29 – Curse Breaking and Ghost Busting

“How, exactly, do you break curses?”

Erika’s eyes lingered on the scenery flying past Rick’s van as she considered her response. In truth, she did not know how she broke anything. The exploit was there, a flaw in reality that she—and she alone—could perceive. Physical things were the easiest and most obvious things she could break; Erika had stumbled across her ability to break things like security, both digital and otherwise, as well as break the more metaphysical connections between herself and her presented identities via cutting fake ID cards.

Magic felt more like breaking something physical than something like the idea of her identity. The gold bar, the spells The Banker had cast on her, and the cursed cubes provided by The Warrior all had those films around them, like coatings of grease that she could rub away if she figured out the flaw—or, in the case of the bar and cubes, if she broke the attached object.

“Everything is flawed in some way,” Erika eventually answered Anna’s question. “I suppose I just have an instinct for knowing those flaws and what needs to be applied to crack them open. Usually, a hard smack.”

“And that’s a trait you picked up from The Fixer?”

“Ah, technically? But it isn’t something The Fixer can do, so…” Erika shrugged as Rick turned down an old and somewhat familiar dirt road. “They’re more about manipulating the flow of time, speeding it up and slowing it down, but somehow only affecting a little local bubble around themselves. Don’t ask me how, no idea.”

Both The Fixer and Carter had tried to explain it, back before gifting her the watch, in the hopes that she could throw off the ripples of her breaking things. Neither had helped her achieve anything more than she could already do.

“We’re here,” Rick said, putting his van in park.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Sofia asked from the back seat next to Erika.

“GPS led me here, unless they gave us the wrong address. Something wrong?”

“I just don’t… sense anything,” Sofia said with a heavy frown, glaring out the window at the old farmhouse.

“It’s a big lot,” Anna said, turning her head slowly to take in the land around the farmhouse. “Might be further out? Maybe some old barn on the property?”

“Maybe…” Sofia didn’t sound certain.

“Didn’t exactly bring hiking boots.” Erika huddled into her long coat as she slid open the van door, leaving her crate of cursed cubes in the van… for now. “I call dibs on searching the house.”

“Don’t run off alone,” Rick warned.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Erika said, though she did move closer to the house to seek cover from the wind. It snowed the first weekend of the year, and none had melted off in the three days since. Out here at an abandoned property that saw neither traffic nor caretakers, Erika sank to her ankles in the snow.

Leslie’s oversized, compensating-for-something truck pulled up a minute later, carrying the man himself along with Daniel and even Bethany; having already determined that this was a low danger haunting, he said it would serve as a good experience for his youngest. Both of his kids looked a little stiff getting out of the truck, and not because of the unpleasant weather. Daniel, Erika knew, was worried that their little exorcism would be discovered, but it took a minute to remember that the whole idea for coming out here in the first place had been Bethany’s.

Erika didn’t know why they were so worried; she had explained her plan to Daniel before they left: blame it on some other group of ghost hunters. There had to be others out there, maybe some group from the local Indiana, or Ohio, or Idaho for all she cared. Some Winchester brothers got to the ghost before they did. Nothing to be worried about, they could report to The Adjustment that the job was done, get their neutrality license, and be on their merry way—after breaking some of the cubes.

This far away from Chicago and, presumably, the ones searching for her from The Mummy’s cult, this might be her best place to test out the cubes and, if he had finally come to a decision, even break Rick’s curse. She could drop her ripples on the way back.

A perfect plan if ever there was one.

Leslie joined the others at the van, where they were going over their plan of attack as they selected various tools from the rack of ghost hunter equipment. Bethany and Daniel meandered toward Erika.

“What are we going to do?” Daniel hissed.

“Do? Do nothing. I told you, there is nothing to worry about.”

“Dad made us go over everything he k-knew about this place on the way up, quizzing us on ways to identify the g-ghost before we even arrived, and all kinds of stuff,” Bethany said with a wan smile. “It made Danny all worried.”

“Me? You’re the one who kept stuttering.”

“It’s cold,” Bethany growled. “I’m shivering.” After a glance back at the van, her voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you two leave any evidence behind?”

“The salt circle might have burned into the floor,” Erika answered. Unable to come up with anything else, she raised an eyebrow at Daniel.

