Blood Lust

by Mona Whitlock

Chapter 1

Part I

So many wires.

That was her initial thought as she'd come into the room. So many wires and so much equipment. How much, she wondered, had these clowns invested in trying to prove the impossible?

It was hard for Mona Whitlock to keep a straight face as she sat at the table surrounded by the four-person team that made up Paranormal Research Associates. The two men, Jerry and Wade, wore matching hats with the letters P.R.A. stitched in front of a screen-printed ghost. The two women had opted to come as stereotype. The pale, mousy girl known as Barb wore wire-rimmed glasses through which she thoughtfully knowing glances each time the green lights on the recording equipment jumped a bit. Beside her, the plump psychic put a hand to her breast and gasped.

Wade reached forward and hit the stop button. "Now don't tell me you didn't hear that." All eyes had turned to Mona, who just shook her head.

"Hear what?"

"Now come on!" Jerry looked at the sixth person at the table, a reporter from the News Courier. "You heard it, right?"

The reporter, Abe Lancaster, shook his head. "I heard something, but I couldn't make out what it was."

"Aw, come on man!" Wade removed the hat covering his stringy hair and slammed it down on the table. "Clearly the entity said, 'Get out now!'"

Mona couldn't hide her smirk any longer. "No, it's not clear," she said. "I think that's what we've been trying to tell you. It's only clear to you because you want to hear it."

Beside him, Barbara pushed her glasses up on her nose and effected what Mona figured was supposed to be a condescending look. "Perhaps you don't hear it because you don't want to. You are a noted skeptic, aren't you?" She held up a small monitor, as if for proof. "Besides, my meter didn't lie. In the exact area we heard the entity, my meter picked up a definite drop in temperature."

"Maybe that was because you picked up the reading beside a cracked window in October." Mona rubbed her brow as she shook her head. The situation had begun to border on the ridiculous.

"So I suppose you're going to also dismiss the heaviness I felt in that area?" The psychic member of P.R.A. was now looking at her with undisguised contempt. Mona resisted the urge to tell the her that she might feel less heaviness if she tried dieting.

"I'm sorry." The tension was broken by Lancaster, who'd snapped his notebook shut. "I came here to do a story on whether P.R.A. could present evidence that would satisfy Skeptic Quarterly's challenge: ten thousand dollars for proof of paranormal activity. But I just don't see it either. We've got what? Cold spots in a drafty house and static --"

"E.V.P.'s," corrected Wade indignantly. "Electronic voice phenomenon, recordings of words spoken from behind the veil." He jammed his hat down on his head and stood. "Not that it matters. No one will ever win the challenge as long as close-minded people like you and Miss Whitlock here persist on suppressing the truth."

Mona and Abe exchanged looks of irritation. "No one is suppressing anything," Mona said, getting to her feet with everyone else. To the left of her, Barb and Jerry began to unhook the equipment as the psychic shook her hands and muttered something about negative energy.

"You seem to think that I enjoy debunking claims of paranormal activity, but in truth I'd like nothing more than to give the readers of Skeptics Quarterly proof of an actual haunting." Mona shook her head. "Unfortunately, light spots or double exposures in pictures and garbled noise recording don't pass muster." She sighed as she leaned down to pick up her bag, holding out her hand to Wade as she did. "Either way, it was a pleasure to meet you."

Wade looked at the hand and then looked away without accepting Mona's offer of a handshake. Abe made a face, and Mona thought it wouldn't help the paranormal researcher's image to come across as a petulant child in front of a reporter.

She and Abe walked out of the kitchen into the hallway and through the foyer, exiting the front door. The air had gotten chillier since they'd arrived several hours earlier, just before dark and even now as Mona looked up at the structure, she had to admit that it did look the part of a classic haunted house. The gray clapboard siding was weathered and pitted, tattered black shutters barely hung on beside dirty, busted windows. The gnarled branches of an ancient oak reached out like fingers to scrape and scratch the house with each gust of wind. It was no wonder to Mona how the house could have gotten such a bad reputation, even without the murder-suicide that occurred there in the early sixties. In a way, she felt a touch of pity for the paranormal researchers. How hard would it be to convince oneself some tragic imprint of the past remained in such a place?

"Creepy, huh?" Beside her, Abe pulled his leather coat tight around him, glancing at her through his glasses. With a shock of black hair and lopsided grin, he had the look of an handsome, slightly mischievous schoolboy.

"It is," she said. "I was just thinking that I could see how it got its reputation."

"Yeah," the reporter said. "This time of year the rumors of noises and weird sightings on this farm always increase, what with Halloween approaching. And lately, with the missing pets."

"Missing pets?" Mona looked at him, alarmed. As an animal lover, such stories around Halloween always bothered her.

"About seven cases so far. Cats, dogs, a pygmy goat - several disappeared from backyard pens when the owners were at home. I can show you the clips when we get back to the office. It's probably just pranks or wannabe Satanists. Again, that kind of thing is common around Halloween. But usually when there are this many in a small town, somebody's bound to see something. But in these cases, nada."

"Hmm," said Mona. "Weird." The wind howled and a chill shot threw her. It felt unnaturally cold, like a knife to the bone. Above the house a thin dark cloud drifted in front of the full moon. She turned to Abe. "So, you ready?"

"Yeah," he said. "I don't think there's any more that can be done here."

They walked towards the car, leaves crunching under their feet. Beside them, the doors of the paranormal researchers van stood open, awaiting equipment.

"Poor guys," Abe said as he and Mona climbed into his Jeep. "Better luck next time, huh?"