Breakfast was amazing.
It was the first time in two months that I had nasty unhealthy food. I walked out of the restaurant with a smile on my face and two hands on my very full stomach, while Zak was disgusted with himself.
"I am never letting you choose where we eat ever again" he moaned as he rubbed his stomach.
We were both so full, causing us to practically waddle towards Zak's car.
Just before Zak got into the driver's seat, his phone rang.
"Zak Bagans" he spoke into the phone.
For about a minute he said nothing, he just nodded his head and hummed for yes.
"Okay thank you very much. Tell him I send my thanks anyway" he ended the call. After he put his phone down he sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips.
"What's wrong? Who was that on the phone?" I asked.
Zak turned his body towards me, put his arms on top of the car and leaned forward.
"That was Father Bryan's assistant. Turns out the minor case he was working on somewhere in Minnesota, has now turned into a full scale possession. Meaning, he is unable to help us with our problem"
I groaned. "Of course he isn't. We still have the psychic coming to help us though right?"
He nodded. "I'm sure that's all we need; it's nothing more than a little spirit attachment"
I nodded and got into the car after Zak.
I hope that's all it is.
*************
To pass the time, Zak showed me around the city of Vegas. He pointed at some of the places he had investigated for his show and good (all organic) places to eat. He even drove by his Haunted Museum, and made sure to promise he would take me in there after this whole spirit attachment was over.
By the time it was one o'clock, it was time to head back home and meet the psychic.
"She's really nice, kind and gentle, nothing about her is scary. Plus she definitely not fake because she's helped me out on my show before. She's definitely the real deal"
When we pulled up to the house I was immediately drawn to the foreign car in front of our home.
"She's early" Zak mumbled as he pulled up to the house and parked in the driveway. As we exited the car, we were greeted by a very old woman in a white sweater and jeans.
She was so quiet that when she came up behind Zak to say hello, he jumped. Both her and I laughed as his face went red from embarrassment.
"Hello Zak" she greeted and warmly shook his hand. "Nice to see you again" she smiled.
"Hello Patti. Thank you for coming to help us" she graciously smiled at Zak's welcome and walked toward me.
When she was close enough she grabbed both of my hands and loosely held them.
"You must be Charlie" the second we touched, you could feel the energy radiating off of her.
I nodded and gave a small smile. "I am"
She was feeling for something, it was quite obvious. She just held my hands and looked deep into my soul for a good minute. When she let go, I knew she saw something, because she wasn't smiling anymore. After that, she just walked away from me and toward Zak.
As we walked into the house she stood beside Zak and whispered something in his ear. I was still able to make it out.
"Whatever has attached itself to her is definitely evil; but it is no demon" she hushed.
Zak let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Then what is it?" he asked.
They walked through the front door and into the main entrance as Patti answered his question.
"I have do a little more work with her, but my best guess is a very, very angry spirit"
Great, just great.
The second we made it to the middle of the house, Patti stopped dead in her tracks.
Both Zak and I watched her as she slowly moved her head towards the top of the stairs. Rosemary's favourite spot of the house.
"She doesn't like you being here" I said aloud. As soon as it left my lips I covered my mouth. I didn't want to say that, she made me.
They both immediately turned around to face me. Just the sight of them both angered me, but I knew it wasn't me who was angry.
"Okay, we need somewhere to sit and get this started, this spirit is digging its claws deeper and deeper into her every second we wait"
Zak quickly guided Patti toward the dining room. I had only really been in there a couple times. The only time I could really remember I was last in there was when I first moved in and explored the house.
The dining room had grey walls with a very long black table with black chairs. The only window in the room was covered by a large white curtain, and a massive chandelier hug overtop of the table. It was pretty empty; my guess is that it hadn't been used in months.
As soon as we entered the room Patti went straight to work. She walked to the head of the table and dug into her bag full of psychic tools, making sure to pull out her sage sticks and an unfamiliar beaded necklace.
I nudged Zak on the shoulder. "What is that necklace for?" he stared at it for a bit, the realized what it was a few seconds later.
"It's her Rosary; she never does a reading without it" he quietly said, he probably didn't want to make Patti lose her focus.
Patti then looked up at me and motioned for me to sit in the chair to her left. "Sit here Charlie. I need you to be as close to me as possible"
Once I sat in the seat she put me in, she told Zak to sit on the other side of me to her right. After that, she made me lay my hands down in front of me on the table, and then she grabbed my right hand. I could feel the rosary tight in her grasp.
