Ghouls Gone Wild (7 page)

My grenades have been tested against even the most powerful of malevolent spirits—and so far, they’ve worked every time.

For the first part of this ghost hunt—what we called setting a baseline—we were intent only on laying out our equipment in certain hot spots—or those areas where Heath and I were sensing a lot of activity. We intended to place our meters and thermal gauges and night-vision cameras in those locations where he and I felt they might capture poltergeist activity when we weren’t around. And as we edged into the tunnel, I knew almost immediately that we could pretty much plop our equipment anywhere, and something somewhere was likely to capture and record the activity.

“Can you feel that?” Heath asked me. “It’s like it’s just radiating out of the walls!”

“I can,” I told him with a slight shiver.

“What are you two picking up?” Gopher asked, and he made a not-so-subtle gesture toward the camera.

“Lots and
lots
of people died here,” I said to him. “Right now, it feels like Heath and I are wading through a sea of grounded spirits. It’s incredibly intense.”

“As bad as up top?” he asked, eyeing us nervously. I knew Gopher was counting on us being able to explore the close, so I was quick to reassure him.

“No,” I told him. “I mean, there are a lot of grounded spirits here, but it doesn’t have the same intensity. It’s not nearly as terrifying.”

“In other words, it’s bearable,” Heath said.

At that moment and from just behind us we heard a loud series of knocks, like someone rapping their knuckles against the rock. “What was that?” Gopher whispered uneasily.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is there anyone who wishes to communicate with us?” There was no reply. “If you would like to talk with us, please knock on the walls to make yourselves heard.”

For a moment, nothing happened, and then all around us came hundreds and hundreds of knocks. The sound was loud, and powerful and intense and freaking scary.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
screamed Russ.

“Shiiiiiiiiiiit!”
screamed Jake.

“Holy Christ!”
screamed Gopher.

And as if all three of them had the exact same thought at the exact same time, they collectively shouted,
“Run!”
and bolted, leaving Heath and me standing in the middle of the cavern all alone.

“Stop!” I yelled at their departing forms.

In hindsight what happened next was pretty amusing; our brave crew didn’t stop, but the knocking did. “Good job,” Heath said with a playful smile. “Way to scare away the crew, M. J.”

The situation was so ridiculous that I began to laugh. Heath snickered, then chuckled, then began laughing in earnest too, and before long we were leaning against the walls for support as tears leaked down our cheeks and we took turns pantomiming the terrified crew who’d just abandoned us.

When we’d collected ourselves again, I heard Gilley’s concerned voice sound loudly into my ear. “M. J.?! Are you there? Over.”

I giggled and clicked my headpiece’s microphone on. “Hey, Gil,” I said. “I’m here. Over.”

“You guys okay?”

“Fine,” I assured him. “And I take it the crew has made its way back to you?”

“Yes,” he said. “And they’re totally shaken up. What happened?”

“M. J.’s been working the crowd,” Heath said with a laugh.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I told Gilley. “I’ll explain it to you later. Listen, in my duffel is there a camera?”

“Yes,” he told me. “You and Heath both have four night-vision cameras in each of your bags.”

I set down my duffel and fished around inside, quickly locating the cameras. “Fabulous,” I said. “I’ve got them.” I motioned to Heath and he also set his duffel down to retrieve a camera. “Tell Gopher that we’ll record things from here. I doubt the crew will want to come back into the close tonight, right?”

It was Gilley’s turn to laugh. “Russ and Jake have already quit,” he told me. “Gopher’s trying to talk them out of it as we speak.”

“Figures,” I said. “Okay, well, we’ll get to work. You monitor from your end and make sure you’re getting readings from all our equipment.”

“Roger that.”

I swung my duffel bag back onto my shoulder and motioned Heath forward. “Keep your senses alert,” I cautioned. “If this gets too intense, we’ll set off a grenade and push back the energy.”

“It already feels intense,” Heath said quietly.

I knew exactly what he meant. I felt bombarded by energy coming at me from all sides. It was a bit like entering an unseen crowd that was pulling on your clothing or whispering in your ear. At one point I even batted the air next to my head when I felt a cold breath blow the hair around my neck.

