Relax, it's just a fucking graveyard.
Tell that to the thunderstorm.
Shut up you idiot.
Dave shook his head and he frowned, but just barely. Cool kids don't frown. They keep their shit together even if they have to conduct a paranormal investigation in the middle of the fucking night at a grave yard. With fucking thunder and lightning. Fucking thunder and lightning.
He glanced up at the sky. The clouds had pretty much obscured any and all possibilities of moonlight. On the bright side, all the humidity could enhance spirit activity. He grabbed the radio, "Yo, John how're things at home base?"
"I haven't seen anything, yet... unless you count an opossum climbing up a tree with my stash of grapes activity."
"Very funny Egbert. I'm going to try for an EVP. Tell Rose and Jade to steer clear of my section of the cemetery, 'kay?"
Rose's voice came in a bit garbled due to the wind. "We can hear you, Dave."
"Well that's great to know that I'm coming in loud and clear."
"Ladies, you heard the man, give him space for some evidence collection." John chuckled. "Now quit clogging up the radio."
Dave mock saluted "Over and out."
Dave set down his camera on a headstone and used the light attached to it to help him find the tape recorder. God damn it. There was so much shit in this backpack. He was mildly surprised that he could even carry the damn thing; there was so much shit packed in it. EMF detector, pack of twenty batteries, thermal camera, two extra flashlights, tape recorder—there it was! He grabbed it and checked how much tape was left. Thank God Jade had put a new cassette in it. There was no way he was going to look through that bottomless maw of a backpack again. Lightning danced across the sky. One, two, three, four. Thunder. That storm was getting a lot closer for comfort.
Dave picked up his camera and continued walking until he found a mausoleum. Well, this could get some interesting results. He sat down on the steps and turned the camera onto himself. The light glinted off of his shades and back onto the camera, "Alright, I'm going to try an EVP session. Here goes nothing."
He turned the camera back on the tape recorder. He pressed the record button. "Is there anyone here?"
He felt kind of stupid for talking when no one was there, but hey, that's what the point of joining GPI was. Georgia Paranormal Investigators was obviously a team of four investigators that go across the Georgia to help people with their ghost problems. The team members were Dave, John, Rose and Jade. Believe it or not, Georgia was actually a very haunted place. It didn't really help that the mausoleum Dave was sitting in front of belonged to a very wealthy family. As in, one that had been burned to death during Sherman's march to the sea, along with many others. Dave listened and looked around for any activity. No response; just the sound of the wind blowing.
"Do you remember the Great Burning?" Dave used the southern term for the march to the sea.
The wind blew. Hard. It almost blew away the tape recorder before Dave pressed it down to... was that marble? Wow. Really wealthy family. They must have been fucking loaded to build this thing.
A cold breeze whistled past his ear, "Yes."
He jumped a bit. Wasn't expecting that.
"What do you want?" His voice was very even, even though he was mentally about to lose his shit, but at the same time it was a bit exciting to get a reply because it didn't happen often.
The wind slowed and lightning crackled. One two three. Thunder. Better wrap this up.
Dave decided that this would be his last question "Are you human?"
A bolt of lightning shot out across the sky. The hair on Dave's arm stood on end. The air smelled of soon-born rain and ozone. He ran a shaky hand through his hair and flicked off the recorder.
"Thank you for your time." He turned and almost ran back to home base. A hand reached out and grabbed his backpack. He could feel the cold radiating off of it. It was colder than the fake iceberg at the Titanic exhibit at the museum where he visited at home. He dropped his backpack and began to feel an intense pain across his back. Shit. He grabbed his backpack off of the moist grass and ran. He ran, almost tripping over headstones as he went. He wanted to get out of here. He felt warm water pelting him from behind. The storm was chasing him back to John. Fuck. He could see the GPI truck where Rose and Jade were about to climb aboard. He shoved past them. He tumbled down in front of John, who was surrounded by several monitors.
He pushed off his backpack and shoved away his camera. John stood up and was unsure of what to do as Dave wrestled with his jacket. Dave pulled his shirt off.
"Strider, we don't need a strip tease-" Rose cut herself off as she saw his back. She climbed into the truck and Jade followed her. Jade gasped.
Dave was very pale, "What? What is it?"
John looked very upset. "There are cuts on your back."
"What?"
"Oh for fucks sakes." Jade grabbed a camera out of her back pack and took a picture of Dave's back. She snapped a picture. She showed Dave.
There was one word carved into his back. Blood trickled from the slash marks, making it even more terrifying. He felt his chest tighten as he read it.
NO.