A Camera, A Scientist, and the Devil
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Ace Attorney. All credits go to Capcom, they own the rights to everything. This story was written in response to a challenge posted on the Phoenix Wright Fanfiction Archive that I accepted. Hope y'all enjoy!
Second Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with the movie Paranormal Activity. All credits for that awesome movie goes to Paramount Pictures, they own the rights to everything.
11:15 P.M.
The board had since stopped burning, on its own accord, and the curser was pointing in a different direction that what Klavier had left it in.
Ema stormed back through the front door with Klavier right behind her. She was simply grumbling to herself and ignored him as she continued into the dining room. Klavier went straight over to the Ouiji board and noticed it was different. He picked up the board, leaving the curser on the table.
Ema comes back in and looks at him examining it. "What did you do? What did you do Klavier? Look at me! What did you do?" She pouted and looked up at him expectantly.
"I didn't do anything Fraulein." Klavier said as he rotated the board in front of him, examining it from every angle.
"I cannot freaking believe you Klavier," Ema huffed out a haughty breath and locked the front door. "I'm finished. No more fucking camera. Nothing," She snatched the Ouiji board out of his hands and stomped off. "If you won't take care of it, I will." Klavier followed after her, not wanting for her to get rid of it before he had a chance to thoroughly examine the board.
Ten minutes later...
Klavier had the camera with him in the dining room, along with the Ouiji board. He panned the camera over the entire board slowly, letting it focus on all the scratched in etchings as he walked to the staircase. "Looks like someone drew something on it. I don't know...Hey Ema?" Klavier called out. He stopped right below the top of the stairs, waiting for her to come out and talk to him.
"What?" She shouted angrily.
"Can you come down here and help me figure this thing out bitte?"
"Sorry?" She sounded confused now.
"I think this thing left a message on the Ouiji board." Klavier moved the board from left to right, trying to make heads or tails of the drawings.
Ema stormed out, already in her pajamas. She came out and leaned over the wrought iron banister, gripping it tightly with her hands. "I don't give a shit what that thing says on the Ouiji board!" She gave him a deathly glare and stormed back into the bedroom without another word.
"Fraulein, look..." Klavier called as the bedroom door slammed with a lot of force behind it. He walked up the stairs and opened up the bedroom door. The room was empty, so he figured she must be in their bathroom.
He pushed open the door to the bathroom and saw Ema getting ready to brush her teeth.
"Klavier, get the fuck out!" Ema shouted.
"Ruhig, ruhig." Klavier raised the hand that had the Ouiji board in it and she pointed for him to back out of the room. Now Klavier knew she was beyond angry. He couldn't remember the last time he'd heard her swear so much at him, if ever.
She gave the quickest glance at the board in his hand and shook her pointing hand to emphasize how serious she was. "I don't want to look at that. Get out!" Klavier backed up out of the bathroom, but Ema wasn't satisfied. She mirrored his footsteps and continued to point so he knew she wanted him out of the bedroom altogether.
"GET OUT!" She shouted again, this time with a growl thrown in. Her hands got perched on her hips, and she was shooting daggers at him with her eyes. Klavier complied, and when he turned to go back downstairs, the door slammed behind him with more force than the first time she slammed it that night.
"Think she's pissed? That's not good..." Klavier chuckled for a second. He had a feeling he might be sleeping on the couch that night.
An hour later...
Klavier and Ema were both in the kitchen. Ema had visibly calmed down, but Klavier was still wary that she would get worked up over anything he said. Klavier was standing in the entrance to the kitchen, and Ema was walking back and forth between the counter next to the stove, and the refrigerator.
"Ema? Ema..." Klavier said gently as she pulled open the refrigerator door. He took a few wary steps toward her and sidestepped so he could see her surveying the shelves on the refrigerator door. "Hello? Look, I know you're mad but..."
"Do we have any lemon?" Ema asked nonchalantly. She pursed her lips, and went to sifting through the contents of the shelves in the fridge.
"What do I have to do? Fraulein, just tell me what I have to do."
Ema shut the refrigerator door with more force than necessary and pointed at the camera at Klavier's side. "You have to turn off the camera."
Klavier nodded vehemently and moved over a foot to be next to the stove. "Fine, forget the camera." As soon as the camera settled onto the countertop, the screen went blank as Klavier immediately turned it off.
