Demonspawn (11 page)

I imagine mine was the same.

I looked at my hands.

“Guys! Alex is gone!”

There was a herd of footsteps upstairs
followed by the gang running through the living room and staring at
Cindy from the doorway.

“Cindy? What's going on?”

“Alex. He just disappeared.”

“Uh, guys? I'm right
here
.”

“Come on, Cindy. Not you too. No games,
okay?”

“This isn't a fucking game! He was right
here,” she said, gesturing with her hands. “I was holding onto him.
Then he just vanished!”

The three of them looked at each other. The
girls looked nervous, but Dave only shrugged.

“Well, let's look for him. We'll split
up.”

“Split up? Are you kidding me? In this creepy
ass place?”

Jenny stared at Tina. Cindy looked scared,
but determined.

“We need to find Alex. Jenny and I will go
upstairs. You two start down here.”

Jenny didn't move. Cindy had to grab her hand
and pull her away. I heard them walk upstairs. Dave and Tina went
back to the living room, then went through the front door to look
outside.

I walked to the dining room table and tried
to touch it. My hand went right through it. I actually pushed my
arm through up to the elbow. It felt like when my arm went through
Richard, all those years ago, like sticking my arm in a bucket of
water. It was effortless to move my arm around, but I could still
feel the table around me.

I pulled my arm out and stared at the man. He
stared back at me, looking stunned himself.

“Amazing,” he said. “Who are you?”

“How about who the hell are
you
?” I
said.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Manners. I'm George
McEllen.”

McEllen
.

“You used to live here.”

“Yeah, till those bastards came and took
everything. My family, my life. All gone in five minutes.”

I felt sad for him. The look in his eye said
it all. He looked at the table.

“We were eating right here. They came in
through the back door. Shot my daughter Pam first. Then Sharon, my
wife. Then me. All for the famous McEllen fortune they heard
about.”

“I'm so sorry.”

George smiled solemnly and nodded.

“Why are you still here?” I asked.

“I wasn't. I felt someone in our home. I
wanted to see who it was.”

“You...can
feel
things from the other
side?”

He looked confused. “Other side?”

“You know. When you die.”

He smiled. “It's a little hard to explain.
But you'll find out one day. Everyone does.”

I didn't say anything. He continued.

“I think the question is what's up with you?
I've seen a lot of people come through here. Even psychics come
through, looking for the fortune. And they can sense things, I
won't lie. But talk to me and touch me? That's a new one. You
are
alive, right?”

It was a joke. I had trouble laughing.

“Well, I'm gonna leave now. It was nice
meeting you. Certainly an experience. And that's saying a lot,
since I've been dead who knows how long.”

“Wait.” I pushed my hand through the table
one more time. “How do I stop doing this?”

He shrugged. “You got me there, son. I'm sure
you'll figure it out. Oh, one more thing before I leave. There's a
cabin not too far from here. Check out under the stove. I want you
and your friends to have what's there. Call it a reward for such an
interesting night.”

I was so confused and scared. But I wanted to
talk to George a while longer.

“Wait!”

It was too late. He walked back into the
corner like it was a doorway. He vanished into thin air.

I heard Dave and Tina arguing in the living
room.

“I'm telling you, Tina. This isn't a damn
joke. Hell, this was all Jenny's idea!”

“This just seems like something you'd do. You
and Alex, to get a laugh.”

“Oh, get a grip. I was upstairs with you. You
see how freaked out Cindy is? You think that's a joke?”

I walked into the living room. I didn't
expect them to see me. But when my foot squished on the carpet Dave
looked up.

“Alex! Holy shit, man!”

Tina poked her head near the stairwell.
“Cindy! Jen! He's down here!”

I was
real
again. I didn't move. My
jaw just hung open. I heard footsteps upstairs. Cindy and Jenny
trotted down. Cindy nearly ran. She ran forward and hugged me. Even
though I knew they could see me, I half-expected Cindy to walk
right through me. I was thankful that she didn't. I wrapped my arms
around her, not wanting to let go. No demons, no reliving a murder.
But I'll never forget the first time I pushed my arm through a
solid object.