She then motioned for Zak to grab her hand, and me and Zak to grab each other's. Shortly after, she closed her eyes and hummed. Seconds later, the single unlit candle in the center of the table lit up. Zak and I just looked at each other with wide eyes; not saying a word.
"I am here to talk to the spirit who has attached itself to Charlie Bagans" she started. A soft breeze hit me right in the face; I could even see a few stray hairs in the corner of my eye move because of it.
"I have few questions I want to ask you, come forward and talk to me" she demanded. After a few seconds passed, her grip on my right hand tightened and she gasped a little. She was obviously getting something.
"What is your name? Who are you? Why have you attached yourself to this girl?" she asked. The breeze was more noticeable this time, even the candle flame moved a little. All of the sudden, Zak flinched and let go of both our hands; Patti just kept her eyes closed and continued on humming.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I think something just pinched me. It felt like someone came up from behind me and pinched me on the shoulder as hard as they could."
I wasn't liking this at all.
Just as I looked at Patti, her eyes shot wide open. We both just stared at her and didn't ask any questions; we just assumed she would eventually say what she saw.
"It really likes you Charlie" she said. I just looked at Zak with wide eyes.
"What do you mean?" I asked. This is getting too scary.
"When you met it, it saw a connection with you. You must have woken up some part of it"
When she saw my confusion she tried explaining it a little more.
"You woke up the part of it that was human, and for that it stuck with you. Have you been having nightmares? Like extremely life-like nightmares?"
I nodded.
"Those aren't just some regular nightmares; those nightmares are memories from how it died"
I was shocked. "But Rosemary died from jumping off the roof of the asylum. She wasn't torn apart like my nightmares"
She shook her head at my comment. "That's because it's not Rosemary Charlie, its portraying itself as Rosemary because it saw that you were comfortable with it. You left Rosemary behind at the Asylum when you went for Zak instead of taking your life with her"
I shockingly looked at Patti, wondering how in hell she knew about what happened in Pennsylvania. Then she answered my question as if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
"It told me. It told me everything" she smirked a little. Well now I know she's the real deal.
"Then how did it connect with me?" the only spirit I interacted with was Rosemary.
Patti closed her eyes and started to hum again. Shortly after she opened her eyes again and told me all the details.
"It said something about... scratches. Facial scratches. Also, it's giving me a name" She kept whispering to herself and counting her fingers; still holding the Rosary in her right hand.
"I'm getting an H. It's definitely a woman, I know that. She's very angry, yes. I can't figure out how she died, all I can feel is pain around my heart and my-"
"Torso" I cut her off. She stopped and looked at me. "You feel like someone is ripping your guts out and ripping your heart out right?"
Zak looked at me with fright. "That's what you were having a nightmare of when I woke you up? Your guts being ripped out?" I nodded. He let out a deep breath and sank into his chair.
When I looked back at Patti, her eyes were closed again and she was still mumbling. Then I looked at Zak, who was looking down and avoiding eye contact.
"Helen!" Patti yelled. She stood straight up after she screamed the familiar name.
I looked away in thought, trying to remember why I recognized that name. Then it hit me.
Helen was the known bad spirit at the Levik Asylum! She must've been the one who scratched my face before I found Rosemary. I remembered a woman who Zak interviewed the day before we went into the Asylum, he said a few of the patients were studied and were cut open for experiments. Helen must have been one of them.
Zak must've recognized the name at the same time I did, because we both looked up at each other and whispered the name simultaneously.
"How do we get rid of her? I want her gone" Zak asked Patti.
Patti quickly reached down into her bag and grabbed one giant silver bowl and three leather pouches full of salt, rocks, and lavender flowers. She also grabbed a bottle of water.
She laid the contents out and poured all four in the bowl. Then she dropped her Rosary in the center.
"Put your hand on this and repeat my words" she instructed. I nodded and put my hand on the bowl, covering my hand in lavender petals, rocks, salt, and water.
"Helen, this place is no longer for you; this is not your home. You are no longer welcome here, leave this place at once!" I repeated her words.
A few seconds later, a woman's screams came from somewhere in the house, we all just looked at each other.
Once I finished talking, the candle in the center of the table went out. The house was pure silent; the only thing you could hear was all of us breathing.
I was the one to break the silence. "That's it? That's all we had to say?"
I looked over at Patti who was smiling. "That's it" she nodded. "Now that that's over, all we have to do is burn some sage and cleanse the rest of the house. Just to make sure that whatever presences that were hear are gone"
I just put my elbows on the table, put my hands in my face and moaned. "I never want to do anything like that ever again"
Zak reached across the table and grabbed my arm. "Me fucking neither"