《Into the Shadows》Chapter 12: The Church Pt. 2
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The church was dead silent and I heard the muffled sound of footsteps along the stone floors.
"Are we going to be civil? Or are you going to throw another hissy fit? Knock if you want this to be civil, stay quiet if you aren't interested in a dialogue."
There were knocks on the walls and ceiling above me and then a press on the organ's keys.
"So it still works? Interesting..." I thought carefully about my next words, "Hit the keys again if you know the difference in octaves."
There was a series of random keys played, starting with a few from the the first and second octaves before moving to the fourth, and then all the way up to the sixth and seventh.
"Good." I told him, "This is going to be our scale. I'm going to ask you questions and you will answer them on a scale of disagreement to neutral to agreement. Let the first mean disagreement, the fourth mean neutral, and the seventh mean agreement. You may play any of the keys in any octave to show how much you agree and disagree. In the neutral octave, if you play closer to the 3rd, I will take that as you edging on disagreement, where as if you play closer to the fifth I will take that as edging toward agreement. Understand?"
I was meet with F4 in return, a perfect middle key.
"Good."
Now... What to ask first?
"Did you intend to attach yourself to me when you appeared to me in the hall?"
B5, sort of agree.
"Was that the moment you decided you would and you just were not sure before hand?"
B7, near perfect agreement.
"Did you have malicious intentions?"
C1, no, none at all.
"Did you only want to escape the hotel?"
B7.
"Do you like it here better?"
B6, agreement.
"Were there other spirits at the hotel with you?"
B7.
"Are they why you like it better here?"
B7.
I heard yells from outside and Colby poked his head in the door.
"Are you messing with us?" he asked.
"No...? Why? What happened?"
"A shadow walked in front of the house."
"Is that why you were all freaking out?" I should have asked if there were any other spirits here.
"Hey!" I yelled, "Is there someone else here? Another spirit?"
F4.
"What the hell?!" Colby freaked out. I forgot they didn't know about the organ thing.
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"Chill out, this is how we've been talking." I shushed him, "What do you mean by that? How can the answer be neutral? I need a yes or no!"
"Is another spirit here?"
B1.
"Another person?"
B1.
"Then what could it be if not human or spirit?"
There was a crash by the altar and when I turned to see what was going on, the lowest octaves on the organ were smashed, multiple keys at the same time over and over again.
"A demon?"
F4.
"Do you not know what it is?"
B7.
"But you know it's here?"
B7.
"Does it want to hurt us?"
F4.
"Are you afraid of it?"
B4, neutral, but closer to agreeing.
"How would you react if I tell you this is the end of the line and I'm going to sever our connection and leave you here?"
F1. E1. D1. C1. B0. A0. All played right in a row in rapid succession.
"You don't like that do you? You're afraid of it?"
There was a smash on a whole bunch of keys and another crash as the door slammed shut in Colby's face.
"Lia!" he banged on the door, it shook as he yanked on it, trying to reopen it, but it was stuck.
"Let me out!" I demanded.
A lantern was knocked off one of the chairs and a cot was tipped over.
I jumped to my feet and demanded the same thing once again, "Let me out! This is the last time I will ask nicely!"
The door did not open and I heard Colby yelling for Sam, Corey, and Jake to come quickly.
"I warned you!" I told the butler spirit, "Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque princeps militias caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in inferno detrude."
The banging got louder as the boys tried to open the door, and everything stopped inside the church. He was detached from me now so he could not draw my energy to use at his will anymore. He was powerless to play the organ, or knock on walls, or make those crashing noises. He was still here, but he was trapped.
I heard the breathy hisses once again as the door swung open and he was gone. He must have wasted the last of the energy he took from me holding the door closed. It was over, he couldn't get me anymore or the guys. Unless he found a way to attach to us once again.
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"Lia!" the boys yelled as they ran towards me now that they were finally inside.
"Are you alright?!" Colby grabbed my shoulders, trying to make me look him in the eye. I felt kind of sick now that this was over. Not just light headed, but nauseous as well.
"Lia?" Jake waved his hand in front of my eyes and my head snapped up to look at him.
"I'm... I'm okay..."
Sam was looking around the room, at the mess that had been made and then at me.
"Did this actually happen or did you fake it?" Sam asked.
"What?" I was shocked. He was choosing now to doubt everything?
"Debunk this!" he told the guys, "Right now, see if we can do it! We don't have any of it on film so we can't just watch the raw footage before it get edited, so we can only consider what we actually experienced as truth and see if we can debunk it."
"I was in here, Sam, before the door slammed in my face," Colby told him, "The organ was playing itself, I shined a light up there and there wasn't anyone there. It wasn't just random keys either, it was communicating."
"I told the spirit to play different octaves of the organ depending on its disagreement, neutrality, or agreement with my questions." I told him.
"The door slammed in my face too," Colby said, "And Lia was way too far away to do that."
Sam stood in the doorway and shined a light up into the organ loft.
"You can barely see the organ from here, there could have been someone up there playing it and they hid while someone else held the door closed." Same challenged.
"But where did the people go?" Corey said, "People don't just disappear. There was barely three seconds between when we were just pushing on the door to when we all ran at the door and it just swung open. Where did the people holding it closed go?"
"I don't know..." Sam looked down. He almost seemed like he wished this was debunkable.
"I know this has been crazy, but it did happen, Sam, and I'm sorry but it is kind of my fault." I looked down at my shoes, clenching my hands into fists.
"What do you mean by that?" Jake asked, "Why is it your fault? That thing could have attached to any of us."
"But it attached to me because out of all of us I probably have the strongest connection to spirits and because if I had told you about my past before now, maybe some of this insanity could have been avoided." I bit my lip, waiting for someone to snap at me. To tell me that I was in the wrong. That all of this was my fault. That they wish I had never come.
"Well, you can still tell us now." Colby said.
"What?" I looked in his eyes, "You aren't mad?"
"Of course not, your past is your personal business. You already had told us you had a connection with the spirits in the past, which was enough. Don't worry about it, honestly." Corey jumped in and I smiled at him.
"I just wish we got it on film. Imagine if we caught a spirit playing the organ like that?" Jake smirked, "That could have been awesome."
"I guess we just always need to leave cameras rolling then." I laughed, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.
"Yeah, I guess we should." Sam picked up the gear he had dropped on one of the cots and started cleaning up all the stuff that had been thrown around.
I hobbled over to help, but was told to sit down and put another ice pack on my ankle, even though it was already like 40 degrees in the church and I was completely frozen.
"We're going to check out the graveyard again now that everything has really calmed down in here and we feel better about wandering farther from the door." Colby said as he grabbed his flashlight and one of the cameras, "You chill out here, we shouldn't be too long, and if anything happens, just yell and we'll come running."
"Okay, thanks," I laughed, "And be careful out there. You heard what Mr. Butler was communicating. He said there was something else here too. Something that wasn't a human or a spirit."
"He could have meant mice." Jake teased.
"Yeah, I'm sure he was just terrified of mice." I rolled my eyes with a smile, "You guys have fun out there. I'm going to get under some blankets and try not to freeze to death."
"See you later, Lia!" the boys called as they headed outside, shutting the door most of the way behind them.
I put my headphones in and snuggled up.
This is going to be a really long, cold, and boring rest of the night.
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