by K. C. Hunter
Melody peeked at AJ again from behind her mother’s leg, using it as a barrier between her and this stranger. AJ took a few steps forward and crouched down to the girl’s height. “I like Pony Girl. Maybe we can watch it sometime? Do you like her sister too?”
Melody’s eyes widened at the mention of Pony Girl’s sister. “I like… I like Strawberry Wink and Candy Heart and Pog.”
“Pog! He’s my favorite.”
“Yeah. And Pog and Penny are boyfriend and girlfriend. But I don’t like Snoodles.” Melody came out from behind her mother’s leg, one hand still holding firmly on Alice’s floral dress.
AJ scrunched his face. “Snoodles is bad, isn’t he?”
“Really bad.”
“They should mash his face in a cake.” AJ smashed one hand into the other.
She giggled. “They can’t do that silly.”
“Why not?”
“Then how would they eat the cake?” Melody laughed.
The two Pony Girl fans chatted for another twenty minutes. By that time, Kana finished her investigation of the house and returned to the living room to find her partner and the client’s daughter flipping through a coloring book.
“They’re hitting it off,” Mark said. AJ was signing Melody’s cast, drawing a stick figure pony with a long mane beside his signature.
“He’s talking about Pony Girl, isn’t he?” Kana shook her head. “I reserve judgment on a grown man knowing so much about a cartoon show for little girls.”
“He knows an awful lot about it, doesn’t he?” Alice laughed. “If it keeps her happy and makes her feel at ease with you two in the house, I don’t mind.” Her voice lowered. “So, tell me how this works.”
“We’ll finish looking around the house once AJ is done channeling his inner little girl. After that, we set up sensors and scanners to measure for electromagnetic fields. A few cameras will go upstairs in the bedrooms and hallway to capture anything that may happen.”
“It sounds complicated,” Alice said.
“It can be, but it's necessary to be thorough. Can we set up in your living room here?”
Mark nodded in agreement. “Sure. If you need anything else from us, just let me know.”
“I guess we’ll get started then.” Kana shook her head as AJ explained, in detail, the history of the Pony Girl cartoon to Melody. “AJ, it’s time to go to work. You can play with her doll collection later.”
A Trickle of Water
From late evening into early the next morning, Kana and AJ sat in darkness huddled around three laptops, watching the camera feeds from the hallway, the basement, and Melody’s bedroom. Alice and Mark took advantage of their new babysitters by getting a full night’s sleep for the first time in weeks, opting to sleep in their own bed while Kana and AJ took over the living room. The investigation officially began.
On the second night there was activity. AJ discovered it while playing back the footage recorded from Melody’s bedroom. The music box on her nightstand slid across the surface, unnoticeable when seeing it in real time but at high speed it was clear. The toy moved four inches over six hours. Although strange, the activity didn’t come close to the level of disturbance that Mark described to Kana at Scruffy’s.
The third night was even less eventful. The only thing Kana noticed were floating orbs in the hallway and basement, easily dismissed as dust.
By eleven o’clock on the fourth night, Kana called an audible and asked Mark if he could watch the video feed while she and AJ took a break and he agreed.
They found a big chain sports bar ten minutes from the McNeil’s neighborhood. There weren’t too many patrons here. Most were regulars filling in their Keno cards and rubbing scratch off tickets while a loud group of overweight middle-aged sports fans claimed a corner near the largest television. They were engrossed in a baseball game, crying foul after the star player struck out at the plate.
“What are we doing, AJ?” Kana turned her second shot of rum between her fingers. “Is this a big joke?”
“We will get paid either way.” He sipped his club soda. “At least I hope we will.”
“Do you think they’re scamming us?” Kana downed the shot.
“Why would they do that? It makes little sense.”
“Who knows? It’s not like we haven’t taken jobs from people who had their own weird reasons for hiring paranormal investigators.”
“I don’t see them as the type.” The shouts of the sports fans made AJ turn around, watching as the group of men applauded and yelled. “This is suburbia, Kana. As suburban as it gets.”
