“How did he find out the child was not his?” asked Brenda.
“DNA test. All the signs pointed to one, so he ordered one and the rest was history. The test came back negative, so he told Evan’s wife about the affair, and she made Evan take the test and that one came back indicating a 99.9 percent chance that the child was Evan’s. My husband did everything he could do to cover his tracks, and he did a good job of it because he is still walking the streets to this day.”
“When was the last time you saw Evan?” asked Carter.
“Not since the funeral.”
“Really,” said Brenda. “So it’s been…”
“Oh, it’s been…seven years. My husband couldn’t stand the sight of my child, and Evan couldn’t stand the sight of me. Never called, wrote, or visited…nothing. It was like he dropped right out of society.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “He really began to get strange before that. I mean…I can imagine the stress of the situation and all, but…I don’t know…we had worked together for a while and had somewhat of a relationship, and a child together.”
Evelyn stopped talking and looked at her visitors, but it soon became clear to her that Carter and Brenda were not yet full. “I know, I know,” she continued. “I was married, but to be honest with you, it was merely a piece of paper. My husband still loved me, but I didn’t feel the same about him. I even told him, but he didn’t believe me. He also wouldn’t sign the papers when I told him I wanted out.”
“So you think your ex-husband was responsible for killing the son you had with Evan?” asked Carter.
“Yes,” said Evelyn. “Sure of it.”
Carter looked at Evelyn closely, and he seemed fairly certain he was getting the truth from her. He chose his next question very carefully. “So if you believe your husband was behind the killing, and he is very much alive and still walking the streets to this day, then Evan never…took care of the guy who took care of his family?”
Evelyn smirked. “That’s Evan, alright. He’s the same guy I knew. Really got screwed up in the war. Vietnam did a number on him because he was on the front lines and said he lost count of the number of people he killed. He returned and was diagnosed with PTSD. He, at times, had trouble differentiating between fact and fiction. He used to claim that he killed people even after he returned, which he didn’t, but the thing is that he really believed it.”
“Oh my God,” said Carter. “He didn’t breathe one word about killing anyone in the Vietnam War.”
“That’s because he wasn’t proud of it, but this was war…kill or be killed. It screwed him up so bad and he tried to forget about it, but he couldn’t. The killings destroyed him. Maybe it was a release for his mind to say that he killed people, or maybe he really believed it. I can’t imagine living with those thoughts wreaking havoc on me. He would have panic attacks and didn’t sleep much.”
“That’s awful,” said Carter. “He has been very helpful to us in the short time we’ve known him.”
“He is a helpful guy, a sweet guy…with baggage, but we all got baggage.”
“Evelyn, what we really need to know is whether or not you can help our son,” said Brenda. “Evan said you used to do some sort of consultations for his paranormal cases. Is that true? Was that your original relationship with Evan?”
“Yes, that was pretty much the extent of it for the first few years, but then…”
“Yeah,” interrupted Brenda, “then you two worked a little bit closer than you had in the past?”
“That’s right,” said Evelyn, a gleam in her eye and a look into the air as if she was envisioning one of the encounters.
“Evelyn,” said Carter, “how did you help families…you know…when you worked with Evan and he handed off those paranormal cases to you?”
“I used to council families who were affected by the paranormal.”
“The paranormal…what exactly do you mean by the paranormal?” asked Brenda. “Or…let me put it this way…what sort of paranormal cases did you handle?”
“Let’s see…anything from ghost hauntings, real and imagined…to nightmares resulting from hauntings. It was a wide variety. I can’t even remember the variation of cases that I’d consulted on. It’s been a while, but what are you doing here? What is it that haunts you?”
“It’s our six-year-old son,” said Brenda. “We’ve actually identified the person haunting him. It’s not an internal haunting where my son is possessed or anything like that, but it appears the spirit of this old man is external and planting thoughts in our son’s mind and making him do things that he wouldn’t ordinarily do.”
“Such as…” said Evelyn.
“Such as taking off in the middle of the night because this old spirit forced him to,” said Brenda.
“Oh dear,” said Evelyn, “How dangerous! Is he okay?”
“Yes, yes, he’s fine, but he was gone overnight and we were panicking and horrible thoughts were going through our heads…all because this spirit forced him to do it…threatened him a bit. It shook him up. He’s only six!”
“I bet it shook him up,” said Evelyn. “I tell you what…it would have shaken me up.”
“It was bad,” said Carter. “It was on the news and everything. Viewers actually helped form a search party.”
Evelyn opened her mouth in surprise. “Oh my…was that a couple weeks ago when they found the boy wandering around in…was it a cemetery?”
“That’s our boy,” said Carter. “We believe he’s still being controlled today by the man who encouraged him to take off on us that night.”
Evelyn thoughtfully considered the situation with their son and explained how she had assisted a family when something similar occurred with their little boy. It put the family in turmoil much like it was doing to Carter and Brenda Spence.
