by Val Crowe
“Why wasn’t she?”
“She would bring her boyfriend over, and they would drink tequila and make out while I was supposed to be watching Disney princess movies.”
“That’s pretty crappy,” I said. “So, what happened to her?”
“She died,” said Dominique. “Looked like an accident, like she slipped and fell down the stairs, but I know it wasn’t. I saw the ghost push her.”
I was quiet.
Dominique shrugged. “That’s not the only time I’ve seen something like that either. I seem to have this tendency to make ghosts… stronger.”
“Well, I do too,” I said.
“I make them corporeal,” she said.
“What?” My eyes widened.
“Look, no one told me this was going to be a big, crazy keg party. I thought we were coming to film a haunting with other professionals.”
“No one’s getting paid,” I said. “This is amateur hour.”
“Well, Rylan paid me,” she said.
“Right, but not anyone else,” I said. “You’re, you know, really talented. She didn’t know how else to get you on board.”
“Oh,” said Dominique. “Well, I didn’t know that.”
I got up and went over to where Alice was being interviewed by Jonah. “Look, Alice, you guys really should leave.” I looked at Jonah. “All of you.”
“What?” said Jonah, raising his eyebrows. “What do you mean? We just got here.”
I pointed at Dominique. “She’s saying we could be in danger.”
Rylan was suddenly there. “Deacon, no one’s leaving. This is great stuff. I’ve got enough here for two videos. Why didn’t you film it when you found Scout, huh?”
“What?” I was incredulous. “I didn’t know if he was alive or dead, and you want that on video?”
“Yes,” said Rylan. “That is the kind of stuff that will get the views, you know?”
“At the very least,” spoke up Alice, “you could have brought me so that I could blog about it.”
I threw up my hands. This was all pointless. Everyone was insane. “Look, whatever.” I went back over to the campfire, where Dominique was filming the tableau of everyone scattered around the campsite.
She didn’t acknowledge me as I approached.
I walked right up to her, angled myself close enough that I could have leaned forward and put my mouth on her skin. “Negus,” I said in a soft voice.
She didn’t react other than to say, “What’s that?”
“The name mean something to you?”
“Nope,” she said mildly, continuing to film. “If you’re trying to flirt with me, it’s not working. How about you get out of my personal space?”
* * *
A knock at the door to the Airstream. It was late morning, and there had been no attempt at making any food or anything. I was hungry, and I could have eaten something that I’d brought with me, but I hadn’t been able to muster up the motivation to do so.
I opened the door.
It was Rylan.
“Hey,” she said. “Can you take me across the bridge in your truck?”
“Why?” I said.
“The battery’s dead in my car,” she said.
“I can give you a jump,” I said. “Or if you’re taking Cat and Scout out, I don’t mind driving them to the nearest town. What would that even be? The little place we drove through on way here or something on the other side of the mountain?”
“I wasn’t planning on taking anyone anywhere,” she said. “And there’s no point in jumping my car. The battery does this. It won’t hold a charge. I actually came prepared with a portable jump starter, but it’s not working. It’ll be easier just to take your truck. I’ll take that jump when we leave for good, though.”
I leaned against the door frame. “Maybe we should all leave now.”
“What about getting information from Dominique?”
“This might not be the best place to do that,” I said. “She told me that she makes ghosts corporeal.”
Rylan looked over her shoulder at Dominique. “Seriously?”
“She said a ghost killed her babysitter when she was a kid.”
Rylan chewed on her bottom lip.
“Look, at the very least, you should get everyone else out of here. Maybe if it’s just you and me and Dominique, it’ll be all right, but we can’t look after everyone, and they’re not taking this seriously.”
Rylan cocked her head to one side. “Trying to get alone with Dominique, huh? I saw the way you were checking her out.”
“I was not checking her out,” I said. “It’s got nothing to do with that. Anyway, why do you want to go past the bridge if you’re not taking people out of here?”
“I need to upload a video,” she said. “I just got something edited together. If we go out past the bridge, I can get the internet to work.”
I sighed heavily, hanging my head. “Damn it, you’re not going to leave, are you? And you’re not going to make everyone else leave either. You want the videos.”
Rylan kneaded her shoulder. “Well, the truth is, yeah. I do. I need this. Corporeal ghosts, Deacon? You think they’d show up on video?”
I thought of the video that Dominique had made, how she had seemed to capture on video the essence of that awful cabin. Maybe that was how she’d done it.
“Look, Deacon, if I could get a series of youtube videos getting a lot of views, it could set me up for life. People would keep watching those videos for years and years, and the ad money could be enough for me to support myself and keep working at this. It could be big.”
Why was everyone so damned ambitious around here?
Rylan looked over her shoulder. “Look, if anything else bad happens, I swear we’ll pack up.”
“If I drive you down there to upload the video, you’ll have even more of a reason to stay, though,” I said.
“So, you’re saying no?” she said. “I guess I’ll just ask someone else. I’m sure Dominique will help me out.”
Man. Okay, fine. If I drove her down there, I could continue to try to convince her that we should all leave.
