by BL Maxwell
I blinked my eyes, bringing me back to what Jason had just said. “It’s cool, dude. You know I like getting out and doing things on the weekend. If nothing else happens, maybe we can check out Coloma.”
He looked at me with those bright green eyes and huffed out a laugh. He knew I wasn’t really into hanging out with tourists.
“You about done eating? Let’s get going on setting everything up before it’s totally dark out.” I tried to act like I really was into it.
Jason rubbed his hands together and gathered up all of his trash. He put it in the now empty bag that we’d brought some snacks in, just to keep it together and make sure we packed out what we brought in. Then he turned around and faced me.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
Chapter Seven
I finished sketching out the five levels of the house, including attic, basement, and the three floors. We hadn’t gone up to the attic yet, but I was hoping it was roughly the same as the others.
“Do you care if we start at the basement? I just want to get it over with, and I don’t really look forward to going down there when it’s completely dark out.”
Jason nodded in agreement and started checking the various gadgets and taking them out of their cases. When he was finished, he put what we would need for the basement in the backpack so we could carry everything down at once then come back and get what we needed for the next floor.
Once we had everything ready to go, each of us took a flashlight and put extra batteries in our pockets, just in case. There was no way I wanted to be stuck in this place with no light at all.
“Let’s go. We’ll come back here after we set up the basement and use this room as our control center.” Jason seemed a little nervous, he kept checking his pockets and packing and unpacking the backpack, which was something new. Usually he was eager to see what he could see, but he’d never seemed nervous or worried like he did now.
We walked out into the hall closing the door behind us. The doors had locks from when it was a hotel years before. The owner didn’t have keys for all of the rooms; too much time had passed and they’d never lived in the house, so they had no reason to keep track of all the keys. We had everything planned out for where we would place the cameras and other equipment throughout the house. I was all for getting everything set up and then staying in our room watching and listening until morning.
When we got to the end of the hall, we descended the main staircase down to the bottom floor then made a hard right down another hall to the stairs that led to the basement. The closer we got to the door the harder it got for me to keep walking. By the time we were again standing at the top of the stairs, I stood there frozen. Jason stepped around me and started to go down into the basement.
“Come on, Wade, let’s get it set up.” He continued down the stairs until he was at the bottom. I forced my feet to move down the stairs and follow him. But everything in me screamed to stay away from that room.
It seemed to take forever for me to get to the bottom of the stairs with Jason. He waited for me expectantly and bounced a little on his feet, but he didn’t seem concerned about me taking so much longer. When I was finally standing next to him, I took a second to look around. Nothing had changed. The chairs and tables were still thrown all over the place. Broken glasses littered the floor along with other debris that could have just been from the house sitting there vacant for so long.
“You set up the cameras in the corners so we’re covering the whole room. You know the drill. I’ll set up the audio recorder down here too.”
“Sounds good. Do you think two corners will cover the whole room, or should we put three cameras down here?” I asked. It was much easier to stay calm if I stayed busy and focused on what we were doing.
“Let’s try two, and we’ll check on the laptop and see how it looks. We can always add another one.”
I walked over to the closest corner to us and started securing the camera as close to the corner as I could get it. There was a light sconce there, so I used it to mount the camera to. When I was done, I walked over to where Jason was and grabbed the other camera.
“Can you imagine going to dinner down here? It must have been something else. Everyone always talks about how good the food was and how Robert Chalmers didn’t seem to like people being down here. Probably because he was kept in a cell down here ‘for his own good’.”
The energy in the room started to change the more Jason talked. The air seemed to get heavier, and it felt like it was somehow charged with energy. Energy I couldn’t see but was making itself known to us. Jason had just finished setting up the audio recorder on the old bar when we started to hear a tinkling sound. It was similar to two glasses clinking together repeatedly. But there were no glasses hanging and no unbroken glasses to be found down here.
Jason looked over at me, and I wondered if he could feel it too. But before I could ask him, he grabbed the other camera and hurried over to put it in the far corner.
“One second, I’ve almost got it,” he called over to me.
I started gathering up the tools we’d used, the laptop and the extra camera we’d brought just in case. The tinkling started to get louder, and it sounded like there were more glasses now, not just a couple, clinking together. I could tell he was having a hard time anchoring the camera. I moved to go help him, and once again a broken glass went flying by my head.
“Jason, we need to go,” I yelled at him. He glanced over his shoulder at me and finally finished mounting the camera. He turned around and rushed back over to me and without pausing, took me by the arm and pulled me toward the stairs. We both hauled ass together to the top, where we stood for a moment and listened. The tinkling had stopped, and now it was completely silent. With any luck, if anything else happened, the cameras or audio recorder would pick it up.
Neither of us said a word until we were back in our room and the door was closed behind us. “What the fuck, dude? That was some crazy shit.” Jason paced back and forth while raking his hands through his hair.
“Could you feel it?” I asked him. I had to know if he could sense it was going to happen the way I had. He’d stopped pacing but looked shaken.
