A Haunted Walk to Remember Page 12

  When my phone rang, I flinched. Talk about being on edge. When just the mere sound of a phone ringing gave me that reaction, I knew I was in bad shape. I looked at the screen and realized that Brannon was calling. What would I do now? I had to pretend as if everything was peachy because I didn’t want him to worry.

  If he thought there was a problem he would be over here right away and I just didn’t want him involved with this, He had enough to worry about. I could handle this on my own. I didn’t need someone to rescue me. Not yet. Okay, well, maybe I had I just called the demonologist to rescue me. I took what I said back, but I still didn’t need Brannon to rescue me. After all, he wasn’t a professional demonologist. I needed a professional right now.

  “Hello, babe,” I answered, trying to sound completely casual.

  The only problem was I never called him babe. Sometimes I called him honey, sweetheart, or sweetie. Why had I said, babe? Dumb, dumb. There was no response. Maybe he didn’t fall for my act.

  “Hello?” I repeated.

  Still no response. I looked at the screen to make sure the call was still active. It was still there, but apparently it was bad reception because I wasn’t hearing a word he said.

  “I can’t hear you, Brannon. I’m going hang up and call you right back, okay?”

  No answer so I just ended the call. I touched the screen and returned his call. But there was no answer. Immediately worry came over me. What if he was in trouble and had called for help? Again, I reminded myself he was a police officer and I was pretty sure his first call for help wouldn’t be to me. It would be to one of his fellow officers, someone trained for that type of situation. If he had a book emergency, I’d be the person to call.

  What if it was a butt dial and he was in trouble. Maybe I should call to check on him. No, that would be bad if he was working. I wouldn’t need to disturb him. Though now I would worry until I heard from him again. As if I didn’t have enough on my mind. Nevertheless, I had to push those thoughts to the back of my mind so that I could concentrate on my current predicament. And what a predicament it was.

  I left a voicemail for Brannon. “Sorry I can’t hear you. Call me when your phone reception is better. Love you.”

  I thought I’d done a pretty good job at sounding casual. Nothing wrong over here at the Van Raden place. Brannon and I hadn’t gotten the chance to use the Ouija board as he’d suggested. That was probably for the best.

  I fanned myself with my hand. The room seemed hotter now. Was there something wrong with the thermostat or did I have a fever? Or even worse, was this a sign that the demon was in the room with me? I really hoped it wasn’t the latter. The doorbell rang and immediately relief came over me. Thank goodness Porter was here. Now we could finally put a stop to all this madness. I rushed over to the door and opened it wide. No one was there.

  “Oh, come on,” I said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  I peeked out, looking to left and to my right. No one was in sight. Just me and obviously someone playing games with me. They were toying with me like a cat playing with a mouse.

  Just in case, I called out, “Porter, is that you?”

  Silly me. I already knew the answer. He wouldn’t ring the bell and then run.

  Calling out to him was only my way of trying to make myself feel better. However, it was pointless. I closed the door and went back to the living room, plopping down on the sofa. I thought about watching out the window for Porter, but I didn’t like the idea of someone seeing inside the house. And I had to leave the lights on inside. I couldn’t imagine sitting here in the dark with a demon around. No way. No, thank you. I was brave about some things, but that was just crazy talk right there.

  I had to clear my thoughts and think this through rationally. One thing was for certain, I felt if I could solve the murder, then I would be able to solve the demon situation. Obviously, the thing was chasing Josh, and me now by association. Did the demon kill Josh? I highly doubted that. Someone who was possessed by the demon? But who? Who had also conjured demons? I had to concentrate and figure out who would do this to Josh. Perhaps it was time for me to learn more about that book of conjuring spells.

  The bell rang again. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much this time after what happened during the last doorbell ring. Nevertheless, if it really was Porter, then I had to answer. I pushed to my feet and dashed back over to the door. This time when I opened the door, to my relief, Porter stood in front of me.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” I said.

  His eyes widened. “Things are that bad, huh?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid it is bad. I was locked in a closet. I think the demon locked me in there.”

  He stepped inside the house without saying another word. He looked all around as if he was trying to pick up on exactly what was here.

  He stood in the middle of the living room unwrapping the scarf from around his neck. “It’s hot in here, huh?”

  “Yes, I have the temperature set at sixty and it still feels like it’s ninety-five.”

  He nodded. “There’s something here for sure.”

  “I hope we can get rid of it soon. I’m not exactly excited for a houseguest like this.”

  “We’ll banish the thing,” he said.

  “Oh, I almost forgot to show you this.” I grabbed the notepad. “I think this note was written by a ghost. Normally, I wouldn’t think it’s possible, but since I get text messages from a ghost, a note written with a pen isn’t out of the question.”

  “Do you know what this message means?” he asked.

  “I suppose,” I said.

