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Shadow Watcher

Fiction for young readers

By Darlene Long and

Genny Angelina

C. 2014

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THEIL WOKE UP to find that Buttons had climbed up on her in the middle of the night again and was purring soundly on her blanket. She petted her on the head and Buttons stretched and yawned then looked at her as if to say “I can’t tell time but I know it’s too early for you to wake me up.” Buttons was a big kitty, dark brown with lots of fur and a white face with a ribbon on her neck. She liked to eat and watch television, like a lot of grownups.

Getting out of bed, Theil slid on her flats and walked out of the bedroom then realized there was no school today. She felt a flood of relief. She rubbed Buttons on the head and the little brown kitty yawned and stretched.

As Theil walked into the kitchen, she saw her mother Denise rolling dough around something and she smelled fruit.

“What’s that? It smells great!” Theil asked.

“Oh no.” Her dad laughed from the living room. “You should have never let her smell it, now it won’t be safe.”

Denise looked at him. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. I’m trying to remake a recipe my mom passed down, and this is an experiment.”

Theil smiled and replied “Seems like a successful experiment to me.” She said. Buttons purred and walked around Denise’s legs, rubbing her fur on them and looking up as if to say “of course you plan on including me in some way.”

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Denise cut a small piece of the roll off and gave it to Theil, and dad chuckled again. “The bigger of two kitties.” He joked.

“Go get washed up. We’re going to do some yard sales today.” Denise told Theil. Theil felt excited. They didn’t do many yard sales, but when they did it was always fun, sometimes picking up things from the past, and dad enjoyed reselling things and making money.

When Theil’s dad, Tillman, had gone to college he had gotten a job with some company, but eventually the company let all of the employees go, so he had to figure something else out. He had met Denise and liked the jewelry her mother had left her and it gave him the idea to go into business selling used things. He was good at it and had managed to make a regular living at it after Theil came along.

Tillman enjoyed the old things he bought, but from time to time he would try and sell something fast, keep it out of the house and stare at it in the shed.

Denise had liked a big candelabra that someone was going to send to the crusher once, and Tillman had saved it and brought it home. He kept it in one of the rooms in the house that they never used much, and from time to time he would look at it then he would go away, looking worried.

The house they lived on was on the edge of a river where British soldiers had crossed in boats once and had been shot at by the colonials during the revolution.

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Theil put on her nice casual clothes and put Buttons in her room. As she looked at the kitty, Buttons looked at her and meowed, as if to say “of course when you go out to have fun you will bring me something cool, right?”

As he often did, Tillman had a list of places to go and a map, in the order they were going to go.

As they drove into the country side, Theil saw the houses change from being new, bright condos and apartments to being old wooden ones with all kinds of designs on them. Theil liked the houses and she began to study them as they drove by.

At last they arrived at a house that had a huge estate sale going on. Theil saw all sorts of old furniture, and she got out of the car first. Tillman and Denise came behind her and she heard her dad call “Don’t touch anything, little kitty.”

Several people were walking around in the house and they barely noticed as Theil began studying the nice designs on some of the older furniture and she found a nice velvet padded box tossed in the back yard.

Theil trotted out and got the box as an old woman came around the corner. “That’s trash.” She said. At that moment Tillman walked in and the old woman smiled at him then snapped back coldly to her terse expression. “Then you won’t care if she takes it for her cat.” He said. The old woman looked sour. “Nothing leaves here unless sit’s paid for.”

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Tillman smiled sarcastically as Denise looked at the old woman. “Then what do we charge for a piece of trash?” Tillman asked.

“Ten dollars.” She replied. Tillman laughed. “For trash?”

Theil dropped the padded box on the ground as an old man came around the corner. “Oh for crying out loud, Phyllis. Young lady take that silly box for your little kitty cat.” The old man walked away and Theil snatched up the box and trotted out to the car past the old lady who muttered under her breath. Tillman shrugged. “Uh, nice sale but I don’t see anything I can use, you all have a nice day.”

The family then drove to the next sale. “I’m pretty sure if that was trash the rest had to be.” Dad said.

The next place on the map was a towering old house with a big iron fence around it and weeds grown over the yard. “Wow. This promotes sales.” Denise said.

