Cemetery Tours

by Smith, Jacqueline

  “What did he want?” he asked, taking a long swig straight out of the carton.

  “How many times have I asked you not to do that? It’s disgusting,” Kate griped. Gavin ignored her and took another drink. Kate rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her computer.

  “So you’re not gonna answer my question?”

  “What question?”

  “What did Michael want?”

  “Oh, that. He was just wondering how we were doing.” It was, of course, just her luck that the guy she’d been thinking about all week would ask her out the day she discovers everyone else in the building believes he’s somehow linked to all the creepy things that happen there.

  If it had just been Elise, that would be one thing. Kate could easily overlook the suspicions of one person who, to be honest, had seemed a little frazzled. Even her hair, the same color as the Weasley kids’ in the Harry Potter movies, stuck out in odd angles, like she’d run her hands through it one too many times. Probably out of frustration.

  But it wasn’t just Elise. Thirty minutes of Googling had disclosed dozens of reports and news articles of the “curse” of the Riverview Apartments’ Building 17. Most of the reports were the articles only found on local news sites, the kind that were normally read by a grand total of ten people, if that. But they told her what she needed to know. Nearly everyone who had lived in the building had, at one point, complained of technical difficulties, unexplained noises, and even some mysterious ailments. Mrs. Riggs had been quoted in a few, each time disputing claims of a curse.

  “There is not, nor has there ever been, anything malicious or dangerous about Building 17. Here at Riverview, we believe in putting our residents first and we’d never rent out an apartment that we believed to be anything less than suitable for comfortable habitation.”

  Reading her words, Kate couldn’t help but recall the enthusiasm with which Mrs. Riggs had presented the apartment. She recalled thinking that the old woman had been a little overambitious in her attempt to convince them that apartment #1724 was the home they’d been searching for. She’d even offered them a discount on rent. It wasn’t the nicest apartment they’d visited, but it was the best deal they could find. In the end, that was why they’d chosen Riverview. Now it all seemed incredibly suspicious.

  “So what, you didn’t invite him in or anything?” Gavin asked. “I thought you liked him.”

  “I do. But I’m busy and you’ve been sick so I figured it was best for everyone involved to just have a low-key kind of night.”

  “We have low-key kind of nights every night. And weren’t you complaining just the other night about your lack of social life?”

  “I wasn’t complaining, I was commenting.” That was bull. She’d totally been complaining. But at the time, it seemed justified. Most of her friends were either engaged or married and the ones who weren’t worked more than she did. Yeah, she’d had fun at the party last week, but the one guy she’d really looked forward to getting to know had since decided to ignore her. Well, until today anyway.

  “Right,” Gavin remarked and sat down next to her on the couch. “Wait, the TV’s not on? Are you feeling okay?” he asked and pressed a cold hand against her forehead. She swatted him away.

  “Stop.”

  “Is something bothering you, Kate?”

  “Yeah, you.”

  “I’m serious. What’s on your mind?”

  Kate hesitated. She desperately wanted to talk to someone about her encounter with Elise and what she’d learned about the building’s strange history. However, knowing how Gavin would react, she may have been better off keeping her thoughts and wonderings to herself.

  “It’s nothing really,” she began, choosing her words slowly and carefully. “I was just talking to our downstairs neighbor earlier this afternoon. It turns out that she and a lot of other people who’ve lived here... think that this building is cursed.” Gavin stared at her for what seemed like a full minute. Knew I shouldn’t have told him.

  “Cursed how?” he finally asked. She wished he could ask the question without sounding like he was humoring her.

  “Well, for Elise, it’s mostly been technical stuff and strange noises. But a lot of other people have had problems with things going missing, temperature fluctuations, one lady even said that they couldn’t have friends over because every time she had a guest, they’d end up getting sick. But she never got sick.”

  “Kate, you’re not seriously trying to tell me you believe in curses now.”

  “Everyone else who’s lived here certainly seems to,” Kate told him.

  “So what, because a few people had problems with their lights, you actually believe there’s a curse on this building?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Gavin!” Kate snapped, surprised by how irritated she suddenly felt. “All I know is that strange things have been happening for months now and I for one would love to know why! Maybe you don’t care why you’re sick all the time, but I do, and right now, I will take any explanation that I can get!” Kate closed her eyes and pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead.

  “Kate, I’m sorry. Is your head okay?”

  “My head is fine. I’m just frustrated,” she muttered. “I want to know why you can’t get better. I mean, even having a theory would be better than no clue at all.”

  “Yeah, but a theory that can’t possibly be proven is just as useless as no clue at all. Come on, Kate, you’re smart... ish. Smart enough to at least know that there is no such thing as curses.” Kate knew he was trying to lighten things up, but she wasn’t in the mood to joke around. Instead, she ignored him and resumed her Internet browsing. Gavin, realizing she wasn’t going to meet him halfway, sighed and said, “I’m going to heat up that leftover Chinese for dinner. You want any?”

  “No,” Kate replied.

  “Right, I forgot. You don’t eat leftovers.” Kate glared at him as he stood and made his way into the kitchen.

