That same droning ring echoed through his room once morning came. Though he used to slug himself out of bed at that ring by now it was when he had to end his morning workout.
Sitting at the end of the bed with a weight on each foot he continued his situp reps until he finished counting them in his head. Once finished he got up and turned the alarm on his phone off and went for a quick shower before school.
It had been a month since the group had been established and there hadn’t been very many posts through the app. Most of them had been desperate attempts to get the current members to share the video and get friends to apply along with some oddly desperate messages from Joseph himself along the same tone.
He often used his shower these days to practise his spirit walking, taking a trip down to the kitchen where he would be able to see his father sitting with another cup of coffee as he did every morning. He would always seem content to sit in silence with a hot cup of coffee, sipping away and reading the news on his phone.
His sister was out today for college and his younger brother was nowhere to be seen, most likely asleep at this time of the morning. His mother was out far earlier than his father for business again.
“Even without me here it feels rather lonely.” He thought as he felt the sluggish movement kicking in, that pain beginning to creep through his muscles that he could barely even feel in this form.
By the time it was too much for him to deal with he would return to his body before passing out like the manor incident and washed himself off while he was still in the shower. Another aspect of his work out schedule was a jog to and from school that a little bit of deodorant would cover up if he was lucky but so far no one had complained.
Physical Education was good enough as well with access to a large variety of equipment he could use to practise for what he felt he was lacking in. Luckily for him the classes were never forced to do anything specific in their final year of school like they were when they were younger, just told to use the machines with supervision from the instructor.
Being distant with his classmates often paid off here as sure he may have gotten some stares with how seriously he would tackle some of these machines they never bothered to approach and question him on it.
Lunch had stayed the same as he had joined his friends and kept his ear to the ground about the group. Though there had been no recent updates until now, that was to change today.
While they sat together and Mitch ate from the plastic box containing a pasta salad that was leftover from the night previous he could hear that tacky funeral tone echo from both of their phones.
Shaun would have been the first to check as Emma didn’t seem as interested to check straight away. Mitch had learned by now that Shaun would excitedly tell them so he never needed to pry.
“Guys, there is another meeting coming up!” Shaun would finally say as his eyes darted back and forth across the screen as he mumbled parts to himself. “October 15th..” he stated before he continued reading “casual discussion... cemetery along the river…”
“Sounds like he is going all out for his ghost theme.” Mitch replied, already planning a route out to where he could get there until it hit him that there wasn’t a chance that he would be invited.
But he could think about what Lara could do, especially since she could easily just walk in and observe with no issues as long as she returned to the apartment that she had moved into about a week or so prior.
He had time to check his own phone where he had a message from Lara, a photo of a black kitten that Jasper helped her get so she wouldn’t feel as alone in the apartment. “She’s getting comfy!” The text read as the kitten was sleeping across one of the large pillows on the bed.
“Hope you are as settled in.” He replied before sliding his phone back into his pocket, ignoring the messages from everyone else at the moment. “Well, are you both planning to go?” He asked them once Emma checked their phones too.
“I think I will.” Emma said as she ate her home made meal.
“Shame.” Mitch chuckled. “Guess we won’t be hanging out then.”
“Why don’t you come?” Shaun asked, keeping his attention on her phone as he occasionally ate some of his lunch.
Before he could reply Emma explained to him “He isn’t in the group, they said group members only.”
“What day is it anyway?” Mitch asked, opening the calendar in the back of his school journal.
“Saturday.” Shaun replied quickly, having been checking the details.
“I would be in class anyway then, up in dublin.” He explained with a shrug, brushing off the issue.
“I’m surprised you can survive with so much school.” Emma said, the shock in her tone had long since faded from the first time they talked about it. “I can hardly handle normal classes.”
“It’s all to get into medical school.” He almost bragged, enjoying the feeling that everyone thought he was this diligent student that could do no wrong. His grades may attest to this, but at what cost he thought from time to time.
When school was over he was quick to Jaspers since he was jogging. Stopping at the gate he buzzed and waited for the usual bad joke to come through.
“Did you hear the world's largest onion died?” Jasper asked from the other end of the intercom.
“There was a huge turnip at his funeral.” Mitch replied with a triumphant smirk.
There was an audible tut from the other end before the gates opened. Running up the garden and steps he opened the door to a rather disappointed looking Jasper.
“Gotta step it up.” He slyly said, slipping past him to the living room table.
“You looked up a bunch of jokes, didn’t you?” Jasper asked as he came in and sat across from him.
