06 – A Proper Investigation

“So, I call you on a Friday and you can just come right out and hang?”

Daniel shifted in the passenger seat of the old pickup, looking uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” Erika said, not taking her eyes off the road. “Didn’t mean to imply that you had nothing better to do. But… did you not have anything better to do?”

“My… family likes to go out on Friday nights,” he said, still looking distinctly uncomfortable. It was probably the worn seats—though the passenger seat wasn’t half as bad as the driver seat. “You gave me the perfect excuse to not go with them.”

“Ah. Don’t get along with the fam?”

“No. I do. Just not all that into our Friday night family activities.”

Erika glanced aside as they pulled up to a red light. “Activities being…”

Daniel drew in the most resigned breath of air and let it back out with all the dispassion he could muster. “Yeah. Ghost hunting.”

“Dang. Should have asked for an invite instead of inviting you.”

He signed again, looking less uncomfortable and more exasperated. “Is it like a goth thing?”

“What?”

“My sister is obsessed. Any hint of magic or witches or anything supernatural and she jumps on it. Even my dad isn’t as bad as she is and he is the one leading the family. My mom supports him but it is a fairly neutral support. My older brother goes as backup but pretty sure he isn’t into it all that much either.”

“Okay. First of all,” Erika started. “Why do you think I’m goth? Just because I paint my nails black and wear black lipstick and have kick-ass eyeliner and wear all black and listen to—”

“You aren’t fooling anyone,” Daniel said, tone flat.

“I’m just saying. Goth subculture is a bit more nuanced than ‘black’ and while it is my favorite lack of color, I don’t consider myself anything but myself.”

“Isn’t that a goth thing too? No labels?”

Erika would have rolled her eyes if she weren’t driving. As it was, she just gave a light shake of her head. “My interest in the topic—of ghost hunting, not goths—stems from a slightly more personal matter. I… I guess I don’t have any direct evidence but I feel like someone I know isn’t quite the person they used to be. When you mentioned ghosts the other day, it just got me thinking and hasn’t quite left me alone.”

“You…” Daniel rubbed his forehead. “You…” He scratched the back of his head. “Somebody, what? Changed a little? And you jump to possession instead of any number of more reasonable explanations like depression or a new romantic partner or just trying to be a better person?”

“That would be my assumption if it was just her personality that changed. But her personality didn’t change. Which has me more worried than not.”

Daniel ran his fingers along his cheek, frowning to himself. He had a little scruff growing. Enough that made Erika think he shaved about once every other day or two but just couldn’t quite grow a proper beard. “She looks different?” he said after a moment of thought. “A haircut isn’t anything to worry over.”

“Nope. Looks the same too.”

“So… she hasn’t changed in looks or personality. Thus she must be possessed.”

“Yeah, yeah. It sounds strange when you say it like that—”

“It is strange.”

Erika pressed her lips together. She didn’t have a good response to that. Not without showing things that her mother—her real mother—had warned her against revealing to anyone. That alone was something she was loathe to betray but the fact that fake Leah had offered similar advice, saying that because other people might notice and take an interest in strange things, it was best to not show them off.

She knew ghosts were a long shot. The idea that Daniel, or his family, knew anything real about ghosts was an even longer shot. But damnit, she was at the end of her rope. She had exactly two clues. Some nun who didn’t actually seem to ever be around and the fact that her mother could do things that, previously, only she and Carter could do.

And the things they did weren’t something she understood well. It had always been natural. She and Carter could see a layer of the world that other people either couldn’t or simply ignored. But she didn’t have a name for it. Nothing she could easily web search that might point her toward what that was or what it meant that they could operate on that layer.

Erika was half tempted to go around town, stealing a few minutes here or there just to see if anyone showed up with answers.

If this ghost business fell through, that would likely be her next step.

“It isn’t a possession.”

Erika blinked. The light was green. Who knew how long it had been green. Not long enough for the car behind her to start honking, at least. A miracle in Chicago.

“Not possession?” she asked. “How do you know? I just said nothing is different.”

“And that’s exactly why. I don’t…” Daniel paused, looking over to her. “Look. I haven’t seen anything definitive. No proof of ghosts. My brother and father both say they’re real and they’ve given me and my sister… lessons. They say they’ve only seen one confirmed case of a spirit possessing someone that wasn’t related to mental illness.”

“Well,” Erika said, “I can fairly confidently say that this is not a mental illness issue.”

“Great. It isn’t possession either or she would be acting off. Drastically off. Ever seen The Exorcist?”

“She isn’t spewing pea soup, if that’s what you’re asking.” Erika flashed a wan smile. “Forgive me for insinuating. A sample size of one is not a statistically relevant figure. I was hoping you guys had actual experience.”

