Chapter 48 - Maybe Someday: Part II
10:40 pm - The Graveyard
Dyson ran after the graveyard dirt smell he had picked up in the old couple's backyard. Tamsin and Bo followed him.
A little over an hour later, they arrived at a small fenced graveyard in a secluded area. There were about twenty tombstones standing under the pale moonlight. Everything seemed gloomy, the stone crosses, the engravings on the stones and the withered flowers that had been laid on the ground.
The night wind made the leaves of the surrounding trees flutter, and it sounded like whispers coming from ghosts.
Bo looked around and noticed a cluster of glowy spots hovering around the far left corner of the graveyard. Those spots looked like burning flames but had a weird green blue color.
"Look," she whispered to Tamsin.
"It's the ghost lights," Tamsin told her. "They appear around Ubumes and some other ghosts that are usually associated with graves."
Bo nodded. "So...where is she? I don't see her anywhere."
Tamsin was about to explain to her, but a series of noise behind them interrupted her. She turned back with Bo, and found Dyson in his wolf form.
Standing underneath the moonlight, the Wolf sniffed and inhaled. He bared his teeth and paced along the place. He lingered around in front of the flames with low growls humming in his throat. Soon, he chose a spot and started to dig with his paws. Dirt flung into the air and fell on his side as well as behind him, before a casket underneath was revealed.
Bo and Tamsin removed the cover of the casket, and inside there lay a young girl with a full dead skeleton. It was the girl they had seen in the old couple's backyard.
The young girl had her eyes closed and her knees drawn to her chest. If she hadn't been trembling, Bo would have thought she was fast asleep.
When Dyson lowered his head to sniff the young girl's face, she screamed and jumped out.
She scrambled over the ground and hid behind a tombstone. She peeked out from behind it and stared at Bo, Tamsin and Dyson, her fingers digging into the side of the stone in fear.
Dyson growled at her, and the girl screamed again. She tried to run away, but every time she saw Dyson coming at her, she would just cringe behind something and tremble.
"Oh, that's right. Ubumes are super afraid of dogs," Tamsin explained.
Bo patted Dyson's head and told him to fall back. Then, she approached the girl slowly and called softly, "hey. It's okay."
The girl cautiously glanced at Dyson. When she saw Dyson baring his teeth at her, she whimpered and ducked behind the tombstone again.
"He's not gonna bite," Bo told her with a gently voice. "I promise."
"Go away," the girl told them. She tried to sound threatening, but her voice was shaking hard. She hurled a small rock at Dyson, and Dyson fussed while shaking his head hard.
"Hey, stop throwing rocks at the wolfie," Tasmin warned her.
"You are not allowed to be here. This is my home. Go away!" The girl urged.
"How about a huh and a no? Last time I checked this is a privately owned graveyard and it's certainly not owned by a minor let alone a minor Ubume," Tamsin retorted. "You get your little butt outta there, or I'm sending the puppy in."
"Tamsin," Bo drawled as she nudged her Valkyrie. Then, she turned to the girl and persuaded, "just come out, okay? We are not gonna hurt you. I promise."
The girl shook her head and continued hiding her entire body behind the tombstone. A while later, she stuck her head slowly from the behind and looked at Bo with her blood red eyes. "What do you want?" She asked.
Bo smiled and got down on one knee. She reached one hand out at the girl and said, "we are detectives-"
"We are detectives, and you are not," Tamsin reminded her, and earned a slap on her shoulder from Bo.
"We are investigating a case," Bo told the girl. "We just need to ask you a few questions, okay? We are not going to hurt you, I promise."
The girl stared at her cautiously. She eventually decided to trust Bo. She crawled out, approaching Bo carefully while staring at Dyson the whole time.
Half kneeling, half crawling on the ground, she touched Bo's hand first. After having made sure that Bo wouldn't pose threat to her, she stood up on her feet and said, "I didn't do anything wrong."
