Shards of Clear Glass (A Ghost Adventures Story)

The Devil Himself

Zak's POV

As I walk the path up to the large house where our first interviewee waits, I feel a rush of energy sweep from behind me.

I turn, and see that Saira is down on one knee, her head bowed.

I run towards her, trying not to startle her as I kneel down in front of her.

"Sare. What's wrong? What do you see?" I ask, holding her shoulders in my hands. I realize that I'm shaking, probably from the conversation about nuns and drowned babies we just had.

No, a voice in the back of my mind says. It's Saira who's shaking. This is too much for her. She shouldn't be here.

I tell that voice to shut up.

Saira looks up at me, and I realize that she's grasping her stomach, as if in pain. Her eyes are glistening with tears as she looks up at me-through me-towards the rest of the grounds.

"I see spirits. There are so many... They're afraid. Scared. Sick. In pain. Sad. Angry. They know we're here. They always knew we would come back."

Saira's voice sounds frail and distant, and I'm reminded horribly of when she tried to kill herself after she saw her old boyfriend's ghost.

"She's here," Saira says suddenly, staring off to my left. "She hates me. She hates that I have a child and she doesn't. She-she's calling me a demon. A devil spawn. She hates you guys as well. Especially Zak. This is one female spirit you won't appease, Zak."

Saira's still looking off over my shoulder, at something the rest of us can't see, when a loud growl rumbles through the air.

The guys all jump around, saying,"Bro did you hear that? It sounded like a growl! Where'd it come from?"

Saira says, softly so no one else but me can hear,"Lucifer has been waiting for us. His hounds are already announcing themselves."

I look up and around, over my shoulder, and catch the glint of red eyes in the tree line near the house. They seem to stare right into my very soul.

I look back at Saira, and see her clear jade gaze on me.

She blinks, then gets to her feet, my hands still on her shoulders. "I'm fine, guys. Just a shock. I'm good. Don't worry," she says, and I release my hold on her and step back slightly.

She smiles at me, and I can practically hear her thoughts say that we'll talk about what she saw and heard later.

I clap my hands to grab the team's attention again, and everyone turns toward me.

"Okay, guys. Time to start the interviews. Let's get up to the house now. Without any more psychic spells, preferably," I add, grinning at Saira, who grins back, though her eyes are slightly dark as she looks beyond my shoulder again.

We head up to the house, ready to meet our first interviewee, the new owner of Saint Anne's Retreat.

I interview people for the rest of the day,  with no interruptions of any kind.

The next day, though, when we arrive there three hours before the first interview, something does happen.

The guys and I are down by the river. Saira is literally strolling through the water, her jeans rolled up to her knees.

Even though she shows the marks on her arms, she never shows all the black scars on her legs. Only the barest bit is visible through the rippling and moving water.

I look back at the shoreline, away from Saira. Aaron grins at me, looking between us, and I roll my eyes at him.

Then, something catches my eye. A girl is strolling towards us, wearing shorts and a tank top. She expertly moves around the foliage and over the jagged stones of the river shore towards me and Aaron.

"Hi. I'm Jackie. I was friends with one of the girls who was found near here," she says. Saira looks over, and sees the girl talking to me. She cocks her head, then seems to hear something that the rest of us can't.

She walks over to us, splashing water everywhere. Even with her hair hanging loose across her shoulders and arms, her scars and pale skin still stand out brightly.

Wordlessly, she folds Jackie into her arms. I see Jackie stiffen in surprise, then see her melt into Saira's chest. I see her shoulders shaking with tears, though her sobbing is muffled by Saira's shirt.

I hear Saira murmur words to Jackie, but I can't make them out. After a while, Jackie pulls back, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Thanks, Saira. I needed that," she says. Saira smiles, then grabs Jackie's hand and leads her over to me, who has miraculously kept silent during this entire exchange. I can sense that the others are just as shocked as I am.

"Sorry for breaking down on you guys. I've just not been able to cry for a while. Not since Mary died," Jackie says, her voice only slightly cleared of tears.

Saira flinches at the name, and I see her rub a hand along her back, where a scar from another girl named Mary runs along her spine.

I clear my throat and stand to shake Jackie's hand. Her hand is slightly wet with tears, but she still smiles at me with warmth.

"I heard that you guys were here, so I wanted to come to you when no one else was around. And I just needed to clear my head," she says, rubbing her hands together.

I nod, then ask,"What did you want to talk to us about?"

Jackie stops rubbing her hands together, and instead clasps them in front of her stomach. I'm reminded of Saira yesterday, but shove the image out of my head, concentrating on the here and now.

"The night that Mary and the others drowned-I, um, followed them here. I knew it was wrong, that I was trespassing, but I wanted to make sure that my friend was alright.

"When they got to the river's edge, I saw a dark figure join them. One by one, they jumped into the river. No sound, no complaint. They just jumped. Like they had just wanted to do it for so long that they didn't even think about it.

"The last to jump was Mary. She looked at the water for a long while, and I thought that she wouldn't do it. But then she just picked something up off the ground, and cut a part of her body. I think it was her arm. Then she just jumped into the water, and was carried away."

Jackie stops at this point in her story to take a breath, then says,"When the dark figure turned after Mary had jumped, I saw its eyes. They were pure red, and staring right at me. I was filled with so much hate and fear, I thought my heart would explode from pounding so hard.

"Surprisingly, I was able to turn and run away. I haven't been able to come back here since."

Jackie is slightly shaking, and I know that it's not from the cold river water currently running from Saira's pant legs.

"Do you think it was a demon who was looking at you?" I ask, thinking of the red eyes I saw in the trees yesterday.

Surprisingly, Jackie shakes her head.

"No," she says,"I think it was the Devil himself."