Hello and welcome back to my story. Just a quick update before the holidays. Hold on to your hats though, cause this will be quite the thrill ride. Into the Further we go...
Introducing Lin Shaye as Elise. Enjoy!
6
The time was 0:00, shown by the alarm clock on Brian's nightstand. A little further away, Aella was peeking through the crack of the bedroom door, making sure he and his wife were sleeping. Then, she waved her hand, as if performing something that would affect the two humans. Afterward, she extended her palm toward them and activated her history timeline perception, intending to look into Brian and Natalie's past. Aella wanted to see for herself the supposed spirits that had plagued them.
And she did, with several visions of the family getting startled and terrified of ghastly apparitions at random intervals. One of them even reached out to attack Natalie while she was in the bathroom. By the looks of it, these were not regular spirits. They had a certain stint of desperate malevolence plastered on their faces, as if they had no choice but to latch on to living people. The reason eluded her. What also escaped her was the sheer number of them. They were so many. Aella had encountered locations with many spirits wandering about, but they had been places in which the haunting persisted, for years, centuries on end. This house had recently been visited by a high number of spirits and suddenly, without any warning or explanation, they had left just as they had come. It was beyond peculiar.
Heading toward the family's daughters, Aella did the same. And experienced the same kind of visions, witnessing the same spirits. Everything checked out. Therefore, it was time to proceed with the next step of the plan.
Specs and Tucker approached the front door, carrying bags with their gear. Visibly anxious, they stopped a few feet away from the entrance and held their breath. They either were going to find the underlying cause of this case, or would end up in the back of a police car, on their way to a cell. Their fate would be determined in the following seconds.
To their relief, Aella unlocked and opened the front door. "Come on in." She waved them inside. They complied.
"You sure the Petersens won't do anything?" Tucker asked while they were unpacking their gear, in the middle of the living room.
"Yeah, I mean we're 'Spectral Sightings' not 'Breaking-into-people's-homes… Sightings'." Specs shared concern as well.
"Don't worry, guys. You won't get any trouble from the family, I promise you." Aella reassured.
"How? What did you do? Roofied them?" Specs asked, more in a joking manner.
Aella simply walked away without answering. The boys stared at each other, worried that she might have done just that.
Shortly after, they begin to set up cameras and microphones everywhere with the purpose to record anything paranormal that would occur. Aella directed them to install surveillance equipment in the bedrooms as well, much to Specs and Tucker's hesitation. "You guys can make as much noise as you want," she assured them once more. "Just don't go poking them though." Against their better judgment, the boys agreed.
At one point, while in Allison's room, Tucker was positioning a camera on the girl's desk in such a way that it would be able to have a clear angle of the entire room. In the total silence of the confinement, he heard a slight shuffle coming from behind, from Allison's bed. Caught off guard, he spun around and pointed his flashlight there. All he saw was a teenage girl sleeping comfortably in her bed. Deducing that she might have moved during her slumber, he covered the beam of light not to wake her and moved on.
After everything had been set, everyone met back in the living room.
"We're good to go." Tucker advised. "I gotta head back to the van and link up the recording gear. I'll monitor your progress from there."
"I'll do it." Specs jumped in.
"You don't know how to operate the interface."
"Of course I do. Seen you do it plenty of times."
"Guys!" Aella addressed them. "Do we really have time for this?"
"Hunter, ninja, bear?" Specs said in a suggestive manner, baffling the angel.
"Oh for God's sake…" Tucker reacted. "Alright."
"Hunter, ninja, bear!" The boys spoke in unison and then adopted different positions, with Specs being the ninja and Tucker manifesting as a bear.
"We'll talk via coms." The larger man added in a victorious tone and left. Aella felt a facepalm would not suffice to relieve her utter exasperation of the two. Despite that, she knew they would definitely have their use in her plan. She hoped that Elise would come back if they came looking. And given the late hour and the house flooded with surveillance devices, chances were higher for the men to catch something. Something she could use as a clue. Completed by her separate, celestial examination, this undertaking would surely produce results and provide the answers she had been searching for so intensely.
