Chapter Text
The smell of a new car. Colby's southern cover of the Pink Pony Club. They were cruising down a road in the middle of Montana.
Sam's anxiety was a silent crackle of firewood, threatening to become a bonfire. It wasn't like him and Colby didn't explore locations with paranormal history after leaving Switzerland, but it was always a gamble. Their powers work in tandem, whatever they might be, so the growing proximity seemed to have made the chasm grow, further opening the Pandora's box.
The reasonable solution, at the time, was to break things off. To Sam at least. Nothing can latch onto them if they aren't manifesting their powers.
It worked, marginally improving their quality of life and the investigations, because things couldn't hurt them anymore. They would always have a buffer, a guest, someone to diffuse the thick tension — but Sam never really got over that damn breakup.
He held the camera up, filming Colby, who stopped singing in his exaggerated country drawl and cleared his throat, steading his grip on the steering wheel.
"Are y'all excited for this one? The lore goes crazy, and we might just be the first ones to actually go there," Sam said, and turned the camera to Nate, who leaned closer from the back seat.
"Wait, to clarify — No one else has gone to film a video there?" Nate asked, a grin spreading on his face.
"Nope," Sam replied, with a slight incline in tone once they hit a pothole. "Or we will be the first ones to film, if we reach it in one piece."
"Hey, ain't my fault there's a bunch of them potholes!" Colby grumbled in his best impression of a Midwestern truck driver, which made Nate giggle.
Sam noticed something strange on the screen though, and lowered the camera. Of course, Colby noticed immediately. "Everything alright? Or is it already malfunctioning?"
Nate's eyes widened. "We're ten miles away, there's no fucking way—"
"Nah, it happens sometimes," Sam brushed it off, turning the camera off. "It just... It's like it started filming in like two fps for a second or so. I'll just turn it off until we reach Pine Wells."
Sam leaned back in his seat, perfectly unbothered by the way all hairs stood up on the back of his neck once Colby's knuckle brushed over his thigh when he was grabbing his water bottle in the glove compartment.
They reached the deserted town soon and drove through it to find the infamous bar, Black Cow, where they planned to film the intro, eat the food they'd gotten on their way there and start the investigation. From the get go, Sam could see why the rare reports of the investigations mentioned it; The bar stood as a centerpiece, a social hub. The hand-carved wooden sign hung from an iron bracket, with a silhouette of a cow. A wooden porch ran the length of the ground floor, with a crack of a size of a foot.
The very idea of a bunch of people just leaving that town, which used to be a tightly knit community of devoted Catholics with a bright future built on their wheat industry — something entirely inexplicable must have prompted it, and the mystery behind it was still not enough to steer Sam's thoughts away from the persistent buzz in his head.
While Colby got some of the equipment from the trunk to the interior of the vacated bar, Nate shook Sam from his deep ponder in front of the bar by unintentionally sneaking up on him. "You alright there?"
Sam looked up from the ground to meet his eyes, without effort to obstruct how lost he was feeling. It was just Nate after all. "Of course. Thinking about the investigation."
"The investigation, huh?" Nate teased, but Sam didn't miss the affection behind the words. And although Nate's support was deeply appreciated, Sam couldn't let Nate be reasonable with his perfectly sound logic right at that instant. He was perfectly fine with his repressive tendencies.
"Let's eat, I'm starving," Sam said, patting Nate on the shoulder to, hopefully, add to the sentiment that Nate should just drop it.
Once he walked inside the bar, Sam took a second to appreciate the interior of the Black Cow. The long bar top still had some glasses on it, and behind it, there were unwashed dishes next to the sink, some bottles were still on the shelves, but Sam guessed that, even if someone had visited this place after it had been abandoned, they wouldn't have dared touching any of that. There was already a positive beat to it which felt almost familiar to Sam.
Sam tried his best to dust off the chairs adjacent to a table that seemed mostly safe for them to sit and eat at.
As they ate their burgers and fries in silence, Sam couldn't help glancing towards the stairwell, with the creeping, unshakable feeling that someone was there, watching him. Thankfully, neither Colby nor Nate noticed it, too busy giggling at the way Colby avoided getting grease on his hoodie and pants.
