Page 12 of Chillingham Castle

“It’s time to break,” Reaver announced twenty minutes later. It had gone midnight, and Blue Boy hadn’t appeared. Someone was watching us, but that wasn’t proof it was him.

I sighed, said goodnight to Blue Boy, and told him somebody else would come to speak with him.

“We’ll leave the toys here for you to play with while we’re not here,” I stated on impulse. Silence was my answer.

With one final look, I followed the rest downstairs. Some spirits might be frightened of a gender or age group. Maybe our being all men had scared Blue Boy, since by all accounts he wasn’t usually shy.

We arrived back in the tearoom, and Gizmo nearly deafened us. “Get over here and see this.”

Haunt and the others were already there, and they made space for us. We crowded around the table, which held three monitors with cameras on the screens. The Pink Room was enlarged, and I gaped as the Spirit Bear lit up and then said, ‘Hello.’ The balls tumbled across the floor, and we all heard a child’s faint laugh.

“Damn, he was there!” I exclaimed.

The bear laughed and spoke the word Blue.

We observed for a few minutes, and then everything became quiet. After another ten minutes, we guessed he was done, and we sat down to eat. Behind us on the screen, one of the balls moved again.

Haunt

This was beyond cramped. I didn’t like it in the slightest. It felt wrong to me. Lich and Trunk watched the corridor and doorway for any sign of activity or the old woman. Meanwhile, Lucky and I were inside with the door closed.

“This definitely has a feel to it,” I muttered.

“No denying that,” Lucky agreed.

“Great, I thought it was me just having the heebie-jeebies.”

“Nope, Prez.”

“Should we try a trigger object?” I asked.

Lucky eyed me. “Like what?”

“How about a bucket of water and a cup? We can offer her a drink.”

“Good idea.” Lucky stuck his head out and relayed my plan. Boots walked away and settled back on the hard chair I was sitting on.

“This just seems wrong.”

“In what way?” Lucky asked.

“I can’t put my finger on it. My skin’s crawling,” I mentioned.

“Because of the old lady?”

“No, be—”

The door burst open, and Trunk banged inside and slammed it behind him, holding up his cross. Okay. That was unexpected.

“A dark figure outside, heading towards us; it was cackling,” Trunk blurted.

“Fuck, radio Lich, tell him to wait for the all clear,” I ordered.

“Was this what you were picking up?” Lucky asked, pulling out his cross and his bible too.

“Who knows, but it wasn’t the legend of the old lady,” I murmured. We all fell silent and listened carefully.

“The camera is down in that corridor. We’re blind,” Dive said and made us all jump.