Chapter 1

Elizabeth Jerod flipped through the papers sitting on her desk, her pen clamped between her teeth. The papers that were scattered over the large desk held all the arrangements that she’d spent the last six months preparing. Six people, herself included, would be staying at the Brightly house, a huge manor only a few hours away. The paranormal occurrences that had been recorded in the house, in addition to its dark and mysterious past, had drawn her to it. It was the perfect place for an investigation.

“Aha.” She said around the pen, grabbing a folder and pulling it out from under a pile of newspaper clippings. Flipping it open, she reviewed the list of equipment that she was getting on loan from the Midwestern Paranormal Society for the investigation. Digital camcorders with infrared and night vision capabilities, a ten room surveillance system that recorded directly to DVD, motion detection cameras, digital non-touch temperature gauges and six long range handheld radios.

The equipment didn’t come cheap though. The society wanted to send one of their investigators along to keep an eye on the expensive equipment. She hadn’t had a problem with this arrangement until she’d found out whom it was that they were sending with her.

Molly Delcon was a researcher’s worst nightmare, in regards to scientific data. She was over excitable and tended to see ghosts in every corner. She claimed to have telepathic, mediumistic, and clairvoyant abilities, but when asked for proof or a demonstration she would claim to be tired, or that she couldn’t control the abilities, they simply claimed her body now and then. The paranormal society had chosen her to safeguard their equipment so that they could go on another investigation without her. She was younger than anyone else on the team, just nineteen and fresh out of high school. She had dark blond hair that hun down to her waist but was always twisted up into a messy knot at the back of her head. She had an eyebrow pierced and had the slightly distant look of someone who didn’t smoke just cigarettes.

Sighing softly, Elizabeth shut the folder and tossed it aside. Molly was an inconvenience, but she could deal with that. The rest of the team was absolutely perfect.

Casey Green, a friend and powerful medium, had been the first person she called to join the team. She had worked with Casey on numerous occasions before and as soon as the project started to take shape she’d known that Casey had to take part. Casey had been delighted by the invitation and agreed to the week long investigation without hesitation. She had brown hair that, right then, was short, nearly shoulder length. But there was no guarantee to the length, she tended to show up with a buzzed head quite suddenly. She enjoyed the paranormal and did a great deal of her own investigations. She was also adept at reading tarot cards, palms, runes and other forms of divination.

Alan Orlan had answered an ad that she’d placed in the paper, calling for volunteers with documented psychic abilities to take part in a paranormal investigation. Of all of the bizarre and out of this world responses that she’d gotten, she’d sorted through and found perhaps a handful of legitimate people. Out of these she had found Alan, a clairsentient and clairaudient. He could sense objects and sounds from another plane of consciousness. She had been impressed with his frank, businesslike attitude about his gift, not exaggerating it or making himself out to be more than human like some of the interviewees had. He was short, with brown hair and hazel eyes, and tended to wear an attentive yet slightly cheerful expression on his face.

Lloyd Skylen was the group skeptic. He had been the hardest member to find, by far. Most of the people who had answered that ad hadn’t understood what a skeptic was. A great deal of religious zealots had been interviewed, spouting lines from the Bible and preaching that no spirits could be allowed to roam the earth. Lloyd had been one of the few people who had understood what being a skeptic meant. That a healthy level of disbelief and scientific knowledge was necessary to either prove or disprove any data collected. As it turned out, he had been on several investigations before and had extensive knowledge of what would be expected of him.

Steven Whitely was the final member of the team. He was coming along on the investigation as the technical support. Besides being a technology whiz, he was always Elizabeth’s long time boyfriend. He was bit of a skeptic and tended to grin like he was holding back a laugh when she started talking about EVPs and EMFs and other things like that. He was at least a head taller than her, with black hair and blue eyes, and nearly always had a smile on his face.

She put her pen in her mouth again, leaning forward and grabbing another paper. Yelping when someone caught her sides and tickled her, she turned in her chair and slapped Steven on his shoulder. “Not funny Steve.” She said with a laugh.

“Think I was a ghost?” He teased, giving her a soft kiss.

She rolled her eyes. “Witty. Never heard that one before in my life.”

Pulling a chair over, he sat down backwards on it, resting his arms on the back. “Well everything is all set for tomorrow. All the cameras and stuff have been installed, the electricity is up and running and everything is waiting.”

She gave him a warm kiss. “You are… a god.”

He buffed his fingers on his shirt. “I know, I know. I do have to say, that house is creepy. I may need to be held quite often while we’re there.”

Smiling, she shook her head slightly and rose to her feet. “Wimp.” She teased, walking towards the kitchen. He tackled her from behind, lifting her up and tossing her onto the couch. She was laughing as she peered up at him. “I was getting a soda.”

Grinning mischievously, he shook his head. “Oh no you weren’t.”

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