Unbound Spirits

by Christine Pope

  That sounded vaguely ominous, but, after all, this was what they’d come here for. She walked next to Michael, with Rosemary a few paces behind them, and almost at once her attention was caught by a storage shed a few yards away from the path. Why she’d looked in that direction, she really couldn’t say, since the little building was really very ordinary, one of thousands of prefab structures just like it.

  The outline of the shed looked hazy, as though something was partially obscuring it. Audrey stopped and stared, realizing after a moment that the haze was a blob of pale, glowing light, almost invisible in the harsh glare of the sun overhead.

  “You see it?” Michael asked in a murmur.

  “Yes,” she replied in the same undertone.

  Rosemary had paused next to them. Now she smiled, one hand lifted to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight. “I told you, Michael. You don’t need me here. Audrey’s perfectly capable of doing the heavy lifting.”

  She wasn’t so sure about that, but it seemed clear enough that she was witnessing some kind of apparition. And it wasn’t in a dark hallway or basement, but right out here in the open with the sun blazing down overhead.

  “That’s our ghost?” she asked.

  “We don’t know for sure yet,” Michael replied. “That is, I know it’s a spirit of some kind, but I haven’t been able to determine whether it’s the only entity we’re dealing with here. We had to leave to come find you before I had a chance to really start investigating.”

  Now she really did feel guilty, even though it wasn’t her fault that Michael hadn’t been able to dive right into ghost hunting or demon hunting, or whatever it was that they’d end up doing here. Well, they’d remedy that lack soon enough. They still had a little time before they had to take Rosemary to the airport.

  And then…it was gone. Audrey wanted to blame what she’d seen on the glare of the sun, or a simple visual hallucination brought on by lack of sleep and extreme stress, but she knew better. It had been there. Both Michael and Rosemary had seen it, too.

  He touched her arm. “It’ll come back. This is the second time I’ve seen it, but I doubt it’ll be the last. And I want to get in that storage shed. There has to be a reason why the apparition keeps showing up in that spot.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Audrey said. “But I want to change first. I’m starting to feel like these clothes have grown on me.”

  “You should let Colin know about it,” Rosemary suggested. “Maybe that way you guys could film something today. It might make him a little less crabby about Audrey’s disappearance.”

  “But we need to take you to the airport — ” Michael began.

  “No biggie,” Rosemary cut in. “I’ll pack my stuff, and you can have what’s-her-name — Susan — drive me.”

  “Because that worked out so well last time,” Audrey remarked.

  Rosemary didn’t look too worried. “Well, I assume you have the real Susan here, don’t you? I mean, the one at the airport was just an illusion created by Whitcomb, right?”

  “That’s what he said.” Although she knew intellectually that Rosemary was correct, Audrey still didn’t like the idea of someone else driving her to the airport. She’d feel safer if she and Michael took Rosemary, and stood and watched until her plane was in the air and getting farther from Tucson by the second.

  However, Michael didn’t seem all that concerned. “She’s right,” he said. “It would go a long way to keep Colin from going on a rampage if we got some footage today, even if our ghost doesn’t show himself again.”

  “All right,” Audrey said. She was feeling too tired right then to argue with the both of them. “But Rosemary — please text us when you land in Ontario.”

  “Of course I will.”

  By this point, they’d reached the little bungalow that apparently was Rosemary’s room here at the B&B. She ducked inside, saying, “It’ll only take me a few minutes to pack. If you could ask Susan about driving me, that’d be great. Otherwise, I’ll need to call an Uber.”

  “We will,” Michael promised. A flash of a grin, and the door closed. He went on, “Your room is over here, next to mine. I hope that’s okay.”

  Audrey slanted a glance up at him. There were so many things she wanted to say, and yet now really didn’t feel like the right time. Maybe they’d have a chance to talk privately later, once they got their filming done for the afternoon.

