Chapter 6

Rebecca’s P.O.V

We heard a crash and ran upstairs. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that a spirit had summoned another spirit. We rushed up to see Mr. Martin lying outside’s Christine’s bedroom. The door was shut. Jaden rushed to Mr. Martin and felt his pulse.

“He’s got a steady pulse”

“What happened?” asked Giselle.

Jaden shrugged and Tristan tried to open Christine’s bedroom door. It was locked.

“Christine! “Yelled Tristan banging on the door, “Christine are you ok? Open the door” he knocked some more but Christine didn’t answer nor did she unlock the door. Tristan kicked the door in frustration and turned to look at Jaden.

“Whoa! What happened here?” Josh asked materializing in front of us. “Oh now you show up!” exclaimed Tristan. Jaden held a hand up to hold off whatever rant that Tristan was about to begin and said, “Josh get inside the room and see if Christine ok”

Josh nodded and floated through the wall while Jaden tried reviving Mr. Martin. Soon Mr. Martin began stirring at the same time Josh came out. He was wearing a grim expression.

“Christine seems terrified, it seems someone is talking to her and asking her to stay in place but I cant se who!”

“But aren’t you supposed to be able to see all ghosts?” Giselle asked.

Jaden answered, “No, not necessarily if they decide not to show themselves we could be stuck here forever trying to talk to them.” He helped Mr. Martin to sit up. “We need to find the history of this place. I have a feeling that’s where we will find all the answers.”

“Wh-what happened?” asked Mr. Martin rubbing his head.

“We don’t know, we came here and saw that you had passed out”

“Jaden” I said clutching my head,” it’s here, the spirit is here”. We could not see anyone but I could feel how dark this spirit was. My head ached, my nose was bleeding and my vision was blurring. If I had to take a bet I’d say it was the same one that had possessed Giselle.

“Giselle” said Jaden warningly and Giselle immediately clutched the protective stone that Jaden had given her and chanted something that I couldn’t quite make out. I felt someone put their arms around me and drag me out from there.

But just as suddenly the over whelming feeling had come over me it disappeared. Whatever it was had moved away.

Suddenly we all heard a loud thump and then some screaming. It was Christine.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Stop! Stop! Please don’t, I am sorry, please stop, please!” she went on screaming, while her father pounded the door from outside.

“Christine! Christine, let us in please. Sweetheart please” he said and began sobbing. He slid against the door as his daughter kept screaming in pain.

“Daddy! Daaaaddddyyyy Help. Please daddy, help me.”

Jaden instructed Josh to see what was happening and if he could stop it. Josh floated inside the room once more. All of a sudden there was silence. Then the door opened and Christine’s body flew out and was thrown against the wall in the passageway.

Mr. Martin rushed to pick her up. What happened next, well just say nothing could have prepared me for it. Christine sat up all of a sudden her eyes an eerie shade of orange and caught her father by his throat. She then lifted him in the air and continued to choke him. Tristan ran forward but she threw him away as if he weighed nothing.

Jaden was groping for something in his bag and when he finally found it he blew it in Christine’s face. With one anguished yell Christine let her father go and slumped down once more. Mr. Martin went and picked her up and walked to another room and laid her on the bed. He brushed back her hair and stroked her cheek softly.

“Please help me” he said looking at us pleadingly. I felt tears prick my eyes and I really wanted to help him. We all entered Christine’s room while her father sat by her side. Her face was bruised and bleeding. She had some cuts on her back as well. Her clothes were ripped in some places. Her lip was swollen and there was dry blood there.

Jaden and I entered her room and I gasped at the sight. Her nightstand had been upturned, there were books lying around. There were rips in her bed sheet as if she had clung to it and something had pulled her. What shocked me the most was the patch of blood on the bed sheet.

I clutched Jaden’s arm, “Jaden was she-was she?”

“Raped” said Jaden. His face was red, I could tell he was angry.

“Coward! Come on in front of us and confront us! Come on in front of me if you’re man enough!”

“Ghosts rape?”

