“What was that, babe?”
He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Emmy’s voice. Lost in his thoughts, Matt did not hear her approach. Her face told him of her feelings about the state of the first floor. Just like him, she did not pursue it. She asked him directly what he found out.
The look on Emmy’s face as Matt related what he found, as he scrubbed through the video, changed almost as fast as the events onscreen. She held on to her husband’s arm while she watched. Matt played the video in standard speed and narrated what he had discovered or think he found for each section. Even the discomfort of his muscles as she tightened her grip did not sway him from telling Emmy the details. She asked to see the last part of the video again before she spoke.
“What do you, I mean, just tell me frankly, what do you remember during the last part?”
“I… I remember getting thrown around. Pinned to the wall. I think when we got thrown to the bed I was already out.”
“Nothing else?”
“Nothing else. Why?”
“Matt, I’m terrified out of my mind.” Emmy said, looking him in the eye briefly before her gaze fell to the floor.
“I know babe. I know. I’m scared out of my wits too.”
“Matt, I was still conscious when… when the lights started turning on and off. I saw those things shake then fly around.”
Matt looked at her with surprise written on his face. He had no response.
“It was Jean, Matt. Jean did it.”
“Babe, what are talking about?”
“Jean! I’m talking about Jean! I almost forgot about it. It didn’t come out until I saw her again this morning.”
“That’s… That’s impossible.”
“Everything that’s been happening is impossible! But I saw it. I saw her Matt. She walked towards the bed, facing that thing.”
“Thing?”
“Oh, don’t you dare, Matt! You saw it. I know you saw it. That’s why you threw a chair. Whoever it was, whatever it was that was on the bed. That thing.”
Matt was silent once more. He was not able to piece things together.
“There is no doubt on my mind Matt. Our daughter, she saw that thing. It was eerie. One moment she was crying, she was terrified. The she just… it was like she just… changed! I watched her face go blank, and her eyes Matt, it’s like it started to glaze over.”
“Babe, what you’re saying sounds like shock to me. The poor child’s mind might have shut itself off.”
“It was the eyes Matt. After it glazed over, it suddenly turned black. All of it. The pupils, the iris. All black. That’s when the things started flying off. That’s when the lights started flickering!”
“What?”
“Yes! Oh, God. Matt, this is not good. This is not good at all!”
Matt was dumbfounded and yet, he remembered that Emmy was calm when she woke up, despite of everything that’s happened. Now, she was shaking beside him. The mere act of telling the story was shaking his strong wife to her core.
“I can’t remember anything else when the lights started blinking, but I saw what I saw.”
“Babe, it’s Jean. It can’t be like that. Your telling me our little girl can hold up to… to something like that?”
“I don’t know! Okay? I don’t know! What makes you think it was your daughter? And why was her room the only room untouched in the entire house?”
“Our room is…?”
“Yes! Our room is thrashed. Everything is destroyed. Not even the pillows were spared! It freaks the fuck out of me just thinking about it!”
Matt exhaled audibly through his mouth. Emmy sat beside him, sobbing. He wanted to smoke so bad but could not leave his wife in that state. He ran through all the possible things he could still do and came up with only one.
“Babe, I need you pull it together, go up there and get the girls.”
“What? Why?”
“Get them, we’re leaving.”
She did not believe she was hearing it from him. She had thought about it many times. She remembered their unresolved conversation about it. Matt was the last person she believed would consider just running away and leaving it all behind.
“Are you serious? Are you sure?”
“Unless you have other plans.”
She answered him with a smile and slowly got up.
“Get them now. Pack some things but pack light. I won’t take long preparing the truck.”
She did not need to be told again. despite the pain, she was already marching towards the stairs when Matt was heading for the door. He did not have any other plans. This was the most obvious one. He just had his wallet, keys, and the truck.
The engine roared to life. He let it roar some more, stepping on the gas pedal. He let the engine air out what he could not. He drove it towards the front of the house. He left the engine running and went to the garage again. In his hurry, he forgot his tools. Matt went to grab them including a flashlight, extra batteries, and the first aid box. He checked the drawers just in case there was something else he could bring. Satisfied, he went back to the truck to wait.
~0~
He did not recognize the number. Cain picked it up anyway.
“Yeah? Cain speaking.” He answered with annoyance in his tone.
“H- hi. Is this the… uh… Caine Delmain?”
“Delamain. And yes, speaking. Who’s this?”
