Chapter 23

Warning, this story contains dark scenes with graphic detail that some readers may find distressing.

“Taylor, are you okay??” I asked frantically as I neared her. She still had her eyes wide open, and she was gasping for air.
“What happened? What did you see??” Bryce asked.
“That—that wasn’t Mrs. Higgins,” She gasped out. “It was something else. Something evil. It was just trying to be her.”
“What??”
“We have a huge problem.” She added frantically. “The demon escaped. When you guys closed the veil, he escaped. He didn’t bring himself back. He’s around here.”
My heart dropped. A demon had escaped? No way this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. The vison of the demon like things attacking my parents invaded my mind and I bit my lower lip to stop myself from crying out. It was real. All of it was real. I could feel bile rise in my throat, but I wouldn’t allow myself to be sick. I had to be strong.
We all sat in silence as we debated on what to do. An hour had passed since our contact with the ghosts and the whole escaping. In other words, we have a demon on the loose in our home and we aren't sure what to do. We weren't sure where it was, what it would do, and we were afraid that if we made a wrong move, we could be dead in the next minute.
"I vote to call an expert." Kingsley announced after minutes of silence.
"And what if we get in trouble for doing this on our own?" Taylor asked worriedly.
"I think we're way past worrying about consequences now. We have a demon on the loose and we have no idea how to put it back where it belongs." Kingsley replied. I agreed but couldn’t find any words. Still reeling from the who demons are real.
"Kingsley is right," Bryce piped in with a sigh. "It's time we ask for help. We can't afford to lose any of us in here."
"So... who are we going to call?" I asked quietly. It wasn’t like we could call the Ghostbusters now.
"I know someone!" Elijah exclaimed. "My mom's best friend is a professional paranormal investigator. She lives just a block away from my parents’ house. We could go pick her up right now."
"Sounds great. Elijah and Kingsley can go, and the rest of us will stay behind in case something goes wrong." Bryce instructed. Again, he had said, “Something goes wrong.” At this point I positive that saying was a curse.
"I'm staying with Lilly." Kingsley argued suddenly and my eyes went wide as he caught me off-guard. "Taylor can go with Elijah." Why would he want to stay with me? Taylor was the one that had been in the line of fire.
"Aww," I heard Taylor coo behind me and I was thankful that the lights were still out. They would have seen my reddened cheeks.
"Alright, Taylor you good?" Bryce asked and Taylor said she was fine, just a little shook up. But who wouldn’t be? I know I was.
"I'm good! Let's go, Elijah. Time is running."
And with that, the two of them quickly left Bryce handing Elijah the car keys as they walked out the door leaving the four of us in the living room, unmoving.
"If you guys feel something's wrong, you have to voice out, okay?" Bryce said.
As if on cue, we could hear heavy footsteps upstairs just above the ceiling in the living room and I felt my heart stop and my breathing pick up.
"It's upstairs," I whispered with a trembling voice.
"Just don't panic. We'll keep the candles on and stay within the salt. We will not break our circle." Kingsley said. That's when I felt his large, soft hand feeling for mine and I linked my fingers with his, squeezing his hand reassuringly and he squeezed back. The action was small and simple, but it was enough to send butterflies fluttering around in my stomach, despite the situation we were in.
After twenty minutes, Bryce pulled out his phone and dialed Taylor's number. At that point they should be in Elijah's neighborhood as Kingsley guessed. Loud thuds and movements could still be heard from upstairs and with every minute that passed I was afraid of what it was planning to do next. That demon could be plotting to kill us for all we knew. Or worse, torture.
“Taylor?” I heard Bryce say as he spoke to his phone. “So? Did you find her?”
I couldn’t hear what Taylor was saying so we all depended on Bryce’s responses for any answers. As Bryce gave a sigh of relief, we knew that help was coming.
“Alright, good. You guys’ better hurry, though. This demon’s upstairs and we’re not sure what it’s doing. It’s really loud.” Bryce said. Taylor had said something before Bryce put the phone down and hung up.
“So? What did she say?” Carter asked.
“They’re coming, and they brought with them the whole team of paranormal investigators. They’ve brought with them some equipment that could be of help to us.” Bryce replied, sounding more hyped up than before.
“Okay, great. We’ll put a stop to this in no time.” Kingsley declared.
“Guys,” I began, just as an idea popped in my head. “I have some suggestions, and I think it would really help us out.”
“Yeah, sure! Tell us.” Bryce egged on.
I took in a deep breath. “Since we’re with some professionals now, why don’t we just push on our main objective here? We only called the experts to help us stop this demon upstairs, but what if we ask them to help us find out the real culprit, too? After all, we already have assistance and enough manpower to figure this out without any faults or errors happening that could cost us our life.”
“Yeah, Lilly is right. Why don’t we just go on with our main plan? We’re on the clock here and if we don’t hurry, we might be losing more people.” Kingsley supported.
“Alright, great idea. We’ll break down our plan to this team and we’ll finish this tonight finally.” Bryce agreed.
So, our plan to find out who was behind all this will push through. I couldn’t help but feel nervous and excited at the same time. My fear with interacting with the paranormal was no longer heavy on my chest; I was determined to end all this and save those we could, and finally give Goldpeak the peace and safety that it needed.
As if on cue, a car honked outside, and it was Taylor and Elijah. Another vehicle pulled up behind them, and I could only assume that it was the paranormal investigation team. We watched through the window as five people left the black van, taking out some equipment with them as Elijah and Taylor led them inside.
“We’re here, and we’re ready.” Taylor announced as she entered the room with the rest of the team. A tall man with thick-rimmed glasses walked up next to Taylor as they both approached Bryce.
“Bryce, this is Sanders. He’s the leader of the team and Mrs. Donavan’s son and daughter.” Taylor introduced the two men and young woman whom Bryce shook hands within turn.
“My mother has retired, but when Elijah called and asked for our help, I couldn’t say no.” Sanders said. “We’ve been told that the fate of Goldpeak’s people is at stake, so we’re more than willing to help stop this mess.”
Bryce nodded and smiled. “Thank you so much, Sanders. Your help will mean a lot. So, you guys can set up in the living room or wherever you feel would be most comfortable, and at the same time I’ll give you a rundown of our plan.”
Sanders nodded in full agreement. “Great, let’s do this!”
And so, the real work had finally begun.