The Collector Read online

  The Collector

  By Z. Hanny

  Copyright by ZHanny Publishing. All rights reserved.

  Challenged

  Shopping Season

  A Run in with Security

  The Top Floor

  Nightfall

  A Playground in the Dark

  The Virtual Reality

  Broken Footage

  The Elevator

  Jennifer

  Blaine

  Jared

  Dashed Hopes

  Basement One

  Lights On

  Lights Out

  The Children

  Barriers

  BreakIn

  Arson

  The Collector

  Grief

  Special Thanks:

  Chapter 1

  Challenged

  Jared flicked the camera to off and the live button darkened. He lowered it and both Jennifer and Blaine smiled at him. Blaine gave him a thumbs up, his breath fogging in the chill air.

  “You got all of that, right?” Jennifer asked. “That should have been a perfect shot from the angle you’re at.”

  “Yeah, I got it Jen,” Jared said as he looked through the footage he’d just taken. “Come on, don’t doubt my abilities as a cinematographer.”

  Jennifer laughed and turned to follow the path out of the woods. The other two ambled after her, Jared keeping his camera ready in case any good footage arose.

  “We may not have found Big Foot,” Blaine said, “but I think that people are still going to be interested in the odd places we found out here.”

  “Yeah, and a title like ‘Almost Found Big Foot’ is great clickbait,” Jared added. The two laughed together, stumbling over the roots creeping across the path. The woods were so quiet that every branch they snapped sounded loud and harsh. If Big Foot was out here, he’d heard them coming from a mile away.

  Jared checked his phone and saw that he had service once again, so he trailed behind the other two while he searched through a few social media posts. It was his job to maintain the YouTube channel’s accounts and most other things, partly because he posted all of the content and partly because he genuinely enjoyed it. When he opened his Twitter account, he stopped walking to read a comment addressed to them.

  “Hey guys,” he said. The other two stopped and looked back before he waved them over. “Listen to this. Seriously Strange Mysteries tagged us and challenged us to do one of those twenty-four-hour challenges. They said that we should do it in the old Erickson building in our hometown.”

  “What’s the Erickson building?” Blaine asked.

  “It’s that building downtown with the Craig’s Department Store in it,” Jennifer said. “That’s its actual name.”

  “I don’t know if I really want to do that,” Blaine muttered.

  “There are a lot of people commenting on it,” Jared continued. He tried to ignore Blaine’s uneasy shifting from foot to foot. “A lot of people are expecting us to do this.”

  “This doesn’t even have to do with our channel,” Blaine retorted.

  “Well, the building is rumored to be incredibly haunted,” Jennifer said. “Blaine, we should do it. If we don’t then Seriously Strange Mysteries is going to outdo us - not to mention the follower outrage if we refused to do it. We can’t let that happen.”

  “Blaine, let’s do it,” Jared said. “Think of the views we could get for this. Not only is the challenge popular right now, but if we do it somewhere haunted then it’ll boost our ratings. Besides, you’re always the one antagonizing Seriously Strange Mysteries.” He raised his eyebrows at his friend.

  Blaine grew silent, glancing from Jen to Jared. He sighed, shoulders sagging. “Alright, we can do it. But if we get in trouble doing this, you two are taking the fall.”

  Jen and Jared grinned at one another before agreeing. The group reached the end of the forest, ducking under the low branches of the pine trees and stepping out onto the open road. Jared’s red car was parked further down on the shoulder.

  They drove into town and Jared pulled up outside of Blaine’s house.

  “Alright,” he began, turning in the seat so that he could see both of them. “Tomorrow morning, nine a.m. We’ll meet at the department store as soon as they open, yeah?”

  Jen nodded. “Make sure you two get a good night’s sleep. Don’t stay up editing late, or playing videogames.” She looked reproachfully from one to the other. Blaine slipped out of the back seat and waved as they sped down the street, making the short drive two blocks over to Jennifer’s.

  Parked out front of the darkened ranch, they relaxed back into the seats.

  “You think he’ll be okay?” Jared asked, turning so that he could see the Jen’s profile against the darkening sky.

  She shrugged. “You know how he gets. He’s always so jumpy. As long as we get him to approach it logically...I mean, he has to understand that it’s for the good of the team, right?”

  They sat in silence for a few more moments before Jen sighed and got out, jogging to the front door.

  Jared found a note from his mother on the kitchen countertop when he arrived home. She’d left something to eat for dinner in the fridge and said that the hospital had called her back in to work a late shift.

  He opened the refrigerator door, stared at all of the viable options, and then chose the pint of ice cream in the freezer.

  Nothing good could be found on his favorite networks so he spent the rest of the night looking through his different profiles and watching random videos on the internet.

  He sat back in the computer chair, considering editing the video footage from earlier in the day. But if he started in on that he’d be up to the early morning hours and Jen would be frustrated with him. Little to no sleep made for sloppy footage.

