Calling for Help

Sitting at the table, surrounded by the whole crew and now multiple pieces of equipment, I was at a total loss. I had no idea what I was doing and no clue how to help this family of spirits. Casey and I had made a list of information she needed to research for, considering she was the research queen and all. On her list was any psychic, medium, voodoo priest, anyone really, who could help us and she also had to find out something about the burnt man. We still had a day until the night investigation hopefully by then I will have some inkling as to what I am going to do. Since my room is now command center I was stealing Xander's room, I grabbed my blankets and tablet grabbed the room key from Xander and shuffled my way to his room and collapsed on his bed. I was asleep before I could count to three.

I was awakened by a very cranky but happy Casey who had a suspiciously quiet Maddox with her. She had a stack of papers in one hand and a coffee in the other. She took turns alternating which hand she brought to her face, once I saw her try to read and sip at the same time which resulted in her slipping coffee all over her face, causing Maddox to laugh -the first sound he made- and me jumping out of bed to save the papers. She was grumbling and wiping her face off with a napkin that I swear just appeared out of thin air. Maddox brought her another cup of coffee and he brought one to me, handing it to me with a small smile on his face.

I started reading the papers, they were fire reports in the area of the office, only 3 of them had male victims, out of those three only two of them had a partner it included the partner's name. She had the names of both of them, but no pictures which wouldn't do much good considering all I saw was the charcoal remains, not what he looked like before. Well, it's a good start, and that's one less thing to worry about. I didn't get the chance to read the other papers, they were taken from me by Casey. I guess they weren't for me before I gave myself the chance to get angry, I remembered I hadn't taken a sip of the heavenly drink I had.

I stumbled around the room until I realized this was not my room and that is when the contents of last night replayed in my mind. I ran back to my room with a plan; 1. take a shower, 2. reread the information I had about Mae and Jon, 3. attempt to find a charm or maybe a spell to help me. Sounds like a good plan to me. I was at my door trying to get the door open, I kept sweeping my card and getting the red light, that's when I slapped myself on the forehead because I was using Xander's room key to open my door. I fumbled around for my key, panicking a bit when I didn't find it at first. Yay! I found it and opened my door, glancing around making sure no one saw anything and I slipped in my empty room. Heading straight to the bathroom, my brain was on a shower and that's all it cared about.

I was half way through my shower when I heard a cough, I freaked so hard I fell out of the shower, taking the curtain down with me. Using said curtain as a cover, I winced and groaned my way up and peeked out the door, Xander was sleeping on my bed. Which made sense now that I thought about it, I did sleep in his room after all.

I closed the door softly, and tenderly fixed the shower and got back in the shower. I wash thoroughly, examining myself as I went, I had a pretty nasty bruise forming on my leg and hip, a few cuts here and there. My elbow was sore and bruised too, and I don't remember hurting it. Once I can smell nothing but my body wash I get out of the shower, dry off and dress in the big fluffy robe the hotel leaves in the rooms. I tiptoe into the room and quietly search for my clothes, trying not to wake Xander proves to be rather easy, he could probably sleep through a bomb going off.

If he can sleep through me falling out of the shower, me knocking a chair over and me dropping my bag...twice. I gave up on being sneaky when the chair didn't wake him up. By the time I emerged from the bathroom, all primed and polished and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt Xander was just waking up. I settled on the couch with Casey's laptop and started digging, I had gotten really good at looking up things, I had found a page -er forum- for people like me, where I can ask questions or ask for advice. I had posted something the night before when it was fresh in my mind. All the responses were helpful if I had more time to prepare myself or objects.

Hours, several hundred pages, and a lot of disappointment later I had found nothing. My only plan was to maybe talk to her see if I could somehow talk this mother into letting her child go. Xander had stayed around, researching and I don't know what else, but he did bring me food at random times. With a huff, I tossed the laptop onto the table in front of the couch gently, and I leaned against Xander and peeked at his computer, which had several windows up, one of which he kept going to when it beeped. He was talking to someone, that's what I gather from it.

He typed away feverishly on a few of his pages, answered several of the messages he received. When he noticed I was no longer stuck in my own world, he closed his laptop and put it on the other couch cushion. He stood up, pulling me with him and started for the door. I grabbed my stuff and followed, when we reached the elevator Casey just appeared beside us as if we had summoned her. She started talking the moment the doors closed.

"I found the two possible en's social media accounts along with their girlfriend's pages. After carefully looking over the pages and the news stories I think I know which one is our burning man. I sent a message to his girlfriend, explaining that I am a reporter who wants to do an interview with her to get her side of the events that happened, in order to raise awareness -" she keeps talking ignoring the look of utter bewilderment on my face "- she hasn't responded yet. I'm patient." This caused both me and Xander to laugh hard, loudly, both our faces must have been red. She gave us the bird and stuck her tongue out at us and walked out ahead of us. As she sulked all the way to the car, I pondered what she had said what did she mean by awareness; awareness for what?