That night...
1:25 A.M.
The camera was in its usual spot in the bedroom, already set up on the tripod. Klavier walked into view and faced the camera.
Tiredly, he said "I swear to abide by Ema's rules and regulations accord-of camera use, and other things, whatever is that good enough for you?"
Ema came in from the bathroom and crossed her arms. "I think you need to be a little more sincere.
Klavier mashed his mouth in a hard line, closed his eyes for a second, then opened them back up to make eye contact with the recording camera. His arms stayed stationary by his side as he spoke again, this time more sincere like she asked.
"I swear to abide by Ema's rules and regulations of camera use and to not offend this...entity or whatever it is in any way, shape, or form. So wahr mir Gott helfe."
Ema quickly flipped the bathroom light off, recrossed her arms, and spoke to indicate one last sentence he had to repeat. "And I promise not to betray Ema's trust."
"And I promise not to betray Ema's trust. Is there anything else?" He asked?
Ema shook her head. "That'll be it."
They both wordlessly got into their sides of the bed. Ema pulled the covers tight around her whole body and shifted over to her side facing away from him. Klavier balanced on his knees and leaned over Ema. She turned her head to look up at him.
"Can I get a kiss, Fraulein?"
Ema stayed silent, wanting to forgive him, but still holding on to a bit of anger.
"Bitte?" Klavier asked again.
Ema gave the slightest nod and Klavier pecked her quickly on the lips. She allowed him the kiss, but she was still tense and he knew she didn't enjoy it.
"Goodnight Klavier." She said simply as he rolled over on his side, facing the opposite way from her.
Suddenly Ema had a change of heart and quickly rolled over to kiss him on the cheek. Klavier pulled her in to cuddle at his side, and she laid her head on his chest. They laid there for about ten minutes, all the anger from earlier evaporating away.
"Ema, do you want to know what happened with the Ouiji board? I saw the footage of it, you know." Klavier said quietly.
Ema pushed herself up, supporting her weight on one elbow, but not breaking away from his embrace. "I just want to forget about it, okay? Let's go to sleep." Ema adjusted to lie back down and buried her face in his shoulder.
The next afternoon...
Klavier was sitting in the living room with a number of things spread out in front of him. He had his laptop open, with last night's footage of the Ouiji board, the Ouiji board in question, and an open notepad with a pencil being twirled around his long fingers. He looked at the screen for a second, adjusted the curser for the Ouiji board, then made a note of something. He shifted his weight so his legs were stretched out over the length of the couch and he held the notebook so he could read over what he wrote.
Ema walked into the living room and saw him sitting there.
Klavier looked up from his notes and gestured her to come over and join him. "I think I found something that is pretty cool, and I'd like to have you help me figure it out."
Ema took one look at the Ouiji board and crossed her arms. Klavier waved his hand for her to come sit beside him.
"Come on, sit down," When Ema said nothing and did not move, Klavier just continued. "Or stand up."
"I had the camera capture everything after we left. The cursor was moving."
"Okay." Ema said steadily, maintaining an even tone.
"I'm trying to figure out what it said." Klavier explained. Ema pursed her lips and kept her arms crossed as she moved the few steps to the couch and sat down next to him.
"I couldn't figure out exactly what it said, but there are a lot of possibilities," He looked over all the names he had listed. "Do you know anyone named Deena or Diane? It could be Nadine, but I don't know..."
Ema thought hard for a second, putting serious thought into it. When she came up blank, she shook her head regretfully. "No."
"Alright, well I'll work on it. I mean, it could be that Kristoph is just messing with us, and-" Klavier thought out loud, before Ema interrupted him.
"Wait a minute, back up. What did you say? Why did you say your brother is messing with us? That's not possible." Ema's mind was reeling by what she just heard him say. Kristoph was executed over half a year ago, after he was tried for all his crimes and found guilty of every single charge. He was executed only a month before she moved in with Klavier. Although the more she thought about it, the timing of the start of the haunting seemed very coincidental. Almost too coincidental.
Klavier huffed out a deep breath, put down his notebook on top of the laptop, and looked Ema. "Because I do think it is my brother haunting us. I...did an experiment with an EVP recorder a couple weeks back, and what I heard was...borderline definitive proof that it is him."
Ema's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline. "What did the EVP recorder get?"