Soon enough, they set up their chairs in front of the bar and set up the tripod to film the research part.
"So, Pine Wells used to be a town in central Montana, a home to a couple hundred of citizens with a huge potential in the wheat products market. But, one day, it seems like every last citizen has simply vanished overnight, leaving this town to rot away as one of the USA's so-called ghost towns," Colby said.
"It is believed by the people who live further away from Pine Wells that everything started with a love affair. Apparently, a well known farmer cheated on his wife, some even mention that the scandal was further stigmatized by the fact that he cheated with the town's pastor, and this man, only known now by initials E. F, has been missing ever since. After his disappearance, during a Sunday sermon at the town's church, something peculiar happened that the scarce sources describe as "mass hysteria". It apparently featured mass hallucinations, people saw Jesus move in one of the stain-glassed windows, some reported seeing blood trickling down the walls, seeing hooded figures behind the altar, lights of unknown source etc," Sam added.
"The interesting part was the fact that this was a highly devoted Catholic community, most of the town was there and it makes sense that afterwards, after strange things kept happening, it kept affecting the whole city as an entity, until Pine Wells was left completely uninhabited," Colby elaborated.
"Currently, there's not much interest in this story because it's really just a small town in Montana, but we think paranormal activity that is reported here by passer-bys and the overall history of the town and what happened in the midst of that chaos can lead us to an answer," Sam looked over to Colby so he could take over.
"Apparently, what happened in the church on that Sunday gave the citizens a reason to think God wasn't satisfied with them. That's when they, in their heightened state of paranoia, started turning against each other, accusing their neighbors of committing anything sinful in a sort of witch-hunt that they probably thought would result in penance. What ended up happening, however, is complete abandonment of the town, which brings us here today, forty years later," Colby concluded.
With more short commentary on how they felt about the town and its mystery, they ended that section and Sam got up to turn off the camera. He inspected the camera's SD card to see if the footage was still there and then moved to the table where the rest of the equipment was to pick what they could use next. He was already feeling like that investigation would drain the remaining energy he had tried to preserve, and they hadn't even started the investigation properly.
''We can go upstairs with a motion sensor, a K2 and just... See if there could be anything worth filming,'' Sam suggested. He saw that there was some sort of a quiet conversation Colby and Nate seemed to be having behind him, and frankly, he didn't want to know what it was about.
''Yeah, sure. Then we head out, yeah?'' Colby asked and took the camera so he could film the next section.
''Yeah. We might find something interesting that wasn't in the research,'' Sam said, handing Nate the K2 and turning to the camera, a music box in his left hand. ''We'll see what's safe to walk into, and then the church is where we finish. Ready?''
Once Colby gave him a nod, Sam tried to go on with speaking about the Inn above them, but his thoughts were interrupted by a cold gust of air on his neck, which made him jump and turn around.
''Yo, Sam, what—'' Nate started, but Sam shook his head.
''I swear to god, I just felt like someone... Like, sighed right next to me. It was like a breath, right on the side of my neck,'' Sam tried to explain coherently, but his hands were starting to shake.
''Hold on, let me see your neck,'' Colby said as he came closer to film the nape of Sam's neck. ''I don't see anything, do you feel anything?''
''No, it's just...'' Sam sighed. He was trying to stay in the mood to avoid talking about anything that wasn't their investigation, but it felt like impending doom as seconds ticked by. He couldn't tell if he was just paranoid, or if he was intuitively sensing something.
''Yeah, not a great start. You sure we should go there? We also need to be careful about where we step, who knows what's the state of the floor and the... general structural integrity,'' Nate added.
''Yeah, I'm fine though, so... Let's go,'' Sam said and turned around to test the stairs, one at the time. ''These seem pretty sturdy. See?''
Nate and Colby both shrugged and Nate was the first to follow Sam upstairs, while Colby followed close behind. Once they were in the small foyer that led to a right and a left corridor, they stopped so Sam could give more background.
