Was It Always Like This?

Chapter 6

Xander flipped the pages of the local newspaper as he worked his throthrough a giant bowl of cereal. An article caught his attention and he became quiet as the others continued their morning rituals around him.

“Xander, do you need to stand right there?” asked an exasperated Willow as she stretched round him for the third time to gather breakfast items.

“Hmm” he murmured and continued to read the paper.

Buffy smacked him on the butt with a spatula as she passed him on her way to the fridge. “The comics aren’t usually that engrossing” she said as he glared at her.

“I’m doing some research!” he replied indignantly and returned to the paper, completely oblivious to the laughter around him. When he had finished the article he finally tuned back into his surroundings and found all three women staring at him in disbelief. “What!” he asked and moved to put his empty bowl in the sink. “Read this” he instructed Willow, pointing out the article and taking over scrambled egg duty at the cooker.

Willow shook her head at him and moved the paper to the dining table to read it. After a few minutes she returned to the kitchen. “That is kinda weird Xan but I’m not sure it’s Hellmouth induced evilness?” She handed the paper to Buffy and helped carry plates to the dining room.

Buffy and Dawn read the article together then joined the others in attacking the large pile of breakfast foods. Xander was the first to speak. “I just thought, since we were kind of quiet that we should maybe take a look at the wrinkly weirdness”

Buffy nodded in agreement. “He’s right Will, after all we have been pretty quiet for the last few weeks and a bit of good, old fashioned snooping will do us all good”

Dawn bounced in her seat. “Ooohh, do I get to wear a trilby and trenchcoat?”

Xander joined in her enthusiastic bouncing. “Great idea, we could have code names and two way radios to keep in touch”

Willow shook her head. “Xander, we’re checking out some senior citizens at a nursing home, not exactly Mission Impossible territory” Buffy started to agree with her when Xander and Dawn left the table, their heads together and whispering in conspiratorial tones about picking locks.

Several hours later the four friends were standing outside a residential nursing home arguing. “Let’s just stick to the story we agreed on” Buffy hissed at Dawn. “If we start gettingplicplicated then one of us will slip up and we’ll end up being thrown out without learning anything” Dawn had a look of partially quelled rebellion on her face but nodded in agreement. Buffy nodded back at her and turned to Willow “OK, you and Xander are good to go, remember the signal?”

Willow nodded and headed towards the front door, Xander hurried after her. When she arrived at the entrance she buzzed and waited for the answering voice. “Hi, we phoned earlier” she shouted inte sme small grille. “We’re from Parapsychology Monthly and we’d like to interview some of your residents” Willow smiled encouragingly at an obviously nervous Xander as the door buzzed and they entered.

Xander was a little nervous but in truth he was in awe of his friend. It had only taken two hours to prepare their back story as reporters with the ghost-hunting magazine, including hacking into the magazine’s files to send confirmation emails and some very complimentary resumes for both of them to the residential home. They had then taken another hour to agree on their approach and change into some suitable ‘professional reporter’ type clothes. All of this achieved the old fashioned way, without any magical interference whatsoever and he was so proud of her. He just didn’t know the best way to express these feelings yet so he concentrated on the task at hand as a tall, thin woman in uniform met them in the foyer.

Willow extended her hand “Mrs Wayne?”

“Mrs Rosenberg and Mr Harris?” the woman asked as she shook hands with both of them.

“Ms Rosenberg” Willow corrected her but smiled to take the sting out of it. “Thank you for agreeing to see us at such short notice, but we’re flying back to the east coast tonight and are very keen to talk to your residents”

“They are quite excited to meet you” Mrs Wayne explained and led them to a small room with several comfortable chairs. “When I told them of your interest they postponed their afternoon gam game”

All three settled down into well stuffed chairs and Xander removedotebotebook from his jacket pocket. “If we could just get some background from you before we meet the others” he smiled at her and prepared to take notes.

The woman took a moment to collect her thoughts before directing her answer to Xander. “It all started a couple of months ago when some of the residents complained of disturbing noises during the night, moaning and crying that sort of thing”

“Moaning and crying” Xander mumbled as he pretended to write this down in his notebook, nodding encouragingly.

