The shoulder strap that held the gun in place was torn from its mounting as the rifle fell from the walkway, hanging in the air for a short while as time itself seemed to slow down around them. It crashed against the floorboards, the fall setting off the weapon and causing the chambered bullet to ricochet off the wall with an ear piercing bang.
**********
The unexpected gunshot caused Aaron to flinch as he watched Tommy slam helplessly against the brickwork upstairs, his body slumping down against the metal grates of the walkway. Distracted for no more than a second, he fired his own gun, the spread of pellets spraying out in a narrow cone across the room. The shot had been meant for Christie, but it instead met the pale flesh of Sam who had foolishly thrown himself into its trajectory.
As Sam took the brunt of the blast, he dropped to the floor, showing no sign of recovering any time soon. This gave Aaron the opportunity to take Christie down on an even footing with only the two of them left standing, but she was so much faster than he could have ever anticipated. With a savage roar, she began to run towards him at full pelt, her face twisted with bestial rage. Before he could even fire another shot, Christie was already within point blank range, dodging past the barrel is of his gun to wrap her long fingers around his throat. It seemed effortless for her to pick him up by the neck, the crystal blue of her eyes lined with red as she stared directly into his soul, fangs bared and ready to strike.
“Drop it.” The command was firm, yet simple, and Aaron found it impossible to resist. He was compelled to loosen his grip on the shotgun, letting it fall to the floor. Suspended from Christie’s arm, he began to choke as her immeasurable strength lifted his feet off the stage and into the air. As much as he wanted to break free, he soon found that his limbs wouldn't respond and that he had been left completely defenseless.
“Now sleep.” Unable to look away from Christie's hypnotic gaze, Aaron felt dizzy. The world around him started to spin, causing his head to feel like dead weight. He was so tired that it became impossible for him to keep his eyes open, the world around him fading to black as his body went limp. There was no fighting it, as much as he tried and all Aaron could do was give in to the call of his deepest, darkest nightmares. The hunt was over and he had lost.
Chapter Fifteen: A pain long past.
Christie Reece had been a part of Aaron’s life for longer than anyone else, Tommy included. In fact, Aaron had even been the one to introduce the two of them to each other in the first place, and that was the reason he blamed himself for all the bad things that had befallen them since. Perhaps if they had never met, then they would never have been irrevocably damaged by an intense, yet toxic relationship that had somehow spiralled out of control.
Even after all these years, Aaron could still remember how Christie had been as a child, so innocent and full of hope for a world that sorely lacked it. She was a timid girl, with mousy brown hair and crystal blue eyes that were almost angelic, a far cry from the woman that she had become. A great deal had changed since then, as the harsh realities of life had screwed Christie over time and again, leaving only small traces of the little girl that she had once been.
At one time, Aaron and Christie had been the best of friends and were almost inseparable, playing together at every possible opportunity. Aaron had a few other friends too, that he played with almost as often, but there were none that he had grown attached to as much as her. The Fitzpatrick and Reece families had been neighbours for years and she had been the girl next door for longer than he could remember. The two of them had been so close as children that they made a promise to each other to be friends forever and vowed that they would never be apart, but fate often has a way of changing such plans.
The heartbreak that Aaron felt as his parents broke the news was still as clear in his mind now as it was on the day it happened. His father's new career prospects and a drastic increase in salary meant that they had to leave their home in Michigan and move east to the smaller state of New Hampshire. Aaron didn't know much about that state or the area called New England in which it was located, but he already hated it with a passion.
However bad he felt at the time, Aaron's sadness was nothing compared to the look on Christie’s face as they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. The two of them made another promise that they would keep in touch and that they would see each other over each and every school vacation, but it never did work out the way they planned.
As Aaron’s family moved away from the only home that he had ever known to plant new roots in the small town of Edison Heights, Christie followed a completely separate path. While he was haunted by ghosts and became a witness to things that shouldn't be seen by the eyes of children, she had to deal with an entirely different sort of trauma.
Christie’s parents had their own issues that they struggled to work through, and which resulted in their eventual separation and a messy divorce. She had never gone into specifics, but there was some mention of an affair of some sort that set events in to motion, changing her life forever. All Christie wanted was her best friend to comfort her, but Aaron was so far away and far too busy with his new life to remember the girl that he had left behind.
Completely alone in her grief, Christie was dragged down to Florida by her angry mother who had obtained full custody, denying her ex-husband any visitation rights. The aftermath of the divorce was a huge mess that lasted for years and was never fully resolved, with far too much money being spent on lawyers and legal proceedings. Aaron didn't know much about what happened, other than what he overheard from conversations that his parents had in private. After that, there was no sight nor sound of Christie for almost ten years. In that time, Aaron became distracted by the existence of supernatural beings and his new friendship with Tommy, almost completely forgetting about the girl who used to live next door.
