The Invocation

by Carl Alves

  Everyone followed Kenna to the basement. Jake hoped Mia could provide insight on how to stop Cotter. They could use some help from beyond the grave.

  ***

  Despite the utter despair she had felt earlier, once the Ouija board was in Kenna’s hands, her anxiety left. Perhaps it was just in her head, but she could feel something of Mia just by touching the board. It was like wearing a comfortable pair of shoes. It felt right.

  She remembered the first time they reached Mia. Kenna didn’t think it would work. Sure, they were playing it up like they were going to talk to a ghost, and Cordy was acting all scared with her eyes wide and her overreactions, but even Cordy didn’t think they could truly make contact with a spirit.

  She reflected back to that first encounter. She vividly remembered seeing Cotter’s scary red eyes. It had scared her silly, overshadowing the fact that they had spoken to a person who had lived and died long before any of them had been born. Mia had her own problems and concerns, not to mention memories of the life she had. All Kenna wanted to do was to give her some happiness.

  So much had happened since then. It seemed like they first took out the board a lifetime ago.

  Kenna set down the board and took a deep breath. After taking her normal place at one side of the board, she eyed Ben. “Are you ready?”

  “Sure. What can go wrong?” Ben grinned.

  Kenna couldn’t help but smile. She wouldn’t be able to cope with all of this without Ben.

  Kenna glanced at June, who was clutching Jake’s arm. If this was bringing them closer together, then at least something good would come from this.

  She and Ben put their hands on the planchette simultaneously. During the first rotation, before either of them spoke, Kenna felt a tugging on the planchette. She looked up at Ben, who nodded.

  “Mia, this is Kenna. Are you out there?”

  Almost before she finished asking the question, the planchette moved to Yes.

  “Wow, that was quick,” Jake said.

  Before they asked any further questions, the planchette began to spell out BEEN WAITING FOR YOU.

  When there was no longer any resistance on the planchette, Kenna said, “A lot has happened since we last spoke. Cotter is in our world and he’s doing really bad things. He’s killed a couple of people and tried to hurt my brother. Jake is here, by the way, with his girlfriend, June.”

  Ben frowned. “We need to find out a way to fix all of this.”

  “They have some questions for you,” Kenna said.

  “Ask Mia if she knows how Cotter was able to get into our world,” June said.

  Kenna relayed the question.

  The planchette moved to Yes and then spelled FOUND OUT.

  “How?” Kenna asked.

  The planchette moved smoothly from letter to letter spelling out POWERFUL MAGIC. There was a pause, and then it spelled DANGEROUS.

  “Can he transfer himself from person to person and even person to animal?” June asked.

  After Kenna proposed the question, Mia answered Yes.

  Kenna relayed all of the questions her brother and June asked. Jake folded his arms and began pacing. “Is there something we can do to stop him? Can he be killed? Can we send him back to where he came from?”

  Mia responded with, DONT KNOW STILL LEARNING.

  Jake grunted. “Wonderful. In the meantime, Cotter’s out there killing people and he’s made a nice target of me.”

  Kenna released the disc and looked up at Jake. Her heart thumped. As much as her brother tried to sugarcoat what had happened and put on a brave face, she knew what kind of danger he was facing. He was scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Jake never got scared. He was a fighter. He had to take on tough guys every day.

  Kenna put her hands back on the planchette. “What can we do, Mia?”

  FIND MARK

  “Your old boyfriend?” Ben asked.

  The disc went to Yes, then spelled WILL HELP.

  June nodded. “Okay. We’ll do that.”

  Without prompting, it spelled out TELL HIM ORCHARD POINT.

  June frowned. “What’s orchard point?”

  Jake replied, “It’s about twenty minutes from here. It’s a scenic place overlooking a lake.”

  June shrugged. “Okay. When we see him, we’ll mention Orchard Point.”

  Kenna continued asking questions, but Mia didn’t know anything else useful. She told them she would learn more about how to defeat Cotter. Kenna was more than a little frustrated when she put the Ouija board away. Mia had to help them stop Cotter; she just had to help them.

