“Tabby,” I said. “Just hold the camera, and I’ll let you know when I’m ready for it.”
Tabby held the camera for me. “It’s under control, Jimmy.”
I climbed the ladder. When I was ready, I motioned for Tabby, and she gave me the camera. I got it installed, all cables attached.
“Okay, turn it on. Let’s see if it works,” I said.
Then, I felt something push me. I clutched the ladder. Tabby screamed. The ladder was tipping back and forth across the floor. I felt like I was caught on an insane teeter totter whose focus was to throw me off.
“Lucy, stop!” Will stood frozen in the middle of the floor, his body straining against the invisible forces that held him where he was.
The ladder stopped moving.
“But, Daddy,” it said. “I was having fun.”
I got down off the ladder and looked at Lucy. She was smiling at me. It was one of the scariest smiles I had ever seen. Her bloody red eyes were narrowed, and her lips were pulled up too far on either side of her mouth, almost like a dog’s mouth without a snout. At first, it looked like the pupils of her eyes had turned elliptical, like a snake's, but when I blinked, her eyes were human again. Bloody, but human. Her mouth, however, did not change.
“Father Holiday and I are good friends, aren’t we?” she asked.
“If that’s what you want to call it,” I countered.
Then she laughed, and we left the room.
“Did you get that on tape?” Tabby asked.
Will grinned. “It might have scared the shit out of Jimmy, but yeah, I think I did.”
He took the DVD out of the machine mounted to the wall and replaced it with a new one. “Let’s go see.”
Chapter Twenty One
Getting Stronger
We went downstairs. Tabby and I headed for the living room while Will went to the kitchen to check on Tor. Tabby and I sat on the sofa. I was still unsettled by Lucy’s attack. Tabby, however, seemed unaffected. Of course, the attack had not happened to her.
Knocking me off a ladder wouldn’t have killed me, not from that height, so I was left wondering if Lucy wanted to scare me or if the demon only needed minor bloodshed to increase its power. Who would have known that me leaving the priesthood and becoming a graphic artist would lead me to becoming a demonologist. Who knew, if this worked out a certain way, maybe I could have my own TV show like Ghost Hunters. Nah, I’d never be able to live with myself for selling out Lucy.
Will came into the room.
“Where’s Tor?” Tabby asked.
Will coughed. “Tor says she’s scared enough. She doesn’t want to see it.”
I breathed out slowly through my nose. Was Tor really that scared, or was this more of her dramatic bullshit? I didn’t know.
Will put the DVD into the machine. While the disc loaded, I looked over at Tabby. She seemed thoughtful.
The footage picked up as the ladder was teetering back and forth. I suppose that for the beginning of the attack, the machine must have been booting up.
I looked at Will. He was standing in the doorway. “I think this is going to work.”
Will smiled, but it was a sad smile. “It better for what I paid for it. So, what now?”
“Now that we have the video, starting tomorrow, Tabby and I are going to spend time with Lucy. If I can get the proof we need tomorrow, I’ll contact the church then.”
“That’s it?” Will asked.
I sighed. “That’s all we can do. I can’t contact the church until I have documented proof of all of the requirements that need to be met. How long that will take, I don’t know.”
“And there’s nothing you can do to speed it up?” he asked.
“Nothing that I know of.”
###
Will and Tor retired early, leaving Tabby and I to fend for ourselves. We could have cared less. Tor wanted to avoid talking about anything to do with Lucy, and Will didn’t want to talk about anything but. After a while, I ignored them both. So, them going to bed actually was a good thing. It allowed Tabby and I to get our heads together for tomorrow.
We were hunkered down in the library. I had my notes out. Tabby’s dirty clothes were neatly folded and balanced on the back of the couch.
“So,” she asked, “how are we going to do this?”
I tapped my pen against my notebook. “Well, I guess we’ll just go talk to her. If she doesn’t give us anything while we are being calm, I’ll try to provoke her.”