As they got out and walked to the porch, other people drove up, looked around, then passed on by. Theil was fascinated. Everything looked old. Denise looked at the house. “We can go through this one, and then my experiment needs to come out of the oven.”

Tillman smirked. “Nothing is impatient like a woman with one in the oven.” He said.

They went into the house and Tillman nodded his head. “Ok, we got a live one here.” He immediately began to find pieces of furniture and small items like an old stereo, some old emergency

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lights and things he could resell. He began making deals with the woman in charge, a large woman who had colorful clothing on, and Theil stopped in front of some old jewelry. There was a bracelet, some old watches, and in the big pile of colorful stones there was a pair of wire rimmed glasses.

Theil picked up the glasses, looked them over and tried them on. They were not very strong, and she looked at herself in the mirror with them on. They looked nice on her, and when she heard a voice behind her she turned to see the business woman standing there, looking somewhat larger than she had before.

“Be careful with those little lady.” She said. Theil was about to apologize, but as she took the glasses off, Tillman took them. “Nice! I like those rims.”

“Those shouldn’t be out here. There has been a rumor about them having a curse.” The woman said. Tillman looked at her. “A curse? What kind of curse?”

“I don’t know, but people who have had them tell me they have something wrong with them that terrifies people.”

Denise smiled. “Then why not just throw them away?”

“Because my employer used them and I didn’t know they were out here.”

Denise looked at the glasses. “MMMmmm. I love those frames. I’ll give you ten bucks for them.”

“But miss, you could be taking a great risk.”

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“I don’t believe in all that curse crap. There is no such thing as the supernatural. I like the frames. I want to refit them with reading lenses.”

The woman nodded suddenly. “If you just want new lenses…”

“Ten bucks?” Denise asked.

The woman hesitated, then Denise handed her the money and took the glasses.

Tillman paid for several items and left the sale in good spirits, and the little family went home happily. As they drove, Denise took out the glasses and looked at them. She laid them on the dash and checked her text messages,

Theil felt hungry as the car pulled into the yard and as the family doubled into the house she went to the bedroom to give the velvet box to her kitty and she smelled the oven working.

She opened the door as mom went into the kitchen, and Buttons looked at her then at the box and meowed as if to say “for me, right?” Then as Theil put the velvet box on the floor Buttons came and looked it over, meowing at Theil as if to say “Okay, this works fine.”

Denise pulled the rolls out of the oven and Tillman looked them over with Theil. “Success!” Denise said happily. She then cut into the rolls and gave a piece to each of them and they sat down to eat. Buttons came in and looked at Denise through her big, slanted eyes and meowed as if to say “uh, no, you won’t be just giving that to them!”

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Buttons ate a piece of the meaty roll and purred. She then looked at the rest of the family and meowed “oh yeah!”

“Well between the stuff I have being delivered and the rolls you made, we could set up an impressive booth at the festival and make some good money, especially with fall coming.” Tillman said.

“The antiques seem to smell old.” Denise said.

“Maybe we should sell that old candelabra.” Tillman said.

Denise gave him a stern look. “You never liked that thing.”

Tillman looked serious. “I could swear I’ve seen things running around it.”

Denise grinned. “Yeah, moths and small flying bugs.”

The movers arrived in a few hours and unloaded the antiques Tillman had bought. He went into the storage barn he had them in and cleaned and dusted them. They had a dull gleam to them when he was done, and he was very pleased. “Theil came in and looked them over and Tillman patted her on the head. “Do me a favor and go tidy up the car.” He smiled.

Theil went out to the car and threw out the trash and as she did she found the glasses. She picked them up and looked at them then took them to her room. She sat down and studied them closely. They just looked like nice old glasses with wire rims and doggy lenses. She was about to slip them on when Buttons walked in and padded over. Buttons saw the glasses and began to let out a low, angry sound and her fur stood up. She walked slowly past the glasses and got into the velvet box and stared at

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them. Theil was surprised and she went over and petted Buttons on the head. Buttons let out a low meow and purred at Theil, who set the glasses aside.

Tillman went to his internet site and listed the furniture and Theil got busy with other things. But as the night wore on and Tillman sat talking in the kitchen with Denise, Theil went back into the bedroom and looked at the glasses again, filled with curiosity as to why they seemed to bother Buttons.