“Nawh, I just encouraged dad to start telling jokes too, and he knows most of yours.” Mitch replied, pouring his books onto the table.
“That’s cheating!” Jasper responded somewhat childishly, putting out the file they had been updating on and off the last few weeks. They had no real information to add to it most days they would often review it, but today they both knew they finally had something to add.
“So is Lara coming over?” Mitch asked, brushing over the childish outburst to continue the train of thought he was holding.
“She should be here soon, we have a lot to discuss.”
“I take it she updated you on the situation then.” Mitch said while opening up the chapter he needed to review for English.
“Yes, I was at her apartment earlier in the morning to check up on her and Charcoal. She got the message when I was there.”
“Charcoal is a strange name for a cat.” Mitch replied, not addressing the rest of the sentence.
“Says the boy who wanted to name ours Spooky.” Jasper replied, flipping open the folder.
“I just thought a ghost cat named Spooky would be cool. I was seven.” He said with an over exaggerated and sarcastic shrug. “Thought someone with your sense of humour would appreciate it.”
“And that is why the cat was named Spooky.” He replied in jest.
Mitch hardly got to see the cat ever since they brought it back all those years ago. It mostly spent its time clinging to Sophia or, as cats to, lazing about in one of the many rooms of the giant manor, enjoying its best afterlife.
“Either way, the cat is the least of our worries right now Mitchell.” He added.
“It’s Mitch.” He corrected, “Old man.”
“It’s Jasper.” He chuckled in response. “Have your friends said anything about the event?”
“Yeah, they plan to go.” Mitch sighed in response, leaning on the side of the chair as he thought about what kind of trouble they could wind up in with this group.
“Don’t worry. We do our job correctly then we will see no one else comes to harm.” Jasper assured him.
“Still can’t help but think about what if we don’t do our job correctly.”
“Won’t happen.” Jasper said and tried to comfort him with a pat on the shoulder “I’m here to make sure you don’t pull a series of fuck ups… Again”
Mitch looked his way and returned the smile with an even larger grin “I’ll hold you to that.”
When Lara arrived later in the night they gathered once more around the kitchen table, a tray of tea and small snacks in the middle while Mitch was busy filling out the paperwork about what had been posted today and their plan of action.
“So how are we going to go about this?” Lara asked nervously, fidgeting with a dull butterknife. A plate sitting in front of her consisting of some biscuits next to a cup of tea that had long since run cold.
“Sadly, myself and Mitch can’t enter the event. So this will have to be up to you.” Jasper began to explain. “So we need to think of how to see what is going on without being there.”
“What about the spirit walking?” She asked in turn “Easy, normal people can’t see that.”
“I’ve been struggling to last upwards of five to ten minutes in that.” Mitch added, sounding rather ashamed of the fact. He had been chosen to represent the family in an event that would require him to stand above others and he couldn’t even manage something as simple as spirit walking. Now was not the time or place to worry about such matters however. “Not a chance I would make it all the way to the end of an event.” He added when he was done lamenting his own lack of ability.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“But couldn’t you?” She asked Jasper.
“I could, but Mitch is the one who is leading this job. We need a way for him to document what is going on.” It almost sounded like he was boasting about it but knowing Jasper, he most likely was.
There were a few moments of shared silence as they thought about their options. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the main hall was the only sound they would be acquainted with until Mitch eventually broke the silence “What about a camera or wiretap like police use?”
“Starting to sound like some detective show.” Jasper laughed, taking out his phone and fidgeting with it for a few moments. “There is also the option of simply staying away from the event and watching with binoculars.”
“That sounds far easier.” Lara added, placing the knife down to take her cold tea. A sip was enough to have her promptly return it to its original place “I can tell you everything that was said, and you can both keep an eye out on the movements that go on.”
“We don’t know what they plan to do, so we need to make sure they don’t try to pull anything shady.” Jasper nodded.
“Well that is as good a plan as any then.” Mitch said, slightly disappointed that they wouldn't go for the more cinematic route of hidden cameras. “So, do we have any binoculars around here, or do we need to go get some?” He asked as he stood from his seat, gathering up the remaining cutlery into a pile on a tray.
“Leave that to me.” Jasper assured, waving at him to sit back down “I’ll sort all the equipment we need.”
Mitch took his seat again and pulled in against the table “Alright then, anything else to discuss tonight then?”
The week itself passed without much issue, outside of listening to Shaun excitedly talk about the event that was. Emma seemed quite enthused as well but nowhere near as much as he was.
