(So I changed Salem's name to Caleb because he would not accept the different name. I didn't want to use a name I already had in a previous story but I'm not going to argue with him and try to change it again.)
They had all gathered near the couch by the cold wall, but only the older man walked up to it.
"This banshee has so much resentment. That's where the chill comes from, and also how its managed to remain in this world for so long," he said as he set down a large bag that he'd gone out to retrieve earlier.
Taking a large hammer and chisel out, he began carefully tapping on a spot about chest-high. He stopped after a few moments, as if expecting the banshee to respond. Which, to Taylor's surprise, it did.
"They don't usually like being disturbed, so naturally, it's not happy that there's someone trying to break through the wall on the other side."
When there wasn't another sound from the banshee the man continued to work, taking almost no time at all to come in contact with a a length of concrete.
I really wish things weren't coming together this way.
The man worked on that wall for about thirty minutes before his hammer finally broke through the other side. He jumped back immediately afterward as the temperature in the room began to drop. A quiet sound came from the small opening and grew as time passed to be comparable to that of wind howling through a corridor.
It smelled like dust and mildew, and as Taylor inched closer, he could just barely make out a blurry, blotched outline.
"I'm... not sure if he's really there, or I'm seeing things," he said as Adon stepped up beside him to try and get a look. Neither of them dared to get closer than three feet.
The older man chuckled and walked a bit closer, then pointed straight at the little hole he'd made.
"Oh he's there, boys. He's just not quite sure of the situation, since I'm sure that he's been standing there, staring at that wall, for years. His form should reaffirm soon enough."
Taylor licked his lips and hesitantly stepped forward with Adon, and now Sasha, at his sides. When he saw faint, uneven motion behind the hole, he stepped a little closer, leaving the other two behind him.
"Oh. Well, shit," he mumbled as the old man looked at him, a brow raised.
Taylor took a step back and gave a nervous, uneasy chuckle.
"Well, you were right about them being able to keep an item with them when they die."
The man took another glance through the hole, but quickly returned his attention to Taylor.
"You saw what he has?" he and Sasha asked at the same time, excitement in both of their voices that Taylor definitely didn't share.
"Yeah. He's got a metal baseball bat in his left hand."
As if to confirm his words, a much-louder hitting sound echoed around the room as concrete dust and drywall bits rained to the floor by the hole. As the sound dissipated, another took over.
A growl?
It almost sounded like a scaled-down purr from an engine, but continuous and low.
"He's warning us, but that's odd. They usually don't bother with that, unless..."
Adon straightened from where he was trying to look through the hole again, at a safe distance, and replied, "unless what?"
The man gave a low whistle and shook his head.
"I think my theory is holding pretty true. He's protecting something... or really, someone."
Taylor swallowed as he looked back toward the hole. The banshee was now mostly formed as a faded gray outline. The inside of the body was only colored with brief faded gray here or there, but most of it was missing and black. The line that made up the outline of some of the upper right side of his face was missing, however.
"That's where the damage was," the man said, making Taylor look back up at him.
"When a banshee materializes, anywhere that was significantly damaged while they were alive doesn't show up very well in their ephemeral outline. He was murdered by being struck in the head, likely with that bat. His lower arms are also missing some outlines, so I bet you he tried to defend himself but the first blow had likely already done too much damage."
Stepping closer, Taylor was about to try and get another view of the banshee when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he felt his mouth open slightly before he lifted a hand to point.
Everyone's attention followed the direction of his gesture, then Sasha jumped and gave a little clap.
"Oh my gosh! The pieces are coming together so well!" she practically screeched, making Taylor and Adon wince as they walked over to the chalkboard with a new message on it.
PLSE DT HHHRT NKO
The old man joined them after a moment, eying the message before turning to Taylor's open laptop on the kitchen counter a few steps away.
"Your ghost desperately wants the banshee safe, but I believe that the boy we are dealing with behind your wall isn't the one with the Amber Alert. There weren't many details visible on your friend, but the height alone seems very off," the man said as Taylor walked over and shook the mouse, waking up the computer and bringing Caleb's picture back up.
"I agree. That's definitely not the same kid, but then who could it be?" Sasha asked as Taylor got busy trying to figure out the name.
"I can't think of many other names besides Nikolas and Nikolai that might have NKO in their spelling. Do you guys have any to add?" he asked as he started searching using the address and both names.
Nothing out of the ordinary came up, and definitely nothing tied to the house.