The peeling green wallpaper and the old landline phone on the receptionist's desk almost comically resembled a setting of a horror game. There were some scratches on the walls, obvious in the places where they were deep enough to rip through the wallpaper, and the stale air was constricting Sam's lungs as he tried not to breathe too deeply, not to inhale too much of the dust. It wasn't warm or welcoming, but it also didn't feel dangerous or like something was out to get them.
Sam tried to once more steady his breath and heartbeat and stood next to the receptionist's desk.
''We're currently above the Black Cow bar, in what used to be a foyer of the inn. The only source that mentions anything about the town post abandonment mentioned this place and, apparently, it seemed to have some interesting energy to it. It also has some remnants of the people who used to be here,'' Sam explained.
''Does that mean there could be evidence that could help give us an idea of what might have happened here?'' Nate asked.
''Could as well be,'' Colby mumbled.
Sam nodded in agreement. ''I think that we could look around, I'll put the motion sensor at the top of the stairwell and we'll hear if it goes off. There seems to be like... Ten rooms or so, it's not a huge place.''
''It's no Stanley,'' Colby joked, and they chuckled.
''True, true,'' Sam said as he kneeled down to put the music box down on the floor, so it faced the stairwell. He let it calibrate and went back to Nate's side. ''That's done, and if I do hear it, I will for sure shit myself.''
''Yeah, the thought of absolutely no one being in this town terrifies me even more when I realize that we can't justify anything that happens as someone passing by or driving by or anything,'' Nate shivered.
''Oh yeah!'' Colby chimed in, ''I've thought of it while we were driving up the road; If we hear anything at all, we don't have random people to blame, we can't use that to debunk anything!''
Sam looked over at the K2 in Nate's hand as it flashed to yellow. ''Dude, it's already getting something. And also, no electrical interference at all,'' Sam added.
Nate stood there, trying hard not to move his hand at all, and the K2 flashed to yellow again.
''No fucking way. Already?'' Colby exclaimed, facing Sam.
''Time to snoop around, see what we can find,'' Sam gave Nate a flashlight in case he needed it, as daylight probably wasn't sufficient.
They tried a couple of doors down the left corridor first, and only one of them opened to a room that seemed completely regular, except for some papers that were left on the bedside table, with an empty vase. Sam approached the bedside with careful steps.
''It seems... like it was written by hand,'' Sam considered it, and Colby was then next to him to film it.
''You wanna read it aloud?'' Colby asked.
''Wait, an actual letter? No way,'' Nate approached and Sam picked the paper up.
He checked if there was more writing on the back of the paper and found none. Then, he concentrated on reading the letter, with the handwriting neat but also quite eccentric, with letters like k and t written in something that looked like cursive. Strangely, it occurred to him that the handwriting was sort of familiar.
''It says:
Dear Jennie, The funeral was yesterday. I met up with uncle Rog and Mathew so we can go together. It was a good service, peaceful and respectful. I know it's funny, but I sort of wished Meggie would show up, but she didn't. Supposedly, she's over in Connecticut, sorting something out there. Math and I were supposed to go fishing today, but he told me that there was something wrong at the sermon. Someone just started yelling that there were spiders all over the floor and people started screaming and whatnot. I'm not sure what happened, but they take these things seriously here. As I'm writing this, people are discussing it at the bar, I might go get a drink.
And... that's where it ends,'' Sam concluded.
''Dude, the fact that we found someone's letter just laying there in the dust... And it seems like it's someone who just came here to visit and wanted to write home,'' Nate sighed melancholically.
''Is that an envelope there, on the nightstand?'' Colby asked, and Sam picked it up.
''Yeah, it's addressed too. To Jennie Boyle, Stanley, Idaho. Wow. This is actually a relic,'' Sam inspected it, turned it over and really considered keeping it for a moment, but he knew better than to mess with objects in abandoned places.
''And right after I joked about Stanley hotel. I know it's a coincidence, but still... Funny,'' Colby commented.
Sam put the letter closer to the camera, and then the envelope too. ''If you happen to know someone with this name... It's not likely, but well,'' Sam giggled.
They looked around the rooms down the right corridor, and besides open cabinets and wardrobes, nothing really seemed particularly interesting to them, so they returned to the foyer to try and see if there would be more electromagnetic anomalies. There seemed to be none, and Sam picked up the music box to shut it off.
