Crimson Shadows - 11. Chapter 11

They were packed in three rather large vans, the equipment taking up the back of them with everyone sitting up front. They were just pulling up to the house, a rather nice looking couple sitting on the porch swing, apparently waiting for them. The man looked as if he had recently been in a bar fight against a stool and lost, hard. Very, very hard. Looking over to Marana, he raised an eyebrow at his co-hunter and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he pulled up and parked in front of the house, the other two vans following his example.

“So…did he look like that when you came out a couple of days ago?” he asked curious as to what had happened to the man. The woman looked a bit of the frightened side and was clenching her hand bag, a suitcase under her feet in preparation of staying in a hotel while the group worked on the house for the next two days.

“No. Actually he was looking pretty happy since he had finally gotten around to looking in one of the storage sheds that they had full of furniture,” she replied softly, watching Leonard with curious eyes.

“Storage sheds with furniture?” Kyle drawled lowly, curious as to why he hadn’t known about it.

“It’s on the property; one is that big ass building that I took a picture of. It’s full of wannabes that have been made over the years,” Marana told him, eyeing her friend with a snort, making him roll his eyes.

“I didn’t notice that little factor, okay? Not my fault that I didn’t see the picture since I was so busy trying to finish up the research for this case and still go through the evidence from the last case since you guys have decided to ditch me to do what ever you do so often. Only Uncle Markus seems to help any more and he has a business to run,” Kyle groused, watching her blush in embarrassment as she opened the door.

“Fine, fine, we’ll help you with it. How much is there really?” she asked, getting a look from Kyle.

”There is about 90 hours worth of tape to go through, nearly 100 hours worth of EVP’s and of course the 30 hours of the infrared that I have to look at,” the male growled, eyes flashing.

“Oh…” Marana breathed, having forgotten just how much there was to go through at the end of a day.

“Yeah, oh,” Kyle grumped, getting out and closing his door. Shoving a bit of hair back, he glared around him a bit, making the others who had come over step back, before moving to the porch with a slightly strained smile on his lips. “Hi, my name is Kyle and I’m one of the founders of Windfall Paranormal Group. I’m curious, did you get in a fight with someone?” he asked, stepping up onto the porch. Leonard just smiled a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

“Uh, no, not quite. I was actually refurnishing one of the remakes from my shed and somehow it went from the table I had it on to flying at me from where I was standing. Twenty feet away,” he admitted, shifting and looking a bit uncomfortable. “Nothing like that has happened before. I was lucky enough to dive for the floor, but my head landed on my fist and the floor, so I have a good sized goose egg on top of the black eye,” he continued, gently touching the eye that looked like a raccoons.

”Well, not to sound unsympathetic, but it sounds like things have moved along the right track for this house, at least for the most part. The flying furniture is a first though,” the blond replied softly, sitting down on a deck chair. “From what I’ve seen in the articles and the journals, it goes from something small disappearing to things getting shoved around and at people, along with the people getting attacked. Usually though the house is blessed and the spirits suppressed; which usually doesn’t work all that well. Depending on what we find you might have to do a full blessing, up to an exorcism of the house.”

“So…it could get much worse from here on out,” Betty said softly, getting a nod from Kyle.

“Oh yeah. Way worse. The one family that did leave it be ended up dead actually, on your property, all except the middle child. It’s considered a cold case at the moment and the child never did talk about it outside of his journal,” he told them, lips pursed. “Have you read the thickest journal that you have before?”

“No. We tried, but it was so dark and…heavy, that we stopped,” Leonard replied, eyes drawn.

“Good. You’d end up with nightmares from what they went through,” Kyle breathed, rubbing his eyes. “Okay, so my companions be staying in the guest rooms, while I’ll be staying in your room with Kyender. Is that okay with you two?”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Betty said, nodding her head. “We’ll just hand over the keys now and leave. The fridge is full and so is the secondary fridge and freezer, so you’ll do fine for the next couple of days as you do your hunting, right?”

“Yes, that’s good. As agreed upon, we’ll be deducting 20 percent from the final cost of the job for the food and 20 for the board,” Kyle said, smiling at his uncle as he came up with a basic contract in his hands. “This states that if nothing happens, we’ll only charge half our usual price with the 40 percent removed. If we do happen to find something, we’ll charge full price with the removed percentage and you’ll have copies of everything and information on what to do.”

“That’s fine,” Leonard replied, taking the contract and looking over it with his wife. Sitting back, Kyle dug around in his pocket while the rest of the group started to drag everything into the house piece by piece. They were going to set up their main base in the living room, since it seemed that the ghosts or what ever that was attached to the property didn’t like the room and would take shifts to watch their monitors.

