Ghost town, p.5
Ghost Town, page 5
Mm-hmm. That’s why you knew right away that I was talking about Leif.
That’s not—anyways. Things are strange here. I’ll update as soon as we have more information. Abe and Blair out!
Blair smelled smoke at around eleven p.m.
Abe was still awake and fully dressed, reading one of the many novels he’d brought on the trip by the light of a lantern, while Gen snored softly in her sleeping bag. Blair had been trying to sleep, right up until she had smelled the smoke.
“I’m going to check and make sure nothing’s on fire,” Blair said, running her hands through her frizzy hair to try to tame it a little bit. Gen groaned and turned over, clearly not interested in investigating with her. She’d spent most of the trip in the tent so far, claiming motion sickness, though Blair kind of suspected that she just didn’t want to help with any setup.
“Okay,” Abe said, as he placed his novel down, the pages splayed open and spine up. “I’ll come with you. I’m not much of a firefighter, though.”
Blair smiled at him. She unzipped the tent. The air was cool now that the sun had gone down, but that was almost a relief after the exhausting heat of the day. Through the trees she saw the flickering of flames.
She walked toward the fire and was surprised to hear laughter and chatting.
Someone had lit a fire in the old fire pit in the clearing, and a bunch of their fellow paranormal investigators were sitting around it.
Blair felt a little bit left out, the feeling like a mini punch to the gut. It looked like everyone was there except for her, Abe, and Gen. RTS, Jessica, and Ivan. Leif and her two friends. Even Psychic Rose was there.
Why hadn’t they been invited?
She was just dithering over whether to join them or head back to the tent when Abe came up beside her.
“Oh! A bonfire,” he said. “Let’s go, B!”
He strode forward into the clearing and Blair followed behind. Guess that made her decision for her. The excitement in his voice was contagious, and she suddenly felt a little bit silly for feeling left out. She was an adult. If she wanted to join them, she just had to do it. This wasn’t like her siblings blocking her out of their plans like they had been for the past few years. Or her old friends abandoning her after the humiliation that had happened at church all those years ago. She was sure that they’d just thought that she and her friends were asleep. It wasn’t malicious. At least she hoped not.
“What’s up, fellow teens?” Abe asked, as he turned his baseball cap backward and sat down on a log beside Leif.
Leif smiled at him, seemingly genuinely happy to see him. But she didn’t even spare Blair a second glance. That was fine. Blair didn’t want to sit near her anyways.
“Why, aren’t you a flatterer,” Rose said. She gave him a wink, and he laughed.
“Always.” Abe winked back at her. “How’s everyone doing tonight?”
Blair decided to sit on the other side of the fire, plopping herself down between Jessica and Shae, who both greeted her with friendly waves and hellos.
“Good,” Leif’s friend Rachel said. “We didn’t wake you guys up, did we?”
“Nah,” Blair said, warming her hands by the fire. “We were still awake.”
“Oh! We would have invited you if we’d known you were still up,” Tammy said. “You want some marshmallows? You can use my stick to toast them.”
Blair happily accepted, gratified to find that she’d been right. Abe shook his head at the offer. “I’m okay, thanks. Wish that my boyfriend was here. He loves marshmallows.”
No one so much as blinked when Abe said boyfriend, and Blair felt something that she hadn’t even known was tense loosen up inside her. Everyone was accepting here. It felt strange. She always assumed that people would judge. But most people weren’t like her parents. She had to remember that.
“But he’d probably be bored to tears by the rest of this trip. Gabe doesn’t really understand the ghost hunting,” Abe said. His smile when he talked about Gabriel was so cute it made Blair smile too. “But he’s supportive. He’s always asking me how hunts went even if he doesn’t understand a word I’m saying. It’s sweet.”
“That’s so cute!” Rhonda said.
“Wait, you guys are Abe and Gabe?” Leif asked incredulously. Blair was about to bristle, when she added, “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah,” Leif’s other friend said. Blair was pretty sure his name was Johnny. “That’s a dope combo. Too bad you’re gay, Leif. You could have found a guy named Keith.”