Buttons was asleep on the couch, curled up purring with a clean milk bowl on the floor. She loved fish and milk. Tillman came in and petted her head and she stretched. She looked at him out of her slanted eyes and meowed as if to say “I overslept, time to do something productive, like pad around.”

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AS THE EVENING WORE ON Denise and Tillman noticed sales happening on the computer where they had listings and it put them in a good mood. They were joking around in the kitchen as the wind picked up outside and the door to the barn swung back and forth as if an invisible hand was pushing it.

Theil went into her room and picked up the glasses. They looked like any other glasses in the world, but very old. She raised them to her eyes and turned around.

Nothing seemed so strange except everything in the room was bigger. She looked at her hands and they appeared huge. The

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woman at the sale had said her friend had worn them so he just needed things made bigger.

Theil walked out of her room and down the hall and began to giggle a little bit as she saw how huge the house seemed. She went into the big room down the hall from the living room and suddenly froze. All at once it came to her why the glasses were special.

The big candelabra dad had in that room because he didn’t like it was standing with a light trail of moon light from outside on it, and behind it a shadow stirred, then slowly became the shape of a woman. The ghostly figure drifted into the room and carefully lit the candles, then drifted away and faded into the darkness. Theil eased the glasses down, and when she was not looking through them, the candles were not lit. She put them back on and saw the lit candle sticks again. Theil was fascinated by what she was seeing and she walked slowly around the room, looking through the glasses, her heart racing as she looked for anything strange, excited, but worried at the same time.

She knew her mom would miss the glasses at some point and want to use them. Theil walked around the room and she noticed a little furry dog, misty and white sitting on an old chair they had had for years, staring at her and cocking it’s head. It then faded away and was gone. Theil stared at the glasses, and then she went and checked to see that mom and dad were still on the computer. They were in the kitchen looking through recipes, with Denise seeing what she could experiment with next.

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As Theil quietly eased past the kitchen and living room, and was surprised to see Buttons look at her, her eyes wide, and let out a low meow as if to say “We’ve got problems, big problems!”

Theil went to the phone and picked up the paper where Tillman had marked the sale he got the glasses from. She dialed the woman up and got her fairly quickly. “Yeah, this is Theil. My family came and bought some stuff earlier. I was just curious, those glasses my mum bought…what were they for? Anything in particular?”

There was a pause and the woman replied. “Sweetie, I wish I had not sold them to you guys. They were made with special lenses as part of an experiment to see if apparitions could be seen if you had a special kind of glass. They made some cameras and other things and said they could see things in the room with them. I don’t know. Someone just tossed those in with the jewelry. Why do you ask?”

Theil answered casually so the woman would not get upset and call her parents. “I just saw a cool woman go light a candelabra and a little dog. That’s all.”

There was another pause and the woman said “Little lady, please take my advice and drop those glasses on the floor and step on them. You might not want to see everything…”

“THEIL!” Tillman yelled. Theil got off the phone quickly and put the glasses under her pillow, running to the kitchen. She wondered if Tillman was mad, but he was not.

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We’re having a problem and you’re going to put a stop to it!” Tillman said, and then he began to laugh as he saw Theil look worried. “Just messing with you. Taste this and see what you think. Evidently you mommy poo thinks my mouth lies about the taste.”

Theil took a bite of something and Buttons came in and looked up at them as if to say “’scuse me? I’m family too you know.” Denise gave a fork full to Buttons and both Theil and Buttons were happy to let them know it was good stuff. As Denise was watching Buttons purr gratefully, there was a loud noise outside, and Tillman hurried out front. He could not see anything, and an inspection of the barn simply revealed that a tall wardrobe had been marred and a door was open. Tillman was mad. “Wow, I just buy this thing, haven’t had a chance to list it, and some unknown thing puts a scratch on it and now it’s worth far less!” Theil stared at the wardrobe and worried. Buttons let out another low growling noise and looked up at Theil as if to say “…big problems.”

Theil went to her room and put the glasses in her dresser, and as the sun got low in the sky it seemed that Denise forgot about them. Theil was reading on the internet and heard her parents laughing at a comedy show when Buttons came in, smiled at her, and stretched out in the velvet box.

