The Supers

by Sean Michael

  Blaine chuckled softly, and Jase nodded, grinned. “Man, this is totally what we all needed. A shot of enthusiasm. I like it.”

  “I can’t imagine this ever becoming old hat,” Flynn admitted. “I mean, ghosts! What’s not to be enthusiastic about?”

  “Well, when you hit a bunch in a row that don’t pan out, you start worrying.” At least Blaine did.

  “Ah, yeah. I can see where that would be hard.” Flynn nodded as Will parked the van near the side of the building.

  Will turned off the engine and leaned around to the back. “You gonna take Flynn on a walk-through while I get all the equipment set up?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, come on. I’ll give you the ten-cent tour.” He hopped out of the van, the slight buzz that always seemed to herald a busy spirit night already ringing in his ears.

  Flynn got out, bag in hand. “Can I bring my camera? I’ll leave the rest of the stuff for Will, but I’d love to get some establishing shots as we go through the place.”

  “Go for it. We’ll start in the lobby. Watch for nails.” God knew he’d stepped on enough.

  Flynn nodded and stomped his feet, his work boots loud. “Steel toed. I did my homework.”

  Blaine had a feeling Flynn had been a Boy Scout.

  They went in, passing under the sign on the front of the building that should have read Eugene Thurston Memorial Hospital, but had enough letters missing that it actually read ug Thurst Mem Ho. It had cracked them all up when they’d first seen it. Blaine figured some kids had had fun with that one a while back. It was too perfect to be random.

  “Okay, this is the lobby. The floors are solid, and we’ll set up here at the counter. It’s been abandoned since the eighties, so it’s been empty a long time.”

  “Are there any horror stories associated with the place?” Flynn asked. “I mean, obviously people died here, but were any of them under mysterious or sinister circumstances?”

  “There was a mass shooting in the emergency room in the early sixties. Eight people died. Four nurses, two doctors, and two patients.”

  “Wow. That’s tragic.” Flynn looked around, using his flashlight to check out the walls. “Is that where you’ve had hits? In the emergency room?”

  “In the emergency room and one of the rooms upstairs—204.”

  “Yeah? Have you got a history for that room?” Flynn followed close behind Blaine, probably reacting to how eerie the place was with the only illumination from their flashlights.

  “I don’t.” All he had was feelings. The feeling for 204 had been… creepy. Bad. Slick. Oily.

  “Is it awful in the emergency room?” Flynn asked as they made their way there. “Like, are murdered ghosts worse?”

  “To me it feels a little frantic.” Rushed. He wasn’t even sure they knew, if he was going to be honest.

  “Frantic? Like they’re still working the emergency room or something?” Flynn asked.

  “Yeah, maybe? It’s a little distant. We’ll do some EMF work and ask.” That would give Flynn some data, right?

  “Sounds good.” They got to the emergency room, and Flynn shivered. “Wow. Even if I hadn’t known you’d found something, I’d think this would be the place to start. Or maybe I just feel it because you said there was something here. Don’t tell me anything else, okay? Let me see if I feel anything on my own first.”

  Flynn swung the flashlight around, checking out the emergency room, shying away from the spot where two of the nurses and a doctor had been shot in a cluster. Interesting—Blaine hadn’t told Flynn where anything had happened.

  Neat.

  He didn’t worry about Flynn. No, he leaned against the nurses’ station and closed his eyes, opening up to the whispers that seemed to float about him.

  That frantic feeling hit him first. Not panic, just hurry, hurry, don’t just stand there, do something. All he had to do was breathe and let the sensation happen. It would calm down.

  “Oh man.” Flynn gasped. “So much anger, right here.”

  Blaine opened his eyes to find Flynn standing near the old entrance doors, and he could see something around Flynn, an area that was darker and sort of shimmered.

  A sudden rush of jealousy hit him, and he nudged it back. So what if he wasn’t the only psychic, right?

  Flynn shivered and moved away quickly. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything, but it felt…. Evil sounds so cheesy, you know?” Coming over to Blaine, Flynn touched his hand, clearly a little spooked.

