Five Minutes After Midnight

by A. J. Gallant

  “I can’t take your beads.”

  Stella looked around the living room, think about where she might hang other holy relics. “It’ll provide some protection from the evil spirits. I’ll be back tomorrow to sage the place.”

  “Is that necessary?” She thought about a movie title, Private Eye to the Living and the Dead.

  “Just wait ‘till they’re grabbing your feet while you’re trying to sleep.”

  The Detective shook her head. “Where should I hang them?”

  “Over your bedroom door. Olivia I could use a cappuccino from your fancy coffee machine right now.”

  “Of course, where are my manners! Have a seat.”

  Olivia returned with two cappuccinos, and they sat. “When did you first begin seeing spirits.”

  “Not sure about that. My mother used to say that when I was two, I was always running around trying to catch things that weren’t there, likely chasing orbs.” Stella took a noisy drink.

  “Spirits orbs?”

  “That’s right. Ghosts manifest in different ways, sometimes fairly stable sometimes not. Did you know that intuition is mostly spirits putting thoughts in your head? Not easy to make us listen though because so many either think it's nonsense or just ignore the warnings.”

  Olivia shook her head. “Even though seeing is believing I’m still having a hard time with this stuff.”

  “Olivia, you’ll get used to it. So you don’t remember seeing anything when you were a child?”

  “I don’t want to get used to it. And memories of my childhood is rather vague actually.”

  Aunt Stella laughed. “The door is open and can’t be closed now.”

  “That’s just great.”

  chapter seven

  Maybe it’s a policewoman?

  “You’re a funny guy. May as well head home. I’ll pick her trail in the morning.”

  Aw yeah? Maybe you will and maybe you won’t.

  “Just shut the fuck up.”

  FRED AWOKE AT HALF PAST SIX and looked at the sun shining through his blue curtains, leaving streaks of light across the floor. The dream he had of strangling his father had faded, and soon he wouldn’t be able to remember it at all. The size of the man his father was in contrast to the puny boy that had been beaten, it wasn’t too surprising at how he had turned out.

  Fred cracked his neck from side to side, rubbing his forehead for a time. He reached down and pulled off another one of his toenails, the smallest one this time. “I have that feeling.”

  I wouldn’t be too sure about that.

  Fred again brought up his foot and cleaned the dust from between his toes, he then examined the nails, hooking his fingernail under his middle toenail he ripped that one off too. Fred inspected the nail and then flicked it across the room, taking his sock off the floor he soaked up some of the blood off his toe.

  You’re gonna get your foot infected again.

  “Probably.” Fred used the bathroom and masturbated, took a shower and went down and made scrambled eggs and toast and a cup of green tea.

  Why don’t you have some coffee?

  “Would you fuck off already!” He added salt to the eggs and buttered each piece of bread and played Clash Royale on his tablet as he ate, noting that even a second of distraction would get him killed in the game. Fred checked his CNN app to see what Trump was up to this morning. That fella had a way of aggravating people.

  At half past five, he made his way down to his Cadillac and sat for a minute or two. Fred departed for the Central Park Loop where he was able to find her most mornings. In no hurry to kill her he would wait for the right moment, although he thought that today might be it. The hunt could be as satisfying as the punishment. Emma didn’t seem to work, but these days he considered that she could be working from home on her computer. The world was changing fast.

  Fred parked and made his way down to the bench where he imagined that she would run by and waited. It seemed like it was going to be a beautiful morning though there was a chance of thundershowers in the afternoon. He had dreamt of killing her last night, and it was pleasant enough. Of course, he couldn’t just do her in with people hanging around, he would need to follow her and find out where she lived. It was a little like spy stuff to him.

  She’s seen you a few times now. Do you think she’ll take notice? Maybe even call the cops and have you checked out?

  “She’ll dismiss it as a coincidence,” said Fred. “Especially here. I’m just the ugly one that she tries not to notice.”

  You should have brought some bread that way you could have pretended that you were feeding the pigeons.

  “Good idea for next time, if there is a next time.”

  A couple jogged past, giving Fred a slight glance as he was talking to himself. “It’s not my fault that I’m ugly. No one has the right to look at me like that.”

  You’d think it was easy to follow someone with your car, but it’s not is it?

  “No, it isn’t because you can’t just drive five miles an hour. Here she comes.” Fred waited until she had passed. “And there she goes.”

  Emma began limping, and so she slowed and then stopped. She had felt a bit of a pull yesterday as well. Fred slapped his knee triumphantly. She limped past him heading in the opposite direction as he tried hard not to pay attention.

  She’ll be heading back to her car, and if you’re lucky she won’t go to the hospital.

  “Yes, if she goes home I’ve got her for sure. I can just watch her for a few days. Learn her ways and her schedule.”

  Why would you want to do that?

  Fred got up and commenced following. “I like to see them healthy and happy, knowing that in a couple of days they’ll be in a casket.”