“Sorry,” Daniel said, slapping the word with all the petulance a teenager could muster. “It’s not like this is a well-researched topic where we can just pull up possession stats on Wikipedia. Have you tried searching for this stuff online? Or even a library? Bullshit, all of it.”

“Point,” Erika admitted. She had done just that and found herself as frustrated as Daniel sounded. “So changelings? Doppelgangers? Demonic possession? Do any of those sound plausible?”

“Erika. We’re…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “My father is a ghost hunter. I’m still not sure if that isn’t some shared delusion the rest of my family has. I’ve got even less certainty about anything beyond ghosts. What’s next? Vampires? Werewolves?”

“No. She’s been out in the sun and a full moon has gone by since she started acting weird.”

“That was a joke,” Daniel said, tone flat.

“Same.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and then looked out the window. They drove another block through the north end of downtown Chicago before he started looking around a little more obviously. “So… where are we going, anyway?”

“Didn’t I say?”

“You called me and asked if I wanted to hang after school. Nothing more.”

“You got into the car of some strange woman just because she asked? Didn’t your parents ever warn you of women like me?”

“They were too focused on the ghosts,” Daniel said without missing a beat.

Erika laughed before delving into the explanation. “There is some kind of community event thing going on at the Old St. Patrick’s Church.”

“Really?” Daniel asked, looking her up and down. “You don’t strike me as a religious type.”

“Not even a tiny bit. But there is this nun and… I honestly don’t know what I want out of the situation.” Information. A clue. Just some idea of who that nun was and why she had met with some man who answered a phone with Leah’s voice.

And it had not been a coincidence. Upon getting back home and looking through the pictures she had taken, Erika saw the phone much clearer. A little zoom showed it was Leah’s phone, complete with Erika’s face on the screen when she had called.

“Anyway, didn’t want to go alone because that’s creepy. I don’t have a lot of people I can ask for this kind of thing and my brother was right out. So I figured you had nothing going on—”

“And we’ve come full circle,” Daniel said with a long sigh. “I really do have a life, you know.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Erika said, pulling into a parking lot a block or so away from the actual church. “Alright. Plan is to get in and walk around a bit. Maybe participate in whatever is going on. Keep an eye out for a nun with black hair peeking out of her habit. She might smell like cigarette smoke too.”

“Are nuns supposed to smoke? Wait, do nuns go to church? I thought they hung out at monasteries or… whatever.”

“No idea,” Erika said, grabbing a long Victorian-style coat from behind the driver seat. She threw it on, buttoning it up. The smooth coat went all the way down to her boots, keeping the early October chill away. “You aren’t very religious either?”

Daniel sipped up a neutral blue jacket, shoulders shuddering as he did so. Between the thin fabric and the cargo pants, he wasn’t dressed for the weather. Luckily, they wouldn’t be outside for too long. Just a quick walk down the street. “My dad says religion is the tool of the powerful and the shackles of the weak.”

“I take it that is a no. Well, hopefully, we don’t stand out too much.”

“Have you looked in a mirror?”

Erika looked back to the truck, leaning down to see into the side mirror. She had some loose hair hanging down on either side of her head while the rest of her long hair was back in a loose, shaggy braid that went down to her shoulder blades. Her makeup was fine. Just how it had been when she left home.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, acting as innocent as possible as she looked at him. She went back to the mirror and smiled. “Do I have something stuck in my teeth?”

“I have a feeling you’re going to stand out no matter what you do.”

“Aww. Thanks,” she said, pocketing her hands. “Shall we?”

Daniel shrugged and stuffed his own hands into his jacket pockets, shuddering once again. “So this nun is the same one you were stalking the other day?”

“It wasn’t so much stalking. I just camped out over there,” Erika said, pointing across the street. “All day long. And most of the night too. Didn’t see her before I left at about two in the morning.”

“All day and all night? But why?”

“Long story short? I think she knows something about my mom.”

“Your mom. Angel Skye?”

Erika couldn’t stop her cringe if she tried. “Please don’t call her that.”

“She’s the one you think is possessed?” he said quickly. His ears started turning red and not because of the slight chill in the air. “She seemed nice at lunch yesterday.”

“It’s… a long story.”

“Longer than my family’s ghost-hunting obsession?”

Erika looked to her side as she walked, seeing Daniel search back and forth between her eyes. There was a certain need there. Almost a desperation.

He clearly didn’t like his family’s oddities. Not thinking about them and certainly not discussing them. Yet she had broken it out of him all the same, all for her reasons without explaining anything in turn. There was no reciprocity. She could ignore it. Shrug it off and carry on.

“I’ll explain later,” she said, deciding to delay the problem. Her future self could handle it. “It isn’t the kind of stuff we should talk about in a church.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, looking forward once again.

Erika adopted a frown, not sure how she felt about that promise. Then again, a sanitized explanation that skipped over anything too unnatural wouldn’t be that hard to give. She could probably give a summary of following her mother out to this church and that would be enough.

