Haunted House Flipper

Chapter 36

I put it in park and looked over at Claire. She didn't look too good. Her skin looked really pale and she was sweating.

"Wait here. I'll get someone to help take you in," I said.

"I'll take it from here," Claire said.

She reached over for the door and pulled the handle. When she went to push the door open, however, she grunted in pain and sat back in the chair.

"Please just relax. I'll be right back. Let me help you," I said.

She didn't respond, but she also didn't try to push open the door again. I hopped out and ran inside. Soon I was back to the car followed by a couple of nurses and a gurney. They started questioning Claire right away as they open the door and locked the gurney wheels in place.

"Are you having trouble breathing?"

"No," Claire said.

"Okay that's good. Can you take a deep breath for me?"

Claire just looked at her as if she couldn't be bothered.

"Look I know you don't want to be here, but I can't get you out of here without your help. The sooner we get you inside the sooner you can be walking out the door. Sound good?" the nurse said.

Claire nodded.

"Alright thanks. Now please see if you can take a deep breath. Go easy on yourself now," the nurse said.

Claire started to breathe in, but then stopped and flinched in pain.

"That's all right. Thank you. I'm sure you have some bruising. Hopefully none of your ribs were cracked as well. Let's get you inside and in a comfortable bed so we can figure out how to get you out of here."

Claire slowly raised her hand out for support while getting out of the car.

"Thank you," Claire said.

The nurse pulled Claire to a standing position, and with the help of another nurse got her on the gurney. She kept grunting, and her hands shot to her sides. I started walking alongside them as they wheeled her in, but the nurse stopped me.

"I'm sorry, but could you please move your car to a parking spot? We need this area cleared," she said.

"Oh yeah. Of course. I'll be right there Claire," I said.

She weakly waved me away with her hand.

"I'll be fine."

"Well can I at least bring you some food?" I asked.

"I'm still digesting that croissant thing. They have food inside. I'll be fine," Claire said.

"Okay, well... if you're sure I can't help you. You have my number. Please call me if there's anything I can do. I'll come to check on you later then I guess," I said.

We got to the door and there was no longer room for me to walk alongside the gurney.

"Don't bother. I'd rather just be alone if you don't mind," Claire said.

"Whatever you need," I said in a bit of a yell. She was now several feet away from me on her way into the building.

I wanted to ask her where we stood. I wanted to know if she was still willing to work with me on the house in whatever way she could. What surprised me the most, was that my deepest desire was to know if we were still friends. That that really surprised me, because other than my fish, I never really had friends.

I turned and headed back to my car. I thought about the mansion and all the cracked tiles on the roof. There was no way I could afford to get it fixed, and I certainly didn't have the skills to do it myself. Claire didn't seem to want to have anything to do with me. I started my engine and drove toward the mansion to try and retrieve the sword.

Then I thought about how all of Claire's equipment was still sitting back at mansion. I didn't want it to get stolen or damaged by the weather. Everything has started out so well that morning. We were finally going to start working on the mansion, but now it was all just a big mess. My dreams of becoming a haunted house flipper were lost in the weeds like the magical invisible sword.

I made up my mind to return the sword to the pastor. Then I would call Mr. Pennwater and tell him he had better just sell the place to Bill Baldock. I felt nauseous and really hot all of the sudden. I flipped on the AC and let it blow an icy breeze on my face. I drove to the mansion in a tense silence, breaking out in a sweat.

Pretty soon I realized I had become so cold I was shivering. The feeling reminded me of the basement in the Pennwater mansion, and the living room of the Poltergeist Palace. All of the sudden I was relieved it was all over. I never had to face a demon again.

I could stick to showing people normal boring houses with no evil spirits lurking around. Maybe after Claire recovered and I saved up for a while, she could even help me buy a little starter home that we could fix up together. Sharing the profits with her would suck, but it seemed a whole lot better than fighting off demons all the time.

I arrived at the Pennwater mansion, pulling into the place an ambulance had been not long before. I got out and walked into the yard. I still had the glasses on, but with all the bright sunlight I couldn't see a glow anywhere at first. I thought about trying to find where the sword would have flattened some of the grass as it fell, and then realized that it didn't touch anything. Did that anything include the ground? I started looking harder.

Somehow it had been able to lay on the table I first found it on, but maybe that was some kind of special table. I kept searching through the tall grass. I couldn't see a glow anywhere. Could the sword have slipped through the ground? Was it, even now, just floating through the earth until it reached the other side only to then shoot out into space? I needed some answers, so I got back in my car and drove to the church.