Chapter 8
Emily was leaning with her back against the car, with her hands jammed into her sweatshirt pockets for warmth. Will was standing just in front of her, scanning the countryside with his eyes. Emily yawned.
"Maybe it was a false alarm," she said, still in the middle of her yawn.
"Maybe," Will said distractedly, still looking for activity.
"Is there a reason most of this stuff happens out in the boonies?" Emily asked tiredly.
Will didn't answer.
"Probably," Emily answered herself. "Probably has to do with microns and neutrons, and are those real things or did I just make them up? I am really tired. I hate how I feel when I'm really tired. And I'm a night person. It's amazing that I can't even make it to the sunrise anymore. Maybe I never worked this hard before. I thought I was working hard before. This is just kind of a different sort of work. And maybe I'm tired from the glowy unicorn flag machine thing. Except I was tired before then. I can't remember what I was saying. I better be careful, if I get too tired I start babbling. It's a good thing I'm not there yet. How funny would that be? I wonder—"
"Shh!" Will said, waving a hand at her without looking back. "I saw something."
She stepped forward to stand next to him and look around. They both saw a flash of light from a thicket of trees 20 yards away, in front of them to the right. It was so fast and so muted, it could have been a trick of the eyes, or the moonlight.
"Did you see it?" Will whispered.
"Yes," Emily's eyes got wide. She linked her arm through Will's. "This is so much creepier than something just coming right out and trying to get you, isn't it? All this tense anticipation. Is it there? Is it not? It's so edge-of-your-seat scary. Something could jump out at us right now and make us jump a mile in the air. Or give us heart attacks. Or are we too young to have heart attacks? You know there was that one guy at school—"
"Emily!" Will hissed.
"Sorry," she whispered.
The smoky flash happened again. It sent a cold chill down Will's spine. "I'm afraid we're going to have to go in there," he whispered.
Emily whimpered quietly and held Will's arm tighter.
"No, it'll be fine," he said, patting her hand. He picked up the backpack and threw it over his other shoulder, then started to walk. She walked along with him, still holding on.
Eventually she let his arm go, it was too hard to walk across a field that way. But she stayed close to him. The light flashed a few more times, and as they got closer, they realized it wasn't a light. It was a person.
Or the ghost of a person. Standing beneath a tree. Flickering. They got more wide eyed as they approached it. It was like it was a TV channel not quite coming in right. Yet. They got within 10 feet of it. It was an old man. Wearing gray pants and white shirt, with a gray sweater. He had a look of fearful awe on his face. He stared straight ahead, not seeing them. They stopped walking. He looked so ghastly. Shadows falling across an expression of muted horror on his face. He stopped flickering. Like the signal had come in correctly. Then he slowly turned to look at them.
He seemed to look right through them at first. It sent another cold chill down both their spines. Emily shivered. Possibly partly from the cold night air.
"Where's the tear?" she whispered to Will, urgency and fear in her voice.
He slowly got the Veil Sealer out of the backpack. He switched it to 'Reveal Tears' and shined it in front of them. They saw nothing. "Damn," he said under his breath.
Then as if curious, the ghost started walking towards them. "Ahhh!" they both screamed, and Emily fell backwards onto the ground. Will barely kept himself from falling over.
"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Emily said.
Will snapped the machine off. The ghost stopped walking towards them. It looked at the two of them, then it suddenly disappeared.
"What?!" Emily said. Will helped her up. "What?! It can't just disappear! There's no tear there." She looked disgusted.
"Whatever," Will said, heart still thumping a bit too wildly. "I just want to get some sleep. We'll figure it out tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," Em said.
They both started walking back through the trees and back to the field. Then the tinkling alarm began to sound. Like a nightmare.
"Noooooooo-ooooo-oooo!" Emily gave the word many syllables.
"I cannot believe this," Will said. He pulled out the alarm to look at the screen. "Huh," he said.
"What?" She stopped sulking long enough to look at the screen with him. "Oh."
The location was just a couple of blocks away. If you wanted to call them blocks, here outside of town where there technically were no city blocks.
