“Do you know what happened?” Matt asked as he entered the den.
“Not for certain, but the computers are all acting as if they’ve been exposed to a serious EMP discharge of some kind,” Tony said. “Just what caused the discharge is unknown, but I doubt that it’s anything Jonas Harper did.”
Finally, a voice of reason. “I agree,” Jorden said. “As much as I neither like nor trust the man, I don’t think that he did this.”
“So then where is he?” Matt questioned.
“Where’s Nigel?” Ana asked from the foyer. “Wasn’t he supposed to be here with Jonas monitoring the cameras?”
Until Ana has mentioned it, Jorden hadn’t noticed that Nigel was absent and a knot formed in the bottom of her stomach.
The mood in the cottage turned from angry and confused to concern for their missing team member. “Pair up and spread out. I want him found now. Hopefully he’ll be able to tell us what happened to our cameras,” Matt barked in his cop tone. “Try to stay out of the structures unless you have reason to believe that either Nigel or Jonas might be in one of them. If you do suspect one or both of them might be in one of the buildings call for an additional team to join you. No fewer than four is to investigate the structures no matter how big or small. Understood?” When he received nods from everyone he looked at all of them in the face, his gaze settling on Ana’s nervous form. “Syd and Ana,” he addressed. “I want the two of you to stay here and search the cottage and remain in case either Jonas or Nigel shows up.”
Ana could not have looked more relieved if she were given a death penalty reprieve and they both nodded.
“All right, let’s go,” Matt said then pulled Jorden out of the living room and onto the porch. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?” he questioned as if she were a suspect in a crime.
Immediately she took on a defensive posture. “Excuse me?”
“You were pretty quiet in there and almost positive that Jonas had nothing to do with what’s going on. I want to know if there’s something you’re not telling me.”
Jorden didn’t appreciate the way Matt snapped at her but she did understand his concerns. Whenever Matt was faced with a stressful situation he often went into cop mode and now was no different. “Isis and I had a serious discussion when we were up at the hospital and I came to a realization that I’m still uncertain I want to discuss without further information.”
“Stop hedging and tell me,” he said with an urgent tone and fire in his brown eyes.
Jorden remained reluctant to discuss this now, but with all that was going on she felt she had no choice and she exhaled a heavy sigh. “Yesterday at the bell tower do you recall the energy burst we were hit with? It was the gust of wind that shot out the arches and knocked all of us to the ground.”
“Yeah, what about it?” he asked with a thick blanket of irritation smothering his tone.
Jorden ignored his brusqueness and continued. “Both Isis and I think that there was more than just wind or a lost soul being carried on the wind. We think that it’s possible that the dark energy that’s been heavy in the bell tower may have found its way out…” she hesitated to go further, especially with Matt’s tolerances already appearing to be stretched, “…into Nigel.”
Matt stared at her with a blank expression. “What?” he questioned.
“I think that Nigel’s possessed,” she said plainly, “by whatever was making Isis and me sick in the bell tower.”
Matt continued to stare at her as if to get her to break down and confess her sins, but what she said was the truth and if Matt couldn’t see that then nothing else she said would change that. So instead of breaking down or trying to explain herself further she simply stared at him and he at her until the front door opened and they were joined by the others.
The tension between them was thick and wasn’t missed by the others when the stepped through the door. And of course Isis being Isis immediately knew what they’d been discussing.
“You told him?” Isis questioned as soon as she stepped up to them. “I thought that we agreed that we would wait until we had more evidence.”
“I think that the situation called for the truth now, not later,” Jorden said, though never once did she take her eyes off of Matt.
As the wind picked up around them, Matt’s expression remained stern though Jorden could see the concern in his eyes.
“What’s going on?” Saph questioned as she pulled her windbreaker tighter around her shoulders.
“There’s a possibility that Nigel might be possessed,” Isis said quickly.
The reaction of the others ranged from everything between disbelief to skepticism to terror. Matt was still on the fence of doubt but Isis’s confirmation pushed him more towards concern. Both Jesse and Saph were also skeptical, and Tony probably feared the possibility more than any of them.
“You had to know that something like this could happen,” Isis said when Jesse scoffed at the idea. “You already believe in ghosts and the various types of hauntings, which include those of non-human entities. And when we say ‘non-human’ we’re not exactly talking about cats and cows.”
“It’s just so fantastic,” Jesse said. “I know that ghosts exist, but with the ability to possess?”
“Ghosts don’t possess,” Tony said. “Demons possess.” He stepped off the porch and looked at the bell tower. “My question is which one.”
“If it’s a demon, and I’m not saying that I believe that it is, but if it is, what does it matter. Don’t we have to have it exorcized by a priest?” Saph questioned. “It’s a process that could take upwards of months, and that’s just in trying to convince the church that he might actually be possessed.”
Matt rolled his eyes and stepped in between them; using his strong form to break them up and move them off the porch. “Before we start worrying about priests and exorcisms, let’s find Nigel and find out what in the hell is going on around here.”
