What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2
frowning. “I don’t know. Like an earthquake almost, only not nearly so strong. And there was a noise.”
Andre made a soft, shocked sound. “Like this?” Pausing his video and taking his headphones off, Sam leaned over just in time to see the picture on Andre’s screen tremble the same way Sam’s had a moment before. Sam’s stomach lurched when Andre unplugged the headphones and he heard the same odd, rusty sound as he’d heard on his own video. “Oh, shit.”
“What time do you have on yours?” Andre asked, stopping his video.
Sam looked. “Seventeen-thirty-four. What about yours?”
“Seventeen-thirty-four.” Andre set his headphones on the desk and stared at Sam. “What the hell, Sam?”
“I don’t know.” Wrapping his arms around himself, Sam glanced from one computer screen to the other. “Okay, let’s look at this logically. Is there any possibility that it really was an earthquake?”
Andre shook his head. “No idea. I’ll look into it.”
“You and Cecile were there guarding the door when that happened, did either of you feel anything?”
“No, I don’t—” Andre’s eyes went wide. “Wait. We did. We both had kind of a strange sensation not long after we got there.”
“When? Was it the same time as what’s on the tape?”
“Could be. Hang on, I’ll look it up.” Jumping to his feet, Andre hurried across the room and snatched a notebook off the shelf. He hooked a finger behind one of the yellow tabs, opened the book and scanned the page. “Yeah. Seventeen-thirty-four exactly.”
A chill raced up Sam’s spine. He and Andre stared at each other.
“It might not mean anything,” Andre said eventually, drumming his fingers on the top of the bookshelf.
“That’s true.”
“Cecile’s told me lots of times that she picks up all kinds of different psychic energy, and she figures I do too.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, same here.”
“A place as old as that school, who knows what all’s floating around there?”
“Absolutely.”
“It could’ve been some form of residual haunting.”
“It could’ve been, yeah.”
“Only it wasn’t.” Shoulders sagging, Andre shuffled over and dropped into his chair. “Fuck, Sam. It was too much like Oleander House not to be related. I’ve been trying ever since yesterday to convince myself that it wasn’t, but it was.”
Sam was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “What about Cecile? What does she think?”
“She tried to tell me it was too similar to what we felt before to ignore it.” Andre sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead. “I didn’t want to listen. But she’s right. Damn.”
A sudden thought struck Sam. “Hey, why didn’t either of you mention this last night, when we were taking down the cameras?”
Dropping his gaze to the floor, Andre twisted his fingers together. “I asked her not to say anything. I wanted some time to think about it first.”
Sam didn’t need to ask why. Rolling his chair closer, he laid a comforting hand on Andre’s knee. “Gonna tell the others tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” Andre looked up, his troubled gaze locking with Sam’s. “If you can open a gateway, I bet you can close it. We need to figure out how.”
The thought of facing another dimensional gateway and the things waiting on the other side twisted Sam’s insides with fear. Not so much fear of pain or his own death, but fear of failure. Of another person dying because of him. The thought was unbearable.
“Hey.” Grabbing Sam’s upper arms in both big hands, Andre gave him a gentle shake. “What’d I say before, huh? Stop blaming yourself.”
Sam laughed bitterly. “I’m trying, but it’s not that easy.”
With an irritated huff, Andre let go of Sam and crossed his arms. “I know it’s hard. Lots of things are hard. There’s no room for your fear right now. If we’ve got another one of these damn gateways, you’re the key to controlling it. I know you’re scared, and I know why you’re scared. But if we’re dealing with what we think we are, you’re gonna have to try and use your psychokinetic powers to shut the fucking thing down. You know that, right?”
For a second, anger flared inside Sam. It died away as quickly as it appeared, leaving him feeling tired and drained. In spite of his harsh words, Andre was right, and Sam knew it.
“Yeah, I know.” Sam sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve been researching it a little in my spare time.”
Andre’s eyes lit with interest. “Have you
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