"No one says you did," Bo told her honestly. She took the girl's cold hand and squeezed it gently. "What's your name?"
"Myra," the girl answered.
"Okay, Myra, can I take you back to that house you've been visiting a lot lately, and ask you a few questions?"
The girl didn't say yes nor no. She circled around Bo and touched her clothes with the tip of her finger. Then, she went to Tamsin's side and poked at the Valkyrie.
Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Hey, no poking, or I'm sending out the puppy."
Myra immediately glanced at Dyson and hid behind Bo. She hissed at Dyson when the Wolf changed back to his human form.
"Here, just walk with me, okay?" Bo told her and held her hand.
1:50 am - The Haunted House
"What is she again?" Kenzi asked Bo while staring at Myra. The girl now was crawling on the floor with her hands and knees, sniffing, poking and even biting at everything she saw.
"A Ubume, a ghost of a woman who died in childbirth," Bo explained. "They take newborns and raise them as their own."
Kenzi raised her eyebrows at Myra, before she cautiously touched the girl's hair. She withdrew her hand right after she felt her hair. "Are you sure she's a ghost? She seems very real to me," she told Bo. "Like real kid real, and she stinks like a real pile of garbage."
"That's because she is real," Tamsin drawled. "Not all ghosts are transparent. She is a Fae, a real person, who isn't born to someone, but transformed from a dead human instead."
Kenzi nodded while watching the girl closely. "So...she used to be a little girl?"
"Yeah," Bo said.
"And what did you say that her kind does again?"
"Take newborns and raise them as their own."
"That's just so wrong!" Kenzi exclaimed. "They can't just take babies away from their parents! The parents are gonna be heartbroken!"
"No, they are not when they are bad parents," Myra snorted at her. "We don't take babies from the good parents. We only take them from the bad ones."
"What do you mean by bad ones?" Tamsin crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Like the people who lives in this house," Myra told her. "They don't care about their baby. They lock her in the basement and never lets her out."
"What?" Bo frowned. "No, they don't have a baby. They are an old couple. They have three children, all grown ups. They have five grandkids who would come visit them sometimes but none of them lives here. Trust me, they don't have a baby."
"Yes they do! I hear her crying in the basement every night!" Myra argued. "I want to take her with me. I can take good care of her. I will be a good mother."
"No you won't," Kenzi said. "You are a child, for...whatever's sake! You can't even take good care of yourself! Look at you, you are wearing a trash bag dress and you groom yourself by putting saliva on your hair! How old are you anyway, hmm? 13? 14?"
"I'm 11 and half," Myra told her proudly.
"Exactly! 11 and half, you are a child, honey. You should be taken care of by someone, not taking care of someone else's baby. You don't need a baby. What you need is a bath, and clean clothes, and a comb, and everything that a 11 year old should have."
Myra looked at her, frowning. She licked her palm, before she rubbed it against her hair. "What's a b-bath?" She asked curiously.
"Something I'm gonna give you right now, because you smell worse than the trash can behind the Dal."
2:30 am - In the Bathroom
Kenzi took the kid into the bathroom, and closed the door behind them. Seconds later, loud noises and screams came from inside.
Bo and Tamsin rushed in, only to see Myra struggling in the hot water hissing and spitting, getting water everywhere.
"Oh my Gods it's like giving bath to a freaking cat!" Kenzi complained while spitting water out from her mouth. She wiped her face clean and tried to grab the girl, but Myra clung to the edge of the tub while avoiding the water.
"Hey, hey," Bo called as she placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. She sprinkled some charms into the girl. "It's alright. It's just hot water. It won't hurt you."
Myra seemed to have calmed down under her touch. She climbed into the tub hesitantly, and put one of her arms under the water. She quickly withdrew it, before she reached out again. She eventually became brave enough to stand under the water. After realizing that the water would warm her up instead of hurt her, she sat down under it and looked at the three of them with a grin.
