Chapter 12
England – Arthur /Artie Bonnefoy
France – Fran / Francis Bonnefoy
Denmark –Mathias Norman
Norway – Lukas Norman
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen
Only a few days later at an early hour for any sleep loving human, Lukas and Mathias are driving up the white mansion once again. An old van follows them, its blue coating worn off by weather and time to a much lighter and duller shade. Inside of it sits Berwald, Lukas' and Mathias' technician, wearing a simple blue flannel shirt over a black top and comfortable and Mathias get out of their car and walk towards the van. Berwald gets out too and slides the side door of the van open, Lukas steps at his side and just wants to grab the first bag full of equipment as the sound of a third car arriving gets closer. All three men turn towards the road, watching the red mustang pull up. The dust settles slowly and out of the red car steps a man, smaller than all three of them but still bigger than Arthur, with a smile on his lips and determination in his eyes. The pebbles scrunch under his boots and the leather jacket accentuates his chubby but still muscular upper body.
"Ah, here's Tino," remarks Mathias and walks towards the smaller man. Berwald follows, leaving Lukas back at the van.
"No problems finding the way?" Asks Mathias and shakes hands with Tino, their grips strong and brotherly.
"Oh, yeah" answers Tino with a smile and looks from Mathias to Berwald, unfazed by the usual stare on Berwald's face. Mathias' face lights up when he remembers that those two don't know each other yet.
"Berwald, this is Officer Väinämöinen." Berwald and Tino shake hands and Mathias steps aside and turns to help Lukas carry the equipment to the house. Berwald continues to study this man who doesn't seem to be bothered by him.
"Nice to meet ya," Berwald starts. "Yer the cop surveying this?"
Tino nods and looks around and back at him.
"Yes. And kinda excited. Call me Tino."
"You know ya can't shoot ghosts?" Berwald points vaguely at the gun Tino wears on his belt.
Mathias passes them, bearing a large box and laughs.
"Take it easy Ber. And help us get that stuff unloaded."
The next hours are filled with hard work. The team sets up cameras all around the house and small bells on the door handles. The Bonnefoy family helps where they can. In the afternoon they continue outside. When Mathias walks out of the house with a camera in hands, Arthur follows. When they pass an old car, Mathias nods into its direction, as his hands are preoccupied with expanding the tripod of the camera.
"What's wrong with it?"
Arthur follows his look and sighs.
"What's not wrong with it? Needs first of all a new carburettor to even start."
Mathias gives the old car a last look before looking forward again.
"Kinda procrastinated repairing it. I had a lot of other things in my mind lately."
Mathias only hums in agreement and they get to the old dead tree where Tino is installing a flashlight. Mathias squats down and sets the camera on the ground. With a few hand movements he gets the camera positioned in the right angle. Without looking up he demands:
"Tino, can you give me the thermostat please?"
Tino nods and walks over to one of the boxes standing on their side and quickly grabs one of the few lefts. Arthur in the meantime just watches the two and when Tino hands Mathias the thermostat, he can't hold his curiosity any loner in:
"Why the thermostat?"
"Oh, when there's an instant drop in temperature, the thermostat triggers the camera to take a picture," Mathias explains and looks at Arthur.
Arthur crosses his arms and steps in front of Mathias.
"Did you ever catch something on film?"
Mathias chuckles and nods.
"Ja. Ehh.. That's the point."
Arthur looks around him, at the lake, the soft hill the house is standing on and the old tree he is standing under.
"So, why here outside?"
Mathias turns on the handle of the tripod, his brows furrowing in concentration to make everything right.
"Well, this is the place the witch committed suicide. She hung herself from the branch you are standing under right now." He looks up and gives a slight smirk.
Arthur's eyes widen and he looks quickly up and steps aside, expecting to see some kind of figure, dressed in white, swaying slightly in the wind. But there was nothing. Mathias gives him a last, impish look before concentrating on his work again.
Back in the house, Lukas helps setting up all the pictures again that the family took down after they got knocked off all the time. He and Francis only talk little, mostly about raising their boys and the difficulties that come with that like late night sessions when the kid is sick or the difficulties to saying no to puppy faces of both their kids and husbands.
As they get to the last picture, both bend down and lift it up together. Lukas' gaze drops down to look at the framed picture of the family smiling at the camera, nothing else in the background than the blue, blue sky. A soft smile curls his lips upwards. A scene flashes in front of his eyes. The sky is clear, seagulls screeching in the distance. He hears the rustling and soft thumping of running in the sand and the laughing and screaming from kids, racing each other's to the next dune.
"That must have been a nice day at the beach." Lukas looks up from the picture and into Francis' eyes. Francis' eyes widen and he smiles back at him.
