Page 5 of Haunting Salem

He was also the bad guy.

I was more of a Taylor Kitsch person.

Owen pulled a face. “Winter Soldier is in the movie?”

Lucy nodded. “Yep and he’s yummy.”

"Well, I guess we have our movie selection for the night." To be fair to everyone, I'd pick up all of the movies they'd selected and we'd have a marathon. Once we got the research out of the way, of course. Then we'd have a few days to interview a few people around town and set up our locations. Before our downtime was up, we'd have several rolls of B-footage, which was used to help tell the story of each site. The extra film would also help us get a lay of the land come Halloween night.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jack said, pulling into the hotel parking lot. The place was modern and away from the main thoroughfare for Salem. They even had spots for RVs which made parking easier. “I’ll go check us in. Be back in a second.” He popped the breaks on our vehicle then turned it off before getting out.

Most of our equipment would stay in the RV tonight then tomorrow we’d offload at the Pioneer Village since that would be the base of our operations. While we were talking with the local historian, Lucy and Owen would start capturing some filler footage. Tomorrow we’d game plan the rest of our sites and start the arduous task of piecing out our production equipment for the live broadcast.

"Do we know who is meeting us for the live show yet?" I hoped it was one of the other paranormal investigator showrunners. It'd be nice to have someone with us who knew what they were doing and not some twitchy starlet or douchey actor.

“Not yet.” Lucy frowned. “We have a few days here still. I’m sure Henry will tell us as soon as he arrives.” Speaking of our producer. He too was flying out for the live show to be on the ground just in case we needed him.

“Good to know.” I grabbed what I’d needed, including my laptop, and shoved it into my bag. “We’ll meet you guys back here at five then we’ll figure out dinner from there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Owen said, joining me. “Shouldn’t be too hard to get what we need and get out.”

Lucy nodded. “According to the email I received late yesterday, tours of the village will be shut down for the next several days while we’re in town. Plus, the Sheriff said he’d help keep the lookie-loos away, so we have some privacy.”

“Are you saying people know we’re coming?” I didn’t mind if we caused a gathering. What I did worry about was it affecting our ability to investigate. One overzealous fan could ruin everything.

“Again, not sure,” Lucy said. “If it comes down to it, we’ll close the set and make sure to have police and deputies patrolling the area to keep everyone away. I know we might have some interference from time to time, just because the locations aren’t secluded, but we should be fine.”

“I have returned.” Jack handed a set of keys to Lucy. “Our rooms will be ready when we get back.”

“Great,” I replied. “Let’s go.”

We arrived at the library right on time to meet with the local historian, Betty Good, a direct descendant of Sarah Good. After parking the SUV out front, we took a minute to appreciate the library. Built in 1855, it was originally the home of John Bertram, a prominent sea captain, and his family. Not even thirty years later, the house was donated to the town of Salem, and in 1889, the public library was opened.

Outside of the old Brownstone manor, a small group had gathered near a sitting area off to the right. The hushed whispers reached us as they quickly glanced in our direction then back to the group.

Nolan chuckled. “You have some admirers.”

"I bet they're staring at you and Jack, not me." Both men were drool-worthy.

Jack had black hair with some greying at the temple. Like Kael, when Jack rolled up his shirt sleeves he had tattoos. Some depicted gory horror scenes while others commemorated his sobriety. Speaking of which, he was due to get another one soon. He had the body of Gaston—brawny in all the right places, tapered in others, and grey eyes. He also sported scruff to give him an edgy, silver fox appearance.

I teased him all the time about it.

Nolan on the other hand had sinful burnished bronze skin, light eyes he swore came from his mother's side of the family, and he was built like a god. The man should be illegal because I tripped over my tongue several times before I got to know him. Between them, I was a bit lacking. I know, I know. I shouldn't put myself down, but these men... They were out of my league, hence why I still couldn't figure out what Nolan saw in me. Or Jack for that matter.

I'll preface this whole thing by saying, we weren't exclusive by any means, but Jack, Nolan, and I did have some wild times together. More often than not though, because Jack was still a professor, (did you figure out he's Mr. GQ?), it had been Nolan and me. I know what you're going to ask, but what about Kael and Gaspar and Ember...

Well, they’re dead.

But the canyon, Simone...

I know.

Even though bits and pieces of my memories from that night in the canyon returned, I still couldn't be sure anything I remembered did indeed happen, beyond what I videoed. My relationship with Kael, nevertheless, was everlasting, and Jack knew that, so did Nolan. They'd met Kael and gotten to know him in his corporeal form almost from the get-go. Their acceptance of him took the weirdness out of our relationship and allowed me to enjoy all three of them.

“They’re all women,” I muttered, pulling my jacket tighter around me to stave off the late fall chill. “They’re not looking at me. They’re looking at you.”

Jack chuckled. “They could be adoring fans.”

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