Robin sighed and shook her head. “I just don’t know what to do anymore.” Her hands were wrapped tightly around her mug. She had opted for hot tea instead of coffee, and she idly played with the tag of the tea bag with one finger as she stared into the drink’s depths.
Doug reached over and caressed his wife’s back. “It’ll be okay. These guys are here to help us.” He looked over at Lauren and Derrick and asked, “So how did you guys get into doing this kind of thing anyway?”
Lauren smiled. “I’ve always been able to see and communicate with spirits. When I was a child, perhaps Emma’s age, just like her, I could see and talk to them like they were solid as you and me. My mother thought I was crazy and told me to cut it out. She was more worried about the neighbors and what they thought of us than acting in support of my abilities. I think her being raised Catholic played into that a good bit as well.
“I stopped talking about it, and as I grew up, I figured out ways to shield myself, to control it a little. I denied it for a long time, ignored what I saw, and refused to communicate. I think I let my mother’s fears overtake me a little. When I met my ex-husband, he had such a passionate interest in the supernatural; it kind of spurred me on to admitting what I could do. This was long before the rise of ghost hunting shows on TV, but he liked to go investigate, and he accepted what I could do. Dan didn’t think I was crazy.” Lauren stopped and let her gaze fall to the table.
Derrick jumped into the conversation to allow Lauren time to recover. She had gotten much better now that she had been dealing with her grief in the last couple of months, but he didn’t want to make this moment of sadness awkward. “I got lucky enough to fall in with these guys a couple of years ago,” he said.
“How did you manage that?” Doug asked, still rubbing his wife’s back as they talked.
“A girl I was dating at the time was into the whole New Age thing, she loved going to Lauren’s shop. So around Christmas time I went in there on my own to get her a gift and realized I had no idea what I was looking for. Aiden, our tech guy that Robin met the other day, he was in the back area with Dan, and they were reviewing some footage they had taken in an investigation in a cemetery. I saw it over Aiden’s shoulder and was instantly obsessed. I had to find out everything.”
Lauren laughed. “I remember that. You came in the next day with a full report on the graveyard, its history, and the history of those buried there. I don’t recall what you got your girlfriend, however.”
Derrick gave a sheepish grin. “I forgot about a date when I was doing all that research that night. She wasn’t really forgiving when it came to being stood up. She dumped me.” The married couple both laughed, the tension in the room abating as conversation flowed.
“Well I have to apologize for my part in the whole crackpot thing,” Doug said, looking to Lauren. “I was a bit like your mom when Robin proposed this whole thing to me. She was more willing to believe the truth of what was really going on than I was, and I have to admit I was worried what the neighbors would say if they found out.”
Lauren nodded. “It’s okay, Doug. Really. We tend to want to rationalize things. The people who don’t rationalize, seem to tend to see ghosts everywhere, even if it is just bad plumbing, a settling house, or raccoons in their attic.” This made everyone laugh again.
“I wish it were raccoons,” Robin said. Although she was tired and annoyed at the situation, she had become far less jumpy as the conversation turned towards more normal things like old girlfriends and obsessive interests.
“How did you hear about us, anyway?” Lauren asked. “It’s not like we advertise.”
“Oh! My friend Amber is married to Michael Woods,” Robin said. “She said you helped them put his mother’s spirit to rest a few months ago when the people who bought the house were having issues.”
“Wow,” Derrick exclaimed. “Talk about a small world.”
“No kidding,” Lauren said.
Derrick glanced back down to the monitor, and the smile vanished from his face. “She’s awake.”
Sam glanced at the monitor and frowned, as he could see the ghost child on the video feed. Her body language was aggressive. He had no choice, he had to let Cadence know what was going on, and that he was alone. Whitfield still hadn’t shown up.
Ava was sitting up on the edge of her bed and looked like she was talking to someone. Without warning, one hand raised as if it were being pulled on and it was plain that Ava was becoming more agitated by the second.
Derrick looked over to Lauren and nodded. “Get up there,” he said. She was ahead of him and already out of her chair. Robin and Doug rose as well to go up to their daughter.
Then the lights went out.
Chapter 20
The footsteps of the three breathers echoed along the cold concrete hall of the prison as they made their way down to the block that comprised Death Row and Solitary Confinement. The night vision cameras showed their breath in the cold air as they walked without conversation. The change in atmosphere as they crossed the threshold into the cell block was palpable and instantaneous. There was an anger, a depression, and a desperation that was easy to feel.
“Dear God,” Teeny said, stopping in her tracks not far over the threshold.
“Yeah this would be why Dan and I didn’t venture too far in,” Aiden said. “This is what I meant when I said that it just felt bad.”
“Oh come on,” Liam said, annoyance plain in his voice. “You two are psyching each other out. This is an abandoned prison in winter; it is going to have some obvious overtones that will have a psychological impact on how we react. Teeny, you know this well.”
Teeny sighed and nodded, steeling herself against the onslaught of warning bells going off in her head. “You’re right,” she said. “We keep going to get to the truth.”
“There you go,” Liam said, nodding with approval. “Now, which do you want, a death row cell or a solitary confinement cell?”