“The staff on duty at the time reported nothing unusual and we soon narrowed it down to one corridor where the people were hearing things. After several nights I stayed on duty myself and sat with one elderly lady who was particularly frightened by the whole experience until she fell asleep” Mrs Wayne took a breath as she remembered the night in question. “At about two in the morning she buzzed the front desk and I went to see what was wrong. When I got to her room she was huddled in a corner with her hands over her ears”

“Was the room cold?” Willow asked quietly, not wishing to disrupt the woman’s tale but trying to get the information as it occurred to her.

“It was very cold but the thermostat was turned up high and we just assumed there was a problem with the heating” Mrs Wayne returned her attention to Xander.

“Huddled in a corner..” Xander prompted her.

“She was convinced that there were loud screams all around her but I didn’t hear anything”

Ten minutes later the tale had been related several times over, with small variations, concerning several residents and areaarea of the home in particular. The residents would be woken in the night by terrible screams of anguish, the rooms would be freezing cold and the shock engendered by these occurrences would last for several days. Once they had recovered somewhat, all of those who had experienced the ordeal reported a feeling of absolute terror and the certain knowledge of their imminent death.

While Mrs Wayne went to fetch some of the residents who had been affected, Willow sent a quick text message to Buffy and was deep in conversation with Xander over his notebook when four people arrived at the room. Two men and two women hovered nervously near the door and Willow smiled and extended her hand to the first man. “Hi, I’m Willow and this is Xander and we’re here to see if we can help”

The man automatically shook her hand and Xander’s before turning and introducing his friends. “I’m Mike and this is Ernie, Sheila and Kate” he moved further into the room to allow the others to enter and they all took a few seconds to find chairs and settle down.

Mrs Wayne returned a moment later and motioned to Willow, who stepped outside the room with her. “I’m sorry but I have some prospective client’s who want to see our facilities before deciding on a place for their father, can you manage without me for a while?” she asked anxiously, looking over her shoulder at two young women who were standing outside her office door.

Willow glanced at them without allowing a trace of recognition and put her hand on the nurse’s arm in reassurance. “We’ll be fine, if we need anything else we’ll be sure to ask”

Mrs Wayne smiled her thanks and headed towards the women. “Now ladies, how much nursing care would your father require?” she asked.

Willow could hardly hide her smile when she heard Dawn reply “He’s completely incontinent and can’t do anything for himself”. She almost felt sorry for Hank and wondered how he would ever manage if he needed to call on either of his daughters in his later years.

Xander was deep in conversation with the two older women when she returned to the room. “So you’re convinced it was a woman screaming that you heard?” he asked and they both nodded vigorously.

“enseense” Mike declared and turned to Ernie for support. “It was too deep for a woman’s voice, it was definitely a male”

Willow sat down opposite the men and gathered their attention while the two women returned to regaling Xander with tales of their ordeal. “Was it just screaming or could you make out any words?” she asked and flipped open her own notebook.

Ernie scratched his head and closed his eyes in an effort to remember. “I think I could hear someone in the background shouting at people to get out while they could” he looked at Mike.

His friend nodded “Yeah, I remember thinking it sounded a bit like they were quite far away, maybe at the other end of a big hall or something and the guy who was screaming was standing right next e”
e”

Willow took them both through their stories a couple of times, noting down the salient points. They were able to pinpoint dates of the occurrences because they had started the day after Ernie’s 72nd birthday and each man had experienced the event twice, although on separate nights.

When they had exhausted the questions they could reasonably ask, Xander tapped Willow’s arm and pointed to his watch. She looked at her own and sighed. “I’m sorry but we really need to catch our flight tonight. We’ll review our notes and perhaps give you a call in a couple of days if there’s anything else we need to ask?”

Xander helped the women out of their seats and Willow held the door open for them. “You’re such a nice young couple” sighed Sheila. “Are you stepping out together?”

Xander looked slightly panicked as they hadn’t rehearsed this as part of their disguise, however Willow just laughed a little as she stuffed her notebook back into her handbag. “A long time ago, but now we’re just friends and colleagues”