"Three two one." I took a deep breath, attempting to utilize the hokey anger management technique that my sixth grade girlfriend had taught me. "One two three." I let the breath out slowly. "What the heck is bothering me?" I paused after completing the rhyme in hopes that it would calm me down.
Then I whirled around, taking a menacing step toward Chester. "You! It's you that's bothering me, Professor!"
"I just want to see that footage one more time, that's all!" Chester squeaked, taking an equal step backwards. "I could have sworn that a bag of chips moved an inch or two to the left!"
"Since you're required to stay in your body for three more hours, how about I find you a pile of books so you can resume your studies?" I sneered. "Try not to get another papercut."
Chester's eyes widened as he was reminded of his trauma, and he started to sneeze. I strode to the farthest corner of the room that the security camera would allow. I heard female voices choking with repressed laughter.
In my defense, we had been at this for most of the night, and the sun was now fully up. Not that we had anything better to do, or had any need for sleep, or food, or any other mortal pleasure that I would give up my entire afterlife existence to be able to experience just once more, but all seven of us were not used to staying in the same room together for hours on end. Falcon's briefing had not been overly informative; he saw someone from far away, obviously a male ghost, but the ghost had sensed his presence and had too much of a head start.
Elissa was right; the tapes were of horrible quality. I'd been surprised that such a large and lucrative company had bypassed so many upgrades, to which Elissa had responded, "Why not? They've always had you guys as their main security." We had been able to see limited activity, obviously supernatural, but had been able to come to no further conclusions since ghosts do not appear on cameras. So we knew that one or more ghosts were behind all this, but not who, why, or where they would strike next.
"I need to ask a favor of you all." We turned toward Ghoulmaster, surprised and wary. What kind of favor?
"It is included in everyone's contract that no one has to discuss any details of their past at any time. Yet…" Ghoulmaster looked pointedly at each of us. "You all will individually have to consider your histories and determine whether or not there is any information in them that the group would benefit knowing about."
Annabel caught on. "You're wondering if the ghost out there is doing this because of a vendetta against one of us."
He returned her gaze. "Yes."
The room remained silent for several moments. Some looked uncomfortable, myself included. By definition every one of us had baggage, or we would not still be wandering this earth.
"Your faces give me my answer." Ghoulmaster stood up straighter. "Whoever has anything they would like to disclose to me can speak to me privately anytime before the park's opening this morning."
Each one of us spoke to him individually that morning.