Danny grabs the walkie talkie. “Alright. Testing, testing. Hey guys, cameras are on. We can see you, can you hear us?” A few seconds later we see Chuck on one of the screens, he squints his eyes and blinks his eyes behind his large glasses, studying the camera intensely before his voice suddenly booms through the speakers in the van, immediately followed by a high-pitched screeching sound.
Danny quickly drops the walkie talkie in favour of protecting her eardrums, I follow her lead, clasping both hands over my ears. She shoots her hand to the mouse and adjusts the volume, putting an end to the horrendous sound.
“Okay, Guy, that hurt! Let’s try that again, this time without the speakers screaming like an injured cat!” He looks confused for a moment, but quickly realises what the problem is and adjusts the microphone hidden neatly under his shirt.
“Right, sorry. Is that better?” She smiles at the screen and gives a thumbs up. “Uuh, Danny? If I'm not mistaken, we can see them, they can’t see you , remember?” She slaps her palm against her head “Oh yeah! Sorry, habbit!” She giggles and swings back around to face the screens as Chuck begins speaking.
“Alright, well, we haven’t gone upstairs yet. But I gotta tell you, this place feels heavy, man. I keep feeling like something’s about to jump out from the shadows, you know? Mason and Felicia have gone upstairs to check out the body. Oh wait, here they come now.”
He says as he looks over his shoulder and watches them come down the stairs. As soon as they get closer he looks at us while swinging his backpack off his back and onto the floor.
“I’m going to hook these guys up too so you guys can hear what’s going on from everyone’s point of view.” He pushes his glasses back up along the bridge of his nose before he turns to meet the others jogging down the stairs.
The moment Mason’s eyes settle on Chuck he shakes his head. “There’s a lot of blood up there, but no body. We followed the trail of blood from the bathroom to one of the bedrooms, it almost looks like the body was dragged.
We tried the door, but it was jammed, so we busted it down and still, no body. The trail ends in the middle of the room, it’s like he just disappeared.”
I grab the walkie talkie from Danny, who squeaks in surprise. “What? Are you sure? What could have happened?” He turns his attention to the camera. “I’m one hundred percent sure there is no body upstairs. I’ve got no idea what could have happened, I can’t say I’ve experienced anything like this before. There’s a chance the cops could have taken it, or the demon has hidden it, in which case he will definitely put it to use soon.”
“Well we can’t just leave it! I can’t go about my business scared to death that I’ll find a dead body in my house one day!” I shout, unable to contain the fear and panic inside. Mason regards the camera for a few seconds with an icy glare before saying in a slow and serious voice.
“We’re going to set up the cameras around the rest of the house then meet back at the van. I think we need a little more information. This doesn’t seem to be a mere shadow figure or anything to do with residual energy. We’re dealing with something intelligent, something very, very dark. At the same time I’m picking up another restless spirit, not necessarily bad, just a bit frustrated and confused. I almost feel like it’s a spirit of a child.
But if we’re dealing with a demon then we can’t take any chances by assuming it’s an innocent spirit, it may well be the demon playing tricks on us. Rule number one; Always be alert.” Suddenly Felicia freezes. She lets out a long, slow breath and looks up at them, her eyes steady and sharp.
In a voice that trembles slightly as she clearly tries her best to keep calm, she says. “Guys, I just felt this breeze rush past me, when I looked towards the kitchen to see if maybe there’s a window open, I heard a young child’s voice clearly saying, ‘Get out.’”
Mason nods as he walks towards her, a weird beeping noise erupts from the speakers. Slow at first but it quickly picks up speed until it almost sounds like a constant alarm tone. He looks down at it before saying. “Yeah, something’s here alright, the EMF meter just shot up to ten.”
Just as quickly as it started, the loud noise stops and the EMF meter goes quiet, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. Mason looks over his shoulder at the little device before nodding.
“Alright guys, we've got work to do.” Danny and I watched without saying much as they set up the cameras and one by one, pictures of the house from all different angles pop up on the screen, lighting up each dark, little rectangle. Danny and I watch closely to see if we can spot anything out of the ordinary, but other than the voice Felicia heard, nothing happens.
I jump as a knock sounds at the door, Danny jumps up quickly to open it and everyone piles in through the back, taking their places next to us on the bench facing the screen. “Wow, guys. It’s been a while since I’ve experienced such an overcrowded feeling in one place.” Felicia says breathlessly as she slumps down in the chair next to Mason. “We’re in for one hell of a ride, that’s for sure.”