* * *
As we drove down the road, I filled Rylan in on everything that had happened at Point Oakes, how the ghosts had taken me over and made me nearly ax people and how they had possessed this guy named Oscar and made him hang himself, apparently just to try to get me to stay there forever so that they could feed on me.
I told her how they had given my mother the ability to cook amazing food, when she was really not that great in the kitchen typically (well, except for her forays into gluten-free cooking, which were actually not so bad after all). I told her that the only reason I’d gotten free of that place was because ghosts couldn’t affect the material world.
By this point, we were coming up on the bridge. I paused before I pulled the truck out onto it. I had that feeling again, like the bridge might be too rickety, and that it might break underneath me.
But I went ahead and pushed on the gas. We started over the bridge.
“Deacon?” said Rylan. “You got real quiet. And I got the feeling you were in the middle of making a point.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, peering out the window at the drop all the way down to the water below. If this bridge broke with us on it, we would not survive. No way, no how.
“So, what was the point?” she said. “Or are you done? Because if you’re done, what I would say is that I think that you were half-crazed with trying to find information about Negus, and that’s partly why everything went so bad. But you’ve already said that you’d leave this place and give up that chance with Dominique, so you’re clearly in your right head, and I think the danger—”
“No, listen, Rylan. That place came to life just from my energy. I did that all on my own. But with Dominique here, and her power in the mix too, we have no idea what things could be like, you know?”
She was quiet.
We got to the other side of the bridge.
She got out her laptop and opened it up.
“You’re going to upload the video anyway.” I was annoyed.
“That’s why we came down here,” she said.
“Look, at least let’s try to convince some of the others to leave. You don’t need both Jonah and Dominique running the cameras,” I said. “Get rid of Jonah and Kennely. And let me convince Alice that she should take Scout and Cat home.”
“And Mundy?” Rylan gave me a pointed look.
“I guess you don’t want her to leave.”
“Of course I don’t. Have you looked at her?” Rylan waggled her eyebrows at me.
I shook my head.
“Okay,” said Rylan. “So, I’ll keep my hookup, and you keep yours.”
“I’m not trying anything with Dominique,” I said, and I was annoyed she kept bringing that up.
“And we’ll make everyone else go,” said Rylan. “Is that a compromise we can both live with? You can insist that Dominique sleep in your camper with you for safety.” She winked at me.
I glared at her. Yeah, Mads would love that.
“Deacon? Are we agreed?” said Rylan.
“Fine,” I said. “If everyone else leaves, that’s acceptable.”
“Cool,” said Rylan. “You want to see the video I made?” She held up the laptop.
I shrugged. “Fine.” I turned off the truck and set my keys up on the dashboard.
She gave me the laptop and leaned over to click play.
The video was actually pretty creepy. It was short, typical for youtube. Rylan had brought in a few shots of coming in through the woods, of the empty camping area, of the cabins. And then there were shots taken by Dominique, of all of us wandering around that morning, clearly arguing, looking distraught. There was an… energy that seemed to seep out of the video, something that made feel cold in the hollow of my stomach. It cut to audio of Cat screaming, but the shot was just of the woods, the camera shaking as if someone was running. Dominique must have shot that. And there was me and Scout and Cat coming out of the woods, tears streaming down Cat’s face.
“Dominique got this before I woke up,” said Rylan. “She’s really awesome.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
For some reason, I felt as though something in the video was right behind us, and that it might climb out of laptop screen and wrap dark, shadowy hands around my neck.
Now, quick cuts from interviews, people disagreeing about what had happened.
“Blood,” Scout said. “I thought I was dying.”
“He was bleeding out,” said Cat.
“I don’t think it was prophetic.” My face filled the screen. “I think it was happening while I saw it.”
And then a shot of the night sky and the screen went black. Subscribe for updates, read the screen.
It was quiet in the truck. I stared at the laptop screen for a long moment. When I looked up, Rylan was beaming at me.
“Well?” she said. “What did you think?”
I handed her back the laptop. “I don’t know.”
“You think it’ll hook people?”
I had to admit, it was a tantalizing little video. But I didn’t think it was a good idea to upload it already. Of course, I’d just committed to staying, hadn’t I? So, Rylan was going to make these videos no matter what.
“Come on, Deacon,” said Rylan. “Is it awful? Do you hate it?”
“No,” I said. “No, it’s good. It’s, um, it’s really good.” I picked the keys back up.
“You’re not just saying that?”
I fitted my keys into the ignition. “I’m not. I think if people watch it, they’ll want to see more. Honestly, you’re good at that kind of stuff even if nothing is actually happening. You know how to cut footage together to make it compelling.”
“You really think so? Wow, that’s so awesome of you to say. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I turned the key in the ignition.
The car didn’t respond. No struggling, the engine didn’t chug, nothing.
CHAPTER SIX
“Seriously?” I muttered.
“What’s wrong?” said Rylan, who was huddled over her laptop.
“The, um, the car won’t start?” I said.
She looked up. “Why not?”
