by Simon Parker
The men spent the whole tramping around the beautiful sunny graveyard, discussing their plans for the night’s shoot. Each one of them secretly hoped they would actually catch something more tangible than the ‘fairy lights’ they’d already seen, but they all knew that was highly unlikely.
By mid-afternoon they decided to stow the equipment and head to the pub for a light liquid lunch.
“Hi,” came the mellifluous voice. Matt jumped for the second time that day. He’d just loaded the heavy tripod into the back of the Land Rover. When he turned, he was pleasantly surprised to see the blonde from last night smiling at him, looking even prettier than she had before.
“Hi,” he stammered, reverting to his clumsy adolescence in the presence of someone so blatantly out of his league. Her smile broadened as she became aware of his nervousness.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump.” She offered her hand in a supportive, almost condescending way that made him blush. He laughed and shrugged it off with another laugh.
“I guess that what comes from working with the dead all day,” he said, his voice still quivering.
She’d just begun to apologise when Lee walked over to introduce himself.
“Hi”, he said, extending his hand, strong and confident “I’m Lee, part of the film crew and I’m betting your name is… just as beautiful as your face.”
Matt cringed at Lee’s boldness, and felt a slight tang of jealousy. He sighed and shook his head almost imperceptibly at himself. Why couldn’t he come up with lines like that? Then again, if he did, it would end up sounding cheesy or trite. No wonder every woman ended up thinking he was gay. Then he’d get ‘friend-zoned’ again. He found it so hard to interact with women, especially ones as gorgeous as…
”I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” he interrupted, surprised at his sudden act of bravado. He’d never in his whole life, entered into such an obvious competition for the attention of a woman. Lee looked a little taken aback but let it go. Matt’s confidence floated as he saw Lee’s figurative retreat. It made him feel all alpha and chest-beater and he couldn’t control his smile at that thought.
“My name is Jenny.”
Matt thought maybe she could feel the rivalry for her attention, like static electricity in the air. It obviously wasn’t an alien experience to her. Men were probably drawn to her outward appearance all the time, and she most likely loved it that way. He watched her assess both himself and Lee, wondering if she preferred Lee’s youth and physical fitness over his own maturity. He knew that Lee was probably the better looking of the two of them, but felt he was no slouch when it came to looks.
Matt thought there had been chemistry when he saw her at the bar last night. The look she’d given him said she found him interesting, and of a sudden he felt a deep-seated need for her. He wanted nothing more at that moment than for Lee to disappear.
“I’d heard the chatter in the village that you guys were here and I wondered if I could offer you my assistance, maybe?” Jenny directed her question to Matt, enforcing the invisible pecking order dance that inevitably takes place whenever strangers meet. Lee acquiesced, leaving Matt to once more pick up the reigns.
Matt paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. On the one hand, she was a very beautiful woman and he’d love nothing more than to spend more time with her; on the other, he’d often been approached with offers of ‘help’ that had ended up being the very antithesis of it. They had caused tensions and problems he could well do without right now. He had some serious skulduggery to get on with tonight in an attempt to rescue the situation and quite possibly their careers and that must not be witnessed by anyone outside the dedicated trio that was the remnants of his team. Discretion won over. He would have to let her down gently, but those eyes, those wonderful pacific blue eyes held him a moment longer.
She didn’t give him the chance. “I’m a psychic,” she said matter-of-factly, “and I’ve seen some things you wouldn’t believe since I came to this village.” His mind leapt almost as high as his heart and in that instant he saw many levels of hope. Maybe they could rescue this without cheating. Maybe she could help them discover the secrets of Fulfolk. It didn’t hurt that it gave him a legitimate reason to spend more time with this beautiful siren, for that’s what she was to him. Her subtle smile, her golden hair feathering gently in the spring breeze, her eyes like sparkling pools on sunbathed shores, all called his name, drawing him in with the unspoken promises of a swim in those exotic waters.
