“And if you would, can you tell me about the first nightmare or vision. You said you were awake, correct?”
“I was definitely awake.” Emmy answered. “I might have spaced out but I am positive I was not asleep.”
“Alright, tell me about it then, including what you were doing or thinking before that.” Cain asked.
“Well, I was…”
Cain asked Emmy to be thorough. He preferred if people were thorough. Those who told the truth did not need to lengthen their stories, those who lied felt the need to lengthen their accounts. He would catch them. He liked it when people were thorough.
This time, he had a different reason. Cain kept seeing things in the periphery of his vision, to the left. It always came from the left and seemed to move towards the right, to the left side of the house. In the time he spent with Emmy so far, he noticed four already. Four shadowy things.
He gave the appearance that he was listening. He blinked, he nodded, Cain even asked follow-up questions and wrote notes on his notebook. He was only half-listening. The reason he asked Emmy to be as verbose as she possibly could, was to make sure he had time to focus on the figures without appearing like he was focusing.
For fear of being ridiculed, as his abilities grew, Cain never talked about it to anyone. There were only a handful of people who knew it. Father Ramirez was the first, and, Cain imagined, everyone up the organizational ladder. Cain could see people’s energies, and anything else that was present. He only needed to not look.
It was one of the reasons he turned to drugs. Cain, as a young adult, could not reconcile the things he was seeing with the way society said reality was. As a child, this was okay, he remembered that. Even in the, now seemingly backwards way the era of his childhood was, imaginary playmates were okay. It wasn’t okay anymore when he grew up.
After many attempts to tell his story or when he asked about it and being labeled many different unpleasant names, Cain hid it. But it has always been there, and the images were not imaginary. In contrast to his ability to feel where, if he needed to really get into a person’s shoe he would have to focus on that person, his ability to see only came out when he was passively looking. If he looked at a spot in the distance and kept it there, when the images around him started to blur, that’s when he saw other things.
The energy of people was the first manifestation of this passive-looking skill. It all began as a kind of stark white outline he saw on things and people. Unlike things however, people seemed to radiate colors as he grew up. He soon learned that these worked with the feelings he could feel and could tell when people were lying by simply contrasting between what they were feeling, what they were saying, and what color they gave off. Emmy’s colors were taking on a darker hue as their interview progressed. It was turning brown.
The other use of the passive sight was to see other entities. There has always been one in the house where he lived. It never did anything but to his young mind, it was scary nonetheless. He knew it was not supposed to exist, but it was there, it was almost always there.
Father Ramirez never tried to explain it but told Cain that it was probably for the best that he only saw these creatures, whatever they were, when it appeared like he was not looking. When he asked why, Father Anton only said something along the veins of ‘we are not supposed to see each other’. Cain learned later on what the priest meant by this.
As he continued to press Emmy, another one emerged. It came out from the trees. It was tall, almost wiry. The limbs appeared too long, and so were the legs. It appeared to walk while its knees were bent. It also headed for the left side of the house. Cain did not feel any intent or emotion from it.
Why?
He threw his gaze briefly to the inside of the house, through the window and noted Jon and Matt tinkering around in front of Jon’s makeshift command center. It was the children in the living room that caught his attention. They were the only people on that side of the house. That side where the dark figures kept disappearing to.
He could not, however, try and look passively on that area while keeping the interview going, so he kept up with the questions and focused his gaze on Emmy’s forehead to seem like he was very intent on what she had to say. He patiently listened to her recount her experiences, even with all the pauses she took to recompose herself.
“Would you say that any of the imagery you saw in any of these waking dreams, or nightmares, have anything at all in common or significance with your daily life?”
“I can’t say any of them were related to my life. They were all just…” Emmy shuddered, “They were all just gory and terrifying.”
“Anything at all that keeps repeating that comes to mind?”
Cain knew the answer. He had his suspicions, but the woman’s story seemed to point at that. He just needed her to say it. There was point to it. People who were in denial shock themselves when they had to say things that they didn’t want to even consider, repressing said thoughts.
“Aside from them always picturing… oh my God! Are you saying? Oh God no! You can’t be serious!”
“I am not exactly sure what you mean, Emmy.”