  An hour later, she was about ready to give up the search. She really wasn’t finding anything that she hadn’t already read. In fact, she was beginning to read the same articles over and over again. It was interesting, but unfortunately, she hadn’t found any sort of answers or closure. If anything, she felt more confused.

  As she was about to exit out of the server, however, one of the page’s recommended articles caught her eye.

  Riverview Spook: Local Woman Reports Encounter With Full Bodied Apparition Residing Inside “Cursed” Apartment.

  She could feel her curiosity spiking as she clicked on the link. It opened to reveal a short article a lot like the ones she’d read earlier.

  Mrs. Marjorie Hampton of Dallas didn’t believe in the supernatural before she moved to the Riverview Apartment Complex, located in North Dallas. However, a meeting with a ghostly entity quickly changed her mind.

  “I was in the kitchen, making dinner for my two boys, when suddenly, I heard a noise, like someone banging on the wall, coming from my bedroom. At first, I thought it was the boys, but then I noticed that they were both in the living room, glued to the television. I heard the noise again, so I grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen and went to investigate. I flipped on the light in the bedroom and that’s when I saw her. She was standing in the middle of the room, staring straight at me. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but then she just vanished.”

  Mrs. Hampton moved her family out of the apartment later that week, though she continued to pay rent up until her lease expired.

  “I didn’t want bad credit,” she says.

  Building 17 of the Riverview Apartment complex is notorious for the “curse” which residents claim is the cause of a variety of technical problems and unexplained illnesses associated with the building. However, the current tenants of Mrs. Hampton’s old apartment have reported no such difficulties.

  Kate’s mind was reeling. “I knew it,” she spoke mostly to herself.

  “Knew what?” Gavin asked, soundin
g remarkably disinterested.

  “This! This article! Look. This lady said she saw an apparition here in this building.” Kate leapt up off the couch and carried her laptop over to the kitchen table, where Gavin sat with his own computer.

  “A what?”

  “You were right. It’s not a curse. It’s a haunting! I told you!”

  “Kate, are you serious?” Gavin groaned. “I thought we talked about this.”

  “But it makes sense! On Cemetery Tours, they always talk about - ”

  “Please, do not start quoting that crap to me. If you want to convince me of anything, those clowns are the last people you should be referencing.”

  “But they talk about how ghosts use energy in order to manifest and to make noises and stuff. That would explain everything! It would even explain why you’ve been sick for so long.”

  “You think a ghost is making me sick?” Gavin deadpanned.

  “Well, the doctors can’t seem to come up with anything else.”

  “Kate. This is the last time I am going to have this conversation with you. There are no ghosts. There are no curses.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “Everyone knows that!”

  “Why are you getting so defensive?” Kate demanded. “You never used to get this upset before. And I came to you with some pretty ridiculous stuff.”

  “Because the last time you were this fixated on something, you were nine years old! You’re an adult now, Kate.”

  “I know that.”

  “Well you sure as hell don’t act like it.” For a split second, Kate wanted to hit him, but she knew that wouldn’t do either of them any good. Gavin must have seen how angry he’d made her because he sighed and held his hands up in mock defense. “Okay, you want to settle this?” He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out in a loud voice, “If there are any ghosts in this apartment, we are asking you to show yourself. Give us some sort of sign. Rattle the windows. Open the cupboards. Anything will do.” They stood in silence for a few seconds. Kate strained her ears for a creak, a footstep, anything. But there was nothing. Gavin rested his hands on his hips. “Well, look at that. Guess there’s no one here after all.”

  Unable to stomach the condescending smirk on her brother’s face, Kate closed her laptop and retreated into the bathroom for a long, hot shower. Maybe if she was lucky, Gavin would get abducted by aliens before she finished drying her hair.

  Chapter 7

  The next week was the Fourth of July. It fell on a Thursday, so Michael decided to take Wednesday and Friday off as well so he could spend the Fourth with his family. Every year, his mother and all his aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered at his grandmother’s lake house up at Lake Texoma. His grandmother had passed away nearly ten years earlier, but per her request, they’d kept the lake house in the family. She’d told Michael about a year or so after her death it was because she couldn’t stand the thought of someone else living there.

  Wednesday morning, he woke up early, packed a small suitcase that would last him two nights, and then, after locking his apartment, made his way down the stairs. He tried not to look at Kate’s door as he passed, but he still saw it out of the corner of his eye. He hadn’t seen nor heard from her since he’d tried to ask her to dinner the week before. Brink had offered to spy on her again, but Michael had told him not to. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean that it hadn’t happened.

  As he loaded his bag into the back seat of his car, he heard a door slam from up above. He glanced around and was stunned to see Kate, capering down the stairs, wearing a yellow swimsuit coverup and carrying a towel, a bottle of water, and a book. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail that bounced against the back of her neck as she descended.

  Before Michael had the chance to duck inside his car, she looked up and stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Hey,” Michael offered tentatively.

  “Hey,” she echoed and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “How are you?”

  “Not bad.”

  “Are things at the library still hectic?” she grinned. Michael smiled too. He was glad to have her teasing him again.