  Emma made her way to her car and Fred was surprised to see that she was only parked two cars behind him. He followed her to 220 East 72nd Street. So now he knew where she lived. Might even be able to peek in her windows at night, maybe she walked around naked. It was a good day for Fred, a splendid day.

  chapter eight

  AT THREE IN THE MORNING a fifteen-year-old Chinese girl stood with a trowel in her hand walking toward the San Gabriel Valley Cemetery in California. She was chewing gum and closely paying attention to her surroundings. Unlike some people, graveyards didn’t give her the creeps. Even so, Daiyu put her hand on the dagger on her side for comfort, it felt colder than it should to the touch, and it was no conventional weapon.

  Daiyu’s name meant black pearl in Chinese. She liked that very much.

  The sound of a jet flying high overhead caught her attention for the briefest moment. It wasn’t easy to get one’s bearings from what she saw in a dream. Daiyu was trying to orient on what she had been shown, but she wasn’t working from a photo, it was from the image in her head. So many of her dreams were vivid these days, laced with spectral information and lessons of what to do and what not to do. One life, furnished with unusual happenings she thought.

  The night was warm as she stared at the stones in the distance, a slight breeze gently moving her hair, seeking the marker that had been revealed to her. Although she wasn’t able to see them, she could smell lilac flowers in the breeze. The dreams had become repetitious and kept her from a sound night’s sleep for weeks now, and so she had risen got dressed and headed for the graveyard. She had also been informed that someone or something might try to stop her and so she was wary.

  “Yuǎnlí huò wǒ huì xuējiǎn nǐ. Stay away bad spirits, or I will cut you.”

  Daiyu felt that the dagger would protect her. She took her time as she examined the area, making certain that there was no movement, no shadows where they shouldn’t be. In her dream, the area had been bathed in sunlight, but now she was in darkness. Technically, she wasn’t directly where the graves were situated, but if she were caught digging here, she imagined the consequences wouldn’t be pleasant. She would tell them that she was burying her pet mouse that had died and they would likely believe a young one.

 
Daiyu sighed as she was already frustrated. She retook some steps to see if that might help her orient better, but it didn’t. Trying to visualize the stone wasn’t easy if only the small area where she was supposed to dig had been highlighted in green like it had been in her dream. She sneezed several times making her giggle, amused that she was allergic to the dead. Lack of sleep could make some things seem funny that weren’t.

  She had lost both her parents when she was only four and had been disciplined harshly by her uncle until her grandfather had taken her. Daiyu had observed spirits dancing around grandpa at night, brightening and altering his aura. Life was a lot more than what it appeared to be on the surface.

  A dove landed on a nearby gate staring at her. “Nǐ hǎo. Hello, shouldn’t you be sleeping?” They observed one another for a time with the girl wondering what it was doing. Had it come to help her? “Don’t most birds sleep at night?”

  The dove began cooing, moving its head up and down. It began sidling across the gate. Was it her imagination or was there a slight glow to the bird? Maybe it really had been sent to help her.

  “If you know where then show me. Can you do that?” Daiyu thought it was worth a try, it was either an ordinary bird, or it wasn’t. Her grandfather had taught her to pay close attention to the world around her.

  As if it understood it flew down on the grass and sang before pecking at the ground.

  “If that is where it is you need to move so that I can dig.” And then she saw it, a humanoid shadow with no one physically there to cast it. She held her dagger in her left hand and the trowel her right. “Stay back, or I will destroy you.”

  The shadow vanished as if it understood the threat and Daiyu was relieved. One spirit had tried to enter her which had frightened her half to death as she had struggled for almost an hour to get rid of it.

  As she approached the dove flew away. Looking around she got down on her hands and knees and started digging. After about five minutes she hit a stone, but once removed she realized that there was nothing special about it, just a rock. Now about a foot deeper, Daiyu wondered how much further she should dig? If there was something special here, she hoped that it wasn’t six feet below ground. The lower she dug, the longer it would take, and that increased the chance that she would get caught.

  At almost the two-foot level Daiyu was having second thoughts about the whole thing, now having a difficult time reaching into the hole to remove the dirt. The bird was back, seemingly nodding and encouraging her to continue. About three inches deeper she again walloped something. Was it another rock? This time it was something that was wrapped in green velvet thought it was mostly covered in soil revealing only a small area of the green color. She wondered what she had discovered, who put it there and why.

  Inside the cloth, she discovered a stone shaped like New York City with the five boroughs; she took out her small flashlight and examined it. Whoever had carved it definitely had talent. Several dots were lit upon it, pinpoints of light. Three red and one white. One of the red vanished and then appeared in a different location.

  Her grandfather told her that her future was in New York City. And her dreams were also showing her in New York, more than a hint that she needed to go there. Daiyu was sure that the dreams would show her its purpose. It would take time to figure this thing out, but at least she had found it.

  chapter nine

  ANITA AND TIMOTHY WERE STANDING OUTSIDE THE SPOTTED PIG restaurant where Emma had been seen jogging in hopes that she would return and if so follow her home. They could then inform the Detective so that she could be saved from an untimely death. Anita still wasn’t used to people walking through her as it was quite startling. She still wasn’t accustomed to being dead though she was getting there.

