Demonspawn (17 page)

“What?” she said. Her tone said it all.

Strangely, all the thinking I'd been doing, I
didn't have sentences planned out in my head.

“Uh, hi.”

“Yeah, what do you want? You lost?”

“No, I-”

“Look, everyone in the neighborhood knows I
don't like anyone knocking on my door. Now get going.”

She tried to shut the door in my face. I had
to wedge my foot in the doorway to stop her. Her face turned red
from anger.

“I'll call the police!” she nearly
screamed.

She was forceful, direct. I had no choice but
to be the same.

“I'm guessing you're Elizabeth Fields. If you
are, you gave me up for adoption twenty-three years ago. I want to
know why.”

She eased her grip on the door. Her mouth
slowly fell open. She looked me up and down, then a look of sadness
crossed her face. Obviously I was bringing bad memories with
me.

“Come on inside.”

We did so. She closed the door behind us. The
inside of her house looked nothing like the outside. Very nice,
homely. Antiques littered the place. No TV, I noticed. Where I
thought a living room would be was a little library. I liked
it.

“Thirsty?” she asked. There was still an edge
in her voice.

I looked at Cindy. She shook her head. “Nah,
we're good. Thank you.”

We followed her into a tiny dining room. It
looked like we interrupted a light lunch. She sat down in front of
a glass of tea, a sandwich, and a book. We sat across from her.

“So, what's your name?”

The question surprised me. Didn't she
know?

“Alex. Alex Teague. This is my best friend.
Cindy Marshall.”

She nodded. “It's good to have friends. I
used to have friends. But not anymore. Not since that day.”

“That day?”

She waved her hand. “In time. So, I'm
guessing you're wondering who I am? Why I was listed as your
guardian?”

I nodded. “Miss Elizabeth, believe me, I'm
wondering a whole bunch of things.”

“Call me Beth. Well, for you, I guess you can
call me Aunt Beth.”

“Aunt?”

“Yeah. I have some questions for you
too.”

“I probably don't have any answers.”

“You might be surprised. I'm guessing there
might be a part of you that you keep from everyone else, even Cindy
here. Ghosts, maybe? Spirits? Demons?”

I was excited. Beth knew something. Finally,
I would get some answers.

“Yeah,” I said. “But Cindy knows. She knows
everything about me.”

“Tell me. Tell me about yourself. Maybe we
can tell each other things.”

I told her everything. I told her about
getting rid of the demon in Tammy's house in high school, and the
encounter at Homecoming with Susan a week later. I told her about
George McEllen and his family, and my discovering that I could turn
invisible and walk through walls. That
really
caught her
attention. I told her of how I could sense when Cindy was in
danger, and how I dealt with the two men who tried to hurt her.
That's when Beth started actually taking notes. Also, Cindy grabbed
my arm when I told that story. I never really gave her the details.
I wondered what she'd have to say later.

I must have talked for a half hour. When I
was finally done Beth looked over her notes, and started shaking
her head.

“This isn't possible,” she said.

I laughed a little. “Yeah, which
part
?”

She ignored me. “Seeing into the spirit realm
is one thing. But
moving
into it? Not possible.”

“What are you talking about?”

She looked up at me with a face full of
doubt. “People can't move through walls, my little nephew.”

I didn't like her condescending tone. I stood
up and moved away from the table. “Now don't blink,” I said.

I vanished. Beth gasped and jumped out of her
chair. Cindy just laughed. Apparently she was getting used to
me.

“He does that whenever I try to take his
clothes off. Annoying white man.”

“I can see how that would be distracting.
Alex? Are you there?”

I backed up a few steps and reappeared, just
so Beth could see that I could move when invisible as well.
“Believe me now?”

Beth's hands started shaking. “Fuck. I think
I'm gonna have a heart attack.”

“Are you alright?”

“I guess he pulled it off. Well, kind of.
Just the wrong person.”

“Who is
he
? Pulled off
what
?”

Her face lit up. “You can help. I'm sure of
it.”