Specs interrupted Aella's train of thought by handing her a small, black box. She opened it. Inside was what appeared to be a pair of special type of headsets. "You'll need to wear this. It's a wireless audio-video recorder with a built in micro-camera, radio and a simple flashlight for good measure. The camera feed goes right into the monitor in the Winnebaghost so Tucker can record it and warn us if we've missed something."
Aella placed the device on her headd, adjusting it accordingly.
"Can you hear me, Miss March?" Tucker asked, verifying the wireless connection.
"Five by five, Tucker!"
"Hey Steve. Dibs on the hot chick. I like her."
"Well then you should change the frequency, pal," Specs replied with a smirk, "so she doesn't hear you say that."
Aella raised an eyebrow, having heard it all.
"Copy that." Tucker ended before clearing his throat a couple of times in obvious shame. "Both video and audio are 100%. You guys have a go."
As Tucker watched the monitors, Aella and Specs prepared to head off and search the house, activating their flashlight to have a better sight on everything.
Unaware of them, the house was quiet, lying dormant like a sleeping giant. Aella was unmoved by this but both the man beside her and even his partner, in the van outside, found the silence completely unnerving. Specs looked around anxious, waiting to see something frightening that would definitely startle him. Even after several years of doing this job, in which he had encountered and witnessed truly unsettling events, he still was not accustomed to the tension that came into investigating the other side. He sensed perilous scenarios could come from anywhere. And the fact that they were doing this in complete darkness, with just their flashlight as a source of light, was not helping.
He began to wish for something to make the smallest noise possible. A household appliance, drops of tap water hitting the sink, a car passing down the street. Anything natural that could distract him from this anxiety inducing silence. But there was nothing. The universe was not in his favor. He had to endure the torturous absence of sound, praying that nothing horrifying would come to pass. At one point, he suspected that he had noticed shadows moving around. Thinking that it was his imagination, he blinked several times to rid his sight and his mind of self-induced horror images. He wondered, like many other times, if this line of work was actually for him.
In the dark, everything looked like a creature out to get unsuspecting victims. The furniture took shape of otherworldly entities, with irregular sizes, dysmorphic and unnatural. They had a surrounding quality and felt as if sucking the very life out of anyone just with their mere presence. Worse, it also seemed they were getting closer, unnoticed and unbound, in surreal movements taken out of nightmarish realities. In addition, every corner and every opening gave the impression of nestling monstrous ghouls behind them, ready to jump out at any moment and attack. Danger could lurk anywhere.
Specs snapped out of the hellish reality he was immersing himself in and remembered why he was there. "Elise? Can you hear us Elise?" He called out, pointing his trifield meter out.
Aella raised her brow at him, in an inquisitive approach.
"Elise is the spirit that's haunting this house. We're trying to get it to communicate with us."
The angel nodded in acknowledgment of his explanation although she was definitely aware of it being a lie.
"You guys may have to consider splitting up. Cover more ground." Tucker advised through the coms.
"Sounds like a great idea," Aella agreed.
Specs, on the other hand, was not so keen to do it. "Shouldn't we stick together in case, you know… something comes up?"
"Sorry but Tucker is right. I'll take downstairs and the basement. You go upstairs. Radio if you see or hear anything."
Before Specs could protest, Aella had already started down the hallway, heading toward the kitchen. All he could do is drop his head in resignation."Hey, Miss March?" He suddenly stopped her.
"What?"
"Just remember to call her by her name, Elise."
"Copy that." She responded and turned to leave.
Specs also made two steps toward the stairs but halted and called for her once more. "Wait! The code word for danger is Quesadilla. Ok? Quesadilla."
"Gotcha." Aella uttered and, as before, resumed her way to the kitchen.
Just like before, he commenced walking to reach the stairs but found himself turning around no sooner than making just a step. "You said they were asleep, right?"
"Just go!" Both Aella and Tucker barked at him, annoyed by his stalling.
"Right. Ok." Specs hesitantly understood and proceeded toward the stairs without further interruption. He severely hated this whole situation.
It was not easy for him to reach the top floor of the house. The last thing he wanted was to face the unknown alone. Usually, it had been Elise doing this part of the job. She had been the strongest person he had known and she still got the occasional fright. But now, she was not there. And he had to tough up to help her for a change.
