“We were thinking of something else,” Bobby said.
“Well, it’s probably too late to start something in the courthouse. What about the abandoned asylum?” I asked.
“That’s not in Coventry,” Chris interjected.
“I know,” I said. “It’s in the next town, but it’s close. I’m sure your viewers would love it.”
“We were actually hoping you’d let us do an investigation here,” Kurt said softly.
“No,” Remy said before I could answer. “I knew letting you guys in here was a mistake.”
“We aren’t trying to upset you,” Toto said. “I’ll even let you review any footage before we put it in the show.”
“You have to understand that this is one of the most fascinating locations in Coventry,” Chris said. “The history of this place is amazing.”
“Don’t,” Annika warned.
“Don’t what?” I asked.
“She doesn’t know,” Chris’s voice didn’t hide his shock. “She doesn’t know about the house.”
“I mean, I know it’s called Hangman’s House,” I said. “I guess I never really thought too much about why.”
“That’s weird,” Brody said as he came down the stairs. “I didn’t really think about looking into the house’s history either.”
I wondered if the witches of Coventry had used magic to keep me from looking into the history of the house, or perhaps Meri did. The again, with the way the house behaved, it could have been responsible for Brody’s and my complete lack of interest.
“You should know,” Kurt said. “You live here, after all.”
What they told me next was shocking, but it wasn’t surprising. Before Coventry was a town full of witches, it was a frontier village. Hangman’s House belonged to the first wealthy family in the area. The head of the household eventually became the mayor and the town judge because back then, people were pretty much left to run things the way they wanted out on the prairie. As long as what they did didn’t draw the attention of the magistrates in the larger cities, small hamlets like pre-colonial Coventry did things the way the wanted.
And at one point, what they wanted was witch trials. That year there had been a great deal of sickness and a lot of the crops had gone bad too.
One evening, the youngest son of the mayor had snuck out of his bedroom to go for a walk on their property. Some said he’d endured a belting that evening for having a smart mouth and was probably in a sour mood. He was looking to take his hurt and humiliation out on someone.
He found several someones as he skirted the edge of his father’s property near the woods. The boy heard laughter and saw a fire in the woods, and he was drawn to see what it was.
What he came upon was a small group of the town’s young, unmarried women dancing around a small fire in a clearing. They were drinking wine and singing.
Of course, the boy ran back to his father and reported that he’d seen the girls worshiping the devil in the woods. The mayor was more than willing to forgive his son for sneaking out given the information he’d found for his father.
The next day, a meeting was called at the church, and shortly after, the girls were all arrested. Their families were afraid to protest, and most of them ended up testifying against the girls.
The trials lasted less than a week, and the entire group was sentenced to hang. No one stepped in to prevent the executions, so all of the girls were hung the next Sunday afternoon right after church.
“And they call this Hangman’s House because the judge who sentenced them to hang lived here,” I said.
“Yes, and from what I’ve put together, the girls are buried across the street in the unmarked cemetery,” Chris said. “It’s mostly Tuttlesmith and Skeenbauer ancestors in the old part, but there are a few graves there that are much older.”
“Where did they hang?” I didn’t want to know, but the question was burning a hole in my mind.
“The tree out front,” Rachel said matter-of-factly.
The rest of the Ghost Seekers’ heads swiveled around. Kurt glared at her. I got the feeling they hadn’t wanted to tell me that part.
“Oh,” I said and turned to Remy and Annika. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“It wasn’t important,” Annika said. “I mean, of course it was an important part of history, but it’s not like they were real witches.”
“What do you mean by that?” Bobby asked.
“I mean that there have been numerous witch hunts and trials throughout history where innocent women died because people were scared of things they didn’t understand,” Annika said.
“And you?” I asked Brody. “This never came up?”
“It’s not his fault,” Remy said. “Most of that information is contained in the Coventry archives and a few rare books. It’s not exactly common knowledge.”
“But you guys know?” I asked the Ghost Seekers.
“We don’t have access to a small town’s private archives,” Kurt said, “but we do have access to something else. We’re able to get information most other people can’t or don’t want.”
“What do you mean?”
“What he means is that we get our information from the dark web,” Rachel said. “There are forums there where people can post and discuss real paranormal evidence. No one there accuses them of hoaxes or being crazy. We just investigate.”
“Sometimes we have to pay for information too,” Link added. “Some people have information or evidence you can only see if you pay.”
“That doesn’t sound like it would be very reliable,” Brody said.
“It’s not usually, but sometimes you get something good,” Kurt said. “Like the information on this house. We weren’t sure if it was true, but your friend confirmed it. That means there was another set of witch trials in this country.”
“There were probably even more than that,” Chris added. “The ones in Salem were only discovered because they affected people beyond just the village of Salem.”
“But if I let you investigate the house, then the information about the witch trials will get out,” I said. “The world will know.”
