Chapter 138: 108. The Silver Chalice

"I'm honestly surprised there's this many people here," I commented as we made our way towards the back of the exhibit hall. "I had no idea this stuff was so popular."

Melanie nodded, "Same. Considering this town isn't even that big, I thought it was weird someone would have a psychic fair here in the first place. I guess I was wrong though."

Kaylee pointed out, "Most of the attendees probably come from the city and the surrounding area. We're near enough to Toronto it's not that far out of people's way to come for the day? And I'll bet it's cheaper to rent this place than a similar-sized venue in the city."

"Yeah," Cerys agreed. "It's fringe enough they're not going to get enough people to fill one of the big convention centres in the city, but like Kaylee said we're not too far out of the way for the people who are interested in this stuff."

By that point we were in a little line waiting to get into the lecture room, and we all had our tickets out. There'd been an admission fee at the front doors just to get in the building, but the lectures and seances were extra. Fortunately it wasn't that expensive, so we were all set for both the five o'clock lecture and the six PM seance.

"Hello girls," a familiar voice greeted us while we were waiting to get in. "Fancy running into all of you here."

To my surprise our English and Creative writing teacher Ms. Fields was standing in line ahead of us. And next to her was Ms. Hughes, the History teacher.

"Oh, hello Ms. Hughes," Kaylee smiled. "And Ms. Fields. I didn't know you were interested in occult stuff?"

Ms. Fields smiled, "I'm not, not really. Laura, er Ms. Hughes invited me to accompany her, and it seemed like a fun diversion for a Saturday afternoon."

The history teacher nodded in agreement, "As long as we all bear in mind this is just entertainment. It's fun to imagine things like ghosts and spirits and hauntings, but at the end of the day that's all it is, imagination."

"Yes ma'am," Cerys agreed. The blonde werewolf looked like she was trying not to smile though.

Fortunately the little line was moving, and we all got into the lecture room before anyone had a chance to say too much or give anything away. The two teachers got seats up at the very front near the stage, and almost in the middle too. Meanwhile we found a group of five seats together near the back. I ended up sitting between Cerys and Kaylee, with Melanie on the other side of Cerys and Nina at the far end next to Melanie.

The place was filling up quickly so we all got seated as I looked around. The room wasn't that big, but there were a few rows of chairs all facing a stage at the front. I figured they could sit fifty or sixty people, the way they had it arranged.

Up on the stage they had a couple tables set up, with some chairs behind them. The tables were covered in black fabric, along with all the walls and everything. And it was obvious there was some stuff on the tables, but that was also hidden under more black material. The only thing on the stage that wasn't black was a large A/V screen.

As we were all getting comfortable Cerys quietly asked, "So that was weird, right? Running into two of our teachers here?"

"Yeah," Kaylee replied. "I wouldn't have expected to see either of them here."

She added a moment later, "Then again, I don't really know Ms. Fields well enough to know what sorts of things she's interested in."

Melanie commented, "I wonder if Melody knew her mom was coming to this? Maybe that's why she didn't want to come out."

"Maybe?" Nina replied. "Or maybe she's just busy with college stuff."

"It feels weird seeing a couple teachers at a psychic fair though. Especially at a lecture about ghost hunting," Cerys said.

Kaylee pointed out, "We're at a psychic fair, attending a lecture about ghost hunting, so I hardly think we can hold it against them."

"True enough," the younger wolf admitted with a smile.

We were all quiet after that as the show started up. They dimmed the lights and the guests took the stage. It was a couple men in their early forties. I didn't know anything about them but it seemed like quite a few people in the audience knew them or had heard of them.

Then during the introductions I found out the guys were a little bit famous. Apparently they'd been ghost hunting for over twenty years, and just over a decade ago they hosted a show on cable TV. They were kind of local too, it turned out they both grew up in Toronto suburbs. They travelled all over though, and were currently living in the maritimes.

