When Loon emerged from the porta-loo, he joined Taye and the others in shining their lights up at the towering buildings that surrounded them on three sides. Staring down on them were the mostly cathedral-style windows which, at one time long ago, had held glass but now looked empty and black, like evil dark eyes, Taye thought. Moreover, each and every one of these eyes seemed to be focused him. Taye had to fight against the shivers tickling down his back.

“Is it just me, or...” he began.

“No, it isn’t,” Lateefah responded, interrupting him. “I feel it, too. It’s like the place is watching us...waiting.”

“It’s almost as if the place is alive,” Taye said.

“And evil,” David added softly. “All my life I’ve been interested in ghosts and supernatural things, but this is so totally different from reading about it in books. It’s...it’s...” he said, stumbling for the right word.

“It’s here and it’s real,” Lateefah finished for him.

“Yeah.”

Taye nodded his agreement while staring in petrified awe at the enormity of what lay before them. His breathing was somewhat labored, he noted, silently attributing that to the fear that was growing stronger within him with every passing second. It had been mounting all day, although it had gathered great speed since Taye had laid eyes on the castle.

“Big,” Loon said quietly. Taye glanced over and found the man was referring to a sizable beetle that was crawling across the dried grass at his feet, its progress being followed closely by Loon’s flashlight beam.

“I don’t know about anybody else, but I want to go home,” Lateefah said in a soft, almost inaudible voice.

Taye, who was standing next to her, nodded. “Amen. This is the creepiest place I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s huge!” He shone his light toward the uppermost floor on the South Wing and slowly moved it to the right, window by window. “Who’s for going back to the gatehouse and waiting for daylight?”

“Grant didn’t say we actually had to stay in the buildings,” David said.

“No,” Lateefah said, “he just said we could explore.”

David corrected, “Could explore, not had to explore.”

“You know that feeling that you’re not alone?” Taye asked, continuing to scan the uppermost windows. “It’s really strong right now. I don’t think I have any psychic abilities, but right now something is telling me...” he began before he gasped and returned his light to a previous window on the top floor. “Please tell me somebody else saw that,” he said, trembling.

“What’d you see?” Lateefah asked. “No, don’t tell me! I don’t want to know!”

“Well, I wanna know. If something’s after us, I want to know about it,” David said, sounding terrified but resolute.

“Up there in that window,” Taye explained, his flashlight holding steady on a dark empty window on the top floor. “I was looking at all the windows and when my light passed by that window I thought I saw somebody up there looking down at us.”

Lateefah raised her own flashlight, directing the beam toward the window in question. “Please tell me it was a joke. You’re just trying to scare us, right?”

“No, it wasn’t a joke,” Taye said. “I’m sure I saw something...or someone.”

“What’d they look like?” David asked.

“I don’t remember; it happened so quickly and I wasn’t really paying that much attention because I wasn’t expecting anything to be up there.” Taye tried to shake off the chill that was crawling over his skin. “With any luck it was just my overactive imagination.”

“Really, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” David told them in a shaky voice. “Ghosts can’t physically hurt you...unless it’s a poltergeist, of course.”

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned a poltergeist tonight. How do you know so much about that?” Lateefah asked, turning her light upon David’s face briefly and making him wince before she dropped the beam. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I’ve read all about the subject; it’s sort of a hobby of mine,” David said. “The only thing they can do is scare you, and they’re probably not even trying to do that. I’ve read case after case that explained that the spirits of the dead are only trying to get our attention so we’ll know they’re there.”

“If that’s true then why am I shaking so much?” she asked, a slight smile on her face that Taye figured to have been caused more by nerves than the intended humor in her words.

“I’m hungry,” Loon said.

Taye turned around, looking at the other four people. “Do you all have food?”

Loon perked up. “I have Twinkies. Does anybody want a Twinkie?”

“Go ahead, Loon,” Taye said. “I’m not really hungry right now, but thanks anyway.”

David and Lateefah both declined Loon’s offer with their thanks. Loon removed his backpack and began digging around the inside. It dawned on Taye that Brandon had not been heard from in awhile so he turned his light on the man, although not directly in his face.

