Chapter 1
Tonight’s call led them all the way to Westchester. To Erin and Abby it seemed like a ways to go for what sounded like a routine haunting at first especially so late in the afternoon but business was slow in the city and the caller had been very distraught. And the four women had agreed it was at least worth a look.
The building in question was at a high end sports bar style arcade, kind of like an adult sized Chuck e Cheese. With a quick google search for Patterson’s Family Works brought up a webpage showing off features such as bowling alleys, photo booths and an arcade. It even included a bar and billiards.
The curious thing about it was that the said location the building was in had no questionable past or back story. The actual brick and mortar was built in 1988 and before that had just been a vacant lot. Patterson’s had opened up two years later in 1990 and had been in business successfully and soundly for years until a few weeks ago. Or so the manager had said.
Reports of broken glass, misplaced items and frightening noises, fairly routine. Abby had speculated at first TThree. Until the manager mentioned, vaguely, that one of his young employees had gotten hurt. That had been the final straw that had the manager call for their help.
The sun was already beginning to dip by the time they arrived. Three people stood waited for them looking anxious yet somewhat relieved to see them pull up into the large empty parking lot. Getting out first, Abby and Erin went ahead while Patty and Holtz grabbed the gear from the back of the hearse. The man in the button up shirt walked to meet them outstretching his hand with gratitude.
“Thank you for coming so late in the evening.”
“Yes of course. Nathan right? We spoke on the phone.” Abby took his hand.
“Yes, this way. I have a couple employees that can hopefully give you some helpful information. But they’re a bit spooked so, be patient. ”
The two younger employees in red shirts still standing at the door the younger girl clutching the ring of keys with the same shell shocked look most of the people who called them had. She looked to be about eighteen or so, the young man a couple years older.
“This is Sharla and Daniel they’re one of three that saw what happened earlier. Sharla can you tell Doctor Yates and Doctor Gilbert what happened?”
Sharla seemed to shrink back a little Daniel put an encouraging hand on her shoulder. Erin’s heart went out to Sharla, she seemed like an innocent person who had been somewhere at the wrong time.
“Um…the mirrors. They were all broken.” She said in a small voice, here eyes still trained on the ground. “They were cold. The whole room went cold. Like a freezer. And then the door shut…” Her voice began to crack and she went quiet. Daniel continued.
“I could barely get the door open. Then there was this sound, I guess you could call it a sound. A really painful sound. That’s when it got Kyle.” Daniel face fell and he shrank back next to Sharla and went quiet too. Nathan turned to Abby with a grim look.
“Kyle would have been a bit more help since he actually saw the thing but we had to take him to the emergency room” Daniel pointed to both of his ears and made a blowing up gesture with his fingers. Erin and Abbey exchanged a startled look.
"And neither of you have seen anything, like an actual ghost?” The teenagers shook their heads.
“Just Kyle. All he said to me before they took him was that it was big.”
“Alright well take it from here.”
“Thank you. Here are the keys.” Nathan took the keys from Sharla and handed them to Patty. “Don’t be afraid to make a mess, I understand its part of the process.” His attempt at lightening the mood. “And please try to be careful.”
“We’ll do our best.” Erin said with the most confident smile she could muster. Turning to the teens she tried to be as comforting as she could, she knew the feeling of all too well "You go home now alright." Daniel seemed to soften but Sharla looked up at her with a blank look.
“He had blood in his ears” Sharla whispered, to Erin it sounded almost like a warning. Daniel ushered her away as he followed Nathan away and they watched them go, Sharla's words leaving Erin with a cold shiver.
“So bossladies what do we got?” Holtz asked shrugging on her proton pack. “By the looks of those three, it’s a doozey.”
“I’d say were looking at a fiver.” A fiver was a class five TFive apparition, an entity that was malevolent and had caused harm to at least one person. “What we have to go on is broken mirrors, sound distortion and stage five malevolence.”
“So far just one account of a physical manifestation.” Erin added.
“Sounds like a Friday night.” Holtz said with her usual smirk.
“There is a possibility there could be just more than one." Erin shrugged. And they’re banding together.” It had happened on more than one occasion. Holtzmann called it the kittens in a trench coat maneuver.
“Even better.” Patty said her smile cynical.
The four women entered the through the front immediately confronted with a temperature shift. It was at least ten degrees colder inside than it was outside and it was already hitting 60 degrees mid autumn.
“Nippy in here isn’t it.” Holtz stated rubbing one of her forearms. And the place was surprisingly huge. About the size of a moderate sized department store. Two separate sides for both adults and kids. A huge play area with connecting tunnels, a small reflecting pool sized ballpit. It really was a Chuck E Cheese for adults. Erin couldn’t recall the last time she’d been in a place like this, she had to have been at least seven years old. Even then she didn’t remember enjoying it very much.
