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Paranormal 101: Part Two
The first thing Jensen thinks when he looks up at the building is that it’s tiny. Inside, the hallways are, too. It’s all far too cramped to contain someone as tall as Jared, he’s sure, but it’s not like there’s much in the budget at the moment. Putting Jared in this place is just short term, just until they get a few episodes in and the network starts to pay Jared. Then Jared can get his own place and Jensen doesn’t have to feel bad about stuffing the kid into a matchbox.
It’s the least Jensen could do, he figures. Well, after offering Jared a job. A no-chance break, really. But Jensen trusts his judgment on most occasions, so he’ll stick to his guns on this one.
Except when he knocks on the door to Jared’s studio apartment, shuffling the straps of his bags over each shoulder, he starts to wonder if he really should’ve gone on a whim with a twenty-three year old film student from Texas. A little voice nags that it’s pretty much the only reason he put his confidence in Jared; he reminds Jensen of himself when he was fresh out of college. Other voices say it’s among other things, but Jensen’s going to ignore all such noises. In the meantime, he listens for Jared on the other side of this door so he can let him in.
He knocks again, harder, and calls Jared’s name at the doorframe.
It’s not so much that he expects Jared to be home, but the kid is new in town and likely has little to do, especially with their early flight in the next morning.
Jensen bangs harder to the tune of the door creaking and the doorframe cracking around the deadbolt. He looks up the frame to the ceiling then around the hallway, trying to estimate just how cheap this building is. He’d say pretty cheap.
He jiggles the handle and with the compromised lock, the door pops open and he nearly falls inside in surprise. The bags tumble off his shoulders, and he’s thankful they’re padded. He’s also glad they create enough commotion that Jared jumps up from the tiny desk in the corner and tugs his headset off. With his wide eyes and messy hair, Jared doesn’t seem so out of place in an apartment so tiny- like a dorm room - and Jensen shakes his head with a sigh, remembering that they’ve got a newbie on their hands.
“Hey, I think your door’s broke,” Jensen says in greeting and gently nudges his bags closer to the small table in the kitchenette.
“Oh, really?” Jared asks as he clears the few things he’d had on the table to make room for Jensen’s bags. “I should probably call the super.”
“You should probably just fix it yourself.”
“Why?”
Jensen gives Jared a long look then chuckles to himself. “Because I don’t think they like fixing shit other people broke.” When Jared doesn’t say anything, Jensen admits, “I broke it.”
“You broke my lock?”
“I did. On accident,” he adds when Jared still seems completely lost. Then he motions at Jared’s desk and at Jared himself. “You were all in a mode and there’s no one else to answer the door.” Jensen takes another glance around the four walls with bare furniture and little in the means of walking space. He swears under his breath. “Man, this place is tiny.”
“Yeah, well,” Jared says awkwardly. “I didn’t have much choice there.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jensen offers with a small frown. He unpacks his bags and covers the table with all the tech equipment they’ve ever used on the show. “But we’ll be on the road tomorrow and the hotels are much nicer than this.” He thinks for a second and chuckles. “Well, they’re not the nicest in existence, but it’ll be like staying at the Plaza compared to this place.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Jensen looks up to find Jared smiling and happy and so fucking earnest that it’s endearing and reminds him of his early days in this business. But there’s no point in daydreaming over that when they’ve got real work to get to. “Okay, here we go,” he says with a flourish of his hand over the table.
“What’s with all this?” Jared asks slowly.
“Everything you’ll ever touch on camera.” Jensen then ticks off the equipment, pointing at each piece: “We’ve got a static camera, thermal cam, mel meter, EVP, EMP, EMF.” He’s about to keep going, but a quick glance up tells him Jared’s just staring at him and not any of the equipment. “REM pod, spectrum video,” he says with interest even while staring right back at Jared. “Infrared flood light.” He flicks his hands out between them. “I’m sorry, is this boring you?”
Jared shakes his head, so quickly he seems nervous, but then he smiles smoothly and pushes hair off his face. “No, not at all. It’s just … I’ve seen the show. I know what all this is. I’ve seen you use it a hundred times.”
“Okay, but Jared?” he asks. When Jared nods, Jensen sighs because he has no intention of dressing the kid down, but he’s starting to really question his decision-making skills. “You haven’t used it a hundred times. You’ve used it no times. So maybe you wanna take a look around and figure out how this shit works?”
Jared points at every piece Jensen had rattled off, in order. “Camera posted outside, camera to pick up warm spots, fancy name for thermometer, electronic voice recorder, electromagnetic pulse,” he says with a taunting edge and playful smile. “EVP recorder, radial electromagnetic antenna - I bet you didn’t think I’d know that one - infrared cam and night light.”
Jensen does his best to not gawk or glare at Jared, but it’s pretty hard when Jared shoots him a toothy grin. The kid’s not so bad.
“Did I get ‘em all?”
He lifts one last item that neither of them has identified. It’s a little large for him to wrap his fingers around entirely, longer than the spread of his palm and fingers, with a blue screen and a handful of buttons along the side. “And how about this, hot shot?”
“Spirit box.”
Jensen nods with Jared. “You know how it works?”
Jared shuffles in place and puts his hands in his jeans pockets, looking all cool and calm. “It audibly and visually plays out EVPs. Ghost voices,” he adds with an excited smile.
Jensen licks his lips and shakes the spirit box in his hand. “That’s what it does. You know how it does that?”
