The Supernaturals (29 page)

The room was silent, watching the conviction grow in Kennedy’s eyes.

“It devours people, and there has to be a reason for it. As I said before, those it doesn’t want, it will scare. Those that it does want, those whom it likes, or those who may cause it harm, or those who get a little too close to its secret...It will eat them alive.” Gabriel moved slowly around the table, looking off toward the distant Pocono Mountains. “Insanity is the closest I can get to describing what’s in there. Horror is just a word. Haunting is another. But whatever walks there, it wants mayhem and death. It’s as if it uses these to cover a purpose. Our job, before the thirty-first, is to find out what that purpose is.”

“Researching the family, the house?” Peterson asked. He pulled his notepad forward with a small roll of his eyes.

“Everything about the family, the house, and the grounds, all the way up to and through the live broadcast. Anyone who isn’t on assignment or going out live will report to the ballroom, where they will continue going over all the research that I have gathered about Summer Place. They will be connected to mainframes at NYU and Columbia here in the city. They will have computing power. They’ll be able to dig all the way past curtain time.” Gabriel he finally smiled down on Feuerstein, who returned it most uneasily.

“I assume that doesn’t mean you want technical people in the ballroom, Professor,” Peterson said with a smile.

Kennedy returned the smug look. “As far as I am concerned, Mr. Peterson, you do not exist. Anything outside of Summer Place is not my problem. My job will be to make sure those people inside the belly of the beast remain alive for the fourteen hours they are there. The control van, the producers, you’ll all be on your own, with the warning that Summer Place may not be able to be controlled.”

“We’ll risk it, Professor. Now, you say fourteen hours inside the house?”

Gabriel held Peterson’s glare, and then smiled.

“That’s right, fourteen hours. Everyone needs to get a feel for the physicality of the house. Remember, we’ll be mostly in the dark for the broadcast hours.”

“How many camera teams will there be all together?” Jason Sanborn asked, looking from the Kennedy and Peterson to Kelly and Harris Dalton.

“We’ll have six teams, fifteen static cameras, and the entire house rigged for viewing. Nothing will be able to move in that house without us knowing about it,” Kelly said proudly.

“It’s not you that will be watching the house; it will be the house watching us.”

Kennedy turned toward Jennifer.

“What was that honey?” he asked.

Professor Tilden placed her coffee cup down upon the table and then tried to smile.

“The house already knows you’re coming, Gabriel. It has a connection with more than you in this room. This little meeting has been observed from the moment it began.”

“What are you saying young lady?” CEO Feuerstein asked from his chair in the corner, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his aging knees.

“It’s like Gabriel’s Summer Place has been waiting for this moment since its existence began, long after it was built.”

“She’s right, Gabriel. I have been getting vibes ever since the professor’s performance this afternoon,” George Cordero said, looking very much concerned. “It’s like Miss Tilden’s presence has given me a boost of some kind, like I’m a battery that was once drained, but is now connected by jumper cables to a fresh one.”

“Oh come on, enough with the mysticism. Say what you mean,” Lionel Peterson interrupted.

“What I mean to say, Mr. Producer Man, is that Summer Place, or whatever is trapped there, is here right now, in this room.” George stood and moved around the table. “It’s like a tiger examining its prey, and let me tell you this: it’s not afraid of what its seeing. It’s anticipatory. I get the feeling that it believes we are there to harm it, to stop it from doing what it does best, what it feels it has the right to do.” He stopped and looked at Gabriel. “It’s there to protect something, just like the professor has surmised. Whether it’s the house itself, or a secret, it’s not afraid of us. It figures it has that right—at least that’s the way I figure it.”

“And that is?” Feuerstein asked, leaning forward in his chair. “I mean, what right is that?”

Kelly watched the old man. He was taking this in, hook, line and sinker. She could have kissed Cordero and Tilden for their performances.

“Why, the same as any living entity—the right to defend itself,” Jennifer answered for Cordero.

They all looked at Jenny and a chill filled the room.

“Do you feel it?” John Lonetree asked Gabriel.

Indeed he did. The room temperature had fallen by twenty degrees, just as it had before. Feuerstein watched his breath fog in the air in front of him.

“I think this is one little trip that you’ll have to make without old George, Gabe,” Cordero said as he moved away from the table.

At that moment, the double doors of the conference room creaked. They all looked that way as the sound repeated. Then came the cracking of wood. The doors were actually bending inward.

Peterson stood, angry at being toyed with. He started toward the doors, but the air became almost impossible to breathe—it was as if something were sitting upon the chests of everyone in the room.

“No!” Harris Dalton reached out and grabbed Peterson’s arm. “Leave it!” he hissed.

Abe Feuerstein, closest to the double wooden doors, stood and backed away. The smile he wore was a mask to try to cover the fear he was really feeling. He bumped into the long table between Kelly and Julie.

The door handles started rattling and the doors bent further in.

Kennedy looked at Jennifer. She wasn’t watching what was happening. She saw with eyes closed as whatever was outside of the room continued to put pressure on the doors.

Finally, the left side door cracked down the middle from the pressure exerted upon it. Then, as quickly as the phenomenon had started, it ceased. The room temperature immediately rose back to normal and the air was clear of the suffocating atmosphere from a moment before.

Peterson threw off Harris’ restraining hand and went to the double doors. He examined the crack and then suddenly threw the door open. Outside, all was normal in the news division. People went from desk to desk sharing assignment reports and the soft clacks of typing filled the air. Not one person outside the conference room had heard a thing.

“Who the hell is fucking around out here?” he demanded from the doorway.