The loud crowded atmosphere of places like this mad her anxious and even now with the place closed and quiet it still made her palms sweat, granted this place was haunted as well.
“Since this place is so big I think we should split off into teams. Holtz you go with Patty, Erin you’re with me.” Abby said pocking the ring of keys. “Lets check out those bathroom mirrors.” Erin nodded and followed behind. They had quiet a bit of ground to cover to get from the entrance to the restrooms placed near the center of the building. The PKE meter spun lazily as they walked.
“You know from what the manager described I kind of expected to find something right away.” Abby talked on about something but Erin wasn’t listening, she couldn’t stop thinking about the looks of the teen’s faces
“Did you hear what the girl said before she left?”
“No what?”
“Nevermind.” Erin passed by the thermostat, stopped and backed up to look again. It was set to 78 degrees. Not knowing how to handle that information she kept on catching up to Abby, following behind her as they entered the restroom. Erin’s heart sped up while the PKE meter spun a little faster. Rounding the corner of the entrance both she and Abby were met with two rows of sinks in sets of six with all six mirrors shattered. Not broken completely but broken into a spider web of cracks, like they’d been hit with a bat or a rock. Erin fiddled with the light switch, nothing.
“I’ll poke around some more outside. You okay in here?” Erin nodded in agreement and carefully entered the restroom. Once Abby left there was another noticeable shift in temperature the closer Erin approached the rows of cracked mirrors. Now she was beginning to wish Abby had stayed.
Erin shivered. No matter how many jobs she’d been on she could never get used to them. Every bust was a learning experience. When one place had docile easy to subdue ghosts, another would have a dangerous poltergeist that threw things at them. There was rarely a pattern either; the library had an angry librarian floating around in the basement spewing ectoplasm on anything and anyone that startled her. And once a dilapidated building only had a ghost of a lonely little girl and her dog.
Erin was trying to train herself to expect the unexpected the way the others had, except for Holtz who had learned to embrace the unexpected. She envied that. At first Holtz's constant joking and shameless flirting felt inappropriate at certain times and left Erin a little on edge in the beginning, but Erin had come to appreciate Holtz’s strange slightly erratic sense of humor and quirks.
She could use some inappropriately timed humor.
Erin went up to one of the sinks and inspected one of the mirrors closely; the glass looked filmy with closer inspection, no not film, fog? Frost? Erin let out a deep breath and startled when her breath came out in a thin stream of smoke. She inched closer wiping away some of the frost away with her index finger. Erin peered closer something was off, very very off.
She didn’t have a reflection.
Nor did she have one in the next one or the other. A shot of adrenaline shot through her as she traveled form mirror to mirror waving her hands in front of each. This wasn’t real this couldn’t be, ghosts liked to screw with your senses to scare you. That must be it. An uncomfortable heavy pressure in her ears settled into her ears and squeezed. Erin skittered back when ectoplasm slowly began to seep through the cracks, oozing out and over the sink Erin backed away slowly while the other mirrors followed suit.
Erin’s walkie-talkie screeched, jarring her away from the sink, Erin grappled with it to turn it down. The pressure in her ears and the screeching from the radio made it hard to focus. And an overwhelmingly strong feeling of alone closed in around her. Then all at once her ears popped, the pressure in her head was gone as well as the ooze. She still felt cold.
Alright. She backed away from the sinks. Walkie Talkie still in hand Erin raised it to her lips about to call for backup when Holtz cut in first.
“Breaker Breaker this is Rainbow Road anyone read me? Over.” Holtz rambled into the radio with her best imitation of a trucker voice. She puffed a nervous laugh at Holtz’s ever present attempts at giving them codenames. Erin let out a long shaky breath and felt the tension in her neck and shoulders ease.
Holtzmann always had impeccable timing.
“Whatcha got Holtz?” Abby’s voice answered back.
“I found a thing.”
“A thing.” Abby repeated.
“Yes, a thing.”
“What kind of thing baby.” Patty asked. “Use your words.” Just hearing their voices gave her grounding. She shook herself and keep investigating.
“Um. It’s a big thing. It’s big, kinda ominous. Hold on.” Holtz murmured sounding distracted. It was the way she spoke when she was working on something important and couldn’t focus on the conversation you were trying to have with her. When Holtz was in her zone all intelligent conversation went out the window until her focus could be shifted elsewhere. Everyone waited.
Holtz came back on the radio after a moment with a grunt. “Whoa, yeah. I found a big kinda ominous thing. Yeah.”
“You didn’t shock yourself again did you?” Erin couldn't tell if Abby was being sarcastic or not.
