“Once we know that, how will we keep someone from having a nightmare?” Robert asked. Johann gave him a somber look.
“That’s another very bad thing about these creatures. You have to understand how powerful they are.”
Belinda cocked her head to one side and knitted her brow. “How powerful are they?”
Johann looked at her. “Very powerful. They don’t have to be in only one place at a time.” Belinda looked at him. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she understood the meaning of what he was telling her.
“That’s right. It can attack in multiple places at the same time,” Johann said.
“My god. It can attack the whole town at one time?” Robert slowly asked. Johann turned to him.
“That’s right. It can. We need to make sure it doesn’t.”
“How we gonna do that?” asked Robert.
“I don’t know, yet. But we have to figure it out, and we have to figure it out fast. Malphas said a war was coming. You can bet that means that bastard’s going to make this as hard as possible.”
“Does this mean we can’t go to sleep?” asked Belinda. Her mouth was dry as she wrinkled her brow and bit her lip. Johann looked at her. He couldn’t help but feel the terror in her pleading expression.
“No, but wee need to stay as sharp as we can. And, what it does mean is that until we get more info, we need to make sure we have as many religious things around us as we possibly can. Especially crucifixes. If you have one, make sure you hang it up above your bed. If you don’t have one, then we need to get one. If you have one you can wear, that would be even better.”
“Wear?” David asked. Johann turned to him.
“Yeah. Like on a chain or something.”
David looked at him with a blank expression. It was obvious what Johann meant, and David couldn’t believe that he didn’t get it. He covered his face with his hand. “Duh. Can’t believe I didn’t get that,” he said.
Belinda looked at her watch and raised her eyebrows. Her adrenaline surged through her body when she realized she and David needed to leave. They were supposed to cover the official inauguration of the new mayor today, and they were now running late.
“Oh my god. We have to go. Dave, get the camera.” As David all but ran to the camera and picked it up, Johann and Robert watched them with confused expressions on their faces.
“Where ya goin’?” Johann asked.
“We have to cover the inauguration of the new mayor. It’s across town, and we need to get there. We’re already running a little late,” explained Belinda as she grabbed her coat and purse.
“I thought he was sworn in last night?” said Johann.
“He was. But that was just an emergency action. The ceremony today is the actual swearing in with the Bible and all that,” answered Belinda.
“What about interviewing those two kids?” asked Johann. Belinda stopped at the door and looked at him.
“Since this is an official function, chances are good that they will be at the inauguration. We’ll have to find a way to talk to them there. That should work out fine.”
“No, it won’t. The last place I want to talk to them is there. I really want to see the inside of the house again. Especially her bedroom. You guys go cover the inauguration. Bob and I will figure out something,” Johann said. He turned and looked at Robert. “Won’t we, Bob?”
Robert raised his eyebrows and gave Johann a half-smile. He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but it gave him a bad feeling.
-6-
While Belinda and David were covering the inauguration of the new mayor, Johann and Robert decided they would check out the mayor’s house. Along the way, they stopped at a small clothing store. When they emerged a short while later, they looked very official in their black suits and ties.
They got back in the Mustang, and Robert looked over at Johann with his eyebrows arched.
“So, tell me again why we’re dressed like this?” Robert asked. Johann looked over at him.
“We are two agents with the United States Secret Service, my friend.”
“Uh, don’t we need those little badges they wear on their lapels, and those doodads they wear in their ears?” Robert asked, looking down at his suit jacket and pointing to his ear.
“Open the glove compartment,” Johann said. Robert opened the glove box and looked over at Johann.
“Okay. It’s open.”
“Take out that manila envelope and open it carefully.”
Robert removed the manila envelope and opened it very carefully. Inside, there were several different badges including three that looked like the badges the Secret Service agents wear. Robert shook his head and smiled when he saw this. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Johann, feigning suspicion.
“Who are you, really?”
“Ya like that, huh? Always be prepared. Take one of those small badges and put it on. Hand one to me. We’ll also need those two earbuds. They’ll look like the earpieces those guys wear.”
Robert attached his badge to his lapel and put the earbud in his ear. He looked over at Johann for his approval. Johann looked at him and smiled.
“You look just like a Secret Service guy. The only thing that’s out of place is our mustaches. The Secret Service is usually clean-shaven. I don’t think these local yocals will have any idea about the government protocols, though.”
“What makes you think they’re gonna let us in?”
“Just let me do the talking. They’ll let us in. They’ll be too scared not to.”
“Alright. You da boss,” Robert said.
A short while later they pulled up in front of the mayor’s house. There were several police cars there, and Johann parked behind the longest line so he wouldn’t draw any attention to the fact that they were in a 1970 Mustang. He and Robert walked up to the police officer at the door. Johann opened his wallet and held it up, so the officer could see his fake ID.
“I’m Special Agent Kirk. He’s Special Agent Picard. We’re from the United States Secret Service. We need to take a look inside this house for national security purposes, Officer,” Johann said as he closed his wallet and placed it back in his pocket. The officer looked at him and knitted his brow.