“Hey,” Jenny said. “That wasn't cool.”

Tina nodded. “Yeah. We were really
worried.”

I searched everyone's faces. They really
thought I played some kind of joke on them.

I wouldn't try to convince them otherwise.
But I wouldn't lie, either.

“Can we leave?” I asked.

“Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here.”

We filed out of the house. Cindy kept a hand
on my shoulder for a while before letting it fall. I gave the house
one final look as it got smaller.

Goodbye, George McEllen
.

I remembered his last words.

Check out under the stove.

No one said much to me as we packed up our
little party. I guess they were actually mad at me for
pranking
them. Dave set the grill in the back of the truck.
Tina walked around and threw empty cans into a bag. I stole a look
at the cabin.

“Hey guys. Come with me for a sec.”

I led the way to the bare cabin. I wondered
if this belonged to George and his family as well when they were
alive. I felt like we were trespassing. I knew once we left I'd
never come back.

But George wanted us to have something.

“Dave, help me move this stove.”

He looked at everyone, then shrugged. He
handed the lantern over to Tina.

The floor of the cabin was wooden planks. But
as we dragged the heavy stove we could see two sets of hinges close
to the wall.

“A trap door?” Jenny said. Her explorer
enthusiasm was returning. “That's cool!”

“How did you know that was there?”

I didn't answer Tina. There weren't handles
of any kind, but we could see the door itself. It was about two
feet by two feet. Dave had to stab his pocket knife into the door
to be able to lift it.

There was a hole dug in the dirt, about a
foot deep. Sitting there, hidden away for over twenty years, was a
brown burlap sack.

“Holy shit!” Dave said.

I lifted it out. Everyone was quiet as we
carried it back to the truck. I emptied it on the lowered
tailgate.

Money. Stacks of wrapped money, all neatly
marked. I couldn't tell how much was there just by looking, but I'm
sure it was more than I had in my bank account at the time.

None of us spoke. We just stood there and
stared at it. Cindy was the first one to find her voice.

“Damn,” was all she could say.

“Can...we keep that?” Tina asked.

Dave grabbed a stack and looked it at. It was
marked ten thousand. Ten thousand dollars in one little stack of
money. I'd seen that in the movies, but never for real. He started
dividing the stacks.

“Guys, I don't really think we should keep
this,” Cindy said. She actually took a step back, like she was
looking at something horrible. “I mean, this isn't ours.”

“Actually, we
can
keep it,” I
said.

“What do you mean?”

I didn't want to say it, because I knew the
looks I'd get. But there was nothing else I could say.

“George said he wanted us to have this.
George McEllen.”

I wasn't wrong.

Tina frowned. “George McEllen? The guy who
was killed here?”

“Oh come on, Alex. You want us to believe you
can talk to ghosts?” Jenny said. Her tone said it all. She was
irritated and annoyed.

I shrugged and looked at each of them. “Look,
I really don't care what you all believe. But we can take this
money and not feel guilty.”

They all looked at each other. Cindy kept her
eyes on me. I could tell by looking at her that unlike the others,
she didn't doubt me. She believed me.

She took a step back toward the truck and
looked at Dave. “How much is there?”

“One hundred five thousand, but that last
stack looks a little light.”

“What's that six ways?” I asked.

Cindy didn't blink. “Seventeen thousand five
hundred.”

Gotta love accounting majors.

“Wait a minute. Why
six
ways? There's
five of us here.”

“For Alicia. She's part of the group.”

I looked around, waiting for someone to
argue. We were all friends, but money does strange things to
people. I was waiting for a fight. I was surprised when I didn't
get one.

Dave shrugged. “Shit. Seventeen thousand
dollars is about seventeen thousand more than I have right
now.”

“Alright, it's all good. Let's get out of
here.”

We did just that. As we drove back everyone
talked about what they were gonna do with their new-found treasure.
I was thankful for that, as I thought everyone would ask me ghost
questions. I guess money is more important than ghosts. Cindy
didn't say much. I knew she probably still had mixed feelings about
keeping such a large amount of money. Normally I'd feel the same
way. Hell, when I was in fifth grade I found a hundred dollars on
the playground, and gave it to a teacher so she could found out who
it belonged to.