Jesse and Saph headed through the courtyard and the rice fields then down to the dock while Isis and Tony headed for the hospital grounds. That left Matt and Jorden to search the monastery grounds. Of all places, Jorden wouldn’t have chosen the monastery grounds. Of course her experience in the hospital was intense and she still had a headache, but she didn’t feel any true evil when she was there, only anguish and rage. She could feel evil on the monastery grounds, however; in the bell tower and in the cemetery for sure though for all she knew the entire grounds could have been home for the evil presence that now, quite likely, lay within Nigel. More than anything, that one fact alone had her heart racing.
“Miss Mason,” she heard from somewhere off the path near an overgrown thicket of roses. The voice was a scratchy and unrecognizable whisper and she stopped. “Miss Mason, don’t go in there.”
“Did you hear that?” she asked Matt, though Matt was already quite a ways ahead and almost to the bell tower.
Jorden meant to call for him when a gasping drew her attention closer to the thicket. “Miss Mason,” she heard – the whisper more terrified and desperate than before. “Please go back. It’s evil. It holds them here…it holds them all…”
The whisper faded into another gasp.
Jorden pushed into the thicket; only barely aware of the thorns, though after a short distance she could get no further without a great deal more pain and blood spilled…and a machete.
Still, she managed to get just far enough to see something on the ground in a small clearing just beyond the thicket. The scene was somewhat familiar but she couldn’t remember, or at the very least she didn’t want to remember.
At the same time, she couldn’t keep from getting to whatever it was on the ground. What if it was Jonas? What if it was Nigel?
Jorden backed out of the thicket and searched around it until she found a small, travel-worn path that led to the small clearing.
When she reached the clearing the heap was still there and as she grew closer she could see that it was definitely hu
man.
She tensed. The feeling of familiarity was strong and in spite of herself she pushed it back. Clearly she’d answered her own question…she didn’t want to know.
“Are you all right?” she asked as she tentatively approached the heap. “Jonas?” she asked.
There was no sound or movement from the heap and in spite of her shaking hand and racing heart, she reached down to touch it.
The form suddenly bolted to its feet and looked Jorden in the eyes.
Jorden jumped back in horror when she found her student, Eric Ferris, staring back at her with dead, black eyes through a battered and decaying face. “You must leave this place and never come back again! It will consume you all! You must leave now!” he screamed quickly and urgently, and repeating it over and over again.
“Jorden!” Matt yelled and firmly grasped her elbow.
Jorden grew quickly light headed and probably would have fallen had Matt not been quick with his arm around her waist and he pulled her close to him. “What happened?” she asked.
“When I turned around you were just standing there as if you were in a trance of some kind and you were mumbling incoherently,” he explained. “I’ve been trying to snap you out of it for the past five minutes.”
Jorden was confused. She remembered talking but couldn’t remember to whom, and then it clicked. There was a rose thicket.
Immediately Jorden pulled away from Matt and started searching the path for the thicket. “It’s around here somewhere,” she insisted.
Matt stared at her with confusion but followed her anyway and helped her look for the patch of roses and thorns.
When they finally found it, it was hidden behind overgrown shrubs. Had she not had the dream…vision…she never would have realized that it was there. Perhaps that was the plan, because just like her vision, there was a heap in the middle of a clearing and Jorden stopped cold.
“What is it?” Matt asked then sucked in a breath when he saw the heap in the center of the small clearing.
Matt tried to push his way through the thicket before Jorden stopped him. “This way,” she said almost absently, then grabbed his hand and pulled him around to the side where the narrow, worn path wound through the thicket, though once they reached the clearing, she froze. She remembered the boy; his battered face and dead, black eyes.
Matt didn’t hesitate. Before she could even reach out to stop him he was at the body’s side, rolling it over on its back. “Jonas,” he said in near shock.
Jorden wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not. Of course she was happy that it wasn’t Eric who was staring her in the face, but Jonas didn’t look much better than Eric had in her vision. His face was battered and blood caked one side, collecting with it dirt, leaves and twigs.
Matt reached down and felt his neck for a pulse. “He’s alive,” he sighed after a long and tense moment.
Until that moment Jorden hadn’t realized that she had stopped breathing, but she finally sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She then joined Matt at Jonas’s side.
“Jonas,” Matt said and gave his shoulder a firm shake.
Jonas groaned but didn’t say anything, nor did he wake up and it was up to Matt and Jorden to haul him to his feet and drag him back to the cottage.
“How did you know he was here?” Matt asked as he led the way down the narrow path that took them back to the main path. From there it was a relatively easy hike back to the cottage.
Jorden hesitated to answer his question; and to be honest she really wasn’t sure herself. Even now she hesitated to admit that there was some kind of psychic ability – some kind of ESP. But she knew that Isis was right and she didn’t know how Matt would take it.
“Did you have some kind of vision…or did he call out to you psychically?” Matt asked out of the blue.
