Chapter 47
ϕVeraϕ
Waking up the next morning, despite the rather unexpected events of the night before, was actually pleasant and easy. Just as if he knew I would be up, there was a light knock on my door.
“Vera?” Zak said.
“Come in, I’m up.” I said. My door creaked open and he came in with some vintage shorts and a tank on.
“Morning.” He said.
“Well hi, going to go work out?” I chuckled.
“Actually yes, I wanted to invite you to come with me, let’s go for a run.” Zak said.
“Uh, well I mean, Ill slow you down considerably. So, it’ll be more of a jog…” I warned.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be waiting downstairs.” He said and then shut the door softly. I hopped out of bed and looked in the mirror.
“Did I just, agree to go out and run? Why would I do that?!” I sighed and put on some leggings and a loose shirt, and pulled my hair up into a high bun. Hopping down the stairs, I heard my parents in the kitchen.
“Hi Pumpkin.” My dad greeted me.
“Hi, Zak and I are going out for a, uh, walk.” I said.
“Zak convinced you to go out for a morning jog? What magic did he do?” Mom laughed.
“Is it so hard to believe that I would go out and run?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“Yes.” My parents said in unison.
“Whatever, we’ll be back.” I muttered as they chuckled. Zak was by the front door and I slipped my sneakers on.
“Ready?” He asked. I nodded.
“Anthony coming too?” I asked.
“No, just us.” He said.
“Alright, hey, I was thinking, while we are out, we should go to the library. Maybe they have some information that can help us untangle the mystery of the tree house.” I said.
“Good idea, let’s do it.” Zak smiled a little as he opened the door for me.
“Great! So, time to walk really fast then…” I jogged out of the house and started on down the road. “C’mon slow poke!” I said with a chuckle, but it was short lived as he laughed while next to me less than a few seconds later.
“Alright, here I am, what next?” He asked.
“Ha ha, don’t pick on the fatty.” I said.
“You are the farthest thing from fat so don’t even start.” Zak frowned.
“This is the first time I’ve proactively exercised since, well, ever.” I said.
“You’re doing just fine.” Zak said, as he ran backwards in front of me.
“Show off.” I shook my head.
“Entertainer, thank you.” Zak said. He seemed so cheerful being out running. My chest was already getting tight, and my thighs were beginning to burn. This might not be fun for me, but somehow, I was alright doing it if it meant I got to see Zak happy. We kept going for 10 more minutes and I finally had to say something.
“Zak, I gotta, I gotta hold on…” I gasped for air and slowed to a stop.
“Oh, sorry Vera, you ok?” He put a hand on my shoulder as I leaned down on my knees, trying to catch my breath.
“Yeah yeah, just, carry me the rest of the way would ya?” I asked.
“Very funny.” He said.
“…signal. Close I tell you! It is so close!” We heard a voice from a little ways up the road say. We were just getting into town.
“Who’s that?” Zak asked. Ahead of us was a rather large van with a few satellite dishes adorning the top. The side of it read “PDV, PARANATURAL DISCOVERERS AND VANQUISHERS”
“Uh oh…” I said.
“Follow my lead, we’ll try to avoid them, but if we can’t, just, I don’t know, use your girl charm or something.” Zak said
“My what? And that only ever happens in movies.” I said.
“It does too happen, I’ve seen it work.” Zak defended.
“Where? In your own fantasies?!” I asked. His face turned red.
“No! back in high school! It worked on people all the time!” He hissed.
“Oh like you? Who did it to you?” I smirked.
“Nobody has ever…oh come on…” He turned and started jogging again. I followed him, worried because during our bicker two young men decked out in pure ghostbuster-esque suits were wandering toward us with hand held electronic devices and oversized goggles. As Zak approached the machines started to beep wildly,
“Here! Martin it’s here!” The taller of the two said.
“What’s the source? Kevin, where is it?!” The shorter, huskier one spoke with a slight lisp. Zak went past them and as he moved further away, the beeping slowed.
“No, it’s moving!” Kevin said. I went past them and could hear their footsteps as they hastily tried to follow their beeping signal, which was obviously Zak. ‘Crap’ I glanced behind me but must have unfortunately made eye contact with the short one.
“Excuse us, Miss! Have you had anything unusual happen to you lately?” Martin waved frantically at me.
“Can’t say I have, so sorry!” I turned back and jogged faster.
“But, But this is reacting to you, there must be something! Anything! Please!” Kevin asked. I closed my eyes for a moment and stopped, turning towards them. Popping my hip slightly, and throwing my shoulders back so that it projected my chest, I smiled sweetly at them.
“I really can’t say that I have had anything strange happen to me, except right now anyway.” I giggled.
“Right now?! What do you mean?!” Martin asked.
“Well, with two handsome sirs coming right up and talking to me during my work out, and knowing I look like such a sweaty mess, I get rather embarrassed…” I said, reaching my arm across my wait, just under my chest. I could feel Zak watching me from a safe distance, probably cussing to himself that I stopped. Martin’s face became redder than a flame and Kevin’s goggles fogged up immediately.
“Oh uh, we apologize miss, um, p-please, c-continue you’re, uh, yes...” Martin managed to stutter out.
