As he picked himself up off of the cold tile floor, and began dusting himself off, Ichabod Crane turned his head and said, "It seems that you might be on the right track, Miss Alex, but perhaps you should try for a bit less ..." His voice trailed off as he searched for the word he wanted.
"I think 'oomph' might be the word you're looking for, dude!" Jake Wells called from across the room, where he had splayed himself across a shelf full of curios, in an only partly successful attempt to keep them from tumbling to the floor.
"Yes, that will do nicely, Master Wells. A bit less of that."
"I think it might need some adjustments to the power cell, and maybe the settings should be adjustable," Alex Norwood muttered, almost to herself. She lifted one hand to shove her auburn hair away from her face, as she prodded at the device on the table in front of her with the other.
At that moment the door opened, and Jenny Mills entered the room, followed by Agent Diana Thomas, and her eleven-year-old daughter, Molly.
"Did we miss an earthquake here or something?" Diana inquired, surveying the crooked pictures, toppled knick-knacks, and books scattered across the floor.
"Nope, just Alex testing out that sonic whatchamacallit she's been working on," Jake responded, gesturing toward his girlfriend, who still had her face nearly buried in the contraption.
Diana and Molly began picking the books up from the floor, and as Jenny moved to help Jake pick up the items that had eluded his grasp, her phone rang.
"Mills. Who's this?" she said. After listening briefly, she smiled and sat down.
" Todd! How's it going, man? I haven't heard from you in forever!"
After listening for several seconds, the smile dropped off of her face, and she motioned to the others, while saying, "I'm gonna put you on speaker. I'm working with a new team now, and I think they should hear this, too."
As everyone crowded around her, Jenny laid her phone on the table next to her, and said, "This is an old buddy of mine, Todd Scanlon. He used to help me out sometimes, finding stuff for Corbin, until he lost part of his leg about eight years ago. He's also one of the few people outside of this room whose instincts I'd trust almost as much as my own. Apparently, he has a situation he's pretty concerned about, so I'd like for you guys to hear him out."
Everyone nodded their agreement, so she hit the speaker switch and said, "Okay, Todd, you're on."
"Before I get into this, I have a question for you. You do remember my kid sister, don't you, Jen?" he inquired.
"Faith? Hell, how would I not remember her? If she hadn't stowed away in the back of the truck that night, I might not be here! Why do you ask?"
"Because she's actually the one with the problem, and what I know about it scares the crap out of me!" Todd replied.
"I thought that she moved away somewhere a few years back," Jenny said.
"Yeah, she lives in California, but right now she's in some little town called Tuttlesburg, Virginia, for her job, which makes you the closest person to that area. You're also the one I'd trust the most to deal with what I think they may have stirred up."
He then proceeded to relate the details of the seance, the mutilated animals, and the dead hunter, plus the writings at both scenes, stopping occasionally to answer questions asked by members of the group.
When he finally finished, no one spoke for several seconds. Then, Crane asked, "Are you certain that this was Sumerian, Master Scanlon?"
"That's what a university language professor told my girlfriend when she showed it to him. She said he practically flipped out."
"Can you send me the pictures?" Jenny inquired.
"Sure thing, I'll do it right now," he responded.
Crane got up from his chair and walked over to one of the bookshelves. Pausing for a moment, he selected a book, and walked back. He placed the book on the table next to the phone, and opened it to a picture of a carved stone tablet. When the picture appeared on Jenny's phone, he glanced back and forth between the two several times, and finally said, "It appears that your professor was correct, and this is indeed Sumerian. Which to my thinking, would indicate the presence of some sort of spirit, or possibly a demonic entity."
"That's what I thought, too," Todd replied. "And personally, I'm leaning more toward the latter. It's not as likely for a spirit to do that kind of physical damage."
"I'm with you on that one," Jenny stated, as she glanced around at the others. As she did, they all nodded, and she said, "Okay, give me her number, and I'll get everything set up."
Todd recited the number, which Jenny added to her phone. Then he said, "Thanks, Mills, I owe you one."
"No you don't, actually," Jenny replied. "The kid saved my ass that night, so I'm just returning the favor. But out of curiosity, you said she was here working. What does she do, anyway?"
Todd chuckled, and said, "She decided to take her fondness for adventure in a different direction. She's the assistant tour manager for a rock band."