"Someone answering me in perfect German. It was very faint, almost hard to make out, but the first time I heard it, there was no mistaking that it was something speaking in German, almost in the same condescending tone I heard Kristoph use all the time. Everything the entity said even sounded like something he would say."
Ema looked down at her hands and looked back up at Klavier. "I've been having nightmares with him a lot lately. Scientifically many more than the one I told you about the night I was walking around in a trance. They've been happening almost every day now."
Klavier's jaw dropped open. That was news to him, and he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me?"
Ema shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I just didn't." Ema looked back down at the Ouiji board in front of her. "But I don't...I don't really care what it means. You're done playing with it, and I want it out of the house."
Later that afternoon...
Ema and Kay were sitting on the leather sofa, facing each other. Ema called Kay over so she had someone to talk to about everything that had been happening.
Kay was seriously worried about the changing appearance of her friend. Ema's brown hair was looking limp, she had dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she'd lost a bit of weight.
"It's crazy, what's been happening to you." Kay murmured.
"I can't, I mean I don't even..." Ema trailed off. She'd just finished relaying everything that had happened over the past few weeks. The last time Ema had Kay over, she hadn't told her anything about the haunting, just because it had yet to escalate in seriousness and at that point in time, Ema didn't think there'd been anything to tell.
Klavier walked over with the camera, zooming in on the girl talk that was commencing on the sofa.
"What are you Fraulein's talking about?" Klavier asked.
Ema sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Just everything." Klavier nodded knowingly and just stood there. Ema turned back to Kay as she continued with a previous thought.
"Look, just come to stay with me, and-"
"Kay listen, it's not the house, it's me and Klavier. We're what it wants. You know, wherever we go, it goes. I'm not going to come to your house and mess things up for you."
Kay blew out a breath and fiddled with the blue scarf around her neck.
One hour later...
Klavier and Ema were sitting at the kitchen island, talking about a new plan, and a new course of action. She wrapped her arms around her torso and looked at him.
"Okay, here's the compromise. You can have your powder, you can do your last little scientific experiment. If it doesn't work, if it doesn't help us, I'm calling the demonologist, Miss Fey, and we're getting this taken care of."
Klavier was looking down at the camera screen as he spoke. "Ja, deal."
Ema leaned forward and craned her neck to get into his line of vision. "Can you look at me and not the camera?"
Klavier looked up, broken from his train of thoughts. "Alright, sorry. Deal Fraulein."
That night...
Ema was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, looking outward with the camera recording. Klavier was in the middle of the hallway with a bottle of baby powder that he got for the experiment.
"Is the camera on Fraulein?" Klavier called.
"Yes." Ema answered. She didn't see it necessary to record him putting down the baby powder, but he insisted. Mostly because they'd recorded every other little thing related to the haunting, and why skip something now?
"And scientifically, what is this going to prove?" Ema asked as Klavier began sprinkling the powder on the floor in the hallway.
"Well, if anything come through here, it's going to leave a footprint." Klaver explained his reasoning. He spread the powder in increments down the hallway, in the same direction footsteps would be, should anything make them.
"Okay, but I think we scientifically established something's happening. Tomorrow I'm making the call. You can have your powder, but tomorrow you can clean this up-"
"Ema, take a deep breath. It's fine. We need to prove what we are dealing with," Klavier ended with a line of baby powder in the door frame. "Does that look pretty good to you?"
Ema snorted. "It looks like our floor is covered with baby powder, yes." Ema zoomed the camera in to look further down the hallway at the sections covered with baby powder. She personally thought this whole experiment was stupid, but he wanted to do it, so she let him.
Ema handed the camera off to Klavier so he could put it on the tripod and she slid into bed. She sat up and pulled the covers around her waist. Klavier finished putting the camera up for the night, and walked over and stopped in front of Ema.
"Ema?"
"Yea?" Ema asked.
"I've been doing some research. I'm taking care of this. Because nobody comes in my house, messes with my girlfriend, and gets away with it." Klavier said that louder than necessary, as if subconsciously addressing the entity that he believed to be his brother.
Klavier strode over the bed and joined Ema. He sat Indian-style next to her. "Do you want to call that lady? Miss Fey-"
"YES YES exactly! I want to take care of this." Ema shouted, interrupting him.
