The crushing of corpses under their feet sounded like bubble wrap. Serpents hissed and walls moaned and whispered like children telling wicked secrets. The trees dripped with molasses and the spicy odor burned their nostrils. The monsters shuddered. The children were the thing that bumped, rattled and creaked in the night. They should've never looked under the bed or in their closets. This night was going to be a fight. Chevoque's caged heart rattled. Her own apathy couldn't save her from the terror.
Both Pool and Buggle's teeth chattered like ice cubes breaking.
"This would be a great funhouse, if it weren't so crazy real," Buggle thought.
"This isn't a funhouse. Not exactly," Zin Swada said whispering to the monsters Pool and Buggle.
"You don't have to do this, Zin," Pool said whispering back with a shaky plea in its voice. "You're risking your life trying to combat this alone."
"Yes, I do. I want to redeem myself. I couldn't redeem myself with the humans. This is all my fault. I should've saved them or at least the little girl. I didn't think about all the consequences. I should've thought it through more."
"They should've known you couldn't tackle that case on your own. The humans didn't care. They just wanted you to solve their problem," Buggle interjected.
"I'm human, too, Buggle. I could've said, no."
"No, you couldn't they would've thought something was wrong," Pool said mumbling.
"Yeah and I didn't want them to think anything was wrong. I didn't want them to know the balance of power was so weak. But I had a duty nonetheless. One that has been since the Middle Ages."
In 1995, a year ago, when Zin Swada was nineteen, she'd just finished her shift for the night at the hospital, when she got a call on her flip phone on her way home. She detoured toward Grand, a town in Qualina in the Cladoorct Panhandle. She made no promises to the caller on the other end. "I'll only offer counsel. That's all," she told the caller.
"Ever since my brother came back from the war, he hasn't been the same. I'm afraid to leave my youngest daughter alone with him."
"I'm afraid he's going to kill my little sister."
"We don't normally make house calls," Zin informed the mother and sister. Those words sounded so awkward and misplaced coming out of her mouth. She was no longer part of a collective. She was the only one left. But no one else in the Qualina public knew. And it'd be dangerous to divulge this information.
"I know you don't, but if you could board with us for a night or two just for observation, we'd feel so much safer," the sister said with a desperate plea in her voice.
"Are you sure, he's not just suffering from psychiatric issues?" Zin glanced at the mother and the sister.
"We want to rule out anything supernatural going on with him before we get to that step next," the mother answered.
"I'll give it a go. But it'll be at the discretion of us three in this kitchen. I'll just be an out-of-towner boarding with you on holiday. Got it? If it's a supernatural case, then I'll summon the rest of the Marmalade-Giqware Mi'Puel," Zin said swallowing the uncertainty hard like hot tar going down her throat.
Why did Zin say that? She didn't have the power to rally the other members. But she couldn't bear to tell this family the Marmalade-Giqware Mi'Puel was broken up. She was retiring after this anyway. This was her old classmate from the university and she couldn't leave her, her mother and her little sister in a lurch.
"You can take the spare room next to my little sister's. That way you can keep an eye out."
The uncle came back from job hunting. They heard him coming through the kitchen door. Zin made herself scarce up the stairs.
The little girl was in her room playing. Zin didn't disturb the girl but watched her for a moment before heading onto her new room.
Zin took off her shoes and socks and lay down on the bed. She heard the hardness of footsteps on the stairs. She got up from the bed and walked quietly and cautiously to the doorway. She peered around the corner.
The uncle didn't break stride. He had dark brown skin and wore a short dread hairstyle. He went into his room and turned on the light. His room was next door to the little girl's on the opposite side.
Zin left her room, staying quiet. She stood between the uncle's room and the little girl's. The brother seemed oblivious to his surroundings and so did the little girl. He was having a rant to himself but the words couldn't be heard. It was like watching a silent film in color. The little girl was still playing in her room.