  With his back facing me, Porter stood in the middle of the room and remained silent for quite a while. I wondered what he was thinking. He wasn’t asking the demon to leave. Wasn’t that the first step in getting rid of this thing? He turned and walked back out into the foyer. Something seemed off. Perhaps it was the glazed look in his eyes. I stood at the edge of the room and watched as he walked down the back hallway toward a door that led outside. I suppose I just needed to let him do his thing.

  After what seemed like a long time though, I called out to him. I received no answer. Should I go look for him? Yes, I had to. I couldn’t just stand here any longer. I had to find out what he was doing out there. I stepped into the foyer and looked down the hallway. The back door was wide open. Maybe he’d opened the door and kicked the demon out. Again, wishful thinking on my part. Or maybe it was what I called positive thinking. If I had positive thoughts enough the things would work out like I wanted them to.

  Porter was nowhere in sight. I assumed that he had gone out the back door. The hardwood floor creaked under my feet as I headed for the back door. I stopped and peeked outside but there was no sign of Porter. Where had he gone? Then the thought crossed my mind. What if someone had gotten him? What if the killer was out here and had gotten Porter? A sinking feeling came over me. What should I do now? Go outside and look for him? It seemed as if now I would need Brannon’s help. This might just be a job for the police. He would be upset with me for not telling about this in the first place. I’d deal with that later.

  I stepped out into the darkness. At least it was cooler out here, even if it was scary. Though how much scarier could it be than being stuck in a house with a demon? I suppose at least there were more places for me to hide from a demon out here. Was there ever really any hiding from one though? They could always track the object of their attention down. Where would I even begin to look for Porter? Which way had he gone? Since I didn’t spot him in the back yard, I assumed he’d walked toward the front yard.

  Chapter 21

  I made my way around the house. Still no sign of Porter.

  “Porter?” I whispered. “Are you there?”

  No answer. Though I was whispering. If I called louder maybe he would answer me.

  “Porter?” I called out louder.

  I hoped I didn’t attract the attention of that demon. Still, I received no answer. I co
ntinued around the side of the house. With the pitch black outside, I barely made out anything around. Good thing I knew my yard and the things to look out for. Like that huge pine tree in front of me.

  I couldn’t believe that Porter had taken off and left me in the house. He was here to help. Had he been so scared that he’d decided to leave? I’d never seen him do anything like that before and I found that highly unlikely. The longer I went without finding him to be more uneasy I felt.

  Out of the corner of my eye movement caught my attention. When I glanced to the right, I thought for sure I saw Kendra. I spotted the back of her as she moved around one of the trees in the neighbor’s backyard. What was she doing over there? Spying on me no doubt. Had she absolutely lost her mind? What was the purpose of all of this? It was beyond being curious about a case at this point. It was more like stalking.

  I wanted to find Porter, but I also wanted to give Kendra a piece of my mind and tell her to stay away from my house. I headed away from my house and over toward the neighbor’s yard. I’d love nothing more than to sneak up on her and scare her. That would teach her a lesson. Now she was nowhere in sight though. I knew I’d seen her. Had she gotten away that quickly?

  I hated to go into the neighbor’s yard, but they probably wouldn’t mind if I just took a look around. Though they might think they had a prowler if they saw either one of us. I stood there for a moment scanning the surroundings, trying to see if Kendra was hiding behind one of the many trees in their yard. No sign of her though.

  Maybe she’d gotten away this time, but I’d find her later. I needed to talk to Brannon and tell him about her. I hoped to get that call back from him soon. I stood there for a few seconds longer and then turned around and headed back for my yard. I just hoped she was gone for the night. Now back to finding Porter.

  I reached the front of my house now, expecting to Porter on the front porch. Thinking maybe he was trying to find me, but there was no sign of him. Where had he gone? Back inside? Maybe we were both walking around the house looking for each other. That would be a funny story. A funny story for later. It wouldn’t be that funny right now.

  I stepped onto the front porch, but instead of walking inside, I decided to pull out my phone and try Brannon again. This was becoming a bit too creepy for my liking. I hit the screen and his number rang right away. A couple of rings and still no answer. I was beginning to panic. It went to his voicemail again. What was going on with him? He had called me. After returning his call, I thought for sure he would have called back by now.

  “Brannon, it’s Rip again. Sorry to bother you, but I have a bit of a situation here. It involves Porter and I think he might be missing. I’ll have to explain all of it when you get here, but just try to come as quickly as possible. Let me know if you get this message.”

  I ended the call and immediately typed out a text telling Brannon that I had a bit of a situation and that I had left him a voicemail. He’d know that if I left a voicemail and text that I needed him right away. However, if he was in some other dangerous situation, he might not be able to get away from that. What would I do? I wasn’t for sure that Porter was in danger and I wasn’t exactly in danger at the moment either. Maybe I was making too much of this.

  What would I do now? I could go back inside and look for Porter or stand out here on the front porch and wait for possibly that demon to come back. Kendra could be looking around too for all I knew. Had something bad happened to Porter? Did Kendra have something to do with it?