“Whoa, hey!” I raised my voice a little. Beth
was almost out of it, not even looking at me. I waved a hand in
front of her face. “You want to include us in your little talk
here?”

“I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I have to
take you somewhere. To help someone. After that, I'll give you
answers.”

“Wait a minute. Help someone? What are you
talking about?”

“A family on the other side of town. One of
the only ones left that will actually look at me if they see me on
the street. Their house has spirits.”

I raised my hands and sat next to Cindy. “I
think I've had enough haunted houses in one lifetime.”

“Please. Alex, to put it simple, I won't tell
you anything unless you come with me.”

I dropped my gaze and shook my head out of
frustration. I just wanted answers, then to go home. Looks like I
had to jump through hoops to get them. I gave Cindy an amused
look.

“And this is supposed to be family here.”

Beth started cleaning up her lunch. “You
don't know the half of it.”

“Are you okay with this?” I asked Cindy. “I
can drop you off at the hotel and come back later.”

She took a deep breath. I don't blame her for
not being enthusiastic. She'd been with me in Tammy's house and
George's house. It wasn't exactly fun.

“You know I'm right behind you, fearless
leader.”

I nodded. I caught Beth giving us both a
look, as if she'd never seen such closeness or loyalty before.

We all went together in Beth's station-wagon.
I probably should have gotten her to prepare us a little for the
next haunted house in my life. But to be honest, I didn't exactly
like Beth. I didn't want to talk to her. Besides, I already had a
pretty good idea of what to expect. I'd walk inside the house, and
get cold. Then I'd see some ghosts.

Blossom must have been bigger than I thought.
The “other side of town” was a twenty minute drive. The sun was
starting to set when we pulled up next to a quaint little home. It
looked about as haunted as my apartment. Neatly cut grass, white
picket fence, a mailbox with the last name Baker written on it. It
certainly didn't look ominous or haunted.

But then again, Tammy's didn't either.

We followed Beth up the sidewalk to the front
door. After a few knocks a woman in her forties answered.

She was attractive, but looked like she was
in the middle of a bad day. Probably a bad year. Huge circles under
her eyes. Her shoulders were slumped, like the happiness had been
drained from her. She managed a smirk when she saw Beth, but it
quickly fell into a frown.

“Beth,” she said. “What are you doing
here?”

“Hi, Nancy. I tried to call before we came
over, but the phone was busy. Is it okay if we come in?”

Nancy laughed sarcastically. “Not at all. We
could always use more company.”

Her statement was lost on me until we stepped
into the living room. Then Cindy and I froze.

“Whoa.”

There were people everywhere. It looked like
a crime scene on TV. There was a guy setting up a camera in the
corner. Another was hanging a microphone near the TV. A woman sat
on the couch writing in a book of some kind. There was a man
wearing a red flannel watching everything from where the dining
room started. I could tell just by looking at him he was Mister
Baker. He didn't look happy, but he did look exhausted, just like
his wife.

Nancy and Beth retreated to near the stairs
and started talking. I couldn't hear what was said, but I could see
they were talking about me.

And of course, like I expected, the cold
chill hit, like the temperature dropped twenty degrees.

“Wow,” Cindy said. “Think there's any hot
guys here? It's almost like a club.”

“Yeah. I'll go get us some alcohol.”

“You don't drink.”

She was ruining my joke. “You're supposed to
say something about us getting drunk together.”

“Nice thought.”

A man holding some kind of gadget stopped in
front of us. He wasn't much older than us, wearing dirty bluejeans
and a backwards baseball cap.

“Hi,” he said. “We're with the university.
I'm just taking some EM readings. What do you guys do?”

Cindy and I looked at each other.

“Uh, I drive a forklift and load trucks.”

“I'm an accountant.”

He was silent for a moment. “No shit?
Really?”

“Yup.”

“Well, okay. I'm Dan.”

“Alex. This is Cindy.”

He went on his way.

“Let's go,” I told Cindy. I was getting
claustrophobic with so many people in the tiny living room. But I
knew we could probably move freely in the house without getting
stopped. I just had to get away.

We walked past Mister Baker, who barely
looked at us, and went upstairs. There was one person at the end of
the hall setting up a camera, but that was it.