As Zin moved over a little further in the corridor, she saw shadows of children moving along the right side of his wall. She moved back over next door and saw the same shadows on the same side of the wall in the little girl's room. This was like watching shadow theatre.
But how could these shadows show in bright lighting?
These are no typical shadows, Zin thought.
The next night he was gone job hunting again. Zin, the mother and the oldest daughter sat at the table in the kitchen.
"I want you all to switch rooms, except for your youngest daughter she can stay in her own room. But I want your oldest daughter to take the spare room. I want you to take your brother's room. And I'll take the oldest daughter's room and let your brother take your room," Zin told the mother.
That night the little girl played in her room as usual.
The little girl's uncle now had the room across the corridor from hers. He stood in the doorway of his room watching the little girl as she played. The light was very dim in his room. There was a rumbling sound and the pictures on the wall started to turn sideways. The bedding was pulled back as if someone were getting up from the bed. The walls started to quake and bend like a pretzel. Zin watched the shared wall in her room warp its shape. The mother and the older sister ran to the little girl's room. The little girl was clutching her doll as she moved backward away from the walls as each one came down. Her mother and sister took her by the arms and hurried her out of the room.
"Run! Outside, quickly! Zin shouted.
The sisters and their mother ran down the stairs and out of the house, across the lawn to the building under construction across the street where they took refuge.
They looked through the glass double doors of the building at the tall, red brick townhouse they used to live in.
They watched as Zin escaped their home. She stopped for a moment and looked back at the townhouse. A shadow of a child danced along the front of the townhouse. She watched as the shadow grew larger and disappeared around the corner of the townhouse. She looked up at the upper level of the house. The mother's brother stood in the window. He seemed to be ranting as if in a silent movie again. He was pressing his hands on each side of his head as if something was blaring too loud for him inside his head. He removed his hands from his head and seemed to rant again in the same manner.
Zin went to the building across the street where the rest of the family was.
"You can't just leave my brother in there. Save him," the mother said.
"I can't," Zin winced at the sting of those words she just pried out of her own mouth.
"I'm going in there," the mother said brushing past Zin. Zin grabbed her arm. "You can't your brother has been infected. The Shadow Kinder are inside him. It's possible they have been inside him for a while. He's too far gone. They spread fast throughout the being they inhabit. They wanted him to kill the little girl," Zin said looking at the mother's youngest daughter as she clutched her doll her older sister holding her hand. "But he resisted them somehow even at the risk of his own well-being. They made him suffer every time he didn't do what they commanded. And now they'll destroy him completely and he'll become a ghost in a shell of what he used to be," Zin said looking over her shoulder. "You won't ever be able to go home again. Both the townhouse and your brother are haunted forever. I'm so sorry for the losses you three have suffered."
The mother jerked her arm from Zin's grasp. She swung her hand in the air and slapped Zin across the face. Zin dragged her hand across her mouth, wiping the blood off her lower lip. "I deserve nothing less," she said glancing at the smeared blood on her knuckles, then back up at the mother.
And now here Zin Swada was a year later, in 1996, back in the town of Grand with Pool, Buggle at her side and Chevoque's caged heart around her neck. That was all that was left of Chevoque, the priestess of the monster half of the residents in the town of Grand in Qualina.
"I'm here at your request Pool and Buggle. Let's not be critical of the humans. You both knew I was coming alone without the other members to back me. Yet, you still called on me to help you. I've been here in Grand before it's not unfamiliar territory to me. This will have to be my final case, for sure this time. I can't do this again," she said rubbing her hip.
Buggle glanced down at her hip. "Are you ill, Zin?"
"I'll be fine."
"We wouldn't have called if you were ill?" Pool said with concern in its voice.