“National security? She was the mayor, not the president. What are you guys doing here?”
Johann looked at Robert, then back to the officer. He put the most serious face on that he could muster.
“Officer, she may have been your mayor, but the president was considering her for a post on his cabinet. Was your department not made aware of this? If you don’t allow us to enter this house, we’ll be forced to report this breach of protocol to DHS. You don’t want them on your ass, do you? If they get involved who knows what may happen. You could end up with checkpoints on all the roads into the town. People will be stopped and checked like they’re getting on to an airliner. You don’t want that, do you? People will be very unhappy when they find out that your police force didn’t want to cooperate with the government’s investigation of their mayor’s possible murder. That smells like a cover-up to me. Now I suggest you do the right thing for your town, its citizens, and your police force. Move aside and let us in.”
“But, national security? What could her death—” the officer started.
“Alright. If you don’t want to cooperate,” Johann interrupted, holding his hands up. He turned like he was going to leave. The policeman’s eyes were wide as he quickly thought for a moment.
“No, wait,” he said, quickly reaching out to stop Johann from leaving. Johann turned and looked at the officer, then at the officer’s hand on his arm, and back to the officer. The policeman quickly removed his hand from Johann’s arm. “I’m sure if you guys are from the Secret Service, it would be okay for you to come in. It’s just that none of us were aware the president wanted her for his cabinet.”
“Well maybe you just didn’t get that memo,” Johann said as he walked past the officer into the house. The officer forced a smile as the
two demon hunters walked by him.
“Special Agent Picard? You could have picked someone with a little more hair, Johann,” Robert whispered after they were out of earshot of the officer.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re in,” Johann answered.
They walked up the stairs without stopping to talk with any other officers. The officer at the door watched them and turned to the detective who had just walked up next to him.
“Who are those guys?” the detective asked, watching Johann and Robert carefully.
“Secret Service,” answered the officer who was also watching them. The detective looked at him and furrowed his brow.
“Secret Service?”
“I guess they really are Secret Service. They knew where to go, and no one told them,” the policeman said.
“I guess,” the detective said.
The officer guarding the door keyed the mic on his shoulder and reported to all the officers that the Secret Service was in the house, and they were to have full access. Johann fought hard not to smile when he heard the announcement on the police radios. He looked at Robert, who raised the corner of his mouth.
As they approached the door to the deceased mayor’s bedroom, the officer guarding the door moved aside and opened it for them.
“Thank you,” Johann said. He and Robert entered the room.
They walked in and closed the door behind them. The first impression was that it was very cold in the room. Much colder, in fact, than the rest of the house. Robert’s heart rate increased as he recognized the room from his vision. It was exactly the same, down to the last detail.
“It was real. This was the room Malphas showed me,” Robert said.
“I have no doubt it was real, Bob.”
The room was sparsely furnished. It contained a bed, which was still the way it was when the mayor got out of it for the final time, a dresser, and two end tables with lamps. The walls were beige, and the ceiling was flat white. The tile floor was also white.
Near the window was a white marble fireplace. All the fireplace tools were still in disarray from the mayor falling on them. Even though the body was long gone, the cleaning company had not yet come to clean up the scene. All the blood was still there. The pieces of brain tissue were gone, so the smell was not as bad as it could have been. Johann and Robert covered their noses with handkerchiefs.
“Bob, where was that thing on the ceiling?”
“Right there,” Robert said, pointing to the ceiling above the bed. “And, it was looking at her laying in the fireplace, and laughing.” He shuddered at the memory of the vision.
Johann looked up at the ceiling and noticed some kind of mark. He cocked his head to the side as he looked at it.
“Hello, what have we got here?” Johann said as he approached the bed.
He stood on the bed and reached up to the ceiling. He could see the mark appeared to be powder. He had to stand on his tiptoes to reach the stain, and he just barely made it. He picked some off the ceiling and smelled it. He grimaced and quickly pulled his fingers away from his nose.
“Sulphur,” Johann said as he got off the bed. “Whatever you saw was there, alright.” He looked around the room to see what was on the walls.
“Notice anything a little strange here?” he asked. Robert looked around the room. Remembering what Johann had said earlier about needing religious articles, he knew exactly what Johann was getting at.
“Yeah. No crosses or anything,” Robert answered.
“Bingo. No crosses, or anything else religious for that matter. I think the mayor was easy pickin’ for that bastard Malphas.”
“I think you’re right,” Robert agreed, scratching the back of his neck. The two walked over to the fireplace. Johann examined the area, being careful not to disturb anything.
“Didn’t you say you saw a ton of spiders or something?”
“Yeah. They were all going after the mayor.”
“I don’t see any dead spiders here, do you?” Johann asked. Robert frowned as he looked at the floor. It sounded to him like Johann was calling him a liar and he didn’t like that much. He looked at Johann with his brow furrowed.
“You think I’m lying?” Robert asked.