When I finally had her trapped - in the car, I questioned her thoroughly

. "Why did you pretend to a reporter? What are you raising awareness for? How are we going to give her the message from her dead ex-boyfriend if she believes you're doing an interview? I know I don't know much but I do know that she's going to think we are out of our minds. Which considering your and mines history it really isn't much of a stretch, now is it?" Her head whipped around, demanding her body follow or break, her eyes got large and she glanced over to Xander she tried to give me a meaningful look, it was kinda lost on me. All I got from her was that I said something I shouldn't have, my guess is no one knows how she and I met. Well, it's not really my bag of cats to open as my mama would say. Okay, where did that come from? I do not quote my mama..oh kay.... time to wait for Cas to answer me. Hopefully, she does so soon, or it's going to be one awfully awkward ride. Drumming my fingers against my leg in a tune that's been playing in my head as of late. I'm not really sure where I pick it up, the music of today is lost to me still.

Casey finally stopped staring at me and turned back into her seat, she cleared her throat.

"Well, the way her boyfriend a Mr. Thomas Warren, he went by Tommy die was pretty messed up. He had a temper on him, had a history of being violent. Him and Rebecca, the girlfriend, were in a fight earlier in the day from what source say it was because he thought she was with some man they knew. Afterward he all but killed that man, Jones or Jim, I'm not sure but once what's-his-name's friends found out they decided the best way to deal with Tommy was to burn him alive in his bed in his home. Turns out the what's-his-name was connected to the mob and well they take him being almost beaten to death very seriously. Well since he beat the girlfriend earlier, some women decided to start an organization to help spread awareness for domestic violence and are trying to open a home for battered women. So I thought maybe if I appealed to that she would give us a chance."

I sat there and processed things for a moment, trying to figure out how Casey's thought process worked when she was speaking. Sometimes, I think she may be a robot instead of a lovable demonic pixie; she speak of such horrible things like it doesn't even affect her. I had a feeling I couldn't figure out, I had never felt it before; it felt like lead in my stomach. All I knew was that I did not like this feeling. Lost in my thoughts I forgot to answer Casey, which seemed fine to her.

Looks like we were destined to ride this car ride in an awfully awkward silence. I simply do not possess the social skills to handle this type of stuff. I do not know how to rescue a conversation once it has descended into awkwardness, especially once it's achieved awful proportions. Thank you god because Xander does, he fiddles with the radio and a song starts to blare through the car. Said song is instantly sung to by both Xander and Casey, they sing along in tune about a train going anywhere. Once again I am the outcast since I do not know the song. Well not the lyrics, the radio display tells me it's about a journey. Whatever, I stare out the window, still trying to think of a way to talk Mae into giving up her child so he may be free. I wish I could talk to my papa maybe he could tell me how he talked my mama into giving me up.

A light bulb lit so brightly in my mind that I went blind for a second and total freaked. In result freaking Xander and Casey the f**k out - her words, not mine - and interrupting their sing along. Before either one of them could start yelling at me I was talking

"I think I know what I need to do, I need to summon my papa and talk to him. I just know he will do his best to help me, and I'm pretty sure he is going to have the answers I need." Once the light bulb dimmed just a bit, my brain was magnificent, I knew everything I needed to do and roughly how long we had to do it, the only thing I didn't know how to do was probably the most important thing; how to summon my papa.

"Casey, can you find either a spell I can learn or someone who could help us? Tonight or at least before we have to be at the plantation tomorrow afternoon? Xander, please return to driving, I don't think we are supposed to be sitting on the side of the road, here" I say while pointing to the sign that says actually that. He just shakes his head and starts driving, Casey is already nose deep reading or googling as she calls it. I relax slightly knowing I have at least a plan to having a plan of action. Soon the car stopped and Xander ran out the car and into a building with a lot of interesting characters on the windows and a couple paper lanterns hanging around the door. After a few minutes, he returns with a large bag. He drove us straight back to the hotel, we walked side by side to my room and we all sat back down on the couch, ate our food and started researching, and talking to people.

