Demon Night Read online

  “Come here, guys!” he called. “I found something.”

  “What could he have found?” Rachel asked. “Let’s go see.”

  “I’d guess it’s the poor farm cemetery. It’s back there in the woods,” Sammy said.

  “There’s a cemetery here too? An old one?” The notion had obviously piqued Rachel’s interest. “Let’s go check it out.” Her fear from the cabin had completely dissipated.

  They walked quickly over to where Elliot stood. Jim and Jeremy had heard him too, so they joined the group as well.

  “You’ve got us all here. What did you find?” Jim asked.

  “Did you know about this?” Elliot asked Sammy directly.

  In fact, she had. It wasn’t something she thought about often. Her parents had gone to great lengths to hide that part of their past. They had money and status, but they were only the second generation of the family to have wealth.

  Elliot brushed back some of the tall plants that surrounded a tombstone. Everyone in the group except Elliot and Sammy gasped. The name on the stone:

  Samantha Hainsley

  “It’s my great-grandmother,” Samantha said. “She ended up here after my great-grandfather died and none of her children would take her in.”

  “The headstone is far more ornate than I would expect in what could be considered a pauper’s cemetery,” Elliot said. “It looks newer too.”

  “None of the people who were buried here originally had headstones. Some of the families added one later. No one in my family will admit who put it here, and the headstone company said that the request came in anonymously and was paid in cash. That’s how the story goes, anyway. It all happened back before Pine Grove became a summer camp.”

  “This place is creepy. That’s for sure,” Lance said.

  “Yeah, I think I’ve got some good stuff here,” Elliot said. “But I need to get back to the inn so I can use my equipment to analyze these recordings.”

  “You guys want to go?” Rachel asked.

  “Yeah,” Jim said. “They said they got some good recordings. Let’s get out of here.”

  It was clear that Pine Grove spooked even the seasoned ghost hunters. Everyone except Rachel and Sammy was chomping at the bit to get out of there.

  Just then, lightning flashed and thunder cracked loudly overhead. There was a storm, and it was right over them. The sky opened up and rain poured down.

  “We won’t make it back to the car before the equipment is ruined,” Elliot groused.

  “Quick. In there,” Rachel said and pointed toward the old rec building.

  Chapter Five

  It was less than ideal shelter. Holes in the ancient roof let water pour in almost as much as if they’d just stayed outside. The group huddled in one spot that was less soggy than the others when Sammy spotted the stairs.

  “Look,” she said and pointed. “This place has a basement. The floor we’re standing on seems more solid than the roof, so we’ll probably stay drier down there.”

  “As a practical matter, that sounds like a good idea,” Jeremy stated. “But no. There is no way we are going down in the basement of the spooky building at the abandoned summer camp. I’ve seen that movie. It does not end well for the band of intrepid explorers.”

  “Since when are you afraid of ghosts?” Rachel teased, but her voice wavered a bit.

  A look passed between all of them, and Sammy wondered what it was all about. It must have been something in their shared history, but it was a topic for later.

  “Did anybody bring any iron or salt?” Lance asked.

  Everyone shook their head no. Sammy had heard before that ghosts didn’t like iron or salt, but she had to wonder if they were even in danger of encountering a ghost. She’d had two recent experiences with the paranormal, and neither of the entities were ghosts, so it hadn’t occurred to her to bring those things either. It seemed strange to her that people assumed the things going on at her home were related to ghosts. It was as if people could not accept that there were worse things out there. Ghosts were just dead people, but if you opened your mind to the other possibilities, it meant you had to contemplate the notion that at least a few of the world’s religions had gotten a thing or too right. That was not the type of existential crisis most YouTube surfers were looking for when they searched up ghost videos.

  “I’m going down,” Lance announced. “My camera was too expensive to let it get ruined. There’s nothing here, and you all know that.”