Everyone nods and mumbles in agreement. Mason speaks next, directing his attention at me. “Okay, so since you moved in, what type of experiences have you had. What have you seen? Maybe it’ll give us a better idea about what we’re dealing with.”
“Well when we first moved in here…” Mason holds up one finger, stopping me in my tracks. “Hold up a second, who’s we?" Images of Mark’s smile, his dark eyes and the sound of his laugh fill my thoughts as I try to gulp down the lump that’s suddenly formed in my throat.
I look down in an attempt to hide the tears welling up in my eyes, threatening to spill over. Taking a deep, shaky breath and making sure to avoid eye contact, I say in the steadiest voice I can. “My ex boyfriend, Mark.”
He nods, seemingly picking up that it's a touchy subject for me. I wait for a few seconds, staring at the floor before I realise that he isn’t going to ask any more questions about Mark, thank God.
Taking that as my que to continue, I force the thoughts of my past away and carry on. “When we moved in here, I was busy unpacking the downstairs area, most of the furniture was included in the sale. Anyway, I was hanging this old mirror up on the wall in the lounge when suddenly I felt sick to my stomach, this faceless thing appeared from behind me and I blacked out.
I don’t really remember much after that. I saw a little girl in one of the upstairs bedrooms, right after I found her diary.” “Seriously? She kept a diary? Where is it?” Felicia says, her eyes wide with interest. “Umm, I think it’s still in my drawer next to my bed. I only read a few pages, but after living here for only a few days, I saw something moving in the bushes out back and found a grave with her name on it. After that, I couldn’t bring myself to read any more."
Felicia and Danny look at each other for a long time, almost as if they're speaking to each other. Surely they won’t go read it, right? I mean, who’d want to know what she experienced before she died. From what I read, she had a pretty shitty life at home.
Thoughts of what she must have gone through before her death makes my heart ache and causes a shiver to run down my spine. Thankfully, Mason’s voice pulls me away from my morbid thoughts before they get too dark and detailed. “Okay, new plan.” He announces in a loud, stern voice. Everyone straightens up and gives him their undivided attention.
He must be the leader of this little group. Hmmm, empath huh? I wonder what that’d be like, to feel everyone’s emotions all the time. Not only living, but dead as well! I snap my head up in his direction the moment I hear him say my name.
“…alright, everyone understand? Good. Macaela, Felicia and Chuck, come with me. Danny you stay here and monitor everything. Let’s draw one of the spirits out and see if we can convince them to cross over, maybe once we rid the house of the hang arounds, we can focus more on the darker entity here. Only once we know what it is, will we be able to push it out, I'm warning you now, it won't be fun but it’s the only way.”
As soon as he finishes his sentence, Mason, Chuck and Felicia all jump up and make their way out of the van. I watch, rooted to the spot as I try my best to figure out what he was saying. Did I hear right? Surely he didn’t say my name? What happened to leaving this to the professionals? I jump as Mason sticks his head in.
"You said you wanted to tag along, so come on. You might as well make yourself useful.” He extends his hand out for me to jump down. I guess he did say my name. without thinking, I place my small, cold hand in his and allow him to help me out.
My feet hit the gravel with a crunch just as the cold air assaults my bare arms, causing goosebumps to rise uncomfortably on my icy skin. When did it get so cold! Must be the mountains. I run my hands up and down my arms while I follow closely behind Mason.
Hey, I’m at home right? My clothes are literally a few steps away from me. I clear my throat and quicken my steps until I’m walking in time with him. “Hey Mason, can I run up and change? I need a jacket or something before the cameras are set up. I’m freezing, and I sure as hell don’t want anyone recording while I change.”
He looks at me from the corner of his eye before nodding. “Sure, I’ll come up and wait in the passage to make sure nothing happens.”
He says before quickly adding “You know, in case something does happen and we don’t get it on camera. While I wait outside I mean. In the passage.” He raises his hand to the back of his neck and ruffles the hair there as I look down, hiding the grin on my face as we approach the back steps. I’m glad he'll be close by although I’ll never say so.
Obviously I'm only glad because he can bust down my door if anything goes wrong. I don’t want to admit that I’m a little terrified of being upstairs alone after what happened the last couple times I was in the house.
We make our way through the back door and up the creaky stairs, leaving Chuck and Felicia in the living room, examining the mirror where I first laid eyes on the hideous creature and whispering between eachother.
As we reach the top of the stairs I stop in my tracks. At the end of the passage, dressed in sopping wet clothing, is the little girl, Leah.
