The Maelstrom of the Leaf Academy (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 11) Read online

  “Cassidy Wright in the auditorium with Jocelyn Graves at the Leaf Academy. Night one investigation.” I paused for a second or two and then continued, “My name is Cassidy, and this is Jocelyn. But if you have been listening, you know that. Are you here? What is your name? Are you a student at the Leaf Academy?” Jocelyn took pictures of the chair, the front, the back and the sides. She reviewed them quickly but shook her head. She hadn’t captured anything. And I didn’t feel anything. That was so odd because I could smell decaying wood and something else, something I could only identify as death. The aroma surrounded me; it was closing in on me, but it was also elusive. They didn’t want us to see them or feel them or hear them. Yet I had to try. Jocelyn and I asked a few more questions. The EVP session lasted for at least thirty minutes. We scanned each recording session and listened after every round, but there was nothing to hear.

  Nothing at all.

  “I guess this place wants to make a liar out of me, but I know what I saw. I know what happened. And you didn’t imagine that feather. We are being toyed with, stalked, and I don’t like it.” Jocelyn stomped out of the auditorium, and I followed behind her. I couldn’t be sure, but judging by her sloped shoulders and quiet mannerism, it looked like she was crying. I caught up to her and could see tears in her eyes. And as I tried to comfort her, to listen to whatever it was she needed to express, I finally heard something.

  Something I didn’t expect.

  I heard Kylie call my name…

  Chapter Nine—Cassidy

  “Jocelyn! Wait! I believe you. I swear I do. You won’t believe what I just heard.”

  Jocelyn spun around, her eyes wide. “What? What did you hear? Did you see something?”

  I frowned and sighed deeply. Midas was walking toward us; clearly, he was concerned about Jocelyn and me. “Don’t tell him, but I heard Kylie’s voice. My sister. Don’t say anything to Midas.” Jocelyn gave me an inquisitive look, but there was no time to explain anything. She did not know that Midas had heard Dominic’s voice when he came to check the place out with Adrian. I felt as if I needed to protect him from knowing that there was something here that could mimic the ones we loved, the ones who had passed. She agreed in a quiet whisper, and then Midas was with us, his face flushed with excitement.

  “I think it’s time to switch out. Let me and Josh go in and give it a shot. You know how these spirits are; sometimes, they have favorites. Clearly, it is not ladies’ night at the Leaf Academy, but that’s probably to be expected. You know, there were no women here back in those days except for the few who worked in the kitchen.”

  I handed him my walkie and the digital recorder. “I’m okay with that, and I’m all for getting out of that room for a few minutes. So what are you thinking, another 30 minutes? I’m eager to check out the other rooms.” I faked a smile as Josh walked toward us. Sierra was taking her seat in front of the monitors in the front room. She looked fine, especially for someone who had been mauled by a flock of crows a few minutes ago, but I could see the bandage on her arm when she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She waved good-naturedly at us as Jocelyn handed Joshua her camera. He was also carrying a proximity detector in his hand, and I could practically guarantee that there were a few other gadgets in his backpack.

  “We are going back to the front room and will watch it from there. Look out for birds!” I said in an attempt at humor. None of us were feeling it. Midas nodded his head, and Joshua scowled at me as if I would bring him bad luck just by mentioning the birds. Jocelyn and I walked toward Sierra, and Jocelyn immediately began to quiz me.

  “Why are we keeping secrets from him? I don’t like that.”

  “Neither do I, but what choice do we have? I don’t in any way believe that my sister is here. She and I have made peace with one another, and I know where she’s at—and it’s not the Leaf Academy. Whatever is here, I don’t even like saying this, but I believe it can read our minds. It knows our deepest fears and preys upon them. It uses those fears, those heartaches…it uses them against us. Midas is not in a good place right now. I don’t understand why, but Dominic’s death…”

  Sierra called, “Hey, Cassidy. Come here a second. Take a look at the upstairs monitor. The laser grid. Is that just my eyes playing tricks on me?” Jocelyn and I scurried over to the collection of monitors on the table in front of Sierra. She positioned herself in front of the one that monitored the auditorium, but the image of the upstairs rooms, the second-floor hallway and Hugh McCandlish’s bedroom, were flickering off and on. As if someone were tinkering with the equipment, messing around with the electrical outlets. Those two cameras were not connected in any way. Everything we had was portable, wireless. Why in the world would two separate cameras be glitching out? And then it stopped.

