by Alexie Aaron
“I understand you want to take a look at the Faulkners’ house.”
“If you think they will approve,” Mike clarified. “Each house in this cul-de-sac has been touched in some way by this paranormal activity. The more evidence we have, the easier it may be to understand what is going on and perhaps how to cease it.”
“But no guarantees,” Ted said, emptying the last dozen orbs into the Mason jar Harold held.
Harold nodded. “Give me a few minutes to have my supper and change my clothes. I’ll come over to the truck to collect your team when I’m ready,” he instructed. “I appreciate the care you have taken with my… hoard. I can’t call it a collection because it’s more of a compulsion,” he said honestly. “But it doesn’t dim my esteem, I assure you.”
The men shook hands and parted at the garage door. Ted and Mike headed back across the street.
“I wonder if Burt’s ever going to join us?” Mike asked.
“He’s still at Nathan’s. I’ll send a text. I’m sure he’s going to want to be part of the team that enters 1308 for the first time,” Ted said.
Burt looked at his phone and was amazed by how much time had passed. He had helped Nathan to not only rehouse his precious comic books and action figures but also had helped the man empty his expensive bottle of single malt whisky.
“Message from the wife?” Nathan asked as Burt studied the text.
“No, my team is getting ready to investigate 1308.”
“Ah, the William Faulkners. Interesting family. With his name, you’d think he should have been a writer, but instead he’s made his mark in designing fast food packaging. Nancy is a stay at home mom, and they have two little girls. He volunteers as a youth coach. This trip to Florida was all about acquainting their little princesses with the Disney ones. I don’t know how healthy it is these days to parade your little ones around with crowns on their heads…”
“Tiaras.”
“Pardon?”
“Tiaras,” Burt repeated. “The princesses wear tiaras.”
“Oh, good to know. Anyway, they indulge the girls.”
Burt stood up and felt his weight for the first time in hours. His knees, weakened by the alcohol, took a moment to function. “Time for me to go back to work. Nathan, it’s been a pleasure, and we’ll hopefully get to the bottom of this.”
Nathan followed him to the door. He put on the outside lights and watched the investigator weave his way towards the group waiting for him.
“Quick, extinguish all flames,” Mia joked, familiar with Burt’s walk of overindulgence.
Ted walked over and took his bleary-eyed boss in hand and guided him to the RV. “Mia, I’m just going to tuck him in. Watch the console for me,” he instructed.
Mia climbed in the truck and did as she was asked.
Audrey looked over at Mike, and he hunched his shoulders. “The man doesn’t drink much, so he can’t hold his liquor. Don’t read anymore into it than that,” he advised.
Audrey wasn’t sure what she was feeling at the moment.
Ted returned promptly. “I guess this puts you in charge. Burt’s not going to be able to steady a camera for a little while.”
“I’ll do it,” Mia offered from the truck.
Mike winced. Mia wasn’t a bad photographer, but she was short, and the shots of him from her angle put emphasis on the recent softening of his chin.
He looked at Audrey, but she didn’t volunteer. She knew her camera techniques weren’t up to PEEPs quality. “Ted, how about you man the camera. Mia’s got the console under control. Audrey, we’ll handle it the best we can without her eyes.”
Ted shrugged, hopped in the truck and outfitted himself with the large camera. Mia handed him an ear com. “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to delete anything important while you’re away,” she teased.
Harold walked over, and the four of them set out for 1308.
The scent of flowers flowed out of the house as Harold pushed the door wide. He flipped on the foyer light switch, and a massive chandelier lit up the space from above. The two-story home had a sweeping staircase which presently was adorned by flower petals. Garlands of daisy chains wove in and out of the spindles. Ted took a moment to study the shot before Mike stepped in front of the camera and gave his impression.
“We seem to have located the missing flowers from Mrs. Alison’s garden. There is a path of petals leading down from or up to the second story. I think we’ll examine the lower floor first.”
Ted panned slowly away and waited for the trio to follow the path of flowers down the hall and into the dining room.
Harold turned on the lights. The team was dazzled by the ornate table setting before them. Dozens of teacups and saucers were set up in perfect alignment before each of the eight chairs that surrounded the highly polished dining table. Flower arrangements adorned the middle of the table, sharing space where several mounds of cookies and snack cakes had been liberated from their boxes.
In each chair sat a stuffed animal of some kind. Each occupant wore expensive looking jewels and was crowned with a tiara.
“It’s a tea party for princesses,” Ted whispered, touching his ear com.
Audrey looked up at the investigator and nodded. “My first instinct was that this was a mad hatter tea party, but the tiaras tell another story.”
Mike walked up and picked up one of the open Zebra cakes and tested it. “It’s a little stale. Dare I say a day old?”
Ted balanced the camera and took the small snack cake from Mike and bit into it. “Nope it’s only a few hours old.”
Harold looked over at the tech, questioning his professional assessment of the snack.
Audrey patted Harold on the arm. “Trust him, if Ted says it’s hours old, he’d know. Our technicians are authorities on all kinds of sugary snacks. Don’t ask him about licorice unless you have a few hours to spare,” she warned.
