Sand Trap (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Mike chimed in, “She draws power from the fixtures and lights. What if she can’t recharge? Can we control this? Breakers, anything?”

  Ted nodded quickly, held up his hand and went over to the phone to consult with the service team of the museum.

  Whit put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around. “Don’t worry so much. Have a little faith.”

  Mia winced. “The problem is we are making this up as we go along. Sure, I trust Ted’s gadgets, Burt’s and Mike’s knowledge, but I have no faith in the universe. After all, it made me a freak, Murphy a ghost, and Dr. Tan a barbecue.”

  “Would it be so bad if we let this thing continue to exist?” he asked softly.

  “She’d kill again, either by accident or on purpose. She could move from the museum to out there and…”

  “Then let me do it. This way I can call it evens with the PEEPs. And if I don’t make it, I want to be buried with Murphy.”

  “I think your ma may take exception to that,” Mia said dryly.

  Ted returned and smiled. “I can connect the PEEPs computer with the powerhouse controls. Some dude is making me a copy of the schematics as we speak.” Ted looked at Mia and smiled. “You look all grow’d up. I likes the ghosties in your hair.”

  “Ralph’s contribution to my wardrobe.”

  “Does your underwear have a guy’s name in it?”

  “Nope, lucky you,” Mia said and walked off to take another look at the trap.

  Whit looked at Ted, puzzled. Was he a rival?

  Mike approached Whit, “It beats the hell out of me, but women just love the ass enough to fight over him.”

  “He’s oblivious to it I bet,” Whit speculated.

  “No, he knows. He just isn’t interested. Unless it has dials and a multicore processor, he doesn’t have time for it.”

  Ted smiled as he typed code into the computer. He wasn’t oblivious nor was he not interested. He just knew better than to mix business with pleasure. He also was learning the hard way to keep his mouth shut.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  The museum was still as still could be. The guards were asked to monitor other areas of the museum. A few had been recruited to move the trap into position. It was placed just outside of the entrance to the Ancient American exhibit. Mia would have to attract Courtney, wherever she was found, and have her follow or chase her into the trap. It meant that Mia could have to go through the scarier parts of the museum, starting with the North American Indian exhibit.

  Mia stood studying the materials about Courtney. She memorized her photo and the photos of Masson and her sister. She didn’t like deceiving the woman, but she couldn’t have her wise to the plan. They had to trap her.

  Clara Geffen was cleaning glass, moving from exhibit to exhibit, trying to draw out the lady in the glass. Even though she was frightened, she found that she had missed cleaning the glass. She didn’t understand the lousy way most of the other workers treated the displays. The amount of smudges that were left after the cleaning crew came through disappointed Clara. The other cleaners didn’t have the pride she had in her work. She misted and then wiped with large circular motions, polishing the panes, doors, windows, panels and anything made of glass.

  Ted had outfitted her with an earpiece microphone, and periodically he kept her company with his voice. She needed to be relaxed. Nothing must give them away. This trap may not work, but they had to try. Just today, there had been several instances of mirrors breaking in various labs and bathrooms. Courtney was losing patience and wanted out.

  Clara had just finished with the inside windows of the main store when she felt as if she was being watched. A dark mist moved over from the outside doors to the first glass display case. “Theodore, I see her, she is with me.”

  “Hold on, Clara, Mia is coming. You won’t be able to see her, but she will be there soon.” He opened the universal channel. “Smoke has been spotted in the main store. Mia, time to have a walk-about.”

  Mia lay down on Bernard’s couch and pulled the cashmere blanket around her body. She didn’t want to become chilled while she was away from her body. She lay back, closed her eyes and moved quickly up and out of her body. She had taken the time to practice and knew the quickest route to take. She bled down through the floor. When she hit the pavement of the ground floor she took off running. In OOB time this took several minutes. To Clara it was only seconds.