The morning came and Mitch found himself preparing once again to head to weekend classes, packing his bag up on his bed where he made sure to put his journal in, a set of spare clothes, even a movie that he wrapped in a towel to prevent it from breaking.
It took a while before he went down to the kitchen with his suitcase where his father was enjoying a cup of coffee at the kitchen table once again.
“You’re up early.” His father said as he entered, chuckling through his cup as he took a sip. “I thought you said classes weren’t on this weekend.” He added once he placed the cup back on the table.
“Did I?” Mitch asked groggily, having skipped out on his ‘energy drink’ to prevent the effects from diminishing.
“Yeah, you said it last night.”
He thought back on it for a few moments before it finally hit him “Oh, yeah!” He said, shaking his head “I’m stupid… A force of habit.”
“I think you should get some more sleep, you look pretty tired.” His father calmly told him. “Enjoy the days off before you go over to Jasper.”
“You know me too well.” He replied with a warm smile, picking up his suitcase and returning to his room.
Though he went to try to sleep, he first always checked his phone where he had messages from both groups. Mostly in the weekend school chat they were disappointed that he hadn’t come down this weekend, in response to the message that he put in last night.
“It better be important!” Joel responded to it, while Saoirse responded with those little disappointed face emoticons.
He took a moment to type in that it was for an important job that Jasper needed help with and that he had been given the go ahead by the family to take this weekend off.
It was met with a message from Saoirse that almost cut him. “The train is going to be lonely.”
He sent back a quick “Sorry, I’ll bring some extra snacks and stuff for next week's movie night!!” He replied before closing the chat down and checking in on the other.
It was more of the same with the group from school, links to funny clips they enjoyed sharing, some jabs at each other, and plans being made for how they would get to the event tonight.
Once he finished reading through, and checking out the short clips that at best got a short chuckle out of him, he decided to put his phone down and get back under the covers for a well needed extra few hours of sleep.
Lara was pacing about her small apartment in anticipation for what was coming up tonight, finding it hard to sit still. While nothing should happen tonight, hearing Mitch and Jasper talking about wanting to be around just in case something happens made her feel like it was more likely that something would happen.
She eventually forced herself to sit down at the little table she had in the section of the living room that was cut off to be the kitchen to have some breakfast. Charcoal hopped to the top of the table and stumbled his way over to rest against her arm as she poured the food into her bowl with the other hand. It would be a lie if she said that Charcoal didn’t help with the nerves of being here on her own.
When the time finally came to head out to the event Lara would have been out in the streets, walking along the river by the rowing club that led down towards the path that connected the old cemetery.
She could see that people were already there from all the lights in the distance. There was a small crowd gathered around the old dilapidated graveyard that rested on the river's edge. The closer she got she found that the graves themselves had become washed out and any form of text had long since abandoned the face of the pale stone.
She said a silent prayer for those who had lost their identity to time and joined the crowd standing on the path. There was a lot of chatter which made it hard to focus on any conversation.
Mitch and Jasper would gather far away on the hill overlooking the cemetery on the opposite side of the river “So we won’t know what is going on until Lara gets back.”
“I thought of listening through her phone, but people will overpower the sound of that.” Jasper began to explain, pulling out a pair of binoculars from his pocket and handing them to Mitch “So she will have to tell us when we finish up.”
Mitch wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea and it showed on his face as he took the binoculars. “It still feels dangerous to just leave her down there on her own.”
“Why?” Jasper asked bluntly.
“Who knows what is going to be said, or done. They could be doing anything down there” He reasoned, pulling them up so he could adjust the view on the crowd below.
“Could be said about anything.” Jasper grunted. “This is nothing more than a meeting of like minded folk.”
“Hush, hush.” Mitch would say after, holding a hand up to him as he looked down.
Jasper would join him where they saw that Joseph came out from the side of the cemetery that led into the forest. He was dressed in that same dollar store horror movie outfit he wore at the manor minus the mask.
The two sat in silence despite not being able to hear what was going on in the first place, watching him stand behind one of the graves in front of the crowd and raising his hands to the sky. Even at this distance they could see the projective spittle fly from his mouth as the guard they had ran into at the manor was beside him
“Can you see Lara?” Jasper asked.
“Yeah, she is close to the front, probably in the splash zone.”
“Well keep an eye out.” Jasper said sternly while they returned to watching him seemingly shout into the air and wave his arms to the sky.