''Guys, didn't that wallpaper behind the front desk... Nah, never mind,'' Colby said, and then followed Sam and Nate down the stairs. They just gave him a confused stare but disregarded it when Colby dropped it and moved on.
Sam could hear them talk about it briefly as he packed their stuff downstairs, but didn't bother jumping in. Once everything was ready, with the equipment in Sam's backpack and the trash in a plastic bag, Sam called them over so they could leave.
It wasn't like Sam wanted to ignore Colby. It's more that he wanted to focus on the things around him more, and talking to him just seemed counterproductive. Heaven knows they talked about shit enough for a lifetime when Sam was ending things.
They put the trash in the car, checked that it's locked and headed down the main street from the bar.
The sun was slowly getting lower in the sky, peaking through the clouds. It was getting cold and the humidity was annoying, bugs were flying around and Colby somehow managed to attract all of them, swatting around like crazy.
The first thing they ran into was a pharmacy that seemed interesting. Colby and Nate talked about the absurdity of it while Sam tried to open the door.
The heavy glass door opened with a bit of struggle and Sam gestured for them to come inside. ''Let's take a look.''
Nate charged right in and picked something up from the floor, it seemed to be a prescription slip. ''Guys, look at this. Margaret Ellison, it's dated for 1983 and it's for... Xanax. Wow.''
Colby took the slip from his palm to look at it while Sam held the camera to zoom in on it.
''Let's check if there are more around,'' Nate suggested, and looked around the cash register to try and see if there was anything there. Sam turned around to capture the disarray of the small pharmacy, with everything thrown off the shelves and one of the windows smashed. There were some empty prescription bottles in one corner, in a small pile on the floor.
''Here it is! Xanax, another Xanax... Oh wow, a lot of Xanax prescriptions. Oh look, this one is for Valium. Look at this — Hannah Smith, Roger Smith, Dana Smith, they all got prescribed Xanax,'' Nate showed the slips to the camera.
''What, like the whole family?'' Colby asked.
''Well, seems like it. They also all have the same doctor, Hector G. Hector was deep into that big pharma shit,'' Nate giggled, and Sam and Colby laughed along. Colby held the K2 now, but it didn't seem to go off.
However, something made Colby flinch and almost drop the K2.
''What, what, what?'' Nate put his hand on Colby's shoulder and tried to look in the same direction Colby was looking at to try and see what he was seeing. Sam had to fight the urge to look the other way, to force Colby to also look the other way, in case their dormant abilities start to surface and the fabric of reality starts to stretch around them, spirits from the other side peeking through.
''You... you guys didn't see it?'' Colby asked, his hand trembling while he's pointing.
''See what?'' Sam asked, almost forgetting he was filming over how worried he was getting. Colby rarely freezes like this, and when he does, Sam knows it's for a valid reason.
''A shadow. Thought I saw a similar thing at the Inn, but I thought it was the flashlights. But we don't have them on now. It was there, I swear! Like, in the corner,'' Colby explained, his voice shaking now as well.
They figured it was time to leave now, once Colby collected himself.
As they walked down the street, they noticed that most of the stores and businesses still had the signs on the door flipped to OPEN, none of them had a lock and a chain on the door, and the diner they passed still smelled faintly of fast food — that was weird, but Nate was fast to try and explain it could just be their brains playing tricks on them, maybe they just thought they smelled it because they were looking at it and it caused a weird Pavlovian reflex.
They took a turn towards a slightly scarcer residential area. From there, they could see the wheat fields further away. Most of the lawns were overgrown, merging with the thickets which turned into the forest on the south side of the town, which spread over the hills, though most of that area was very flat.
Tucked neatly at the very end of the main street was the elementary school, judging by the metal plate next to the wooden door above the concrete stairs. There was a rusted swing set and a metal slide, but what caught their attention immediately was an American flagpole, with the flag still attached.
''We could take a look, but very quickly. It's gonna get darker and we still haven't reached the main location,'' Sam mentioned, handing the camera to Colby.
''Nate, you mentioned something about doing the Estes method in the church by yourself, right?'' Colby asked jokingly.
