Chapter Text
Interview 1.
“It says here you have a master’s in parapsychology. What’d you do your thesis on?”
“Oh, it was, um, on how ghosts and spirits relate to the grieving process?”
“That sounds interesting, and I’d love to read it some day, but parapsychology isn’t exactly our thing. People use it to explain why ghosts aren’t real.”
“Er, right, and if there’s no rational explanation you’ll be that much closer to proving you’ve got a ghost, right?”
She smiles at him. “Fair point. What role were you thinking of taking? Research?”
“Um, I was actually sort of hoping to do interviews? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m good at research. But the human side is what interests me more.”
“Brill. I’m a grieving widow, I’ve seen my husband standing in the back garden, staring up at my window at night. But every time I rush down to see him, he’s gone.”
He blinks at her for a moment, and then seems to switch gears. “How do you know it’s your husband, Mrs. King?”
“Do you think I wouldn’t know my own husband? The way he stands, the way he looks at me, of course it’s him. He’s just waiting for me to let him in but I can’t, I just don’t know why.”
“I know he understands you’re trying your best. Can I ask—when does this happen? What time of night, how often do you see him?”
“Er, about once a week, and always in the middle of the night. Not on any particular day. But it’s always after I’ve been thinking about him. He can tell I miss him.” She covers her mouth and turns her face away, fighting a smile. It’s a pretty obvious trap, but some people still fall for things like this.
“Ghosts are often very sensitive to people’s emotions,” he says. “When we’re alive we tune into the people around us, but for spirits that’s what’s all around them. Their world is our feelings for them. He’s here because you love him and miss him so much. He misses you too. Mrs. King, what help do you want from us? We can’t bring your husband back. But maybe we can help you make peace with his spirit.”
Melanie breaks character to begin clapping, grinning broadly. “Oh, well done, Mr. Blackwood. I can see why you consider yourself a people person.” He blinks, and hastily wipes at his eye. For the sake of his dignity she pretends not to notice. “Of course, if you can do research as well it’d be an immense help. We need all hands on deck.”
“Y-yeah. I can do that. Sorry, you’re a really good actress. I wasn’t expecting to, um, wow.”
“No problem. You’re an empathetic guy, I get it. Do you think you can do me a little writeup on the Tower of London by tomorrow? I’m not using it for the show, it’s just a standard comparison. I want you looking for things you think would be interesting. You’ve seen some of my solo videos, right?”
“Yeah. They’re brilliant! That’s part of why I’m here.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere. I’m kidding, this is a meritocracy. So if you’ve seen my videos you have some idea of what I’m looking for. But don’t do what you think I would do. I want researchers who can think independently, who bring their own thing to the show.”
“Yeah! Yes, I can do that. I have your email, so, um, I’ll just... go. Thank you!”
Interview 2.
This one’s fit. Maybe in kind of a douchey way, given his sense of style, but the sample video he sent in just makes him look like a good guy who loves his friends. “I liked your video,” she says. He grins at her. “It’s a little hard to tell how you’d work with actual good cameras, given that you’ve been using amateur equipment. Do you know how to use one of these?”
He takes the camera from her and studies it. “I reckon I could work it out pretty quick. It’s not that different. Plus, you’re not just hiring me for my camerawork. I’m a good editor too.”
She raises her eyebrows at his confidence, amused. “You’re all right. I mean, you’re no Alexia Crawley.”
“Yeah, but who is? Besides her, I mean. You ever kind of want to kidnap her so she can make movies that actually mean something? Oh, G-d, not that I kidnap people. Er, sorry, off topic. Did you look through my architecture photography?”
“Yeah, your framing sense is really good. I could wish for a few more abandoned buildings, since that’s mostly what we’ll be shooting in…”
“Oh, I’ve got those. My brother’s mad for that sort of thing right now, I just thought you might like the artsy ones more. I can get on Drive on my phone, hang on.”
She watches him scroll through photos on his phone for a moment, then says, “I would kidnap Alexia Crawley, though. I don’t think I could hire anyone who legitimately liked Banks’ films for anything other than the cinematography.”
“I’ve met so many of those people,” he mumbles at his phone. “Wanted to bloody murder most of them. Not that I murder people. Oh, here we go. Scroll right from here.”
“These are fantastic, why’d you send me a bunch of churches?”
“I’m into neo-Gothic architecture,” he says, rather sheepishly. “Plus, you’d be surprised how many of those buildings are haunted.”
“Huh! Well, tell you what, Mr. Stoker, I’ve got a couple more interviews to do, but you’re at the top of my list right now. I’ll call you back by the end of the week to let you know.”
“Brilliant. And please, call me Tim.”
