Darker than Dark (Haunted Series) Read online

  “Is he drunk?” Julie heard her daughter ask. She ignored her and repeated herself.

  The teen got up and grabbed her father’s arm and put it over her shoulder. Between the two of them they got Richard into the suite and into bed. Henry had LED disks lit in every corner. The room was so bright that the five of them had to squint. Gwen, however, still held stubbornly to a flashlight and would not let go even when hours later the electricity was restored.

  Chapter Two

  Burt put down the phone and pulled his hand through his hair, trying to ease the stress he had picked up from the frantic couple he just talked to. Julie and Richard, each on an extension, one talking over the other, were more than frightened. They were terrified. He pulled up his schedule and looked at the blank pages. He didn’t have anything that would impede taking on this investigation. Beth would be back from her vacation in a few days. Ted could fill in on research until then. He wouldn’t like it, but he would do it. What about Mia? Should he call her?

  It wasn’t that she wasn’t a great friend of the Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners. She was a very obliging consultant who used her talents in order to help PEEPs on their more challenging investigations. It wasn’t that he and she were former lovers that made him hesitate to pick up the phone either. It was because Burt had neglected to bring up compensation or inclusion of Mia Cooper in the last brief PEEPs meeting. She had thus far given her time and gifts for free. Ted was furious, he had been lobbying on Mia’s behalf after finding out she was cleaning rain gutters to make ends meet. Burt explained to his technician that he was waiting until Beth had her vacation before bringing up the subject of making Mia a full time PEEPs investigator. He wasn’t even sure that Mia would accept their offer. The other founding partner, Mike Dupree, had already gave his yes vote on this subject to Burt before boarding the plane with his mother to New York for the auction of the rare books they had found in her family home.

  Burt didn’t like confrontation, and with Beth’s feelings so volatile these last few months, he didn’t want to chance losing his prized researcher. Or was it that he didn’t want Mia in the group? On the positive side, she was a remarkable sensitive. She could see ghosts. She had worked hard to master bilocation which added to her resume of amazing. On the negative, she was bossy. Plus, Ted seemed to have attached himself to the petite dynamo. He couldn’t blame his technician. Mia with her sparkling white hair, large moss-green eyes, and otherworldly looks resembling a Japanese amime character, was hard to resist. She was currently dating Whitney Martin, a friend of hers from her school days. The handsome deputy had lost his wife in the last year to the influence of a powerful entity, and her death shadowed their present relationship. He wondered if Mia thought about the possibility that she was the rebound woman. But on the other hand, was Whit her rebound man after Burt and she broke up?

  Burt got up and pulled a tattered tome off his reference shelf. As he thumbed through descriptions of entities, he pushed away the emotional minefields and soon was able to concentrate on the business of ghost hunting.

  ~

  Mia lay still, trying not to wince as the loud thumps of the MRI assaulted her senses. This was the last test. Ralph had called Gerald and traded favors until she was set up for a week of testing. Ralph ran roughshod over his god-daughter until she relented and had the battery of tests. Yes, she had fallen to her death in a well. Yes, she was disorientated after bilocation. Hell, she confused Ted with her father, much to his horror. Mia didn’t have a leg to stand on in the defense of not wanting the medical world to have access to her head or body.

  “What if they find something, they want to exploit?” she challenged Ralph.

  “These are men and women that owe Gerald,” Ralph countered.

  “What if they find something?”

  “We’ll deal with it, if they do,” Ralph said softly, letting his words sink in.

  Mia did fear being found out. She had lived her life in the shadow of being that crazy girl that screams in cemeteries. It was only recently that she was able to come to terms with her gifts and even improve them. She didn’t want them finding a tumor that needed to be removed and all her gifts would go bye-bye. She saw that in a movie once. Mia smirked at the thought. “Would it be so bad, being normal?”

  Whit would probably like her more. The fear was that PEEPs would say adios amiga. She would regret that. She would lose Murphy too, or would she? The axe-wielding farmer, cut down in his prime, had become her friend. What would happen if she could no longer see him? Would she lose all communication with the ghost? She had a feeling that Murphy had a contingency plan if this ever was to happen. This made her smile.