  “It’s fine,” she said lightly. “I’m going to slip in and take a shower. I guess you can go let Colin know that I’m back.”

  “Will do.” His gaze lingered on hers for a moment, and she also got the sense that he wanted to talk to her more in depth at some point, even if now wasn’t convenient for a number of reasons. “Daniela put your wardrobe in the closet, so it’s waiting for you.”

  God bless Daniela, for her quick efficiency…and for not chickening out the way their wardrobe supervisor Kathleen had, leaving them high and dry. The clothes would be a huge help — and so would Daniela’s skills with hair and makeup. Audrey had a feeling those skills would be put to the test covering up the aftermath of the hideous night she’d just spent.

  She murmured a thank-you to Michael, who reached in his pocket and dug out the key to her room before handing it to her. Why he had it, she wasn’t sure, although she figured he must have gotten it from the B&B managers the day before, hoping that he’d be able to give it to her as soon as she was back in town.

  A quick, grateful squeeze of his fingers as she took the key from him, and then she went inside the room and closed the door, locking it behind her. Not because she didn’t trust Michael to stay away, but because she wasn’t sure Colin would have the restraint to keep from barging in once he learned she was back.

  The bathroom was small, but cheerful with its Mexican tile in bright shades of green and red and yellow. Talavera, she reminded herself. She’d admired the gaily painted pottery when she’d seen it in specialty shops before, but it didn’t really fit the more traditional style of her Craftsman house, so she’d never bought any.

  Aside from that, it felt heavenly to get out of her rumpled and stained clothing, to stand under the stream of hot water and let it wash away some of the fear and worry and discomfort of the past twenty-four hours. She’d bought travel-sized shampoo and conditioner, and she scrubbed her hair right down to her scalp, wanting to make sure there wasn’t a single trace of the demon’s Colorado house left on her.

  Afterward, she moisturized her face and blow-dried her hair, and thought she looked better than she had any right to, considering what she’d just experienced. For just a few seconds, she’d been afraid to look in the mirror, worried about what might be peering back at her, but there was nothing but her own reflection.

  Then to get dressed in new jeans and a crisp black cotton jacket over a white tank top. Low black boots — and, thank God, Daniela had also supplied some jewelry, just a simple silver chain and matching hoop earrings, but enough for Audrey to feel dressed, and not as if something was missing.

  Someone knocked at the door, and she jumped a little. Maybe it was silly to be starting at shadows like that, but then again, she had just seen an apparition out by the B&B’s storage shed. Something was going on here, although she hadn’t experienced any of the creeping sensations of dread that had assaulted her in the Whitcomb mansion in Glendora.

  It wasn’t Michael outside but Daniela, who had her makeup case with her.

  “So glad to see you safe and sound!” she exclaimed. “Michael told us about what happened — are you really okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Audrey replied. “Now that I’m back here with all of you.”

  “You seem very calm,” Daniela went on as she laid out her brushes and various pots of color on the dresser. “I think I’d still be a nervous wreck.”

  “Well, I know we have to get some work done today.” Audrey hoped that sounded like a reasonable enough explanation. Truth was, she could still feel how shaky she was inside, but if the demon mana
ged to turn her into a basket case, he would have won, and she absolutely did not plan to have that happen.

  Daniela let out an exaggerated sigh. “True. As soon as Colin found out you were here — and that there was a ghost Michael wanted to investigate — he wanted to get started right away. But Michael told him you needed to get cleaned up and that you’d be ready when you were ready, and not a moment before.”

  Her knight in shining armor. Well, maybe not exactly, but Michael had definitely done a lot to take care of her during the last twenty-four hours. Once upon a time, she might have grown indignant at the supposition that she couldn’t handle on her own anything that was thrown at her, but that was before the demons came on the scene.

  “Well, let’s get me ready,” Audrey said. “Then we’ll see what we can find.”

  Daniela nodded and set to work. This time, she worked even more quickly than before, as if all too aware that somewhere on the property, Colin was probably tapping his foot and checking his watch every other minute.

