She said it lightly, but I noticed her forehead crease a little. “Sam, really?” I asked. “He doesn’t seem like the nagging type.”
“He’s the one who found this site,” Lidia said. “He insisted on investigating a residual haunting because there’s no risk for me. These ghosts can’t interact because they’re not real ghosts, they’re just recordings. An echo.”
“Huh.”
“I agreed because this waterfall does have an interesting story,” Lidia went on. “But I set up the Buenos Aires investigation. Jess and Sam weren’t too happy with my choice.”
“It’s a church, right?” I asked.
“Right. But the story is actually in the catacombs under the church. They’re haunted by a nun.” Lidia grinned at me. “A nun who was supposedly possessed by a demon over a century ago.”
“Awesome!” I exclaimed. “Kind of like Return to the Asylum. Although I guess I can see why they’re worried about you, after what happened with Red Leer.”
Lidia sighed. “I know. But I’m thirty-two years old. I’ve been ghost hunting pretty much since I was seven, when my brother and I first heard all the stories about how our town’s lighthouse was haunted. I understand everyone’s concern, but I can take care of myself.” Taking off her sunglasses, she squinted ahead. “Looks like we’re heading off the path.”
Hugo led the way down a much narrower path into the trees, Dad and Jess right behind him. Roland followed, then Sam and Oscar. Brenda smiled at Lidia and me as she waited for us to pass her so she could bring up the rear.
This path was a fairly steep decline, but the thick roots and weeds made it more strenuous than going uphill. No one spoke much, although Roland kept whistling the theme song from The Addams Family until Jess begged him to stop.
“Blame Kat,” he called over his shoulder. “Her shirt got it stuck in my head.”
“W-W-W-D?” said Brenda from behind me, reading the back of my shirt. “What does it mean?”
I turned so she could see the front. “What Would Wednesday Do . . . ow!”
“Careful!” She grabbed my arm to steady me as I kicked away the bramble that had scratched my calf. After that, I focused harder on the climb down. Twenty minutes later, the distant sound of a waterfall reached my ears, quickly growing to a roar. I pulled the Elapse from my pocket and flipped it on as Brenda helped us over the last few rocks.
“Nice.” I stood on the last rock, snapping several photos of the falls. Water gushed from an opening at the top of a fairly short cliff into a large, crystal-clear pool. Through the mist, I could just make out a small cave behind the falls. The surrounding banks were wide enough to set up camp before the ground turned steep, like a circle of mini cliffs enclosing the area. I could see a few other paths snaking out and up among the massive trees that grew out of the rocky yellow-brown earth. Overhead, long, twisty branches thick with bright green, leathery leaves reached out to one another over the pool, leaving just a bit of open sky.
Oscar kicked off his shoes and scrambled down the rocks toward the pool. “Hang on!” Lidia called after him. “Let’s get this on video.”
I made a face, staying on my rock as everyone else made their way to the banks. Jess and Mi Jin pulled their cameras out as soon as they reached the bottom. Oscar waded knee deep into the pool, followed by Roland.
“How is the water?” called Hugo, who was helping Dad set up one of the tents.
“Freezing!” Oscar was already backing out. “Too cold to swim.”
“Not if you do it the right way.” Hugo grinned, pointing. “Like Brenda.”
Everyone looked up to see Brenda standing on a ledge near the waterfall, about halfway up the cliff. She waved before cannonballing into the pool below. Roland stood stock still as the resulting splash covered him. “Thank you for that,” he said solemnly when Brenda surfaced, and she laughed.
“Sem problema.”
Several minutes passed while Jess and Mi Jin got footage of everyone else setting up the tents, organizing supplies, and taking turns jumping off the cliff. I was getting some great shots, although with every minute that passed, the pool looked more and more tempting. I was hot and dirty from the hike, and the water was so inviting . . . but coming down off my rock meant being on camera. On television. I didn’t want to cannonball on TV. I didn’t want to do anything on TV. If I was already getting criticism about how I looked from trolls on my blog, what would happen when my face was on television?
