“What is it?” Kane asked.
I explained my reservations.
“That’s all right,” Mike said as he stepped forward. He held his ghost-o-meter. As soon as he went past me, his gadget started to flare up with lights. “It looks like this place is packed with spirit activity.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” I said.
“Why?” Mike asked.
“Because I can’t see a ghost in sight.”
Just then Rebecca showed up.
“Charles and Rochelle decided to keep their distance. At least until I tell them it’s safe to enter,” she said.
“Good. Because there’s something very strange going on here.”
“Are you talking to me?” Jacob asked. Rebeca was right next to him.
“No. Rebecca is here. At least I can see her, so I know I’m not going crazy.” Then I turned to Rebecca. “Do you see any ghosts?”
She looked around the place. “No. All I see is this strange mist all around the place. Are you telling me it’s not visible in the physical?”
“Nope.”
“That’s strange,” Rebecca said. “I guess the cabal is on a different frequency than you and I.”
“Are you just going to stand there?” Sheila asked. “I thought you were going to do something about my problem.”
On that note, the rest of the ghost hunters got in and closed the door behind them. Chloe was the last to come inside. I immediately went to her side and asked her if she sensed anything in the air.
“Nothing good,” she said. “It’s an oppressing energy. It’s hard to describe but it feels a bit like we’re trapped in a spider’s web.”
“That’s an interesting way to put it,” I said.
“Interesting?” Rachel said. “More like terrifying. It feels like we’re in a freezer.” Rachel rummaged around in her bag until she located the holy water. “Maybe I should try spraying some of this around?”
“Let’s not antagonize them just yet,” I said. Though I had a feeling the holy water wasn’t going to do the trick.
We walked down the large hall. Sheila led the way. “Do you want to go to the basement now? I’ve got the keys.”
“No,” Chloe was quick to say.
“Yeah, let’s just set up everything first,” I said. “How about the room with the fireplace?”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Rachel said. “Either that, or I’ll need a blanket.”
“I have extra jackets in the closet somewhere if any of you need them. We usually save those for the winter…”
“Winter is here,” Jacob said. “Even my lens is getting all fogged up.”
Once we were in the fireplace room, the lack of fire became very evident.
“I’m sorry about this,” Sheila said. “I keep relighting it and it keeps going out.”
“Interesting,” Mike said. He obviously had something on his mind. “Do you mind if I try relighting it?”
“Not at all,” Sheila said. “There are some old newspapers right there.”
While Mike and Jacob worked on restarting the fire, Kane, Rebecca and I took a little walk around the inn. To say that it felt eerie would be an understatement.
Sheila followed after us.
“Are there any other people here?” I asked Sheila.
“They all left. The police warned them that my inn wasn’t a ‘safe’ place. A few ignored the warnings, but after the chill took over, they left as well. We’re completely empty right now.”
“That’s good,” I said.
“Not for business, but I see your point.”
“Yeah, I meant because of all the spirit activity here. Though I wish I could see them.”
Sheila left us then. Something about checking up on the generator.
I turned toward Rebecca. “Anything?” I asked her.
“No. Just the white mist. Though its thicker in some areas than others.”
“What’s the game plan here?” Kane asked. “What can you do if you can’t see them?”
“That’s why Chloe is here. Though I doubt she’s looking forward to going back to that blackness. To be honest, neither am I.”
“Do you really think that’s the best idea? Didn’t you barely escape a monster the last time you did that?”
“Yeah, but this time we’ll try it a bit differently,” I said. “We’ll be in a salt circle while we do it.”
Kane looked doubtful. “I don’t know. I’ve seen salt circles being blown away by powerful spirits.”
“That’s why you, Rachel, and the others will keep an eye out for that kind of stuff. And if it looks like either Chloe or I are in great distress, you guys can snap us out of it.”
“Are you sure we should be heading that way right now?” Rebecca asked me.
“What do you mean?”
“You guys are headed toward the basement.”
As soon as Rebecca said that, I snapped out of it and realized that she was right.
“Let’s go back to where the others are,” I said to Kane. “I don’t want to be down there right now.”
Kane looked around with a confused expression on his face. “How did we get here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I only realized what we were doing when Rebecca pointed it out. There’s something strange going on here. There’s something here that wants us down there, and I don’t like it one bit.”
“You just stole my line,” Kane said. “Now let’s get back to the others. Suddenly I’m a lot more creeped out than I already was, and I didn’t think that was even possible.”
Just as we turned to go, the lights turned on and the whole place was flooded with light. It was actually kind of blinding since my eyes had gotten used to the darkness.
And just as quickly as they came on, they turned off and plunged us into darkness again.
We hurried back to the fireplace room. To my surprise, there was a fire burning in the fireplace.
I put my hands to the fire to warm them up, even though I was well aware that the cold had a supernatural origin.
“Are you guys picking anything up on your equipment?” I asked Mike and Jacob.
