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Pain was the first thing I felt, but it was muted. It definitely wasn’t her own.
That was quickly followed by fear, then defeat.
The sorrow that followed was intense. It was bone-deep, soul-aching regret that gave away something I was far too familiar with—grief.
Whoever this was had lost someone they cared deeply about. I didn’t know what she was seeing, but I knew it wasn’t pleasant.
I was forced to live those emotions along with her until she finally cracked open her blue eyes and looked up at me. They were glassy before a single tear rolled down her cheek.
My chest ached with the lingering emotion and the sight of tears in her eyes. I settled in next to her, wiping it off before pulling her hand into my lap and shifting the glove over her fingers, blocking her from seeing anything more.
I didn’t speak right away, giving her a minute to gather her thoughts. I knew she would say more when she was ready.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that with you here,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “Sometimes I forget that you can feel everything with me.”
I hadn’t even realized I was absentmindedly rubbing my chest, that lingering feeling of grief bringing up some of my own emotions. It wasn’t often that I let myself dredge up those feelings so it was more than a little unwelcome.
Though, I didn’t blame her for that.
“No, it’s fine. This is what we do, right?” I said, giving her a gentle smile as I massaged her hand.
“Someone definitely died here. Usually, my visions are clearer than that. It was hard to decipher, like a forgotten memory. There was a thick fog, screams, cries, some kind of fight, and then someone went in,” she explained.
There was a sharp tang of regret in the air as if something was listening to her tell the story.
“Someone regrets what happened,” I added.
She looked up at me, surprised.
“Are they communicating with you?”
Now that she said it, it made sense. I just chalked it up to lingering emotions, but she was right. The emotions were a direct response to what she was saying.
“In their own way, I guess,” I relented.
“This place is strong.”
She told us about her encounter over dinner. Maybe there was something about this opening up your senses. I wasn’t sure if I could. The emotions were already so strong that I wasn’t sure I could take on more.
I’d only ever seen snippets of the dead that she was forced to see now. We all had our own strengths in this group, and we’d embraced it. This was enough for me.
“The investigations are going to be lively,” I said. “Thank God for Ryker’s program or we’d be sorting through this footage for months.”
“Amen to that,” she said.
Brea was the one who introduced him to it. It didn’t take long for Ryker to tweak it and make it his own, though.
“You know, despite all of the spooky stuff happening here, I really like this place. I can’t believe Elizabeth wants to leave it,” I said as I glanced up at the castle.
“Who can blame her if she has to live with the memory of her dead family?” Brea said. “Not to mention she’s being tormented by these ghosts. We might be used to it but she certainly isn’t.”
“I wonder what her plans are then. If she just abandons this place, what happens to the town? Everything seems to center around the Bellmore family.”
“She has businesses here, too,” Bria said. “A few of the local shops are run by other people, but they’re owned by the Bellmore family.”
“I think it would take us months to uncover all the history here. I feel like the Bellmores are intertwined everywhere in some way.”
“I think you’re right about that,” she agreed.