“Well it just,” Jared stars slowly, waving towards it. “It takes EVP out of the air and gives it a voice. With like a ten-second delay,” he adds.
Jensen’s unsure if Jared’s just impatient or trying to flirt. He’s uncertain which he would prefer right now. Shifting the box in his hand, Jensen points at its buttons and the screen as he talks. “It records EVP and plays it back. Dual microprocessors extract levels off the infrared channel and encode the levels with the voice processor.” He looks up to Jared with a tight, pert smile. “So, yeah, it has a bit of a delay, but it’s reading the fucking channel.”
Jared pulls back, bites the corner of his mouth with a dimple showing, and he suddenly seems like a kid who’s been put in his place. Jensen was aiming for that, but maybe with a little less testosterone.
“Look, my point is,” he starts, still firm yet a bit nicer than the last few minutes, “you can’t just wave a box in the air or point a camera in the corner. You have to know what it’s doing to understand what we’re reacting to.”
“Alright, yeah,” he waves off with a stilted laugh.
Jensen takes on a mocking tone to repeat, “‘Alright, yeah,’ what?”
Jared reverts back to the awkward fidgeting and unsteady voice that Jensen remembers from his audition and their phone call yesterday. “No, you’re right. I’m there filming you guys, and I should know what’s going on.” After a long moment, Jared looks a bit sad, and maybe guilty. “It’s just, I’ve watched every season, over and over, and I get what these things are, and I know cameras and all that. But I guess I should be a li’l less cocky that you chose me. I’m sorry, I apologize.”
With a frown, Jensen puts the spirit box down and leans forward with his hands on the table. “Jared, do you know how many people showed up to audition last week?”
“No, I don’t,” he mumbles.
“Approximate counts say 50,000. I’d say about ten percent just wanted to say hi.” Jensen shrugs it off easily. “Another ten to twenty percent are actors looking to get on TV in any way possible. That leaves seventy to eighty percent who are seriously in it to hunt ghosts and tape shit and get hardcore evidence that these things really exist.”
Jared visibly swallows and minutely nods his head as his eyes go just over Jensen’s shoulder.
Jensen motions at Jared. “And then there’s you. Some practical joke of a college kid who went to my alma mater and knows a thing or twenty about sound and cameras.” When Jared bites his lower lip, Jensen feels his stomach drop with guilt and he smiles a little. “You know that we had three dozen call backs last weekend? Almost forty people who everyone loved because they had attitude or experience or were the spitting image of Steve on a good day.”
The last few weeks have been a mess. Dealing with the outcry and speculation from the fans and scheduling auditions and weeding through 50,000 people in a week … well, it’s all worn Jensen down just in time to start filming.
“And in between all the auditions and call backs and applications, I called Austin and got a glowing - fucking beaming - review from Evans. All about how you’re a kid that don’t quit and your brain is like a 16-bit receiver, just,” and here Jensen loses his words and closes his eyes briefly while flicking his fingers at the side of his head. Then he laughs because it’s fucking ridiculous that he’s talking like this right now. “She says you’re a genius with sound boards and steady cams. She talked about you like she talked to me back then, and shit, how could I not give it a chance?”
By now, Jared has travelled a handful of emotions, finally landing on surprised. Jensen feels strange to have blurted that all out. He clears his throat and laughs a little as Jared stares at him in wonder.
“So, really? I’m taking a chance on you because your college advisor thinks you’re a Mensa-level prodigy and you went to UT. Don’t fuck this up and make me look bad.”
That seems to shake Jared out of his spell and he coughs, wiping over his mouth. “No, of course not.”
“Learn the shit,” Jensen insists, pointing at the table before he turns to the now defunct door. As he steps into the hallway and pulls it shut, he stops for a second and smiles at Jared just to ease the tension. “When you’re done, pack all that back up how it came. It’s delicate equipment.”
“Yeah, of course,” Jared replies quickly.
“We don’t check equipment at the airport. It’s your carry-on, so be nice to it,” Jensen calls as he shuts the door.
“Finally,” Chris grumbles as he leans on the back of Jensen’s seat on the plane.
Jensen wants to agree, but when he lifts his head to look from under the bill of his hat, he spots Jared at the front of the plane. He smiles a little at Jared fighting his way down the aisle with the two equipment bags, plus a messenger bag that likely holds his own stuff.
The flight’s supposed to leave in twenty minutes, the airline is probably set to close the gate any second now, and Jared made it on even after whatever mess security must’ve been with all the cameras and detectors in those bags. Jensen snorts, imagining the guards inspecting and wiping down every single piece to ensure Jared wasn’t smuggling something in the spirit box.
“You’re just happy you’re still in the bet,” Jensen mumbles back at Chris. He stretches in his seat and pushes his head into the headrest to find a comfortable position. He hates early flights. Hell, he hates anything in the morning, but they need to get out to Sumner County by mid-afternoon to start filming B-roll and background scenes.
“We’re all still in the bet,” Chris argues.
Jensen snorts because he doesn’t really care, even if he’s got a square that says how long Jared’s going to keep things under wraps until he breaks - from the pressure of travelling every few days, lockdowns and overnight filming, and now their hazing.
“You think he’s gonna make it past Nashville?” Matt asks, leaning in near Chris. “I give him ‘til Penn State Penitentiary. That jail’s got some crazy shit jumping around inside.”
