Prologue.
Callie - July 1st2025.
Twenty-two weeks pregnant, and my stomach had popped at last. My smile grew as I rubbed my little potbelly and felt a responding flutter. The baby was active today. While secretly hoping for a boy, I honestly didn’t mind what I had.
I yawned and leaned back in my seat.
Sunny glanced over. “Are you okay?”
“No, I want turkey,” I complained, and Sunny laughed. A few days ago, we had the best turkey dinner I’d ever eaten. We’d been at the Christmas Village in the Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming, to investigate a haunting. The small town was owned and managed by two of Connor’s friends, Fiona and Simon. We’d solved the haunting, which had been a fun one, but none of us had realised how much we’d needed it until the end.
The previous two investigations had been heavy, so a light-hearted ghost hunt had been what the doctor ordered. And luckily, we’d received just that. Yesterday we’d flown back, spent the night in the tour bus, restocked everything, and headed out this morning.
We were heading to the previously scheduled investigation, and I had a bad feeling about this one.
There were two sites, and I needed to split the team to investigate each site. One was famous for its Headless Horseman hauntings. That was something I longed to discover the truth about. The second location was the House of Horrors, based in Amityville. That was the one that raised concerns for me. It had been quiet for decades, but activity was being reported again. Something was stirring.
“Callie?” Sunny prodded, concerned, and I glanced across.
“What?”
“Babe, I asked if you wanted to stop for a turkey sandwich?”
“Sorry, I was thinking about the investigation.”
“You’re worried.”
“Yes. Something nasty is waiting.” I continued to rub my belly, feeling on edge but confident in my team.
“Fine, we’re turning around,” Sunny stated.
I laughed. My husband!
“There’s a highly recommended deli on the way to Queensborough Community College. Stop there.” I really needed a turkey sandwich with lashings of gravy. The baby reacted, and I patted my belly.
I beamed at Sunny, and he looked terrified.
“I’ll get the turkey sandwich,” he promised.
“That’s my hubby.”
“Never call me that again!” Sunny growled, and I giggled. I loved riling him up. It made life fun!
Chapter One.
Sunny
We parked at the Queensborough Community College parking lot. The college administrator had allocated a reserved space for our group to use as a base, as Harry had been in contact with the President of the QCC. Naturally, we had to mention the QCC in our filming, and we would, but we’d also made a donation.
Callie seemed on edge, which was something I disliked. This wouldn’t be a straightforward job, but Callie insisted we investigate. Even though Callie’s episodes turned out to be extensively reworked for TV, I knew how seriously Callie took this. When I say heavily edited, I didn’t mean faked. Not all the recordings ended up on TV for various reasons.
However, two things would happen. All footage would be copied and forwarded to the Paranormal Society of America’s collection. The original filming would be sent to Callie’s own personal archive at the house we’d built on Hellfire land. But Callie would also copy all activity evidence separately, with timestamps and dates. It made it easier for her to review, rather than spend hours with nothing happening.
Phil did most of this, with Jack and Harry helping when they had availability. But I was starting to think we needed an additional editor because Phil was swamped.
I made a mental note to talk to Callie about it. However, I didn’t know where they’d stay because the tour bus was full now. That was another problem. Where would we put an extra person?
“Who’s joining us this time?” Callie asked.
