A Ghost Story

Chapter 13


At the library, the three split up into two groups. Sanzo went off by himself to read up on ghosts while Goku and Gojyo searched in the history section for books on the town. Luckily, there was a special section just on the town alone. Gojyo searched the top shelves while Goku searched the bottom.

“Hey Gojyo, what exactly are we looking for? There’s too many books!” Gojyo took a book off the shelf, looked at it, then put it away.

“Something about the houses in town. There should be a book that lists all the houses.”

“Why don’t we just ask the librarian?”

“Because I can find it on my own.” Goku rolled his eyes and stood up.

“I’m going to go ask then. It will save us some time.” He said and went off to find the librarian. Gojyo ignored him and continued to scan the spins of the books. He was finding everything BUT what he wanted to find. But that was always the way it had to be. His eyes caught a title that said “A History of Sunnyside Town Judges”. Gojyo remembered the psychic telling them something about a judge that had Hakkai killed. The name ‘William Cornwall’ came to mind right away and he took out the book, looking in the front for the man’s name. Sure enough, he saw the name printed in the book and quickly flipped to the page, taking a seat in a nearby chair.

‘Judge William Cornwall (1729-1778)

William Cornwall was elected by the townspeople in 1768 and remained in the position for ten years. William proved to be a just, fair, and powerful judge that won the respect of the committee council and the town. His wife, Sarah Cornwall, was an active woman at the church, along with their son, William Cornwall Jr., who was training to become a priest. Their daughter, Kanan Cornwall, was adopted a few years before their son was born and specialized in playing the piano.’

Gojyo saw a little red flag come up in his head as he associated the piano with Hakkai. Hakkai played the piano, but he did not know where or when or who taught him. He continued to read, more or less skimming through the words looking for any signs of ‘murders’. The pages talked more about the cases he dealt with but he could not be bothered to read the whole thing. His skimming stopped when a certain word caught his eye.

‘However, William lost some respect from the towns people after his brutal attack on a servant of a wealthy, respected family. The servant was convicted without fair trail or even an option to one. William said it was a crime that overlooked the regulations of the law and was a personal matter. The crime he committed was justified in the eyes of the church which helped keep him in position until he died at age 49.’

Gojyo closed the book and clenched his fist above the cover as he went over what he just read in his mind. He knew for a pure fact now that William really was the cause of Hakkai’s murder and must be the one who will not let Hakkai pass over. After figuring out the truth, he wondered if he should really even tell Hakkai. Maybe he had forgotten everything for a good reason. It had to have been a very scary time for Hakkai, and maybe he did not want to remember. But if he did not tell him, then that is not really fair to Hakkai. He should remember how he died…or maybe not. Gojyo growled to himself and put the book back on the shelf.

“Hey Gojyo! I found the Liberian!” Said Goku, leading the woman to the history section. She ignored Gojyo and went right to work scanning the bottom shelf. She pulled out a dirt colored book and brushed the dust off the top.

“This book has every original house that was built in the town. You will find what you are looking for in there.”

“Thank you, miss.” Gojyo said as he took the book and pulled Goku to a table so they could both look in the book. Gojyo opened it up to the back and looked for Locus Street.

“Is it there? Maybe it was called something else back then?”

“No, I found it.” Gojyo flipped through the pages until he came to his street section. “Damn houses don’t have numbers.”

“That’s it! Right there!” Goku said, slamming his hand down on the page. Gojyo looked at the picture and nodded.

“Yup, that’s mine.” The two of them studied the house closely, looking for any cellar doors. Goku turned the page that showed the back of the house, finding nothing and getting bored with the first page. “I don’t see anything, Goku.” Gojyo sighed.

“Hey, what’s that right there?” Goku pointed to a little bit of lift in the ground by the backdoor. “It doesn’t look like grass or dirt! Maybe that’s it! But if it’s there, why haven’t we seen it?”

“I don’t know, maybe its been taken away?” Gojyo looked closely at the page. “That might just be it though! Lets go get Sanzo and head back! I want to find that cellar door!”

Sanzo was at the other side of the library at a corner table by the window. It had started to rain and he looked outside, sighing angrily. He never did like the rain, much less walking in it. Too many bad memories. He shook his head and went back to studying the books on ghosts he had found. Most of them just had pictures of sightings and the stories behind it. Aside from what the physic had said about ghosts, the books did not say much else.

“Hey Sanzo! Did you find anything?” Goku asked as the two approached him.

“Nothing really. Just a lot of ghost stories and photos. You know, I used to think that all those ancient ghost stories and supernatural shit was all from mold and funguses of the climate making people see these things. But now that I saw Hakkai…well, I think I was a bit off.”

“Do you think all these ghosts pictures are real now that we’ve seen Hakkai?” Goku asked, flipping through the pages of one book.

“I think some of them are real, others look a bit questionable. This one is real, of the three monks.” He flipped to the page. “Notice how their feet aren’t showing, just like Hakkai sometimes appears only from the knees up. The ground rises over the years and when Hakkai floats, he’s actually walking on the floorboards when the were much lower.”

“Wow cool!”

“Sanzo, we found where the cellar door should be.” Gojyo told him “Its by the back door, probably buried under dirt now that you said the ground rises.”

“Lets go dig it up then. I’ll have to leave for work soon though. Its getting late.” Said Sanzo, putting the books onto the return cart. “I’ll come by tomorrow and look over them more.”

The three of them headed home and did not bother to talk to Hakkai but went strait around the back to where the cellar door was assumed to be. Gojyo only had one shovel from the back of his truck and started digging in the area. Sanzo had the foresight to grab the umbrella from the car before going out in the rain. Gojyo did not care about how wet he was getting or the chill in the air, but more anxious to see if the cellar door was really there. He took a quick break to stretch his back and saw Hakkai watching him from the kitchen window.

