Chapter 15: Caught
Blinking open heavy eyelids, Taylor felt like he had just fallen asleep when something tugged at his mind. Sitting up slowly, he rubbed at his left eye with one hand as he opened his right one... only to choke on his current inhale of breath as he scrambled away from the skeleton on the bed beside him.
After several seconds trying to calm himself, he realized what was going on. He wasn't in the basement.
A dream?
Looking around, his eyes widened when he realized that he was back in Caleb's dream world... but it had changed. The stove against the wall before him was still there, but the strange apple peeler and tomatoes had vanished.
Moving his gaze along that wall, he noticed the calendar hanging up, a new lamp nearby illuminating the paper. It had been flipped. Carefully climbing off the side of the bed the skeleton was not occupying, Taylor walked over to the calendar to examine what else had changed.
He noticed the date that was now circled and read the tiny scratch of marker on it.
Taylor came home.
It had been the day he'd moved in.
The words brought a small smile to his lips as he turned. The massive wall of fish was still there, but it had expanded by a good amount. He had no doubt that some of the new creatures were because of their recent trip to the aquarium. There was even a larger tank near the center with a big octopus in it.
Walking up to it, he stared at all of the new animals, in awe that Caleb could remember each and every one in such detail. All of a sudden, the fish began swimming downward, starting from the left side of the tank, then gradually moving toward where he stood.
Turning, Taylor watched as footsteps appeared in the thin layer of sand on the floor.
Oh no.
He quickly began to retreat back towards the bed.
I thought he was stuck in Adon's body. Can he still infiltrate Caleb's dreams, too?
Considering that banshees were supposed to be less powerful than wraiths, Nikolai was sure showing off a fair amount of skills in succession. Right as he was forced to stop or risk stepping on the skeleton on the floor, Taylor gave out a quiet gasp of surprise. Caleb stood before him, his form a mixture of faded, see-through colors.
Is he still recovering from our trip to the aquarium?
When he realized that it wasn't Nikolai, Taylor relaxed a bit and stepped forward with a smile.
"How are you feeling, Caleb? You still look really tired," he said, curious as to why he wasn't resting.
The hot tub beside them suddenly turned on, making Taylor jump and glance toward it before returning his attention to Caleb. To his surprise, the guy had vanished, only to reappear squatting down on the edge of the hot tub, leaning over slightly to look at the rumbling water.
After a few moments hesitation, Taylor walked over and stared down into the agitated water. It almost reminded him of the ocean during a storm. He was just opening his mouth to speak when he suddenly felt dizzy. His hands skidded on the damp surface edge when he tried to brace himself, then hot water was dragging his body beneath it and filling his lungs.
He awoke with a startled cough. His eyes were slow to blink away the darkness. After several tries to better his vision, he tried to focus through it. Squinting, he realized that he was staring at the front door, but something was off. Besides his vision being cut by nearly eighty percent by darkness and turning blurry, he quickly realized that there was nothing by the door. He knew that he had left his shoes in that area. Adon's should have been there, too.
Taylor tried to turn his head and look around, but it seemed to be determined to keep his focus on the door. He waited as patiently as he could, until, finally, it looked like someone was coming in.
He felt his heart stumble as he saw who was walking through the door. At that exact moment, whatever was controlling his vision shifted slightly, as if moving weight from one foot to the other, or tilting one's head in curiosity.
Taylor realized what was going on, however, when the realtor who had sold him the house followed him through the door.
He was seeing Caleb's memory.
He watched closely as he followed himself around. Caleb must have been right beside him the entire time, yet stayed invisible to avoid detection.
Caleb paused when they went into each room, waiting in the doorway before backing away when they approached again.
He had followed them the entire tour.
His attention eventually turned toward the wall he now knew hid Nikolai. Except, to Caleb's eyes, it hid nothing. His brother stood behind the wall, hunched slightly with his head down, chin pressed against his chest. It had been no wonder they had heard nothing from him. He had been resting during the time he had visited the home the first time.
His vision abruptly went blank, only to return a few moments later with a different scene. Taylor was startled as a baseball bat suddenly came swinging toward him in a blurry arc, but to his surprise, it hadn't been aimed at him... or really, Caleb. As he thought about it in that moment, he realized that Caleb already seemed to be lying on his side on the floor.