  “Miss Cooper, please do not move your face,” the operator reminded her.

  Mia relaxed her smile.

  ~

  Ted Martin was bored. It wasn’t that he didn’t have things to do, games to entertain him, or people to talk to over the internet. He wasn’t challenged. This was a problem his parents had to deal with since he was old enough to hold a screwdriver. He dismantled every electric appliance he could get his hands on just to see how they worked. He held six patents before he left grade school. MIT called, and he took a look at them and declined. They were boring. Mensa offered a chance to have intellectual confabs, but after the first few times, he was blasé. Ghost hunting interested him. The ability to communicate with things most people thought were pure fabrication, challenged him. Mia Cooper, not oblivious to his charms but unavailable, challenged him too.

  He wasn’t a bad looking guy. The genes on his father’s side of the family gave him his large Roman nose and towering six-foot-four height. The light auburn hair, brown eyes and big brain he got from his mother’s side of the family. Years of torment of being the redheaded freckled-face beanpole with the big nose killed his self-esteem. He didn’t notice that he grew into his nose, and that the freckles had faded with the hours spent in the basement on the computer. His lean body and muscles earned from farm chores done before and after school had been used more recently for lugging around large equipment boxes. Besides being the technical expert, he was the roadie for PEEPs.

  The recent incidents of his coworker Beth’s attacks on Mia to get his attention and into his bed, should have given him a big head. Instead, he just waved it off as female insanity. Sure, he didn’t break mirrors as he walked by, but handsome? Nah.

  Ted lived in a comic book fantasy world at times. He loved the escape that the genre gave him. But lately he found the graphic novels lacked something. What, he didn’t quite know.

  He looked at his watch. Ted was one of the last of his peers to still wear a watch. Most everyone he knew depended on smart phones for keeping track of the time. But Ted liked the feel of his great-grandfather’s watch on his wrist. He liked that he had to wind it and that it was full of gears and pins that still worked when the ghosties were looking for power to drain.

  He smiled and saw that it was time to call Mia. She would be out of the MRI now according to his spy, Bernard. He was the pseudo-godfather that was on team Ted. Ralph, his partner, was a Whitney fan.

  “Mia’s phone, Mia speaking,” she answered in a very mechanically-styled voice.

  “Ted here.”

  “Really, where?”

  “Here.”

  “You’re not here because I would see you.”

  “Wait.” Ted took his phone and took a picture of himself and text-messaged it to her.

  “Hold on, I’m getting a text,” Mia said. “I see you now. Okay, you’re here.”

  “Phew!” Ted started laughing and was pleased to hear Mia’s laughter join with his. “I’m calling to find out how did the MRI go?”

  “Thump thump thump,” Mia said seriously into the phone.

  “Well, any results yet?”

  “Still waiting. I don’t expect they will find anything. Half my brain is lost, and the other half has been out looking for it…”

  “Ha Ha, very old joke. Speaking of old jokes. How�
�s Whitney?”

  “Cruel.”

  “He’s cruel?”

  “No. You are. He’s busy being a law enforcement professional.”

  “Thought he’d be with you.”

  “Careful, Ted, you’re indulging in the ancient art of shit-stirring without a license,” Mia warned.

  “Chastisement noted. Well, tell me, any news? I’m so bored.”

  “Well, I have all these healing stress fractures, by-product of hitting the water after an eighty foot drop. So they doubled up on my calcium which I suspect will have me popping kidney stones next. I’ve had my head examined five different ways, and although I am waiting on the MRI results, nothing dangerous showing up. My heart has a Murphy-size handprint on it, and someone tattooed Ted on my ass while I was unconscious,” Mia teased.

  “I was going for property of Ted Martin but got distracted by your…”

  “Careful,” Mia growled.

  “Seriously,” Ted softened his voice and continued, “How are you, Minnie Mouse?”