The few people closest to the conference room stopped what they were doing and looked at Peterson as if the man had lost his mind.

“Close the door, Lionel,” Feuerstein said. He gently pulled the entertainment president back inside.

Everyone in the room was shaken. Kennedy didn’t even know how to proceed.

“It knows what scares us.”

“What was that, Jenny?” Kennedy asked Tilden.

She looked up, and her eyes went from face to face.

“It knows what scares us, and has the power to project that over time and space.” She finally looked back at Kennedy and then lowered her head.

“Are you all right, Jenny?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She seemed to be listening to something—she tilted her head first left and then to the right.

“It’s laughing at you, Gabriel. It’s laughing at all of us.” She looked at Kennedy. “It hates.”

“What?” Peterson asked, by the door. “What did she say?”

“I said, it hates.”

After the chills
had departed and everyone settled back in, Kennedy sat silently by the large easel at the front of the room. He swallowed and then looked up. He was afraid he was showing his emotions on his face. John Lonetree, who had pulled his chair closer to Jennifer’s, finally looked up at him and shook his head slightly.

Kelly Delaphoy didn’t like the way Professor Kennedy had been looking at the members of the broadcast team since the assault on the conference room door. He was once more feeling the effects of Summer Place. She needed to boost his confidence and get him back on track, make him defend his right to find out what happened to his student and himself.

“So, Mr. Peterson,” Kelly said. She glanced at Feuerstein to make sure he was paying attention. The old man was in the process of wiping his brow, and she could see that he had been as affected by the demonstration of power from Summer Place as the others in the room. “Do you think that was a gag concocted by me and my team?”

Peterson didn’t hesitate to attack even this most obvious of demonstrations.

“If you’re asking if I’m convinced it was that house reaching out to us here in New York, no, Kelly, I’m not convinced at all. Now, I will allow you this: I have no doubt that our environment can be altered. Ms. Tilden herself has obvious powers. Combine that with Mr. Lonetree, Mr. Cordero, and the expectations we all feel—well, I’m sure you can see my point.” Peterson looked from Kelly to Feuerstein. “It’s just a house, for crying out loud.”

Abe Feuerstein nodded and stood from his seat. He was grateful to be able to perform that simple movement; a moment before he had literally been scared stiff. For a man who knew himself to be a non-believer, he was slowly coming around to Kennedy’s point of view.

“I understand your consternation, Lionel. Before this morning I suppose that even I had certain...doubts about what we were trying to attempt here. But after what just happened—whatever just happened—I feel that no matter what, we at least have the makings of a very special show here.” He held up his hand, silencing Peterson. “Whether it was Summer Place or just the power emanating from some of the people in this room, that’s neither here nor there. If the event I just witnessed can be reproduced on Halloween, this will be the most spectacular special in this network’s short history. Of that I have no doubt whatsoever.”

“So, what are you saying, sir?” Kelly asked and bit her lower lip.

“I came in here this morning to see Professor Kennedy and his team, to judge what we had sitting in our laps, if you will. If I hadn’t been impressed, I was going to pull the plug on this thing. But now? You are a
go.
” He turned and hesitated, running his fingers slowly over the crack in the thick wood. He turned to look at Kennedy. “Anything you need Professor, anything at all, it’s yours.” He turned toward Peterson. “Lionel, make this happen. God I love this business,” He opened the door, admiring the crack as he did, and then left.

Kelly Delaphoy nodded
as everyone filed past her. She made as if she were gathering her notes and materials as she watched the others leave. It was Julie Reilly who stopped and gave Kelly a curious look, and neither of them saw Kennedy pause at the door with a glance back. As he turned to leave he saw Leonard Sickles looking at the left side of the double doors, running his hand up and down the crack in the wood. He looked up at Gabriel and they locked eyes, and then with one more glance back at the producer of
Hunters of the Paranormal
and her ace field reporter, Kennedy nodded at Leonard and they both left.

“Well, how do you think that went?” Kelly asked as she slid her notes into her case.

Julie didn’t respond at first. Then she smiled.

“Impressive demonstrations—all,” Julie answered.

“That Professor Tilden is something isn’t she? She’s going to be great for the show.”

Julie nodded slowly. She shifted her bag to her other shoulder and started for the door.

Kelly watched her leave, suspecting that the news woman wasn’t as easily impressed as the CEO. The demonstration here had made him feel his age, and started him questioning the here-after. He had played his part very well. She grinned to herself and then turned for the door. She was startled to see a middle aged man in a blue jumpsuit, looking over the crack in the wood. He turned his head and then closed the door, stepping inside.

“Maintenance ma’am.”

“Goddamn it, you could have waited for a few moments.” Kelly glared at the heavyset man as he placed his large toolbox on the tabletop.

“Take it easy. Peterson called me to get down here and fix the door.”

“You still could have waited,” Delaphoy said as she placed the strap to her large bag over her shoulder. “Can you get that…that thing out of the door frame without being noticed?”

 
“I got it in there without anyone seein’ me; I imagine I can get the hydraulic ram out without everyone knowin’ you fleeced them.” The man eyed Kelly in his arrogant way.

“What about the thermostat control?”

“Look, that first time wasn’t my fault. I was monitoring the thermostat settings when it went haywire and went down all on its own. I figured it was something with the internal thermometer and the temperature release valve in the wall.”

“The first time?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah. When that crazy professor broad was doing her ghost thing? I had nothing to do with that one. And that breeze that sprang up was pretty good. You’ll have to tell me how you did that.” The man finally eyed the smaller woman before him. “But the second time, when the door trick happened, the thermostat dropped without a hitch. That was mine, and that’s what you owe me for.”