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“Ask and you shall receive,” Lincoln said, getting up and choosing one before bringing it over to Hale. He didn’t hesitate to pour a quick shot into his coffee before he sucked the entire thing down.
“So, I can see, hear, and talk to the dead. Sometimes, I can relive moments in their history,” I offered as a starting point.
“That makes sense with the gloves,” he said, pointing to my hands. It was such second nature to wear them now that I didn’t feel the need to explain myself anymore. I just forgot about it most of the time. “I wondered why the new addition.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I don’t do it at home, but I do anytime we go out in public. Especially in locations like this. I don’t want to get sucked into a memory at the wrong time.”
“The amount of times I’ve almost talked to ghosts in public,” Hale said, chuckling to himself. “I was definitely labeled the weird kid in school.”
“I’m sorry. Hopefully, you had somebody in your corner. I definitely didn’t outside of my grandpa. When he died, I left it all behind. Though, this ability is new.”
“Wait,” he said, leaning forward slightly. “You’re just now able to do this?”
“According to the coven we’re in contact with, it’s probably something I’ve been able to do, I just didn’t realize. I’ve always had more supernatural things occurring around me than normal. I just didn’t know why. They suspect I had naturally strong mental walls that were blocking some of it.”
“That makes sense. Sometimes these things can come from near-death experiences, severe trauma, those things. But it also can just be something people are born with.”
“The near-death definitely fits,” I said. Hale winced, realizing what he’d dredged up.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I don’t usually just put my foot in my mouth like that. I did hear about what happened in the mines. Well, the gossip, probably not the actual truth, but I can surmise that it could have definitely led to this.”
“It’s okay. Not everybody knows the details, but yes, there was a lot of trauma, and someone did die during that altercation.”
“People are fucking crazy,” he said, giving me a sympathetic smile.
“Thankfully, we had the witches around to help us. And we’ve got each other. I wasn’t alone.”
“You have to tell me more about this coven. We could use someone like them as a contact.”
“You keep mentioning ‘we,’“ Lincoln said. “Tell us more about this group.”
“It’s the Ghost Hunters Association. We formed it a little while ago. By ‘we,’ I mean some contacts I had in the supernatural world. I was able to connect with some people via message boards, and we all kind of consulted back and forth anytime we had a tricky case. Then it just turned into this network that we created. Now we work together and are given jobs that come in. It’s grown a lot.”
“That’s amazing,” Ben said. “I know we’re lucky because we have enough of us that Ryker handles the electronics, I handle the history, Lincoln security, Ethan the emotions, and Brea the ghosts. We all have our strengths.”
“Do any of you guys have abilities?” he asked, scanning over the rest of the group.
“Ethan is an empath,” I supplied, explaining the emotions comment. Hale raised his eyebrows.
“That’s unique. Overwhelming, too, I’d wager.”
Ethan nodded. “It can be. I don’t get hit with it all the time, though.”
“Good, good,” Hale said before looking at the others.
“The rest of us are pretty boring,” Ryker admitted.
“I doubt anything about your life is boring,” Hale joked. “It’s been hard getting close to anyone because, like Brea, it’s like being a beacon. The ghosts can sense that you’re open to them, and they just gravitate toward you, whether they realize it or not. Definitely not first date material.”
“We were lucky. We met during an investigation. They were the Ghost Dudes. We were all in the community already. Before that it was just me and my RV.”
“I always thought that was really great, and I always understood why you traveled alone,” he said, earning a glare from Lincoln who didn’t like this guy focusing on me for long. At least he wasn’t being rude to Hale.
“It was lonely, though. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I met them. We’ve never looked back.”
“That’s awesome,” he said. He gave a sad smile, and I had a feeling that he was worried he’d never find something similar. I hoped with everything in me he would. I knew how lonely that life was, and I would never wish it on anyone.
“So, this question might be off the wall,” Ethan said, “but have you ever encountered anything other than ghosts.”