Theil looked at her, then a thought hit her and she picked up the glasses and slowly walked around the house, careful not to disturb her parents as they sat, lost in their show. She looked in

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their room and didn’t see anything, and then she walked down the hall and saw something move. She stopped and watched as the same beautiful Victorian woman came drifting through the wall into the room and let the candles on the candelabra again. She then drifted back toward the wall and faded out.

Theil slowly walked down the hall and stopped suddenly…with a shock of horror, and had to stop herself from crying out. Standing over her dad, staring down at him with a cold, killer look on his face, was a man with a black hat, a stern, cold face and a bullet wound in his head, another in his chest and his right arm was broken. He looked up when he saw Theil and took a step toward her. He looked right at her and her heart began to race in sudden terror at this ghostly man.

He could tell she could see him and he could see her looking at him, so he stepped closer and Theil began walking backwards down the hallway. It occurred to her to take the glasses off, so she lowered them to see the empty hall, then put them back on and saw the man standing there. He just stared at her and stopped and shook his head then turned, mouthing something she did not hear and he stepped through a wall and vanished.

Theil understood what the woman had said, that she might not like everything she could see, but she wondered, if these ghosts could harm them, why had they not done so. She took the glasses off and looked at them. The lenses had layers of glass and there was something in between each layer, too thin and small to identify.

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Theil walked into her bedroom and saw Buttons sitting and staring at her. Buttons looked almost angry. She let out a low rowl as if to say “We definitely have problems.”

Theil was about to go and pet Buttons when there was a crash outside and turned impulsively and raced down the hall, as mom and dad stepped outside.

On the porch the furniture had been knocked over and a flower vase dumped. Tillman was voicing his surprise and anger, and without knowing why she did it, Theil raised the glasses to her face and slid them on. Her skin tingled in sudden terror and her eyes grew wide as she gasped. At the end of the porch stood a ghostly figure, it was an old hag with ragged clothes. Her hair was long and white, her eyes sunk in and surrounded by dark circles and the centers blazing with light as she stared at the family.

She smacked a coffee cup that had been left outside and as Theil saw her do it, Tillman and Denise saw the cup fly by itself.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”

Tillman turned and saw Theil, standing in wide eyed horror and she took the glasses off. “Dad, look through these now!” She yelled. Tillman stared for a moment, then put the glasses on and turned back toward the porch. He suddenly looked shocked with horror and he yelled “DENISE, TAKE THEIL IN THE HOUSE, NOW!”

Before Denise could move, Buttons appeared on the porch, her fur standing straight, her back arched, and her ears so tight

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against her head that she appeared to have none. She opened her mouth and with her little white fangs bared, Buttons let out a hissing, angry meow, and crouched. Theil could not see what was going on with the Hag, but she saw everything in front of her knocked aside as if the hag suddenly had fled from the porch. Buttons hissed angrily, looked at Theil as if to say “NOW YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN BY TROUBLE!” and she turned, vanishing under the house.

Tillman hustled Theil and Denise into the house and Denise asked “WHAT?! WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?!”

Tillman took off the glasses and stared at them. “These glasses…they belonged to a shadow watcher. That’s why she said there was a curse on them.”

“What’s a shadow watcher?” Denise asked.

“It’s someone who watches ghosts.”

Tillman then turned to Theil. “How did you know to tell me to put these on?” He asked.

“When I cleaned the car, I found them and I was wearing them in the spare room and saw a woman lighting candles.”

Denise looked shocked. Tillman frowned. “You mean the woman in the old dress who comes through the wall?”

Theil nodded as she went to the door. She then bent down and looked under the house, but Buttons was nowhere to be found.

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“Buttons! Buttons where are you?!” Theil called. She could hear Tillman telling Denise about the hag and about seeing ghosts, but Theil did not care.

The family searched for Buttons for a while, but no amount of calling to the brown fuzzy kitty did any good, and Theil concluded that the hag had done something to her. She went to her room and lay on her bed sobbing. “My kitty!” She sobbed as Denise came in and held her. “My little kitty! She did something to Buttons!”

Tillman came in and hugged Theil for a while, as she cried and cried for her cat, lost outside as the hag vanished. Tillman and Denise hugged and Held Theil till she fell asleep from crying, then they left the room after tucking her in.

Tillman picked up the phone. “Who are you calling this late?” Denise asked. “The person who already had answers.” Tillman replied.

Denise sat next to Theil for a while as she listened to Tillman on the phone, then when he was done, she joined him in the living room.

