A paranormal investigator's demon admirer

Chapter 3

Lucy Williams had besought them to come and help her family without any delay, so everyone was asked to show up at Leah's house at 6 am sharp. Their clients had already sent them their estate’s exact location last night, and the drive to their home from her place was luckily of only a few hours.

At around 5:30 am, Leah packed a bag of all the things she might need while investigating that case. Typically, the items she packed included: a cross, a spirit box, and a fine peculiar ruby stone she had received from her spirit friends for protection years ago. Although how that precious stone exactly worked was not clear to her, it had helped her in times of trouble in unexpected ways.

Those three items were enough for her as the Miller cousins took care of all the recording equipment and ghost-hunting gear they needed. Also, carrying too many religious objects infuriated the demons and unholy spirits, so the rest of the things she took included; sustenance and personal items for their journey.

Leah had almost finished packing when Duke, who had spent the night before at her place, came from behind, asking if she needed any help. She didn't hear him come in, so his sudden comment almost made her jump out of her skin. She turned around in haste, "You startled me!" a weak and confused smile appeared on her face as she spoke, "Uh, thanks, but I have everything that I need. And I hope you're done packing as well."

“Of course, but I didn’t need to do much as I never unpacked after I arrived in the first place,” said Duke with a half-smile.

Leah let out a chuckle, “I forgot you just got here yesterday. Listen, if you want to, you can stay in town and relax. This case came up so unexpectedly..."

“No,” he interrupted, and the expression on his face grew serious as he continued, “The reason I came here was to see you. And what happened to you in the previous case has got us all to become more worried for you. And I know that I haven’t been myself after my father died and you were always there to support me. I have a lot to say but this is not the right time to talk about it. We’ll have plenty of time later.”

Leah was uncertain what he was trying to imply by that. She had known Duke since childhood and had feelings for him deep down for a long time. Even though it somewhat sounded like he wanted to say something very personal to her, but the mere idea that Duke could've developed feelings for her felt so unreal to her that she brushed off that thought immediately.

Before she could get out of her head and respond to what he said, they heard the front door slammed open by someone. So, both of them rushed down to see who it was, although she knew it would be the rest of her friends who had a spare key to her house.

Downstairs they saw Hannah and the Miller cousins standing in the hallway as expected. And as soon as they joined them, Duke occupied himself in having a conversation with the cousins, whereas, Hannah was busy shouting at someone on the phone which ended abruptly after which she moved her attention towards Leah, “And before I forget to deliver a message to you, Ryan isn’t sure if he can make it on time, so he called me as you weren't answering any of his texts or calls.”

Leah hurriedly pulled out her phone and found that that they were at least five missed calls and a dozen text messages from him. She realized that she got so preoccupied with the thoughts of Duke staying at her place and the unsettling phone call from Mrs. Williams the night before that she inadvertently put her private phone on silent.

“We must get going now,” said Noah after taking a quick glance at his wristwatch.

“Wait," said Leah looking almost guilty of something, "Before we head out, I want you all to know something."

All eyes in the room were on Leah as she paused, no one spoke a word but she could see that they were impatiently waiting for her to continue.

“I apologize beforehand to all of you for not mentioning this before, but one more person is going to join us today on this case.”

“Who?” they all asked simultaneously.

“Uh, Andrew Lytton,” she answered and dropped her gaze low.

“What! Andrew Lytton that Satanist weirdo!” said Hannah at the top of her voice.

“I respect your judgment in all matters Leah,” began Noah, his tone was much better than Hannah but still stern, “But why do you all of a sudden want to include a man known for using witchcraft and other strange methods to deal with the demon world?”

“What!” said Duke, “So, do you all know this strange man? How come I never got to meet him?”

“So, Duke doesn’t even know about Lytton?” Hannah put in a question again before Leah could utter a single word.

“He is a guy we once got to know on a case, Duke, and I highly doubt that these guys know anything about him either other than the rumors they've heard about him," said Leah all in a single breath, so that she could at least clear something up before getting bombarded with more questions. bout Lytton?” Hannah put in a question again before Leah could utter one word.

“So, all that information we accumulated about him last year, together if I remember correctly, are now all rumors? Who told you that they were indeed rumors? If I were to take a wild guess, I would say Lytton himself perhaps.” said Hannah.

“Guys,” interrupted Benjamin, “I hate to say this, but we’re seriously running out of time and need to hit the road right now. And for this heated discussion, we can continue it in the van.”

Leah sighed, “Thank you, Benjamin, your help is much appreciated.”

They all agreed to what Benjamin suggested and swiftly made their way to the van in complete silence, and after all of them had boarded the van Leah was the one to break the silence, “Okay now shoot, I am ready to answer all of your questions.”

