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“Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Here’s Haunted? This season is going to be something different. As you can see, we’re not in our usual setup.” Aaron leans back to look around. Finn pans the camera to show the expanse of green fields around them, then slowly brings it back to Aaron and Kevin. “We’re actually in Kevin’s homeland today.”
“That’s right. We’re taking our hunt for hauntings to Ireland this time. Now Ireland has a rich history of folklore and supernatural stories, so we had no shortage of locations to explore.”
“It is strange that such a small island has so many. Makes you wonder if perhaps it is not just you who is struck with a nervous disposition, but if that’s an inherited thing.”
“Hey. Don’t blame the Irish for your lack of imagination.” Kevin leans in towards Aaron as Aaron tilts his head up towards Kevin. Aaron’s grinning. Kevin smirks at him in return.
“Guys,” Finn says. “We’re losing light.”
“Right. Anyway. Where were we?” Aaron says.
“Cut,” Miles says. “We’ll edit that out. Let’s pick it up again. Kevin said don’t blame the Irish for your lack of imagination, so maybe just go into telling them where we’re starting? Then we’ll cut off and move to in front of the castle for our next shot.”
“Right. I’m good,” Aaron says, and once the camera starts rolling again, he turns away from Kevin and looks back to the camera. “We’re going to find out if it’s just imagination-”
“Or more,” Kevin adds.
“It’s not,” Aaron counters. “But we are starting big, at not only what is considered the most haunted location in Ireland, but one of the most haunted places in the world.”
“Aaaand cut there. Let’s get going, we’ll get the shot in front of the castle just as the sun is setting,” Miles says.
“Did you get lost in my eyes?” Kevin teases. “Forget you were supposed to be working?”
“Fuck off.” Aaron goes to punch his arm. Kevin catches his fist, laughing. “Remember who you’ll be crying to in the middle of the night when you’re scared shitless.”
Kevin frowns. He squeezes Aaron’s fist one last time then lets it go.
*
“Leap Castle!” Aaron waves a hand at the castle behind him. The video will jump from their last shot to this one. On screen it will only take them a heartbeat to transition to in front of it.
“Situated in County Offaly, this historic haunt houses not one, not two, not even three, but four ghosts!”
“Supposedly,” Aaron clarifies.
“Well, we’re going to find out, because this is where we’re sleeping tonight.”
“Yippee.” Aaron’s face and voice are deadpan. “How are you feeling about that, Kevin?”
“Not great, honestly, Aaron.”
“Sometimes I wonder why you came into this career.”
“As do I, but I stay for your charming personality.”
“Psh. Let’s take bets now on how long it takes Kevin to have a meltdown.”
“And cut.” Miles claps his hands together. “Great. We can cut to Kevin scared at that point.”
“I’m not going to be scared.”
“You absolutely are,” Aaron says. “We’ve all worked with you enough to know that. Don’t lie.”
“It’s okay, Keivn. Aaron will protect you.” Miles steps forward to check their mics are secure. He and Finn will be leaving them for the night. They’ll be filming themselves going forward.
“No I won’t.”
“You always do. We’ve worked with you enough to know that. Don’t lie.”
Aaron gives Miles a flat look. Miles beams at him. Finn is checking the settings on the handheld cameras.
“All good to go. You already know how to use these. Have you got your blankets and everything?”
“Yeah. Not that we’ll be getting much sleep. You know Kevin can never settle during overnights.”
“Who can sleep on a cold, dank floor in an abandoned house anyway? You’re the weird one.”
“Not abandoned this time.” Aaron checks both their torches to make sure they’re working, and assures Finn he has extra batteries as Miles finishes checking Kevin’s mic.
“Do I look okay?”
“You look amazing, Kevin. Besides, you know the night vision on the cameras doesn’t pick up as much detail.” Miles straightens Kevin’s jacket into place.
“I don’t need powder touch up?”
“Oh my god,” Aaron mutters.
“You look great,” Finn assures.
“Enjoy your comfortable night in the hotel.” Aaron sighs.
“Oh, we will.” Miles catches Finn’s hand, tugging them back towards their rented car. “Have fun. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Or if you call us before then.”
