by Alex Silver
Daniel looked upset, so I rushed through the rest of what I needed to say.
“I’ll pack my stuff and go. Don’t worry about me. I remember seeing that Greyhound stops at the gas station. I’ll get Lara to take me to the bus terminal in town.
“And I’ll email you the release forms and stuff I have lined up for the next couple of filming sites we talked about using. You can use whatever footage you have of me, no problem. I’ve already filed my signed release to that effect and an NDA with the other contracts in the file on your desktop, so you know where to find them.”
“Don’t go,” Daniel’s fingers on my arm made it hard to stick to my guns. He sounded so genuine. Like he wanted me as much as I wanted him. But I was making the right choice.
Even accepting this job had been ridiculous. An impulsive decision that could only ever prove a terrible plan. Jumping into a life of following my celebrity crush around the country on a whim had to be the worst idea I’d ever had. I was too young for a mid-life crisis.
I could only blame it on the shock of losing my steady, stable job. But I’d come back to my senses. It was time to put my life back onto the steady, stable track I’d always known I should follow.
I was more than qualified for any number of professional roles and as soon as I could hop a bus back to Connecticut I’d prove it.
Early in our relationship, Daniel had teased me for being too buttoned down. I’d heard that before. I was too serious, too much like a boring middle-aged office drone. Well, maybe that was what I was acting like, but boring office drones didn’t get chased by vengeful spirits, so that suited me just fine.
FORTY-THREE
Dan
Vanessa had a vacant air when I got back from dinner with Jane to find all traces of Chad’s presence erased. Lara had agreed to take Chad to the bus station in town with no questions asked. They’d left in a hurry to catch the evening bus out of town. That fast, the best thing to ever happen to me, both professionally and personally, ended.
Served me right for putting the show first. I should have taken precautions to protect us once I suspected what we were dealing with. Instead, I’d let the thrill of discovery run away with me.
No amount of sitting around feeling sorry for myself would bring Chad back. The best way to honor my time with him would be to make the episodes he’d helped me create perfect.
Over dinner, Jane had given me verbal approval on the Haunted History webisode I’d sent to her and Lara that morning. As soon as she sent me an email, so I had a written record of their approval, I uploaded the file to my channel and scheduled the release for Saturday.
I worked through the night to piece together the two episodes about the haunting. Over the following days, I buried myself in my work. When I deemed the videos ready, I sent copies of the finished products to the Goodmans to approve. Then I crashed hard.
I received no word from Chad in the week following his abrupt departure. He’d sent me the files he’d promised, and that was that. I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the bright coloring pages he’d left taped to his cabinets. The reminder of his presence made my heart ache with longing, but I couldn’t bring myself to tear them down yet.
Jane and Lara approved the first video describing the haunting. Leon’s story, with Chad’s flashback scene came out perfect. It was brilliant. I had expected no trouble with that one. It contained nothing the family might find objectionable.
They raised concerns with the last webisode’s content. As well they might, since the ghost had accused their ancestor of cheating with his wife then murdering him and covering it up to steal his farm from him. The only real evidence to support Frank’s assertions were the vague journal entries of a child.
The preponderance of evidence inclined me to believe the ghost, he might not be blameless, but his story added up. His desire for vengeance had to be strong for it to keep him tethered here through the decades. Decades of biding his time and growing stronger from the living energy of the agricultural enterprise he’d spent his life nurturing.
When I got the response from the Goodmans requesting I edit out the bits about murder and theft, it was no surprise. I wished Chad was there to negotiate with them.
He excelled at talking people around. A real peacemaker. He’d know just what to say to convince them to let me air the footage.
There was no good way to cut the brilliant footage we’d risked life and limb to capture that cast the family in a positive light. Chad could tell me whether the contract he’d written would allow me to get away with airing the webisode, anyway.
I wouldn’t ask him though. He’d laid out a clear boundary. He needed space.
I refused to push myself on him when he’d made his desires clear. No matter how much I wanted to hear his voice. I put off discussing their concerns with the Goodmans by calling Karen back.
“I was beginning to suspect an angry spirit finally caught up with you,” she snarked in greeting.
“Haha,” I said, not in the mood to for her barbed banter, “I’m still alive, no thanks to your advice.”
“What advice was that?”
“Talking the ghost into leaving.”
“That is not what I advised. I instructed you to communicate with the spirit to determine what was preventing it from moving on.”
“It wants revenge on a dead man.”
“Well, that won’t be easy to arrange then, will it?”
“What do I do now?”
“Now? The spirit seeks vengeance. Make it believe it has achieved that end, and it will loosen its hold on the place. That should render it easy for the spirit to move on with no need for your further intervention.”
“How do you propose I accomplish that?”
“You’re resourceful, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
Karen hung up on me before I got another word in. Great. Well, all I had to do now was figure out a way to convince Frank that he’d had his bloody revenge. How hard could that be?
FORTY-FOUR
Chad
In retrospect, I should never have given notice on my apartment when I took the job with Dan. Another point against ever acting impulsively again. Now I found myself stuck staying on the pullout couch in Kay’s finished basement while I searched for a new job.
