“You know it’s going to rain now,” he said, taking the glass from my hands. He threw the pills back into his mouth all at once and swallowed them with ease.
“I’ll take my chances,” I replied, and focused back on the screen. His editing software was all open and the footage from last night was quickly being downloaded through a USB.
“Can I do anything?” I asked, feeling useless when it came to this part of the show.
“Sure,” he said and handed me the EVP and a pair of headphones. “If you don’t mind spooking yourself out a little bit, you can listen to what we recorded and make notes of anything interesting.”
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pen and paper. “Note if the wavelengths on the front monitor change, and if you hear anything, record the time so we can find it easily.”
I was already feeling spooked at my new task, even though the lights in the den were on and the door was open, letting the winter sun filter in through the gauzy curtains of the living room.
I gingerly placed the headphones on my head and before I hit play I told him I was going to listen to it while in the room with him.
I sat back on the bed, getting cozy and making sure there was nothing but the wall behind me. I pressed play and began to listen to what we recorded on Tuesday night. That felt like eons ago.
For most of the recording it was just sounds of us working. It was us talking, our footsteps, the camera. There was nothing on the EVP that wouldn’t show up on the audio from the footage he shot.
But then, after I had told him I was going to go use the washroom, the sound in the hallway abruptly changed. I heard the door close behind me and Dex’s footsteps as we roamed down the hallway away from the monitor, which had been propped up against the wall. But everything else went dead silent. No background fuzz. Not his breath going in and out. Soon the footsteps stopped, too, and it was the blank, unnerving silence that you get when your ears suddenly stop ringing.
I looked down at the monitor to make a note of the time of the recording but the wavelength on the screen started to jump sporadically. I turned the volume up, straining to hear something.
It was very faint. But I heard it.
A voice calling, “Declan. Declan.”
I froze and hit pause. I looked to Dex, who was working at the computer, his back to me, his outline glowing against the monitor. Had Dex heard someone when he was there alone?
I hit play and listened harder, the volume going up to maximum level.
“Declan,” the voice continued. The familiar accent of an elderly woman. Creepy Clown Lady.
My eyes bugged out.
“Declan, can you hear me? You should hear me now. You should see me soon. Your medication no longer works. She switched it on you.”
I let out a yelp and hit pause again.
Dex turned in his chair and stared at me. “What is it, kiddo? You hear something?”
“I…I’m not sure yet,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’ll have to keep listening.”
He frowned at me and pursed his lips. “You look like you’ve seen…or heard…a ghost. Is it…her? Abby?” He said her name warily as if saying it out loud would conjure up her spirit.
I shook my head, not wanting him to hear it quite yet. Freaking clown lady was going to rat me out!
“I’ll let you listen in a bit, OK?”
“OK,” he said hesitantly and turned back to his screen.
I breathed out slowly, readied myself and hit play again.
Clown Lady’s voice continued. “It is for the best. You need to be yourself. That’s the only way we connect again. You need to remember me. Remember your Pippa. I know it’s hard, you don’t want to remember the past. Neither of you do. But it’s time to accept what happened. What happened to both of you. I wish my family had let me stay with you, Declan. You needed someone to take care of you. Someone who loved you like I did.”
I was so engrossed in what I was hearing, I wasn’t aware that Dex had stopped working and was watching me. My hands had been covering my face in fascination and some strange pain as Clown Lady…or Pippa…had been talking. Dex knew something was up.
I glanced at him quickly and bit my lip hard.
Pippa kept talking, her voice pausing every so often as if to listen for Dex’s reaction. But on the recording, he never made any sound in return. “Remember the days we used to spend down in Central Park? The ghosts that walked among us? I’m one of them now. But I’m different. Because I was different before. Just like you. I can cross over when I choose. But I have to be careful. I’m being watched, we all are. By the soulless ones who keep us here. The demons.”
Suddenly the ring of Dex’s phone blasted across the earphones and I had to pluck them off my head with a cry. I had forgotten the volume was turned way up.
I waited, holding them away from my ears, able to hear the phone and Dex answering it. It had been me calling from the floor below, just before Abby attacked me.
When the noise died down, I put the headphones back on.
Pippa said, “Go to her Declan. Whatever you do, don’t let that Abby get a hold of her. The effects will last longer than you think. She’s in real danger, especially when you think she’s fine. When you think she’s safe, the damage will be done.”
There was a pause.
Then, “I don’t suppose you will hear this until later since you don’t seem to hear me now. But when you hear this, know that I’ll be around if I can and when I can. It’s getting trickier to see you. I’m being watched, as I said. So I need you to stop all your medication Declan. It’s time to face what you are. And what Perry is. And who I am to you. To both of you. Perry, if you’re listening…ask your parents who Declan O’Shea is. And watch them carefully. You’ll get the truth that I am not allowed to reveal.”