  Mia saw Clara and moved around her. Clara was pointing to the case that held the Egyptian jewelry. Mia walked up to it. She morphed into her Masson persona being careful to keep her back from the glass. She only had a picture of the front of him, so a complete impersonation was impossible. Mia was Brent Masson in the front but Whitney Martin in the rear.

  Courtney was amused by the cleaner, the one who she had scared so thoroughly before. She didn’t see the man approach until he was in front of her. She could not believe her eyes, Brent? Brent Masson! He stared into the glass unimpressed. His features were still, almost like a photograph. Maybe he doesn’t see me, Courtney thought. She drew energy from the lights in the case and formed a full image of herself, white bikini and all.

  “The glass lady, she’s looking at something and wearing a bathing costume,” Clara reported.

  “Mia’s there now. As soon as they move off, get out of there and to Bernard’s office for safety.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Mia watched the woman form. She forced her persona to smile before walking off.

  Courtney was appalled and followed, jumping from the case to the glass table, to another case, and to the door that Brent had just exited.

  The Native American exhibit had display cases running along the wall plus two sets in the middle of the exhibit hall. Courtney wound around and caught up to Mia from behind. Mia spun around. Courtney stood in front on her and growled. Figuring she must have spotted the deception Mia let her persona drop back into her hoodie and cargo-panted form. She smiled at Courtney and said, “Come and get me, Bitch!” The glass-fronted display vibrated and shook until the glass burst, sending shards flying in every direction.

  Mia, impervious in her bilocated form, laughed. “Is that the best you can do?” She started walking towards the Arctic Peoples. She moved slowly, mindful that Courtney had to build energy to follow after her outburst.

  “I heard the glass break in the Indian place,” Clara said, moving swiftly out of the main store and into the safety of the Stanly Field Hall.

  “We got them on the cameras. They are moving towards the trap. Guys, heads up. Mia’s time is faster than yours.” Ted watched the video feeds from PEEPs and the security cameras. He would call a play by play of what was happening to all.

  Mia moved slowly, taking time to glance at the giant totems. She was wary of Courtney behind her but also of what could be waiting for her as she moved closer to the Ancient Peoples.

  “How dare you call me a bitch,” a woman’s voice echoed through the hall.

  Mia turned to see Courtney move through the display to her right. She walked in human form, only wavering as she crossed out of the display into the next one. She stopped and started to go back.

  “Don’t you want to know what happened to your boyfriend?” Mia taunted.

  “Brent? My Brent.”

  “Don’t you mean your sister’s Brent?”

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  Mia moved faster. Courtney followed.

  She turned the corner and walked straight into a nightmare. Four men, each wearing a headdress depicting a god, stood in front of her, blocking her way. They were armed with spears topped with obsidian, the black volcanic glass shining in the dim light.

  “I see you’ve met the boys. I call them Larry, Moe, Curly and Eric,” Courtney said from the security of her glass case. “They think I’m a god. The Smoke Goddess. I think it’s time for you to pay for bothering me.”

  Mia watched as Courtney arched out of the case and across their spears of glass and into the disp
lay on the opposite side. The men moved forward. Mia remembered her fight with Sire on the island. Sometimes small is better. She changed her form into a mouse and ran between the quartet of evil’s legs. She morphed out of the mouse form and took off running.

  Shadow forms reached out of the glass cases for her. One had a strong enough grip to spin her around. She fell, and before she could get up, the evil four caught up to her. With Courtney cheering them on, they each took a limb and carried Mia to a wall and pinned her to it by piercing her with their spears. Mia felt no pain, but knew the worst was yet to come. Mia tried to morph, but the more she struggled, the more she looked like the flesh and blood woman she saw every day in the mirror after her shower. She feared that her struggles and naked human persona excited one of the demon men. He kept touching himself.

  Courtney once again moved from spear to spear, her electricity weakening Mia’s persona. Mia had no fight left in her. How long would her body last after her soul died? She wondered, would they bury her next to Murphy or with Grandma Fred?