“We won’t call.” Aaron waves them off. He turns back to Kevin, who is looking apprehensively at the castle. He’s always braver when there are more people around. Once it’s just him and Aaron, he starts to get nervous. He’ll only get worse when it gets fully dark. “Come on. Let’s find somewhere to set up as our base, and we can film the history.”
Kevin perks up at this. He follows Aaron towards the building.
“Should we go to one of the ghost spots? Maybe the Bloody Chapel?”
“No. I don’t want to be in there all night. Let’s just set up near the door.”
“Don’t the twins haunt the main hall?”
“In one of the rooms then.”
Aaron laughs, but he leads the way. As he’s striding ahead, Kevin speeds up to keep pace with him. He swears something catches in the corner of his eye. A light blur. Like something falling from the top of the castle. Kevin jolts to a stop. Aaron glances back at him.
“What?”
He looks, but there’s nothing there.
“Nothing.” Kevin runs to catch up with Aaron, staying close to his side.
*
“Historians can’t agree on just when the house was built, but there is a general consensus the main tower dates back to around 1250. Evidence suggests it was constructed on the site of an ancient stone structure, possibly ceremonial in nature. This area may have been occupied consistently since at least the Iron Age.”
“Why are you bothering with all this heavy historical detail? No one cares.”
“Yes they do. I’ve read the Reddit pages. Some people appreciate the historical context.”
“Why are you on Reddit?”
“I want to know what people are saying.”
“Is this why you became obsessed with your eyebrows for like a month?”
“No. Shut up. I’m recording.”
“You shouldn’t be reading what people are saying about you, Kevin.”
“Shhh.”
“If you want someone to judge you, I can do that in person.”
“Aaron!”
Aaron laughs, but moves away from Kevin to look around. He takes his camera with him, shining his torch across the walls.
“The damage from the fire was extensive,” Aaron says, knowing Kevin will undoubtedly talk about the fire in his rant. “But owner Sean Ryan has begun renovating the place…”
Aaron’s voice drifts away as he moves into another room. Kevin shifts, feeling a sense of unease at being left on his own. He clears his throat. He looks back at the camera.
“One of the spirits said to haunt the halls of Leap castle is an apparition named the Elemental, who some suggest may date back to the time of the Druids. Remember the ancient stone structure? Perhaps the Elemental was a result of some ceremonial act, sorcery to protect the land gone wrong. Or right. Maybe the Elemental has been trying to scare people off this land all these years.”
Something makes a distant bang. Kevin starts, almost kicking over his camera. His breath catches in his throat.
“Aaron?”
“Yeah, sorry, dropped my phone.” Aaron’s voice calls, echoing in the high roofed rooms of the house. Kevin looks back to the camera, but he’s been unsettled now. He lifts it, keeping the recording going, and goes to find Aaron. He’s clicking on some of the lamps that have been set around the fireplace. “Thinking we should set up here for the night. Sean says we can use the fire. At least it will be warm.”
“Sure,” Kevin says, already feeling calmer. Both with having a stronger source of light and from being closer to Aaron. He sits in one of the chairs and props his camera on the table while Aaron kneels down to start a fire in the log burner.
“What have you covered?”
“Not much. Ancient history. Touched on the Elemental. Need to get into the O’Carrolls.”
“Alright. Once you’ve finished all the history, we can go explore.”
Kevin clears his throat. Aaron opens his backpack and offers him a bottle of water. Kevin thanks him, taking a drink and sitting the bottle aside, before he turns his focus back to the camera.
“Leap Castle's bloody history began before the building even stood. Two brothers of the O’Bannon clan challenged each other to leap off the rock where the castle would later be built. The surviving brother would claim leadership of the clan and the castle. Following this, the castle was named Léim Uí Bhanáin. Leap of the Bannons.
However, much of the castle’s horrid history is tied to the O’Carroll clan. They were a fierce and brutal clan, particularly violent in their continued strive for power. They liked the O’Bannons’ castle, and so they took it for themselves. One story that encapsulates the O’Carroll cruelty was that of the McMahon tribe. Having hired around forty members to train them in new war techniques, the O’Carroll’s invited the McMahon’s to a feast to celebrate a victory owed to their new training. However, they poisoned all the food so they would not have to pay them, and some say the McMahons still wander the castle to this day.”