Theil’s dreams were troubled. She vividly dreamed of the people who had Buttons as a kitten but when she grew bigger they did not want her because she was not a cute kitten anymore, but a big furry cat. They began to ignore her and even mistreat the “stupid cat.” Buttons was crying on their porch one night and Theil could hear her and she was crying too. Tillman marched up on their porch and picked up the cat, and one of the women had come outside yelling at him. “That’s our cat! You

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can’t just take it off our porch!” Tillman turned around. “Call the cops on me then! Tell them I stole your cat and we’ll see who wins!” He handed Buttons to Theil and drove home. The police never came and Theil showered Buttons with affection and attention, and after she had been washed up and a little red bow placed around her neck, she lived in Theil’s room. Theil woke in the night as mom and dad sat talking quietly in the bedroom and she padded outside again in the dark. Along the way, Theil picked up the glasses, which were by the phone, and she put them on.

She stepped out into the yard and slowly walked into the darkness. Her heart was pounding and she jumped at every little sound, terrified of running into the hag again, but driven by a desperate desire to find her precious little kitty. Buttons had been mistreated as a kitten, and she was much more than a cat to Theil, she was her little friend, and to have her out here lost in the dark with some evil ghost was too much for Theil.

Theil wondered, where had these ghosts come from? They must have been owners of the old furniture and when dad bought it he brought them home with him. But the other ghosts did not do anything, and the old hag had wrecked furniture. What made her so different? Theil wondered.

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TILLMAN WAS SITTING on the edge of the bed and Denise was rubbing his shoulders as he talked.

“I guess they get junk out of old barns and houses where it’s been for years. She said that some of the stuff belonged to the family of a gun fighter who got shot down, and the wardrobe may have been owned by a nasty old woman in Grand Junction Colorado, some old nut who was mean to kids and did a lot of bad things.”

“So why did she tear up the place? Can we get rid of her?” Denise asked.

Tillman sighed. “I guess the old battle axe is more of a ghoul, and she can be hurt by certain things, or destroyed, but it has to be with a weapon from her time.”

“Oh. Then we find an old gun or something, right?”

“Where are we going to find an old gun from the civil war days that we can come home with and start shooting up the house the minute we see the old thing show up again through the glasses?” Tillman asked.

“I’ve got an old school friend, a Goth girl named Gennae. She has a really old shotgun. We can borrow it and stand guard till this ghoul shows up again. We need to get rid of that furniture!” Denise said.

“I like your shotgun idea. We can’t go selling the furniture to someone like it is. ‘Hi, Mr. Jaloopsie, my name is Tillman. Thanks for buying the furniture, please enjoy having it in your house and try not to pay much attention to the house wrecking

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hag that comes out of the walls now and then and scares your family mindless and runs off with your cat’. Uh, somehow I think we need to solve the problem.” Denise didn’t mean to but she laughed anyhow.

Theil stepped around the corner in the barn, and she heard a tapping old shoe, and an old man’s voice singing. She stood and stared as she saw two ghostly old men sitting on dad’s work bench.

“Well see, I used to run booze fer Al Capone back in the day. Yes sir, I ran hooch far and wide and used to carry me a shotgun and a pistol. Ah but them were the days!” One ghostly old man said. The other one noticed Theil. “Don’t go tellin that young un’ all them stupid tales, you know they aint true nohow.”

The one ghost got mad. “Yes they is damn well true! I run hooch fer Al Cap…” The other ghost picked up one of Tillman’s screw drivers and threw it through the other old man. “Don’t use that kind of language around a kid! Hey young thing, how old are you, anyhoo?” Theil heard an old woman who was sitting on a settee dad had bought weeks ago. “Isn’t it past your bed time little lady?”

There was a tall thin ghost sitting on the hood of dad’s old car. “I were a famoust musician once, I played gee-tar. Perhaps you herda me? My name was Gene and I owned a pet weasel…”

“I can hear and see you!” Theil said, surprised, but not frightened at all. They just seemed like silly, friendly old people. One old man suddenly appeared next to her with a mischievous smile. “Little kids can see spooks sometimes, and

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so can some adults, not very many, and some animals can interact with them! There’s science laws that can make it happen too.” He said.