During their time in the house, they would explore the house, do various EVP sessions and occasionally explore on their own. They had decided that the only time they would be alone would be during certain times and for certain reasons. Even those on monitor duty would only be partially alone, someone being in the next room or down the hall. Even the doors to the living room entry ways had been removed for safety reasons.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Kyle lent forward and handed over the pen, watching the couple sign the contract before adding his own, Markus signing along with him as a second party.

It wasn’t long before the Reams were driving off after a quick tour of the house and where things were and what had happened in each area. Orian was already plotting camera positions, which camera to use in each place and if there should be sound allowed or not. Kyender was muttering something about taking some base line readings, dragging Marana off with him to do that, a clip board with several pieces of paper on it in hand.

He had to shake his head at his friends’ oddness about using paper when it came to baseline readings but then again, ‘pads tended to be easily erased if they weren’t careful.

Helping set up the computer screens and the recorders that linked up to the cameras, Kyle looked over at Richard for a few minutes before looking back down at the cords he was tweaking.

“What’s on your mind? Is it us leaving all the evidence up to you?” Richard drawled, watching his friends face burn with a blush. “I see. Come on, chew me out if you feel you need to. We’ve already heard about your ass chewing from Marana.”

“It’s not that I want to chew you out, but you guys signed up knowing that you would be asked to go through the tapes and recordings,” the smaller of the two said softly, getting a screen up and running with a few movements. “Maria was supposed to help me yesterday with the EVPs but she ditched me to go out drinking with a bunch of people she barely knows. It’s rather insulting and makes me wonder if you’re working for your share of the money and board.”

“We pay for utilities and food,” Richard tried, getting a light glare from his friend. “Alright, I’ll talk with the others and we’ll start helping with the evidence again,” he promised, getting a nod.

“I just don’t want to have to start docking the pay and putting most of it back into getting stuff for our hunts and for the house. At worst, I would have to kick you guys out and find new people for the group. Did you know that I have a few hundred applicants wanting to work for me as a hunter? And a lot of them are really good at what they do,” Kyle said softly, standing up and brushing his pants off.

“I’ll talk with them. If it comes down to it, I’ll help you talk to applicants and make up information packets,” Richard sighed, looking a bit sad at his friend having to make the decision he was having to.

“Thank you. Hell, Uncle Markus actually helps me when he’s not running his business,” Kyle muttered, pouting softly. “I really do not want to look into replacing you guys. It wouldn’t make me very happy you know.”

“I know your pain. Come on, let’s finish setting this stuff up,” the dark blond man said, poking Kyles nose, watching him go cross eyed before pouting. Gathering a few of the wires, Richard ducked under the table, mind heavy with Kyles words. He knew his boss and friend was right. He was also rather ashamed to say that he had been neglecting his duties as second in command. He also knew that he would work his ass off to make it up to the other man.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They were here! Oh finally they were here. They walked around the house with little things in their hands that beeped and light up, making little notes on their paper as others sat in the living room and set up their base. At least that was what he had heard them say.

A smirk curled on his lips as he hummed happily, sliding up the stairs, knowing that he would have to watch for the moment, wait for the perfect opportunity. He was still flying high on the fact that he had made the man hurt himself after all and while he was, he could possibly make such a nasty, nasty mistake. That wouldn’t be good. Oh no, it wouldn’t be.

Laughing quietly to himself, dancing in circles he let his mind run free, imagining what he would do the fools and idiots down stairs, how he would hurt them, how he would make them cry and plead for their lives. It was music to his ears, letting him dance around even more, ignoring those who were moving around, heading to him up the stairs. He could wait.

He had waited for nearly two years for this to happen after all; he could wait a bit more.

Licking his lips again, he giggled softly and looked around the room before bouncing a little on his feet, already planning on how to fuck with their minds. He had three days to play and torment after all. Even those who thought that a blessing and a cross would protect them from him; he would enjoy tormenting those the most. They weren’t on land blessed by Christians or Catholics after all.

They were on land blessed first by Native Americans.

They were on land then blessed by blood and death.

Cackling as he felt the Blood tug at him with a warning, he moved from the room as the whores daughter and her idiot ex lover came into it. He didn’t want to be found just yet. There was enough time for that later on.

Cooing, he bounced a bit on his feet as he watched one of his descendants work on what ever it was he was working on. He would rather enjoy making them question their sanity but they would need a very special touch after all.

Leaving them to work as Markus dragged in the rest of the equipment along with Richard and Orian, he paused as he looked at the brothers, eyes narrowed. If he was going to have any competition outside of the uncle and nephew duo that he called family, if you could call them that, it would be those two. They were Rains after all, a family that was older then him, more in touch with nature, with how things worked and floated around them.

Shaking his head once more, he settled into a hidden room for the moment, caressing the broken and shattered body that had once been his, paint flaking off the once pretty features. Looking up, he smiled sweetly as another form appeared, oozing from the shadows, he sighed happily and lent into the hand that came out to stroke over his cheek.

Soon. Oh yes, very soon they would all pay.