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Counter Earth Chronicles

Chapter 57: Something That Has Never Lived (While She Was Away Part Three)

Day 174 continued

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" I screamed ducking behind Minka.

Time stopped, the moment silent as the cubs and I. Mostly the cubs, stared down our visitor.

"No." The entity said.

I looked up realizing that Arthur and Minka had stepped to either side of me and I was staring right at the black oily, tar- like entity that had appeared first as a black pool and then risen from the floor and confronted us. The frown still on its face.

(Whoa! Extreme close up.)

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?!" The female entity asked angrily.

"GO AWAY! PLEASE JUST G-GO AWAY!" I remember screaming.

"What's wrong with him?!" The woman asked Arthur angrily.

I nearly freaked as the hedgehog-boy calmly addressed the 'woman' who was dressed in centuries old clothing none of us recognized.

"You will have to forgive him. It is his first time seeing someone like yourself." Arthur said quite mature-like.

"I will only ask you one more time! What are you doing in my house?!"

"Yes ma'am. Myself and my colleagues are investigating some strange occurrences that the owners have been complaining about." The hedgehog-boy said to the tar-like spirit.

(Like what we are seeing now!)

"I have not requested such services!" The woman exclaimed. "Although I think I could use them."

"How so?" Minka asked the spirit.

"Something is after me!" The tar-like entity said looking over her shoulder before disappearing.

No sooner had she vanished, the record player stopped playing.

"Incident number three a vintage music machine starts playing without a power source." Arthur said.

"Incident number four a mysterious dark lady appears wanting to know why we are in her house." Minka added to the evidence record.

**CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP**

The cubs and I turned our attention from where the woman had vanished back to the far side of the room where an invisible hooved something was marching its way across the wooden dance floor toward our position.

As it walked toward us we clearly saw hoof markings being made on the dust that was on the floor.

"Incident number five!" I said to Minka and Arthur.

"So Mr. Alex would you care to even try to explain what we have just seen?!" The hedgehog-boy said as the whatever it was at the far side of the room drew closer to us.

"I hate the unexplained!" I said to the cubs.

"Arthur, Alex as much as I find this debate funny. We should be going!" Minka said grabbing us by the hand and paw and leading us back upstairs.

We ran upstairs just in time to see Mrs. Fox walk by before we reached the top of the staircase.

"Minka, why did you force us to leave?" The hedgehog-boy asked.

"Simple. Our ghost fled when she saw whatever was down there approach. If she being dead thought it was unsafe to be there, who am I to disagree?"

I couldn't argue with that logic.

"Also there was something very interesting about our ghost. She said that this was HER house." I added. "Previous tenant?!"

"Hmm.... we need to do some research." Arthur said as we made our way toward the front door of the house.

As we were heading toward the van, we went by the great room where the Foxes were bedding down for the night; the family was lighting candles all around the room.

"Hey Mrs. Fox did you hear anything while we were in the basement just now?" I asked her.

"I haven't been near the basement all day." She said turning toward me.

"But I, we, just saw you walk by when we were coming up the steps." I bleated.

"I never go near there or the steps leading to that room for obvious reasons- there is something down there." The black haired woman said to me.

"Um, kay, we will be right back." I said a little on edge.

"Serious mysterious." The hedgehog-boy said as we headed toward the red van.

"Flo we need some information." Minka said as we entered.

(Well this looked nice and cushy! Maybe I should run tech!)

The female orangutan was seated at a table looking at a wall of monitors each locked onto one of the triangle probes that had been deployed in and out the house.

"Shoot."

"Can you pull a complete history of this house?" Arthur asked.

"One sec." The she beast said as she accessed the hub.

We spent the next 20 minutes pulling up as much information as we could on the old house. Many, documents were available going back to the time of the house's construction. I was amazed that so much was available since before the High Evolutionary came to power.

**BEEP** **BEEP**

"What is it?" I asked the three ghost hunters.

"One of the probes detected something." Flo said zooming in on a monitor.

It was the great room of the farmhouse where the Fox family had just bedded down for the night after they had finished lighting the last of their candles.

"I don't see anything out of the ordinary." I said studying the image.

Flo rewound the last minute of the audio.

"We light these candles for protection against that which we can see, that which we can not see and that which seeks to harm _us. Please keep us safe against all threats, dangers and evil." _ We heard the family chant.

"Interesting." Arthur said.