Blair found herself blinking in surprise. Leif was gay too? She shouldn’t be surprised. Statistically she and Abe weren’t likely to be the only queer people in the circle. Still, she hadn’t really considered that Leif might be gay as well.
Leif swatted at him. “Thank God I’m gay, you mean.”
“Amen,” Abe said, raising a fake drink to cheers her with.
“So how did you get into ghost hunting, dear?” Rose asked Abe. She took a bag of chips from Johnny with a nod. “If your boyfriend isn’t interested.”
Blair tuned into their conversation as other people began their own chats around the circle. She was more interested in learning about how people got into ghost hunting than she was in whatever Ivan, Tammy, and Johnny were chatting about. Besides, she knew that Abe’s story involved her.
“Oh, through Blair,” he said. “We met at the 2SLGBTQIA club on campus at Lambria U. Then we ran into each other again at the Paranormal Club. She was itching to go hunting, and when she asked the group if anyone else wanted to go with her, my hand was up before she even finished asking.”
Blair smiled at the fond memory. Abe had been the only one who’d actually wanted to go out and hunt. And she was so glad, since now he was one of her closest friends. “How about you, Rose?” Blair asked. “How’d you get into paranormal investigation?”
“I started ghost hunting for my grandson, Toby,” Rose said. She passed the chip bag to Leif with a kind smile and then looked back over to Blair. “He loves ghosts. And with my abilities I knew I’d be able to help poor trapped souls in need.”
“Toby sounds like a cool kid,” Leif said. She didn’t acknowledge the whole trapped souls thing at all. Blair could have laughed, but she made a point to press her lips together. Leif didn’t get to make her laugh. Anyways, she agreed that Toby sounded like a good kid, not that she’d ever admit to agreeing with Leif on anything.
“Oh yes, he really is. Toby was interested in Hot Wheels and ghosts when he was little. Now he’s interested in Star Wars and ghosts. The ghosts never change.” Rose laughed. “My daughter, Shannon, works a lot, so Toby stays with me most days. He was so excited when he heard I’d been invited to Masonville. He’d have been even more excited if he’d known that all of his favorite ghost hunters were here too.”
“Aw,” Abe said. “That’s cute. Maybe we can all do a meet-up that’s actually planned one day, and you can bring him.”
“That sounds lovely, dear,” Rose said. Her smile was contagious.
“I got into ghost hunting through my research into the paranormal task force that the police have,” Johnny chipped in.
Blair almost laughed before she realized that he was being serious.
Across the fire from her, Leif groaned. “Not this again,” she said.
“It’s real!” Johnny insisted. “There have been multiple reports of weird things being swept under the rug by a team of highly trained agents.”
“If they’re so highly trained, why are there any reports of them?” Rhonda asked.
“I…don’t actually know. Maybe they’re trying to recruit. Anyways, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that they exist. How come you are all so quick to believe in ghosts but won’t believe that there’s some sort of government group studying them, huh?”
Blair giggled then, unable to stop herself. “Sorry. It’s just, I’d need to see actual proof in order to believe that. At least I’ve gathered real evidence to prove that the paranormal is plausible.”
“You’re the only one with proof, then?” Leif snapped at her.
Blair glared at Leif. “I didn’t say that,” she snapped back.
“Whoa, okay, ladies, let’s simmer down a little,” Johnny said.
“No one asked you,” Leif said to him, never taking her eyes off Blair. Well, at least they both had getting annoyed by being told to calm down in common.
“Well, I think I’m going to call it a night. Lots of video to go through,” Jessica said, standing up from the fire and breaking the tension. “See you all in the morning!”
“Agatha Christie,” Rachel murmured. Blair’s eyes snapped to her. Why did she say the name of a famous author out of nowhere? That was odd.
“Pardon?” Jessica said, stopping to look at her.