  Chapter XXX

  Three days after contacting Mia, Jake drove his rental car to Mark Saleski’s law office. After relaying Mia’s request to Mark on the phone, Jake was surprised he actually agreed to meet them.

  “So, what can you tell us about this guy?” Jake asked.

  “Well, he didn’t really believe us at first,” Kenna replied. “But I could tell he wanted to. You see, he’s divorcing his wife because he really misses Mia. She was his one true love.”

  Jake raised his brows. “Did he actually tell you that?”

  Kenna looked out the window. “Not exactly, but I know it’s true.”

  “You might be jumping to conclusions,” Jake said.

  “Maybe not,” June said. “Would he really agree to meet us if Mia was just a fling from long ago?”

  Jake shrugged. “I’m not sure what the point of all this is. How is he going to help us anyway?”

  “We won’t know until we talk to him,” June said. “At any rate, it can’t hurt.”

  Kenna nodded. “He’s a nice guy. You’ll see.”

  “Nice lawyer,” Jake said. “Sounds like an oxymoron.”

  Kenna frowned. “What are you talking about? He’s not a moron.”

  “No, oxymoron. It’s like putting two words together that are the opposite.”

  “Huh?” Kenna asked.

  June waved her hand. “Your brother is just saying he doesn’t trust lawyers.”

  Jake didn’t actually harbor any ill will toward lawyers. He was just wary of getting anyone else involved in this tangled mess, but if Mia thought it was a good idea, he would defer to her. After all, she was communicating with them from beyond the grave so she had to know things that they didn’t know.

  Jake managed to find street parking a block from the law office. He took a deep breath on this chilly October afternoon as they walked to the office. “I hope we aren’t wasting our time.”

  June said, “The worst he can do is laugh at us and call security to escort us out of the building.”

  Kenna folded her arms. “He won’t do that. I told you, Mr. Saleski is a nice guy and he cares a whole lot about Mia.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard your theory,” Jake said.

  When they entered the building, they stopped in front of an office directory. Mark Saleski’s law firm was located on the third floor. After exiting the elevator, Jake followed June down the hallway and to the right. They opened the door to the law offices where a secretary with red hair and perky smile was there to greet them.

  “Hi,” June said and introduced the three of them. “We’re here to meet Mark Saleski. He’s expecting us.”

  The secretary looked down at a notebook. “Ah, yes, Mr. Saleski mentioned that. He’s not with any clients right now, so you can go inside.”

  “Thank you,” June said.

  Jake and Kenna followed her to Mark’s office.

  “Mr. Saleski,” June said.

  Mark sat behind a mahogany desk, typing on a computer. He looked up and immediately went to greet them.

  Mark had graying hair and a matching beard. He looked soft around the middle, perhaps thirty pounds overweight. He had on a shirt and tie, and wore glasses. He extended his hand to Kenna. “Hi, Kenna. Nice to meet you again. You must be Jake.” He shook Jake’s hand.

  June extended her hand. “I’m June. Thanks for seeing us. I know you must be busy.”


  Mark waved his hand. “It’s fine. I didn’t have any client meetings this afternoon.”

  Jake, Kenna, and June took seats in front of his desk.

  “I have to say I’m a little leery,” Mark said, “but you mentioned this was urgent, and well, as hard as it is to believe, I can’t deny the authenticity of some of the things Kenna spoke the first time we met. It’s been on my mind ever since.”

  June cleared her throat. “Mia asked us to pass a message on to you. She said to tell you Orchard Point.”

  Mark appeared to be visibly shaken. He removed his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes. “Orchard Point. That was…our first time.”

  Kenna frowned. “First time for what?”

  “Never mind,” Jake said.

  “I still have a hard time accepting that you can communicate with Mia. She’s been dead for so long. But at the same time, I don’t see how you can know the things you know without Mia having told you. She was the only person who would know that.”

  “I had a hard time buying into this as well,” Jake said. “That is until I saw it for myself. But there’s more to it than that.”

