Free High Intensity by Dara Joy Page B

like this, in an area she had no idea he knew anything about, he absolutely turned her on.
    He returned her interested stare with a steady, simmering look that clearly said "Later baby."
    "But do we really need all this?" Todd shrugged. "All I'm interested in is getting rid of the blighter."
    "It's important because we have to be sure who your 'blighter' is, Todd, and we have to know what is going on here."
    "Tybers right. Because of Mark, I have a great respect for you, Todd. We owe you the truth." Calendula patted his hand.
    Todd sighed. "Does this kind of—of haunting happen often?"
    "You'd be surprised. As has been pointed out, physical proof is very hard to obtain; and even if it is, it is always in question. Many of us feel that it will never be obtained in such a manner. I, myself, feel that if someone is inclined to depend on gauges and dials for answers, then maybe the paranormal is just not for them. The founder of our organization said, 'You either believe it or you don't'—which is not a very scientific approach, but makes perfect sense to those of us who do believe and know."
    Tyber looked distressed, and Zanita knew that Calendula's statement did not sit well with him. She, on the other hand, understood very well what Calendula was saying. Once, when she was about ten, she saw her Aunt Louise walk across the front lawn of her grandmother's house and wave to her as she sat on the porch swing. The fact that Aunt Louise had been dead for seven years at the time made the event a bit of a shock.
    Zanita had waved back rather stuporously, blinked, and come to her senses—only to discover that Aunt Louise was gone. The remnants of her presence seemed to be everywhere, though.
    As Maurice Chevalier was fond of singing, every little breeze seemed to whisper Louise.
    Zanita never forgot the experience, but she never told anyone. Yet it was that incident that made her want to explore the paranormal and write about it.
    Gramercy Hubble, however, was not inclined to let Calendula off the hook. "It seems to me too convenient that you people always have some ambiguous answer when asked a direct question."
    "You people?" Mark started to get up again when a great thudding noise shook the house.
    Zanita gasped and clutched the arms of her chair. The chandelier began to sway as the pounding noises got louder, vibrating through the entire parlor and causing several crystal glasses on the sideboard to tinkle.
    Calendula jumped up. "My god, Mark, quick! We have activity! Get the seismo—"
    "Ah, that won't be necessary." Todd scratched his ear. The pounding got louder and louder as it approached the side door to the parlor.
    "Why not?" gasped Zanita.
    Hambone's head lifted and he sniffed the air. His ragged ears flattened to the back of his head. Like all animals, he seemed to be sensitive to the paranormal.
    A huge black shadow drifted across the parlor carpet from the doorway.
    Zanita squeaked in alarm.
    Then the room began shaking again as the unknown entity lumbered forward. It eyeballed each person present with a dull brown stare.
    Then it sat down right in the middle of the floor with a loud thump.
    It was a massive thing. Grossly obese. And it carried with it the laconic look of the dangerously dull-witted.
    "By Captains Morgan's rum chest! Wot in the name of the Brethern is that?" Blooey's eyes bugged out.
    Todd frowned sheepishly. "Allow me to introduce Hippolito. My, ah, cat."
    Hippolito. Large, ungainly Hippolito, whose weight far exceeded his IQ lifted a massive, Godzilla-like paw. He stretched it out in the air, toes extended, and struck a pose not unlike Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.
    It had pathos.
    It spoke of the human condition.
    It beseeched but a crumb of the pistachio-truffle pate.
     
    "That was the lamest evening I have ever spent," Tyber continued to grouse as they walked through the woods.
    The moon was almost full, its beams glittering off the light dusting of snow. Zanita loved the crunchy sounds