Who: Kenzie and Chris and Rost When: Morning, Monday, January 8th Where: The cemetery Status: Complete
It had been a while since the fog, and nothing comparable had happened, so Chris was starting to unclench a little. This town was still fucking weird, he knew there were fucked up things happening all over Point Pleasant, but none of it was as blatantly terrifying on a grand fucking scale. The bad dreams had died down some, and Chris was grateful for that. There was no shortage of work in this town, so he’d thrown himself into it, just as Kenzie had done. The more they were working, the less they were sitting around and thinking. Fuck that shit.
Word had gotten around to them that something strange had happened at the cemetery. Several people had been hospitalized for exposure, and a few more had died from it. The ones who survived had described strange feelings while they were there, and the compulsion to stay out in the frigid temperatures. He and Kenzie had decided to go check it out Monday morning. They’d been through the cemetery already in their explorations, but never with a purpose in mind, or some of the gear they were taking today.
Chris woke up early and got a shower, then got some layers on and locked his room up, small backpack slung over one shoulder. He went down to Kenzie’s room and rapped with his knuckles, leaning against the doorframe.
Kenzie was sometimes in awe of how many notes she had taken about this town in the short amount of time they had been there. She had traveled quite a bit, and had seen quite a lot, but this was a different kind of place. For as small as the town was, it amazed her how oblivious so many of the locals were. She supposed it was possible they weren't oblivious, just apathetic. Or numb. Or this was just ordinary life to them. She and Chris had wandered through the marina on New Year's Eve and Kenzie was a bit taken aback by how quickly everyone seemed to have moved on from the fog, and everything that had come with it.
Today she was ready to check out the cemetery again, her notebook and digital camera in her own backpack. She was dressed warmly, her wool hat covering her ears, gloves on, boot laces tied. As interesting as this tiny town was, Kenzie still wished it was located somewhere south, where the weather was warmer this time of year. She was just sliding her backpack over her shoulder when Chris knocked at the door. She pulled it open and greeted him with a smile. "I'll drive," she declared, stepping out into the hall to shut her door behind her. "Did you have coffee yet? We can stop on the way if you want."
They’d been working pretty damn hard since the fog, not taking much time for themselves and ... whatever it was between them, but Chris still got a flutter in his chest when Kenzie opened the door. Especially with that smile of hers. It kind of made him want to crowd her back into her room so they could do a little pre-cold warmup, but he just backed up a step instead to make space for her, a half-smirk on his face. “Fine by me,” he murmured. “No coffee yet, no. So yeah, let’s stop. But c’mere first.” He snagged the sleeve of Kenzie’s jacket and pulled her in for a quick little kiss. They were out in the hallway, but there was no one around, so Chris wanted to give her a proper hello.
Her instinctive reaction was to pull back and make sure no one else was in the hallway, more specifically Nick, but then Chris's lips were on hers and it was hard to think about anything at all. She was feeling pretty warm when they parted and Kenzie was regretting that they had work to do. But there was always the possibility of... relaxing later, so Kenzie reached out to tug briefly at Chris's coat, since she couldn't exactly take his hand or anything. "Coffee," she murmured with a pleased sort of smile before turning to lead him down the hall. "Did you sleep all right? I think the ghost in my bathroom was feeling restless since the light kept turning on. I suppose it could have just been an electrical issue, but..."
Chris had found that he really enjoyed making her smile like that. All of the having to be cautious about who saw them doing anything remotely couple-ish together was sort of a pain in the ass, but it was kind of fun at the same time. They were used to keeping secrets due to the nature of their work, but this was a happy sexy secret, just between the two of them. It was nice for a change. He tucked his hands into his coat pockets to behave himself as he walked with Kenzie, chuckling a bit. “Knowing this place, I’d vote for ghost,” he said. “I slept pretty good, yeah. No visitors I was aware of. You ready to crack this graveyard mystery, Scoobs?” Chris grinned at her.
She knew how annoying it could be to be sneaking around with a colleague nearby, but it was what it was. A part of Kenzie didn't think Nick would say anything to their superiors even if he found out, but she still didn't want to take the risk. She was a professional, and the thing with Chris was fun and a way to take the edge off in a town like this. It hadn't affected their work yet, and she had no plans to let it. Kenzie shot him a look as they reached the stairs. "You are Scoobs. I'm Velma." Kenzie reached into her pocket for the keys to their rental. "Do you think we should interview the grounds keeper if he's around? Maybe he can provide some insight into what's been going on there."
“Aw, c’mon, I’m totally Fred,” Chris protested, mock-offended and amused. “Or at least Shaggy, cut me a break here.” Nevermind that he’d called her the dog’s name first, that didn’t matter. “I always thought Velma was really hot though, so that tracks.” Chris controlled his tongue as they started down the steps toward the lobby, not quite wanting to get Kenzie all agitated before they went out on a job. She could be a pill if he messed with her work-mode. “If he’s there, yeah,” he said more seriously. “We’ll see what he knows. I wanna do some scans of the grounds too.”
It amused her that Chris would have found Velma hot. Most of the boys she knew when she was young always preferred Daphne. "You're more Fred than Shaggy. And if I hear you say zoinks once during this entire day, I will most definitely be sleeping in my own bed tonight," she warned him. Kenzie tried to brace herself for the cold they were about to walk out into and as soon as she pushed open the front door, she instantly wished she was back in her bed upstairs underneath all of the blankets. "We'll check and see if he's working and check out that trailer that's near the grounds. If he's not there, well, we can always track him down. I would love to hear what stories he has about that place. I wonder if this is the first time people have died there."