Gen vanished, and reappeared next to Theil. “You ever hear of a song called Glitter? It were a kid’s son and I wrote it.”

The old woman tossed a pillow that passed through Gene and bounced off of Theil. “Of course she never heard of you! That was waaaaaaay before her time, you nitwit. You tried to make it and didn’t You been dead for decades. Get over it!” She yelled.

Theil was amazed that she could hear the ghosts, and as she was looking at them the man with the bullet wounds walked in. Theil stared at him. He just looked at her. “You best get you a gun and watch yourself, youngster, cause not every spook out there is a good spook.” He said. One of the old men laughed. “Yeah, Riley. This little kid is gonna pack a pistol like you did! Ignore him young un, he was a gun fighter for years till he met a man faster than him.”

Theil suddenly heard her dad’s voice behind her, and she turned to him…and froze in terror.

Standing between her and her dad was the hag, glaring down at her. The other ghosts vanished suddenly, but not before Riley said one final thing. “We can’t do nothing for you kid, but this old bitty is a ghoul and she can hurt you. You have to have an old weapon to destroy her with. She won’t go away.” The hag streaked over to Riley and he vanished, and Tillman walked toward Theil and did not see the hag reappear and knock him to

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the ground. Theil screamed and Tillman fought to get up, against an enemy he could not see. The hag easily knocked him back down each time he tried to stand because Tillman could not see her. Theil ran forward and lashed out at the evil hag but her hands passed through. The hag then turned to Theil. “You think you can stop me, child?!” The old ghoul hissed. Theil looked into her hollow, colorless eyes and she stood up, grabbing Theil’s hair in her claw like hands. Theil quickly took off the glasses and threw them to Tillman, who caught them in the air as they passed the hag, her hand missing them by an inch.

Theil could not see the hag, but she felt the cold, disgusting fingers on the throat, and heard her as she threatened her and pushed her backward. Tillman got up and ran to the barn wall where he took down a long, rusty knife and he ran at the hag, slashing in the air. There was a flurry of motion and Theil was thrown to the ground as Tillman tried to fight the ghostly hag with the knife, which was old enough to at least harm her, if not destroy her.

Tillman finally grabbed Theil and fled from the barn as the hag stood behind them laughing out loud. “You belong to me now, your whole stinking family does!” She yelled. Tillman rushed into the house with Denise behind him, the front door hanging wide open.

Inside the house, Tillman hugged Theil but yelled at her. “Why were you outside in the dark young lady?!” He yelled angrily.

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Theil began to cry. “I can’t leave Buttons out there with her!” Tillman paused then hugged her, realizing that the thought of her little soft furry friend in the dark with that ghoulish hag had to be horrible for her.

Suddenly the face of the hag appeared at the window, and Denise shrieked in terror. The hag laughed at them. “Awwwwe, did daddy’s little girl lose her precious stinking kitty cat?!” The hag howled.

Tillman stormed to the window, to the face of the ghost on the other side of the glass as Denise huddled Theil protectively. “What do you want with us, you evil old witch?!” He yelled.

“Give me the little girl. Then you can have everything, including my old desk and wardrobe,”

Tillman realized that the old ghoul could return from the dead if she got Theil, his young daughter.

“You think I’d give you my baby, you disgusting rotten old woman?”

The hag laughed at him. “Either that or your family is mine to do with as I please.” She hissed through the window. “You can’t stop me.” She said.

Tillman got close to the glass. “You can’t come in and you won’t get invited.” He said.

The hag laughed, and every window in the house shook and then shattered. Theil and Denise screamed and Tillman found himself inches from the face of the ghostly hag. She smiled. “Won’t get invited huh? Does that make you feel safe, big

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boy?!” She asked mockingly. She then vanished through the ceiling of the porch with a sick, screeching laugh.

Tillman walked back toward Denise and Theil. “This is all my fault.” He lamented. Denise stood up. “No it isn’t. You’re a business man, a dad and husband. You didn’t make some evil old bitty attach herself to old furniture.”

Theil looked at Denise. “You could see and hear her too?” She asked. Tillman nodded. “She feeds off of our energy like a parasite and now she is getting strong. We have to get an old weapon and stop her.”

Theil looked at the glasses. “There’s a bunch of old ghosts out there, just nice old crazy people.”

“Yeah, most of them are just a misty memory and they don’t bother anyone.” Tillman said.

