(The true stories about Bump City, Oregon,
as compiled in the Bump City daily newspaper,
Bump In The Night (BIT'N)
Included in this edition: · Die Laughing

Die Laughing
(The truth be told about the death of Lydia Wolfe!)
The 1st BIT'N File - issue 4

Chapter Nineteen

     When Cindy woke for the second time, she was still scared, but this time
not of Thadd Wolfe.
     All of her life she had pretended she could see ghosts, and hear them,
it was her make-believe dream.
     Now she discovered she really could see them, and it scared her.
     "I gotta go!" she cried, jumping to her feet and running towards the
door.
     Thadd called after her, "Cindy, listen. Don't go. I need to talk to
you!"
     But it was too late. Cindy grabbed her backpack, opened the doors, ran
down the hall, and across the foyer. She pulled at the door, and
thankfully, this time it popped open and she ran out onto the porch and
smashed into the plump frame of Sergeant Martha Kilpatrick.
     "What are you doing here?" the Sergeant asked.
     Cindy didn't stop long enough to give her an answer. Before Kilpatrick
had time to utter another word, Cindy was long gone, flying down the streets
of Bump City to the safety of her house, where things were normal. Where
things were safe.

     Or at least that's what she hoped!

Chapter Twenty

     Mrs. Finney heard Cindy slam the door to her room and knew that
something else was wrong. She put down the newspaper, stood up and walked
down the hall to Cindy's room. She softly knocked on the door. "May I come
in?"
     Cindy didn't answer, but her mother could hear her crying inside.
     She opened the door and there on the bed, curled up in a ball was Cindy,
squeezing her pillow tightly against her chest.
     "What¹s the matter, honey?" she asked, as she moved across the room.
She sat comfortably on the edge of the bed and patted Cindy's shoulder.
Sobbing, Cindy leaned up into her arms and again told her the story
about last night and then told her what she had seen today.
     "Oh, Cindy! Cindy!" her mother sighed, "Look, ever since you had
scarlet fever, you've thought you could see ghosts. Remember when we went
to see Doctor Loveall and she told you that it was all in your imagination?
That you should make friends with the shadows. That the shadows were your
friends all part of your imagination. That's all this is, Cindy. Just
your imagination."
     "But, Mom what I saw has nothing to do with scarlet fever. I really saw
ghosts!"
     "Okay, okay," her mother smiled, "If you want to see ghosts, you see
ghosts. It's okay with me, but for now until all this settles down, why
don't you just stay clear of the Wolfe place?"
     "Don't worry, Mom," she sniffed, "I'm never, ever going back there!"

     Her mother gave her a peck on the cheek and then as Cindy lay back on
the bed, she quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.

     Cindy lay there thinking about what her mother had said. Maybe all of
this was a dream and she would wake up and it would be morning and
everything would be all right.

     Outside her window, the sun was setting and the temperature dropped.
Somewhere, floating on the cold mists of the early evening, a shadow moved
swiftly through the streets of Bump City.

     But Cindy wasn't awake to see it!

Chapter Twenty-One

     Something was in her room.
     Wthout opening her eyes, Cindy knew. She sensed it. She opened her
eyes; the room was dark. On her bedside table, the clock glowed 7:03 PM.
She had been asleep for only three hours.
     But what had woken her?
Something moved and she sat up, pushing herself against the headboard.
Straining her ears she listened, but all was quiet.
     Cautiously, she swung her legs off the bed and bolted across the room
for the light switch. The flood of light blinded her for a brief moment.

     "Burrnnow!"

     "Gentle!" she screamed.
     Cindy's mother heard the scream and ran down the hall from the kitchen.
She quickly opened the door and found Cindy on the floor in the closet,
trembling uncontrollably.
     "What in the world? she asked, pulling Cindy into her arms.
     "Ghost cat! It's here!" she whispered in a panic. "It's here and it's
not a dream!"
     "Now, Cindy," her mother laughed, trying to soothe her, "there's no such
thing as a ghost cat. You've just had another dream."
     "But, mom..."
     "Shh, shh, shh, now."
     "But, it's right there!" Cindy cried. ""Right there on my pillow!"
     Her mother looked over at the bed, "There's nothing there, honey. It's
just your imagination."
     But in spite of her mother's soothing words, Cindy could still see the
cat. It blinked its eyes contentedly as it extended a long white arm
towards her and scrunched its claws.
     After her mother left, Cindy tried to simply ignore the ghost cat, but
Gentle wouldn't let her be.
     "Imagination! Imagination! You don't exist! You don't exist!" said
Cindy as she sat on the bed, "you are a ghost and ghosts aren't real!"
But this ghost was real, and this ghost wanted to play. This ghost
wanted Cindy to rub its furry belly and tug at its paws. And it kept
bumping into her to get her attention.
     "Something's got to be done to make all of this go away!" she whispered.

     Deep inside, Cindy knew she didn't have a ghost of a chance.