“I’m getting a lot of readings,” Mike said. “We’ll have to see what they’re saying later.”
“If there is a later,” Chloe said. “For any of us.”
“Chloe, don’t be so morbid,” Rachel said. Then she turned to me. “Did you guys find anything? Did you run into any ghosts?”
“No, but I suggest that we stay here, together. Kane and I almost went down to the basement without even realizing it.”
“Maybe I should put a salt circle around us now?” Rachel offered. “I brought plenty.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea,” I said. “But first we have to wait for Sheila to return.”
“I hope it’s soon,” Rachel said. “Because what you guys just said is like something out of a horror movie.”
Mike laughed. “We’re ghost hunters, Rachel.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Rachel said and rolled her eyes.
We heard a noise then. It sounded like a thump, like something hitting the floor hard.
“Not it,” Rachel said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Me neither,” Chloe agreed.
“I’ll go,” Kane said.
“I’m coming with,” I said as if it needed to be said.
“I’ll go as well,” Rebecca said, stating the obvious.
Nobody else volunteered so we went in search of the sound.
“Sheila,” I whispered. “Sheila, where are you?”
“I don’t think whispering will do the trick,” Rebecca said. “Isn’t she supposed to hear you for that to work? Either way, if you would just let me go ahead…”
“Not a chance,” I said. “You saw what they did to Charles that one time.”
“Yeah, but I was in the basement with you guys and I’m still here. They’re not interested in me. They seem more interested in you if I
’m to be honest.”
“Fine, you can go ahead. But do not, I repeat, do not stray too far. I don’t want to find myself in the basement zoned out while you’re out and about having fun.”
“Yeah, fun. That’s an excellent description for this place. And don’t worry, I won’t be too far away.”
As soon as Rebecca left us, we heard another noise. It sounded a lot closer this time. We turned a corner and saw an open door.
“Sheila? Is that you?” I asked again, a bit louder this time.
The door creaked open like they usually do in those horror movies. Kane and I held each other as we waited for whatever was behind that door to reveal itself.
Sheila came into view with her hands packed with candles of various sizes.
“I thought we could use these if the fire goes out again,” she said. “The generator is busted. I’ll have to call someone in the morning to fix it.”
“I don’t think it’s the generator,” I said. “Come on, I’ll help you with those. We need to get back to the others.”
Kane took some of the candles and boxes of matches as well.
Now the only problem was that Rebecca was nowhere to be seen.
“I wonder where she could be?” I said.
Then I saw her floating down the stairs.
“Sorry,” she said. “I thought I heard something upstairs. I see you’ve found Sheila and she looks very much alive.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Let’s get out of here. Lead the way, Rebecca.”
We, or rather I, followed Rebecca back to the others. It was a good thing I had her (and not to mention the flashlight feature on my phone) because when we came to where the others were, they were in complete darkness, quivering.
“What happened?” I said as I shined a light on each of them in turn. They all seemed to be in one piece, thankfully.
“The fire went out. Then our flashlights went out,” Rachel said in quick succession. “And then there was something in the darkness. We all felt it…”
“Well, I’ve got good news. We brought candles with us.”
Sheila, Kane, and I worked together and lit as many candles as we could. Pretty soon the whole room was back to normal, or as normal as it was about to get on a night like this.
Once it was all lit up, I noticed that there was already a salt circle in the room. It surrounded Mike, Jacob, Chloe, and Rachel.
“What’s all this?” I asked.
“Sorry,” Rachel said. “I was going to wait for you guys but then we felt something and I panicked and well, as soon as I laid the salt circle, it was gone.”
“Good. You did nothing wrong.”
Pretty soon, we were all in the confines of the salt circle.
“I want to leave,” Chloe said. “I want to leave right now.”
“But you promised to help me,” Sheila said to me. “I said I was going to pay you.”
“Don’t worry, Sheila, I’m not going anywhere. But if Chloe or the others don’t feel comfortable being here, they’re free to leave.”
“I’m sorry,” Mike said. “But while you guys were gone we agreed that it might be better if we came back here during the day. We’ve never really dealt with something like this, and well, you hear those horror stories. Let’s just say that we prefer hunting ghosts, not becoming ghosts, if you know what I mean. I’m sorry again.”
“It’s perfectly fine,” I said. It wasn’t totally unexpected. Few people could really handle the supernatural when it became this real. In the light of day, everyone could be a hero. The night was a different thing.
“I’ll leave my stuff here in case you need it,” Rachel said. “And we’ll come back sometime in the morning.”
“I’ll leave some of the recording equipment,” Jacob said. “Maybe it captures something worth knowing.”
They packed up the things they didn’t want to leave behind and Kane and I escorted them to the front door.
“I’m sorry,” Chloe said. “I know you needed me here tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Maybe I can get to know this place better tonight and then tomorrow we won’t be going in quite as blind.”
She gave me a weak smile before turning away and following the others to the front door.