  Anita and Timothy Anderson were dating in heaven if one could call it that, and she would have never thought such a thing was even possible. He had light brown hair with deep blue eyes and a brown beard, wearing white pants and shirt, and what one wore in heaven was just a matter of thinking it. Tim had received permission to follow Anita down to earth, but he kept fading out as he wasn’t yet anchored very well. He looked naturally muscular, and Anita considered he must have worked out in life. Tim was reminiscent of Joshua Lee Holloway, who had played the character Sawyer from the television series Lost.

  “I’m so glad that you decided to come with me to heaven. A lot nicer than here on Earth isn’t it. See, I told you, heaven is not so scary.”

  Tim smiled. “It wasn’t heaven that I was worried about, it was going to the other place.”

  “Well, you didn’t kill that person deliberately, it was an accident.” Anita thought that it was peculiar how accidentally killing someone could destroy a person and yet with others they could kill indiscriminately.

  He looked to his right and saw a woman jogging towards them.

  That got Anita’s attention. “I think that might be her.”

  Anita and Tim began to follow her, suddenly they were stopped and weren’t able to move forward. And just as Emma passed two evil spirits materialized. They were grotesque things in basic human form, their ugly faces continuing to morph and change, and one even had horns or bumps that looked like horns. It was the scariest thing that either one of them ever seen.

  “Do not even takessss one more sssstep!” said one. The monster had a forked tongue.

  “We have the power to take you both to hell where you will never get out!” screamed the other.

  True or not that really scared Anita. Even the thought of not getting back to heaven was almost more than she could endure. It was so wonderful that there were really no words that could describe it, just being in God’s presence.

  “You have no power over us,” Tim insisted. But he became aware that he wasn’t able to move, nor was Anita. Their feet were fixed in place like cement boots too heavy to lift. This wasn’t playing fair at all, and she thought there should be some divine intervention.

  Anita struggled as she had never before. If they can stop us from running, maybe they can take us to hell? Surely God wouldn’t allow it, would he? They were so hideous that Anita could barely stand to look at them, but she forced with all her might as she had done to move objects in the world of the living. Breaking free, she actually pushed one of them. He appeared surprised that she was able to accomplish it, and abruptly their bond with this world was severed, and both vanished.

  But it was too late as Emma was now out of sight, and when they continued to search for her, it became so foggy that they weren’t able to see anything, continued interference from the dark side of that Anita was sure. As it cleared the search was on but, unfortunately, they weren’t able to find Emma.

  Olivia was driving past the Christ Hospital on Palisade Avenue when she was forced to slam on her brakes as some fool was standing in the middle of the road wearing an old fashion police uniform, with an overcoat and a high hat. The car behind her screeched to a halt, narrowly avoiding hitting her bumper as she got out of the car to approach the idiot. New York has more than its share of morons. Is this fool trying to get himself killed?

  The Detective flashed her badge, and the guy ignored it. She was considering taking this guy in for psychiatric evaluation. The man mouthed something, but Olivia couldn’t quite make it out. Was he mute? And then he faded away.

  “Oh fuck! I’m breaking for ghosts now! That’s just fucking great.” She got in her car and peeled away. Olivia shook her head at the thought of a bumper sticker that said I break for ghosts.

  Anita and Tim appeared in her back seat and as Anita spoke she almost gave the detective a heart attack. “Anita, are you trying to kill me? I’m driving here I’d appreciate a little warning. I just slammed on my brakes for a ghost, could have caused a serious accident. God, why did you have to pick me for this craziness?”

  “We just saw Emma, we weren’t able to follow her because of two evil spirits, but again she ran past the Spotted Pig.”

  Olivia nodded. “That is good ne
ws. I should be able to catch up to her tomorrow if Emma jogs by there every day. How can one ghost stop another from doing anything?”

  “I have no idea,” said Tim.

  “They’re from the dark side, demons I think?” Anita added.

  The Detective shook her head. Evil spirits, good God! Maybe Aunt Stella has the right idea with all those blessed crosses. If I were smart, I would just take off and never look back, but I guess that wouldn’t do any good because those things could follow me anywhere.

  chapter ten

  EMMA SAT UP IN BED and immediately felt strange as if she had been drugged or something. Things looked off kilter, and although she couldn’t put her finger on it something was wrong. Were colors muted as well? Emma’s ankle no longer hurt, neither did her right knee at least that was something.

  “Wow, I feel different?” Emma spoke, but there didn’t appear to be any sound. Now that was weird, and it was so hard to concentrate on anything. It felt as if gravity no longer existed. Had she somehow been drugged? “I must be dreaming.”

  Emma went to her window and looked out, but wasn’t able to move the lace curtains out of the way. “I am dreaming. Never had a dream like this before.” I wonder if I can wake myself up? This is too weird.

  In the washroom, she tried to sit on the commode but couldn’t quite manage it, in any manner Emma didn’t need to use it. Now that was really odd, her reflection in the mirror was so faint that it was barely perceptible. And she felt so weightless that it appeared she was floating. An attempt to grab onto the wall was useless, and she found herself falling through it.

  In the living room, Emma was trying to grasp what she was looking at, it looked like some woman was lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut open. That can’t be me? The woman’s eyes were exposed as Emma realized that she would never blink again. “I’m in some kind of nightmare; I shouldn’t have eaten that pizza last night.”