Page 26 of Haunting Salem

The one thing I liked about Ember was the fact he didn’t care. He wore the same band shirt and the same low slung jeans. He had pink hair and a genuine smile. He glanced at the woman and frowned then looked to me.You want to send her on, don’t you?

I did. She deserved to rest.Yes.“I know it hurts. I wish it didn’t. I wish whatever happened to you, wouldn’t have. But, you don’t have to stay here.” I cut my gaze to Ember and gave a curt nod. He formed in a mist of shadows and light and walked across the water to the woman. “You can go now. Follow the light and you’ll be free.”

Ember held his hand out to the woman. At first, I didn't think she would take it, but it also appeared she and Ember were having some type of conversation. At last, she took his hand then stood. Her body repaired itself right in front of my eyes, but I knew all Lucy would capture was the tendrils and smoke, not the real woman. As they disappeared together, I grinned. This was the best part of my job, allowing spirits to finally rest after years of wandering or reliving the worst moments of their lives—their deaths.

The soft, “go to commercial,” brought me back to my surroundings and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I glanced over at Lucy who was wiping her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled. Had they seen it all too?

“You okay, Lucy?” I went to her; afraid she was either scared out of her mind or something else had happened.

“Yeah,” she answered. “That was kind of amazing.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone darting toward us, their heavy footfalls had me bracing myself, just in case they weren't human. When Henry came to a skidding halt in front of us, Nolan not far behind, his cheeks were pink and his eyes were wide with wonder and joy, maybe. I don't know. But he freaked me out. "Play back the recording. Please."

Oh yeah, I had one of those things hooked to my shirt because I hated carrying stuff around with me while I worked. I unclipped it and rewound the recording. I figured I’d only hear myself speaking, but what came through blew my mind. We heard Ember ask what the girls name was and her age. The woman introduced herself to Ember.Victoria Franks.She wasn’t more than nineteen at the time of her death.

I needed to sit down.

“A class A EVP,” Henry whispered, his tone filled with awe. “You captured a class A, Simone. And it’s not one word, it’s a small conversation. How...”

I held up my hand. "I didn't do anything. The spirits did." That made me sound all mystical and shit, but I didn't care. Because I hadn't influenced any of it. I only asked for Ember's help.

“Well, Twitter is blowing up right now. People are losing their shit online,” Henry said, growing more excited by the second. “We have another thirty seconds to reset and go again, do you want to stay here, or move on?”

“Move on,” I said without hesitation. “The cemetery is quiet now and it’s time to let the dead rest here.” More spiritualist bull shit, but nonetheless true. The cemetery had a peacefulness to it. No need to continue to stir up trouble or invite it forward.

“Great, we can start the trek to Gallows Hill if you’d like. Walking through the area while you investigate might give you a chance to catch other unexplained things.” Henry grinned and practically bounced with unspent energy.

“Sounds perfect.” I grinned. “Besides, it’s gotten pretty cold out here tonight. The walk should warm me up.”

He nodded. “Exactly.” He handed me palm warmers then called for hot chocolate and a scarf. “Show us what you can do, Simone.”

Okay, if he wanted a show, I'd give it to him. So far, I'd been a little reserved trying to go with the wholesome vibe. Now that Henry had given me the go-ahead, I was about to unleash the Kracken, so to speak. I called Kael to my side then Ember, knowing full well no one could see them then devised a plan.

"What are you thinking?" Kael asked, his gaze pinned on our producer Henry. "And how far are you willing to let this play out?"

“How about medium,” I answered. “I want them to be able to hear those who are here, maybe some apparitions of the spirits?” I glanced at Ember.

“They’re not toys, Simone.” Ember crossed his arms. “They don’t perform for you on command.”

“But, aren’t they all here anyway?” I gazed out over the area; the space ripe with activity. “I don’t want them to put on a show per se. But, if we could lower the veil even a tiny bit to show everyone they were real and they were still hurting and searching, wouldn’t it also help?”

“Are you seriously asking us that?” Kael narrowed his eyes. “Exposing one’s pain isn’t for public consumption. You of all people know this.”

“So, what can we do, or I do? People need to see what happens when society gets a bug up its ass.” Frustration set in, I know I wanted to go hard and that sometimes my ambition got the better of me, but weren’t viewers expecting a huge production? I mean, let’s be honest. I will never be able to recreate what happened in the canyon anywhere else. So, I had to be realistic about the whole situation.

"We can go with a few voices, maybe some real-time answers to questions," Ember said, biting his bottom lip. We don't want to upset those here on this hill. Remember, they're still caught in the last traumatic moments of their lives. No sense in harming them more."

Right. He was right. We had to be practical and fair. I pushed my hair from my forehead and blew out a breath. “You’re right. You’re right. I just don’t want to screw up, is all.”

“Go too big,” Kael muttered, “and you’ll end up being labeled fake and then more will question the validity of your video. Can’t have that.”

Of course, Kael had to be my voice of reason. "No, we can't. So a little big show then. Make grand on a small scale."

“Exactly,” Ember replied. “Looks like you have an audience.” He lifted his chin in the direction of where Henry took off toward. There standing under one of the makeshift canopies was Zane, dressed in his uniform. “What is he?”

I snorted. "We've been asking ourselves that question the whole time. Whatever he is, I've never seen anyone like him or several other people in this town. It's kind of unnerving, to be honest. I raised my hand and waved. "FYI: he can see you, Ember. We found out the first night here."

“You’re shitting me,” Ember whispered on an exhale.

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