They exited the dining room and walked through the kitchen. With the exception of a trash container full of the bags and boxes the treats came from, it was sparkling clean. The living room seemed untouched as was the half bath tucked under the stairs. The group proceeded up the stairs, being careful to not crush the flower petals into the plush carpeting as they followed the trail into a large room, they assumed was the daughters of the house’s playroom.
Two large chairs had been arranged at one end of the room. Setting on the cushion of each chair was a large doll dressed in finery. A top each of the heads of the dolls was a tiara. In front of the improvised thrones were a bevy of toys, each paying reverence to the two sitting in the chairs.
“We’ve found the princesses,” Mike said.
Ted moved the camera slowly.
“Ted, stop,” Mia requested, watching his live feed in the truck. “Focus in on the window.”
There, with their noses smudged on the glass, were five little girls. They looked at the adults examining their tableau with animated glee. Ted held the camera with one hand and gave the quintet a thumbs up. He repositioned his hands and smiled as the girls imitated him, returning the salute before disappearing from sight. It was such an ordinary thing to see, little girls looking in the window, with one exception: they were looking in the second story window without a place to stand.
Chapter Eight
Mia’s instinct was to follow the ghosts from 1308. What stopped her was the responsibility of the console. Each time she stepped into Ted’s shoes, she understood more and more the sacrifices he made in order to run the machinery and protect the investigators with his keen eye and ears. She scanned the other feeds, and it looked for the moment that the rest of the neighborhood was enjoying a peaceful evening. Murphy had been by and scratched out a hello as he passed. It was a comfort to have him there. Mia knew he too had given up much to keep an eye on her. She felt blessed and was determined to give back and show them that she was honored by their sacrifices.
Not many people understood her attraction for the gangly technician, or for leaving the
handsome Whitney Martin. Was she crazy? She had her teenage crush, and she let him go? But Whit wanted her to change, although he wasn’t honest enough to voice it. He wanted the helpmate who would be there when he required arm candy. He needed to be number one in the family, and Mia understood that more than he would ever know. Sometimes you had to let someone go for both of your benefits. She knew that his night with Beth was engineered by the former researcher to hurt Mia. But she also knew part of Whit wanted to hurt her too. He wanted to say, look what happens when you’re not around. He also attached Mia to his late wife’s death. It didn’t matter that she tried to save her. It didn’t matter that she warned him about the houses in the hollow. He needed someone to blame, and Mia knew it would forever be her.
Being with Ted wasn’t just a way for Mia to move on. She felt the pull of their attraction long before she identified it as love. To her, Ted was her friend, lover, hero and teacher. He was there for her when she stumbled. The tall man from Kansas was the voice in her ear when she was scared, and the voice of reason when she took the low road. He let her know that he was the man for her and never gave up. Sure, Mike had made plays for Mia, but she knew he wasn’t sincere. When she became aware of her feelings for Ted, he surprised her by taking a step back, afraid that Angelo’s mind screw was responsible for Mia losing faith in Whit. He waited for her, and she was so happy he did. Their love was complicated but worth it.
“Control this is Red Leader,” Ted’s voice cut through her musings.
“Go ahead, Red Leader, over,” Mia said, playing her part.
“We’re going to have a few exit interviews with Harold and then take a tour around the neighborhood. Mike thinks we should talk about each house while things are quiet.”
“He’s in charge, Red Leader,” Mia reminded him. “Until Admiral Ackbar wakes up from his drunk, you have to put up with Han Solo and his ego.”
“Singing to the choir, Control, over and out,” Ted said and went silent.
Murphy moved along the tree line slowly. He watched the five little girls skip away from the houses and make their way through the woods. He didn’t want to scare them. They moved on the same plane of existence as he did, and if he could see them, then they could see him too. To their eyes he must look like something out of a horror movie. A dusty farmer holding an axe wasn’t a child’s idea of a person to interact with, at least he hoped so. These spirits were different. He knew Mia felt it too. They didn’t have any ties. It was as if they were sprites more than ghosts.
He tracked them through the woods and watched as they moved into the dark building across the clearing. Himmel Elementary School was what the letters spelled out on the cornerstone of the building. It had been a place of learning for decades. Now it stood empty, waiting for its next incarnation. Murphy walked back into the woods, pondering why the spirits were drawn there. A cloud moved past the quarter moon illuminating the woods. That’s when he saw them.
Six solemn children gathered in a group, watching him approach. He dropped his axe off his shoulder and pushed back his hat, hopefully to let them know he meant them no harm. The eldest of the group was a boy of about ten years of age. He nodded to the farmer as he passed. Murphy turned around to speak to them, but they had faded. Their look of want and despair would haunt him for some time. He needed to talk to Mia. These children had to be their priority. The others were happy. So what if they drove the humans crazy with their mischief? They were children. It was the soot-covered six that needed the PEEPs’ help.
Burt couldn’t move. His head was killing him, and as he reached for his forehead, he found he couldn’t move his arm. The memory of the demons of the hollow filled him with terror, and he thrashed until he was able to free himself. He reached for the overhead light and turned it on. Staples and tape drooped from his raised sleeve. He examined the rest of him and found someone had taped and stapled him to the bed sheets in the RV’s master suite. The terror quickly left him as laughter pushed the bad feelings away. He looked around him and found the ear com that he had set on the sill of the window before he passed out. He put it in his ear and said, “Ted, come in.”