“Candles,” he said. “I don’t think we left anything else.”

“Which is perfect,” Erika said. “There is obvious evidence that an exorcism took place; if we had cleaned it all up, we would have had to search for a ghost that doesn’t exist anymore for ages.”

“I just—”

“They’re coming,” Erika whispered before leaning back against the house once more, the perfect picture of casual.

“Dan,” Leslie said, holding out a spirit box that was far fancier than the one Erika owned. “Call out to the ghost, ask questions: where are you? Are you far? Are you close? How old are you?”

“You’ve taught me how to use a spirit box before,” Daniel said with a nervous sigh.

Leslie nodded, then turned to Bethany. He held out two rods, looking somewhat like dowsing rods—little brass-colored sticks of metal held up in slightly larger brass tubes that allowed them to spin freely. “Follow the direction they point. If the sticks cross, run to us immediately.”

Bethany didn’t look too happy to have to take her hands out of her pockets, but there was a gleam in her eyes as she accepted the dowsing rods.

Leslie finally looked to Erika.

“Got my own EMF reader and flashlight,” she said, producing both from her pockets.

“Good. You three stick together. If any of you lose sight of the others for even a second, shout for us.”

“Aren’t we all sticking together?” Daniel asked.

“Sofia and Rick are taking the ground floor. That leaves the basement and the upper floor.”

“The house isn’t that big,” Erika said with a frown. She didn’t recall a basement from her first time through, but it wasn’t like they had thoroughly searched every corner. “It’d be like a minute to run through the place.”

“Running makes us miss things. We take our time, spending a few minutes in each room to be sure it is clear before moving on.”

“I call the basement!” Bethany said, earning looks from everyone. “What? Basements are always where the spooky things live. Or the attic. Is there an attic?”

Anna, standing to the side, rolled her eyes so visibly that it put a damper on Bethany’s excitement. “You can have the basement,” she said. “It’s the door under the stairs, should just be a large room, a secondary bedroom, with a smaller storage room in the back.”

“If no team finds anything, we’ll shuffle floors around until all of us have gone through the entire house,” Leslie added, then sighed and looked out over the farmland. “If we still find nothing, we’ll spread our search out.”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that,” Erika said, watching as Rick and Sofia carefully stepped through the front door. They moved like they were treasure seekers in some ancient temple, expecting every step to trigger a trap. When Erika and Daniel had visited, neither acted like that; they had walked in, casually talking, and meandered around.

Erika entered behind them, taking a look around the place. She was certain they had disturbed dust on the floor, but she saw no obvious sign of it now. It had been back in November, just before Thanksgiving, and the house was drafty with plenty of cracks in its windows and walls, so she wasn’t too surprised.

“Ghost?” Erika called out. “Where are you? Give us a sign!”

Aside from a puzzled look from Sofia, she got nothing.

“That’s the basement door?” Daniel asked as Bethany hurried over, throwing it open.

Erika took one look and grimaced. “I ain’t afraid of no ghost, but those stairs look like they’re on their last leg.”

Hearing her comment, Rick stepped over and took a wary look down the dark staircase. Taking a breath, he stepped forward and moved down, stomping a little at the bottom, then again as he made his way back up.

“They’re stable enough, I think. Just be a little careful,” Rick said, making a face as he peeled a long, sticky, cobweb off his head. “Make sure you step on the nails, that’s where the support is. Maybe only go one at a time.”

“Right. Lightest first?” Erika asked, grinning down at Bethany. “You are the one who wanted the basement, right? Only fair that you walk into all those cobwebs that Rick missed.”

Bethany huffed. “I’m not afraid,” she said, taking the first step in. “I happen to like spiders.”

“Wait until you see The Adjustment,” Erika muttered as she waited for Bethany to clear the staircase. She went next, leaving Daniel for last.

The stairs weren’t as bad as they looked, feeling surprisingly sturdy under Erika’s weight. She didn’t test their integrity by stepping between the nails, but at least she knew she could get out of here in a relative hurry.

Not that there was any danger. At least, no danger from ghosts.

There were webs everywhere. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Erika couldn’t find a single angle to aim her flashlight at that didn’t have lightly wisping strands of dust-coated webbing.