The eventual rise of social media allowed Christie to track Aaron down, letting her get in contact after so many years had passed. She was a rebel now, nineteen years old and as tough as they came. The natural brown of her hair was dyed as black as night and she had begun to amass a collection of different piercings. But however she looked on the outside, Christie was still pretty much the same girl beneath. Her wild exterior masked the kind and caring person that she still was inside, even though she tried to deny it. A passion for music had helped her survive her teenage years, however she hadn't made it through entirely unscathed.
Christie told Aaron about her life growing up and how she had almost destroyed herself through addiction at an unbelievably young age. Florida was far from the best place to raise children, and she wasn't the only kid to fall victim to drugs and alcohol. She had managed to clean up her act since, but not before she had been roughed up by a string of abusive boyfriends. Aaron found everything about Christie’s unfortunate tale upsetting, but he could still see the hope that she held in her heart. She was battered, bruised and scarred, but far from broken. It was plain to see that Christie Reece was a fighter and above all, a survivor.
Aaron felt bad that he couldn't really share much about his own life in return. He wasn't sure that Christie would believe what he had witnessed or that she would understand his choice of vocation. However, he did share the fact that he had left New Hampshire to pursue his own goals in life. He told Christie about his friend Tommy and how they had both left town to rescue him from his dead end life in the trailer park. What he couldn't say was that it was only a small part of the entire reason, as he didn't think that the story of the Witchwood Shrine they had found deep within an old bunker, or the secrets it held, would go down so well.
After so many years apart, Aaron and Christie finally met face to face while he was passing through the south of Georgia 'on business’. She had taken a few days off work to focus on her songwriting and their timing just seemed to work. It was also the first time that she had met Tommy, which to Aaron’s surprise led on to something that he never expected.
The pair really hit it off despite th
eir differences, and they continued to stay in contact throughout the months that followed. More than once, Aaron caught his friend up late at night, talking to Christie on the phone. It was something that turned into a regular occurrence, with Tommy making excuses to see her at every opportunity, which was unusual for someone who hated the hot climate in the Southern States. He told her everything about himself, which was a privilege shared by few except Aaron. His life was an open book for her to read, including his dad’s alcoholism and the beatings that often followed, his mother's neglect and the acting out that led to countless run-ins with the police.
The sharing didn't stop there, with Tommy telling Christie everything about his encounters with supernatural creatures and his choice to become a hunter too. However she wasn't scared off by his honesty and actually believed every word of it, becoming fascinated with their experiences and everything that they had seen over the years.
Abandoning what she described as her stagnant life, Christie travelled with Aaron and Tommy for a while, learning everything that she could from them about what they did and the dark world they lived in. A world where monsters lurked in the shadows and only those with open minds could see the truth. And for a time, everything seemed to work out well, until the day that Tommy and Christie began to argue about how to spend their lives together.
It was surprisingly Tommy that decided that he wanted to settle down and start afresh somewhere quiet, but Christie wanted to continue their life of action and exploration. She loved to help other people and wasn't ready to stop, yet he had begun to tire of it. There was a time when all he wanted to do was hunt monsters, yet his opinion had gradually shifted over the years. He wanted out, and Aaron wasn't about to stop him, but Christie had a different opinion. She wanted them to all keep hunting together and was far from ready to give up.
Everything changed the day Christie disappeared during a routine missing persons case out in the Midwest. A week long search turned up very little, with Tommy barely sleeping as he became obsessed with finding her alive. It was that sheer determination, backed up with Aaron’s investigative skills that eventually got them the clues that they needed to track her down to an old farmhouse in the middle of the countryside. It seemed that she had become the most recent victim in a string of kidnappings that the police had yet to solve, and no-one ever suspected the kindly old farmer who had lived amongst the townsfolk for years.
Aaron could still remember the unwritten melody of wind chimes as their sound was carried across the open fields by a gentle spring breeze. He could still picture the farmer in his overalls facing him in a standoff, yelling with words that weren't his own. It was unexpected at the time, but it turned out that the man had been a victim too. The farmer had somehow been possessed by the ghost of his dead wife, who had been so overcome with jealousy towards other women that she forced him to abduct them from town and carry them back to the storm cellar at the farm.
It was strange to watch a man argue with himself, with two separate personalities at war with each other, the unstable situation resolving itself in a way that Aaron had wanted to avoid. He was left in shock, watching helplessly as the innocent man died, the bullet Tommy put in his brain releasing the woman’s spirit as she lost the only thing tethering her to the land of the living. As he charged into the open cellar door to find his beloved, Aaron was left kneeling over the farmer’s lifeless body, feeling sick to his stomach about how events had unfolded.
There was no stopping Tommy when someone he cared for was in danger, and Christie was the only woman in his life that he had ever loved, which turned him into a nigh unstoppable force. He vanished down into the storm cellar for quite some time before emerging with her held tightly in his arms, her naked body wrapped up in a thick woolen blanket, hair matted with dirt. Both of them remained silent, with neither of them ever mentioning what had gone on down there. Whatever had happened, Tommy refused to leave the farm until the place was in flames, standing watch over the inferno until he was sure that the house would be nothing more than a smouldering pile of ash.
