“I see things out of the corner of my eye. Like someone’s moving around and ducking out of sight when I turn around. I’ve heard what sounded like someone shouting. I’ve also heard thumping on the cell bars, as if someone is running down the block hitting each bar with their tin cup.”
“Is that how you got your nickname?” Ten asked.
Tin nodded. “I made the mistake of telling people what I heard and saw when I first starting working tours to the prison. Over the years, I’ve learned to keep what I see or hear to myself.”
Ten was familiar with that strategy. He spent a lot of his younger life keeping his gift to himself. “Has anyone else ever reported the same kinds of hauntings you’ve witnessed?”
“We’ve had tons of guests report the same kinds of things, but I do wonder how many of those sighting are real or if they were imagined by an overactive imagination or were faked because they’d heard about a specific incident online or in a book.”
“I was thinking along those lines myself. Do you want to know what I see or hear?” Ten asked.
Tin Cup was quiet for a few seconds. “I’m not quite sure about that. Let’s see how things go.”
“Fair enough.” Ten was about to ask Tin Cup where he was from when he got up from his seat and headed toward the opposite side of the boat to help tie up to the dock on Seavey Island.
Several minutes later, everyone was back on dry land with Tin Cup leading the group toward the entrance to the prison.
It looked much gloomier up close. From further away, the prison looked a bit run down, but like it could reopen in a short time if the need arose. Up close and personal, the building showed it’s age. Most of the windows were broken out or cracked. Ivy vines clung to the edifice, their little tendrils undermining the concrete. There was also a low level hum that Ten couldn’t put a finger on. Was it from the work being done at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard a short distance away or was it from inside the prison and the spirits who inhabit its dusty corridors?
“Oh, my God, Dad! Do you see that?” Everly’s eyes were glued to the windows that looked out from the cellblock.
Part of Tennyson didn’t want to know what his daughter saw. He wanted to keep his head down and just get through this experience, but knew full well he couldn’t do that and leave Everly alone to battle whatever the hell she was seeing. Ten raised his head and gasped. He took several steps backward and knocked into Jude.
“Woah there.” Jude reached out to steady Tennyson. “Are you okay?”
Ten shook his head. Ronan and Fitzgibbon joined the group. “The windows,” Ten whispered, pointing. “There must be a hundred hands waving to us. That’s what you’re seeing, right?” Ten hoped that was all Everly was seeing. The hands were terrifying enough.
“That’s not all,” Everly said. “I hear a siren. I smell smoke.”
“That’s from the 1943 riot. I’ll tell you more about it when we go into the cellblock.” Tin Cup headed up to the doors of the prison and held them open, beckoning everyone forward.
Everly looked as if she didn’t want to enter the building, never mind the cellblock.
“If you want to stay outside, say the word and I’ll stay with you.” Ten found himself hoping Everly wanted to bow out. It was a beautiful day on the water. He wouldn’t mind enjoying it from outside the haunted prison.
“I can do hard things, Dad. So can you.” Everly reached for his hand and pulled Ten toward the building.
“Okay, here we go. Welcome to the Portsmouth Naval Prison.” Tin ushered everyone into the lobby of the building where there was an intake desk and several cells. “If you turn around and look out the front doors, you’ll see the last look at the outside world. Once the men were here, they were processed and kept in the holding cells until a spot could be found for them in one of the cellblocks. The prison was built in gothic revival style with round turrets and is known by locals as ‘The Castle,’ but that’s not what prisoners called it. No. No. They called ithell!” Tin’s voice was dramatic.
Aurora shrank back against Fitzgibbon. “I don’t want to go to hell, Daddy.”
Fitz scooped her up and started whispering in her ear.
Ten knew Fitz was telling Aurora that Tin Cup was putting on a performance. By the scared look on Aurora’s face, she wasn’t buying her father’s explanation. For her, the experience was all too real. Ten had a feeling this was going to be the shortest tour in Tin Cup’s career.
“If you follow me, we’ll head to A Block.” Tin waved everyone forward. “The prison has two cellblocks, A which faces out over Portsmouth Harbor and B which faces the Piscataqua Bridge and the state of Maine. You might think that the looking at the ocean every day would be the better place to be, but you’d be wrong. Winds off the water rattled the windows. B block wasn’t much better. Those prisoners didn’t get the wind, but the heat was kept near fifty degrees.”
Everly shivered. She reached for Ten’s hand.
Thankfully, he couldn’t feel any undue alarm in his daughter, but the sooner they left this building, the better.
Ten and Everly followed at the end of the group. The corridor they walked down had yellowish tile, which Ten would be had been while when it was first installed in 1908 when the prison opened.
“Here we are. A block.” Tin Cup stood to the side of a large barred door. He pulled a set of jangling keys from his pocket and found the right one to open the door. He was about to slide the door open when Ten got a vision on Aurora.
“Fitz, cover her ears,” Ten said.
Fitz knelt behind his daughter and put his hands over her ears without question. Aurora was sensitive to certain sounds, screeching metal against metal was one of them.