The show was interesting, the guys had video clips and slides and stuff up on the big screen, and they showed off a lot of their tools and stuff that was hidden under the black sheets on the tables. There were infrared cameras, motion detectors, audio recorders, stuff like that. And more esoteric or purpose-built tools, like devices that would detect electromagnetic anomalies and non-contact infrared thermometers. They even had things they referred to as ghost boxes or spirit boxes, which were allegedly used to communicate with spirits.

The audience was mostly quiet as the guys talked, but with laughter or applause or chatter at the appropriate times.

Meanwhile the guys spent the first part of the lecture talking about how they got into this in the first place, and how they got good at it. They admitted a lot of their early work was more about debunking fake hauntings and revealing how that stuff happened. But every now and then they'd come up against a situation they couldn't solve or debunk, and eventually that convinced them that there was something supernatural going on. They said it was rare, but some hauntings were real.

"That's probably a fair assessment," Kaylee whispered. "I bet eight out of ten alleged hauntings will have mundane explanations."

Cerys agreed, "Sounds about right. And so far these guys sound legit to me."

My girlfriend nodded, "So far."

The next part of the talk was about the guys' brief stint on TV and how that was fun for a while. Apparently their show ran for two seasons, and over the course of thirty-two half-hour episodes they investigated over a dozen hauntings in both private and public locations across Canada. Some were solved, others weren't, but the guys admitted they had to conform to what the network and producers wanted. It was more about entertainment than actually uncovering and sharing the truth.

That led to some more murmurs and stuff from the audience, but it seemed like people appreciated the guys being honest about that side of things.

Then they talked about what they were up to nowadays, which sounded a lot like the stuff those podcast guys from the States were doing. Like self-produced shows they'd post on their own internet channel, which gave them a lot more freedom to focus on the cases they wanted. And to present their findings the way they wanted, instead of having to go with what a producer or network dictated to them.

"Gotta admit I kind of like these guys," Melanie whispered. "Though I get they're probably playing things up for the crowd, making themselves look good."

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The last part of their lecture was all about one of their most recent cases. They'd been called to a private home in St. Johns that was having a lot of scary and sometimes even violent events. The haunting seemed to start up out of nowhere a couple years earlier which was odd, the place didn't have a history of ghosts before that.

The guys ran some clips of footage they caught, like night-vision cameras catching doors opening and closing on their own and sessions with the ghost box and stuff like that. It was pretty impressive, but it was also possible for all that stuff to be faked. Then they went on to explain the haunting turned out to be caused by an item that the family had recently acquired. Rather than their home being haunted, it was the object itself.

For the big finale they brought out a sealed case, then opened it up on stage. Inside was a silver chalice, sort of shaped like a typical wine glass. They explained that this was the actual haunted object they uncovered. It was supposedly a few hundred years old, and there was some sort of restless spirit linked to it.

"This is it folks," one of the ghost hunters, a guy named Jeff announced as he carefully took the chalice from the case. He was wearing gloves and everything, and treated it like a delicate antique as he continued "Once we removed this from the house, the haunting stopped and the family was able to get back to their normal lives."

The other ghost hunter, a guy named Tom, continued "And before anyone asks, neither Jeff or myself keep this thing in our own homes. Apart from when we bring it out to events like this, it's safely locked away in a secure location where the spirit can't get to anybody else."

Tom added, "For an added precaution that carrying case in front of Jeff has been blessed and warded by a friend of ours who's a long-term practicing witch. So we don't have to worry about 'ghosts on a plane' when we're taking the chalice on tour."

"Is that true?" Kaylee whispered to me while the audience was reacting with some laughter and stuff. "Is there any magic or enchantment on the box?"

I shook my head, "I haven't seen any magic on anything during the entire lecture. Not even on the chalice."

"I don't know," Cerys whispered. "I hate to admit it but that silver cup gives me the creeps."

Melanie nodded, "Same."

Meanwhile on stage Jeff was still holding chalice as he smiled, "I've got a little surprise for all you folks who've got tickets to the seance that's coming up next. The medium, Madame Celeste, is another friend of mine and Tom's. We ran into her this afternoon and the three of us got the idea for a little collaboration? She'll be using this very chalice in her seance here today."