  “Which is the reason why we’re here,” June said.

  Kenna blurted out, “All we wanted to do was to help Mia. We didn’t mean to get in all of this trouble. It was all an accident.”

  Mark raised his hands. “Slow down. What’s going on?”

  “In the process of communicating to Mia, Kenna and her friends have resurrected a malevolent spirit named Cotter, one that Mia apparently knows and fears,” Jake said.

  Over the next twenty minutes, Kenna, Jake, and June relayed what had been going on, starting with Cotter’s first appearances through their last communication with Mia.

  Mark shuddered. “I think I’m going to need a stiff drink.”

  “The last thing Mia told us was to contact you, that you could help,” June said.

  “She did?”

  Jake nodded. “I don’t think I have to tell you that we have our hands full here. Cotter is a homicidal maniac who now has power he never did in life and seems to be out to get me.”

  Mark got up and began to walk around the room, rubbing his hands together. “Maybe we have something we can work with. Do you have any idea about the identity of the person who smashed your car?”

  Jake shook his head. “We didn’t get a license plate number or anything. We just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.”

  “Sure, I understand,” Mark said. “My thought was that if you had gotten the license plate number, and he still retained that body, then we could track him down. Of course, the more likely situation is that he moved on to possess another unfortunate person. The other thing I was thinking was that we could use his pattern of crimes from when he possessed this Adam fellow, not to mention when he was actually alive, to track him.”

  Kenna’s eyes went wide. “Does this mean you’ll help us?”

  “Of course, I’ll help you. It’s the least I could do for Mia. God knows, I couldn’t do enough for her when she was still among us. If I did, maybe she would be alive.”

  “But you weren’t there when Mia drowned, right?” June asked.

  Mark nodded with sadness in his eyes. “But if I was, she wouldn’t have died. So, yes, I’ll do what I can to help you. I have resources you don’t. As I was saying, we can follow crime patterns not only since his rebirth, but also from the time that Cotter lived. You mentioned in your encounter with Cotter that he was getting back at people. Perhaps we could track down homicides involving people from his past. I have numerous contacts in the local police as well as the Philadelphia police force. Do you know his actual name?”

  Kenna perked up. “Ooh. Cotter is his last name.”

  “And his first?” Mark asked.

  Kenna closed her eyes and put her hand to her face. “Mia mentioned it once. It was, um, Robbie. No, that’s not it. It was, um, Ronnie. Yeah, that was it. She mentioned it once when we spoke to her.”

  “You sure?” Mark asked.

  Kenna nodded. “Yeah. And he died in prison. That should be able to help you.”

  “I’ll see if we can get a criminal record, known associates, and the like.” Mark rubbed his beard. “That’s a start, but we still have to figure out how to track him down. If he can slip in and out of bodies like you say, then he’ll be a tough nut to crack. Did Mia indicate any weaknesses he might have, anything we can exploit to stop this SOB?”

  Kenna shook her head. “Mia didn’t know, but she told us she was trying to learn more.”

  Mark took a deep breath. “Well, this won’t be easy. First, we have to find him. He may come looking for you again, Jake.”

  Jake nodded. “I expect he will. When he pulled a knife on me, I wasn’t ready for it. I’ll be more prepared the next time we meet.”

  Mark said, “The next time, he might bring a gun to the fight.”

  Jake spoke softly. “I know, but I’m not going to run and hide. If he wants to come after me, then I’m going to be here for him. Look, the people in this room right now, that’s all we got. If someone is going to do something about Cotter, it has to be us.”

  “Then we have to be careful,” Mark said. “I have a gun at home I’m going to start carrying. I would advise you to take similar precautions.”

  “My weapons are my hands and feet,” Jake said. “I’m a professional fighter. You might be right about Cotter coming after me with a gun, but if he does, I probably would be dead anyway. I don’t own a gun and have never shot one. Given my criminal record, I seriously doubt that I could buy one—legally anyway.”

