Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Natalie… and Liam," Sam said, with a surprised lilt in her voice. "Pleasure to see you again. Does this mean you'll be staying for the remainder of the show?"

Liam let out a snort. "It means I'm taking Natalie and getting the f?—"

"Babe. It's okay," Natalie interrupted.

She glanced around the mezzanine level where Sam had set up a confessional interview area similar to the one back at the theater. She wanted to make sure she was actually okay, as she'd promised Liam she was. To make sure there were no dark shadows creeping up on her.

The entity wasn't visible but the other spirits in the building were starting to gather. Much like back at the Stanley, the camera set up on a tripod had attracted the attention of the curious dead.

About a dozen of the resident ghost population hovered nearby. Including one woman fully decked out in a ball gown. She was the oddity in this group. Most of the rest of them were in hospital gowns.

A ghost nurse circulated among the patients. None of them looked happy or displayed any indication of personality or individuality. Not like Bobby, or Evie or Vincent. It was almost as if they were all drugged. And maybe they all had been if tales of patient abuse were accurate. An overmedicated patient was a docile patient.

But none of them seemed aggressive or evil. Not like the dark entity she'd encountered upstairs. And for that she was grateful. As long as that thing stayed away, she'd be okay.

Probably.

"Really, I'm good. For now," Natalie said to Liam then turned to glance at Harper and Alice, and finally back to Sam. "You probably have a lot of questions. All of you. I'm ready to answer."

"Can we get three more chairs added to the confessional, please?" Sam said into her headset.

"Confessional?" Liam mouthed.

Natalie lifted one shoulder. "It's an interview kind of thing they do."

"Oh," he said, still gripping her shoulder as if he didn't trust she were safe. She didn't blame him. She wasn't quite sure herself.

She caught site of Gabe and Millie standing nearby. "Did you two want chairs?" she asked.

Her speaking to the air had Harper's brows rising while Alice frowned and turned in a circle as she looked for who Natalie had spoken too.

Gabe lifted Millie's hand in his and raised a brow in question.

"It's okay if they hear you," Natalie answered his unspoken inquiry.

"I think we're good standing. Thanks, Nat," Gabe said for all the livings to hear.

Harper's eyes widened as Alice drew back.

But it was Sam's expression that interested Natalie the most. As in, she didn't have any. Her face remained relaxed and passive.

How? Why?

Was it because Sam was a true believer—but even so hearing a ghost should elicit some reaction. Or, and this felt more likely, was Sam's lack of reaction because she assumed Natalie was lying and this was some party trick involving technology and assistants waiting just out of sight?

"What the hell was that?" Alice asked after hearing the sound of Gabe's voice.

"My friend, Gabe. He's a ghost," Natalie explained to Alice. She couldn't change what Sam did or didn't believe, but she could help her friends accept this new reality.

"He's the voice on the recording," Harper whispered.

"Yes, he is. But I have another confession to make. That wasn't recorded in your house the day of Letisha's visit. He wasn't there that day. No ghosts were. I'd cleared all the ghosts out of the vicinity so they wouldn't be harmed by the house cleansing. But Gabe and Millie made that recording for us later because you were going to hire Letisha again and I had to stop you."

Looking thunderstruck by all the information, Harper said, "Millie?"

"Gabe's girlfriend. She's here now. Millie, do you want to say hello?" Natalie asked.

"Hi—hello," Millie said shyly.

"Jeezus. You've actually been talking to ghosts. For how long?" Alice asked.

"Since I got electrocuted."

"All that time? And you didn't tell us?" Alice really was facing the existence of Gabe and Millie better than Natalie had expected she would. Better than Harper seemed to be, actually.

"Yes, Alice. And I'm sorry for hiding it. I didn't think you'd believe me."

"Hard not to believe you when we can hear them," Alice pointed out.

"That is a fairly new development. Gabe wasn't always able to be heard by other people until recently. Just by me."

"And they're like right here?" Alice asked reaching out one hand and swirling it through Gabe's abdomen.

"Right here," Gabe confirmed audibly, which caused a couple of raised eyebrows from Alice, but didn't inspire her to withdraw her hand right away.

Finally, she pulled her arm back to clutch her fingers with her other hand, saying, "Cold."

"What did we miss?" Ricky asked, skidding to a stop by the group, Harriet right behind him.

"Natalie's confessing everything," Gabe answered audibly, then realized his comment needed explanation for the livings other than Natalie. "Ricky and Harriet just arrived."

"Two more of my ghost friends from Mudville," Natalie elaborated.

"Yeah, they're all members of her ‘ghost council'." Liam's explanation, which included air quotes, was delivered heavy on the attitude.

"Hey, you're invited to our meetings, buddy. Just because you choose not to come, don't blame us," Ricky said.

"Rick would like to remind you that you're always invited to our council meetings, Liam," Gabe repeated for Liam and the rest to hear.

"So not all of them can communicate?" Sam asked in her producer tone.

It made it sound as if she didn't believe a word Natalie said, but was willing to let her continue talking anyway because it would be good television.

"They can all communicate with me. I hear them, but other livings can only hear Gabe and Millie, and only if they're touching each other when they speak. We can only guess why that is. And trust me, I know how this sounds. Completely unbelievable. But it's all true. I really don't know how else to prove it. If Gabe didn't convince you…" Natalie spread her hands out wide with a shrug.

A production assistant set a chair behind Harper. Just in time too. She looked about ready to pass out as she collapsed into the seat.

