Sideshow (Haunted Series Book 26) Read online

  Sideshow

  A Haunted Series novel

  By Alexie Aaron

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ~

  Copyright 2019 – Diane L. Fitch writing as Alexie Aaron

  ALSO BY ALEXIE AARON

  HAUNTED SERIES

  in order

  The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow

  Ghostly Attachments

  Sand Trap

  PEEPs Lite: Eternal Maze 3.1

  PEEPs Lite: Homecoming 3.2

  Darker than Dark

  The Garden

  Puzzle

  Old Bones

  Things that Go Bump in the Night

  Something Old

  PEEPs Lite: Checking Out 9.1

  PEEPs Lite: Ice and Steel 9.2

  The Middle House: Return to Cold Creek Hollow

  Renovation

  Mind Fray

  The Siege

  NOLA

  Never Forget

  The Old House

  Restitution

  A Rose by Any Other Name

  The Long Game

  Given Enough Rope

  The Return

  Risen

  The Candle

  Book of Souls

  A Daughter of Nyx

  Sideshow

  CID GARRETT P.I. SERIES

  Cid

  High Court

  Tiny Houses

  Coming soon: The Promise

  CIN FIN-LATHEN MYSTERIES

  Decomposing

  Death by Saxophone

  Discord

  The Wages of Cin

  Unforgivable Cin: An Opera in Three Acts

  I dedicate this book to everyone who has faced tragedy, be it man-made or natural. This book is for those who see life as being more than bricks and mortar, overfilled bank accounts, and having the latest thing.

  I also dedicate this book to the first responders.

  ~

  Life on this planet is a circus, and we are but sideshow freaks and oddities who live, love, and learn.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Glossary

  Alexie Aaron

  Chapter One

  Ted moved as fast as he could as the tunnel collapsed around him. He abandoned running upright when his height became a problem. He adjusted his sense of balance and fought the inclination to stop. He could see the light. He had to get there! The groan of timbers holding too much weight filled his ears, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they would break, and the rocks and dirt would bury him forever.

  How had he gotten into this situation? He was too smart to have missed all the signs. He was a meticulous planner, and in doing so, he never found a reason to panic. Water oozed up from the floor of the tunnel. The stones became slippery, and the dirt was now mud sucking at his feet. His legs burned, but he had to continue. Mia was counting on him. Mia, pregnant with the twin daughters he begged her to have. What was he thinking? They already had three boys!

  The light was dimming. He threw his body forward, crawling as the tunnel closed around him. His last thought was, “At least I didn’t blow myself up.”

  The aroma of strong coffee filled his nostrils. He must be dead and moving quickly to his heaven. The light…

  “Ted,” Mia said. “You’ve wrapped yourself up in the comforter.”

  Ted opened his eyes. His left arm was extended over his head. He struggled to sit up, but he was wrapped tight.

  “Whoa, tiger, lie still, and let me unwrap you,” Mia said firmly. “You’re going to roll off the bed and hurt yourself.”

  Ted did as he was told. Soon he felt cooler air on his face. Mia rolled him to the other side of the bed and his arms and legs were free. His left arm tingled as the blood moved more easily through his veins.

  “You’re very warm,” Mia said, placing her hand on his forehead. “Are you feeling alright?”

  “I was trapped in a tunnel trying to get to you,” he explained. “I’ve been running all night.”

  Mia pushed the sodden auburn curls away from his face. “Well, you found me. I’m safe, Teddy Bear.” Ted was feverish. Mia didn’t like the way his heart was racing. She had to cool him off. “I think you’ve caught Brian’s stomach virus.”

  “I never get sick,” Ted protested.

  “Hold still,” Mia said as she ran her hands over his body. She could find no other reason for the fever. Mia dashed to the bathroom and brought out a bucket just in time for Ted to lose the contents of his stomach.

  Ted groaned.

  Mia held him until the spasms subsided. Ted lay back on the pillow. Mia moved quickly to the bathroom to empty the bucket. She brought it back along with a basin of cool water and a washcloth. She washed his face and eased him out of his sweat-soaked boxers.

  “Sorry, Minnie Mouse, I can’t service you tonight,” Ted said.

  “I’m not asking, and it’s eleven in the morning,” Mia explained, tugging on a pair of batman boxers over his long legs.

  A light knock on the door preceded Dieter.

  “Your dad’s got the stomach virus,” Mia said.

  “How can I help?”

  “Get him to the bathroom. He’s chucked up his guts, and soon the other end is going to…”

  “Save it, I know the drill,” Dieter said, having just got over the worst of it himself. “Come on, Dad,” he encouraged. “Lean on me. There you go.”

