by Rick Wood
With the last, sincere five words she spoke to him she darted out of the room, and Eddie could hear her feet banging against the steps as she rushed upstairs.
Eddie looked at the number in his hand that he had been given, reading the name ‘Derek Landy, PhD, Paranormal Investigator.’ Why had she handed him a number for a paranormal investigator? And what had she seen that had freaked her out so much?
Telling himself it was all an act, he walked out of the house, stuffing the number into his back pocket.
18
24 August 1995
Eddie lay wide awake, gazing at the ceiling. He hadn’t called the paranormal investigator; the card he had been given was still slotted into the back pocket of his jeans, untouched. He’d spent the last few days considering calling them, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Every time he did, he reminded himself he didn’t believe in that stuff. He was an atheist. Despite what monstrosities his mind had shown him, he was still a rational person who did not let himself get drawn into ridiculous claims.
But there was still that niggling thought at the back of his mind, the thought that reminded him of what he had seen. The accurate description of Balam, the woman in front of him clear as day, the sight of his sister… it all added up to a compelling argument for making a leap of faith.
He retrieved the card and turned it in his fingers, intrigued by Derek Landy’s title. Was this guy really in charge of a parapsychology department at a university? And even really have a PhD?
I mean, a PhD? In that? Ridiculous.
He closed his eyes and finally drifted off into a vivid dream. Cassy stood in front of him, but not in a sinister, captive way; the scene felt pleasant. Sun shined down upon them, red leaves grew on trees and grass bloomed around the path they were on. It was a memory. He was teaching her to ride the bike. The same bike that had smashed… but he banished that thought from his mind and enjoyed the dream.
She was driving down a path without the stabilizers for the first time. His parents were somewhere arguing, but it didn’t matter, he was there to enjoy this pivotal moment. He was sharing this experience with her.
The bike wobbled, stumbling from side to side. Eddie’s eleven-year-old self ran up to her and caught the bike before she could fall off, but as a result, it meant the bike and Cassy fell on top of him. She found it hilarious. He didn’t at first, but he laughed along eventually.
Then she turned to him and smiled.
“I’m sorry for falling on you,” she giggled.
“It’s okay,” Eddie beamed, brushing himself off and helping her to her feet.
“Are you going to save me?”
Eddie turned his head with a start. This wasn’t part of the memory.
“What?”
“Are you going to save me, Eddie?”
Her eyes turned to car headlights and her mouth unbolted into a mind-numbing shriek.
CRACK.
Eddie jolted up with a start. He was drenched in sweat and he was panting fast, but the room was still. He was still on the sofa bed, the living room was empty, and the trees stood still through the gap in the curtains.
To the side of him he saw his glass of water. The top of it had cracked and water had leaked from it, but it still stood motionless on the table beside him.
Eddie couldn’t understand how it had done that. He stared and stared at it, completely unsure.
Then it cracked again.
SMASH!
The glass exploded into hundreds of shattered pieces, firing themselves about the room. Eddie shielded himself but it was too late; tiny fragments of glass were in his hair and stuck in his bare torso. He dabbed his face and felt a cut, blood trickling down his chin.
“Shit.”
He got up and brushed his shorts, legs, and chest off. He took his towel off the back of the armchair and brushed the glass from his face before dabbing his cut.
Shuffle.
He hastily turned his head to the sound coming from behind him. Shadows consumed the corners of the room, but he could see no movement in them, no evidence that this sound had come from anywhere but his mind.
He flicked the light switch, but the lights did not come on. Remaining in darkness, he bit his lip; moonlight was the only illumination seeping into the room via in a narrow gap in the curtains.
He continued drying his face off. It was nothing. He was sure of it.
Crunch.
He shot his head around again. It was as if someone had just stood on a leaf.
Dumping the towel on the floor, he edged his way toward the dark corner across the room where he was sure the sound had come from, peering into the darkness, not removing his eyes for a moment.