Kenzi rubbed some shampoo into her hair, and scratched her scalp gently. Myra curiously watched the bubbles foaming up. She quieted down and purred.
"There you go..." Kenzi let out a deep sigh while rinsing her hair. "You've never had a bath before?"
Myra pondered, before she said, "I think I did for a few times, but it was in cold water and it wasn't called a bath." She then said a word in a language that none of them could understand.
"So Myra, where are you from?" Bo asked.
"I don't know," the girl murmured. "A village."
"Yeah, like where?" Kenzi asked while applying more shampoo into her hair.
Myra tilted her head and pondered, before she said, "a village."
"Okay, what's this village like?"
"Small" was the only thing Myra could come up with at first. Then she said, "we grew potatoes. I also gather fruits for my family."
"Do you miss them?"
Myra nodded. Then she shook her head. "I don't miss my husband," she told Kenzi in a whisper, as if she was afraid that someone else would hear it.
Kenzi frowned at her. Then she turned to Bo. "Umm...her husband?"
Bo was just as shocked. She turned to Tamsin and murmured, "her husband?"
Tamsin rolled her eyes and stared at the young girl. "Your husband?"
Myra nodded. She tucked herself into the corner of the tub and whispered, "don't tell him I said that, or he's gonna be mad at me again."
"Wait, but you are only like 11," Kenzi exclaimed. "How could you even have a husband?"
"Well the girls in my village all get married when we are 8 or 9. I think some of them got married when they were maybe 6...when I turned 9, a man came to my mom and dad. He was about my father's age. He married me. Then, later, I got pregnant and I died when giving birth."
"Someone who was as old as your father married you when you were 9 and he got you pregnant?!" Kenzi yelled, stunned.
"Just as I was wondering how someone as young as her could possibly have died from childbirth," Tamsin growled. She ended up punching the wall and groaned in pain while clenching her hand.
"Oh Gods..." was the only thing Bo could get out. The truth grossed her out so much that she felt the urge to vomit.
Kenzi was the one who burst into tears. She took the girl into her arms and stroke her wet hair. "Oh, you poor little thing," she murmured.
Myra hesitantly stroked her hair in return. She seemed to be too young and ignorant to understand why Kenzi was crying. She patted Kenzi's hair while humming something which sounded like a lullaby.
"It's okay," she said, "because I didn't really die. I woke up and found myself in the wild. An old lady took care of me. She told me that I was like her. She taught me things, like how to hunt, where to stay. She told me that I needed a baby, but I should only take one from the bad parents. We used to look for babies together, and then-"
She stopped talking and looked down.
"What, honey?" Kenzi asked her softly.
"Some...someone came to where we were at, and they...just made her go away. She told me to run before she disappeared, so I ran," Myra said with a sad look on her face, and Kenzi sobbed while holding her tighter.
"That is the most fucked up, depressed shit I've heard in a while," Tamsin told Bo in a low voice.
"That is the most fucked up, depressed shit I've heard like ever," Bo said. "We need to find out who her parents are and who this fucking husband is and kick the shit out of them."
Tamsin sighed. "I am more than willing to do that, but...we may not be able to kick their asses at all, because she might not be from this country," she told Bo. "She said that the girls in her village all got married when they were 8 or 9...it was probably a place where child marriage is very common. Gods this is seriously fucked up."
"Yeah," Bo growled. "Sometimes I really wish I could just summon lightning strikes and kill all those bastards."
"Yeah, don't we all?" Tamsin shook her head.
"And what was with the old lady disappearing thing? Someone killed her?" Bo asked.
"I don't know. It sounds to me like an exorcism or a cleansing ritual. Someone must have cast her away or something," Tamsin explained with a sigh. "Oh well…."
3:30 am - In the House
Dyson brought over some of Kenzi's old clothes for Myra to wear. After Kenzi had finished dressing her, she let the girl sit down on the couch to braid her hair while letting the girl eat some snacks.
