Page 51 of No Surrender
“The best damn place to scare yourself shitless a teenager could ask for,” Gordon replied. “This area—the back part of the lobby—was made to look like a rocky cliff at night. You climb stairs that feel like you were going up a mountain, and at the top are the caves.”
“All the while, there’s lots of sound effects and some weird lighting,” Gordon went on. “The jump scares started in the caves over there,” he said when they reached the top of the stairs, pointing toward large tunnels that looked like a movie set. “The tunnels were a short maze with some creepy alcoves. On the other side, you got to the front door of the ‘castle.’ A ‘butler’ met you and guided you from room to room—standard haunted house stuff, but not as gory as what they do now.”
“Of course, the big reveal was the coffin room and Dracula,” Gordon told them with a chuckle. “Dracula had a whole script, and then the lights went out, you saw red eyes and heard a bat squeaking, and suddenly the butler was hurrying you out the ‘secret door,’ and that was the end of the show. The back staircase came down to a hallway that led around to the gift shop and snack bar.”
“Wow,” Vic said, trying to imagine what the scene had looked like in its heyday. With all the lights on, it was easy to see the black fabric draped to hide the scaffolding and structure. Neither the performance lights nor soundboard was active, just the glaring fluorescents used by housekeeping and maintenance. “Kennywood was never like this.”
Vic glanced at Simon, trying to read his expression. “What are you picking up on? Are the victims’ ghosts here?”
Simon nodded, intent with concentration. “They’re hanging back. Dante’s here too, vouching for us.”
Ross looked at Vic. “Dead Dante the privateer?”
Vic shrugged. “He’s family. What can I say?”
Simon cocked his head, listening to a conversation only he could hear. “We’re the only living people upstairs. But—”
“What?” Vic’s intuition tingled.
“Thompson’s ghost knows we’re here. The victims are afraid of him. He doesn’t want to give them up,” Simon replied.
“They’ve been trapped here with his ghost all this time?” Ross’s tone made his revulsion clear.
“That’s what Dante says.”
Vic knew he had to trust Simon and let him take the lead, but he feared the risk his fiancé faced to rid them of the malicious spirit.
“Dante will lead me to the bodies. You’re going to have to talk me through how not to fuck up the evidence.”
“You handle the ghost. We’ll deal with the rest,” Vic promised.
Simon stepped in front and headed into the “caves,” carrying the shotgun. The bright overhead lights revealed imperfections that would be hidden by theatrical lighting.
The textured cave walls were painted to look like stone. Fully illuminated, Vic could see where mechanical monsters had been hidden behind boulders to pop up as unsuspecting visitors triggered hidden buttons under the flooring.
Inside the cave, the still air smelled of dust and old rot. Vic wondered how anyone could have overlooked the odor. Not as pungent as a freshly decomposing corpse, but a lingering foulness that lodged in the hindbrain and warned of death.
Simon was murmuring to himself—or probably, to Dante. Vic still hadn’t gotten used to his fiancé channeling a spirit and having the ghost inside his consciousness. He trusted Dante because Simon did and because Dante had saved their lives more than once. Vic didn’t know if he’d ever get used to having a ghost around, no matter how many movie nights they spent together.
“What’s up?” Vic asked Simon quietly.
“Gabriella gave me a spell to lift illusions in case Thompson used any mojo to hide things.”
They walked on, and Simon stopped and pointed to several spots on the fake cave walls. “Do you see the sigils?”
Vic frowned. Several red symbols marked along the sides of the passageway pulsed with an inner glow. “What are they?”
“Ed—the retired reporter—found that mark at each place a woman went missing, but he was afraid to tell the cops. Travis emailed me this morning—it’s a binding mark. Thompson used it to make it hard for his target to leave the place. I’m guessing each one is personalized to one of the ghosts to make sure they stay here.”
“He locked them in?”
“Yeah. The power may have faded over the years—which might be why I saw a couple of the ghosts elsewhere. But I’m betting that their spirits couldn’t move on to the afterlife.”
Simon paused and closed his eyes, then whispered something. The red sigils faded and disappeared.
“What did you do?” Ross asked, reminding Vic they had an audience.
“I used a cleansing litany to dispel evil. Wasn’t sure it would work, but I’m glad it did,” Simon replied.