“A psychic? That’s brilliant.” He beamed, seeing not only the beauty in her features but in the hope of salvation she had brought to him. He took a bold step closer to her and placed a conspiratorial arm around her shoulder. She didn’t shy away from his touch. “So, tell me, what kind of things have you seen? What kind of experiences are we talking about here?”
Lee and Adam continued putting away the protective cases of the equipment they’d set up around the graves while Matt and Jenny strolled around the oldest part of the graveyard. They discussed ghostly noises, disembodied voices and strange disappearances. When they returned, Adam and Lee had already left.
“They will be waiting for me—us, at the pub for lunch,” Matt explained when Jenny asked where they had disappeared.
When Matt arrived with Jenny in tow, no-one in the pub raised an eyebrow. As they walked into the bar, the guys had already got a pint in front of them, sitting at a table for four and perusing the menu. By the time the food arrived half an hour later, the four were deep in conversation.
“So there’ve been more disappearances?” Lee asked. “What can you tell us about them? Our source only mentioned a couple, but then he bottled it and wouldn’t talk. Didn’t answer our calls or emails and wasn’t here when we arrived as planned.”
Jenny looked across the table from her place beside Matt. “Did you know your source’s name? Maybe if it’s someone I know, I can get him talking to you again.”
The three men exchanged glances. Giving out sources was a serious breach of their unwritten code of ethics. But this woman had gained their trust and respect incredibly over the last few hours and felt like one of the group already. They all nodded almost imperceptibly, their unspoken consent to each other.
Adam broke the silence. “His name is Pete. That’s all we know. He wouldn’t give us a surname. He contacted us a couple of months ago and told us about the ghostly noises he’d heard around the village and forest. He followed it up with a tale about a German tourist who’d come into the hotel one night, afraid for his life. He was gone by morning. Unofficially checked out without paying, leaving his luggage in his room and his car parked out the front.”
“We decided it was a strong enough story to follow up. We weren’t sure if we were looking at a haunting, some kind of cult or maybe even alien abduction but we were pretty sure it’d be worth investigating whatever it was. Unfortunately, by the time we got here, no sign of any Pete. None of the locals would admit to or confirm any strange occurrences – present company excepted – and all we have to show for our efforts on film amount to nothing more than a couple of light anomalies in the graveyard.”
Jenny looked thoughtfully at each of the men, then turned to Matt. “There was a guy, I think he was named Pete, who worked the bar in the hotel a while back and I haven’t seen him in here for a while, come to think of it.”
All the enthusiasm drained from Lee's face. "Maybe it was all a hoax."
Matt shook his head. "Maybe it wasn't." He returned his gaze to Jenny and asked, "You think we're talking about the same person?"
“Maybe,” she replied. “I remember asking Mark, that’s the owner of the hotel, what had happened to Pete and he said he’d had some kind of family trouble or something, had left and moved back to be with them. I didn’t think much more of it at the time, but now I’m not so sure. It all seems to fit with everything else and also your timeframe.”
Matt’s mouth formed a perfect inverted crescent as his e
yebrows ascended, his ‘I’m considering this information’ face when he didn’t want to admit he had no idea what was going on. When no one spoke, Jenny continued. "I'd spoken to Pete in the past when I stopped by the hotel for a drink. I seem to remember him mentioning that he worked part-time as a groundskeeper up at the church… so he'd have been in the right place if something did happen."
Matt was excited that finally more information seemed to be emerging, even if it was a trickle and not a gush. He sat, nodding sagely.
“That does fit, guys,” he said to Lee and Adam as if speaking in defence of Jenny’s theory. “He did tell me he’d first heard the noises while he was working in the churchyard. I didn’t think much of it at the time, didn’t even think to ask him what work he did. I was just asking about where he was and what the noises were like.” He paused to order his thoughts before continuing. “I was thinking maybe we’d been duped by someone who, for some reason, decided to prank us, to get some notoriety or something, and I don’t mind admitting I was feeling pretty stupid for falling for it. But I’m beginning to wonder now if what Pete told us was the truth and he either got scared off by it or worse still, became another one of the mysterious ‘disappeared’ for his troubles.” Matt paused, hoping that maybe someone else would chime in with theories of their own but they were now all hanging on his every word, content to let him run the show.