  “That was funky. If it does it again, someone will have to check that out.”

  “We will keep an eye on it. But for now, let’s watch those guys.”

  I sat beside Sierra, and Jocelyn sat in the chair on the other side of her. Jocelyn asked, “How is your arm? Is it cut deep?”

  “No. Not at all. But my husband likes to pretend to be a medic. It really was just a surface scratch.”

  “I am no doctor, Sierra, but you sure were bleeding.” I frowned at her before I turned my attention back to the screen. “I’m glad it was nothing serious.”

  “What do you think about this place? Are you receiving any information?” Sierra asked me.

  “Nothing at all. Not really. Our EVP sessions were quiet, but I know there’s more than that.”

  “I know what you mean. When I tap the air around me, I can't explain it any better than that, whoever or whatever is here retreats. And that’s not good. I have a nagging feeling…well, I’m not going to jump to any conclusions. It’s not only that there’s nothing interacting with us. It is as if there is a lack of anything. A strange nothingness. I’m sure I’m not making any sense to you guys. I don’t like it. I would’ve thought there would be a lot of residual activity here, you know? Whenever you have a bunch of kids around, there’s going to be residual activity. But that’s not the case here. It’s like someone came through with a big old spiritual vacuum cleaner and just sucked everything up. And in its wake…nothing.”

  Cassidy…

  I froze at hearing my name being called yet again by that familiar voice, my dead sister’s voice. I tried not to make any sudden moves and hoped that one of my friends would acknowledge it. But neither one of them indicated they heard anything, so I kept it to myself. This was a cruel trick. I agreed with Jocelyn one hundred percent; whatever lived here at the Leaf Academy was certainly a trickster. And you know what? From what Sierra was describing, Jocelyn might also be right about labeling this thing a maelstrom. Apparently, maelstroms could create vortexes or portals, I couldn’t remember which. They were so powerful that they pulled things toward them, and they used their energy on it until the spirit they captured had nothing left. Kind of like an energy vampire but in a ghostly inhuman way. Which made me think that whatever was here wasn’t human at all. For the next half-hour, we watched the guys walking around the auditorium doing their EVP sessions and testing out their equipment. But like us, they didn’t hear or see anything. At least we got to witness a swarm of crows. The whole thing seemed so surreal just thinking about it.

  “Earth to Cassidy. Are you listening? These cameras are glitching out again. Someone’s got to go up and check the connectors. You know, those particular connectors are pretty loose to begin with. It wouldn’t take much for something to bump them or do a number on them. Would you mind going up?”

  “No, Sierra. I don’t mind. I’ve got this, Jocelyn. You guys keep your eyes on the screen. I’m getting some sort of weird feeling. I know we don’t run the show on feelings, but I can’t ignore it either.”

  Jocelyn shot up from her chair immediately. “You heard Midas. We have to stick together. No going around this place by yourself. That’s the rule, remember?”

  “But if y
ou come with me, Sierra will be by herself, and she’s already been attacked. I don’t want to put her in further jeopardy.” Lying to my teammates was easier than I could’ve imagined, which made me feel horrible. But at the same time, I wanted to see this place for myself. If for no other reason than to give whatever it was that was stalking me and pretending to be Kylie a chance to manifest. Of course, that’s never fun, but I felt like I could connect if I was by myself.

  “Never mind. Midas and Josh are on their way. Midas doesn’t look very happy.” Jocelyn pointed at the screen, and then the three of us looked down the hall expecting them to appear, but they didn’t. When I looked back at the screen, I didn’t see either of them. Where could they have gone? “What the heck?”

  Sierra said, “That’s not humanly possible. I’ve been watching the screen, and those guys were there one minute and gone the next. Come on, ladies. Let’s go see what’s going on in the auditorium. I am not ashamed to admit that I already don’t like this place.”