It was hard to get focused and think clearly. Hell, it was even hard to move. To distract myself, I reached back into the duffel and pulled out an electrostatic meter. I turned it on and immediately it began to register activity. “We’re in a hot zone,” I said.

“You don’t need a gadget to tell you that,” Heath said.

I smiled ruefully. “Well, it helps to see it on the meter sometimes.” I put the gadget on the floor of the long cavern near the wall. “Gil?” I asked. “Are you picking up the readings?”

There was a whistle in my ear. “Man,” Gil said. “Where
are
you guys?”

“In hell,” Heath answered, and I had a feeling he wasn’t really kidding.

“Readings are off the charts,” said Gilley. “Your meter’s already in the red. M. J., you might want to secure a camera to the wall where you’re standing. It seems like it’s a good spot to pick up some activity.”

“Copy that,” I said.

With some help from Heath I was able to secure one of the small cameras to the wall, and then I stood in front of it and backed slowly away so that Gilley could tell us if he had a good picture on his monitors. “A little to the left,” he told Heath, who was in charge of adjusting the lens.

After a few tweaks Gilley was satisfied and we continued to move deeper into the corridor. “How’s your breathing?” I asked Heath at one point, only because I felt the air all around us had gone from damp and chilly to hot and stifling.

“I’m having a hard time catching my breath,” he admitted. “Also, I think I’m running a fever.”

I placed a hand on his forehead and he did in fact feel warm. “Oh, man,” I said.

“What’s the matter?” Gil asked.

“Heath’s sick.”

“Does he need to come out?”

Heath shook his head. “I’m okay,” he assured us. “Just a little queasy, but I can push through. Come on, let’s get this baseline done already.”

We continued for about another forty-five minutes and my concern for Heath’s condition mounted. He looked pale and shaky, and he’d broken out into a cold sweat. He also appeared to be having difficulty swallowing and I swore the lymph glands around his neck looked thick and swollen.

“That’s it,” I finally said to him as we encountered another hot spot and I got out the seventh camera. “This is the last camera we’re putting up. I’m calling it a night.”

Heath didn’t argue with me; instead he just blinked drowsily. “Okay,” he agreed as if saying the word took effort.

As we were struggling to fasten the last camera in place, I heard Gilley’s voice burst into my ear, “What the freak is
that
?!”

Gopher’s voice joined Gilley’s in the background. “Holy shit! Did you
see
that?!”

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

Heath winced and pulled his headset off. “They’re too loud,” he whispered.

“M. J.!” Gil shouted. “Ohmigod! You’re not going to believe what we just captured on film!”

At that moment I was struggling with the camera, which wouldn’t stay still against the slippery rock. “I’m a little busy, Gil. Can you tell me later?”

“No,” he said. “I can’t.”

I sighed and stepped away from the rock with the camera still in hand. “Fine, what’s going on?”

“Something big and black just dashed across camera one,” Gil said excitedly.

“Human?” I wondered.

“Definitely not,” Gil said.

Gopher’s voice took over—he’d obviously donned a headset. “M. J., it was like some sort of smoky shadow just flew by the camera.”

“What’d it look like exactly?” I asked.

“It didn’t really look like anything. It was sort of like a big blob of dark mist moving through the air really fast.”

“And it’s gone now?”

“It is,” Gilley confirmed.

“Okay,” I said, returning to trying to mount the camera. “Let me know if it comes back.”

I’d just gotten those words out of my mouth when both Gilley and Gopher shouted,
“Whoa!”
in my ear.

I winced just like Heath had and dropped the camera. “Hey,” I yelled. “Volume, guys!”

“M. J.!” Gilley squealed. “The shadow!”

“Is it back?”

“Yes and no,” Gil said, his voice holding a tremor.

“What does that mean?”

“Yes, it’s back, but it’s not back in front of camera one. It’s hovering right in front of camera two!”

The hair on the back of my neck prickled and a chill raced up my spine. “It’s on the move?” I asked.

