I was given an EVP, to keep it attached to my belt and running the whole time. I knew the shit worked and I even had one of my own that we recorded Pippa’s voice on, but Maximus said our own equipment was probably inferior and possibly warped due to all the data we’d captured on it. Whatever.
“Now are we ready to go hunt some ghosts?” he asked us like the douchiest substitute teacher, trying to sound commanding and relatable at the same time.
“Fuck you,” I said, while Perry sighed.
She reluctantly led the way up the weed-strewn path to the house, my camera on her, Maximus and his camera behind us. The tall grass waved in the wind and tickled my legs, scaring the crap out of me already. The porch swing swung back and forth, as did two rocking chairs. Surely the wind wasn’t strong enough to make those move on their own…
“Are you filming that?” Maximus said from behind me, once again nearly making me shit my pants.
“Yes, jackass,” I sneered. Man, listening to the playback of this was going to be fun.
We climbed up the steps and stopped. The two rockers chairs slowed, then stopped moving entirely.
“Are you getting anything on the reader, Perry?” Maximus roared over my shoulder.
“Jesus, man,” I said, glaring at him. “Do you have to be so loud?”
He gave me a half-smile. “Sorry, I’m excited.”
“Well go be excited somewhere else, and preferably not behind me where I can’t see what you’re doing.”
“I can see two cold spots on the reader,” Perry said, squinting at it, perplexed.
“Really?” Maximus yelped and basically pushed me aside to get to her. He looked down at it and grinned. “Well, I’ll be damned. It’s one thing to know there are two men sitting right there, it’s another to see it.”
“Wait…wait…wait,” I said, throwing my arms in the air. “What?”
“Yeah, what?” Perry asked. “You can see them?”
He nodded. “It’s a gift.”
“We have gifts too,” Perry said defensively. I think it’s the first time I ever heard her get defensive over it, like she was almost proud.
“Well, what are they doing?” I asked. To say it was unnerving that they were there and neither Perry nor I could see them was an understatement. Maybe Maximus was pulling our leg.
“They’re looking at us and shaking their heads,” he said. “They look old…overalls…grey hair.”
“Black or white?” Perry asked.
“Black. Probably from the 1940s. Must have lived here back then.”
“You are full of shit,” I said to him.
His smile dropped and he looked at me. “I can assure you, I am not. I can see things you guys obviously can’t.”
“Why are they shaking their heads?” Perry asked. “Are they warning us?”
“Could be,” he mused, studying them…or absolutely nothing. Or splintered old rocking chairs. “They don’t mean us any harm. If anything they’re trying to tell us something.”
I folded my arms but kept the camera rolling. “Hey, you’re the ghost whisperer, you fill us in.”
He frowned then jerked back. “They’re gone.”
Perry sucked in her breath. “He’s right. Look.” She showed me the gadget. The blue shapes were gone.
“Guess the dead don’t want to talk to you either,” I told him, slapping him hard on the shoulder.
He glared at me and then motioned for Perry to continue inside. The door to the house was boarded up with rotten wood in an X across the window, but the knob was still there. Perry tried to put her hand on it then snapped it away, shaking out her fingers.
“Is it cold?” Maximus asked.
She shook her head and shot us an embarrassed look. “Spider webs. Ugh.”
I didn’t know if she ever saw the day coming where she reacted more strongly to a spider web than she did to some old dead guys, but here it was.
I leaned over and turned the knob, tempted to sneak a kiss on her neck. Then I remembered Maximus was filming us for the show. Then I remembered I didn’t care and kissed her anyway.
She smiled, her eyes twinkling as she gazed up at me, and Maximus was clearing his throat in no time.
“Come on, let’s act professional here,” he drawled.
Yes, because the three of us were such old pros. The only reason we couldn’t compete in the ghost hunter Olympics.
I smiled to myself at my own little joke, but it didn’t take long before my smile faded. The moment we stepped into that house, everything changed. Whatever was on the porch, the old men, whether they did or didn’t exist, that was harmless. That was benevolent energy. Inside, in the dark, coffin-like air, the absence of sound, the house felt like it was holding a hundred ugly secrets, and the moment we walked through the door, through that threshold, it had already begun conspiring to hold us a secret as well.