  Mia stripped the mattress of the sodden bedding. “I knew something was up when I woke up first,” she said to herself. She tugged on a fresh mattress pad. Working her way around the bed, she thought back, and she never remembered Ted being sick either. Was it the strength of the virus or the long nights in the office he had been putting in?

  A very ill Brian brought the virus home that had quickly closed the preschool. It worked quickly through the Martin household. First Varden, then Dieter, and Lazar fell ill. Lazar’s grandmother, Sophia, came to help, insisting that Mia had no business wiping her grandson’s behind - not that she did. Lazar, even ill, was a very capable individual. A raging virus didn’t stop the one-legged veteran’
s need to be independent. He banned Mia, who was just out of her first trimester of pregnancy, from his room.

  Sophia preferred to be called Babcia, which meant grandmother in Polish. She brewed teas and broths for the fallen males while keeping an eye on Mia.

  “You do too much. you have two babies to think of,” she scolded Mia.

  “Yes, Babcia,” Mia said, trying to look contrite. “I’ll be careful.”

  Babcia taught Mia how to infuse crone magic into the remedies. She recently suspected that Mia carried the magical gene. Maybe this was why Lazar felt comfortable living in their household. According to Babcia, there could be no other reason. Her daughter Magda had other fanciful ideas that Babcia wisely rejected.

  The crone gene had been transferred from Lazar to Mia when the archangel Raphael decided to heal Mia of the instability she fought because of exorcising the demon from her body. He required a dark gene to balance the light ones. At the time of the transfer, Lazar wouldn’t have been able to pass his gene along because of his sterility. Lazar had lost his ability to produce sperm, along with his left leg, due to a roadside bomb. He gave his heritage to Mia on the promise that she would have a daughter so that the crone line could continue. Mia had yet to understand how to use the power of the crone. She knew she had better study up on it because she now carried two daughters who would be carrying the gene.

  Mia picked up Ted’s phone and called the office.

  “It’s about time you woke up,” an irritated Cid barked into the phone.

  “I’ve been awake for hours,” Mia said.

  “Sorry, I just assumed it was your husband,” Cid said.

  “How are you feeling?” Mia asked.

  “Hot and my stomach is churning.”

  “Slap up a quarantine sign on the office door and come straight over.”

  “Why?”

  “Ted’s got the stomach virus. I suspect you’re a few hours behind him.”

  “He never gets sick.”

  “And yet he’s becoming one with the toilet,” Mia said. “Come over. The guestroom is three strides from the boys’ bathroom.”

  “I’m going home.”

  “Cid Garrett, I can’t take care of you at your house and Ted here. Do I have to call your mother?”

  “No. I’m coming.”

  “Good. Have Jake transfer all PEEPs calls to Burt or Mike. Have him send any drain-game alerts to me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Ted wobbled out of the bathroom with Dieter close, just in case he needed an arm. They tucked Ted under the fresh cool sheets. Mia walked out for a moment and came back with Varden’s old crib monitor and clipped it on the lampshade, directing the camera down on the now sleeping Ted.

  “I need to find another one of these,” Mia said.

  “Why?”

  “Uncle Cid is feeling queasy. I’m putting him in the guestroom.”

  “You could put him in here. Make it a sick ward.”

  “Remember when we tried to put Brian and Varden in the same room when this started?”

  “They played, argued, and vomited everywhere,” Dieter said. “That’s how I got it.”

  “Cid and Ted are about the same level of maturity. We need to separate them.”

  “I heard that,” Ted mumbled and fell back asleep.

  “He won’t remember,” Mia said confidently.

  Cid trudged into the farmhouse from the back door. Lazar, who was unloading the groceries Mia had bought, grabbed Cid and settled him in a chair before he fainted.

  Mia walked in and looked at the green-faced investigator and shook her head. “I had hoped to get him upstairs and settled before he blows chunks.”

  Cid put his head on the table. “Your language isn’t helping.”

  “I could call Babcia,” Lazar offered.

  “No, she taught me all I need to know to speed this thing along, but we’re going to need some help getting him up the stairs.” Mia walked to the front door, opened it, and shouted, “MURPHY!”

  Stephen Murphy had just finished resupplying his deer mangers with hay when he heard Mia calling him. He moved quickly to the farmhouse and to the woman who would always have his heart. She stood there radiant; although, her face had a pinched look of worry.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Ted and Cid have caught the virus. Cid’s in the kitchen. Could you help move him up to the guestroom? Dieter had trouble with Ted, and Ted only has half Cid’s muscles.”

  “I heard that,” Ted’s weak voice drifted down from the upper story.

  “He won’t remember,” Mia said to comfort herself.

  “I’ll carry him. Hold my axe,” Murphy said, handing the spectral weapon to Mia as he moved past her.