Tucker was closely watching his partner's advancement on the monitor. As soon as the latter finished walking up the stairs and placed both feet on the second floor, turning toward the bedroom doors, Tucker noticed a movement briefly blocking the moonlight passing through the hallway window that led to the backyard. "Whoa, behind you!"
Specs performed a rapid 180, shining his headset flashlight at the window. "What? What is it?" He inquired alarmed.
"I saw something move there. Like a shadow."
"I'm not getting anything on the trifield meter." Specs added.
"Just keep your eyes open. Something is definitely up there." Tucker prompted him.
"Elise? Is that you?"
No answer.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Aella headed straight toward the basement, pulling no stops whatsoever. Spirits were like insects, hanging around in secluded and dark areas, progressively active during nighttime. Therefore, the basement was the best place to find them. She opened the door and commenced walking down the old wooden stairs. Tucker was too focused on his partner to notice the angel's movements.
"If you're here, Elise," Specs went further down the hallway, checking the device in his hand, "give us a sign."
When he got in front of Allison's door, Tucker's attention, or rather his auditory sense, was alerted by something. The speakers in the van faintly echoed a faded noise. "Stop," he ordered Specs.
"I so wish you'd stop doing that." The man inside the house expressed. "What?"
"You hear that?"
"Hear what?"
To better distinguish the noise, Tucker plugged in the HD headset he had available and turned the volume up.
"Tuck? Hear what?" Specs was getting nervous, unable to perceive any sound.
"Shh! Listen!" The man in the van used his hands to press the headset against his ears so he can hear clearer. It sounded like whispers, soft yet undiscernible. The only words Tucker made out were 'hungry', 'kill' and 'burn'. At one point, the whisperings started to become more emphatic, coming in stronger and stronger. "Seriously man, you're not getting this?"
"Tucker, you're really freaking me out here. Get what?"
"Like… whispers or something…"
"I don't know what you're on about but I don't hear any whispers."
Tucker listened even more attentively, focusing all his will to discern all the words. "FUCK OFF," thundered through the speakers of the headset, causing him to jump back with the chair he was sitting on and throw the listening device away in shock.
"Tucker? You alright? Tucker?" Specs frantically asked.
"You guys good?" Aella also addressed, after hearing Specs' panicked voice.
Tucker took several breaths to regain his composure. "I'm ok. Just caught a bit off guard, is all."
"What was that?" She asked.
"Think we just got EVP. Just keep going."
Aella would have checked what the man meant but she wanted to inspect the basement first. Towards that end, she resumed her way down the stairs and reached the bottom. It was pitch black down there, her headset light providing the only source of illumination.
Specs also went on with his survey of the house's second floor, slowly heading to the end of the hallway, where Annie's bedroom door stood firm.
"Hey, can you hear me?" His partner's voice cried out from the coms. "I changed the frequency of the radio. The chick can't hear us."
"What was that? Whispers, you said?"
"I can tell you one thing." Tucker indicated with certainty. "That wasn't Elise. Something is definitely in that house though."
"Great," Specs added sarcastically, eyeing everything in his line of sight with limitless caution, "more reasons to be scared to death. Remember what she used to say? If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you."
"Yeah. But how else are we going to find her, man? We tried everything…"
"I know, I know. It just seems like ever since we came here for the first time, this house took her whole." Specs confessed.
"Do you ever think she might be keeping us in the dark… on purpose?" The man from the van speculated. "Like she's shutting us off to protect us from it all."
"I don't think so. She was hell bent for us to come here. To help this family. It's improbable she would change her mind like that. No. Something went wrong, I know it."
"Kind of makes you wonder," Tucker thought. "What could possibly go wrong with her of all people? Or… ghosts."
Right when Specs had reached the space between the master bedroom and the upstairs bathroom, the trifield meter in his hand went off with its distinctive Geiger counter sounds.
"Ok. I just got a reading from the meter."