But she didn’t get a chance. The casual strumming of a guitar made itself audible over the constant drone of the city. It was an acoustic guitar. The one playing it wasn’t great but they weren’t terrible either. Someone who had a few lessons or spent some time learning on their own without really dedicating a significant chunk of their life to it.

The song being played wasn’t anything Erika would normally listen to. It wasn’t a church hymn, which she would have expected to be coming from the area. Rather, it was borderline country music.

Erika could count the number of country songs she liked on three fingers.

They didn’t quite make it to the church building. Between the church and the next-door school building, there was a walled-off little courtyard with an open gate. The grassy courtyard was lit up with several bright lights on either building, staving off the soon-to-be night. A few tables with food were sitting out next to one of the buildings and several sack toss boards were not far from a few tables. The sound of the guitar came from an older woman seated in front of a microphone off to one side.

A sign out next to the gate, complete with arrows pointing in, indicated that this was indeed the event she had noticed on the church’s website earlier.

Daniel sagged in relief as they stepped through the gate. “I thought we were going to have to sit on wooden benches and listen to some old guy talk about God for hours,” he whispered.

“Don’t celebrate too early,” Erika whispered back as someone stepped closer. “Hello,” she said, all smiles.

“Welcome,” a younger man said. Based on looks alone, he was probably only a few years older than Erika. He had darker skin and short hair but the strangest thing was his outfit. He was wearing some kind of period outfit. Like Robinhood’s Friar Tuck. Light gray with a shoulder cape thing and a big white-yellow rope tied around his waist.

There were only about a dozen other people in the courtyard. Maybe twenty at most. All of them were dressed in more contemporary clothing. Erika wasn’t sure if it was a costume for the event or if people still used the Friar Tuck outfits.

“I don’t recognize you,” he said, still smiling. “Are you new to our congregation?”

“We aren’t,” Erika admitted. “We were walking past, saw the sign, and thought it might be interesting to check out. If this is a private affair—”

“Oh no, no. This is an open event.” He turned and motioned toward the table of food. “Feel free to grab a plate. We have both vegan and non-vegan options. There are some activities and, later on, an open mic for comedy, poetry, music, or whatever you’d like.”

“Oh I don’t know if we’ll stay that late but we’ll hang for a few, if that’s alright.”

“Perfectly fine. Stay as long as you like. I’m Brother Idle. If you have any questions about the evening, mass, or other events, feel free to ask.”

“Will do!”

“Thanks,” Daniel added.

“No problem,” he said and, with that, headed back toward one of the tables where a few others were seated.

Erika watched him go and quickly scanned over the others at the table. There were only two tables and his was the more crowded. None of the people at either table, nor the two using the sack toss boards, looked like the nun she had seen that night.

“We made it in, I guess,” Daniel said. “What next?”

“I’m going to grab some food,” Erika said, heading over to the tables.

An assortment of fruit, bread rolls, salads, and sandwich meat. Erika went with a bit of salad and some fruit mixed in along with a roll, not wanting to muck about making a sandwich. Daniel skipped the salad and just put a few pieces of fruit onto his plate, looking distinctly uncomfortable even taking that much.

Erika eyed Daniel’s plate with a disapproving frown. “Unless a whole bunch more people show up, half this is probably going in the trash, you know.”

“Taking free food under false pretenses feels bad.”

“You heard the friar. Open event. Besides, we’re giving them an opportunity to preach at us and they’re paying us with food. It’s a simple transaction.”

Daniel hummed but didn’t add anything to his plate. He followed behind Erika as she made her way to the less crowded of the two tables. She pulled out a chair a seat away from an older woman with a haircut that made Erika think she had been called Karen once or twice in her life. The way she looked over Erika, with her eyes lingering on Erika’s ear piercings and then on her lips, did nothing to disperse that thought.

“Hello there,” she said, her smile far more strained than Brother Idle’s. She had a slight accent to her voice. Irish, Erika thought. “I’m Mary.”

“Flora,” Erika said, not caring to give her real name to these people. If someone here knew her mother’s impersonator, they might know her name as well. “This is Danny. Nice to meet you.”

Mary actually smiled at Daniel, nice and genuine.

Rude. Not that Erika expected much else. While not religious, she had been on the receiving end of many stares in her time from people like Mary.

“Flora?” Daniel whispered, eyebrow raised.

“A bit of nominative encouragement,” she said, giving the other half of her reasoning. “Flora is a nice name. A wholesome name. Erika carries more… alternative connotations.”

“Didn’t the teacher call you Florence on the first day of school?”

“Careful Danny,” Erika said, giving him a warning glare. No one but the real Leah was allowed to call her that, and even then, Erika didn’t like it. “The name is Flora tonight.”

“R… Right.”