They got back to the car and drove it down the road a little way, and stopped in front of a nice little well-kept house. It looked like it would possibly be pistachio green in the daylight.
They sat in the car staring at the house. No activity in or out as far as they could tell.
"Great," Will said. "More subtlety. Just when we're at our most sleep deprived and about to start hallucinating anyway." He sighed.
"Maybe the old dude is going to flicker here some more," Emily said, glancing around. "We're sure it's this house?"
He glanced at the screen again. "Yup."
"Maybe we should get out and have a look around before I fall asleep right here," Emily said.
"Yeah," Will agreed. "I could use some more cold air. Let's go."
They got out of the car and walked up the walk to the house. No lights on inside. No lights on outside. Moonlight lit up the house well enough. Will motioned for her to follow as they walked around back. He peeked around the corner behind the house, then quickly snapped his head back to the side of the house.
'What?' Emily mouthed.
He pulled her back to the front of the house. "There's a woman back there," he said.
"A ghost woman?" Emily whispered.
"No, a real woman."
Emily looked unconvinced.
"She's in a bathrobe and has a coffee cup," Will said, exasperated. Why couldn't she just believe him?
"Oh," Emily said, sulking a little bit. "What do we do?"
Will looked back to see that no one was coming around to the front of the house. "I think you should talk to her," he said.
"Me? Why me?" Emily said, flustered.
"Because you're a woman. She's gonna think I'm a criminal or a pervert or something if I walk up to her in her own backyard and start chit chatting. Duh."
"Oh," Emily said. "What do I say to her?"
"I don't know. Find some way to get inside her house. Pretend your car broke down and you're on a road trip and you need to make a phone call."
"Oo, clever," Emily said. "A phone call to where?"
"I don't know!" Will whispered loudly.
Emily jumped back, "Geez."
"Sorry," he said. "Just get inside her house and then knock her out and snoop around. Or snoop around while you're chatting with her, I don't know. I'm tired. Just think of something."
"Okay," Emily said. "Give me the backpack."
"What?"
"I command you to give me control of the backpack," Emily said with her hand held out firmly.
He reluctantly gave it to her.
She put it on her back and started to walk around the yard. She stopped, "Why wouldn't I go to the front door?" she whispered to Will.
"I don't know," he whispered back and shooed her toward the back of the house.
She grumbled to herself as she walked around to the back of the house. She turned the corner and found the woman standing on the back porch in a pale green bathrobe, holding a white coffee cup with both hands and staring intently at the wind chimes hanging from the back awning, tinkling gently in the breeze. She didn't even glance over as Emily approached her.
"Uh," Emily said, "Excuse me."
The woman slowly turned her head to look at Em.
"Hi," Emily said.
The woman gave her a half smile.
Emily walked up a back step or two while talking, "I was just driving on the road—I mean, all night driving... somewhere... I have a—my car broke down and—AHHHHH!" Emily screamed. The woman had shot downward into the porch as if projected downward out of a cannon. Emily stumbled back down the steps, in shock.
Will bolted out from his hiding spot on the side of the house, "What?!" he said, startled. "What what?" He looked at her wide eyed.
"She just disappeared!" Emily said. "I am soooooo not in the mood for this!"
Just then the porch light came on. They both froze. Should they run? Should they stay and try to find the tear this ghost woman came out of?
They chose to hold still and wait, hearts pounding.
A roundish balding man in his late forties or so, with brown hair, came out onto the back porch, looking incredulous.
"What the hell is going on out here?" he asked angrily.
Will stepped closer to Emily, "Do you think he's a ghost?" he said quietly.
"He just opened the back door," Emily whispered back.
"It could be a ghost door," Will said. "An illusion door. A metaphysical copy of the real door—"
"Okay, I get it," Emily said. "But I am not going alone this time."
Will nodded. They both walked over to the porch and up to the man. They smiled in a friendly way as they ascended the steps and stood in front of him.
"What the hell are you doing?" The man said, still angry and bewildered.
Both Em and Will gingerly reached out with a finger to touch the man on a shoulder. He was real.
"Phew!" Emily said.
Will looked relieved as well.