“Don’t you think it should?” Kurt asked.
I knew it was a decision I’d be making for the whole town. On one hand, I knew it would draw more investigators and possibly tourists to Coventry. On the other hand, Kurt was right. I felt like the world should know.
“All right, you can do an investigation on the property,” I said. “But if I catch anyone rifling through my underwear drawer, it’s over.”
Kurt clapped his hands together. “Yes! Thank you so much, Brighton. After we conduct our investigation here tonight, we can move on to the old cemetery tomorrow. This is going to be awesome.”
Later while they were setting up, Remy pulled me aside. “I thought you were supposed to be making things boring and getting them to leave.”
“Well, I’m not very good at stuff like that,” I said. “I assume that you and Annika will hang around and help me keep them in line?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Annika said from behind me.
The first place they wanted to investigate was the basement. Of course, I had a load of laundry going in the dryer and the Ghost Seekers just had to wait. Paranormal investigation or not, I wasn’t going to let my clothes mold in the dryer. I hated when I forgot them and had to rewash everything with vinegar.
While the dryer finished, Link and Bobby set up the lighting for the basement. Meri was down there watching everything going on, and I was glad. The Ghost Seekers didn’t know that there was the possibility that a demon might appear down there, but Meri would protect us.
It wasn’t something I had to worry about myself because any demons that wanted to come into the house that way needed a way in, but I had to wonder if having all of those people down there would be their way in. All of that energy and the Ghost Seekers calling out to entities. Had I made a mistake?
“What are you doin
g?” I asked when I noticed that Bobby was doing something in the middle of the basement floor.
He was setting up candles. Then he pulled out a piece of white chalk and started to draw a circle.
“It’s just for show,” Bobby said with a shrug as he drew a pentagram in the middle of the circle. “It’s not like we’re really going to try and summon any demons.”
That annoyed me a little because while it was possible to summon demons by forming a circle, goddess knew I’d done that recently, it was the only reason for casting one. I debated telling him that he was messing around with things he didn’t understand.
But that didn’t make sense either. Of course, they understood what they were doing. The Ghost Seekers were paranormal researchers. They probably knew more about the occult than I did. Bobby had to know that he was mocking witchcraft in a house where a man had murdered women for being witches. He was trying to antagonize the ghosts, or he really was trying to give something more sinister power.
“Hey,” Kurt said as he descended the basement stairs. “Seriously, Bobby? We talked about this before. We agreed as a group that we weren’t going to do any of this stuff anymore. It makes the show look like we’re going for cheap thrills, and you know that it’s disrespectful.”
“No, we didn’t agree. You agreed and everybody thought they had to go along with it,” Bobby said resentfully.
“You should have said something about it when we had the meeting, Bobby,” Kurt said. “This issue has already been decided.”
“I kinda agree with Bobby,” Rachel said.
I watched as Link and Toto sort of took a step back. They obviously didn’t want to be involved. Chris spoke up next.
“I’m not sure why you guys want to do this,” he said. “We know that messing around with the occult can have bad results. We said when we started this show we weren’t going to use cheap scare tactics or creative editing to fuel ratings. Then when things were slow, we fudged on that promise a little. And where did it get us?”
“It got us attacked,” Kurt responded.
“We weren’t attacked,” Bobby argued. “It’s not like a demon came out of the woodwork and started strangling us or something like that. You’re being dramatic.”
“What happened to us could have just been bad luck,” Rachel said. “It could have all been a coincidence.”
“We all know that none of that was a coincidence,” Kurt’s voice was just above a whisper.
“Hey, man, I’m with Kurt,” Link finally spoke up. “You know it was something more. It was bad. Think about Toto. He’d never had that sleep paralysis crap in his life, and how long did he have to suffer with that? Huh? Do you guys really want to put us in that position again? And what about you, Rachel? What about what you went through?”
“That wasn’t because of some entity,” she said.
“You know it was.” Kurt sounded upset. “You admitted it back then. You’re just rationalizing now.”
While they were arguing, I noticed that Meri had moved to the edge of the circle. He sat there with his tail swishing over the chalk circle Bobby had drawn. I could tell he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t.
“I’m going to run to the restroom while you guys figure this out,” I said and started up the basement steps.
Meri darted up after me and followed me until we were in the bathroom. I closed and locked the door behind us.
“I can’t stay up where long,” he said. “There’s something trying to come through down there. It’s feeding off their fighting.”
“Well, you have to get rid of it. I know you can,” I said.
“I can’t with them there. There’s a reason I never do it in front of you. It’s not because it’s some secret I don’t want you to know. It could harm you. It could harm them. You’ve got to get them to move out of the basement, and if they are going to do their little investigation down there, they have to do it without the circle and candles. They’re playing with fire.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Chapter Four
When I went back downstairs, things had gotten so tense that the Ghost Seekers weren’t talking anymore. Instead, they were standing there glaring at each other. You could have cut the tension around them with a knife.
