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The Blue Lady of Marywood

Chapter two

No one accepted Morley's offer to leave. He, and the man who had left them in, said their goodbyes and wished them well then left. It was 5:00 PM Friday.

The guests all stood around waiting for someone to make a move. Pete Sampson one of the men on Sam's team, the red team, finally spoke up.

"We might as well get the show on the road. Morley said we're suppose to explore the entire house so…" He looked at the members of the blue team. "Would you like to choose a floor?"

"Well how 'bout we take the second floor?" Brian Kirk asked looking at his teammates to see if they agreed.

"Well why not, we got to start somewhere." Carol Bishop said smiling shyly over at Dean who gave her a small smile in return.

"Well then how about we take the basement?" Sampson looked at his team to see if there were any objections.

"Might as well, like she said, we got to start somewhere." Sam spoke up when no one else did.

"Well then we might as well head on up to the second floor." Dean said glancing over at his brother. He nodded slightly, his way of saying watch your back; Sam gave him a small nod back.

The red team picked up candles that had been left on a table and lit them. Even though it was still daytime, with the shutters and doors locked it would be quite dark in the basement.

The basement

The red team carefully made their way down the dark steps with the group staying in a tight formation no one willing to go off by themselves, at least not yet.

"It's really spooky down here." Janet Freedman said holding her candle up to highlight the gloomy basement which was filled with cobwebs.

The basement was extremely large with several hallways and many rooms both large and small throughout. Most of the rooms appeared to have been used for storage, though there did appear to be a few that could have been used to house the servants of the house. Old box springs from beds whose mattresses were missing stood against the walls in a few of the rooms and when the candlelight hit them caused the shadows on the walls to turn into grotesque monsters. The two women on the team stayed in the middle of the four men trying to draw their courage from them.

"Do you feel that?" Nate Palmer asked as he shivered slightly.

"A cold spot?" Janet asked.

"Yeah, it sure is. Can you feel it?" Mark Stedson asked the others as he put his hand out in front of him.

"Do you think it means something?" Betty Thompson inquired. "Do you think it could be the Blue Lady?" She looked around at the team her eyes wide with both excitement and fear.

"Or it could just be a draft." Sam said. "These old mansions always have cold spots and they don't necessarily mean ghosts."

"Well I'm going to note it in my journal anyway." Janet handed her candle to Nate and quickly scribbled a few notes in her tablet.

"What's that noise?" Nate asked turning his ear toward the sound. "It sounds like scratching."

"Rats maybe." Sam said hoping that was the case. He knew scratching could also be a sign of an evil spirit's presence.

They continued down the narrow hallway till Nate suddenly stopped.

"What was that?"

"What?" Sampson moved over so he stood next to him.

"I heard something moving down there." He motioned to a hallway on their left with his candle.

The Second Floor

Carol had immediately latched onto Dean and walked next to him.

"You do this often?" She asked.

"What?"

"Ghost hunt."

"No, not really. I knew I was going to be in the neighborhood and it sounded interesting."

"Me too. I have family nearby and I thought what the heck, it might be fun."

"It could also be dangerous." Dean warned her. "Being locked in an old house with no way out, anything could happen."

"Yeah…anything." She smiled up at him.

Dean looked away. He didn't want this woman latching onto him which is what it appeared she intended to do. If she was making a play for him it wasn't working he wasn't interested.

His team continued walking down the hallway stopping to check the different rooms along the way. Suddenly the man leading the way stopped.

"Did you see that!" Jerry Watson asked as he took a step backward.

"What?" Kirk asked holding up his candle in order to see better.

"That door moved!" Jerry took another step backward ready to turn quickly in the opposite direction if he had to.

"Which door?" Dean asked stepping forward.

"That door up there on the left it just started to shut by itself."

"Well let's see if we can see anything." Kirk said as he started to head down the hallway.

"Um…" Dean stepped in front of the group stopping them from going any further. "I uh…I just want everyone to know that I've read up on the story of this spirit and I read somewhere that if you do encounter the spirit not to look her directly in the eyes." He knew he had to warn them just in case the stories were true. "If you look her in the eyes she can kill you."

"That's a bunch of crap!" Kirk blurted out. "I heard that too and it's just another urban legend. Ghosts can't hurt you…if there even is such a thing."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong." Dean looked at Kirk; he could tell he wasn't going to like this guy. "Most ghosts won't hurt you; they're just lost and confused. But there are some that will. I've done studies on it and I know there are evil spirits out there whose only purpose is to harm the living."

"God Dean you're giving me goose bumps." Carol said as she huddled closer to him.

"Well I for one don't believe any of it." Kirk said as he walked ahead of the rest of them. The others held back uncertain whether to follow him or not.

When he got to the room he was met by a cold chilly blast of air and fell back into the hallway, his eyes wide as the door once more began to shut by itself.

"Something's in there!" He gasped suddenly losing his bravery.

TBC