"That's right," Tom said with a smile. "Madame Celeste will be attempting to communicate with the actual spirit that's linked to this antique silver goblet. So all you folks with tickets are going to be in for a real treat."

That was the end of the lecture, the chalice went back into its case and the lights came back on. There were a couple minutes for questions and answers, then some crew came out on stage to help pack up the guys' stuff and re-arrange the stage to prepare for the seance.

About a third of the audience left, but everyone who had tickets for the seance stuck around. That included the five of us obviously, and we all noted the two teachers up at the front also stayed in their seats to wait for the seance.

"Do you think that's is a good idea? Trying to talk to whatever's trapped in the chalice?" Nina asked while we waited.

Kaylee shrugged, "I doubt anything's going to happen, if that's what you're worried about."

I added quietly, "I didn't see any magic or anything from the chalice or the 'warded' case. And you heard what Ms. Hughes said before the show right? About all this stuff being just for entertainment?"

"Good point," my girlfriend agreed.

Cerys pointed out quietly, "Except she has to know the supernatural's real, considering her daughter's a shape-shifter. For that matter so is her husband, right? Melody said Alison is her dad, and we know Ms. Hughes is her mom. And I know all three of them live together, across from Gord Potts' farm."

"We shouldn't be talking about that stuff in public," Kaylee commented. "Or at all, for that matter. It's none of our business."

I nodded, "Good point. Anyways I'm sure the seance will be entertaining, but I doubt we're going to see any real ghosts here."

"Right," my girlfriend agreed. A moment later she smiled and added, "Mind you if we do run into any ghosts, at least we know how handle it. Right Cerys? We can lay them to rest if necessary."

The young wolfgirl actually sounded a little uneasy as she replied, "Yeah. I guess you're right."

The seance was about five minutes late getting started, between more audience coming in and filling up the empty seats and stuff getting sorted out on stage. There was one round table in the middle of the stage, the chalice was back in its 'warded' case ontop of the table while some candles were set up around it. Four chairs were arranged around the table, and about a dozen more candles were placed on stands at both sides of the stage.

I also noticed there were a couple cameramen getting set up. One guy off to the left side near the stage had a fancy-looking video camera on a tripod, while another with a smaller hand-held camera was off on the right where he could get shots of the stage and some of the audience.

My friends all noticed that too, Melanie even commented on it. "It looks like they're taking this seriously huh? Makes me think this is the real deal?"

"Which is probably part of the show," Kaylee responded. "Makes it more believable for the audience, helps sell the idea that we're going to witness something special or unique. Meanwhile they get footage they can use in their next podcast or whatever."

Cerys looked like she was about to respond when the lights dimmed and a woman in her twenties came out on stage. There weren't any microphones set up on stands this time, but when she spoke her voice came through the speakers so I figured they'd switched to wireless mics for this bit.

The woman introduced herself as Tina, she was Madame Celeste's assistant. She reminded everyone to either turn off their phones or set them on silent, and asked that for the duration of the seance we should all try and stay as quiet as possible.

There was a minute or so for everyone to make sure their phones were off or whatever, then Madame Celeste came out on stage. She was an older woman, in her fifties or sixties. She looked the part, like she had a spooky vibe to her and she was dressed in a dark dress with a black knitted shawl and everything. She sat down in a chair facing the audience, then Tina took a seat to her left.

The two ghost hunter guys came out next, Tom sat to Tina's left and Jeff was on Madame Celeste's right. Jeff still had gloves on as he unlocked and opened the case, then he placed the silver chalice in the middle of the table. The case was set on the floor next to Jeff's chair, then he took off his gloves. And the last step was Tina lighting the candles on the table. There were four of them, placed around the chalice. Then the four people on stage joined hands, with their hands resting on the table.

Finally the lights went from dim to completely off, so the only light was from the candles on the table and the stage. Then Madame Celeste took a deep breath then announced, "We begin..."