  “I’m just going to pull your hair back,” Daniela said after she was done with Audrey’s makeup. “It’ll still look polished, but I won’t have to spend all that time on curling it.”

  “That’s fine.” Personally, Audrey didn’t really care what she looked like, as long as it was passable enough for her to not appear like death warmed over in front of the cameras.

  But — once Daniela was done and Audrey was able to take a quick look in the mirror to inspect her work — it was clear that she looked better than she had any right to. Once again, Daniela’s artistry hid flaws and accentuated highlights, and the sleek ponytail she’d created looked very brisk and no-nonsense, but not at all like what Audrey tended to refer to as “gym hair.”

  “Thanks so much,” she told the makeup artist, who only shrugged as she put her things away.

  “That’s what I’m here for. Now, go ahead — I’ll close up here once I’m done packing my stuff. The less time you make Colin wait, the better.”

  Since Audrey couldn’t really argue with that sentiment, she only nodded, straightened her jacket, and headed out the door. She didn’t know the grounds here at all, but she figured she’d follow the path until she got to something that looked like the main building. The other B&Bs she’d stayed in had had a central living space where people could relax, often connected to the dining area, and she hoped the setup here was more or less the same.

  Her hunch proved to be right, because she crossed a courtyard and headed toward a set of French doors that opened on the patio, doors connected to a large building with two stories. Even as she approached, Michael and Colin emerged through the French doors, pausing when they caught sight of her.

  “I told you she’d be ready soon,” Michael said, and Colin hitched his shoulders but still looked less than pleased with her.

  “Right,” he said. “You all squared away now?”

  “Yes,” Audrey replied calmly. It was clear enough that he didn’t care anything about what had happened to her, what kind of trauma she’d suffered, only that she’d caused enough of a delay and he didn’t want to deal with any more drama. That realization made anger stir within her, but she knew she had to do her best to keep this professional. “Michael told you about the apparition we saw by the storage shed?”

  Colin nodded. “And we got the key from the owners, so let’s all go over there and take a little look-see, shall we?”

  “Your camera?”

  “It’s in my room. We’ll swing by and pick it up as we go.”

  That seemed like a logical enough plan, so Audrey followed him and Michael as they went back the way she’d just come, this time to another bungalow, one that seemed bigger than the building where she and Michael had back-to-back rooms.

  While they were waiting for Colin, she murmured to Michael, “Rosemary?”

  “She’s gone already,” he replied. “Susan drove her to the airport, as we’d planned.”

  “And Susan seemed…okay?”

  Michael touched her hand briefly, but even that light touch was immensely reassuring. “She’s fine, Audrey. The real Susan had nothing to do with what Whitcomb did to you. Actually, she was horrified when she heard the story.”

  She managed to smile. “Of course she was. Don’t mind me — I’m still a little jumpy.”

  “With cause. But you’re safe now.”

  “As safe as anyone going ghost-hunting can be, you mean.”

  He didn’t bother to contradict her. “This setup seems pretty harmless. And it’s still broad daylight. I don’t think we have much to worry about.”

  She hoped he was right.

  Colin emerged from his room, camera with its Steadicam setup clutched in one hand. “Since Susan’s not here, I’m just going to use the mike on the camera instead of the boom mike. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since we’ll be in a quiet spot out back. But lead on.”

  The three of them headed back to the storage shed. Sitting there in the afternoon sunlight, it looked completely innocuous — no sign of any apparitions, no sign that anything at all was out of the ordinary about it. Already, Colin was frowning, but Michael didn’t look too concerned. Either he knew something Audrey didn’t, or he was so used to Colin’s frowns that they simply didn’t register anymore.

  Once they were a few yards away from the door to the shed, Colin paused. “I’m going to shoot from here. You two go ahead. Act natural.”

