CHAPTER 5: Close Contact

It was late afternoon as Ed drove home. He worked a little later than usual to make up for his errors, and had also grabbed himself a small snack at McDonald's. It was no Hamburger Hamlet, Ed thought, but it would have to do. Ed parked his car outside the garage and waved to Marnie, who was busy clipping the hedges. They looked quite well-manicured; Marnie had always put a lot of work into them.

"Hey Marnie!" He called out as he stepped out of the car.

Marnie put the clippers on the ground and smiled. "Hey Ed! How's everything?"

"Everything's fine!" A flat-out lie by this point, but the less Marnie knew the better.

"Good. There's something I want to ask you to do tonight."

"Um, sure, anything…"

"No beer. And no going downstairs. Just once this week, Ed, I would like to have a quiet night."

Ed simply nodded, knowing it was going to be a lot harder than it sounded.

"Good. Now come on, Ed, there's some salad left." Ed followed Marnie inside and saw Lucy and Stacy just finishing up their dinner.

"You did a great job helping, Lucy!"

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty good at making these salads, huh?"

"Like I said though, slow down. You almost cut your finger this time!"

As Lucy nodded, Stacy came into the room, drinking a glass of water. "Hey, Stacy!" Ed called out as he kneeled down to hug her. "How are you?"

"I've been great! I made a couple really good friends!"

"That's good! I'd love to meet them sometime!"

Stacy nodded. "Then tomorrow I have a big math test." Stacy nodded. "I'll be doing a lot of division."

"Oh, that'll be tough! You'll need to go to bed early!"

"And so does your father!" Marnie nodded. "Maybe then you'll stop running downstairs!"

Ed chuckled a little. "Hey, maybe it might help." He was willing to try just about anything.

Ed looked over at the alarm clock…just a little after midnight. Going to bed early hadn't helped much, and to be honest, neither had forgoing beer. The house was now dark and silent, but Ed couldn't help feeling that something was going to happen very soon.

Sure enough, the silence was broken by some dramatic music playing downstairs, which quickly stopped.

Ed took a deep breath…his curiosity getting the better of him once again, he moved out of bed very slowly. He looked over at Marnie; luckily, she was still asleep. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he snuck downstairs. He could see that some flickering light was already on downstairs, and he could still hear some sort of music. As he made his way into the living room, he saw that the television was on again, playing an old movie. In it, a man had just broken through a wall, seeing a ghostly face. This truly wasn't helping matters, he thought as she scanned the room. He saw a female figure dart from behind the couch and run into the kitchen.

The woman on TV was shaking badly. "They…come and go through here."

Ed turned the television off, and chased the figure into the kitchen. The figure stayed still, looking at Ed as he turned the kitchen light came on. The girl didn't vanish like the boys did when the light hit them. It turned out to be a very familiar person, glaring angrily.

"Lucy." Ed spoke in a very stern tone. "What are you doing down here?" Lucy said nothing, just looking back at him. "Lucy, what are you doing down here?!"

"I was ONLY going to watch a little bit of TV!"

"It's too late at night for this. What did I tell you about school?"

"School sucks." Lucy crossed her arms. "It's too hard."

"You know what else is hard? Trying to deal with someone who doesn't listen."

"About that…aren't you supposed to be in bed?" Lucy smirked.

"Get back upstairs. Now. I don't have time to deal with this."

Lucy huffed and went back upstairs. Ed sat in the kitchen chair and held his head. At the very least, this whole incident didn't cause a lot of noise. Maybe Ed could sneak back into the bedroom…if he was caught, he could easily say he was in the bathroom. He made his way back to the stairs…and saw the door to the garage was open again. He could hear the hum of a projector inside. Ed knew that door was closed when he first came down. He took a deep breath.