“I felt it. I could tell something was going to happen; there was so much anticipation. Then it felt charged, almost like there was static electricity everywhere. Similar to a lightning storm.” His eyes locked with mine. I tried to speak but had to clear my throat. He’d just explained exactly what I’d felt.
“Are you sure we’re not in over our head? This seems bigger than anything we’ve ever tried before.” I could see him considering it, but I knew what his answer would be before he said it.
“No, we can do it. This is what I’ve always wanted to experience. And to get to see it with you makes it that much better. You’ll stay with me won’t you, Wade?”
Like I could ever leave him here by himself. “Of course. If you’re in, I’m in.”
He rushed over to me and grabbed me in a hug. He held on tight like he didn’t want to let me go, or he needed that little bit of support from me. I wasn’t sure, but for whatever reason it was, I would gladly take it. I hugged him back just as tight and enjoyed it while I could.
He pushed me back from him, still holding onto my shoulders. I could see the gratitude and relief in his eyes. I knew how much it meant to him to stay, but I didn’t want to put either of us in danger by doing that.
He released me and stepped back. “So, you ready to start on the next floor? I’m thinking we should go to the third floor then work our way to this floor last. What do you think?”
I considered what he’d said. “That sounds good. Then we’re ready to go as soon as we’re done setting up.”
“So what do you think about motion detectors at both ends of the hall and in the attic? Cameras at each end so we have a clear view.”
“Sounds good. I mean, you’re the expert here. I’m just the free labor.”
“Great, let’s pack it up. We can tak
e everything for both floors,” Jason instructed.
I hoped like hell nothing happened this time and we could make it back here none the worse for wear.
Jason walked over to the door and eased it open. He looked both ways down the hall, and slowly waved for me to follow him. We inched down the hall, trying to make as little noise as possible. I wasn’t sure why, but it just seemed safer if we were quiet and didn’t attract any attention. At the end of the hall, we started up the staircase.
“Let’s just go to the attic first and work our way down to the third. No doubling back unless something isn’t working right,” he said.
We continued up the stairs. From the third floor, we took the smaller staircase up to the attic. Taking in the length of it made the place seem even more daunting. This floor was also in extreme disrepair. The roof had leaked at some point and most of the ceiling was hanging down like sagging curtains along the walls. The wallpaper, which had probably given the house a grand look when it was new, was all in molded ruin on the floor.
Walking slowly and cautiously, we made our way down to the end of the hall, and placed a camera near the floor since there was no way we could get a clear view from above. Jason pulled something out of the bag I hadn’t seen before.
“What’s that? Did you buy a new gadget and not tell me about it?” I whispered to him.
Jason grinned at that. “It’s a laser grid, it makes a—”
“Grid of lasers?”
“Funny, but yes, a grid of lasers. Then if we don’t actually see an image on the camera, this will illuminate the area, and we should be able to see exactly what’s there.”
I looked at him in geeked-out awe. I might not really be into all the ghostly parts of this, but the tech and the gadgets I loved.
“When did you get that?” I waved my hands around my head. “Why didn’t you show it to me?”
“Hey, keep it down,” he hushed me. “Remember we’re staying quiet so we don’t bother the ghosties.” Then he smiled at me and my heart clenched. Right here in all the ruin of this big old house, I knew I’d never get over him. It wasn’t just a crush for me. It probably never had been. But I also had the devastating realization it would never be more. That he would never feel about me the way I felt about him. I turned away from him then, needing some space, and made my way down to the other end of the hall.
I set my backpack on the floor and unpacked the other camera. This one I attached on the banister of the staircase so it was up a little higher. Then I had a thought. “Hey, what do you think about aiming this camera down the stairs. We can see pretty much to the bottom from here.”
“Sounds good,” he answered.
When we had it all set up in the attic, we descended down to the third floor. It wasn’t as damaged here. The water damage seemed to have been contained to the attic.
We set up the third floor pretty much like we’d set up the attic, only we angled both cameras so they were facing each other, and again we put a laser grid in the middle. More of the doors were open on this floor, which seemed odd. Everyone seemed to have left in such a hurry they just threw them open and ran. I didn’t put much more thought into it as we finished setting up and got ready to go down to the bottom floor, where we’d finish that level before working our way back to our room.
When we reached the front entrance, the door was wide open, which was odd. “Hey, did you leave the door open when we brought the stuff in from the car?” I asked Jason, already knowing his answer.
“No, man. I made sure I closed it. I didn’t want any critters wandering in and messing with our research.”
I almost laughed at him calling it research, but I sucked it up and held it in. “Well, maybe you didn’t latch it all the way or the wind blew it open?”
We both walked out onto the porch and noticed none of the bushes practically covering that side of the house were moving. There was no wind.
When we went back in, Jason shoved the door shut tight. He started to bolt it then looked at me. I shook my head. If we needed to get out of here fast I didn’t want to worry about not being able to open the door.
He stood there for a minute like he was thinking about how the door was open when he knew he’d shut it, but he didn’t say anything.
“Jason?” He seemed to snap out of it then.
“Yeah, sorry. Let’s go up and get the rest of the equipment for this floor and the second. I want to make sure we cover it all.” He was even more serious than he had been a few minutes ago. He was having fun with it earlier, but not anymore, now he was all business. He really wanted to figure out what was going on here.
“Whatever you say. You’re the boss.” I smiled at him, and he returned a tight smile to me before heading up the stairs with me close on his heels. I did not want to be by myself down here. The room was bad enough, but no way did I want to find out what had left that door open.
We made it back to the room and were gathering up the rest of our equipment when we heard a loud thunk from somewhere in the house. Both of us froze and looked up from what we were doing. He took a flashlight out of the bag.
“You heard that?” I asked Jason, even though it was obvious he’d heard it too.
“Yeah, I heard it. You wait here; I’ll go check it out.” He started to move toward the door when I grabbed his arm.
“No way. I’m not letting you go out there alone, and no way am I staying here by myself. This is a team effort from now on. Neither of us should go anywhere alone.”
He paused for a second then nodded. We both started for the door when we heard another loud noise coming from what sounded like the bottom of the stairs. He gripped his flashlight and flung the door open then started to move down the hall toward the stairs with me on his heels.
When we got to the top of the stairs we both stood there and tried to see to the bottom. I hoped we’d see what was down there and that it wasn’t something bad. I couldn’t see anything, and I doubted he could either. There wasn’t enough light down there; it was like a black hole. In the time we’d been busy upstairs, the sun had fully set, and it was completely dark outside.
Jason moved to start down the stairs with me right behind him. He turned on the flashlight and shined it down ahead of us to light the way and probably to make sure there really wasn’t anything down there. We slowly started descending; Jason in front with the flashlight clenched in his hand, me squeezed tight to his back following him down a step at a time.
When we were about halfway we heard it again; a big clunking sound.
“Oh my god! What was that?” I jumped and grabbed the back of his shirt. He froze while he swung the beam of the flashlight down the stairs.
“Do you see anything?”
“Nothing, I don’t see anything that could be making that noise.”
When we’d almost reached the bottom we heard it again, only much louder. This time we could tell it had come from the side of the house. When we got to the bottom of the stairs the front door was once again open. Jason stopped and shined the light over to it but didn’t continue forward.
“What the fuck? How does it keep opening?” he mumbled to himself. This place was starting to mess with us both. But in different ways, as if it was testing our weaknesses to see what really scared us.
“Let’s go outside and see what that noise was,” I suggested, while resting my hand on the base of Jason’s back. I hoped he saw it as me lending him some strength when he seemed to need it, but I also hoped he saw it as support. Something I’d always have for him, and he for me.
After we put our backpacks down, he stepped toward the doorway and slowly peered through it, looking left then right. I still had my hand on his back; there was no way I was getting too far behind him.
“Let’s walk around the perimeter and see if we can figure out what that noise was. I don’t want to be worrying about it all night.” We walked down the stairs from the porch to the yard, and then we turned to the right and walked along the side of the hou
se, looking for what could have made that noise.
We’d only gone a few feet when we saw the door to the basement was ajar. There was an iron gate on the outside, with bars that resembled an old jail cell, and a heavy wooden door on the inside. The iron gate was open, and it was stuck on a high spot on the ground. The heavy wooden door was only slightly open but enough for us to see it was completely dark in there.
“It must have been the gate we heard, but how did it open to begin with? It sounded like it was flung open and slammed a few times.” Jason looked at the door stunned. None of this made any sense.
“Should we check out if the equipment is still set up in the basement?” I asked, he gave me a look that said he was as unsure about going back in there as I was. He swallowed hard a few times before he answered.
“Let’s look really quick. I don’t want to have to come back down here if we don’t have to. And we still have to set up the bottom two floors.” He walked over to the gate and pushed slightly on the inner wooden door. It easily swung open, the flashlight beam illuminated the bar area we had left a little while earlier. Nothing was different, the chairs and glasses were still all over the place. We walked over to where we had set up the cameras and audio recorder, and everything was where we had left them.
“They look good. Let’s head out—” Jason started to say. Then without warning the heavy wooden door slammed shut, and we were plunged into darkness. Even Jason’s flashlight went out. How was that even possible? I put my hand out and blindly reached for Jason, and finding his back I clenched his shirt in my hand.
“Come on, let’s get the fuck out of here.” I tried to stay calm but I had lost all sense of reason after being in this area earlier. Then we heard it, the sound of tinkling glass. Only this time we had no idea where the sound was coming from. It seemed like it was all around us. As if we were surrounded by a wall of glasses and the room was suddenly shaking in an apparent earthquake. My heart began to race, and I felt cold sweat start to bead on the back of my neck. Something was about to happen.