“You just had to pick the basement,” Daniel said as he reached the bottom. “You know there is nothing here, why make us come here?”

Bethany pouted. “My first real ghost hunt and the ghost has already been hunted. It’s not fair.”

“You’re the one who threw a fit when Dad thought about leaving us behind.”

“I don’t want him thinking I’m some coward like you, now do I?”

“I’m not a—”

“Children,” Erika cut in. “Please. We’d best get searching.”

“Searching for what?” Daniel asked. “We just have to wait until they call us up to look at the salt, right?”

“If they’re really spending several minutes per room, it could be a half hour before they get to the end of the hall.”

Daniel looked up as if he could peer through the wood of the house, then sighed and nodded.

“Besides,” Bethany said. “Don’t forget about second ghost.”

Daniel started. “Second ghost?”

“Oh, I don’t think he knows about second ghost,” Bethany said with a coy smile. She took a step into the room proper, only to start sputtering and clawing at her face. “It got in my mouth,” she whined, pulling at a strand of cobweb. She tried to fling it off, but it clung to her fingers. “Gross, gross, gross…”

“And here I thought you liked spiders,” Erika said. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out a long baseball bat from her armory. Sweeping it back and forth, she cleared the way toward the center of the room.

They spent a good ten minutes waving their inert tools around the room, not expecting nor getting any results, before one of the others called down the stairs. All three shot knowing glances at one another before heading back up the stairs, then up the second flight of stairs.

“We didn’t finish searching,” Bethany complained as soon as they were with the others.

“The basement wasn’t that large,” Erika said. “If something was down there, I think we would have noticed without going over every inch.”

“I know, but…” She paused, seeing Anna hunched over the blackened salt and tealight candles. “What happened here?” Bethany had surprisingly good acting skills, looking suitably upset as she planted her hands on her hips. “You did an exorcism without me?”

“Not us,” Leslie said, with a heavy frown. “Looks like one of our banishment rituals, though.”

“Are there any other ghost hunters around?” Erika asked.

Rick shook his head, moving to crouch down around the salt pile, poking at it with the end of a pencil. “Not that I know of.”

“Really? I read in your wiki that you got some of your information from an online message board dedicated to paranormal activities. Aren’t you in contact with any of those people?”

“I mean… yes, but also no. I talk with a small circle of people, but I don’t think any are in our kind of business.” Rick picked up one of the metal tins from the tealights and flipped it over, looking at the bottom. Erika tensed for a moment, wondering if there were any identifying marks, before remembering that they were just a bunch of generic candles bought by the dozen at any supermarket.

The whole cloak-and-dagger thing was kind of annoying. Were it not for Daniel, she would have just told the others that she had banished the ghost.

“At most,” Rick continued, “they act as fortune tellers-slash-exorcists in small rural communities.”

“Can you tell fortunes?” Erika asked, genuinely curious.

“No.”

“Oh…” Erika frowned, disappointed he didn’t elaborate. “Well… if the ghost is gone, I did have those curse cubes I wanted to try breaking. Maybe Sofia will hold one while I try breaking it?”

“Me? Why me?”

“Rick and Anna are busy, and you aren’t doing anything.”

“Oh! I volunteer,” Bethany said, waving an arm back and forth.

“You do not,” Leslie countered. “I’ll assist, for Rick’s sake. Though, is it best to do it here? I don’t know how curses and ghosts interact. We might awaken something…”

“Isn’t that what we want?” Erika cocked her head to one side. “Either the ghost is gone,” she said, gesturing to the burned circle of salt, “meaning this place isn’t any different than any other place, or the ghost is pretending to be banished, in which case drawing it out lets us deal with it. Win-win, as far as I can see.”

Leslie considered, not looking too happy, but he slowly nodded his head. After a quick trip down to the van, Erika brought the crate of cubes up to the little girl’s room, set them on the desk, and popped open the top. Despite her protest, Sofia still drew near, hovering just behind Leslie. Bethany bounded over as well, only held back by a glare from Leslie and Daniel clamping a hand on her shoulder.

“Take the first cube. It’s the one you can’t get rid of until you lick it.”

“I’d rather not lick it,” Leslie said, nonetheless taking the cube in hand.