"Maybe we are looking at this wrong," Adon said as he gestured for Taylor to step aside for a moment.
When Taylor did, Adon began typing quickly, pulling up several different browsers as he went through different searches. After about five minutes he selected one of the browsers and nodded.
"West Lake High School. He was a senior. I doubt that the school has permission to give out any possible information on him, but if we look through Facebook..." he took a few moments, then pulled up a public group with kids that had graduated from that school from specifically that year.
"He would have been set to graduate that year, so if we just glance through this group..." he looked at several pictures before selecting five people to message. It was a simple couple of questions asking if they had known Caleb or if he'd had any friends at school.
Adon continued other searches as they waited, in high hopes, for one of the people to respond. The first person that did gave a straight-forward No, and the next one said that they didn't know him well enough to be of any help. The third, and last of the five to respond, did, however, have some information.
He was a quiet kid who seemed to get more nervous as the years passed. He was jumpy, but still always seemed happy. His smiles seemed forced sometimes. The only person I ever saw him talking to was one of our teaching assistants who was his step brother from his mother remarrying at some point. His name was Nikolai, and he wasn't much older than us, maybe nineteen or twenty. He doted on Caleb whenever he was there and they went home together. I haven't seen or heard from either since he disappeared, though.
Taylor blinked back tears as Adon typed in Nikolai missing person along with their area details and city. A picture of a youthful, smiling young man with dirty blond hair and green eyes looked back at them.
"There's your banshee, Tay," Sasha said quietly as they heard the apparition hit the wall again with his bat.
"He's guarding him, even after they've both already been murdered. He's guarding his little brother's body," Taylor said as he looked back toward the small hole in the wall.
The older man nodded approvingly at the information and went back to his duffel bag.
"Well, we can report this all to the authorities now, and after the banshee and ghost are removed, they can retrieve the bodies and hopefully find the mother and step father."
Seeing that the man was getting out his phone, Taylor quickly ran over.
"Wait. Don't call them yet."
The guy looked confused as he straightened back up.
"Why on Earth not? You guys likely solved the murders. We need to report this and let them get the mother and step father in for questioning."
Something just doesn't feel right, though.
"But what about the bodies? If the spirits are exorcised, what happens to them? Won't burying the bodies let the spirits rest?"
The man laughed and shook his head.
"For the ghost, maybe, but the banshee? You're asking to get killed. That," he pointed toward the hole as gray faded in and out within sight, "is not going to rest until whoever murdered his little brother and him is dead. Banshee's don't just rest."
Taylor massaged the back of his neck as he thought about the situation. He would have been okay with getting rid of them at the beginning, but he was having terrible second thoughts as he stared back at the chalkboard, rereading its message.
Sighing, he walked closer to the hole and looked through.
"Nikolai?" he called.
The young man's name on his lips had the growling stop abruptly, but the silence was immediately followed by a hit to the wall with the baseball bat.
"Nikolai, they don't live here anymore. They are far away," Taylor said, trying to make his words sound soothing. He wasn't really sure if you could calm a banshee, but he was willing to try.
"They can't hurt you or Caleb anymore."
The growl started up again at the mention of Caleb's name, but Taylor wasn't deterred. In fact, he smiled slightly and continued. "He's really worried about you. I've been talking with him. I even bought a fish, and he chastised me for leaving it out on the counter while I put away my groceries instead of tending to it first."
The growling stopped again.
"He also wanted to make sure that we didn't try to hurt you. Have you been down to see him recently?" he asked, hoping that he could at least understand a little bit of what he was saying.
"He's not going to understand you, son. All banshees want is revenge. If you get near them, or get in their way, they won't hesitate to kill you," the man said as Taylor turned back to him.
"You are an exorcist. You said that you can't handle a conscious banshee, but can you paralyze it at all? Could I get past it?"
Adon and Sasha looked at each other as the man shook his head.
"You are crazy! That thing is much stronger than you, and has a metal baseball bat! Even if I paralyze it, the effect won't last long."
You really do need to take a step back from this and calm down. Going down there right now won't save either of them. They will still both be dead.
"You're right. Sorry, I got caught up in all of this," he said as he looked back toward the hole in the wall. The banshee hadn't moved from its spot.
He was honestly getting exhausted from the stress of the situation.
"Hey man, calm down," Adon said as his hands settled on his shoulders. Shoulders he hadn't realized had been shaking.
