Chapter Four. #2
Kit expertly steered the sleigh, clucking his tongue at the horse pulling it, and turned onto a path.
This wound among the trees and would take us to our final destination.
We passed a gingerbread house with snow decorating it, and Cherry and I made an awed noise.
Then, slowly, the horse pulled us through the grotto.
I gasped, astounded at the level of detail. There were houses, igloos, and decorations scattered through the trees.
“Stop!” Cherry called out as the tunnel arch came into sight.
Kit stopped, and Cherry pointed.
Freddie began laughing even as she turned the camera toward Cherry, who was gaping.
There were a couple of rows of candy canes, all different sizes and colours.
There was red and white, blue and white, green and white, and so on.
What had caught our attention was the fact that they were moving—not in a way that animatronics would move either!
The smaller candy canes had bounced over to the larger ones and were, for lack of a better word, pole dancing!
They hopped up and wrapped their bodies around the stem of the taller canes and leaned backwards and forwards and sideways.
Some curled themselves around the stems several times before unravelling with speed.
I knew my mouth was open in surprise, but I couldn’t control my reaction. The taller candy canes, not to be left out, suddenly unravelled their ribbons and wrapped them around the smaller ones. The smaller canes twisted around their ribbons and flung themselves out like maypole dancers.
“Oh, damn!” Freddie laughed as she kept filming. “They could show strippers some moves.”
I closed my eyes against the image of two large candy canes grinding against each other in what could only be called suggestive.
“Can’t say I’ve ever seen that!” Kit exclaimed from the driver’s seat.
“No? They’re putting it on just for us!” I replied, opening my eyes and watching four candy canes play leapfrog with each other.
One fell over as it caught the hooked part of the ‘frog’.
Clearly unamused at what it deemed sabotage, the smaller cane jumped upright and then leapt in the air and ‘kicked’ the taller one.
Cherry began to cry with laughter at the antics. But I heard other laughter—children’s. I pulled out my voice recorder and set it to play as I turned on the Ovilus, but turned the volume down.
Words flowed at an incredible pace, and I was grateful that Freddie had messed with this. It had a small printer, which she’d installed. The words printed on it as they flashed up on my screen.
‘More. Fun. Again. Make it jump. No, mister, that’s funny.’ The comments kept coming, and I knew they were from the children.
“Connor,” Merrick murmured and pointed at the REM Pod. He hadn’t turned the sound up high, but it kept lighting up. Cherry moved and stiffened as she saw what was happening. The temperature had certainly dropped, and I knew there was a spirit in the sleigh with us.
“Hi, I’m Connor. Do you like that? It’s called a REM Pod. If you touch it, it lights up and makes a noise. We’ve turned it down because it can be very loud,” I said.
The REM Pod lit again, and I glanced down at the Ovilus.
‘Come. Look at this. New toys. Papa, play,’ the words were printing very fast.
‘Papa, look, it’s writing my talk.’
‘Eric, come away, son. We don’t know them.’
‘Aw, Papa!’
We all gaped as the blankets moved as if someone was pushing through them, and then the sleigh rocked a little as if someone had jumped off.
‘Watch the silly sticks, Eric,’ Papa clearly ordered.
“Oh my God,” Cherry exclaimed faintly.
The candy canes suddenly turned normal and moved to their original places, where they became still. The atmosphere changed around us and became warmer, and I knew the ghosts had moved on.
“Tell me you got all that,” I said to Freddie, who nodded.
“Shall I continue?” Kit asked.
“Let me get a few base readings, although I think they’ve been done now,” I said and scrambled out.
Five minutes later, we were heading towards the tunnel. The rest of the journey was uneventful. But as we closed in on the tunnel, I felt a shiver run down my spine. Kit pulled over and turned to us.
“I have to ask if anyone has epilepsy, as there are flashing lights up ahead?”
We all shook our heads and Kit handed us a board with medical forms. We all signed one and handed it back to Kit. He checked them before placing them safely away and clucked his tongue for the horse to move again.
As we approached, we saw shimmering lights, like a kaleidoscope. They weren’t bright, harsh flashing lights; instead, instead gentler and easier on the eyes. They covered the tunnel entrance and certainly made it look like a portal.
