Hide And Spook

Chapter 2

"So, what's so important that I needed to get in a cab and come clean across the city?" Paula's finger paused over the doorbell as Carlie flung the door wide to admit her friend.

Carlie grabbed her by the forearms and pulled her inside the condo. "Oh my God, you'll never guess what?"

"I say again, what's so important that I needed to..."

"I'm going to the Central Library catacombs to debunk a ghost!"

"Slow down, Oda Mae." Paula grinned. "Got anything to drink?"

Carlie pointed at the refrigerator. "Yeah, there's a bottle of white in the fridge. If you're going to quote Ghost again, I'll need a big glass."

"Oh, you know me, I have no need to talk about Patrick Swayze at the moment." She reached for a couple of wine glasses and smirked as her hand closed around the wine bottle. "But Oda Mae Brown is another story. She's my favorite psychic person ever. Present company excepted, of course."

"I'm not a psychic."

"Ghost hunter, then."

"I am not a ghost hunter," Carlie said with an indignant huff. "I'm a paranormal investigator."

Paula rolled her eyes. "Like there's a difference."

"There's a huge difference." Carlie dropped into her easy chair and took a sip of her wine. "Ghost hunters are hobbyists. They play at looking for ghosts with cool little toys and gadgets and that's about it. They imagine every light to be an orb, every creak to be footsteps, every cool breeze to be a cold spot caused by a ghost. I use science, real science to investigate paranormal activity. Sometimes a light is just a light, a creak is just a loose floorboard and a cold spot is caused by a draft. At least I can acknowledge the difference."

Paula grinned topped up her friend's wineglass. "Calm down, Oda Mae. You are so easy to get going."

"It sometimes irritates me that people don't take me seriously." She looked up at her ceiling. "Especially him."

"Oh come on." Paula hid her smile behind her glass. "He's pretty cute. Wouldn't mind him being above me, him and those sexy blue eyes."

"I can not believe you just said that, Paula Petrovsky. I should tell Babcia that your hormones are out of control again. She'll rein you in right quick."

"Don't you dare threaten me with my grandmother again."

Carlie batted her eyes. "I wouldn't dream of it. But if you bring up Michael Bloody Denton's name again, it'll be a promise."

"I didn't bring up his name," Paula said. "You did. But let's get back to this catacomb thing."

"Right." Carlie leaned forward, her eyes shining with excitement. "Under the library is this whole series of tunnels. The library calls it the catacombs, but it's actually an old bunker from the nuclear arms race days. Lots of rooms and hallways and stuff for the government to hide out in until it was safe to come out. It's been empty for years and was recently sold to the Shepard Institute For Scientific Discovery. And they want to use it for labs and other types of research."

Paula's brow furrowed. "And naturally they feel the need to look for ghosts...?"

"Because one of the laborers thinks they heard a voice telling them to get out." Carlie waggled her fingers to emphasize her words.

"Oooo, how Amityville Horror-y. So you want to go and see what happens if you don't get out?"

"Yeah, something like that. I need to find out if it was imagination, an auditory hallucination or something else." She rubbed her hands together. "And if it's real, then I get to have a whole lot of fun, trying to make contact with the entity, find out why its still hanging around, and most importantly, determine if it's safe for work to continue. I'm looking forward to it."