“Have you contacted a priest or paranormal investigator or anything like that to go into the house to confirm that there indeed is a haunting?” she asked. “Let’s face it…kids do have an overactive imagination on occasion.” She then laughed and a bubble quickly formed on her left nostril. She must have seen it in her peripheral because up quickly went her right hand to pop and wipe, and she moved the story right along without missing a beat. “Excuse me,” she said. “Has anyone come in for a look-see?”
“Evan,” said Carter. “He’s the only one who came in, and he had his police dog. The police dog detected the spirits in our house as well as in the house next door.”
“Evelyn,” Brenda began, “Is there a chance that you could possibly help us out with our son?”
Evelyn leaned back in her chair and sized up her guests carefully before responding. “To be honest with you, I haven’t done this type of work in years, so I’d have to say that I would be a bit rusty and possibly not much help at all. Normally, I would have to say no…and especially since Evan sent you. However, I’m better than that, and to prove it to you…tell you what…I’m gonna try to do it, but no promises.”
“That’s awfully kind of you,” said Carter.
“Thank you so much,” Brenda said. “That would be fantastic. What do you think your approach would be for something like this?”
Evelyn stopped and stared at Brenda as if she had the gall to ask how she would go about doing her job. “I used to consult a certain spirit back in the days when I was working with Evan, but since the death of our son…which turned out being the end of our working relationship, I could no longer reach that spirit. I was able to help so many families…so many kids…but not now. I tried, but there was only one spirit that I was able to reach.”
“Who’s that?” asked Brenda.
Evelyn stared blankly ahead of her. It was clear that
whatever she was looking at resided inside her head. She was envisioning something. Her skin tone began to redden, and her eyes turned glossy. Whatever she was caught up in had to be powerful, yet draining. She put her hands on her cheeks as if to feel her temperature. It was clearly running hot. She was holding back, but eventually let it out.
“Our son,” she said. “I believe he was blocking me from reaching my spirit contact. He came to me immediately when I tried to continue my line of work, but I quickly disconnected from that realm. He was an angry spirit and started to come after me. It scared the shit out of me. I didn’t do anything to him. It was my husband who did it, but my son was taking it out on me. Whenever I tried to connect, he’d boot me out. I haven’t tried in years because of this, but through the years, I’ve wanted to try again to reconnect with my son. I guess there’s a reason for you two tracking me down. This may be my chance to make things right again with my son, while you attempt to make things right again with yours. Call it me being selfish, but also call it a small price for you to pay. I thought I was done for good.”
Evelyn was a complete wreck. She had been carrying the burden of the death of her son since the day he died. She had been carrying it alone because shortly after she lost her son, she left her husband and she left Evan. Then when the only thing she had left was the spirit of her son, she couldn’t even get that. It was evil. She was lost. Her son’s spirit was lost. She wanted him so bad, but it would be like reaching out to Satan. She stayed away all of these years, unwilling to meddle with the spirit world. That had been her life, but it no longer was available. She had lost everything.
The arrival of Carter and Brenda on her doorstep was a godsend. She really believed that there was a higher power involved in this chance meeting, and all of the pieces had to move the way they moved to pave the path for this to happen. There was no other way to explain it, so she knew that she needed to take full advantage. It was a shot in the arm, or in the ass, whichever you preferred. She could not allow this motivator to pass by without a glimpse into heaven. At this point, it was her fear, and she needed to conquer her fear. This sudden rush of emotions was drenched by a sudden rush of tears.
“I really do think that I want to help you,” said Evelyn. “I wasn’t having a lot of luck the last few years, but I didn’t think that would continue forever. Here’s what I propose. Bring me some sort of proof that your son is being haunted. This will give me a better idea of how to proceed. I’ll reach out to my son, and if I can catch his good spirit, then it may be the ticket to helping your son. However, if the spirit of my son is still evil, then this is where it might get tricky. This is where I will be traversing the unknown. I was always afraid and ran away, but I’ll try to get the courage up to persevere, and my goal would be to get one evil spirit to get rid of another evil spirit…the one that’s pestering your son. Obviously, this sounds entirely wild and fantastic, and I can’t say I’ve ever done anything like this before, but damn…if I’m gonna return to the game…I wanna do it big. I want my son back too.”
CHAPTER 22
Brenda put Adam to bed and everything seemed calm, normal, and uneventful. However, that all changed later that evening when they turned on the laptop and examined the security monitor. Carter and Brenda were sitting in the living room viewing Adam’s bedroom when Adam was sleeping. The problem began when they could hear a clicking sound. Then there was nothing. Then there was something. The curtains briefly fluffed out into the room. The issue with this was that the window in the bedroom was not open.
They examined the monitor closely. The curtains again blew out once, but returned to calm. They were just hanging still now. Carter and Brenda continued eyeing the curtains, when they saw a swirl of wind whipping across the stage like a microburst, but the shape never materialized. It looked like an entity was trying unsuccessfully to whip itself into a tangible shape.
