Darker than Dark (Haunted Series) Read online

  “I feel this is all my fault,” Martha said as they closed the front door behind them. She walked into the living room and sat down. “I pushed the idea of the wainscoting on Julie. I thought it would give Gwen’s room a bit of whimsy, a barnyard-inside type of feel. We had the wood treated to make sure there wasn’t any wood bores or other vermin. I had no idea those things were even here let alone contaminating the wood.” She put her head in her hands and started to cry.

  Burt felt inadequate to comfort the woman. He rested his hand on her shoulder a moment before speaking, “I don’t think that you did anything wrong. Sometimes, things just happen. Hindsight has a way of making us feel bad instead of guiding our next step. Something happened here or near here a very long time ago. It left an imprint on the wood, or more accurately in the wood. The world we live in has so many mysteries. There are so many levels that we are now just starting to know about. Martha, I will do my best to figure this out. My team of people have extraordinary gifts and talents. And my associate Mia has friends that know and can do things that would amaze you. We won’t rest until we have found a reason and a solution to this problem.”

  Martha looked at Burt. She took in his sincerity and weighed it with the humanity of this paranormal investigator and found him worthy of her trust. The young woman presently entertaining her granddaughter in the kitchen radiated confidence and goodness. How had they been so lucky to have them helping them? Julie had told her about how Henry pushed her and Richard to call this group. They were seeking out more professional groups when he had walked into the room. He brought with him a printout of the PEEPs website with him. “I’ve seen what they can do,” he informed them. “They even have their own cable show.”

  Richard had looked at his son and shook his head. “That is all made up. They are just going to take our money, make us the laughing stock of the neighborhood and leave.”

  “They’re free, and I bet the Hoffman family would give you a recommendation,” he said tapping the print out. “They’re from around here.”

  “Richard, Henry’s made a valid point,” Julie pointed out. “Let’s call them. If they don’t work out, we’ll call the professional team from the city.”

  Martha managed to give Burt a weak smile. “Just when I think I’m on an even keel, a wave of confusion comes and knocks my legs out from under me.”

  “Seems to me that you got Gwen out of harm’s way.”

  “No. It was Gwen that saved me,” Martha insisted. “She attacked that thing and saved her grammie.”

  Burt listened to Martha’s tale and noted that the mass changed with each assault of the thrown jars. He filed it away to discuss with the others when they arrived. He still hadn’t heard from Mike, but he knew that he would get in touch with Burt as soon as he could.

  Ted had found someone to drive the van in from Kansas. Having to depend on Mia’s vehicle, although she was more than generous, was a bit awkward. Burt still hadn’t moved out of her guestroom or made arrangements for the team. Things were moving too quickly for him to stand still and gather his thoughts, definitely no time to think about finding a cheap motel.

  Mia deposited the last of the broken glass in the doubled-up paper bag and took it and the other trash outside to the receptacle. The air was brisk, and she frowned as the sky was filling with clouds. It wouldn’t be long before the other DTDs made it back to the farm. In the meanwhile she would do her best to protect the child inside laboring over the drawings she asked her to make.

  Gwen smiled as the lady with the caring eyes came back into the kitchen. She walked over and pulled up a chair beside her.

  “Do you mind if I look at your drawings?”

  Gwen was surprised. Most adults just took things, this lady asked first. “Please.”

  “You are very polite, are you sure you’re a kid?” Mia lightly tugged on her sleeve. “Maybe you’re in disguise?”

  Gwen burst into giggles. “Maybe you’re in disguise,” she repeated back at Mia.

  “I am,” Mia said and put her finger to her mouth. “I’m a very well-drawn cartoon character.”

  “Like Ariel?”

  “Isn’t she a mermaid?”

  “Yes, oh yes, I want to be like Ariel,” Gwen gushed.

  “I want to be Tigress in Kung Fu Panda,” Mia told her.

  The little girl clapped her hands and nodded. “Mommy only let me watch that movie once. I started to attack Henry, and he told on me.”