"I'm going to get going for today. Don't mess with that banshee, son. We'll talk about it tomorrow. He won't be able to get through there," he said as he put his things away and picked up his duffel bag.
Sasha looked up at Adon, but the man hesitated, his hands still on Taylor's shoulders.
"You look like you want to stay here, just in case something happens?" she asked, making her friend hesitate by the door.
"Want a ride, Sash? Your house is on my way home anyways," the man asked.
Taylor didn't want to inconvenience Adoni, but he also was extremely nervous now that the banshee was revealed.
"I'll stay, if that's alright, Taylor? I don't mind sleeping on the couch... as long as it's a bit farther away."
Blinking out of his daze, Taylor nodded. He didn't realize how desperately he'd wanted someone there until Adon had offered.
"That's fine. You can even pull it into the guest room so that you can lock that door," he said.
Sasha nodded and waved as she ran over to her older friend.
"Alright. I'll head home with Martin. Call me tomorrow or if anything happens?"
Adon and Taylor both nodded at the same time.
The moment the door closed, leaving them alone, they both exhaled and dropped down onto the sofa, their attention going to the hole as gray blurred in and out behind it.
Taylor leaned back after a moment and closed his eyes.
He opened them a second later, surprised by a sound in front of him. He glanced sideways for a brief moment to see Adon staring at him, but when he didn't move, or even blink, Taylor hesitantly looked forward as motion caught his eye.
A figure stood at the chalkboard. Too tall to be Nikolai...
The boy had his arm lifted, his fingers slightly bent, as if he were using the tips of his fingers to wipe chalk on the board.
"Caleb?"
Jerking upright in bed, Taylor panted as sweat ran down his face and spine. His body shivered, the chill from the banshee in the living room not losing to the heat outside the house. It took him a minute to catch his breath before he could finally blink his vision clear in the darkness and look up. He took a deep breath to finally try to relax when he blinked a few more times, confused as to what his eyes were showing him.
His door was closed, but he didn't remember going to bed.
Maybe I had fallen asleep on the couch and Adon had brought me in here and shut my door?
Either way, he saw a faint shadow under the door. A light had clearly been left on in the living room, too.
Maybe Adon is in the kitchen or still up in general.
Getting up, Taylor stretched for a second before grabbing the door handle and swinging it open. He was just about to start talking when he saw a boy a few feet away from him, standing at the chalkboard with his hand raised, fingers slightly curled inward. The tips of them were pressed against the board with chalk dust coating the end of each digit.
The boy seemed to not notice him for several long moments, allowing Taylor to look him over. He was wearing a jacket over a darker T-shirt and black track pants with white drawstrings. There was a graphic design on the front of the shirt, but not enough of it was visible to even be guessable. He turned his attention to the odd color pattern on the jacket. It was light blue. Like one often used in sports, like a windbreaker for those sitting on the sidelines or out and about often.
The color is off, though. It almost looks like something was spilled on the back... and around the side.
Before his thought was even complete the dots were beginning to connect. Unfortunately, at the same time, the boy's head slowly began turning toward him, his eyes only blinking once during the long action.
It took several tries before Taylor was able to manage to get out a single, whispered word.
"Caleb."
The boy slowly tilted his head to one side as he finally began to lower his arm from the board, his fingers now growing claws that had Taylor's stomach twisting. Feeling his legs grow numb from fear, he forced himself to stagger backwards and slam the door shut, then lock it.
Not a second later he heard the door on the other side of the house open and gasped, terrified that Adon was going to get attacked. But when he simply heard the man walk up to his door and knock gently, then ask if he was okay, Taylor hesitantly opened it.
He immediately looked past Adon toward the chalkboard, but when no one was there, he looked around the living room and kitchen.
He's not here?
Looking back at Adon, Taylor couldn't manage to get his breathing under control, nor hold back the tears that were running from his eyes.
"Hey, it's okay," Adon said as he pulled him into his arms for a much-needed hug.
"You had another nightmare. It's okay. He's still behind the wall and hasn't even tried to hit it. I've been up the whole time. I promise, nothing has changed," Adon said soothingly as he rubbed his back, but Taylor knew that what he was saying was, unfortunately, a lie.
As he looked to his left, the chalkboard proved that there had been a drastic change. The message had not been altered too greatly, but where the previous one had seemed more like a gentle plea, this one, with claw marks marring most of the blurred white letters, was definitely a threat.
DNTTT HRRT NKKLAI!