SEEING IS BELIEVING, RIGHT?
DATE: December 28th
TIME: 11:07 PM
LOCATION: Nerve Command
STATUS: Open to all
With a click the mouse of the laptop in front of her, the screen shifts from one camera to the other, zoomed in on the library now instead of the basement. A routine check, that’s all it is. A shift between the stationary cameras, a glance at the hot spots within Preston Castle, but if she’s being honest, she’s bored. She wants to see something, wants to experience something. Lilian Zhou would give anything to witness a haunt, to see a ghost, even just to hear a faint whisper. But tonight, the entire place seems to be dead. Ironically. After a few switches to different cameras Marco and Jude had set up, after checking up on her students, something catches her eye. The darkness, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what was her eyes playing tricks, but this, this she was positive was real. A six-foot-something shadow standing in the doorway across from the room. On any other night, Lilian wouldn’t have given it a second glance nor a second thought, but it was followed by footsteps, light but filled with determination. And with that, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up, goosebumps protruded along her arms, and a chill ran down her spine.
With a kick to her chair, she grabs the hand-held camera on the table in front her and pressed record before even aiming it at where she’d seen the black shadow-y mass. But then a loud clash sounds behind her, the toe of a shoe hitting the foot of a table, and she gasps. Heart racing a mile a minute, Lilian whips her head around to document the noise, to see if she can finally witness something. But instead she’s met with a familiar face.
“Did you see that?” she asks, foregoing any introductions and instead inquiring validation for what she’d just seen. “Please tell me you did.”
Maybe it was the batteries? It sounded implausible, even in Sofia’s own head, but she couldn’t figure out what else could be causing the interference she’d been getting all night. Sometimes it was there and then, just as quickly, it was gone. Sofia had switched out her recording devices three times now, and nothing seemed to change. The batteries were her last-ditch effort before she’d have to give up and tell the others, leaving them to suggest it was something paranormal. Sofia barely repressed a sigh. Audio equipment malfunctioned all the time, but of course no one was going to tell that to the audience.
She made her way back to Nerve Command, where a fresh supply of batteries would be waiting, and tried to come up with what she’d tell Lilian. Sofia would like to think she’d have a reasonable reaction, because she was, after all, a reasonable woman. But as she was approaching the command center, she heard a crash—the sound of a chair being thrown to the ground, and instinctively she ran towards the sound.
The table was closer to the entrance than she’d remembered when she’d seen command being set up. Her left foot caught on one of the table’s legs, and a throbbing pain shot up her leg. “Fuck me!” she cursed as the table slid across the floor a few inches. When she looked up again, Lilian was there, pointing a camera in her face. Sofia immediately scowled. “See what? My own death via table?” Uhg, she’d really thought a trip to a castle would be cool. Turns out, its not even a real castle! She dropped her sound equipment on the table and sighed, going over to pick up Lilian’s chair. “So, I’m guessing you saw something? Or did you just bring our your camera to show the internet that I’m a clumsy idiot?” She tried to keep the skepticism out of her voice.