After maybe two hours - which fits right into my time frame - Xander comes up with a means to the summons, he has a friend who is willing to help me. She is very experienced according to him and he swears she has helped them before in contacting the dead. He said she is at work and she would rather us meet her at her home and according to the directions we will arrive there just about the time she asked us too. Out to the car, we trek once again, this time with a digital voice recorder, a camcorder my tablet, my phone, a picture of my whole family before I was sent away, that my brother had mailed to me as soon as I got out. On instinct I grabbed it, not remembering that I packed it. The drive there was uneventful and went by fastest then I thought possible. We parked outside a townhouse in the middle of a row of them, most of them seemed to empty with for rent signs in front of them, they did not appear to new or anything so I couldn't figure out why there were so many vacant ones, okay I was nervous and thinking of silly things to distract myself from the fact that I was going to have to ask some very personal and listen to some very painful truths, to make matters worse I would have to do in front of others. Oh lord this crazy life I am leading. I gather my courage and get out of the car, joining the others as they walk up to the house. Xander takes the lead, knocks on the door, after a few heartbeats it is answered.

By none other than the shop-keep from the shop I went to, to get supplies to make our charms. She smiled a little brighter at Xander when she saw me and gasped and moved aside to allowed us all in.

"I didn't see this happening, but I always did like surprises, they happen so solemnly." She said as she passed us to lead us into a living room of sorts it had a rather large round table kinda crammed into the room with chairs spread around it. There were bookcases shoved against the walls with books stacked everywhere. There were crystals and tarot cards placed throughout the room along with different charms, idols, altars and god knows what else. Oh and there was candles everywhere, I wonder if the rest of her house looked like this room. I think I am going to like this woman. Somehow she found a walkway through the room, which we followed carefully into another room which seemed to be more of a more living room, you know with a couch and stuff.

"Sit while I go get you guys something to drink, and found everything I think I will need to help." She waved to the couches and hustled out of the room.

She entered the room carrying a large tray on one side she had three cups on the other side she had a collection of things. As she handed us our drinks and settled her tray on the small coffee table and settled into a chair, I took the time to really look at her. At the store all I noticed was that she appeared to belong there, now she only had a few charm bracelets on, I saw a silver necklace with a couple of stones hanging from it, a locket or pendant. Her finger was not covered in rings like they were earlier, now she only had two rings on; one on each middle finger; they seem to be a set they each had a symbol but I couldn't make out what. Her light brown hair was tied up into a messy bun on top of her head. She sipped on her tea and stared at me for a few beats, cleared her throat a bit

"First, I have a few questions, these will help guide me when we summon your father to make sure we get the right man. Second, you must be sure you want to do this because once we start we can not stop. Last, I will not be very well when we are down, I will need someone to take me upstairs, and lock up. I usually don't ask that of people, but Xander and I go back a bit and I trust who he accompanies himself with." She paused for a moment, thinking I assume.

"Do you have a photo or an object of your father's? It will help but not really necessary, it does help that you brought more than just yourself; the more energy we have the strong the connection between worlds will be." Xander spoke up just then

"If it ok with both you, Miranda and you, Theresa I would like to both films and record this. If nothing else so we can have proof that we did this, so your claims are without a doubt the truth." He spoke somewhat hesitantly like he wasn't sure what I would say since he didn't look at Miranda once while he spoke. I just nodded and smiled at him, I had already committed myself to a life full of cameras. Miranda just fluffed her hair, shrugged

"I don't get much better looking than I look right now so whatever. Which room would you like to use then?" We all shrugged so she just started setting things up on the table, she hummed while she worked, only stopping to ask me for the photo, which she stuck in the middle of the table surrounded by crystals and candles. She grabbed a Container, a lighter, she lit whatever was in the container it started smoking filled the room's air with a pungent smell, she walked around the table slowly in a circle.

"Blessed be, and good evening, we are here tonight to ask the Goddess for guidance as we bridge the worlds together, the living and the dead as we are in search of Mark Baxter. Please Dear Mother, help us and keep us safe, Blessed be." She speaking as she finished her circle, she placed the still smoking container on the table below my family photo. She asked me to sit across from her and Xander and Casey across from each other, we gathered hands. She started to chant and called out to my father.

After about ten minutes of her calling, I called out to him, as soon as I did I felt my fingers start tingling and then my stomach started to knot up and the room got colder. My papa appeared behind Miranda's shoulder, smiling at me. He looked like he always did, like me. I was the only one to take after him with the pale blonde hair. Both my brothers and my mama have light brown hair. He leaned forward and whispered in Miranda's ear. Once he finished he straighten himself out, smoothed his clothes and disappeared. I jumped up and tried to chase him. But there is no point in chasing a ghost. I turn to Miranda "What did he say?" I demand trying my best to not lose my f*****g mind. "He said he would talk to you, when and where it's safe. I think it is time for me to go lay down and for you to leave. Sorry, I couldn't be more of a help." She stood and slowly made her way upstairs.

