Pan waited. She hid behind Ruair. He’d stopped and wouldn’t move.
“Ghost?” She flashed her light around him.
“Not a ghost,” Ruair said. “A big space.”
Pan’s light traveled over a small shed, mine carts, and stacks of equipment. Another building served as an operating center. Nearby, a crane hovered over a deep hole, marked with metal poles and bright rope, most of which sagged on the ground. A sign nearby read: Caution 70 foot drop.
Uda frowned. “What is this? They’re like little underground houses.”
Ruair moved his light around the wide, dug out space. “It’s central. The mine had stations like this to extend the miners’ reach. They aren’t really houses. They’re storage units and protected work spaces.”
The light passed over support beams. Beyond the beams, Pan saw exits. She stared hard at those exits, but the beams proved more interesting. A mummified face peeked from behind one. Pan didn’t jump, and neither did her companions. They didn’t see it. Good.
Her heart quickened. She needed to lose them here.
“Which way do we go?” Ruair asked. “Looks like we have seven choices, not including the way we came.”
“Eight if you count this one.” Hagen’s light jiggled over a tight exit, just to their right.
Pan thought the final exit seemed too tight for anyone. “Is that one natural?”
No one had an answer.
“I don’t see any ghosts.” Merit’s small voice sounded forlorn and unfamiliar. His light shook as it moved over support beams.
Pan wished he would stop. That mummified face was for her eyes only.
“We should split up,” Pan offered. She glimpsed a shadow as it moved down one hall. She kept her eyes off it, but that would be the path she took.
“Are you crazy?” Hagen asked. “We aren’t supposed to split up.”
Pan shook her head. “We see no ghosts to follow. Here’s what I think we should do. We should each pick a path, minus the natural one. We should take fifteen minutes to walk that path. Fifteen minutes out. Fifteen minutes back. A half hour total. One of us will see a ghost. We meet back here and take that person’s path.”
“Great idea,” Uda said, with more than a hint of sarcasm. “So, I guess we’ll just use the path of the person that doesn’t return because that person will be dead!”
“That person will get jump scared. That’s all.” Pan gave Uda a pointed look. “In long closed structures, like this one, ghosts become shy. They’ve forgotten about their previous interactions with the living. They can be confused and scared of us. If we split up, one of us will see the ghost. That person will be fine. Just startled.”
Hagen crossed his arms. “What happened to that stuff about the miner and how we should beware the arcanes’ ghosts?”
Pan smiled. “We still should. But, it’s not necessary yet.”
“I agree.” Ruair nodded once. “There’s a lot here. We need to narrow it down. We each pick a path and walk for fifteen minutes. We can synchronize our clocks and turn back all at the same time. We can also stay in touch via our coms.”
Pan set her eyes on her chosen path and started towards it. She wove through support beams and gave the seventy foot drop a wide berth. She grasped a beam as she moved over uneven ground, but she kept her eyes on that path.
When Pan reached the tunnel, she stood before it and blocked the others’ view. She flashed her light inside. Her mummified friend, knelt, not too far ahead. Pan’s heart beat hard. She kept her face measured, almost serene. Then, she moved her light nice and steady. The ghost fell out of view, and Pan turned her back. Her heart beat a little harder. She never turned her back on a ghost if she could help it. Pan waited and watched the team.
They followed her example, and each chose a path. Six arcanes, seven paths. One remained unchosen. It would be unexplored, but that didn’t matter. Pan had the key.
Ruair looked at his clock. “Okay, strap your lights on, get your coms out, and look at your clocks.”
Everyone complied.
Ruair watched his clock. “Fifteen minutes, then turn back. I’ll call just to make sure we all stay on the same timeframe, but if you don’t hear me, stick to the plan. Okay, go.”