The situation was uncomfortably similar to being back in my senior year of highschool. It was a nice basement, complete with en suite bathroom, and no one bothered me when I was down there at least.
Kay gave me the space I’d said I needed. I just couldn’t shake the feeling I was intruding on them.
Like now, I had my laptop set up at their breakfast bar, perusing job listings in the middle of their morning routine. I got a new email notification.
Around me Kay and her husband were making breakfast while my nieces complained about having to go to their day camps. Sadie had soccer and basketball, Zoe had swimming, art, and soccer.
“Why can’t we stay home with Uncle Chad?” Sadie wheedled. Zoe clung onto my arm, gazing up at me with big round pleading eyes. I didn’t know how Kay could bring herself to deny them anything. Those kids played dirty with their puppy-dog eyes.
“Because you made a commitment to your teams, and Uncle Chad is busy. You can play with him tonight.”
“But, Mom, Uncle Chad doesn’t mind, do you?” both kids chorused. I gave my sister a pleading glance. I hated to be the bad guy, but she was right, I needed to find a new job pronto. If for no other reason, to get my mind off Daniel and be able to afford my own place.
“I said no.”
“Just this once?”
“Your mother said no, now eat your food,” Brad turned from where he was cooking to fix the kids with a hard look. They both turned back to their toast, grumbling about how their parents never let them have any fun.
A few minutes later, Brad brought over a skillet full of eggs. He slid some onto each of five plates, including the two covered in Sadie and Zoe’s toast crumbs.
He and Kay stood on the other side of the breakfast bar with their food. I skimmed the new email. The request to schedule an interview with a prestigious company shouldn’t make my stomach roil.
I should feel thrilled to move forward with my career, not disappointed that it would mean locking the door on my brief foray into spontaneity.
I shut the laptop and slid it off to the side. Without a word, I took the plate Kay offered to me. She must have misinterpreted my expression.
“You’ll find a job that’s the right fit, Chad, give it time.”
“Yeah, thanks,” I mumbled, feeling like an intruder at their family breakfast.
Kay squeezed my hand.
“You’re very welcome, we love having you here. Take all the time you need.”
I knew that. Kay swore I was no bother. It was nice to see my nieces again. I’d missed them while I was working with Dan, short-lived as that diversion had proven to be.
“Please do. Stay a while—stay forever. It’s been great having a live-in babysitter who is too guilty to refuse us or accept pay,” Brad joked.
“Whatever, man, my nieces are perfect angels. I enjoy hanging out with them,” I pulled Zoe into a side hug and she beamed up at me. The kids were a handful. Now that I wasn’t working most evenings, I loved having more time with them.
“I’m so glad you think so, brother dearest, because some friends invited Brad and I to a wedding out of town this weekend. We were hoping you would stay here with the kiddos while we go?”
“Sure, Kay, I’d love to watch your spawnlings all weekend.”
Sadie and Zoe giggled at me calling them spawnlings. They liked my humor. Kay flashed me a somewhat guilty expression.
“We’ll owe you, and we’ll leave pizza money and some cash in case you need anything while we’re away.”
“No problem, Kaybar, I’ve got this.”
“I’m sure you do, Chadrick.”
We stuck our tongues out at each other like we were kids ourselves. Sadie and Zoe giggled again. Brad shook his head at our antics, but he kissed my sister on the temple, his affection for her clear as day.
I didn’t mind giving my sister and her husband a break to go on dates. It gave me time to bond with the kids. If there was one certainty in my life anymore, it was that I loved being an uncle.
Time with Kay’s kids provided a welcome distraction from the mess I’d made of things. Much as I’d left to have my own space, being surrounded by family eased my heartache. Even if my stuff kept moving when I wasn’t looking. I figured it was just Kay tidying up around the house. Or the kids.
Although they all said they enjoyed having me, I couldn’t get past the sense I was taking advantage of my sister’s hospitality.
We didn’t talk much more that morning. Brad and Kay ate fast, then chivvied the kids into finishing their food. The house erupted into chaos as they gathered together the stuff they needed for a day at their various camps. By then they were running late, so the morning culminated in a mad rush out the door.
I stayed in my seat, trying not to get in the way.
I listened to the fading sounds of their voices as they piled into their van and drove away. They left me all alone facing another day in a house that loomed around me, huge and empty. A creaking noise upstairs distracted me, just the house settling.
Brad’s parents watched the kids between camp and the end of the workday. Kay and Brad spent long hours at their restaurant. They went in early and stayed late. So I’d gotten used to all the sounds the empty house made.
So far, I’d spent the long lonely days putting out job applications and browsing apartment listings. I should be worrying about my stagnating bank balance.
Instead, the gnawing concern that kept me awake at night had nothing to do with my finances. Or even the sudden revelation that ghosts were real, and potentially dangerous. No, my concerns were more vapid and mundane. I was moping about a boy.
I couldn’t get my mind off the fact I seemed more underfoot in Kay’s spacious suburban mini-mansion surrounded by family, than sharing a tiny van with Daniel. He saw me as useful and competent.
