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“Sorry,” Ben muttered sheepishly.
“My eyes are shit. Accident from my military days,” Sully explained quickly so they weren’t clueless. It was kind of the perfect way to introduce it but not make a huge deal of it.
“I bet that comes in handy around Brea. I’ve seen firsthand the activity she brings about,” Adam said without skipping a beat. I loved that they took it in stride and didn’t make a huge thing about it.
“You can’t blame me for the activity in this place,” I said solemnly. That got their attention. “Something is causing the energy in this town to skyrocket. There is so much activity that is completely unrelated, other than the fact that it’s centered mostly around that beach. We haven’t found anything to explain it yet. But we have found other things.” I gave them a full rundown of the ghosts who stood out, our first nights here, and finally finding the letters.
“Holy hell,” Troy muttered. “I thought this town felt strange. Just figured it was the rain and clouds making it seem gloomy and dark.”
“Nope,” Ryker said. “This town is a swirling mass of spiritual energy.”
“The water?” Adam guessed. “It’s a conduit.”
“We considered that, but this is so much more,” Sully said. “We were literally surrounded by ghosts the other night.”
“You got your migraine meds?” Gavin asked Troy, looking worried. Troy’s cheeks tinted pink but he gave a nod.
“Yeah,” he answered before turning to us. “Sometimes if it’s a lot of them talking at once it triggers migraines.”
“That’s awful,” Sully said. “Sorry you have to deal with that.”
“Thanks,” Troy said with a small smile. It took a moment, but I realized all three men were focused on our friend like they were trying to figure him out.
“You’ll be glad to know that Paul is giving us half answers and leaving us on our own,” Lincoln said as he sat back, pushing his empty plate away.
“Good old Paul,” Adam sighed. “I mean, are we even surprised? He orchestrated that entire haunted train ride as a way to test us and get us in his company.” The Polterguys had agreed to the same contracts we had. Two locations each to start. We considered a third location we could do together but it seemed fate wasn’t one to wait.
“That’s fucked up,” Sully said. “He marketed it as a free vacation?”
“Yup,” I said. “There were supposed to be no ghosts, just a historic train ride. I guess ‘Haunted Histories’ should have been our first clue.”
He snorted at that. “I mean…”
“I wonder if Kade stuck by him?” Kade was the liaison that was on the train with us. When he’d found out what Paul had done he was livid. It made Kade look like a liar for assuring us the train was quiet.
“We could just blame Brea for drawing out dormant spirits,” Ryker deadpanned.
“I can’t even argue that.” I did narrow my eyes at him though, but he just grinned right back at me.
“So what’s the plan going forward?” Gavin asked. “Are we keeping separate, doing smaller duos to hit more of the grounds?”
“I’d say we do smaller groups and keep it simple for the night, see what happens?” Lincoln suggested. “But it might be smarter to all stick together. That’s less to cover evidence wise.”
“Wait, you don’t use that program anymore?” Troy asked. “It saved us hours of work each investigation after you introduced us to it.”
“There’s literally too much for it to handle. We’ve got enough already to share with Paul, I’m not worried about that. We’re focusing more now on figuring out how there’s so much. I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Ryker answered.
Adam frowned. “I didn’t even think of that. You know they’d go full steam ahead.”
“The locals are terrified of the entire complex,” Ben said. “We’ve gotten some personal accounts. They all span years apart, too. But they all agree on the fact they want nothing to do with the area.”
“That’s fucked up,” Gavin said. “I’m glad you chose to stay here then.”
“The ship was impossible. I’d have lost my mind from sleep deprivation,” I agreed.
“I need my beauty sleep,” Troy joked but all three looked uneasy now.
“We understand if it’s all too much,” I started, suddenly feeling awful for inviting them to this place. We’d given them some information but getting the full details was different.