"Okay, now you've bathed her, dressed her and fed her. Can we ask questions now or you need to do a bedtime story session first?" Tamsin asked with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
Myra stuffed a handful of snacks into her mouth and slurred, "I told you. I didn't do anything wrong. I just want to give the baby a better life. I've checked all the families in this neighborhood. They all treat their child with love and care, except this one."
"Ummm, have you not heard the part that they don't have a baby?"
"Yes they do, in their basement. I heard her cry every night."
Tamsin and Bo frowned at each other. Then, Tamsin said, "okay, I'll tell you what. We are going down to the basement right now. If there's no baby, you are gonna leave these people alone."
"Fine, but if there is one, she's mine," Myra snorted.
3:55 am - In the Basement
The basement of the house had been turned into a guest bedroom, with a small bathroom. The bed had been made, and everything was in order. No one seemed to live down there. There was nothing that would indicate the presence of a baby.
"See, no babies, okay?" Tamsin told Myra after carefully examined the room.
The young girl couldn't believe her. She started to check the place herself, opening drawers and closets.
When she had found no baby, she came back to Kenzi's side looking defeated.
"I didn't lie!" She protested. "I did hear a crying baby."
"Well maybe...maybe the baby is sleeping right now," Kenzi cooed. "Why don't we go upstairs and get some sleep too?"
Myra nodded and followed her upstairs, leaving Tamsin, Bo and Dyson there confused.
5:20 am - In the House
"I still don't understand," Bo murmured while staring at the monitoring window on her computer screen. "She doesn't seem to be lying about this crying baby, but...there is no baby here."
"Maybe it was from the neighbors and she just made a mistake?" Tamsin shrugged. "Anyway, when she wakes up, let's ask her if she has seen or heard of anything unusual."
Bo nodded and looked at Myra and Kenzi through the camera. Kenzi seemed to have finally convinced the girl to sleep in the bed instead of under it. She tucked Myra under the sheets and left the room.
After she closed the door, Myra jumped off and pulled out a chocolate bar from under her pillow. She crawled under the bed and started to eat the candy bar. Bo could see her wrapping herself up with a blanket she had pulled down from the bed.
"Gods, I can't imagine the things she's been through when she lived her life as a human," Bo murmured,. "She's only 11, and she's already been through hell."
Tamsin sighed and nodded. "After this case is closed, we'll make sure we-"
She stopped abruptly when she heard something. She turned around and searched for it. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know," Bo murmured, "but it sounds like it's from the basement. It sounds like a-"
"-a crying baby," Tamsin said.
The next thing they knew was Myra running out from her room. "See, I told you. There is a baby crying," she said firmly.
Bo and Tamsin looked at each other, before they went to wake up Dyson and Kenzi. They all rushed down to the basement.
There was nothing abnormal. There was no baby in the basement, but they did hear a weak, almost ghostly crying sound in there. One minute it seemed to be from inside the walls, the next it was from under the floor.
"Where is she?" Myra asked as she searched for the baby but couldn't find one.
"I don't think it's a real baby, sweetheart," Kenzi told her as she took her into her arms to protect her.
"What the hell is it?!" Tamsin grunted as she knocked on the walls and the floor. "A fucking baby ghost?"
"No, it's not a baby," Dyson said after having carefully listened to the wailing sound. "It's a much higher pitch sound, like a-"
He stopped talking, and turned to Bo. "The old couple, your clients, didn't they say that they were constantly feeling tired?"
"Mhm."
"And there are some deaths in this house? Natural deaths but too frequent to be natural?"
"Yep," Bo nodded. Then she narrowed her eyes at Dyson and said, "what?"
"When I worked in the Scotland yard, we've had this case once. The family living in a big house got sick one after another and died. We thought we got a serial killer or something, so we monitored the place. One night when I checked their basement which they hadn't used for a long time, I heard a baby's wailing, but they didn't have a newborn in the house."
