Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

A loud clapping of hands had Natalie jumping.

"People! People! Gather round. Now that we're all here, it's time for introductions."

Natalie was too on edge, her nerves strung too tightly right now, for her to be able to deal with this overly energetic producer's method of getting the cast and crews' attention. But she supposed she'd better get used to it.

"First of all welcome to Halloween Ghost Challenge . I am your producer, Samantha Carr but--"

" Please call me Sam ," Natalie mumbled in perfect sync along with the producer's words.

Harper heard and let out a chuckle. Alice, clustered close to the Mudville coalition, must have been too busy crunching on deep fried coconut shrimp to hear.

"Most of you have already met Aiden Kim when he wired you for sound. This guy here with the camera is Jake Romano. There are a few more of us you'll see around. Please remember we're invisible. So just ignore us."

"Easy for her to say," Natalie mumbled as Jake the not so invisible panned around the room with his ever-present camera.

"Now for the host of our show, Montgomery Tristane. He'll be here with us occasionally as kind of a master of ceremonies. Montgomery, if you could help us introduce the cast?" Sam asked.

"Of course," he said, with a sweeping bow.

Just then a clattering crash sounded, giving the whole group a start.

Natalie had jumped too, from the sheer loudness of the sound, but she assumed one of the crew must have dropped something metal.

Montgomery, on the other hand, cursed and clutched his hand to his heart. He looked around, then toward Sam, eyes wide. "Was that a ghost? Are they unhappy we're here disturbing them?"

"I think a caterer dropped a tray," said a fifty-something year old man with a sarcastic mocking lilt in his tone.

He wore glasses, khaki pants and a light blue button-down shirt that had been buttoned up way too high on his neck considering he wasn't wearing a tie.

"Doctor Oliver Finch," Sam prompted. When Montgomery didn't pick up on the cue, she said, "Your teleprompter is right there by the camera, Monty."

"Oh, yes. Of course." He cleared his throat, visibly donned his star persona and read in a voice somehow deeper than it had been a moment ago, "Doctor Oliver Finch, physicist. He will provide a more science-oriented analytical angle for any unexplained phenomenon or paranormal occurrences."

Looking slightly bored, like all of this was beneath him, Dr. Finch gave a single restrained nod in response to his introduction.

"Oh, he looks like he's gonna be a barrel of laughs," Alice commented, mouth full of partially chewed food.

Natalie silently agreed with Alice as she saw Harper next to her valiantly fighting a smile.

Montgomery continued, "The face of our next participant might seem slightly familiar to some of you. Please welcome Tiffany Collins, former child star of the hit sit com Daddy Knows Best…Maybe! "

A thirty-something year old woman, dressed from head-to-toe in what Natalie supposed the former star thought was an appropriate outfit but instead made her look like she was about to go to a disco, took a step forward and lifted one arm in a practiced wave.

Harper frowned. "Wow. Really? That's her? I would've never recognized her and I used to watch that show."

"Reality shows are where all the has-beens go to die. There and made-for-TV Christmas movies." Alice had stopped eating long enough to lean in and deliver that surprisingly on-point assessment of the current entertainment industry.

"Another face some of you might recognize if you're one of his twenty million followers, YouTube sensation Derek Simmons."

A guy with a mop of green-tipped blonde hair, baggy pants and a graphic T-shirt stepped forward with a bold wave and a loud, "Yeo!"

He looked barely old enough to legally drink, never mind old enough to have accumulated millions of followers.

What did he do to attract that much attention? Skateboarding? Snowboarding? Something Natalie had never done, she was sure. At her age, and while hanging around with Alice, the only board sport Natalie had hopes of doing would be shuffleboard.

"Next we have three women who say they've all had up close and personal ghostly encounters. From nearby Mudville, New York, Alice Mudd, Harper Lowinsky and Natalie Chase."

"Lowry. It's Harper Lowry ," Harper corrected but it was doubtful anyone heard over the spattering of half-hearted applause of those in the lobby.

Alice bowed and Natalie resisted the urge to hide behind her hand. That was it. The world would hear she claimed to have ghostly encounters . There was no going back now.

During the lengthy introductions the ghosts had hung back along the edge of the gathering. They observed everything but were mostly quiet, which made it easier for Natalie to ignore them. At least mostly. But once Montgomery read that she, Harper and Alice had claimed to see ghosts, the spirits in the room began to stir and the volume of the ghostly chatter picked up.

"And now for our final two participants," Montgomery began. "She's a self-proclaimed fan girl of ghost shows, in particular the Beyond the Veil podcast, Megan Foster."

A shy woman raised one hand awkwardly as her eyes remained downcast. Then she leaned back into the shadows along the wall where she'd gone unnoticed by Natalie who'd been avoiding looking too closely at any figures standing along the periphery in the shadows, figuring they'd be ghosts.

Megan, self-proclaimed fan girl, was perhaps in her thirties and nondescript in every way. Medium height, mousy brown hair, a long dark-colored skirt and a sweater that was about one shade lighter. She didn't appear as if she got excited about anything… until Montgomery announced Madame Letisha's name.

"And finally, Madame Letisha, the woman who will lead our investigations this week. She's the host of Beyond the Veil as well as world renowned as a medium and clairvoyant."

Megan's wall flower shell fell away as she clapped her hands rapidly, drowning out the end of Montgomery's introduction.

She bounced up and down on her toes and showed more enthusiastic energy than Natalie thought the woman capable of.

Megan was still clapping for Letisha when Montgomery swept his arm to encompass them all and announced more loudly, "These are your Halloween Ghost Challenge ghost hunters!"

"Ghost hunters?" Natalie swiveled to look at Harper and Alice. "No one said anything about hunting when we signed up."

Natalie didn't love the sound of that term. Worse, she wasn't sure how the actual ghosts felt about it and was too afraid to glance at them to find out.

Alice waved her concern away. "It's just marketing. Right, Harp?"

Harper smirked at the nickname Alice had apparently bestowed upon her but nodded. "I have to agree."

Maybe they were right. The show certainly seemed designed to be all about grabbing the ratings, right down to the selection of the participants.

It was pretty obvious already how and why they'd been cast. The skeptic, there to debunk the paranormal, pitted against the believers. The producer would no doubt reinforce the stereotypes and conflict between them in editing.

Then there those who seemed strictly there to get on television. Whether to revive a dead career—that would be Tiffany who hadn't had a success since hitting puberty two decades ago. Or to further a career—like the YouTuber looking for more millions of followers and perhaps sponsorship deal dollars.

Madame Letisha fit into that category too. No doubt she hoped to expand what Natalie doubted was actually worldwide fame in spite of good old Monty's introduction.

Well, she was going to be disappointed, because the only thing Natalie intended on hunting this week was Letisha.