The Family: Ties That Bind (VOL. 2)

Chapter 2: Deetz

Deetz: 

The jumble of weathered granite headstones basked in the warm orange glow of the summer evening. Fabric flowers faded and bleached by the sun rested against the tombstones placed there by grieving loved ones. The only color in the entire cemetery came from the shattered stained glass windows and vibrant graffiti vandalizing the eerie dilapidated church in the corner of the lot. Rows of above-ground crypts dripped in lush green moss with their lids smashed open revealing an empty space where a corpse should lay. What kind of people are sick enough to do something so vile as to defile a deceased loved one and their final resting place.

"Alright gang, let's set up and get this shot before the sun sets," Penny instructed, shouting orders and jotting something down on the clipboard in her arms. "We're working on borrowed time here."  She's kinda the manager/researcher of our group. 

Dwight knelt down and opened his black backpack crammed full of extra batteries, portable chargers and a mess of tangled cords to begin setting up while Penny and Zack rehearsed the script. I screwed the microphone head onto the stick and slid the fuzzy windshield over top and just like that, I was done. It ain't much, but it's honest work.

While I waited for them to finish setting up, I took it upon myself to wander away and do a little investigating of my own. I trudged through the overgrown grass, running my fingers along each of the weathered headstones as I passed.  

"Oh, great spirits of the beyond," I closed my eyes and projected my voice to any ghosts that might've been listening. "Speak to me. I am your vessel..."

"Hey, Madame Psychic," Zack's voice interrupted my channeling session. "Care to do your job and hold the boomstick up? I don't pay you to stand around." 

God, I hate that nickname almost as much as Deetz which is of course after Lydia Deetz, the goth teenage girl from Beetlejuice. He thinks it's funny to mock me for being a psychic medium and empath...or maybe it's because ninety-five percent of my wardrobe is solid black and the other five percent is "My Chemical Romance" t-shirts...probably a mix of both...

"You don't pay me at all." I snapped, crossing my arms and moping back towards the group. "The skills I have to offer far surpass holding a boom pole above my head." I plucked the mic from its spot and jerked a headset over my ears.

"Of course they do, Deetz, but I told you before we left we're not hunting ghosts so unless you can channel your 'psychic powers' and tell us where the missing people are, would you be a dear and hold up the mic?"

I rolled my eyes and gave him a toothy grimace before raising the mic above my head. My shoulder blades were already burning.

"Are you rolling?" He turned and asked Dwight who had the bulky camera perched on his shoulder and pointed straight at him.

"Sure am." He replied while looking through the viewfinder and adjusting the lens. 

"Thanks for the warning!" Zack brushed the dust from his tight-fitting black t-shirt and spiked up the front of his inky hair, primping himself for his close up.

"Don't worry, a few bloopers never hurt anyone. Besides, the viewers will love it."

He cleared his throat and began. "Welcome back to another episode of Mysteries of the Unknown. As you can see from the setting behind me, I'm standing before the entrance of the Puerto county cemetery just outside of the small rural community of Newt, Texas." 

The three of us followed him as he moved further into the graveyard urging the imaginary audience he was addressing to follow him. "County officers discovered the remains of a badly decomposed body wired to a large monument." Pausing before a pillar of grey granite with worn etchings inscribed in the stone, he glanced towards to top, holding his hand up to shield his squinting eyes from the sun. "Actually, it was this exact monument..."