“It is rarely seen but it happens. We need to find out what had happened in this house and we need to do it soon before he hurts Christine again. We triggered him tonight, our presence did at least”

Jaden’s P.O.V

I looked at Rebecca in surprise as she started shivering violently. She gave something or someone a sidelong look and she seemed to be frozen.

“Becca?”

“No” she whispered, “no it was not my fault”

I looked at her in worry, she had become really pale.

“Becks?” asked Giselle uncertainly, “Are you alright?”

“No, I didn’t do anything!”

She looked terrified and it took me a while to realize that there was someone speaking to her. Suddenly she started sobbing and said, “It was not my fault!” she yelled.

“Let’s get out of this room.”

We went to find Mr. Martin applying antiseptic on his daughter’s wounds. “Sir” I began, “we need to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“We think that Christine was-” I stopped unsure of what to say.

“Sir we think she was raped” said Rebecca softly.

Mr. Martin lost it completely and banged his head on the wall, “Why? Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why? Why my daughter? He yelled.

“I am sorry” said, Rebecca. She put a comforting arm around him and said, “We need to tie her up. We don’t know when she wakes up whether she will be possessed or not.”

“No! I will not tie my daughter! What if that bastard comes here again?” he yelled in rage.

“Sir we will make sure he can’t touch her again” I said and pulled out white sage and started burning it. I made sure to spread the smoke throughout the room. I then placed a rosary on the table which was next to the bed.

After tying her hands and legs to the bed w left Mr. Martin and the terrified housekeeper with them. I asked Mr. Martin if we could use his computer and he asked us to go ahead and use whatever we wanted.

We went down to his study and the lights started flickering. Shit! I thought they are messing with the lights now. I switched on his laptop. I looked at the time display and saw it was 3.00 a.m.

I went on the local search engine and typed the name of the house, Titan mansion. Several links popped up, the first few were of links that displayed that the house was on sale. However when we scrolled down, I saw something really interesting.

“I am going to get some water, I need an aspirin for my headache” said Rebecca.

“I’ll go with you” said Giselle.

“Take your backpacks and be careful” I said.

Tristan and I meanwhile frantically read through the articles. In about 1889 the ground where the mansion now stood used to be a remand home. People were sent here to serve time for heinous crimes they had committed. Later as the area developed people started protesting and the place was mowed down and was converted into a hotel. In 1930 the hotel had caught fire and had burned down, the cause of which was yet unknown.

Tristan and I frantically made notes to try and discern a connection. The girls came back panting, and collapsed on the chairs. “We have an inkling of what is happening here”

“Uhuh” I said not looking up and jotting down some more details. I was so close to figuring this out!

“Jaden we went into the kitchen and there was this lady crying” said Giselle.

“What lady?” I asked, “There is just one-” and then I stopped as I realized they had seen a ghost. “What did she say?” asked Tristan excitedly.

“Well she was sobbing and asked us to save her daughter” said Giselle frowning.

“Was it Mrs. Martin?” I asked.

Rebecca shook her head and said, “I don’t think so Jaden, she kept saying that she couldn’t save her daughter and that she was really sorry”

I looked at her in puzzlement and we all sat in silence, trying to figure out who was that woman. Tristan was jotting some more notes while I sat in silence, pinching my nose.

“DO you…” began Giselle hesitantly, “do you want me to act as a medium?”

“NO” I said firmly, “I don’t want to take that risk till I know who that woman is”

Rebecca nodded and bit her lip.

“How is your headache?” I asked.

“Its ok” she smiled tiredly.

“What- what was that ghost telling you upstairs in Christine’s room?”

Rebecca’s eyes widened and she looked away, “It isn’t relevant to this investigation”

“Let me decide that” I said gently, not wanting to sound bossy.

“He was speaking about my life, my past I-” she broke off and gasped.

“I think I know what that woman was talking about” she said.

“Yes!” said Tristan punching his hand in the air. “I think I have found a link!”

We all put our heads together and I read what Tristan had jotted down. The last occupants of this house had been a family. A mother, a father and a 17 year old girl. She was a child from her mother’s previous marriage. Her father had passed away when she was young and in time her mother had re married.

