The phone barely rang once before the other side of the line clicked and I heard a chipper voice say “Hello, Ghosthunter180, this is Caitlin?”
I gulped as quietly as I could, trying to calm my nerves but ultimately failing at it. So instead, I took a breath that was probably a beat too long and said “Hi Caitlin, this is Andromeda Meadows. You had asked me to call you when I got a chance?”
“Hi Andromeda! So sorry it’s been a crazy busy week. Any chance you can refresh me on what we needed to talk about?”
Right, I thought - this conversation was going to be just as fun as I thought it was going to be. “I had messaged you about the Peter’s Building in the hopes that you would have the contact information for the owners?”
“Oh, right, you’re the one who saw something, right?” I hummed my agreement. “Excellent! I just wanted to know what you saw, because I was one of the people helping to edit that video, so I’ve been through that footage so many times. I didn’t see anything in addition to the things that we have pointed out on screen, but there’s always the chance that one of us editors missed something, so if we have to make some quick edits, we should be able to at least put in some notes. So, what did you see?”
Caitlin sounded a lot younger than I was expecting the manager of a YouTube channel to be. I was around 27, and from what I’d gathered from watching Luke and Liam’s channel over the years, they seemed to be around my same age. Caitlin, though, sounded like someone just out of high school, who’d moved straight from class into managing the account. But at least on the plus side, it didn’t sound like she was too angry with me yet, I thought. “Well, it’s not something that you’ll actually be able to add to the video,” I started slowly. “You see, I’m a psychic, so I see things that other people don’t see. I don’t always know what other people can and can’t see, but if you didn’t notice it, then I’m guessing it’s just a me thing. It was pretty bright - you would have definitely seen it if you could.”
“Oh, so this is one of those things,” Caitlin said, her voice instantly frosting over, and I mentally cursed. This always happened, and I always questioned why I even bothered trying to explain my condition to people. Sometimes they believed me in the long run, but most of the time they didn’t, and either way, it drastically changed what they thought of me. “So, are you trying to get us to take the video down?”
I started. “No! Wait, is that something that psychics say a lot?”
“Some people who claim to be psychics do, yeah. We have to take the video down because the ghosts don’t want to be in it.”
I couldn’t help myself, I laughed slightly at the thought. “Well if it helps, I don’t care at all whether the ghosts want to be in the video. I don’t think the ghosts even understand what a video is unless they’re recently deceased, but Grady at least sure wasn’t.”
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“See, that’s what I’ve always said too!” she said, her voice sounding a tad brighter again. “But shit, you actually saw Grady?”
“Well, I saw what was left of him,” I answered. “He’s honestly not too bad for the amount of time that he’s been dead. He’s got a little bit of distortion, but considering the time frame, I’m honestly just impressed that I can still even see his beard.”
“I’m impressed! When in the video did you see him?”
“Well, I don’t have exact timestamps at the moment,” I said, feeling a blush rise to my cheeks, making me glad that we weren’t having this conversation in person. Yeah, it was harder to call my gifts bullshit when we’re in person, but there’s always something so awkward about people trying. “Frankly, he was in most of it. Not like he was in every scene or anything, but he was definitely following Luke and Liam around. Especially Liam.”
She laughed, and I felt the stress melt out of my shoulders for at least a moment. “Yeah, we’ve always joked about Liam being a conduit for this sort of thing. Is he the one you saw something by?”
“No, actually, although I’ve watched a few videos and I would agree - it seems like the ghosts tend to follow him around more. But this was actually following Luke. And it wasn’t Grady - I saw a small girl peeking out from behind his back.”
“A girl?” Caitlin asked. “That’s pretty weird. I don’t think there is reported to be a young girl haunting that building.”
“Well, that’s why I’m looking to get into the building. I read up on the history of the building, and I didn’t see anything about a young girl being there. I’m worried about her being trapped and completely unknown. When spirits are interacted with, it can help them keep their form. If they’re unknown, they can distort so badly that there’s no moving on for them. If they get to that point, they’re essentially shadow men, and there’s no much that even I can do for them at that point.”
Caitlin stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a low, slow whistle. “You seem like you actually know a lot about this. How long have you been telling people that you see ghosts.”
“My entire life as far as I can remember, although I try my best not to tell people if I can help it. For some reason, people get really touchy if they think you can talk to their deceased loved ones, so I really only try to do it if someone’s relative is insistent that I talk to them.”
“And you really believe you can see them?”
“I know I can see them. It’s trying to get other people to listen to me that can be the problem. But it’s helped solve a few high-profile cases around here, so it’s easier to explain than it used to be.”
“Then in that case, I’ve got a bit of a proposition for you. I know you want to get into the Peter’s Building, and I can certainly make that happen easier than you can. But we’ve been looking for a psychic to come on the show for quite a while. It doesn’t have to be anything long-term or anything,” she added quickly, as though she was sure I was going to reject her offer before she got a second to get it all out, “but we think if there was actually someone there who could see and interact with the ghosts, it would add a sense of legitimacy to our channel that other channels don’t have. All you’d have to do is talk to a couple of ghosts and maybe help with some of the explanation for the history. Not for the Peter’s Building, of course - we could do that as a part two for the original video if we can get that filmed quickly,” she started, obviously talking more to herself than to me at this point, “but if we could explain that you were there because you can see Grady, that might add even more legitimacy to it.”
“I wouldn’t mind chatting with Grady,” I interrupted before she planned a whole season with me on, “but I can’t guarantee that he’ll be willing to talk to me.”
“Well, if he doesn’t, then we’ll just show you pointing in his direction and Luke and Lia reacting to it. If they say you’re legitimate, you won’t have to explain much of anything - the audience will already be on your side regardless. So, if you’re down, I’ll call the owner of the Peter’s Building and get us rebooked. I’ll even get your flight and hotel room arranged. What do you say?”
Well, I thought, this might not have been exactly what I was trying to do, but at least it would get me into the Peter’s Building. If I have to go around with a couple of bumbling idiots to do it, so be it. Maybe a demonstration of my skills will get me some additional work anyway. “You tell me when, and I’ll be there.”