“What’s going on, Carter?” asked Brenda.
“Yeah, what the hell is it?” Carter replied.
“If it’s Martin, he’ll leave his mark,” said Brenda.
The breezes continued in the room. The clicking stopped, but there were sounds that were very low and not very distinct. There was not total chaos going on. It almost seemed like a bored entity that was just killing time, lollygagging until the physical being in the room awakened. It didn’t seem like whatever or whoever it was had an ultimate interest in waking Adam. He remained sleeping in his bed as subtle spiritual markings continued on sporadically.
As long as it was only these low-key events happening, there would be minimal cause for alarm. Carter and Brenda were glued to the screen, however, looking for any additional movements. Once in a while, Adam would stir in his sleep. There was another swirl of mist or wisp of smoke passing through the room, but it was so slight that they weren’t completely sure it was anything at all. When you compromise on the quality of a system like the one they bought, this was the true price you pay. You get what you pay for. It wasn’t a terrible system for a middle-of-the-road unit, and they just had to make do with what they had.
Adam was lying still when they heard a single knocking sound. This alerted them to scan the room from one end to the other. There was a slight movement of the closet door. It only moved about four inches, but that is a lot of movement in a room with no opened doors or window to help it along. Then the door slowly moved back into the original spot. There was nothing else to see, but they locked their eyes on that particular spot to see if there were any more developments.
Something more must have happened that met their eye, though, because as they were viewing the screen during a lull, they saw Adam sit up in bed and look around the room with an uncertain look on his face.
“I want to see if there’s any interaction,” said Brenda.
“You want to put your son through that?” asked Carter.
“Yes, I do, Carter. We need to figure out what’s going on! Otherwise, we may as well throw this God damn camera out. That’s why we bought it. If you want to put a Band-Aid on Adam, then go right in and get him. Then we’ll never know what’s going on with him.”
“But it’s safer that way,” Carter protested.
“And then it happens again when we’re sleeping and not fortunate enough to see what’s really going on because we didn’t protect him properly. We bought this camera for a reason. He’s not in any danger. He’s being monitored…by us. If there’s any danger, then certainly we’ll go in and get him out. Get him out now and we could be in trouble in the days ahead. Besides, when Evelyn does come over and do her thing, we want to be sure we know what we’re talking about.”
Carter just made a face at Brenda, but on some level she did make sense. It’s just that he felt they were purposefully putting their own son in harm’s way. It was an agonizing decision, but the more he thought about it, the more he believed that he and Brenda were currently flies on the wall to the spirit world, and they may never get a chance like this again. He and Brenda had flip-flopped their position on experimenting by putting their son in harm’s way. Now it was Brenda taking a hard stance on witnessing Adam’s interaction with the spirit world in order to get to the bottom of what was really going on. She switched places with Carter, who was beginning to get reluctant.
Adam slowly rotated his head around the room and back. It looked as though he had heard something and was trying to determine where the noise was coming from. He wasn’t giving up on it either. Sometimes you hear something that goes bump in the night and you’re startled awake, but then go back to sleep when no other noise occurs, figuring that it must have been a dream. That didn’t appear to be the case with Adam. He either was confident that he had heard that thing that goes bump in the night, or perhaps the spirit of Martin was talking to him inside his head for only Adam to hear.
They were almost h
oping that it was indeed the spirit of Martin. They were also hoping that he talks out loud so a voice could be picked up by the microphone on the camera. That would be proof, more so than simply a voice in his head. It’s not that they wouldn’t believe Adam, but they wouldn’t be able to prove a thing, and evidence handed over to Evelyn would be the word of a six-year-old boy. That would clearly not be what they wished to bring to Evelyn as evidence over a recorded voice, but at least they did have some movement, however slight and subtle, captured on tape. It may perhaps be something she could easily dismiss, but at least they had something. They just really wanted more.
Adam continued to look around the room, but kept paying more attention to his closet. It seemed that the majority of the action occurred in that closet. This time Adam held his stare longer than he had in the past. He had a curious look on his face. He then shifted his legs down onto the floor and slowly made his way across the room to check out whatever it was that was stealing his interest. By this point, it almost looked like a routine for Adam. He knew exactly where to go, and it seemed like he knew exactly what to expect.
He walked nonchalantly toward the closet and opened the door wide, peering in and shifting hanging clothes around. Backing up, he put his hands on his hips as if he was waiting for somebody or something. The pressure for Brenda to just sit there and watch as if this were a movie was a little more than she could handle. She grabbed Carter’s arm and held it firmly, continuing to scrutinize every movement, however slight, that her son made.
Adam looked back toward his bed and then returned his attention to the closet, following something with his eyes that apparently went around the room. The camera was not picking up any of this action, but it was clear that Adam was picking up on something. He clearly saw something and then began speaking to whatever he saw.
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 65