“Shut it, bitch,” Sunny growled, and Phil cackled, amused. He was setting up a static camera at the end of the cellblock where the gates were.
“Do you really believe in this?” I asked Sunny, who didn’t hesitate to nod.
“Brother, I’ve seen and heard things I can’t explain. I wasn’t superstitious or interested in the paranormal until Callie came along, and even then, I sat on the fence. The thing I loved about it was how Callie would light up. She becomes a different person on camera. Callie knows her shit and loves this stuff. When she first hit the screen, I was shocked at how confident she was. Sure, Callie got scared, but she doesn’t hold back from going in.”
“Madi has seen every episode and, by default, so have I. The woman on TV isn’t the Callie we know,” I said.
“But she is. Nobody witnessed this side of Callie, because they weren’t looking.”
“You were, brother,” Levi stated, and I nodded.
“Come on, look at her siblings. Even Clio had made something of herself with Chance’s help. Callie had nothing, no college education, no skills; she was scraping by. While I care for Thalia and Polly, they had it easy, and it shows. They were so quick to ridicule Callie for an unusual love; Callie kept it private in the end. I very much doubt they ever watched an episode until they all fell out.”
“Can’t disagree there, although Rain seems relaxed,” I said.
“True and out of them, Rain is the one Callie is closest to.”
“Which pains Polly as they are—Jesus, what do we call them?” I laughed. They were quintuplets, but Clio and Thalia were identical twins, as were Polly and Callie. Rain was the odd man out.
“Quint twins! Only Rain didn’t have a double.”
“No, thank God Thalia and Clio dress differently; otherwise, they’d be hell to tell apart. Polly has a freckle under her eye that Callie doesn’t, so I can identify those two,” Levi said.
“Yeah. Polly’s also more muscled,” Sunny said, and I agreed.
“Now what?” I asked as Phil came back towards us. We’d been setting up a camera in a cell that was rumoured to be very active, and items had moved in it.
“Now we get out of here, I feel like my skin is crawling,” Sunny muttered and sent a glance over his shoulder.
That was when I uttered the fateful words. “Ghost’s ain’t real, man.”
Callie
I winced as Levi spoke and held my breath. Knowing what had supposedly occurred in the past, both Madi and I froze. As we watched the monitor and nothing happened, we relaxed. Then Madi cursed the three of them.
“The activity was probably a story created to draw visitors in—how disappointing!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth, a cell door behind Sunny, Levi, and Phil shut forcefully.
“Oh, shit!” Madi exclaimed.
Instantly, I leaned forward, searching for a figure or anything to alert me that there was a presence. A door slammed closed, and then a third.
Sunny and Levi swapped glances.
“Fuckin’ idiot!” Sunny bellowed and took to his heels. Levi stood dumbstruck for a few moments until Phil shot past, running at full speed. As Levi gaped, cell doors started slamming shut one after another, and finally, his sense of self-preservation kicked in.
“Callie! I hope the fuck you’re getting this!” Sunny roared.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t help it and began giggling at the look of alarm on his face, which the static camera was capturing. Sunny flew past, and I watched wide-eyed as he jumped the stairs, Levi right behind him.
“Holy crap,” Madi gasped as a camera there caught their expressions. Panic and fear filled them, and Sunny shot Levi a furious glance as they took off again.
Cellblock eight had just woken up, and its inmates were making their presence known. Despite the great footage we were getting, I saw the humorous side of this. I giggled again as Levi and Sunny began arguing in the salt circle, and then Phil raced off as he realised Sunny had broken it.
By the time they made it outside to safety, I was howling. I’d never seen anything funnier than two massive bikers running from a ghost. Levi’s panicked shriek was something I’d play repeatedly. Madi was sitting beside me, crying tears of laughter as Freddie filmed us. This would feature in the episode, but I didn’t care. It was too funny.
“Your woman is as insane as mine!” I heard Sunny complain and stopped giggling to growl at him.