“Just ‘cause you couldn’t last through the juvenile center doesn’t mean it’s a hot zone,” Chris argues.
Jensen rolls his eyes and sighs. Matt and Chris get along well enough, ragging on each other mostly, but they’re usually split up on flights to save Jensen the hassle of listening to them bicker. Steve and Chris tended to stick together and kept things down, allowing Jensen sleep. This morning, neither Chris nor Matt wanted to be stuck with the new guy and they beat Jensen to their seats by just a second.
They’re still arguing over what location Matt actually lost his shit at - a Pittsburgh juvenile facility or a lodge in Oregon. Jensen sighs and rolls his eyes closed. “Alright, shut up, you two,” Jensen complains.
“Hey, guys,” Jared says breathlessly. He’s standing in the aisle and trying to haul the bags up into the overhead compartments, but there isn’t much space for anything this late into boarding.
Jensen grabs the airline magazine from the pouch on the seat in front of him and mindlessly flips through it. He’s just waiting for the plane to be set, the flight crew to give their spiel, and then he’s out like a light. Every time.
He’s distracted by Jared, though. A flight attendant bumps him as she passes then comes back and bumps him again, making him nearly drop everything he’s carrying. Jared looks rightfully scared and guilty about the short drop the bag made before he snatched it up, but there’s still no place to stow the stuff.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the stewardess saying firmly. “There’s no room left. You’re going to have to check the bags.”
“No, but see, these are really fragile,” Jared replies, hugging one of the bags to his chest. “There’s cameras and recording equipment in here and we can’t check them.”
“You have to check them at the gate,” she insists.
“No, we really can’t,” he trails off as he looks at Jensen.
Jensen stares back, tired and bored and only slightly amused at this whole situation. When they’d stuck Matt with this task on his first trip with them, he’d missed the flight entirely. Somehow, witnessing Jared all sweaty and frustrated – and afraid - with having to check the equipment isn’t as funny as Jensen had originally planned.
Chris and Matt chuckle as Jared twists about to find enough space to stow the bags. Jensen chuckles a little, too, because it’s a tiny bit funny, but then Jared frowns at him with wide eyes and Jensen shakes his head.
“Just do something with it, Jared” Jensen says tiredly. “They’re not gonna let you sit in the middle of the aisle holding onto it all.”
“But you said we don’t check equipment,” he says quietly.
Jensen gives him a blank stare. He did say that, and he’s not sure how to reply, but mostly he’s interested in watching how Jared works his way out of it.
Jared quickly turns to the front of the plane to snag the attendant and check the bags. While he’s gone, Jensen tucks the airline magazine back into seat ahead of him and sits back, looking out the window to watch the baggage guys dump their black bags onto the conveyor belt. Just then, Jared plops down into the seat next to him.
“You break it, you buy it,” Jensen tells him, watching the bags make their way into the belly of the plane.
“Like my doorknob?”
Jensen looks over and Jared’s smirking at him.
“Building management is replacing the full frame. At my expense. So thanks for that.”
Jensen just barely fights the smile, somehow enjoying Jared bitching at him and his attitude here. “Told you not to tell them.”
“And leave the place unlocked all week? You saw that building. I doubt it has much in the way of security.”
“Sorry about that.”
Jared snorts. “Yeah, right, you’re sorry.”
Jensen looks at him again and Jared’s still smiling oddly and it’s an interesting moment to see him like this. He’s playful and alluring, and very attractive. It’s not as though Jensen hadn’t noticed that before, but right now it’s meaning more than just a pretty face on a TV screw.
Instead of saying anything more, Jensen slides down in his seat and closes his eyes.
“So,” Jared says brightly, “I went through all the equipment last night and did you notice that on the EMP-”
Jensen shuts the window shade – hard - and glares at Jared for a second. “No talking before noon,” he mutters then shifts in his seat to get more comfortable.
“In what time zone?”
It’s a valid question, since they’ll be landing in Nashville around noon. Still, Jensen pulls his hat down over his face. “All of them.”
Away from the car rental counter, Jensen flips through his packet of materials for this episode. Jared fidgets next to him and when Jensen looks up, Jared clears his throat.
“So, what now?” Jared asks.
Jensen nods towards the counter where Matt and Chris are getting a Yukon to fit the four of them and all their equipment in the back. “Well, they’re getting a car,” he says dryly. He’d slept through the four-hour flight and he can still feel the cobwebs coating his brain. Not to mention that he thought the car rental counters made it pretty obvious.
“And then?”
“Then we drive,” Jensen answers idly, flipping pages to refresh his memory on the place and its incidents. “About forty-five minutes, in case that’s your next question.”
“I was just wondering.”
Jensen nods at Matt when the guys are done at the counter and heading off the side to exit and get the vehicle. He grabs his things and shuffles off in that direction with Jared following. “Well, you can wonder once I’ve had coffee.”
“Could’ve gotten some upstairs.”
“Yeah, I could have,” he replies, laughing lightly. He realize he’s being short, and maybe it’s partly on purpose because he’s used to this routine: flying into a new town, standing around and waiting for cars, Matt handling car rentals and driving them around. Jensen pats Jared’s shoulder and nudges him to keep up. “Just wait ‘til we’re on the road and then you can ask all you want.”
Jared nods happily and Jensen does so in return.
Once they’re on the highway, Chris brings out his camcorder and turns in the front passenger seat, filming everything - the road, Matt driving, Jared and Jensen in the backseat. He turns on the smug factor, and Jensen knows he’s about to start taunting Jared just for being the new guy and because they never manage to let a joke sit.