“Kevin didn’t include them in his opening ghost count though.”
“No, I only counted the ones that had reported sightings.”
“Allegedly.”
“Maybe we’ll refilm the opening and I’ll not say a set number.”
“Fix it in post.”
“Miles hates when you say that.”
Aaron pulls one of the other chairs up beside Kevin, taking a seat. He opens his Notes app on his phone, skimming through some of the notes he made about the history of the castle.
“Should we talk about Thaddeus and the Bloody Chapel?”
“No, wait, I should circle back to the Elemental. Fuck. This one is a mess. Miles is going to have to do a lot in post.”
“You freaking out already?”
“No. I don’t know. I just don’t feel good.”
“You’re overthinking. It’s fine. Take a breath. I’m here. As long as we get all the information on film, we can rearrange it later, and if we miss something, we can always add a voice over.”
“You’re right. I just don’t like making more work. I want to do it well myself.” Kevin takes a deep breath. “Remember I mentioned the Elemental possibly being summoned by Druids earlier? That is one theory. Another is that the Elemental was summoned to burn the castle from the inside by Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare and rival to the O’Carrolls. The most detailed account of this spirit comes from Mildred Darby, but we’ll come to her later.”
“Right now, we’re staying with our cut throat clan of O’Carrolls,” Aaron says, leaning closer to Kevin so they’re both centred in the camera. “A family so power hungry they would shed not only the blood of other clans, but their very own.”
Kevin sits forward in his chair, about to start the next story, when Aaron gets to his feet.
“I think we should film the next bit in the chapel. Doesn’t it make sense to have it as the backdrop?”
“I guess…” Kevin really would rather not go to the building where over a hundred people found their deaths. Especially not in the dark, while discussing one of the very men who died there. But he can’t tell Aaron that. It’s too early in the night for him to be showing fear. Kevin hauls himself up, feeling cold all over, his muscles tensing in protest.
“You can hold the torch. I’ll take the camera.”
“Okay.” Kevin sticks close to Aaron as they leave the main building of the castle and make their way to one of the smaller buildings. The chapel has not had any renovation works done to it. It is an empty ruin of a building, with cold stone walls, glassless windows, dark hollow doorways. There are no lamps to be found out here. The night air shifts cold fingers through the open arches. Kevin swears he hears stones shifting, like the scuff of a shoe. His head whips towards one of the doorways. It leads to a staircase. “Hello?”
No answer. Aaron looks at him.
“I thought I heard something.”
Aaron steps closer, taking Kevin’s wrist to aim the torch up the stairs. No one there.
“Thaddeus, is that you?”
“Stop it,” Kevin hisses.
“Oh Thaddeus! Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
“Aaron.”
“What year was it?”
“What?”
“The murder.”
“Oh. I couldn’t get conclusive accounts. Some say 1532, as a result of their father’s death. Others say 1541.”
“Okay, so we don’t know the exact year.” Aaron turns to speak to the camera. “But here we stand in the Bloody Chapel, and what we do know is Teige “one-eyed” O’Carroll ran his priest brother Thaddeus through with a blade while he was leading a family mass in this very room.”
Kevin pans over the room as he speaks: “This was most likely over who would become chieftain of the clan. Thaddeus was next in line, but Teige thought the power should be his.”
“Thaddeus fell upon the altar in this chapel and bled to death in front of his family. There have been claims his spirit can be seen wandering to this very day. What a surprise.” Aaron’s dry tone is punctuated by a bang that seems to come from above them. Kevin squeals and nearly drops the camera, fumbling with it.
“What was that?”
“Just the wind.”
“It sounded like something falling over.”
“The wind maybe knocked something over.”
“It sounded close.”
“The noise could have carried. Look, you’re tense, you’re running on high adrenaline, your senses are overreacting.”
Kevin screams bodily, flinching away even as he wants to run to Aaron. He lets out a dry sob, holding the camera over his face. Aaron quickly crosses to his side.
“Kev. It’s okay. What’s wrong?”
“There was something behind you.”
“There’s nothing behind me.”
“I saw something move.”
“Look. Kevin, come on, put your arm down and look. I’ve got you.” Aaron holds Kevin’s bicep as he lowers it from his face. He moves the torch over the space where he was just standing, illuminating the fact no one is there. “See? All clear.”
