Chapter 21

With Andrew and Lady Gray preoccupied with helping Beth prepare for the Nightmare made Manifest, Zach and Blue found themselves on their own. An arrangement which was less than perfect, but the two could deal.

“Hey, at least we only had to buy one ticket,” Blue tried to cheer Zach up as he looked out of the train at the passing urban landscape. Without the ability to get a ride from Beth, the two of them were forced to rely on South Florida’s less then amazing public transit system.

“I really hope you recognize something by the time we make it to the first house,” Zach grumbled while making sure that the second floor of the car was empty. Last thing he needed was to attract attention by speaking to himself in public.

“We’re just going to have to hope so.” Blue settled down in the chair next to him as Zach tried really hard to not think about how the whole ‘ghost on a moving train’ thing worked.

“I think this is our stop,” Zach declared as he felt the train come to a stop. Blue looked out the window at the concrete structure on the other side of the tracks. It was a tall roof with roads passing underneath it, separated by walls. Along the lines of each road were several benches were people waited for buses to come.

After far too long they’d made it to the central terminal. From here, they could take a bus to pretty much anywhere in Broward County. And yet, they weren’t taking any of them, at least not yet.

“So where do we go from here? They live in one of the apartment buildings right?” Blue asked as she floated by Zach’s side.

“Yeah, they do. Now don’t distract me until we get there. It took me ages to memorize the directions, and I can’t exactly take the file out while we’re in public.” Zach muttered under his breath as made a turn and got ready to walk down two blocks.

“Fine” Blue pouted, but didn’t say a single other word until Zach came to a stop right in front of a large white building.

“Okay, time for a quick investigation of family A.” He nudged his shoulders for Blue to go forward. “Remember, the apartment is six-ten.”

“Got it,” she gave a sloppy salute before looking up at the sixth floor and bracing herself. She froze in place for a second, and then rushed upward through the wall.

After a long conversation on the way back home from the ‘Nightmare made Manifest’ conversation, the two had come up with a plan to investigate the two families. That was, to have Blue sneak in through the walls and look around until she had evidence they either had the right or wrong family.

It was a horrible violation of privacy, and even with Blue doing her best to avoid learning anything to sensitive, both of them felt kind of slimy for doing it. Of course Andrew had been kind enough to inform them that they’d be doing a whole lot worse thing as exorcists. They were a profession which existed outside legal reality, and therefore had to work outside legal circles at time.

He told them it would be better for them to rip off the bandage now. Especially since Blue and Zach’s unique status as an even-shadow meant they probably had a unique advantage in this kind of thing. They were probably going to be doing recon like this for the rest of their careers, so might as well get used to it as early as possible.

With that done, he drove off, leaving the two young exorcists along with their thoughts. At the very least, they decided to try and forget the family’s real names. Instead, they were Family A, and Family 1. Because they felt bad enough labeling them, they didn’t want to label either of them as either B or 2.

Zach quickly found a corner to wait on as Blue started searching. He went over his cover story one more time before settling in to wait for Blue’s return.

The next few minutes were nerve wracking. He was standing around, in broad daylight, committing a crime, in a way that no one would ever convict him on. A cop could walk up to him right now…

Oh that was a cop coming towards him right now.

He let himself relax as the cop walked up to him.

“Hey there kid, what are you doing out here?” He asked with a polite smile that Zach didn’t one hundred percent trust. Good thing he had a cover story ready to go.

“Oh I’m waiting for my friend to come out.” He pointed towards the building behind him. The best way to lie, was to put in just enough of the truth to make it not feel like a lie. “But she’s taking pretty long. She said that her parents might not let her leave, so if she’s not out in a couple of minutes, I’m leaving without her.”

“Bit cold there kid. You sure she’s going to be okay with that? Girl’s don’t exactly like guys who stand them up.” There was a sudden shift in the cop’s demeanor. He was still friendly, but it felt a smidge more genuine now. Like he was trying his best give decent advice.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It a subtle thing, and Zach wasn’t sure he would have noticed it normally. Luckily for him, the stress of the situation was enough to kick his senses up a notch.

“Well we don’t have that much time. We need to meet up with another friend down in Hallandale. If we don’t we’re going to miss the movie.” He looked back over at the apartment building and groaned. “And I’m not going to miss this movie when I already paid for the ticket.”

“Alright kid, if you say so,” the cop shrugged before finally walking away. Zach let himself calm down and got back to waiting for Blue to emerge. A minute or so later, she flew back out of the building and came to a stop next to him.

“No good, they had a big photo of the girl set up in their living room, and she looked nothing like me. This one’s not it.” As soon as Zach heard her, he started walking back the way he came towards the central terminal. He hadn’t been lying to the cop when he said he was planning on heading down to south after this.