“Lucky for you, I’m going to be breaking it… Now let’s see here…”

With the music curse, Erika hadn’t been able to feel a film around herself, just the cube, making her think that the cube projected the magic into her mind without really touching her otherwise. The now-destroyed teleporting cube had been similar, except it left a sort of marker on her where, after being released, it would try to teleport to. Unfortunately, she had destroyed it on her first test, meaning she wasn’t certain about how it worked.

This cube, however, was different. As soon as Leslie picked it up, with Erika touching him, she could feel the film from the cube spread up his hand and around his arm, stopping roughly at the elbow. It was like a rope had shot out from the cube and bound itself to him. He couldn’t drop the cube, he couldn’t throw it, or even lift his fingers from its surface. Maybe some mechanical prying device could separate the two, but it would probably break several bones in his arm in doing so.

Erika wanted to avoid breaking his bones if at all possible.

First and foremost, she wanted to try getting it off without damaging the cube—maybe without damaging the curse as well. To that end, she focused on the film wrapped around his arm.

She could feel it, just like she felt The Banker’s stop spell wrapped around her. It wasn’t quite as restrictive, but it had the same idea: movement of the cube was not allowed, relative to the rest of the attached arm. But it wasn’t perfect. Human hands weren’t rigid; the flesh pressed in at places and muscles pressed out at others. The cube could rock slightly in place.

With a flick of her nail against the cube, Erika jammed a metaphorical crowbar between Leslie’s hand and the metal.

The cube fell away with a clatter, intact, as the film ripped off Leslie’s hand.

“First try, baby,” Erika said with a wide grin. She gave a glance at her wrist watch, noting the accelerating hands, before looking back to Leslie. “Any burning, pinching, or other pain in your arm?” she asked as she ran her hand up and down his arm, searching for any remnants of that film that hadn’t fallen away.

She couldn’t find any.

“The moment you flicked the cube, there was a strong jerk, like I was going to get my arm torn off. No real pain though, and my arm is still intact.” He proved his words by moving his arm and shoulder, flexing his fingers as he did so.

“Excellent. Good job, me. I didn’t even break your arm. Sofia, would you pick up—”

Bethany snatched up the cube from the floor before Erika could finish speaking, earning a heavy glare from her father. Perhaps because he had seen that it wasn’t that dangerous, she didn’t get a verbal admonishment.

“Okay. Can you let go of it?”

A flash of panic hit Bethany’s face. “What the—” She whipped her hand up and down like she was trying to flick off a bit of gunk.

The cube flung off on its own accord, struck the ceiling, bounced off the wall, and hit Daniel right in the shoulder, leading to a sharp hiss of pain.

“Beth—” he snapped, biting back harsher words as he reached up to grab the cube, now stuck where it landed, only for his hand to remain where it was the moment he touched it. “Uh oh…”

“Don’t try to fling it off,” Sofia said, half hiding with her hands over her head.

“Just sit still a moment.” Erika quickly looked over Bethany’s arm, finding no traces of the curse’s film on her, before moving over to Daniel. He did have the curse on it, wrapped around much like Leslie, except it wasn’t quite as intact as it had been before. If the metaphor with Leslie had been ropes, Daniel now had frayed ropes. If he tugged hard enough, he would probably break it off without even needing weird Outsider powers.

Erika tried lightly pressing on his shoulder blade, just a pinch away from the metal, with no intention of breaking Daniel. The already frayed ropes snapped easily, releasing it from his head. It stayed attached to his hand where he had been trying to grab it, but he was able to pull it off with his other hand easily enough. He passed it back and forth a few times, each sticking less and less, until he finally set it down on the desk.

It stayed where it was.

“I was trying not to damage the curse when I removed it from Leslie, but it looks like I did anyway,” Erika said, sighing as she poked at the cube. There was still a slight film there, but it was so weak that, while it tried, it didn’t even stick to her finger. She flicked it once more, and the last of the film fell away, leaving an inert metal cube tumbling across the desk.

Leslie tried picking it up once more. This time, he tossed it up and down twice like it was a particularly edged baseball, then set it back onto the desk. “Seems broken to me.”

“Good test, I think. Very promising that I could break it off, Danny, without physically touching it.” Erika clapped her hands together. “Now, who wants to hold the music cube?”

There were no volunteers.