“Seems like a dead battery,” I said tightly. “Just like your car. Only my car doesn’t have a problem with its battery. It’s a lot like what happened out in Boonridge, actually.”
“Oh.” Rylan paled.
I sighed and got out of the truck, popping the hood. I went out to look at the battery, just to make sure that everything was hooked up properly, that sort of thing. How it could have become unhooked in moments, I didn’t know, but I needed to cover my bases. Everything looked fine. I swung back into the front seat to try the ignition again.
“No internet,” said Rylan, holding up her phone. “Just tried to tether my laptop. Nothing.”
“So, you can’t upload the video,” I said.
She shook her head. “Yeah, something’s going on.”
I tried the key again, just for funsies.
Nothing.
“Damn it,” I muttered. I leaned my head back against the headrest. “Okay, well, we’re going to have to push the truck off the road.”
“Okay,” said Rylan. “I’ve helped you push this thing before.” She brightened. “You think it’s like Boonridge? You think if we push it out of the circle of the haunting’s influence, then we can start the car?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “Maybe. But there’s no point in pushing the car until we know where that is. So, let’s get it off the road and then we’ll take a walk. See if we can get cell service down the road a bit.”
“Sure thing,” said Rylan.
I had her put the truck in gear and steer, and I provided the muscle behind the truck. There wasn’t exactly what you might call a shoulder on this dirt road, but we managed to get it off the road as best we could.
Then we took off down the road, holding out our phones to see if we could get service.
After we’d walked for about twenty minutes, we decided to give it up. It was a long walk back to anything like civilization, and we weren’t prepared for that kind of hike.
Rylan was optimistic that maybe we could go back to the campground and use someone else’s car to get out of here, but I was fairly sure that we wouldn’t get anywhere if we did go back. I had a generator for the Airstream, and I also had batteries, but I didn’t think that anything was going to work anymore. I was pretty sure that our best bet was going to be to gather up supplies and get everyone together. We were probably going to have to trek down out of this mountain on foot. Grimly, we set back off back toward the campsite.
Walking across the bridge was even scarier than driving over it, since it was so easy to see how far the drop was, and since the bridge seemed even more rickety in the open air.
I was sad to leave my truck behind, but there was nothing for it.
I guessed the only thing that I could be even slightly glad about was that the video Rylan had made had not been released on youtube. Maybe without that pressure, she would be ready to leave.
* * *
When we got back to the campground, Rylan and I were both tired and thirsty. The fire had burned back down to coals, and there were remnants of some breakfast—oatmeal, it looked like—sitting out in paper bowls on the makeshift benches. No one was around.
We attacked the water bottles sitting out by the fire first, sitting down and catching our breath.
But Rylan was on her feet before too long, heading into the cabin where she was sleeping, calling for Mundy.
“I’m here,” Mundy said, as she met her at the door. “What happened? Where have you guys been?”
Rylan filled her in, and then Mundy said that they should try Rylan’s car again, which they did, and it wouldn’t start. By that time, I was on my feet, going over knock on Alice’s cabin.
She opened the door, look
ing annoyed.
“Can you try your car?” I said. “See if it’ll start?”
“I’m not leaving,” said Alice. “And you guys can’t convince me to go. I’m trying to get my blog off the ground, and I need to be here.”
“We’re all going to leave,” I said. “Being here is a bad idea. Can you try your car, please?”
“I’m not leaving,” she insisted.
“Look,” I said. “Rylan’s car won’t start. My car won’t start. Will you try yours?”
“Fine,” said Alice, rolling her eyes. “But I’m still not leaving.”
“If your car works, you better bet you are,” I said. “You’re getting everyone out that we can cram into that thing.”
She yanked her keys out of her pocket and strode out to her car. She pulled the door open, threw herself inside, and jammed the key into the ignition. She turned it.
Nothing.
“Fuck,” I said.
Alice furrowed her brow. “What the hell’s going on?” she said.
“It’s the ghost,” I said. “Write a blog about that.”
“Ghosts can do that?” she said.
“Look, ghosts are energy,” I said. “Electricity is energy. So, they can screw with it, yes.”
By this time, Rylan and Mundy were already down with Jonah and Kennely. Jonah was getting into his truck to see if he could get it to start. Alice and I headed over there.
Of course, his car didn’t start either.
Jonah scratched the back of his head. “This is like Boonridge.”
I spoke up. “You were at Boonridge with Rylan the first time she went?”
“First time?” said Jonah. “You went back there? Seriously? Place was creepy as hell. There was that wind that wasn’t a wind and all the doors and windows were banging open and closed. I still have nightmares about that place.”
“Well, as long as you never go back there, you’re probably fine,” I said. “When we went back, we made that place twice as powerful. Leave it be.”
“Trust me, I wouldn’t go back,” said Jonah. He turned to Rylan. “This is going to be like that?”
“Here’s what we need to do,” I said. “We need to pack up what we need and start walking. We’ll probably have to spend at least one night in the woods, maybe two. But I think we need to get out of here now, before anything starts getting truly weird.” I braced myself for everyone to start arguing with me.