Phasmatta -ch 5-

Chapter 5 - Road Test -

Ryan looked at the interior of the home and found it more or less a standard four-square interior. Each of the two floors divided into four sections.

Here on the first floor was the entry and parlor at the front. Ahead was the kitchen, to the left, the living room. Kitty-corner from where he stood would be the dinning room if he didn’t miss his guess.

Sometimes the kitchen and dinning room would be swapped but it could shift a bit here and there. There’d likely be a closet and a bathroom here as well on the first floor amongst other various things, like a pantry.

It was almost always the same sort of layout in these older homes in the foursquare style, just mildly rearranged here and there.

Upstairs would be bedrooms and a bathroom.

That’d be it, other than perhaps a back of the house balcony.

The basement would be one large open room and likely filled with junk, laundry, or spiders. Maybe all of the above.

“Well,” Ryan murmured and sighed. He glanced up at the flickering bulb above him. He wondered if the wiring had ever been redone. “We’ll need to find a vortex first. A vortext is more or less the center of the haunting.

“Though if I’m being honest, I think the drainer will latch to me the longer we’re here. Given that sunset is starting in a few minutes so… it’ll get real active around then, or just after.”

“Yes! I understand. Do we wander about the house looking for a cold spot?” asked Misha eagerly as she closed the door behind herself.

“I mean… we can if you want,” Ryan said, his eyes moving from the two door ways, the stairs leading up to the second floor, and the stairs leading down to the first floor. He had no idea where they were at the moment. “Should probably lay out a line of salt on each landing. Keep Alexis Dana on whichever floor she’s on.”

The moment he said her birth name he felt a response. As if someone had been sitting on a couch and then their head snapped up. Looking to someone who had just entered a room.

He had Alexis’ attention now.

“I understand. That’s something that makes sense,” Misha said and then put the box down beside herself. She took the bag from Ryan’s hands, set it down, and began rumagging around in it.

She came up with a large can of salt.

With a flick of a finger she tore off the sticker, pulled out the metal-spillway, then moved to the stairs. Not wasting time at all, she began pouring a line of salt across the bottom step of the stairs.

Right into the hardwood floor.

Once she finished with the line, she just about skipped over to the other stair well and put a line down there as well. Once done she looked to Ryan, grinned, and bounced in place once as she closed the salt.

“Now which device do we use? How should we begin… hunting?” she asked.

Unable to help himself, he grinned at the attractive eager thing.

“Right. Well. Take an EMF, a thermometer, and start walking around. I’ll keep a step behind you and help you evaluate what you get,” Ryan said and then turned the knob on his squawk-box. He also reached up and made sure his spectral-sounder was on. He grasped his wish.com-book of spells and flicked to the ‘reveal yourself fucker’ spell.

Pulling it out he folded it once and tucked it into a crevice of his plate carrier. He didn’t need it right now, but he’d need it for Misha.

Misha had already dug right back into the back and pulled out a thermometer infrared gun and a EMF reader. She switched both on, looked at Ryan, then just about rushed into the kitchen. Holding both up in front of her as she looked between the two.

As if she were dual wielding pistols and ready to shoot anything that popped up in front of her.

Ryan just watched her.

Watched the eager cast to her eyes, the corners of her mouth, the way her eyes were wide as she looked from device to device.

He knew without even having to look that Alexis wasn’t here.

A beep came from the EMF reader in Misha’s hand and it caused her to go absolutely still, her head snapping around to look athim.

“Probably a power conduit on the other side of the wall,” he offered up and gestured to where the EMF was pointing. “Might be something electrical going right through this wall. Maybe bad wiring. Keep going. We can always come back and check this room more closely, but we’re not getting anything on temperature, the squawk-box, or the spectral-sounder on my helmet.”

Unbelievably, Misha’s mouth became a rather pretty pout as she looked at the EMF device. She began moving forward again.

They passed through the kitchen into the dinning room.