“You ready for the first day of school?” Chris asks with the camera right on Jared.
He shifts in his seat and smiles, his eyes getting bright. “Yeah. I sure am.”
“You ever seen a ghost before Jared?”
“No, I haven’t. But I’ve heard a few things.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
Jared clears his throat, glancing at Jensen, and that makes Jensen stop reading and watch as Jared looks between the camera and out the front window. “There’s this drug store back home that my friend worked at during college. People used to hear things in the stock room, mostly after dark, and sometimes they’d come in the next day and find things knocked over on shelves or even re-shelved somewhere else.” He shoots a quick look at Jensen, but Jensen just stares back, which seems to make Jared a bit more uncomfortable. “So, she let me in at the end of her shift and I hung around and set up a few cameras. I heard the noises, too, but didn’t see anything.”
Matt laughs from the driver’s seat. “There goes all your credibility, man.”
“Well, with my own eyes,” Jared quickly argues, leaning towards the front seat. “I got some stuff on camera. Things knocked over in the pharmacy.”
“Sounds so spooky,” Chris says in a leading, mocking tone.
Jared is instantly deflated and he sits back in his seat. He nervously checks Jensen, then shifts towards the window as he grabs at the knees of his jeans and bites the inside of his mouth.
Once Chris turns his camera on Matt and they start rattling on about where they’re heading, Jensen taps Jared’s leg. “What was the story with the store?”
With surprise, Jared takes a few seconds to respond then chuckles, seeming embarrassed. “Um, well, they say the pharmacist gave this girl the wrong prescription and she died from an allergic reaction. So they think she haunts the place.”
Jensen’s not sure it’s the most scandalous ghost story he’s ever heard - he’s actually really sure it’s one of the most watered-down he’s ever heard and he starts laughing. When he pats Jared’s leg again and mumbles, “Baby’s first ghost hunt,” Jared chuckles with him.
“I know it’s not very exciting.”
“Not at all,” Jensen nods in agreement, appreciating that Jared is calming down, loosening right up. “You couldn’t find something at school to follow?”
“There were stories about lecture halls and stuff, but it’s hard getting in after hours.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
Jared slides a bit closer on the bench and points at the file in Jensen’s lap. “So, what’re we looking at today?”
Jensen passes him a few pieces of paper and figures the least he can do is clue Jared into a few facts. It’s not like he has to keep him in the dark the whole time, even if it would add to the hazing ritual. That’s more Chris and Matt’s area anyway.
“Cragfont Mansion. It was run by a family, the Winchesters, and watched by the wife while the husband and son were off in the war. Union soldiers vandalized the home, tore it apart, and some claim they had their way with the wife. So now there’re reports of her hanging around, some soldiers, maybe even the husband, George.”
Jared brightens as he reads through the web print outs. “I love Civil War stories. They’re always so creepy.”
Jensen has to admit that he’s beginning to be impressed by how Jared’s trying to fit in with them and that he’s truly interested in all this. “Yeah, I guess they are.” He bumps Jared’s shoulder for attention. “We’re gonna get into town and just do some coasting around, film a few random things, and do some set ups. Tomorrow’s the interviews with the house staff and then the lockdown. For today, just trail along and tape whatever we’re doing. We can talk more tonight about what to do tomorrow.”
“So, no more pranks?”
He narrows his eyes and is ready to deny it, but Jared’s smirking. “Too obvious?”
“I told you I’ve seen the show a lot. I saw how Matt was picked on when he started.”
Jensen nods, remembering how bad they got on Matt two years ago when he joined. It was quite a few years after Jensen, Chris, and Steve had started their whole get-up at the tail-end of college, and Matt was more wet behind the ears than Jared. They tormented him for a good few weeks. Even if Jensen feels himself warming up to Jared already, there’s no way Matt and Chris will take it easy.
“It’s your first day, Jared,” Jensen says idly, looking at his file again. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”
They run around Castalian Springs, filming the slow crawl of the small town while Jensen talks about the area’s history during the Civil War. They even make a stop at the Castalian Springs Mound Site and he shares bits he’d found online about the history from two centuries ago, sprinkled with stories of Bledsoe's Station, an 18th-century frontier fort.
It’s relatively easy and like any other time they’ve done setups for an episode. Matt carries some of the equipment and hangs back while Jared and Chris tape Jensen, and then they re-film from different angles with Jensen remixing how he tells the stories, trying to amp everything up for the most dramatic effect possible.
Jared keeps up with it all. He mans the camera like he’s been with them all this time, and Jensen is surprised by being surprised with how quickly he follows Jensen when he moves or motions to different parts of the landscape.
At one point, Jared does lag while he messes with the camera. Jensen smiles tightly. “Jared, you with us?”
“Yeah, sorry,” he says quickly and aims the camera up again. “I’m getting some glare from the sun and it’s unfocused.”
Matt and Chris are staring at Jared, and Jensen clears his throat to get them back on topic. That Jared knows what he’s doing shouldn’t be shocking - it’s why Jensen rallied for Jared to fill this role. Jensen still tries to shake the odd feeling away and waits for Jared to set.
Back at the motel a few towns over, they all settle into their own rooms. Jensen takes the time to shower and dress down in jeans and a tee before they get together for a late dinner at the restaurant just down the block. As always, they spend the meal talking about tomorrow. Names and places are thrown around, dates of past reports of activity, spots in the mansion they want to cover, just planning their whole attack for the next day.