  Easier said than done. Audrey wasn’t picking up anything unusual at the moment, but she couldn’t forget what she’d seen here less than an hour ago. Michael gave her the slightest of nods, and she tilted her head in reply, indicating she was ready…or at least as ready as she would ever be.

  He turned toward the camera. “The Thunderbird Bed and Breakfast Inn. Maybe the last place you’d expect to be haunted…or worse. But the owners came to us for help, told us they’d experienced strange phenomena here, paranormal occurrences that couldn’t be easily explained away. I myself saw a cross on the wall in my room turn upside down, and then do this.” With a finger in the air, he drew an arc showing how the cross had resumed its regular position. “No one else was in the room. There were no wires or strings or anything else that might explain its bizarre movements. And then last night, I saw an apparition by this shed.” His gaze turned toward Audrey, and she did her best to stand there looking brisk and professional, and not as though she’d spent the night before huddled on a tile bathroom floor, hiding from a demon. “You saw the same thing earlier today, didn’t you?”

  She nodded. “It was an amorphous shape, not quite transparent, hanging here near the door. A fairly typical apparition, when you think about it.”

  Michael took up the thread from her, obviously glad that she’d provided the opening he needed. “The thing is, when the owners of the B&B called us to come investigate their inn, they said they didn’t think it was a ghost. After seeing the upside-down cross in my room, I was inclined to agree with them. But, as Audrey pointed out, what we’ve witnessed in the vicinity of the shed doesn’t seem to be anything demonic.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, held it in his palm. It glinted silver in the afternoon sunlight before his fingers closed on it once again. “The owners gave us permission to check in the shed. So…let’s see what we can find.”

  Although Colin had maintained his distance while the two of them were speaking, now he moved slowly forward, focusing the camera on the door. Michael inserted the key in the lock, then turned the doorknob.

  In contrast to the bright sun outside, it looked pitch black in there. Audrey sent Michael a quizzical glance. “Colleen said the building has electricity,” he told her. “The switch should be just inside the door.”

  Obviously, that was a cue to step in and turn on the lights. While Audrey wasn’t too happy to be the first inside, she knew she had to play along. At least she still wasn’t feeling anything evil here, wasn’t really sensing anything at all.

  She moved forward, acut
ely aware of the camera focused on her, and paused in the doorway so her fingers could brush against the wall immediately to her right. At once she felt the hard protrusion of a light switch under her fingertips, and she turned it on.

  Inside was a jumble of boxes, unused yard equipment, and large, brightly painted plywood figures that seemed to be part of a Christmas display. She turned back toward Michael — and the camera — and said, “I don’t really see anything in here.”

  Brows drawn together in concentration, he stepped into the shed and took a look around. For just the briefest moment, he looked puzzled, as if he also couldn’t understand the significance of the shed and its contents. Then he froze, his lean form tense. “There,” he said in a murmur. “Back wall, over to the left.”

  Audrey followed his gaze and realized the same gauzy entity was hovering in the spot he’d indicated. It looked darker now, more of a pale gray than pure white. Strange little sparks of light seemed to appear deep within it, not white, but a washed-out pink.

  “What’s it doing?” she murmured, and Michael shook his head.

  “I don’t know.”

  Neither of them had any time for conjecture, because in the next second, the ghost seemed to shiver apart where it was floating, as if unseen hands had grabbed hold of it somehow and pulled it apart. A high-pitched, terrible screech assaulted Audrey’s ears, and she raised her hands to cover them, only to find that the sound had already died away.

  “What was that?” she demanded.

  Michael didn’t reply, instead moved toward the spot where the ghost had been floating only a few seconds earlier. Reluctantly, Audrey followed, knowing that they needed to get this on camera no matter what happened.

  The back corner in question had several boxes stacked there, along with a black trash bag sitting on top of the stack. Michael went toward it, then paused, hand resting on top of the bag.

  “The apparition seemed interested in this,” he said, addressing the camera again. “I guess we’d better see what’s inside.”