Dark Night Part 7

I had Kearse make one stop on our way back to the haunted house, and admittedly it was a weird request to him, but god bless him he went with it.

“If things turn hairy in there, we might need back up,” I said closing the back door and riding shotgun.

We got to the house and found the family outside. At first I didn’t understand why they were all outside staring at the house in wide eyed horror, but Kearse grabbed my arm, briefly holding me back. He too was staring at the house like it was on fire. “What the hell is going…” I asked, cutting myself off. I pulled away from his grip and stepped onto the lawn. I got a few feet onto the property when the house suddenly shifted into something out of one of my worst nightmares. Shadow men stood on the lawn, with unholy wails and howls coming from them. Brilliant white lights alternating with the blackest darkness I’d ever seen emitted from the windows, and there was a roaring wind sweeping around the house, grabbing anything not nailed down. This show was for a very specific audience.

“She seems… pissed,” I said as I approached George from behind. George looked scared beyond all reason. “Get your family to a hotel or something,” I told him. “I’ll call you when I’m done.”

Kearse got our parcel from the backseat of his car, large and wrapped in a thick blanket and followed me. I looked up at the sky, noting no stars above us. It was warm, possibly unseasonably warm, but I had little frame of reference. I opened the door, giving Kearse one final look, one last opportunity to walk away, or run screaming into the night, whatever he fancied. He nodded at the inside of the house and we went in.

The air was still inside. All the furniture was floating. Pots and pans and dishes, even the water in the sink seemed to defy gravity, hovering in the air like balloons at a fair. But there was an unnerving quiet to the house, and every single cell in my body told me to run the hell out of there. I decided I might just be crazy as I opened the door to the basement.

There the two men from my hotel room, which felt like a lifetime ago, stood. They were bleeding heavily from the wounds we’d inflicted on them, but kept a gaze on us. Beverly floated between them, her gaze glaring at me. Kearse laid the parcel on the ground, loosening the blanket slightly. “I hope this works,” he said.

“You and me both,” I added.

Beverly cocked her head slightly with a soft, lady like smile. “You did not do as I asked.”

“As you ordered, Bev, and I don’t take orders very well.” I smiled as I started to walk around the room. To be very honest I wasn’t entirely accurate earlier when I said the basement was devoid of contents, and there was one item tucked in a corner I was very keen to get to. The two thugs watched me, and suddenly I felt like I was a very dangerous man. Maybe they thought I was dangerous because they didn’t know what I was going to do next. Again, full transparency, I had no idea what I was going to do either, but I had a hunch.

“But Mr. Lighthouse and I had a little chat. Nice, by the way, making me think he was related to Rogers somehow. I’ve seen that trick before, but, damn it if it still doesn’t constantly surprise me.”

I stopped and turned, waving one hand as I talked, and walked back to where I started “Look, I get it. Lighthouse kinda sorta resisted your charms, but here is something I didn’t get at first. Fred, did you notice it?”

“I didn’t until you pointed it out in the car ride over.”

“Right! I mean I must be terribly stupid that I didn’t notice it before. But in all our research you know the one thing I never picked up on was that…you didn’t die here Beverly.”

The ghost flickered and the men started to move towards us slowly. “See…” I continued, “In order for a ghost to get tied to one specific place, they need to have a physical connection to that place. If you died here on the property, then your ghost could linger, or if you were buried here… but you weren’t buried here. You are in the city cemetery. So what the fuck is your ghost doing here?”

“He asked that, he really did,” Kearse added

“I did, I really did. I asked Kearse on the ride over 'So what the fuck is her ghost doing here?' Do you know what he told me?”

“Tell her what I told you."

“He told me that there must be some tether, something you left here in life that you can’t let go of in death. Now, that got me thinking about what would be so significant in life that you would be tied to. But then I got to thinking about the past. You… screwed up. You see you liked having men at your beck and call. Shameless hussy as I’ve heard it called, and you had your pick, didn’t you? Until Daniel Childs…”

Her ghostly form flared red. The men quickened their pace and Frederick pulled his gun, planting a bullet in the head of the nearest. I lifted my arm, revealing that I had managed to sneak over a sledge hammer and plowed it into the chest of the other guy. I then ran at the ghost.

She howled as I passed through her and planted the sledge hammer into the brick wall where she had emerged. “I figured it out!” I said amid blows. “Lighthouse pissed you off because he never became your beck and call boy. The last one to do that for you was Childs, and because he was black and your suitors were a little bit racist, no one literally wanted to fuck you after that.”

The wall caved in and I found the bound corpse of Childs, his bare skull staring back at me. “Tainted goods and all that.” I said turning around, finding myself in a bar.

No, it was the bar, the bar that would forever change my life. It felt like all the bottles were staring at me, mocking me, beckoning me to drink from them. But I was ready. I’ve been mentally walloped by ghosts before and I think Beverly knew that I had an ace up my sleeve for these occasions, which is why she sent these two assholes to my hotel.

I gave a short, quick, whistle. Scott came out of the blanket and straight to my open hand. His fur pulled me back into the real world in the blink of an eye. He nuzzled me and put his body against mine. I always feel better when Scott is around. “Thank you…” I whispered into his ear. “Thank you for playing the part, for coming when I need you. Now…” I said standing up and facing Beverly. I saw that Kearse was on his knees, his eyes wide with whatever image she was shining into his brain. “Go get Fred.” I said.

Scott did the same to Frederick and soon he was coming around.

“Bev, you’ve been a bad ghost. A very, very bad ghost.” Already she was starting to waver. George and his wife were coming down the steps. Beverly continued to look at me. “Disaster will come with Lighthouse’s election. Not right away, but soon after his election disaster will come.”

Kearse stood up. “Deal with that when it comes. In the meantime, fuck off.”

The two men we’d had to beat up were crumbling into dust, leaving behind dry bones. Beverly disappeared, and it felt like she was gone for good.

Police descended on the scene, talking more with Kearse than anyone else there, which I was fine with. George and his family thanked me profusely and even paid me for my trouble, which I know I should have refused, but… I got bills.

Kearse came up to me and sat on the hood of his car. “When you heading back?” he asked.

I shrugged “Day or so. Gotta write up all this; change a few names here and there.”

“No credit where credit is due?”

I shook my head “To protect a family. I never give the real names of the families. No one needs that kind of shit in their lives.”

“This was fun. Working with you,” he said looking up at the sky.

“Yeah, you’re kind of crazy.” I pointed out. “Probably the reason we get along.”

“Well, let’s get some burgers. I’m starving.”

I agreed and Scott and I loaded up into the car.

The next day I was on my way home, Scott with his head hanging out the window, tongue in the air. I told Kearse if he was ever in Texas to look me up. The drive home was uneventful, and I barely made it into my apartment when my cellphone rang, and I recognized the number, a detective Sloan from the Los Oscuro Police Department. I let it go to voicemail. Even I need a break now and then.