A paranormal investigator's demon admirer

Chapter 6

“Where is Lytton?” asked Leah to the others.

“I don’t know perhaps, somewhere upstairs,” said Hannah, almost yelling with nervous fear.

“Should we go and take a look?” asked Noah.

“I’ll go,” said Leah as she took a few steps up the stairs.

Duke caught her arm, “You are not going up there all by yourself. Father Stephen says as you have opened yourself to the spirit world willingly, you are more likely to get attacked by dark energies.”

Leah scowled at him as she freed her arm out of his hold, “Well, Father Stephen doesn’t know everything. If you want to come, you can, but do it because you care, not because of his groundless fears.”

“I want to stay right beside you all the time here. It doesn’t matter to me what he says," he said, staring deep into her eyes.

Duke and Leah began their journey up the stairs, but before they could go much further, they heard Lytton’s voice from behind, “So, this is how you work?”

“You’re downstairs!” exclamation Leah, “We thought you might have done something upstairs that caused those screams.”

“Well, if that's the case. Let’s go upstairs! The spirits seem to be more active on the second floor. And if you guys are feeling courageous today, I’ll teach you a little something about how to purge an area from evil,” said Lytton.

“No,” said Leah, “We have received official orders from the church not to follow anything produced by a possible demonic entity. These are merely distractions and can prove to be dangerous if one is not cautious.”

He gave her a lopsided grin, “So, what exactly is your role in banishing spirits?” asked Lytton, his tone was as sarcastic as his grin.

Leah lowered her head, “For now, it’s to record paranormal activities, if there are any, and to bring the evidence back to the church so that they can perform the required actions accordingly. And as our final task, we assist the church in performing exorcisms and cleanses."

“Come on,” said Lytton as he shook his head in disbelief, “I have met you before, you did a lot more than that before...”

“I don’t want to remember nor recall what I did in the past, Mr. Lytton. That is all that I need to do today. However, if you want to do something on your own, you most certainly can,” said Leah.

“Fine,” said Lytton, and everyone looked at him in surprise as they all expected another insolent reply from him.

“But if you’re going to do that. I suggest you all start moving around the estate individually as it's going to take quite a while to cover the entire building,” he spoke again before turning around, “And please, don’t say that the church forbade that as well because that’s just going to cause me to believe that you are spineless,” he said while walking away with a mocking hand gesture.

“He is right about one thing,” said Benjamin as soon as Lytton was out of sight.

“I agree, instead of splitting into groups, we should all go on our own. We don’t want to miss any more chances to record paranormal evidence like this. So do you all agree to this?” Leah asked, and all eyes in the room turned towards Hannah.

"What?” Hannah threw her arms in vexation, “I am not scared to be alone if that’s what you guys are pointing at.”

“Are you sure?” said Noah, “Things have never gone well whenever you are on your own. Remember that time when...”

“Shush,” said Hannah angrily, “I don’t want to hear the rest of it. I’ll be fine setting up cameras all by myself.” she walked away as soon as she finished talking.

When Duke and Leah were alone before the staircase, he gandered at her like he wanted to say something, and she had an inkling of what it could be.

“You seem dejected by not being able to do much in this case," he opened up with a nervous smile, "So why are you following Father Stephen's orders so strictly? You have never cared for his opinions in the past much."

“I feel dejected because I have lost faith in myself. I fear that I would fail abysmally in any attempt to communicate with the spirits present without the aid of my spirit guides," she kept her eyes downcast as she spoke, "And about Father Stephen, I respect that man, but how he connects all mishaps to my bond with my spirit guides infuriates me. He is a good man but also obstinate. He'll never believe anything other than what he had learned at the church.

God has created man, spirits, and demons. There is more to all than just evil."

Duke took her hand in his and moved closer to her. Her hand began to tremble as she gawped at him. He took no notice of her astonishment and cupped her cheek with his other hand, “Well, I don’t know if it matters to you or not, but I have faith in you. However, don’t do anything you’re not ready for. I can’t allow anything to happen to you.” He had a coy smile on his face as he finished. Leah felt unease by how close their faces were, so she impulsively averted her gaze and pulled her hand out of his grip. She was perplexed by his sudden behavior as his body language had shifted from being friendly to amorous. Sure, she had feelings for him, but he had never acted like that before. Furthermore, after the death of his father, he had been distant and cold. She had so many questions in her head, but she couldn’t afford any distractions in the middle of a serious case.

“You have been different lately,” said Leah, “I know you said we need to talk after the case, but don’t say and do things that might distract us both from what’s important right now.”

Duke took a few steps back and looked away, realizing his mistake, “Sure, let’s talk as soon as we are out of here.”