  Instead Jared found himself looking up information on the Erickson building. He didn’t like going into things blind, and they’d probably be narrating some of the adventure. That was part of the point of these challenges – to draw in viewers with the morbid history of local haunts.

  Only one news article came up on the screen. It talked about a few employees complaining that the building was haunted and refusing to work nights. Something struck Jared as off, and he scrolled back up quickly.

  The building was only thirty years old.

  In the photos it didn’t look haunted at all.

  He searched the employees’ names and found a Facebook profile belonging to one of the people mentioned in the article.

  The person appeared as available online, and Jared hesitated only for a second before sending a brief but polite message:

  Hi Charlotte, I was hoping you’d be able to answer a few questions for me. I came across an article about the Erickson building and saw that you weren‘t willing to work overnight at Craig’s. Any chance you could explain why?

  He sat back and drummed on the edge of the desk with a pencil, waiting. The woman in the profile picture couldn’t be older than forty and she didn’t have a crazy look about her. A nice smile, cropped hair, and two kids in the photo with her.

  A notification popped up on the screen showing that Charlotte had seen his message. He waited for the little dots indicated that she was typing, but they never came. Instead the green dot showing that she was available blinked out.

  “Alright then,” he muttered, hunching back over the computer. Jared was the kind of person who, once deterred, would dig in even deeper. He went back to the search page and read through descriptions of the few options that came up.

  A forum appeared further down on the screen because they had referred to the building by a different name, but it shared the same address. Jared’s gaze worked back and forth across the conversations, catching bits and pieces of information: ghost s
ightings, disembodied voices, feeling like they were being watched, figures wandering the narrow halls.

  A notification popped up in the corner of the screen, showing that Charlotte had written back.

  Just STAY AWAY.

  Jared’s heart pounded as he read the words. Charlotte began typing again.

  And don’t contact me again.

  He sat back, frowning. That was a pretty strong reaction from someone who seemed sane. Clicking out of the screen, he went back to the forum, looking into the profiles of a few people posting on there. They all seemed relatively normal, too. No town drunks or known crazies.

  He plugged his phone in and set an alarm before docking the camera into the computer to charge and upload the day’s footage. After locking up the house, he burrowed down among the blankets and forced himself to sleep.

  Chapter 2

  Shopping Season

  The next morning, Jared drove over to Jennifer’s house and sent her a text as soon as he put the car in park. She responded saying that she’d be out in a minute, but it took several before she appeared out the front door. This was something he and Blaine were used to – although Jen was one of very few girls as intrigued by the paranormal and strange as they were, she did still primp now and again.

  When she got in the front seat she handed Jared a muffin.

  “Mom wanted to make sure you had breakfast,” she said, adjusting the seatbelt. “And she made two dozen of those last night. So we’ve got more than enough snacks.” She held up a plastic container holding quite a few more, jostling it.

  “What did you do last night?” she asked.

  “I looked a little more into the Erickson building. I didn’t find a lot, except that some night workers quit because they said it was haunted.”

  Jennifer snorted. “Don’t tell Blaine that. The last thing we need is him hearing rumors and getting freaked out. Anything else?” His face must have given something away, because she prompted him again. He sighed as they turned onto Blaine’s road.

  “I found one of the employees who quit on Facebook and messaged her.” He winced, knowing that Jen wouldn’t approve of his encroaching on someone’s privacy, and held his hands up in defense. “The article didn’t say much more, and I was just trying to find out what exactly had everyone so convinced the place is haunted. She responded and told me to just stay away from the building.”

  Jennifer’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her bangs. “Spooky. But she’s probably just been bugged before by kids who hunt her down on social media. Did you bring everything that we need for this?”

  Jared pointed to the back seat where his backpack full of supplies and all of the filming equipment were ready to go. He slowed in front of Blaine’s house, seeing that he was already out on the curb with his pant leg rolled up and his bare calf sticking out in the road.

  Jennifer rolled her window down and giggled, “How much for a night?”

  Blaine laughed in response as he climbed into the backseat and placed his small string pack on the floor. He glanced at Jared’s pack and equipment.

  “We are going to look way too suspicious,” Blaine complained. “We should just film this on our phones. What if we have to run? How’re you planning on getting out of there loaded up like a camel?”

  “We’re not going to have to run,” Jared insisted, “But I guess, you’re right. A camera is just so much better than our phones...the shots are better, cleaner, and I can create effects. And depending on what the lighting is like -” He paused, recognizing the blank looks on his friend’s faces. “Alright, alright. Take some of the food out of my pack and put it in yours. We can all just cut the footage together later and edit everything. Our phones will have to do.”

  “Except Jennifer,” Blaine said. “Her camera is smashed.”

  “Nope, I got it fixed,” Jen held her phone up and took a picture of him, then showed it to them both. “Did everyone come up with a good excuse for their parents?”

  “Yeah,” Blaine replied.

  “My mom has to work all night again,” Jared said. “I left a note saying I’d be at Blaine’s house.”

