Chapter Four.
Callie
I woke well-rested and eager to get on with the investigation.
Sunny wasn’t here, which surprised me; he rarely left me alone.
Feeling miffed and more than a little out of sorts, I got up, showered, and dressed.
My anger and discontent were growing as I headed downstairs for the equivalent of breakfast.
As I entered the dining room, my gaze landed on Sunny, who was sitting sulking with a cup of coffee in front of him. Wow. The change in him since he’d got here was amazing. Sunny was channelling his inner Scrooge for all he was worth.
Well, fuck him.
I smiled at everyone and ignored him and headed for the buffet breakfast that Fiona and Simon had set up.
They were at the main table talking to the team as everyone ate.
I filled my plate and then, blatantly ignoring Sunny, went and sat with the team.
I felt Sunny’s eyes on me, but refused to look in his direction.
Leaving me to wake up alone was unacceptable, and I knew he meant it as a punishment for grounding him the day before. Well, his attempt would backfire.
Cherry sent me a concerned look, and I offered her a bright smile.
Years ago, I’d learned never to show emotion, and I wouldn’t now.
Put on a front and pretend everything was okay.
That was what I’d been taught, and it was an old practice I fell back into far too easily.
Sunny sent me several looks, which I caught out of the corner of my eye but studiously ignored.
He doesn’t get to leave me in bed and walk out because he doesn’t like what I did. I refuse to let his negativity drag me down, and if Sunny wanted to fight about it, bring it on.
There was a lot of talk about the ice hockey-playing penguins, which was seriously cute and funny.
“I can’t believe I missed that,” I complained.
“Hey, you had sexy Santas,” Liv teased, and I laughed.
“I wonder what else the ghosts have in store for us,” I drawled.
“Do you think that they’ve been doing stuff like this the whole time?” Simon asked as he laid an arm around Fiona’s shoulders.
“Yeah, and because you’ve not got many guests around, it’s not been noticed. The one thing we all seem to have found is that there are many child spirits here. The adults are determined to protect them. It’s early days yet, but I don’t believe you’ve got anything malicious haunting here,” I said.
“I did discover that over four hundred children lost their lives in the TB outbreak here. It took over ninety per cent of them,” Harry said, and I turned to him appalled.
“How many?” I gasped.
“Yeah. It’s grim. The deaths killed the village, which had been stable despite the mine closures. They’d begun logging as an alternative to mining,” Harry continued.
“So, they’d been fighting the closure of their town?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. They were resilient. But the TB outbreak killed the town. It became abandoned soon after. I’m not surprised we’re finding a lot of children,” Harry stated.
I stared at Simon and Fiona, something niggling in my mind.
“And you created a magical place for children to enjoy Christmas. For decades, they had been watching their home fall into disrepair. Then it became a resort, but it wasn’t centred around being child-friendly.
They were probably lost in the wave of adults, and anything they did was explained away.
Some might even have been scared of the intruders as they would have been seen. ” I broke off and chewed my bottom lip.
“Then the resort closes, and another takes its place. None of them is geared towards children, and they’re forgotten.
And when it’s abandoned, it’s even worse.
They’ve got their home back to themselves, but nobody cares, and everything falls into disrepair.
Finally, you come along and give them something wonderful.
The ghost adults saw their joy and have been helping make things perfect for the children. ”
“Is that what you think is happening?” Simon asked, his face surprised.
“Yes.” I turned to Connor and Jack.
Connor nodded slowly. “That makes sense. It’s a working theory and one that will need proving, but yeah, I can see that happening.”
“There are a lot of kids here; we heard them last night. They’ve had years of misery and now have been given their idea of heaven. Callie has a good idea,” Jack agreed.
“What do we do? I don’t want to shove them out and make them feel they’re forgotten again!
But we want to open this resort. Although it’s opening as a holiday theme park, we are bringing kids here who are terminally ill and won’t make it to Christmas Day.
I can’t sacrifice the dead for the living and vice versa,” Fiona said, wringing her hands.
“Let me think on shit, we always manage to find a way,” I said, reaching out and grabbing her hands. Damn, that was unlike me. I squeezed them in reassurance and forced a smile to my lips.
“Thank you, Callie,” Fiona whispered.
“Okay, tonight, we’ll keep the same teams except for two differences. I’ll take Liv, and Jack can have Sunny,” I said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sunny stiffen.
