Paranormal Agency BOOK 2 : THE FUNERAL HOME.
chapter 11

The phone began to ring from the coffee table. Alison looked down at it from the television. It was later in the day, around 2:00pm and Alison couldn’t help but hope it was Josh again. She picked it up, dropping her cigarette into the ashtray in front of her. “McCarthy’s Agency.

“Hey, it’s me, Jeffrey,” the mortician stated firmly, sounding pissed off and scared. “Now look here. Those ghosties followed me last night.”

“Are you sure?”

“Damned sure. I was just finished writing up my resignation and headed home when they attacked me in my car. I tried to get away from them, but they kept following me, knocking on my windows and trying to get in. Scared the shit out of me. Finally, lost them but took damned near two hours. I need you here today. This can’t wait till tomorrow.”

“I can do that,” Alison agreed. Wow. They had attacked the mortician in his car? She hadn’t been expecting that. “Sorry to hear that you’re quitting.”

“I’m not sorry at all. This bullshit is the last thing I need in my life right now. I’m getting the hell out of this place and fast. So you coming? Or aren’t you? I won’t be there but I’ll leave the front door open. Just lock it on your way out.” The sound of shuffling came from the other line. “The owner is who you’ll be talking to from now on. I’ll give you his number. His name is Luke Black.”

“Okay,” Alison agreed. Jeffrey gave her the mortuary’s owner’s cell phone number and she scribbled it down on a pad of paper beside her telephone. “Is he going to call me or am I calling him.”

“You can call him when the job’s done and he’ll be the one writing out the check.”

“That’s fine.”

“You’re coming today, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in about an hour.”

“Okay good,” he said, “then I’ll be leaving you to your work. It was nice meeting you Miss McCarthy and be careful, all right? Them things ain’t friendly.”

“I’ll be careful. Thank you,” she replied. He hung up the phone and she hung up as well, glancing down at the phone number sitting on her coffee table. She might as well give the owner a quick call to make sure her pay was secure. The last thing she needed was Jeffrey running off and no one paying the bill. She dialed the number and waited.

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is Alison McCarthy. I’m calling to verify that this is Luke Black, the owner of Spring Falls Mortuary on Independence Road?”

“That’s me.”

“Your employee Jeffrey Allen hired me to perform an exorcism on the building.”

“I’m aware,” he replied. “He called and quit this morning.”

“Yes, he told me. I just want to make sure you’re aware of my fee. It’s going to be $450. I’m going to try to finish the job today if I can. If I can’t, I’ll come in again until it’s done. Feel free to call me with any questions or problems. You can reach me at this number.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Luke said. “Let me know when the job’s finished.”

“I will.” They hung up the phone and Alison turned to Greg who was hovering beside her on the couch, watching television. “We’re going back to the mortuary today?”

Greg looked at her, his expression bewildered. “I thought we were going tomorrow.”

“They want us there today.”

Greg sighed. “Alison. I’m watching TV.”

“You don’t have to come, you know.”

“No, I’ll come,” he grumbled. “When are we leaving?”

“In about two minutes. I’m just going to grab something to drink from the fridge.” On that note, she got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen. She hoped she’d be able to be successful today even if she wasn’t yesterday. She had read up on how to perform a religious exorcism like the priests did and hopefully that would be enough for now. Opening the fridge, she pulled out a can of cola and opened it before gulping it down.

When she was finished, she grabbed a bible and a large glass bottle of holy water she had purchased from a local church gift shop a little earlier that day from her bedroom and changed her clothes. It had gotten hot out since she had gone to the church that morning, so she changed from her jeans and sweater to a pair of khaki shorts and a red tank top.

Alison and Greg left the house and got into the car. As she drove to the mortuary, she couldn’t help but wonder what would be waiting for them there. Was a bible and some holy water really going to be enough for this job?

Pulling into the mortuary, she parked her car and climbed out of the car, followed by Greg. They went towards the building.

“Is anyone going to be here too?” Greg asked.

Alison shook her head. “No. Jeffrey said we’ll have the place to ourselves. He said the door should be unlocked for us.” She tried the door then and it opened easily.

“That’s kinda hot,” Greg commented. “So we have the place totally to ourselves. Wanna make out?”

