“Perry, Jenn,” Dex said, gesturing to them with incredibly false sincerity. “I’d like you to meet G.J., Annie, Joe and Douglas.”
Joe was the guy in the Megadeth shirt. I wondered if people called him Little Joe as a joke.
I smiled at them all as earnestly as possible and quickly shook their hands. Jenn gave a short nod and flash of her white teeth.
“We’re big fans of your show,” G.J. said to me, holding onto my hand for a second longer than he should have. His hand was greasy and big and he had too many rings on.
“Oh yeah,” I said, swiping my hand away and looking him in the eye. “Is that why you decided to copy us?”
“Perry,” Jenn hissed from beside me.
I gave her a look. “What? It’s true.” I looked back at the crew. “Isn’t it?”
G.J. let out a laugh that I wished sounded more nervous. He raised his hands in the air, looking back and forth between Dex and me with a dumbass grin on his face. “Guilty as charged. If I hadn’t been a fan, I wouldn’t have bothered with the job. It’s all Annie here, really.”
Annie shrugged, her strange dead eyes looking at my forehead. “We aren’t copying you. You’re just copying shows like Paranormal State and Ghost Lab. We have our own spin.”
I shot Dex a look out of the corner of my eye. Did I dare ask what the spin was?
He did it for me. “And what’s that?”
G.J. crossed his overly muscley arms and straightened up. He was a good five inches taller than Dex but my partner didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest.
“We’re real ghost hunters.”
Jenn burst out laughing. I would have joined her had I not remembered those fairy tale comments from the day before.
“Excuse me?” I asked. “Real?”
G.J. and Annie exchanged a smug look between them.
“I’ve gone to school for parapsychology,” Annie said with a haughty twitch of her head. “I know how to talk to ghosts. I know how to find them. And they know how to find me.”
Jenn put her face in her hands and mumbled, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I am standing here listening to this conversation.” She looked up at Joe and Douglas with disbelief. “Come on, fellas, you can’t possibly believe this shit either?”
Joe was silent but Douglas spoke up, adjusting his hat. “We’ve seen some pretty freaky stuff. These two know what they are doing.”
“And so do we,” Dex injected. Another total lie. Dex and I had no idea what we were doing.
“No, dear,” Jenn said, walking over to Dex and tugging at his arm. “You’re clueless. But I still love you anyway.”
“Jenn, what are you doing?” I couldn’t help but blurt out, staring at her aghast.
She glared at me momentarily. Then she smiled again, big and fake, and looked at everyone. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to blow your cover. I think you’re all full of shit. There are no such things as ghosts. You’re all filming dust particles floating in the air and talking to the walls.”
“Well, they might be,” Dex said pointing at Annie.
Jenn snickered and reached into his pant pocket, bringing out the keys. “I’m going back to the car before I lose my mind. Hope you guys don’t scare each other to death.”
As she walked away, G.J. asked, “Is that the girl from Wine Babes?”
Dex nodded, frowning.
“No such thing as ghosts?” Annie said to him. “How the hell do you put up with that?”
An involuntary smile spread across my face. Dex shot me a look and I wiped it away just in time.
“So you have a degree or something in parapsychology,” he continued, ignoring her. “So what?”
“So plenty,” she said. She had a lot more confidence than I had hoped. “It gave me the backing to go into the Fantasy Network and pitch the show. I showed them I knew what I was doing so they gave us a budget, a crew, and the ability to make two episodes a week. I’m assuming Shownet’s not giving you any of that.”
“It’s a small network,” I explained meekly.
“It’s internet only. Spook Factory is attached to a TV network, so we have more range and more reach and I wouldn’t be surprised if our show ends up on TV anyway.”
“As it should,” G.J. shot in, eyeing Annie carefully. “I didn’t give up a career in Mixed Martial Arts just so I could fester on the internet.”
I tried hard not to laugh but failed.
“So you really are going around and kicking ghosts in the balls. That is your job, right?” I asked.
Dex snorted.
G.J. rolled his eyes. “I’m in charge of all the equipment. And I’m the eye candy.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” Annie said to him, scrunching up her beak of a nose. “You only got this job because you f**ked over Eddie.”
“Who is Eddie?” I had to ask.
Annie crossed her arms and sighed, a frazzle puff of blonde hair flying off her face. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Eddie was supposed to be working with me. Not G.J. here.”
“But I called Eddie with a fake job offer so he’d forget about this one,” G.J. finished. He looked way too proud of himself for something so low. “Annie found out later but hey, by then people expected me to be part of the show.” He gave Annie an insincere smile. “Besides, Eddie was a wimp. Sure he knew more about supernatural stuff but come on, he’d be running away like a pu**y at the first sign of trouble.”
So they were our competition, and they were deceptive douchebags. Great.
Dex popped a piece of Nicorette in his mouth and chewed silently for a few beats.
“So, why are you here?”
Annie made a weird, amused noise and pointed at the brick building. “Why the hell do you think? You ever heard of the Harvard Exit Cinema?”
“Well, being as I live here, yes,” Dex answered smartly, not looking at the building. “But there hasn’t been any paranormal activity in there since 1987. Figured you would have known that.”
I felt like kicking Dex. What was he doing, giving them pointers? Let them film at the building that was a dud. Better for us in the long run.
“I did know that,” Annie shot back. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”