''Dude don't— Nah, you can't pay me to go there alone! It's literally the epicenter of everything, right?'' Nate turned to Sam for some backup.
''Yeah, it seems to be that's where it all started. Be careful guys, watch where you step and use the flashlights,'' Sam said, cutting their shenanigans short. He already felt exhausted, mentally and physically, and couldn't wait to get to a motel further south where they could rest after they were done with filming.
They stepped inside the school, the door creaking behind them. The linoleum floors were dusty and dull, the hall smelling of chalk dust and humidity. There were still corkboards on the cinderblock walls, some even with papers attached.
Sam looked around the hallway and stepped further inside. What he reached first seemed to be the administrative offices of the school employees, the small teachers room and the principal's office.
''The furniture looks comfy,'' Colby said. Nate inspected the principal's office, looking for anything out of place, and he pointed to the stack of different bibles on the desk, with different covers and of different sizes.
''What's up with the bibles?'' Sam asked and picked up one of them to look at the covers. It smelled of old paper and dust, just like the rest of the room.
''It looks like someone collected a bunch and just left them there. Which is sort of crazy, like, why would they be in the principal's office? It's like they were confiscated or something,'' Colby reasoned, and Nate nodded along.
''Right, right. Do you guys not realize just how insane this sounds?'' Sam and Colby both turned to him. ''It all points to a religious psychosis, if the rumor about the church is real. What the real question is, however, why it all started and why was everyone involved?''
''You're right though, it's not that small of a town, and whatever it was, it spread like wildfire, so fast they didn't get to collect their stuff and just… left,'' Sam added.
After they snooped some more around the administration quarters, they headed down the hall which led to two separate classrooms.
''They probably didn't need more than two. It's a small town, and it's isolated, so it makes sense that they had to have their own school not to send the kids too far from home,'' Sam said, entering one of the classrooms. Colby took the camera from him as Sam pointed at the bookshelves, the blackboards and the chalk neatly stacked on it. ''It's eerie, how it's just... there.''
''If we had a sticker with us, this place would get one. Truly an XPLR gem,'' Colby sighed.
''Yo, Sam! Colby! Check this out, ungraded math tests!'' Nate chuckled from the other classroom, and Colby turned to go see what it was about. Sam lingered at one of the desks.
''You coming?'' Colby asked softly. Sam saw in the corner of his eye that, for a brief moment, Colby hesitated to touch his elbow, but quickly retracted his hand.
Sam nodded. ''Yeah, just give me a moment,'' he murmured, transfixed on the stack of papers underneath the desk that caught his attention. Colby just nodded and headed towards Nate.
Sam slowly pulled out the stack of papers and put them on the desk. On the top, there was a math worksheet. Under it, there was an abstract drawing of the school. The kids were playing in some sort of a field that they probably didn't see in front because the grass and weeds were overgrown.
Then, the drawing under it had the church, with details added with colored pencils. Right next to the church was a boy, with blue eyes and black hair.
In a purple shirt, cargo pants and with rings on his fingers.
Sam wouldn't jump to conclusions, but what completely confirmed what he was afraid of, the very thought freezing him in place, was the clumsy lettering below the boy:
c O L b y
Sam dropped the drawing and tried to take a deep breath. Maybe he read it wrong. Maybe he didn't see right.
Yes, the boy looked exactly like Colby looked today, in that same outfit. But what were the odds of it actually saying his name? Sam physically couldn't turn his head towards the drawing to look at it again. His stomach flipped, he found himself gazing at the floor, at the discarded pencils and paper clippings that seemed like they were a part of the art class project.
''Sam? You good there?'' Colby called, and Sam ripped himself away from the trance.
''Yeah, I'm coming, I'm good,'' he said, trying to force his voice not to break. Like through thick mud, he moved his feet to exit the classroom, and he refused to turn and give the drawing a second look.
''I think I saw a shadow in the corner, while Nate was showing me the abacus he found. I'm not sure though,'' Colby explained.
''Again? Was it the same thing you saw at the pharmacy?'' Nate asked.