Rachel shook her head. “Sorry, it’s just that this whole thing is a big mystery But there aren’t thirteen of us. And obviously no one is going to die.”
Jessica was looking at her like she had two heads when Leif broke in. “She’s a big mystery fan. You know, And Then There Were None?”
Blair did a quick mental count of the people around the circle. They were two shy of thirteen.
“It’s my favorite,” Rachel said, sheepish now. “Anyways. Good night!”
“Right. Good night,” Jessica replied, obviously weirded out by the ominous prediction of her death. Blair didn’t blame her, but at the same time she felt for Rachel. A lot of people thought that Blair was weird for her interests too. She’d gotten looks like the one Jessica had just given Rachel many times before.
A chorus of good nights followed Jessica as she walked back toward the manor. Ivan hopped up and followed, waving at them cheerfully. Blair liked them. They were friendly, if a little shy. Unlike Leif, who’d been acting cold toward her all day. She planned on being extra friendly to her from now on, just to piss her off. Kill ’em with kindness, as her aunt always said.
As soon as Jessica and Ivan were gone, Rhonda, Tammy, and Shae moved in to close the circle.
“Hey,” Tammy said. “We didn’t get much of a chance to talk earlier.”
“Hi,” Blair said cheerfully. “How did the three of you get into ghost hunting?”
“Well, Rhonda and I grew up hearing our mom’s ghost stories,” Tammy said. She grinned, the firelight flickering against her features. “And when Rhonda and Shae met at school, we all started hanging out.”
One thing led to another, Shae said as she signed, and we ended up hunting ghosts.
“How did you get into ghosts?” Leif asked Shae.
I’m Irish, Shae said with a shrug. I heard a banshee when I was young. Before I lost my hearing. Right before my uncle died.
“That’s messed up,” Johnny said. “Sorry about your uncle.”
Blair wasn’t sure she believed in banshees, but she wasn’t going to start a debate right now. Especially since Shae had been so open to sharing that her uncle had died.
Leif leaned forward. “What did it sound like?”
Shae thought for a moment, before signing, Loud.
They talked about their own ghostly experiences for a while, and Blair was surprised to hear just how many there were. She wanted desperately to interview each of the people around the fire about what they’d seen or heard. But before long Abe yawned loudly and stretched.
“This has been fun,” Abe said. “But I think this old man needs to get to bed.”
Blair looked around the fire at the faces of her fellow ghost hunters, and for a moment her heart felt warm. This whole situation was strange, sure, but these were good people. It was great to get to know them.
“I’ll come with you,” Blair said. She stood and wiped a fleck of soot off her pajama pants. “Good night, all.”
As they walked back to the tent, Abe threw his arm around her.
“This is fun, right?” he said.
She grinned at him, though he likely couldn’t see it in the dark.
“Yeah,” she said. “I think this is going to be a great trip despite everything.”
Chapter Four
Video Recording Tape 4
(camera sweeps over the Hastings Manor dining room table covered in sheets of paper and file folders)
We have to figure out what’s going on here. It’s literally life or death.
Let’s go over what we know again, for the camera.
All right. Here we go.
July 13, Masonville
Leif woke up in a great mood. She’d slept just fine, death room—sorry, fox room—and all, and she was beyond ready to investigate Masonville. But first, she wanted to investigate the sound of talking that was coming through the window. She crossed the room to peek outside and grinned. Shae, Rhonda, Tammy, Rachel, and Abe were all outside chatting.
She quickly pulled on her clothes, a black tattered T-shirt with a Ouija board on it and a pair of pink shorts, and checked her hair in the mirror. She ran her fingers through it and figured that was good enough.
Despite her initial annoyance at this whole situation, Leif was actually looking forward to getting to know the rest of the ghost hunters.
“Shae is a digital marketing manager at Thistledown Ltd.,” Rhonda was saying as Leif approached, sounding so proud that it made Leif smile. She wasn’t sure if the two of them were friends or if they were together, but either way they were cute.