Meanwhile, Aella approached the pull switch to turn the light on in the basement. Grabbing the string, she forcefully pulled it downward. The entire area around her was suddenly lit up before rapidly regressing back to darkness, caused by the light bulb getting fried. In the split second previous to the light going out, Aella could see dozens of spirits surrounding her. Her eyes immediately changed to their luminescent form.
Tucker followed his partner both from the upstairs camera he had installed and from the feed coming from the special head set the man in the house was wearing. The latter had stopped as soon as the device in his hand sounded off. It now lay silent. Therefore, he made a step backwards and waved the trifield meter in all directions to be able to catch the same energy spike as before. After a few trials and errors, he was successful, hearing the same distinct sound once more. The device was trained toward the dark confines of the bathroom, with its door wide open. He points his headset's flashlight into the black of the room and began to feel a sinking feeling of dread at the pit of his stomach, pondering what could be waiting for him there.
"Dude, we should get royally paid for doing these sort of things." Specs complained while amassing courage to enter the bathroom. Breathing in, he stepped inside, cursing the day he had started practicing paranormal investigation.
At first glance, the bathroom seemed empty. The toilet was face to face with the sink and several hanging cabinets above it. Shortly beyond them was the tub, concealed by a semi-transparent shower curtain. Sensing that any potential fright could firstly come from the sink's mirror, he quickly pointed his view towards it. In the process of that particular action, Tucker briefly saw on his monitor someone standing in the tub, behind the curtain, its black silhouette faintly contrasting in Specs flashlight. "Shit. Turn back to the tub." He alerted.
"What? Why?" Specs asked, visibly anxious, too petrified to do what his partner had requested.
"There is someone there."
Words Steven was hoping not to hear. All the dread he had experienced before, reached unsafe and unhealthy levels. The last thing he wanted to do was to turn his head to the tub and see something that would most definitely cause him a heart attack. He gripped the trifield meter in his hand as tight as he could and closed his eyes, struggling to overcome his hesitancy. Then, with a slow but steady move, he twisted his body in the direction of the bath tub. Afterward, reluctant as ever, he opened his eyes. To his surprise, there was no one or nothing there. He let out a breath of relief that he was sure even Aella could hear it from downstairs. The device in his hand, however, warned him otherwise, notifying spikes in the EM field.
"Holly shit," Tucker let out, as he was witnessing the same thing as Specs was, the tub, only on his monitor, there clearly was the black shape of a body standing in it, beyond the shower curtain.
"What?"
"Don't tell me you don't see that."
"I'm seeing nothing," Specs shared. "The trifield meter is going off, though. What is it? What do you see?"
"There is someone over there, hiding in the tub." Tucker added with a small hint of trepidation in his voice.
"Are you sure?" The man in the bathroom inquired while stopping, as if waiting for an encouragement to continue or to duck his tail in between his legs and run away.
"Positive." Tucker declared.
Specs remembered something similar happening a while back, with Elise, where they could see a ghost on the monitor when she couldn't. That and the fact that the trifield meter was sounding off more and more as he got closer to the bath tub gave him a clear confirmation that something may be there, invisible to the naked eye. His hand started shaking.
Inches away from the curtain, he knew that the decisive moment was at hand. Barely and very disinclined, he reached out to grab the curtain in order to pull it away. "Be careful, dude," his partner almost whispered in his headset, on the edge of his seat. Bracing himself for the shock of his life, Specs counted to three and decided to draw the curtain in a swift motion.
What followed was a set of concurrent screams. The first scream that was let out was Specs', as he uncovered the bathtub, releasing all his anxiousness and fright into a boisterous roar. The second scream belonged to Tucker, who more reacted to his colleague's cry than being scared or startled. The third scream came from inside the tub, more high-pitched and very loud. Afterward, Specs found himself pushed aside by an unseen force. He fell to the ground, facing the door of the bathroom, his headset camera catching everything in that direction. This way, Tucker could see a faded, transparent shape running out of the bathroom and going through the door ahead.
"Dude? Steve? You okay?" The man in the van called out to see if his friend was unharmed.
"Yeah, I'm good," Specs assured, rubbing his back, which he had fallen upon.
"That thing went into the master bedroom next door."
"No way I am going after it. You come here and YOU do it."