“You okay there, Brandon?” Taye asked. The frightened look in Brandon’s eyes proved that he was anything but all right.

“Yeah,” Brandon said shortly and without emotion, glancing down at the ground. “Did you...did you really see something up there?” he asked, his gaze rising to the top floor of the building.

“Yeah, I think so. But maybe not. I don’t know.”

“I think it was a good idea that we all go back to the gatehouse and wait for morning,” Brandon said.

“Yeah. Let’s see what everybody else wants to do. Folks?” Taye said to get the group’s attention. “I think we need to make some sort of decision on what to do rather than standing here all night. I suppose we don’t all have to do the same thing, although personally, I believe that there’s safety in numbers and it might be better all the way around if we stick together. If anybody feels differently then, by all means, speak up.”

“No, I agree with you,” Lateefah said quickly. “Grant even told us to stay together.”

“Yeah,” David agreed, watching Loon stick an unwrapped Twinkie in his mouth and zip up his backpack.

“Okay, then, how about if we take a vote? We already have one vote for going back to the gatehouse and waiting out the night,” Taye said with a glance toward Brandon. “Anybody else?”

David and Lateefah simultaneously glanced up at the dark South Wing.

“I don’t know what to do,” Lateefah finally confessed. “I mean, the reason we came here in the first place was to face our fears, right?”

“So that’s a vote for going in and checking the place out?” Taye asked.

“I don’t know. Well, I’ve probably lost my mind, but yeah.”

“Okay. One and one. David?”

“If she can go in, then I suppose I can, too. I did come here for the experience and I just don’t think I’m gonna get it at the gatehouse.”

“That makes it one and two. Loon?”

“Hell, his vote don’t count!” Brandon grumbled.

“Of course it counts. He’s a part of this party, too,” Taye corrected, scowling.

“Yeah, but he’s just a stupid re...” Brandon quickly cut himself off at the sight of the look of pain, dismemberment, and impending death that Taye was giving him and went on in a more subdued tone, “He don’t know what’s goin’ on.”

“Loon?” Taye repeated, which brought the man’s flashlight swinging up to illuminate his face.

“Yes, Taye?” Loon replied.

“We’re taking a vote on whether to go inside these buildings or go back to the gate. What would you like to do?”

“I wanna see a ghost. It’s cold,” Loon added, though he did not appear visibly chilled.

“Are you scared?” Taye asked.

“I’m not scared,” Loon smiled, flicking off his flashlight as if to prove his point.

Turning to Brandon, Taye revealed the results, “That’s three for going in.”

“How about you, Taye?” Lateefah asked.

“Oh, I’ll brave it if you guys will,” he said. “But I still think this needs to be unanimous. I don’t want to leave anybody behind.”

“Well, I ain’t goin’ in there!” Brandon said, sticking to his guns and giving a quick look up to the South Wing building.

Taye had to think this assertion over a moment. “Um, okay. How about if we do this — how about if three of us go in at a time and we can each alternate staying in the gatehouse with Brandon?”

“That’s not really fair, Taye,” David told him. “I think you were right before, either we all go in or we all don’t.”

Everyone looked at Brandon, who squirmed a little under the pressure. “There’s no fuckin’ way you’re gettin’ me in there!” he protested.

“In a democracy the majority wins,” Taye told him, realizing that an impasse had been reached. “So, it looks like we’re all going in against our better judgment.”

“What?” Brandon scowled. “I told you I ain’t goin’ inside!”

Taye was at the end of his patience with this man, although more with himself for not being able to arrive at a more equitable solution. “Then I guess you’re staying out here alone, bud.”

“I ain’t your bud!” Brandon retorted sourly. “And what happened to us all stayin’ together?”

“I don’t know what else to do,” Taye snapped impatiently, then wished that he had been more patient in light of Brandon’s fear. After all, they were all scared.

“But you said...”

“Is that a ghost?” Loon asked, cutting into the conversation.

Selected text © 2009 Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard