Felicia leads the way, still giggling to herself as she walks downstairs. As soon as we get to the bottom, Mason and Chuck are waiting at the door. "Jeez, what took you so long!" Chuck says teasingly as soon as we reach them. "Wow. Kayla, you look hot!" He says when his eyes find me.
I smile and start fiddling with the hem of my skirt, trying to pull it down so it doesn't show so much skin, but stop when Danny nudges me. I sneak a peak at Mason and I'm surprised to see him staring at me.
When our eyes meet he quickly looks away and mumbles "Yeah, you look good." Before grabbing the keys and heading for the door. "Come on, let's get going."
We all walk to the van and I make my way to the back when Danny grabs my arm and starts pointing to the front of the car. When I realise what she's telling me to do I shake my head furiously, no way am I sitting next to him again. But Felicia ends up climbing in quickly and shutting the door. Leaving me standing at the back looking through the window at Danny who won't stop mouthing "Go!"
I fold my arms and roll my eyes, feeling a little annoyed. I should never have let on that a might have a little crush on Mason. I jump as the hooter interrupts my sulking and walk to the front of the car.
As soon as I get in, I buckle up and look straight ahead, refusing to look at Mason. Chuck pokes his head between the two seats and gives me a big smile before looking to Mason. Oh God, I hope they haven't told him. "So, what's the plan, Boss?"
Mason doesn't look back at him while he starts the car and pulls out of the driveway. "First thing's first. We need to go back to the house and get the stuff. We'll transfer the data recorded onto a flash on the way to the diner and review everything there. Sound good?" "Aces."
Chuck replies and disappears again. After a rather quiet drive we finally pull up to the house. Everyone jumps out, wasting no time but I find myself rooted to the spot, just watching the house that was meant to be my home. My heart aches with loss and regret as I look up at the once beautiful house that's brought me nothing but bad memories, fear and pain.
I hear a click as someone opens the car door. I look to my left and realise that Mason's standing there, looking at me with concern in his eyes. "Are you okay?" He asks softly. Only then do I realize that my cheeks are wet with tears. I quickly wipe them away with the sleeve of my jacket and sniffle a little, trying to avoid his eyes.
"Yeah I'm fine. It's just..." "Hey." He says gently. "It's okay to not be okay, Kayla. I can tell you've been through a lot." His words bring tears to my eyes, because deep down I know I'm not okay. Between the move, the cheating and those creatures I can't explain, it's all just too much. I try holding back the tears, but fail miserably.
Luckily I don't have to say anything because he closes the door and walks over to where everyone is waiting in front of the van. I watch as he speaks to them and they all nod their head before he turns around and walks to the driver's side.
I look over to him as he gets in. "Where are we going?" He looks at me quickly before starting the car. "We're going to the diner, they're going to gather up all the stuff, go over it quickly and I'll fetch them afterwards." I look back at the house as we reverse, feeling a little relieved that I don't need to go back in there.
"Thank you." I say softly, not meeting his eyes. "No problem." Two minutes later we pull into a parking lot in front of a cute, old fashioned diner. We both get out and make our way towards the door. As we open the door, a little bell rings and a waitress dressed in a knee length orange dress with a white apron walks over to us with two brightly coloured menus in her hand.
As soon as she gets closer she squeals and wraps her arms around Mason. "Oh my goodness! It's been so long!" She slaps him playfully on the arm with one of the menus. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back!" Mason shrugs and shoves both of his hands in his pockets.
"I'm only home for a little bit, I'll be back on the road in a couple of days. I didn't want to let you know that I was coming back seeing as I'd only be here for a day or so. How's your sister doing?" He says with a smile.
"Oh Daphne? She's good! Such a shame you'll be leaving so soon, I'm sure she'd love to see you." She says with a wink before turning her attention to me.
"Hi, my names Katelynn! Ol' Mason and I used to go to school together. My, my, Mason, she is gorgeous! I'm glad you've found space for love in that big ol' brick of a heart!" She tells him, poking his chest with her perfectly manicured finger.
As soon as she says this my cheeks heat up and I open my mouth to correct her, but she doesn't give me a chance. "Oh look at me babbling on, wasting precious time! Take a seat in booth number three and I'll be right over to take your order."
With that, she spins on her heel, humming to herself softly as she bounces towards a yellow door marked "Staff Only". Mason leads me around the busy order counter to a small, private booth right at the back of the diner. The large, orange chairs on either side of the white rectangular table could easily fit eight people.
The booth is pressed up against a huge floor to ceiling window giving us the best view of the misty mountains and dark green trees outside. The rain starts up again, tapping lightly on the window next to us as we take our seats opposite one another. Mason slides a menu over to me and I open it up, pretending to read as I flip through the laminated pages.
A moment later Katelynn appears in front of the booth. "So, what'll it be." She asks, pen and paper in hand. I look to Mason, waiting for him to order first. "I'll have a double cappuccino with cream and the breakfast special." She nods and scribbles down his order before turning to me with a bright smile. "Great! And what can I get for the lady?"
"Uh.." I say, looking down at the menu. "I'll just have what he's having, thanks." "No prob! I'll be back in a sec!" She says in a sing song voice that reminds me of Danny before leaving us alone again. When I look away from her and back to Mason, I find him watching me with an odd expression on his face. He starts quietly tapping his fingers on the table and clears his throat before speaking. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened last night?"
"What do you mean?" I say, genuinely confused. He studies my face for a while before answering. "Last night, at the house? Why did you start screaming? Did the little girl speak to you? You said you saw her." The little girl? I try my best to remember but once again, it's like trying to build a puzzle without all the pieces.
"I don't remember much. It's all a little blurry to be honest. Was I screaming?" He nods. "What do you remember?" I think hard, trying my best to create a timeline of events. "I remember jumping the wall at my house, meeting you, Felicia, Chuck and Danny. I remember going back to the house, going upstairs to get a jacket, laying on something cold and wet then...nothing."
"Hmm...thats all?" I don't say anything, instead I just nod as I wait for him to tell me exactly what happened. "Well, I think you were attacked. When we got upstairs you said you saw Leah, the little girl. After I tried touching the spot where she was standing, you started screaming. I took you outside and you stopped screaming, but passed out."
"Oh." Is all I can say. Well, what else should I say? Sorry? He's supposed to be the experienced ghost hunter, he should have known that it was dangerous. What gets me, is knowing that I was attacked and for the first time I didn't remember it, or was it the first time? Maybe it's happened before and I just dont remember. I shudder at the thought, quickly shoving it aside as Mason speaks again.
"Kayla, what happened there? Yeah, I know it's haunted and it has a long history, but I can tell something else has happened, something you've been through has brought all this negative energy into the house and it's feeding whatever is there. I haven't been back here in a long time, but the last time I went to that house it wasn't as dark, and whatever's there was definitely not as powerful as it is now."
A lump forms in my throat and I try my best not to cry again as I prepare to tell him the whole story. The main experience that brought me the most pain and, now that I think about it, increased the activity in the home as well, is what I went through from the moment Mark left for that stupid exhibition. It's like after that, the deeper I went into my state of denial and depression, the more it was feeding off of that negativity, giving it the power to actually take over someone's body and mind.
I know he wouldn't be asking if he thought that the information wouldn't help us find out exactly what or who this thing is, so I just have to tell him. "So there was this guy, Mark. No, not just a guy, he was the guy. The one I was meant to marry, you know?" I shrug, giving him a sad smile.
"My friend Megan told me about this place selling for really cheap, and we didn't have a lot of money, but we wanted to move away from the city and start a new life together somewhere quiet. Somewhere safe where we could settle down and start a family. This town, that house, it all just seemed so perfect for us."
My stomach twists uncomfortably as my anger at his betrayal resurfaces. "Well, obviously, things didn't work out that way. He was an artist, so he went to the city for an exhibition. He said he'd stay in our old apartment for a few days seeing as we'd paid rent for that month and couldn't get a refund. He basically ignored me the entire time he was there, so I got worried and asked Megan, to go check up on him, just make sure that he was okay."
I take a moment to breathe, trying to shove the mental images of them together out of my mind as I continue.
