5. LO #2
“All too well,” I answer with a sigh. After leaving the medical show I was on for seven years—I was killed off in a devastating hospital fire—it’s been hard to gain footing elsewhere.
I’ve shot some pilots, worked here and there.
Fortunately, the money can really stretch far with residuals and the fact that I’m pretty low maintenance.
Some inherited family money doesn’t hurt, either.
But that can only go on for so long. My agent has been hard at work doing whatever she can for me.
We’re hoping something will stick eventually, but it’s always a surprise.
There are pilots that don’t get picked up, shows that only last a season, and roles I land that are for brief arcs that don’t get extended.
The worst part is that it’s hard not working and having something to keep me occupied. It was also hard while I was working—shooting schedules are intense and long and will happen at all hours of the day—but this is a different kind of challenge.
Initially, having the break from work felt like the perfect excuse to focus on myself and my house and take a deep breath. But my house being haunted kind of ruined that for me, and now, all I want is any excuse to be out of my house.
“Alright,” Stevie says. “What’s your address again? Let’s see what we can find.”
After giving my information over to Stevie, she went to work on pulling everything she could.
Newspaper clippings, information on former home ownership.
Anything that mentioned my street or my address—and then also anything mentioning the names of the people who lived at that address—was pulled up online and printed or pulled from a book.
“I guess I should’ve done more research before buying,” I say, looking over what Stevie found.
I’ve mostly just been twiddling my thumbs while she’s gone to work, watching the back of her head and the way her hands look typing on a keyboard.
I’m sure Andrew—who was testing the lighting and adjusting the camera around me—caught me looking over at Stevie more than once.
“This actually isn’t bad,” she says as she sits down in the chair across from me.
The entire history of my house is laid out in the middle of us.
“Some of the other places we’ve looked at have had a lot more history, especially the really old and abandoned ones.
You’d be surprised how many news clippings there are about places people aren’t even supposed to go into anymore. ”
“Fair enough,” I say.
“This part is pretty simple; we’re just going to review everything together. Catch earnest reactions to reading things. That kind of thing.”
I bite my lip. “What if we find something?” I ask, repeating my question from earlier. But the concern is still there, sitting in the pit of my stomach.
“Honestly, the bigger concern is what if there isn’t anything,” Stevie says. “With the…state of your house, so to speak, wouldn’t it be kind of nice to have some kind of answer?”
“Not to question your line of work, but isn’t chalking it up to I have a ghost in my house not exactly an answer?”
Stevie shrugs. “Depends on who you ask.” She turns to Andrew. “You’re good. Start rolling.”
I square off my shoulders instinctively, second-nature with how much time I’ve spent in front of a camera over the years, and wait for Andrew’s signal.
“Okay, so the basics—your house was built in 1969. One bedroom, one bath. Tucked into a quiet neighborhood,” Stevie says, reading off some of the papers she found.
“Sounds right.”
“Idyllic.”
“Some would say.”
“So, the owners who sold it to you had only owned the house for about four years before handing it off to you,” Stevie says, and I nod to confirm. “I’m assuming they didn’t mention anything about ghosts?
“No, nothing out of the ordinary came up. But I also never met the owners. Everything was handled through realtors.”
“Did the realtor tell you anything about the owners before them?”
I shook my head. “I never asked.”
“It looks like Irene Bevere, who owned the house previously, had inherited the property from her parents. She owned the house on her own up until her death.”
“Did she die in the house?” I ask, wondering if Irene has been the person haunting me this entire time. Something about that feels comforting to me—Irene doesn’t sound evil or scary. I could continue to live in a house with her.
“Maybe, but I can’t find a lot on her to know for sure. All I know is the house was sold by someone else after her recorded date of death.”
“Hm.”
Despite Stevie’s earnest attempt at making this all sound more exciting than it is, it’s pretty pedestrian. It’s not exactly the unbelievable ghost story people really want—stories involving murders and people going missing and unexplainable details.
It seems like Stevie might be thinking the same thing. She shuffles through the papers in front of her like she’s certain there’s something in there.
“I’m going to be honest, I thought there might be more here for us,” Stevie mumbles. But both she and Andrew let the camera run for a little bit longer, just in case—definitely holding out hope there might be something there.
I glance at Stevie and then look down at the papers in front of us. She’s turned over what feels like every imaginable stone, even finding the original floor plans to the house.
“Bevere is a pretty unique surname, no?” I say. “Nothing much on her family?”
“Not in these archives,” Stevie says. She sighs and then turns to Andrew, signaling for him to shut the camera off. “What a waste of time.”
“I mean, maybe not. This is only what’s made it into the newspapers, right? And the specific names mentioned?” I say, trying to be hopeful.
Stevie twists her lips and leans back in her chair.”I don’t know.” She turns and looks at Andrew. “We might just need to work another segment in. Maybe we can share another story from the area or something. Or just make most of the episode about the house.”
“There shouldn’t be any shortage of things to film,” I say. “I don’t think I’ve had a single normal twenty-four hours since I moved in.”
“And you really think it’s a ghost?” Stevie asks and then reconsiders her question. “You’ve mentioned contractors. Have you tried any other avenues to explain the weird things going on there?”
“Not to speak on a woman’s behalf, but I can’t think of a single earthly explanation for what we saw at her house,” Andrew interjects before I can answer.
I shrug in agreement. “He’s right.”
“It was just one thing, though. And it was so…” Stevie twirls her hand in the air as she searches for the words. “I don’t know.”
“I can’t believe you’ve already forgotten. That shit was weird , dude. And scary.”
“Just spend tomorrow at the house and see what happens,” I offer, yet again in agreement with Andrew. “I’ll let the house speak for itself.”
Stevie lets out a breath through her nose. “I mean, fine. But I am a little nervous this episode might turn out to be less of a creepy ghost story and more of an old house that just needs work .”
“That’s not what your face said earlier, but okay,” Andrew lightly argues, throwing a small smile in my direction.
“But okay, if we go with Stevie’s thinking—maybe we can try for an interesting LA history angle?
I mean, it’s LA. Even if a ghost isn’t living in the house, something probably happened in the neighborhood.
We introduce Lo, dedicate, like, five minutes to LA.
Include the tour and then our footage from the house. ”
Stevie nods in thought, taking in his words. “It doesn’t really take much to scare people with a ghost show. Showing off a dark house tends to be enough.”
Andrew nods knowingly. “Exactly.”
I look between the two of them. “My only contribution to this is that what you saw earlier is just the beginning.”
Stevie smiles with amusement. “I’ll take the challenge.” She looks back over her shoulder at Andrew. “Should we see if your friend knows anything? Maybe the name Bevere will ring a bell for her.”
“Yeah, let me check.”
As Andrew digs his phone out of his pocket, I turn to Stevie. “Who’s his friend? Another librarian?”
She’s quiet for a beat, but her knowing smile sets me on edge. “You’ll just have to meet her to understand, I think.”