  I pulled out my phone and decided to give Tammy a call. There wasn’t anything she could do, but she could lend a sympathetic ear and maybe calm me down a bit until Brannon called back. I dialed her number, but it rang several times and then went to her voicemail too. Why wasn’t anyone answering tonight? I left her a voicemail, but I didn’t tell her exactly what was going on here. I didn’t want her to panic. It could all be resolved by the time she got the chance to call me back anyway. No need to worry her for no reason. Maybe I shouldn’t have called her at all.

  The longer I stood there with no call back from Brannon and no sign of Porter, the more anxious I became. I had to do something. There was no reason that Porter wouldn’t have come back outside to look for me by now. That meant something had to be wrong. Had he just taken off? I tried to dial his number again, but again he didn’t answer. It went straight to his voicemail. That meant either something was wrong, or he was ignoring my calls. Okay, maybe there was something wrong with his phone. Was he ignoring my calls or was there a simple answer like his phone wasn’t working? I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, so I dialed the police.

  “Hi, this is Ripley Van Raden.” I gave my address. “I’m having a bit of a problem at my house.”

  “What kind of problem, ma’am?”

  I was surprised the woman didn’t know my name right away.

  “Someone’s lurking around outside. Plus, my friend was here and he’s missing.”

  There was a pause as if she didn’t know what to make of my statement.

  “All right, we’ll have an officer right over there,” the woman said.

  “Thank you,” I said and ended the call.

  What should I do now while I waited for the police to arrive? I had to go back inside and look for Porter. Was bad stuff still be going on inside? Maybe Porter was in there and dealing with all of it. All the while I was outside on the front porch like some kind of fool, looking for him. Yes, that had to be it. I regretted calling the police now. I should have waited. I should have gone inside and looked for him first. I’d just chalk my lack of thinking clearly up to me being stressed.

  Just in case something scary was going on, I eased the front door open. All was quiet so I stepped into the foyer. No footsteps or banging doors, although it still seemed warm in the room. That meant that threat wasn’t over.

  “Where are you, Porter?” I called out.

  Doors slammed again just as they had before. I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go upstairs and look for Porter? I really didn’t want to risk being locked inside the closet again.

  I stood in the middle of the foyer and peered up the staircase. A knock sounded from behind me. I screamed and spun around. Another knock, louder this time with more intensity. Then the doorbell rang. It had to be the police.

  I hurried over to the door, but before opening it, I said, “Who’s there?”

  “The police, ma’am. You called for help?”

  I opened up the door. I didn’t recognize the officer standing in front of me and obviously he didn’t recognize me.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked.

  The young, dark-haired officer wore the dark blue Devil’s Moon Police Department uniform.

  I shook my head. “I can’t find my friend. He was here and then he went outside to look around and he never came back.”

  He raised an eyebrow as if he couldn’t believe I called the police for that.

  “Maybe he was just done visiting you,” he said.

  I shook my head. “No, it’s not like that.”

  Now I had to give him the ridiculous explanation that we were hunting demons in my house. Considering he didn’t know me or Brannon he wouldn’t understand that explanation. Even more now I regretted calling the police. What could he do? It was too soon to report Porter missing. There were no signs of foul play. Maybe I needed to go to Porter’s place and see if he was home.

  “I don’t think he would leave without saying goodbye,” I said.

  I knew that sound ridiculous. Obviously, the officer didn’t have the full details to make an accurate assessment of my situation. I didn’t want to get into the full details either. How would I explain all the spooky stuff? The thought had barely left my mind when the activity started. Now I would have no choice but to explain.

  Chapter 22

  All the doors in the house slammed. The officer put his hand on his gun in the holster.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “There’s
something I need to tell you,” I said.

  He backed up a bit and took a defensive stance, pulling his gun from its holster.

  “It’s nothing that the gun is going to help with,” I said. “It’s a ghost. Well, a very bad one. More like a demon.”

  He stared at me for a moment as if I was speaking a different language that he didn’t understand. Perhaps I was speaking a different language. People who weren’t involved with the paranormal might think this was completely ridiculous. If I hadn’t seen it so much, I wouldn’t believe it either. I knew it was true though. Sadly, I had to deal with it and get rid of it immediately before something bad happened.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “It’s just that there are ghosts around and they’re not so nice. That was what my friend was trying to help me. Do with you know Detective Brannon Landon?”

  “Detective Landon? Yes. Oh, now I know who you are,” he said.

  He placed his gun back in the holster.

  “Yes, that’s me,” I said.

  I wondered what he’d heard about me? Another door slammed and he jumped just a bit.

  “They’ve been doing that all evening.”

  “What did you do to make them so mad?” he asked as he peered around the house. “This place used to be an old funeral home, right?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” I said.

  He was trying to act like he was unfazed, but I knew it had to have some kind of effect.

  “But that’s not the reason for the haunting,” I said.

  “It’s not?” he asked.

  “No, I’m not exactly sure where this thing came from. I brought it home with me.”

  “From the library?” he asked.

  “As a matter of fact, yes. I think that’s where it happened.”