"Doesn't matter, I've passed through the gates now. I'm doing what I should've done before. I could've tried to enter the gates before into the Tales of the Miserate Fault Line, but I didn't because I didn't think I could enter on my own. Technically, I shouldn't be able to without the rest of the Marmalade-Giqware Mi'Puel. I should've been stopped at the gates. I should've been able to see the gates. But I took a chance and now I'm here. Let's do this gentlemonsters."
"We have no power. They have turned our power of fear back onto us," Pool said shivering.
"You called me because you're completely useless, is that it? You want me to save your hometown solely," she sighed.
"Yes, but we couldn't enter without you either," Buggle said shrugging its shoulders.
"Look what they did to our priestess, Chevoque," Pool said pointing to the caged heart around Zin's neck. They literally scared her out of her 'wits' (referring to Chevoque's physical body). We watch it rip away and disintegrate before our eyes. You have what is left of her."
"She wrapped herself around my neck like a noose. I didn't have a choice," Zin reminded.
"Like a necklace," Buggle said correcting Zin.
"Let's not get into semantics. Just stay close, so you won't get lost," Zin said rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "If you get lost, I won't be able to find you. You'll both be on your own. We're entering one of the tales of the Miserate Fault Line. Brace yourselves the best you can."
~Oceans Behind Maryland~
Maryland watched as Pool, Buggle and Zin came through tracing the steps that led to this. She's six now. She was five when she first saw Zin, a year ago at her family's brick townhouse in Grand. Pool and Buggle were the longtime monsters she'd once feared in her room at night. They'd become her friends, helped her to grow up. She smiled, looking upon them. She hoped her mother and sister wouldn't have to endure anymore devastation. For a while, it seemed like it was over. They'd just moved into a new home, a brownstone in Grand. They couldn't bear to leave their hometown, even after her uncle and the their previous home had been infected. Somehow it was their way of being near him. On her sixth birthday, the Qualina Police came to her door.
"Wait, where are you taking my daughter. You can't..." her mother asked, holding onto Maryland's arm as the social worker held onto the other.
"Did someone call child protective services?" Maryland's sister asked, glancing at the officer and the social worker standing next to him.
"No, there was an allegation made by the decedent's parents."
"Against my me? My mother?" the older sister asked, pointing at herself and glancing at her mother.
"Neither. Your youngest daughter, Maryland is being arrested for murder."
"What, murder? But she's only six years old. Really, who could she kill? She's just a little girl," Maryland's mother said with a furrowed brow.
"She killed Becky," the police officer said looking at his notepad of the events he'd written down from Becky's parents' account.
"Becky? Her imaginary friend?" Maryland's sister raised a brow. Maybe she grew out of having an imaginary friend. After all, she has her dolly. Maybe she felt like she couldn't keep them both."
"Is that what it was, Maryland? It was too hard to keep them both?" Maryland's mother asked kneeling down in front of her.
"No, Mother. I told Becky it was over. She couldn't be my friend anymore," Maryland said shrugging.
"See? Maryland moved on, that's all."
"You can see your daughter at arraignment," the officer said.
"I'm going with her," Maryland's mother said running up behind them as they headed to the police car.
"No," the officer said taking out his baton.
"I'll be with her," the social worker said to the mother as she got in the car next to Maryland.
~Ghostly Encounters of the Reflective Kind~
When the police threw Maryland in a cell, she felt the cold concrete floor. The walls were mirrors with the exception of the cell door. She gasped. Tears streamed down her face. She never liked mirrors. She never liked looking at herself in them. She never had one in her bedroom. Each mirror wall of her cell was an alternate reality of her reflection. Each one grotesque in its own beautiful and haunting manner. But altogether ghostly remnants of what she used to be or what she'd actually become. She wiped her tears.
In one of the mirror walls Maryland saw an eleven year old girl with long, blonde hair and big, amber-brown eyes. She looked like an agile illustration from a book but seemingly real at the same time. She was flitting about like a pesky fly through the moving bookshelves.
