Page 30 of Haunting Salem

“We haven’t learned from our mistakes,” Lucy said, surprising us. “You know? It’s what we do. Over and over and over again. If it wasn’t witches, it was indigenous peoples, if it wasn’t indigenous peoples, it was African-American people, if it’s not them it’s women or the LGBTQA+ community, or Muslims or Hispanics/Latinx, or Asians of any ethnicity who came here for a better life. Or the Irish or Jews or Italians or Sicilians or—”

I put my hand on her shoulder and Lucy glanced up at me. She shuddered then, blinking to clear her hazel eyes. “You okay? You kind of went on a little tirade there.”

“Yeah, I—”

A terror-filled scream rent the night air causing all of us to jump. I stared back in the direction we came, but there was no one there. The scream came again, and this time, I looked back down the street, in the direction of town, and saw a medium statured woman limping toward us. Automatically, I knew she wasn’t alive. The bottom of her dress was translucent as was the apron on the front of her frock. I could also see the streetlight through her midsection. Whoever this was, didn’t have an issue announcing herself.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Jack bumped my shoulder to grab my attention.

"Yes," I replied as humor filled me. It was always interesting to see his reaction to when he saw a spirit. Because I knew the internal war he waged with himself for so many years. To not see the fear, though he did have a mild discomfort still, in his eyes, was amazing. The radical change he'd gone through, even though this our first ghost hunt and he'd been taking all of this in stride, wasn't even quantifiable. Jack was a new man, though he continued to conquer his demons daily. "She's coming this way. Should we talk to her?"

“I don’t like her energy,” Jack whispered. “I don’t think she’s a good person.”

"Send Ember out first then?" The air beside me changed and I gasp. This wasn't Ember's energy. Gaspar. Darkness churned around us. The smell of sulfur and brimstone swirled in the air, making it hard to breathe. Jack took my hand, tugging me into his side as a large black shadow whirled from the crevice, and crossed into the street.

“Uh, are you all seeing this too?” Lucy muttered. “I mean, I’m not seeing it on video but with the naked eye, yes.”

“Me too,” Owen whispered.

“Same,” Chase muttered. “What is it.”

Death. Literally. Gaspar shot off down the street without fully forming and wrapped himself around the woman. The tendrils of smoke leaking from him twirled around causing a mini-storm to form in the middle of the road. I’d seen many things when it came to Gaspar, this... This wasn’t one of them. Yet, as quickly as he was there, he and the woman disappeared. The air returned the quiet gentleness we’d experienced the minute we stepped foot into the area.

She was trying to curse you,Kael’s voice whispered through my mind.We all heard it and Gaspar acted. She’s stuck in her moments before death. I can’t help her, neither can Ember. Gaspar is the only one.

I nodded. “Condensed version of the story, this was one of the women from the trials, she was innocent of course, but best as I can understand, she was in the middle of cursing the town and the people of Salem as the trapdoor was opened and her life was ended. She was repeating the curse.”

“Doesn’t explain the black mass that consumed her,” Lucy said. “I mean, I saw that right? You didn’t spike my hot chocolate, did you?”

“No. I didn’t spike your hot chocolate, you goof,” I said with a soft laugh. “What you saw was one of my protectors taking care of the issue.”

“This is all too real,” Chase mumbled from inside Proctor’s Ledge. “Way more than I signed up for, for sure.”

"What can I say, I'm a conduit for the weird." I shrugged. "However, you should know all is well here. There is a sense of peace and rest now. I worried, those who were abandoned here would be furious, but those who built this reflection garden cleansed the area properly. I like it here."

“You would,” Jack teased. “You little weirdo.”

I shrugged again. “Meh. So, where too next?” As calm as my voice had been, my heart still pounded. I hadn’t seen Gaspar’s true form in two years and this time, the one time I didn’t realize I needed him, he wasn’t the man with stars in his eyes, he was a raging beast, coming for his supper in a way. My heart went to the woman who couldn’t find her peace. I couldn’t imagine three hundred plus years of pure torture her soul must have endured. She wasn’t the person she’d been, but an aberration of who she once was.

“That’s my cue.” Chase turned and began walking down the street away from us with his crew. “And, with that our time is up, but what a way to go out. We hope you stick around for the final hour over on YouTube. Keep sending in your questions and Simone and her team will continue to answer them. Until next time, I’m Chase Jenkins III, and you’ve been Mashed.”

"Now we close down for the show," Henry said, "and get ready for the final hour on the stream. You'll all have about a twenty-minute break."

Already? It didn’t seem like we’d been out here all that long. I thought for sure only an hour had passed, but as I glanced at my phone, I was surprised to see it was already two in the morning and Henry was right. We were heading into the witching hour. “Great. Thanks for the update.”

When Lucy went with Chase’s crew to reset for the next hour, Kael stepped forward. His features were grim, and the set of his mouth told me there was something wrong. He wasn’t angry per se but more worried. “That was close. Are you okay?” He pulled me into his arms and the static shock I always felt whenever he embraced me, spread through my body. The tingle chased away the last vestiges of my fright.

“I am. I’ve never seen Gaspar do that before,” I murmured.

“Neither have we. But he was furious. Someone set her free.” Kael pressed his lips to the crown of my head.

“Lucy?” I hated my suspicion went straight to her, but after everything I’d learned and witnessed with her, it wouldn’t surprise me.

“No.” He shook his head. “Something or someone more malevolent than she could ever hope to be.”

Okay, that didn't sound foreboding. "Should we tell the Sheriff about what happened?"

“I have a feeling he already knows.” He stared off in the direction of where the woman had been. “But, if it will make you feel better, we can tell him later today, since it’s already the beginning of a new day.”

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