  “Actually, aside from being poked and prodded, I’m good. You?”

  “Just bored and missing you.”

  “Well, that’s why God gave us the iPhone.”

  “God gave us Steve Jobs, he gave us the…”

  “Pedantic bastard…”

  “Hey, my mother was married,” Ted jumped in. “I’m just checking in.”

  “Any news on the auction?”

  “Not yet. I heard a rumor that we all will get a gift certificate to Wal-Mart for helping out.”

  Mia started to say something but laughed instead. “Oh, Ted, you kill me. I’m getting snotty looks from the waiting room receptionist, so I better end this call soon. I’ll call you when I get home.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise. Bye, Ted, thanks for calling,” Mia said before hanging up.

  Ted whirled around in his chair. “Score one for team Ted,” he said to the array of action figures clustered around his desk.

  ~

  Burt chewed on the pencil he gripped between his teeth as he flipped through the dog-eared, coffee-stained pages of the last of his reference books. He found references to shadow and shadow people, but the description didn’t come close to what the Kowalski couple described over the phone. He put in a call to Mia and left a message as she wasn’t picking up her phone. Ted was likewise unavailable. He dug through his files and found Father Santos’s number. He dialed it and expected a secretary to pick up, instead he got Angelo.

  “Hello, Angelo, this is Burt Hicks… from PEEPs.”

  “Yes, Mister Hicks, I remember you,” Angelo said with a thick Italian accent. “The father is out of the office, can I help you? Or if you want, I will take a message.”

  “Angelo, I’ve run across something,” Burt went on to explain his earlier phone call and not being able to find any reference to the problem the family was experiencing.

  “So you have not seen these darker-than-darks yourself?”

  “No.”

  “Where are they?”

  Burt explained.

  “Send Mia over. Have her take someone strong with her. Then have her call me. Don’t waste time, my friend,” he advised. “There are rumors about such things, but I would rather have an eyewitness account before saying anything further.”

  Burt stared at the phone a moment and felt odd. He was chilled by Angelo’s answer but excited by the opportunity to be able to film something that was only a rumor until now. He looked up flight numbers and booked himself the first flight out of Kansas City to Chicago Midway. He grabbed a few clothes and stuffed them in a suitcase. He picked up the PEEPs equipment bag he would be carrying onto the plane. Ted had made sure Burt was ready for any possible ghost hunting encounter with the contents of the bag. He tried Ted again and the call went through.

  “Ted here.”

  “Ted, this is Burt. I need a ride to the airport, now.”

  “On my way. What’s up?”

  Burt explained as he wrote a note for his maid service. He pulled the plug on the coffee machine, grabbed the handful of mail he hadn’t gone through and stuffed it in his jacket pocket.

  “You talked to Angelo, cool. He’s not a rock star like Father Santos, but he is impressive,” Ted commented. “Hang on a moment.”

  Burt listened as Ted told his mother where he was going and reminded her, if she touched anything in the basement, he would be shopping for new parents.

  “K. I’m on the way. Who’s picking you up?”

  “Mia, if I can get a hold of her.”

  “Do you want me to call?” Ted offered.

  “No. It’s better coming from me.” Burt’s phone vibrated, and he looked at the screen. “That’s her now,” he said and flashed over.

  “Hello, Burt,” Mia’s soft sexy voice said. “You rang?”

  “I need you to pick me up at Midway Airport in two hours, can you manage it?”

  He could tell Mia was bit put off by his demeanor, but she told him she would be there. She asked him to call her when he exited the building, and she would drive up from the waiting lot.

  “I have Ted on the other line. I’ll call you back and tell you why I am depending on you to be there.”

  “Fine,” she said and hung up.

  “She’ll be there,” he told Ted.

  “Did you bark orders or ask nicely?”

  “Um.”

  “Thought so. Hey, it’s your hide. I’m on the road, be there in five minutes,” Ted said and hung up.

  Burt redialed Mia.

  “Cooper’s limo service,” she flatly answered.

