Page 8 of Chasing Ghosts
“Uh, guys…one of the cameras in Room Five just went out.”
“What the hell?” I set that camera up myself.
I take off for the room with Tray right behind me. Once I get there, we find the camera has been knocked over and the battery is completely dead. After I've set the camera back up and I'm sure it's working, we find the room empty. There's no reason for the camera to have fallen. None at all. I send Cori and Roxie to the top floor to Room Twelve to do an EVP session as we watch them on the camera we’ve set up in that room.
“This was Jebidiah Ander’s room when the house and island were owned by the Red Hand Cult. Cori and I are going to try to do an EVP…,” she holds the voice recorder up, “batteries are dead. I just put new batteries in this an hour ago.”
I’m watching them to give them another pair of eyes, but also to keep an eye on Cori, who looks pale and a little scared on screen. That snake of a producer was right; she does look good on camera. I can see how she would appeal to people, making them want to watch what happens next.
Once Roxie has the recorder fixed, she starts asking questions.
“I’m Roxie, and this is Cori, and we’re just here to ask you some questions. We can hear you if you speak into this box I’m holding.”
“Did the room just get colder?” Cori asks, but Roxie is the one who shivers.
“Yeah, like a lot colder.”
“Is Mr. Ander here?”
Cori’s eyes get bigger, and she shifts like she might hear something the fucking camera isn’t picking up on. I check the temp in that room, and it has dropped ten degrees since they started.
“Was this your room when you lived here?”
Again, Cori looks like she might be listening to something no one else can hear.
“What do you want us to know? What do you want to tell us so we can…?”
Cori screams and jumps closer to Roxie while looking behind her, “I thought…I thought something…something touched me.”
Shit. I could have laid bets on this happening. I press the button on my walkie. “Okay, Roxie, you two come on down. I want Ripley and Theo in there asking questions next.”
Cori isn’t a paranormal investigator. She doesn’t understand what she’s doing, and she’s going to be jumping at every little thing. It might make for good television, but it isn’t really where I want to take the show. I don’t want it to be constant screaming and some unseen thing touching someone, but it can’t be proven. I don’t want to sensationalize this; I want to prove it happens and answer the question of why.
“What the hell? Why did you pull us out of the room, Mac?” Roxey comes right for me. “We didn’t even get to listen to the EVPs before you called us down.”
I meet her glare for glare. “If you really want to know, I didn’t think Cori was handling it very well.”
“What?! What are you even saying? She was doing amazing, and we were getting responses, the temperature change, the faulty batteries.”
“She was freaking out over every little thing, Roxie. You can see it on her face. She was freaking out.”
“I think you were right when you wanted to kick her off the boat before we even left for the island.”
A small gasp reaches me seconds before I’m turning to stare down Ripley. “I thought I told you to get upstairs with Theo.”
She just gives me a feline grin and walks away. The damage is already done, no matter what I say or do to her, and she knows it. When I turn back around, it’s to find Cori -and Roxie- gone. God damn it! This is just drama I don’t fucking need, and it takes away from the research, which just pisses me off even more.
“I’m guessing you didn’t want me to shoot that, right Boss?”
I turn all my ire onto the only person left with me, Tray. He gives me a light smile and lowers the camera.
“Right.”
If I could, I would walk back what I said about Cori, but I stand by the fact that she shouldn’t be here. She’s too delicate and good to be sitting around trying to contact whatever is left behind of some sick fuck who murdered so many people without the barest hint of remorse.
“Uh, Mac…you’re going to want to see the footage of the girls in the room.”
“Why?” I’m short-tempered as fuck now, so it comes out as more of a growl than actual words.