“Get over it,” I told myself, irritated. Oscar was right; this wasn’t like me at all. Ignoring the way my stomach had started to churn, I grabbed my bag and climbed off the rock. After tucking my Elapse safely inside, I left the bag near the tent Dad and Hugo had finished setting up and followed Oscar, who was heading back up the steep path to the ledge for what was probably his fifth or sixth jump. When we reached it, he turned to me with a grand gesture.
“Ladies first.”
“Obriga-da,” I said, walking to the edge. The ledge seemed a lot higher from up here. Dad waved to me, and I waved back, grateful Jess was occupied filming Roland and Hugo competing to see who could stand under the waterfall the longest.
“How cold is it, really?” I asked Oscar over my shoulder.
He pushed his sopping-wet bangs out of his eyes. “Cold. Really cold.”
“But, like, on a scale of North Pole when the reindeer are frozen solid to Pluto after an asteroid knocks it out of the sun’s orbit.”
“Hmm.” Oscar tapped his chin. “I’d say probably Antarctica, on a glacier, during an ice battle between Elsa and the Abominable Snowman.”
“Cool,” I said, nodding. “For the record, Elsa would totally win.”
“Um, obviously.”
As I faced the pool again, a feeling of unease passed over me. Tiny goose bumps broke out on my arms in spite of the heat. I rubbed my arms, frowning. A second later, the sensation was gone.
Taking a deep breath, I jumped. The second or two of free-falling felt incredible. Then I plunged into the pool, and the sharp sting of icy water drove all thoughts from my mind.
A voice screamed in my head, and I exhaled a short burst of bubbles, flailing frantically. I opened my eyes and tilted my head toward what I thought was the surface. Another face stared back at me.
Mine.
I just barely stopped myself from letting out a scream. Instinctively, I reached out, and my hand passed through my eyes, my nose, my mouth, scattering my reflection. A second later, my head broke through the surface.
Sucking in a warm gulp of air, I blinked the freezing water from my eyes. It was a few seconds before the muddled sounds around me turned to recognizable words.
“How’s it feel?” Dad was calling from where he stood next to Jess.
“Great!” My voice came out hoarse, and I tried to smile as I floated away from them. I felt kind of silly, letting the sight of my own reflection scare me like that. Even if it was an especially vivid reflection.
Now that the shock had subsided, the water was starting to feel . . . well, it was still freezing. But bearable. Enough so that I could stay put and avoid parading around in front of the cameras in my sopping-wet Wednesday Addams shirt.
Treading water, I hummed the theme from Jaws under my breath. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water . . .
The unease swept over me again. It was the same feeling I got during the first scene of a horror movie, where everyone looks totally happy, moments before something gruesome happens. I shook it off, but the water suddenly felt much colder. I watched as the others made their way out of the pool and joined Dad and Jess, who were opening the coolers of food. “Let’s make this a quick dinner,” I heard Jess say. “We need to get rolling.”
Sighing, I forced myself to swim toward them. Like it or not, it was almost time to start shooting my first-ever television episode.
Nighttime totally transformed our campsite. It was a kind of darkness I’d never experienced outdoors; it even seemed to swallow the beam from my (admittedly weak) flashlight. Brenda and Hugo had provided us with maps that marked where the campers’ footsteps had been found, and we were trying to retrace their path and figure out how they’d managed to circle around and around and never find their way out. Already, Sam had claimed to be experiencing “an intense sense of anxiety and despair.” Roland had responded by offering him anti-diarrhea medicine. (“Sometimes despair is really just the runs.”)
While Oscar hovered around Jess and Mi Jin, cracking jokes for the cameras every five seconds, I trailed behind everyone. I thought my Elapse was a good pretense—after all, I wanted to get shots of the group trekking around for my blog. But after half an hour, Jess pulled me aside.
“How about joining Oscar up at the front for a little bit?” she asked kindly. I wrinkled my nose.