  “Not cheesy. Not at all.” A mean part of him thought, Maybe you can do the walk-through, but he ignored it. He wasn’t an asshole. He wasn’t.

  “Good. That was the only word I had for it.” Flynn stepped closer again, and Blaine could feel his warmth. “I’ve never felt anything like that before. Just my mom. I don’t know if it’s real or if it’s because of the atmosphere and knowing the murders happened here.”

  “Well, make sure you take notes on what you feel, huh?”

  “Right, right. Do you usually take notes on the walk-through or just when you have all the equipment set up and it’s official?” Flynn kept shining his flashlight around the place, but he wasn’t leaving Blaine’s side.

  “When all the equipment is set up.” Because his job was to be charming and dramatic, dammit.

  “Cool.” Flynn flashed his light several times at the spot where he’d felt the anger and also the area he’d avoided where the two nurses and a doctor had died, but he didn’t seem to be able to see anything at either spot. “So where do we go from here?”

  “I’ll lead you through radiology. All the equipment is gone.”

  “Sure thing.” Flynn put a hand on Blaine’s back as they began to move, then drew it away. “Sorry. Sorry. I’ve got to admit, I’m a little more spooked than I expected to be.”

  “Oh man. I hear you. It’s creepy the first time.”

  “How many times have you guys come here?” Flynn asked, staying close, but not actually holding on to him.

  “This is number three. I mean, it’s day five, but visit three, you know?”

  “Right. Because some visits are more than one day only. Like this one. Checking it out tonight and setting up, doing most of the work tomorrow. Are we going to sleep in the van or at a nearby motel or something? It seems like a long way to go back and forth.”

  “Will can take me home to work, sleep in the van, and then drive me back here. You guys will share a motel room.” It sucked, but it was the best solution. He had responsibilities.

  “You’ve got to do stuff for your folks, eh? I can see the good and the bad in that.”

  They took the stairs in the middle of the place—these being in the best repair.

  “Watch your step,” Blaine warned. “There’s no guarantees in here, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get it. Something could give way at any moment after thirty years of no repairs or anything.”

  Flynn stayed close, and the stairs groaned and creaked, adding to the general spookiness of the atmosphere.

  The whole creepy vibe helped Blaine be open to the spirits, helped him get into the right frame of mind for it. Even if nothing happened, he’d be able to make a show of it. When he had nerves, he did a better job.

  They got upstairs, and he turned to the right, toward radiology.

  “Jesus. How is it even darker up here?” Flynn asked.

  “There’s only windows in the rooms up here.”

  “Damn. It’s spooky as hell.”

  “Yeah. I tell myself that there’s nothing in the dark that isn’t here in the light.” But it was a lie.

  “Do you believe yourself?” Flynn asked, hand finding Blaine’s and slipping into it. There was a buzz, like he would have known that was Flynn’s hand even if there’d been a dozen people who could have reached for him.

  “No. Not really. Everything’s spookier at night.”

  Flynn chuckled and squeezed his hand. “Somehow that makes me feel better.”

  “Yeah, well, two guys terr
ified out of their minds is better than being alone.”

  That made Flynn laugh louder, and the sound echoed weirdly, coming back as the laughter of madmen all around them. Flynn snapped his mouth closed.

  “Dude, that was pretty cool.” Blaine was all over that.

  “Big echo, huh?” Flynn said very quietly.

  “Huge. I wonder if we did that on tape if we’d hear something interesting.”

  “You think it wasn’t just an echo of my voice?” Flynn asked, sounding like he was regaining his equilibrium.

  “Who knows? You never can tell until you play the recordings.” He never heard things as clearly as he did on the EVP.

  “Awesome. I’m willing to cackle like an idiot again later.” They got to radiology, noises coming from the dark, supposedly empty room. “What is that?”

  “Mice.” Blaine rolled his eyes. “Fucking mice.”

