Inhuman, Part Two

18 June 1981

“You know,” Mary started, pushing aside a branch as she tried to keep up, “when you said you were investigating a haunted site, I kind of expected it to be a house.” Ahead of her was Henry, wearing a pack of camping gear on his back and looking through a crystal as he pressed into the woods. It was getting late in the day, but not yet late enough that they needed flashlights, and they were exploring a forest in western Connecticut.

“Well, there are houses here,” he said, stopping to look around, “but mostly they’re just foundations now.”

“So no beds or freshly-brewed coffee.”

“No, none of that out here.”

“What’s the deal with this place, anyway?”

“Dudleytown was a settlement founded by a British family who allegedly carried a curse with them when they came to the New World. Word has it the residents fell into madness and the site into disrepair until it was ultimately abandoned. The Warrens came by a few years ago and said it was definitely demon possessed.”

“And this is the type of thing you do? Go looking for demons and curses to expose yourself to?”

“I hunt them. The things that threaten mankind, the creatures that pose a danger to our safety, I track them down and I do what I can to protect people from them.”

“And this pays the bills somehow?”

“Well…no. Not really.”

“So when you asked me to marry you, how were you planning on keeping us fed and housed?”

Henry stopped and lowered the crystal before turning to her. “I suppose that is something we should talk about.”

“Yes. Yes, we should.” She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, leaning in as he returned the hug. “I believe you when you say you’ll keep me safe in situations like this, but there’s a whole rest of our lives to be concerned about.”

“I can’t exactly do this type of work with the hours the mills demand.”

“I know, and I get it. Didn’t you say that other couple makes a living doing paranormal investigations?”

“That’s rare, and they do work that’s more marketable than mine. I don’t really know what marketable skills I have that would give me the freedom to do what I need to do.”

Mary pulled away and took his hand. As they started walking again, she asking him to tell her more about the Dudleys. Over the next hour, as they searched through the woods, he explained their alleged tie to a man killed for treason, and the settlement of the region. He talked about the site and the local settlements, how Dudleytown fit into the region, the madness and the suicides that claimed so many of its residents. Mary got their campfire going while he set up the tent, and when he finally sat down and stopped talking she smiled over to him. “You should go to school.”

“What?”

“You should enroll in classes when we get back,” she said, digging some dried meat out of the bag for both of them, “history classes. Get a degree as a history teacher.”

“And why do you think I should be a history teacher?”

“It’s your real passion. I mean, I get it, the supernatural stuff is something you feel you need to do, a calling you can’t ignore, and that’s fine. But your mind is always in the past. I constantly see you reading up on history, and you talk about it constantly. You love it, and you’re good at explaining it. There’s a real shot at a career there.”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“Well, no.”

“So give it a shot. Maybe while you’re there, you’ll find a different field more appealing, and we can sort that out. But at least you’ll have a track.”

“Okay, yeah. I’ll look into some schools as soon as we get home.”

“Good.”

They sat in silence for a moment, before Henry stopped and looked around. “Do you hear that?” he asked.

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly.”

“What?”

“Listen!” They both listened for a couple minutes. “It’s absolutely silent. No animals, no wind, nothing.”

“Is that normal?”

“I think it’s what we came looking for. Come on, let’s investigate.”

Mary rose, took his hand, and followed him into the trees.

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