They both looked embarrassed, and an awkward silence followed.

“Um," began Leah, desperate to change the subject, "I think Hannah and the Miller cousins have this floor covered, so maybe we should head upstairs and start placing cameras on the second floor?”

“As you wish,” Duke was quick to agree.

Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Hannah was engaged in placing a camera in some room when she heard a knock on the door, which made her nearly made her leap out of her skin.

“Who is it? If it’s you, Benjamin, go away! I don’t need your help here," she yelled as she made haste to get the door. And to her dismay, she saw Andrew Lytton standing before her, which made her curl her lip in disgust and annoyance.

“Oh, it’s you!” the disdain in her voice was obvious, “I thought you wanted to do your mojo alone and wasn’t interested in helping any of us do our task.”

“I will do my mojo when the time comes,” Lytton walked inside the room wearing a smug smile on his face, “But as we are all working on this case together, we should get better acquainted with each other. I have noticed that out of everyone here, I have conversed the least amount with you. And for some reason, you keep ogling at me.”

Hannah opened her mouth in disbelief, “What! You are out of your mind to think that I would ever ogle at you. I thought I made the contempt I feel for you quite clear by avoiding you and giving you threatening looks all day long. You must be kidding me if you didn’t notice all that because I thought you would hate my guts by now.”

Lytton sniggered, “I did notice all that, but I find it impossible to loathe a woman as gorgeous as you.”

Hannah narrowed her eyes.

“I never imagined that a witch or a black magic practitioner was capable of flirting with anyone,” she spoke again.

He roared with laughter, “I am not anything like that.”

“So, what are you?” Hannah raised an eyebrow, “The items we have seen you use in weird rituals on that woman to get rid of the entity inside her. It all seemed like witchcraft to me, or maybe it's something else we don’t know about.”

“Come and find me some other time. And be sure to ask politely with that pretty smile of yours, and maybe I’ll give all my secrets away to you,” said Andrew Lytton, after which he exited the room.

Upstairs around that time, Duke and Leah had gone their separate ways to cover the second floor. She entered a wide carpeted corridor on the left that seemed endlessly long. And right at the end of it, there was a gigantic and multicolored mosaic glass window through which fresh sunlight poured into it like a rainbow.

She advanced through the hallway and noticed that all the rooms were closed, except one whose door was left ajar. She decided to go and have a look there first without much thought.

Upon entering the massive bedroom, she was left in awe by its beauty. There was a glass door from where she could see a balcony. She was eager to take a gander at the view outside but decided to place the cameras first and then take a tour of the room.

Everything about the room was impressive. A crystal chandelier spiraled down from the high white paneled ceiling. And the wooden headboard of the bed was so finely carved that she moved closer to have a better look at it. She wondered if that room belonged to the lady and man of the house as it was the first room, she saw that was well maintained and not covered in white sheets.

As soon as she moved close enough to the bed, she was affrighted by the sight of claw marks present on the wall behind it. She moved back and quickly pulled out her phone to take a picture of it. Just when she opened her camera, she heard strange whispers in her ears. It all happened so suddenly that she almost dropped her phone. The voice was not that low, but she still couldn’t understand what was said to her. She tried to concentrate on what the sound was like but failed to recall it at all.

And before she could react to it properly, she heard the same whispers again, but then it seemed like they were coming from somewhere outside the door. That time she could focus on the voice; it was heavy and not of a human, yet queerly captivating. However, the words were still unclear.

She was warned against following any sound or activity produced by a spirit, but she felt so drawn to it and felt an unfathomable urge to find its source that she mindlessly stepped outside to follow the sound. The whispers grew louder, and each time she moved forward, the sound became more distant. Without realizing it, she was led to another corridor, and the whispering ended somewhere near a room whose door flung open on its own, which made her heart jump. And the very next moment, she heard, "Leah," said in the same faint voice.

She turned around in haste but found no one there. A sudden feeling of fear began to overwhelm her, so she decided to go and look for Duke, but as soon as she took a few steps, she was dragged forcefully by an unseen force inside that room. She landed on the floor and tried to scream for help, but she couldn't open her mouth.

She rested on the ground as she felt too weak to get up. It was as if something had sucked all the energy out of her.

However, she knew she had to do something to get out of there, so she gathered all her strength to stand. And as she was struggling to get up, she saw a tall man-like figure standing in one corner of that room. She was so petrified by what she saw before her that it felt like her heart would explode. She tried to get away, but her body was paralyzed by the demon before her.

She felt so helpless that she began to pray to God, and that's when her vision blurred, and she collapsed onto the floor.