Pan faced her tunnel. Her light shone from her forehead. It pierced the dark path, and she saw the ghost. It sat still, except for its pinprick eyes, which followed her movements. Pan walked. The mummified ghost didn’t move, but it watched her. In a few steps, Pan reached its side. She half expected it to grab her arm. It didn’t. Pan glanced down and beckoned for it to follow her deeper into the mine. The pinprick eyes and tight face showed some surprise.
Pan shifted her attention ahead. She watched her step and moved over uneven ground. She didn’t know if the ghost would follow, or if it would grab her in an enthusiastic haunting.
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Pan braced and glanced back. She saw the thing crawl after. Pan’s heart panicked, but she fought for control of her mind. Never had she walked ahead of a crawling spirit. Usually, she ran.
After five minutes, Pan’s heart got tired of its fast beat. “You and I are going to keep walking. I’m looking for the place I can find you. Ghost seer?”
“Yesssss.”
Pan looked back and found the ghost seer at her heels. It regarded Pan with some awe.
The deceased seer rose and asked, “Ghost seer?”
“Yes. Take me where I can find you.” Pan pointed at the ghost seer. “Take me where I can find all of you. Do you understand?”
“Power sharer, healer, portal maker. Me. Just our shells?”
“Just your shells. I need to find them. Tell no one else.” Pan put a finger to her lips. “You don’t want them to find you. Trust me.”
The ghost seer nodded. Her neck moved tightly. She slid ahead of Pan.
Just before the fifteen-minute mark, Pan heard the chirp of her com.
“Does anyone else hear that?” Uda asked. She’d beaten Ruair to their check in.
“I don’t hear anything,” Lita said.
“Keep your com running,” Ruair instructed. “Point it towards the noise and don’t move.”
Pan stopped too. She imagined that the entire team stopped to listen to Uda’s mysterious noise. She held her com close to her ear. The ghost seer floated near and mimicked Pan, seeming wary of the modern com.
Scraaaaape - ping! Scraaaaape - ping!
The ghost seer jerked upright. “Miner,” she whispered.
Pan needed to warn Uda. The miner might be the exception to the pattern. Pan doubted he dealt in jump scares.
“Can you see anything?” Pan asked.
“I see sparks and..two red dots.”
“I think that’s the miner. You should run. Just turn around and go.”
“Run. Run.” The ghost seer touched a cold hand to Pan’s wrist.
Pan felt it through her clothes. The ghost tugged. The dead ghost seer wanted Pan to flee as well – not back but ahead.
It suited Pan just fine.
She put a hand against the wall and trotted. She ran with care, picking a slow trot over the uneven path. In silence, she thanked the miner for his perfect distraction. He bought her a lot of time.
It didn’t take long for Uda’s screams to filter over the com. Merit and Lita’s whimpers followed. Somewhere in their fearful noises were worried questions. To the chaos, Hagen offered a scream of his own. Then, he declared that he’d seen a little blue man, hobbling back the way he’d come. The way he now needed to go. Ruair told him to be careful. He yelled for everyone to return for the central processing room. Everyone ran back, except Pan.
“When he comes out, they all come out,” the ghost seer warned.
“The miner is the life of the party.”
“No, not him.”
Pan almost stopped. She looked the ghost seer in her dead pinprick eyes.
“Take me on,” Pan said.
“Yes, to me.” The ghost seer floated ahead. Her nonexistent legs blurred.
Pan’s light dimmed in response to the ghost’s call for energy. She wondered when the real life of the party would show himself.
Pan breathed hard. She wanted to lift her mask, desperate to escape the heat around her face. She didn’t. Bad things lurked in the air of a more physical nature.
Pan kept a hand on the wall and tried to stay steady. Her steps echoed, and she imagined that Ruair and the others could hear her flee. She imagined they already knew her as a reaper.
Sweat trickled down Pan’s nose, and some reached her lips. Or was it condensation?
She couldn’t take it. She lifted the mask and took a deep breath. Immediately, she needed to cough. Pan did just that. After a short fit, she wiped her face and replaced the mask. She hated the stifling air and drew shuddering breaths. She promised herself she would hate ruined lungs more.