  Lazar watched as Cid was hefted across the ghost’s shoulder and moved quickly down the hall, up the stairs, and laid down gently on the guestroom bed. Dieter already had a bucket ready.

  Mia arrived with Cid’s pack swung over one shoulder. “Thank you, Murph. Dieter, could I ask you to take the boys to the aerie? Murphy, could you watch them until I can see if Susan is available?”

  “Playoffs,” Dieter said.

  Cid launched himself off the bed and dashed to the bathroom.

  “Maybe Ralph…” Mia said, distracted. She waited until the sounds of Cid emptying his stomach stopped before entering the bathroom. “I love a man with a good aim.”

  “She’s taking on too much,” Dieter said to Murphy.

  “Excuse me,” Brian said, tugging on Dieter’s pant leg. “Varden is screeching in the playroom.”

  Murphy moved quickly to the room. Dieter followed him in, taking the more conventional route, using doorways instead of walls.

  “What’s going on?” Dieter asked his brother.

  “I’m protecting the nest,” Varden said. “Mommy’s tired.”

  A loud banging on the door downstairs shook the house.

  “Four bangs. We can answer it,” Dieter said, pulling Varden up into his arms and running down the stairs.

  Lazar was already there and opened the door to a wall of feathers. Wings were retracted, and there stood the former commander of the birdman squadron.

  “We have a stomach virus here,” Lazar warned. “Try not to touch anything, and if you do, wash your hands.”

  Nicholai grimaced. “I’ve brought you help.”

  “How did you know?” Lazar asked.

  “Varden called me,” Nicholai said, pushing through the door. He stood back and held the door open for a very tall, stout woman. “This is Nanny Berta.”

  Nanny Berta’s hair was a mixture of gray and faded red. Her green eyes were sharp, but her smile was gentle. She took Varden from Dieter who was still weak. “There now, Varden, nothing to worry about. I’m here to help your mommy. You, sir, what is your name?”

  Dieter, who was surprised to be called sir, took a moment. “I’m Dieter Martin, Varden’s older brother.”

  “Your knees are still shaking. Off to bed with you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “No. Yes, Nanny Berta,” she corrected.

  “Yes, Nanny Berta,” Dieter repeated and climbed the stairs.

  “Nicholai, this one-legged hawk is teetering too. Catch him before he falls down.”

  Nicholai assisted Lazar to the nearest chair.

  “Nicholai!” Brian said, running down the stairs.

  “Stop! You, sir, go back up and walk down like a gentleman and not a scamp,” Nanny Berta ordered.

  Brian, who was a bit confused and wary of the tall woman, climbed back up the stairs. He walked down, making sure to hold the rail. He walked past the bossy lady and over to Nicholai and asked, “Who’s the general?”

  “Who does he remind you of?” Nicholai asked Nanny Berta.

  “Victor. I cured him of his smart mouth, but I sense this one is going to be tougher.”

  “This one’s name is Brian,” Brian said snootily.

  “Well, Mr. Brian, I need you to help Nicholai get
this man to his quarters.”

  “But I’m just a kid.”

  “You can fluff a pillow, can’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, Nanny Berta.”

  “Yes, Nanny Berta.”

  “Good. Now go. He’s looking a bit gray.”

  Nicholai lifted the veteran up and carried him out of the room.

  “Mommy’s upstairs,” Varden said and kissed the side of Nanny’s face.

  “You remember me, don’t you?”

  “Varden loves Nanny Berta.”

  With much effort, Mia stripped the T-shirt off Cid. She slipped one of Ted’s larger ones over Cid’s head, remembering his childhood aversion to having his chest bare. She tucked him in, resisting the motherly urge to kiss him on the forehead. She grabbed his soiled clothing, left the room, and walked into a wall of sweet-smelling, cloth-covered muscle.

  “Excuse me, I wasn’t looking,” Mia said, looking up at the giant holding her son. “Varden, who’s your new friend?”

  “Nanny Berta,” Varden said. “She’s come to help you, Mommy.”

  “What do they call you besides Mommy?” Nanny Berta asked.

  “Mia.”

  “Mia, take care of your bundle and meet me in the nursery,” Nanny Berta instructed.

  “Yes, Nanny Berta,” Mia said, after receiving whispered instructions from Varden in her head.

  The woman walked into the nursery and tsk-tsked.

  Mia frowned, knowing it wasn’t as clean as it should be. But she had been very busy. Mia tossed Cid’s clothes in the basket holding the bedding from her room. She leaned against the wall for a moment.

  Murphy watched her draw energy before she brushed away a tear of frustration, steeled her spine, and walked to the nursery.

  The birdwoman walked through to the sitting room. She traversed the toy-covered floor to the rocking chair and sat down. She rocked Varden until his lids shut. “There now, go to dreamland. Your mission is completed.”