The bookshelves seemed to move like a panoramic kaleidoscope. The girl had been taken over a russet brown gate with sharp points with a keystone archway above it, down below where the stacks in the library were by something that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Her mouth was wide open to scream but no sound came out as she dissipated into the dark. Like a cassette tape rewinding, the girl seemed to pass through the bars willingly. She looked over her shoulder at Maryland and her doll, Thoreau. The look in her eyes was pure terror as she stepped down the stairs behind the gate and towards the shadowy dark where she'd been grabbed and taken again.
Maryland and Thoreau were supposed to save her. To keep her hidden from the darkness. "Becky, I'm sorry I didn't save you," she said reaching her hand out towards the mirror. "The Terrible Nightmare was too strong."
~Haunting Connection~
"Were you just talking to that television?" Zin asked as she, Pool and Buggle entered Maryland's bedroom through a portal.
Thoreau jumped off the bed where Maryland had left her.
"Who the hell are you?!" Thoreau shouted. "Look, I served my sentence in the ghost world. I'm not going back. I like feeling corporeal again."
"We're not here to take you anywhere. I'm Zin, this is Pool, Buggle and Priestess Chevoque," Zin said her hand out stretched towards Pool and Buggle and her other hand patting the caged heart necklace around her neck. "Who are you and why are you in the dream universe?"
"I'm Thoreau. What dream universe?"
"The Tales of the Miserate Fault Line. Does Maryland know you're a flesh and blood doll?" Zin asked Thoreau.
"Yes, we don't hide secrets from each other. When I was reincarnated I took it as a sign, a gift. I'm not going to bullocks it up by lying to a little girl."
"It's rare for anyone to be reincarnated. How did you pull that off?" Zin asked.
"Dreams are sacred, the natural order of an astral plane humans and the like are permitted to experience from time to time. But dreams are also intoxicating like being on every drug you can think of, taking them all at the same time. I overdosed on dreams. I became a dream catcher because of it. And eventually a dream eater. I'd gained such omnipotent power I was able to weave dreams which is forbidden. Dreams are supposed to be natural. Dream catchers aren't able to dream themselves. Being deprived of such an activity made me want it more, too much. I met Maryland in the ghost realm."
"How? Maryland is alive."
"Through her nightmares and visions merging together in her sleep, creating a vortex thrusting her into the ghost realm. I didn't realise I was still attached to the ghost realm. I'd already been reincarnated but the application I put in for the process was only on a trial basis. It became permanent after I signed a contract agreeing to watch over Maryland."
"To protect her from the Shadow Kinder," Zin chimed in.
"No. I have no power to protect her from anything. I'm only her guide. For now this is the only way I can watch over her, since she didn't take me with her," Thoreau said pointing towards the T.V.
"She wouldn't be allowed to take you with her, while she's in jail, anyway," Buggle said shrugging.
"From what I've read in real time in her dream, she was arrested for killing Becky, her imaginary friend," Zin said to Thoreau but glancing at the T.V.
"It was the Terrible Nightmare that took Becky away. Maryland and I are witnesses to that fact. Is this interview over?"
"Yes. I have no more questions for you. Let's go Pool and Buggle."
~Terrible Nightmare~
"T, are they gone?" she heard someone whisper.
Thoreau turned away from the t.v. and around the room. There was no one there. "I'm losing my mind. I've been a doll for too long." She looked back at the television.
"T?" Thoreau didn't look at where the voice was coming from.
Maybe if I ignore it, it'll go away, she thought.
Thoreau flew off the edge of the bed as if something had knocked her over.
"What the devil...?" Thoreau said staggering to her feet.
"Sorry, T. You shouldn't have ignored me."
"Who are you?" Thoreau said climbing up on the bed, rubbing the side of her head.
"It's me, Maryland."
"Maryland?" Thoreau looked at the t.v. seeing that Maryland was still in her cell, lying on the cot, crying her eyes out.
"No, who are you really?"