Jared seems to settle in enough, though he doesn’t openly talk a whole lot. He mostly watches, laughs with the group when he gets what they’re talking about, and nods when they’re saying something important related to filming.
On the way back, Matt and Chris walk ahead, rambling on about some horror flick that came out a month ago, and Jared falls into step beside Jensen.
“You hanging in there?” Jensen asks when they reach the walkway to their rooms, at a loss for what to say.
“Yeah,” he answers quickly. “It still feels really big, but I’m trying to relax and not screw up.”
Jensen nods and waves at Matt and Chris when they head into their rooms. “You know, this is our show. We’re gonna give you shit, but we’re not gonna let you mess it up.”
Jared releases a long breath and bites his lip like he’s trying to stop a smile. “Yeah, of course. It’s still kinda nerve wracking. I’ve been watching you guys for a few years and now I’m standing here talking to you.”
He chuckles and pulls out his key, unlocking his door. “I’m sure you’ll get over it.”
“I hope so,” Jared mumbles.
Jensen steps into the doorway and nods to Jared. “Go get some sleep. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.”
“Like today wasn’t?” he laughs awkwardly.
“Bigger day. Now sleep.”
“Yeah, alright.”
Jensen changes into shorts and settles into bed, flipping through the few channels the motel offers. He feels antsy and has trouble sleeping, but he blames it on the fact that they’re filming the first episode of the new season, not because Jared’s in Steve’s place now.
Stephanie Farmer, a middle aged woman in slacks and a button-up, meets them halfway down the walk and shakes hands with all four while smiling easily.
Jared and Chris are already taping and Jensen thanks her for letting them come by. They stand outside the mansion and discuss its history, ranging from the beginnings of a log cabin built by James and George Winchester in 1785 to James moving forward with full stone construction of the manor in 1802, and through the long line of owners until 1958 when the state purchased the land for historical preservation.
“And how long have you been here?” Jensen asks.
“About nine years,” she replies.
“And now it’s just for tours and events, right?”
“Correct. The galleries have been set for about two decades with pictures of the family as well as American Federal pieces, including some of the Winchesters’ own.”
Jensen crosses his arms as he leans towards her, all playful charm. “And have you ever seen anything in the galleries?”
She chuckles nervously and nods. “Not exactly. But in the north gallery there are some pieces that don’t really like to stay put.”
“Like what?”
From the corner of his eye, Jensen sees Jared move in and focus his camera closer to Stephanie as she speaks. He smiles at Jared then tunes into Stephanie.
“Well, there are a few guns on a shelf that don’t always stay on that shelf. One afternoon, I found one sitting on the case below it where there are pictures of some of the Confederate soldiers. George fought for the Confederates,” she adds quickly. “And bullets that go with that gun. I’d had a tour earlier that day so I figured someone had been fiddling with it, so then I put it back. But at the end of the night, when we were clearing everything up, it was back on the case and we hadn’t had anyone else in that gallery.”
Jensen looks to Chris’s camera and flicks his eyebrows up. “Sounds only a little spooky.”
“And there are footsteps on the second floor,” she says quickly. “You can hear them during some of the tours, even though those rooms are roped off.”
“Do the tours go upstairs?”
She nods and glances up towards the second floor, pointing at a window. “They do, to show off the bedrooms, but there are half doors to keep people out. The bedrooms have been restored with what was left in the house and what the records say for that time. That one was George and Malvina’s room. She hid in there when the Union soldiers came through, so some think that she’s still up there.”
Jensen tips his head and aims a smooth smile at her. “Can we go up there?”
“Of course,” she nods and then motions them inside.
In the north foyer, she points out the gun that seems to move on its own and talks about a former tour guide who’d claimed to see things later in the evenings when she closed up.
“And when she was done in here, she turned and said she saw a man walking into the south gallery.”
“What did he look like?” Jensen asks.
“It was already getting dark, so she only saw a shadow, just an outline of a man in a long coat with his hand at his side. She said it looked like a man holding his gun in his belt.”
“Like a solider?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Have you seen him?” Jensen asks with interest.
She shakes her head and slightly frowns. “I have not. But others have said he roams these galleries. They think he’s the one grabbing the gun off the shelf.”
They roam the home and get more stories of things showing up out of place and noises heard throughout. As they move, Jensen takes the time to look at the cameras, somehow finding Jared more often, and talking about places they’ll film that night. Every time he looks up, Jared’s smiling and pink-cheeked. Jensen has to keep himself on task, remembering they’re here for a job and not just some goofy experiment with a new kid in tow.
Jared can’t stop shaking. His knees and his fingers are jittery, which makes readying the camera hard as hell. He makes excuses for it. It’s dark, past midnight; this has nothing to do with it being the beginning of the lockdown.
The stories Stephanie had told them and the ones he’d read in the papers Jensen shared the day before aren’t anything too exciting, but now that it’s pitch black in front of the mansion and they’re ready to go inside without any light except for the night vision cameras and a few flashlights. He can’t help but feel his heart race.
Once all equipment is in place and they’re back outside to start taping the beginning of the lockdown, Matt fires up the truck and backs out of the gravel lane.
Jared turns to watch the vehicle coast back from where they’d come in, and he makes a strange noise that grabs everyone’s attention. He knows the show inside and out, but actually seeing Matt leave, knowing they’re left on their own for the lockdown, is suddenly unnerving.
Chris laughs, low yet obviously mocking. “Are you worried it’s just us three?”
“No, of course not,” Jared replies instantly. He knows Matt often shows up during studio time, not much during the hunts, so he tries to remind himself this is all normal.
Chris tsks. “I think Jared’s a little scared.”
“Let’s get back to this, okay?” Jensen asks with a roll of his eyes. Chris grumbles and Jared nods when Jensen looks at him. “Just keep the camera running, stay with us, and if you hear or see anything, zoom in on that. It’ll all come pretty easily once we’re moving. You know how we roll.”
Jared nods quickly, the pep talk doing wonders for his immediate anxiety. “Yeah, sure.”
Once they’re ready, the technical part of him is on autopilot. He films Jensen as he does his spiel about what people see and hear inside the Cragfont Mansion, as he banters with Chris, and when he points out Stephanie beside him, who’s prepared the lock them in until sun up.
With a deep breath, Jared follows Jensen and Chris inside and keeps taping as Jensen talks through all that they’re about to film. There’s a strange disconnect; he knows he’s walking along these dark hallways. Yet, he’s also watching through the LCD screen so he can see in the dark and make sure he’s framing Jensen well. The view reminds him of nights in his room with all the lights out and watching the show from the edge of his bed. This is totally different, he knows that, and he tries to force himself to pay better attention and follow.
At the base of the stairs leading to the second floor, Jensen’s relaying the story of Union soldiers breaking into the home, tearing it up, and Malvina hiding in the master bedroom.
“They say voices and sounds are heard up there, as if she’s still hiding,” Jensen says seriously, just like all the other episodes Jared’s watched. “We’re going to head up there and see if we can catch anything. These EVP recorders,” he says, motioning with his, “Are running, so if there is anyone here who wants to speak to us, we’ll get it on tape.”
Carefully, they make their way up the stairs, then there’s a soft knock above them.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Jensen whispers, stopping midway up the stairs. “You hear that?”
“Yeah, I heard knocking,” Chris says quietly.
“Is someone up there?” Jensen calls out.
They wait for any response and when there isn’t one, they continue up the stairs only to stop because of another quick knock from the direction of the master bedroom.
“Hello?” Jensen asks. “Malvina? Is that you?”
Jared’s pulse pounds in his neck, hearing something so soon into the lockdown, and he tries hear beyond the rushing noise in his ears. He doesn’t hear more, but Jensen and Chris seem to, getting excited and quietly talking.
“Oh my God,” Jensen whispers. “Did you hear that? It was a woman’s voice.”
“Yeah, I heard that,” Chris replies. “Totally a woman’s voice.”
“There it is again!”
Jared takes another step or two and tries to listen, but all he can hear is their soft breathing. He aims his camera around the side of the stairwell and down the hall as Jensen slowly walks to the bedroom.
“Malvina, if you can hear me,” Jensen says, “We’re not here to hurt you. We know you were attacked in your own home.”
There’s another round of knocks when Jensen gets to the doorway, like something knocking hard on glass, and Jared comes up behind him to film inside the room. Little has changed from their earlier tour of the place, just the same plain bed, desk, and dresser. The only difference Jared can spot is a brush and hand mirror set on the desk when there was nothing there before.
He finds it hard to breathe, thinking of someone taking those items out of the desk drawer and putting them there, that maybe the glass sound was the brush hitting the mirror when the items were put down together.
Jensen roams the room and keeps talking, trying to speak to Malvina and film it all on his own camcorder. He opens the closet door and looks inside the empty space. “I know you hid in here to avoid the soldiers. You’re safe now. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re not the soldiers.”
Then there’re muffled hard-soled footsteps and Jared turns to the hallway. He thinks he heard them on the stairs, down near the first floor. “What was that?” he mumbles.
“I heard footsteps downstairs,” Chris says quickly, looking at Jared.
“Did you hear them?” Jensen asks.
“Yeah, I did,” Jared replies, heart racing faster than before. “There were footsteps going down the stairs.”
A few more steps sound off below them on the hardwood floor and Jared holds his breath.
“Okay, Jared?” Jensen asks quickly. “You go downstairs and see what’s down there.”
Jared swings his camera to Jensen and stares. It’s not like he didn’t know this is what happens - splitting up and getting anything they can on tape - but he’s not sure he’s ready to do it this soon into the lockdown. “Really?” he asks softly.
“Maybe it’s that soldier,” Chris says. “With the guns in the gallery.”
Jensen smiles and nods. “Yeah, go on down there. Go downstairs and tape, try to talk to him.”
Jared has visions of a spirit circling him in the galleries, following him around and taunting him by whispering in his ear. He shivers and takes a deep breath. This is what he signed up for, what he’s fascinated by, and what he’s now paid to do. “Alright, okay,” he whispers and makes his way back downstairs.
He slowly walks through the foyer and aims his camera around the place to see if there’s anything else off from what he remembers earlier that day. He walks into the north gallery and tries to ignore the unsettling noises of Jensen and Chris walking above him; he has to keep reminding himself those are normal sounds and he should focus on what’s happening on this floor.
There’s a soft shuffling noise from deep in the gallery and he does his best to not totally freak out. Level breathing helps to calm him for the moment. “Is someone there?” he asks loudly. “Can you hear me?”
This time, there’s a knock to his left and when he swings the camera in that direction, there’s nothing there aside from another antique case and pictures on the wall. One of the portraits is of George Winchester dressed in his Confederate uniform, tired and sunken eyes, and a rough beard covering the lower half of his face. Jared feels a chill run down his back as he thinks of that man standing in this room with him.
“George, is that you? Are you here?”
Another knock and Jared has to close his eyes for a second and get his bearings. He adjusts his hold on his EVP recorder and puts it out before him, thinking of all the things he’s seen this on the episodes before.
“Talk into this here, talk to the red light.” He walks closer to the portrait, keeping the lens trained to it. “Are you still here to protect the house? From when the Union came in while your wife was upstairs?”
Jared hears a low murmur behind him and he spins around to find a gun on the glass case instead of in its spot on the shelf above. It’s the very gun Stephanie had pointed out to them hours earlier. “Oh, shit,” he whispers, breathing heavily and unable to stop it.
“Okay, so you’re here,” he laughs a little. “George, why are you still here? Are you protecting the house so no more soldiers return? Are you here to stay with your wife?”
He stands in place, solid and unmoving except for a tiny shake of the camera and recorder in his hands. He couldn’t move his feet if he tried. A tense silence follows and he combs the room to record the empty gallery.
Talking himself down, he relaxes long enough to think through what to do next. He’s not about to call up to Jensen and Chris to ask them what he should do - it’ll make him seem scared (even if he kind of is) not to mention unprofessional to get that on tape. He brings the recorder closer and rewinds it to play back.
The recording is a bit fuzzy because of how high it’s turned up to catch whatever it can. He hears himself ask questions, hears a few of the knocks and footsteps he’d heard himself, and then there’s a small blip in the tape and a gravelly voice answering his questions.
No more soldiers.
Jared clears his throat and closes his eyes as the tape continues with more unintelligible grumbling in reply.
Quick footsteps to his right make him spin and he catches Jensen in his frame. Jared sighs in relief.
“Hey, did you find anything?” Jensen asks.
Jared waves the recorder. “Yeah, I got an EVP of a man’s voice.”
“What’d he say?”
“No more soldiers,” Jared says nervously. “I was asking if he was here because of the Union attacks and he said no more soldiers.”
Jensen grins, and in the green tint of the night vision it’s a tad bit creepy, yet all sorts of satisfying.
In the morning, Jared can’t deny he’s glad to get out of Cragfont, even if the dawning sun is blinding after spending hours in the dark.
Matt meets them with the Yukon, grinning from the driver’s seat. “You guys get anything good?”
Chris smacks Jared’s back hard enough to push him forward a few steps. “Our li’l boy got himself some EVP.”
Matt laughs. “Not bad for your first slumber party.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Jared, forcing the good feelings. He then follows Jensen around the SUV to where he’s loading things into the back.
“God, I’m starving,” Jensen mumbles.
“I could use some sleep.”
“In due time, Jared.” Jensen smiles at him then pulls an equipment bag off Jared’s shoulder. “But food first, then the airport. You can sleep on the plane.”
Jared groans as he thinks about their flight right back to L.A., and how unlikely it is he’ll sleep all that well. At least they’re done with this mansion; even in the daylight, the place seems daunting. In his mind, he can still see the portrait of grizzly George Winchester staring at him when the man talked to him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t hear it in real time, the tape proves there was something there and he can feel his knees lock up in memory of that tense moment.
Jensen hits Jared’s shoulder, making him flinch back to the here and now. Jensen’s smiling at him and it’s a small comfort. “Let’s head out before George hitches a ride with us.”
Jared moans. “Not funny.”
When Jared gets back to his apartment, he dumps his overnight bag on the small kitchenette table, thankful the guys had taken the equipment with them back to the studio. The place looks tinier than he remembers from just a few days ago, but at least his door’s been fixed. There’s an invoice on the kitchen counter, yet he can’t manage to care too much at the moment.
He’s exhausted after being unable to sleep much on the plane no matter how quiet the flight had been. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw George Winchester’s face, and the few times he’d started to fall asleep, he could hear the grumbled response from the EVP.
He strips down to his undershirt and boxers and slips into bed. He texts his mom that he’s back in L.A. and still alive then smiles at her thankful reply. He figures he’ll call her later or the next day to tell her all about it. He probably owes Chad a call, too, or at least an email. Instead, he turns the TV on low, something innocent like a woman’s daytime talk show, and turns over to sleep. To overpower that image of George Winchester, he recalls Jensen’s bright, happy grin on his camera when he’d told him he recorded an EVP.
That helps him rest, though he tosses and turns on occasion and curses how thin the curtains over his one window are, letting in too much sunlight. The next two days pass just the same, napping then waking and napping and staying up to watch criminally bad, late-night TV. He’s uncertain when he’ll get used to staying up all night for work and then surviving back in L.A. without a strict schedule.
At some point when he’s back asleep, his phone rings with Jensen on the other end.
Jared rubs his eyes and sees it’s nearly eight at night. He realizes that they have to film the summarization, the A/V studio bits to go over all that they taped at the mansion. When Jensen had mentioned it, Jared had thought they meant much later, or even that he wasn’t needed. But Jensen sounds concerned, slightly annoyed, that Jared isn’t up and ready.
“Nah, I’ll be out in a minute,” Jared insists and jumps out of bed to throw on jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.
