The sound grasped my chest.
The giggle again. From right in front of me.
Then a pause. Silence, and after a beat or two, the quiet noise of our breath coming out slowly. The camera motor whirred.
The giggle appeared again, now from the other end of the hall.
“Are you recording this?” Dex whispered, meaning the EVP.
“Uh huh.” We both kept still. The giggle floated in and out. It sounded a lot like the one I had heard in the bathroom, the one belonging to Abby, but I couldn’t be sure. Did it matter in the end? I thought in this case, it might.
There was a bit more of a pause. Enough for me to straighten up and exhale loudly, not caring if it rattled the mic. I was feeling faint and dizzy and getting water seemed to be the most important thing.
“I think I need some-” I started to say but was cut off by a howling, deafening peal of laughter that came from the dark end of the hall and rushed toward us until it was coming from every direction, surrounding Dex and me. It was like we were trapped inside a cell of noise.
I waved my flashlight around wildly, trying to pinpoint something, anything, but there was nothing. Just Dex, looking more scared than usual, and the dust that was swallowing us.
“Are you getting anything?” I yelled above the laughter. It penetrated my ears and agitated the insides of my head.
He shook his head and fiddled with the camera.
And then as abruptly as it began, the laughter stopped. The silence sounded strange.
“Holy shit,” I breathed out.
Dex didn’t say anything, just continued to flip through his settings. I was about to ask him what he was doing when…
RATTLE.
At the end of the hall, a clanking, rattling sound, like someone was sliding a chain lock across. It was loud, metallic, echoing ominously in the depths.
Then it stopped and was followed by the slow CREAK of a door opening. Someone was coming out of one of the cells.
Once again, I felt nothing but fear and total, paralyzing terror. Self-defense wouldn’t make a lick of difference. I wanted to run, run away now. And fast.
I turned around to do so but Dex actually took a step toward the sound. I flashed the light on him.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “Let’s go!”
“Put that light away!” he hissed.
I couldn’t believe that after all he feared, he was walking toward the sound. And he thought I was the brave one.
He walked slowly down the hallway, eyes on the camera screen, which I could now see was in infrared mode.
I felt torn. I wanted to run but I didn’t want to leave him. I sighed, gathered up what little rope of courage I had, and followed him.
I looked at the screen. It showed way more of the hallway than my flashlight did. The infrared technology was adept at cutting through the atmospheric disturbances. It was grainy but you could still see most of the hall and the doors. They all looked closed, thank God.
Dex stopped walking and I did too. I was behind him now and felt the unknown nipping at my back. I put my hand to his waist and held it there, hoping it would bring relief to both of us.
I wanted to whisper in his ear that we should go but I couldn’t bring myself to talk. Something was showing up on the infrared.
At the very top of the screen, two faint yellow marks appeared. Two more appeared a bit below it. And two more below that. They were footprints. The outline of heels and toes.
Bare footprints.
Coming toward us.
I looked forward and was about to shine the light on whatever it was but Dex sensed this, held out his arm and pushed me behind him. We were both too afraid to speak but I knew what he was thinking. Either the direct light would scare whatever it was away.
Or it would show us what it was.
The footsteps continued and then stopped about a yard away. A strange, thick hush of air and silence enveloped us. It felt like my ears needed to pop. We both waited, crushed by the atmospheric pressure, disoriented and eyeing the screen for the footsteps to continue.
A cold, pointy finger touched the back of my neck and trailed down my spine.
I screamed. So loud.
I jumped on spot, away from the wayward hand and leaped forward into Dex.
He instinctively put his arms around me, camera in hand and all, and I buried myself into him as much as I could, trying to control my screams and the urge to vomit.
“What happened?” he cried out. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t find my breath. “OK, come on.”
He took me under his arm and toward the door to the stairwell, putting me inside and shutting us in. It was ice cold again. He walked us into the corner of the landing, just beside the door and held me for a few minutes while I tried my hardest to gain some control of my lungs and my heart.
“Something just touched me,” I mumbled into him. “Ran its finger down my spine. From my neck to my lower back.”
Dex sighed loudly. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. This went on for a very long minute. I just kept myself huddled into his body, afraid for my life.
Finally he said, “You know what. There’s no reason I can’t do this episode by myself. You don’t need to be on camera for this. I think you should call it a day.”
I pulled back and looked up at him. I could barely see his outline in the dark hallway, the only light from the camera and flashlight.
“You want me to leave?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I don’t like this. Don’t like how vulnerable you are. I’ll walk you out. Leave you with Ratchett. Or in the car. Then I’ll finish up and –
“No, Dex,” I told him. “Forget it. I’m not leaving you here with…her. And I am definitely not hanging out with Roundtree or in the car by myself.”
“But-”
“I said no. That’s not how this works and you know it. Either we do this together or we leave together. There is either us…or nothing at all.”
I was actually quite surprised I said that. But it was true. We were no good on our own. Only together did things make any sense.
He took one of his hands away from my side and slowly, deliberately scratched his chin. The sound of the hairs bristled in the space. I could tell he was licking his lips, maybe chewing on them. Thinking it all over.
Then he placed his hand on my face. It was gentle but the touch startled me in the dark. He rubbed his thumb lightly on my cheekbone. Back and forth, smoothly. Softly. He moved back in, closer to me, so my chest was against his chest. His arm around my back tightened, squeezing me. I sensed his face coming closer.
I was out of breath again.