Jenny seemed just as enthralled as Adam and Lee. Her hand was tentatively touching Matt’s leg almost unconsciously. He continued on his train of thought and shared more of what Pete had told him that had brought them here to begin with.
“He told me that at first, the sounds had almost seemed like they were inside his head. After a while, he’d been sure he’d heard them. They just seemed to get louder. ‘Like they’d been planted and were growing’ was how he described it. They weren’t restricted to the churchyard either. Pete said he’d heard them everywhere.”
Matt paused for a second, thinking of earlier in the day when he could have sworn he’d heard drumming while he was setting up the camera. A shadow passed behind his eyes as he wondered. He shook the meandering thought away and looked at Jenny again, her supportive hand now on his knee.
“So,” he continued, “what else have you heard about other disappearances? Or sensed,” he added, remembering she had told them of her psychic abilities. She smiled and looked at the three men as if she were excited and about to reveal a great truth.
“I’ve heard a fair bit about people vanishing over the years around these parts, but my gifts have been more affected by the voices around the village. Spirits talking to me when I least expect it, day or night, no matter where I am around the village.” Matt raised a genuinely interested eyebrow but decided to wait for her to explain rather than interrogate her and risk her losing her thread and possibly important information.
She continued “It’s difficult to explain, they’re not like my ‘normal’ spirit voices. They’re not much more than whispers really, reminding me of things I need to do. Quite strange and mundane to you professionals I guess, but uncomfortable and disquieting to me.”
Matt suddenly realised he was touching her hand on his knee in a caring way as if reassuring her that he had heard and absorbed what she had told them and felt her pain. For such a simple touch, it felt surprisingly good.
“And what of the disappearances?” Adam cut in, shortening the intense gaze that Matt and Jenny had been holding.
“Nothing specific,” she replied with a shrug. “Every little village has its history and its ghost stories. But it struck me as odd from day one that almost all the old wives’ tales I heard from the locals involved someone vanishing. Some may have been put down to simple things like arguments or people moving away and not telling anyone, but some were laced with mystery and intrigue.”
Jenny paused, allowing Matt and the team to absorb all that had been said so far. There was a hint of what might have been regret in her eyes as Matt regarded them. But he put it down to her speaking to three guys that were essentially strangers to her. His feelings for her were certainly growing exponentially and he felt very protective of her and the information she had shared with them so far.
The four of them continued to discuss events and phenomena until late afternoon. The three men had been planning to return by now to begin filming their fake footage, But with this new information, they all agreed that filming would begin at dusk and not a bit of fakery would take place. Jenny seemed to have saved the day in so many ways, thought Matt as he sat, still holding her hand and staring into those fire and ice eyes that held him in ways he couldn’t describe.
At 6pm, the newly formed quartet headed back to the graveyard to begin their vigil. Their new plans were clear in their minds and hopes were high for some stunning footage. Adam and Lee were to remain in the newer part of the graveyard and around the church itself, while Jenny and Matt roved around the edges of the older part. Each team was equipped with camera units of varying sizes, small recording devices, and spare batteries. No-one wanted to miss the shot of a lifetime because of an equipment malfunction.
Matt filmed as Jenny introduced herself and her story, seemingly comfortable and at ease in front of the camera. She’s a natural, thought Matt. Just as she was narrating an introduction to where they were and what had been discovered so far, Matt’s attention, and the attention of his camera were drawn to the edge of the forest. Something had moved there, he was sure. He could feel the blood rushing in his ears, fell his pulse in his temples, the pounding, pounding that came from deep within. It was a sensation he was familiar with, call it instinct, call it his own psychic awareness. Whatever it was, it was the feeling of excitement that came every time something big was happening and Matt felt he was going to catch it on camera.