If Alexis really did choke to death on something, there was the distinct possibility of her being in this room. While not always the case, often the dead would gravitate to the spot they died in.

Upon entering the dinning room, Ryan saw it was a fairly normal looking table. There were six chairs around it. Toward the side was a side-table that likely would end up with serving trays or the like.

That or knick-knack decorations as Ryan saw first hand after they made it to the table.

A glass elephant holding toothpicks in side bags.

Kitchy and strange.

Ryan looked away from the glass elephant and saw a flicker or something in the corner of the room. A shadow that seemed tro be hunched into itself.

There was also the distinct feeling of being watched.

“I… feel weird,” Misha mumbled as she swept the thermometer and EMF to the left, then the right. Getting nothing on the readings, she began moving to the far wall and toward the corner the entity was. “It reminds me of… being sweaty. Humid. Sticky. It feels weird, yes?”

“Yes,” Ryan agreed, but didn’t elaborate. He was letting her walk through this for her first investigation. Part of this was giving her the chance to succeed as well as fail. Nothing would prepare her for the future like actually getting readings, interpreting them, and discovering the difference between a power conduit and an actual entity.

The EMF reader in Misha’s hand went straight up to four despite her just having it generally pointed toward the edge of the table near the wall.

“It… this… this isn’t a power conduit, is it,” she whispered as she swept the EMF to the right. Toward where Ryan could see what was likely Alexis. A dormant form of the drainer that was merely watching. “Because it’s getting colder. Not… shockingly so but it’s enough to note a difference. I wonder if—”

Ryan turned his head enough for the spectral-sounders to pass over where Alexis was. Because unless they were oriented correctly, they wouldn’t actually provide a response.

The long and loud beep of the device going off had caused Misha to go absolutely silent.

“… bastard…” hissed the squawk-box in tandem with the beeping.

“I… ah… that… this is… yes?” Misha whispered, her voice shaking partially.

“You tell me. I’m helping, and I’ll guide, but this is your investigation,” Ryan said, looking into Alexis’ shadowed face. She was watching him now. Her form slowly materializing as her awareness was drug forward.

Because when you started poking into the after, the after would take notice.

“I… feel confident that this is the… vortex, as you called it,” Misha whispered, set the EMF and thermometer down on the table. She then left and went back toward the front of the house.

Ryan gave Alexis a grim smile and met her darkened eyes directly. He could feel the long dormant soul lingering there.

It wasn’t angry.

Or violent.

Nor was it lost or even bothered.

It was sad.

Just sad.

“Hi Alexis,” Ryan whispered, watching her. He tilted his head to the side to cause the spectral-sounders to go quiet. The beep could aggravate the dead as well as the living. “We’re not here to hurt you. Just to send you on.”

Alexis form materialized rapidly at being directly spoken to like that. To the fact that it was now deeply aware of the fact that Ryan could see her.

“… bastard… send me… bastard. Bastard…” warned the squawk-box.

“Did he choke you to death?” Ryan asked curiously. He had honestly been operating under the assumption her husband had choked her to death. That it had been written off as an accident, but it was murder.

Swept under the rug and not discussed.

That maybe Alexis hadn’t been dormant for family, but out of fear.

Because the dead would fear what they feared in life.

“… choked… choked me. Bastard…” stated the squawk-box even as Alexis stared wide eyed at him.

She was a young woman now. Perhaps twenty-three. Long brown hair, a pale face, and clothes that looked straight out of a documentary about farmers.

Ryan nodded his head and went to respond, but found Misha coming up on him.

She set down a video-camera on a tripod near the entry way and tapped at it. In her left hand was a dust-pan and broom. He had no idea where she’d gotten that from, it wasn’t his own equipment.

Then came over to where he was with the salt again.

Quickly, and rather proficiently, she drew in a salt line that sectioned off the corner of the room. Clearly she had been paying attention to how the EMF responded when she’d moved it around.

Turning back to Ryan, she smiled, reached up, and pulled his helmet off. Then plunked it down over her own head.

