Demonspawn by Glenn Bullion

I pushed my hand through the table
one more time. “How do I stop doing this?”
    He shrugged. “You got me there, son. I'm sure
you'll figure it out. Oh, one more thing before I leave. There's a
cabin not too far from here. Check out under the stove. I want you
and your friends to have what's there. Call it a reward for such an
interesting night.”
    I was so confused and scared. But I wanted to
talk to George a while longer.
    “Wait!”
    It was too late. He walked back into the
corner like it was a doorway. He vanished into thin air.
    I heard Dave and Tina arguing in the living
room.
    “I'm telling you, Tina. This isn't a damn
joke. Hell, this was all Jenny's idea!”
    “This just seems like something you'd do. You
and Alex, to get a laugh.”
    “Oh, get a grip. I was upstairs with you. You
see how freaked out Cindy is? You think that's a joke?”
    I walked into the living room. I didn't
expect them to see me. But when my foot squished on the carpet Dave
looked up.
    “Alex! Holy shit, man!”
    Tina poked her head near the stairwell.
“Cindy! Jen! He's down here!”
    I was real again. I didn't move. My
jaw just hung open. I heard footsteps upstairs. Cindy and Jenny
trotted down. Cindy nearly ran. She ran forward and hugged me. Even
though I knew they could see me, I half-expected Cindy to walk
right through me. I was thankful that she didn't. I wrapped my arms
around her, not wanting to let go. No demons, no reliving a murder.
But I'll never forget the first time I pushed my arm through a
solid object.
    “Hey,” Jenny said. “That wasn't cool.”
    Tina nodded. “Yeah. We were really
worried.”
    I searched everyone's faces. They really
thought I played some kind of joke on them.
    I wouldn't try to convince them otherwise.
But I wouldn't lie, either.
    “Can we leave?” I asked.
    “Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here.”
    We filed out of the house. Cindy kept a hand
on my shoulder for a while before letting it fall. I gave the house
one final look as it got smaller.
    Goodbye, George McEllen .
    I remembered his last words.
    Check out under the stove.
    No one said much to me as we packed up our
little party. I guess they were actually mad at me for pranking them. Dave set the grill in the back of the truck.
Tina walked around and threw empty cans into a bag. I stole a look
at the cabin.
    “Hey guys. Come with me for a sec.”
    I led the way to the bare cabin. I wondered
if this belonged to George and his family as well when they were
alive. I felt like we were trespassing. I knew once we left I'd
never come back.
    But George wanted us to have something.
    “Dave, help me move this stove.”
    He looked at everyone, then shrugged. He
handed the lantern over to Tina.
    The floor of the cabin was wooden planks. But
as we dragged the heavy stove we could see two sets of hinges close
to the wall.
    “A trap door?” Jenny said. Her explorer
enthusiasm was returning. “That's cool!”
    “How did you know that was there?”
    I didn't answer Tina. There weren't handles
of any kind, but we could see the door itself. It was about two
feet by two feet. Dave had to stab his pocket knife into the door
to be able to lift it.
    There was a hole dug in the dirt, about a
foot deep. Sitting there, hidden away for over twenty years, was a
brown burlap sack.
    “Holy shit!” Dave said.
    I lifted it out. Everyone was quiet as we
carried it back to the truck. I emptied it on the lowered
tailgate.
    Money. Stacks of wrapped money, all neatly
marked. I couldn't tell how much was there just by looking, but I'm
sure it was more than I had in my bank account at the time.
    None of us spoke. We just stood there and
stared at it. Cindy was the first one to find her voice.
    “Damn,” was all she could say.
    “Can...we keep that?” Tina asked.
    Dave grabbed a stack and looked it at. It was
marked ten thousand. Ten thousand dollars in one little stack of
money. I'd seen that in the movies, but never for real. He started
dividing the