Tabby narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you sure that’s smart?”
I shrugged. “It’s probably stupid as Hell, but we need to do something.”
“What type of proof do you want exactly?” she asked.
I thought for a bit and flipped through my notes. “Well, we need an exhibition of strength impossible for a six-year-old. You know about the language thing.”
“Explain to me again why our witnessing Lucy speaking all those languages isn’t proof enough.”
I took a deep breath. I had to handle this carefully. “Basically, it doesn’t help us that we aren’t exactly the type of people that the church would believe. Plus, there have been a lot of people who pretend to be possessed for their own sick reasons. So, we need proof that can’t be doctored.”
Tabby raised an eyebrow. “Videotape can be doctored.”
I smiled. “Not if it’s automatically recorded onto a DVD. We will have an untampered with time stamp. That’s the hardest thing to fake, and with modern systems, the time stamp isn’t just posted on the screen, it’s embedded into the code of the recording. I don’t know exactly how it works, but that’s the advantage of modern security systems. So, we get her on tape with this system, and we’ve got proof.”
Tabby nodded. “What else do we need on tape?”
“We need her to tell us where something is hidden.”
“How are we going to do that?” she asked.
“I’m going to give you my cell phone. Hide it from me in a good place. Then, when we speak with Lucy tomorrow, she can tell me where it is.”
“Don’t forget to turn your phone off,” Tabby said.
“Why?” I asked.
She laughed. “It would be kind of stupid for me to go to the trouble of hiding it, and it rings telling you where it is.”
It was my turn to laugh. “I can be stupid sometimes.”
She grinned. “Hey, you said it, not I.”
“You know, Tabby. I really missed you.”
She stared at me for a moment. “I missed you too.”
###
There was a feeling I got in the middle of my sleep. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something felt awry, and not quite of this world.
My eyes snapped open. I looked at the clock. Once again, here I was awake at three-o-clock a.m. I looked over at Tabby. She was still asleep, but her body was restless. Standing behind Tabby’s sofa was a black hooded figure. It was immense—at least seven feet tall. I could not see its face, but red eyes peered out from underneath the hood. Its hands were skeletal, no flesh on them at all.
My body froze, not only out of fear, but the room was very cold. I didn’t know if it had come through the ley line or if it had broken Tabby’s wards on the room upstairs. Perhaps it was the physical manifestation of the thing that had been possessing Lucy. I did know one thing for certain: I didn’t want this thing hurting Tabby.
“The lord is my shepherd,” I began.
The thing snarled. I couldn’t see its face because of the hood, but something told me I didn’t want to. It swung its hand at me. It didn’t connect, but an invisible force did. I was thrown off the couch into a chair across the room. The chair broke underneath me. My whole body hurt, but I didn’t have time for the pain. Hell, I didn’t have time to breathe. I hobbled back off the broken chair, knelt on my knees and closed my eyes. I prayed to God to keep Tabby safe, prayed to send this thing back to where it came from.
I opened my eyes. It hadn’t moved, and I got pissed.
I turned my head up towards it. “Listen, you overgrown bag of bones. I didn’t invite you here, and I sure as Hell know that Will and Victoria didn’t invite you here, so get the fuck out of this house! Your invitation is revoked!”
I panted. The thing disappeared with a loud bang. I hobbled over to Tabby and shook her awake. She punched me in the eye.
“Fuck.” That’s just what I needed, a facial bruise to match my other bruises. “What the Hell was that for?”
“You lived with me for four years, Jimmy Holiday. You know better than to touch me to wake me.” She sat up and rubbed her hand.
This was turning out to be a great night. Not only was I beaten up by a hooded fuck wit, but I’d been punched in the eye by my ex-girlfriend. What was next, a house falling on me?
“In case you are interested, a shadow person thing tried to eat your soul,” I said, huffing.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
She looked around the room and noticed the broken chair where I’d been thrown. “Jesus Christ.”