  “Boys are dumb,” Mia said.

  Gwen nodded in agreement.

  “While I’m looking at each picture, Ariel, oops, Gwen, can you tell me about what they represent? Sorry, big word. Tell me what happened.”

  “Big words are fine. Mommy says if I don’t understand a word to ask politely what it means. Daddy says if I can’t spell a word, go to the dictionary. Henry says if I don’t know it’s because my brain is made up of cream cheese.”

  “What does Lizzie say?”

  “She doesn’t say much, not to me anyway.”

  “Oh.”

  “She’s a teenager, and it’s all about boys, music and boys.”

  Mia smiled. Gwen seemed to be a very astute child. She held up a picture, and Gwen explained, “That’s my grammie. She is looking in the refrigerator. Behind her I saw a dark puddle, and it began to grow. I ran to get a light like Henry did, but all I could find was his light saber.”

  “That was very smart and very brave,” Mia commented. She picked up the next drawing.

  “Grammie was inside the thing, and it was big and purple. I yelled at it and took the saber and swung. It let go of her, and we ran away.”

  “When you hit it. What did it feel like?”

  “Jell-O. Like those wiggly salads Grammie makes for holidays.”

  “Did it make a sound?”

  Gwen shook her head.

  “Tell me about Beanie, Bubba and Blast.”

  “Oh, them,” Gwen sighed. “They are always annoying me.”

  “Did they hurt you?”

  “Not much. I think they were babies when I was a baby and did baby things.”

  “Baby things?” Mia asked.

  “You know how babies stick their fingers in everything? Like that.”

  “Oh.”

  “And now, how are they now?”

  “Like me. But the bigger ones are mean. The biggest one makes them do bad things. I call him General Stinky. He smells like dog farts.”

  “Rotten smelling.”

  “My friend Karen has a dog who farts after eating ice cream. Oh man, you have to hold your nose and run.” Gwen demonstrated by pinching her nose.

  “So General Stinky was at your house the other night?”

  “Yes, and he waited until the lights went out and tried to get me and Mommy. Daddy ran in to save me, but he got stuck.”

  “Henry saved you.”

  “Yes, he has a big head now. Lizzie calls him Hego instead of Henry. What’s Hego mean?”

  Mia smiled and thought about her answer before speaking, “Hego is a made up word to say that Henry is overly proud of himself. Don’t worry, it’s not a bad thing.”

  Burt watched the two from the doorway. He took in the scene and watched how Mia became a child in order to interview Gwen. She had a natural instinct. He doubted very much that she would be a bad mother like she claimed. He thought maybe since Mia’s mother wasn’t fit for the job, she took for granted that she would be the same way.

  Gwen tapped Mia’s hand and pointed to Burt. She turned around and smiled.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt you ladies, but I think that your grandmother could use a hug, and I need to talk to Mia for a while.”

  Gwen nodded and got down from the chair and walked obediently to the living room. Mia patted the chair next to her and told Burt to sit down.

  “How much did you hear?”

  “About all of it.”

  “What do you think?”

  “We’re in trouble,” Burt said and recounted what ha
d happened to Martha when Gwen was out of the room. “They adjust. They change. The mass turned to the consistency of the grape jelly.”

  “Why is this going on? Are they ghosts?” Mia asked him.

  “I don’t know. In some ways Beanie, Bubba and Blast mimic poltergeists.”

  “After talking to the child, I think that they were adjusting to Gwen as she grew. Why, I don’t know.”

  “I got a text from Ted and Beth. They are both a couple of hours away yet. I’ve got to get rooms somewhere near here. Any suggestions?”

  “Without going all the way back to the hollow, no. I’ll call Tom and see what he or his mother recommends.”

  “Please do that. I need five rooms this time. Ted has brought in another guy to drive the van here. He’ll leave in the morning. His name is Cid Garrett.”

  “Cid Garrett,” Mia repeated in order to remember it. “Okay, I’ll call Tom.” As she dug for her phone, she wondered what this Cid was like.

  Chapter Nine

  Cid pushed his glasses up his nose, taking care not to dislodge the Bluetooth headset balanced precariously on his right ear. It wasn’t that the glasses were loose, it was that they were just shy of being coke-bottle bottoms in density. Cid was saving for Lasik surgery. His neighbor Ted offered him two hundred dollars to ferry the PEEPs van to northern Illinois. He jumped at the offer. Ted would be picking up the tab for the Greyhound bus he would be taking back to Kansas, so Cid was going to be a few bills closer to ditching the glasses and hopefully joining the human race. Or more correctly, the dating end of it.

  His mother assured him that without his glasses he was a pleasant looking fellow. He couldn’t see it. He had to push his face within three inches of the mirror to brush his teeth without his spectacles. All he knew was that he had good teeth.

  “Cid, come in,” Ted’s voice came over the headset.

  “Cid here.”

  “I estimate we have thirty minutes left, do you need to stop?”

  “Gas, good, coffee’s gone, but I think I will make it.”

  “Brill,” Ted responded in yet another odd voice. He had been entertaining Cid with his collection of voices since the beginning of the trip. Having a captive audience was too much of a temptation for the nerdy ways of Ted Martin. “We’ll have a cuppa later at the inn.”

  “Do you know where we’re staying?”

  “Not yet, but hopefully it will be decided soon. I’m going to make a few calls so I’ll be off com for a while. Ta ta, talk to you soon,” Ted said and clicked off.

  Cid followed the PEEPs command truck at a respectable distance, close enough to make all the lights but far enough away to keep from plowing into the end of the vehicle when Ted stopped. Cid rubbed the back of his neck trying to ease the tension of the drive. He wasn’t used to sitting still for such a long period of time. He earned his trade in the construction of new homes. The economy had put him on the sidelines, but he still managed to find work in kitchen refits. He was a pro when it came to installing cabinets and flooring. He understood wood. He could feel the grain.

  ~

  Murphy stood on the hillside cloaked by the pines, watching the encampment below him. It had grown since he’d last taken this northern trek. It was just at the edge of his tether. He could move closer, but he feared the loss of his power would render him too vulnerable to the men who waited below. They were covered in hides stitched together to keep out the cold. Murphy figured out that it had to be two hundred or more years since these nomads had felt any cold, but the afterlife in the spirit world had strange rules. After a hundred and fifty years, you would figure he would be able to lose the five o-clock stubble on his face, but alas it stayed. He was dressed in the garments he died in. His feet would never again feel the crunch of walking on the frozen ground or the chill of the wind coming down from the north.

  He didn’t mix much with the ghosts of this plane of existence. Both they and Murphy lacked the communication skills needed to interact civilly. This group came from an older time. The only thing that Murphy and the hunting party below had in common was that all of them were dead.

  ~

  Archie was surprised by the visit to the hospital from two of his Friday night conspiracy group members. The guys usually met at the local Applebees. They shared a meal, company and theories on what exactly the government was hiding from the world. Most of the men were his age, a few younger but not by much. Each seemed to have a beef with Uncle Sam, although a few of them worked for the government in their youth. All were computer literate and had taken survivalist training. If North America was going to be invaded by beings from outer space, these men were ready and able to fight.

  “Heard about your run in,” Macy said in a low tone as he tugged at the collar of his postal uniform.

  “Damn near got me killed. I broke the rule of first contact unknowingly and fired first.” He told them the enhanced version of the attack of the DTDs. He watched their faces as he included the fact that a group of paranormal investigators were interested in what happened.

  “So these PEEPs sent investigators to talk to you? How do you know they were legit?” Harbaugh piped up. He pushed his tattered sweater up over his forearms as if he was getting ready for a fight. He squared his massive shoulders and took a horse stance.

  “My nephew, the deputy, worked with them twice before. One of the team is from around here.” He omitted that she was a petite little woman with kind eyes.

  “PEEPs, what’s that stand for anyway?” Macy asked.

  “Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners,” Archie answered, then made his point by repeating, “Entity Exposure.”

  Entities to this group were aliens. Slant-eyed, four-fingered, bald dudes that seemed to have a penchant for anal probing. Just the mere mention of aliens had each man clenching his sphincter muscle.

  “So what are they going to do about it?” Macy asked.

  “Don’t know, but I overheard that it ties into another ongoing investigation they were doing. I heard it involves 1634 Hillside Drive and a farm not too far from here. I plan on staking out the residence and following them to the farm, as soon as they let me out of here.”

  “I’ve got nothing going on tonight,” Harbaugh informed them. “Why don’t you let me take tonight’s shift?”

  Macy patted him on the back and Archie smiled. He may be laid up, but he had connections. Soon the bastards that dared to infiltrate his neighborhood were going to be exposed to the world. He laid back and sighed, contented that his friends had his back.

  ~

  Mia waited on the porch for Julie. She wanted to talk to her before she got involved with Martha and Gwen. She gave Burt her keys so he could check out the motel recommendations Mrs. Braverman came up with in their immediate area. Both of them felt that one of their group should be there just in case the DTDs attacked again. Not that they knew how to deal with the entities, but Mia had a natural instinct that had served her well in the past. She no longer had a problem with the dead. It was the living that puzzled her.

  Julie pulled into the drive and was alarmed to see Mia Cooper waiting for her. She rushed out of the vehicle. “Gwen, Mom?” she asked in a panic.

  Mia raised her hand to stop her. “There has been an incident, but they are fine.” Mia proceeded to explain what had happened and that both family members were safe. “Your mother is shaken up a bit, but your daughter is more excited than worried.”

  “I need to get her away from here. But where to go?”

  “That’s why I wanted to meet you outside. Let’s take a little walk and talk about the possibilities,” Mia urged. “I understand from Gwen that your family planned to visit Disney World in April.”

  “That was before this happened. Richard is using his vacation time to be here for Gwen instead.”

  “May I be so bold as to suggest that you take the kids out of school and go now?”

  “I don’t…” Julie stopped and rethought the idea and answered, “Perhaps we could swing it.
”

  “Would it help if I got your airfare paid for? I know a guy that knows a guy that could get your family a ride on a corporate aircraft.”

  Julie’s face showed her thinking process. It went from worry to excitement and back to worry. “Will those things follow Gwen there?”

  “I think that because of the way they have to travel, it would take months to navigate the distance. I don’t think it would happen. There is something here that is tying the entities. They want Gwen, but maybe she isn’t necessary to whatever is happening. I see her more as a bonus.”

  Julie felt a shudder move through her. “How in this day and age can this happen?”

  “I really don’t know. In my lifetime, I have learned the hard way that what we can see isn’t exactly all that is here,” Mia counseled. “Gwen may be acting as a bonding agent for the younger DTDs. She is a plaything as well as a part of them.”

  “I should hear from Richard soon. If he can get the time off then I will work on getting Lizzie and Henry out of school. What about my mother?”

  “If she would trust us here with her home, I would suggest that she leave too. Martha isn’t comfortable here at present, and after the morning she’s had, I don’t blame her.” Mia stopped and faced Julie. “What is going on here has nothing to do with Martha, you or your husband. The children are innocent, especially Gwen. The world we live in has become a bit unbalanced. Things that are dormant tend to get stirred up when the stressors are at a peak. Even changes in régimes or the fear of possible change can put so much controversy in the air that evil things begin to feed. It woke up something in the hollow back where I am from. I’m sure this is related somehow. I vow to find out and fix it.”

  Julie looked at the determined woman in front of her and found her sincere. A trust was building between them, a bond that was needed in order for Mia to do her work and for Julie’s family to survive. “I believe you. I think we can convince my mother to come to Florida with us.”