“Is anyone there?” he whispered. He wasn’t sure why, as he really didn’t want anyone to answer. Luckily for him, no one did.
Shuffle. Crunch.
The noises came again, from the exact spot he was staring at. It was pure black; he couldn’t be sure there was nothing there. But there couldn’t be. There couldn’t.
“Is anyone there?”
Silence ensued. Then it was broken.
“Eddie,” came a whisper.
He couldn’t tell who it was; the whisper was so faint that all characteristics of the voice had left it.
“Jenny? Lacy? Is that you?”
“Eddie…” came the whisper again, this time a little louder, though still relatively soft. He could decipher that it was a voice in distress.
“Who’s there?” he asked, edging closer to the darkness still. His hand was out and he was now just a few steps away.
“Eddie…” it repeated. He could tell it was a girl’s voice.
He was next to the shadow now. His toe was crossing the threshold to whatever was there, and he was about to face it.
“Eddie… it’s Cassy…”
He froze. Stumped. Rooted to the floor.
Cassy?
Before he could conceive what was happening, he was launched off his feet and across the room, landing on his back. He tried to get up, but couldn’t; whatever it was, it was securing him to the floor with more strength than he could fight.
“Cassy? Is that you?” he struggled.
It cackled, and before his face he saw the woman from his mind. The hollow black eyes, the empty mouth, the grey skin, the black greasy hair… it was all there. The beast. The servant of Balam.
The thing that had his sister.
“What do you want, you bitch?”
Mistake.
He was ascended into the air, the pressure of a tight fist wrapping around his neck. He couldn’t make out the form before him through the darkness and the dizziness of his vision, but he could feel its cold, clammy hand pressing against his throat.
His feet dangled helplessly. He thrashed out and fought against the black lines that led to his throat, but his hands just went through them. Like it wasn’t there.
But it was.
A slicing pain flashed across his arm as he was lunged against the wall, falling on his knees and clutching the bloody mark across his bicep.
The light switched on and Jenny appeared in the doorway.
“Eddie? What the hell?”
Eddie couldn’t reply. All he could do was nurse the bleeding wound on his arm.
“What have you done?” Jenny asked, indicating the blood seeping from his skin.
“You can see it too?” he answered in dumbfounded awe. It was a wound created by this thing. She could see it. He could feel it. What had happened was real.
He needed help.
19
25 August 1995
“So you want to bring some weirdo paranormal dorks into my house and have them watch you sleep?” Jenny exclaimed, her hands on her hips and her patience short.
Lacy sat back in her chair and smirked, finding the whole thing amusing. Eddie glanced at her as he sat forward on his sofa bed, running his hands through his hair.
“I think it would re
ally help me, Jenny,” he claimed. “Something’s going on with me, and maybe they would help me figure it out.”
“Yes, Eddie, something is going on with you, and it is not paranormal – it’s pretty fucking abnormal, but it’s not ghosts.”
“Lacy?” Eddie looked to the voice of reason for help. “Are you okay with this?”
“Hey, don’t ask me, ask the boss,” she retorted, refusing to get involved.
“I’m not having it.” Jenny vigorously shook her head, straightening up coasters and shuffling magazines into a neat pile.
“Jenny, come on, they aren’t even going to bother you,” Eddie pleaded. “They are coming to study me, see what I do. They won’t even be going upstairs.”
“But you’re still going to have some nuts in my house.”
“Jenny, please. They say this is the only way.”
Jenny sighed and leant against the armchair, rubbing her sinus between her fingers and shaking her head. She couldn’t believe this was even a conversation she was having. He was her oldest friend, but what was wrong with him needed more rational help, rather than a bunch of ghost freaks. Although, as her oldest friend, he had been there in times for her when she needed him. Back when she had revealed her sexuality to her parents, she had spent nights crying into his arms; not once did he falter or question her choices.
“How are they going to help you?” she asked, Eddie sensing he may have a chance.
