Against Time (3rd book in Winchester Girl)

Television Is Going Down The Crapper

Mary's POV
We had to investigate a place that is haunted and claimed to be the most haunted place in America which is literally what any haunted place says. "So it sounds like a death echo." I said. "It probably is." Ricky said. "Yeah okay come on." Sam said. We opened the door. "Freeze! police officers! don't move!" Dean yelled, yeah because people believe a twelve year old is a police officer. "All right. All right. All right. Take it easy, take it easy." I said to the people in there and one of the two men looked familiar. "Let's see some identification." Kara said. "Come on. Let's see some ID." Ricky said as the all got out drivers license. "What -- are we under -- under arrest?" A guy asked. "We are unarmed." The familiar one said. "Oh, god. Oh, god." The unfamiliar one said, having a panic attack. "Want to explain that weirdo outfit, Mr., uh, Corbett?" I asked the unfamiliar one looking at his license. "I know you." The familiar one said. "Yeah, sure you do. Give me some identification." I said. "Yeah, ho-- whoa, hold on a second. I know the three of you guys. Yeah." He said then I remembered, West Texas hellhounds website and I put a snake in their car. "What?" Corbett asked. "Yeah, huh." Ed, I think, said. "Holy shit." Kara said, remembering. "What?" Ricky and Dean asked. "Uh, West Texas... the... the tulpa we had to take out. Those two goofballs that almost got us killed... The hellhounds or something?" Sam and I said. "Shit." Dean said. "Yeah, we're not hellhounds anymore, okay? It didn't test that well." Ed said. "Ed, what's going on?" Corbett said, huh so I was right on the name. "They're not cops, buddy -- no, not at all." Ed said. "Ed, Ed, you had a partner, too, didn't you -- A different guy?" Dean said. "Oh, yeah, yeah." Ed said. "Is he around here somewhere?" I asked. "He's running around, chasing ghosts." Ed said. "Okay, well, listen, you and Rambo need to get your girlfriends or boyfriends and get out of here." Ricky said. "All right. Listen here, hair gel, okay? We were here first. We've already set up base camp. We beat you." Ed said. "They were here first." I said to my family and friends. "Mm hmm." Ed said and I grabbed him and pinned him to a wall. "Oh, god." Ed said now scared that a twelve year old girl can pin him to a wall. "Ed." I said. "Yeah?" He asked still scared. "Where's your partner?" I asked. "What are you doing in the Morton House, Ed - on leap year -- what are you thinking?" Kara asked as we walked through the house. "We're here to spend the night, okay? It's for our TV show." Ed said. "Now I know, television is going down the crapper." I said to Ricky, who smirked. "What? Great. Perfect." Sam said. "Yeah, nobody's ever spent the night before." Corbett said. "Uh, actually, yeah, they have." I said. "Uh, we've never heard of them." Ed said, yeah cause your an idiot. "Yeah, you know why? 'Cause the ones that have haven't lived to talk about it." Ricky said. "Oh, come on, I don't believe you." Ed said. "Look -- missing-persons reports going back almost a half century. John Graham stayed on a dare -- gone. Julie Wilkerson -- gone. There are tons more. All of them came to just stay the night through, always on a leap year. The only body they ever found was the last owner, Freeman Daggett." Sam said. "These look legit." Ed said looking at them. "They are legit. Look, Ed, we ain't got much time here, buddy. Starting at midnight, your friends are going to die." I said. "Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Guys! Guys! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! We got one! Corbett! Corbett, we saw one! We saw one!" The other idiot, Harry, said running down with two other people. "Get outta here!" Ed said. "It was a full apparition! It was like a class four. It was a spectral illumination!" Harry said. "It was amazing!" The only girl said. "Hey, aren't those the two assholes and bitches from Texas?" Harry asked us, Ricky smirked. "Hi." He said flirting. "Okay, little gay friend no flirting on the job." I said. "Yes, although they have one guy more." Ed said "All right, let's have this reunion across the street, guys." Dean said. "Crap. What are you guys doing here?" Harry asked pissed off. "Come on, come on. We'll get you ice cream -- our treat. What do you say? Let's go." I said, moving them to leave. "Yeah, I say no." Harry said, oh well his funeral. "Look at this. Look, look. Ed, Ed. No. No. Look at this. Okay, honest-to-god proof, all right?" The girl said showing us the footage. "Are you kidding me?" Ed asked after seeing it. "Yeah. no, not kidding." Harry said. "What kind of reading did we get?" The one guy asked. "Uh, it was a 10.9." Harry said. "10.9?" Ed asked. "Yeah, it was 10.9. It was almost 11. I came out, and I was like, "what's going on?" And I was like -- wait, watch this. Oh! He got blasted. It was crazy." Harry said showing a ghost reliving his death, death echo of course. We walked away from the group. "Think we were off on this? I mean, that was just a death echo." Kara said. "Told you." I softly sang. "Yeah, but what's it doing here? Did anybody get shot here?" Dean asked. "No, not that we could find." Ricky said. "What's a death echo?" The one guy asked. "Hey what's your name?" I asked. "Spruce." Spruce said. "And the girl?" I asked. "Maggie." Spruce said. "Thank you." I said smiling. "Look, we got a problem here. That ghost ain't it." Sam said. "Yeah, that's real. Like, that happened." Harry said. "What's a death echo?" Spruce asked again. "Echoes are trapped in a loop, okay? They keep replaying how they died over and over and over again, usually in the place where they were ganked. It's about as dangerous as a scary movie." Kara said. "So maybe the echo's not dangerous, but maybe something else is." I said. "You're right. All right, we need to get out of here, guys. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Pack it up." Dean said to the idiot amateur wannabe hunters. "Guys, time is running out!" Ricky said noticing it was almost midnight. "We're moving!" Dean said shoving them away. "What about all of our equipment?" Maggie asked. "We got more material. We got all kinds of stuff. We'll make you guys recurring guest stars." Spruce said. "Wait! Wait!! Where's Corbett?" Ed asked, I then noticed he was missing. "No man left behind." Ed said and we heard a girlish scream. "That was Corbett." Ed said. "That was Corbett! Corbett!" Harry said as they were about to run upstairs. "Corbett! it's okay!" Maggie yelled. "We'll get him! Go back!" I said. "Let me go!! Guys!!!" Corbett yelled probably scared. "Corbett, you need to come back, Corbett." Ed said, as Corbett's screams faded away. "Corbett's... He's not here. Let's go. Let's go." Sam said. "No. No. No. But that's Corbett. No, that was Corbett. Didn't you hear that?" Harry said, yeah and if we don't hurry we'll all be dead. "Go, go, go, come on." Dean said. "Guys. Guys. Guys. He's that way." Ricky said pointing to the stairs. "Here we go. Here we go. Keep it moving. Keep it moving." I said. "Corbett?" Ed asked. "Hey, hey, hey. Watch them." I said to Ricky, who nodded. "Go. Go. Move. Move. Turn it off!" Dean said to Maggie who held the camera. "Oh, god, what's happened? Oh, god. He's gone. He just disappeared." Ed said freaking out. "Okay, let's just go through all the angles. Let's go through all the cameras we have." Harry said. "Well, it's 12:04, Dean. You good? You happy?" I asked looking at my watch. "Yeah, I am happy." Dean said. "Let's go hunt the Morton house, you said, it's our Grand Canyon." Sam said. "Sam, I don't want to hear this." Dean said. "You got two months left, Dean. Instead, we're gonna die tonight." Kara said. I picked up a chair and smashed against the sealed door. "Whoa! what the hell is going on guys?" Spurce asked. "I'll tell you what's going on. Every door, every window, I'm guessing every exit out of this house -- they're all sealed." I said. "But w-why are they sealed?" Maggie asked. "It's a supernatural lockdown, okay? Whatever took Corbett doesn't want us to leave, and it's no death echo. This is a bad mother, and it wants us scared." Ricky said. "Or it just wants us." Maggie said still scared, EMF stared going off. "Uh, guys, the camera's fritzing again." Spruce said. "Whoa. Whoa. Guys, the EMF's starting to spike. This is a big one!" Ed said. "Everybody, stay close. There's something coming." Sam said. We saw a guy, who looked drunk, appear. "Whoa!!!" Everyone, except us used to it, said. "Is this the same echo you guys saw earlier?" I asked. "No, it's a different guy." Harry said. "Multiple echoes? What the hell's going on?" Dean asked. "Beats me." Kara and Ricky said. "Okay. All right. All right. All right." Dean said I went up to the dude and started acting like a nutjob. "Uh, hey, buddy! Hey. Hey. Wake up. You're dead! Hello!" I said waving my hands around. "What's she doing?" Harry asked. "It's rare, but sometimes you can shock an echo out of its loop if you can talk to the part of the ghost that's still human, but usually you have to have some kind of connection to the deceased." Sam said, I should being adopted daughter of the Greek god of hell. "Come on! Wake up! Be dead! Snap out of it, buddy, huh? Come on, what are you waiting for? You're gonzo! You're dead!" I said to the ghost. We just heard what sounded like train and the guy turned and got hit by an invisible train. "Where the hell did it go?" Harry asked. We were walking around. "Guys, there's no records of any of this here. No one got shot here. Obviously, no one got run over by a freaking train." I said. "Stay close." Sam instructed us. "Did the echoes take Corbett?" Maggie asked. "Yes. No. I don't know. We don't know what's doing what here; that's what we're trying to figure out, okay?" Ricky said. "All right, stay close. Okay, look, um, death echoes are ghosts, okay? Now, ghosts -- they usually haunt places where they lived or where they died." Kara said. "Except these mooks didn't live or die here." Dean said. The lights flickered and it was a total power outage I looked around and saw I was at a party table with corpses, Corbett, and Ricky. "Usually I like parties but this is creepy." Ricky said. "No shit, Sherlock." I said. A ghost came in here and killed Corbett. I looked at Ricky and he nodded we started creepingly singing Ring Around The Rosie freaking the ghost out, then we loudly sang Happy Birthday making him probably want to die again. He left I laughed with Ricky. "Can cross creeping a ghost of the bucket list." Ricky said. I smiled at him. The ghost appeared with Sam and he woke up and looked up at us. "Hey big bro." I said. "How come he didn't kill you two?"