Chapter Twenty-Two

     Cindy's immediate ghost problem was soon replaced by a new concern. The
phone rang and she could hear her mother answer in her usual cheerful voice.
Soon there was a tapping at her door.
     "Cindy," her mother called, "Lydia's nephew, Mr. Wolfe is on the phone.
He says it's important that you talk to him. And it's a chance for you to
apologize for being in his aunt's house."
     "Oh, no!" Cindy groaned under the pillow. Gentle nudged her and batted
at an imaginary bug over her head. Reluctantly, Cindy got up from the bed,
trudged out of her room and to the telephone.
     "Hello?" she said as she put the receiver to her ear.
     "Is the ghost cat with you?" Thadd asked her.
     Something bumped her leg and she looked down, "Yes," she muttered,
frustrated that her imagination was not cooperating at all. "As we speak."
"Look," Thadd said, urgency in his voice, "it's important you come to
the mansion right now, and bring the cat with you."
     "No way!" she snapped.
     "Look," Thadd persisted. "I just got off the phone with the coroner¹s
office. She said my great-aunt died of a massive heart attack. She said
she thinks that maybe something shocked her, and that caused her heart
attack. The way the police see it, you broke into the house. They think
you might have scared her to death!"
     Cindy was quiet. She didn't do it; it was the ghost!
     "I need your help, Cindy, please. If it's any consolation, I know you
didn't do it!"

     What could she do? No one would ever believe her story. She was going
to be thrown in jail for the rest of her life - all because she just
happened to be there when the ghost killed Lydia Wolfe.

     "Okay," Cindy said, barely loud enough to hear.
     "Good," he said. "I'll be waiting for you in the library. Hurry!"

     After he hung up, Cindy continued to hold the receiver to her ear. She
paused and then said, "Yes sir, Mr. Wolfe. I am very sorry about your aunt,
and I'm sorry I was in your house!" She paused and then added, "Have a
safe trip home." Then she hung up.
     Her mother called out to her from the living room, "Everything okay,
hon?"
     "Sure Mom," she fibbed reluctantly, "I apologized like you told me to."
     "Good girl," said her mother as she went back to her paper.

     Gentle bumped into her leg again and Cindy looked around. She went to
her room, put on a sweater and stuffed the ghost cat in her backpack. She
grabbed a jacket, swung the backpack gently over her shoulder, and headed to
the front door.
     As she opened the door she shouted, "I'm going to the library, Mom, to
finish my report on Bolivia."
     "Actually, that's a good idea, Cindy. Get out of the house, get back
with your friends, get back to normal."

     "Normal, yeah, right!" she thought as she closed the door and stepped
into the crisp night air.

     "I am in so much trouble," she muttered, hefting the heavy backpack onto
her back.

     "Burrnnow!"

Chapter Twenty-Three

     "I don't know why I let you talk me into this," she said as she sat at
the library table facing the door, the ghost cat sitting right in front of
her. Everything in the room was the same except for a black flashlight
laying on its side on the table.
     "Because you are just as curious as I am about what's going on around
here," Thadd said squinting through his wire-rim glasses -- trying to see
the cat.
     "Yeah," she said as she looked nervously around, "but what you don't get
is the fact that the ghost that killed your aunt is still here."
     "I know, Cindy," he said, giving up his pretense that everything was
okay. "The ghost, the one you say killed Aunt Lydia, is here, and it's
going berserk."
    "What? You mean, you can see it, too?" she asked, quickly sitting up up
in the chair.
     He shook his head and looked around. "The truth of it is that I can't
see the ghost at all, but what it's been doing could be heard and seen by
anybody!"

     The lights suddenly flickered on and off and an eerie howling filled the
room. Cindy's eyes opened wide and she sank back into the chair as far as
her body would fit and the cat jumped onto her lap.
     "The ghost is trying to get our attention, but I have no idea why," he
said, ignoring the blinking lights and staring intensely at Cindy. "You've
got to tell me everything that happened that night. Everything. Don't
leave out a single detail."

     So, she retold the story again; every frightening moment, every
shivering sound and gut-wrenching feeling, right down to the tingles in her
toes as she moved up the narrow staircase. She told it as she experienced
it, all the details -- even the look on the ghost's face as Aunt Lydia
collapsed and died.

     "Something," Thadd said thoughtfully after Cindy was finished, "just
doesn't make any sense."
     "What?"
     "If my great aunt died here, then her ghost should be here, too."
     "Then where is her ghost?" Cindy asked, suddenly understanding his
point.

     "I don't know."

Chapter Twenty-Four

     As Thadd tried to solve the mystery, he paced the room. He abruptly
stopped and turned back to Cindy. "Do you remember the children's rhyme
about Bump, in the night?"
     "Yeah... Do what you will when in the light, but never go out in Bump,
in the night!"
     "Well," he continued slowly, "that little rhyme goes back over a hundred
years. My great aunt believed in ghosts, witches, and anything paranormal.
Believed it with all of her heart."
     He paused and walked to the other end of the table, "Lydia loved to do
research and she studied every story and every rumor there was about spooky
happenings here."
     "She took notes on everything she saw and heard. All of her notes she
kept in these files," Thadd continued, picking up one of the leather files
with the letters BIT'N on the front. "But the files are all empty. I've
been thinking about it a lot, and I think..."
     He never finished.

