Page 96 of The Haunting of Lockton

“I’ll tell you inside.” I nodded to the diner. “Feed me, oh great brother. Only then will you get the answers you seek.”

***

Callum Gray was sort of a big deal.

When Julian and I went to his shop after lunch, we expected to pop in, chat, and be on our merry way. Instead, we walkedin and nearly collided with the person in front of us. A huge line snaked throughout the shop, leading from the back room. All people hoping to speak with him. A sign advertised tarot readings and fortune-telling.

“I heard he can tell you when you’ll get married,” the lady in front of us gushed to her friend. “Also if you’ll have any children.”

“Suzanne said he predicted that she would come into a lot of money,” the friend responded. “And would you believe her grandfather, who she only met like once or twice when she was little, died and left her his estate?”

“I can’t wait to ask him when I’ll meet a good man.”

“Screw love,” a different woman said. She was standing in front of them. “I just want to know if I’ll ever get a promotion or if I’m wasting my time and energy working under my dickwad boss.”

I turned to Julian. “Looks like we’ll be here a while. Good thing we ate first.”

“Maybe we should come back another time,” he said, scanning the line. There must’ve been at least twenty people in front of us. “The readings are ten minutes at minimum and can go up to at least thirty.”

“Yeah, that would be hours of my life I’ll never get back.” I had never seen something so ridiculous. At conventions where people stood in line for hours to meet a celebrity or something, sure, but not in a little mystics shop like this one. “We don’t need a reading anyway. We just wanna talk. This is a waste of time.”

“He wouldn’t be this popular if it was a waste of time,” Julian said.

“A waste of time forus. We don’t need to know our fortunes or whatever. Not like these people.” I scanned the line again. “Didn’t he just get back in town a few days ago? Word travels fast.”

Little Miss Eavesdrop in front of me turned around. “His mother did the readings in the past. She trained him, and he started doing them, too, so he could take over full-time when she retired. But then he left town for nearly a year. No one knows where he went or why. Mysterious, isn’t it? Today’s the first day he started doing sessions again.”

“Maybe the dude just needed a vacation,” I said.

Her friend, Little Miss Eavesdrop the Second, then chimed in. “Or maybe he was whisked away to some magical academy where he trained under a dark high priest to learn the ways of the occult.”

“I think you’ve seen too many movies.”

“Julian!” a familiar, cheerful voice sounded from nearby. A head of dark hair bobbed through the crowd of people before Taylor appeared, his lips stretching into a toothy smile once he reached us. “I thought that was you. What’s up?”

“We’re here to meet with Callum,” Julian responded. “Well, we were. This line’s too freaking long. I think we’ll come back when he’s not so busy.”

“Yeah.” Taylor glanced toward the back room, and maybe I was wrong, but he seemed a little disappointed. “I came to see him too. Totally forgot he’s such a busy guy.” His smile remained in place, even if it didn’t quite reach his eyes anymore. “I’m sure he’ll see us when he can.”

The three of us then left the shop. Perfect timing, too, because while I wasn’t necessarily claustrophobic, the large crowd of people crammed into such a small space had been starting to get to me. I breathed in the fresh air and expelled it. Then did it again.

“You should record a video for our page,” Julian said as we advanced down the sidewalk with no direction in mind. He glanced up at a tree we passed. “It’s a beautiful day. Colorful leaves and sunny skies.”

“The perfect backdrop for my pretty face?”

Taylor barked out a laugh.

The two of them found a bench in the courtyard while I whipped out my phone and recorded a short video. I said Julian and I were hard at work reviewing evidence and editing the episodes and that we planned to post the first one from Lockton soon. I panned over to him once, and he gave an awkward little wave I knew our viewers would eat up. I also took a few selfies to post on our socials.

It wasn’t until I was testing out filters on the photo that I noticed something in the background. Two guys with guitar cases. I whirled around to look at the coffeeshop across the street. A large flyer advertised open-mic nights and local musicians every Friday and Saturday night. To sign up, you had to go inside and speak to the manager.

“You should sign up.”

“Huh?” I glanced at Julian. “Sign up for what, the musician thing? Nah, I’m good. I was just looking.”

“You love playing your guitar and have always said it’d be cool to do something like that.”

“It’s just a hobby. Besides, we’re too busy. Our subscribers are expecting the first episode by Thanksgiving.”