Chris laughed, making a mental note to slip a “zoinks” in somewhere, preferably when they were in bed together. She wouldn’t kick him out then, right? He would find out. Chris puffed some air out through his lips as the freezing air hit him, and dug his hands deeper into his pockets. “It wouldn’t surprise me if this wasn’t the first time,” he said to Kenzie. “Is he the only contact we’ve got at the cemetery? It’s gotta be owned by somebody, right?” The caretaker would of course know more about the day to day happenings at the graveyard, but he had to have bosses, if they couldn’t track him down directly. Chris bounced on the balls of his feet a bit when they reached the car, pulling open the passenger side door the instant Kenzie unlocked it.
"He's the only contact I have so far," Kenzie admitted. "I imagine we would probably have to talk to someone at the town hall about it, but the caretaker is probably the best person to talk about the experiences with." She buckled up and started the engine, adjusting the heat accordingly, even though it would take a few minutes for the vehicle to warm up. "I have his name. Rostislav Zelenka." She grinned in Chris's direction. "It shouldn't be too difficult to find him if he's not at that trailer." A man with a name like that was a hell of a lot easier to find than say, John Smith. "If we need to, we can always ask Nick for help too. He's been here longer than we have, so it's possible he's met more than just his lady cop friend."
Chris had been thinking that some boss or director for the municipal government or something could track down the caretaker for them if they really needed to ... but Kenzie was right -- with a name like that, it probably wouldn’t be difficult. He laughed a bit as he buckled up as well. “Rostislav Zelenka,” he echoed, trying the pronunciation on for size. Interesting. “Yeah Nick gets around, he and the guy probably meet up for beers and bullshit every Wednesday or something.” Chris didn’t think that was actually the case, or it would’ve been in Nick’s reports and notes, but the point was the same. Nick knew a lot of people in Point Pleasant now. Chris glanced over at Kenzie. “He told me the lady cop friend thing is over now though, did he tell you? She left town, apparently.”
It was amusing, but probably true. Nick was a personable guy. Probably more so than she was. He had a head start on getting to know this town, and the people in it, which was a benefit to her and Chris. If she had questions about the locals, she would ask Nick first. She began to drive in the direction of the cemetery, but stole a glance at Chris when he mentioned Nick's lady friend was gone. "No... I didn't know that. But I didn't ask him about her lately either. That's unfortunate. It was nice to know we had an in to the police department if we needed one. I guess I could start sleeping with one of the deputies. Take one for the team, you know?" Her tone was serious, but Chris knew her well enough to know she was teasing him. "Did she actually leave town, or did she disappear?"
“Hey, long as they don’t mind it bein’ a threeway every time, I’m down,” Chris teased right back, smirking faintly. “Some of ‘em are pretty hot from what I’ve seen.” It had been kind of a disappointment to hear about the lady cop because the inside track was nice to have, but he thought they could find another source close to the department. This was a tiny town where everybody knew everybody, that made it easier when it came to finding connections to specific people. “Think she actually left town,” he said, giving a little shrug. “Nick didn’t really say why, but I’m sure there’d be a bigger stink going on if a cop vanished under mysterious circumstances, you know?” It made sense to him, anyway.
She smirked softly at the thought of a threesome. That was something she had never done before, and would probably never do, unless she had been drinking. Kenzie wondered if Chris had been involved in threesomes before. It didn't really feel like the right time to ask him, though, since she was supposed to be focused on work. "I guess so." Kenzie really had no clue what triggered a big stink in this town. There seemed to be a sense of complacency. But she hadn't spoken to any of the police yet, so maybe she could get a better sense of things once she did. "I wonder if they were... you know... getting serious." She winced, because that was really none of her business. "Maybe I'll talk to him tonight and see who else he may know in town who would be good to talk to."
Chris was of the opinion that it would be fucking stupid to get ‘serious’ with a townie on an assignment like this, especially one who was in law enforcement. But he wasn’t Nick, so who the hell knew. Some people would probably say he was fucking stupid for catching feelings for Kenzie too, so ... opinions were like assholes, as the saying went. “Yeah, check with him,” he agreed. Chris reached down and unzipped the backpack between his feet, bringing out a piece of equipment that looked a lot like a big two-way radio receiver, only it had a screen on it as well. He turned it on just to double-check it was working, that small high-pitched whine fading in and then out again as he fiddled with a knob. Chris had always enjoyed the part of the job that involved playing with equipment, and he was happy that Kenzie let him do it most of the time. She was the brain, he was the tech, or something. “How many casualties at the graveyard the other day again? Six or seven?” he asked, glancing over at his partner.
Kenzie would silently judge her colleagues for getting involved with locals on a job, but she realized she would be somewhat hypocritical if she did that now, even though she didn't think sleeping with Chris was really the same thing. They didn't have to keep secrets from each other, and they were both on the same page about what this was. Sleeping with the locals just complicated everything. But Nick seemed like a smart guy, so she was sure he had everything under control. She made a mental note to talk to him later, if he was around when they got back. "Six," Kenzie said, turning down the street that would lead them to the cemetery. "Four women, two men. Autopsy reports aren't back yet, obviously, but I'm not expecting anything more than succumbing to the elements."
Just for fun, Chris turned the device toward Kenzie and did a scan -- it checked for ectoplasm and odd sound waves and extreme temperatures and a few other things. It was good for hauntings or if a magic-user left a bunch of resonance behind. Everything read out in the normal ranges, of course, but Chris still clucked his tongue and gave a concerned ‘hrm.’ “Sorry to break this to you, Novak, but did you know you’re a ghost?” he teased, trying to keep his face serious as he looked at her with all the sympathy in the world. Possibly insensitive, considering they were just talking about six people losing their lives, but you had to have a certain distance from all of this shit, or you would never make it through with sanity intact.