"I would but we'd be losing valuable time. Time that could help us find Elise. Come on. We're getting so close, now. Do you really want to waste the chance? Lose Elise forever?" Tucker pressed firmly.
"I know, I know. Just let me get up, you pushover," Specs harshly replied, annoyed that the other pulled that card on him. "Where is March, anyway? Shouldn't she be up here with me?"
Glancing at the monitor which showed Aella's camera feed, all that Tucker saw was static. He realized he had been so focused on his partner's progress that he forgot to check upon the woman. Nevertheless, finding Elise was a priority, especially after encountering several paranormal events up until now. Being so close, he decided that it was best to continue with the investigation upstairs and then determine what had happened to the woman.
"Something must have cut off her transmission, I'm not getting anything from her feed. I'll try to reach her. I'm sure she is fine. Just go!"
"Alright, Alright," Specs agreed and then picked himself up. After adjusting his headset, he breathed in as much air as he could as if fueling himself with enough willpower to proceed after the apparition that could physically hurt him.
The door of the master bedroom was slowly opened, producing a noticeable squeak. Specs casted his headset light on the bed, where Natalie and Brian were sleeping undisturbed.
"Wow, whatever March did to these people, they're out cold. I mean that scream alone should have woken up the entire floor."
"Anything from the trifield meter?" Tucker inquired.
Specs checked the device. It was not silent, producing low rate clicks which were quite frequent. "Oh yeah. Not as before. But it's definitely picking up something here."
"Nothing from the night vision either," the man in the van indicated, checking the camera he had installed in the room. "Walk around, see what you can find."
Even though the owners were asleep and apparently very difficult to wake up, Specs still felt anxious to get so close. Not to mention the lingering terror caused by the spirit that had fled into the room. He decided to take it a step at a time.
The room was simplistic in design. The bed lay glued to the far left wall with a nightstand to each side, mirrored by a large dress cabinet that reached out to the entrance door. In front of the bed was a large, hanging flat screen, with a vanity table and a window showing themselves beyond it.
Guided by the sounds from the trifield meter, Specs trained it everywhere, hoping to pinpoint the source of the disturbance. In his mind, that is how he addressed it. He did not want to think of the word 'spirit'. It was easier that way. Closing in on the bed, he tiptoed in order to not make any noise, despite the fact that he knew the Petersens would not wake up so effortlessly. Receiving stronger readings from the measurement device, he went further, towards the window.
With the corner of his eye, he spotted something reflected in the mirror of the vanity table. At a second glance, he distinguished what alerted his instincts. In the mirror, behind him, next to the bed, Specs could see what appeared to be the shape of a small person, crouching as if to hide from prying eyes. His tension rose in the blink of an eye and he could have sworn he had experienced a small heart attack witnessing such a sight. The following second, he turned his head toward the bed to lay eyes upon the apparition.
But he saw nothing. Nothing was there. For a moment, he accused his mind of playing tricks on him once more. However, when he returned to the mirror, the figure was there again, next to the bed. "The hell," he mouthed, confused. He then proceeded to investigate what was behind him one more time, with the same result. Deciding better lighting would aid him seeing better, he pulled out his pocket torch and shined it to the particular location. Nothing different. When he looked himself, there was nothing there but when he reverted to the mirror, he could clearly gaze upon the figure. The whole experience was so eerie that it distracted him from the trifield meter, which was making quite the symphony of clicks. "Are you seeing this?"
"Oh yeah," Tucker responded, staring at the monitors intently.
Leaning closer to the mirror, Specs underwent a strange feeling of familiarity, of recognition. He peered deeper into the mirror to get a clearer sight and make sense of his suspicion of misplacement.
A hand suddenly came out from the reflective glass and grabbed the man's neck, strangling him. He began to wriggle and squirm in an attempt to free himself.
Tucker could not see anything else except erratic movements from his partner's feed. "What's going on? You alright? Answer me!"
But Specs could not answer, struggling to break away from the tight grip of the horrific hand.
"Miss March," Tucker cried out through the coms, "Specs is in trouble, he needs help. Do you read me?" However, he received no answer. "Damn it," he cursed and rushed out of the van to go to his friend's aid.