Colby shook his head, rubbing his temples. ''I don't know. It just felt weird how I... Looked up and it was there. Like it wanted me to see it. Just like at the pharmacy. I was looking at something else and it felt like I was being watched, you know that feeling? That intuitive, like—''
''Like when you can feel someone staring even if you don't see them?'' Sam asked.
''Yeah, exactly! And... I don't know, it's weird,'' Colby shrugged.
''You guys think it's time to head to the church? We can get some air outside, clear our heads for a moment,'' Sam suggested and when they were in front of the school again, Colby rubbed his neck like he does when he falls asleep on the plane.
''You alright dude?'' Sam asked, the camera now not recording, but still in his palm's tight grip. ''You getting a headache or something?''
Please, please don't attract shit now. For the love of everything. I just want to go and sleep in the same room with you where we are all safe, Sam thought.
''Nah, I'm just a little freaked out. I'll be okay in a second, just need to breathe a little out here,'' Colby explained, out of breath and looking as pale as a sheet.
Nate guided them towards a road that he thought might lead to the church because he saw its bell tower when they were getting to the school.
And once they reached it, Sam couldn't help stopping for a moment to stare at it and... admire it? That didn't seem like an appropriate word, but either way, looking away felt... complicated. Sam could acknowledge, with some semblance of rationale that was left in him, that when the haunted location calls to you, it's usually unwise to proceed entering it, but they were here to do their thing and get out. Thirty minutes max.
Sam checked his phone for a second. It was 7:12 pm. No signal. He put it back in his pocket.
When he looked up, Nate was already at the entrance. ''Let's go, dude,'' he said, a smile on his face.
Sam reluctantly shifted his stance and followed him inside.
It was spacious, with the pews dusty, but looking freshly lacquered nonetheless. The stained glass windows were in perfect condition, but with the light outside dimming with the sunset, Sam started to set up the lights that would help with visibility.
Colby was looking at the statue in the left corner, while Nate tried playing the piano. Strangely, when he sat down and started playing, the notes were crisp and... it was almost as if the piano was tuned yesterday.
''Well that's weird as fuck. That has to be a little out of tune, but it's not,'' Sam said, his voice echoing off the walls. He walked down the aisle to the table in front of the altar, where he put his backpack down to take the needed equipment out.
''Yeah, it's creepy as fuck. Like, it would be less creepy if it was out of tune, because that's how it's supposed to be,'' Nate said as he closed the cover above the keys.
Sam had to move some of the candles from the table to make more space for the gadgets, and when his hand touched one of the thicker yellow candles, he pulled it back. ''What.. the fuck?''
''Yo, no swearing at the church, dude,'' Colby yelled jokingly, but Nate could probably see the way Sam stared at the candle. He approached and touched it too.
''Why is it warm? What... How?' Colby, the candle, this one, it's still warm,'' Nate called, pointing out the candle.
Sam just tried to focus on the equipment, and once he had everything they needed, he set it in front of the table. Colby came to look at the candle, but Sam tried to get both his and Nate's attention so they could just get everything over with.
''Guys, let's just... Let's do this and get out. I'm not super excited about being here,'' Sam said, trying to portray, in very few inadequate words, just how heavy all of that felt at the moment — the air was getting thicker and harder to breathe in, he was sweaty and itching all over and... something wasn't quite right.
''Yeah, I think you're right, it's not super welcoming,'' Nate said, but Colby just passed him a worrying stare as he sat down on the floor.
Once they put the ovilus down, along with the music box behind the altar, a rem-pod at the centre of the circle and their camera on the tripod so it could film all three of them, Colby started asking questions.
''We mean no harm and we came here to investigate. If any of the citizens of Pine Wells are here with us, would you like to give us a sign?'' Colby asked.
The ovilus didn't go off, nothing did.
''We would like to know more about what happened here forty years ago. Would you mind telling us about it?'' Nate asked hopefully.
But still, nothing was going off.
Then, Sam decided to speak. ''Is anyone here that would like to speak to us? Anyone at all?''
The music box went off, the rem-pod started blinking and screaming as if multiple people were touching it from different angles.
''Oh my god, what the hell is going on?'' Colby yelled, and Nate almost got up to walk away from the circle.