“It’s a big strange ominous thing okay! Look, you just gotta come see it. It’s pretty far out.” She sounded excited Erin could practically hear the smile in her voice. “And I think it’s mad at me.”
“Mad at you? How the hell?” Patty interjected.
“I touched it.” Holtz sounded sheepish. Erin smiled listening to the conversation over the radio. Squinting at the mirror one last time giving it a light tap with her fingernail testing for a reaction, nothing. Though she did seem to have a reflection now, foggy but at least it was there.
“I too saw a thing just now.” Erin said into the walkie talkie finally, trying to contribute to the conversation.
“Don’t steal my thing’s thunder Ginger Snaps, its already moody. My thing first.”
Erin gave the restroom a last one over, focusing on the radio conversation in attempts to shake off her anxiety and backed away to the door. Erin laughed into the speaker.
“Fair enough, Rainbow Road. I’m coming to see the thing. Don’t touch it.”
“Roger that Ginger Snaps.”
Erin smiled exiting the restroom running straight into Abby. Erin was just about to tell her about what had happened in the restroom when she paused Abby giving her a look.
“What.”
“Really.”
“What?”
Abby sighed.
“You saw a thing?”
“You heard her, her thing first.” Abby squinted then took hold of her sleeve and dragged her along with her.
“Come on Ginger Snaps. Let's go see the thing.”
Patty, Erin and Abby found Holtz behind the bar eating pretzels out of a large clear jar while staring up at the large mirror on the wall. She turned just as they arrived giving a single clap in excitement.
With a dramatic flourish of her hands she gestured to the mirror above her.
“Behold the thing.”
The ‘thing’ Holtz had found seemed to be a large cloudy mirror above the bar, one large crack in the center dividing it down the middle.
“That’s a mirror Holtzy. You coulda just said you found a mirror.” Patty stated her eyes flicking between the blonde and the mirror.
“Wait that's not all” Holtz’s smiled widened and grabbed one of the glasses off the counter. Holding out her arm she told them to stand back. “Watch.” She said making brief eye contact with Erin before pulling her arm back, winding up for a pitch. Ignoring their alarmed protests Holtz chucked the glass at the at the mirror with gusto. They all watched in awe when the glass slowed to a halt inches from the mirrors surface and hovered.
Seconds later the mirror threw the glass back the way it came sending it crashing into the wall behind them. Holtz let out an excited whoop and clapped. Erin stared back at the mirror in awe. Well then.
“That’s the thing. Mostly.” Holtz said with a one shoulder shrug.
Abby came closer pointing the PKE meter up at the mirror, it spun with just as much enthusiasm Erin felt Holtz was giving. Holtz tossed a couple pretzels up and the mirror grabbed them and threw them back. Both she and Abby watched excitedly as they zipped over their heads and crashed into the wall behind them.
“You said it was mad at you though.” Erin was curious what an angry mirror looked like.
“Right that…” Holtz set the pretzels down and climbed onto the counter behind the bar. ‘Watch’ She told them again and the three waited. From the side she stuck her hand out in front of the mirror and waved. Erin jolted to attention. Holtz’s hand had no reflection.
“Either I’m a vampire and hadn’t realized it until now or somethings amiss here."
Erin felt another shiver up her spine.
“How did you come across this?” Abby waved her hand over the mirror this time, the unnerving thing was she actually had a clear solid reflection.
“I followed spook trail over. It flew into this bad boy here.” Holtz explained tapping at the new pair of goggles pulled up over her hair. She hopped down from the counter. “Methinks our ghost friends found their way through that. Might be a hub. Strange huh?” Holtz said emphasizing the word strange making eye contact with Erin again. Erin smiled knowing where this was going.
“It’s definitely a strange thing.” Patty muttered
“But we’ve seen Stranger Things.” Erin said smoothly just as Holtz said the same thing startling herself.
“Booo. Get off the stage.” Abby heckled with a thumbs down. Patty shook her head disappointed for walking into the joke. And Holtz, Holtz just looked ecstatic, staring at her with a wide open mouthed smile.
“Gilbert! Excellent.” Holtz frolicked over and slung her arm around Erin’s shoulders. “You can stand by me.”
Erin felt her cheeks warm and looked away suddenly self conscious again. But proud she'd got the joke. She cleared her throat.
“Though to be fair, the idea isn’t too far off. If it’s some kind of doorway that let something out.” She added quickly, Holtz’s grip tightened around her shoulders making Erin feel even warmer than before.
“My thoughts exactly.” Holtz gave her a pat on the shoulder. “That and Barb deserved better.”
“Right?”
