The ferry stopped at the dock on the shore of North Carolina from here it was a three hour
Drive to the next location. Harbor and co found themselves waiting several hours in yet another long line to rent a car before they were finally able to hit the road again mid afternoon.
Katie drove this time, Ellie taking shotgun. Liam and Harbor sat in the back while May just kinda floated around and took over wherever they felt like taking over. Harbor found the entire thing rather peaceful, he felt the weight and stress of the last few days lift off his shoulders finally able to relax somewhere safe.
“So this church, what do we know about it?” Katie asked from the wheel.
“Nothing much honestly.” Liam admitted, “I did a bit of research, but the place is almost off the map, I could barely find directions to the place.”
“How lovely,” Harbor muttered to himself, “Well, did you find anything on the town new letters, post about the place, advertisements from local businesses, anything?”
Liam shook his head, “Nothing, I found an official page of the place, but it hasn’t been updated since it was published in 2002.”
May and Harbor winced, “That’s not suspicious at all.” May muttered.
“Yeah no joke.” Liam and Harbor replied in unison.
Ellie and Katie glanced at each other in confusion, before shaking their heads and dismissing it as the ghost they were apparently carrying around with them. How fun.
“So were going into a town we know virtually nothing about, except the official website page from 2002 and some advice from a couple murderous ghost.” Ellie spelt out.
Harbor shrugged, already accepting his fate, “yeah pretty much.” He agreed.
“We’re going to die.” Katie muttered to herself.
“Oh yeah absolutely.” May agreed even though Katie couldn’t hear them.
“How much longer until we get there anyway?” Liam pipped up.
“According to the gps, two more hours.” Ellie replied.
May and HArbor groaned in unison, “It’s only been an hour!” They both winned together, pouting.
Liam stared at the duo, “The similarities are uncanny,” He muttered to himself.
Ellie and KAtie chose to ignore the chaos happening in the back seat of the car they drove. It was not their problem.
The next few hours of the car ride passed in relative ease. Soft music filled the car they drove. Light chatter came and went unabated, Harbor even managed a nap mid way through passing out against the passengers window. May did their damndest to draw on his face. They, however, did not have hands and were therefore rather unsuccessful in their endeavor. Liam found himself struggling to hold in a laugh at their antics.
The car drove through relatively untouched nature, along a badly damaged road that looked like it hadn't had work done on it in decades. The bumps and pot hole woke the sleeping twink riding in the backseat. Jolting his wake rather rudely, causing him to slam his head against the door.
“Ow.” He winced as he sat up, blinking his eyes to clear up his vision.
“Imagine.” May commented, smug.
Harbor stared at them unabated, “Imagine.” He shot back, glaring.
May huffed, sticking their tounge out.
Harbor mimicked their reaction.
Liam couldn’t hold back his laugh at this, his chest rumbled and shoulders shock as muffled laughter filtered through his hand pressed against his mouth.
Harbor and May turned their attention to him, huffing at his reaction to them.
Liam laughed harder. A pothole caused him to bite his tongue. “ACK!” His laugh cut off suddenly, hand still pressed against his mouth, “Ow my tongue.” He complained, wincing.
“Vengeance.” May declared, arms crossed, looking smug.
Harbor laughed, “Are you ok?” He managed to asked through his mirth.
“I’m doing great.” Liam huffed.
The car rocked again as it hit gravel road, kicking up dust behind it.
“We’re here,” Ellie called to the two in the back.
May floated up front staring intently out the window. “Damn this place is deserted.” They commented as their eyes flicked past dense trees and broken down houses with overgrown plants climbing the sides of the buildings, roofs caved in, many half collapsed.
Harbor and Liam peered out their own windows.
“Does anyone even live here?” Harbor asked, brow furrowing as unease settled into his mind, trying to dislodge reason and install paranoia.
“I’m starting to think this may be a ghost town,” Liam admitted as he observed the state of the buildings and plants around them as they slowly passed.
Katie hummed in agreement as she seared the car slowly past the missing part of the road and tree limbs that had fallen onto it. “Looks like this road hasn’t been taken care of at all either,” She commented as she dodged yet another fallen tree limb.
“How far away is the church?” May asked, absentmindedly, main focus still on the scenery before them.