"Maryland. Is this a joke? Maryland is right there," Thoreau pointed to the t.v. screen.
"I'm part of Poltergeist: The Legacy fan club. I know all about poltergeists. And even I know they're not real. Just imaginings humans have about ghosts and the supernatural. I know I used to be a ghost. Strange for an ex-ghost to be skeptical. But I'm not. I'm just a realist. So if that's where you're going with this. Be my guest and watch an episode or two with me. And after you've learnt your lesson. Then find the door."
"It's really me. Get me out of jail. I want to go home."
"Maryland? Is that really you?" Thoreau asked looking at the t.v. watching Maryland cry herself to sleep.
"Yes, T."
"I'll be there soon," Thoreau said turning off the t.v.
"Hurry," Maryland said as Thoreau scurried out of the window.
When Thoreau finally got to the jail, she saw Maryland standing in the corridor outside her cell. "Maryland, I thought you said you wanted me to help you escape?"
"I do. I don't want them to see me. They wouldn't think to notice you."
"You're right. I walked in with a woman who was coming into the police station. I hung onto her handbag for dear life. I dropped to the floor once I felt it was safe to. After that it was easy. Come along, Maryland. Let's see if I can get you out of here," she said reaching for her hand but drew it back when he saw the officer.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to break the prisoner out?" the police officer asked. "You're in serious trouble," he said rushing towards Thoreau with the baton.
"Maryland, run."
"Where? There's nowhere to go," Maryland said running alongside Thoreau.
Thoreau looked over her shoulder. There was no way out except passed the officer.
"You're not putting her back in that cell," Thoreau said as she turned around and stood in front of Maryland to block his avenue.
"Have you gone mad? The child is already in her cell."
"It's you that's gone mad. She's right behind me," Thoreau pointed over her shoulder.
"He must need glasses," Maryland said whispering.
"No, the little girl is here," he beckoned with his hand to Thoreau, leading her down the corridor to Maryland's cell.
Thoreau nearly choked on her gasp when she saw Maryland snuggled up sleeping in her cell.
"What's the meaning of this?" Thoreau said a bit flabbergasted.
"He can't see me. I guess only you can, T."
"Can you see you, there?" Thoreau asked pointing to the little girl in the cell.
"Who are you talking to?" the police officer said kneeling down to Thoreau's level, glancing her and then back at Maryland in her cell.
"You're so silly, T. There's no one there. I'm here beside you," Maryland insisted.
"You can't be a ghost. I would've sensed that. Just because I used to be a ghost doesn't mean I don't know one when I see one. What are you? Are you a witch?"
"No, T. I'm just Maryland."
Thoreau pinched Maryland's arm.
"Ow," Maryland screamed.
"Hmm, it was like pinching butter with air inside it."
"It felt real," Maryland said rubbing her arm, an annoyed look on her face. She pinched Thoreau on the arm. Thoreau yelped.
"We've established I'm real and you're somewhere in between. This can't be purgatory," Thoreau said looking up and around outside and inside the cell. "I've been to purgatory."
"I haven't had my birthday party yet. Let's go before it's too late," Maryland said grabbing Thoreau by the arm.
Maryland's grip on Thoreau's arm was like air, carrying her afloat.
When Maryland and Thoreau made it back home, they climbed through the window.
"How are we going to explain to your mother and sister without scaring them to death that you're here but you're in the jail, too? First they'd have to get over the initial shock that I'm talking to them. Wait a minute. Astral projection. That's the only explanation. You must've astral projected through your dream or sleep state. No one's ever been able to do that before but there's a first time for everything, I suppose."
"T, what are you talking about? Let's light a candle. My birthday will be over, if we don't do it now."
"Yes, right," Thoreau said glancing at the clock on the wall. It seemed to be turned sideways. She looked at the hands on the clock. It was almost 9 p.m. She struck a match and lit a candle. "Make a wish, Maryland."
