Page 1 of The Haunting of Lockton

Chapter One

Skyler

“Hey, guys.” I flashed my best smile for the camera, one I knew drove the viewers wild. “For this week’s episode, the Knox brothers are in Easton, Connecticut, at the Union Cemetery.”

“Cut,” my twin brother, Julian, interrupted.

“Why?” I asked, slightly annoyed. “I felt good about that take.”

“Yeah, well, the lighting is shitty. If you want to charm the pants off our viewers, they should be able to see your panty-dropping smile.”

I snorted. “Boxers dropping too.”

Julian rolled his eyes and fidgeted with the camera. He was the tech-savvy one between us and did a majority of the behind-the-scenes stuff on our ghost-hunting series. He filmed and edited the footage, preferring to stay behind the camera as much as possible. He hated the spotlight.

“Okay.” Julian glanced back up and positioned the handheld camera. “Let’s go again.”

I opened and closed my mouth, stretching the muscles, before smiling and repeating the lines.

“The cemetery is over four hundred years old and has been a paranormal hot spot for decades.” I motioned to the tall, dark tombstones before stepping closer and arching a brow. “Many of you requested we come here, so here we are. I hope you’re ready for it.”

Our series had taken off about four years ago, and ever since then, we had traveled to the most haunted places all over theUnited States. Our subscribers made our job possible, giving us more than enough financial support to do what we loved, so we often took requests from them. Gave them the material they wanted to see.

Fog rolled throughout the cemetery, drifting past graves and crypts. The already creepy aesthetic was made even more so. We couldn’t have picked a better night to film.

“Legends claim a ghost known as the White Lady haunts the cemetery,” I continued. “She’s said to have long black hair and wears a white gown. Some people hear sobbing, while others have witnessed her apparition beside the graves. But it’s not only the cemetery she’s believed to haunt. She’s also been seen along Route 59, appearing in the middle of the road in front of cars, then vanishing once the car stops.”

We always gave a history of the places we investigated. Our show was informative as well as spooky. Well, sometimes. We didn’t always get the evidence we wanted. But that’s where my charm came into play. Our moneymaker.

As I slowly moved through the cemetery, talking about the ghost sightings people had shared over the years, Julian followed me with the camera. We had done eyewitness interviews earlier that day, talking with those who’d seen the White Lady. Julian would edit and string everything together later before we posted it to our channel.

“For those new to our show, this is called an EVP,” I said, holding up a small, compact recorder. “It stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon and is one of the essential items for ghost hunting. Disembodied voices, like with ghosts, aren’t always loud enough for human ears to detect, so that’s where this baby comes in. I ask questions, and then when we replay the recording later, sometimes we hear answers. Cool, right?”

I could practically feel Julian’s eyes roll. He gave me crap for being too cheesy, but whatever.

“Is there anyone here with us?” I held out the recorder and waited a few seconds before asking another question. “Do you want to communicate with us?” Nothing but silence greeted me after each pause. “Can you give us a sign you’re here?”

“Switch to your head cam,” Julian said a while later. “And get out the thermal to check for cold spots.”

“It’s November in Connecticut, Julian. Every spot is cold.”

He scoffed and clicked on his head cam before putting away the handheld. I did as he’d said, and we walked through the cemetery side by side, me asking questions on the EVP while he looked through the thermal imaging camera.

“Sky.” Julian snapped his head toward one of the biggest tombstones. “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“Looked like someone was standing over there.” Excitement rang in his tone. “Let’s go check it out.”

When we went over, no one was there. It didn’t dull his enthusiasm though. My brother thrived on this, on our investigations. It was when he was the happiest. Which was why I’d never had the heart to tell him that while I enjoyed some aspects of the show, it wasn’t what I pictured myself doing long term.

That’s a conversation for another day.

We walked around for another hour or so before packing everything up and loading it into our SUV.

“You good to drive?” I asked.

Julian nodded and caught the keys as I tossed them. We left the cemetery and turned on the main road.