Jorden stopped and looked at him quizzically. There was no hint of disdain or sarcasm in his tone and he seemed far too calm to have asked that question, especially since his belief in any kind of psychic abilities was negligible if not nonexistent. “I guess you could say that I had a vision,” she finally admitted then continued on. “I saw Eric where we found Jonas. In my vision I thought that it was Jonas until Eric showed me his face,” she said then felt a chill run up her spine. “He warned me again to leave the island and he insisted that I do it now.”
“Again?” Matt questioned. “How many times has he come to you to warn you?”
“Every night since we landed here,” she said then shot him a curious look. “I thought that you didn’t believe in psychic abilities.”
“I thought you said that you had none.”
“Touché. I guess that we were both wrong,” she said then felt a great deal of tension. “Does it upset you? That I might have some kind of ESP?”
Matt didn’t look at her or answer the question. Instead, they reached the cottage and dragged Jonas into the den where they found Syd and Ana. To both Matt and Jorden’s surprise, Syd was working on a laptop with his handheld attached to it. “Where did you get the computer?” Matt questioned.
“My personal laptop,” Syd confirmed. “I’ve had it in my room since we arrived.” His gaze then focused on Jonas. “He looks terrible. Where did you find him?”
“Tucked behind a rose thicket that was tucked behind about a ten foot thick, ten foot high overgrown shrub,” Matt said.
“Yeah?” Ana questioned. “So how did you find him?”
Matt looked at Jorden, who shrugged. The cat was already out of the bag as far as those closest to her were concerned and there was no reason why the others shouldn’t know as well. “Jorden had a vision.”
Ana’s brows shot up and she gave them both an incredulous look while Syd’s expression remained unchanged.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Jorden said to Syd.
His smile grew wide and comforting. “I’ve actually suspected for quite some time, though was fairly certain after we arrived. I’m glad that you’ve finally realized that you have a gift.”
“Gift?” she questioned then exhaled sharply. “Some gift. I see the dead, usually what they looked like at or around the time of death and it isn’t pretty.” She thought of Eric’s battered and decaying face again and shivered. “All things being equal I’d rather be normal.”
“Who said that you weren’t normal?” Syd questioned. “I think that it’s wonderful.”
Jorden couldn’t stop the glance she sent over to Matt then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It is what it is,” she said then gave a tug on Jonas’s arm, which indicated the direction of the sofa in the den and that’s where they laid him down. “So what have you been up to?” she asked as they walked up to the desk.
“I couldn’t wait until we purchased a new computer. I needed to see what was on this camera,” Syd said.
“And what did you find?” she asked.
“Take a look,” Syd offered then vacated his seat at the desk, taking Ana with him.
Jorden sat down at the computer and once Matt took his seat beside her she ran the program.
“Where was this?” Matt asked as he focused on the gray screen.
“The crematorium,” he answered and moved around to stand behind them. “We’d heard some things but couldn’t make heads or tails of them. There were several small animals running about, so we decided to try an EVP session instead. I kept the camera on Ana while she talked and this is what happened during the session and after we left.”
“You left the camera in there overnight?” Matt questioned, though managed to keep his irritation to a minimum.
“I know that you don’t care for that practice, but I think that you’ll understand why once you see this,” Syd said then pushed play.
On the screen, as Ana was talking and asking questions orbs started appearing.
“You left my camera in the crematorium for a couple of orbs?” Matt questioned with an incredulous laugh.
“Just watch,” Syd said – his patients never waning.
More impressive than the orbs and their intensity were the whispers that started to fill the speakers. What they were saying was unclear, but what was clear was that they were definitely whispers and they were definitely not coming from either Ana or Syd.
“Can you make out any of what they’re saying?” Matt asked in a whisper of his own.
“Some, but we can discuss that when this is over,” Syd said briefly.
Like a misty, lethargic tornado the orbs circled Ana as she spoke; coming close but never touching her. Still, their proximity seemed to be enough as she started to slump and eventually she and Syd left.
The orbs followed Syd and Ana until they disappeared out of the crematorium then after a moment they reappeared around the camera. Like with Ana, the orbs swirled about in a gentle vortex while whispers flooded the speakers. They were louder, closer, and words could be discerned, though what they were saying was still unclear. What was clear was that at least three different languages were being spoken, if not more.
Suddenly, as the whispers grew even louder and even more intense, the vortex of orbs closed in on the camera and a brief moment later the camera blinked out.
“How much battery was left?” Jorden asked.
“We should have had enough for an additional two hours,” Ana said evenly, though she looked as though she needed to sit.
Immediately Matt relinquished his chair to the kid.
“Fantastic,” Matt said. “I’ve never seen orb activity like that before. That was definitely more than dust, and the whispering was phenomenal. Were you able to make out any of it?”
“As near as I could tell there were five different languages being spoken; Italian, French, German, Russian and English. There were very few that didn’t overlap but from what I could hear from those that didn’t, they were mostly asking for help.”
“Help?” Ana questioned. “And what kind of help exactly are we supposed to give them?”
Jorden shook her head. “I think that Isis and I need to go in there.”
The Haunting of Isola Forte di Lorenzo Page 26