More than that, we’d forged a connection I’d never experienced with anyone else. I missed him. Missed the routine we’d fallen into together, the work we’d done. I even missed the cozy quiet of living in Vanessa.
I stood to go adjust the thermostat on the living room wall above the bookshelf. I took care not to knock Mom’s urn from its pride of place among the family photos Kay kept on the top of the shelving unit.
The house was always colder without the family present. I’d taken to wearing sweaters against the chill.
As Dan’s assistant, each day was a new adventure. It was a far cry from the staid routine I’d made for myself up to now. Daniel’s world didn’t have stability, but I was thinking that stability might be overrated.
Would it be so terrible to cut loose, be like Dan, and live a little? Act like a twenty-something pursuing my dreams instead of letting life pass me by.
Besides, Daniel needed someone to keep him from taking giant needless risks. If he planned to face down angry ghosts, I didn’t want him to be doing it alone.
His problem was that he didn’t think about taking precautions. Sure, I enjoyed his spontaneity as a fan of his show, but as someone who cared about him, it worried me.
I wanted to be with him. But I’d seen this weekend’s webisode. The Goodman Dairy Haunted History. He’d postponed the weekly live chat and posted an announcement that I’d quit. I had enough self preservation not to read any of the posts bashing me for leaving him in a lurch and lumping me in with all his other failed PAs.
Part of me wanted a clean break. I even considered deleting my Redherring99 account. With no income, I’d have to cancel my monthly support for the channel.
I didn’t want to though. I wanted to go back to Daniel. Figure out a way forward with him. If only it wasn’t already too late.
FORTY-FIVE
Dan
I needed a distraction from feeling lonely and sorry for myself. So I posted that I was doing a livestream to answer fan questions in a few hours. I’d skipped last week’s scheduled live chat and postponed the one I should have done last night when the latest Hauntastic Haunts video aired.
It was a Sunday evening, so I expected low turnout. Even though some of my fans were clamoring to know what was up with me after I hadn’t been able to gather the motivation to do two live chats in a row now.
It had been eleven days since Chad left now. Not that I was keeping track.
I lost myself in the final edits the Goodman family had requested. The affair was fine, Frank’s violent jealousy could stand as a matter of historical record. Any hint Frank’s suicide had covered up a homicide had to go.
That meant cutting and editing the amazing footage Chad and I had captured on our final day together. I cut the footage with a voiceover track to suggest that Frank had killed himself because he imagined his brother-in-law was trying to steal his life.
I implied he’d lost all hope of recovering with the farm failing around him and an unfaithful wife. Defeated, Frank gave up. It was his jealousy of Elmer that had held him here.
That might even be the truth. From what I’d uncovered, Elmer was the more sympathetic character in the story. It wasn’t impossible that Frank’s jealousy had driven events rather than Elmer taking matters into his own hands.
So, despite my personal attachment to the last scene Chad had filmed, I edited and cut and erased any hint of a smear on the Goodman name. Then I sent the altered file to Lara and Jane with a request to get back to me ASAP.
The first videos had garnered a positive reception so far. Leon’s story and Chad’s flashback scene came out great. I’d gotten an unprecedented number of requests for the next haunting video to drop.
Loads of comments appeared on the actual video. Some new subscribers. A few messages from my patrons begged to know what I’d found and asked about Chad’s sudden depa
rture from Hauntastic Haunts.
My fans liked him as much as I’d expected them to. It had sucked to announce he’d quit. In all likelihood I would receive questions about him in my live AMA in a few minutes.
It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment, as I was logging in to start the live feed, that I’d have to field questions about him. And pretend my heart wasn’t breaking. Too late to change that now.
“Hello, hello, to my crew, how is everyone?” I paused as responses scrolled past.
“Glad to hear most of you are doing well. Sorry to hear about your dog, Raf, I hope she’s recovering from the surgery.”
RadRaf: The prognosis looks good, I swear that dog would eat anything.
“Yeah, good thing you caught it so fast, magnets are nothing to mess around with.”
Drew has logged on.
Drew: Sorry, I’m late what did I miss?
“Oh, hey, Drew, glad you made it, I meant to message you, if I don’t get back to you tonight, send me a reminder?”
Drew: Will do. How’s the new PA working out?
I’d already ignored a barrage of messages in the chat asking about Chad.
No putting off the bad news then, I sighed.
“Seems that some of you missed my announcement. As you can see, I’m down a PA. Again. Chad had to move on to other career opportunities. He’s fine. I know the teaser I put out mentioned a serious injury on our set, but it wasn’t Chad. His absence is unrelated.”
BriBri: Aw, what happened? You two were so cute together.
I resisted the urge to facepalm at her continued interest in my love life. “How many times do I have to tell you, it wouldn’t be right for me to get involved with my assistant? Have you seen Vanessa? We live in close quarters. A relationship would be impossible with us living and working together like that.”
If nothing else, my fling with Chad had proven that beyond any doubt.
BriBri: Then why so sad?
