"What have I done?"
With the ghost of Curtis, aka Curly still wearing plastic wrap so that he had a tangible substance that she could see standing outside her screen door, Erin Parrish witnessed a silent scream. The boy had just lost the girl of his dreams that he never even knew he wanted right before his invisible eyes. Erin having sent the new couple outdoors had somehow miscalculated her intentions. While it spooked her to have the female apparition Vienna here, having crossed over from her final resting place in Boston Massachusetts then crossing again over a mystical sigil on the front door threshold, the girl simply vanished without a trace. Damage control was required, along with investigation the only way she knew how. "Curly! Stay right there, let me try something." The boy obeyed but looking ready to fall to his knees in trauma. This girl had obviously smitten him to be this upset. Even his plastic body wrap was being pulled off as if ripping his clothing away out of torment and tantrum.
Lifting her necklace Erin spoke out, "Gemma? Help me here. I need to know what happened to Vienna. Is she with us or has she been taken away? Show me, please." Only a flicker of blue on her dangling gemstone then a pounding sound over the TV set behind her. Looking back there was Vienna pounding on the invisible barrier from the other side, within the recorded episode of that haunted house she was murdered in. The Ghost Hunter's in the show were freaking out over thumps on a wall next to them. The convoluted communication was heartbreaking. "Curly look!" She opened the door for the tatterdemalion and motioned him inside.
The door nearly ripped from its hinges; Erin let it go in favor of what was important. Rushing to the TV Curtis placed his palms on the surface and found her hands touching his like soulmates. Erin nearly cried as Kyra came rushing back inside with her posse of boys. "What's going on?"
"Our visitor was taken away from us and back into the episode on TV. She made it as far as the doorway there and poof MIA." Kyra hugged up to Erin out of concern, Curly's wrapped head looking back with an obvious cry for help in rescuing Vienna. "I'll figure this out Curly, I swear. Where is my cell phone? Balcony!" In a near trample the other ghosts ran upstairs, those still in stretch wrap tripping over themselves to retrieve her phone. A huge scuffling sound on the ceiling above her she rolled her eyes. The boys were fighting over the phone. "DON'T DROP IT!"
Lester winning out brought it down with a swift response and handed it to Erin. Kyra pointing out credits for the show grabbed the TV remote and hit pause. Curly found Vienna's hands frozen in time beneath his flatly placed palms. "Good job Kyra. Once that show is off the air it's hard telling when it might rerun for us. There has to be some delayed reaction if the ghost hunters there heard Vienna's pounding on the wall. You know this episode had to be recorded over a year ago by now. Still, even in reruns it must be like a conduit for communication. We don't really know how everything concerning how exactly the afterlife works. Getting there guys, getting there."
"What's your phone going to do? Who could we call that won't think we're crazy?"
"First thing is first. Just don't let that show run through. Keep our connection until we can't go any further. "I'm looking up murders around Boston that connect to the local police finding Vienna Edwards body."
"Her name is Vienna? Wow! I like that name."
"Yup!" Erin searched stories and quickly discovered a photo of the deceased girl and a local news report from 2012. Playing the video, the female reporter conveyed the story of Vienna Edwards gruesome demise. The killer still on the loose the murder went unsolved. "How can they not trace it back to the killer if Vienna met the guy on Tinder? Surely the cops are not that stupid in and around Boston."
"She's beautiful. Only 17! Well, 26 now if she had lived." Year of our Lord 2021!
Moving up to Curly, Erin shared the photo of Vienna resized full screen. "This is Vienna! You have good taste. She's really pretty." As if he and the boys hadn't seen her on the TV just before she seduced them from the afterlife. In their world of in-between they could see one another exactly as they were. To the living they were simply invisible, traditionally intangible to the naked eye. Until they focused enough to touch physically. This place Souillon House belonging to Genevieve Souillon in the 1800's somehow allowed the boys a much greater ability of touch than most places, most ghosts. With Vienna able to make a love connection through the television meant that even her home must have similar... "Boston! Salem... witches back in the 1700's they say. Kyra... I think Genevieve was a witch. The attic has bound books that look like witchcraft material. At least to me they do. I'm not 100% certain. Oh! There's a bunch of dicks in jars. The lady of the house was nuttier than we thought."
"WHAT? And she wants me to be her roommate." Kyra began murmuring as she paced in circles. "I need air again. Good luck with your girlfriend Curly." She patted the plastic remaining on his shoulder. "I'm here for you Buddy." Out the door she went. Outside at least, she had the dogs and those inhabiting said pooches.