As Maryland blew out the candle, it seemed like a small breeze had flickered out the candle. The town of Grand went as dark as the night sky.
There was a grayish halo in patches in the dark clouds. Zin, Pool and Buggle saw it happening right before their eyes. In their path was a group dressed in black cloaks. They had flat, blanched and haggard faces that looked like folded cardboard. They stood to one side of the grayish-green land beneath them. As Zin, Pool and Buggle moved forward, they turned into ravens flying up to the sky like the shape of a waterfall with some of them low to the ground leading upward. Zin could see a small house behind them. There were frightened children at the windows.
"Pool, Buggle stay," she said holding her hand up behind her to stop them, her eyes trained on the group before her preventing her from crossing to get to the children.
She tried to go around them, but they blocked her at every chance.
"What are you?" Zin asked. She secretly figured they were a coven of witches, since that's what they looked like to her.
"We are Florice?" hallowed collective voice said with no physical signs of where it came from since they had no mouths.
"I've been through the Tales of the Miserate Fault Line before. And there are no legends here in this dream universe. There is only one like it. And it's as limitless as dreams are. You must be new. Where do you come from?"
"We come from a dream. A dream called, Maryland."
Zin stepped away.
"More like a nightmare," Buggle said shuddering.
"When Thoreau said she and Maryland were there when Becky was taken, I don't think either of them was supposed to be there. Definitely not at the same time and especially not a human watching an imaginary friend being taken away like that," Zin said chiming in. "I think the Terrible Nightmare took Maryland the same day it took Becky, because she saw too much."
"But how would it?" Pool asked.
"By making her un-see what she just saw. Like rewinding a VHS tape. That's how they got her by toying with her mind. But what they didn't count on was Maryland herself," Zin said looking over her shoulder at the Florice. She took what they did to her and she became something more powerful than anyone could ever imagine. She became something that no one ever thought possible. She became a real life dream. How can you fight something like that?"
"You better figure it out. Those children are counting on you," Buggle said taking Pool by the hand.
"Oh, no," Zin said pulling them both by their arms. "Pool and Buggle you're going to create a diversion so I can get the children out safely."
"A diversion? You expect us to risk our lives?" Buggle asked, appalled.
"Yes. And besides how are you going to get out of here without me, if I get obliterated or something."
"She's right," Pool said groaning.
Pool and Buggle rushed forward making the Florice scatter.
Zin tried to move as fast as she could. She entered the house where the children were holed up. She collected the children and headed for the door. They flew in a cluster toward the house to blanket it to keep Zin and the children trapped inside. But Pool and Buggle chased them away from the house. Zin led the children out before they could gather again.
"Hurry, children."
Zin stopped and looked over her shoulder at Pool and Buggle as they swarmed around them.
"Pool, Buggle! Hurry!" she said beckoning them over to where she and the children were heading.
They ran but the Florice stuck with them like a moth to a flame.
"We can't go. They'll follow you and the children," Buggle and Pool said in unison.
"I can't leave either of you here."
"No, you have to. Save yourself and the children."
"I can't. Chevoque won't let me leave without you both," Zin said wrestling with the necklace tightening around her neck.
Zin went into the cluster and pulled Pool and Buggle out. The Florice swarmed around her.
"Go," she told Pool and Buggle.
"But we don't know the way out of here," Buggle said with a worried look on its face.
"The children can lead you as far as they know to go. You won't get lost with them guiding you. That way I can find you. Just wait for me with the children."
Buggle and Pool nodded.
The Florice stopped swarming around Zin but they encircled her. Each one of them looked through her skin like a Simon electronic game X-Ray. Their powers had the unique properties of violet, red, white and black phosphorous. They saw nothing but darkness where her bones should be. She smiled inside knowing they wouldn't find anything. To an outsider, her bones would look like the night. They looked again. It was the only part of her that illuminated. Her eyes widened as they closed in on her tighter.