  Sammy wasn’t sure why he’d said that. It seemed like a peculiar thing to say given that The Boo Crew was supposed to be a group of professional ghost hunters. It was another subject to stick a pin in until they were somewhere warm and dry.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Rachel said. “It’s really going to mess with our production schedule if we all get sick.”

  “I’m sorry, you guys. There wasn’t any rain in the forecast today.” Sammy said.

  “It’s not your fault,” Rachel reassured.

  Jeremy was halfway down the stairs when he called back up. “Watch the third step. It’s not stable. I don’t want any of you putting your foot through it.”

  “Should we just hop over it?” Rachel asked.

  “No, because then you’ll definitely go through the fourth step. Just try and keep your feet to the outside of the steps. They’re less worn there. I’ll holler when I get to the bottom. Come down one at a time.”

  Jeremy made it to the bottom of the stairs without putting his leg through any of the risers. One at a time, the rest of them made their way down. Video cameras and cell phones were their only sources of light because once they stepped away from the bottom of the stairs, the subterranean room stole all of the light.

  “Now what?” Jim asked as they stood huddled together in the oasis of light cast by their electronic devices.

  “I guess we just wait,” Rachel said.

  Sammy turned to face them, and Rachel was pressed against Jim. She was amazed at how quickly a dark, damp basement could solve relationship problems.

  “What was that?” Elliot whispered. He began to frantically sweep the room with the flashlight app.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Lance said.

  “Shhhhhh,” Elliot said. “Listen.”

  They all stood stock still and strained to listen. The noise was very faint at first. It was a soft scratching that came from the corners of the room where the light didn’t reach.

  The noise made Sammy’s blood run cold. It reminded her of a scratching she’d heard before; one that she’d attributed to her old pet, but the sound coming from the dark corners of the damp basement told her that she’d been wrong.

  It grew louder and spread so that it sounded as if something with long, brittle nails scraped at every corner of the room. Just as the scraping reached the edge of the light, it retreated and disappeared.

  “It can’t come into the light. Keep your lights on.” Jim’s voice sounded petrified, his bravado replaced with fear. Sammy knew that wasn’t good. Jim and Rachel were leaders in the group, and if big, tough Jim cracked, the rest could fall into hysterics.

  They all screamed as heavy footsteps banged above them. It sounded as if someone very large had entered the rec building. The footfalls indicated that they were headed right for the basement stairs.

  “Is there a way out of here other than the stairs?” Rachel whispered to Sammy. “Do you remember anything?”

  Sammy wracked her brain. It had been a long time since she’d been down there. “I think there is one more room down here. It was the storage for the kitchen upstairs. I’m pretty sure that there are cellar doors that lead to the outside. It used to be padlocked, though.”

  “Show us,” Rachel said as the footsteps reached the top of the stairs.

  Sammy led them through a doorway into a room that contained the ruins of dozens of metal shelving units. At the far end of the space was a small set of concrete stairs that led to a set of metal cellar doors.

  W
hoever was coming down the stairs would take one step and then stop. It gave the group time to get to the exit, but the stalker was obviously trying to terrify them.

  Rachel pulled on the cellar door latch and then pushed on the door. It only gave an inch. Someone in the group let out a high-pitched whine.

  “Take my phone,” Jim said and he handed it to Elliot.

  Jim did his best to throw his weight against the doors. He let out a hiss when his shoulder made impact the fifth time. He’d hurt himself. “I can’t get it to budge. I’m sorry.”

  “What are we going to do?” Lance asked just as all of their lights went out.

  The scratching started in the corners of the room again. It swelled until the sound of hundreds of nails scraping against the concrete floor filled the room. The person on the stairs had to be just about to the bottom, and the scratching sound closed in on the group.

  Everyone swore and tried to get their devices to come back on. Sammy shrieked as she felt something grab her foot. The previous excitement and familiarity was gone. She suddenly felt like prey.

  Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Their phones and cameras came back on, and the rain stopped. The scratching dissipated with the increase in light, and the only question left was where was the person they’d heard coming down the stairs.

  Chapter Six

  Sammy and her guests finally worked up the courage to leave the little room in the basement. When they walked into the area they’d originally sheltered in, there was no one at the base of the stairs. By the time they walked up and out of the rec building, the sun was shining.

  Sammy noticed that she heard birdsong too. Mosquitos and gnats buzzed them when they emerged from the building. Everything was decidedly more normal than when they’d arrived. It almost felt like some sort of fever dream, but they all would have had to have hallucinated.

  The group walked back to Jim’s SUV in embarrassed silence. Within minutes, they’d convinced themselves that they’d overreacted. That was easier to accept than to swallow what they’d experienced.

  No one said much when they got back to the bed-and-breakfast. They all retreated to their rooms, and Sammy was a little surprised that they didn’t leave. She wasn’t sure why, though. They were getting exactly what they’d paid for, but then again, most people don’t really want what they say they do.

  Sammy sat in her room on her bed with Tut and watched a movie on her laptop. She felt exhausted and overstretched. She felt used.

  A knock came at her door a few minutes after her movie ended. “Sammy, it’s Rachel. Can I come in?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are there any places around here that deliver Chinese food? I’m sure we’re all getting hungry, and I don’t really feel like going out. Do you? I mean, we could go out to eat if you want? Or me and the guys could go out to eat and leave you alone for a while. I guess you’re not exactly required to feed and entertain us at all times,” Rachel rambled nervously.

  “There is a place, and I’d be happy to order. I’ll eat with you, and anybody else who wants to join us. I won’t mind if people take their food back to their rooms too,” Sammy said.

  “You really are a good hostess,” Rachel said with a relieved smile. “I’ll go find out what everybody wants. Do you have a menu?”

  “In a drawer in the kitchen. Hang on, I’ll go get it.”

  Rachel went around and got the guys’ orders. She came back, and Sammy put the order in. A half hour later, Sammy, Rachel, Jim, and Elliot sat in the kitchen eating lo mein and crab rangoon. Lance and Jeremy took their fried rice and egg rolls back up to their rooms.

  They ate without talking until the doorbell startled them out of their greasy Chinese food stupor. Everyone looked at each other, but no one stood.

  “Were you expecting anyone?” Rachel asked.

  “No. I wasn’t going to open the room Zach stayed in until after you guys leave, so there are no more guests due. Maybe the delivery guy forgot something. Did we get our whole order?” Sammy asked.

  “Yeah, I think we got everything,” Elliot said. “Maybe it’s the police. Maybe they want to take another look at the room.”

  “Wouldn’t they call first? Besides, I have an appointment with them tomorrow,” Sammy said.

  “I don’t think they would necessarily call first,” Jim said.

  The doorbell rang again.

  “This is silly. I run a bed-and-breakfast. Why should I be afraid to answer the door? We’re just spooked from earlier.” Sammy stood up.

  She walked to the door, and opened it slowly. Sammy’s breath caught in her throat, and her heart thundered in her chest.

  “Hello, Sammy,” Cameron said. “It’s been a long time.”

  Sammy wasn’t sure what to do for a moment. She looked him over carefully. In the not-so-distant past, Sammy was sure that something terrible had left with Cameron.

  He didn’t look the same as when he’d left. Cameron looked like he did the day she’d met him. A sense of relief flooded her, and she realized how much she’d missed him. They’d been so effortlessly close until they just weren’t anymore.

  Sammy flung herself into Cameron’s arms and began to sob. Everything that had happened overtook her now that she finally felt safe. She’d never grieved the loss of their friendship because she had her relationship with John and a new job. The weight of it was almost too much, but Cameron’s strong arms held her up.

  “Who’s he?” Rachel’s voice broke them apart. “Please tell me this isn’t that John POS, and you’re not taking him back that easy.”