_"_A cleansing ritual?" Minka said as Lilly Fox lit the last candle in the great room.

_ "RAWWWWWWRRRRRR!!!!!!" _

"What the hell was that?!" I asked jumping.

Flo rewound the audio again. "It was what the probe detected in that room."

"Something didn't like them chanting or was it the candles?" Arthur said thinking out loud. "Flo did you record what happened to us in the basement?"

"All of it. Which reminds me- check this out." The female orangutan said as she pulled up the visual in the basement. "It is quiet now but I got this as you were leaving."

We looked at the audio and video the probe had recording as that thing that had scared off the ghost and us, approached the probe:

**CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP**

_ "Tch!!!" _

After making that remark the thing just disappeared.

"Hmm..." The hedgehog-boy said. "I am starting to think that not all who dwell here are friendly."

"Is the family in danger?" I asked the eleven year old ghost hunter.

"Possibly. We need more evidence."

(What? We had seen wasn't enough?!)

"Oh and I also have a visual on what you saw as you were coming up the staircase." Flo said to us.

We took a look at what we had thought was Mrs. Fox. It looked like her, but as it 'walked' in front of the hallway probe all us got a clear look at the face. It didn't have one.

(Freaky!!)

"Incident number six, a faceless doppelganger." The hedgehog-boy said.

"Incident number seven something expressing its displeasure at the family's chanting and candle lighting ceremony." Minka added.

"It's getting late. You three better get to bed." Flo said to us.

"Right. Transfer the records on the house to my cube. I want to study them." Arthur said to their cub-sitter.

It was around midnight when the cubs and I left the red van and re-entered the farm house. We quietly made our way back to the study where we spent the next hour pouring through the records Flo had found on the house's history.

Seriously after what I had just seen, what we had just seen, who could sleep?

"Hey guys check this out!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"This house was built 4041." The hedgehog-boy said. "If I did the math right that is two hundred and seven years ago."

"Wow. That's just, just wow." I bleated.

"According to this it was built by a Smith Snow, a farmer who disappeared under mysterious circumstances thirteen years later. It was then bought by Grace Manners who liked to hold lavish dance parties in the cellar."

"Do you have a picture?!" Minka asked eagerly.

Arthur pressed a button on his cube and it projected an image of Ms. Manners.

"That is definitely the woman who we had seen in the basement earlier." Minka said astounded.

I agreed. Although a bit younger and not oily.

"It says she died in the house seven years after its purchase- in the basement. The house has been bought and sold, bought and sold ever since then. Each owner holding on to it no longer than two years."

(WOW.)

"I don't know about you, Mr. Alex but it sounds like this place has been haunted since the beginning!" The monkey-girl said to me.

"That is quite the history." Arthur said.

"So now what?!" I asked the two ghost hunters.

"We observe and record." Minka said. "This is the part of our research that can be quite boring."

"What do you do to pass the time?" I asked.

"Oh we can talk or sleep or talk. Mostly talk. Sooooo, I heard from Cody that you are in love with a beastial Mr. Alex." The monkey-girl asked.

(UH OH.)

"So it was the female bear he smelled on you wasn't it? Dating outside your own species now are we?" The hedgehog-boy piled on.

"Um.... You know one thing I admire about you children is that you are very mature for your ages." I bleated desperately trying to change the subject.

"Thank you, but you are trying to change the subject." Arthur said as he continued to probe me. "And that comment you made earlier about the there being record players on your world? Since we met Mr. Alex, I have been trying to place that accent of yours, but I haven't been able to." Arthur said to me.

"Arthur do you copy?"

(Phew, saved.)

"Go ahead Flo."

"**CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP** is back."

"Where?" Arthur asked.

"In the backyard. I don't have any video, only audio."

"Put it through."

_ "NO! NO! DON'T! PLEASE! SOMEONE, ANYONE HELP MEEEEE!!! AIEEE!!!" _

"What was that?" I asked scared to know the answer.

"Sounded like someone or something being tormented." Minka observed. "And not liking it."

_ *"MAW HAW HAW HAW!!!" * _Something laughed maniacally.

**CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP** **CLOP**

"CLOP, CLOP, CLOP, CLOP the tormentor?!" I asked. "What is really going on here?"

"Hmmm..... that is the sound a horse would make. The four legged variety."

"So there is something here riding a horse?" Minka said.

"Yes while we ponder that puzzle let's get back to our friend Mr. Alex." Arthur said looking at me again. "Where exactly are you from?"