“Finally, a bathroom,” Cindy said. “Don't
leave without me.”

Cindy closed the door behind her. I
laughed.

“Come on, you have to eat your soup. You're
sick.”

It was a girl's voice, coming from an open
bedroom down the hall. I poked my head in to see a yellow painted
bedroom. So yellow it almost hurt my eyes. A little girl in a pink
dress was playing next to her bed. She was probably seven or eight.
She had a tiny table setup and a few stuffed animals all sitting in
chairs. They all had plates in front of them, which I'm guessing
had imaginary food.

The girl looked up and saw me. “Hi,” she said
politely.

“Hello. What's going on in here?”

“Teddy won't eat his soup,” she said. “But he
has to or else he won't get better.”

“Ah. I guess he's not feeling good.”

“No. I had to keep him home from school.”

I laughed and stepped inside. Cute kid.
Looked a lot like Nancy.

“I'm Alex.”

“Hi. I'm Rachel. That's Teddy. That's Marvin.
That's Bunny. And that's Jerry.”

I looked at her little stuffed animal family.
I had to laugh at Jerry the Lizard. Who names a lizard Jerry?

“It's nice meeting you.”

I turned to leave.

“Are you gonna make it go away?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What's
that?”

“The monster.”

She had my complete attention. I sat across
from her Indian-style.

“Tell me about it.”

“It comes out at night. It walks around the
house. Sometimes it stands over my bed and screams at me. At first
Mommy didn't believe me. But I think she does now.”

Given the amount of people downstairs, I'd
say Rachel was right.

“The man from our church came over last
weekend,” she continued. She hung her head. “But he couldn't help
us.”

“Rachel.” She looked up at me. “I'll get rid
of the monster.”

She smiled. She believed me. The scary part
was that I believed myself as well. I'd done it once already.

I left her room. I noticed two more bedrooms.
One was at the end of the hall and looked pretty big. Obviously
Mister and Mrs. Baker's. I poked my head in the other one to see a
teenage girl laying on her bed. Probably a year or two younger than
Alicia. She had a pair of headphones on and was reading a magazine.
She looked more like Mister Baker. When she saw me she pulled her
headphones off angrily.

“I told you guys. No cameras in here! Damn
perverts.”

I held my hands up. “You see any cameras
here?”

“Who are you?”

“Alex.”

“What? You like a ghostbuster or
something?”

I leaned in the doorway. “Having a bad
day?”

“Are there still fifty people
downstairs?”

“Yeah.”

“Then yes, I'm having a bad day. They can't
help anyway.”

“What have you been seeing here?”

She looked surprised. “You're asking me?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. No one's asked me anything yet.”

“Your sister said she sees a monster.”

She shook her head. “No, I haven't seen
anything. A lot of noises, things banging around. Footsteps at
night. And just...feelings, you know? Like I'm in the shower and it
feels like someone's right outside watching.”

I nodded. Then Cindy grabbed my arm, scaring
the hell out of me. She laughed.

“I knew I'd get you eventually. Finally.”

“Funny.”

She looked into the bedroom. “Hey, he's my
man. Don't try to steal him.”

“Good luck in ghostbusting, Alex.”

“Nice meeting you, Danielle.”

She smirked. “Didn't even tell you my name. I
thought you might be the psychic that every group drags along with
them.”

“Nah. It's on your wall back there.”

She turned red from embarrassment.

Cindy and I went back downstairs. There were
less people than before. I noticed some guys outside hovering near
some vans. They must setup their equipment, then do their watching
from the outside.

Mister Baker was in the kitchen making
dinner. Nancy was in the living room talking with Beth and the
woman I saw earlier with the notebook. There seemed to be some
tension there.

When we stepped into the living room everyone
got quiet. I could only hear Mister Baker working in the kitchen.
The three women stared at me.

“Hello, everyone,” I said. I tried to keep my
voice polite.

The lady with the notebook stepped forward
and extended her hand. She looked to be somewhere in her forties,
although nowhere near as attractive as Nancy.