  “As long as they’re mice and not rats, there’s nothing scary about that.” Flynn squeezed Blaine’s hand, sending tingles shooting up his arm. Flynn apparently didn’t plan on letting him go quite yet.

  “No. No. I mean, I’ve seen lots of little mice, no sewer rats or tree rats or anything.”

  “Good. So what happened up here? Or is it that the X-ray machines and stuff make it easier to see the ghosts?”

  “I haven’t the foggiest. We got some cool EVPs up here, you know?” Sometimes things just happened. At least that was Blaine’s experience.

  “Cool.” Flynn finally let go of his hand and prowled around the room, lighting the way with his flashlight, curious about everything.

  This room was the least interesting visually—a series of large empty rooms—but they’d heard the best stuff up here.

  Flynn walked along, taking everything in but not venturing too far from Blaine. “It really is spooky.”

  “Yeah.” Blaine found this pretty low-key, though, comparatively.

  Flynn finally shrugged. “I don’t feel anything but the general creepiness, but that could be because it is pretty creepy, and that’s superseding everything.”

  “It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and some kickass echoes, huh?” Blaine closed his eyes, the dust in the air tickling his nose and making him want to sneeze.

  “Uh-huh. I can’t wait to get up here with the instruments, see what we can measure.”

  “We’ll have to try the laughter thing too. Just because it’s new.”

  Flynn chuckled. “Who’d have thought me being a goofball would lead to a new thing?”

  “You’d be surprised. Half of what we get is accidental.”

  “Damn. That is going to drive me crazy. On the other hand, a lot of great discoveries were accidents. One thing discovered while someone was trying to invent something completely different. Plus you learn more by failing than you do by succeeding. A lot of people don’t know that about science. About how important failure really is.” Flynn was clearly passionate about the subject. Blaine could hear it in his voice.

  “In our line of work, failure just means a bad night on film.”

  “But that gives us something to go on for next time. I tell you, failure is a good thing. You’d never have any staying power, anyway, if it always went your way. You’ve learned to be patient and to not expect a dozen ghosts doing the safety dance when you show up.”

  “You’re something else, man. This is going to be fun.” Blaine believed that too. There was something about Flynn’s raw enthusiasm that made Blaine ready to work.

  “Is there anything else we should check out?” Flynn asked.

  He thought about taking Flynn to room 204, then thought better of it. “No, this ought to be good enough for now. For tonight.”

  “You hesitated there for a second. Are you sure?” Flynn touched his arm again, little tingles spreading out from the spot where they connected.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure. We’ll just focus here tonight.”

  “Okay, cool.” Flynn kept holding on to him as they headed back down the pitch-black hall to the stairs in the middle of the building. “I feel like laughing again to see if the echo is still there.”

  “Not until we have a recorder up here, man. That’s too good to waste.”

  “Okay, okay. No laughing.” There was laughter in Flynn’s voice, though, as they headed carefully down the stairs.

  “Shut up.”

  “You guys okay?” Will called.

  Flynn jumped about a foot at Will’s voice, his hand tightening on Blaine’s arm. “Fuck, that scared the shit out of me.”

  “Remember, you’re not alone, huh? Will, Jase, Darnell—” He paused. “—me.”

  “I hadn’t forgotten about you,” Flynn murmured, and this time the squeeze to his arm was clearly deliberate.

  “No?” That felt too good, honestly.

  “Not at all. And not just because we’re together.”

  As they got to the bottom of the steps, Will came into view, glaring. “You should have answered when I called out. I was about to head up to make sure.”

  “Yes, Mother.” Blaine let his eyes roll, all dramatic and playful. “You scared?”

  “No,” Will growled. “But what if something had happened to the two of you?” Will gave them each a walkie-talkie. “Next time take these with you.”

  “Promise.” He clipped it onto his waistband. “We were together.”

  “Good. Nobody goes anywhere alone.” Will wagged his finger at them. “And call me mother all you like, but we haven’t lost anyone yet, and that’s down to looking out for each other. Come on. I’ve got everything set up. We should test everything, and I’m betting you want to explore a room or two before we head out for the night.”

