“Of course. Follow me.”
As we descend the stairs, I feel a little better. I’m safe here. I don’t know why I trust Wilder, but he’s all I’ve got, so I guess I’m in. I do have questions though.
“Can you tell me more about your job?”
“In time.” He answers without looking at me. “You’ve had enough excitement for one day, no?”
“Guess so.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Wilder turns to face me. “For tonight, try to rest your mind. We’ll have dinner and I’ll get your room made up. You can watch TV if that helps.”
“That sounds good.”
“It’s going to be alright.” He squeezes my shoulder gently. “I’ve been in worse situations. I know what I’m doing.”
“I believe you.”
Chapter 9
Wilder
Keagan finally seems to be resting peacefully. Unfortunately, he fell asleep on the sectional. Fortunately, it’s not the worst place to sleep. I flick the TV off with the remote and rise from the couch carefully so as not to disturb him. I know he has a million questions about me, and I’ll answer them eventually, but there’s no reason to overload him all at once.
Gazing down at him, I admire his soft features for a few moments. He’s very attractive, but he doesn’t seem like the type of guy I usually gravitate towards. I can’t afford to get my feelings involved, so if the person is just down to mess around for a while, that’s great, but if not… I’ve made that mistake twice, and I won’t do it again. I’m not interested in a love bond, and watching the person you love grow old and die is a pain I’m not willing to endure again.
Still, it’s been a hell of a dry spell the last seven months. My last assignment was an elderly married couple and their Horror kept me too busy to seek out physical release. I barely had time to regroup before I was assigned to Keagan’s case. Before that I was just burned out, I suppose.
I exit the room and walk up the stairs to my bedroom. I need to think about my plan to handle this Horror. The connection to Keagan may make it more challenging, but that’s likely why it was assigned to me. More importantly, I need to work out how to prevent Keagan from attracting more spirits. Maybe his medium friends have ideas. I haven’t had to think about anything like this for at least sixty years. What is it about him that draws the spirit world to him? I need to figure it out, or getting rid of the Horror is going to take longer than I want it to. I can usually get rid of a Horror in a few days, a couple of weeks tops, but I have a feeling I won’t be that lucky this time.
In my room, I peel out of my clothes, grab my journal from the top of my dresser and settle into my bed, flipping through notes I’ve made on previous situations. After an hour, my eyelids grow heavy and I’ve only made it back twenty years and found nothing interesting to help.
I close the notebook and set it on my nightstand, then I flip the lamp off and lie back against the soft mattress and cool pillow. Staring up at the ceiling, I let my thoughts take me where they wish. Sometimes they lead me to an overlooked solution, but nothing comes, and I’m too tired to keep trying.
Tomorrow is a fresh day. I’ll tackle it then.
I’m woken by a scratching sound on my window. I try to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it gets louder, along with the squawk of a bird. Shit. I sit up abruptly, turning my gaze to the window, where I can make out the shadow of a large bird.
Climbing out of bed, I hurry over to the window and push it open. The raven is very agitated, wildly flapping its wings and tilting its head downward. I peer past the bird but see nothing inmy yard. That’s when I get the sense of what the bird is telling me. Keagan.
I grab my robe from the foot of the bed and throw it on as I make my way through the dark house back to the TV room. When I enter, I’m stopped in my tracks by the sight before me.
A spirit floats above Keagan, pinning him to the couch. Keagan struggles but is powerless against the Horror holding him down. Apparently he can’t scream either, since he appears to be yelling but the room is eerily silent.
His panicked eyes shift to me and I see the relief spread across his face. Except I don’t have shit with me to stop this from happening. Without saying a word so as not to alert the Horror to my presence, I quickly dart out of the room and head to my study. Hopefully, Keagan understands that I’m not abandoning him.
I open my armoire and grab a couple of vials from it. This should be enough to subdue the spirit so I can get Keagan to safety. Hurrying back, I note how cold the house is. Guess I should have used a stronger protection spell around my house, but since I’ve never had a difficult spirit show up, I’ve slacked.
When I return to the TV room, I find the same situation, but now it appears the Horror is choking Keagan. It’s definitely not the one that was his father. This is something else.
I open one of the vials and flick the liquid in the direction of the Horror. It shrieks and withers, releasing Keagan and turning my way. Keagan sits up, gasping for breath and rubbing his neck as I back out of the room, luring the spirit along with me so I can get a read on it.
As it closes in on me, I focus on its aura, becoming confused. How the hell did one of these low-level fucks get through the veil? I thought they weren’t powerful enough. It’s not benign, but not a full Horror, and clearly it has bad intentions. I’ll have to ask Farnsworth.
Reaching out, I grab it by the neck, grinning when it looks surprised that I can. Even though its features are nondescript, there is a semblance of a face, and I can see movement in the two black holes that should be eyes.
“You fucked up, spirit,” I whisper. “How did you even get here?”
It writhes and shakes in my grasp, but it’s not able to speak. I could go to the astral realm with it, but I’m not about to waste my energy doing that. This is an easy one.