“Well, if by ‘on the move’ you mean it went from camera one to camera two, then yes, but right now it seems to be holding steady right in front of . . . oh . . . wait! There it goes again! Okay, it flew off and out of sight.”

I eyed Heath, who was looking dully at me and holding his right arm out at an odd angle. “What’s wrong with your arm?” I asked him, momentarily forgetting about the camera and the shadow.

“My armpit hurts,” he said. “And I feel like crap.”

I set the camera on my duffel and moved over to him. Taking him by the arm, I coaxed him over to a small boulder and sat him down. I felt his forehead again, which was even hotter than before. “Honey, we’re gonna have to get you out of here and into bed.”

Heath nodded and began to tug at his sweater and then his shirt. “My armpit
really
hurts,” he said. I helped him raise his clothing and the moment he had it up to his chin, I sucked in a breath. “What is it?” he asked me without any hint of alarm. “Is it swollen or something?”

The area right under Heath’s arm was indeed swollen and a huge black boil emerged that was so ghastly-looking that I took a full step back. “Gilley,” I said into my microphone, forcing my voice to sound calm. “We have a situation down here. Heath’s in really bad shape. I think we need to get him out and to a hospital. Immediately.”

But at that moment both Gilley and Gopher erupted in a fit of noise and shouts. For several seconds I couldn’t understand what they were yelling about, but then I clearly heard Gil say, “It’s at camera three! M. J.! It’s moving in your direction!”

My heart began to race. Heath and I had laid six cameras along our route, which twisted and turned along the main corridor of the close. If the shadow that was making its way along the tunnel was in fact following our trail, it was only about three hundred yards behind us.

“What’s it doing?” I demanded. The shadow was obviously a spook, but at this moment I didn’t know how powerful a spook it was, and I had Heath to worry about.

“It’s just hovering,” Gilley whispered. “It’s like it’s looking right at us!”

“How big is it?”

“Full-body size.”

“Is there any clarity to the shape?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Gil moaned.

“Try me.”

“It looks like a woman riding a broom,” Gopher said. “M. J., it looks like the ghost of a witch!”

I closed my eyes and held my breath. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. “Rigella,” I whispered.

Gilley said nothing, but I knew him well enough to know he was thinking the same thing. After taking a quick moment to gather my courage, I opened my eyes again and squatted down to rummage through my duffel. “Gil, tell me the moment she moves away from camera three,” I said urgently.

“Roger,” Gil said.

After digging through my bag, I located the map of the close we’d each been given, and inspected it. I had my grenade and fully intended to use it, but I couldn’t be sure it would buy us enough time to get out of the close. There was
so
much paranormal activity within the cavern we were in that I had a feeling the great bulk of it would reduce the impact of the grenade. Rigella was toying with us, and I also had Heath to worry about. I couldn’t risk an encounter with her when he was in no shape to help me.

“What’s happening?” Heath asked me.

“Trouble’s coming,” I told him honestly while my finger traced the path we’d come on the map. “And we need an exit, pronto.”

“What’s coming?” he asked, and I glanced up to see him looking back down the cavern.

As if in answer, Gilley shouted, “She’s on the move again!”

I stood up and swung the strap of the duffel over my head before reaching under Heath’s good arm and gently lifting him to his feet. “Come on, guy,” I said urgently. “We gotta go!”

Heath’s ragged breathing felt hot against my neck and he stumbled several times as I guided him forward. “What’d you see under my arm?” he asked.

“A lump,” I told him, leaving out the gory details. I remembered my European History class from college well enough to recall that black boils that formed in the armpit and high-grade fever were two of the tell-tale symptoms of the bubonic plague that had run rampant all over Europe in the Middle Ages. I was pretty sure the disease had been eradicated in modern times, but what I’d seen under Heath’s arm and the heat coming off him were quite alarming.

“Lump? What kind of lump?” he persisted.

I didn’t answer him; instead I fought to push us both forward while keeping one eye on the map so we didn’t get lost.

“It’s at camera four!” Gil shouted.

“Keep me posted, Gilley!” I commanded.

“Where are you?”