't they?"
Cid laughed which horrified Audrey.
Father Alessandro could do nothing to ease her thirty-years of learnt manners. He did, however, take her hands and say, "God's house is a happy house. Sit down, Audrey."
She sat down hard.
"What can I do for you both? Premarital counseling?"
"Oh no!" Audrey blurted out. "It's not that I don't like Cid, but he's not my boyfriend and..."
"Audrey, he was teasing," Cid said. "Father, I'm not exactly sure why Audrey was hell... determined to bring me here. I think it's because of something that happened to me about an hour ago."
"He was possessed," she said.
"No I wasn't."
"But you didn't see what I saw," Audrey argued.
The door opened. Father Alessandro lifted his hand to silence the two. Nancy walked in and placed a simple coffee service down between them. She poured a cup for each before she left, shutting the door after her.
Father Alessandro loaded his cup up with sugar and milk. He took a sip before speaking. "First of all, if Cid was possessed, he wouldn't have been comfortable when I held his hand. He opened his mind and let me read what was inside. We'll talk about what happened to make you suspect possession after you have drunk your coffee and eaten one of those delightful cookies. They remind me of birthday cake."
Audrey took her cup, sat back and drank it in irritated silence.
Father Alessandro contemplated Audrey's thoughts. He admired her fortitude in dragging Cid all the way into Chicago to see him. She feared that Cid would bring whatever was controlling him back to the Martin farm, endangering little Brian. She also was feeling guilty about sleeping with her fiancé before marriage. That subject he would not broach in front of Cid.
Audrey set her cup down and cleared her voice. "I may have jumped the gun, Father. Please forgive me for bothering you."
"It is no bother. Now, Cid, would you excuse Audrey and me as I see what happened from her perspective?”
Cid nodded. He watched as the priest placed Audrey's hand in his and closed his eyes. This gave Cid a chance to study the man's facial features. He had to be somewhere in the winter of his life, but the man's complexion was firm and tan. Gray, thick eyebrows complimented the thick hair on the man's head. Aside from a large bump on his nose, the man was handsome. The priest opened his eyes and then asked for Cid's hand. Cid acquiesced.
"Think back to the music..." Father Alessandro led.
Cid did so. He was again in his mother's kitchen, watching her move gracefully around the room singing “Desperado.” The priest released his hand.
"The mall is haunted. Cid is not," Father Alessandro proclaimed. "Audrey, I can see your concern. The group, let us call them sirens, simply evoked a memory inside of Cid. I think it was accidental. The young woman was simply performing for you. I think they are a choir, no… What is that show... Glee, they were a glee club."
"A high school performing chorus disappeared in that mall forty years ago. Two of the members were found hung in the double tree the next day," Audrey told him.
"It all makes sense now. You were in the Death Tree Mall," Father Alessandro said.
"I've been asked to make recommendations to the veterans group that is thinking of rehabbing the mall for their use," Audrey explained.
"Well?"
"Prior to the little haunting, I was thinking that it could be put to good use. We," Audrey said, motioning to Cid and herself, "thought of ways to subsidize the cost. The plumbing is sound, and the central air systems function after all these years. I think it would make a great place to rehabilitate and house veterans returning with injuries. Granted, we've only seen half of it, but the half I saw was sound. It would take money, but it is possible to build an indoor city for the returning vets."
The passion of this project had Audrey letting her guard down. Gone was the frightened, prim Catholic school girl. She was replaced by a positive, energetic young woman. Father Alessandro could now see why Mia liked her and welcomed her as family.
"The Death Tree Mall was built on bad ground," he told them. "I'm old enough to remember the scandal of tearing down the old city prison and dumping mountains of earth on top of what they forgot was still buried there."
"I don't understand," Audrey said, reaching for her briefcase. "I've got the land survey and..."
"Audrey, this is Chicago. A few dollars in the right hand, and you will have proof the land came from Mars."
"You said something was still buried there," Cid encouraged, "What?"
"When you have a prison, you have deaths. Do you think they buried the forgotten in beautiful monument-filled boneyards? No, of course not. The dead were given paupers’ graves just inside the prison grounds."
"Wouldn't the ground have been sanctified?" Audrey asked.
"I'm sure it was at one time. But - this is something you're going to have to come to terms with if you are going to continue in this wonderful field of work PEEPs is involved in - evil finds a way. Human beings have been brought up in the false security that if you play by God's rules, then you'll be safe. Unfortunately, this is not so, Audrey. That's why the Lord has given us special people to defend the innocent and fight the ones that would corrupt and harm them."
"Mia's one of them, isn't she?" Cid blurted out.
"Yes, but not just Mia, there are others. This marvelous place we were given to take care of, dominion if you will, is fragile, and presently, we are
losing the fight. Evil rises as the earth can no longer contain it. If you want to make that building safe for the young men and women returning from their hell, you have to go back to the beginning and find out why all of this happened."
"Why the kids disappeared," Audrey confirmed.
"Further."
"Further?”
"Are you talking about the prison?" Cid asked.
"Not exactly the building, but who died there."
Audrey sat back defeated. She knew, better than anyone, the enormity of this task.
Father Alessandro reached forward and took one of Audrey's hands. "Fear not, there is someone who can help you, and in doing so, you can help her."
"Mia," Cid said. "You know about Mia."
"Father Peter has told me things in confidence. Mia and that rascal Stephen did some amazing things down south, but they did have help. Mia is struggling with the aftermath of being given certain knowledge and an injury that will never heal on its own. She is stubborn because she is fearful. You two need to involve her in this and, in doing so, set the wheels in motion for Mia to rise to her full potential."
~
Burt stood watching Jane and her team work on Bilbo. He admired her loving and skilled hands. He could tell she truly loved what she was doing.
"A bit more light, please," Jane requested. She made a small incision in the spot Mia had indicated. The scar tissue would have to be removed so the area could better heal. But first, the task at hand was to find the small piece of metal that had been overlooked.
"Here," her aide said as she angled one of Ted's light discs downward.
There was a brief flash of light, not more than a sparkle. "Pull back the skin." Jane lowered her instrument and latched on to a small piece of irregular steel. It was thick and sharp on one end. She pulled gently and eased it out of position. She brought it close to confirm that it had been extracted in one piece before setting it on the tray. "It's all yours, Mr. Hicks," she said, nodding to her aide who took the shard to the waiting man.