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‘it’s a good thing I’ve got new blankets in the back of my car.’
     
     
    In the first daylight hours they headed back to the house, their backs sore from the odd sleeping arrangements. The front door opened with ease and the three men headed straight for the laundry, whilst Rhea made coffee and laid out some food.
    Phillip quickly cleaned up the splintered glass so that it could cause no more grief and as he swept the last of it away, he noted the dripping sound once more. ‘Hear that?’
    Max frowned as he listened hard and then nodded.
    ‘Where’s it coming from?’ Phillip passed his dustpan full of glass splinters to Chuck who took them to the kitchen for disposal. Phillip checked the taps and connectors in the laundry and bathroom, but none were leaking. He turned to find Max down on all fours, with his ear to the timber floor in the laundry.
    ‘Listen here.’ He urged Phillip down. ‘Your ears are younger than mine.’
    Phillip got down on his haunches, then hesitated. ‘Watch my back, will you?’ Max winked to indicate that he would, and Phillip placed his ear to the floor. ‘You’re right.’ He was excited by the fact and immediately headed outside to grab some tools.
    Rhea was curious about all the noise and as she entered the laundry, bearing cups of coffee in hand, she nearly freaked out — her husband and Max were attempting to rip one of floorboards from the floor. ‘What are you doing?’
    The floorboard gave way and cracked in half, whereupon the strong scent of sea water filled the room, the smell of which made everyone back away.
    The smell swept past Rhea and into the house, and then all the doors slammed closed.
    Everyone stood breathless a moment, waiting to see if the entity intended to retaliate further, but when all remained still and quiet, Max dared to speak.
    ‘I think we found its haunt.’
    Once most of the floorboards had been ripped away, an old well was exposed.
    ‘Now what?’ Phillip stared down into the dark recess. ‘How are we going to dredge that? God knows how deep it goes and if Natalie threw some sort of voodoo hex down there it has probably disintegrated anyway.’
    ‘A bottle of water and some dirt might have done the trick if the right words were invoked,’ Max told them, remaining calm as he thought about the next step. ‘Do you have a water pump?’
    Phillip smiled at the simplicity of what the old bloke was suggesting. ‘Will that work?’
    Max shrugged. ‘We won’t know unless we give it a go.’
    ‘It’s got to be worth a try,’ Rhea seconded. She hated to think they’d destroyed the floor to no end.
    ‘I’ll rig it up.’ Phillip went to fetch the water pump.
    ‘I’ll give you hand.’ Chuck followed him outside.
    ‘So what shall we do with the water?’ Rhea quizzed Max. ‘If we let it flow on to the property won’t that release the entity into the great outdoors?’
    Max shrugged. ‘I would tend to think that exposing the curse to the two elements it doesn’t have, air and fire,’ he motioned to the sun, ‘shall render it null and void.’
    ‘And if it doesn’t?’ Rhea ventured.
    ‘The way I see it … what have you got to lose?’ Max queried and Rhea saw his point.

     
    Phillip dropped a hose into the well and ran another outside where the water could flow into the sun-parched earth. ‘Okay …’ He looked to everyone present as if asking if they were ready; secretly they were all worried that the entity would not take kindly to having its home disturbed. Nevertheless everyone gave Phillip the nod, and he flipped the switch on. The pump powered up and began sucking water out through the hose into the sunshine.
    After a few moments when all seemed to be going swimmingly, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
    ‘You really think this is going to work?’ Phillip uttered aside to Max who raised both brows.
    ‘I —’ he began but noticed that the door to the laundry had crept open and the casing of the pump had started to