''Why is it so reactive to Sam? Sam, try asking something else,'' Nate suggested, trying to stay comfortable where he was sitting on the floor.
Sam could feel the intensity of his heartbeat through his throat. He swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to think of a good question. ''What happened here? Thirty years ago,'' Sam asked, and ovilus sounded off.
Bread, it said.
Sam looked at Nate and Colby. ''What?'' Since they could just shrug, Sam wanted to try again. ''Do you remember what happened before the Sunday sermon? Anything strange, out of the ordinary?''
Jesus, it said. And then, it added: Punish.
''Jesus was punishing them? For what though?'' Colby asked.
Sam shook his head. ''The only thing that would make sense is that affair, but that doesn't sound very... Jesus like,'' Sam reasoned.
''I reckon they thought it was Jesus, doesn't mean it had anything to do with him. Religious psychosis is still what I'm voting for,'' Nate said.
''Do you remember the last sermon that was held in this church?'' Sam asked. ''Give us a sign, a tap, or touch this antenna in front of us.''
Nothing happened.
''Just a single touch to the rem-pod?'' Nate said, and the rem-pod started going off, flashing lights in different colors and beeping.
''Holy... wow,'' Sam muttered. ''Now it responds to you. Try asking more.''
Nate nodded. ''Can you... touch the antenna once for yes, twice for no?''
One beep.
''Okay,'' Nate let out a sigh. ''Do you know what happened here?''
Two beeps.
''Could be a lie,'' Colby mumbled, looking up at Sam, who was equally sceptical.
''Were you here on Sunday when everyone started seeing things?'' Nate asked.
One beep.
''So they were there, but it... Wait,'' Sam froze. Suddenly, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the full story.
''Can you remember anything about the sermon?'' Nate asked, his voice cracking a little. Sam felt the pressure above him, as if someone was standing behind him and watching what was going on over his shoulders.
The rem-pod, however, didn't go off again.
They waited thirty seconds to see if anything would go off, looking at each other in complete silence.
''Should we try the Estes?'' Sam broke the silence.
''Sure,'' Colby said, reaching for the headphones. Sam fought the nausea settling in his stomach. Nate fiddled with his cross necklace.
Sam quickly set up the spirit box, hooked it to the headphones and when Colby put the blindfold on, he handed the spirit box to him, with the antenna out. Colby put his finger on the antenna and leaned slightly forward, probably to relax more.
''Okay. Colby?'' Sam yelled to see if he'll react.
''Nah, he's ready,'' Nate whispered.
''Yeah, he's under. We can start,'' Sam moved the camera so it would capture Colby better. He sat closer to him, on his left side, with Nate remaining on his right.
''Can we please speak to someone?'' Nate asked.
''Sam'' Colby replied, frowning behind the blindfold, but he didn't take it off. Sam felt chills run down his spine. Nate was just looking at him with wide eyes, jaw slack open.
''That's me. Did you speak to me earlier?'' Sam asked.
''Don't…' couldn't hear the second word,'' Colby replied.
''We are here to find out more about Pine Wells,'' Sam said.
''Yourself,'' Colby answered.
''Not at all cryptic. Like... what does that even mean?'' Nate asked exasperatedly.
Sam could just shake his head. ''I don't know man, I... I don't understand what it's trying to say,'' Sam pointed at the spirit box like it was at fault for the answers.
And then, without warning, Colby grabbed his throat as he coughed, uncontrollably, and started fighting for air like there was something stuck in his throat.
''Colby!'' Sam yanked off the headphones and the blindfold, placing his hand on Colby's upper back.
Sam couldn't hear what Nate was saying. His ears were ringing, Colby kept coughing until he collapsed on the floor, blood running down his chin.
Sam couldn't even scream. Nate was saying stuff, he was trying to take his phone out of his jacket pocket, probably to call an ambulance.
Sam held Colby's head, tried to shake him awake as tears of shock filled his eyes. He put his hand over Colby's chest and felt nothing.
No heartbeat, no breathing.
And everything went black.
Sam opened his eyes.
Fresh smell of a new car.
Camera in his hands.
Colby's southern rendition of Pink Pony Club.
Sam gasped for air.