Hannah opened her mouth to speak, but Noah shut her up by covering her mouth with his hand, “So now Duke knows who Lytton is, I want to move to the most important question. Why do you all of a sudden think that we need Lytton's assistance today?”

“I talked to Father Stephen last night. He is already busy somewhere far, taking care of a possessed young child that required his immediate attention. So, he won't be able to come here for at least a couple of days. You guys know that there are only two well-known priests in the city who can perform successful exorcisms. The demons that are haunting the Williams' estate seem fiendish and, therefore without the guidance and help from an expert like Father Stephen or my spirit guides, we would pretty much be putting our lives and the lives of that family in danger. Even I don't enjoy Mr. Lytton’s company, but the man is a demonologist and claims to be an expert in dealing with their darker side."

“I don’t understand,” said Hannah, “So now you have faith in that man’s abilities? How did that happen?”

“To some extent, we apprehend what you’re trying to say, Leah. I even personally like the plan of having a demonologist there with us. But why Lytton? You could have picked someone else. Don’t you remember what he did in the case of that poor woman that fell victim to a demon stalker?” said Noah.

Duke's eyes widened, "There was a demon stalker? How come I am the only one left in the dark about this seemingly peculiar case where you met this strange character named Lytton with questionable morals.”

“I have my reasons to include him, and I am more than willing to share them with you, but please stay patient, as I think we first owe Duke a brief overview of that woman's case and all about how we met Lytton there,” said Leah.

“Do tell!” said Duke, “I don't know why you guys chose to hide it in the first place from me.”

“It was right after your father passed away. You were still in mourning, so we didn't want to worry you about anything else. Also, the case itself was so traumatizing that we all agreed not to talk about it for months,” answered Leah, and the other three agreed with her.

Leah took a deep breath, and her eyes met with Duke’s who was impatiently waiting for her to begin.

“So, around a year ago after you flew to New York to be with your family, we got to know about a case from Hannah’s mom. Someone she was well-acquainted with wanted to come and take a look at her daughter who was experiencing some threatening activity in her life. The victim was a young gorgeous woman in her early twenties. When we met her, she told us about her bizarre experience where she felt like she was watched and stalked by someone. Furthermore, she feared that her stalker was not exactly human, so she wasn't sure what to do about it. Her life later moved upside down when she discovered who her stalker was. And as she had suspected, it was indeed a demonic entity obsessed with her. So many horrendous things happened to her after that. She even claimed that the entity would r**e her almost every night and took control of her life. She couldn't leave the house or even see her boyfriend who the entity would brutally hurt whenever he came close to her.”

Leah paused as she recalled the appalling details of it, “We tried to help her at first and involved Father Stephen in the matter. He performed roughly fifteen exorcisms on her but no matter what he did that entity wouldn’t leave her body.

Even after all his efforts had failed, he didn’t want to give up on her and urged her to move to the church, but that woman had other plans and therefore refused to go there. After that, we lost all contact with her for a few months, but one day out of the blue, she gave us a call and begged us to come to see her.”

She paused before continuing the story and looked around the van, “So we went to see her and it was there she introduced us to her guest Mr. Lytton. She told us that he was a demonologist and was there to help her. And before we could ask any more questions, she made a request in which she asked us to assist him and to film everything that might happen at her house during that following week. And in exchange for that, she also offered to pay us handsomely, but we declined the money because the girl was in a lot of trouble and worked a minimum wage job. However, we did agree to help her and worked with Mr. Lytton for two days, after which she moved somewhere far."

“By unusual, she means the things usually used in necromancy or witchcraft like blood bones and animal carcasses...” added Hannah.

“He at least had good intentions,” said Leah.

“She was paying him a fortune, of course, he would agree to help her,” said Hannah as she rolled her eyes, “But eventually, the expert failed to remedy the problem, so maybe he is a liar and a swindler after all.”

“He did help her Hannah!” Lean exclaimed, “That woman called me a few days ago to inform me that Mr. Lytton has succeeded in removing the entity from her life. She said he had worked day and night for a few months and tried everything in his power to make that possible. She also added that he was indeed a kind soul under that icy exterior, and she was forever indebted to him for his help.”

Her friends, especially Hannah and Noah looked flabbergasted to say anything to that. And before anyone could open their mouth, Leah's phone beeped, and she saw that it was a text message from Andrew Lytton.

The message said: I am already at the Williams' place and have been conversing with the caretaker for a while now. And the things I have found out about this place are incredible. This is certainly a case I would remember. I hope you'll be getting here soon. And don’t forget that my cut is 25 percent, and there will be no bargaining. Looking forward to working with you.”

Leah rolled her eyes and wondered what that day had in store for them.