Another whisper was followed by another crash on the opposite side of the room, then the slamming of a door as the attic door closed us in.
“If we’re locked in again I’m going to be so mad,” I muttered. At this rate we’d already have to pick our way across the room.
“I hope the others are doing better than we are.”
* * *
Ryker
The momentI flipped through everyone’s feeds and cameras and back to Brea’s I noticed she was frozen. But it was the sound of the attic door slamming closed that had me putting down my headset and rushing to the door of the bedroom I’d claimed.
When my hand wrapped around the knob I jolted back, the ice crusting over the metal so cold it was painful.
“What the hell,” I said, glancing around and snatching up a throw blanket nearby to make a barrier and trying again. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it open. “Let me out!”
“Uh, Ryker?” Troy’s voice was shaky in my ear. “Why are the spirits yelling your name?”
“I don’t know, maybe because they’ve locked me in this room, and Brea and Ben in the attic,” I said back. “Someone come let us out, please.”
“On our way,” Troy promised. Lincoln and Ethan both agreed as well.
I stepped away from the door and tossed the cloth back on the bed, my eyes drifting to the set of five paintings hanging above it. A small black figure moved through them, one after the next. I watched in morbid fascination as it passed from the second and third picture before it started growing. By the time it stopped on the closest painting it turned, hollow eyes staring at me.
“Is this supposed to be scary?” I asked with a snort. Resorting to humor to cope with the fucked up moments was something I really needed to stop doing. These were not the ghosts to try and intimidate.
“Ryker, whatever you’re doing in there, stop!” Troy’s voice was a warning from the hall as they tried to get the door to budge.
While they dealt with breaking in here I glanced back to find the entire painting black now, two glowing red eyes the only distinguishable thing on it.
“Sully!” I spun around to the door at Troy’s panic, only to watch Sully bust through the door itself.
“What?” Sully asked. “If that ghost was going to harm Ryker I don’t give a fuck about this old fucking door.” Troy let out a startled laugh but didn’t argue. I was already shoving past the splintered wood to get out.
“Brea?”
“Lincoln’s on it,” Sully promised before we all heard a crash and he laughed. “Clearly we are on the same page.”
“Aw, you love me?” I teased.
“Sorry, you’re not my type,” he shot back. “You know, not dating a woman.”
I didn’t wait around for more banter, intent on getting upstairs. Lincoln had definitely followed Sully’s lead but he’d done a more thorough job of busting the door off the hinges.
“Remind me not to fuck with Lincoln,” I called out. Brea laughed but it was strained.
“What’s with all these ghosts locking people in lately?” she said. Her hand went protectively over her pocket and I knew right away she found something in that box of photos.
“They’re bored,” I joked.
“Alright Darklings,” she said. “We’re all safe and out of our rooms. Tune in for the live recording of our EVP session in just a few minutes.”
She clicked off the glasses and pushed them up so they rested in her hair.
“What’d you find?” I asked. She pulled a photo out of her pocket and flipped it around.
“I had a memory vision of the family on the beach. The mom was begging her husband to let them leave but he refused to leave his post. She kept glancing at the lighthouse and when I followed her lead I saw this black figure. Like a shadow person but not hiding in the shadows like they usually do. He even came down from the lighthouse and threatened me. Then I found this when Ben brought me out of the vision.” She pointed to the corner of the photo where the figure was, plain as everything else on it.
“Holy shit,” I said. “I just saw him in the room upstairs. It literally walked across the pictures before it took over the last picture. All black with glowing eyes.”