“Hey, guys, why don’t we go outside and get some air,” I said. “We could go do an investigation around the tree. I’ll help.”
I didn’t really want to help them investigate the hanging tree, but if it got them out of the basement, it was worth it. I just hoped I didn’t anger the spirits of the women who died there too much as I still had to live in the house after the Ghost Seekers finally left.
“Nah. I’m outta here,” Bobby said before brushing past me and pounding up the stairs.
“I’ll go after him,” Rachel said after a few seconds of everyone standing around in stunned silence.
“I’m getting a little tired of you siding with him over me,” Kurt called after her.
“I’m doing it for the show,” she snapped back.
“You guys go upstairs,” Kurt said. “I’m going to clean up his mess.”
“I’ll help you,” I said, not wanting to leave him alone in the basement with a demon trying to come through the veil.
“Me too,” Remy said. “Let’s get it done.”
It only took a couple of minutes to sweep away the chalk drawing, but even in that short amount of time, the air had begun to go cold. The smell of sulfur tickled my nose, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Kurt got kind of a strange look on his face. I thought he was going to want to investigate what was happening.
“Let’s get upstairs and see how things are going,” he said.
It surprised me, but I wasn’t going to question it. The last thing I needed was the remaining Ghost Seekers filing down to my basement to catch a demon crossing the veil on film.
Kurt, Remy, and I all went upstairs while Meri stayed behind. I left the door open a crack for my familiar to escape once he’d worked his magic. I knew what he did could be loud, so I put up a spell to make any non-witches in the house ignore any sound that came from the basement. It was kind of like a ward against noise, and I hoped it worked.
Chris, Toto, and Link were in the living room with Annika and Brody. We all sat around a fire that Remy built. Meri was there shortly after. He curled up on the back of the sofa and took a snooze, so I guessed that his mission had been a success.
“Should we be worried that they haven’t come back yet?” I asked when Rachel and Bobby didn’t return for over an hour.
“I wouldn’t worry about them,” Toto said. “He gets himself all tied up in knots sometimes. They’ll be back.”
“I can’t believe he’s doing this now,” Kurt said. “We have one of the best opportunities in our careers, and he’s off throwing a fit.”
“I hate to bring it up,” Chris said, “but how many more times are we going to let him do this?”
“We’ve discussed this. I’m not ready to fire him,” Kurt said.
“You mean Rachel doesn’t want you to fire him,” Chris said. “I don’t know why that doesn’t bother you.”
“They’re friends,” Kurt said. “They were friends before she and I got together, and yeah, part of it is Rachel. I don’t want to upset her, and I don’t want to lose her from the show either.”
“She won’t quit,” Toto said. “Rachel won’t be happy, but she’s not going to quit. She needs this job.”
“We all need this job,” Link said.
“Yeah, and if we get canceled because of Bobby’s temper, it’s going to hurt us all,” Chris said. “You admitted yourself the last time we discussed this that the show would be better without him. He was great at first, but now we have to edit out so much of his unprofessional crap.”
“Let’s finish this season,” Kurt said. “His contract is up for renewal after this one, and that would make things far less messy.”
“Seems fair,
” Toto said.
“Yeah,” both Chris and Link agreed.
We sat around waiting for them to come back for a couple more hours. Kurt called Rachel at one point, and she said she had it under control. He seemed annoyed after that.
“I think we should leave and go get a room at the inn,” Kurt said to me. “We’re not going to be able to do an investigation tonight. There’s no point in keeping you up for this. Thank you for everything.”
“You can stay,” I said and then bit my tongue. A little too late. “I have enough room.”
“What?” Remy asked before any of the Ghost Seekers had a chance.
“You’ll get everything worked out and get the investigation done tomorrow,” I said. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
“I’m staying too,” Annika said. “Slumber party.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Kurt said.
“I know I don’t have to, but I’m offering,” I said.
“I guess it would be good to wait here for Bobby and Rachel,” Kurt said.
“Great. The spare rooms are upstairs. Let me show you.”
After I showed them their rooms, everybody went back downstairs to the living room to wait. We sat around talking for a while, but at some point, I must have drifted off.
When I woke up, dawn was breaking and it was just me and Meri on the sofa. I figured Annika was asleep in my room. At least I hoped that’s where she was and not in Brody’s room.
Remy wasn’t there, and I wondered if he’d gone home. I checked the kitchen for him first, but there wasn’t anyone there.
I thought about texting him, but I decided to check the driveway first. If his car was gone, that meant he’d gone home. I’d text him and ask him if he wanted to come back for breakfast before the investigation began.
There was a text from Thorn on my phone, and I realized he hadn’t come by the night before or called. Got caught up with some stuff. Love ya – that was the entire message.
Love you too – was what I messaged back.
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 40
