CHAPTER 4: A Purging

Another ordinary family dinner. Lucy, wearing a plain yellow shirt, was helping to cut the vegetables. She cut each one quickly, getting a stern look from Marnie.

"Careful, Lucy!" Marnie warned her daughter. "You don't want to cut yourself!"

Lucy smirked as she looked at her mother. "Don't worry, mom, I think I'm smart enough to know not to slice my own hand off."

"Good!" Stacy added. She wore a white Transformers T-shirt, and was tying up the bag she had just removed from the kitchen trash can. "Getting cut really hurts!"

Marnie saw Ed sitting at the kitchen table, downing another bottle of Budweiser. She sighed, then walked over and took the beer bottle out of her husband's hands. "Lay off for tonight, OK?"

"What?"

"You've been acting strange lately." Marnie looked at him seriously. "I think the beer is starting to affect you a little too much. I hear you walking around late at nights now. You mind telling me what the reason is?"

Ed thought for a moment. Just like with Antoin, he felt this was a fight he had to fight alone. Marnie would think he was insane if he said what was really going on. "It's really nothing I can talk about."

"Well if you don't get this fixed soon, there's going to be problems. You're making ME wake up late at nights, and I really don't like it."

"OK Marnie…" Ed sighed as Marnie poured the remaining beer down the drain. Being sober might be able to help him, anyway. It could help him tell the real horrors from the ones in his head.

Nighttime had fallen, and everyone was asleep…except for Ed. Despite being tired, his unease was keeping him awake. He looked over at the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock…shortly past 1 AM. He shut his eyes again, trying to force himself to fall asleep.

CRASH!

Ed quickly sat up in bed, waking up Marnie. "What…Ed?! What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard a noise."

"Again, Ed?" Marnie sighed. "Fine. If it makes you feel better, check it out. But don't spend too much time down there now, OK?"

"OK, honey!" Ed kissed Marnie as he exited the bedroom. He was getting annoyed too; this was beginning to be a routine thing. He slowly made his way downstairs, turning on the living room light once he got there. Once again, no one. He made his way around the living room, looking behind the recliner. As he looked behind the couch in a vain attempt to find anything, he heard a click, and music begun to play. Ed looked at the television, which had seemingly turned on by itself. The TV was playing a music video, the electronic-sounding song seeming to consist of the phrase 'Oogity Boogity' over and over. The video seemed to be a mish mash of random images.

Ed noticed two of the images were a comical depiction of a hanged man, and an equally cartoonish rendition of a guy with his throat cut. Creepy coincidence, he thought as he turned the TV off. He took one final look around…everything seemed to be in place, nothing was knocked over or disturbed…

CRASH!

His head turned to the direction of the garage; it sounded like something had fallen over in there. "Ugh, it's ALWAYS the garage…" He walked over, carefully opened the door, and turned on the light.

The garage was a mess. The lawn chair was in the same spot where it usually was, but upside down. The side door of Marnie's van was open and dented, Ed's lawnmower on the seat. And while most of the film boxes were still in their place, the box labeled '1976-1980' had been knocked over, the Super 8 reels scattered all over the floor.

Ed went through each one putting it back the box…'Disneyland 1-1-80'…'Fireworks 7-4-76'…'BBQ '79'…

Ed took a closer look at the blue-green reel. Same handwriting as the Pool Party video. He had a good idea as to what he was going to see, but he put it in the projector anyway. He turned it on, projecting the reel onto the bare wall. Sure enough, it started with footage of a completely unrelated family, fishing at a lake. Right away he recognized the kid fishing with his father…the one with the black tank top and afro…the exact same one he had seen in the van. He looked very much alive in this video; his skin was a normal shade of tan, without a single vein. Ed watched as the family then packed up their blue car, and the father having trouble opening the car door. The video then cut to the car, in the dark, all the doors chained together.

"Oh no you don't!"

Ed flipped the projector off before the film could continue; he wasn't interested in another snuff scene. He took the reel out, and opened up the first box of reels. He grabbed the Pool Party reel, took the reel out of its case, then threw them both on the ground. He then walked to the kitchen, throwing the reel's cases into the garbage. He then grabbed a pitcher from the cabinet, then walked over to the sink. As he filled it with water, he looked up through the kitchen window, and saw someone in the distance. It was the white-faced figure, just silently standing in the backyard. It seemed to be watching Ed intently.

Dismissing it as another figment of his imagination, Ed flipped off the figure and went right back to filling his pitcher.

Once it was full, Ed grabbed a matchbook from the kitchen counter, then walked back to the garage. The two reels were on the ground, right where he left them. Ed kneeled down and put the pitcher of water next to the reels. He then struck the match and dropped it on the two reels. The reels instantly went ablaze. Ed looked up from the fire to see the boy with the afro, staring gleefully at the flickering flames.

"Go away!"

The boy darted to the side, seeming to fade into the shadows. Ed stepped back, watching the fire burn. He smiled at the thought of these reels being destroyed…then cried out in surprise as he felt himself being pushed. He fell to the ground, and a searing pain shot through the top of Ed's head. He looked up and saw the afro-topped boy running away from him, into the house. Ed frantically felt around for the pitcher, the pain on his head getting worse. He finally found the pitcher, grabbing it and pouring it over his head. It made him feel better, although his scalp felt a little sensitive. Ed got up and looked at the reels, which had also been extinguished. Ed slowly got up, then stomped on the reels a few times for good measure, making sure the fire was completely out.