Outrage crossed his face, and I turned to stare at him.
My message was plain on my face, and I knew it.
Sunny had fucked me off with his attitude and then his total lack of consideration this morning.
If he wanted to sulk and stamp his feet, he could, on his own time. Not mine.
Liv glanced at her dad before nodding at me. “Okay,” she murmured.
“Tonight, I want a team in the church, one investigating the path and portal, and one in Santa’s house. For once, I’m going to let you pick,” I said, looking at Jack and Connor.
“Church,” Jack declared before anyone could draw breath. I laughed at his enthusiasm.
“Jack has the church. Connor?”
“I wouldn’t mind the tunnel and pathway,” he replied
“Okay, I’ve got Santa’s House. Let’s finish up eating, and then we can make a start,” I said with a smile. I hoped my happy attitude fooled everyone apart from Sunny. He knew exactly what I was feeling.
Sunny
I’d put my damn foot right in it. Callie was making it very clear I was in her bad books, although she was keeping up a front.
I did not like her having reassigned me at all, and if Callie thought that I’d obey for one single second…
it wasn’t happening. As everyone got up and checked their equipment, I singled her out.
“I ain’t going with Jack.”
“No? Then stay with Harry,” Callie retorted.
“Nope.”
“Then stay in the hotel room. I don’t really care. I thought Jack picking the church would have been right up your alley. No Christmas shit there!”
Okay, I’d underestimated how angry Callie was. Now she was going to understand me! “I’m not letting my pregnant woman run around a haunted town without me at her back.”
“You're not letting?” Callie seethed, and I inwardly winced. I could hear the warning, ‘Danger, Will Robinson,’ screaming in my ear from that old TV show. Too late.
“I said it and meant it.” I dug in.
“You have been the most miserable asshole since we arrived. I’m tired of your shitty attitude. You claim you don’t like Christmas, but I know from Cherry and Liv that you did. Why you’re being so… Grinchified… is beyond me.”
“Grinchified?” I asked, amused despite myself. “Is that even a word?”
“It damn well is now,” Callie snapped.
“Callie, it’s just… I’m older and prefer quiet Christmases now Liv has grown up.”
Callie reared away as if I’d slapped her. “You were aware I wanted a family,” she whispered, paling. Instantly, I saw how Callie had taken it. Like she’d trapped me.
“Babe, no!” I exclaimed, but the damage was done. Callie withdrew, and I felt it. I realised the walls were coming down, her barriers shooting up, and understood she’d pulled back emotionally from me. Fuck, I’d hurt her and hadn’t meant to.
“You’d best stick with Jack; I really don’t want you around me,” Callie murmured and turned on her heel and marched away.
“Wow, you fucked that right up,” Solace proclaimed, slapping me on the shoulders. It wasn’t a gentle slap either.
Connor
I was surprised when I saw Kit, one of the drivers who’d brought us here, outside with a small six-person sleigh.
“What’s this?” I asked, bemused.
“To get to the tunnel, we use these. First off is the drive through the woods with the grotto, and then we hit the tunnel. Fiona has said that you might need to do it several times. I volunteered to be your driver,” Kit said with a warm smile.
“That’s great. I didn’t think about how we were going to get there,” I admitted.
I climbed up with Solace, Cherry, and Merrick.
Solace was once again filming. Cherry was carrying a Spirit box, a device that picked up on words that we couldn’t hear.
It made a lot of static, so we didn’t turn it on until needed.
I had my Ovilus, which Freddie had tinkered with and added more words to.
Merrick carried a REM pod and Touch Ball, which lit up much like the REM pod.
“Where was activity first noted?” Cherry asked Kit.
Before he could reply, I jumped in. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not know. That way, if we see something, it adds to the genuineness of it.”
“Don’t you usually get a heads-up?” Cherry asked.
“Yes. But in this instance, there’s so much spread out over such a large space, I think it would be nice to be surprised.”
“Okay,” Cherry agreed as she tucked the blanket in tighter around her legs. There was a chill up here from the snow, and the blankets were a welcome addition.
The sleigh pulled down the main street of the village quietly as we stared at the clear, starlit sky.
Around us, the town lights twinkled, and it truly did feel like Christmas.
I thought back to what Fiona had said about bringing terminally ill children here.
It was a wonderful idea, and this would be a trip the family would cherish.