Excerpt: Blood Island

Chills went down Jamie’s spine as she stared at the monitor. “No way,” she whispered to her self. Hitting rewind, she watched the whole scene unfold once more. A shadowy figure stepped out from behind a door, paused for a moment, then disappeared into thin air. The figure looked human enough, except for a small nagging detail: it was missing its legs. Jamie had never seen anything like this before in her single year of reviewing footage from the group’s investigations. She took a moment to calm down then turned to the young man sitting next to her. Sammy was staring intently at his own monitor, subconsciously chewing the end of a pen while fiddling with his glasses, which had a tendency to slide down the tip of his nose. Jamie leaned forward and pulled on of his lime green earphones out of its resting place. “Hey, I need you to take a look at something,” she said.

Sammy gave her a look of annoyance, as he removed his other earphone. “It better not be another orb. I keep telling you that orbs are usually caused by dust or bugs; they just look paranormal. Now, if the orb was emitting its own light, then we could probably have…”

Jamie put up her hand and interrupted him. She wasn’t in the mood for one of his preaching sessions. “No orbs this time, promise. This is the real deal.” Rewinding the tape, Jamie tried to contain her excitement. Finally, she had stumbled on something that left no doubt in her mind about the paranormal. Ghosts really do exist. “Okay, so this footage is from our infrared camera, which was set up on the second floor.”

“Which one? The one overlooking the stairs?”

“No, the one at the end of the hall.” Jamie recalled how their client always complained of seeing a shadowy figure move from one room to another, even when there were no guests staying at the hotel. She wondered how the elderly Mrs. McClintock would react to seeing a shadow step out of one her rooms when the door was clearly closed. The old lady would either be frightened out of her wits, or she might breathe a sigh of relief to know that she isn’t going crazy. Jamie imagined Mrs. McClintock leaning to the latter reaction.

“So what am I looking for here?” Sammy folded his arms and frowned at the paused image before him. Always the pessimist, Jamie thought. This should knock his glasses off.

“Let’s just say the footage speaks for itself.” Jamie pushed play and watched Sammy’s reaction gradually change. He went from doubtful, to surprised, and finally, to excited.

Sammy leaned forward to get a better look at the monitor. His glasses slid down his nose again, but Sammy caught them. “Holy bologna. Hey, hit play again, would you?”

Jamie did as he asked, and Sammy watched the shadow once again step out of a closed door, hover in the hallway for a moment, then disappear. He shook his head and sat back into his seat. “That was amazing. I’ve got goosebumps.”