Page 8 of Twisted Solstice

“Paul, you and Felix go on up to the top of the hill where Lucia was murdered, and place a camera looking down toward Hacienda Blvd, then join us over here. I think this is where we should be searching first.” I glanced up the long driveway. Trees lining either side of the driveway, obscured my line of sight, making it impossible to see if there really was a house at the end of it or not.

“What about Jeffery?” Paul asked.

Jeffery was a teen who went missing when I’d been a child. Most said the cult residing on the particular piece of property where we’d been standing, kidnapped him, drugged him and brought him up here to perform some ritual with him. His decomposed body hadn’t been found until three years later. According to the coroner’s report, near the body lay a tourniquet and a needle. Though it’d been years since the boy had gone missing, they were still able to find trace amounts of heroin in the syringe.

The coroner called it an accidental overdose. That’s when the conspiracy theories started. Because Jeffery had been a star athlete and an honors student for La Serna High school, no one could reconcile what he did to himself. I tended to agree with them, however this time, I sided with science. We don’t know the demons others have to deal with on a daily basis. Weeks after Jeffery’s remains had been laid to rest, his mother spoke out. He did have drug problems, but they’d been really good at covering it up.

He’d been to three out-patient facilities in three years. Every time they got him on the right track, he had a setback. The anguish and resignation in his mother’s voice convinced me there hadn’t been anything unusual or paranormal with his disappearance. “No. I think even if his spirit is still in the canyon, we should leave him be. He’s been through enough.”

“So, you don’t think it’s connected?” Paul adjusted his backpack on his shoulder.

“No. I never have. I think he’s a lost soul who can’t find the light,” I replied. “I would rather he try to find his peace in all this beauty than to be forced to relive everything, including his death.”

“All right,” Paul said. “You’re the boss.”

When he and Felix started up the hill, I turned to Kael, Ember, and Gaspar. “Is this safe?” Seeing all the shadow people watching us, freaked me out. I realized subconsciously, I couldn’t leave. I had a job to do. I was falling into the trappings of allowing the stories to consume me and distort the truth.

“As safe as what anything else is on this hill,” Gaspar said. “Come on. We’re burning moonlight.”

We slipped through the gaping hole in the fence and took our first steps onto the property. Another legend has it, this estate could have even belonged to the city. Supposedly an illegal oil derrick sat at the crest of the hill. Every drop of crude the derrick pulled, the city would make a profit off of it. What they used the money for, I don’t know, and neither did the workers I’d talked to a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s real, you know,” Ember said, coming up beside me. “All the things you’ve read or seen.”

“Which parts though? Which stories? There are so many. There’s also enough facts in some instances to refute the ghost stories." We trudged up the long, winding driveway. I thought for sure we'd see the crest, but with each step, it seemed to get farther away than closer.

“All of them have bits of truth to them. You just have to open your eyes to see it.”

Like I didn’t? “We’ll see.”

“This property isn’t Anton LaVey’s,” Gaspar said.

“Then who did it belong to? The city records don’t show a current owner nor do they show any previous owners. Yet, there had to be something here. Why evidence of there being cameras on the property, and the gate, which had barbwire added to it about five years ago, also the guard dog.”

“An eccentric couple.” Ember placed his hand on my shoulder. “They were preppers. Doomsday people. They believed the sky was falling the night the plane crashed. The next day, even though the truth had been reported, they started squirreling supplies away.”

I stopped mid-stride. “You want me to believe that some couple lived in a bomb shelter because a stupid airplane crashed into the hillside?”

Ember laughed. The silky-smooth sound slid across my skin. “Well, that could be a lie too. After all, this whole canyon is one big urban legend.”

I pushed him off of me. “Jerk. I thought you were here to help?”

He laughed again. “I’m here to keep you safe.”

“By lying to me?”

He wrapped his arm around me again. “No, by keeping your mind open. What you know about this place... Sometimes the truth obscures the reality.”

Yeah, that wasn’t double talk at all. “Whatever.”

We came around another bend in the driveway and I stopped dead in my tracks. Nothing prepared me for what I saw. There, in the distance, a foundation from a building was all that remained. I believed all the rumors and legends of what could be here, but the reality of it, blew me away. Judging by the size, I’d be more inclined to believe the orphanage stood at this location, not where we'd set up our base camp.

“Whoa,” I murmured stepping closer to the ruins.

What remained of the cinder block and brick walls had been chard from the fires in 1989 and 2010. Graffiti covered some of the walls while warnings were placed on others. Upside down pentagrams along with 666s—the mark of the beast, were scrawled across empty spaces. I had to get a closer look. I needed to record this evidence. I pulled my camera from my pocket and took some photos. Then I grabbed my digital recorder.

“I am standing at a site—multiple sites it would seem. The foundation of a building that could have once stood at least three stories tall and at a football field long, sprawls out before me. There is no parking lot that I have seen as of yet. I will continue looking.” I clicked off the recorder and put it back into my pocket. “I’m going in.”

Gaspar grabbed my arm. “I wouldn’t.” His odd gaze darkened into something dangerous and finite. “This is not the place for you to be exploring.”