You see us.
We all startled at the longer answer and Sully huffed out a laugh.
“I can,” he agreed. “Sometimes. It’s a new thing.”
Find.
“Who?” Brea asked quickly. “Your kids?”
Gone. Children.
“We heard your daughter on the beach. She said ‘she went mad’. She means your wife,” Brea offered.
Help. Stuck.
“You’re all stuck? At the house?” Sully asked. “Is that why you didn’t know your daughter was here?”
Here.
“Why couldn’t anyone find your bodies?” I asked. If they were all four here and their house left undisturbed, then where did the family of four disappear to?
Home.
The spirit box flared loudly after the last word finished. The white noise got to the point we all put our hands over our ears at the awful onslaught of noise. It cut off as quickly as it started and Ethan cursed, scrambling forward to shut off the device that was now smoking.
“Dammit, I liked that one,” he groaned as the acrid stench of burning wires and plastic filled the air.
“Ugh, I have to get out of here,” Brea groaned before she started coughing. “The dust and shit was bad enough. I need fresh air and a hit of my inhaler.” My heart stopped when I saw the door was now closed.Weren’t they keeping it open? What happened?
“Lincoln!” I called out as I rushed ahead to get the door open. No response. “Fuck. Come help me, guys. Stand back Brea, we don’t need you having an asthma attack.”
“Okay,” she reluctantly agreed before backing up. She said a quick goodbye to the Darklings, which was probably for the best.
Sully and Ethan joined me at the door, all three of us shoving on the door. Eventually it was pulled from our grip and Ryker was putting out a hand to help each one of us out of the narrow, steep stairway.
“You alright?” Lincoln asked as Brea came out with her inhaler in hand, shaking it and taking a breath of the medicine. She nodded as she held it before letting out a long breath.
“The spirit box got overloaded,” Ethan explained. “It fucked with her along with all that dirt down there.”
“Shit. I should have made you wear a mask,” Lincoln growled.
“I’m an adult,” she argued weakly. “But I think I’m out for the night. The ghosts win this one and we’ll still have plenty to look over tomorrow. Who’s with me tonight?”
“Me,” Lincoln said, glaring at the rest of us like we’d argue. When we didn’t, he led her away with a hand on her back. The rest of us followed a bit slower and kept Sully from tripping over anything. We all glanced around uneasily as we wound our way back to the ship.
We are definitely going to need backup.
ChapterNine
Brea
We’d only been at this for a few days and it had already given us more evidence than any other hunt ever had. There were a ton of audio clips, video of shadows moving, and physical objects floating in the air, even some footsteps. All in all the evidence was normal for us… just more than we could really handle. My brain felt like it might explode if I watched any more. Hell, I never expected to be scouring hours of video and audio footage again, yet here we were. And with a solid five hours a night… it was adding up fast.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I groaned as I slid the headphones off and tossed them on the table between us.
“Good. I was thinking the same thing. I’m taking Brea on a date. We need time away already,” Lincoln announced as he stood up and stretched.
“Group date?” Ethan asked hopefully but he was mainly joking.