“I saw a shadow.”
“It was probably me waving the torch around. It caught my shadow and made it look weird.”
“I don’t like it here. Can we go back to the house?”
“We haven’t done the spirit box yet.”
“I don’t want to. Let’s just go back to the house, please?”
Suddenly Aaron’s torch shuts off. Kevin yells again, clutching tightly to Aaron’s arm.
“Shit. Hold on. I charged the battery for this earlier.” Aaron shakes the torch and presses the button. It clicks on. Kevin swears he sees the shadow shape behind Aaron again, looming. “And we can’t go back until we do the oubliette.”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“Fine.” Aaron sighs. “Give me the camera. You go back. I’ll film it.”
“I’m not going by myself!”
“Then we’ll do it together. C’mon, you’ll not want to come out here again, we might as well do it now. We can edit this in later, so let’s just act like we already talked about the Darby’s. You want to talk about after the fire?”
Kevin takes a steadying breath. He can do this. It’s just history. Horrible history, yes, but that is part and parcel for human history. Aaron holds the torch and camera, aiming them towards the hole in the wall. He’ll get a shot of where the oubliette drops down after.
“After the castle was destroyed in the 1922 fire, repair work uncovered the oubliette. From the French oublier meaning to forget, this was a hidden dungeon where bodies were dumped and forgotten about. People would have been dropped through this hole in the ground and pierced on the wooden spikes below. An exact count of the bodies was never determined, but three cartfuls of human bones were said to be removed. Estimates are around one hundred and fifty bodies.”
“It was said a pocket watch was found among the bones, proof the oubliette may have been used right up to the 1800s.”
“But we couldn’t verify that.”
“Well, it’s rare we can verify any of our ghostly tales, to be fair.”
“This place actually has a lot of true history to it.” Kevin feels a chill run down his spine. He steps closer to Aaron again. He badly wants out of this building.
“Hold on, let me get a few more shots and then we can go.” Aaron leans over, aiming his camera down the hole. “Visitors have reported feeling a strong urge to throw themselves down the oubliette.”
For a sickening moment Kevin is utterly convinced Aaron is going to fall. He’s going to fall and break his neck. Kevin will be left here all alone, but worse, Aaron will be gone, another life claimed by the castle.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
Aaron returns to his side, and Kevin’s frantic heart slows a microfraction. He takes the torch off Aaron, and in the hand not holding it with a death grip, clutches onto Aaron’s hand. Aaron gives him a look, but he says nothing, allowing Kevin to keep hold of him until they make it back to the main building.
*
The rapid swish of Kevin’s pulse in his ears has not calmed much by the time they get back to the room they’ve set up camp in. There’s a ringing in his ears, and his hands feel slightly numb. Aaron pushes him down into a chair without a word and offers him some water. Kevin takes a few mouthfuls.
“Let's take a while and get warmed up, then we can talk about Mildred Darby. The girls after her. Finish up with the Red Lady?”
Kevin gives a numb nod.
“Hey. I know you get spooked, but you okay? You seem genuinely out of it.”
“I really thought I saw something back there.”
“It was pretty dark. Our eyes play tricks on us at the best of times, and you were already scared.” Aaron looks at Kevin’s hands. They are trembling. He looks between them and Kevin’s face. Slowly, haltingly, he takes Kevin’s hands between his. Kevin feels chilled to the bone and yet Aaron’s hands still feel cooler than his. He rubs Kevin’s between his own, looking up at him. Kevin gazes back with hollow eyes. He feels drained and the night has only just started.
“Let’s get a blanket around you. We’ll rest for a bit.” Aaron brings Kevin to sit in front of the fire, draping one of the blankets around him. He sits by his side. Kevin leans against him, grateful for Aaron’s solid presence, the confirmation that something is definitely real.
“Do you think I’m a scaredy cat now?”
“I already knew you were a scaredy cat.”
“Hey.”
“Well, you kind of are. It always feels like you don’t want to be here.”
“I don’t.”
“Yet you are.”
“It’s my job now.”