This time the pulse continued, grew, throbbing a vein so large he swore he could almost see it from the corner of his eye as he scanned the edges of the forest with his camera. He could feel it, sense it and… hear it. Yes he could hear it, couldn’t he? The sound was not coming from the vein or his pulse, it was coming from the forest. He was sure of it. It just felt like it was inside his body.
“Jenny,” he whispered, knowing it would be picked up on film, but also knowing it could come out in the edit. “Can you hear that?”
She stood for a moment, her ear cocked to the still calm night, her featherlike hair stirring in the gentle breeze. Silver rays of moonlight flashed above the canopy of fresh leaves that in daylight would be vibrant green but now showed as inky black through the lens.
“No, I don’t hear anything except the shushing of the trees in the breeze,” she said. She sounded almost sad not to be able to confirm what Matt was hearing. Her eyes skittered up and to the left as Matt looked at her. Maybe she was straining her ears in an attempt to hear it too.
“What I do hear, though,” she added, “is the spirits calling us over there.” Her arm stretched out toward the inky canopy of leaves. Matt was trying to film, hoping against hope that when he edited, he’d find something his weak eyes just weren’t picking up. Matt looked at Jenny, half in anticipation, half in fear. Her head flicked around to look over her shoulder. Matt had heard nothing other than the now increasingly loud thumping. But she pointed towards Adam and Lee over near the church itself. “There’s some energy moving over that way, Matt. Get them over there quickly, while we go check out in the forest.” Her hand was still pointing back at them as she began moving in the opposite direction, toward the edge of the forest.
Matt keyed his walkie and spoke softly to Adam. “Jenny said she sensed an energy or something over near you guys, moving behind the church. Can you head round there and check it out?” In a couple of seconds the radio crackled back at him.
“Roger that, on our way.”
Once he saw them moving, Matt turned to follow Jenny into the darkened trees. She was awaiting him as he ducked under the first few low branches that led into the forest, leaves rustling loud enough to wake the d
ead.
Once they’d walked a few minutes deeper into the wood, they paused, silent, while Matt listened to the steady thump of what now sounded like a giant’s heartbeat. Jenny swore she still couldn’t hear it but that her psychic sense was leading her. “This way,” she said, pointing toward what seemed to be a clearing a little further on.
They entered the clearing, and Matt stopped dead in his tracks. Suddenly the sound was overwhelmingly loud. He didn’t recoil or cover his ears but instinctively held his breath for a second or two at the power of the shock. If Jenny couldn’t hear it now, she was either deaf or it really was just inside his head. She looked at him expectantly and beckoned him closer. In the silvery clearing, as his eyes adjusted, Matt could see she was standing by what looked like an old well. Cautiously and quietly he moved over to her side, gently putting his arm around her waist, glad of the reassuring touch.
She pointed down into the well. “The spirit is down there,” she said looking over the edge. Matt was already hanging the camera over the edge as she finished her sentence. The night vision showed nothing, so he switched to the main light. Startling white flooded the rugged stone sides, stark and frightening until his eyes adjusted again. He could see down about fifty foot or so, and then it appeared to suddenly go black again. Matt looked back to Jenny. He felt a need to seek her approval. There was a driving force telling him what he needed to do, as if he’d been drawn here. His whole career had been leading him to this point in this forest, with this person as surely as he had been born. He was never more certain and now he must do what needed to be done. She nodded her consent. Matt lay down his camera and cocked his leg over the side of the stone well.
Forgetting to switch on his GoPro, he began his treacherous descent into the cavernous darkness, climbing down with the sure footed confidence of a seasoned mountaineer. His heart was beating with the same rhythm and pace as a child’s on his first visit to the haunted house at a fairground. He felt a heady mix of adrenalin, excitement and bravado with an equal measure of fear thrown in and shaken with the relentless crushed ice that was flowing down his spine right now. But down he went, regardless of how surreal it felt.