Kenzie shot him a look. He was always playing with their gadgets. That was fine. Kenzie used hers when she needed to, but she always preferred to let Chris handle the majority of it. "Does that mean you're a Ghostbuster?" she asked, clearly proud of herself for the joke, even if it probably didn't make much sense. Busting probably wasn't a euphemism for screwing. "Or are you making a joke of my infamous icy demeanor." Chris knew her well enough to know she wasn't as cold as she appeared to be towards some of their colleagues, and she was used to the jokes by now. She turned the car into the cemetery, which seemed to be rather deserted thus far. No cars ahead or people walking through. That was okay. Better, even, because they could work without the risk of getting interrupted.
“Ghostfucker, is that a thing?” Chris asked and laughed. He knew it was, unfortunately. Humans would try to fuck pretty much anything under the sun, no matter how weird or incorporeal. He switched the device off and rested it on his thigh as they pulled into the cemetery. “I broke through your ice walls, so that joke doesn’t work as well now,” he told Kenzie, just to clear that one up. She wasn’t the ice queen she acted like sometimes, and Chris was pleased to know that first hand now. He focused a bit more now that they had arrived, peering out over all the headstones while Kenzie parked the car.
Kenzie shook her head and found a place to pull off so they would be out of the way if any other cars came through. "You only broke through them because I let you," she reminded him. "And I was drunk." She smirked at him briefly and then shut off the car. She grabbed her small pack from the back seat and then turned to get out of the car. "Do you want me to go track down the caretaker while you do your thing? Or would you rather I go with you?" She didn't care if they split up or not, but she figured she ought to try and see if the Zelenka man was around. If not, they could focus on finding any anomalies before taking off.
Chris thought about reminding Kenzie that she could’ve iced him out all over again, and a ghost happened to help out with melting her down, but it wasn’t worth quibbling about. She obviously found something worthwhile in him and he didn’t want to draw too much attention to it, just in case she changed her mind. He slid out of the SUV and picked up his backpack to sling over one shoulder, shooting Kenzie a little grin. “We can split up, as long as you aren’t too creeped out by trying to find the cemetery groundskeeper in a spooky-ass town like this,” he said. Chris knew she didn’t need the escort, Kenzie could handle herself, but if he didn’t give her shit whenever he saw the opportunity, were they really even partners?
Kenzie had found something worthwhile in Chris, but she hadn't needed to sleep with him to do so. Not that she would say that to his face. They were just having fun and Kenzie was avoiding complications. She shut the door and slid her pack onto her shoulder. "When is the last time you've seen me creeped out by anything?" Kenzie asked with a grin. "But if you get scared and need me, just scream. Preferably like a little girl, so I can hear the pitch from across the cemetery." She knew where the groundskeeper's trailer was, and it would be a bit of a walk, but that was fine. She could observe the cemetery on her way. "I'll meet up with you in a bit."
Chris laughed loudly and tipped Kenzie a little salute. “Aye, cap’n,” he said, flashing her another bright grin before he turned to head off himself. He flipped the switch on the meter again and held it at his side as he started to walk down one of the cemetery paths that veered to the right. If he was going to be thorough while Kenzie talked to the groundskeeper, he might as well start at one end and make his way to the other. Already the device was starting to beep, which wasn’t terribly surprising, but it would definitely keep him busy there for a while.
Kenzie left Chris to his work and she headed toward the back of the cemetery to the trailer that was settled back there. She observed her surroundings, just in case he might be out and about. Not that she knew what he looked like, but she had to imagine a caretaker would be easy to spot. The cemetery itself was probably quite lovely in the spring and summer, but it just seemed gray and bleak right now. Like the rest of the town. The stone angels she passed were all staring up into the sky, hands raised in praise. Was that how they were before? Kenzie wrinkled her nose thoughtfully and made a mental note to check her photos later.
Stepping up, she knocked lightly at the trailer door, not really sure what to expect. If he was home, they could talk. If not, well, maybe she would just take a look inside anyway. Quickly, of course.
Rost was working in the cemetery today, and he’d stopped by his trailer to take a bathroom and snack break since it was mid-morning. He was still troubled by what had happened over the weekend, but so far he hadn’t felt another glimmer of that euphoria he and Greer had experienced. Other people as well, it seemed. Rost considered them very lucky that they’d had shelter available and opted to take it, otherwise they might have died of exposure as well. It had been an emotional letdown when those feelings faded, and he thought Devlin had been very worried about them once he’d gotten them home. It was hard to reconcile how good everything had felt with how badly it had affected other people.
He was just finishing up a glass of cranberry juice from the fridge -- old, but still tasty -- when someone knocked on the trailer door. Frowning vaguely, Rost walked over and opened it. He’d kind of expected a police officer or something, but it was just a young pretty lady standing there. “Yes, hello?” he asked curiously.
Kenzie was about to knock again when the door opened. The man staring out at her looked exactly how she expected a cemetery caretaker with the name of Rostislav Zelenka to look. Tall, lanky, work coveralls, and quite an interesting mustache. "Hi," Kenzie greeted with a smile. "I'm Kenzie Novak, and I'm a journalist. I was hoping I could ask you a few questions about this cemetery. Do you have a few minutes?" He was working, but she doubted this was the kind of job that had a boss breathing down his neck. And maybe he wouldn't want to talk at all, but she was hoping he would at least give her a minute or two.
A journalist. In all the years he’d worked at the cemetery, Rost had never had a reporter turn up to ask him questions before. The power of denial ran strong in this town, and most people didn’t want to know what was really going on. He’d never seen this girl before though, so he wondered if she was new or just not a local journalist or what. “Hello,” he said again. “I am Rostislav ... but you know this, yes? I have some time, come in.” Since she was a stranger, he would’ve just talked to her outside, but it was cold out, so Rost backed up and held the trailer door open so she could come inside. “Pardon the mess, I am ... poor housekeeper.” He chuckled with a lopsided grin.