Mitch found he couldn’t keep still and gazed around the crowd where he found Shaun and Emma, luckily out of the splash zone though they were far enough back they were struggling to see what was going on.
It seemed that Joseph had stopped his shouting as the crowd began to clap and would begin to chatter amongst themselves. What could only be considered his bodyguards came down from the blank gravestones and began to take down something into a notebook as each person passed. Once they were done taking down whatever it was, an armband was given to each member as they left and made their way back towards the town.
When they prepared to leave, Mitch would once again call Jasper's attention. “Look at Lara.” He whispered.
She was rather awkwardly talking to Joseph while the crowd was dispersing, the way she moved and fidgeted indicated that she was not comfortable with whatever conversation they were having, but Joseph didn’t seem to notice, or he just didn’t care.
“Do we go down?” Mitch asked.
“If we step in now, we ruin the whole plan. Watch what he does and gauge the situation more.” Jasper replied, keeping his attention closely placed on Lara. “If he makes a wrong move we run down there.”
“Alright…” Mitch responded, taking up the binoculars again. He wasn't sold on the idea since it would take them some time to get down there but they had no time to debate.
It seemed to be a very brief meeting as he left Lara standing in shock for a few moments before she walked to the end of the group and got the same band that had been passed out to everyone.
“Best we leave her to get back to her apartment.” Jasper said as he stood up, putting his binoculars away.
“Right.” Was all Mitch said in response, handing his pair back. He stood on the old grassy hill looking over the distance where the lights all began to fade along the river towards the town, like spirits returning to the earth. The lights floated from people's phones and flashlights before one by one they began to turn off when they got to the main street.
When Lara got back home she stuffed her key into the lock and pushed open the door. A scream echoed through the halls as Jasper was already inside with Mitch that alerted the neighbours. Lara panicked as she heard the commotion caused by her scream and quickly stepped back outside to quell the situation. “Ah my father came to visit out of the blue, he had a spare key!” The two could hear her explain to those outside.
“Perhaps we should have just called or something.” Mitch whispered to Jasper.
“It’s easier to get information like this.” Jasper said, walking to the kitchen and sitting at the small dining table with 3 chairs around it. “And It’s funny.” He slyly added when they sat.
“You are evil.” Mitch whispered as she came back.
Lara would soon return and lock the door behind her, which was followed by “Thanks for the heart attack! You could have told me you were coming round!”
“Thought it would be obvious that we would.” Jasper chuckled lightheartedly, taking the folder out from his jacket inner pocket. “So, let's get to the topic at hand.”
She let out a defeated sigh and pulled out a chair, Mitch soon joining. “So, when he came out he began talking about some bullshit to do with ‘where death is, our connection to the paranormal is strengthened’.”
“Sounds like something he would say.” Mitch added as he tried to pet Charcoal who was on the table, though the kitten would avoid his hand and promptly jump off the table, running off into the bedroom.
“Then he went on with those who showed the conviction to come all this way for his little event.” she began, crossing her arms on the table and tapping the surface. “There is going to be a party back at the manor on Halloween. Everyone who attended today got a band that will let us get in.”
“A rather quick meeting, don’t you think?” Jasper asked, while he was taking down what she said into the notes page.
“It was rather quick, he said this was just a test for the real event.” She shrugged, running her nail against the wooden surface which made a light scratching noise.
“What was he saying at the end?” Mitch asked. “He was creepily close.”
She seemed visibly disturbed by the question, or most likely the memory. “He just waltzed up to me and started asking what I thought about the event.”
“Was that it?” Jasper asked.
“He said that he saw me before at the last event, but he couldn’t have. If he did he would have known I was with you.” She replied, leaning on the table before she stood and went to put the kettle on. “Said he was very excited to see me at the party.”
“As much as you may feel uncomfortable here. This could be a boon to our investigation.” Jasper reasoned. “I think we can exploit this little infatuation, as long as you are willing to put up with him.”
She shuddered at the thought but turned after a moment, stopping before the kitchen door and nodded “I think I can put up with him long enough for us to get what we need.”
“You are far stronger than I.” Jasper laughed, standing up and flipping the folder closed “I wouldn’t be sure how long it is before I knock him out.”
“Classy, gramps.” Mitch said as he got up and tucked in his chair.
He responded by slapping him atop the head with the folder “Quiet you.”
Lara chuckled light-heartedly while she opened the door out of the kitchen. “You two are dorks.”
It was a small comment, but the laugh and smile alongside it was enough to make him smile in return “You’re the one stuck with us.”