"So what was it?"
"We thought it was a ghost, and we performed all kinds of rituals. We practically tore the place apart until we eventually figured out that it was a Colo Colo."
"Dude, did you just made that name up, or it's an actual thing?" Kenzi frowned.
"An actual thing. It's this monster hatched from a snake egg by a rooster. It would live in a house and make people sick and die. I think this Colo Colo has been here for a while, since there has been several deaths already."
"Ummm...if this thing has been here for a while now, why hasn't anyone noticed? I mean, how can anyone not hear this high pitched crying sound at night? If I heard this in my house, I'd sure as hell call the cops," Bo asked.
"Because, it's high pitched," Tamsin said. "All the previous owners of this house are elders. They probably have lost their hearings to high pitch sounds a while ago. And with so many families with newborns around, I guess it's just easy to ignore it even if they have heard it sometimes."
"Okay, how are we gonna get rid of this thing then?" Bo asked. "Should we tear the place down and stab it or something?"
"No, no, we don't want to spook it. I'm gonna call the expert who knows how the deal with a Colo Colo," Dyson said as he took out his phone.
"So...what should I tell the client? That they have a snake rooster in their house?" Kenzi raised her eyebrows.
"No, we'll tell them that there's some weird mold growing here, and it's making them sick. We'll tell them that we'll find someone to treat the house, and until then, they need to stay away from here."
"I told you there was a baby crying," Myra drawled and stared at Tamsin.
"Except that it's not a baby," Tamsin retorted.
"Fine, I'm leaving then," Myra told her. "I'll find one later."
"Oh, no, no, no, missy, you are not gonna go steal someone's baby and raise him or her in the graveyard," Kenzi told her. "If you really want one, you'll have to wait until you are an adult and is able to raise one on your own."
"I need one now," Myra argued. "It's what the old lady said. This is the way I live."
"Well, do you like the way you live?" Kenzi asked her softly as she held her hands. "I mean, do you like to sleep beside dead bodies and wear something that's made of a trash bag?"
Myra went quiet, before she shook her head.
"Would you prefer to stay in a place where you can have access to things like food and clean clothes?" Kenzi asked her.
Myra nodded. "And b-bath," she added. "With bubbles." Then she glanced at Dyson and whispered, "but no dogs."
"Well I just know this place where you have all of those things and no dogs," Kenzi told her.
"What place is that?" Myra asked, intrigued.
"My place," Kenzi said. "Do you want to come over and stay for a while to see if you like it?"
Myra pondered for a while, before she nodded at Kenzi.
"Alright, then you are coming with me," Kenzi told her.
"Whoa, Kenz," Bo leaned in and whispered to her. "Are you sure? I mean, what she needs might not just be a place to stay, but also professional help, like serious professional help."
"I know," Kenzi told her, "I'll make some phone calls tomorrow. It's just that...I can't let her go back to the graveyard and sleep in a coffin."
Bo nodded, and when she saw Kenzi doing a little magic trick for Myra, she chuckled.
"Oh look, your pet just got a new pet," Tamsin told Bo in a whisper as she nudged the brunette's arm, and Bo chuckled again.
They watched Kenzi and Myra get into the car. The little girl's happy giggles seemed to have eased the heaviness sitting on their chests.
Bo watched the little girl for a while, before she nudged Tamsin back and asked, "do you think we'll ever be ready for kids?"
Tamsin laughed. "Maybe someday," she said. "Maybe someday."
A/N: I guess I kind of touched a heavy topic this chapter (when I was writing this chapter I happened to come across an article about child marriage and it was really heavy). According to the article, in develop countries, 1 out of 9 girls are married under the age of 15, and pregnancy/childbirth is a huge threat to their lives, not to mention the amount of abuse and violence against them.
I certainly hope that such thing would come to an end soon. I also hope that those girls can get a "new life" like Myra, and can be taken care of by someone like Kenzi.