  “God yes. Let’s not waste the time we have.”

  “Better come and check the equipment, then, and Darnell and I will start filming.”

  They followed Will back to the lobby where everything was set up, Flynn immediately checking the EMF readers and the thermal cameras.

  Darnell and Jason were there, fooling with the cameras and double-checking the two laptops. They had a couple of new thermal recorders that were motion sensitive.

  “Where do you want to set these bad boys up?” Jason asked.

  “Let’s put one in the ER and one up in”—room 204—“X-ray.”

  “Got it.” Jason headed out.

  Will growled after him, “Take Darnell with you, and have you got your walkies with you?”

  Darnell rolled his eyes, showed Will his walkie-talkie, and headed off after Jason.

  “Okay, who’s playing cameraman for me today?”

  “Me.” Will raised his hand like he was in school. “That way Flynn can run the EMF and the infrared and the two of you can focus on the Paranormal Activity.” Will always said it so that you could tell he was capitalizing it.

  “Are you comfortable with being on camera, Flynn?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine. Besides, you’ll get most of the attention from the thing.” Flynn pocketed a pack of extra batteries. He gave Blaine a happy grin. “Ready and reporting for duty.”

  “Rock on.” Blaine made sure his hair was smooth and braided, his shirt clean. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  The light from the camera came on, and Blaine put on his best smile. “Welcome to the Eugene Thurston Memorial Hospital. I’m Blaine Franks, and with my buddies Flynn, Will, Jase, and Darnell, we’re the Supernatural Explorers.”

  Flynn waved when Blaine got to him but didn’t add anything as he already had the EMF reader turned on and was checking the readings.

  “Let’s do this thing!” Blaine said, and they headed in.

  Flynn was all business now—no more rush of questions, his focus on the results he was getting with the EMF reader.

  “We’re going to check out the ER first. It was the scene of a mass shooting, shortly before the hospital closed, where eight people were killed.” Blaine knew the more grisly details they could give, the better people would like it. “A shooter came in—Dave Underwoo
d—looking for his ex-wife, Maryann. He ended up killing her and many of her coworkers, along with two patients and himself. Tonight we’re going to try and communicate with them.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Flynn grinning and bouncing. It felt good having that positive and enthusiastic energy there. It made Blaine feel like maybe they weren’t wasting their time on a fool’s errand.

  They made their way down the hall, stopping about halfway along when Flynn made a noise. “We’re getting a high reading, here by the admin offices.” Flynn moved the EMF reader around, and Blaine peered over his shoulder at the device. The needle was jumping like crazy.

  “Let’s try an EVP.” Blaine turned on the recorder. “Is there anyone here with us? Maryann? Are you here?”

  Flynn switched on the infrared camera and aimed it in the direction where the EMF reader had pinged. “Ask again,” Flynn suggested quietly.

  “Maryann? Are you here with us? Do you have anything you’d like to say to us?” Blaine paused, giving the spirits a chance to respond. “Anything at all?”

  There was a lot of creaking and groaning, but it sort of sounded more like the building settling than noises a spirit might make.

  “You feeling anything?” Flynn asked, almost whispering.

  “Not so far. But let’s keep running the EVP, huh?” Blaine closed his eyes, took a deep breath. “Is there anyone who wants to speak to us? Just talk into the recorder.”

  Will and Flynn stayed silent. In fact, Blaine could almost hear them holding their breath.

  Then Flynn spoke quietly. “I’ve got something on the infrared. Just shadows, but they suddenly appeared, and they’re moving toward you.”

  Fuck. “If you need to speak to me, I’m right here.”

  “One of them is responding to you. Keep talking.” Flynn took a couple of steps in his direction. Blaine didn’t know if it was for his benefit or Flynn’s.

  “Tell us what you need to say. Speak right into the recorder.”

  Flynn nodded and pointed to the ghostly figure on the infrared camera. It didn’t look like a person, but it was vaguely human shaped—the right height and width, even if there was no definition to it.