“They think there is something hanging around me, and they say it may be why I keep sleepwalking and waking up on the lawn. They think if they saw me sleep, when I’m at my most vulnerable, they may be able to get some idea why it is these things keep happening to me.”
Jenny shook her head and groaned. “I still think it’s total bullshit. If you’ve got problems, it’s ‘cause of you, not ‘cause of Casper.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “But if you really think it’s going to help you, then… fine. Whatever.”
Eddie jumped forward and gave Jenny a big bear hug.
“Thank you Jenny, you’re the best. I love you!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Jenny broke out of Eddie’s overeager embrace and stood back. “So when are they coming?”
“Tonight?”
She turned to Lacy. “Fancy a night out then?”
“What? Screw that!” Lacy exclaimed. “I want to see what these weirdos are going to do to him.”
Eddie snorted. Being honest, he didn’t completely believe he was going through with this himself. But if he had to take another vicar or psychic jumping away from him and recoiling in horror, he would lose it. Even if this was bullshit, at least it would be put to bed.
But Eddie could never have been prepared for the events of that night.
*
The paranormal investigators weren’t at all what Eddie was expecting. Saying that, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting; but these two, professional-looking, educated men were not it.
Derek introduced himself first. A tall man, wearing a waistcoat over a smart white shirt, black tie, and black trousers. He had his hair neatly parted, a neat goatee and large, circular, black glasses. He appeared to be a thorough professional; greeting Eddie, then Jenny and Lacy, with a firm shaking of the hand and a welcome smile.
Levi followed Derek in, carrying a bag over his shoulder and two overflowing suit-cases full of equipment in either hand, dumping them down in the living room and shaking Eddie’s hand more loosely than Derek had, but firmly nonetheless. He was dressed less formally, introduced by Derek as his ‘best student,’ prompting Levi to look a little smug as he brushed some of his messy hair out of his face. He too was wearing a shirt, tie, and trousers, but his top button was undone and his trousers were a little baggy.
“Your best student?” Eddie enquired.
“Yes, my very best,” Derek confirmed, walking past Eddie and examining all corners of the living room.
“He’s my mentor on my degree,” Levi interjected, to clear up the confusion. “I’m currently doing my thesis on sleep paralysis induced by paranormal phenomena.”
“So you work at a university?” Lacy asked Derek, bemused, who nodded in return.
Eddie didn’t need to glance at Jenny in the armchair behind him to know what face she was pulling, most likely turning her head away, covering her face in her hand and rolling her eyes. He could, however, see Lacy perched on the arm of the sofa with a smile; intrigued and fascinated.
“So, Eddie, could you take us to your bedroom?” Derek prompted.
“You’re standing in it.” Eddie chuckled at the awkwardness of the situation. “This is my sofa bed.”
“Ah, I see.”
Lacy jumped off the arm of the sofa bed to allow Derek a closer look. He inspected and scrutinized each crevice and fold of the sofa, not making it at all clear what he was looking in such avid detail for. As he was searching, he continued to ask Eddie questions.
“So, this woman, you say you’ve seen her before?”
“Yeah, I was knocked out and put in a coma as a child, I saw her then. Then I almost drowned and was put in a coma a few months ago; I saw her again then. I say coma… I was technically braindead. Then, in my therapist’s office the other day…”
“You were braindead?”
“Yes, they said only one in a billion wake up after being declared braindead.”
“Far less than that actually.”
“There’s also, I mean, I saw this woman… but when I crossed over, I also saw…” he trailed off, unable to say it out loud. Not with Jenny in the room. Saying he may believe a three-headed demon may have his sister’s soul was likely more than she would be able to take.
Derek straightened up and began rubbing his chin. “I see. And how long were you in a coma, each time?”
“Er, when I was a kid it was like, a few days. I think the last one it was a few months.”