Dots of red came flying toward him, forcing his eyes to close momentarily before he managed to open them again. A person had picked up his body and was holding it closely before they both jerked. Taylor could only assume that it was the baseball bat connecting with Caleb's protector's back.
His mind was transfixed on the situation, trying his best to see through the growing darkness that was trying take away Caleb's sight. He desperately hoped that he could hold on until he could show him who had killed them, but just as the person shielding him began to fall to the side, Caleb lost consciousness and Taylor was sitting up abruptly, his breath coming in harsh pants as he looked around the dark living room, water dripping from his damp hair.
"What... the hell?" he rasped out as he noticed headlights from a car in their driveway.
Checking his phone, he didn't see any messages from Sasha or Martin saying that they were coming over... but that had never really stopped Sasha before.
Figuring that it was her friend's car, he carefully got up and stretched, then headed for the door right as he heard a strong knock on the other side.
That... doesn't sound like her.
He hesitated with his hand on the bolt lock, but when a loud voice spoke from the other side, Taylor blanked.
"Police! Open the door."
Taylor's face grew paler by the second as he glanced over his shoulder. Caleb and Nikolai were nowhere to be seen, but that didn't mean that they couldn't show up abruptly... or that Caleb wasn't invisible somewhere nearby already.
Licking his dry lips, Taylor unlocked, then opened the door just enough to greet the officer.
"Hello, sir. How can I help you?"
The officer held out a small manila folder and raised an eyebrow.
"Can you take a look at these photographs for me, please. Also, were you at the aquarium yesterday with a friend?"
Oh. Shit.
Trying not to freak out as badly on the outside as he was on the inside, Taylor hesitantly flipped open the folder.
God. This is bad.
There had been a security camera in the large tank area. There were several photos in the folder that had been blown-up, very easily catching Caleb when he phased out of his clothing and walked into the massive tank.
How am I supposed to respond to this situation? He's my imaginary friend that I just wanted to share with everyone for the day?
The officer seemed to take his stunned silence as agreement, because he took the folder back and pointed at Caleb's blurry picture.
"I'm part of the paranormal investigations team in town and I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your friend."
Taylor noted that the man hadn't asked if it was okay. He would ask them either way, and expected answers.
I guess I can handle this one step at a time. Please, Caleb and Nikolai, please stay hidden.
"Okay," he said quietly.
The officer took a step forward, clearly intent on being invited in, but Taylor quickly straightened and held the door steady, making sure that the busted wall remained out of view.
"We can talk right here."
The man seemed a bit surprised by the abrupt refusal, but he didn't let it sour his mood.
"Alright. Firstly, what is your friend's name?"
Taylor wanted to smack his head against the door. He should have known that the question would come up, but he hadn't really thought about how he could lie around it. If he gave a fake name, the guy would be able to look it up in the computer. If he gave a real name, he'd know...
I don't have a choice.
Sighing, he licked his lips nervously and replied; "Caleb Kay Marie."
The officer unhooked a small radio from his belt and spoke the name into it, asking for it to be looked up. It didn't take long for a response to come back through the device, alerting the officer before him that the boy had had an Amber Alert out for him for years.
"Well, that's not really the response I was hoping to hear, but it closes the missing person file and will give the parents some solice, at least," the office said solemnly as he responded to the person on the other end of the radio.
"Reporting that the person in question is deceased and his alert can be canceled. Details will be forthcoming," he said as he looked at Taylor expectantly.
Um... do we have to tell the parents?
He wasn't exactly sure if the parents would be happy about the cops finding out about their sons... if they actually had been the ones involved in their murder. He also was hesitant to let the police bother the remains, or at least try to. He doubted that Caleb or Nikolai would be happy with people touching their bones.
Today, is not a good day. At least he's not pulling out the handcuffs, yet.
Sighing, he readied himself for more questions.
It was probably a good thing, because Taylor blinked a few times, then saw Caleb's form appear behind the officer on the last one.
Please be nice. He's not here to hurt me, I think.
To his surprise, Caleb's face wasn't blank. He looked intrigued, his eyes slightly wider than a normal person's as he tilted his head a tiny fraction.
"How long have you been in contact with Caleb?" the man asked as he pulled out a small iPad to take notes with a stylus.
Taylor shrugged one shoulder, thinking back.