“I am terribly sorry to uh… Sir I am sorry for calling… I uh… truly I am. My name is Matt, Matt Millar and uh-”
Cain leaned forward where he sat. The man’s voice was showing stress markers. The pauses and being unable to get to the point were his clues. And the tone. The man on the other end was troubled. About what, he did not dare to guess. It could be any of a number of reasons. Cain was more concerned how this man got his number.
“Sorry, Matt was it?” He chimed in. “Gather your thoughts Matt. I’m listening.”
“I uh. Sir I need your help. We, my family, we all need your help. Sir.”
Cain’s thoughts jumped to Jon and his Youtuber kin. Pranks were becoming a staple in the site. If this man was an actor, he was good. The stress, the tone, the hint of fear, of confusion. It was all there.
“Mr. Matt, you’re gonna have to be more specific than that. Where’d you get my number, if I may ask?”
“Sir, I got it from an old website. Well, not… not really from there. There was a mention of your name… I think it was ten or eleven years ago? I got your number from uh, an old phonebook.”
Damn, Cain thought, remembering that his number has not always been unlisted.
“Mr. Matt, uhm Millar, Mr. Millar. I’m not sure what you found on that old website you’re referring to, but I’m not sure I’m the one you should be calling.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Matt could hear heavy exhales.
Smoker?
“Mr. Delamain, sir, something very… bad is happening in our house. We have been continuously… attacked. Just last night, we all…. we are afraid, sir. Scared to death.”
“Mr. Millar, like I said, I’m not sure where you got my information, or what you think it is that I do but-”
“Listen, sir,” the man on the other end interrupted. “you are right, I have no… idea what it is you do. But if you can help, or point us… send us where we can get help, we would be very grateful.”
This time, Cain detected the urgency in the man’s voice. He almost stopped stammering. Cain decided to probe more, get the man to talk and see if he could help him calm down at least.
“Matt, may I call you Matt?”
“Yes sir.”
“This is your number right?”
“Yes sir.”
“Just Cain please. Alright, I just need to take note of that in case we get disconnected. Tell me about these bad things you mentioned. Start from the beginning.”
He heard the man clear his throat before speaking. Cain didn’t plan on listening much, just enough to ask questions to appear as if he was paying attention. He rested his back on the backrest and drank his coffee. As the man continued to describe the events, Cain’s curiosity was piqued.
Gotta be one hell of a prank for a background story like this.
He leaned on the table and was taking notes before long. The man on the other end of the line became increasingly agitated as his story became darker. Cain listened patiently, brows knitted. It had the signs but there were things that also diverged from the signs. By the time the man reached the events of the previous night. He was sobbing.
“Matt, listen. I cannot take action by myself. All cases will have to be submitted to the church and reviewed by them. Only with the bishop’s approval c-”
“We don’t have time, Cain! It’s- it’s escalating. I thought I was going to die last night! I thought we were all going to die!”
There was silence again on the other end, it was periodically interrupted with the man’s crying.
“Matt, listen to me, I need to… Matt?”
No answer.
“Hey, you still there?”
“Yeah.”
“This is important. Can you tell me about the house?”
“Yeah, I can tell you about the house. It’s new. We built it from the ground up!”
Cain’s brows threatened to fuse together permanently.
“Like literally new?”
“Yes sir, we just moved in. Barely a month.”
“Were there any, disturbances, anything strange while the house was being built?”
“None. Construction was a breeze.”
He tapped his pen on the table while thinking.
“Can you give me your address?”
“Sure. If it helps.”
“It might.” Cain answered as he took the address down.
He underlined the address and added Jon’s name under.
“Will you come?” The man asked.
“I don’t think that’s possible Matt. Like I said, I can’t act without the church’s blessing. The best thing to do right now is for you to take your family out of there while we wait for official approval.”
“You don’t think I tried that?”
Cain almost dropped the pen.
“What do you mean, Matt?”
“It won’t let us leave.”
The man proceeded to detail the incident he claimed happened just that morning. Cain did not know what to make of it.
“I… I’ll see what I can do, Matt. Keep your phone charged and with you at all times yeah?”
“Yes sir.”
“I’ll call you soon.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Cain sat still for a while after the call ended. He reviewed everything the man said. Some things fit, some didn’t. He was certain the escalation was pointing towards a possible possession but everything else did not make sense. The children, the trances, the apparitions.
He got up and approached a shelf on the left. Cain ran his fingers along the spines of the leatherbound tomes and extracted one. It was thick. Remembering other details Matt had told him, he took another tome and went back to his desk. He found his coffee had gone cold.
This is going to take some time. Better start with the calls.