  “Yeah, sort of,” he replied. “How about you? How’s your job?”

  “As of right now, I don’t really have one. The lady who had hired us for the next week decided on Monday that we were incompetent and we didn’t have enough respect for her vision, so she let us go.”

  “She sounds like fun.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Kate told him. “I guess it all worked out for the best. If she’d kept us, I would have had to work today and Friday. Now, I get the whole week off.”

  “Do you have any plans for the Fourth?”

  “Just watching fireworks. We’ll probably have hamburgers or something beforehand.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “How about you?”

  “My family has a lake house up on Lake Texoma, so I’m going to spend today and tomorrow there. But I’ll be home on Friday morning.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized it sounded like he was assuring her that he’d be home soon, as though she were concerned that he wouldn’t be. Why did he always have to sound like such an idiot? Fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice, or if she had, she politely overlooked it.

  “I’m so jealous. I love lakes.”

  “I’m not a fan,” Michael admitted without thinking. For reasons he didn’t want to think about, lakes were usually crawling with restless spirits. The only ghost he didn’t mind was his grandmother, who preferred to spend all of her time sitting on her old porch swing and watching the sun rise and set and rise again over the water.

  “Really? But there’s so much to do. Swimming and kayaking and fishing...”

  Michael shrugged. “Lakes are dirty.”

  “Whatever,” Kate said flippantly. “Hey listen, I’m sorry I was kind of distant last week. I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

  “Oh no, I completely understand. I’ve... had stuff on my mind too,” he added lamely. “Everything’s okay, isn’t it? I mean, is Gavin alright?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate sighed. “He says he’s feeling better, and he does have days where he seems it, but he’s basically been on a downward spiral since his birthday party. I’m not even sure he should go to see the fireworks, but I know how much he wants to. And he’s been cooped up for so long. He really needs to get out.”

  Michael had never considered himself particularly astute, but he couldn’t help but feel there was something she wasn’t telling him.

  “Are you okay? I mean, it sounds like you’ve been under a lot of stress.”

  Kate shrugged. “I’m worried about Gavin, but that’s nothing new. I haven’t really been sleeping well, but I think it’s because I’m still getting used to the apartment.”

  “Are you still liking it here?”

  “Yeah. The apartment is great,” she said. Again, her answer sounded vague.

  “What is it?” Michael asked, hoping he wasn’t pushing her too far. She averted eye contact, like she was trying to decide whether or not to confide in him. Finally, she looked up at him.

  “If I ask you something, will you promise not to think I’m crazy?”

  “No - I mean yes! I - I mean,” he fumbled pathetically, “I mean I’d never think you were crazy.” Smooth.

  Thankfully, Kate didn’t seem at all fazed by his less than stellar people skills as she looked him in the eye and asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

  Michael had been anticipating a variety of strange questions, but for some reason, he hadn’t been expecting that. Rather than lie on the spot as he normally would have done, he froze up like a puddle in a snowstorm and felt all the blood drain from his face. While he wracked his brain for an appropriate response, a new voice, loud and irksome, broke the silence.

  “Of course he believes in ghosts! Doesn’t everybody?”

  “Oh no...” Michael muttered as a man wearing dark denim jeans, a black T-sh
irt, and an arrogant smirk sauntered over to them. Everything about him screamed “obnoxious,” from his preppy, dirty blonde hair that made him look like he was getting ready for a seventh-grade dance to his stupid green Converse sneakers that were probably at least ten years old by now.

  “How are you doing, Mikey?” he asked. Before Michael could tell him to get lost, Kate made a strange noise that sounded like a small dog with an upset stomach and dropped everything she was holding.

  “Oh my God, you’re Luke Rainer!” she exclaimed, her voice about ten pitches higher than it normally was. Michael stared at her in horror. Luke, on the other hand, heaved a sigh dripping with false modesty and self satisfaction.

  “Guilty,” he replied. Then, with a smug grin, he took her hand and kissed it. She squealed. Luke turned to Michael. “She’s cute. I like her.” Michael scowled at him. Of all the times he could come barging back into his life, of course Luke Rainer would choose to show up just as he was trying to make things right with Kate.

  “What do you want?”

  “I’m back in town for the Fourth and I thought that while I was here, I’d drop in and say hi to my buddy,” Luke answered.

  “Super,” Michael remarked lightly. Kate, on the other hand, gaped at him with wide, starstruck eyes.

  “You’re friends with Luke Rainer?!”

  “‘Friends’ is such a strong word...”

  “How could you not tell me?!” she demanded.

  “Because I didn’t think you’d know or care who he was!”

  “Oh Mikey, how you underestimate my extensive fan base.” Luke clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

  “Right, because ghost hunting shows are so mainstream, I should assume every pretty girl I meet has a secret shrine to you hidden away in her closet.”

  “Uh-oh, sounds like someone’s a little jealous,” Luke stated in an irritating sing-song voice before turning his attention back to Kate. “So what’s your name, Lovely?”

  “Kate. Kate Avery. And I love your show. I watch it all the time. You are just so wonderful,” she rambled, batting her eyelashes and gazing up at Luke like he was some sort of celestial being.