  I agreed with Sierra, but I held up my finger and reached for the walkie-talkie on the makeshift table. “Cassidy to Midas. Where are you?”

  A scratchy sound came over the walkie-talkie. I banged it on the palm of my hand, which didn’t help. It sounded as if the batteries were dying, but that couldn’t be right. Joshua was always so careful to load fresh batteries into all of our equipment. As a matter of fact, that was the most expensive part of keeping Gulf Coast Paranormal running other than the overhead for the office. We bought batteries like some people bought printer paper or other office supplies. “I can’t hear you. If you can hear me, we are heading your way.”

  Before we could make our way toward the auditorium, I noticed that the monitor screens connected to the upstairs cameras were flashing. It’s kind of like they were switching off and on, but we didn’t have any strobe lights up there. Nothing that would make two cameras that were not connected go off and on like that. Before anyone could stop her, Jocelyn was grabbing equipment and making her way up the stairs.

  “I will be back here in five minutes.”

  I called to her, “Jocelyn! We’ve got to go get Midas and Joshua. We don’t know how long that’s going to take. What about staying together?”

  Jocelyn shrugged absently as she stepped on the bottom stair of the long staircase. I wasn’t going to be able to talk her out of it, I could see that. But who was I to judge her? I’d been wanting to go up there by myself just a few minutes ago. I wondered why that was. I wasn’t one to wander off by myself unless I had to draw something. Reflecting on it, the feeling was like some sort of compulsion. I was compelled to go up the stairs. Something wanted us to go up the stairs.

  And it wanted us to go up one by one.

  Chapter Ten—Midas

  Joshua had picked the wrong day to start acting squirrelly. We’d barely gotten through the first fifteen minutes when he was ready to chase shadows outside the auditorium. Not that I hadn’t seen them too; in fact, one particular shadow looked very humanlike, but that didn’t mean there was anything out there. This was an old building that had been sitting abandoned for quite some time. The chances of us crossing the path of some derelict or homeless person were pretty good. It wasn’t like we hadn’t encountered people looking for a place to sleep or get warm in the past. But Joshua saw that shadow and was gone like a bullet out of a gun.

  “Hold up, Joshua! Wait for me!” To his credit, he did pause momentarily, but it wasn’t enough time for me to be comfortably close to him. After Little Sister’s crow attack, it was hard to relax and just enjoy the investigation. My walkie-talkie was making clicking sounds. I reached for it and tried to call Cassidy but wasn’t successful. Joshua and I were standing outside the auditorium by a bit of broken wall looking down the side of the building. Although the sun had gone down, there was just enough light to cast awkward purple shadows against the wall. It added to the spooky effect, and I could swear I saw a small shadow bounce and then vanish around the side of the building. I could tell by the look in Joshua’s eyes and the expression on his face that he was more than willing to chase that shadow down.

  I reached for his arm and tugged at it. “It’s never a good idea to go running after shadows, Joshua. I saw it too, but he’s not going anywhere. I kind of get the idea that he wants to draw us out. Let’s go back and check in with the rest of the team. So far, we’ve seen crows and a possible shadow person, but that’s the most activity I’ve seen here.”

  Joshua’s sigh let me know that he wasn’t happy with that plan, but I was still the boss. Luckily for me, he followed me back inside and didn’t give me any lip. Cassidy and Sierra were barreling into the auditorium as if their shoes were on fire.

  “Where did you go?” Sierra yelled at Josh breathlessly. “You were there one minute and gone the next. You didn’t hear us calling you?” The sound of panic in her voice surprised me.

  “I saw a shadow. We went outside to follow it, but it disappeared around the corner.”

  “Did you see it?” Cassidy asked me. “What did you see? What did it look like?”

  “It looked like a shadow. It was kind of tall, almost as tall as me to begin with, but then it shrank. It was more child-sized. By the time we got to see it leave, it had shrunk down pretty significantly.”

  Cassidy continued her questioning as any good investigator would. “Could it have been a bird flying over? We know there are crows here.” She tilted her head toward Sierra, who agreed with her. “Could it have been an actual person? Maybe someone looking to steal equipment or just find a place to get high?”