“Do I have to?”
Jess studied me for a few seconds. “The thing is, the network made it clear they don’t want one kid tagging along with a bunch of adults. They want clips of the two of you together. Like the graveyard mini episode. Which they loved, by the way.”
“They did?”
“Yup.” She smiled. “It pretty much sealed the deal as far as you two becoming cast members. Look, try to stop thinking about the cameras so much, okay? Just relax and be yourself.”
“I’ll try.” Although Oscar isn’t being himself on camera, I couldn’t help adding in my head as I followed her. I felt guilty even thinking it, but his weird new über-charming on-camera persona was driving me nuts. Maybe the fans loved it, but I preferred the real Oscar.
After consulting the maps again, Brenda and Hugo led us through a cluster of large rocks. The path twisted and turned like a maze. When we finally got out, I was pretty sure we were heading back in the direction of the pool—circling around just like the campers had done. It was easy to see how they’d gotten so lost.
Several minutes later, we were all huddled around a tree with thick, knotted roots twisting up out of the ground. Sam knelt next to it, placed his palm on the bark, and closed his eyes. “One of them tripped here,” he said gravely. “She hit her head . . . possibly a concussion.” Blinking, he stared around as if he expected to spot the lost campers behind us.
A wave of anxiety washed over me, so strong my knees almost buckled. I stepped back quickly, praying Jess and Mi Jin wouldn’t notice. They kept their cameras focused on Dad and Lidia, whose EMF meters had apparently started spiking. But Oscar glanced over at me, frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I whispered quickly. “Just a little dizzy.”
His eyes narrowed. “Dizzy? Wait, are you sensing . . . whatever Sam’s sensing? The campers? You should tell Jess, this is—”
“No,” I snapped, straightening up. “It’s not that. I’m fine, I just . . . I have to pee.”
“Does having to pee usually make you dizzy?”
I glared at him. “Ha-ha.”
“Kat, this is the whole point of the show,” Oscar said in a low voice. “It’s a paranormal investigation, and you’re sensing something paranormal. So just . . . just get over your stupid camera thing already so we can tell Jess about it.”
If my heart hadn’t been jackhammering in my chest, that might have hurt my feelings. Instead, it made me angry. So I turned my back on Oscar and walked over to Brenda.
“I have to pee,” I told her, doing my best to keep my voice from shaking. “I’m not allowed to go off alone, so can you take me?”
“Of course!”
I caught Dad’s eye and pointed to Brenda, so he’d see I had a chaperone. Then we quietly slipped away through the trees.
“I’m glad you asked me,” Brenda whispered, smiling. “I have to go too, but I didn’t want to interrupt the filming.” We emerged from the bushes back at the pool, and she pointed to the far end. “I’ll be right over there when you’re done, okay?”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
After she walked away, I moved closer to the waterfall. The cold mist mingled with the sweat on my face. My heart had finally slowed to a normal rate, but my stomach still twinged with anxiety. For a second, I wondered if Oscar was right; maybe this was what Sam had felt. Maybe I was sensing the emotions of the residual haunting. But I’d been nervous around the cameras back in the graveyard, too. My “stage fright,” or whatever it was, was getting worse.
I could see the opening to the cave behind the waterfall now. Instinctively, my fingers grazed my pocket, where my camera was tucked away. I felt guilty for letting Jess down, sneaking off like this right after she’d encouraged me to participate more. The least I could do was contribute some cool photos. I might not be good on camera, but I was good behind one.
Climbing up on a wide ledge about a foot off the ground, I edged around the rock and stepped inside the cave. It was shallow enough that I could see the back, but too dark to make out how high up it went. It was fairly eerie, too. Had the campers explored this cave before they’d gotten lost?
Flipping on my Elapse, I took a few more steps to the center of the cave and started taking pictures. It was too dark in there to bother with framing, and Brenda was probably finished by now, so I had to be quick.
