The Demon Detective Agency: Chapter 5

Last Updated on July 9, 2023 by ADMIN-TOM

Genre: Paranormal Thriller | Horror | Supernatural

Publication Date: July 2023.

Click #TheDemonDetectiveAgency to see all available chapters or use the menu below

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |

Out Now @ $2.99 on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Click here for details.

Tell Her the Truth: Chapter 5

Dawn had come up and May was still in bed when Dan awoke and made his way downstairs.

Dressed in jeans and a roll-top shirt, Dan sat at the kitchen bar when he noticed Jimmy arriving in his pick-up.

Dan opened the front door and ushered Jimmy in.

“I’m in the kitchen, just made coffee, want one?”

“Yeah, cream if you have it, no sugar.”

Jimmy sat at the kitchen table and watched Dan make him a coffee, neither wanting to mention the night before.

It was down to Jimmy to broach the subject. “What’s your take on last night?” Jimmy asked, almost nonchalantly, belying the fact he was more than a little spooked about the events of last night and that he had briefly feared for May’s sanity.

“May was a bit overwrought, yesterday. She had spent a good while telling me about her partner in the LAPD and how she had come into her fortune.

Jimmy nodded. “She’s had a pretty rough time of it. I didn’t know her before the money thing, only after she moved into the area. I don’t know her that well, but I do know she’s been on a knife edge at times.”

Dan put a steaming mug of coffee in front of Jimmy, retrieved his own from the bar and sat opposite Jimmy.

“I’ve known her less time than you, I guess. But she has never opened-up to me until last night. I didn’t even know she had any money or if she had a job.”

Jimmy looked Dan in the eye. “She was changed when she came back from the course, seminar, whatever it was you two attended.”

“The official title was self-help group and social stimulus, something or other, but I called it nerds-R-us or even nerds need to assert themselves.”

Jimmy smiled and found himself warming to this new character in May’s life. God knows there weren’t many. He and now Dan were the closest to May, and that was about it. Even May’s Mother rarely put in an appearance. Jimmy opened his mouth as though to speak when he heard a low moan from upstairs becoming a much louder shriek.

The two men bolted for the kitchen door and raced up the stairs.

May was stood in the doorway to the room that she claims had writing on the wall yesterday. She held her head in her hands and was rocking back and forth. Dan grabbed her saying something inaudible to Jimmy as he pushed past the pair into the room.

“Oh my god!”

Dan heard Jimmy swear and leaving May he too walked into the room.

The wall had large writing on it made in what looked like blood.

TELL HER THE TRUTH

The two men looked at the wall, eyes, and mouths wide open. May moaned behind them. Both turned to her, Dan pulling her towards him.

“What happened?” Dan asked May.

May shook her head. “Don’t know. I was looking for you and opened this door, just to persuade myself it was a trick of the light or something.”

Jimmy turned back into the room and let out a gasp. “Look at this!”

May and Dan walked back into the room, but found the walls were blank.

Just then, every door in the house opened with a whoosh. The trio gasped at the sound, looking at each other. Then all the doors in the house slammed shut with a deafening bang.

***

Jude Brubaker shuddered to full wakefulness and tried to move, but she was stuck in the same position. Opposite, on her favourite chair, the demon-witch sat playing with the TV remote, switching channels so fast Jude couldn’t keep up.

“So much drivel. Soaps, soaps, and more soaps. Where’s all the sex and violence?”

“Wrong time of day,” Jude said with some effort.

“Ah, you woke up. Had a nice nap?”

Jude stared at the Fury but made no comment.

“No matter. I see you’re stronger than you look. Resisting me,” the Fury said, running a hand between her legs, “is no mean feat. How are you with pain? And I don’t mean the mental stuff most of my type use, I mean real bodily pain, say, a knife slash to your leg, or arm.” The blade, unseen by Jude before, was in the Demon’s hand and she was at Jude’s side in an instant. “When I say slash, I mean a slow CUT!”

The pain was instant, and her scream would have frightened the hardiest human. Jude Brubaker hoped she would faint, but the Fury had other ideas.

***

“Man, this is too much for me.” Dan looked at both May and Jimmy, the nervousness in his eyes very evident to both. But neither responded, which made Dan even more scared. “It’s an illusion, isn’t it?” Dan looked at May but May shook her head.

“I’ve seen some weird shit in my time as a cop, all easily explained, but this is something else. I can’t explain it and I think it’s as real as us three sitting here.”

“No way. Are you saying this is some sort of ghost thing?” Dan, his voice almost breaking with emotion, was looking pleadingly at May.

“I think it may be,” Jimmy said softly.

“Not you too, come on, man. There’s no such thing as a ghost. The spirit world doesn’t exist.” Dan stood up and began pacing the room. The den felt claustrophobic to him. “Besides, there’s proof that such things are nonsense… isn’t there?”

Jimmy looked at Dan and shook his head. “I don’t know. I know nothing about ghosts and even less about the spirit world. But who says that’s what we’ve experienced?” Jimmy turned to look at May. “Why couldn’t it be a trick of light, or a drop in air pressure, or something?”

May briefly smiled at Jimmy. “I guess a drop in air pressure could shut all the doors at once, but that doesn’t explain them being opened, does it?”

Dan stopped his pacing. “Why not, it could be the answer, couldn’t it?”

“I checked the doors, Dan. I checked all the doors.” May said, pushing her left hand into her jeans pocket and pulling out a set of keys. “One of the doors, my office door, was locked.” May shook the keys, to emphasise her point.

Dan sat down; a look of failure mixed with desperation crossing his features.

Suddenly, all the lights in the room went on and started to flash rapidly.

“Aw, hell,” Dan screamed and leapt to his feet, running for the door. The door slammed in his face and Dan screamed again.

May was about to jump up from her seat to placate Dan, when the wooden ring on her finger began to throb and heat emanated from it. May held her hand in front of her eyes, astonished at this strange occurrence.

Jimmy noticed it first. “It’s glowing,” he muttered under his breath.

Dan turned from trying, unsuccessfully, to open the door and let out a long moan. “What the hell… what the hell…” he whimpered, pointing to May’s finger.

May suddenly felt an excruciating pain in her left leg and she screamed in terror.

Copyright © Tom Kane 2023

Illustration: ariadne-a-mazed