“G-Good day to you, uh, b-bye.” Kevin followed suit and they both turned and actually ran from me. I turned around, rolled my eyes and caught up to Zak.
“What was that all about?!” Zak said, crossing his arms.
“I just did what you told me to.” I blinked.
“You shouldn’t have stopped.” He said.
“If I didn’t they would have followed me straight to you, I saved both of our asses.” I frowned.
“…Yeah, that’s true, just, don’t do it again.” He muttered.
“Hey, there’s the library, now lets go in to a safe place.” I ignored his last comment and went in through the big, old double doors. This was a cool place, I was glad to be in since I hadn’t been here before. Zak came up beside me.
“It smells the same.” He said.
“It’s amazing.” I whispered.
“Yeah, it is.” He replied.
“I’m going to go find the old archives and find stuff related to the land to see if there is anything significant. Maybe you could find some books on the paranormal or even theories on life granting practices, rituals, or legends? Religion might even be a good place to look.” I said as I glanced around. Zak chuckled beside me and I looked up at him. “What?”
“It’s nothing, you just sound like a writer. Yes, that sounds like a good plan. Let’s meet back here in an hour and then we can head back.” Zak said.
“Ok, good luck.” I nodded. We went our separate ways, and I had one of the librarians take me to the extremely old archives.
“Why the interest in these?” She asked me.
“Oh, I’m planning on writing a book, and I just want to be as factually correct about this place as I can be.” I said with ease.
“That’s wonderful! Please take all the time you need dear, feel free to make any copies you would like using the scanner and copier in the corner!” She walked out of the room happily and I was glad to have been granted access to this place. I used the computer to find any of the books that had land surveys in it that housed the area of the tree house and the property of our house. After that I made copies of those survey pages and old maps dating back to the early 1800’s. After that, I decided to search on the computer anything that had to do with exact land locations and their correlations with paranormal activities. I printed out some things I found to be really intriguing, and looked at the clock.
“Oh crap, I’m 10 minutes late.” I said as I grabbed everything I had and rushed out to meet Zak by the entrance again.
“There you are, I was starting to worry.” Zak said as soon as he saw me.
“Im sorry, but I just found some stuff that could really help explain some things.”
“That’s great! I only found stuff you probably already know about. The Philosophers stone, Fountain of Youth, legend of the Phoenix, Zombies and Ghouls and all that. Digging through the religious stuff is next to impossible. But some of the witchcraft stuff is pretty neat, Wiccan is particularly connected with the land so maybe flushing that in particular out sometime soon would be worth it. What did you find?” He asked after he flipped through his pages.
“Well, First, I found a bunch of maps and land surveys, and it’s safe to say that within the past 200 years there had been nothing built in and around the area of the tree house except for our house, and the neighbors down the road. So whatever it is has to be connected directly to the land somehow. And I also found some really interesting things. Water sources are said to fuel supernatural events, like a flowing battery that supplies energy.” I said.
“I can confirm, there is a creek that runs through the forest.” Zak said.
“Exactly. Also, there are these things called Ley lines, ever heard of them?” I asked Zak shook his head, and I continued. “Ley lines are alignments of land forms that have significant cultural or ancient religious significance. The term was made in the early 1920’s by a guy named Alfred Watkins. They are usually straight lines that connect important geological points, and it’s said that along these lines there are heightened spiritual happenings. And you won’t believe what I discovered.”
“What’s that?” Zak asked.
“Look what happens when I draw where these ley lines fall on the most recent survey map of the property and the woods.” I grabbed a pencil and sat at the table and drew out the lines. There were 5 in all.
“No way.” Zak said.
“Yes. It’s a pentagram. Lines go through town, and the center of it,”
“Is the tree house.” Zak finished my sentence.
“It can’t be a coincidence. No wonder so much stuff happens around here, all of these lines form lots of triangles, which also has mystical connotations, think the Bermuda triangle, The Dragon’s Triangle, and there’s a bunch others too.” I said.
“And imagine, whatever happened here, who knows what someone could have opened up.” Zak said with a sigh.
“Well, it’s a start at least, let’s go back, mom and dad might be wondering what keeping us. They probably think I died running.” I laughed, gathering up our things.
“Ok, sounds good.” Zak and I left and after sneaking around the ghost hunters van, we got back home. Granted I was out of breath, but it felt good to have done some research that actually was helpful.
“How was it guys?” My dad asked when we got in.
“Shower time.” I said and raced upstairs and hopped in the shower first. I thought about what happened the night before. I didn’t know when my parents were going to get a night to themselves again, so I made up my mind. Once I was out and had gotten dressed in a decent top and some nice jeans, I went downstairs to see Zak in the spare room talking with Anthony. “Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt.” I said.
“No, we were just talking about what we found at the library.” Zak said.
“I’m impressed Vera, you must be a beast at papers!” Tony said.
“Oh, no it’s nothing, but um, Zak…I was, well, Mom and Dad really need some alone time to themselves in the evening, you know, and I was just…” I couldn’t stop stuttering and Tony floated around me.
“Vera, cat got your tongue?” Tony asked.
“Zak, lets go out to dinner tonight. And then go see a movie, and give Mom and Dad some time alone together.” I said quickly as my heart pounded loudly in my ears.
