Harly

Chapter Seven (Edited 08/2021)

I don't really know what I expected from a ghost hunter nerd, but ParaNorman wasn't it.

He seemed to have no qualms about entering a stranger's house, and immediately set up his fancy technology.

I don't even know where he got half of the stuff. I've never been to the ghost hunting side of Amazon before, but a lot of his things looked super expensive. I didn't dare touch it. With my luck, I'd break it. But he immediately started walking around with a small handheld device that beeped with ranging speed.

"What's that?" I finally managed to ask, and when he turned around, I knew I had made a mistake. The light in his eyes shone so bright I wanted to squint. I was in for a super in depth discussion.

"This, my dear Watson," he began and I had to stifle a sigh. "Is an EVP device. It records paranormal activity." He chattered happily as he walked around the house, and I meekly followed. If he noticed my apparent unease talking to a stranger, he didn't comment. I was doing this for the kids. It didn't matter how uncomfortable I was. If this guy thought he could handle it, I'd be uncomfortable as long as it took.

I didn't even have to worry about making conversation. He talked enough for the both of us. Each item he removed from his bag he gave me a not-so-brief description of, and what it did. He walked the house over and over again, but always seemed to hover in mine and Lilly's rooms. Every one of his devices, never mind how accurate they worked, had some sort of reaction. The basement also had a small flicker, but Lilly's room was the strongest.

"Is this the room of the girl who messaged us first?" He had asked when we walked in the first time. The little box went crazy, beeping up a storm. He looked a little taken aback, but excited. This must have been the first time he actually had any luck in the paranormal hunting experience. He still knew more than me though, so I took what I could get.

"No, actually," I said, my eyes on the small bedside table that housed Lilly's favorite stuffed animal. "This is her little sister's room, the one with the imaginary friend." I had told him the basics of the issues we were having.

"Oh, that makes sense. It's the room with the most activity." He seemed intensely focused as he scoped the place out, trying to find an object Harly was attached to. But Lilly wasn't here, and nothing in her room really stirred up extra activity.

When he entered my room and the box began to beep erratically, I became confused. He walked around my room and I actually felt nervous about a man, despite his strange hobbies, looking at my things. I could only silently thank any gods listening that my underwear drawer didn't shoot off major ghost signals.

But my bedside table did.

He looked up at me with a question in his eyes. "Can I open this?" he asked, having the decency to ask a lady before snooping too in depth into her things. I nodded and watched as he opened the drawer, wondering what could be causing the signal to go off. From what I recall, the drawer was empty. I didn't have enough things to put inside a bedside table.

But when he pulled it out, I suddenly remembered my first day here, and the box I had hidden from Lilly for some crazy feeling of possession.

The small box I had never been able to open as a kid. The box my father never let me play with, always acting angry that I was touching it, and always hid it from me.

The box that Lilly had opened.

My mouth was agape, and when Norman turned to ask me a question, I suppose my face said it all.

I mean, it explained a lot. Lilly started talking to Harly the night the box was opened, I had that terrible nightmare of a voice calling my name and then going to her room instead. Then suddenly, there Harly was.