THE CONJURING

CHAPTER THREE: THE MEETING

Marley arrived home from the bus stop just down the street she found that her father had yet to return from the courthouse.

She let out a sigh, she'd been excited to tell him about her little field trip.

It would have to wait. She had guests coming and she needed to get started on a quick lunch, not that it mattered, she was sure they'd be fine with anything, they didn't seem like the type to complain over simple things like that.

So she set to work making the most basic set of sandwiches possible before setting out a few selected fruits from the refrigerator that she knew her father wouldn't miss. Hell, he only ever ate apples.

Checking the clock, she realized it'd only been around forty minutes since she'd left the courthouse, she wondered when the pair would arrive, hopefully soon, she wanted to hear the story. Whether or not she believed it could be determined after she had all the information.

Then she would work from there.

A few more minutes passed and the sound of knocking at the front door became apparent to her, rushing to put the final touches on the lunch she'd prepared she wiped her hands on the dishtowel and quickly began to make her way towards the entrance.

Holding the towel in one hand and grabbing the doorknob with the other she greeted the two adults with a warm smile before moving off to the side to welcome them in. Which took a few moments as Loraine had to somehow get the wheelchair up and over the doorstep.

Following behind Marley as the three navigated through the house, they soon found themselves in the dining room where three places at the table had been set in regards to the company she had invited.

"I made lunch, if you're thirsty there's lemonade and water in the fridge." Loraine smiled back at her for a brief moment before moving to help her husband into the chair in front of him, as soon as he stood he held out a hand to keep his wife at bay claiming that he could do it on his own, that he was fine.

Marley doubted that.

He wouldn't be in a wheelchair if it wasn't something big, and he probably should've been letting her help him, she just wanted to make sure he didn't hurt himself again. She cared.

She held back a smile, she hoped she got to be like that one day, happy and gleefully in love with someone that cared as much about her as the two cared about each other, she could tell they wouldn't be splitting up anytime soon. She could see them spending the last of their years together happy to pass in each other's company.

The girl sighed, if she wanted to be like that one day, she'd have to branch out past her town. She'd have to move and meet new people, she'd met most of the folks in her town already and none really stood out to her, they all seemed the same.

She wanted someone different, something different.

She wanted excitement, thrills, adventure.

Not some sappy old housewife life that would make her miserable.

Marley waited a few moments before joining the pair at the table, none of them spoke for several moments before Ed bit into his sandwich and roughly swallowed before casting her a look.

"It's a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?" he questioned, she found herself looking to Loraine for help of some sort before realizing there was none that could be provided. Turning back to look at Ed she gave a small nod of her head, "I thought it was pretty interesting, I'd like to know how Arne became...."

She slowly trailed off, saying the word made it all the more real, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to accept it as a possibility just yet.

Not when there could be another somewhat reason as to why he had done what he had.

She hoped so.

She knew they'd call her and her teacher crazy if they went on the limb that Arne was possessed, they'd be a laughing stock, but who knew? Maybe it would work out for them.

Setting his sandwich down, Ed stared at his plate for a few moments before he clasped his hands together and looked up at Marley.

"It started when they first moved into the house, when they noticed some unusual activity and David told them a story that later contributed to the belief something was wrong with him, they called us."

Clearing his throat, he continued, "we came as soon as we could and did some looking around the house. There was this spot in the back bedroom where the first bit of paranormal activity occurred. They believed that it was water damage, but it wasn't." he paused to look at Loraine for a moment, almost as if he was asking for her permission to continue, she nodded.

"So we went to find the source of it and ended up finding something that someone outside of the family had placed beneath the house, the item is commonly used to summon demons, this one, had possessed David, and during the exorcism, Arne told it to take him instead, and it did."

Marley let out a sigh silently glancing down at her hands for a moment before meeting Ed's gaze, "so the demon made him kill his landlord?" he slowly nodded his head, it was sad, and it was frightening, but there wasn't much they could do in regards to his case.

"So, how do we present this to the judge? This isn't something to be taken lightly, using possession as the reasoning I mean." Ed and Loraine exchanged a look, "we gather as much evidence as possible, just try and keep him floating till trial." the girl shook her head, she was finding all this rather difficult to believe, especially under the current circumstances.