“No. Not at all. I’m sure you did see ‘em. I’m sure the mayor saw ‘em too. The only thing is they weren’t real. What you and the mayor both saw was just an illusion. Put there by the host of the party—Malphas.” He looked at Robert. “All it means is that we have to question everything we see when it comes to stuff like that. Stay on guard. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I’m glad you saw what you did.”
Robert looked at Johann with a quizzical expression on his face. Why on earth would his friend be happy that he saw something so gruesome and foul as the mayor’s death? Was he a sadist or something? Johann could see from his friend’s expression that he wasn’t very happy with what he had just heard.
“What I mean is that you need to experience this stuff. You need to become more hardened, and the only way for that to happen is for you to see this stuff. Ask yourself this—when you saw it, what did you want to do?”
Robert considered this carefully before he answered. “I wanted to tear that son of a bitch to pieces,” he answered. Johann smiled and pat Robert on the shoulder. “That’s my boy,” Johann said. “I’ll make a true demon hunter out of you, yet.”
“You look in the dresser, I’ll check out the closet,” Johann instructed. Robert nodded and walked over to the dresser. He opened the top drawer and started rifling through it.
“What am I looking for? Anything in particular?” asked Robert.
“Anything that looks weird or out of place,” answered Johann as he turned and started searching in the closet. They both searched in silence for a few moments, examining everything they came across.
Robert noticed a jewelry box stashed under some clothing. He took it out and opened it up. He knitted his brow when he noticed that most of the jewelry was made from only two gems.
“Wow. She really liked cat’s eye. Sapphire was a close second,” Robert said.
Johann looked up and raised his eyebrows. He abruptly stopped what he was doing and turned to his friend. His heart rate stepped up a notch when he digested what Robert had just said.
“Did you say cat’s eye and sapphire?” Johann asked.
“Yeah. Almost everything in this jewelry box is made with either cat’s eye or sapphire. Not much more of anything. As a matter of fact, that’s all that everything is made of. She must have loved the stuff.”
Johann walked over to Robert and looked into the jewelry box. He lifted up a cat’s eye cross on a chain and looked at it carefully.
“Maybe she had a good reason,” he said. Robert knitted his brow and looked at Johann.
“Good reason? You think there’s a reason why all her jewelry was made from this?”
“I sure do,” Johann said as he placed the stone crucifix back in the box and turned to Robert. “Cat’s eye and sapphire are both used to ward off evil spirits. I think it’s more than just a coincidence that all her jewelry was made from these two stones. I think we need to dig a little deeper.”
Robert went back to searching the dresser and Johann returned to the closet. He was pushing clothing to the side when he noticed a small bundle on the floor in the corner of the closet. At first glance it looked like a sachet, but his experience told him otherwise.
“Ah-ha,” he proclaimed as he picked up the small, partially burned bundle. Robert turned and looked at him.
“What is it? Did you find something?” Robert asked as he walked over to Johann.
“Yep. Sure did,” answered Johann. He looked at the bundle and saw that it was dry plants. He passed them under his nose. “Just what I thought—sage.”
“Sage?”
“Yep. Sage. This woman was being plagued by evil spirits, and she knew it. Sage is used for cleansing a house of evil spirits. I’ll bet anything that was why her window was open on a night when storms
were expected. She knew there was something evil here, and she was trying to get rid of it.”
“What would her window have to do with it?”
“The belief is that if you’re cleansing your home of evil spirits, you leave a window open for them to escape through,” Johann explained.
Robert looked at the dresser he was searching, then back to Johann. He knitted his brow and cocked his head to one side.
“If she had all this stuff to get rid of evil spirits; cat’s eye, sapphire, sage, and an open window, then how did this thing get to her? Shouldn’t all of this stuff have stopped it?”
Johann stroked his mustache while he thought.
“I dunno. Any one of those things should have stopped it. I don’t know why nothing worked. Maybe because she was dealing with Malphas. He’s not just an evil spirit. Could be almost anything. Maybe she wasn’t strong enough. Maybe someone close to her didn’t want her to succeed.”
Robert’s eyes widened.
“You mean one of her kids?” he asked. The kids seemed genuinely disturbed about their mother’s death. Robert had a hard time believing one of them may be responsible. Johann looked at him.
“Maybe. Or maybe someone else who is close to her. A member of her staff, or—” he trailed off as he started thinking again.
“The vice mayor,” Robert finished Johann’s thought. Johann twisted up the corner of his mouth.
“It’s definitely a possibility. Remember, Becky did say he was malevolent. I’d really like to talk to her again and see if I can get her to elaborate on that. I don’t buy the son’s explanation that everyone thinks that guy’s wicked because he’s a newcomer.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Johann noticed something laying on one of the night tables near the bed. He walked over and looked down at it. There were two books. A large one, and a small one. Robert walked over and stood next to him.
“Interesting,” Johann murmured as he noticed the large one was a book on deciphering dreams. “What Does My Dream Mean?” he said, reading the title of the book out loud. He looked at the second, smaller book.
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