Hakkai had his eyebrow raised at the three of them but Gojyo just smiled at him and went back to digging. Hakkai remained in the window and kept a careful eye on them, curious as to why they were digging. He could not hear them talking, but only could see their lips moving. Sanzo looked to be pointing from the spot Gojyo was digging at to more on the left, which Gojyo moved to and started digging anew.

About four inches into the new area, the three of them all heard a heavy ‘cling’ sound as Gojyo struck something. Gojyo kicked some of the dirt away and saw a rustic looking door. Goku had to join in after he saw Gojyo start to move faster at digging the dirt away. Goku just used his hands as he pulled up the wet dirt easily, exposing more of the door. It took them a good fifteen minutes to completely remove the dirt and sure enough, there were two doors leading into the ground. Hakkai’s eyes widen in surprise as he looked at the doors. But the three seemed to have forgotten about him as they examined the doors

“The doors look fairly new.” Sanzo pointed out. “It looks like they were added later. The original doors may have been made of wood and rotted away.”

“Whatever. Lets open it!” Goku said excitedly and struggled a bit as he tried to open the heavy doors. Gojyo joined him and between the both of them, the doors flew open. Goku lost his balance but regained it before he fell into the mud. Sanzo took the flashlight he got from the truck out of his pocket and turned it on, tapping it a few times to get it to go on. He flashed the light downwards, seeing nothing but old rotted stairs and some jars.

“Dude…its spooky down there.” Goku gulped and backed away a bit. “I’m not going down first! If some crazy spell is down there, I’m not going first!” Gojyo turned to Sanzo.

“Wasn’t the gateway to Hell or something in the basement in that movie? The Amit-e Horror something?”

“HELL?!” Goku looked from one to the other. Sanzo rolled his eyes.

“That’s a bunch of horseshit. The only thing we’ll find down there is probably some rats and spiders. I seriously doubt a big vortex of some kind is down there, least of all the gateway to Hell.”

“Then you go first!” Goku suggested. Sanzo narrowed his eyes at him and pushed him to the side.

“I will.”

He carefully took a step down, testing the weight resistance of the wood. He took another cautious step down, then another. The wood creaked under his feet but he made it down to the floor with no trouble. He flashed the light on the floor and noticed it was all gravel and dirt. He raised an eyebrow then flashed his light around the surrounding area. There was nothing except numerous spider webs, some crickets, and a mouse or two. There were some broken chairs and bottles, along with piles of old wood and rotted barrels. A wine rack stood in the far corner, empty of any bottles. There was shattered glass bits on the floor and pieces of cork.

“What’s down there?” Gojyo called down.

“Looks more like a large crawl space than a cellar.” He called back up.

/Sanzo? Sanzo can you hear me?/ Came Hakkai’s faint voice from above him.

“I can.” He flashed the light up

/What on Earth are you doing down there?/

“We’ll tell you later.” He said back up to him and walked further into the room, flashing the light around more.

/Wait! Wait Sanzo! Stop!/ Hakkai called back down through the boards.

“What is it?”

/Something is down there! I can feel it!/ Sanzo flashed his light around quickly, suddenly getting an eerie feeling creeping up his back. He froze as he felt the little hairs stand up on his neck as a clearly unwelcomed feeling came over him. /Please Sanzo! I do not like what I feel! Hurry up and leave! Wherever you are, you are in danger!/

Sanzo did not like the feel of the area and he started to back away slowly. He was not one to back away from anything, but whatever this was…he just did not like it. There was nothing he could see, only feel. Sanzo could hear Goku and Gojyo’s voices but they seemed to be distant from him. He then heard the faint sounds of numerous male voices coming from above. He looked up at the boards, flashing his light.

“HAKKAI?!”

Sanzo called loudly but the only sound he got was various thumping and bumping sounds, and what appeared to be loud footfalls coming from the stairway. He had figured out where everything above him was, so he knew there were people coming down the stairs, shouting angrily. He could not make out the words but felt his blood still as the sound of the men and their footfalls running right above him. Another sound he had just notice was the high pitched screams of what could only be children, and the sound of a dog bark. The sounds and voices started to become too much for him. The screams, the barking, and even a few gunshots. They seemed to be coming at him from all angles and his nerves finally got the best him, and he turned and ran.

“Sanzo?!” Goku called down the hole and screamed suddenly when Sanzo came flying up at him. He knocked Goku over in the process and nearly slipped in the wet soil.

“CLOSE THOSE DAMN DOORS!” Sanzo screamed at them and Gojyo quickly did just that, sticking his shovel deep into the dirt to hold it upright.

“What’s wrong?! What happened down there Sanzo!?” Goku asked him, standing up and running to him. “We kept calling you but you didn’t answer! Are you alright?! You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” He gasped “Another ghost?!” Sanzo shook his head.

“No…no it wasn’t a ghost.”

“That what was it?” Gojyo asked

“I don’t know…but whatever it was, it was fucking unexplainable. One minute Hakkai is talking to me, and the next I’m hearing all these strange sounds. Its clear no one is in the house, but it sounded like there were a group of men right above my fucking head!” he said quickly and angrily, gritting his teeth at his own reaction.

“I think that’s enough for today.” Gojyo suggested “Lets get inside and change, before we all catch a chill.” Gojyo headed up the backdoor steps but Sanzo remained still, staring at the cellar doors with confusion and suspicion. Goku took his hand gently.

“Sanzo? You sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah…yeah I’m fine. Just thinking right now.”

“Well, you can think inside. Come on.” Goku lead Sanzo by the hand who followed easily, but not without looking at the doors the whole time until they were out of his sight.