But this was different. George said we could
have it.

How many times does that happen?

I was lost in my own thoughts as we drove
back to Cindy's apartment. One hundred thousand dollars. Is that
what cost George and his family their lives? Is that what a
family's lives were worth? If I had five more minutes with George
McEllen I would have asked him if they found his killers.

We divided up the money in Cindy's apartment.
For some reason I kept thinking of all the crazy movies I'd seen.
All of a sudden, during the money counting scene, everyone would
turn on one another. Someone would fight over five dollars, and bad
things happened. That didn't happen. We just split up the money, no
drama involved. I kept Alicia's share. Cindy gave everyone plastic
bags to carry it in. Then Dave, Tina, and Jenny left. Cindy and I
were alone in her apartment.

We didn't talk for a minute. She collapsed on
the couch. I took a soda from her fridge, even though I wasn't
really thirsty. I just needed to do something normal, anything at
all. Drinking a soda was a good place to start.

I sat on the other end of the couch. Cindy
took a deep breath.

“What happened?”

“I met the guy who lived there. He was a
ghost. He somehow
sensed
we were there.”

“You disappeared right in front of me,” she
said. “You were right here, a foot away, and you disappeared.”

I smirked and nodded. “Believe me, I'm
freaked out too. Even George was. I put my hand
through
that
dining room table, Cindy. Then he told me to look in the cabin and
take what we found.” I paused for a second. I was strangely calm up
to that point. But talking to more ghosts, and putting my hands
through tables, was starting to get to me. “What the hell is
happening to me?”

She scooted closer. “Hey, listen. Nothing
changes, okay? Whatever is going on, it doesn't change who you are.
You still have me. You still have Alicia.”

“Come in the bathroom with me for a
minute.”

She smiled. “You'd better keep your sex
fantasies to yourself.”

I laughed. I needed that. I needed Cindy to
be herself and make jokes.

“I just want to see if I can make it happen
again.”

“Again, keep that sex stuff to yourself.”

We walked down the hall to her bathroom. I
leaned on her sink while she stood behind me.

“Okay. What are we doing?”

“If I disappear, let me know. Okay?”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

I stood there trying to make it happen. I
know George grabbed me, then that's when I vanished. But I thought
I could make it happen myself. If I just concentrated hard enough
on becoming invisible.

“Uh, I can still see you.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“You're still ugly, too.”

“Thanks again.”

I stood there staring at myself for another
two minutes. I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen, even if it
worked. Would I still see my own reflection? I was resting my hands
on her sink. Would they sink right through the porcelain?

“Do you want me to turn on the fan?”

I turned around to look at her. “What?”

“Well, you know. When people hang out in the
toilet, it's usually doing something else. And the fan's usually
on. I figure having the fan on might help you concentrate.”

I laughed hard. “You are the craziest woman
I've ever known.”

She laughed too. “My best friend since birth
is standing in my bathroom trying to turn invisible. And
I'm
the crazy one.”

“This isn't gonna happen tonight. I'm just
too freaked out. I'm gonna go to bed.”

“You wanna stay here?”

Nothing unusual or sexual about that. We
stayed with each other all the time. Usually it was just a matter
of falling asleep on the couch while we were watching TV.

“Nah. Thanks, though.”

“Sure. Just come on over if you need me. I'll
be up a little while.”

I nodded. She reached forward and gave me a
quick surprise hug.

“I know I give you a hard time a lot. But I
thought I lost you tonight. Don't know what I'd do without
you.”

I gave her a squeeze and let go. “Don't
worry, Cindy. I'm not going anywhere.”

She smiled and nodded.

I remember my next actions clearly. I picked
up my plastic bag with thirty-four thousand dollars in it. I gave
Cindy a wave. I walked from her apartment to mine. The first thing
I did was slide the plastic bag under my bed. Then I remembered I
didn't lock the door behind me. I usually didn't, Cindy always came
over unexpectedly, and I didn't want her fumbling with her key. But
that night, I felt weird enough to want to lock the door. A lot of
money in a plastic bag will do that.