“Nope,” I shook my head. “Not Jesus. Jimmy Fucking Holiday.”
She stared at me like I’d just grown about fourteen heads.
“You got anything to say?” I asked.
She laughed. “You know you’ve just given yourself at least ten years in Purgatory.”
“Who told you about Purgatory?” I asked.
She lay back down on the sofa and closed her eyes. After a moment, she opened one eye. “Purgatorians.”
I got on my own couch and hunkered down. “Funny.”
###
The next morning, I left Tabby sleeping and went off in search of a bathroom I could use. I found it just down from Will and Tor’s master suite. I got my shower and tried to relax. I didn’t feel like asking anymore. I was doing my own thing now. If they wanted me to be a witness to their messed up lives, I, at least, was going to be comfortable.
Last night was a bitch. Everything that was happening had one thing in common—Lucy. Our moods were affected, the weird things: the note and the hooded beast thing; it was all connected. And how did I know the hooded thing was a soul sucker? I’ve never seen one. Hell, I only heard about them from that dream. I felt like I was caught between two worlds.
I limped around while I took my shower. My bruises were bruised and I ached. At least nothing was broken, but I still felt like shit. After my shower, I went downstairs, stowed my stuff in the library and went into the kitchen. I sat at the table and waited for the others to stir. I sure as Hell wasn’t going to go see Lucy alone, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted Tabby to go or not. Not after what happened last night. I rubbed my jaw where Tabby had punched me. It hurt.
Finally, Tabby wandered in and plunked herself down next to me at the table. “Done sulking yet?”
I glared at her. “No, I’ll have you know, I’m not done sulking yet.” I crossed my arms.
She rolled her eyes at me. “My God, you are such a big baby. Wanna grow up a little so we can get things done here?”
I picked up my shirt, revealing the bruises that had appeared overnight. My ribs were bruised, not broken, thank God.
She stared at my body. “Damn.”
“Yeah, and your soul swallower threw me when I prayed at him.”
“What made it stop?” she asked.
I smiled. “I cussed at it.”
Her features twisted, as if she couldn’t decide if she was amused or confused. “What?”
I nodded. “Yup, I cussed at it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. You don’t make any sense, Jimmy. No sense at all.”
“I know,” I said. “But if I made sense, I wouldn’t be as interesting.”
She shook her head. “True, very true.”
###
Tor and Will came into the kitchen not long after. Tor went immediately to the counter and began pulling pans from beneath it. Will walked over to the table and slumped down in a chair. He was silent.
“What’s wrong?” Tabby asked.
Will wiped at his face with his hands. “It was a long night last night. Lucy was… active.”
I nodded. “About last night… there is a broken chair in the library.”
“What?” Tor whipped around, an egg in her good hand.
“A ghost threw me across the room,” I said.
Will stared at me. “Seriously?”
“It was standing over Tabby when I woke up. When I began to pray, it threw me across the room.”
“What did you do?” Tor asked.
I ran my hands through my hair. “I fought it. Eventually, it disappeared.”
“So, what do we do now?” Will asked.
“We get the proof we need for Lucy’s exorcism like before,” I said. “That’s my priority.” I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe Tabby and I will start sleeping in shifts.”
Tor set the egg down on the counter. “God, I’m sorry, Jimmy. Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, just bruised. The biggest problem is that we don’t know enough about this thing that is messing with Lucy. I don’t know if it’s leaving Lucy at times to cause havoc or if it is just bringing other things in.”
“If it’s bringing other things in, how do we stop it?” Tabby asked. “I mean, I warded that room upstairs.”
Everything else was nuts about this place, maybe someone or something had damaged Tabby’s spellwork. “Maybe we should check upstairs, just to make sure.”
Tabby and I looked at each other. Something had happened. The black figure should not have gotten in. I doubted if a shadow person was what was attacking Lucy, but there was so much about paranormal junk I didn’t know.” We got up from the table in unison. “We’ll be back,” I said.