  “Let me start again,” Burt said. “I’m sorry, I’m really an ass, but I was juggling at the time,” he explained.

  “Yes, you are an ass, but a loveable one. Tell me what the fuck is going on?”

  He heard a shush on Mia’s end of the phone.

  “Geeze, I didn’t know I was walking by pediatrics, give me an effing break.”

  “You’re in the hospital.”

  “That would be a yes.”

  “Care to tell me why?”

  “Just tests. After Humpty Dumpty had her great fall, Ralph insisted I get my head examined. Ask Ted, he’ll have the low down. Tell me about why you are flying -which is a surprise - to the Windy city?”

  Burt filled her in on the Kowalski family’s incident and about his lack of finding any information on the dark things that attacked their daughter.

  “Angelo? Wow, Burt, you went right to the top.”

  “He wants you to go with me and report to him on what you see.”

  “Cool, can do. It gets me out of the spa makeover Ralph had scheduled.”

  “Mia, you don’t need any makeover,” Burt said, meaning every word.

  “I appreciate that. Ah, Burt…” Mia hesitated.

  “Yes?”

  “Would you have called me if Angelo didn’t insist?”

  “Honestly, no, but don’t be offended. I haven’t worked out the compensation thing yet.”

  “I’ve never charged you before,” Mia pointed out.

  “Yes, I know that, but Mike and Ted think that we’ve been taking advantage of you.”

  “What does Beth say?”

  “Haven’t asked her. I was waiting until she had this girl’s-only vacation under her belt before I brought you up.”

  “Whatever,” Mia said. Burt heard the hurt in those words but chose to ignore them.

  “Ted’s just pulling up now. I’ll call you when I exit the terminal. Thanks, Mia, you’re a lifesaver,” he said before he hung up. He thought about the last words he spoke to her. He realized the truth in those words. She had saved his life, and he rewarded her with bullshit. He vowed to make it up to her.

  Chapter Three

  Mia’s heart went out to the family when she pulled up to the house. They were huddled in an expensive SUV, but they didn’t look too comfortable. She had only been on a few of these haunted house types of investigations. Seeing the t
oll it took on familial relationships was a hard thing to witness. In this case, it seemed like the five Kowalskis were banded tightly together. They got out of the vehicle as Mia and Burt approached them. Hands were extended and introductions given.

  Mia, who had been introduced as a consultant, moved calmly to the little girl. She noticed bruising on her face. Mia crouched down and looked the child in the eyes. “Hello, Gwen, I hear you’ve been having a hard time at night.”

  “Yes, Miss Cooper,” the bright four-year-old answered.

  “Please call me Mia. Do you mind if I take off your mitten and hold your hand for a minute?”

  Gwen looked up at her mother. Julie nodded, and Gwen took off her glove.

  “When I hold your hand I may squeeze a little. It helps me to hear the songs your body is going to sing to me,” Mia explained.

  Gwen’s face burst into a smile, and she pushed her hand boldly towards Mia.

  Mia took off her gloves and grasped the child’s hand in hers. Mia’s ability to read live humans was marginal at best. Children were easy, but adults were too used to hiding their feelings from themselves let alone open up for another individual. Gwen was easy. Soon Mia connected with the child.

  Visions of the last night in the house from Gwen’s perspective filled Mia’s mind. She closed her eyes and let Gwen guide her through the attack of the darker-than-darks. Mia saw the fluidity of the entities but could not sense anything more than what Gwen’s memories could tell her. When she was done, she released the child’s hand and replaced the mitten on it.

  “I think you should stay in the car. Perhaps with your older sister?” Mia asked permission from Julie.

  Julie nodded her head. She seemed relieved that Gwen would not have to enter the house and relive the trauma first hand.

  Mia stood up and turned to Henry and said, “You acted quite bravely. I’m very impressed.”

  “How do you know that?” he challenged.

  “I saw you rescue your family through Gwen’s eyes. Eight LED lights tossed in the room. Very smart. How do you feel about coming in the house with me and Mr. Hicks?”