  “Be careful then,” Mark said. “All three of you. Just because Cotter is targeting Jake right now, it doesn’t mean he might not turn his attention on someone else. Just the fact that you are trying to bring him down will make you a target. Once I involve myself, I’m sure the same will hold true for me.”

  “So where do we go from here?” June asked.

  “I’ll find out about his criminal history, both as Ronnie Cotter and his current self. As for the three of you, be careful and lay low. And I would…I would like to talk to Mia. I don’t know how I’ll react, but I think it’s important.”

  Kenna nodded. “Okay. We can do that.”

  Mark folded his hands. “In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted on anything I find. I thought I said my final goodbyes to Mia all of those years ago, but I guess I was wrong.”

  Chapter XXXI

  Jake left the dojo with a smile on his face. Just days away from his fight with Paulo Santos, he had his most productive day of training this whole camp, starting with a massive cardio workout in the morning. In the afternoon, he did light sparring before drilling wrestling techniques with two members of Penn State’s wrestling team. He fared much better than he expected, stopping most of their takedown attempts and scoring some of his own.

  Despite the setbacks during the previous week in training, he was now on point. Every aspect of his fighting was coming together nicely. Even Joe had commented on his progress, a far cry from his last critique.

  Despite that, he was hardly overconfident. He had watched a DVD of a fight Paulo Santos had last year in Brazil. Santos had folded his opponent with a series of knees from the clinch. Jake wanted no part of that and would be careful not to get into that position during their bout.

  For the past few days, Jake had been working with Joe to formulate a game plan for the fight. Although Jake had confidence in his striking skills, he thought it prudent not to stand in the pocket and trade punches and kicks with Santos. Despite his opponent’s allegedly strong jiu-jitsu skills, Jake had seen no evidence of this on tape. He was clearly superior to Santos in wrestling, so his plan was to take Santos down, pound on him with punches and elbows, and look for a submission if it presented itself.

  Jake would have liked for the bout to take place tomorrow. For the first time since this whole mess started, he had been able to get his mind off Cotter, even if for just a s
hort while.

  Jake spotted his car across the street, a new Toyota Corolla he purchased yesterday from the dealership that sponsored him for his upcoming fight. They had given him an irresistible deal on the vehicle. Although it was nothing fancy, it was a nice ride. Someday, he would drive a Lexus, but for now this suited him fine.

  He slung his bag over his shoulder and began walking across the street. At the sound of tires screeching, he turned his head, catching sight of a thirty-something-year-old guy roaring down the road in a Corvette.

  Jake’s eyes went wide. The car was driving straight at him. Jake saw the malevolent glint in the man’s eyes. Cotter. With quick reflexes born out of dodging punches, Jake jumped back to the sidewalk.

  For a brief moment, Jake thought the Corvette had smashed into him, but it was only the impact of Jake slamming into another parked car.

  Up ahead, the car came to a screeching halt. Jake glanced up and saw a big smile on the driver’s face. No doubt about it. It was Cotter.

  The car started driving in reverse, stopping just in front of Jake.

  Cotter opened the passenger side window. “Better watch where you’re going, Jakey. Things are getting dangerous around here.”

  Jake gritted his teeth. “You son of a bitch!”

  Cotter revved his engine. He made as if he was going to come after Jake, but there was no way he could do that unless he was willing to jump the curb, something the Corvette was not designed to do.

  Cotter used his thumb and index finger to make a gun and pointed it at Jake. He pretended to shoot with it, then laughed uproariously.

  “Your time’s limited, Jakey. One of these days, I’m gonna kill your sorry ass for real. Then your pretty girlfriend’s gonna be all mine. She’s gonna want some comfort, and I know how to give it.”

  Jake clenched his fists. He got to his feet and charged after the car, but it accelerated away. Without turning around to look back, Cotter extended a middle finger salute to him.

  Jake stopped running. There was no point. He could never catch up to the Corvette. However, there was something he could do. Before it drove out of sight, Jake read the car’s license plate. Repeating the number in his mind, he took out his smart phone and entered it.