"Around a month or so," he said, honestly surprised that it hadn't been much longer. It felt like they'd known each other for years.
The man nodded, then replied.
"When and where did you meet him?"
Thinking back, he remembered when he saw the bloodied boy scrawling something on the chalkboard he'd hung near his kitchen.
"I had a feeling that there was something up when I moved into this house, so my friend, who is quite a paranormal fanatic, advised me to put up a chalkboard. One day I woke up after having fallen asleep in my room and opened the door to see him writing on it. I slammed the door shut in response, and when I opened it again moments later, he was gone."
The man nodded and wrote down a good amount of notes before clicking on something that had popped up on his screen.
Oh, shit. Again.
His coworker must have sent him Nikolai's missing person information, since they had both likely been reported by the same person.
He silently flipped the iPad so that Taylor could see it.
"Do I have to ask?"
Running a hand through his hair, Taylor sighed.
"I know him, too. He's dead... kind of."
The police officer's eyes narrowed as confusion and unease took over his expression.
"Can I get an explanation on that kind of? Do I need to get my gun out and call the paramedics?"
The officer was only partially joking. Taylor could tell that his right hand was inching toward his gun.
Shaking his head, Taylor replied. "He somehow possessed my friend and switched bodies with him. He's now the one who is alive, kind of, and my friend is, well, I guess he's stuck as some kind of banshee inside of Nikolai."
The police officer didn't look impressed with his explanation.
"I'm not trying to make this harder on you and I am telling the truth. I know them both, and they are both on the property at the moment, but I can't just let you inside... for your own safety."
The officer seemed to relax the slightest bit before taping a few things on his iPad.
"Do I need to send for a search warrant?"
Okay, he kind of anticipated that question. He was actually a bit surprised that it hadn't been asked earlier, or he hadn't just gotten one to begin with.
Taylor slowly lifted his hand and pointed behind the man.
"The warrant won't help you if you don't get permission from him... and his brother. The latter being the harder one to manage. He gets a tad defensive of his territory, and sibling."
After he finished speaking, the police officer had visibly stiffened, but then quickly forced his body to relax as he took a few steps to his right, putting himself just-barely out of reach of Taylor if he happened to be lying in order to try something while he was turning his head to look where he'd been pointing.
Caleb had faded a bit more as he stood in the grass a few feet away, but he was still very-much visible.
"Wow. It has been nearly a year since I've seen a banshee so close."
Well, you're in for a surprise.
"He's not a banshee."
The officer gave him a nervous side-glance before gluing his attention back on Caleb.
"He's... not a banshee," he stated, as if he needed help digesting what he hoped wasn't true. Because the other thing he could really be, as far as paranormal undead went, was not something a normal person ever wanted to encounter.
"Caleb, he's being friendly. Say hello. He's not here to hurt you guys, right officer?" Taylor said, the edge of his lips tilting up a fraction as he spoke.
The man quickly nodded, and it was clear as day that he was fighting himself not to take a few more steps backward.
Caleb seemed to take a few minutes to process the situation before he gave a disturbingly slow nod, but had trouble lifting his head afterward.
"I told you to rest," Taylor said with a sigh as he stepped forward and carefully lifted Caleb into his arms. "I swear, you are as stubborn as your brother in your own way," he chastised as he walked back toward the door, only to stop in front of the small opening he'd left.
"Do you have any other questions, officer, or can I bring him back inside?"
The man seemed at a loss for words and eventually just took a small business card out of his back pocket and handed it to Taylor.
"I-I'll... need you to call me tomorrow."
I guess.
He knew that he could just pretend to forget, but he had no doubt that they had tracked him to his house by his license plate, and likely already had his phone number in their records. They also, clearly, didn't mind paying him a visit.
"I'll talk to you then," Taylor said as he turned and stepped into the house.
Since he was carrying Caleb, he had to nudge the door open wider, giving the officer a very brief glance at the destroyed wall before he shoved the door shut and locked it behind himself. Instead of going to his bed, he dropped down onto the couch with Caleb tucked against his chest and groaned.
"I have so many skeletons in my closet right now that are about to be found out... but I guess they're really in the basement."
Looking down when he felt something move against his neck, Taylor couldn't help but nudge aside his rising stress and lean down to press a kiss to Caleb's hair.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you guys... somehow."
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