     Cindy jumped from her chair, still holding Gentle and stared at the
door. She watched in horror as a glowing pair of hands followed by arms and
then the ghostly body pushed through the solid hardwood door.
     "What do you see, Cindy?" Thadd asked, gripping her shoulders and
squinting. "Quick, tell me."
     "The...the...ghost," she stuttered. "The one that killed your aunt.
     It's coming straight at me!"
     Gentle tensed in Cindy's arms. A low growl started deep in the cat's
throat and the hair on its back stood straight up.
     Thadd quickly crossed the room and put himself between Cindy and the
door, but the ghost walked right through him, as if he wasn't there.
     "It just walked through you!" gasped Cindy.
     "I know, I felt it!" shuddered Thadd.
Cindy whimpered. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she held on to
Gentle and watched the approaching figure, its arms stretched out towards
her. There was no time to run, only time to wish she had never come back to
this place.
     Gentle clawed at the air; squirming and kicking as the ghost came
forward.
     "The cat is really upset now, it's clawing at the ghost!" Cindy
continued, describing everything that Thadd couldn't see.
     "Cindy!" Thadd shouted. "I don't think the ghost is coming for you at
all!"

     "Yes, it is!" she sobbed.

     "No. It wants the cat!"
     The ghost came forward, and with each sliding, floating movement, Gentle
struggled hard to break free of Cindy's grasp.

     "Hold him, Cindy. Hold on to the cat!"

Chapter Twenty-Five

     "Listen to me!" Thadd shouted to the ghost. "We'll let you have the
cat..."

     "No!" Cindy shouted as she clutched Gentle to her chest.

     "...but not until you tell us where the notes to the BIT'N files are
hidden."

     Cindy watched as the ghost stopped dead in its tracks. It cocked its
head at a ghostly angle and its flowing bluish-white hair drifted down
across its face. And turning to the big mirror it placed a glowing finger
in the dust and wrote:

     CINDY KNOWS
     DARK AND CREEPLE
     BREAK DOWN THE DOOR
     WHERE THERE ARE NO PEOPLE!!

                                               SCAVENGER

     They were both stunned!

     Obviously, it was some sort of riddle.

     Thadd's eyes darted from one word to another, as Cindy mouthed the words
to herself, and Gentle couldn't have cared less.
     The dusty words didn't mean a thing to either of them, but the ghost
had provided its part of the bargain - sort of.

     Thadd smiled took a deep breath and then instructed, "Let the cat go,
Cindy!"

     "But... but this is the ghost that killed your aunt."

     "It's all right. It gave us the answer and the cat will be fine."

     She let go of the cat and Gentle jumped from her arms, but instead of
running away, the cat wandered over to the ghost and rubbed its legs.
The ghost reached down, and hefted the cat into its arms. Gentle seemed
very pleased. The ghost backed towards the door.

     And of all the weirdest things...

     The ghost smiled and winked at Cindy.

Chapter Twenty-Six

     "Come on," Thadd said, as he grabbed the flashlight from the table.
"We're leaving!"
     It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. Thadd Wolfe could
not have known how good that made her feel.
     "Where?" she asked.
     "You tell me!" he said as he swung his coat over his shoulders and
cocked his hat on his head.
     "Me?"
     "Yeah, you! The riddle says you know a place dark and spooky."
     "Well, the note read Odark and creeple'. What's creeple?" she said as
she followed him out the door.
     "In a way it's my aunt's signature," he chuckled, "she was a good
writer, but a lousy poet."
     "Well, the only Odark and creeple' place I know is the deserted DieOxyn
Chemical plant."
    "Then that's where we're going! The note on the mirror may have been
written by the ghost, but it really was a message from Lydia." His long
stride moved him briskly down the walk away from town.
     Cindy didn't want to go, but at least she felt safe with Thadd, and
obviously he knew something that he wasn't telling her.
     Who was Scavenger and why were the BIT'N File notes so important to him?
"Why are we going there?" she asked, practically running to keep up with
his long strides.
     "Because that's what Lydia told us to do, through the ghost."
     "But who is Scavenger?" she panted.
     "Scavenger's not a who, it's a what. It's a game, Cindy. A very
involved game."
     It was a game his great Aunt Lydia played, Thadd explained to Cindy -- a
scavenger hunt.
     When he was a boy he wanted a whole collection of books, a series of
sixteen volumes. He wanted them bad, so bad, that he had gone on for weeks,
begging and pleading until Lydia gave in and bought them. Only she didn't
give them to him all at once. Instead, she gave him clues to where she had
hidden each of the books. He had to find them one-by-one in a scavenger
hunt.
     Lydia believed that if she gave them to him all at once, he would only
read a few and let the rest gather dust. She wanted him to read them all.
He did read them but one at a time after he found them in the scavenger
hunt.

     Now he was in a new scavenger hunt.

     Only this time, the clues were being given by a ghost, and it wasn't a
game!

E-Mail Thadd Wolfe