Flash. Flash. Flash. I turned in a full circle, then took a few shots of the ceiling. The sudden brightness left spots dancing in my vision.
Blinking, I squinted at my display screen and scrolled through the pictures. The flash gave the rocky interior an orange hue, exposing every bump and crack. But there was a pattern to it. It took a few seconds for my brain to register what I was seeing. Three words, scratched all over the walls, even at the top of the cave where no one could possibly reach:
I WANT OUT
CHAPTER FIVE
ONE CAMPER ENTERS THE CAVE, BUT HOW MANY WILL COME OUT?
P2P WIKI
Entry: “Thoughtography”
[Last edited by AntiSimon]
Thoughtography is a process in which a person projects their thoughts (images, words) onto photos or videos. Sometimes referred to as psychic photography or videography.
NUMBLY, I groped for the small flashlight clipped to the waistband of my shorts. When I finally grasped it, I shined it around on the walls. No words, just rock. I stared back down at the Elapse screen, a chill creeping up my spine. How was this possible?
I stumbled out of the cave and hopped off the ledge, fighting the urge to run. I started heading to the far side of the pool, but a rustling noise stopped me in my tracks. Freezing, I stared hard at the bushes, which were perfectly still.
“Brenda?” I whispered. No response.
Once again, fear and panic hit me like a gust of strong wind.
It took a massive effort to keep my feet planted when all I wanted to do was sprint through the trees and get as far away from this place as possible. Logically, I knew this must be the effect of the residual haunting, and there was nothing to be afraid of. But I sensed something, like a presence. If I weren’t so terrified, I might have laughed at myself for thinking like Sam.
The bush twitched, and my heart skipped a beat. Had I imagined that? Pulse thrumming in my ears, I flipped the Elapse to video mode and started to record. If I could get footage of something, anything paranormal, maybe it would make up for how awkward I’d been earlier when Jess tried to film me. My hands shook slightly as I kept the camera trained across the pond, my eyes flickering back and forth between the bush and the screen.
A moment later, a transparent wisp of a figure slid out from between the trees.
I took an involuntary step forward, and then other, until the water lapped at my feet. For a moment, my panic subsided, replaced with wonder. Was this one of the campers?
The figure stood so still, I briefly thought I’d imagined it. Then it shifted s
lightly, tilting its head, and something about its shape and the way it moved made me suddenly sure of two things.
This ghost was a girl. And she was looking right at me.
When she lifted her hand and waved, I gasped and dropped my camera.
Splash!
“No, no, no!” I hissed, kneeling down and swiping it out of the water. But it was too late. Clutching my soaking-wet Elapse, I stared across the pool. The girl had vanished.
“Kat?”
I barely stopped myself from screaming as I whirled around to see Brenda waving to me from the far end of the pool.
“Coming!” I managed to choke out. I cast one last glance across the water, but the ghost was gone.
“Give it here.”
Mi Jin snatched my poor Elapse from my hands and knelt on the ground. I watched as she pulled a small Tupperware container from her backpack and popped the lid off.
“Is that rice?” Oscar asked, leaning closer.
Nodding, Mi Jin placed my camera inside. “Uncooked rice,” she explained, covering the camera completely before snapping the lid back on. “It draws the moisture out. No guarantees, but I’ve saved a few phones from water damage this way.”
“So it might still work?” I asked hopefully.
“Possibly,” Mi Jin replied. “We’ll find out in the morning—it usually takes several hours for the rice to do its thing.”
“Thank you,” I told her, the knot in my chest loosening slightly. That Elapse wasn’t just the coolest (and most expensive) thing I owned, but it had also been a gift from Grandma. I couldn’t believe I’d possibly destroyed it already.
“Mi Jin, will you take over with Sam and Roland?” Jess asked. “I need to talk to Kat for a sec.”
Dad and I stayed behind while Mi Jin and Oscar headed down the trail to rejoin the rest of the crew. When Jess turned to me, I glanced at her camera and my stomach sank. And sure enough:
Graveyard Slot Page 5
