Ty was suddenly all alone and wasn’t sure what to do with himself or where to go. He started to look around and figure out what he was going to do next. In the distance he could see a small light shining from what looked like a building. He thought he should go check it out and in an instant he was standing in the front yard of an older farm house. When he first arrived there was a large long haired German Shepherd dog that saw him and began to bark and growl as it began approaching him. As Ty moved closer to the house the hair on the back of dog’s neck bristled and it took the stance that it was going to protect the house as it readied for attack. Ty thought, “Doesn’t the stupid dog know that I’m a ghost?” He tried to get the dog to calm down by saying come here boy and tapping the palm of his hand on his thigh. He tried to talk to the dog, but nothing seemed to work. Within a few minutes, a large outside light hidden under the eve of the house came on. It was like a huge search light and it lit up the entire yard and barn area. There was a big open space from the house to a large hay barn about sixty yards from the house. It had a nice white painted fencing surrounded the west end of the barn and a couple of horses were peering over the fence. There were also a few cattle peeking through the open parts of the fence and Ty could see their eyes glowing from the light.
When the back screen door swung open, out stepped a cowboy holding a rifle in the air. The horses seemed curious as one of them whinnied a call to him when he stepped out of the house. Ty could tell he didn’t have time to dress because he just had on his boots, pants and a cowboy hat. He looked to be in his mid-forties and in fairly good shape. As soon as Ty saw him, he immediately went and hid behind the side of the house, thinking maybe the cowboy could also see him. The dog followed, barking, frantically, as he tried to keep up with Ty. The cowboy followed slowly behind his dog saying, “What is it Gus, what do you see? Go get him boy.” By the time the dog was on the side of the house where he was hiding Ty quickly moved to the other side of the house. The dog acted confused and bewildered as Ty would vanish right in front of him and show up in another place. The cowboy realized there wasn’t any threat to him or his family so he went back inside. Ty followed him as he passed through the closed door.
Once inside, Ty followed the cowboy as he walked from the living room into the kitchen. His wife was in the kitchen and she was soon joined by a young boy and girl wanting to find out what was going on. The two kids had been doing homework and the woman had been drying dishes, before the dog starting barking. When the cowboy came into the room he took off his hat and hung it next to the door as his wife asked, “What was wrong with Gus? He replied, “He either saw one of those “things” again or it was just an animal.” She put the towel down on the kitchen counter and with a worried look on her face said, “I hope it wasn’t one of those things again.” Ty didn’t know what they were talking about by “things” but he figured he would find out sooner or later. The cowboy leaned the rifle against the corner of the fridge and the wall as he replied, “I’m going to be prepared this time, if it comes back.” After hanging out with them for a while, Ty started looking around the house. He found a place in one of the bedrooms that had a dark closet where he was sure he could get out of the way and not be heard or seen.
He stayed with the family for several days, observing their routines and learning more about them. He found out the cowboy’s name was Charles (Chuck) Hines, his wife’s name was Susan and the kid’s names were Jason and Jenifer. Jason was an eighth grader and Jenifer was in the sixth grade at the local country school. Before moving there, they had lived in San Jose, California where Chuck worked in Silicon Valley doing computer design technology, while Susan worked as a registered nurse at one of the local hospitals.
They had saved enough money, since they had gotten married, to fulfill their lifelong dream of moving to the country and raising their children. When they found the “Fleshwalker Ranch,” it was a quiet secluded ranch in Utah and they thought they had found the perfect dream location. The property was down a winding dirt road with only one way in and one way out on a picturesque 500 acre cattle ranch. The house was a nice well-kept older ranch style home with a huge hay barn out back. It was completely fenced with barbed wire and the entire property was very well maintained. The ranch contained mostly pasture for the cattle to graze and a few thick patches of tall cottonwoods scattered throughout. It also had thick brush and a natural creek that flowed through it. It was perfect for them, or at least they thought it was, before they started having weird paranormal activity on the property.
Once they owned the property and moved into the house, they began to hear claims from neighbors about their property being haunted and it having all kinds of paranormal activity. They heard from neighbors, such stories as it having a portal for UFO’s, Sasquatch and other unusual looking creatures. There were cattle mutilations and psychic manifestations on the ranch. (Ty now knew that part of their story was true). Some of the neighbors claimed that several animals (cattle and dogs) had been mutilated or simply disappeared while on the ranch. Residents of the area had reported seeing weird things in the sky like flying saucers, cigar-shaped craft and zigzagging balls of light. There had been numerous eye witness reports of close encounters with a dark nine foot creature that resembled, what many believed, was a Bigfoot or Sasquatch. There had also been reports of unexplained lights that would light up the pasture like a football stadium sometimes during the night. Strange voices had been heard coming from the light and not too far off the ground, but nothing could be seen. The longer they owned the property, the Hines family started to realize that, right in the middle of their ranch, was a portal to not just one, but several dimensions.