“Ted is unavailable at the moment. Can I be of some help?” Mia asked.
“Are you in charge of the console?”
“Yes, stranger things have happened. We were short one cameraman, so Ted stepped in.”
“I’m in a fix here. Actually, I’m fixed here. See if you can get Ted and his camera over to the RV.”
“Will do, over.”
In a few minutes Burt heard the mobile home’s door open and someone large move about the cabin. “Burt, are you decent?” Ted asked.
“I hope so. Come in and bring the camera,” he instructed.
Ted opened the door between the hall and the master suite and walked in. There stapled to the bed sheets was Burt. He had laid down, tired of fighting the weight of the bedding. Someone had stapled the investigator’s clothing every few inches to the sheets in the position the man had passed out in. It looked like the mischief makers had started off with tape but when they had run out, continued to use Audrey’s stapler to finish the job.
Ted started to laugh and caught himself.
“Go ahead and laugh. It is rather funny,” Burt said. “Take the shots and help me get out of this. I have a wicked pee waiting. Lesson number one, don’t imbibe with distraught comic book collectors on the job.”
“I’ll add it to the company rule book in the fraternization chapter.”
“Add it to all the rules you and I break at the drop of a hat,” Burt said lightly. “We really have had a time of it, haven’t we?”
Ted, wary of the attitude of the normally moody leader, nodded, refraining from adding anything that would change the happy attitude Burt was displaying.
“How’s our hungover chief?” Mia asked.
Ted touched his ear com and said, “He’s a bit attached to his bed.”
Burt started laughing again.
“Sending you the feed,” Ted warned.
Mia watched as the back room of the expensive RV appeared on the monitor. Ted panned the camera down to show Burt Hicks stapled and taped to the sheets of the bed. Even his hair showed signs of someone trying to tape it to the pillow case.
Laughter bubbled up. “Do you need assistance?” Mia managed to ask.
“No, I think I can handle it, but if you could send Mike over with a staple remover, it would be helpful,” Ted requested.
“Done and done, over,” Mia said. “Mike, come to the command vehicle, please.”
Mike walked over, and Mia tossed him the staple puller she found in the office supply bin. “Take this to the trailer,” she ordered.
He looked at her as if she was half nuts and shook his head in confusion.
“Do it. You’ll see why,” Mia said and turned back to the monitor.
Mike passed Audrey who had stopped to tie her shoe. She watched Mike enter the RV and heard him bellow with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
Mia waved her over and pointed to the large screen. “Check out the active feed Ted is sending.”
Audrey took in the condition of Burt and tried not to laugh. “Are those my staples?”
“’Fraid so, you may want to expense them,” Mia got out before she burst out laughing. “Talk about becoming attached to your work…”
This was too much for Audrey, and she joined Mia in laughter. She was glad that Burt didn’t see her laugh at him. She wasn’t sure he’d appreciate it.
A scratching on the trailer alerted the women to Murphy’s presence. He stuck his head around and gazed at the tear-stained face of Mia in alarm.
“No, Murph, I’m not sad. Check out Burt in the mobile home,” she suggested and reached for a tissue to dry her face.
Murphy moved quickly into the wheeled home and saw for himself the prank that had befallen Burt. He caught Ted’s eye and shook his head in amusement. He mouthed that it wasn’t him before he left to see if
he could catch the scamps that were so handy with the stapler.
~
Cid walked over to the counter of the kitchen where he had left his phone. Mia had sent him some video to view. “Mommy’s sent me some mail,” he said to Maggie Mae, who was wagging her tail so hard her bottom moved. He had just finished feeding her and was frying up some bacon. Maggie assumed it was for her even though Cid was planning to add it to his German potato salad.
Mia had entitled the video, “Don’t become too attached to your work.” Cid smiled as Burt’s situation was played out brilliantly on film. Mia had added some pop up thought bubbles. He chuckled and sent back a bravo before getting back to his recipe.
Maggie barked and ran to the door. Cid followed her, acknowledging that he too heard the car pull into the drive. He put on the porch light and opened the door to see a county cruiser pull up to the house.
Tom Braverman got out of the driver’s side and waved to Cid. John Ryan opened up the passenger door. Cid wasn’t concerned seeing Tom, but when Sherriff Ryan came to visit, he knew that official business was taking place. He invited the men in, explaining that Mia and Ted were on an investigation an hour’s drive away but could be reached by phone if necessary. The officers followed Cid through to the kitchen and accepted the offer of coffee.
“This is more of a head’s up than an official call, son,” Ryan started. “We’ve had a few complaints of a gang of youths shooting up the outlying farms and cottages with paint projectiles. I wanted to alert you to the situation and warn you that the paintballs are not only destructive when it comes to coating the premises with unwanted hues, but hurt if you or your livestock are hit with them.”
“I appreciate that. But I have a feeling you have more to say in regards to the denizens of this farm,” Cid observed.