“Very neat,” Abe said. “I’m a librarian slash part-time student, so sometimes I dabble in a bit of marketing for the library, but I bet you’re quite the expert.”
I could give you some tips, Shae said. She signed along with everything she said. Leif promised herself that she’d learn sign language someday. It had always been on her radar, she just sucked at following through.
“I’d love that!” Abe said. Then he caught sight of Leif and grinned. “Good morning, camper,” he said. “How was your sleep?”
“Great. Not a single haunting. How about the rest of you?”
“Slept like a baby,” Tammy said. Rhonda and Shae nodded in agreement.
“The tent was cozy, but the snoring kept me up a bit,” Abe said.
“Leif snores too,” Rachel said, like a traitor. “That’s why—” She stopped and looked up the long driveway at the sound of a vehicle approaching.
“Oh, boy,” Abe said. “Looks like we have company.”
The truck that pulled up was about the size of a small U-Haul, but without any fun pictures on it. It was painted white, but the paint was peeling and yellowed, and there was rust on the wheel wells.
“Who the hell is that?” Rhonda said.
A ripple of unease swept through the five of them.
“Another ghost hunter?” Abe guessed.
Shae signed something to Rhonda, who signed back as she spoke. Abe thinks it could be another ghost hunter.
Shae eyed the truck mistrustfully and shook her head. No, she said and signed, I don’t think so.
A man in overalls stepped out of the driver’s side door and moved around to the back. He didn’t look over at them at all.
“Hello!” Abe greeted, only to be met with silence as the man opened the truck. When he turned to face them, he was holding a box. “Um, I’m Abe. Nice to meet you?”
The man with the box walked toward them, his eyes gazing past them like he was dazed. He placed the box down in front of Leif with a loud thunk. Leif took a step back, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.
“What the hell, man,” she said.
The man smiled, a cold, empty smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Something about him was wrong.
“Food,” he said. Then he turned and walked back to the truck.
“Wait,” Rhonda called after him. “Do you know what’s going on? Why are we all here?”
The man climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the key. The truck roared to life, and he pulled away back down the empty street.
He hadn’t even closed the back of the truck up.
“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Abe muttered.
Leif laughed, a short disbelieving sound. “What the actual fuck?”
“I didn’t like that at all,” Rachel said. She eyed the box warily.
“Should we see what’s in there?” Rhonda asked.
Abe nodded, and bent down to open the box. He was slow and cautious, as though it might be filled to the brim with rattlesnakes. Leif couldn’t blame him. A creepy guy like that could have given them anything.
“Well, it is food,” Abe said. He rummaged through the box, a look of confusion on his face. “But it’s a little odd. Like here, microwave popcorn? And a bunch of bananas. Rice, but I don’t recall seeing any pans or rice cookers or anything in the manor y’all are staying in. Crackers. Some canned soup. And a whole head of lettuce…”
“Is that a bag of ice?” Leif asked, peering over him into the box.
“Yup. One bag of ice, no cooler in sight. Might come in handy, though, since there’s no water. Were the pipes working in the manor?”
“I’ll check,” Rachel volunteered. She clearly wanted to be as far away from the creepy box as possible.
Shae signed and said, I’ll come with you.
“Yeah, I’ll come too,” Rhonda said. The three of them quickly made their way back inside, talking quietly together.
“I guess we won’t starve, but I can’t say I’m thrilled to live off of bananas and lettuce,” Abe said. “Though we could probably pop the popcorn over another fire tonight.”
“Yeah. First every ghost hunter and their brother are invited, and now this weird food. It’s kinda freaking me out,” Leif admitted.
“Me too,” Abe said. “I don’t like this.”
They stood together, looking at the food in silence. Abe’s forehead was creased with worry. Leif felt anxiety gnawing at her, but she shook her head trying to dispel it. This was a great opportunity. She was in Masonville, for goodness’ sake! It was a ghost hunter’s dream. She should be planning what to film next, not worrying about some weird food.