Jacob tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge.
“Did you unlock it?” Mike asked.
“I did! I’m not a fool, you know,” Jacob said.
“Let me try,” Mike said, stepping forward.
The door wouldn’t budge for him either.
Next up was Kane, with the same result.
Sheila came up behind us and offered to try her key, but she couldn’t even get it in the lock before she felt a slight shock.
“What’s going on here?” Chloe asked. “Why can’t we leave?”
“It looks like something doesn’t want you to leave this house,” I said.
After I said that, naturally all hell broke loose.
Twenty-One
“Guys, you need to calm down. Kane and I have been through this before, and you’re only making this worse for yourselves.”
They tried everything but there was no way out of the inn.
“I don’t want to die like this,” Chloe whimpered.
“Chloe, you won’t die here, I promise you that,” I said, trying to reassure her.
But she wouldn’t hear it. “Three people have already died here,” she reminded me. “I’m next. I can feel it.”
“If anyone’s going to be the next, it’s probably going to be me,” I said. “It was my name those evil spirits were saying on the recordings, remember?”
That did it. Chloe immediately felt a bit better. As for me? Well, let’s just say I tried not to think about it.
“Let’s go back to the salt circle,” I said to the ghost hunters. “It’s the safest spot in this whole place.”
And that’s what we did, with Sheila in tow of course. Rebeca stayed outside the circle because as a ghost, she couldn’t cross it.
“I’ll keep an eye out for the bad guys,” she said.
I thanked her and then turned my attention to more pressing matters. Like how we were going to get out of this mess. Then I had an idea.
“Is your equipment there still recording everything?” I asked Mike.
“Sure is,” he said. “Though I’m not looking forward to hearing my own screams played back to me.”
It was true. Each of the ghost hunters had kind of lost it when they had realized that there was no way out. Sheila, on the other hand, was calm. She just apologized to us for the inconvenience like we were customers of hers. I guess this being her home and place of work, it didn’t really seem like a tragedy if she couldn’t leave it right this moment.
Rachel held the jar full of holy water close. “Tell me if you see anything,” she said to me. “As soon as you do, I’ll throw this at them.”
“Does it have any salt in it? Then it might actually work,” I said.
“Not sure how they make it,” Rachel said. “It’s never been a huge interest of mine. Though I did find some recipes online that did involve blessing salt and water and mixing them together. So hopefully?”
It didn’t take long before we grew bored of waiting around.
“Do you think this will all be over when the sun comes up?” Jacob asked me.
“Um, maybe?” I said. I didn’t want to give them false hope. “But while we’re already here, maybe Chloe and I can take a look around and see if we can’t figure out who exactly is doing all of this.”
Chloe scooted further away from me. “I don’t know, Meredith. Do you really think that’s the best idea right now?”
“Yeah, I kind of agree with Chloe,” Rachel said. “Maybe we should just wait it out?”
“The problem with that is that all of this might not be over once the sun comes up,” I said. “We’re not dealing with vampires here, we’re dealing with ghosts. And if they’re powerful enough, they can do whatever they w
ant, no matter what time of day it is.”
“Wait,” Jacob said. “Are vampires a thing?”
“Not as far as I know,” I said.
“Good,” he said. “Because I’m barely used to the ghosts.”
“And you call yourself a ghost hunter?” Kane said.
“Well, that wasn’t my original plan. But these guys needed a cameraman and here I am now years later, still doing the same thing.”
“Oh please,” Rachel said. “You know you love it as much as the rest of us.”
“Well, I did until this particular case,” he admitted.
“Yeah, we’ve never come upon spirits strong enough to do all of this,” Mike said. Then he turned to me. “How do you deal with this?”
“Well, this is new territory for me as well,” I admitted. “At least before I could see the ghosts that were doing things like this but now I’m flying blind.”
“So you’re kind of like us now?” Rachel said. “That’s sad.”
“It is,” I said. Then I turned to Chloe. “But Chloe here can help me see, if she’s willing that is.”
“Fine,” Chloe said. “But I’m not leaving this salt circle.”
“That’s fine by me,” I said. “Because I had no plans on leaving the salt circle either.”
“Is there something I can hold onto?” Chloe asked me.
I looked around the inn. “Just put your hands to the floor. It should be enough connection. I have a feeling that this whole place is teeming with spirits right now.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” Chloe said.
“Sorry, but I cannot tell a lie. You ready?”
“No, but I’m going to do it anyway,” she said.
“Remember guys, if it looks like we’re in trouble, just shake us awake or something. But try doing it gently at first, all right?”
“I’ll be right here,” Kane said and put a reassuring hand in mine.
Chloe closed her eyes and slowed down her breathing. Then she put both her hands to the ground. Immediately, I noticed that she was in a trance. Actually, it looked more like she was in a dream. I could see her eyes moving back and forth beneath her eyelids.
Ghostly Town (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 4) Page 14
