It Hides In The Mines

3

Robert and his crew were sitting at the dinner table, their moods lower than ever. Robert had his head slumped, his face was pale and his eyes lacked the light of excitement which had previously been there. Kate had throat pain, so she wasn't too jolly, either. And Jen and James kept casting worried glances at the two of them.

The owner of the place sat the head of the table, and the two miners who had come from home were on his left and right, while Robert was opposite of the owner.

"So, what do you think? Will you be able to get rid of the spirit?" The owner's question shook Robert from his deep fascination with the soup. He looked up blankly and blinked a few times before answering.

"Oh, it was fine. One of your workers even showed us around, that was nice."

The two miners present, none of which were the one that Robert and his crew had encountered in the tunnels, shared a confused look.

"Which one?" the one on the right, Bill, asked. Robert wasn't very fond of Bill from the moment he met him - he was bossy and demanding, and his dark eyes only made him look more sinister.

Kate slurped down a spoon of soup before replying. "He's not here yet. Older dude, bald with a beard." None of the others seated at the table had a beard, so it couldn't have been one of them.

The owner's eyes went wide for a second as he shared a look with his workers. He then looked at Kate.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?" Jen asked, her eyes curious and focused. Robert kept quiet, the impending sense of doom getting stronger by the second. He was right: something was wrong. The flight or fight response had long ago been triggered in his brain, and he was fighting the urge to run the hell away from that place with all his might.

"Because we don't have a worker like that," Bill said sharply, slamming his fist into the table and making everyone flinch, even himself.

James snickered. "Very funny. We all saw him clearly."

"No," said the owner, getting up from his seat. "You couldn't have, no such man works here. If you'll excuse me, I'll be in my office. Mike will clean up when you're done."

With those words, the owner walked away and left them in complete silence.

"Something's fishy around here," Kate whispered to Robert, sending chills down his spine.

"Tell me about it..."

"We can show you the video!" James called out at the disappearing figure of the owner. The old man stopped instantly, and turned around, his face betraying fear.

"Well, I suppose that's alright..." he trailed off as Bill shot him an angry glare. Robert felt his fear get replaced by curiosity. Maybe the workers could identify the guy that had helped them.

James and Jen fetched their gear from the hallway and set it up for viewing on the dining table. James fast forwarded the video to the moment that Robert had noticed the figure in the back.

James had moved the camera to record the intruder, but he hadn't moved it enough to the left, and the worker was left out of the shot. But James didn't give up, pulling out the camera that was mounted onto Robert and playing those recordings from the beginning.

In every single frame, the worker was not visible. His voice was too muffled and quiet to make out, and not a glimpse of him was caught on camera.

"That sounds a lot like Tim," the other worker, Jonah, whispered after a few whispered words from the miner were heard, but he was quickly shushed by Bill.