Chapter 7: It Was You

Zack blinked as the car pulled up to the school. A huge padlock was placed on the wrought iron gate to the entrance to the school and much of the landscape looked run-down.

"Is this still a working school?" Zack asked Jackie as she flipped through her notes. Jackie shook her head no as she turned to the exact page with the information about the current status of the school.

"No, they closed it in 2006 because many of the students were scared away by the paranormal activity here. A few accounts from students claim that they felt something push them in the locker room. In one case, a girl who had a broken leg due sports related injuries felt something push her around in the locker room and she was the only one around," Jackie grimly replied as she read from her notes.

"Yeah great," mumbled K.C., "This is what I go to school for: looking for paranormal activity that could exhibit violence towards us while looking in the locker room." Sam punched her in the arm playfully and tried to look brave.

"Hey, this could be a great place to catch some fairly fresh hauntings," he reminded her, "Think about it." Riley agreed silently as he wheeled the car into a parking spot.

"Let's go find a place to set up base camp," Riley murmured as he started striding toward the entrance of the school. K.C. shuddered slightly as she stayed close to Riley. No offense to the founders of this school but it looked pretty bad. Weeds littered the dying grass patches and the trees looked ready to keel over any second. Graffiti covered the sides of the buildings due to continuous vandalism. Jackie picked up her pace and pointed over at the center quad of the school.

"How about base camp over there?" she asked Riley. He studied the area and agreed by putting his backpack down on the grass. The rest of the team followed suit and Zack removed the cameras from their cases.

"Let's set up cameras in the shower room, both locker rooms, and the courtyard," Riley announced as cameras were unpacked and passed out. Zack nodded and strode off to install the courtyard camera. No way would he risk being the next victim pushed down the locker room stairs. Jackie grimaced and volunteered herself for the installation of the girls' locker room camera. Sam offered to install the boys' locker room camera which left K.C. with the shower room.

Riley drummed his fingers on the keyboard as he waited for the rest of the crew to radio in. K.C. responded first and adjusted the camera to hit all the showers at a diagonal. Jackie followed immediately after. Sam struggled to plug in the connector wires and finally got a connection. Zack studied the area and found the outlet near the snack bar. He cringed as the courtyard was stained in rusty brown blobs, probably from the murdered victim. He prayed that this spirit in this area wasn't a volatile sort like the locker room one.

"I think we should start a sweep of the courtyard and one in the boys' locker room," Riley whispered to the group. Jackie volunteered herself quickly for the courtyard and Riley offered to check out the locker room. Zack cringed and reluctantly offered his help for the shower room.

"I'll go with you Zack," Sam offered as he stood up, seeing the panic in Zack's face. Jackie grabbed Sam's arm and quickly mentioned that she needed his help in the courtyard. Zack swallowed hard and put on a brave face for Sam.

"I'll be fine dude," he lied, "You protect Jackie. But be prepared for a mess, the courtyard has some really horrible stains on the ground." Sam nodded firmly and K.C. stretched her arms outward. She had no complaints, she would be safe here at base camp.

Jackie tried not to scream as she spotted the old blood pool blobs on the ground. It was a mess. Smaller dots of dried blood were found several feet away from the larger blobs. How unlucky for the victim shot here! Sam grimaced and lowered his eyes to his sneakers. In an attempt to pull herself together, Jackie shakily tugged on Sam's arm and suggested that they begin some call and response. Sam fumbled with the voice recorder and clicked the Record button.

"Spirits, if you're here, we mean no harm," Jackie weakly began, "We're just here to get the truth. We want to ask you a few questions." She swallowed hard before beginning.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Were you an artist?" asked Sam as he scanned the area. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he whipped his head around to see a shadow looming toward them. "Jackie!" he hissed as he pointed on the ground. Jackie jumped and began backing up in horror. Sam could feel his heart begin to race as the shadow came close to them. Then a person's form began to emerge out of nowhere. Sam blinked and saw that it was a girl. But it wasn't any girl: it was Edie.

"Edie?" he called out to her, "What brings you here to Fallen Pike?"

Edie looked past him at Jackie and answered hollowly, "So you found out?"