Then she stopped and the recorder went back to being fuzzy. I waited a few beats and then heard the door to the hall open and Dex and I walking back inside, ready to shoot the hallway scene, totally unaware of the magnitude of what was just recorded on the EVP.
That was more than enough for now. I took the headphones off and placed them gently on the bed. I hit stop on the recorder and tried to think.
Dex was still watching me. I met his eyes. I knew he had to hear this. I just didn’t want him to hear it now. It was totally, completely selfish of me but…I didn’t want him to know what I had done. Not till tonight was over.
“What happened?” he asked carefully. “You look like you’re about to cry.”
I shook my head. “There’s something on this tape, Dex, that you need to hear. But…it’s nothing we can use for the show. I need you to promise me that you won’t listen to it until tomorrow.”
He was confused. He scratched at his sideburns, wincing a bit at what I was asking him. “I can’t listen to it?”
“You can. And you need to. And you will. I just…don’t think it would be smart if you did so before tonight. It’s…personal.”
“I don’t know what that means, kiddo,” he admitted.
“I know it doesn’t make sense. But it will. Maybe. It makes no sense to me. But I think it will to you.”
“Oh, well thanks for making it less vague.”
“Please, Dex,” I pleaded. I got off the bed and stooped in front of him so my face was right up in his. He looked surprised. “Promise me. Don’t lie.”
I held out my pinky finger for him to take. He nodded, conceding, and took my finger in his, shaking on it.
“OK, I won’t listen to it,” he said earnestly. “I mean it, too.”
“Thank you,” I said. And I kissed him gently on the forehead, his skin tasting lightly salted. I was so worried about what he would think of me when he found out I switched the pills. And I was worried about everything else she had said. It felt like it had the potential to change everything and I didn’t know in what way.
I pulled my lips away and sat back down on the bed, unsure of what to do with myself and the buttload of information I was given.
I eyed Dex. He was even more confused now, and gently touched his forehead where my lips had been.
“Perry, I’ve got to ask, should I be worried? Because I am really fucking worried now.”
I shook my head back and forth and managed to give him just the tiniest smile. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m worried about you. You just kissed me, like you were saying goodbye. For a long time.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I assured him. Not on my own accord, anyway.
Suddenly, Fat Rabbit’s bark erupted from the living room and his form bounded off the couch and clattered all the way to the door. The sound of keys in it. The rustle of grocery bags. High heels walking on hardwood.
Jenn was home.
Dex and I both tensed in unison and waited as she walked down the apartment toward the den. We exchanged a nervous glance. She was so going to know something was up, not that we were doing anything wrong.
She stopped at the door and looked in at us. She was wearing a denim mini-skirt that was way too inappropriate for both her age and the weather.
“What are you guys up to?” she asked suspiciously.
Oh man, I just wanted to go up to pull her damn curly hair out of her head. I wanted to tell her I knew everything, about Bradley, about Miss Anonymous. But I pasted on a fake smile and said, “Just creeping ourselves out with the footage we shot last night. You know, when we were locked in the basement of the mental hospital.”
She sighed and fixed her hazel eyes on me and said, “Look, I’m sorry about that. I told Dex this morning, my phone honestly died the minute I got in the cab. And I did call you, Dex, from Patricia’s phone, but you never answered. Anyway, I didn’t think it was a big deal, just another night shoot.”
Sorry my ass.
“Well, obviously it wasn’t,” Dex said. I noticed he sat rigid in his seat, not getting up to go greet her.
“So I was wrong,” she said defensively. “How was I to know? You obviously had no clue that your stupid rivals would be following you around. Though maybe you should have…”
“Jenn…” he warned her in a tone I wouldn’t question.
She raised up her hand as a peace offering. “I stopped by the store and got some appetizers and wine and whatever. I figured we could have a bit to eat here before we left for the party. Who knows if Jimmy has sprung for actual food or not.”
“I hope you bought enough food for five of us,” I said.
Dex shot me a look. He looked scared.
“What? Five of us?” Jenn repeated.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Rebecca and Emily are coming over at six so we can all get ready together,” I said cheerfully.
Jenn’s nose wrinkled. “What?” She looked at Dex, who shrugged.
“You get along with your Wine Babe, don’t you?” I asked innocently.
“Of course,” Jenn said. I knew she wouldn’t let me think that someone didn’t like her precious, gorgeous self. “I was just surprised, that’s all. I would have gotten some more goat cheese and crackers.”