Jensen’s in front of the building in a sleek sedan. It instantly makes Jared feel insecure to have come up here without a car, and with only a hand-me-down waiting for him back in Austin. He tries to smile, knowing that in a few weeks, he can get his own car and somewhere down the line, with him working on the show, he can have something as nice as this. Everything’s about to change and despite the freaky moments at the Cragfont Mansion, he still has the want to pinch himself that this is his new life. Getting into Jensen Ackles’s car and heading out to record in the studio is a nice follow-up to the last few days.
Jensen gives him a short look before putting the car into drive and pulling out. “You sleep okay? I know the schedule’s kinda crazy. A few days on then off, but we have to fit it all in where we can.”
“No, yeah, I get it,” Jared insists, watching Jensen as he drives. He still can’t believe he’s sitting next to Jensen Ackles and having conversations with him about work. “I mean, not great sleep, but I’ll readjust. Hopefully.”
Jensen chuckles. “And if not, your sleep deprivation may help our ratings.”
He thinks through the fact that there’s a cult following online, but in the grand scheme of things, the show’s probably not all that popular. “Are the ratings bad?”
“Not bad, no. But it’d be nice to build more after a few years. The producers and the network’s always looking for more.”
Jared looks forward, watching Jensen speed down the dark streets, heading toward the studio where he’d interviewed a week ago. He reminds himself he’s now on a TV show that has to perform and not just living out a wish of chasing ghost stories across the country.
“You okay, there?” Jensen asks, shaking Jared from his thoughts. “Old George really get to you?”
“No, I’m good,” Jared insists. He tries to match Jensen’s smile, but he knows it’s off.
“If you say so.” Jensen takes a quick right turn and pulls into the parking lot beside the studio. When they’re both walking up to the building, Jensen nods at him. “So, I’m gonna keep assuming you know what’s going on because you’re such a rabid fan. But you get what we’re doing now, right?”
“Yeah,” Jared nods, smiling for real. “We’re recounting all the audio and videotape, and then you guys go over everything.”
“We go over everything. You, too, now.” Before they go inside, Jensen takes a moment to look at Jared. “You seem kinda spooked. You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“We’re gonna go over the stuff you did in the galleries.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Jared says with another nod.
Jensen nods with him and smirks. “You did great out there. It all seemed real natural. Just respond the same way here.”
Jared anticipates chills and shivers when they replay all the footage and recordings, so natural won’t really be a problem.
Matt already has footage cued up on the four different flat screens that make up his work station. Jensen and Chris rattle on about what they remember hearing or seeing at key points of the lockdown, and Matt points out the recordings that match. Jared just stares, shocked by not only the sudden realization that he’s been watching this scenario play out for years on his own TV yet is here right now, but that he’s present to hear and see all the nuances of spirit tracking that he hadn’t recognized when they were in the Cragfont.
Jensen points out a mist developing on the footage filmed in the front lobby of the mansion. Jared remembers standing next to Jensen as it all happened and to now consider that the figure formed less than a dozen feet in front of him without him being aware … well, his tense, freaked-out reaction is one hundred percent natural now.
“Then Jared's recordings in the gallery," Matt says as he fires up the film from Jared's camera.
Jared recognizes the sound waves displayed on the screen next to his footage as ones he’s seen on every episode before this. He's jittery to hear what else was captured on the EVP, and then he gasps as he sees a glowing orb float across the screen and into the framed portrait of George Winchester. It's the very picture Jared had filmed when he heard the knocks, when he asked George if he was with him in that room. Seconds later, he'd heard more knocking and then taped the questions with the EVP.
He steps closer to the monitors as Matt replays it over and over and Jensen explains to Chris's camera that they've ruled the orb out as dust because dust particles tend to form in more of a misty, scattered pattern.
"Whereas this light drops quickly from the right side of the screen and fades to the left, directly into the portrait," Jensen explains. He even steps up to the console and traces the orb’s movement with his finger then turns and smiles at Jared.
Jared struggles with the right words, something that will make him seem cool on camera while still portraying the pure shock coursing his body. He settles on a simple, quiet, “So, he was really there.”
“Looks that way,” Matt agrees with a nod.
“Let’s check out Jared’s EVP,” Jensen says, directing everyone’s attentions back to the monitors.
They listen intently to Jared’s questions then the muffled no more soldiers Jared had replayed in the gallery. He’s ready to make some comment on it, but Matt points at the cluster of new wavelengths at the tail end of the screen.
“And then they keep talking here,” Matt says as the sound continues and there are two distinct, snarly voices. One says get out while another states they all die.
“What the fuck?” Jared mumbles, eyes fixed on the area of the screen where the EVPs are shown.
“Whoa!” Chris yells, nearly laughing. He’s obviously surprised to hear that part of the recording as well. “Play it again!”
Matt does and Jared has to ask, “Who all dies?”
“They probably mean the solders,” Chris answers with Jensen nodding as well.
“So not us?” When the three of them look at him, Jared feels foolish to have asked, but what’s he supposed to do right now? He’s facing footage that says George Winchester was standing in front of him with God only knows who else. He thinks his paranoid is justified.
Jensen spins in place and grins at Jared. “You were asking about the soldiers and Good Ole George answered you!”
Jared shivers at the thought then tries to focus more on Jensen’s bright smile. Maybe that’ll help overcome the gnawing panic that he’ll forever hear the EVP on repeat when he tries to sleep.