Despite what had occurred at the farmhouse, Aaron still believed that Tommy and Christie belonged together and he was sure that they would be even closer now. However, something about what happened that dreadful day caused them to get into fights more than ever before. Tommy just wanted to protect Christie, but she was adamant that she didn't need his protection. A split started to form between the two of them and their relationship took a turn for the worse.
The constant arguments eventually became too much for Christie to bear and she left Tommy to head back to Florida where she could work on her music, deciding that it was for the best that they went their separate ways. She had apparently lost the taste for hunting, which was the polar opposite of Tommy who had now become more driven than ever before. He became single minded in purpose, pushing Aaron to find more work and more cases to solve. Any thoughts of settling down had seemingly been wiped from his head as he began to smoke like a chimney and drank the days away.
A couple more years passed by and Aaron could see that Tommy was feeling lonely, despite his many flings and one night stands. Nothing seemed to fill the void that Christie's departure had left within him. It was actually Aaron’s suggestion that they should go and visit her in Florida, with the hope that his friends would be able to rekindle their relationship and pick up where they left off. It was that misguided notion that set into motion the events that would result in Christie’s death and leave Tommy a broken man. A poor judgement that still weighed Aaron down with guilt.
Tommy decided to leave Aaron behind at their motel room, heading to talk with Christie alone. Unfortunately, his plan to win her back quickly backfired, largely due to his pride and hot headedness. According to him, Christie had fallen in with a bad crowd and he was convinced that she was using again. His clumsy attempts at trying to help her only served to cause more strife, the conversation blowing up into one of their worst arguments ever. The usual harsh words were exchanged, with neither of them truly meaning the things that were said, but that didn't matter. The fight ended with Tommy storming off, leaving Christie with her bandmates and their manager, a man that introduced himself as Frank. The argument itself would have been inconsequential if it wasn't for what happened afterwards.
It was early the next day when Tommy was violently dragged from his motel room by police officers who presented a warrant for his arrest. Aaron could still recall the devastation that he felt as they informed him of Christie’s death. The three of them had been through so much together that he struggled to accept that it could end so suddenly. According to the police reports, she had died from a drug overdose under suspicious circumstances. They believed that there had been foul play and that her death was actually a murder that had been made to look like an accident. It seemed that there were several eyewitnesses too, each reporting that Tommy’s fight with Christie had escalated, which came as no real surprise due to it occurring in a public place.
The biggest shock was that Tommy was the prime suspect in the supposed murder, despite the obvious lack of proof and the fact that he had been drinking at a bar across town when she died. Of course, it didn't help that Aaron couldn't be his alibi, as he hadn't been with him at the time, and no one else came forward to confirm that they had seen him there.
Tommy’s harsh treatment in jail never made the news, nor did it result in any official action being taken, as he didn't want to dwell on the events any longer than he had to. Police brutality was putting it mildly, as he was eventually released with broken ribs and bruises in places that could be hidden away from prying eyes. The officers involved had been careful to avoid his face, as any obvious injuries would have resulted in an enquiry, but the physical scars were nothing compared to the mental torture that he had endured. Their cruelty had done more to Tommy than he would ever care to admit and he left jail a changed man.
It took the detectives investigating the case far too long to work out that they didn't ha
ve enough evidence to hold Tommy any longer. They begrudgingly released him as the investigation continued, but made sure to keep a close eye on his movements. In the end, none of it seemed to matter to the detectives in charge, as Christie's death soon became just another unsolved case.
The body was eventually released from the morgue, with Christie's family holding a funeral soon after. It was a closed casket affair, as Mrs Reece wanted to remember her daughter the way she had been instead of seeing her for what she had become. Christie’s mother made sure to make Tommy feel as though his presence was unwanted and even went as far to scream at him during the wake. Surprisingly, he stayed silent and didn’t have any comebacks or witty retorts, just taking the full brunt of the woman’s anger as he hung his head in shame.
Aaron knew that his friend loved Christie more than anyone else he had ever known. He was extremely passionate, but didn't have it in him to kill her. Something else had to be going on and Aaron was pretty sure that Frank was to blame, but any proof was impossible to come by due to what Aaron claimed to be a professional cover-up. Someone or something was watching out for him and cleaning up after him too, but Tommy no longer seemed to care. He just wanted to bury the past along with Christie and didn't feel the need to dredge up old memories that he had tried so hard to forget.
Until their recent encounter with Christie and the discovery of her true fate, Tommy had never spoken to Aaron about his feelings, even though he knew that his friend was there to help him work through it in whatever way he could. He was a private person who kept to himself, which meant that the best way for Aaron to help was by simply being there. He did his best to keep his friend occupied with work, so that the beer and cigarettes wouldn't take over completely. The broken man had a habit of drowning his sorrows in the bottom of a glass and at the rate he drank, it would surely be the end of him.
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