Meanwhile, Specs broke free but the momentum pushed him backwards. He could not help but crash unto the bed, right on top of Brian and Natalie, who woke up in the shock of their lives.
"What the hell?" The husband exclaimed. He picked up his glasses, quickly placing them in front of his eyes, and then turned the lamp on his nightstand on. The outrage he felt when he saw Specs was the likes of which he had never experienced before. "You!"
Tucker appeared and joined his partner. So did Aella and lastly, Allison, who installed herself at her parents' side.
Brian kneeled at the side of the bed and grabbed a baseball bat from underneath. "Natalie, call the police, now!"
"Whoa, whoa," Specs assumed a defensive stance, witnessing the bat.
Natalie began dialing.
"Please don't call the cops," Specs begged. "I assure you, we're only here to help. And by the looks of it, trust me, there is a lot going on here that we can help with."
Brian was furious. "The only thing you're going to do is leave my house and never set foot in it again. Get out!"
Natalie had finished dialing and had put the phone at her ear.
"Please," Specs continued to plead. "Your family may be in danger. You have to listen."
Looking at each other, the two boys sought hard the right words that would appease Brian's anger.
On the other hand, Aella was much more determinate. "Natalie, please hang up the phone. I'm responsible for all of this, not them."
Everyone was baffled. "What do you mean?" The mother asked.
On the phone's speaker, the operator from the other line was heard. "9 1 1 Emergencies, how can I help you?"
"I allowed them inside the house while you were asleep." The angel confessed.
"What?" Brian could not believe it while Natalie hung up to pay closer attention.
"Look," Aella began, "whether you want to face it or not, there are strange things going on here. Not like before but in similar respects. I've felt it and I think your wife has too. Tell him, Natalie."
However, Brian intervened before his wife could say anything. "Are you serious? Is this some kind of joke?"
"We have solid proof…" Tucker tried to argue but was interrupted by the man of the house.
"I don't care. You're lucky I don't bash your skull in." Then, he turned to Aella. "The hell kind of company do you guys run? Coming into people's homes with some half-assed explanation and reason, taking advantage of their good hospitality and cooperation so you can pull crap like this on them?"
Aella glanced at Natalie and saw how she put no effort in even trying to argue with her husband, refraining herself fully. The angel realized that the pain and guilt the woman was experiencing would never allow her to speak against Brian's wishes. The gap between them was definitive and driving them apart. Natalie was of no use. The angel had to convince Brian alone.
"I know how this looks but you must understand that there is more to this than meets the eye."
The man, however, stood unwavering. "The only thing I understand here is how stupid I've been." Afterward, he addressed Specs and Tucker. "What are you still doing here? I never, ever want to see you again. If I do, I will call the police and make sure you'll end up somewhere dark and cold where you'll never bother my family again."
"Listen..." Aella tried to speak.
Brian did not allow her. "No, you listen! For this, I should throw you out on your ass in the middle of the night. But since I'm not that cruel, I will let you spend the rest of this night under my roof, give you the decency and respect you should have given my family. But tomorrow, I want you out of here. Not before you leave me your superior's number. I am going to submit a long and very harsh complaint which will hopefully get you fired."
Specs was fueled to resist, as he thought of Elise, not wanting to give up on her. "Sir, please…"
"Steve, enough," Tucker added over him. "Let's go."
Despite their reluctance, both of them realized nothing could be done anymore without serious repercussions. Specs dropped his head to the ground, disappointed that after such a night, where they seemed to get close to finding answers about Elise, they were being chased away without even so much as a choice. It was truly frustrating. The same frustration was washing over Aella as well, as she now surmised she had to find a different approach. She was not going to leave the family. The key to finding Elise lay with them and all the signs pointed to it.
Before she could determine her next move, her celestial instincts warned her of another presence in the room, moving toward the door. Activating her divine sight, concealing it from the other humans, she saw what appeared to be little Annie, in an astral projected form, running out of the room. Aella did not know, did not even begin to suspect the girl having this ability. Suddenly, her strange dream was starting to make sense.