The man still stared at them, looking pissed and tired. Emily had a thought.
She smiled at the man, "Can we come into your house?" she asked sweetly.
"No, you can't come into my house." He looked at her like he thought she was an idiot. "What are you, drunk?"
"No," she said with a quick little laugh. She held up her finger to say 'just a minute' and then turned to confer with Will quietly, so the man couldn't hear.
Will put his hand in his pocket and they both turned back toward the man. "Please can we come inside?" Emily said.
"Why the hell do you want to come in my house?" The man asked, voice louder than before.
Will and Em turned to each other and had a conversation with nods and almost spoken words. Seeming to agree, they turned back to the man.
Will said, "Sir, there's a ghost in your house and we'd like to get at it."
The man looked appalled, "God, what are you loonies, ghost busters?"
The couple laughed good-naturedly and as they stopped she said, "Yeah." Both were still smiling.
"What a bunch of crack pots, no you can't—" he said as he was going back inside.
Will took his hand out of his pocket and shot the man with the pellet gun.
The man fell gently in the doorway as they tried to heave him into the house.
Will said, straining, "I don't know why we bothered talking to him, we were going to erase his memory anyway."
"I wanted to be polite," she said, also straining.
They plunked the man down inside the door and closed it. They were in a small neat kitchen. They walked through a doorway and into a living room. It was big, had dark green carpet, a dark couch and an overstuffed chair. The green robed woman sat in the chair.
She no longer held a coffee cup. She just stared up at them. She had dark brown hair, layered and curled, framing her face. She appeared to be in her mid-forties.
Will and Emily just stood still staring at her.
"Tear," Emily whispered without looking at Will.
He immediately got the Veil Sealer out of the backpack she was still wearing and shone the reveal light around the room. The tear was in the center of the room. Right in front of the woman's chair. The woman looked at it with interest. So did Emily.
"Which way is 'in'?" Emily whispered to Will.
"Get out your keys and let's find out," he said back to her.
She took off the backpack and got out her keys and tentatively shook them at the woman.
The woman looked interested, but she didn't move. She turned her head and smiled up at Emily. Emily recognized that smile. "Uh-oh," she said. The woman quickly shot downward right through the chair and disappeared.
"Ugh!" Will yelled. "I see why you hated that."
Emily groaned. "How are we gonna get her back?"
"Let me see if they have advice for hard cases," Will said and took out his pocket guide and started thumbing through it.
Emily walked around the living room. It was big for this tiny house. Down the hall appeared to be bedrooms, probably a bathroom. There was a door to the right that might be a dining room or a den or something. And, of course, the front door near it, perpendicular to it. Will sighed. Emily glanced at him.
"Well?" she said.
"No advice," he answered. "We just have to do what we usually do, but 'more'."
"It says that?"
"Pretty much."
"Damn," she said. "So we load up on sparklies and tinkle noises and try to lure her back with them?"
"I guess," Will said. He looked around the room. "Hey, here's a little bell," he said. "And a crystal... angel looking thing..."
"Oo!" Emily said, "She was staring at the wind chimes on the back porch. I'll go out and get them." She walked back through the kitchen and out onto the back porch. The woman was standing out there again. Emily stopped walking with a start.
She knew what she would have to do, if it was at all possible. Try to lure the woman back inside with the wind chimes, which she was now staring at contentedly again, coffee cup back in hand.
Emily tip toed out the back door and over to the wind chimes. The woman didn't seem to notice or care. Emily unhooked them from the hook they were on and slowly started to carry them toward the house, holding them up high. The woman turned with them, following them into the house. Emily thought it might actually work. But then the woman noticed Emily through the wind chimes. She focused on her instead now, locked eyes with her.
The woman tilted her head downward a little bit, still looking directly into Emily's eyes, then she smiled.
"Ohhh..." Emily said, waiting for it. The woman shot downward quickly through the kitchen floor. "Ahh!" Emily let out a quick scream, even though she had known what was coming.
"You okay?" Will called from the living room.
"It happened again," Emily said. She walked into the living room holding the wind chimes. "I almost had her, though," she said. She set the chimes on the couch.