“Yeah, that’s my point. Maybe they’re doing this because it’s boring as hell out here. Look at these winners over here.” She motioned at the sports fans with her shot glass. “How much do you want to bet that this is their big night on the town?”
AJ turned back to the bar and took a sip of his club soda. “We’re being a little judgmental here. Didn’t you tell me it impressed you that Mark, who used to be on the wild side, was also proud of being a family man?”
One of the baseball fans fell backward, alcohol playing tricks with his equilibrium. Two of his friends helped him back up to his feet, asking him if he was okay to drive home. They dusted him off and ordered a glass of water from the waitress.
“You might have a point. That doesn’t explain why the most activity we’ve seen is a moving music box,” Kana said.
“Which might be caused by the motor inside. That'd make it vibrate across the table little by little.” AJ inched his glass across the bar top. “Do you want to pack it up after tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. I want to believe this guy. You should have seen his face when I met him at Scruffy's. The man was near tears. Either this is a scam or we’re missing something.”
“Or this thing—whatever it is—knows we’re there and doesn’t want us to find it.”
Kana knew there were spirits who played tricks, driving up the feelings of anxiety in their haunting victims by only revealing themselves to their prey. It wasn’t enough to reignite her interest in the case, but it’d keep her from walking away.
“I’ll say this, I didn’t drop out of Harvard and start this business just to chase around noises in the attic,” Kana said, waving the bartender over.
“You’re still worried about getting access to the underworld. You want bigger cases.” AJ took another sip of his club soda, swallowing hard. “Maybe we’re not meant for that, Kana. Sure, we’ve seen a lot of hoaxes. We’ve been made fun of. But this case, if it’s real, can be enough.”
The bartender poured another shot for Kana, placing a napkin underneath the glass, which Kana pushed aside once the bartender wasn’t looking. “Enough, huh? I studied under Professor Granger. He hand-picked me to be in his off-campus investigation group, taught me everything. The man thought I was some sort of paranormal prodigy.” She swirled the liquor in the glass before taking a sip, wiping a few drops from her lips. “All I’ve done since leaving Harvard is drink, hang around bars, and take on fluff cases.”
“You think Professor Granger would be disappointed in you if he knew what kind of cases we were taking?” AJ asked.
“Well, I don’t have to worry about running into him or any of his associates where I spend my time, now do I?”
“I always wondered why you spent so much time at Scruffy’s. You said I should make you a fake ID because it would come in handy one day. But…”
She glared at him. He didn’t need to go on, they both knew the main reason for the ID was to get her into bars, places where no one from the Ivy League would be caught dead at.
“Maybe for you it’s enough.” Kana finished her rum, slamming the glass on the bar top just enough to make a statement, but not enough to break it. “We’re good, AJ. We’re damn good. There’s an entire world out there—a whole underworld—that we’re missing out on. We’re small fries.” She glanced at the baseball game on television. “We’re not even on the bench. We’re not even in the
same league where the real stuff is going on. No one takes us seriously. Even the McNeils look at us like we’re two brats who don’t know what we’re doing. Doesn’t that bother you?”
AJ leaned back in his chair. “You’re talking about glory.”
Kana shook her head. “No, no nah-no-no-no, this isn’t about glory.” She pointed at him, her dark eyes squinting. “This is about making a difference. There’s so much more out there and we’re not allowed to see any of it. We can’t do anything taking low-level cases that usually turn out to be nothing. What difference can we possibly make here?”
Kana pushed the empty glass away from her and sulked. AJ watched her for a minute before turning his attention back to the baseball game. A father caught a fly ball in the stands and handed it to his daughter, a plucky child about the same age as Melody, who jumped up and down as she held the prize over her head.
AJ folded his hands around his glass. “We’re giving a little girl a chance to live a happy life. We can do for her what no one ever did for us as kids.”