"Anybody I would've heard of?" Jenny asked.
"Maybe, they're fairly popular. They're called Black Veil Brides "
Molly's head popped up from her sketchpad, and as Jenny ended the call, she burst out, "Cool! Can I go, too?"
"First of all, you have school tomorrow, and second, it sounds a little too dangerous," Diana told her. "Are you saying that you know of this band? I've never heard you mention them before."
"I started listening to them at Claire's house," Molly informed her mother. "She really likes them, so does her sister. They actually helped Jessica."
"You've roused my curiosity, Miss Molly," Crane said. "How did this come about, precisely?"
Molly began to look somewhat uncomfortable, and finally said, hesitantly, "Well, Jessica used to ..."
"Used to what, baby?" Diana prompted.
" She used to ... hurt herself, because the kids at their old school picked on her. Then she went to a signing thing they did at the mall, and one of the guys saw the cuts, and they talked to her about them. She said they told her that when she did that, she was letting the bullies win, and that she was better than that. She said she hadn't thought about it that way before, but that maybe they were right. So she told her folks, and they moved her and Claire to my school, and Jessica sees a counselor now. Claire said that she hasn't cut herself in almost six months."
Crane appeared to be somewhat puzzled by the story, so Jenny explained the concept of self-harming to him. As she did, the look of confusion was replaced by one that was a combination of sadness and alarm.
"To think that anyone, particularly a child, would feel the need to resort to such action, is both frightening and heart-wrenching, in equal measure," he stated.
"You won't hear any arguments on that one," Alex responded.
"I tell you what, kiddo," Diana said to Molly. "Before I take you home, we'll stop at the mall and pick up a poster or something, and I'll take it along and see if they'll sign it for you. Better?"
"I'd still rather go, but I guess that'll work," Molly conceded.
At that point, everyone looked to Crane. He glanced around the room and said, "Well then, I suppose we should get started. Agent Thomas, perhaps you should inform Madam President of our plans, while Miss Jenny contacts Master Scanlon's sister."
Both women nodded, and picked up their phones, Jenny making the call to Faith Scanlon, while Diana dialed a number which put her in direct contact with the President. Since they had rescued her several weeks earlier, when she had been abducted by evil tycoon Malcolm Dreyfuss, they had been reporting directly to her on any matters of a paranormal nature.
Turning to the other two, he continued, "Miss Alex, if you would be so kind as to go to the computer and see what information you might be able to acquire about this murder, and perhaps about the area in general. And while she does this, Master Wells, you and I will start searching the archives for anything which might be of use."
"Can I help too, Mr . Crane?" Molly asked.
"Yes, I believe you can, actually," he informed her. "Perhaps you could put some of this bands music onto my phone, so we can have an idea of what to expect."
Molly laughed and said, "Are you sure, Mr. Crane? I don't want to weird you out too much."
"I assure you, Miss Molly, I am not so easily weirded, as it were."
"Okay, then, I'll just dump all four albums in there. Some of it you might actually like. One of the guys plays a violin."
"Just a moment, are you saying that some of the members are male?"
"They all are. I'm not sure what's up with the name. Jessica would probably know. I guess you can ask them while you're there," Molly said.
"Well, then, you may begin loading," he declared, handing her his phone, and moving away to assist Jake with his search through the massive number of books in the vault.
Molly went to a second computer and began to add the music to Crane's phone, as the others concentrated on their respective assignments.
Jenny hung up her phone, and announced, "Hey, guys, good news! Apparently Faith and the band are staying at a gigantic house that belongs to some record-company guy, so they have room for us to stay there. We can be on-site around the clock, which is good. Also, their video guy was present for the seance, and actually got some footage."
"Excellent! Perhaps he captured something which will provide us with a clue," Crane said.
"All right, I've filled in the President on the situation, and she told me that she will be personally calling whoever's in charge of the murder investigation, to make sure that they cooperate with us," Diana informed them.
"In that case, I suggest that we all retire to our individual domiciles for the evening, to pack the necessary items, and get some rest," Crane pronounced, "Then we meet back here first thing in the morning to depart for Tuttlesburg. Eight o'clock, shall we say?"
Everyone agreed to the schedule, and they gradually made their way from the vault, to ready themselves, as much as was possible, for the prospect of confronting yet another demon.