  “No,” Sammy said and wiped her eyes. “This is my old friend, Cameron. Cameron, this is Rachel. She’s a member of The Boo Crew and one of the first guests at the Hainsley Inn.”

  “A pleasure to meet you,” Cameron said and extended his hand for Rachel.

  She shook it. By the time that introduction was over, the rest of the guests had filed into the foyer. Sammy introduced Cameron to everyone else after she invited him in.

  “There’s some extra Chinese food if you’re hungry,” Sammy said. “We were eating dinner.”

  “Oh, I apologize,” Cameron said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I should have called first.”

  “No, it’s good that you’re here. Join us,” Sammy encouraged.

  Cameron came in and sat down at the table with the group. He didn’t say much, but neither did Sammy. Soon, the guests picked up a conversation of their own. It mostly entailed some half-cocked theories about how what they’d experienced at the abandoned summer camp could have been explained away rationally.

  Sammy caught Cameron giving her a questioning look as the details of their day came out. Eventually, The Boo Crew retired to their rooms and left Sammy and Cameron alone in the living room.

  “You had a big day,” Cameron said as Sammy lit a fire.

  “I did. I somehow convinced myself that I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this anymore. Like, I thought it was similar to lightning. You know how they say it can’t strike twice.”

  “That’s not true, Sammy. Lightning can strike twice,” Cameron said.

  “I think I’m marked,” Sammy said and sat down on the sofa next to Cameron. She pulled her legs up and crossed them. Without thinking, she leaned on Cameron and put her head on his shoulder. “I think it’s never going to end. I’ve opened a door I can’t close.”

  “I used to think you could close it by believing in God.” Cameron said and put his hand on her knee.

  “You don’t anymore? What happened after you left?” Sammy asked.

  “That’s a long story,” Cameron whispered.

  “You took that thing with you,” Sammy said matter-of-factly.

  “I’ll tell you all about it soon.”

  “It’s gone, then?” Sammy yawned.

  “Yeah. Can’t you tell?”

  “Yep. I could sense it when I opened the door. You promise you’ll tell me all about it?”

  “Sammy, I�
��ll tell you everything soon. I promise. Tell me what’s happened with you,” Cameron said.

  Sammy slid her fingers between Cameron’s and held his hand. She told him the story of the mirror and then of the abandoned summer camp. Then, she told him the story of Tabitha Murphy.

  “You were the one who ran for help, weren’t you?” Cameron said.

  “Please don’t tell anyone. People won’t understand.”

  “Samantha, you did the right thing. But don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

  “There’s something wrong with me, and I’d tricked myself into believing that it started recently. The truth is that I’ve had darkness around me since I was a kid.”

  “We can figure it out, Sammy. To be honest, I’ve had my issues too. I’ve told you before that I think the church helped protect me, but it’s never been able to cure it.”

  “I have to go to bed. I’ve got to get up really early to make breakfast, and it’s been a long day. Will you stay?”

  “I was going to get a hotel,” Cameron said.

  “I think I need you to stay here with me. Please.”

  “Do you have room?” I mean, this place is huge, but do you have a spare bedroom?”

  “About that,” Sammy said.

  She then told him about Zach dying. Sammy thought for sure the man dying upstairs would chase Cameron off.

  “You’re right. I can’t just leave you. Jeez, Sammy. I wish there was more I could do,” Cameron said.

  “You can. You can stay here with me.”

  “I can’t just ride the couch. You’re running a business here. I could take the empty room if it’s cleaned up and ready for guests.”

  That’s when it occurred to Sammy that no one had gone in and removed Zach’s things. The room definitely wasn’t ready. There were other bedrooms, but none of them had attached baths, so Sammy and John hadn’t outfitted them with furniture. They’d had plans to expand later, but those had become Sammy’s plans. She’d have to hire contractors, so it was a long-term goal. None of the extra rooms would be suitable for Cameron to stay in that night.