Aella divided herself between the mortal plane and limbo, so she could participate in both realms, her physical body continuing to take part in the heated discussion with the others while her projected form allowing her to follow Annie. Naturally, she was more focused on the latter.
The little girl went in her bedroom without looking behind, with the angel closely behind her. As soon as Aella walked through the door, she witnessed Annie returning to her physical body. Just like in her dream, she thought. It all made much more sense right now. Annie was not dreaming. She was travelling via astral projection. And the scary people she described were probably lost souls that caught whiff of her energies, which drew them to her. Maybe even to occupy her physical body to be able to live again. This also explained the presence of the spirits in the basement, and the ones in Aella's vision of the past.
But one question rose now. Why had not she been able to detect these spirits before? Unless…
Chasing her current train of thought, Aella set her spiritual detection levels to receive all frequencies. What she found completely stunned her. In the astral projected plane she had found Annie, there was a large concentration of energy fields that spread in every direction, around the house. The readings she was getting were enormous. This secluded part of limbo, locked in a transient level, was host to apparently a multitude of entities. This definitely was what she was seeking and would surely lead to Elise. Therefore, she decided to further investigate, crossing the boundary into this mysterious spiritual sphere.
It led her outside of Annie's room, in the hallway. Everything there was much darker than its counterpart on the physical plane, with shadows lurking everywhere. A terrible sense of dread and sorrow filled the air, thickened by gusts of a greyish fog that would suffocate a normal human spirit. It was poisonous, toxic to its very core, and it reeked of desperation and fear. Aella could feel dozens of energy signatures, both close and miles away, emanating all sorts of emotions. None positive. All abundant depression. Loneliness. Sadness. Hopelessness. Greed. Lust. Hunger. They were getting darker and darker.
Going down the stairs, Aella noticed the front door was wide open. If she was being led, then she might as well allow herself to be led. It was not like she had much choice and since this place could pose no threat to her, it was worth to check out. Towards that end, Aella stepped outside. It was pitch black. But not for her. With her angelic sight, she could see dozens of spirits in front of her. They were all in a terrible state, with ghastly visages, corpse-like limbs and completely emaciated faces. Some had tattered clothes, others not even as much as an underwear.
"I'm looking for an old woman. Elise. Where is she?"
No reply was given. Instead, all of them raised their arms synchronously and pointed their finger at the Petersen house. Aella found it ironic that the first straight answer she had received in this case came from such concealed and mystery-shrouded spirits. So, she backtracked and reached inside the house once more.
At the entrance, she was greeted by four lurching figures, standing in her path. The first two were a man and a woman, well over their fifties, married by the looks of it. In between them must have been their daughters, two young women with short hair, covered in all white dress, reminiscent of the humans' 1950s period. But the thing that stood out the most from all of them was the fact that they were grinning. An unnatural smile was plastered over their faces, frozen, as if it had been sown there forcibly. Aella could tell that these souls went through a lot to reach such a horrible state.
A sound distracted her attention towards the kitchen. Wasting no time, she proceeded there, failing to notice that the smiling family had vanished.
In the center of the kitchen, hovering in mid-air, was what appeared to be a woman that was crying. Her appearance was noticeably transparent as one could see through her, though with quite some effort. Judging by her position and stature, on all fours, the ghostly woman seemed as if she was laying on the ground, having had collapsed. Her soft but deep wailings suggested her dismayed and distressed state. They were so emphatic, so devoid of any kind of joy or happiness. It was clear that hopelessness and loss robbed this woman of any kind of desire to move on to heaven, and she got stuck here, in this realm of torture and agony, doomed to suffer for eternity. Aella felt familiar thoughts creeping. She must not allow them to. Not now, when she was getting so close to find Elise.
Looking around, Aella noticed what appeared to be the basement door. Only it was not like its physical counterpart. It was different. In its place was a large, sturdy-looking red door, with massive wooden frames and a black handle. Above it, a lamp shined shallowly, serving nothing but a decorative function.
The angel could feel her excitement rising. Leads were finally revealing themselves and the presence of this door, which was a clear proof that she was on the right track, made her overjoyed.
