The House on the Hill

Chapter 4: Paranormal Inc.

Terror filled Ava's chest as she realized she had blood all over her body. It wasn't even her blood...she looked in horror as the thick crimson liquid gathered around the drain and slowly disappeared into the pipe. 

Her scream echoed through the house, making Harry jump and grab onto his brothers sleeve.
     "What's happening!??!"
     "Ava?" James yelled. They exchanged glances with each other and bolted up the stairs.

     "Will?"
The two boys reached their little brothers room and slowly opened the door. It creaked open and to their horror, revealed...nothing.
     "Oh no! Where is he?" Harry said, his voice shaking. He scrambled into the room and looked under the bed, in the closet, in the drawers, but he couldn't find poor Will. Their mother quickly joined the search, calling Will's name over and over, in hopes he will eventually turn up. She soon bolted out of the room, still calling his name, looking in other rooms. Harry began to sweat. His frantic searching left him gasping for breath, half because he was tired and half because he was scared. On the other hand, James stood in front of Will's bedside table, still as a statue, breath caught in throat.
     "Harry.." he croaked in a small voice.
     "Harry..."

Harry turned around to see James, his back facing him, his hands trembling. As soon as he turned to face Harry, he gasped. James was pale and his cheeks were shallow. He looked...terrified.
     "I f-found something..." He stutters as he holds up a piece of small paper. Harry's eyes widen. The paper was old and tattered, almost like a parchment. In the center there were words written sloppily in...in something red. To Harry's horror, it looked a lot like blood. The parchment read:

He sees too much. He hears too much. He knows too much. He must never leave...never leave...

When he turned to face James, his skin was more pale than his.
     "T-they're talking about...about Will.." He chocked on his own words.
     "Harry?"
     "Yes?"
     "D-do you believe me now? About it being a ghost?" James asked as he grabbed the parchment. Harry slowly nodded.

..............

The real water started to spurt out of the shower (thank god) and Ava washed off the blood, though the shock did not die down at all. She got out of the shower and scrambled out of the bathroom with a robe on. As she opened the door, she came face to face brothers.
     "Ava!"
     "Guys, there was blood coming from the shower!" she exclaimed. She told them all about what she heard and what she felt. Harry and James told Ava about what they found.

     "And Will's gone! No where!! Mom even checked the attic!" Harry said, his eyes filled with tears.
     "What if...what if the ghosts hurt Will?"
     "Don't think like that!" Said James quickly as he stuffed the note in his pocket. "He's alive. He's here somewhere."

I hope so Ava thought silently. And who said it was ghosts?

A few hours later, their mother, hearing their kid's stories, decided to call a paranormal investigation team. She freaked out about the part with the blood coming from the shower.

    "Listen, this will end now. We need to find Will. The paranormal investigators will be here soon," she said, her voice straining to sound calm. Her kids were all staring up at her, all except Will. She was deathly afraid and worried about him. What even happened? She has no idea.

     "Hello, we are the paranormal inc." said a teenage man, about 16 or 17 with a smile on his face. There was a girl close behind him and three other guys, all older than the teenager, carrying heavy equipment. Their mother breathed a sigh of relief.
     "Oh yes, thank you!"
The teenager stuck a hand out for her.
     "My name is Brian, this is Riley, Quinn and Nick," he smiled as he gestured toward his team. Their mother clapped her hands together in delight.
     "Thank you so much! I'm Stacey and this is Ava, Harry and James," she smiled, but her smile soon faded and her eyes filled with tears as she added, "and Will..."
Brian out a comforting hand in her shoulder.
      "It's okay ma'am, we'll sort this out. Tell us what happened when your ready," he smiled. Stacey nodded.
     "So...hey Ava," Brian smirked as he looked at Ava up and down.
     "Hi.." Ava said but quickly blushed as she realized she only had her robe on.
     "You guys remind me of Harry Potter for some reason," he laughed as he gazed down at Harry and James. "James was Harry's dad, and you are taller than Harry!" He smiled as he looked at James.
     "Are you serious?" Riley said as she put her hands on her hips.
     "Yes, I'm Sirius Black," Brian added. Harry and James looked at each other. Both their face lightened as they both cracked a smile. Ava stood, amazed as her gaze rested on Brian. He made Harry and James smile when they didn't even feel like talking again. That was cool.
     "Okay, I-I'm ready to tell you what happened..." Stacey said. Brian jumped up and sat on the couch opposite from her. His paranormal inc. team followed suit.
     "Great! Let the story begin!"

.........

After hearing the story, the paranormal inc. set up their equipment in most the rooms. Ava was inspecting one of the cameras that looked like it came straight out of a cartoon movie. It was big and bulgy and it had so many knobs and buttons. Advanced technology really has gotten out of control these days. Suddenly she heard footsteps and she jumped away just in time to see Brian. He smiled.
     "You looking at our infa-red/heat vision camera, I see?" He got down on his knees and plugged the cord into an outlet.
     "Yeah."
     "Yeah, it's pretty cool. It can detect heat, you know, ghosts give off heat too. Just because their dead doesn't mean they don't have body heat."
     "Did you have to go to school for this?" Ava chuckles to herself.
     "Oh yeah, I went to college early and majored in neuroscience, but I went for an extra two years to be a paranormal activist."
     "Whoa, cool!" Ava said, impressed and amused.
     "So anyways, we're going to keep these cameras rolling in every room we've set it up in all night. We'll roll it and watch it in the morning."
     "But...how does that help capture it?"
Brian let out a light laugh. "You have a lot to learn. If we see the tapes and we see where the ghost has been or where it roams, we'll be able to capture it faster," he said, as if it was totally obvious. "And if our infa-red cameras don't catch it but our sound devices do, we'll know if it's a spirit or a ghost," he stood up."there's a difference."
     "Oh," Ava said as she followed him out of the room and into the living room.
     "What if it isn't a ghost?" She said as she reached the rest of the team. "Or a spirit," she added with a sideways glance at Brian.
     "Well then, that'll be easy! All our devices catch human activity. And it will be so easy to catch!" Quinn stepped in the conversation as he hooked up the last wires to their main screen.
     "Yeah, I mean it's not hard to catch a human, I just hope William's okay," Riley said as she sat next to Nick on the couch, who was furiously toying with a black and white rubix-cube.
     "Yeah," Nick agreed, but part of Ava knew that Nick didn't even had what they were saying, he was too occupied with his cube.
     "How can you solve that when it's only two colors?" Harry asked as he pointed at Nick.
     "Skills," Nick said, not braking his gaze on the cube.
     "Aha!" He said as he held the solved rubix-cube in triumph in his palm. It had a black and white checker pattern.
     "Wo-o-ow that's pretty cool!" laughed James as he gave Nick a high-five. Ava crossed her arms across her chest.
     "You guys are so immature," she huffed as she turned on her heels and walked away. A sudden burst of anger and frustration conjured inside her. Her little brother was missing. She needed to find him. And her other brothers were joking around with paranormal inc.!!

Mood swings are the worst.