Into the Shadows

Chapter 4: The Arrival

The flight had been long and boring, but the company was rowdy for the first few hours. We had all agreed to stay up the night before and sleep on the flight so when we arrived at 10 am London time, we would be fully rested. 

When we met at the airport, we laughed and joked our way through TSA despite the dark circles under our eyes. We got snacks and drinks at the shops near our terminal, and about half an hour later our flight took off. By the time the flight had reached 35 thousand feet, I was completely knocked out. 

I woke up when Colby shook my shoulder to warn me that we were landing and a thunderstorm was making it a little turbulent. 

By the time we deplaned and made it through customs, the rain was over. It also helped that I made them all go get breakfast from one of the airport restaurants while I went to the bathroom to change into real clothes instead of just my sweats and freshen up after the long flight. 

"Hey, Lia, you want to start filming?" Sam asked pulling his vlog camera out. 

"Sure!" I smiled, setting down my luggage to pull out my big camera. 

"No it's alright!" He assure me, "We don't need the big one yet. We can just stick with this one until we got to the Langham." 

"Okay!" I was glad I wouldn't have to lug the big one around yet. My shoulders could use the break after such along ride in a badly cushioned seat. 

The boys all started to joke, pulling out their most comical faces for the camera and introducing where we were and what was going on. Even making jokes about the ice cream machine in the line of vending machines near the parking lot. 

It wasn't until we were finally getting to the rental car that we ran into a slight issue. 

"So, uh..." Jake looked at everyone, "Are you guys going to be safe driving on the opposite side of the road?" 

"Oh...." We really didn't even think of that, we all looked at each other and I panned the camera around to catch everyone's reactions. 

Jake and Colby started doing bad cockney accents and calling each other 'bruthva' and it was all I could do to hold my laugh in and keep the camera steady. 

Sam joined in when they started talking about who would drive the car. 

Colby dropped the accent when he decided that Sam was driving and no one argued. 

They kept joking about the car and Jake spent a solid 5 minutes trying to convince Sam he had run over his foot with Colby and Corey's help. 

Eventually we got serious enough to figure out how to pop the trunk and toss all our luggage in, carefully placing the big camera's plastic carrying case on top for easy access. It all got goofy again when they started to pretend that the lady on the PA system was saying the Pledge of Allegiance and put their hands over their hearts. 

Colby took the camera from me and told me I could chill for now because he wanted to film Sam driving from the passenger seat and I gave it to him, taking the middle seat of the small car's back seat between Corey and Jake. It was like riding the hump seat in an old station wagon. It was a good thing I was small.

 We didn't have service to get the direction to work, so we got lost for a bit, but by the time we had them back, Sam was much more comfortable with driving on the left side and we were cruising. 

We were just getting ready to sit and talk about where we were going and I asked Colby if he wanted me to film that part. 

"No, I got it." then he looked at Sam, "Did you even ask if she was okay with being in the video?" 

Sam and I  thought about it for a second, looking at each other in the rear view mirror and started laughing. He had not asked. 

"Your viewers don't even know who I am! And I've just been here in the background cackling behind the camera all morning." by the time I got to the end of that sentence I was laughing so hard I could barely talk. 

"Well then let's introduce you, before the location!" Colby laughed and pointed the camera at me.

"So guys," Sam started talking, "for this series we brought on an extra helping hand with us for filming, so everyone say hi to Lia! We'll link her socials in the description box below! Check her out, she's pretty cool, but she isn't a YouTuber, just our new favorite camera lady."

I laughed and waved to the camera, "Hello everyone, I'm Lia, short for Amelia, my last name is Cauldwell, umm I like books and film and stuff I guess?" 

"What are you doing?" Corey laughed and everyone burst back into laughter including me. 

"I don't know! Oh my gosh this is so awkward for me I've never talked to a camera before! I've only ever introduced myself to like classmates when you do the awkward like 'what's your name and your favorite color?' thing that teachers make you do on the first day of school."

"Well, get used to talking to the camera, you're just as much a part of this now as anyone. If you see wacky shit you just say it!" Colby leaned over the seat to get a better angle on the three of us in the back seat. 

"Yeah, especially haunted shit! Ooooo!" Jake wiggled his fingers and said it in his best impression of a Scooby Doo villain's voice. 

"Shut up!" I laughed smacking his arm. I liked this all so far. We were having a lot of fun, "Do you want me to hold the camera while you introduce the place Colby?" 

"Sure," he handed it to me. 

I kept it focused on him while he gave all the information on the hotel. 

"Alright boys, so this is what we're doing, we're going to the Langham hotel, which is known as the most haunted hotel in the UK." he read some of the information of his phone. 

"And also," Sam cut in as I panned the camera to him, "top ten in the whole world."

"Wait!" Jake said so I cut to him, "Are we going there or staying there?"

"We're staying there." Colby replied, but I kept the camera on Jake to catch his reaction. 

"Okay," he seemed nervous as Sam yelled out, "right off the bat!" 

"Is this okay for you?" Jake asked Corey. I panned to him next. 

"Yeah it's fine, dude, that's great! You guys are like, hey let's go on a trip, we're not haunted anymore, let's go to the most haunted hotel in the world." he replied. 

"I thought you said you were ready for bigger and better things?" Colby teased. 

"I am, but like, sleep? okay, okay, bro, there's a difference from like investigating and then like you being asleep and a demon taking over your body because you can't help it because you're asleep." Corey said.

I turned the camera to Jake as he said, "We're not going to be able to sleep."

"There's no way." Sam agreed as I turned the camera to him. 

After that I listened, filming each of the guys as they continued to discuss the Langham hotel and a demonologist who told them that he thought they had a gift for working with things in the medium world and that this new series was about proving they really are contacting these things and that they're the best paranormal investigators on YouTube. They talked about the two experts we would be meeting at the hotel and interviewing. 

Then it all descended into jokes and chaos all over again.