"Well I'm taking care of this, this is my house, you're my girlfriend. I'm going to solve the problem. Okay Fraulein?" Klavier tried to take Ema's hand, but she pulled it away and shook her head, looking down at the bed.
Klavier lifted his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Come on Fraulein, have a little faith."
Night #17
12:15 A.M.
Ema just leaned over to turn the bedside lamp off and laid down in bed. "This is it. This powder is the last thing, then I'm going to make the phone call." Klavier leaned down to kiss Ema on the cheek then settled down next to her.
3:15 A.M.
Klavier and Ema were both fast asleep, both having since rolled over to be facing the wall away from the bedroom door.
Slow, almost deliberate footsteps could be heard starting down the hallway, getting louder as they approached the master bedroom. They came into the bedroom, making a bit less noise, as if they were being considerate that people were sleeping. The noise stopped, and Klavier woke up, lifting his head off the pillow. Ema stirred, doing the same thing, and they both sat up, now fully awake. She twisted her torso to look at him.
"Did you hear that?" She asked quietly.
Klavier leaned forward on his knees to look down the hallway, and noticed something on the floor. "Was zur Holle..."
Ema followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at. Her face paled as she realized his powder experiment actually yielded physical proof of some other being. "Oh my God..."
Klavier didn't bother walking around from his side of the bed, he hopped right over the footboard to grab the camera. This was insane. Ema was on her hands and knees, peering down at the floor. Klavier turned on the standing lamp so they could see the footprints in a better light.
There was a single set of powder covered footsteps coming into the room and stopping at the foot of the bed. The looked exactly like what shoe prints would look like if a nice pair of loafers walked in the powder.
"There's footsteps in, but no footsteps out." Klavier murmured.
"Oh God." Ema sounded like she was holding back vomit from the idea of that.
Klavier stepped cautiously over the rows of powder to examine each and every one of them. Going all the way down the hallway, the rows of powder had disturbed areas where the footprints were, and in between the rows there were white footprints.
Klavier reached the doorway that lead to the laundry room and had the crawl space entrance to the attic.
"The prints stop over here." Klavier noted. He stepped toward the laundry room and Ema grabbed his arm to pull him back.
"Klavier no, it could be a trap! Please, let's go.." She said desperately. Ema couldn't remember the last time she was so scared.
Klavier looked at the entrances to the guest bedrooms, and that section of the hallway was completely clean.
Ema peered into the laundry room, looked at everything eye level, the gazed up at the crawl space entrance and gasped. "Oh my God! Did you do that?" She asked, pointing at the ceiling.
Klavier walked the step to be by her side and looked at where she was pointing. The wood covering to the ceiling was ajar, askew by a few inches.
"You didn't...Klavier, did you...tell me you opened that.." Ema stuttered.
"Of course not," Klavier answered. "What the hell is that?" He trailed off and got a thoughtful look on his face. Ema saw the wheels in his head turning and she grabbed his arm.
"You are not going up there Klavier. You're not going up there."
"I'm not going in there. I'm just going to look." Klavier started looking around for the stepladder they kept in the room.
"No, you're not." Ema replied.
"I'm going to go check it out. I'm getting the stepladder."
A few minutes later...
Klavier had the stepladder positioned underneath the attic entrance so he could climb up.
"Klavier, I really don't want you to go up there. Please..." Ema said pleadingly. As she held the camera, her hands were shaking and she was holding her breath, praying nothing was going to happen. "You have no idea what is up there. You have no idea."
Klavier stepped up a couple rungs and reached up to move the wood cover out of the way completely. Then he moved up three more rungs to pull himself up to poke his head through. He looked down at Ema and took the camera from her.
"Please be careful..." Ema whispered.
Klavier pulled the camera up into the attic and panned the light around the entire empty space. All he could see was the yellow insulation and the wood floor.
"Do you see anything?" Ema asked. Klavier shook his head and turned around to the left side of the attic.
From the first initial survey of the space, all he saw was insulation and old carpeting. But a second scanning of the fluffy yellow insulation, he saw something that didn't look like it belonged.
"What the hell is that?" Klavier whispered. "There's something over there, stuck in the-
"Oh my God, Klavier come back down. Come on...Klavier please come on." Ema pleaded as he zoomed the camera view toward the object to try and see what it was.