“It was a mistake to let you two watch that show.” Patty gave them a disappointed look and a head shake but couldn’t repress her smile. "You're a bad influence." pointing a finger at a beaming Holtz, who just squeezed Erin with joy.
Abby turned away from the mirror frowning down at the PKE meter waving them off.
“Erin you said you also saw a thing, contribute.” Abby motioned towards her expectant. "And no puns so help me."
Erin vaguely described how the temperature had dropped and the brief moment before the mirrors started oozing. Blatantly leaving out her lack of reflection and any kind of pun or joke.
“Okay so haunted mirrors. Alright cool. Patty, you and me can take care of this area while these two nerds here talk about their favorite show.” Abby clapped her hands together.
“Good we don’t wanna be on your team anyway! Right Erin?” Holtz stuck her tongue after her in retaliation. Erin was suddenly aware of how close she was to Holtz and how tight the grip around her shoulders was. Erin hoped she wasn’t sweating.
“You two be careful okay? Oh and Erin, don’t let her touch the thing again.” Patty said with a stern voice as if she were instructing a babysitter to make sure she kept her child out of trouble. Erin tried to imagine Holtz as an unruly toddler wreaking havoc. She smiled.
“I’ll try.”
She and Holtz watched the two other women disappear into the back. Holtz finally pulled away and sauntered back behind the bar and grabbed a handful of pretzels, popping one in her mouth while tossing the other back at the mirror, then another and another. Watching nonplussed as they hovered and shot across the room into the wall.
Erin watched on in silence squirming beneath the weight of her proton pack. Erin was terrible at initiating casual conversations. Especially with people she really wanted to talk to. She would spend long minutes rehearsing the first line and psyching herself up to just speak up.
Normally if they were alone together Erin would start the conversation and then let her take over most of it, and that was okay, because she loved listening to her talk. Animate, intelligent, and captivating. Always moving, touching, and making sound. Holtz was an object in motion that stayed in motion, while Erin was very much stationary.
It had been a little exhausting trying to keep up with her in the beginning, and it still kind of was. But it was that forwardness about her that Erin admired, that she was drawn to. Because Erin admired charismatic people. They were everything she wasn’t. The thought made her shrink under the weight on her back.
Erin distracted herself from the awkward silence by finding her way behind the bar to look at the mirror a bit closer. Raising her hand in front of the mirror she waved expecting to see nothing. The image of her hand was a little transparent but still there.
What did it mean?
“So, a bunch of haunted mirrors. What do you reckon?” Holtz finally said munching on a pretzel. Erin felt a flash of relief the silence had been broken, but didn’t look away from the mirror. Erin shrugged, her mind wandering back to the day they stood in Rowan’s little ghost machine workshop. The mirrors turned portals to the other side. Could they be related? Highly unlikely. Similar? Maybe.
“How did you know that that was going to happen? You haven’t been throwing stuff at the mirror the whole time have you?” Asked giving Holtz a side glance.
“No. Yes. Well, just pretzels.” Holtz said in defense. “The glass was just for dramatic effect.” She wiggled her fingers for emphasis.
“Why would you think its mad at you though?”
“Well you saw or rather didn’t see my reflection. I figured I may be on a shitlist.” Holtz shrugged. “It's probably pissed I threw things at it.” Erin made a thoughtful noise.
Then why didn’t she have a reflection before. She hadn’t done anything to anger the mirrors had she? Erin couldn’t think of anything offensive she’d done. How does one anger a mirror other than throwing pretzels at it?
“And why were you throwing pretzels at the mirror at all?” She asked instead.
“You guys told me not to touch it again.” It was a simple answer, clear and concise. Erin gave her a look, Holtz shamelessly smiled back. “Which was good advice because it pretty much pushed me off the bar.” Now that’s when Erin couldn’t help but laugh. And to her relief Holtz seemed to think it was just as funny.
Holtz leaned over the bar suggestively. “So two options. We could either split up and cover more ground or buddy up and lessen the risk of dying alone.”
“There was blood in his ears.”
“Buddy system.” Erin said quickly, Holtz paused then looked pleased.
“I like it.” Holtz hopped over the bar and scooped up her proton pack in a smooth set of moves, leaving Erin actually impressed. A move like that would have gone terribly wrong if she tried it. With two fingers pointed forwards she led the way, Erin followed, anxiety waning. Suddenly she halted and turned back hopping back towards the bar.
“Oh wait! Hold on.” She watched curiously while Holtz pulled her phone out of her pocket, and grabbed a coaster off the bar. “One last thing I promise.” Erin stood back and watched while Holtz pointed her phone up at the mirror as she threw the coaster and following its trajectory.
“Snapchat.” She stated simply and triumphant, arching an eyebrow at Erin. Erin bit back her smile some, but not much.