Ed walked back in, dazed, stumbling into the downstairs bathroom. Clutching his scalp, Ed flipped on the light and looked in the mirror. He had stopped the fire before it had burnt his scalp, but it did ruin his long curls, giving his hair a lopsided appearance. "How am I going to explain this tomorrow…" Ed took a deep breath and shook his head. This was getting truly out of hand now. His eyes went down to the electric razor, and an idea crossed his mind. Ed turned it on and put the blade to his head…

THURSDAY

The early morning; time to prepare for school. Lucy stepped out of her room, dressed in a bright orange shirt, just as Ed was walking by. "Good mor-Dad, you're BALD!"

"Sure am!" He ran his hand over his now-smooth bald head.

"What made you try that silly look?" Lucy asked.

"Hey, the bald look is in! I'm a regular Yul Brynner!"

"I think it's looks good, dad." Stacy walked out of her room and hugged her father. Today she had on a white shirt with green overalls, the buttons shaped like hearts. "The shaved head look really suits you."

"Well, I guess bald really IS beautiful." Marnie chuckled as she kissed Ed's cheek. "I think I'll miss the curls, though."

So will I, Ed thought to himself. "Hey, new school, new firm, what's one more change, right?"

"Just make sure you do well so you can keep your job at that new firm!" Marnie poked Ed in the shoulder. "I know you've been jittery lately, but don't bring that to work!"

Ed simply nodded and straightened his tie. "I'll try, honey!"

Another day at the office. Ed was on the phone with an elderly lady, who was clearly angry.

"You made me think I was going to go bankrupt paying these taxes, and you're asking me to CALM DOWN?!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Mayfeather…it was a mistake, and I'm sorry for it. Listen, give me time to correct this, and I'll-"

"I will do NO SUCH THING. Don't touch my files anymore, you kook. I'm going to find myself an accountant with his HEAD ON STRAIGHT!" Mrs. Mayfeather hung up the phone loudly, as if she threw down the receiver.

Ed buried his head in his hands; Antoin was not going to like this. How could he let this happen to himself? He had to figure out what was going on soon; his performance was worsening with every passing day. Antoin had warned him before…if this kept up, he wouldn't be working here beyond Friday. He decided now would be a good time to take his lunch break, taking his sandwich and legal pad with him. Since it was a little early, Herbert was the only one in the room. He looked up from his BLT, and blinked in surprise when he saw Ed.

"Err…trying out for King and I?"

"I don't want to get into it, Herb. Just tell me what you've learned."

"You owe me a week of beer; I spent hours researching this shit for you!"

"All right, I'll even make it Guinness. Marnie's been keeping me away from beer, so you can have it all!"

Herbert nodded. "So I spent the past couple days reading a ton of occult books, and the only thing your situation seems to fit is the legend of Bughuul."

"A bug ghoul?"

"No no, Bughuul…he was supposedly a pagan deity that fed off the souls of children. Legend has it he would stalk families, slightly changing his methods of haunting each time, so no one would suspect it's him. When he was ready, he'd would kill the entire family, and leave his symbol behind somewhere. There would always be one kid missing...the child whose soul he'd take."

"Uh huh." Ed nodded, still somewhat confused. "And you're saying this has happened a lot?"

"Oh yeah. I've found references to him in a lot of old articles. Christmas 1958...a family was found outside, buried in the snow, frozen to death. His symbol was found carved into a nearby tree. Summer of 1983...someone in Louisiana tied up a family and fed them to alligators. The same symbol was painted in blood nearby. And there was a cult that worshipped him in Oregon, but one day the entire cult just vanished. They never found a single trace of any of them. That was back in 1966."

"1966...that's the year that the Pool Party video was from!"

"A lot of the things they left behind were stolen and resold. A local man bought an etching of Bughuul, not knowing it was stolen. He died a few weeks later…and guess how he died?"

"I'm going to guess it wasn't peacefully in his sleep…"

"He was murdered…him and his family were drowned in their pool, in exactly the same way you described. So it's a given that those two events are…" Herbert then noticed Ed drawing a figure in all-black, with long black hair, on his legal pad. "Are you drawing what you saw?"

"Yeah, I want to make sure the details match up."

"Um, Ed…Bughuul is said to haunt images of himself."

Ed looked at his drawing for a moment, added whiskers and a guitar, and wrote 'Peter Criss' under it.

"If this stuff is true, if I were you I would destroy that reel. Throw it in the compactor, run it over, do whatever you have to do. And if you find more? Destroy them too!"

"Actually, it's funny you say that…"

Herbert raised an eyebrow. "You already did that?"

"Yep…right after I found a new reel. This one was from the 1970s, and once again, had a completely unfamiliar family."

"How did that one end?"

"I didn't watch the rest of it. I stopped once the video switched to night. You really think I want to subject myself to more snuff shit?"

"All right, point taken. You burned them both, you say?"

"Yeah. Here's the thing though…one of the kids in that video…I saw him running around the house too."

"Well, that makes sense, you see something traumatic, you tend to-"

"No no, Herb…this is the freaky thing. I saw the kid from the video BEFORE I watched it."

"…you sure about that?"

"It was the day before. He had the same afro, the same black tank top, the same EVERYTHING."

Herb sat silently, for once at a loss for words. "I'm not sure I can be any more help, Ed…"

"Actually, you can." Ed hurriedly wrote something onto his legal pad, under the drawing of 'Peter'. "This is the house I live in right now. Can you research this place for me?"

"You really gonna make the beer Guinness?"

"Anything you want, Herb!"

"All right, Ed. If I find anything I'll let you know." He started to get up when Ed stopped him.

"Herb?"

"Yeah Ed?"

"I think I've changed my tune about ghosts…"