Denise looked at him. “So that’s why you don’t like that candelabra.” She commented.

Tillman looked at her. “I just saw this misty woman come light the candles. She doesn’t bother anyone, I just don’t want to have it in the living room…then there is the fact it’s so ugly.” He said.

The little family huddled in mom and dad’s bedroom and as the late hours wore on they all fell asleep from exhaustion. In the night, Tillman rose and quietly walked around the house, seeing the glass from the broken windows on the floor. He stood in the kitchen trying to come up with a plan of action, and

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as he did, he saw the hag standing out in his front yard. She grinned and laughed, then streaked into the darkness.

She was toying with them, till she was strong enough to overcome them and take Theil. Tillman thought of running away with Denise and Theil but he knew she would be right behind them. He had to get a weapon and destroy her before she got strong enough. He would contact Gennae in the morning and see about that shotgun or buy one.

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TILLMAN DID NOT EVEN know he fell asleep again. Sun was shining in the house and he got up, intent upon preparing to destroy the ghoulish hag haunting his family and tearing up their home.

He got up and stretched, and Theil got out of bed behind him. “Can we go down the road and see if we fund Buttons, dad?” Tillman sat down next to her. “I can’t tell you a lie. We have to face facts. Buttons got scared by a ghostly specter. Either that hag did away with her or she ran far away.” Tillman said, and to his great grief Theil spent the next few minutes crying and she went in and petted the velvet box and said “my kitty, my poor kitty.” Denise looked at him. “I’m sorry, but what else can I tell her, Denise?” She shook her head. “I know. You’re right.”

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Tillman cleaned up the broken glass and they were about to eat breakfast but Theil was not hungry. She was grieving for Buttons. They understood.

Denise shook her head. I’m glad it’s daytime, at least that thing can’t mess with us now.” She said.

Suddenly a cackling laughter filled the house and both Denise and Tillman spilled their food as they grabbed Theil and shrank to the floor in the living room in terror as the ceiling over their head began to cloud and fill with ghostly vapor, and twelve feet over them, drifting at the ceiling was the hag, materializing with her evil mouth wide, laughing.

“How did you get in here?!” Tillman yelled.

“You really believe all that old vampire folklore, don’t you, you fool?!” The hag said, roaring with laughter. Denise held Theil tight. “She was toying with us the whole time.” She said.

The hag settled to the ground, hovering in front of them. She reached out with her skeletal fingers. “There is only one thing I can’t have without you giving it to me, and you can give her to me now or none of you will leave this room alive! GIVE ME THE GIRL, NOWWW!” The hag shrieked.

Tillman twisted his face in rage and sat between them. “NO!” He shouted.

The hag opened her mouth to speak, but as she did, her face changed to terror and she jerked her head to the side at the sound of a long, nasty yowl…Buttons was on the couch back with her

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ears against her head, crouched as if to spring. Tillman remarked “her kind of ghoul…can’t stand cats!”

Suddenly the furniture was alive with the crawling bodies of every cat in the neighborhood, and buttons hissed and yowled at the cringing ghostly hag as if to say “NOT MY FAMILY YOU DON’T!”

As if they had some psychic code or agreement, the cats all pounced on the hag, who suddenly became a whirl of shrieking vapor, and as claws slashed, she began to develop holes and to scream as the cats attacked her. She swirled and wailed, and then at last she exploded in a windy gust of vapor and vanished as cats fell to the floor around where she had been. The little family, stunned at what they had seen, got up slowly, and then Theil ran forward and grabbed Buttons.

“BUTTONS!” She sobbed happily. The other cats began to recover themselves and Theil held Buttons tight. Denise looked around. “Okay. Another day at the house, needing some new glass windows and about twenty gallons of milk.”

To his great happiness, Tillman managed to sell every piece of furniture he had bought within two weeks. He refitted his windows, and once or twice he saw Theil, with the glasses on, talking to the silly ghostly old people who haunted the furniture till it was gone.

Theil became a shadow watcher, wearing the glasses as they passed graveyards in their day to day business, looking for some spook drifting around or walking in the yard of some old empty house.

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Buttons stretched out in her velvet box and as Theil petted her fuzzy head at night she would purr and look at her as if to say “You really didn’t think I’d leave you here with that old bat, did you?”