Sky and Angel had gone to check on Celestine’s house before we got back, something I had asked them to do, just in case there was a “welcoming committee” waiting there for us. Sure enough, they found 4 men sitting around in the living room, laughing and boasting about what they had done. So, Sky and Angel appeared in the middle of the living room, but without heads. They did so because one of the men was the man who had kicked sand in my face, and they didn’t want to be recognized right now.

“What are you doing in our house?” asked Sky in a ghostly voice. The men laughed at first thinking it was just a hologram like they were using to scare Celestine. One man got up to prove it, but discovered that Sky was solid, like a real human. When he felt for her head, nothing was there. Then Sky punched him in the stomach, and kicked his head, knocking him back onto the couch. Then another man stood up, but Angel picked him up off the floor and threw him over her head and onto the floor with a loud thud!

He just lay there, unable to move for a few minutes. Then the girl’s bodies disappeared, but their arms and legs were still visible and their heads appeared, but without faces. The other two men got up to run, but were stopped by Sky and Angel who kicked them a couple of times, then ended by thumping them hard on their backs with their fists. The men fell to the floor moaning. “Now, get out of our house!” the girls exclaimed, “and tell all the other living people to stay away from our house, or next time you will die!”

The men slowly got up and went out to their car and drove off quickly. Sky and Angel laughed and laughed about the whole ordeal. Then they heard us drive up, so they left before we came in. Sky communicated with me about the men and what they had done and where to look for new cameras and other items. When we came inside, right away Celestine held my hand very tight. “Someone has been in here Steve,” she said, her voice shaking, “and maybe they are still here.”

“How do you know someone has been in here?” I asked. “The living room is a mess,” she said, “like their has been a fight in here. And look at all the dust on my nice dining room table.” She was right, and I knew why. The men had drilled a hole in the ceiling to run wire down to their camera. I guess they haven’t heard there are battery operated cameras now. Oh well.

“These guys are certainly not professionals,” I said, “or they would have cleaned up their mess before leaving.” We went around and found many cameras around the house and holographic image projectors and listening devices. “I am so scared Steve,” said Celestine, “these men can get in whenever they want and could come in at night and kill us, or kill you and take me prisoner for whatever they want from me.”

“Not a chance, my Queen,” I said, “nothing will happen to you with your King around to protect you. And Jennifer wants you protected also, and, she wants you to come back to live with us.” “She won’t want me to come back with you once she finds out how bad I have been,” said Celestine, “my brothers are bad, my parents were bad, I believe even my grandmother was mixed up working for Whitaker. So, my whole family is bad and now I’m bad too.”

“Are you mixed up with criminal activities somehow?” I asked. “No, not that, nothing like that,” she said, “I have kept myself clean from anything criminal, honest I have. But I’m talking about other things, like kissing you and hugging you and sitting on your lap.” “You’re sitting on my lap right now,” I said. “See? I’m bad.” she said, “But I need to be cuddled, because I’m scared.” “Oh, well, that part is easy,” I said, “and you’re my little sister, so it’s not bad, this is what big brothers are for.”

I changed the locks on the doors and put locks on the main floor windows. That took up the rest of the afternoon. “Well, we haven’t even looked at the last clue yet,” I told Celestine, “guess we will have to check it out this evening, or we have no relaxation time in the morning.” She was going to wait until tomorrow afternoon until I said that. “Okay,” she said, “I left it in my bag in the bedroom, be right back.” I am so good at making mistakes, and this was a big one.

I wasn’t thinking and let Celestine go by herself upstairs. Meower?= “Where my human go?” “Upstairs…” was all I said and off I went running up those stairs! “Welcome brother,” said Whitaker, “join the party.” Celestine was sitting in her reading chair in a corner of the bedroom. She had a big bruise on her cheek and Chubby was standing there grinning. “Want to see me make a matching one on her other cheek?” he said. “Try it and I’ll kill you,” I said.

I had now communicated with Sky to get ready. “Oh, I’m so scared,” he said, “look, my baby finger is shaking.” He, and all the men in the room, 8 of them, began laughing. “It’s such a wonderful Sky this evening,” I said. Just then Sky and Angel appeared, again without heads. “We warned you about coming back into our house!” exclaimed Sky, “Now you must die!” I did tell her not to kill Whitaker or the chubby man just yet, I wanted them in prison if possible.

Anyway, the fighting began, Angel started with the chubby guy and I went over to Whitaker who tried to shoot me, but his gun wouldn’t work for some reason. He then tried to fight me, but his punches kept missing me and mine kept hitting him, until he finally fell to the floor, groaning. We decided not to kill any right now, because that would bring the police in, and I didn’t want that. I then went and took the gag out of Celestine’s mouth and untied her.

She threw her arms around me and held me tight, crying uncontrollably. I sat down in the chair and held her while Sky and Angel escorted the men out the front door and a couple of cars showed up to take them away. “I’m scared, there are more ghosts here now,” said Celestine, “I just want to leave and get far away from here.” “We still need to finish with this riddle,” I said, “we have done so much, we don’t want to give up now, do we?” “Yes, the me of we certainly wants to give up,” she said, pouting.

I cuddled her some more. “Look, we’ll wait until tomorrow afternoon to check out this latest clue,” I said, “and if we don’t find anything, then we will give up. And in the morning we have our relaxation time again. Okay?” She looked at me and smiled. “You really are crazy,” she said, “guess I am too, so, okay, one more try.” The night was quiet and we were up bright and early again and driving to another hiking spot.

This one was level hiking though, but longer than the other one. We walked and talked the whole time and I discovered, after all this time, that she had begun taking a counseling course at a university, but she quit when her parents were killed and came here to help look after her grandmother. So, she has been here nearly 3 years, but living in the house by herself for 3 months.

We finally got to a nice spot to have our picnic lunch. While we were eating, 5 men showed up and I could sense they were trouble. They must have a tracker on Celestine’s car. Then 2 more guys came along, sat on a bench and began eating. Then a family with 3 young children stopped to have their lunch too. Hmm, that’s not so good if a fight should start…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.