“What?” Aiden wasn’t sure what Liam was driving at.
“We do vigils in what are thought to be the most haunted areas of a place,” Liam said. “Given what you said about feeling like the place is bad, and what Derrick told us about the history of these areas, I want one of you in a death row cell and one of you in a solitary confinement cell. See what kind of evidence you can get.”
“What about you?” Aiden asked.
“I stay out here in the hallway to help either of you in case there’s trouble,” Liam said.
“Have you had something happen where someone needed help?” Aiden had never really watched their show. He couldn’t sit through the theatrics of it.
“A couple of times doors have locked on their own,” Teeny said.
“So we always have someone nearby, not on a vigil, just to be sure nothing bad happens to the other one,” Liam said, finishing the explanation.
Aiden sighed. He didn’t really fancy being locked up in either kind of cell. He knew Snow and Cadence were here, or at least one of them was. He wasn’t entirely sure how they would have worked out things with Lauren and Derrick off on the Owens case, but he knew they would never leave this place unattended; especially with a television show traipsing through the prison.
“I’ll take Solitary,” Teeny said in the quiet as Aiden was thinking.
“Solves that then,” Liam said. “Aiden, you get a Death Row cell.”
“Snow, we have a problem,” Cadence said as she looked at her phone which had buzzed to alert her to a message.
“What a refreshing change,” he said in a dry tone.
“Whitfield never showed up to watch over what was happening at the Owens house. Sam is on his own,” Cade said.
“I know you are protective of your brother, Cadence, but I think he can handle a child on his own,” Snow said as they both followed Liam and Aiden to the death row cells. Teeny had already put herself into a solitary cell.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. Sam said it was getting hairy over there, but he
could handle it, but he did mention that Whitfield never showed,” Cadence said.
“Whitfield did say that he had some work on an NHD project that they wanted him to finish up first. Perhaps it’s just taking longer than expected. We should bring it up to Alistair however. He did make a point of saying that Whitfield is with us, and can take on NHD projects only when we don’t need him,” Snow said.
The death row end of the cellblock was darker than the solitary end. The shadows seemed thicker here, almost as if they were physical things, not just mere absence of light. It also seemed colder, even Liam was noticing it more. His voice still held steady, but as he reached out to open the cell door for Aiden, Aiden could see the man’s hand shaking a little bit. Without commenting on it, Aiden stepped into the cell and sat himself down on the cold concrete floor. He put the hand held a little away from him, facing towards him, and in his hand was the audio recorder.
“You stay with him whilst I make sure the young lady stays safe?” Snow suggested.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Cadence said with a nod. In the back of her mind, she was still worried about Sam. If what was happening at the house was bothering him enough to make him text her, it was serious. But on the other hand, she knew that she and Snow had to stay here. This investigation was in a more public forum, so it was more important that they keep the spirits here in line. That was their job. She just hoped the little brat that Sam was dealing with settled down.
Cadence limped into the cell and sat down next to Aiden. There was something in the corner of the room, a kind of moving, undulating shadow that she didn’t like. Across the walkway was the spirit of a condemned man, quite literally hanging in his cell, noose around his neck. His eyes were open, and he was leering at her and Aiden in a way that made her skin crawl.
Snow slipped into the room that Teeny had taken, and was glad that he had opted to make sure she was safe. She wasn’t alone, although she had no idea she wasn’t. A ghost of a man in the blue uniform of the prison was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, rocking back and forth, muttering incoherently.
Liam walked to the point that was mid-way between both Aiden and Teeny. He had company, also. Roy was with him. He kept an eye on the television personality while he talked quietly with the residents who still occupied this wing of the prison.
In death row, Cadence brushed Aiden’s hand to let him know she was there. He jumped slightly then realized who it was, having caught a brief flash of her in his mind at the touch. He knew the cameras had recorded the jump, so he shook off his hand with a chuckle.
“Damn spider nearly scared me half to death,” he said.
Cade smiled, glad he had covered. She hadn’t thought about the possibility of him reacting to her touch, she just knew she wanted him aware that he had back up. In the meantime, she was keeping a sharp eye on the shadow in the corner. Was this one of the creatures that Whitfield had spoken of? Made up of the desperation of so many criminals facing their last days, bits of their souls that soured over time and never moved on? Cadence wasn’t sure, but she was uncomfortably aware of the fact that it looked a great deal like the chaos creature they had fought at Lexington Hills. Cadence positioned herself between Aiden and the undulating shadows.
“Is there anyone here, in these cells on Death Row that would like to communicate?” Aiden had the audio recorder running as he sat there, trying to catch an EVP.
A whine came from the shadowy thing in the corner, but it was nothing like the train-like cacophony of the chaos creature. Cadence relaxed her stance only a little, however. She had no idea if the creature could see her or even understand, but she shook her head at it, trying to indicate that it should stay quiet.
“We’re not here to judge you,” Aiden said. “We would like to help if we can. The device in my hand is something you can communicate through. Take energy from me if you need it and use it to talk to me.”
