Surprise Me.

Chapter 22- Doom and Gloom. Maybe.

I was right. The minute I gave Colby a kiss and stepped into our hotel room, Kris and Celina were immediately pressing me for details. Despite one being married and the other being abstinent, they felt a lot like middle-school girls to me. I told them only what satiated their demands, leaving out the part where Colby and I made out in the parking lot, and the discussion we had about marriage.

The next morning, I decided I'd keep it simple and wear jeans, a black Van Halen t-shirt, my converse, and a black beanie. I tied my flannel around my waist just in case. Kris and Celina both followed my lead, choosing to wear simple t-shirts and sneakers. When we met the guys at a coffee shop for breakfast, the same one Colby and I had been to last night, my cheeks went red. I'd managed to give Colby a hickey. Oh boy.

"Hey Mads, did you do research for us like you said you would?" Sam asked as I took the seat next to him.

"I did. And you're gonna be shocked at what I found." I replied, smugly.

"Oh? That good, huh?"

"To be fair, I knew most of this beforehand, I just refreshed my knowledge."

"So what's the plan for the day?" Celina asked from the other side of the table.

"I figured we could go out in like half an hour or so and just take a tour so that we could get our bearings and spend the whole day out there, do our investigation at night and leave. If it's okay with you guys." Sam answered.

"I'm down." Kris replied, chugging part of her coffee. "I'd just like to point out that we decided to do this on a really foggy day."

"Of course, we've gotta be on edge even during the day." I laughed.

When we finished eating, we gave everyone directions and headed out. I'd barely exited the door when a burning pain exploded in my stomach. I leaned against a pillar outside and pulled out the bottle of Prilosec I kept in my purse, popping two into my mouth.

"Mads?" Colby asked, leaning on the pole next to me. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just another pain. I took some meds, I'll be okay in a few minutes." I replied, meeting his eyes.

"If you say so. I'd feel better if you rode with me."

"I'm gonna ride with the girls. Sam's driving you guys, he's got directions."

"You're right, but I would still feel better if you rode with me."

"I'll be okay. By the way, I um...might have done something last night."

"I know." Colby chuckled. "I saw it in the mirror this morning. I can cover it with my t-shirt."

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"Don't worry about it, I like it. Let's go hunt some ghosts."

He led me to the car and gave me a gentle wave as we drove off ahead of him. I felt nauseous the entire car ride, but the pain quickly faded when we pulled up to our destination. We were in an open field, trees encircling the property. On one side, a large, concrete building stood eerily silent. On the other side, stones jutted up from the ground like stalagmites. Our tour guide, Chance, was waiting for us, an odd look on his face. The boys pulled up minutes after we did, immediately going to work grabbing cameras and flicking them on. Adam had volunteered to hold cameras all night, the poor fool.

"Everybody ready to find some ghosts?" Sam announced, a grin firmly planted on his face. Colby immediately gravitated towards me, standing close enough that my shoulder bumped his arm.

"No, I'm out here in the middle of God Only Knows Where, Missouri, because I wanna vacation here." Kris deadpanned. I chuckled at the eye roll that followed.

"I'm not staying here with these ghosts." I said. "I did the research and I don't wanna be here to investigate, let alone for a vacation."

"Speaking of the investigation, let's start our tour."

"Might as well start the video here, too." Sam sighed. Adam clicked on the camera and held it towards us.

"What's up, guys? It's Sam and Colby." Colby announced, as usual.

"We're joined today by KallmeKris, CelinaSpookyBoo, and Maddie the Medium. We are here in a little town called Bloodland, Missouri. An area known for paranormal activity and ghost sightings. Maddie did the research, why don't you tell us what's going on here?" Adam swiveled the camera towards me and I pulled out my notes app, knowing that Sam would cover this bit with old pictures when he edited.

"Bloodland wasn't a town until the late eighteen hundreds." I began. "The town was originally owned by a man named Mr. Blood, not much is known about him. The town was fine and worked perfectly until a construction crew came in at the start of World War two and demolished the town to build a military base. It wasn't an accident, they intentionally came in and destroyed the town, leaving people without their homes and taking their farmland. On Halloween in 1940, just before the town was destroyed, the residents began rioting. They'd been told that the government was taking their town and that they were being evicted and, as you can probably guess, they didn't like the idea too much. They cursed the town that night, saying that anyone who came threatening their land again wouldn't leave."

"Wasn't there something about them terrorizing the soldiers at the base?" Celina asked.

"Yes actually. On three separate accounts, the ghosts would take a soldier or two hostage, freak them out, then force them to drink hard cider through a straw until they passed out. When they woke up, they were so drunk they couldn't see, but they returned to their posts like nothing happened. There's also something about a little girl."

"After Sallie, I'm not sure how to feel about little girl ghosts." Sam sighed.

"Apparently, she died at a preschool that sits on the road to get here. Her favorite swing can be seen moving when there's no breeze or people around, playground toys move on their own, and door handles rattle by themselves."

"That's not creepy at all." Kris mumbled.

"The weirdest part of her story is that there is no record of a death, murder, or even a fatal injury at the preschool. And it's not like they weren't good at keeping records. The teachers marked down every time a kid got hurt including scraped knees, puking, even paper cuts."

"They were helicopter teachers." Celina said.

"A bit of a reach here," Colby started. "What if she died elsewhere, but came back to the preschool because it was her favorite place?"

"You're freaking me out, dude." Celina pulled out the vial of Holy Water she kept between her boobs and sprayed Colby with it, causing all of us to bust into laughter.