  The pervert demon moved towards her. He unlatched his grass skirt and displayed himself to her.

  She started laughing. She thought that if it caused human males to shrink, maybe it would work on this would-be rapist. It did. He was pissed. Mia pushed outward with her mind, looking for power. She heard something faint in the distance. A shuffling. Oh great, the mummies were headed here too. Let’s all get together for a gang bang, courtesy of Courtney Fairchild the Smoke Goddess. A memory came to her. Didn’t the embalmers remove the male’s genitals. That’ right! They keep their penises in jars. She let the absurdity of mummies walking around with their cocks in jars fuel her mirth. She continued to laugh.

  Courtney was moving among the demon-headed men whispering. Another man stepped up and removed his clothing. He had the head of a snake with genitalia to match. Mia wasn’t found of snakes. She screamed. This excited him. He moved towards her.

  CRACK!

  The snake man’s penis was on the ground.

  CRACK!

  So was his head.

  The other men attacked Murphy, but he was armed with an axe, and they had used their spears to subdue Mia.

  He worked methodically, hewing them like young sapwoods. They lay in pieces on the floor.

  “Bastards!” Murphy swore when he examined what they had done to Mia.

  “You swore,” Mia accused. Tears were running down her face.

  Murphy took a moment and looked for his handkerchief.

  “Um, no arms here.”

  “Cowardly vermin,” Murphy cursed as he pulled the first spear out of Mia’s leg. He snapped the obsidian blade off the wood handle and tossed it. He worked clockwise, and when the last spear was withdrawn from her arm, he carried her away from the quivering mass that was trying to reform. She drew some energy from Murphy and morphed clothes upon her body. Murphy pulled her close and let her take more of his power.

  She looked over his shoulder and saw Courtney morph into smoke and take off after them.

  “We have bursting glass. She’s heading your way, guys, heads up,” Ted said. He’d been sweating out the minutes of non-activity.

  Murphy put her down and motioned for her to run for it. He would slow the Smoke Goddess’s minions down. He assured her that he had help arriving any minute. She touched his face and told him to be careful before turning and running.

  He raised his axe.

  Courtney blew past him and was on Mia’s heels.

  Mia sprinted for the exit and Courtney, in a blind rage, didn’t notice the failure of the lights to go on around her or the fact that they hadn’t for some time. Her energy was depleting. She slowed down but saw that she was almost in reach of Mia who had stopped and turned to face her attacker.

  Courtney vaulted out of the last case, the air crackling around her, towards the empty, segmented case Mia was standing near.

  Burt saw the arc of electricity and slammed a panel of plastic against the last display case.

  Courtney moved through the case and jumped again into the one the foolish girl was resting her hand on. BAM! She hit hard and rebounded, swirling in confusion. That wasn’t glass!

  Whit and Mike pushed the other panels of plastic glass into place.

  Courtney sparked and pushed but could not find any glass to either side of her. She panicked as her power was being sucked from her. She smiled. Fools, she thought there was something on the bottom of the display. Something round and GLASS! She shot into it and swirled, filling the bottle with thick smoke.

  Whit slid the panel to the side and quickly pressed a stopper into the hot bottle, and left it resting in a pile of yellow dolomite. He closed the panel.

  “We have containment,” Mike reported.

  Mia heard claps and cheers from all over the museum.

  “Mia, are you alright?” Whit called.

  She moved to his side and whispered in his ear with deliberate slowness, “I’m fine.”

  He touched the tickle on the side of his face and knew it was Mia. “Thank God.”

  They weren’t finished yet, but they had a hell of a start. The men started to move the trap back to the lab. Their movements were painfully slow for Mia to watch.

  She went back into the exhibit to look for Murphy. She found him standing guard along with a desiccated thing Mia assumed had traveled from the Haitian exhibit. She nodded thanks to the entity and watched as it shuffled back from where it came.

  “All you could find to help you was a zombie?”

  “Nice enough fella. Didn’t talk much.”

  “You probably loved that part. Thanks, Murphy. Mia moved to him and kissed him. He felt solid to her as she to him. But because of their different states of being each felt nothing more than they would if they were kissing a rock. No sparks of life would pass from one to the other. Mia sighed sadly.

  But the sentiment was there, causing Murphy to smile.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” she warned him.

  “What do you think we ought to do about those randy fellows back there?” Murphy asked her.

  “Can’t kill them, they’re already dead.”

  “Lordy, that’s a bit of a problem. Maybe you should steer clear of that place.”

  “I intend to.” Mia linked her arm in Murphy’s. She morphed into a dress from Murphy’s period. “Walk me back to my body?”

  “It’ll be a pleasure, ma’am.” They walked a bit, and Murphy pulled her into him and kissed her hard. “You sure you don’t want to go down to the period pieces and check out that feather bed I saw across the way?”

  “Why, Stephen Murphy, you old pervert. What would your mother say?”

  “Too much. She always talked too much.”

  “I think, Murph, I’ve seen too many penises today.”

  Murphy chuckled and released her from his arms. “Remember, I’m here for you.”

  “Thank you, Murph. It’s nice to know, but no.”

  They arrived at Bernard’s office and moved through the wall. Clara was busy shining the glass top of Bernard’s desk. Mia stood a moment looking down at herself. “I have to get a new hairdo.”

  “Looks fine to me,” Murphy said and left.

  Mia moved into her body and slept.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  They stood watching the bottle in the dark room. The exit sign and light from the hallway were the only illumination. Whit had gone to find out what happened to Mia and Clara. Bernard and the PEEPs team contemplated what to do with their prize.

  Burt thought that maybe Mia should have a say.

  “I have a feeling she would tell us to blow it up,” Ted guessed.

  “I wonder what happened to slow her down,” Mike asked. “I mean she had Murphy with her, I heard the whacks of the axe.”

  “The security guys found holes in the plasterboard,” Ted said as he spread his body in an X shape. He waited until they got the message before continuing, “And four missing obsidian spear heads were found in s
mashed displays in the Northwest and Ancient Americas halls,” Ted informed them.

  Bernard looked at Ted and asked, “Was this the general area that she went unconscious in two nights ago?”

  He nodded.

  “And you, I mean we,” he corrected,” sent her back in there?” Bernard questioned.

  He nodded again.

  Bernard sighed.

  “What happened two nights ago?” Burt asked concerned. “Why weren’t Mike and I made aware of a problem?”

  “Mia didn’t want to talk about it,” Ted said defensively.

  “It’s your job as team leader to make her talk,” Burt snapped.

  “It’s not his fault. Mia can be closed-mouthed like this. She had an episode there, not specifically there - the museum has changed. But it was around those relics of the heads of gods when she was a child. She ran screaming out of there. Charles, her father, didn’t want her to grow up afraid of bumps in the night. He made her go back again and again. She got to the point where she didn’t scream anymore.”

  “Bastard,” Burt said under his breath. “I’m sure she continued to see the evil and was frightened but learned not to scream. Did he know about her gifts?”

  “I’m not really sure. You would think so considering his sister and mother showed their gifts early in life.”

  “How did you meet the Coopers?” Mike asked.

  “Her mother Amanda and I were paired up for a paper on something or another when I was doing postgrad work at the University of Chicago, I don’t really remember the paper. She introduced me to Charles at some party we were invited to. Everyone could see that they were devoted. No. That’s not right. He was devoted to her. Amanda is a cold woman, only interested in her work and publishing papers. He’s got a sense of humor, and when he isn’t around her, he’s stuffy but tolerable.”

  “I’m surprised you and Ralph were friends with them, they sound like dreary academics,” Mike pointed out.

  “Ralph fell in love with Mia on first sight. She was playing with her invisible friend…”