"Who the fuck are you?" She demanded. "What happened to Maude and Harry?"
"I bought this place from them," I told her. "I own it. How'd you get in here?"
She pointed to the floor on the other end of the garage; an opened door pulled back, and what looked like an old, rusted ladder led down into a space below the garage that was partly sticking out of the hole.
"Maude and Harry, let me hide here whenever I'm getting roughed up," the hooker explained. "I'm Teralyn, by the way,"
"Sounds like a hooker's name," I scoffed.
"Fuck you dickless; I'm an honest working girl," she threw a wadded-up napkin at me that she'd had in her hand the whole time.
"Right, you went to vocational school to get a degree in street walking," more sarcasm which earned me a swing of her purse, narrowly missing my head. "I work at the fucking AMFAC building down the block. Whenever my ex gets drunk, he shows up at my job and starts getting physical. So this is the escape route I found purely by accident; these underground lava tubes. Maude and Harry always let me hide out until things blow over."
"Underground lava tubes??!" I screeched. "Faaaahk!" I ran toward the door, slammed it to the floor, and threw myself on top of it. "Here!" I screamed at her while fumbling in my pockets for my car keys. "Move my car here, and make sure you park it with the front tire over the door!"
I tossed the keys to her, and she caught them in her hand, but I noticed a scared look on her face. "I don't know how to drive," she said. I swore again while getting up, grabbing her by her arms, and making her sit on the door. "Don't fucking move, do you understand? This will only take a second!"
The door began pushing up, and you could hear loud banging from beneath. "Don't fucking move!" I screamed from the car. Teralyn was losing her shit because she had no idea what was happening. I started the car and quickly drove over to her, where she rolled out of the way in perfect timing as I parked with the front wheel tire over the door. It was just muted dull thuds, but you could still hear it. I walked to the back of what was once the stove, but it was now my utility closet of sorts. I pulled out several pieces of lumber and two nail guns. Laying each one across the top of the door, I nailed the wood to the floor.
"Hold these in place while I punch the nails through them," she did the best she could, but she was still a bit skittish. "Press down; otherwise, the wood will slide out of place; put all your weight behind it,"
Once that part was done, I reversed my car so we could board up the rest of the trap door. Teralyn quickly got the hang of it and put as much weight on it as possible. "Who are you keeping out?"
"It's not who, " I told her. "It's what,"
"What do you mean, what?" She paused and looked at me very seriously.
"You're telling me you've been walking through these underground lava tubes and never wondered if there were otherworldly things down there?" I balked.
"No, and it's because I was always running for my fucking life!" Her tone went up a little bit. "I was more afraid of getting murdered by my ex than being afraid of ghosts and spirits and shit! Holy fuck, is that what's down there pounding on that trap door?"
I didn't want to give an answer because who knows if she'd understand. Instead, we finished up the job, and I cleaned up and put everything back. "C'mon," I waved her over to the car. "I'll take you where you wanna go,"
"What's down there?" She asked again.
"I'll explain on the way out," I told her. We got in the car, and the second I put it in reverse, I clicked on the remote control. Water sprinklers turned on in the interior and exterior of the garage door, soaking both the entrance and the exit simultaneously until my car was gone. It was wai pa'akai, blessed Hawaiian salt water. "They're not evil spirits, just spirits that want to possess me so that they can talk to their living relatives, and then sometimes it's people possessed by spirits. I've got the whole place spiritually protected, so by the fact that he popped up and was not vanquished into smoke means that you're not a spirit and not possessed by one,"
"So, you've holed yourself up in that place of yours?" She was shaking her head in disbelief.
"The possession won't stop. It will be one right after the other non-stop, so I had to protect myself, and hiding in that old bar is how I do it." I told her.
"Shit, I can't go home," she sighed and tapped her leg almost manically. "My ex is probably going to be there. Can I stay at your place?"
"Fuck no," I laughed. "Think of somewhere else you could go,"
"The Marina Inn, by the airport?" She suggested.
"That dive? Are you kidding?" I laughed again.
"Then where, smart ass?" She folded her arms.
"The lava tubes," I replied. "That seemed safe, right?"
"Not since you told me there are ghosts and spirits down there!" She scoffed.
There was only one other place she could stay, and I would regret letting her stay there.
...to be continued.
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