Page 33 of Into the Dark

Adrienne stepped back and observed their set up. The two mirrors sat about five feet apart, facing one another, a candle in front of each. “Okay, Nigel, this is how it’s going to work. We’re going to turn off most of the lights, then take our places in front of the mirrors. We’ll light our candles and look into the mirrors. If we’re lucky, we’ll see something.” She looked at him. “Ready?”

He suddenly became aware of the vast bulk of the asylum at his back, as though it were a presence watching.

Waiting.

Throat dry, he nodded. “Let’s do this.”

CHAPTER

TWELVE

After dousingthemselves in bug spray in case of ticks, Oscar and Chris made their way past the asylum, through the long grass and overgrowth, to the cemetery. The ratcheting song of crickets and the peep of spring frogs filled the night, falling quiet in their immediate surroundings, picking back up once they moved on. So far away from a living town, the sky was remarkably free of light pollution, so the stars blazed in their thousands, obscured only by a few threads of wispy cloud.

The cemetery was nothing but a vast open field, slowly being retaken by the forest. A few headstones showed here or there, but for the most part, the dead had no markers to remind the living where they lay. Oscar took a deep breath, centering himself, before trudging through the long grass to the nearest one. He’d hoped to make out a name, but decades of weather had worn away the identity of whoever slept below just as surely as if there had been no stone at all.

“Let’s film the intro here,” he said to Chris.

Chris got into position for the shot they wanted, then signaled Oscar to start.

Oscar laid a hand on the grave marker, his expression somber. “We’re here at the Howlston Lunatic Asylum cemetery,”he told the camera. “According to reputable accounts, some twenty-thousand people died within the asylum walls. The lucky few were claimed by their relatives. But for the majority, their families were too ashamed, too far away, or too poor. Instead, they were laid to rest here. A handful of graves like the one I’m standing beside have markers, paid for by relatives who couldn’t afford to transport a body but still wanted some dignity for their deceased loved ones. Thousands more sleep in the unmarked earth.”

They could intercut this with drone footage shot during the daylight, to give viewers a feel for the scope of the cemetery. Oscar walked a few feet, Chris paralleling him, and looked around. “Many of them don’t sleep alone, however. For the sake of efficiency, deep graves were dug, with bodies stacked on top of one another until the hole was filled. Some of the graves contain four or five bodies, their bones intermingled within the earth.”

Did that sound too grim? Whatever; he’d worry about it in editing. “Cemeteries aren’t generally haunted, as our long-time viewers know,” he went on. “Hauntings tend to occur at the site of the death, or in places the spirit has a strong emotional attachment to. However, the nature of the burials, and the fact that they took place on the asylum grounds where the deceased drew their last breaths, increases the chance we’ll find something here.”

He signaled Chris he was done with the formal intro. “What next?” they asked.

Oscar took out his EMF reader. “Considering how much ground we have to cover, this could be our best bet for finding anything.”

“Can you call out to them?” Chris tapped their head. “You know, with your psychic abilities?”

“Let’s stick with medium—psychic makes me sound like I have an 1-800 number and advertise on late-night television.”The question was a good one, though. Too bad Oscar didn’t have an answer. If he could have just learned more, gotten more experience, before coming here…

Well, he wasn’t going to walk around beaming thoughts into the air and opening himself up to anything that wanted to come in. He’d been possessed once before, and had no desire to do anything that might lead to it happening again. Instead, he held out the EMF reader as he walked and said, “If anyone is here, come closer and touch the device in my hand.”

Nothing happened. They kept going, Oscar calling out invitations every minute or so. The EMF reader remained dark, and after a while, Oscar’s heart began to sink. This had seemed like a good idea, but now that the time had come, it looked like they were wasting time wandering around an empty field.

“Hey,” Chris said suddenly. “What’s that over there?”

The EMF reader blipped.

“Now, for those who don’t remember,” Adrienne said to the static cam, “mirrors can act as portals for ghosts.”

“Yeah, like that time at the Kehoe House in Georgia,” Zeek jumped in. “That was a crazy investigation, so if you haven’t seen the video, be sure to click the link below!”

“Exactly,” Adrienne agreed. “That time, I was using a single mirror with a candle—what’s known as the Richfield Approach. But tonight, we’re stepping up our game.”

“That’s right, Adrienne! We’re using two mirrors facing each other to make amega portal!”

Adrienne rolled her eyes for the camera. “It’s not called a mega portal, Zeek.”

“Well, it ought to be.”

Nigel was having a hard time not rolling his own eyes. Adrienne and Zeek clearly had their schtick down pat, and he had no doubt it was popular with less…serious minded…viewers. Personally, he preferred Oscar’s more measured approach.

Once they wrapped up their explanation for the camera, Adrienne gestured him over. “Here.” She handed him their shoulder cam. “Just keep an eye out and try to get multiple shots of both of us. We’ll edit and intercut as needed. Oh, and don’t drop the camera—it’s expensive.”

“I won’t drop it,” he said, annoyed.

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