“That’s true.” Aaron knows why Kevin started as well. Kevin has told him before that his mother claimed to be able to see things other people couldn’t. Kevin doesn’t know if it was her stories, or something inherited, but he had several experiences in his youth that he can’t explain away. Aaron is a sceptic through and through. He thinks it was probably childhood imagination or false memories, but for as much as he tears everything they investigate apart, he holds his tongue when it comes to Kayleigh. Kevin knows the fact Aaron dismisses other psychics reflects how he likely feels about her, but he never outright slanders Kevin’s dead mother. Kevin appreciates that.
He also appreciates how Aaron is taking his fear seriously, even though Kevin regularly freaks out during their overnights. The early skittishness Aaron will ignore or tease him about, but genuine fear he will call a time out for, moving the cameras away and checking in on Kevin until he feels somewhat calm again. Kevin’s glad it is Aaron he ended up doing this show with. His presence is so steady, soothing, and as much as he takes the piss about the ghosts, he is largely sympathetic when handling the victim’s stories. Bloodthirsty in-fighting clans aside.
Kevin sighs. He turns and presses his face to Aaron’s hair, breathing in the cool, sharp scent of him. Mint and tea tree oil. That’s calming too. There are always hints of mint on Aaron. If it’s not his shampoo, it’s the peppermint tea he favours or the Lifesaver mints he’s always got on him. Not for the first time, Kevin’s heart flutters at the closeness. He never meant to develop feelings for his cohost but here he is. Entirely unable to act on them in case he ruins their show.
“Right. I'm okay now.”
“You sure?”
“Mhm.”
“I can film the others, if you want. You can just stay here with the fire.”
As tempting as that is, Kevin doesn’t want to miss out on half the castle, or be left alone while Aaron explores. He also has a thread of concern for Aaron, who never sees anything. Kevin’s not fully convinced if what he’s seeing is real, or, like Aaron says, stress heightening his imagination, but if it is then at least he’s aware. He can warn Aaron.
“No. Let’s do it together. I’m better with the dates than you anyway.” Kevin lifts his head from Aaron’s. Aaron turns to flash a wry smile at him.
“You are.”
Kevin warms under the praise.
*
They are upstairs in one of the bedrooms. Aaron sets their camera up, the overhead chandelier casting light over them. God bless Sean for getting electric in this place. Kevin thinks he’d be feeling ten times worse if they only had torches to rely on all night. They prop on the edge of the bed to address the camera.
“In 1642, the castle passed to the Darby family through marriage. In the late nineteenth century, Jonathan Darby and his wife Mildred lived here.”
“Mildred was a Gothic novelist, also known by the name she published under: Andrew Merry. So as you can probably guess, she was deeply fascinated by the supposed ghosts of Leap Castle.”
“This was not peculiar for the time. Many people held a fascination for the supernatural. Both Mildred’s writing and the séances she would hold in the castle publicised the ghostly occurrences, and gave us early written records of the sightings.”
“Most notably, her apparent run in with the Elemental. Mildred wrote: ‘The thing was about the size of a sheep, thin, gaunt and shadowy in parts. Its face was human, or to be more accurate, inhuman, in its vileness, with large holes of blackness for eyes, loose slobbery lips, and a thick saliva-dripping jaw, sloping back suddenly into its neck! Nose it had none, only spreading, cancerous cavities, the whole face being a uniform tint of grey. This too, was the colour of the dark coarse hair covering its head, neck and body. Its forearms were thickly coated with the same hair, so were its paws, large, loose and hand-shaped; and it sat on its hind legs, one hand or paw was raised, and a claw-like finger was extended ready to scratch the paint. Its lustreless eyes, which seemed half decomposed, and looked incredibly foul, stared into mine, and the horrible smell which had before offended my nostrils, only a hundred times intensified, came up to my face, filling me with a deadly nausea. I noticed the lower half of the creature was indefinite and seemed semi-transparent-at least, I could see the framework of the door that led into the gallery through its body.’”
“A haunting image.”
“She was certainly quite the writer.”
The bed creaks suddenly below them. Kevin starts, jumping up to his feet.
“What was that?”
“It’s just old wood furniture. It’s creaking with our weight.”
“We were sitting there for several minutes and it didn’t creak.”
“You must have moved.”
“I didn’t move.”
Outside, the wind picks up. They can hear it howling, feel the rattle of the glass in the window frame. Aaron bounces on the bed a few times, causing it to creak again.