Kit drove us inside and stopped the horse.
All around was a kaleidoscope of lights that continued to swirl, and as they did, it felt like we were being transported somewhere special.
A minute passed, and then Kit pulled on the reins, and the horse began to move.
We came out of the other side of the ‘portal’, and Kit drove us towards the Santa Village.
There was a small shelter, and Kit pulled into it, gave the horse a carrot and drink, and a quick rub down before we headed back.
“Would visitors get a tour of Santa’s Village?” Cherry asked.
“No, we drop them off there at the stable, and they are free to explore on their own. There are shops there. However, in the interest of the children not seeing money and having their dream ruined, everything is charged to the room.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said, proud of Fiona and Simon.
They’d outdone themselves, and I really want this to succeed for them.
But it was a dilemma. Did we send the ghosts to rest, or let them stay?
I couldn’t think of a solution and could only hope Callie could.
There had to be a way for them to live together.
Callie
William had brought us to Santa’s House in a sleigh, and I’d had to swallow tears.
It seemed like something from any kid’s wildest dream.
The ideal Santa Claus home. It was like Fiona and Simon had crafted this from a movie set.
The outside again resembled a large log cabin, garnished with fairy lights, tinsel, wreaths, and other Christmas ornaments.
Inside were wooden walls, bright, cheery fires, comfy furniture, and several large Christmas trees.
It looked like Christmas had spit everywhere, and I loved it.
You could see Santa sitting in the oversized armchair that would swallow you entirely.
Or Mrs Claus in the beautifully decorated kitchen baking cookies.
The whole house was truly amazing and a work of art.
“Then the hauntings here are rather mundane. Items moving, footsteps being heard, and shadow figures being seen, adult and child-sized. However, what isn’t mundane is the fact that cookies have been baked, when nobody is here,” I said to Phil, Liv, and Ashford.
“As in actual cookies?” Ashford asked.
“Yup. Real cookies that can be eaten, and different types of them. Fiona and Simon believed someone was breaking in, but outside surveillance showed nothing. They put a camera up in the kitchen, and it would glitch, and cookies would appear,” I replied.
“And then the cameras would come back on after?” Phil inquired.
“Yup.”
“Wow,” Liv exclaimed. “Are we going to split up?”
It was a fair question; there were several rooms to investigate. The kitchen, living room, Santa’s office, two bedrooms, a small dining room, Mrs Claus’s craft room, and a bathroom.
“No, what we will do is check the cameras are operating in those areas and then, in addition, place REM Pods down. That way, if someone wants our attention, they can call us,” I said.
“Not a bad idea,” Phil agreed.
“Let’s take the REMBuddie and place it in the bedroom, and the REM Pod in the main bedroom.
I think we should also put REM Pods in the living room, Santa’s office, the small dining room, and the craft room.
We’ll start with the kitchen first, and we can leave one there when we move to the next room. ”
“That makes sense. Especially with the cookie baker,” Ashford agreed.
I began my usual spiel, calling out and introducing the team. We didn’t get any response at all in the kitchen, which puzzled me. I’d fully expected something. The living room, Santa’s office, and small bedroom were all the same.
Then we finally got a reaction in Santa’s bedroom. We heard footsteps and frowned.
“Were they heading towards the kitchen?” Liv asked.
“Seemed to—”
A squeal interrupted me as a Rem Pod reacted.
“That’s from the kitchen,” Phil confirmed as we left the bedroom and headed there.
As we entered, we stopped. A white mist floated past us and dissipated. “Tell me you all saw that!” Liv squealed.
“Yup,” I replied as I peered around. “We most certainly did not leave those out!”
On the worktop were a baking tray, a mixing bowl, and a wooden spoon.
“Holy crap,” Ashford exclaimed. “We’ve all been together, and if one of us had snuck off, we’d have seen it.”
Once again, we tried to make contact but were blatantly ignored, even though activity was happening.
The lights switched on and off in the bedroom, footsteps were noticed, and someone blew on Liv’s hair, making it move.
But whoever was here point blank refused to talk to us, leaving us slightly frustrated.
“You need to come and see this,” Harry said over the radio just before we broke for dinner. I wondered what he’d found as I called for William to collect us in the sleigh. I was sure it would be interesting.