  She nodded, then turned on the radio and started looking through her phone. Jared drove onto the freeway which was uncharacteristically clear because of the holidays. Everyone was hoping for a white Christmas, but Jared was glad it hadn’t snowed yet. It made wandering around in the woods easier and he wasn’t a fan of stumbling through snow drifts.

  The drive to downtown didn’t take long, about three full songs, and they entered busier traffic. Christmas decorations dangled down from the light posts and when Jennifer rolled the window a little bit, light music could be heard coming from one of the buildings.

  “This is such a great time of year,” she sighed. “I love all the colors when the weather is grey. It makes everything look brighter. Also, a great time to do a challenge like this with all the Christmas shoppers to hide amongst.”

  “Yeah, hopefully people actually shop at this department store,” Jared said with a chuckle.

  They pulled into the parking lot that Craig’s shared with two other buildings. The rows were almost full, late Christmas shoppers driving around in circles looking for an open spot.

  “Who’d of thought that it’d be this busy this early in the morning,” Jared commented.

  The first open spot they found was filled before they could reach it. Two rows down they almost got backed into by an oversized Ford, but the person managed to maneuver themselves out and Jared snagged the empty spot. Though the other two stores were already open, a line gathered outside Craig’s.

  Jennifer lifted her phone up so that the camera could capture her face and the crowd behind them.

  “Good morning everybody, this is Project Mysterious, and we are here at the Erickson building before it opens for the day. We’ll be participating in the twenty-four-hour overnight challenge. The plan is to spend the day inside during open hours and then hide away for the night until everyone leaves.”

  She turned, panning the camera across the front of the brick building.

  “The building is claimed to be haunted,” she continued. “We even received a message warning us to stay away from here, but it wasn’t enough to scare us away. We’re here to bring you the best footage possible.”

  Jared glanced at Blaine, who’s face had gone blank at the mention of the warning. He shrugged apologetically.

  Jen lowered the phone, then nodded at the other two to get their things together. They joined in at the back of the line and listened to customers chatter about what sales were on, what gifts they still had to buy, and how much longer until the doors would open. Jared took a few shots of the people standing in front of them and of the building itself.

  Even though all of the clothing and equipment displayed in the window was brand new, the building was incredibly dated, at least one hundred years old. The owners of the property had tried to keep up its appearance but cracks scaled the side of the building and several bricks had fallen from their place. They lay crumbling among bare azalea bushes and dried out mulch.

  The group heard someone mention the snow before they saw it - flakes drifting down gently from the grey clouds above. Jen immediately broke out into a wide smile and several of the younger children in line jumped with joy at the sight.

  A woman popped out through the front door of the department store and gestured for the line to start entering. Jared braced himself for a stampede, but the everyone managed to make their way in politely, even holding the door open for whoever was behind them.

  Blaine and Jared stepped aside quickly to film the entrance and the crowd of shoppers slipping in.

  “Maybe I can find something for my mom while we’re here,” Jen said as they walked through the front entrance, past the employee making sure that everyone was on their best behavior. “I haven’t gotten her anything for Christmas yet. She’s impossible.”

  They stepped into the open space just inside the entrance and looked aro
und, craning to see over the crowd of people dispersing among the aisles. “Let’s start by taking our time to observe the store, since we’re going to be here for a while. We should know our way around.”

  They scanned the area filled with various furniture ranging from beds to dressers. Jared went to the nearest bed and laid on it, then pretend to sleep for a moment. He sprawled out in every different position that he slept in before hopping up.

  “That is a comfortable bed,” he said. “Too bad we can’t just sleep on this thing tonight.”

  Jennifer leaned close and whispered, “We didn’t think about the cameras. They might see us at night.”

  Jared scanned the ceiling, pinpointing the cameras easily.

  “The other challenge videos I’ve seen show that the people doing them hid in one area the entire night. Somewhere the cameras can’t see. Luckily...those cameras are fake.”

  “Are you sure?” Blaine asked, peering up at the ceiling.

  Jared nodded. “Yup. You don’t see any blinking lights, right? And look – further out into the store, there aren’t any more cameras. Those are just for show, to stop people from shoplifting.”

  “I didn’t really think about how boring this place was going to be.” Jennifer frowned.

  “We just got here,” Blaine laughed, and walked on to try and find the most comfortable chairs available. “You two, we’re going to be in college soon and have to think about buying stuff like this. Consider tonight an opportunity to shop around, get an idea of what we’ll need.”

  “Yeah, that I am excited for,” Jennifer said, taking a seat next to him and stretching her legs out..

  “Look at the price tag.”

  She leaned over and turned the yellow tag hanging from the side. “That I am not excited about. Take a picture of me sleeping in it.”

  She pretended to sleep, and Jared took a quick picture. She whispered something about sleeping there at night, but then shook her head and stood up. The group walked through the furniture, weaving around the ottomans and coffee tables.