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This time, I didn’t move slowly. I shot my head up as fast as I could, and I caught them out of the corner of my eyes. They were moving quickly, slinking away the moment I tried to focus.
It was almost like a fog was rolling out of my line of vision. A dark one, but a fog nonetheless.
“Guys, we have to roll back that footage. This is wild,” Ryker said, letting out a startled laugh. “Even I caught them this time.”
“Ryker is saying that he caught something on camera. We’ll post the shorts of those later for you guys to see,” I told my viewers.
“Guys, Ethan and Ben are in the dining hall right now, and they’re asking for you guys to come down and see this. I’m switching over the Darkling feed for a minute.”
“We’ll be on our way in just a second. For now, Darklings, you’re moving to Ethan and Ben. We’ll see you on the other side,” I said before clicking my glasses off and taking a breath.
Lincoln blinked at me for a second, both of us at a loss for words.
“We can take a second to process that, right?”
“Definitely,” I agreed. “He sounded excited, not urgent.”
“I’ve never heard them overlap like that,” Lincoln said as he picked up the device from the ground. “Come on, let’s g—”
His words cut off before he could finish.
“Holy shit, look up there,” he said, pointing to the spiraling staircase that went up to the balcony overlooking the library. It was such a small staircase that I hadn’t paid much attention to it, nor had any desire to go to the second level.
Lincoln was already taking off in wide strides that had me rushing to keep up with him. He was up the stairs in seconds, and I waited until he was at the top before joining him, not sure how sturdy these stairs were.
“What did you see?” I demanded.
I had the answer myself only moments later when the sound of wet feet hitting the floor had us looking down at a trail of bloody footprints.
He shifted his light from red to white so we could see it better.
I watched in shock as they led away, one step after the other. The first ones were already fading, leaving no residue behind. It was like they weren’t there at all.
We followed the footsteps deeper into the loft until they stopped at a painting on the back wall.
It was another one of the signature Bellmore Castle landscape scenes with mountains and deer on the grasslands in front of it.
“They stop here, almost like this is a door,” Lincoln muttered as he ran his hands alongside it.
We both gasped as something clicked and the picture started to swing forward. He caught it before it could smack us at least.
Lincoln moved me behind him and panned the flashlight into the small space beyond. It was a narrow walkway that was unfinished.
“Maybe a servants’ hall from back in the day?” I whispered.
“Maybe. Let’s see where this leads,” he said in a low voice. He shot me a grin and I couldn’t argue. I was just as curious to see where this was going to lead. And I sure as hell wasn’t staying behind in the dark.
There were no windows or doors as we walked down the walkway. It wasn’t until we turned a corner that we finally found another doorway.
This one was wide but it pushed open a lot easier than the first. When it swung free I stepped into the room, realizing we’d found the lounge.
It had a perfect view of the bar. This time there was no woman tapping away as she sang.
The squish of wet footprints had Lincoln searching the ground. They started in the middle of the room and led out into the hallway.
As we stepped away the picture swung closed with a loud thud that had a small squeak escaping me. Lincoln jumped next to me, reaching for me and wrapping his arm around my wrist.
My heart was pounding hard against my ribcage and adrenaline was pumping through me. This felt more like a murder mystery, not an investigation.