Harbor, after a moment of silence causing him to remember May was, in fact, a ghost, repeated May’s question to the duo in front, “Where is the church?”
“Uhhh,” Ellie reached for the GPS searching around, fingers tapping the screen, zooming in and out looking all across the map, “It doesn’t show me.” She admitted as she fiddled with the device.
“Lovely.” Harbor huffed, “We’ll just be driving around looking for it then?” He questioned, irritation welling up before he pushed it back down again, this was more or less to be expected from a ghost town.
“Looks like it,” Ellie confirmed as she turned the phone off, placing it back into the center counsel.
May floated back into the back, “Looks like we're going to be searching for a while,” They commented, settling back down between Liam and Harbor.
Harbor huffed, “Looks like it.”
The car slowed as it entered the main part of the town. Stores had bordered up windows and a few looked partly burned down. The wood making the buildings seemed to be rooting away and the few made of brick stood in only slightly better condition. An intersection presented itself on the narrow road.
Katie stopped the car. “Which way?” She asked the crew.
“Left.” May replied without hesitation sounding mildly bored.
“Left.” Liam repeated with a nod of his head.
The car turned left traveling past more buildings in various states of decay. Harbor felt a shiver roll down his spine as he looked at the buildings. He really did not like this place. MAy drifted closer to their friend sharing the feeling of dread and dismay. This entire place gave them the creeps. They really did not like ghost towns.
“Well this definitely explains the lack of online activity in this place.” Liam muttered to himself.
Harbro nodded in agreement.
“Hey look at the church!” Ellie exclaimed.
May perked up floating into the front and looking out the window, eyes being drawn onto the largest building in this town, as well as the most taken care of. It seemed to be in pristine condition.
“Well that’s not suspicious at all.” May commented floating back.
Liam and Harbor moved forward to peer out as well, getting a better view of the place. Harbor frowned and Liam winced.
“Yeah, that’s not a good sign.” Liam agreed with his new ghostly friend.
“Not at all.” Harbor agreed as he sat back down in his seat, beginning to dread the stop at the church. This did not leave him with a good feeling in the slightest.
May laughed quietly to themself, nervous, “Maybe we shouldn't trust the ghost that tried to kill us yes?”
“I would agree, but we don’t have any more leads.” Harbor pointed out, mood dropping as he realized he would be spending more time in this creepy old place.
May winced, breathing in through their teeth, which would have made some sort of sound had they not been dead and a ghost. May felt the whirlwind of panic and indecision lessen resolve moving in as they confronted the reality of the situation.
It was either to go into a creepy church or be stuck without hands for the rest of eternity, or however long it took for them to move on to the afterlife. Their eyes flickered over to Harbor, then to their new friends that had made. Did Ellie and Katie count as friends? They would when May finally got their body back.
The car rolled into a stop in front of the church. Katie parked it. The group sat in tense silence before the looming building. Harbor took a deep breath. Liam gripped his hand. Ellie and Katie’s hands held each other in a firm grip.
“Well I’d rather be in before the sun goes down.” May announced laughing awkwardly to themself as they looked around the car observing their friends' reactions.
Harbor felt a bit of the tension that had settled into his psyche. A wobbly grin made its way onto his face. “Let’s go then.” He announced opening the door and swinging his leg out stepping onto the gravel road.
Liam’s soft smile found its way onto his face as he exited the side door opposite of Harbor. MAking his way around the back to stand by his side. May floated out of the car roof floating above them all. Ellie and KAtie exited as well. Katie pops the trunk to grab a few necessary tools for the group to plunge into the haunted church.
Liam and Harbro waited with nervous ambition for the two to return to them as they waited in front of the church.
“Let’s go!” Ellie called out as she came running to them holding the box between her hands.
Katie closed the trunk with a slam before joining them. All four plus ghosts looked up at the entrance to the place. Harbro took one more deep breath as he stepped forwards.
“Here we go.” He muttered to himself as his arms pushed the door, it opened with surprising ease. Revealing a small room covered in religious decor and old papers pinned to a message board long since used.
The rest of the party filled in behind him.
May jittered with anxiety as Harbor approached the next door. Harbor pushed it open before he gave himself a chance to second guess himself. This was the last stop to make May human again. He wasn’t going to waste it.
The door opened. Harbor stepped in.