Kenzie glanced behind her quickly, just to see if she could spot Chris. It wasn't that she was scared about walking into a stranger's trailer. She had dealt with much worse than cemetery employees. But this town was... well, this town. And she didn't want him to worry if he couldn't find her. But Kenzie supposed he would just make his way back to the trailer if this ran long, and Kenzie felt like she could handle things if this took a turn. She murmured thanks to Rostislav and stepped up into the trailer, glancing around. It was eccentric in a way, but she liked it. "I don't mind the mess," Kenzie promised with a smile of her own. "You live here? Or is this more of a home base when you're working."
Rost didn’t even think about Kenzie feeling at all uneasy being alone with him, though he probably should have. He just knew how harmless he was, so it didn’t cross his mind. He led the short way to the small kitchen and gestured for Kenzie to help herself to a seat if she wanted one. It was a little less intimate than the living room, somehow. People gravitated toward kitchens. “I used to live full time,” he explained as he pulled a chair out for himself at the table. “But have moved in with my lovers, so ... it has become storage unit, mostly.” He paused before he sat down and raised a brow at her. “Do you thirst? I do not have much ... water, cranberry juice ...?”
Lovers. Plural. Interesting. That was probably too personal to inquire about. Kenzie sat down at the table and dug into her backpack to find her notebook and pen. It would have been easier to record him, but she was old fashioned, and unless she was in a massive hurry, she always loved writing her notes by hand. He had an accent but seemed to speak pretty good English so she shook her head and dismissed his offer with a soft wave of her hand. "I'm fine, thank you. Do you mind if I ask how long you've worked here?" She set her notebook down on the table and flipped it open to a blank sheet. "As caretaker of the cemetery, that is."
Since his new guest didn’t want anything to drink, Rost plunked down in the chair and stretched his long legs out as he settled in. He looked curiously at her pen and notebook, some part of him feeling slightly flattered that she wanted to talk to him about himself at all. Rost was sure she was more there to ask about the supernatural things that happened in the cemetery. “It has been, ehh ... five years,” he told her, rocking his head back and forth thoughtfully. “It was first and only job I have had here.”
Kenzie began to write some notes, but kept her attention focused almost solely on Rost. "And what happened last weekend, with the weather, and the casualties they discovered here... was that the first time anything out of the ordinary has happened here?" Out of the ordinary was an incredible understatement, and Kenzie knew it, but that was the best way she could phrase it at the moment. At least until she knew and understood what Rost was aware of. It was possible he knew plenty about this town, more so than anyone Nick knew personally. And Rost seemed just eccentric enough to probably want to talk about it.
That question was so ludicrous it made Rost laugh, though there wasn’t any real derision in it. It was just funny. He shook his head as he chuckled and leaned back in his chair, glancing briefly at Kenzie’s notebook. “You did not bring enough paper, miss,” he told her, his gold tooth glinting a bit in his grin. “This was first time that particular thing happened, in my time. But many strange things happen here, and all over town. ... what journal did you say you were from?” He tilted his head at her a bit, his expression fading into something more curious, with only a touch of wariness. Rost didn’t mind most people thinking he was crazy, he was used to it. But how many journalists actually took this sort of subject seriously?
Kenzie merely arched a brow at his laughter, a polite smile on her face. She was well aware of this town's reputation, but it wasn't like she could pull out all of her notes. Getting answers from the locals provided so much more insight into these places than any of their equipment could. Maybe that made her a bit old school, but it was what it was. "It's called The Pulse of the Paranormal. It's a small publication." Kenzie reached into her bag to pull out her credentials, sliding them across the table to Rost if he wanted to get a better look at them. "We visit places like Point Pleasant to try and get a better understanding of the inner workings of anything supernatural that may happen... and try to decipher if there's any truth behind it. Has anything odd or out of the ordinary ever happened to you directly?" Her smile widened. "I have an extra notebook if I need it."
As soon as the woman said ‘Paranormal,’ Rost looked even more intrigued. If she wrote for that kind of publication, it stood to reason that she was a Believer, and Rost didn’t get to talk with those folks outside of his personal circle very often. He reached out to pull her laminated badge toward himself with a couple of fingers, giving it a once-over before he pushed it back toward her. He wouldn’t know what press credentials were supposed to look like anyway, but it all seemed legit to him. “I am not sure if it is best to start at beginning or work backwards,” Rost said with a chuckle. “But I will say, all is true. Almost everything you hear here, it happened. I have seen many things, felt even more.” He paused for a thoughtful moment, glancing around the trailer. He might as well start close to home and recent, he supposed. “Did you see the angels on the way in? The statues.”
Kenzie was absolutely a Believer, otherwise she wouldn't have the kind of job that she did. Besides, if she came across as a skeptic, or someone looking to make fun of the people in this town for believing what they did, there was no way anyone would talk to her. She began to scribble down notes, glancing up at Rost every few seconds or so. "The angels? Yes. I haven't been here terribly long but they seemed different to me. Is there something unnatural about them?" Wouldn't that be fun. Symbols of comfort and joy twisted into something dark and foreboding.
“Oh yes,” Rost answered solemnly, glancing at Kenzie’s notes even though he couldn’t read them at all. “They give off bad vibes and move by themselves. I have never seen it happen, but you turn your back and pop! -- they are suddenly in different position.” He made a popping sound with his lips instead of saying the word, his hands spreading as if it was the end flourish to a magic trick. Rost gestured toward the nearest window and the cemetery beyond. “They were never all same until now. And that day was when everyone felt so good here, and a few stayed until they died.” Kenzie had surely heard about that, Rost was sure that was what had sparked this visit in the first place. “I was here that day as well, but had shelter, luckily.”