"Here we go again…"

Ed walked inside to see everything was in place this time. The projector was on the table, playing a reel. Ed looked to the wall and saw the 1970s family fishing. How could this be possible? He burned that reel! A small box was next to the projector. He went over to turn off the projector when he felt something icy tug as his pants. He turned around to see the boy from the pool, shooting him a nasty glare. He looked to the garage door and saw the boy from the barbecue sitting cross-legged, watching the reel.

"Why won't you leave me alone?!"

The two boys simply put their fingers to their mouths. "Shhhhhhhhhh…"

Ed whirled around, and came face-to-face with Bughuul. Now that he could see Bughuul up close, he saw he had black holes where his eyes should be, and smooth skin where his mouth should go. His hair was long and unkempt. His black overcoat and heavy boots were filthy. Ed froze momentarily, and Bughuul used the opportunity to grab Ed by the neck. He tried to punch and kick free, but they seemed to have no effect on the strange being.

"What…do you want from me?!" Ed choked out. Bughuul didn't answer, just tightened his grip on Ed. Bughuul then tilted his head to one side, letting Ed see the reel. The chained-up car was now on fire, and violently shaking. Ed could guess who was inside.

The reel ended, and suddenly the room was enveloped in light. Bughuul had vanished, leaving Ed standing there, somewhat dizzy. He turned around, and saw the kids were gone. He turned back around and looked in the doorway. There was Marnie in her night gown, with an angry expression.

"Ed, let's have a talk." Marnie walked over. "Every single night this week, you've been coming in here and making the weirdest racket."

"Lucy came down, and…"

"And you had to in here and play with the projector again afterwards? And look at this." She pointed at the dent in her van. "This is a new van, Ed. Why did you do this?"

"I didn't! There's something about…those reels." He pointed at them.

"These stupid movies?!" She tore the BBQ reel from its projector. "What the hell makes them so interesting? It's not some weird X-rated crap you're afraid to show me, is it?"

"No no no!" Ed rubbed his sore neck.

She read the label on the reel. "I told you to donate this Ed, this isn't one of mine!"

"Watch them yourself…they do horrible things…"

"Oh really?" Marnie took the reel out and un-raveled it, pulling it apart into pieces and throwing the shreds into the air. "Look, Ed. It's gone. You'll never be tortured by a roll of film again."

"But…I swear I saw…"

"I don't care WHAT the fuck you saw. Just get to bed, Ed. And stop coming downstairs. I'm getting sick and tired of your drunken stumbling."

Ed wanted to argue that he hadn't had a single drop tonight, but he had already angered her enough. He quietly nodded, then followed Marnie upstairs, looking back at the garage door a few times as he ascended. He followed her into bed, Marnie angrily putting the covers over herself.

"Good night, Ed."

Ed silently got in, looking at the ceiling for a few minutes, then closing his eyes. Ed thought he heard more movement downstairs, but he just shut his eyes tighter, trying to block them from his mind. He had already angered Marnie enough. After over an hour, he finally fell asleep.

FRIDAY

The end of the work week, Ed thought, and it couldn't come along any sooner. This being casual Friday, Ed wore a brown polo instead of a dress shirt and tie. He was feeling a little tense; Marnie and Ed barely talked that morning, since she was still angry about last night. Despite this, today was a much better day at work. This time Ed worked slowly, carefully, going over everything three times over. He was finally doing his work mistake-free.

He was also extremely slow, but at least it was some sort of progress.

At last, lunchtime came. He went into the lunchroom and immediately sat across from Herbert. He wore a white dress shirt with blue pinstripes; even on casual Friday, he always stayed somewhat formal.

"Thought you'd need to speak to me, Ed. Your ghost problem improving?"

Ed spoke low, even though the two were once again the only ones in there. "No Herb…I'm still seeing them. And one of them…the Bughuul thing…grabbed me."

"It grabbed you?"

"I swear it did…this ghost problem's getting even worse!"

"Well, it's not going to get any better…I researched your house."

"You find anything out?"

"Mhmm…Ed, you're not going to believe this…"