One of the strangest events that took place on the ranch happened to Chuck and his family soon after they moved in. There was an extremely large wolf that appeared out of nowhere. It came across the pasture and trotted up to the house. It had no fear of them and instantly became friendly with the family, just like a family pet. They thought this type of behavior was more than odd for a wolf in the wild. It had rained that day and as they petted the animal they thought it smelled just like a wet dog. After it had been around them for a while, it felt comfortable with the family, so it strolled over to the corral by the barn and grabbed a small calf by the noise. As the family watched, it attempted to pull the calf through the fence. Chuck went over to the wolf and began to beat it with a two-by-four board to get it to let go. No matter how hard he beat the wolf it wouldn’t let go of the calf. After trying everything he could, he went to his pick-up and grabbed his .357 Magnum pistol and shot the wolf at point blank range. It didn’t even faze the wolf and it continued to pull the calf through the fence. Not getting the response he wanted, Chuck shot him several more times with the pistol. The wolf finally let go of the calf, but stood looking back at the family as they watched in horror. Fearing the wolf might hurt his family Chuck then ran to his pick-up and grabbed a hunting rifle and shot the wolf several times at close range. This was a rifle that would’ve instantly killed any large animal with one shot, two at the most. After six shots from point blank range from the rifle, the wolf just turned and trotted across a field and into a muddy thicket. Chuck and the family couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed. It was the most bizarre thing they’d ever seen. Chuck and his son were so startled by what had happened they decided to follow the wolf to see if it was going off into the field to die. Although there wasn’t any blood trail, they were able to follow the tracks for about a mile through the mud until they just disappeared. They never were able to understand just what this thing was. They knew it wasn’t just an ordinary wolf because the bullets didn’t even phase it. Chuck and Susan were always worried about it returning because if Chuck couldn’t kill it with his 357 magnum pistol or his hunting rifle, then they weren’t sure what they could do to stop it should it return and want to kill them. That was the “Thing” that Susan was afraid of and had asked Chuck if it had
returned. She and Chuck had discussed “The Wolf” several times and they weren’t sure what they could do if this “Thing” came back and grabbed one of them or their kids. They knew they couldn’t kill it with any gun they had. Chuck had a couple of sticks of dynamite he kept close by that he was going try, if it did return.
Everything continued to get weirder for them from that point on. Another encounter Chuck had was when a red haired creature that walked on all fours attacked one of the family horses. As Chuck approached it, the creature just disappeared before his eyes. Susan claimed that her family was constantly seeing large orbs and all kinds of unidentified flying objects in the sky. At one point Chuck and one of the hired hands saw a vehicle in the pasture near some trees and thought it was strange being out there in the field. They said it looked like a large motor home. As they approached it and got within a hundred yards of the vehicle it flew off into the sky like. Once it was over the trees it just disappeared. There were all kinds of weird things going on that were tormenting their family.
Ty had been around the family long enough to know they were living in constant fear of something and he also knew their fear was real. He had seen first-hand the cattle mutilation from the hands of Zitrik and had been on a spaceship that had brought him through the portal on their ranch. He also knew that if he were to somehow manifest himself or let himself be known in some way to them they may not be able to comprehend that he was just a spirit. He had already seen how the evil demons had tormented other spirits and heard about them tormenting people on earth and didn’t want to frighten them more than they already were.
Ty felt comfortable just hanging out with the family, but enjoyed being in Jason’s room more than anyplace in the house. Jason had chores to do on the ranch and Ty would sometime follow him around for something to do. When he wasn’t doing chores or homework, he was in his room playing video games. Ty was hooked on the video games when he worked his shift at the fire station. During his shift, he had to stay at the fire station, for sometimes, twenty four hours per day for four days in a row. Then he would be off three days in a row. Because of his long shift, he and some of the other guys played video games to pass the time, when they weren’t busy. He was always cleaning up, lifting weights, or playing the video games. Even though he now couldn’t run the controls, he was happy just watching Jason play with them. Sometimes he would get frustrated at some of the moves Jason made and he would throw up his hands and shout, “That was a stupid movie!” or “Why did you do that?” Of course Jason couldn’t hear him and was oblivious to Ty’s gestures or remarks, but didn’t stop Ty from criticizing his skills.
One day, while Jason was at school, Ty discovered, merely by accident, that he could become more powerful when he was around some of Jason’s battery operated equipment. Somehow he gathered strength when he got close to the toys or remote controls that had batteries. He was also able to somehow pull energy from the television when he got close to it. While he was alone, he started experimenting to see what he could do with his new found abilities. He experimented with moving objects from one place to another, opening and closing doors and making footstep sounds. He found that he was able to do it if he accumulated enough energy. He also learned that, with a little extra strength, he could manifest himself into a white mist shape or into an orb that moved about the room. When Jason was home from school he tried the same experiment of accumulating energy to see if he could muster up enough to contact Jason with his voice. He tried it over and over again, but Jason couldn’t hear the shouts or the conversations Ty would try to have with him. One thing Ty did learn, was the family cat; “Buster” could hear and see him as plain as day. Every time Buster saw or heard his voice, he would scurry away and hide behind something.
The more Ty experimented with his abilities the more he played tricks on Jason. He would move things from where Jason had left them to see if he would realize they had been moved. After Jason blamed Jenifer several times for being in his room, Ty decided he would venture out and try it on Chuck and Susan to see if he could get their attention. At first, he would just move the keys of the truck or car to a different location to see if they noticed. He also moved coffee cups and other small kitchen objects. Susan started noticing things being moved right away and asked Chuck and the kids if they had moved them. Of course, they all denied having anything to do with it.
One day Susan left the kitchen, to do laundry in the other room, while the kids were in school and Chuck was in town getting supplies. Ty opened up all the kitchen cabinet doors exposing all the contents of the shelves for her to see. When Susan came back into the room she was so shocked she dropped what she was carrying and stopped in her tracks. She let out a short scream and her mouth and eyes were wide open in disbelief. Ty realized now that he had the power to communicate with the people on earth. Maybe in a crude way, but he felt like it was a start. He would just have to find a way he could communicate with Maggie so she would realize it was him. He decided he wouldn’t pull anymore pranks on the family while he was there. They had been through enough paranormal activity on the ranch without him testing his abilities on them.
Ty realized that he wanted and needed to find Markus and Holly to let them know about his new found abilities. Maybe this would help them find a way to make the connection with their loved ones they had desperately wanted to contact. The following day he said his good-bye’s to the Hine’s family and went to the portal where he last saw Markus, Holly and Zitrik. He decided he would wait there until Zitrik might return for him.
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Chapter 8 - Tyler Meets Tarmic