"Hold on Fraulein. Here, take the camera." Klavier said as he lowered the camera into Ema's outstretched hands.
"Okay fine, come back down," Ema took the camera and clutched it to her chest. "I'll hold the ladder, and-"
Klavier cut her off. "There's something over there, I have to look."
Ema gave a tiny groan. "Klavier...Please be careful."
Klavier stepped up another two rungs and pulled himself into the attic. He slowly walked over to the object, never taking his eyes from it.
"Are you okay?" Ema called when she heard no sounds coming from the attic. After a moment, still nothing. "Klavier answer me!...Klavier!"
She heard his voice again as his leg appeared over the edge, steadying himself on the stepladder. "Hold on."
Klavier extended the paper in his hand to Ema so she could see it. It was a small rectangle. A small piece of paper that turned an entire trial around almost a year ago. A piece of paper that broke through Kristoph Gavin's entire facade of calm and collection and caused him to break down in front of the entire court, including the new jurists.
A poker card with a single drop of blood on it.
"I found this up there." Klavier said simply.
Ema's eyes widened as she recognized the year old piece of evidence. "No...no no no. Let me see that," She snatched it out of Klavier's hand and he rubbed his chin in disbelief. He couldn't quite believe it himself. "This is the final piece of evidence from that trial. What in the hell is this doing in our attic?"
Klavier shrugged and took it from her hands to look at it for himself again. "I'm not sure. It should be in the evidence room at the precinct, where it's been since that trial. At least I thought it was."
"There is no way, there is no way you found that in our attic. There is no way that that can be anywhere but the precinct. I'd know if someone had removed it from the evidence room. I haven't seen this playing card since the trial. This makes no sense. It makes no sense at all." Ema said softly.
Now she was convinced of her theory. This now practically confirmed their suspicions it was Kristoph haunting them.
Klavier saw the conviction in Ema's eyes, and had to agree with her. The fact that it was this piece of evidence that randomly showed up in their attic, it was the only explanation.
Ten minutes later...
Klavier and Ema were back in the bedroom. Ema was sitting, leaning back against the headboard, Klavier sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Where was it when you found it?" Ema asked nervously.
Klavier looked in the direction of the attic entrance, then retraced his steps up above. "It was over our bed Fraulein." He said nervously. Ema gave a quick eye roll then covered her eyes with her hands, leaning them on her knees. She gave a wide yawn and exhaled deeply.
Later that morning...
Ema couldn't stop yawning as she pulled the milk jug out of the refrigerator and poured the milk into a glass. Klavier, as usual, had the camera perched on his shoulder and was filming her.
"I'm so tired, and why are you filming me? I'm just making coffee." Ema poured them both a mugful and they were grateful for the jolt of caffeine it would bring.
They both sat at the kitchen island in silence, waiting for their bodies to wake up. Ema ripped open a couple sugar packets and poured it into her coffee. Unlike Klavier, who drank his coffee virtually black, she liked hers sweet. Both were too tired to say anything, although nothing needed to be said after everything that had happened so far.
"I think we could both use a little more sleep." Klavier said as he lowered his forehead onto his crossed forearms.
Ema barked out one laugh. "I could use a new life right about now. I'm so tired of this..." Ema trailed off as she sipped her hot coffee. They both stayed silent as they drank in silence.
Once they were done, Klavier wordlessly walked into his office to go look over the footage from last night. Ema just watched him walk away and made no movement to get up and follow him. She simply did not have the energy to do so.
"Ema? Can you come here?" Klavier called out a few minutes later. Ema groaned and forced herself to stand up and plod into the office.
"Fraulein, look at this." Klavier pulled up the video feed from last night.
"Take a look at what?" Ema asked sleepily.
"I got the footage from last night. You can see the footsteps." Klavier pressed the 'play' button and pointed to the spot she should look at. Ema rested her right hand on his shoulder and leaned forward, squinting her eyes.
Sure enough, you could hear the approaching footsteps, and then the footsteps that they saw last night filed in, as if a real person were walking there.
Ema's mind went blank as she comprehended that. Her jaw was wide open as he replayed it a second time for her. "Oh my God..." She trailed off.
"So what are you going to do?" She asked.
Klavier exhaled a deep breath and his eyes were boring into the computer screen. "I don't know."