They stated that it was a tragedy, one morning the maid came home to find all three of them dead. It seemed that the young girl had been troubled for quiet sometime now and had poisoned them all.

“That doesn’t make sense if she poisoned them then why is she still here? Is there a foul play involved here?” asked Tristan.

“I don’t know” I replied. “But well they have some unfinished business here which is why they are still here”

“We need to go and find out from Mr. Martin if he knows about this”

“Josh” said Tristan, “do you anything about the history of this house?"

"Nope" he said popping the p, "but I can sense something really evil here."

"Well that makes sense Josh" Tristan continued “because the house has an evil history.”

“How long back did this incident happen anyway?” asked Giselle.

“umm a year back”

I glanced at my watch and saw that it was almost 6.00 a.m. now.

I left the rest of them and went to check on Christine and her father. She was fast asleep and Mr. Martin was resting on a chair nearby. The housekeeper sat by the foot of the bed. I stood there watching the young girl for some time and feeling really sad. I wish her father had contacted me before maybe we could’ve stopped this from happening.

Mr. Martin stirred and looked at me in surprise. “How long have I been asleep?”

“About two hours sir”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” he asked quickly glancing at Christine.

“Sir I have been down all this time I had no idea you had fallen asleep. But I have something to ask you.

Can you come with me?”

He nodded and stood up, stretching his arms.

“Martha” he said to the housekeeper, “please don’t move”

“I won’t sir”

Mr. Martin and I both went down to the study. Giselle had fallen asleep on the chair, Rebecca had her head on the table while Tristan studied the notes.

“Sir are you aware of the history of this house?”

“Well are you talking about the last owners?”

“Yes and well some other things”

“Yes well I knew that the last owners all died from poisoning. They said that their daughter was really disturbed. I didn’t think twice about it”

I nodded, a lot of people did that. 9 out of 10 hauntings took place because the house had a disturbed past.

“Well I need to go to the local police station and find out more until then I will put a protective charm over you, Martha and Christine. But under no conditions will you untie Christine please.”

“Ok”

“Alright, Tristan come with me. Rebecca and Giselle go and freshen up. Rest a little and meet us back here after lunch”

“You are leaving us alone?” asked Mr. Martin fearfully.

“Well I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Nothing should bother you until nightfall. They feed from the darkness”

“So then I can untie Christine?”

“No, she maybe possessed and though whatever has possessed her might be dormant you never know what might provoke it”

“Ok”

I quickly chanted a few protective spells and gave some crushed turquoise to Mr. Martin and Martha.

“Keep it with you at all times, if you feel a movement or a presence dust it around you to form a circle.”

They both nodded grimly, soon the four of us left. WE all went home first. Tristan and I quickly showered and changed. The girls had made some scrambled eggs and toast. Tristan and I wolfed it down quickly and around 10.00 a.m. we left together.

“Eat your lunch” I instructed the girls and asked them to try and get some sleep. We needed to be fresh tonight.

“So what do we tell the police if they ask us why are we so curious about the case?” asked Tristan.

“We don’t need to” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I helped a cop out there once”

“Don’t tell me he was possessed too?”

“No” I said smiling, “his wife was.”

“Oh wow”

“Yep”

I pulled into a parking space and went inside the police station along with Tristan, Josh was floating behind us.

We entered the police station and I asked for officer Tibbs.

“Jaden! How are you?” said officer Tibbs hugging me.

“I am fine officer and how is your wife?”

“Oh she is fine! We are going to have a baby soon” he said giving me a huge smile.

“Wow that is great!”

“Yeah” he said sitting at his desk and motioning for Tristan and I to sit as well. “We owe it all to you Jaden. We can live a normal life because you helped us out. Sheila has decided to name it Jaden if it’s a boy”

I looked at him and smiled, I was really touched.

“Officer I needed some information regarding Titan mansion”

He frowned at me and said, “Yes that place has some disturbing history. What do you want to know?”

“It is said that they all died of poisoning? Like the girl was mentally disturbed and she killed her family and then she killed herself”

“Yes”

“Was that the actual cause of death?”