Statues moving. As Kenzie wrote that down she wondered if Chris was getting any odd readings from the statues themselves. She suddenly wanted to head back outside and take a look, but she would have time for that. She looked up from her notepad. "You mean, the casualties over the weekend? Those people felt good here? Is that why they stayed? Do you think that was the influence of the statues?" She couldn't imagine why anyone would subject themselves to the elements the way those people had, but it sounded as if Rost had the answers for that. "How were you feeling that day?"
Rost nodded to all of those questions, then tilted his head back and forth at the last one. “Normal, at first. But then I came to work. I brought my girlfriend along to keep company and as soon as we got here, we both felt it. It was ... glorious.” Rost flashed a brief smile. “The greatest feeling, happy and light and not cold at all. We did do some work but then we came back here for some, ah ... privacy.” Which had also been fucking glorious, but he was sure this poor woman didn’t want to hear about that part. “If I had not brought her, I might have been frozen as well. I did not even think about the others here,” he added, his tone dropping into more solemn territory. It had hit him later, that he’d had shelter and heat he hadn’t offered to anyone in the cemetery, but Rost had only had room for Greer and good feelings in his brain. It hurt his heart. “None of it was natural,” he murmured.
Kenzie continued to write the necessary parts, not showing any change in her expression even when she was well aware of what privacy meant. Sex was a part of life, obviously. She was more interested in everything else he was saying. "So do you think that could have been caused by the statues?" Kenzie scanned her notes. "You said they give off bad vibes, but you and your girlfriend felt good. Do you think the positive feelings were created from something more ominous?" She didn't think it was Rost's fault that those people died. If they were all truly affected by something otherworldly, there was likely nothing that could have been done anyway.
“I am unsure,” Rost admitted, pursing his lips to the side for a second. “A little while ago there was another feeling here, a bad one. The air was too hot and there was just ... feeling that something bad was going to happen. Danger. I believe that was related to a ritual done here by a witch I know, and it faded in a week or so ... This good feeling, I do not know. Much more intense, very different, and the statues changed just before. I did not think they had such power, but I have not thought a lot of true things before I saw them.” Rost gave her a rueful smile. She probably understood that, if she investigated this sort of thing for a living.
"A witch." Kenzie looked dubious, but she arched a brow curiously, her pen pausing on the page in front of her. "They perform rituals here, out in the open?" She had read into the history of this town, and knew plenty about the witch trials and executions, but it still threw her off a bit for Rost to mention witchcraft so casually. Then again, if Rost believed Kenzie was a true believer, she supposed he would have no issue discussing such things, even if she was essentially a stranger. "Is it possible that it's not the statues with power, but the witch? This town certainly has enough history with witchcraft.”
Rost wasn’t going to out anyone by name, but surely this woman believed in witches if she believed in other supernatural things. She would either believe or think he was nuts, either way it was no skin off his ass. Rost chuckled a bit at the question. “It was done at night, and this place is not in center of town,” he pointed out with a little shrug. “No one visits the dead in the night here without purpose, good or ill.” It was a place of power, and he knew Reagan had been after something very specific in the graveyard, so it made sense to him. “I do not believe this came from this witch I know, but there are many, so who can say. There are many forces at work in this town.”
Kenzie was silent for a moment as she wrote some more notes, scrawling off into the margin witches. She didn't think Rostislav would be the one to give her names, but Kenzie could figure it out. She had plenty of research to go through back in her hotel room. "So it's possible that the good feelings that kept people out in the elements too long could have been caused by the statues... or by witchcraft. Or both, I suppose, if I were to assume the witches in this town had something to do with the statues..." It could all be connected, or not. Kenzie just had to find out how the puzzle pieces fit together. "There were reports of grave desecration as well," Kenzie said, looking up from her notes again. "I couldn't find any updated police reports other than the initial ones that were filed when it happened. They never caught who was behind the vandalism?"
He was mulling that over -- witches affecting the cemetery statues -- when Kenzie brought up the vandalism. Rost’s expression darkened, his brow furrowing. That was one thing he wished he had an answer for. There had been no more destruction, but Rost wouldn’t be surprised if it picked up again. Nothing in this town ever seemed to resolve itself. As always, he thought of poor Mrs. Mercer, tossed out in front of his steps like trash, and his heart ached for the whole thing all over again. “They did not,” he confirmed to this reporter woman. “I never knew the reason, and no more has happened like that. I am grateful, but wary. You learn to be so, here.” It wasn’t his favorite subject, so if she wanted to know specifics, she would have to ask.
"Have you ever witnessed anything unusual in this cemetery with your own eyes? Not after the fact, like the vandalism and the statues, but as it happened? Or, not even just limited to the cemetery, but in the town itself?" She certainly had, with the fog recently, but the tales of Point Pleasant stretched back centuries, so she had some kind of hope that Rost was an eyewitness to some of the unusual occurrences. Kenzie was convinced he had to have some first-hand stories to tell. Whether or not he would tell her was another story.
“Were you here for the fog?” Rost asked, his tone a bit bemused. That had been impossible to miss, especially considering what had happened to Greer. But Rost didn’t want to talk about the monsters or the scratch and how it was already healed. It was too close to home. “I have seen many ghosts, I believe. I have seen some magic at work. My boyfriend is a psychic. Demon children have knocked on my door at night, with all black eyes. I try to keep up with protections, otherwise it might be worse.” He gestured around at all of the trinkets and talismans scattered around his trailer, hanging from walls and ceilings. “There is a tall man in a bowler hat that is not a man, also,” he added quietly.