“All these nightmares, they’ve all been featuring my daughters. Gina!”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know! We… I am not aware of any issues my daughter is facing. Like I said, it was all good. Nothing out of the ordinary all the way to the following morning after the housewarming, when it all started.”
“It could be that your daughter falling sick, a serious fever at that, one that caused her to hallucinate visions, triggered this kind of fear in you. I’m assuming you have not seen her sick like that before?”
“I haven’t. You’re right. I guess it was the events…” Emmy paused.
“By events you mean the things you heard, and seen, just before your daughter screamed.”
“Yeah. I guess. It was so unnerving Cain, you know? First, I thought my youngest daughter had gone drown herself in the river, then it was fine. Then I hear my other daughter scream like it was the end of the world. I guess it is kind of a combination of those.”
“I understand. We’re just about done. I just want to ask if you remember anything at all that might help me zero in on what’s actually causing this. Anything at all?”
Cain was stalling. He needed for a reason to have Emmy busied once they were done, for at least the time it took him to watch the children.
“I can’t say there is anything. There was that incident with the decapitated squirrels that got Matt spooked for a bit, thinking it was the work of pranksters.”
“I have not been told of this. Could you elaborate?”
Emmy related the incident as she remembered. Cain’s curiosity was piqued.
“When did this happen?”
“On the same morning when Gina got sick.”
“Three squirrels, all decapitated, and the heads were placed facing your back door?”
“Yes, and the eyes were poked with twigs. Is that relevant? Have you encountered anything like that?”
“Can’t say I have, but I’ll consider it.”
“What do you think it is? And how long do you think until… until we can sort this out.”
“I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t tell. In my line of work, it takes anywhere from a day to a week. It all depends on the escalation.”
“I see. We can hope right?”
“That indeed, is my hope. Uhm, Emmy, can I ask for a cup of tea? I’m finding my throat a little parched.”
“Yeah sure. You take anything else with it? Sugar or milk?”
“Just milk. Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Cain waited for Emmy to clear the porch before turning his focus on the girls inside. He set his eyes on the older girl and let his vision blur. Cain had long learned not to react or show any emotion whenever engaging his ability. The entities he saw whenever they appeared into view were not only different but, as his mentor warned, did not take kindly to being seen.
The one in the house he grew up in did not appear to see him, or any of them in the house for that matter. That was the best case scenario. The majority of them appeared to be the same, oblivious to the people around them, just like the people present.
But, it was not always the case. There were those that saw people, just like he can see them. While most of these types of entities are harmless, or wouldn’t harm, Cain knew by the feelings he got from them, the least one can hope for whenever they were alerted that one can see them, is be annoyed. It’s like a person who’s being seen or given attention for the first time. They just can’t stop showing off or trying to get one’s attention.
Then there was the last kind. Those who really did not like being seen. These were the dangerous ones. The types who were aware what they were, what they were doing. These were the ones who were attune to the emotions around them. The always picked up on spikes. After several encounters of the sort, most of them before he ran into Father Ramirez, Cain had learn not to allow himself to react. Just like watching a bad horror movie, Father Ramirez told him.
It was an advice that served him well over the years. It also served him well at the moment. As soon as his ability tuned in, the first thing he noticed was the colors of the children’s energies. The little girl had a brighter, more colorful kind to be expected from normal children around her age. Gina’s was different. It was a deep brown, almost darker than her mother’s that it appeared almost like a muddy grey.
The next thing that came into view were the figures. There were eight of them already. Cain noted how wrong he was. They did not go around the left side of the house, they passed through the walls and huddled over the children. He could see some of them looking around. One had its dead eyes fixed towards where Emmy was. Two of them were watching where Jon and Matt were, and the rest paid attention to the children.
All of the tall figures looked the same in height, build, and appearance. All looked like young trees – lanky, long-limbed, and dark. Cain could not tell if he was looking at skin or a sort of tight fitting semblance to cloth. All he could tell was it looked wet.
He averted his gaze once Emmy came back with his tea.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “Would you mind sending the little girl next?”
“Sure.”
“I know we have a camera set up for the interview, it’s both for recording and for peace of mind, but you can sit in with her if you like.”
“The camera’s enough.” Emmy answered then turned to go and fetch Jean.
Cain tried his passive vision again to see how the figures would react. Half of them followed the child as she went out.