Darkwood Falls Paranormal Investigators Book One: The Dead Truth

Chapter Fourteen

"I don't suppose you have to believe in ghosts to know that we are all haunted, all of us, by things we can see and feel and guess at, and many more things that we can't." -Beth Gutcheon, More Than You Know

     I couldn't stop thinking that the last time I stepped foot in the Martin home, I had been in communication with a man who had been burned alive.  While my interaction with him turned out to be less terrifying than anticipated, I was still nervous about the whole situation.  So standing in the dark living room with the rest of the team, Karen, and Tommy, I couldn't help but to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure no dead corpse was sneaking up behind me to toss me around or throw laughing-Sesame-Street creatures. 

     In the glow of a dim lamp, I noticed Ruby and Axl kept glancing nervously down the hall; Axl holding onto a backpack filled with more of our special-white-communicating-candles.  It was odd to see a man like Axl with tattoos, piercings, and such muscular arms look frightened, but I guess that's why there's a problem with stereotypes.  Richard, Brandon, and Nick, however, looked perfectly unfazed.  I wondered how they could be so calm in this situation and chalked it up to pure insanity.

     "So, you saw this man in Tommy's room?" Karen said as her son ran circles around us yelling the same damn note of "Ahhhhhh."  He didn't seem as concerned about the ghost that night, but he probably had no idea what was going on.  We were just people he had seen in his house before, and he now felt comfortable being a little shit around us.  Karen made no attempt to make him stop.  She was too busy crocheting another misshapen object out of puke-green-yarn.

     "I guess the spirit was occasionally showing himself to your son.  Kids are usually more likely to sense these kinds of things," Richard explained.

     "But. . . he threw you into a closet?!" she said, turning her wide eyes to me.

     "Yeah, but that might have been because Nick and I had just . . ."

     "The spirit was just distressed," Richard cut me off, shooting me a significant look.

     I realized he must have been trying to keep me from telling the client about the shouting match I had with Nick in her house that provoked the spirit.   With all the dumb shit I had been doing, saying, and fucking up the past few days, I was getting the feeling Richard was getting pretty sick of me.

     "AHHHHH!" Tommy continued his bellowing and running.

     Richard had to talk over him.  "He was murdered even though everyone thought he had died by suicide.  Now his family has left this house.  Sometimes spirits lose control when their emotions are running particularly high."

     Karen didn't seem to care about Richard's explanation, or any reason why the spirit assaulted me.  "You didn't break anything, did you?" she said turning to me.  "Did you mess up anything in the closet?"

     "AHHHHH!" continued the irritating sound that made me want to stab myself in the ears.

    I could feel anger taking over from Karen's comment and her son's lack of respect for adults conversing, and I lost my ability to tolerate the relentlessly rude bitch.  "No, but I'm doing just great, thanks for asking."

     Nick chuckled beside me.

     "Shawn . . ." Richard said, shooting me a warning look.

     I sighed, but didn't say anything else.  I wasn't going to apologize, if that's what he wanted, but I decided to keep my mouth shut in the future.  Karen's eyes were still fixed on me while her hands worked on the green-thing.