by Mark Lukens
Nick followed her down the stairs, the wood creaking underneath their steps, the light from his camera splashing over her shoulders.
Once they were down in the basement, they stood near the foot of the basement steps for a moment.
“Why do you think all of this stuff is down here?” Laura asked.
Nick raised the camcorder up to his eye and panned it around the vast room, filming the sea of furniture, boxes, rusty trunks, and crates stacked up in piles all over the place. “It’s just junk collected over the years,” he said from behind his camera.
Laura ventured deeper into the darkness, her flashlight beam lighting her way. She could feel Nick right behind her, and she could feel the camera’s eye on her, spotlighting her. They walked towards the bare block wall in the distance that looked so out-of-place down here among the piles of clutter, the bare wall where they had set up the static camera on the tripod earlier.
She stopped when she was close to the camera. She turned around and looked at Nick. He lowered his camcorder and then he turned it off.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Tell me something about myself,” Nick said.
What was he doing, trying to test her psychic powers? Her psychic “powers” weren’t some kind of superhero power that she could control; images just came to her randomly, some stronger than others. If she could’ve controlled them then she would’ve already jumped ahead in her visions to see what Thaddeus had found in that hole in the ground—the hole that was underneath this manor somewhere.
But she decided to play his game. She closed her eyes and let her mind reach out. It was like relaxing, letting her mind wander on its own … floating outside of her, and then above her. And then she would just “know” something like it had been there in her mind all along. Sometimes she saw visions and heard voices (like she had so often since she’d been on this island), but most of the time it would be something that just seemed to have always been there.
And there it was.
She opened her eyes and looked at Nick. “You’re ill. You’ve got some kind of … disease.”
Nick nodded. He looked torn between disbelief and shock. “You’re good,” he said.
Laura just waited. She knew he had more to say.
“I have pancreatic cancer. I got the diagnosis two months ago. I’ve tried some chemo treatments, some new kind of pills, and then some natural stuff the doctor suggested, but nothing seems to be slowing it down. I just met with the doctor a week ago for the latest test results.”
“I’m sorry,” Laura whispered. She already knew the test results hadn’t been good. It was like she could smell a slight rotting smell coming off of Nick. Of course it wasn’t really an odor that she could smell … it was a pungent scent that she could feel.
“He said I might have nine months to a year if I’m lucky,” Nick said. I’ve already started losing weight, losing energy. But soon the pain will come, and my organs will begin to fail.”
“I’m so sorry,” Laura said again and she could feel tears threatening. She fought hard not to cry in front of Nick.
He showed her his cocky and carefree smile again, a smile that he had perfected throughout his life. He even shrugged his shoulders in a what-the-hell gesture. “I’ve had a great life. I’ve had a lot of near misses with death, and now I’ve finally been dealt a bad hand.”
Laura nodded.
Nick turned serious. “Listen, no one else knows about my … my condition, so I’d appreciate it if we just kept this between ourselves.”
“But Kristen knows—” Laura blurted out before she even realized it.
Nick smiled again. “I can’t hide anything from you, I guess.”
You’re able to hide some things, she thought but didn’t say it.
“Yes, Kristen knows about it,” Nick said. “She’s my niece, and she’s been by my side through all of this.”
“She’s your niece?” Laura asked.
“You didn’t see that?” Nick teased.
Once again, she wanted to explain to him that she didn’t have super powers, but why bother? Instead, she said: “I am so sorry … about your diagnosis …” She was stammering, she didn’t know what else to say.
“It’s okay,” Nick said, thankfully rescuing her from her own stuttering response. Then he sighed, but his smile still lingered like a ghost. “It’s funny. For so many years I’ve lived life on the edge and flirted with danger. There have been many times I could’ve died in car crashes, plane wrecks, diving accidents … but I always came out of them unscathed. Lucky, people said. They always said I was lucky. And I guess I was … I’ve truly lived a blessed life and I have no complaints. It’s just that I could’ve died so many times and finally it’s my own body that’s killing me, sabotaging me.”
Nick’s walkie-talkie squawked with static and then Billy’s voice. “You okay, chief?” Billy asked through the walkie-talkie.
Nick grabbed the walkie and pressed the button on the side. “Everything’s okay.”
“Your camera’s offline. You having technical issues or something? It seems to be happing a lot lately.”
“No technical issues. Just wanted to talk to Laura off the record, that’s all.”
“Read you loud and clear. Over and out.”
Nick slid the walkie-talkie back on his belt and smiled at Laura. “Someone’s having fun playing with the walkie-talkies.”
Laura couldn’t help laughing a little.
He stared at her, serious again. “I’m not afraid to die. I want you to know that. Like I’ve said, I’ve lived a charmed life. I’ve had a string of successful films, some of them classics now. I’ve won an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and I’ve been nominated six times. I’ve built a successful studio that can compete with the majors. I’ve left behind a legacy. I’ve been everywhere in the world I’ve wanted to go.”
“But there are regrets,” Laura whispered.