Derek nodded and strode past him to Levi. “I want one here, here, and here,” he instructed, pointing at various corners of the room. “Set the EVP microphone by the bed, set the ultraviolet camera here…”
“The ultraviolet camera?” Eddie was fascinated, if not a little freaked out.
“Yes, it takes a picture should anything, ‘spooky,’ shall we say, presents itself.” He gestured at Levi to set the camera up facing the sofa bed. “Then, Eddie, I think we should allow you to go to sleep.”
After fifteen minutes, everything was set up, Jenny and Lacy were in their bed, Derek and Levi were in the kitchen staring at various monitors, and Eddie lay in the sofa bed gazing at the ceiling. Glancing at the clock that read 11.32 p.m., he had no idea how he was going to sleep surrounded by various cameras pointing at him. Yet, after a matter of minutes, he found himself lightly drifting off. His eyes became heavy, rested, and he peacefully floated off to sleep.
Relaxation consumed him, every muscle in his body soft, sinking into a dreamless sleep… a dreamless sleep that became a sleep of pleasant dreams… A sleep of pleasant dreams that turned into nightmares, with her body floating above him, sucking every piece of his life out of his mouth.
He woke up screaming.
He continually screamed and screamed and screamed until he regained his senses. The first thing he saw was the clock showing 2.45 a.m. The next thing he acknowledged was the ultra violet camera flashing recurrently, bright-white lights blinding him every half a second.
He leant forward to grab at it but it fell on the floor; but once he was no longer in the camera’s view, it ceased flashing.
Raising his head, he gawped at the state the room was in. The armchair was overturned, light bulbs in the lights were smashed, curtains were torn down and papers were ripped all over the floor. Everyone was there. And they were all staring at Eddie with terrified, bloodshot eyes.
Levi huddled in the corner of the room, panting heavily, shielding his body with his arms. Lacy and Jenny were huddled together against the walls with their arms embracing each
other as a form of protection.
Derek was on his knees in the middle of the room. His hair was messy, swept back aerodynamically, as if he had been caught in the middle of a huge gale. His once neat suit was now scruffy and falling off of him. He held an arm out to Eddie cautiously, keeping his distance.
“Eddie? Is that you?”
“Yes,” Eddie replied with agitation. “Who else would it be?”
“Right, Eddie, we are going to need you to stay as still as you can.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
Everyone’s jaw was dropped. They couldn’t take their eyes off of him. They all kept a safe distance, scared yet fascinated. Eventually, Jenny stepped forward.
“Do you really have no idea?”
20
26 August 1995
Eddie sat at the table opposite Derek and Levi, each of them fidgeting their fingers around a mug of coffee they barely drank. Jenny and Lacy stood in the doorway with their arms around each other, wanting to be there, but not enough to cross the threshold and cease protecting each other.
“Eddie, what I’m about to tell you,” Derek began, fumbling to find the right words, “is hard to take, at first. But I believe it. I believe it one hundred percent, with every bone in my body. In fact, we’ve been waiting for something like this to come along for quite a while.”
“Okay…” Eddie looked weakly from him to Levi, an odd sense of despair overcoming him. People rarely prepared you like this for news if it was good. What made it worse was that, despite his trepidation, Derek looked giddy at the idea there may be something wrong.
“Your dream, when you were in the coma both as a child and the more recent incident,” Derek began, then paused, glancing at his coffee and taking in a big, deep breath. “It wasn’t a coma. There’s a reason you were braindead…”
Derek stopped fumbling his hands around the mug and made his upmost effort to stay still, directing his full focus on Eddie.
“When you were braindead, it’s because… well, you actually died.”
Eddie narrowed his eyebrows and sat back, looking at him oddly. “But I can’t have died. I mean, I’m alive now.”
“Yes, you are alive, I’m not doubting it. What I’m saying is that, for however long you were in the coma for, that wasn’t a coma. You were actually brain-dead, were you not? You, however temporarily, crossed over to, well, I don’t know quite how to put this… the other side.”