Alice perched on the edge of the chair they set behind her and said, "I believe you, Natalie."

"You do?" Natalie asked, her heart filled with love for the quirky old lady.

"Sure. My grams had the sight too. When I was little she was always talking to ghosts. Couldn't walk past the graveyard on Main Street without her saying hello to someone or another I couldn't see."

"Aw. Thanks for telling me that, Alice. I wish I'd known her."

The old woman lifted one shoulder. "Hell, go to the graveyard. Maybe her spirit is still there."

Natalie couldn't help but smile. "I will. When we get home. Maybe Ricky can help me ask around. He's like the mayor of the graveyard."

Ricky snorted out a laugh.

" Mayor in addition to the title of chairman of the ghost council? That might be too much for even Ricky to handle." Harriet chuckled behind him.

Sam, unaware there was a whole conversation going on she couldn't hear said, "You're wrong, Natalie. I do believe you."

"Do you?"

Sam nodded. "I do. And it's not just because I've heard Gabe and Millie speak, although that is quite convincing. That first night, after we wrapped and everyone else went to bed, you went into the theater. Why?"

"I did, because at that point I wasn't sure I wanted to expose myself—what I could do—to anyone. Not my friends. And certainly not the whole television viewing world. But the Stanley ghosts figured out I could hear them and see them and they wouldn't let it rest. I can't blame them. I think it's pretty rare for them to be able to communicate so completely with a living. They demanded I meet with them, so I did."

"Were you aware of the camera above the stage at the time of that meeting? That we'd have both audio and visual of your meeting?" Sam asked.

"No, I was definitely not aware." Natalie shook her head. "I thought if Jake and his camera crew weren't around I was in the clear… as long as I remembered to take off my microphone."

"Speaking of your microphone," Sam began.

Natalie nodded, knowing where this was going. "You heard everything today. My conversation with Letisha. And when that… thing came after us."

"What thing came after you?" Liam's slowly spoken words were tinged with an underlying growl.

Natalie turned to glance at Liam and saw his jaw was set, his eyes narrowed. "That thing is what freaked me out in the room. Why I couldn't breathe. Why Harper called you."

"Could you perhaps elaborate about this thing that made you not be able to breathe?" he asked, nostrils flaring as his chest rose with a breath.

"This thing, it wasn't a spirit. I could have handled the ghosts here at the hotel—although it would have been nice to know the sordid history of this building beforehand. This entity was something else. Something dark and powerful. Oppressive. And it only appeared to me and Letisha. It was inside our room with Harper and Alice…"

Harper grew impossibly paler at that, her knuckles white as she gripped the arms of the chair. Natalie forged ahead anyway. She had to get this out there in the open before that thing hurt someone.

Swallowing, she continued, "Neither Harper or Alice saw it or felt it. But out in the hall, when it was chasing me, Letisha saw it too. She called it demonic."

"That's it. We're out of here." Liam grabbed Natalie's hand and moved to stand when she pulled him back down.

"No. Wait. It's okay."

"It's not okay. When you use words like demonic to describe things that are chasing you , it's time to get the hell out," Liam said, lips set in a firm tight line.

"I do think maybe it's confined to the ninth floor. It didn't follow us onto the elevator or downstairs. And I haven't seen it elsewhere."

Harriet nodded. "I did sense an incredibly oppressive darkness in the stairwell between the ninth and tenth floor. It is possible it's on those upper floors."

"True. Harriet and I didn't see it at all during our sweep, but we didn't search those upper unoccupied floors. They haven't been renovated at all. It looked abandoned up there so we left," Ricky said

That all didn't make Natalie feel any better, but she wasn't a quitter. No matter what Liam wanted. She was staying. "I don't want to leave, but there's no way I'm staying in that room. Or even going back up there to get my bag."

Harper let out a breath. "Well, neither am I. Whether I can see it or not, don't think I'm going back up to get our stuff. The staff is going to have to bring it down."

"We can arrange for your things to be moved to another room—" Sam began.

"On another floor," Natalie added.

"Not the fourth floor," Harriet chimed in.

"Oh, yeah. The fourth floor was bad," Ricky agreed.

"Not the fourth floor, please," Natalie added.

After a slight pause, Sam nodded. "Understood. You'll be reassigned sleeping quarters away from the ninth and the fourth floors. But is there any way I can convince you to go back into your original room with cameras and equipment and conduct an investigation?"

Natalie shook her head. "Nope. No way. I don't think even Letisha would say yes to that ."

"I'd like to talk about Letisha and the prior interactions between the two of you," Sam began.

"Yeah, I need to apologize to her. And to you. I'd assumed she was a total fraud. Admittedly she does seem to exaggerate, for the sake of showmanship, I guess. But she's not without abilities. There is no doubt in my mind that she saw that evil thing, just like I did. I do believe she can sense spirits…"

"But?" Sam prompted.

Natalie drew in a breath. "I don't believe she can consistently see and hear them, communicate with them…"

"Or befriend them, the way you do?" Sam prompted.

Natalie nodded. "That's how it seems to me."

Sam planted both hands on the arms of her chair. "Well, thank you. This has been most enlightening."

Natalie raised her gaze to the woman as she stood. "I'm going to end up being an internet meme over this. A joke. Aren't I?"

Sam cocked her head to one side. "Possibly. But you know what they say. All publicity is good publicity. You might want to contact whoever is watching your shop for you while you're gone. I have a feeling they're going to have to bring in more help after tonight's episode airs."