“See? Just me. Sit down. Let’s finish up with the fire.”
Hesitantly, Kevin moves back towards the bed. Aaron pats the space beside him. Kevin sits so close he’s nearly on one thigh.
“Kev,” Aaron says flatly. “You have to move back to where you were sitting for Miles to edit it.”
“He’ll leave the creak and jump in.” Kevin is not moving away from Aaron. If he has to sit on this bed, he’ll be beside him. Aaron sighs.
“Okay.”
Kevin clears his throat. Aaron pulls up the notes on his phone to refresh Kevin on the date, but Kevin knows, he’s just taking a moment to steady himself. One thing Kevin is good with is remembering dates.
“In 1922, the castle was burned down. The Darbys were not on the property at the time. They had come to odds with their tenants. Likely because to pay for significant extensions on the house, rents were raised, and much of the land accompanying the castle was sold. This is theorised motivation for the burning of the castle during the Irish Civil War.”
“Though some say the fact the castle had fallen into English hands could have been motivation enough.”
“Early on July 30th, 1922, an unidentified group of eleven men broke into the castle. The caretaker, his wife, and their baby were the only people on site. They were given twenty minutes to leave before the castle was ransacked, furniture broken for firewood. The northern part of the castle burned through the night, and the following day the southern part of the castle was broken into and also set ablaze.”
“The Darbys never returned to live in Leap Castle after that. It sat empty for fifty years, until an Australian historian descended from the O’Bannon clan bought the castle for restoration.”
“Peter Bartlett died in 1989, his work unfinished, and two years later musician Sean Ryan bought the castle. He has continued renovation work to this day, though the spirits were not happy about this initially. Sean told us of how he would find his tools had been moved to the far side of the room while his back was turned. A stop was put to his renovations when the ladder he was upon was suddenly pushed away from the wall, forcing him to jump several stories and fracture his knee. Upon resuming work, another accident resulted in a broken ankle. Only when he addressed the ghosts and assured them they were welcome, and he wanted to preserve their home, did the accidents stop.”
Aaron stays quiet through this section, likely because Sean has hosted them tonight and he does not want to be unkind about him, but Kevin can basically taste his disbelief. They might not keep Kevin’s commentary on this anyway. It could be here that they cut to an interview with Sean.
“Okay, let me see what we’ve covered.” Aaron scrolls through his notes, making affirmative noises as he reads over them. “Just the girls and the Red Lady to go. Since we don’t actually know which room was the Blue Room, we could go back downstairs for that.”
“Let’s. It’s cold up here, I don’t want you to get a chill.”
“Sure. That’s why.”
Kevin puts his hand on the back of Aaron’s neck and squeezes until he squirms away, the bed creaking loudly between them. Kevin assures himself it is just because they’re moving on it. That’s all.
*
“Okay, we’ll do the story in the main hall, and then when it’s light tomorrow we’ll get a shot of the outside where she fell,” Aaron says, turning to film the length of the hall. When he’s got enough footage, they prop a camera up to film themselves again. “Perhaps the saddest of the dark histories of Leap Castle is the tale of Emily and Charlotte.”
“They lived on the estate during the 1600s. They’re thought to be either the last of the O’Carrols or the first of the Darbys.”
“Emily died aged eleven after falling from the castle’s battlements.”
“Over the years people have reported seeing a little girl fall from its great heights, only to disappear before reaching the ground. Sean and his wife have heard a child’s scream suddenly cutting out numerous times.”
“Charlotte is younger, thought to be around six. She has been seen dragging her deformed leg, which appears to be almost backwards. They are most commonly spotted playing together here in the main hall.”
“There have also been sightings of a woman with them, referred to as the Governess.”
Aaron sighs when Kevin stops speaking, looking down the hall with a frown.
“What’s wrong? Do you see something?”
“Nah, it just bums me out when we cover a kid’s death. Think about how scared she must have been when she realised she was falling, and people have just turned it into another tragic story they tell for kicks. I get that kids can be creepy, and they’re utilised in horror movies all the time, but it’s different when they’re real. And everyone just refers to Charlotte’s leg as deformed, but it could have been a disability.”
“Do you want to re-record and change the wording?”