Ema nodded her head once. "I do. I'm calling Morgan Fey. You've had your camera work, you've had your powder on the floor, and it's just gotten worse. Okay, I mean we should have done this two weeks ago."
Klavier stayed silent, resting his chin on his fists.
"I'm calling her. Today." Ema walked over to where the cordless phone was a took it off the base. She picked up the piece of paper that Maya Fey had left with her, containing the number where Ema could reach her aunt.
"Hey hey hey, let's talk about this Fraulein," Ema raised her eyebrows at looked him skeptically. She leaned her forearms on the marble countertops and held the phone in her hand, thumb at the ready to dial the number. "I have this under control, we're making progress, and-"
Ema interrupted him and did a finger wag worthy of Miles Edgeworth. "No, no, you haven't been making any progress, and you are NOT in control. HE is in control, and if you think you are in control, then scientifically you're being an idiot! Not a single thing you've done has helped. I'm sorry, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but the camera hasn't helped, and the stupid footprints haven't helped. Do you think Kristoph would have left footprints if he didn't want to? NO! He did it because he wanted to, he wanted us to find that damn playing card. He can be anywhere, he can hear what we're saying right now!"
Ema took a deep breath after her rant and rubbed her temple with her forefingers after she slammed the cordless phone down. She felt a headache coming on.
Klavier stood up from his chair and walked over to the other side where Ema was sitting.
"How the hell do you know?" He shouted.
"You are absolutely powerless!" Ema shouted back, reaching the end of her temper. She reached for the phone that she'd set down a minute ago.
"T-that's not true, at all." Klavier muttered. He really didn't know what to say to Ema, there was no reasoning with her at this point.
Ema shot him a glare and started dialing the number for Morgan Fey. "Well get over it!" She looked at the piece of paper and dialed the last few digits.
Ten minutes later...
Ema sighed as she placed the phone back down on the countertop in front of her.
"Well I called Morgan Fey, and apparently she's gone. I didn't know what else to do, so I called Maya Fey back, I know you didn't like her, but I did. And...she's coming back tomorrow. That is as soon as she could get here, so if we can stick it out until then. We just need to hold out, and maybe tomorrow will help us." Ema trailed off skeptically.
Even Ema didn't believe her own words. There were no words to describe how she felt right now, it was a combination of many things. She was angry at Klavier's brother for haunting them in the first place. She was afraid of what he was going to do next. She was scared that they might not make it until Maya could return. She was irritated that Klavier did a lot of this to antagonize his brother, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Ema squeezed the bridge of her nose and tried very hard to hold back the tears that were threatening to overflow and cloud her vision.
Night #18
3:50 A.M.
Ema and Klavier were both fast asleep. She was snuggled into his side and holding his waist very tightly, even while she sleeping. Ema had fallen into an uncomfortable sleep, having a bad feeling that Kristoph was watching them.
The downstairs light for the foyer had been off for several hours. Neither of them had touched it since they turned all the lights off earlier.
The light now flicked on by itself. After a few seconds, you could hear slow, deliberate footsteps coming up the stairs and getting louder as they approached the master bedroom.
Klavier stirred a bit and pulled Ema closer into his side, if it was possible. He lifted his head up, feeling another presence in the room.
The previously on light turned itself off as Klavier sat up even further, rousing Ema from her sleep. Klavier suddenly pushed himself out of bed quickly, and when he took two steps toward the door, it slammed shut with a lot of force and Ema let out a short scream. She pulled the covers up to her chin and her eyes darted back and forth between Klavier and the now closed door.
"What the fuck!" Klavier shouted. He pulled the camera off the tripod and walked toward the door slowly. He was a foot away from the door before he hesitated.
"What are you doing?" Ema stammered. "Y-you can't leave me here."
"There's something out there.." Klavier whispered. He reached out with his left hand to turn the doorknob when three very loud, very heavy banging sounds could be heard, as if someone was pounding on the door with their fist.
Ema shrieked and Klavier did the same. He backed up three steps and the camera shook as his hands shook. Ema burst into tears and just kept screaming incoherent words. Her words were muffled by her covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh no. Oh no. Come here, fop please..." Ema cried. Her whole body was shaking as she reached out for Klavier.