Sam asked. "We creeped him out." I said. He came back Ricky and I creepingly sing Ring Around The Rosie. He looked like Ricky and I are insane and was gonna murder Sam. I started struggling and the door opened and Dean shot the ghost with his gun. We got free. "Thank you I think the lack of air and dead body smell was making Mae and Ricky go insane." Sam said. "No it wasn't." I said. "You two don't look insane." Spruce said. "Spend a day with us you'll be thinking we belong in a mental hospital. The ghost appeared again I grabbed Dean's gun and shot him. "Come on." I said I walked out and got some salt packets I had in my pocket, don't ask. I lined the door for the basement to here. "Should keep him in nice and tight. The day finally came out we all walked out. We were now in a garage watching it. "Leap year, February 29th, the Morton House. A tragic day. A day of souls bound in torment, of lives held in cruel balance. But the Ghostfacers, they did the best that they could." Ed said in a voice over. "We lost a beloved friend, but we gained new allies." Harry said, also in a voice over the camera changed to a living room. "We know this much: that every day, including today, is a new beginning. We learned more than we can say in the brutal feat of the Morton House." Ed said. "The Ghostfacers were forced to face something far more scary than ghosts. They were forced to face themselves." Harry said. "War changes Man." Ed said. "And Maggie." Harry said. "War changes man. And one woman... You know Corbett, we just... ah gosh, we just like to think that you're out there, watching over us." Ed said. "As far as we're concerned, you're not an intern anymore. You have more than earned full Ghostfacer status. Plus, it would be cool to have a ghost on the team." Harry said. "Yeah. Heh heh. And here we were thinking that, you know, we were teaching you and all this time you were teaching us, about heart, about dedication, and about how gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day. Thank you, Alan J. Corbett." Ed said. "Go well into that starry night, young Turk. Go well." Harry said the video scene changed to the back of a van with Spruce and Corbett. "Come on, Spruce, I gotta get all this stuff packed up!" Corbett said. "So, pack and talk!" Spruce said. "I don't know what to say." Corbett said. "Say what comes to mind. This is one of our confessional moments, Corbett, so confess. What did you think was going to happen tonight? What do you think is going to happen on this trip?" Spruce said. "I think tonight, I really do, I think all of our dreams are going to come true. Does that sound stupid?" Corbett asked. "Kind of does, yeah." Spruce said the video faded to black and the others looked at us. "So, guys, what do you think? Are you alright?" Ed asked us. "Still, think television is going down the crapper." I said. "You know, I kind of think it was half-awesome." Dean and Ricky said. "Half-awesome? That - that's full-on good, right?" Maggie asked. "Yeah, um, I mean it's bizarre how you all are able to honor Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death. Well done." Sam and Kara said, shrugging. "Yeah. It's a real tight rope you guys are walking there." I said slipping an old backpack under the table. "Yeah, all right guys." Kara said. "Nah, that's reality, man. Yeah, Corbett gave his life searching for the truth, and it's our job over here to share it with the world." Ed said. "Right. Well, um, our experience, you know what you get when you show the world the truth?" Sam asked. "A straitjacket. Or a punch in the face. Sometimes both." Ricky said. I nodded. "Right." Sam said. "Oh come on, guys, don't be 'facer haters just because we happen to have gotten the footage of the century." Harry said. "Yeah." Ed said. "You got us there." I said. "Yeah, well we'll see you guys around." Dean said. "Peace out." Spruce said. We got in the impala. "We clean?" Kara asked looking at Ricky and I. "Nooooooo!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!" We heard Ed said my from the garage. "Electromagnet wiped out every tape and hard drive that they have." Ricky and I said. "The world just isn't ready for the Ghostfacers." Sam said. "It's too bad. I kinda liked the show." Dean said. "It had it's moments." I said shrugging. Dean drove the impala away.