"Look what I found," Will said. He held up a bunch of Christmas lights. He had a big cardboard box at his feet. "They were in the dining room. That's where they hide their clutter," he said.
"They?" Emily said, whispering, suddenly wondering if anyone else was asleep in the house.
"Oh, I don't know," Will whispered back, "I didn't look. But if we can get that chick back, we can lure the heck out of her." He waved the tangle of lights around happily. "Find me a plug in."
They found one behind an end table and Will plugged them in. They were all tiny and white. Very pretty. The woman suddenly appeared, standing in front of the Christmas lights.
"Yah!" Will said, startled.
The woman stared at the Christmas lights, as Will slowly led her towards the tear. Emily flipped on the sealer again to illuminate the tear. The woman walked through it and didn't disappear.
"That must be backwards," Emily whispered. "Go the other way."
Will lured the woman back toward the tear from the opposite direction. This time she disappeared when she passed through it.
"Thank God," Emily whispered. "Now—" She was interrupted by a groan from the kitchen. The man was waking up.
"Dammit!" Emily said, searching frantically for her pelle
t gun. She found it and ran back into the kitchen. Will heard the 'thwip!' of the pellet being shot and the thud of the man falling back to the floor.
Emily walked back into the living room while tucking her gun into her back pocket with both hands, and then flipping her hair as she stood at a cool tilt with one leg bent.
"Feeling a little ultra cool, are we?" Will said with a laugh.
"Shut up," Emily said, returning to a normal posture.
"Now we have to do a life form reading before we seal the tear," Emily said.
Will held up the Veil Sealer and counted. "Five life forms," he said with a grimace.
Emily thought a moment and whispered, "You think this man has a wife and—"
"Who are you?" a little girl's voice said from behind them.
They were startled and turned to look at her. She was standing in the hallway that led to the bedrooms. She was about 5 years old, had long blond hair and a nightgown on.
"Oh, sorry," Emily said gently. "Did we wake you?"
"Yes," the little girl said after a pause, like she was thinking about it. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, we're just friends of... your dad's," Emily said.
"My dad..." the girl said, thinking.
She must be still groggy from sleep, Emily thought. She didn't want to have to zap a little girl with a pellet gun. Maybe they could make this all seem normal somehow. Will just stood watching the two of them.
Emily crouched down in front of the little girl. "I'm Emily," she said. She held out her hand to the little girl.
"I'm Lily," the little girl said. She reached out her hand to shake Emily's, but her hand went right through Em's.
Emily sort of fell backwards, shocked. The girl looked startled too and started to cry. Will stood still behind Emily, eyes wide.
Emily got a hold of herself and got back into her crouch in front of the girl. "Don't cry, Lily," Emily said.
The girl began to cry less and made a pouty face like she was trying to hold back tears. It broke Emily's heart not to be able to hug the girl to make her feel better. "I'm going to talk to my husband for a minute. Okay, Lily?" The girl nodded.
Emily and Will walked halfway across the living room and talked in a whisper.
"What are we supposed to do with her?" Em asked. "We can't just send her through the tear alone."
"Well," Will said, thinking, "She is already dead, Em..."
She looked aghast.
Will spoke quickly, "I mean what else can really happen to her? It's not like she needs food, shelter, and clothing at this point."
"Well, what if creepy otherworldly spookies try to freak her out in the afterlife?" Emily said.
Just then an orange cat slunk out from behind the big comfy chair. Neither one of them had known there was a pet in the house. The little girl had been sniffling, but stopped when she saw the cat. It was like she forgot all her troubles. She bent down and sort of waved her hand near the ground to attract the cat. The cat slunk off toward the girl.
Emily dreaded the moment the girl tried to pet the cat and couldn't 'cause her hand went through it. That didn't happen.
The cat cozied up to the girl, who petted the cat happily. Then the little girl picked the cat up, as if it weighed almost too much for her, but she did it, and held her tightly, cuddling her.
Em and Will were shocked. The cat was dead too.