Working her head back and forth, she honed in quickly on where Alexis was squat down. Her knees drawn up to her chest, her forearms across them. Watching Ryan and Misha both.

“… young. Woman. Choked… choked…” remarked the squaw-box.

“Ah, yes. I am a young woman,” Misha murmured as she shifted the dust-pan and broom from her left to the front of herself. She began to gently adjust the salt and move it closer and closer to where Alexis was. Using the sounder as if it were sonar.

Once she’d gotten it to to a three foot by three foot space, she stopped.

“Is it… cruel to put them in too tightly?” asked Misha, turning to look at Ryan.

“It can be,” he confirmed. “But only if you leave them there.”

“I understand. This is where she is, right? I feel certain that it is,” Misha stated.

“Keep checking. There’s more ways to check after all,” Ryan said with a grim smile.

Drainer’s didn’t often respond by squawk-box and Misha had honestly gotten lucky about that. Ryan had chalked it up to the randomness that was ghosts.

Just because they were termed as something, didn’t mean they always fit it exactly.

A frown that was partially a pout graced Misha’s features as she considered that, then rushed away. Back to the front of the house.

Only to come back immediately.

Lugging his bag of gear along.

She stopped partway to him to look at the camera.

“There’s… floaty things in the view-finder,” she remarked and looked to Ryan. “They’re just in that corner.”

“That’s certainly a sign of a presence,” Ryan allowed, watching Misha. “Continue.”

Misha came right back to the corner of the room and set the bag down. The spectral-sounders going off several times as she did.

Pulling out the laser matrix she stuck it down on the table and turned it on. Yellow dots appeared in every direction on the walls.

Then she pulled out the UV light, then a holy book without any power. She set the book down inside of the salt circle she’d made and put a pen down atop it.

He didn’t correct her that a regular pen wasn’t something that would entice a spirit, but it’d work if the ghost was cooperative.

In this case, Alexis wouldn’t be touching it and Ryan knew that.

With a click, the UV light turned on and Misha began sweeping it back and forth across the area where Alexis was.

As all this had gone on, Alexis had just stared at Ryan. Her gaze never breaking away. Just watching him.

Nothing showed up in the UV light.

“Uhm… oh. Oh! Yes,” Misha said and put the UV light down. She picked up a photo of Alexis. It’d been in a newspaper article for her obituary. This was a printed out copy of that.

“It’s you! See?” Misha declared and set it down next to the holy book and then picked up the UV light again.

Alexis has looked away from Ryan now to look at the picture.

“I think you were rather pretty. Your hair is lovely. Did you brush it often? I would think so,” Misha continued as she moved the UV light around. “My hair isn’t as… lovely as yours is, no. Yours had much more volume.”

With an exhale that sounded akin to a piece of paper sliding across a table, Alexis touched the picture. Pinning it to the ground and gazing at it.

She didn’t say anything, but she gazed at it.

Hell. I didn’t even think to bring a picture.

Again though, even as Misha pointed out, I’m not big on the investigation.

Elimination, really.

“It’s glowing! Look. It’s smudged but… I see it! That wasn’t there!” Misha squeaked loudly.

It spooked Alexis and caused the entity to shoot backward into the corner.

The movement was swift and energetic, which caused the laser grid to shimmer and shift. A faint outline appearing for only a brief moment.

“I saw it! This is… yes! Yes. I’m… I’m hunting! This is working!” gibbered Misha, sounding very unlike the lovely woman she looked like, and sounding more like a bubbly teenager being told she aced her SATs. “Okay so… that’s… the UV, EMF response, cold spots, laser matrix, floating lights, spectral sounders, and the squawk-box. We know the hunting pattern as well as what she interacts with.

“Now we should… should… record audio, video, and… wait? Yes?”

Ryan grinned, watching the bubbly person that was his new boss.