Kenzie nodded when he asked if she had been around for the fog. That had been her first real experience with anything otherworldly in Point Pleasant. Being stuck in the supermarket had not been ideal, but she and Chris knew when to stay safe. They would have been completely unmatched had they headed out into the fog to investigate closer. She began to write as Rost spoke. There was the vague recognition that he mentioned his boyfriend... after he had said he had a girlfriend, but Kenzie knew better than to question it. Open relationships were a thing, and none of her business. Psychics, demon children with black eyes... Kenzie knew about both of those. But the tall man in a bowler hat? She wrote it down and then looked up at Rost. "What is it that you think he is?"
When Kenzie confirmed she’d been in the fog, Rost felt vaguely impressed she’d survived. If she hadn’t been a true Believer in the supernatural before, he was sure she was now, in spite of the way people were attempting to pass it off as some freakish weather. Denial could be an amazingly powerful thing. Rost shook his head solemnly at her question. He had seen a lot of things that had startled or scared him, but the man in the bowler hat had been terrifying in a way he couldn’t describe well. “I do not know. He is evil, whatever he is. Very tall and skinny -- and that comes from myself, so worse -- with a very big, very wrong smile. The most we have done is looked at each other, but that is enough to haunt my dream. I have heard rumors of others seeing as well ... even as children, and he has not changed.”
Tall, skinny. Evil. And a bowler hat. Of course an evil entity would wear one of those. Why not? Still, it was intriguing, especially if some had seen the man as children and he was still around. "Do you know of anyone specific who might have seen him? I would love to talk to them." Kenzie asked. Names were always welcomed, because it gave her another path to take, and another person to speak to. She appreciated Rost's candor, but he was most definitely a believer in the supernatural, and sometimes it was beneficial for Kenzie to talk to people who might not want to be as open with her as Rost was. It was a good way to get a well rounded look at this town, and everything that occupied it.
Rost thought about it, narrowing one eye a bit. He remembered the name of a man who worked in the grocery store and provided that to Kenzie, but he couldn’t think of anyone else’s full name. “Apologies, my mind is sometimes cheese,” he told her. It had a lot of holes. Rost glanced curiously at Kenzie’s notes, even though he still couldn’t read them upside down. “You are curious about him in particular, yes? Not something you have heard of before? Do you know of the Cooperdale Tunnel?” He was sure it wasn’t a completely unique place in the world, there had to be other black holes of evil scattered around, but it seemed particularly threatening sometimes. Rost hated to get near it. “I have heard a woman disappeared and returned from near there.”
Kenzie wrote down the name, but smiled at Rost. "It's fine. Any information is helpful. I guess you could say I'm curious about everything. Some things I've already researched. The tunnel being one of them... I did read in the local news that the woman who disappeared is back. She attempted to murder her boyfriend, and yet she hasn't been arrested. I find that odd." Kenzie was well aware that some things were brushed aside due to certain circumstances. It made her want to speak to the Sheriff still, but it was a bit too soon for that. "There are other instances of people disappearing, or acting violently after being near that place. I've checked it out myself, and it definitely has an unusual feel to it. I also read about a place here, in the cemetery..." She flipped several pages back in her notebook, finding her notes. "There is a mausoleum here, for the town's founder. Three teenage boys entered it around... eight years ago? Only one returned. You weren't the caretaker in 2009, but I assume you've heard about it. Have you ever been inside the mausoleum yourself?"
She did seem to have done her research, didn’t she? Rost was impressed. It would have been easy for someone to just come in and flash fake credentials, intending to get him to ramble on about all the “crazy” things surrounding this town and then go off to write something mocking. But it seemed like Kenzie was intending to do some serious reporting. Rost thought he had good instincts about people, and he felt that she was genuine. “Oh no,” he answered her question with a firm shake of his head. “I was warned early about that place. It feels bad to go next to. You could not pay me to go in there. Sometimes kids come to touch it at night, dares and such, but I try to keep everyone away.”
Kenzie arched a brow curiously. "And if I wanted to go near it, would you let me?" She was fairly certain he couldn't say no, but she wanted to try and stay on decent footing with the people in this town, especially as she had no idea how long she and Chris would be here. Speaking of her partner... Kenzie hoped he was being productive, but also not terribly uncomfortable outside in the cold. She probably ought to check in with him soon. "Assuming I understand the potential consequences and the like. You wouldn't have to accompany me there, or anything of that nature."
Rost looked surprised, even though he probably should have guessed that was a possibility. She was doing research, after all, and the best sort of research was first-hand. He arched a meaningful brow at her. “Do you understand the potential consequences? Are you sure of that?” His tone was cautious, and he was reserving his opinion -- that it was a stupid fucking idea -- for the moment. “Do you think that you can understand, from the outside?” Rost couldn’t stop anyone from doing anything they were determined to do, but he would hate for this nice young lady to disappear into some nightmare under his watch. Reporters were like curious cats and got themselves in trouble sometimes.
Kenzie's smile was soft and polite. If he knew the kind of things she had seen, and been involved in... but it wasn't like she could tell him the truth about her job, so she understood and appreciated his response from a rational level that he only knew her as a journalist. Chris might have already been to the mausoleum to get a read on it by now. "I understand the consequences, and certainly after researching this town, I also understand that no matter how cautious I am, or how many precautions I take, it doesn't always matter. I'm not asking you to take me there, or unlock the chains to let me inside. But if I wanted to examine the place myself, I want to be sure you know I'm not there for dares, or simple curiosity. And I certainly wouldn't do anything to damage or upset your cemetery. It's a beautiful place. You're very careful with it, I can tell."