  “All great questions, but no. It wasn’t the shadow of a bird, and it wasn’t a person, not a living person. We would’ve heard something. Footsteps or something. And we haven’t seen anyone, but maybe…” I searched the room and noticed that Jocelyn was missing. “Jocelyn at the monitoring station?”

  Cassidy’s face flushed, and she shook her head. “She wouldn’t listen to us. She wouldn’t wait. A couple of the cameras on the second floor are cutting in and out, and she went up to check it out. I told her it was a bad idea, but then you guys were gone, and so…”

  I swore under my breath as we hurried out of the auditorium. I had given those guys specific instructions. Nobody separates. We investigate with a partner. Leave it to Jocelyn to go rogue within the first hour of being here. So typical of her. “Let’s go, you guys. All of us are going together. Grab some gear. We’ll check out the second floor while we are up there. But please, no more splitting up.”

  Nobody said a word as we gathered the equipment and headed up the squeaking staircase. The entire floor was shrouded in darkness. It was darker than I expected. I could see the laser grid shimmering on the wall next to Hugh McCandlish’s bedroom. Everything looked fine. The blue lights were lined up, each one of them shining perfectly. The camera pointing down the opposite end of the hall was on. Just as a precaution, Joshua checked the connections and confirmed that everything was working properly. The smart thing to do would have been to call out for Jocelyn, but it didn’t feel like the right thing. I had the feeling that we weren’t alone on the second floor of the Leaf Academy.

  And then I heard footsteps, heavy footfalls. They were a little unusual because each step was accompanied by a kind of tinkling. No. Not tinkling, jingling. Like a cowboy wearing spurs. There were no cowboys here. Never had been.

  And then Jocelyn stepped out of the room beside us with her finger to her lips. Nobody said a word. We all froze and listened to the stomping feet and the strange jingling that accompanied them. Footsteps were leading away from us to the opposite end of the hall. If I wasn’t mistaken, that far doorway led to the roof. We heard a bang, and then everything went quiet. We all looked at one another, and if there ever was a collective sigh of relief, it was in that moment. But then we remembered why we were there at the Leaf Academy. We had come to find proof that a maelstrom, or at least a ghost or two, was calling the place home. Well, that was either a homeless person or so
mething else. We gathered close and began to talk about what we had heard.

  Josh said in an excited whisper, “We caught that on camera. I’m sure of that. Those were footsteps, right?”

  Cassidy rubbed her lip with her finger; it was a kind of tic that presented itself when she was thinking. Nervously thinking. “Yeah, but didn’t it seem like an odd kind of sound? Like a bicycle bell—something metallic.”

  “Jackboots,” Jocelyn answered in a whisper. “You know, biker boots. The kind that guys used to wear in the 1950s. I’ve heard them before, when I encountered Gary Holloway.” She visibly shivered and rubbed her arms at the memory of the threatening ghost.

  “Well, you know what they say. Strike while the iron is hot. I think we should go see what Mr. Gary Holloway has to say for himself. But remember the rules, everyone. We stay together on this investigation. No more wandering around by yourself.” I tried not to stare down Jocelyn, but everyone knew who I was talking about…including her.

  She didn’t argue with me but pointed at the cameras. “I just wanted to help out. The cameras were glitching, but I got distracted by a swishing sound coming from that room.” She fiddled with her camera and stepped in behind us as we made our way to the roof.

  “Hey, Jocelyn. Why don’t you lead the way? I haven’t been to the roof yet. We didn’t make it that far during our walk-through. Show us where you first saw Mr. Holloway.” This was my way of trying to mend fences, but it would also be useful to know where she interacted with the ghost. And to be honest, besides the brief glimpse of the shadow that disappeared outside and the strange assembly of crows, this was the closest we’d gotten to encountering anything paranormal. I couldn’t figure out why that was, but sometimes things were slow to get started. I had no doubt that we would eventually see what it was we came here to see.

  Midas… Midas, come find me… I’m here.

  “What is it?” Cassidy was squatting beside me, and I was doubled over in the hallway with my team gathered around me. The pain in my stomach was so real, it felt as if somebody kicked me. Someone with a small foot. A small, savage foot.