“Oh are you investigating a new case?” asked officer Tibbs with realization on his face.

“Yes” replied Tristan and I realized belatedly I hadn’t introduced the two.

“Officer forgive my manners, this is Tristan he is er he is helping me”

“Nice to meet you Tristan; look Jaden as far as I know that was the actual cause of death but what wasn’t mentioned was that the girl’s autopsy revealed that she had been sexually abused, not only that the mother had bruises all over her body too.”

I took in the information and looked at Tristan meaningfully.

“Officer the articles kept saying the Rogers family. No names were given”

“Yeah. The woman’s sister didn’t want any names to be revealed and they respected her request for privacy”

“Can I get an address for this woman?”

“Sure but-”

“I won’t tell her I got it from you.” I finished his sentence off.

He was gone for a few minutes and returned with a slip of paper. I took it and placed it in my pocket. We shook his hands and Tristan and I left.

“Wow” said Tristan, “you sure have friends in a lot of places”

I smiled, “yeah luckily ghosts aren’t biased about who they choose to haunt”

Tristan chuckled and I asked him to drive. I instantly regretted it, for Tristan the road was like the formula one track. He drove above the stopped limit and waited for the last second to dodge cars.

“Whooo!” he yelled after parking the car and getting out.

“I think I am going to be sick” I said clutching my head.

“Oh come it wasn’t that bad”

“Let me guess you aren’t allowed to drive at your place?”

“Ha ha very funny”

“I don’t think that was funny at all!”

“Hey let’s just go inside?”

We both proceeded towards the small white house. I was thinking about what to say to Pricilla, that was her name. If she had been so fierce about protecting her family’s privacy then would she tell us anything?

We rang the doorbell and waited. A pretty brunette in her early 30s opened the door.

“Yes?” she asked with a smile.

“Priscilla Thomas?”

“That’s me”

“Hi I am Jaden and this is Tristan, we were here to talk about your sister”

Her smile faded immediately and she instantly became unfriendly. “Are you journalists?”

“No, er Priscilla can we come in we have something to tell you and I think it’s better if you sit down” said

Tristan.

She hesitated but let us in, we went to her living room and all of us sat down. Quickly Tristan and I told her about what we were doing and how we had come across three ghosts in her sister’s house. She sat there looking at us and then said, “Are you making a fool out of me?”

“Priscilla, this is not a joke, the man or rather the spirit of that man raped a thirteen year old girl there last night. We have to help her!”

“Oh God” she said paling. “He hasn’t changed in death either has he?” she whispered.

“Who?” asked Tristan looking at me.

“My sister’s husband”

We sat there listening to her horrifying tale.

“Philip was or used to be everything a girl could dream of. He was handsome, caring and a loving husband, then they shifted into that mansion and everything changed.”

I sat there listening to her wondering where all of this was going, “that cursed house changed him! He used to be a father figure to Ayleen”

Tristan gasped, “That’s the name of the young girl who is haunting Christine”

“That is not the only one who is haunting her Tristan” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember she heard voices and it told her to kill her cat?”

“Yeah”

“That had to be the work of the ghosts of the prisoners”

“Shit! Just how many are there?”

“There’s no way we can be sure”

“Priscilla please continue”

She looked shaken but she continued, “one day Ayleen came here to my house and she was crying. I kept asking her what happened but she wouldn’t tell me. Then she said that lately she had been feeling uncomfortable around Philip. Philip was her step father you see. My sister’s previous husband died when Ayleen was barely 2 years old. She said that he looked at her differently”

Tristan and I shared a look; the story had been falling in place for me I wondered if Tristan understood what was happening.

“At first I did not believe her” by now Priscilla had started crying, “I wish I had. One day I found out that she had been raped by Philip I was enraged. I couldn’t believe this was the same man my sister had married. He was so malicious so-so”

“Evil?” I provided.