Casey and Xander cleaned everything up, as I wandered to the car, I just needed to be alone. What was I going to do now? How was I going to help Mae and Jon now? I cradled my head in my hands and lost it - I didn't sob cry just the normal angry cry - I feel utterly helpless I am beyond stressed and frustrated. The weight of the world was on my shoulders and I was being crushed into the ground. Why did I have to be the one all these ghosts came to for help. How I was, a girl who went to Hell for these powers suppose to use these powers for good? That went against everything I was told, everything I knew, against every instinct I develop in Hell. I am so confused and so lost and I am supposed to lead these spirits to their freedom, their afterlife. Looks like those spirits are screwed. Suddenly I felt hands pulling me to my right I allowed them. Turns out I was right to trust them, those arms were attached to Xander, who just cradled me and rubbed my back and allowed me to a self-loathing mess on his lap. Casey drove I am not sure how long it took us to get back, I had finally been soothed but Xander wasn't so sure. He carried me to my room, laid me in bed and took my shoes off, brought me my tablet and a drink and he laid on the couch without one word.

Apparently emotional distraught and having a breakdown takes it out of a girl cause I was asleep before Xander turned the lights off. My dream was different, usually, I dream about randomness, usually the setting is the hospital, but not tonight's. Tonight I was standing in a field, My papa was there and so was Xander; the first one I expect the latter I figured my mind put him there cause he was the last person I had seen. He looked a little confused but his was wearing the clothes I had last seen him in. I looked at myself and I too was wearing what I wore to bed, I wasn't even wearing my shoes. My papa looked like he always has, but really happy to see me - more than usual - without thinking I ran up to him and hugged him and I was surprised when I could actually feel him. I almost cried again it had been so long since I felt my papa arms around me, I never wanted to leave his embrace but I did, I had something to talk to him about. His smile fell a little bit when I took a step back.

"I have to ask Terrycloth why did you pick this spot?" Hearing my childhood nickname made me happy and sad. I heard Xander snicker a bit, I shot him a glare. "What do you mean? I didn't pick this place. I assumed you did." After looking around I realized I could see our farm from here, and this is where my brothers would take us younger kids to the creek on hot summer days.

"No, you are in charge of this dream, I just came to visit." His one shoulder hitched up when he started speaking, it dropped when he finished. "What do you mean? How am I in charge? I just went to sleep papa, I didn't dream this up." Papa was giving me his look now; his I am telling the truth, just believe me face. That look shut me up

"You may be right but I do not know how I did it, but that isn't what I need to talk to you about." Shaking my head to clear my thoughts to the pressing issue at hand. "I need your help, you're my last hope." I mumbled, I wasn't all too happy about asking Papa for help but I wasn't about to let my pride and hurt feelings get in the way of helping Jonathon though. Papa sobered up a bit he sat down in the chairs that just appeared, I glanced around we were no longer in the field, now we were in what looked like a lounge there were tables and chairs everywhere. I followed his lead and sat down, a confused Xander walked around a bit. While we were alone in this dream lounge, I told Papa everything, I figured if I really was in charge I could keep him here as long as I wanted, and I found that I really wanted to talk to my papa.

I never thought in a million years that I would be sitting here going to my father for help, and explaining to him all my problems. His advice in everything we discussed was amazing and more helpful than anything I could have learned on my own. Suddenly the room started to dim and fade. I heard Papa say he would help me when I needed, I was being shaken awake by a frantic Casey. I was confused and disoriented and cold, deathly cold, I couldn't see and I tasted mental. I could barely breathe, my chest was tight. Matter of fact; I was tense like every muscle in my body tense. My brain was misfiring or something because I can't figure out how to unclench my muscles or take a normal breath, and I really would like to be able to see. I can't hear anything aside from this ringing; not a loud annoying ring, it was kinda subtle. I just lay there in my head, in what I hope is my bed, I know I am not alone because I can feel people's hands on me. Someone is shaking me, I believe I close my eyes or maybe I blink but suddenly, my brain kicks in and into overdrive. Everything catches up to me, and I am pretty sure I just had a seizure.

Putting that aside like it was nothing, I look up and see that Casey and Xander and on the bed too. Actually, I am laying in Xander's lap and Casey is yelling at me. I bolt up

"I know what to do, I got everything under control." Using every sneaky skill I have built over the years I judged all of Casey's questions, I soothed all of her concerns and got her to go to sleep. Xander, on the other hand, wasn't letting me out of his sight, he made himself comfortable in my bed, waited until I got in the bed. I am not too prideful to admit I cuddled right up to his warmth. He wrapped his arms around me and cocooned me in his warmth. Right before I was completely under I heard him say "I remember everything and I heard what you said about me to your dad." My response, to snuggle in closer and pass out like the dead I talk to.