“Holy fuck, did anyone else hear that?” I hissed, glancing over at Sully but he shook his head. “It said, ‘my heart’. Maybe a boat name? His love?”
“Which boat is yours? Can you move to it?” Sully called out. I held up the camera to give the Darklings a good view as we watched the figure disappear, then reappear still within the shot on a nearby plank. All that was left of the boat he remembered.
I kept the camera lifted in front of me so I could watch him as I slowly approached. He flickered away when I was only a few short feet from him/it, and I handed the camera over to Sully. Crouching down I brushed my hand over the weathered wood. After nearly dying and waking up with this power, it was easy to be sucked into past memories. It could be something as simple as a happy moment to one as heartbreaking as a death. High emotions and intense situations imbued certain objects with the residual energy, and that was where my ability came in. It was stupid to test my psychometry with an audience and without my guys there, but once again my curiosity got the best of me. At least Sully knew a bit about it from our earlier conversation.
This might end badly, I thought to myself as I pushed my hand onto it fully. This time it wasn’t a full picture of the past, just snippets. A large man gripping his chest, falling to the boat floor. The waves carrying him to shore and right into the rocks. His boat sank, his body along with it, but he was already gone.
“Damn,” I whispered. “When I asked him if he could tell us what happened, he said ‘my heart’. What if he meant hisactualheart?” Sully studied me and I saw understanding click in his brain. He knew I was telling him without being obvious, what I saw. “I can’t imagine being out on this sea alone and having a heart attack.”
“His last sight might have been the stars and that’s a pretty peaceful way to go,” Sully countered. “I wish I could see them still. Losing your long distance sight completely sucks.”
“Sully, don’t forget your camera,” Ryker said into the comms.
Sully reached up and brushed his fingers over the comm. “You know, Ryker. It’s super creepy that you’re listening to our conversation. I thought Lincoln was the group Daddy Dom.”
“Well, Darklings,” I said with a snort. “I’d say he’s going to fit in just fine around here. Don’t you?”
“You’re welcome,” Ryker snarked. “It helps to know what they’re saying,” Ryker said. “In fact, I just signed us up for a group Q and A tomorrow afternoon.”
“Great,” Sully deadpanned. “Now shut up so we can work.”
“Come on, we’ve got a lot more beach to cover,” I said as I stood up and scanned the beach around me one more time. It seemed that Sully left that accident with more than just trauma… he could see the dead.
* * *
Sully
The old fishermanwatched us as we continued down the beach. His pale eyes felt like they were digging into me but I couldn’t hear a single word he said. The man’s mouth moved like he was telling his life story, but my gift apparently didn’t work that way. At this point, I couldn’t even guess what I was capable of. Sometimes I could see them, sometimes hear, but not usually both. Part of me wondered if I was just holding myself back out of uneasiness.
The first time I’d realized something was different, it was at the hospital after the accident. I’d nearly died out on the field and my eyes weren’t the only injury I’d sustained, although the rest had healed with a ton of physical therapy and rest. But nearly dying was the number one way to connect to the paranormal realm, even if you didn’t want to.
I was still delirious with pain when the nurse came in to check my vitals and I made a joke about her vintage nurse gear. She never spoke, which was strange. Then the real nurse came in and upped my sedation, assuming I was hallucinating. I’d agreed with her until I was home, sharing my parent’s basement with my younger cousin who died when he was five and I was seven.
He was my baseline. The one ghost I could communicate with easily, but we were obviously connected by our past. I could see and hear him when he was around. Other encounters would happen occasionally, from a ghost following someone around the store, to hearing someone talk to me at the military cemetery but not being able to fully make it out. This wasn’t exactly something I could turn on and off or force to work so I could study it. But if there was anything I learned about the paranormal, it was that the supernatural world is complicated and chaotic, a mystery in its own right. I’d never probably have a definitive grasp of this.
This investigation with Brea and the guys could really help with that. Note to self, thank Olivia for being a pushy sister, later.
Brea and the guys were the first people to know about what I could do. If not for her idea for the infrared, I’d have felt like a liar in front of the Darklings. My words had slipped out in surprise and she’d taken it like a champ. Then again, like Ben said, we’re all considered freaks. I didn’t honestly care if the viewers thought I was making it up, her evidence proved otherwise. It was almost as validating as everyone seeing the activity last night. I felt a bit less alone in all this.
“You with me still?” Brea hissed. That was a hard question to answer but I settled on half-truths. Fake it until you make it, right?
“I’m good now, even if he’s still following us to see where we go,” I whispered back. We needed a distraction before the viewers thought we lost our minds. “So, I believe Ben and Ethan are up at the lighthouse. I say we work our way down the shore now.”
The ghost’s lips had finally stopped moving. My hope was that Brea’s glasses had picked up some good audio but I wasn’t standing around forever.
“Good idea. Maybe we can scare them. If you haven’t heard Ethan scream, then you’re missing out,” she joked as she started down the beach. For someone as short as she was, the girl could move fast. I had to work to keep up with her in the wet sand.
“So, Darklings, while we’re heading down the shore, let’s talk about the lighthouse. The Keeper and his family that ran it suddenly disappeared eighty years ago. Food left on the table, everything undisturbed. They just simply vanished. We aren’t able to back it up with evidence, but we think the father visited us our first night, so when we finally get back to the ship… maybe we can get some answers on what really happened to them.”
“Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been pretty. How does a family of four just disappear from the world?”
She swept her hand out toward the town. “There’s a lot of death in this town. Stories of the widow screaming for her man lost at sea, all those shipwrecks. Maybe the wrong kind of spirit was drawn here. I’ve seen dark spirits trap innocents,” she said solemnly. “This might be the same. We’re so early on, but like I said… this place has an unmatched energy.”
“Do you feel like we’ll be here a month and barely able to cover half of it?” I mused. The idea of not turning over every damn leaf here bugged me. There were too many mysteries pulling at us and I wanted answers.
“Yes,” she agreed, then dropped down into a crouch behind a large rock. “Look up there.” She pointed up to the edge of the cliff. I used the infrared to spot two figures sitting on the edge of the cliff above. Likely, where Ben and Ethan were sitting. They had the spirit box between them, the white noise of it disturbing the serenity of the night. Though the crash of waves rivaled it in volume.
She searched the sand around us and picked out the largest pebbles she could find. With a handful of makeshift ammo she started to throw, her accuracy surprisingly good. The gasps above were carried in the soft sea breeze and I had to bite back my laughter.