“Yes, I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out what had gone wrong. I told my sister to leave him she wouldn’t listen, she was in complete denial. He hit her, he hit my niece and he raped her day after day and my sister didn’t say a thing. Soon they stopped going anywhere, rumors started floating around that the young girl had lost her mind and her parents were keeping her locked up inside. They wouldn’t allow me to visit them anymore. You know the last words to me from my sister were, ‘save my daughter please’”

I felt a chill go up my back. That is what the girls had heard the lady in the kitchen say.

“Priscilla thank you for sharing this with us”

“Please help that girl, I couldn’t do anything for my niece but I can save her”

We thanked her once more and we left quickly. We grabbed lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.

“So” began Tristan, “that’s the father’s ghost the one that raped Christine last night.”

“Yes but what I can’t understand is why Ayleen would summon his spirit? I mean its evident that she was terrified of him”

“She wants her story told and there’s little or no chance of her proving her point without Philip’s ghost”

“What do you mean? Ok I get it she wants to prove to the world she wasn’t crazy and she had been raped”

“That’s just a part of it Tristan, I don’t think she was the one who poisoned herself and her mother”

Rebecca’s P.O.V:

I lay in my bed trying to catch some sleep. I was terrified of going back into that home. Even more I was terrified of facing the male ghost again. He had known things no one else knew. How had he known about my past? Soon I fell asleep, I woke up at around 1.00 p.m to the smell of fried chicken. I went down to see Giselle was up already and was making lunch. We needed to hurry up and get to the Titan mansion. I didn’t want Jaden to think we were slacking.

“Hey” I said entering the kitchen.

“You’re up” said Giselle smiling.

“Yes, why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You were really distressed last night I figured you could use the extra rest”

I smiled at her gratefully, and we ate quickly. Just as we got dressed our phone rang. It was Jaden.

“Are you guys done?” he asked.

“Yeah we were about to leave.”

“Ok hurry, we have almost got this one but we still need to talk to Christine”

“Oh wow. Ok we will be there soon”

I hung up and turned to Giselle, “that was Jaden, he said they have almost cracked this we need to leave immediately”

“Alright didn’t he give any details?”

“Nope”

We got into my car and drove to the Titan mansion. I was feeling really apprehensive; I wasn’t looking forward to an encounter with the man’s ghost again.

The boys were already there when we went inside. They sat next to a very sad looking Mr. Martin. They quickly updated us on what they had found out. I shuddered involuntary when they told me her step father had been abusing her.

“Mr. Martin we need to talk to Christine, is she up?” said Jaden.

“She woke up and I gave her something to eat and now she is asleep again.”

“WE need to wake her up” he said glancing at the watch, it was 4.00 p.m. “I need to ask her some questions”

“Ok”

We all made our way upstairs, Josh was nowhere to be seen. We all waited behind Jaden as he entered the room to wake Christine up.

“Don’t stand in the doorway” said Jaden, “it’s like an invitation for passing spirits to possess your body”

We quickly moved inside and waited as Jaden woke Christine up.

Jaden’s P.O.V:

“Christine?” I asked shaking her, “Christine, wake up.”

The girl woke up with a start and it broke my heart to see how scared she looked.

“Are you ok?”

She shook her head and said, “My head hurts, my body hurts. I feel dizzy, what is wrong with me? Am I going to die?”

“No, you aren’t going to die Christine, don’t you remember anything?

She frowned and then paled, “Oh no! Did he hurt her? Did he hurt Aileen?”

“Who?”

“Philip” she whispered.

“I don’t think so”

“Now Christine I am here to help you, I need you to answer me truthfully ok?”

She nodded, “ok”

“Who asked you to kill you cat?”

“They made me do it, you have to believe me, I didn’t want to do it!”

“I believe you. Who asked you to kill it?”

“I don’t know, they were gruff voices, they were some men.”

This confirmed my suspicion it was the ghosts of the prisoners but I could deal with them later.

“Christine is Aileen here?”

“No”

“I want you to tell me the truth”

“No she isn’t here”

“Ok, I want you to tell me when she comes here ok?”

I glanced at my watch, it was 6.00 p.m, almost 24 hours were up and we had yet to solve their problem. I knew that Philip wasn’t going to go away easily, I sighed as I began to prepare for an exorcism.