There was some gravity in her tone that made Rost think she knew more or had seen more than he was assuming. It was a lack of naivete or something. An experience. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part. She wasn’t asking to go inside of the damn thing, so maybe that would be okay. Rost had to work around it all the time and nothing terrible had happened to him yet. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, fluffing it up a bit comically. “Flattery will get you everywhere,” he grumbled, then gave Kenzie a crooked smile. “I cannot stop you. I can only wish you safety, and I do. ... and thank you. I try. It is a powerful place, it deserves respect.” His words weren’t defensive, just appreciative. Rost got the feeling that Kenzie understood what he meant.
Kenzie wasn't opposed going inside the mausoleum if she and Chris could get it open, and deem it safe enough, but that wasn't something she felt Rost needed to know. Maybe the less he knew about what they did in the cemetery, the better. Her smile came a bit easier when he fluffed his hair. She had been sincere in her compliment. Right now it was cold and gray and the trees were bare, but she could tell he still maintained the place to a high degree, and she was betting it was beautiful in the spring and summer. "I agree, and we'll do our best to respect the area as much as possible while we're here." She dug one of her makeshift business cards from her bag and slid it across to Rost. "If you have anything else you want to talk about, that's my cell. And if I have more questions about this town, would you be willing to talk to me again?"
Rost reached for the card, but his keen eyes were on Kenzie’s face. “I am willing, yes,” he told her. He didn’t mind talking to practically anybody about anything, so he meant that. There was something else she’d said that caught his attention, however. “You said ‘we’ ... you are not alone here?” Rost was more curious than suspicious, but there was a hint of the latter in his tone. Kenzie hadn’t mentioned a partner or company or anything yet. On the other hand, it was probably better for her to have some sort of company -- safety in numbers and all.
"My assistant, Chris, is here with me," Kenzie explained, thinking Chris would be amused to hear her describe him that way. "He does a lot of the field work while I talk to locals. We've found it's much safer to be partnered up when we travel to these kind of towns." And she had a feeling Rost would understand and appreciate that, given he has lived here long enough to know exactly what kind of town this was. "He's been outside getting a better look at cemetery, if you want to meet him. Or at least get a look at his face so if you see him out and about, you won't think he's here to cause trouble."
Rost nodded at the bit about it being safer, feeling a bit of relief for this nice young lady. Maybe it was a bit sexist of him, but he was glad she had a man with her. There were more threats in the world than the supernatural ones, and while Point Pleasant was usually a sleepy town crime-wise, bad things could happen to pretty young women everywhere. He slipped Kenzie’s card into one of the breast pockets of his coveralls, then moved to stand up. Their conversation was coming to a close, and he decided he would like to meet her partner. “He would be good to know,” he answered, giving her a smile.
Kenzie knew how people might perceive her traveling around on her own - not that she did a lot of solo traveling - but she had enough training that she knew she could take care of herself. At least in terms of someone giving her a hard time, or trying to assault her. But Rost didn't know the extent of her job, and she wasn't going to explain it to him. He seemed like a knowledgeable, nice guy, and she hoped to talk to him again soon. Hopefully if she had questions, he would provide the answers. She stood with him, slipping her notebook and pen back into her bag. "I'll introduce you and then let you get back to work." Kenzie said with a smile before offering her hand out to him. "It was a pleasure to meet you though. You've been extremely helpful."
Rost gave Kenzie’s hand a warm shake and smiled at her. He didn’t feel like he’d given her a ton of useful information, but it had still been a nice conversation, and one he would like to have again sometime. If she ended up interested in what he had to say again. “Pleasure meeting you as well,” Rost told her before he released her hand. He walked her to the door and opened it for her to go out first, then followed.
Chris had made a pretty good preliminary lap around the cemetery grounds, getting all kinds of readings on his machine. He was saving everything, completely fascinated by what the meter was showing him, especially around the angel statues. The data wasn’t always easy to interpret, there were so many possible environmental factors, but he still thought it was valuable information. He hurried to the trailer at a text from Kenzie, and smiled as he met the caretaker, thoroughly amused when Kenzie called him her ‘assistant.’
They all three exchanged some pleasantries and then he and Kenzie said their farewells and started back towards the parking area. Chris glanced over at her with a smirk once they were out of earshot. “So you two looked friendly. Did he have anything interesting to say?”
"He's a friendly man," Kenzie replied. "And yes, he had plenty to say. I've taken notes. He mentioned some witches in town, shaking their juju all over the damn place. Some other hot spots that we should check out too. The mausoleum here in the cemetery, though it's chained shut, but we could probably get inside if we wanted to. The tunnel, obviously, which makes me wonder if the woman who had gone missing in there and returned would talk to us." Kenzie zipped her coat up to her chin now that she was back outside where it was cold. "And he mentioned a man, or... rather a being that looked like a man, wandering the streets wearing a bowler hat. Tall and skinny with an awful smile who apparently hasn't aged, since adults remember seeing him as kids."
Chris nodded about the mausoleum -- he’d seen the place now and he’d gotten some strange readings off of it. So that was interesting. Kenzie distracted him from commenting by mentioning the scary unaging man in the bowler hat though, and Chris frowned. “Sounds like an anomaly to me,” he said, glancing around the cemetery like said man might be waiting for them around the next bend. Hell, at this point Chris wasn’t surprised by anything anymore. “There’s got to be a lot of them wandering around, attracted to this place. Had he had a direct encounter with it? The bowling hat man. Had he been in the mausoleum? It pinged really hot on the meter.”
"One of many anomalies, I'm sure." Kenzie was looking forward to getting back to her room to try and research the bowler hat man. She was eager to find out if the man was mentioned in any prior cases. It wouldn't surprise her in the least if she discovered he had been spotted elsewhere in the past. "He said he saw the man before, but all they did was look at each other. He couldn't tell me of anyone specific who had seen the man, mostly because he couldn't remember. But it shouldn't be too hard to ask around." Kenzie glanced at Chris. "Rost has never been inside the mausoleum. He said no one could pay him to go inside, actually, and that he tries to keep people away from it. He told me he wouldn't stop me if I wanted to check it out, as long as I knew the potential consequences of doing so. I think if we're prepared for things, we could probably get those chains off and take a look ourselves."