The door rattled and Ema's crying increased. Klavier backed up a few steps, back towards the tripod. He handed the camera to Ema, she reluctantly took it in her shaking hands. She stayed on the bed, holding her breath as Klavier approached the door a second time. He reached out very slowly, gripped the doorknob in his hand, and pulled the door open quickly before he lost his nerve.
Ema gasped when he did so, afraid they were going to see something. There was nothing, just darkness in the hallway, and complete silence. Klavier took a few steps to go out the door and Ema called for him to come back. "No come on, come on. Right now." She was holding out her hand, willing him to come back. The camera was shaking very badly, trembling like Ema's entire body.
Klavier turned on the earlier light in question with the upstairs switch and warily walked toward the stairs. "Who's there?" He called out.
Ema followed him, stepping sideways, ready to turn and run back into the bedroom at a moment's notice. Klavier instead deviated down the laundry room toward the hallway. His knuckles were white as he gripped the banister and made his way farther from the bedroom.
"Are you going to mess with us Kristoph?" It was the first time Klavier had addressed this entity as such, and when he finally said it out loud, he felt a conviction in his chest, a positive feeling that he was dead on with his hunch.
Ema's heavy breathing continued as she very reluctantly followed him down the hallway. Right before he was bathed in darkness at the end of the hall, Ema pleaded with him one more time. "Klavier please..."
"Show yourself Bruder! I know it's you!" Klavier shouted angrily.
"Klaver come on, let go! We have to get out."
"Sie haben ein Problem?" Klavier switched to German, thinking it might draw his brother out and make him react. That was the only coherent thing Klavier heard from his brother an entity, so he thought it might work. He heard a faint whisper in his ear.
"Ja ich habe ein Problem ist, ihr beiden," He heard his brother's voice, exactly as he remembered it. Klavier's eyebrows shot up and he felt a chill to his very core. Those words were just as harsh as the things he said in the courtroom last year. He turned around to Ema and saw her looking at him with a deer in the headlights emotion. "Alright let's go."
No sooner had they turned around and started back toward the bedroom did it slam shut on its own a second time. Ema shrieked again and backed up. She hid herself in the laundry room, only poking her eyes and the camera out enough so she could see. She was breathing so heavily, it was like she'd just run a marathon. Klavier continued down the hallway slowly, but right before he got past the end of the staircase did the same heavy banging noises could be heard, directly on the door this time.
Ema did not think she could breathe any more heavily and cry any harder than she was at that very moment. She thrust the camera into Klavier's hands and she started to run down the stairs. Klavier gave chase and stopped her halfway down. He pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair soothingly, just whispering to her and sussing her.
"I'm not going in that bedroom. I'm not going back in there." She kept saying over and over. She looked up the stairs fearfully and eyed the closed door.
"Ema, it's not going to make a difference. Come on, let's just go back to bed, and-" Klavier tried to say.
"No, we're going downstairs. I don't want to be in there. I want to go downstairs. Please please please please." Ema looked up at him so fearfully yet so forcefully, Klavier couldn't find it in his heart to try and convince her otherwise. She was one step away from getting on her knees and begging him to go downstairs. She grabbed his hand and tugged him further down the stairs.
Klavier looked around the entire living room, moving the light from the camera all over. Everything was still, but not everything was quiet. A bevy of noises could be heard, and none of them were pleasant sounds.
Swirling winds, a monstrous groaning noise, squeaking hinges, and rattling pans were the easily identifiable sounds.
"Klavier..." Ema whispered, beyond afraid. "I don't want to be here."
Klavier moved the camera all around, examining everything in his line of sight. Nothing was moving, and he couldn't identify where all the noises were coming from. Ema was clinging to Klavier, afraid to move away from his side. God only knows what his brother would do if they got separated.
"We should go upstairs, Ema," Klavier murmured. "Come here." He pulled a frightened Ema back up the stairs and her look of disdain grew as they approached the master bedroom and re-entered it. Ema's head slowly moved back and forth, trying to convince herself that everything was alright in here. Klavier set the camera on the tripod and turned the downstairs light off.
They curled up into each other, both too afraid to go back to sleep. All their pillows were discarded and the sheets were a crumpled mess at the foot of the bed. Klavier pulled Ema against his chest and she gripped his forearms tightly. They both just kept focusing on the door, the door that seemed to have a life of its own.
No more sleep would be gained by either of them that night.