Still on her cell Erin did note they had suspects from eyewitness descriptions of a man on foot in the neighborhood that night. Yet no prints were ever found in the house to identify him, nor hair or DNA in any fashion. It was like the man cleaned house well. Not even any semen in Vienna's body after the rape. How does one do that? Condom sure, but there should have been some slip up on the killer's part beyond a sketch drawing which the news video produced. Seeing the sketch Erin winced. "Whoa! I think I know this guy. The hotel manager where that adorably miserable young maid Isabel works sure does resemble him. He was pretty creepy. I'd tell Eerie when he gets here as a tip but how do I explain even doing a search for a murder probably over six hundred miles away? Obviously, I can't connect the ghosts, or he might freak out."
Shuffling about Erin reclaimed the TV remote from Lester who Kyra passed it to. Rewinding the show was impossible with no DVR. Finding an e-mail link on the tail end of the episode she wrote it down in her cell for future reference. With Vienna pleading the heartbreak was even more horrible. "Curly? I know this is not what you want to hear but we will find her again. I promise you. Let me do this my way... for Vienna." She peels one hand away from the TV then Erin pressed her own on to Vienna's ghostly palm impression. It was as if Vienna connected with Erin in that moment. "Vienna? I'll find a way to reunite you two. Can you understand me? Press your forehead against the TV if you do." The ghostly girl did just that, Curly kneeling to place his own forehead against hers. More heartbreak!
"We have to let her go for now. I'll see if I can get a copy of this episode from the History Channel so we can keep in touch with her. Vienna? Can you see us?" A nod without her forehead leaving the screen. "Can you see my cellphone and what is on it?" Another nod. "Is this what your killer looked like?" Sketch artist rendition shown on pause. One more nod Erin sighed, "Let me play detective. I want to solve your murder, Sweetie. Maybe if I can do that, we can somehow sever ties with that house and bring you here again. All I can do is try." A weeping sound heard through the speakers the show went off the air. Vienna vanished! Curly lightly pelted the TV with his fist so as not to break it. "Hang in there Curly." She sat the remote on the TV stand. "Control your emotions and bre... I guess you can't breathe. You know what I mean. I need to make some calls. Boys? Be here for your brother." Thumbs up all around. Thank God for latex gloves!
Needing air herself Erin stepped back outside on the front porch and sat down on the steps. Kyra felt badly for abandoning her friend and sat beside her bestie putting an arm around her, head on her shoulder. "It never gets easier, does it?"
"No, it doesn't!" Erin sighed and took a screenshot of the sketch artist drawing for future reference. "I need to check on my girl Isabel." Kyra winced. "The teenager I met at the hotel. If my gut is right and you know it normally is... this guy is the manager of the hotel."
"That has to be coincidence."
"Vienna said the drawing was her killer. Nodded it was anyway. The show ended so I made Curly just go relax until I could figure this out. Isn't it just incredible the empathy ghosts can have?" The dogs moved in to lay down at their feet below the bottom step. "Same for you two. Always here for me. I love you Erin's best friends... well, dad. And yes dad, I will get dressed eventually!" She still hadn't since her dad Benjamin gave her grief earlier through Brimley Stone's possession of Kyra. Speaking of, "So you're feeling okay after that body swap?"
"Yet it just made me feel as if my blood sugar dropped is all. Short rest I felt fine, still do. Just... freaked out is all. I'll adjust!"
"I know you will. I love you bunches Bestie." Side hug! "Let me warn Isabel to be careful around that hotel manager just in case."
"We can tell Officer Barker when he gets here."
"Tell the man what? That we think we know a killer that's never been convicted? I... hold up!" Refreshing the screenshot Erin posed her cell toward the poodle Cotton. "Brimley? Do you get any psychic impressions on this guy?" Unable to get any closer to the porch before her body was cast out of Cotton the dog winced as if near-sighted. Erin moved down closer to give her a better look. A yelp of yes the dog whined then looked at Kyra. As if mind reading the dog's request Kyra groaned, "Really? So soon?" Groaning, Kyra stood up and picked the dog up in her arms. Right before Erin's eyes the transfer completed.
"Hello again. Erin that man has no soul. Even as a sketch, I can read his life like a book."
"I think he's the hotel manager of the Belltower Inn where I stayed at before getting the keys to Souillon here. Do you think... this whole Vienna thing, with her coming over through the airwaves...?"