"How did you know?"
Lukas shrugs and sets the picture at its place at the wall and turns to him again before answering:
"It's like an insight." At the lost expression of Francis he adds:
"Like a peek through the curtain into another persons' life."
Francis nods, now understanding better but still with a thousand question about this mysterious man's abilities. But he doesn't ask and Lukas doesn't explain further. He just looks at the picture, now on the wall and smiles softly, lovingly. Dimples appear around his eyes and corners of his mouth and he strokes a strand of his shoulder long hair behind his ear.
"That day meant so much to me. Kyle remarked how nice the view is and we decided to take a break from our long trip. I thought this is the perfect opportunity for a photo. You should've seen Arthie and the kids, I've never seen them so happy. They mean the world to me."
He turns his head, his eyes seeking Lukas one's. Lukas nods understanding, thinking at his little brother and how perfect it would be to see him right now, this moment.
Down in the living room, two other men are having a conversation.
"Put yer hand flat on the desk," orders Berwald, standing in front of a table which is crowded with papers, cardboard boxes and technological gadgets. Officer Väinämöinen complies and places his palm on the cold wooden surface.
"Now take it off."
Tino complies again and looks expectantly at the tall man. Berwald takes now a thin but long device which as great similarities with a small neon light and switches it on. A blue light emits from the device and as he holds it close the surface of the table a ghostly white imprint of Tino's hand can be seen. Tino's eyes widen slightly and an excited smile appears on his face.
"It reveals t' us what the naked eye can't see."
He turns the light off again and looks at the shorter man. Their eyes meet and for a short moment both seem trapped in each other's gaze until Mathias walks into the room and asks bluntly:
"Is everything set up and ready in here?"
Berwald answers with a short nod and Tino walks out of the room, minding his own business.
After a few minutes of discussion between the original crew of Berwald, Mathias and Lukas on how each individual will pass the night, a bell can be heard dangling on a moved door. The three move quickly but silently to the origin of of the sound, Berwald and Mathias walking through the left door of the living room and Lukas taking the right exit. They stand now at the opposite ends of the hallway and they all breathe out relieved when it is just Tino closing the door to the bathroom. He looks at the three and smiles sheepishly.
"What is it? I had to go."
He gestures towards the door. He earns an eye roll from Lukas and a stare of Berwald. He quickly hurries to his assigned position and everyone else does the same as it's getting dark and an owl screeches outside, giving the final signal that the night has begun.
Mathias and Berwald sit close together in front of the rather large recording device. They got their headphones linked to the machine and check if the microphones placed in every room work as they should. The only noise they get is the static rustle of the microphone and after checking every single room, Mathias turns his head towards Berwald, looking at his technician for the final confirmation.
"Everythin' is coming in good."
Mathias nods and gets up, leaving Berwald with the machine and gets from the kitchen table on which not only the recording device is placed but also a brown bag which he carries into the living room. He rolls the bag open on the small glass table. Usually you'd expect in such kind of bags tools, brushes, pens, but in this one there were little wooden crucifixes. Mathias places a bottle beside the bag and starts picking up the small crosses. Arthur watches him from one of the doors.
"What's inside that bottle?" As Mathias looks up to him, he nods towards it.
"Oh. This." He smiles and gets up, with full hands.
"It's holy water."
He walks to the chimney and sets a dark crucifix with a silver Jesus on it. Arthur waits for Mathias to explain further and leans on the doorframe.
"The presence of religious icons will get a reaction from anything unholy." Mathias walks to the opposite corner of the room and sets a smaller and lighter cross down on a windowsill.
"Sort of pisses them off." He flashes a smirk towards Arthur, who can't find it as fun as Mathias apparently does.
"So I set these throughout the house, see if I can stir things up a bit," finishes Mathias. They both walk out of the room now and Mathias continues to place seemingly random small crucifixes around the groundfloor of the house and they proceed into the kitchen where Officer Väinämöinen is trying out a camera. It gives Arthur some time to think:
"This works like using a cross against a vampire?"
Mathias sets the last cross on the kitchen table and smiles at Arthur.
"Yes. Only that I don't believe in vampires."
Suddenly the melody of a bell is heard through the house again. Arthur and Mathias share a look and then stare at Tino. He looks at them and raises his hands.
"Not me."
Mathias and Arthur walk back into the hallway, just in time to see the door beside the bathroom slowly open with a soft creaking. Mathias raises his arm slightly, stopping Arthur of going closer. The string that connects the door with the camera gets pulled through the movement and it gets off with a bright flash.
"Tino, get the camera."
The door to the cellar is invitingly open now.