The evening went on. People came up and chatted before wandering off to do their own things. Nobody was particularly pushy but, like with Mary, Erika quickly noticed the trend of everyone present being just a little more interested in Daniel than they were in her. If Erika were here to make friends, she might have been upset.

As it was, she was just a little irritated by the varying looks they gave her. Depending on the person, Erika could see pity, holier-than-thou attitudes, and outright hostility. Even though Daniel was getting mostly positive attention, he didn’t look too pleased about it either. From what little Erika knew of him, he wasn’t the sort of person to seek out crowds like this.

Not that a dozen and change was a crowd. To an introvert like him, it might as well have been a bustling concert at The Hole.

“You want to stay for the open mic?” Erika whispered as the meal portion of the night’s event wound down.

Daniel looked over, smile strained to the breaking point.

“Right,” Erika said. She stood, arched her back until a series of satisfying snaps ran up her spine, and looked back to Daniel. “Well, let’s—”

“Heading out?” Brother Idle said, stopping by their table. “We were just about to get to some fun activities.”

It was with such perfect timing that Erika had to wonder if he had been watching and waiting the whole night for a chance to pounce without frightening them off—because they were already leaving. The two brochures in his hands helped form Erika’s suspicions.

“We are. Daniel has work in the morning,” Erika lied as easily as she breathed. “And I’ve got a book club I still need to read a few chapters for.”

He looked like he wanted to ask about the book club. Maybe even suggest a book. Daniel looking around like he was searching for an escape route gave the friar pause and he simply held out the brochures.

“These are for you,” he said. Erika took one. Being polite cost nothing. “We have events like this all the time and you’re more than welcome to join. Schedules are available on the website or through texting a number you can find in the brochure.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time we have a night free.”

Idle nodded his head, taking her statement at face value. “Then have a good rest of your evening.”

“You as well,” Erika said, only to pause and turn back. “Quick question: Do you have a nun… working here?” She hesitated on the word, not sure of the terminology for a church.

He looked surprised for a moment before shaking his head. “Never know who might show up to mass,” he started, “but no nun works with Old St. Patrick’s. We’ve just got a few pastors and reverends. Why do you ask?”

“Saw someone wearing what I thought was the stereotypical nun habit the other day. I just remembered and got curious,” Erika said with a casual shrug. “No real reason.”

“I see.” He paused and looked around, then leaned in like he was whispering a secret. “I do know that The Church keeps quite extensive records of everyone who has ever been a part of the church and all significant interactions. The archives aren’t normally open to the public. I might be able to take a look through them,” he said.

It felt like he was leaving out a few words. Like ‘for a price’.

“They’re kept here?” Erika asked, curious despite that omission.

Idle nodded his head.

Erika pressed her lips together. Would her mother—or that man who had met with the nun—appear in those archives? Now her curiosity burned a little more. She was almost tempted to ask what the price would end up being.

A light cough from Daniel just outside the courtyard gates had her shaking her head. “Perhaps another time,” she said. “No time tonight.”

“Ah. I understand. Sorry, I couldn’t help. Hope to see you again!”

Erika nodded and hurried out of the little courtyard area. Daniel had already left during that brief extra chat and was waiting on the sidewalk for her. He looked beyond relieved to finally be out of there.

“So…” he started as they began walking down the sidewalk back to the pickup.

“Yeah…”

“Didn’t see any nuns.”

“Nope.”

“Or anything useful that you wanted.”

“Not a thing,” Erika said, though the tail end of that conversation with Friar Tuck might have been close.

“I mean, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a night,” Daniel said, shivering again. The sun was beginning to set and while it hadn’t been too cold earlier, it was going to get frigid quickly now. “Sack toss was… an activity.”

“The food was edible.”

“The music had sound.”

Erika and Daniel looked at each other and, all at once, both burst out into a quick burst of laughter.

“Let’s never go back there again,” Daniel said, still chuckling.

Erika glanced back over her shoulder, frowning at the church. A bit of movement at the high, pointed steeple caught her eye. The moment she looked up, however, she didn’t see anything. Just a cross at the top. A bird, maybe?

“What is it?” Daniel asked, noticing her pause.

“Not sure I’m quite done with this place yet.”

Daniel grimaced. “You aren’t going to drag me into it, are you?”

“Oh?” Erika cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t like hanging out with me?”

Daniel turned away but Erika could still see his ears turning bright red. “I didn’t say that.”

Erika grinned and, stepping toward him, lightly pinched the sleeve of his jacket. “Come on. I’ll drop you off back at your house. No more fun for you tonight.”

She threw a look over her shoulder as she caught movement from the corner of her eye. Again, nothing was there. Still… Some odd sensation bore down on her back. Like she was being watched. But no matter where she looked, she couldn’t see anything watching her.

Erika didn’t think she was quite done with the church for the night.