Nick didn’t bother denying it. “I haven’t been the best person in the world. I was never the best husband or the best boss. I’ve been selfish and prideful. I’ve had three failed marriages and never had any kids. Sometimes I wish I would’ve had some kids. Kristen is like the daughter I never had. I’ve had my problems with alcohol and pills through the years.” He hesitated like he was trying to find the right words. “There’s always been this … this void inside of me, this emptiness that could never be filled. No matter how much success I achieved, it was never enough. I could never really enjoy anything; I was always looking towards the next mountain peak, the next battle to win, the next treasure to possess. Nothing was ever enough. Nothing ever satisfied me.”
“You’re here on this island for something specific, aren’t you?” Laura asked him. She got a flash in her mind of a cold dark place, barely lit … some kind of liquid dripped in that darkness. It seemed like no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t see it clearly yet … it almost felt like something was blocking her vision of it. “You’re here looking for that something more that you’re talking about.”
Nick didn’t deny it.
“There’s something here on this island that you want,” Laura said. “This isn’t all about a documentary, is it?”
“Well, a little,” he answered. “I do want to make this doc. I believe there’s a chance to capture proof of another world on film. An afterlife. A different dimension or plane of existence. If the stories I’ve heard are even half true about this island, and if the evidence we’ve seen so far here are any indications, then we may indeed capture that proof on film and open up the world’s eyes.”
“So what’s the other thing you’re looking for?”
“I’ve been all over the world on wild goose chases, looking for treasures and trying to solve mysteries. I went diving in the Caribbean Sea looking for the sunken city of Atlantis only a hundred miles away from here. I’ve looked for holy relics in the war-torn countries of the Middle East. I’ve spent three weeks in the Alaskan wilderness trying to fin
d evidence of Sasquatch. I’ve spent countless nights studying the skies for signs of UFOs, and even spent a few nights at a cabin near a lake in Minnesota where a woman was supposedly abducted by aliens years ago. I’ve visited the abandoned cities of Central and South America. And now I’ve come here to Devil’s Island to solve a great mystery … to unearth a great discovery.”
Laura stared at Nick, waiting for him to tell her what it was.
“You’re a Finder, Laura. You find things. You find dead bodies, missing people, buried things. And now I want you to find something for me.”
“What do you want me to find?”
Before Nick could answer Laura, the walkie-talkie on his hip blared static for a second, then Billy’s panicked voice: “Nick, Kristen’s screaming up on the second floor. I think something happened. I’m on my way up to her now.”
Nick grabbed the walkie-talkie and Laura saw the instant concern in his eyes as he pressed the button to respond to Billy. “Hurry, Billy. We’re on our way.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Billy wrapped the length of chain around the iron gates tightly and threaded the padlock through the links and snapped it shut—they were locked inside here now until Nick let them out.
He managed to film himself with his cell phone while he did it. Those were Nick’s orders; he wanted this on film to prove that they were going to be locked inside for the night.
After he tucked his cell phone into his pocket he looked up at the sky. The wind was blowing hard out here, the trees shaking back and forth, the grasses and weeds laid down flat from the gusts. The sky overhead was almost as dark as night, and the swirling clouds looked as ominous as any storm Billy had ever seen before. Lightning flashed every few seconds and thunder rumbled a few moments ago after a bolt of lightning struck somewhere on the island … somewhere close. Billy could feel the rumbling under his feet, working its way up into his body, vibrating through his bones.
The clouds were about to open up and unleash rain at any second. He wanted to get back inside the manor before that happened.
He was about to turn and run back to the porch but something out beyond the iron fence far to his right caught his eye … a movement. Of course everything was moving out here right now because of the wind, but this was something else, something moving in a different direction in the murky darkness, something rising up from the ground.
Billy stared at the area for a moment but he didn’t see anything now. He didn’t want to wait out here much longer and get caught in the rain or struck by lightning. And Nick wanted him to hurry. This chain securing the gates was supposed to be a surprise for the others, even though Billy wasn’t sure exactly what kind of surprise this was supposed to be. But he didn’t really care, Nick was paying him a lot of money and Nick had literally saved his life … he was going to follow Nick’s orders no matter what they were.
He hurried back onto the front porch just as the rain began to fall. It drummed on the porch roof above him, and a few seconds later waterfalls of rain poured down off the edge of the roof.
Billy pushed through the front doors and then closed them on the storm. He walked through the foyer, past the piles of construction supplies and tools, and then passed the wide archway that led into the ballroom and the double set of stairs that led up to the second floor.
He thought he saw something move in the darkness of the ballroom, but he wasn’t going to go in there to investigate. It was just his imagination, a trick of the nearly constant lightning and moving clouds outside. And it was this place … this island. He had to admit that this place was creepy; it could give anyone the heebie-jeebies.
He needed to get back to the laptops—back to his job.
After he sat back down at the two folding tables with the laptops on them, he took a sip of his coffee that had gotten cold and set the cup back down at the floor out of the reach of his feet. He looked at the laptop screens and checked the feed.
Nick was still offline. Apparently Nick was talking to Laura about something that he didn’t want recorded or on film.