"I still didn't hear from them, only to hear that he was in an accident and that Megan was in the car too. Why was Megan in the car? Well, they were caught sleeping together and were on their way to tell me before my other friend, who caught them, could tell me herself. Well, neither of them made it. I didn't bother going to the funerals, it's obvious he didn't love me the way I loved him."
I look down, trying to hide the pain in my eyes. The next thing I know, Mason reaches over and places his fingers under my chin, gently tilting my head up so that our eyes meet. "He didn't deserve you." He says seriously before dropping his hand, letting it settle lightly ontop of mine before squeezing it gently.
"Hey, lovebirds! Two cappuccinos and two breakfast specials, enjoy!" Katelynn says as she reappears. Mason moves his hand away from mine, and I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little disappointed.
He takes his plate and sets it on the table as Katelynn puts another plate filled with delicious food in front of me. "Oh, and Mason? Please give Daphne a call will you? It'll mean a lot." She says before disappearing again.
We eat our food in silence, the only sound to be heard is the soft music coming from the speakers above us. "So, who's Daphne?" I ask before I can stop myself. Only once I said it did I realise that it came out a little harsh. I look at Mason who's grinning at me cheekily, like he caught me doing something I shouldn't. "She's Katie's little sister, she's gifted too. I used to babysit her when she was a little girl. Nobody in her family would listen to her talk about how she saw her dead granny or had dreams about things happening before they did. They're not bad people, just very closed minded, they thought she was looking for attention."
Before he can continue, his phone starts ringing. He runs his finger along the screen before putting it to his ear. "What's up." He says, fiddling with a piece of loose plastic on the table. I lift the steaming cup of coffee to my mouth, taking a sip as I watch him. Suddenly his face changes from somewhat relaxed, to worried. Causing two small lines to appear between his thick eyebrows.
My heart starts beating faster as he stops fidgeting and his eyes shoot straight to me while he speaks into the phone. "Okay. Are you sure? Fine. Come right over when you're finished. Okay, cheers." He puts the phone down and runs his fingers through his hair, letting his hand rest on the back of his neck.
"Is everything alright?" I say, not exactly sure if I should be asking or not. "Um, yes and no?" He says uncertainly. "What's that supposed to mean? Was that Danny or one of them? Is everything okay?" I ask, my voice getting higher and higher after each question. If something's making Mr calm, cool and collected over here nervous, then that's enough to make me nervous too. He sighs and drops his hand back onto the table.
"They went upstairs to pack up the cameras. When they went into the baby room, they found the priest's body on the rocking chair." I cover both of my hands over my mouth, trying to stop the panic thats threatening to take over.
"It gets worse, there was a warning written in blood on the ceiling, still fresh. Apparently it said 'Gone but not forgotten.'" "Oh my God, Mason. What am I going to do? Someone's bound to report him missing sooner or later, they're going to find him, I just know it. I'm going to jail."
He shakes his head, once again placing his hand over mine in an attempt to calm me down. He leans forward and whispers. "You're not going to jail. Don't worry about the body, the others are taking care of it. We'll review the footage when they get here, and take it from there when we have more information on what we're dealing with, okay? Just take it one step at a time."
"But besides the body, what am I going to do? I don't have anywhere to go! I can't expect you guys or Jillian to give me a place to crash until this is all over. What if it never ends? I can't afford another house and..." "Kayla, relax. We'll figure something out, you don't have to go back there until this is over. You can stay with us."
"But you just told Katelynn that you'll be gone in a few days, do you think everything will blow over by then?" He takes a few moments to think it over before nodding. "We'll cleanse the house tonight. Don't worry, I'll make sure that no matter what, we shove whatever is in there, out of the house and away from you for good."
"Thank you." I whisper. A beeping noise interrupts our conversation. Mason looks down at his phone before taking a few notes out of his wallet and placing it on the table.
"Come on, Danny just texted. They've dropped the equipment off at home, she said they'll be busy for a while so we can go ahead and review the footage together and they'll meet up with us once they're finished...doing what they're doing." He finishes quickly as he slides out of the booth and starts walking to the door, waving at Katelynn as he passes her and holds the door open for me. As we half run through the rain to the car, I can't help but ask. "Mason, what are they going to do with...you know." he shakes his head, that worried expression returning as we both climb into the van and slam the doors shut. "You don't want to know."
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