Interview 3.
“All right, I’m trying not to be offended, but is our site really so bad you felt like you had to apply for a position I wasn’t even advertising for?”
“It’s… it’s okay. It’s a fine site. But people are always underestimating how important it is to have a good website. The thing is, I want your show to happen. It’s really, really cool. I’m not sure I believe in ghosts, but I do believe in your show. I mean, I think it will be different. I can do a bit or research too, if you want, I’m pretty good at spin. But I could also use that skill for social media management.”
“First, thank you. Second, I would love to hire you as soon as I see what you’ve worked on, besides your website portfolio, and technically I’ve got to check with my producer as well, but I think he’ll be fine. Have you ever done social media management before? Forum moderation, anything like that?”
“I was actually a mod on a, er, haunted antiques forum for a while? The forum got closed down a couple years ago, but it wasn’t because of mismanagement, it was because it turned out some of the users had been desecrating graves to make actually really haunted antiques out of people’s bones. “
“Okay, I’m going to need that story before you go any further.”
Interview 4.
“It’s a bit of an unorthodox career choice.”
“Not really. I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering at libraries.” Melanie raises her eyebrows. “And listening to ghost podcasts. I mean, the thing I really find interesting is the sense of history. All these connections between events and if you trace them to the end you find… well, something.”
“Does your background as a detective have anything to do with that?”
She smiles. “Maybe.”
“So, were you thinking just research, or do you have any other skills that will be useful to the team? Because I’m sorry to say we’re kind of swamped in applications by pure researchers.” That’s an exaggeration. Melanie wishes enough people were excited about her project to swamp her in any kind of application. But there is something of an imbalance.
“I know all the laws about breaking and entering.” She laughs. “And I know when it’s reasonable not to care. I’m also a bit of an expert in getting into places. I can pick locks, I know my way around a pair of bolt cutters, I know the rug trick, and I’m pretty damn good at climbing.”
“Sounds great,” says Melanie, with relish. “Honestly you’re the only person who has offered to climb a fence for me so I’m tempted to hire you right now, but to be fair I have to ask you to do a writeup on the Tower of London as if you were doing background for the show. What you think would be interesting to highlight, what angle you’d go for, that kind of thing.”
“I mean, I could do that right now, off the top of my head. Saves an email.”
Melanie might be in love.
Interview 5.
At first she thinks he’s a hipster. The glasses are right, and he’s wearing a fucking cardigan with elbow patches, for heaven’s sake. She never wants to talk to a hipster ever again, in her life, but she is a great actress, so she does a decent job of pretending she doesn’t immediately dislike him.
“So your only skill is research and you have a degree in literature. Why should I hire you when my other picks have skills like breaking into buildings and being nice to grieving widows?”
The hipster scowls and looks at her from under his brows. “Arguably the fact that I specialize makes me more suited to research, not less. I have a great deal of experience sifting through texts for relevant information, and I’ve been told my synthesis is excellent. I never stop until a project has finished.”
“Right. Then why are you here instead of compiling historiography from accounts of the First World War or something?”
“Because there are things in this world that I do not understand. Things that any reasonable person would be terrified of. I’ve… made contact only once, but I find it impossible to forget. If you are the researcher I think you are, you will understand what I mean when I say there are some things I cannot live without knowing.”
“You’ve made contact? What exactly does that mean?”
He’s silent for a moment, seeming to look inward. At no point during this conversation has he stopped frowning. Does he get headaches? “When I was eight years old I spent a great deal of time wandering the city unsupervised. I found my way into all sorts of places where I should not have been, including a disused library. Many of the books had not been taken when the building was shut down, and I thought to rescue as many as I could carry. The basement of the library was damp and scrawled with graffiti, but stranger still, littered with small personal items. Not as if people were leaving offerings, but scattered across the floor. I later learned that it was popularly considered to be haunted, and that several people were supposed to have disappeared there. Both of those things were in fact true. Because in the basement of that library lived a bloated, many-legged thing that liked to claim trophies. I nearly became one of them.”
Melanie blinks at him. She has never met anyone who could say something like that with a straight face. She can only assume he’s overdramatizing. “Well, then,” she says. “If you ever feel like telling me that again, but in a way that actually conveys any information, please do. In the meantime, I’d like you to take a day and find me anything you think is interesting or notable on the Tower of London. It’s a standard assignment for the research applicants.”
“Is there a maximum page limit,” he says, looking down his nose at her as he stands up.
“There’s a patience limit. I’ll leave you to guess what it is.”
When she reads his writeup, she sends him an email offering him a job on the spot. It’s one thing to have the voice of a narrator, but it’s quite another to be able to script like one.