Shane and Kristen were back online now, their camera issues apparently fixed now.
Technical difficulties, Billy thought about Shane’s excuse and laughed. He knew these camcorders were brand new and top-of-the-line … the only kind of equipment that Nick used, and so far he’d spared no expense on this documentary. No, Shane and Kristen had turned their camera off for a little while before Billy went out to chain the gates shut. And Billy could only think of two reasons they had shut their camera off: either they wanted to discuss something privately and not be recorded, or they wanted to be alone for some cuddling.
Those two were sweet on each other, Billy could see that. Hell, anyone could see that. Maybe neither one even noticed the other’s appraising eye at first, but Billy had seen it right away.
And Billy couldn’t blame Shane for going after Kristen—she was hot. Hell, he’d gone after Kristen for a while before they finally hooked up. And even after they’d broken their relationship off, Billy couldn’t help trying to get back together with her.
Billy felt a twinge of jealousy because Kristen was falling for Shane. Billy had to admit that Shane was a good-looking guy. He was also a former TV star with a dark and mysterious air about him.
But what’s wrong with me? Billy wondered. He was taller than Shane and just as handsome. Maybe he didn’t handle money too well but he was going to change. The visit from Jimmy Izzo’s boys had been a wakeup call for him. He touched the bruise on his left eye gingerly. His eye still ached and his ribs and ankle ached even more from the big guy’s kicks, the injuries even gave him a slight limp. How many times had that guy kicked him when he’d been out? At least he hadn’t pissed any blood yet.
Maybe Kristen was just drawn to Shane because of the environment they were in. She looked to Shane’s supposed expertise as a ghost hunter now that they were trapped on this island.
And now they were truly trapped, Billy thought, since he had just chained the gates shut for Nick.
Billy looked at the feed from Shane and Kristen’s camera on the laptop screen. Kristen was operating the camera now and she was interviewing Shane, asking him questions about the things that had happened to him in some house. Billy wasn’t that interested in what Shane had to say. He knew that Shane had been the host of a pretty successful ghost hunting TV show and he’d had a bestselling book. But Shane had also been proven a fraud. Billy wasn’t even sure why Nick had reached out to a has-been like Shane Edwards to lead this little expedition of his when he could’ve had his pick of ghost hunting experts and TV stars.
Whatever. It was Nick’s show … he could do what he wanted. It wasn’t Billy’s decision; he was just here to follow orders. The pay was the same, and it was always generous with Nick. Plus Nick had offered him a pretty nice bonus for chaining the gates shuts and for another favor he wanted from Billy in the future that he hadn’t told him about yet.
Billy looked at the feed from the boys on the third floor. They had been debating earlier about religion or science or something and Billy had tuned it out. It was just self-indulgent pontification anyway from “experts” in their fields. It was all over Billy’s head and not interesting to him in the least.
But now the three stooges up there were upset about something, arguing about something they’d seen … or hadn’t seen.
He leaned in a little closer and turned the volume up.
“They’re gone,” Warren said on the film.
Harold was aiming their camera down at the floorboards at nothing. Something was apparently gone and it had spooked Warren. Or, more likely, Warren Savage was overacting, getting all dramatically crazy. Billy had seen it so many times on set … so many actors ran away with themselves, caught up in the moment; everything was a Shakespeare play to them and they were always the stars of their own little fantasy worlds. So many times the director had to rein them in and calm them down, teach them all over again how to act naturally on film.
Billy watched the monitor. Those guys were really freaking out about something.
A shudder ran through the house, one of those creaks that seemed to happen with some regularity now. He was sure the hurricane-force winds out there weren’t helping any. The ceilings, walls, and floors creaked all around him and now that he was alone he realized that those sounds really did sound like footsteps … like a lot of footsteps. If he was the kind of person who let his imagination run away with him, then he would swear that he’d just heard someone walking around out there in the foyer, and maybe in the ballroom too.
And more footsteps came from the hall that led out to the patio and their generator.
And behind him … from the kitchen.
Billy turned around in his chair and stared at the darkness behind him. It was darker in here than when he’d gone out to chain the gates shut, and he realized that someone had closed those drapes over the row of windows.
Hadn’t those curtains been open before when he left to go chain the gates?
He shook his head and smiled. Someone must’ve closed them and he hadn’t noticed. Maybe Nick had closed them before he went to catch up to Laura in the kitchen. That had to be it.
Billy wasn’t going to let these “footsteps” creep him out; he wasn’t going to act like the others did and let this place get to him. He’d seen and faced real horrors around the world from behind the camera so many times and he wasn’t going to let an abandoned house and a few ghost stories scare him.
Besides, he agreed with Nigel. Nick was doing something here … propagating some kind of hoax for his film. Billy didn’t really care what Nick did—Nick was the one paying, and Billy was just going to follow orders. If Nick wanted to film a hoax and make millions of dollars off of it, then who was Billy to stand in the way?
Kristen screamed from the laptop and then the blurry footage went black … the feed cut off.
Billy’s heart jumped in his chest as he grabbed his walkie-talkie. “Kristen! You okay?!”