“No… That's what all the accounts say. I don’t know. Maybe we can add a note in post about it.”
“Okay.” Kevin feels compelled to put his hand on Aaron’s shoulder, giving a soft squeeze. As he does, he catches something in the peripheral of his eye. Like a rustling on material as something moves towards the stairs. Kevin’s head snaps round. A moment later, a girl’s laughter echoes down the hall. Kevin’s hand tightens into a grip on Aaron’s shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes.” Aaron says it slowly, face scrunching, like he’s trying to work out a logical explanation.
“Did we get it on camera?”
“Still running.”
“That was a child laughing.”
“It could be the wind…”
“It wasn’t the wind.”
“It was distant. It could have been-”
A scream that abruptly cuts off. If Aaron were any taller, Kevin might make a genuine attempt to leap into his arms Scooby Doo style. Instead he presses close to his back, crouching to use Aaron like a shield.
“That was definitely the wind.”
“It didn’t sound like the wind to me!”
“Okay. Back in to the fire. Breathe, Kevin. You’re making it worse by hyperventilating.”
*
“So, we definitely heard something,” Kevin tells the camera, pushing his trembling hands between his thighs.
“Yes. Something. Not necessarily a ghost.”
“Aaron, come on!”
“It’s an old house. They make weird noises. The last time you heard ‘laughter’ it was the eaves creaking.”
“This is different. Why would it be so conveniently timed? Right as we were talking about it?”
“More like because we were talking about it you were more susceptible to interpreting noises that way. Come on, paranormal investigators never get a reaction when they want one. That’s the first rule of ghost hunting. Well, the second rule. After have fun and be yourself.”
“I never do that,” Kevin laments. Aaron laughs softly. He has taken out his flask, and he pours Kevin a cup of chamomile tea with honey from it. Kevin clutches the cup, breathing in the soothing scent. Aaron rubs his bicep gently for a few moments, and temporarily Kevin’s nervous system switches focus. Every part of him attuned to Aaron’s touch.
“All we have left to do is the Red Lady. Then we can settle down for the night. If we missed anything, we’ll add the voiceover.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
Aaron takes his own cup of tea and sits close to the fire, stretching his legs out towards it. Kevin wants to be closer to him but there is no way to do so without dragging his chair across, and that would be far too obvious.
“Are you hungry?” Aaron asks. Kevin shakes his head. Aaron pulls a chocolate bar out of his backpack to have with his tea. They sit in what would be a comfortable silence if Kevin’s skin were not crawling at every gust of wind or creak of their chairs. Once Aaron finishes his tea, he closes up his flask and pulls his chair over to Kevin. Kevin’s heart leaps. “We can just do the Red Lady bit here.”
Oh. Right. He came closer so they’d both fit into frame. Obviously. Kevin looks around the room as Aaron sets up the cameras, but he’s reading too much into every shadow, has to turn his attention back to stop from freaking himself out.
“You want me to do it?”
“No, I’ll start.” Kevin clears his throat. He rubs the cold sweat off his forehead. He fluffs up his hair. Aaron scoffs and rolls his eyes, but he waits until Kevin feels camera ready again.
“Another apparition that haunts the castle to this day-”
“Allegedly.”
“-is the Red Lady. It is said she roams in a long red dress with long glowing brown locks, and that she always carries a dagger, hand raised menacingly.”
“There are two versions of the story of how she came to be, but both are equally tragic. We’re back to the bloody O’Carrols again. According to one story, a member of the O’Carroll clan captured and raped the woman.” Aaron’s voice has taken on a serious tone now. Low, respectful. He will joke about ghosts, but not the victims behind them. “She became pregnant with his child. When the baby was born, O’Carroll killed the child with a blade. In despair, the woman grabbed the knife and killed herself with the same blade.”
“Another account is that two of the O’Carrolls were fighting over the woman, and when she tried to flee, they stabbed her to death.”
“Either way, she was yet another victim of the O’Carroll clan.” A beat. Aaron looks towards Kevin. “It’s a shame we don’t know her name. It feels reductionist, only telling her story as a potential ghost. Doesn’t really honour her.”
As Aaron speaks, a cold sensation creeps up Kevin’s neck. Goosebumps start to rise on his arms.