He smirked as he sat down and waited for the bus. He was even taking the exact bus he’d need to make it to the movie theater. He settled in for a long ride as the bus started taking them southwards. He made sure to sit near the back, carefully watching the few people around. Once they got off the bus, he quickly opened up his bag to check the directions to get to their next destination.

He made sure to memorize the path he’d need to take as much as possible. He only had until someone else got onto the bus and who knew how long that would be.

As it turned out, he only had around ten minutes until an older lady came onto the bus and sat down two seats away from him. Not wanting to risk discovery, he put the file away for the rest of the trip.

An hour later, they emerged from the bus into Aventura mall’s main bus terminal. Instead of being built under a small concrete structure like the central terminal, the southern terminal was built into another building. Specifically one of the many giant parking lots surrounding the mall.

“Alright, so same story as last time. Complete silence so I can remembered the route.” Blue fell silent as Zach left the parking lot and mall behind and started walking north towards the residential areas behind the mall.

“And we’re just about… here.” Zach came to a stop right outside of a small gated community. “Okay so this time, you’re only heading up to the second floor.”

“I mean, it’s not like I’d be able to go any higher if I wanted to.” Blue muttered as she peaked out over the gate. The ‘community’ was three long two-story buildings laid out from end to end, with a small parking building in the corner. Peeking past the gaps between the buildings, Blue could see a large pool in the back.

“You’re going to building three, second floor, room four… are you listening?” Zach crossed his arms as Blue looked back down from her spot at the top of the wall.

“Building three, room two-oh-four,” She replied flawlessly while starring at the building in question. “Okay, time to see if this is a homecoming or not.”

She flew over the top and started making her way to the building, looking over at the pool and trying to think about going for a swim sometime. Just because she looked like a murder victim in any piece of clothing that showed off her stomach, didn’t mean she couldn’t put her swimsuit back on and go swimming. She’d just have to make sure there wasn’t anyone around who could see her.

She gripped hand tight as she floated in through the wall. Her attempts to distract herself had stopped working as soon as she saw in insides of the building. She braced herself for another memory, but none came. Maybe she didn’t have any strong connection to the walls and hallways of this place. She’d just have to keep going until she found one.

Because she would get one, right? This had to be it. There were no more leads after this. If the people behind that door down the hall weren’t her family, then who were they? Were they out there somewhere, hoping she’d come back someday. Did they hate her for ‘running away’ and never coming back?

She shook her head off the intrusive thoughts as she reached the door. She went through the wood and metal, and braced herself for a sudden rush of memories to overwhelm her like a tidal wave.

Nothing, not a single drop.

“Okay this is weird,” she muttered to herself before pressing forward into the living room. Unlike Family one, Family A didn’t have a massive portrait of their missing daughter placed in the center of the living room. Probably a bit healthier, but nowhere near as useful for Blue’s investigation.

In fact, this family almost seemed opposed to having any photos of any kind. Not a single family photo in the living room, kitchen, or any of the hallways.

“Okay so maybe calling this healthy was a little premature.” She muttered as she looked down the hall. Looked like she was going to have to investigate the individual rooms. She’d managed to avoid it with the first family, but her luck had run dry.

Or at least it might have had the door at the end of the hall suddenly not opened. She barely stayed in place, remaindering herself she was invisible. Instead she watched as a man in his early twenties emerged from the room. She tried her best to ignore the fact that he was shirtless and only wearing a pair of shorts. She had to focus on the mission.

He called out in a language she couldn’t understand, and for a second Blue was worried there were even more people around. She waited a few seconds, but no one replied.

“Huh, must have headed out without me,” the man shrugged his shoulders before walking to the kitchen. Blue could hear him mumbling a little song to himself as she slinked past him.

“Alright then Mr. Shirtless, let’s see if you have an easy answers in your room,” Blue let the hope build up inside of her as she approached the room.

It was messy, with clothes piled up in a corner, and a giant PC dominating a desk. There also seemed to be what looked like recording software running, and a camera pointed towards the chair.

She wondered what it was all for, but quickly decided to ignore it. There wasn’t much she could do with all that stuff other than wreck it. She was better off investigating something else, like the framed photo on top of the dresser.

“Why hello there,” she smirked as she floated over to the frame, “what do you have for me?”

She felt a pulse of ghostly energy as she looked at the picture. On it were two kids, with the same age and same look, twins if she had to guess. The kid on the right was a boy, probably the same man sitting outside if she had to guess. The kid on the left, the man’s twin sister… looked nothing like her.

They’d come out here for nothing. This wasn’t her family. Their only two easy leads were gone… what were they going to do now?