The little girl set the cat down then, tired of holding it, and petted it one last time. Then the cat started to slink off toward the tear in the middle of the room. The girl followed. The cat disappeared inside the tear. Just before the girl got to the tear, she turned to Will and Emily.
"Tara says it's time to go home now," she said. She smiled and waved goodbye to them happily. Then she took another step and disappeared inside the tear. Emily and Will were stunned.
They stood silently for a moment, staring at the tear.
"Do a reading," Emily said quietly.
Will looked down at the sealer's screen. "Three life forms," he said. "You, me, and the man who lives here."
He solemnly stepped forward and switched the machine to 'Seal' and sealed the tear.
"Done," Emily said when he was finished.
They put the man's Christmas lights away. Then they went back into the kitchen and erased his memory. They left him lying on the kitchen floor, not sure what else to do with him.
"He'll think he's been sleep walking," Will said. They both stepped around him and out the back door, locking it and closing it. They walked around the house in the brisk night air, back to the car. Both in a thoughtful and tired daze. When they got to the car they looked up to see the old man ghost from the woods walking down the street quickly towards them and waving.
"Ahh!" Will said when he saw the man. "Car keys, sealer—we need ghost repellent or something!"
Emily whipped out her car keys and waved them at the man, trying to distract him anyway, even if they couldn't find a tear to put him through.
The man was out of breath and stopped near them. He cocked his head to look at her funny as she jangled the keys at him.
"I knew it was real!" he said as he caught his breath. "Ha!"
Will and Em exchanged a strange look with each other.
"Success!" the man went on. "So many years, you know, trying and not succeeding. Or not sure you were succeeding..."
Emily felt empathy for the man. "You were trying to communicate with the living?" she asked.
He thought for a moment, "Well, that's a funny way of putting it, isn't it?" he said with a laugh. "No, not at all. I was just trying to get out."
"Of... Hell?" Will asked solemnly.
"What?" the man asked. He shook his head. "Let's start again, shall we?" he said. "My name is Carl Sheffel." He held out his hand to shake Will's.
Here we go again, Emily thought.
Just to be polite, Will did hold out his hand, and waited for the inevitable moment of disappointment for the man when his hand went through Will's. The man grasped Will's hand. The man's hand was solid and real.
"Ahhh!" Will yelled and pulled his hand away from the man quickly. "What the hell is that?!" Will shouted.
The man looked taken aback. "Sorry?"
Emily looked shocked. She put her key jangling hand down to her side. "You're real?" she asked.
"What a weird thing to ask somebody," the man said. He had caught his breath by now and was standing with his hands on his hips. "I do apologize, I thought you knew. I was astral projecting before when I came upon you in the woods."
"Oh..." Emily said. Will still looked angry at being shocked.
"I wasn't sure it had worked," Carl continued. "I've tried it so many times. I've never met people while out and about before. I had to rush out here and see if it was true. My car's parked just up the road."
They still looked incredulous. Too many shocks for one night.
"Uh-huh," Will said.
"I'm a professor at the local college," Carl said. They looked unimpressed. "Metaphysical Studies," he said.
The girl perked up at this. "Hey," she said, turning to the young man.
"Emily," the young man said in a warning way. "No."
She pouted. She turned to Carl and smiled at him and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, though. We can't stay and chat. I'm Emily," she said. "This is Will."
"We'll just be leaving now," Will said. He took Emily's arm and gently led her to the car.
"Oh, let me give you my card," Carl said, searching his pockets. "Here." He handed it to Emily.
She took it happily. "Bye!" she said as she was put inside the car by Will.
"If you ever want to talk about the experience!" Carl called after her as Will shut her into the car and walked around to get in too. "About why you could see me astral projecting..." Carl continued, puzzled.
"Nice meeting you," Will said civilly as he got into the car, turned it on, and drove away.
&n
bsp; Chapter 9
They were driving away from the ghost house and Carl, both dead tired.
"Home?" Emily said sleepily to Will.
"God and government-issued alarms willing," Will answered.
And at that the alarm music began to sound again.
Will dropped his head for a moment in utter frustration, "I hate reality."
"Maybe this is a dream," Emily said hopefully, and pinched herself. "Ow."