Kana lifted her head from the bar and watched the little girl on the television. She wore a wide smile, missing two front teeth, and cared about nothing else in the world at that moment except for the baseball her dad gifted her. Kana patted AJ on the shoulder and ordered another shot of rum.
***
They returned to the McNeils an hour later. The black windows looked like empty eye sockets from the street, the columns bordering the front door like skeletal limbs. Kana’s stomach churned as she stepped through the growing fog lingering above the manicured grass.
The calm outside was drowned out by screams from upstairs once they entered. Melody’s shrieks, which Kana and AJ couldn’t hear before opening the front door, reverberated throughout the house. They rushed to the child’s bedroom where Alice was standing in the doorway with her hands covering her mouth. Mark held Melody down, her feet kicking wildly as he pinned her shoulders to the bed. She screamed right in his face, violently shaking and clawing at her father. Blood trickled from the scratches and cuts on his arms, his white undershirt ripped around the neckline.
Kana ran to the opposite side of the bed and took hold of the child’s other arm above the AJ’s signature on her cast. “What happened?”
Mark struggled to keep his grip on Melody’s arm. “She woke up like this a few minutes ago.” He jerked his head to the right as Melody lunged at him, teeth exposed.
“What’s happening to my little girl? What happening to my baby?” Alice cried out from the doorway, her palms pressed against her cheeks as tears flowed over her knuckles.
“We’ll do whatever we can to help her.” AJ said, putting his hand on Alice’s shoulders.
She shrugged him off. “Do something! Anything!”
AJ turned his attention from the wailing mother to the scene on the bed. What was there to do but throw himself into the fray and wait for this seizure to end? Mark and Kana were in control of the child’s hands, but her feet were kicking wildly. AJ grabbed Melody by the ankles and was kicked square in the chin for his trouble. Taking a moment to check for bleeding, AJ reasserted himself, laying his upper torso over her legs, hoping his weight would hold them down.
“Alice, I need you to get a glass of water, salt, and my bag from downstairs—the gray backpack with the Misfits patch on it,” Kana said, beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she strained to keep the child’s arm pinned to the bed.
Alice didn’t move an inch. Kana repeated herself, shouting loud enough to shake Alice out of her trance. She stumbled from the doorway and down the staircase to find Kana’s bag.
“What are you thinking?” AJ asked.
Kana avoided the clawing swipes from Melody who slipped her grasp. “Something my old teacher taught us years ago.” She turned back to Mark. “Are you a religious man, Mr. McNeil?”
“I used to be. Well, yes, I guess.”
“That’s good, because I’m not. So, you know the Lord’s blessing?” Mark nodded, losing hold of Melody’s arm and fighting to regain his grip. “I need you to bless the water when your wife comes back. Do you understand me?”
Mark clamped his hands over his daughter’s wrist, pushing it down to her side. “Is that going to work?” he asked.
“If what I’m thinking is right, it will.”
Alice scurried back into the bedroom with the items in hand. She nearly dropped the glass of water before setting it down the floor next to Kana along with the salt and backpack. She backed away as Melody shrieked, turning to the window and covering her ears, sobbing. “Please help my little girl.”
With the items beside her, Kana nodded to AJ, who let go of Melody’s legs and took Kana’s place at the top of the bed. He focused on his signature and stick figure drawing on her cast for a moment, the ink smudged from sweat and struggle. Seeing that AJ had a hold of her, Kana searched her backpack and pulled out a cross. Wooden and weathered, the symbol looked cheap, like something purchased at a gift shop. She gripped it tightly and waved Mark away, leaving AJ to secure both arms.
“Mark, I need you to bless the water first,” she said.
He hesitated. “I’ve never done this before.”
She handed him the glass of water, pushing a few wet strands of her black hair from her face as she clasped her hand around Mark’s. “Stay focused. Just recite the prayer over the water, then do the same to the salt.”