###
As soon as Tabby and I opened the door to the attic, we could smell something foul. Gone was the lackadaisical tour; we headed straight for the attic room. The symbols Tabby had made with the chalk were burnt black and looked as if a great claw had scratched through each one. The door to the attic room was wide open.
Tabby snorted. “Guess we know how it’s getting in.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I guess we’ll leave this room alone. I don’t have anything else.”
“Nothing?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
###
When we got back to the kitchen, Tor was scrambling eggs in a pan. She was doing it all with her right hand and seemed tired. She looked up.
“Will?” she asked.
Tabby threw herself down in the chair. “What I did upstairs was destroyed. If it wasn’t for claw marks, I’d be looking to see if either of you sabotaged the whole thing.”
Will froze. I looked him in the eye. He coughed.
“If I was in your place, I’d probably do the same. How do we stop it?” he asked.
“Right now, we can’t,” I said.
“Why ever not?” Tor asked.
I sighed. “Because we don’t know what else to do. This thing was bound before, and looks to have learned from it.”
Both Tor and Will paused. “What are we talking about?” Will asked.
“Your little mirror; Tabby’s work on the attic room. This thing can get out of bindings. It was first bound with that fancy silver mirror. That mirror once held this ‘thing,’ and your little girl let it out. Then, a couple of days ago, Tabby warded the room to keep anything from coming out of the room. The wards have been destroyed.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wondered where they came from. Tabby and I hadn’t exactly talked about it all like that, but it came rushing out without me even thinking about it. Maybe I was right and shouldn’t be questioning stuff so much, but what if I was wrong?
“How?” he asked.
“Like Tabby said.”
“Now, how did Lucy let it out?” Will asked.
“She scratched the paint off the front, remember?”
“But what does that have to do with an
ything?” Tor asked.
It was Tabby’s turn, dammit. I looked at her. She cleared her throat.
“Silver mirrors, like the one upstairs, are not like mirrors today. The silver makes a door of sorts. That mirror had this thing trapped, or at least stopped from fully entering this world. When Lucy scratched it, for whatever reason she did, the thing came out.”
Will slammed his hand on the table. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
I jumped up, grabbed Will by the shoulders and turned him to face me. “Because, if we can’t get the church involved, we might have to get rid of this ourselves. And to do that, we’ll have to try to repeat what they did before. So, unless you want Tabby and I to get the Hell out of here, I suggest you calm your crazy ass down.” I shook him. “I don’t like being attacked, Will. And so far, it’s been twice in two days. You want to start being attacked? I’m sure this thing doesn’t care who it hurts.”
Will looked sheepish.
Then, I felt a hand on my arm. I looked up. Tabby was there.
“Okay, enough. Both of you. It’s been a series of crappy days. None of us feel good. None of us are really happy right now, and fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to solve a thing,” Tabby said.
I let go of Will and stepped back. “She’s probably doing this, you know?”
Tor looked at me, puzzled.
There it was. I believed. “Really,” I said. “Demons like chaos and strife. It’s kind of their thing, ya know?” I sat back down at the table. “I’m pretty sure the real Lucy has no idea what is going on. I’m also sure that this thing has a plan. This plan certainly includes claiming Lucy’s soul, but you already know that. I would imagine that when it claims Lucy, it has every intention of taking the most of us it can with it to wherever it goes.”
Tabby nodded.
I rubbed my eyes with my fingers. “I think we need to be more vigilant. Our tempers are jumping at the slightest things, and it just isn’t normal. I’m going into the library to collect my thoughts, then Tabby and I are going to meet with Lucy.”
They let me go. I got up from my chair, left the kitchen and went into the library. I grabbed my note pad and tried to think. What could I ask it without falling into a trap? Its name of course. It said that in the book. I also needed the objects location thing. I looked around. My cell phone was gone.