The Medium Kid

Chapter 20

"I don't know what's going on here." Alfie ran a hand over his face, returning to the couch and seating himself down. "I think I have to call Connor. He's my mentor."

"Mentor for what?" Morlen asked. "For being a medium?"

"Yes," Alfie said, pulling out his phone, just before the doorbell rang, chiming loud through the entire house. "If that's him, I'll be both scared and impressed." Alfie rang Connor as Morlen climbed to his feet like the weight of the house pressed on his shoulders.

While he stormed through the room, Connor answered the phone.

"Hello Alfie," Connor said loud into the medium's ear. "Yes, that was me at the door." Then he hung up, leaving Alfie baffled on the other end.

"What is it?" Koda asked. "Is it him?"

"Yep." Alfie sank back against the couch and Koda shuffled closer. "Don't ask me how he knows where you live. He just knows these things."

"Is he a medium too?"

Alfie nodded. "He taught me how to be a good medium."

Koda turned when he could hear voices and a quiet tapping noise, eager to see who had mentored Alfie. To Koda's surprise, he recognised the older medium's face because he met him in the shop that afternoon.

"Hello boys," Connor beamed. The light tapping noise was him gently moving his white cane in front of him. "Thank you for letting me in Morlen."

"Connor, I'm glad you're here because I'm not sure what to do." Alfie jumped to his feet. "Let me show you these flowers." He waited until his mentor held his elbow before guiding him to the corner of the room.

Connor made a low short noise and raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem shocked by the dense feeling of darkness, but concerned. He reached out to touch the petals. What should have been soft and delicate was solid and crumpling against the tips of his fingers. "Interesting," he murmured. "What kind of flowers are they Alfie?"

"Lilies."

"And the colour?"

"White."

Connor's hands went back to his cane, and they rested there. He stood very still like he did when he was thinking deeply about something important. "Did they come with a note?"

Alfie plucked the note from in between the decaying brown petals and rested it on top of Connor's waiting hand. He watched his mentor slowly trace his fingers over the ink.

"What does it say?" Connor asked, and Alfie told him. After a moment, Connor strongly inhaled like he hadn't taken a breath in hours. "What are your thoughts?"

Alfie looked into Connor's glasses, seeing himself in the reflection and wiped hair from his eyes. If his mentor asked him for his opinion, it usually meant that Connor already knew the answer. "Well, I thought that maybe a dark entity was in the house, which would explain why it feels so intense and cold, but I've felt them before, and this seems a bit different."

"Different how?"

Alfie caught Morlen's intense eyes watching him. "I haven't seen any entity or felt that something was territorial over the house. It's in the house, but it's not here to be possessive."

"What is it here for?"

"I don't know, but there's darkness with it that I've never felt before." Alfie looked back to the flowers. "For something to suck the life out of these in a matter of hours- like what Enya said in her journal- must be something powerful." One of the flower heads fell off and landed on the floor. The petals had darkened to burnt umber.