#FreakshowFriday

Chapter 18: Action Plan

October 15, 2023

Nathan feels a lot better now that he has slept.

He woke up around noon, alone in the hotel room, and his physical state had resembled what it had been before the Poveglia visit. He'd treated himself to a shower, clean clothes and focaccia he picked up from a bakery around the corner. He'd enjoyed the tranquility and opportunity to rest, but his mind had strayed to Jamie far too often. He'd wondered if she was okay, if she was at least having some fun—probably not, considering her company, but Nathan had tried to manifest the good vibes, anyway.

He'd found a note she left for him on the hotel room desk, squiggly scribbles on the back of a crumpled old receipt. Jamie's handwriting is as illegible as that of Nathan's PCP, but deciphering it has gotten for him easier over the past few months. He'd found a laptop password, accompanied by a short message.

In case you want to extract the footage☻
xxx J

A lot of effort seems to have gone into drawing the smiley face just right, so Nathan laughs, slips the note into his pocket for safekeeping, and gets to work hooking the camcorder up to the laptop with the ghost of a smile on his face. He ensures all Poveglia footage gets backed up on the laptop, then leaves the daylight footage for what it is and checks out everything Jamie recorded while he was unconscious at night.

He watches all of it multiple times, both fascinated and disturbed. The footage is great for a Halloween special—looks like it came straight out of an amateur horror movie. Nathan pushes away his lingering guilt about leaving Jamie to save his ass and focuses on the creature in its dark robes and plague doctor mask. Jamie was right: that thing could've been a participant in Hell's darkest Carnival celebration.

This creature must have hurt and killed the ghost Nathan encountered. Might have hurt and killed a lot more people than just that one young man. Help us, the ghost had said, but how many did he mean with us? And what kind of help does he need specifically? Nathan chews on his focaccia, still on the fence as to whether he actually wants to help this spirit. The island affected him in dangerous ways he still doesn't understand, and he and Jamie, he feels, barely escaped with their lives.

But telling himself to walk away, turn his back on this ghost in need, doesn't feel quite right. Nathan isn't sure why.

He's leaning back in his chair pondering this when a knock on the door frees him from the reverie. He opens it, relieved to see it's just Jamie returning and not some annoying visitor. "Welcome back. How'd the coffee appointment go?"

"Terrific experience." Jamie's tone of voice is flat. She zombies on past him into the room. "I got my future foretold and vomited in Gino's mother's bathroom."

This statement doesn't even come close to entering Nathan's Top 10 Strangest Jamie Quotes, so he doesn't bat an eye. "Okay," he says, watching her go with some concern; her family can't have been very happy about at least one of the occurences mentioned. "Are you good now? Too many energy drinks?" He saw the empty cans in the trash. It didn't take a genius to figure out what fate the drinks had met.

"Yeah, it's a little better at this time. Just caffeine crashing." Jamie kicks her shoes off with some difficulty and all but collapses on her bed. "You can say it, go ahead. Taking the energy drinks was one dumb idea."

"You already know it wasn't the best move. No need for me to rub it in."

"...Oh. That's... That's nice. Thanks."

"You know what's also nice? This focaccia stuff. There's still some left, if you'd like to eat." Nathan doesn't receive any sort of response, so something clearly isn't all right. "Did... Did anything happen that you want to talk about?"