"Do you have anything... some proof?" she watched as Ed chuckled and gestured to his wife. Within seconds Loraine was handing her husband a small stack of polaroid photos from her purse before clutching it to her lower chest again. "You can take a quick look through those, we're going to show your friend some more of this stuff later tonight."

Marley did indeed take a few moments to glance through the photos, and what she saw was the stuff nightmares were made of, a few nuns that looked as if they were rotting, a creepy child with its body contorted in every direction it shouldn't be in and a few others photos that would more than likely cross her mind later on.

Sliding the photos across the slick tabletop, Marley watched as the man across from her returned the photos to his wife and took another bite of his sandwich, it seemed so normal for him, as if he did this every day, showed proof of demons and evil to those that were unaware.

A few more moments passed before Loraine picked up her own sandwich and began to eat it, Marley followed suit as she thought of the people she'd seen in the room with her teacher earlier, Arne, he looked miserable, as if he hadn't seen sleep in a long while.

She could almost say she was worried about him, almost.

She still wasn't sure if she believed the story or not, but it didn't matter as long as her teacher was on the case. If she believed it then she did, if not, it seemed they'd have to find different reasoning behind the crime to plead with.

Marley wondered how her teacher was going to handle such an odd case, it seemed almost impossible. Nothing like any of the cases she'd stayed up at night studying, nothing could have prepared them for this.

She felt as if this sort of case wasn't supposed to come with the job, nothing like it had been put in the job description, so why did they have to deal with it?

About half an hour had passed with idle talk about the case before the two lovers dismissed themselves to begin heading home to prepare dinner for the girl's teacher, they were going to show her their substantial amount of evidence in hopes of convincing her that Arne had been possessed and forced to commit the deadly crime against his friend.

She wondered how his girlfriend was handling it, she'd heard that her name was Debbie, but hadn't been entirely sure.

Surely she must have been struggling to cope with the news that Arne was more than likely going to be sent to prison, hopefully, the two made it through the long separation they were going to be looking at. Hopefully they would be allowed visitation like others, but at that moment, Marley had no clue what the future held for the couple.

With Ed and Loraine gone, the girl had plenty of time to go and sit outside to think over what she'd been shown, although, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to think about any of it. It felt like a virus, slowly infecting her brain until she was no longer able to properly function, she didn't like it, it made her feel like she was missing something, something so big that it was draining her.

She could think about the photos later when she slept, lord knew they'd appear in her nightmares. Or cause them.

What she needed to focus on doing was what angle they could go at on Arne's case, even though her teacher had said she'd be participating she figured it wouldn't be much, so maybe she could suggest a better reasoning to plea with than what Ed and Loraine were proposing.

The last thing they needed was to sound like they had no idea what they were doing.

So maybe she needed to talk to Debbie.

And her brother, no doubt both of them could provide more information than what she'd already been given.

She would have to get up early the next day to try and find them before his plea was to be heard.

Cleaning up the dining room and placing the few dishes that had been used in the sink, Marley found herself staring out the window of the living room that had been built across from the dining room. It was nice out, she could see the trunks of a few trees peeking out over the bushes that lined the front and back of the house.

She could remember playing in them as a child, the joy they had brought her.

She missed that joy, the same joy she'd shared with her mother when she was still around and healthy. She wondered if her mother would be happy with what she was doing now, helping people that she wouldn't ever figure out the truth behind.

If they were innocent until guilty.

Her mother had been a hardworking Christian, and in the wake of her death she'd left behind a child that saw no god there to save her mother, no god to show mercy on her family, all she'd seen was the death.

And so she'd never really believed in the beings that may or may not have been watching over them, because lord knew they hadn't been watching over the small family of three.

It didn't bother Marley much anymore, except when her father decided it right to bring up going to church, she'd have much rather stayed home and gone through old cases that had been written about in the town's newspaper, they were far more entertaining.

Far more useful than the hope her father and so many others blindly held onto.

Faith was an odd thing, she knew that much. To just hold your hand out into the darkness and hope for something good to grab on and help you along your path.

It seemed almost foolish.

And yet the town was going to need as much of it as they could get.

THE CONJURING

CHAPTER THREE: THE MEETING