Page 19 of Chasing Ghosts
“We need flashlights.”
“We need to be careful.” I remind her gently. “We don’t know if it’s safe or if the tunnel will collapse if we start poking around in it.”
“I have a snake camera we can run through the tunnel, find out what’s at the end of it if nothing else.”
“Go grab it, Tray, and try to keep this between the four of us.”
He nods and takes off running. He’s back in hardly any time at all. We get busy working the camera into the hole while the girls watch on the video feed that Tray has set up close by.
“Mac! Mac! You’re going to want to come up here and look at this!”
I pull myself from the hole and go take a look. The image staring back at me has my brows climbing upward. “What the fuck?”
“It’s…it’s a door.”
“Do you think it’s a basement access?” I shake my head and run my hand down Cori’s back. I know that would be easier for her. I have no talents, and even I feel…something dark waiting behind that door.
“I want to know what’s behind it. Don’t you?”
“I do…But I want everyone to be safe too.”
“I’ll go.” I turn to look at the small woman standing beside me. “I…I think I need to go find out what is behind that door.”
I step closer to her, not liking the idea at all.
“Is this because of what you saw?”
I make sure my words don’t rise above a whisper so only she can hear them. She meets my eyes and gives me a quick nod.
“There’s a reason we found it the way we did, Mac. There’s a reason both of us were led here.”
“Fine, but I’m going with you.”
I look over to find Roxie staring at the two of us. She pulls Cori a few feet away.
“Does he know?” Cori nods.
She turns to me. “He…realized when he looked back over the footage of our EVP session.”
This time, Roxie looks at me, too. “Something showed up on the voice recorder?”
This time I answer her, “And more. I’ll show you when we get back. For now…,”
“Go get the hard hats? Got it, boss.”
Once we are all suited up in overalls and hard hats, we crawl into the tunnel on our hands and knees. I take a small camera that I hook onto my hard hat and go in first.
“Be careful right here, Cori. It gets slippery.”
I turn back and help her find her hand placement before we continue going further into the hole. It gets bigger and bigger the further it goes back, until I can finally stand up if I crouch low. I help Cori to her feet, and we stand looking at the door. I test the knob, and it swings open, letting out a woosh of stale, stagnant air. Thoughts of mold spores and bad air have me checking my air quality monitor hooked to my belt.
“How long do you think that thing has been closed up?”
“Hard to say, really. I just hope our monitors are working properly.”
I take her hand and walk through the settling dust and gloom as we use a larger flashlight to give us more light than the ones on our hard hats.
“What the hell?”