That sounded creepy. On one normal-person-instinct hand, Chris hoped they never ran into the guy. But on the other, professional-interest hand ... it would be interesting. Beneficial to the Institute. The more they directly experienced, the better prepared they were for any eventuality. And Point Pleasant wouldn’t suffer if one of their anomalies was captured and taken away for study. Chris focused on the mausoleum instead for the moment, since that was actually concrete and accessible to them. “Any ideas on what things we need to prep for?” he asked, looking back at Kenzie with a slightly arched brow. “Some kids disappeared in there a decade ago, right?” Chris didn’t have the entire town’s history down pat like Kenzie seemed to, but he could remember some things.
"Three teenage boys," Kenzie explained. "They disappeared inside on Halloween. There was a search, but no one was able to find them. About a week later, one of the boys turned up in the cemetery. He's in a psychiatric ward in Bangor now. Maybe I'll drive there sometime soon and try to talk to him. But after that, they had some people vandalize the mausoleum. Some kids tried to get inside of it again, you know, for shits and giggles. The caretaker who came on before Rost put some heavy chains on the doors so no one could get inside. It's the resting place of Stephen Noble, who founded the town, funnily enough. I think the family of one of the missing boys still live in town. I can't remember their name off the top of my head, but I have it written down in my notebook. I can't tell you what we need to prep for, but maybe I can do a bit more research into it and look into the readings you got off of it so we can figure it out."
Chris grunted his acknowledgements through all the information -- three boys gone on Halloween, one returned and committed after, the founder’s remains in the chained crypt. Interesting. Why did people try to do stupid shit on Halloween so often? It was the last day you wanted to mess around with forces you didn’t understand. Dumb kids. “I want to go with you to Bangor,” he said, looking over to Kenzie again. A faint smirk crossed Chris’s face. “Maybe we can make a little trip of it, spend the night out there. In one single hotel room.” Chris would even put it on his personal card instead of adding it to their travel expenses, just to avoid the paper trail. They slept together fairly often now, but it would feel different to know there wasn’t another option down the hall. Maybe he could even take her out properly.
Kenzie looked over at Chris again, one brow raised curiously, her lips twitching with barely contained amusement. "So we fit in a sexy night away after we interview a traumatized psychiatric patient? You know how to romance a woman, Washburn." It sounded ridiculous and yet not, given the nature of their job. But she found she would actually prefer Chris to accompany her, and it might be nice to sleep together in a room where they weren't surrounded by all the darkness of Point Pleasant. Not to pretend they were a normal couple or anything, but Kenzie would love to wake up in bed with him and not have to sneak back across the hall to her own room without the risk of being seen by Nick.
Chris laughed out loud, his face temporarily sunny and dimpled. “I’d take you out to dinner first, at least,” he said, nudging her playfully with one elbow. “Like, to KFC or somethin’, to really lock in the romance.” He was kidding, of course, but when she put it that way it did sound kind of bad. But really, when did they have free time that wasn’t book-ended by horrible shit? Interviewing a guy in a psych ward was simple stuff for them. Having dinner and then getting it on in a new place might end up being just the palate cleanser they needed. Chris smirked at her. “Don’t pretend you’re not wet just thinkin’ about it, Novak. I know better.”
"How do you know me so well?" Kenzie rolled her eyes dramatically. "I mean, when you say KFC I'm just about ready to take my pants down in the back of the car for you." She purposely walked into him, nudging him with her elbow before righting herself. They would definitely have to be careful about the travel expenses so no one questioned why there was only one room. Then again, Kenzie could say she went on her own too. Their sleeping together hadn't become an issue yet, and Kenzie wanted to keep it that way. "I'll call around when we get back and try to find which hospital he's in, and when we can get there to talk to him, if they'll let us. Assuming the weather and this town cooperates."
Chris laughed and he would’ve put his arm around her when she bumped into him, but he was mindful that they were in semi-public and he was supposed to be her ‘assistant.’ Which was pretty hilarious and something he was going to tease her about the next time they had sex, he’d already made up his mind. ‘How may I assist you, madam?’ Hilarious. “See if he’s completely locked down or medicated outta his gourd, yeah,” Chris agreed. “He might not be able to tell us anything, but it’s worth checking into.” The comment about the town was strange to think about, but Chris knew what she meant. This place seemed to have a mind of its own sometimes. Most of the time. Whatever. Chris let Kenzie go through the gate first and pulled the car keys out of his pocket. “You hungry? Wanna grab a bite before we go back?”
Even if the guy was overly medicated, she still wanted to see what kind of mindset he was in, what that mausoleum had done to him, if anything. They had supposedly disappeared into it, but had they stayed there? Or had they disappeared somewhere else in the cemetery? Kenzie was curious now and she was making plans already in her mind to find the guy's name and call the hospital that evening. Chris's question tore her from her thoughts and she gave him a quick smile. "Yeah, food sounds good. Want some greasy diner food?"
“Do bears shit in the woods?” Chris countered, then flashed Kenzie a grin over the hood of the car. Since they’d started fooling around, he felt like she was less annoyed by crass stuff like that. It was funny how making a woman come over and over would make you more charming to her. He unlocked the car and climbed in. “I’m always down for greasy diner food.” It had been a productive morning, and they needed some fuel for the upcoming afternoon to say productive. And then maybe they could squeeze in some fun to reward themselves for being such good agents. It all sounded good to Chris.