The dead ghost seer waited ahead and watched Pan. She twisted into a contorted posture. Her wide eyes showed darkness and two blue pinpricks. She seemed fascinated by this display of life gone wrong. Pan rubbed a hand through her hair. Her arm tingled as did her left leg.
The com crackled.
“Pan, where the hell are you?” Ruair’s voice.
She put a finger on the button. “I’m deeper in the mine.”
“Yeah, and how are you faring? Did you just ignore my orders?”
“I didn’t. Something blocked my path. I had to go forward,” Pan lied. Well, half-lied. Something did block her path – the strong desire to lose the others.
Ruair sighed.
Pan wondered if he meant to transmit that.
Ruair asked, “What did you see? Was it one of the arcanes?”
Pan looked right at the ghost seer. “No. It wasn’t a knocker either. I’m not sure what it was. I don’t think I can return on the same path, and you should be wary of it too.”
“Oh, my Mother Tree. I might call Mentor Kat.” Ruair sounded tired.
“Not yet. Let me go a bit deeper. I haven’t seen any turns. It’s a straight shot, so I can’t get lost,” Pan said.
“I don’t like this. We’ve got no map.” Ruair’s breath sounded shallow.
“No map, but if there aren’t turns, we don’t need one.” Pan thought the previous owners of the mine could have at least provided a map for the mine itself, not the supposed cave system, but the mine.
They had to do without.
“Is everyone else fine?” Pan asked, finding her smidgen of compassion.
“I don’t know. I’ve got Uda and Lita. We’re okay. Hagen and Merit got chased down a different tunnel. They haven’t responded yet. The miner…” Ruair paused. “He followed Uda to the main room. He blocked the way back. I know for a fact they didn’t take your path, so that leaves you on your own.”
“I’m okay.” Pan frowned.
The miner showed great, malicious intelligence, and Pan understood why the ghost seer stood dead before her. These ghosts were powerful, and Pan would run from them in any other situation. She’d put the team in danger, all for her need to hide herself.
“I’m sorry,” Pan said. “We shouldn’t have split up.”
“No, no. It’s my fault. I agreed. Your plan didn’t seem like a bad idea.”
“I never expected the miner to show up. I should have known better. This place killed a ghost seer.” Pan looked at the dead ghost seer.
The seer hovered close and, with narrowed eyes, watched Pan.
Ruair said, “We’re supposed to work together to find these bodies, and now...we’re all lost. I should call Kat.”
No, we’re supposed to accuse each other, until we expose the reaper. Me.
Pan didn’t press her com button, but aloud, she begged, “Don’t call Kat yet.”
No one heard her plea, except for the dead ghost seer.
Ruair said, “Don’t worry. I’m calling Kat.”
Pan held her silenced com. She regarded the ghost seer. “Don’t let him call out. Disrupt the connection. You can take power from my light if you need to.”
The ghost seer’s eyes widened. Then, her pinpricks disappeared. She went still, except for a small vibration. The light dimmed.
The com crackled. “I can’t call out. I don’t know why. I can’t call out.”
Pan heard Ruair’s panic in chopped up bits. She didn’t bother to answer.
“I need you to keep it like this. Don’t let them call out. They need to stay in, silent and trapped,” she told the ghost seer. “Can you do that?”
The ghost seer vibrated. Pan didn’t think the ghost could keep it up.
“It’s a good game. He’ll take over,” the ghost seer promised
“Who will? The miner?”
The seer shuffled forward on thin legs. “Why do you ask me to do this? Why do you lie?”
“We’re looking for a reaper. The reaper is among them,” Pan whispered. “You don’t want a reaper to find you, right?”
The ghost seer’s eyes looked almost real. “What if I do?”
Pan frowned.
The ghost smiled and turned away. She led on.