"Ok, ok children. Both of you are very perceptive and inquisitive. If I tell you- how can I be sure you will keep it to yourselves?"

"You have seen our hobby." The monkey-girl said to me. "What you have witnessed is only a small fraction of what we have seen ghost hunting. A lot of it we keep to ourselves."

"Ok little ones." I said to them.

Over the next hour I told Minka and Arthur my life story, how I arrived on Counter Earth, my initial encounter with the Knights of Wundagore and my adoption by Lady Ursa. But not any of the missions I had gone on with the knights.

"I knew there was something a little 'off' about you!" Minka said excitedly.

"Was it that obvious?"

"The fact that you didn't know the common languages on this world, you were confounded by the technology, even the structure and order of this society." Arthur concluded. "So you emigrated to this world from another and was taken in by one of its residents."

"Yes." I said blushing.

"Talk about bringing in a view from the far outside..." Minka commented.

"Please little ones. It will be just our secret alright?"

"Ok Mr. Alien." The monkey-girl tee-heed.

"You and Lady Ursa must be quite mature to deal with the cultural differences. So how has your transition been?" Arthur asked.

"It has been rough and arduous at times but I have a good handle of how things work on this world. I have become proficient in English and I am still learning Animalia as you all- BLAAAHH!" I screamed hugging Minka.

"Wha?" The monkey-girl said looking around the room. She then saw what had frightened me- a long black shadow had stretched itself along the top of the wall, over the books then to the floor of the study right in front of us.

(Was this the shadow from the attic?!)

"That is an interesting device? How does it work?" The spirit said materializing in front of the three of us.

"Go away! Go away!" I quivered holding on to Minka.

"Nope. Still here." The entity said.

"There there Mr. Winter did the ghost scare you?" The monkey-girl said patting me on my head trying to comfort me.

"Alex the spirit will leave when it wants to leave and not because you are trying to shoo it away." Arthur said chastising me.

"Who are you calling a spirit?" The man said. He like the woman we had seen earlier was dressed in centuries old clothing.

"This is an opportunity!" Minka said. "Alex if you are scared stay behind me!"

"Mr. Ah...."

"Smith Snow. What is that device you brought into my house? And what are you doing in my house?" The ghost asked.

"This is a cube. It is an information gathering device we use in this century. Mr. Snow do you know what year it is?" Arthur asked calmly.

"4054 Why?"

"Please indulge us for a little longer sir we will answer your questions but we have some that need answering too." Minka jumped in.

"What is the last thing you remember?" The hedgehog-boy asked resuming the questioning.

"I was harvesting in the fields and a windstorm blew up on lifted me off the ground. The next thing I remembered I was back in the house. I thought it was that creature I summoned who save me."

"Wait, why would one want to summon anything?!" I asked peeking out from behind Minka.

"I was having a bad year, my crops were failing and my farm was heavily in debt. I had taken several loans to purchase this land and to build this house. I guess I got desperate so I met with a mysterious woman who was into the occult. She taught me how to open pathways doors, if you will. I summoned a being who said that it would turn my misfortune around for a price."

"What was that price?" Minka asked.

"Some shoes." The ghost answered.

(Wait, what?!)

I looked at the two ghost hunters we all face-palmed.

"Mr. Snow we have some news for you." Arthur started. "It is not 4054. But actually 031 YOE (Year Of Empire). Never mind, by your standards it is 4248."

"In fact we don't tell time the same way you used to back then." Minka said.

"Back then?" The spirit said looking over Minka curiously.

"The world has changed a lot since you were alive sir. Humans aren't the dominant species on Counter Earth anymore." Arthur said gently to the spirit.

The being floated over to examine the cube and then Arthur and Minka - "animal people?"

"Umm hmm. You aren't the owner of this house anymore; it is my strong opinion that you have been dead for one hundred ninety seven years. Probably killed by the creature you summoned who didn't want your shoes. He wanted something much more precious to you your soul." I said to the ghost.

"Oh dear." The ghost started to say as it faded away.

"Way to break it to him gently Alex! Wait! Mr. Snow! There are others here with you aren't there?" Arthur asked."

"Yes. OH NO IT'S HERE!!'

"Incident number nine. We spoke to the original owner of the house who had no idea he was dead." Arthur said out loud.

"And he made a deal with a creature he summoned for prosperity?!" I added.

"Arthur! This is Flo. I have activity in the family room!"

"Acknowledged." Arthur said to the cube.

We crawled across the floor to peek into the other room across the hall.

*CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP*

What we had encountered in the basement earlier had made its way to the main floor of the house.

(Was this the creature that the original owner had summoned?)

*CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP*

We watched as the hoof prints stopped in front of an odd looking vase at the far side of the family room.

"Tch!!" It said.

"Flo are you getting this?" Arthur said contacting the orangutan.

"Yes, there is nothing there, but if I switch to an alternate spectrum- there it is, it is quadrupedal."

"You mean like a centaur, pony or a horse? I asked.

"Yes."

"Scratch that! LOOK!" Arthur and I stared at where Minka had been pointing. A black puff of smoke appeared on the floor at the side of the hoofed whatever it was. The thing crawled across the floor and stopped in front of the vase!

One by one the three of us were levitated into the family-room and placed onto the couch.

(Odd, I didn't sense any danger.)

The black smoke moved from the weird looking vase to just in front of the couch.

*"THIS HOUSE AND THOSE IN IT ARE MINE!!!" *

"Did that just come from that black thing?!" The monkey-girl said to the hedgehog-boy.

"Yes, yes it did." The hedgehog-boy said to her. "Alex do you have an explanation?"

"Guys, we are well past that!" I squealed.

"I think it is best we leave!" Minka said getting up from the couch.

"Flo code red! Repeat code red! One of the ghosts appears to be malevolent! Evacuate the family." Arthur ordered their cub-sitter.

The cubs and I made a break for the entrance of the room.

"NO ESCAPE!" The black smoke said cutting us off.

Minka attempted to run by our tormentor but was picked up and thrown into the weird looking vase in the corner of the room smashing it to pieces.

.

"FUCK! DAMN IT!" The entity squealed.

"I'm ok! I think." The monkey girl said getting up.

"Minka!" Arthur and I said rushing to her side.

Arthur and I stared at the remains of the vase just in time to see something crawl out of it- more black smoke! It charged toward the first one and the two fought. Oscillating back in forth across the room as if in a battle of life and death.

The children and I regrouped next to the four hoof prints that decided to vanish in the family room as the vicious fight ensued.

(Nice steed.)

"Arthur, the Fox family has fled." Flo said to us.

"Good prep the van. We will be joining you shortly."

We continued watching the two clumps of smoke battling fiercely for the next ten minutes until one, I am not sure which quashed, the other one and sent it fleeing from the house out of the front door. Much to our amazement.

The victor then circled back to confront the three of us in the hallway.

(Uh oh.)

"THANK YOU FOR FREEING ME CHILDREN."

"What happened to the other one?" Minka asked.

"DEFEATED; HE IS GONE. MY BRETHREN CAN BE MOST IRRITATING.

ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"ALL THE SOULS THAT INHABIT THIS PLACE ARE MINE."

"We didn't catch your name." Arthur said pulling out his cube. "Which resident of this house are you Mr. ghost?"

"GHOST?! YOU ASSUME I WAS ONCE MORTAL? THAT I HAD ONCE LIVED LIKE MY VICTIMS. BUT YOU ARE WRONG."

(What the what?)

"In what way are we wrong sir?" Minka asked questioning the puff of smoke.

It was eerily silent before whatever it was decided to continue dialoguing with us.

"I HAVE NEVER BEEN WHAT YOU CALL ALIVE. NOW TO SHOW MY GRATITUDE FOR FREEING ME, I WILL ALLOW YOU AND YOUR CLAIRVOYANT TO LEAVE. NOW!!! WHILE YOU STILL CAN."

Arthur, Minka and myself ran toward the van.

"Flo pull up the probe in the family room." Arthur ordered.

The orangutan did as ordered just in time to hear the cloud of smoke address the rest of the house's tenants- its victims:

"AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO CHEERED MY IMPRISONMENT, I HAVE NEWS! DADDY'S HOME!!!"

At that statement the whole house screamed and shook violently as if in a Counter Earthquake:

"HELP US!!! HELP US!!!"

The three of us took that to be our cue and Flo started the van just as I was dragged out of it and back into the house by my legs by an invisible something.

'HELP US!!! PLEASE HELP US!!!! IT'S BACK!!! IT WANTS ME!!"

"I recognized the last voice, it was Smith Snow his acknowledgement that what he had summoned two hundred years ago was what Minka had just released from the weird looking vase and what had allowed us to leave its domain with our lives.

"You brought this on yourself Mr. Snow!" I said to the ghost running out of the house and back into the van.

Flo, Arthur and Minka put the Foxes up in a twenty-four hour bed and breakfast for the rest of the night. We regrouped at Minka's house around 3 AM.

"We screwed up so so badly." Minka said as Flo finished setting up the monitors in the library.

The four of us continued to watch the transmissions from the probes deployed in each of the rooms of the at the Fox's house.

We saw balls of light flying from room to room screaming and wailing as if in extreme pain. In the front hallway pictures were being tossed and thrown about. In the rustic looking kitchen garbage was being spread everywhere is if some grand party was taken place. In the great room a gust of wind came out of nowhere and was blowing the candles out one by one by one.

"The hell?! What is going on in there?!" Flo exclaimed.

"Our big screw up- we released something in that house that had been trapped and now it is attacking the other ghosts." Arthur said.

"Not quite right guys. Remember there was already something there previously tormenting the other spirits. Remember the family said the they heard entities pleading for help. I think all we did was replace the top dog." I said to the three ghost hunters.

"And to show his gratitude he let us leave before he resumed torturing his so called tenants." Minka added.

"So that is what we are seeing now." Flo said staring at the monitors again.

"But what type of ghost torments other ghosts?" Arthur asked.

"Or for that matter says that it had never been alive in order to become a ghost?!" Minka added.

"NOT GHOST." A soft voice was heard saying at the far end of the library.

I turned my head to see an old rocking chair- rocking by itself at the doorway.

(I hadn't noticed that before.)

"Miss Eliza?" Mika said turning to address the chair.

"NOT GHOST DE-MON." The soft voice said again.

"Of course!!!" The hedgehog-boy exclaimed.

"Uh, guys who said that?!" I said hiding behind Minka again.

"Oh yeah- Alex that is Miss Eliza. She lives with Minka and her family." Flo said. "Miss Eliza Alex."

(She is the ghost that lives with you?)

Based on that last piece of the puzzle Arthur figured out what had been happening at the Fox's farmhouse the last one hundred ninety four years. Mr. Snow who was in financial desperation opened a 'door' and invited that thing into his house. It tormented him and all that came after. At some point it was replaced by another of its kind before we came to investigate and freed it to resume it reign. The Fox's idyllic home in the country was really a house of the dead.

"Well this is going to be a difficult report to present." Flo said to us all. We all agreed.

The next morning I accompanied Flo, Arthur and Minka to the bed and breakfast the Foxes were staying at as the ghost hunters gave the family the bad news.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fox we concluded our investigation." Arthur said solemnly. "Your house is haunted and has been for the last one hundred and ninety four years."

"By what?" Mrs. Fox asked.

"Many many ghosts, ma'am." Minka added.

"But that is not the worst of it, it is also haunted by two demons- the puffs of smoke you saw. They were tormenting the ghosts and all who lived there." Flo said to the family.

"How did this happen?" Mr. Fox asked horrified.

To say the family was distraught was an understatement. Wouldn't you if you learned a house you owned for less than a year was cursed because of something stupid one of the previous owners had done nearly two hundred years before?

Arthur, Minka and Flo told Mr. and Mrs. Fox that they could try to send the demon away but there would be no guarantee that it would stay away. It might come back angrier and stronger then before. Or its rival may return to settle accounts. For their safety and sanity it would be best if they cut their losses and flee.

At first the family was hesitant until Flo showed them a live feed of what was taking place at their house right at that moment. Heart broken they reluctantly agreed. The beastial children warned the family to move on and to not go back into the house for any reason.

That weekend I learned from my friends Arthur, Minka and Flo that ghosts and demons do exist and spirits do get stuck between the good and bad place when they die. Minka summed it up for me very succinctly as we were leaving by quoting a line to popular hub program she used to watch when she was little:

_ Between the world we see and the things we fear- there are doors. When they are opened nightmares become reality. _

Would I ever go on another ghost hunt? After what I had seen that night hell to the no! But Minka later admitted that most of their 'interns' chose not to come back either. But I did let the cubs snooker me into going with them on another ghost hunt in the future- they claimed they needed a medium. But that is another story.

To Be Continued....

Next Week:

A story inspired by a segment from the 1980s/1990s tv series Unsolved Mysteries. Rest in peace Robert Stack.