“Yes. A normal investigation would now entail with recording, listening, and documenting,” Ryan confirmed. “Because this is where you nail down exactly what Alexis Dana is. Given that we know the hunting pattern though… the job of documentation is mostly done. We got lucky with that one but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“We’ll do some recording, just so you can get the practice, and prepare for sending Alexis Dana off.”

“You keep repeating her full name. This is to bring her forward, yes?” Misha asked, pulling out new items and objects from the bag.

“Yeah. It is. I mean. It’s Alexis, her husband probably murdered her, and she most likely died right here in this room,” listed off Ryan. “She’s almost certainly watching, listening. It’s why you felt odd. The salt has her cornered. Sunset is over and we’re moving toward sunrise.

“We just have to send her on before sunrise and there won’t be an issues. That’s more or less it.”

“Murdered her,” repeated Misha as she pressed the record button on a rather expensive audio-recording device. “I see. I hadn’t considered that but… I understand. It makes sense. I’ll want to talk more about that later but I understand.”

“Would you like to see her?” Ryan offered up, pulling out the spell. “It won’t harm her, but you’ll see… part of her. It won’t last long but it’ll make her something you can confirm with your own eyes.”

Misha’s back straightened, her body went rigid, and her eyes were stuck, unblinking, to a distant spot on the floor. It was as if she’d become a wooden puppet.

Unmoving, she didn’t respond.

“Misha?” Ryan tried.

“Yes,” she replied immediately, then stood up. Straightening herself out. “Please.”

When her eyes turned toward him, the bubbly, excited, eager young woman, was gone. What remained was a woman who looked far more similar to Alexis in a way.

Someone who had seen too much, too soon, and didn’t come out the other side unscathed.

Ryan set the spell down on the ground, then pushed a speck of his barely-there mana, into it.

“Alexis Dana, we’re asking you to manifest. We wish you no harm, but we would like to see you,” Ryan intoned as the spell flickered to life.

Misha’s head turned and she looked to the corner.

As the spell took hold, Alexis form materialized further for Ryan. To the point that he could make out that she even had a small scar on her chin.

Tears were eternally running down her cheeks and she seemed for all the world to be a young woman, lost in grief.

“Oh… hello,” Misha whispered and lifted her hand. She waved her fingers at where Misha was. Ryan had no idea what Misha could see, but it would confirm for her forever afterward, that the after was real.

Alexis was watching Misha in return.

Her left hand came up briefly, a half-hearted wave, and then her hand went back to her knee.

“… evenin’…” the squawk-box offered.

As if a lightning bolt had struck Misha, she went stiff once again. Her head moving back an inch or two at the greeting that’d come through the device.

She then let out a shaky breath.

The response had clearly startled her and left her in an entirely different mindset.

“Okay. Recording… documentation. Then we send Alexis… we send you, home, Alexis,” Misha stated and nodded her head. “Yes.”

Well.

Welcome to the business Misha.

This was an easy one.

A gentle one.

They don’t happen like this often, but… we got lucky. Very lucky.

Couldn’t have asked for a better investigative cherry getting busted.

Ryan pulled out one of the dinning room chairs, sat down, and let Misha run the show. This was more of her familiarizing herself with everything and how investigations could go.

Not a place for him to make his presence known.

Carl appeared off to the side of Ryan’s view. He had his hands behind his back and was watching the situation with clear curiosity.’

He met Ryan’s eyes, smiled, and waved a hand. Then gave him a thumbs up.

Alexis had turned her head to look at Carl, a strange look crossing her face.

Surprise.

Then she looked back to Ryan and the tears rolling down her face came to a stop.

She watched him even as Misha continued to set up.

Ryan offered her a smile and waved two fingers at her.

To which Alexis did nothing other than stare at him.

Hm.

She seems less like a conscious haunting and more of a residual one.

Maybe intelligent once but… not so much anymore.

More of something akin to a shadow-person but not quite.

A holdover of what’d happened to her, what she became, and what she wanted.

She would’ve faded in a few more decades and moved on.

A great first lesson for Misha.