Aiden felt ridiculous. He knew how things worked in the afterlife, to a greater degree than most of the living. He knew that Cadence would be there trying to keep the spirits from speaking too much, from giving away anything that would be concrete evidence of the world beyond the veil. Hell, he usually wasn’t even the one who would be doing this. It would be Lauren and Derrick. He was just the tech guy, not the investigator. But here he was, making a monkey of himself for the camera.
The shadow in the corner of the room moved as if it were taking a tentative step forward. Cadence moved a step as well, putting herself directly between it and Aiden. Another noise came from the creature, an echo that to Cadence sounded like many voices, but each voice could only make one certain sound. It was like a recitation of a poem except that there were many performers and each performer only got to say one letter of a word, and they were all trying to speak at the same time, out of order.
“Quiet,” Cadence said, her voice a soft hiss.
Aiden shifted a bit, turning to look behind him. “I could swear I just heard something,” he said. “I don’t know what though…” He narrowed his eyes, trying to peer into the lightless corner. He got to his feet and grabbed the handheld camera, aiming it at the corner where he thought the noise had come from. Aiming it at where the shadowy creature roiled in place, though the dancing shadows didn’t show up on film. It was just a corner that looked a little dimmer in the night vision.
The shadows made another strange sound, almost like an electric hum and the thing flew up to the ceiling to spread across the smooth surface like smoke. This movement did register on the camera as a few orbs moving up to the ceiling and then scattering in different directions.
Cadence looked up, watching it as it moved. She wasn’t sure if she should be more on guard with it moving around or less so since it seemed to be ignoring them for the most part. She turned so that she was facing Aiden as the shadows hung menacingly above them.
“Some orbs in that corner, maybe something is trying to come through,” Aiden said, half muttering to himself now. He reached out with the hand that held the audio recorder, holding it out to the corner in question. “Who are you?”
The shadows on the ceiling began coalescing, swirling in a circle like clouds caught in a wind that signaled the start of a tornado. That was when a muffled scream echoed from down the hall, from where Teeny had been closed into the Solitary Confinement cell.
Liam ran, the jeers of the ghosts in the cells on either side of him going unheard. He skidded to a halt in front of the closed door of the Solitary Confinement cell Teeny had gone into. She was still screaming.
Although she hated leaving Aiden with the swirling shadows, Cadence ran through wall after wall, cell after cell, until she got into the one that Teeny was in. The old dead prisoner that had been yammering nonsensically to himself when Teeny had gone into the cell had taken notice of her presence. She was sitting on the floor of the cell, her knees drawn up to her chest, eyes tightly closed with her hands covering her ears as she screamed. The crazy spirit had managed to move to her and wrap his arms around her. His insane, nonsensical monologues hadn’t stopped, but instead of muttering them to himself, he was now screaming them into Teeny’s ear as he held her close. Liam swung the door open as Cadence tried prying the crazy inmate off of Teeny, wondering where Snow was.
“Teeny!” Liam said, rushing in to help her. She flinched back from him as he grabbed her hand, afraid that it was another spirit coming to take her. “Teeny, it’s me, it’s Liam.”
“Come on, let the nice breather go,” Cadence coaxed while tugging hard on his arm. She managed to pull one arm of his off of Teeny which upset the balance of both and they tumbled to their sides. Cadence took advantage of the situation and dragged the insane inmate back over to the corner she had initially seen him in.
“What on earth happened?” Snow asked, coming back into the room, which drew a glare from Cadence.
“Where were you? I thought you were here watching over her?” Cade said, her voice sharp.
“I was,” Snow s
aid. “Mr. Pruitt told me that Liam looked to be in more danger, so he asked to trade stations. I went out to him, and Mr. Pruitt came in here. Was he in here?”
“Nope,” Cade said with a shake of her head. “I ran in when I heard the screaming and found this guy wrapped around her like a boa constrictor, yelling his crazy crap into her ear. Why do I feel like Roy is the male version of Carmen Sandiego?”
“Carmen Sandiego,” Snow said, repeating the name. “Who is that?”
Cadence arched an eyebrow at Snow and then shook her head. “You’ve never heard of the books, or show, or games on Carmen Sandiego? It was a thing when I was a kid. “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and you had to try to figure out where she was. It taught geography to kids without them really knowing it.”
“And how is that like Mr. Pruitt?”
“Because we always seem to be asking where in the world he is,” Cade replied, her tone dry.
Liam was crouched on the ground beside Teeny, trying to comfort her. “Shhhh, I’ve got you. It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“Liam… Oh God, Liam, it was awful,” Teeny said as tears still rolled down her face.
“You want to talk about it?” Liam stroked her hair, still trying to comfort her.
“Get me out of this cell first,” Teeny said in reply.
The clanking of metal signified one of the cell doors being shaken and everyone paused, hearing a male voice echoing down the hallway.
“Shit, Aiden,” Cadence said and teleported back to the cell he was in.
Liam helped Teeny up, and they went back down the hallway to where Aiden was shaking the door of his cell.
“This isn’t funny, we weren’t supposed to be locked in,” Aiden said to Liam as he saw him. His eyes fell to Teeny, and he frowned. “What happened?”
The Dead Show Page 13