He looked up to the ceiling while stammering through the first few words of the prayer. They didn’t flow from his lips as he wanted. After a few tries, he recalled the full text, cleared his throat, and repeated them with conviction. Kana let go of him, went back to the bed, and picked up the salt. She saw AJ losing his grip on Melody’s arms, her arms moving too fast for him to hold her.
Kana poured the salt into her palm. “Are you okay, AJ?”
“No, I’m being outmuscled by a four-year-old,” he grunted, straining again to regain one of Melody’s loose arms.
Mark recited the prayer twice more before Kana returned to his side with the handful of salt. She dumped it into the water, took the glass from Mark, and stirred it with the bottom end of the cross. Melody’s screeches turned to gasps, her body arching upward as she struggled to breathe.
“Hurry up over there,” AJ said.
Kana grabbed Mark’s arm and pulled him to the foot of the bed, holding the glass of salt water in front of her. “Now, bless the water again, like this,” she said, waving her flattened palm back and forth over the glass.
Mark did as she instructed while reciting the prayer a third time. That should do it, Kana thought. She backed away from the bed and grabbed the glass with both hands. AJ let go of the child’s arms as Kana hurled the water over the bed, soaking Melody and the sheets.
Her arms and legs stopped flailing, her gasping ended, and her face relaxed.
“You did it!” Mark said, rushing to his daughter’s side and taking hold of her hand.
Kana leaned forward with her hands on her knees, her breaths labored. “Check her pulse. Her heart must be racing.”
Mark placed his fingers against Melody’s neck and smiled. “She’s okay. Thank God, she’s okay.”
Alice turned from the window. Once the realization set in that the incident was over, she rushed to the bed, wrapping her arms around her daughter. Mark brushed Melody’s forehead, her eyes opened, darting back and forth as she sat up.
“Are you okay, baby?” Alice asked, running her fingers through the girl’s hair.
“Mommy, what happened?”
Mark’s hug tightened. “It’s over, honey. I think it’s over.”
“We’ll have to look at the video before the attack happened and see if there’s anything on it.” Kana groaned as she stood upright. “There might be a clue what caused this. It might be tiny.” Her face twisted realizing AJ hadn’t responded. “AJ, did you hear me?”
She walked over to the side of the bed where AJ was, still kneeling on the floor, but his eyes were fixed
above the bed. She followed his gaze to see a single droplet of water lingering in the air, moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern as if it was breathing, or better yet, as if it was on someone breathing. Kana froze, fearing she’d upset this invisible force if she got too close to it. The droplet turned into a small stream of water, its path outlining an arm, rolling over the peaks and valleys of muscle, before dropping to the floor. The whole phenomena lasted for several moments, plenty of time for them to recognize it wasn’t an illusion or a figment of their imaginations.
“What in the hell?” AJ reached out to touch the liquid with his fingertips.
An invisible force knocked him to the floor with so much power he slid across the carpet to the wall. A rush of frigid air blew by Kana and out the bedroom door, whipping her long hair around her head. The entity escaped, leaving behind enough evidence of its existence that changed this case from a likely hoax to a certified event.
What’s Left Behind
Whatever it was that they fought in the bedroom perplexed the investigators. Kana and AJ reviewed the footage afterward, examining every frame to find any clue as to what the anomaly was.
“Stop. Look there. There’s a flicker over the bed right after she falls asleep.” Kana pointed to a distortion in the video, circling an area of the screen with her fingertip. “And fast forward. Yeah, there! You see how her arm lifted off the bed. It’s like something grabbed her.”
“So, it’s not a possession we’re dealing with. She’s being attacked.”
“And all that kicking was her trying to fight it off.” Kana noticed AJ rubbing under his chin. “How’s your face? Looks like she got you good.”
AJ winced as he hit a sore spot. “I’ve had worse. For a four-year-old she can kick like a horse.”
“That’s what happens when you’re fighting for your life.”
“Yeah, but what is she fighting?” AJ replayed the video. “Do you think this is a ghost? A demon? What’s your guess?”