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“Be my guest,” I said. It’d probably be best for him to do it anyway seeing as he had the Handycam. James could bring up the rear again.
Paxton opened the door and took one step into the room before stopping cold.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Do you hear that?” he said.
I listened a little more carefully and did, indeed, hear something. Insistent buzzing. “What is that?”
Pax walked a few more steps into the room and swept his camera left and right, holding out a hand to tell us to stay back. There were two floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the room to our left, and another on the wall perpendicular to it. The streetlight from outside shone directly in the single window on that wall, highlighting a mess of flies that I could see buzzing around and bumping into the glass and each other, even from where I stood.
“Ew,” I said. “What’s with all the insect activity?”
“I don’t know,” Pax answered. “But that might be what set Myst off.”
He had a point. Maybe this wasn’t a hotbed of the paranormal, after all. Perhaps she’d just been upset by the bugs. Then again, why were there so many flies in here to begin with?
“Wait there a second,” Pax said as he walked even farther into the room, Myst following on his heels. James and I stayed in the hall just outside the door. I kept checking the K2 meter, and James had his camera pointed in the room, taking in Pax’s journey across the expanse to the window.
He skirted the one twin bed jutting out into the room and then nearly brushed the armoire that separated the two windows on the far wall. Another bed sat in front of the buzzing horde, its long side about three feet from the window and the headboard against the half-wall the room shared with the closet. A vanity desk took up the area in the corner.
Just as Pax reached the window, the door in front of us slammed closed, nearly busting James’s camera.
“Holy shit,” he said and jumped back.
“What the fuck?” I yelled, immediately reaching for the knob. It wouldn’t turn. I spun to James to see him shaking his head but doing his job and keeping the camera rolling. I rattled the knob again but felt no give. I pounded on the wood.
“Pax? Paxton. Are you okay? Open up. What the hell just happened? Did you open the window?” I couldn’t hear anything from inside, and that worried me. I rattled the knob one more time with the same result and decided to try shoving my side against the door while pushing. Maybe the thing had warped. I did that a few times but didn’t get any results besides a sore shoulder. I turned to James.
“Can you put the camera down for a second and try? I don’t like this.”
James did as I asked, propping the camera on a narrow table along the hallway wall, and tried to get the door open. “It feels locked,” he said. “I wonder if it engaged when the door shut. Buthowdid it shut? It didn’t just gently close, it freaking slammed and almost took my damn head off.”
“I know,” I said and pounded on the door again as James retrieved the camera. “Pax, can you hear me?” Nothing. I pressed my ear to the door and tried to listen. It was strange that Myst wasn’t barking. If nothing else, the slam of the door should have startled her enough to make her speak up. And us pounding and calling should have agitated her, too.
Not sure what else to do, I woke the JumpBox from its hibernation and decided to see if I could get anything. Which was ridiculous. What help could it provide?
“Is anybody here?” I rolled my eyes.
“Here,” came that same feminine voice from before.
I shrugged and glanced at James. “What’s going on?” I asked, feeling a hundred kinds of ridiculous for trying to get answers about a defective door from a disembodied voice in a piece of technology.
“He has him.”
“Well,that’snot ominous at all,” James said, and I glared at him.
“Not helpful, dude.” I looked back at the device. “Who has him?” I asked.
“Leave. Now. Not safe,” the voice said, and I felt a chill race down my spine.
“Nowcan I say it’s ominous?” James chimed in.
“Seriously?” I shot him a look.
I grabbed my walkie from my belt and raised it to my face, just about to press the talk button, when the door creaked open. I frowned and glanced at James, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged in reply. I slowly pushed open the door and peeked inside to see both Pax and Myst standing stock-still near the window on the right, both their forms highlighted by the moonlight, creating striking silhouettes.
“Pax?” I called, but he didn’t reply. I glanced over my shoulder at James. “Follow me.” I saw him nod, and then I walked into the room, looking around. I didn’t see anything, and Pax and Myst remained motionless on the other side of the second bed. My heart rate kicked up, and a cold sweat broke out across my body. I was terrified. Not for me, but for Paxton. I couldn’t explain why, but I didn’t want to imagine anything happening to him, and I just needed to know that he was okay.