“Is it getting cold in here?” Aaron rubs his hands together. He is always cold, so he probably doesn’t notice the change as much as Kevin does. The cold is slipping into his chest now, making it feel harder to breathe.
“Aaron.” His breath fogs in front of him despite the fire still burning. “Do you feel that?”
“There must be a draft getting in.”
“Your breath is fogging.”
Aaron opens his mouth and exhales, but there is no fog this time. As quickly as it came on, the coldness recedes. Even without the chill in his limbs, Kevin continues to shiver.
“You felt that too.”
“Yeah, it was weird, but it could easily just be a draft. It’s an old building.”
“Aaron.”
“Kevin.”
“This is the most weird shit we’ve ever had in one night.”
“There’s always a logical explanation.” Aaron stands. “I’m going to set the cameras up for the night. We can do some exterior shots tomorrow and add anything we’ve forgotten. Then we’ll do the interview with Sean. After that, I am going to crash out in a real bed.”
Aaron is such a light sleeper, when Kevin can’t sleep on site, he stays up with him through the night. This means they’re both sleep deprived the day after an overnight.
As Aaron sets up the cameras, Kevin rolls out their sleeping bags in front of the fireplace. Sean said they could use the rooms upstairs, but neither Kevin nor Aaron wanted to. Aaron probably prefers being closer to the heat source. Kevin doesn’t think he could manage in a room on his own.
“All set.” Aaron drops down beside Kevin, stretching out. He’s taken the bag closest to the room, leaving Kevin beside the fireplace even though Aaron would be happier closer to the heat. Shielding him from the house. Kevin looks at Aaron, feeling his own expression soften. He thinks it must be so obvious. That it must be written in his eyes how smitten he is. Aaron looks back, brow creased.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Kevin shakes his head. He lies down. Facing Aaron means facing the room, but he keeps his gaze locked onto his face.
“Do you want the lamp left on?”
“We won’t get good footage without some night vision. Turn it off. We still have the fire.”
Aaron gets up and switches the lamp off. Immediately, Kevin’s heart beats harder. Since the fire is in the log burner, there is only a small window of light. It does not do much for the room. When Aaron lies down again, Kevin grips his forearm. Aaron lets him. Kevin’s shallow breathing fills the space between them.
“Is that your breath? What did you eat?”
“What? No.” Kevin inhales deeply. A thick, heavy odour like rot invades his nostrils, cloying in the back of his throat, causing him to gag. “That’s not me.”
“Ugh. Maybe there’s damp in the house.”
It doesn’t smell like damp. It smells like rotten meat. Kevin presses closer to Aaron, hiding his face against his shoulder, breathing in Aaron’s scent instead. After a while, Aaron pulls the arm Kevin is crushing between them out and loops it around his shoulders instead. He doesn’t say anything, but he rubs Kevin’s back soothingly. Kevin clutches onto his shirt.
“Are you really scared? Do you want to leave this one early?”
Kevin is really scared, but he doesn’t want to leave. This is his job. He wants to be good at it. It’s only one night. He shakes his head against Aaron’s shoulder.
“Okay. I brought melatonin. Do you want to take some and try to sleep?”
“Scared of what I’ll dream.”
“I’ll keep you safe.”
Kevin tilts his head up. He can’t see Aaron’s face clearly in the dark, but he can see where the fire reflects off his eyes. The desperate desire to kiss him is so intense that Kevin automatically moves closer before he catches himself. They’re close enough to share breath now. Kevin’s pulse thunders in his ears.
“Thank you.”
Aaron’s eyes flick over his face, intense, assessing. He gives a small nod.
“Any time.”
With some effort, Kevin forces his head down again, laying it on Aaron’s shoulder. He wriggles close enough that he can hear Aaron’s heart beating hard and solid beneath his ear. He will just focus on that. Let the sound ground him. If Aaron finds it strange Kevin is half on top of him, he doesn’t say. The house continues to make strange noises as it settles for the evening. It gives Kevin goosebumps, but his hair doesn’t stand on end at the back of his neck the way it has been on and off all evening.
“Do you think this is going to be a good episode?” Kevin eventually asks quietly. Aaron huffs.
“Yeah. I think it’s going to be a great fuckin’ season.”