“Well, for one thing that’s impossible,” Alison stated, referring to the fact that Greg was the only spirit she wasn’t able to make physical contact with at all for whatever reason. “And for another, um, no.”

“Bitch.”

Alison shot him an annoyed look and went inside. Immediately, she noticed how cold the air was inside the building. It was colder than the last time they had been there. Rubbing her hands over her bare arms, she took several steps forward, taking in her surroundings. Everything looked normal so far. “So, what do you think?” Alison asked Greg. “Looks the same as yesterday, right?” She was secretly kind of glad that no one was there but her and Greg. Now they could talk freely without Alison haven’t to feel self-conscious that someone would hear them.

“Yeah. So far,” he replied.

“Let’s check out the men’s bathroom again.”

Greg nodded and followed her towards the restroom. When she reached the closed door, she took a deep breath and slowly opened it a crack. She snuck a look through the slightly open door. Nothing unusual stood out to her. She could see the men’s mirror and it looked perfectly normal. No faces. No zombies. No smell of decaying flesh.

They went inside, and headed towards the mirror.

Absolutely nothing. There was no one there. Alison ran a hand across the smooth glass. “Hey!” she complained. “Where’d all the faces go?”

“No idea,” Greg replied.

“Does that mean we’re all done?” she joked. “Congrats to us. Time to leave.”

“Yeah, seriously.”

“Wanna check out the morgue then?”

“Sure. Why not?” Greg said, following her out of the bathroom.

They headed to the door that led to the basement and Alison opened it, walking through it and down the stairs to the morgue. A cool gust of wind brushed past her face as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Her skin tingled at the sensation, her sixth sense picking up a mysterious aura coming from the dark basement. She flipped the light switch.

There was nothing there either. Just like the bathroom, it was quiet and empty. The dead bodies of the morgue were hidden on the metal tables with black coverings. It made the place a little less disturbing on the eyes to not have to see the corpses. The room smelled strongly of embalming fluid but nothing else. The dancing shadows were missing completely. It looked completely normal. She wondered what had happened.

Well, just because it looked normal, didn’t mean it was normal. Time to get to work. She pulled her bible from her purse and opened it to Matthew 12:43-45.

She read, ”When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and replaceeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he replaceeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."

As she read, she tossed splashes of holy water from the bottle across the floor and walls. She continued to read and splash holy water for about an hour until she was exhausted and the bottle in her hand was empty. She looked Greg, lowering the bible. “I can’t tell if this is helping or not.”

“I told you to hire a professional.”

“I am a professional.”

“I meant a competent professional,” he grumbled.

They ended up staying for another hour. Greg hovered beside her as she read more passages from the bible.

Mark 3:22-26: ”And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.”

When she was tired of that, she tucked the book into her purse and looked around her. Absolutely no paranormal activity at all had occurred since they had arrived there. What was going on? “I can’t feel anything. Where’d all the freaky stuff go? What happened?”

“Let’s just go.”

“No. We didn’t do anything.”

“I told you to hire a professional exorcist,” Greg complained. “Instead, you came out here for no reason and wasted two hours of our lives, not to mention the fact that you’ve accomplished nothing since we’ve been here.”

“I don’t need a professional,” Alison snapped.

“If you’d just hire a professional, then we’d be done by now. All you have to do is call up a priest and have him do it. This is ridiculous.”

“Will you stop saying that! I heard you the first ten times you said it!”

“No,” Greg replied, sounding aggrevated.

“Okay, fine. You’re driving me crazy. We’ll come back later. I don’t feel like arguing about this.” She shifted the purse over her shoulder and marched up the stairs feeling annoyed. Was she really that incompetent? Did she need to hire a priest to do this? Maybe Greg was right. The very thought was enough to completely piss her off.

They headed home. When they arrived, Alison went straight to the computer in her living room and began to search for local priests that could help her to perform the exorcism. Taking Greg’s advice was the last thing she felt like doing but she had no idea what else to do. At the very least, she could see what a priest had to say. He may be able to give her some valuable information that she could use.

Greg ignored her for the rest of the night and she ignored him. She spent the next several hours gathering names and numbers of local priests before finishing the night with a late dinner and heading to bed.