She opened the door. Beyond was a dark corridor and a red shine at its end. She followed the path and came out in a large hall, where red glowed in every direction. Crimson curtains were hanged over the towering walls, while a reddish fog roamed over the floor. Candles and tall candle holders were disproportionately placed in all directions, but their yellow seem to be further adding to the strength of the red that predominated the chromatic landscape. The entire confinement was in the shape of a strangely shaped amphitheater, with rounded stairs in the side leading to a sort of cabin above.
Aella knew that this was artificially created. There is no way this transient metaphysical realm could have been so specific with decorations. Someone or something lived here.
As she contemplated upon it, her eyes scoured every corner. They stopped upon two shapes somewhere to her right. Whatever they were, they were covered in a block cloth. Approaching them, she extended her hand and grabbed the cover from the first shape, pulling it away. What it revealed was a huge bout of relief for Aella. Under the cloth was Elise, with her hands tied at her back and her mouth gagged.
"Elise," the angel exclaimed with gladness. However, the woman widened her eyes as if she were extremely alarmed.
Aella removed the gag from her mouth. "It's not safe here. Run!" Elise quickly warned.
Taken aback, Aella failed to detect a presence materializing behind her. A gruesome, horrid, long-haired man that wore a black trench coat, grabbed her by the hair and delivered a powerful blow to her jaw. To both his and Elise's surprise, the punch did not even faze or stun the angel, only managing to send her head to a side on impact. Aella turned to face him, her eyes menacingly shining with her divine light. She trained her palm at him and launched a luminescent wave that instantly vaporized the foul spirit on the spot. Just like that, he was no more.
"You're an angel, aren't you," Elise asked in pure amazement.
Aella unfolded her wings, which lit up the entire hall and chased away the devilish red. They glowed powerfully, majestically displaying her celestial, awesome power. In all her years of activity, after having had seen so many wondrous and terrifying things, Elise could surely testify that Aella is the most magnificent sight she had laid eyes upon. The light emanating from her wings filled the woman with hope and comfort, like a warm wave that crashed on her. The purest form of blessing sent from above.
The angel retracted her wings. They vanished behind her without a trace. "I've been searching high and low for you," she addressed the old woman while untying her hands with her telekinesis. "What are you doing here? What is…"
Aella stopped, remembering of the second covered shape next to Elise. Meaning that there was someone else there, trapped alongside Elise. But who? She slowly picked up the cloth with her hand and firmly pulled.
Behind the cover was Allison, tied in the same way as Elise. Aella simply froze, extremely baffled and entirely confused. The girl was the last person she would have imagined to find here, of all places. "Hold on. If you're here, then…"
"This is Allison. The one in the world of the living, isn't," Elise responded as she hurried to untie the girl.
"Who…" the angel attempted to question but was quickly cut off.
"A demon," Elise answered, sending a cold shiver down Aella's spine.
"What?" The angel incredulously asked, unable to believe what she just heard. However, on a second thought, she could not deny it, remembering what Natalie had told her. 'I know Allison is my daughter and only God knows how much I love her but… lately… she's scaring me, making me feel uneasy and afraid'… 'ever since she woke up from her catatonic state, she… she's been different'…'deep down inside… I can feel she's different'. Suddenly, Allison's weird behavior towards her mother, the latter's fears about her, everything began to make sense, from beginning to end.
She looked above, toward the second floor of the house, where everybody was arguing in the master bedroom. Returning to her physical form, the angel stared at Allison, or rather at her body, as the girl sat next to her mother. It was so perfect, innocent and carefree, almost childlike. It seemed so natural and in its place, nothing wrong or suspicious that could point to something more. The way she talked, the manner in which she behaved, it was flawless, normal, a complete and perfect disguise wrapped around the circumstances of the family's problems. Its demeanor and attitude were utterly on the mark in every single moment, characteristic of a teenage human girl to a fault. Aella would have continued to be 100% oblivious were not for Elise's revelation. There would have been no other outcome, in which she would have discovered the truth. And the thing inside Allison's body would have been left unchecked to wreak all kinds of havoc. A large weight fell upon her shoulders, as she now knew the kind of danger they were all in…
That was it. I will see you guys after the holidays. Until then, let me know what you think!
