Chapter Text
November 2024
Lydia had never been a fan of bright colours, but she couldn’t deny that autumn was the most beautiful of the four seasons. Her boots waded through the sea of crispy red, yellow, and orange leaves, each step emitting a satisfying crunch. She breathed in deeply, enjoying the fresh air.
She had always thought that Halloween was the best part of autumn. Until recently. The events of this year’s Halloween had changed her view of it completely. Firstly, the ghost in the black and white striped suit, who had haunted Lydia for thirty-six years and whose name she didn’t want to think about, had tried to marry her for the second time. Secondly, her deceitful ex-fiancé had disappeared completely and was now presumed dead. This should have relieved Lydia, but the truth was, Rory’s disappearance and possible death had caused her a lot of problems.
The biggest of these problems was that she no longer had a manager. Lydia should have been happy that she was no longer Rory’s puppet on a string, that he could no longer have a hold over her and control her. And she was. But in his absence, Lydia had struggled to easily slip back into her role as the presenter of Ghost House. Her confidence was shattered, and she was still feeling the sting of Rory’s deceit. She felt lost, and the fact that the production company had admitted that they could no longer afford to appoint a new manager had done nothing to put Lydia’s mind at rest. She had found herself wondering if a manager had even been needed at all and whether Rory had simply appointed himself as one as another way of controlling her.
It had only been a month since the events of that night, but the production team had noticed that Lydia was struggling. And according to the phone call that she had received prior to the meeting that she was about to attend, so had the viewers.
As she made her way towards the studio where Ghost House was filmed, Lydia knew that this meeting wasn’t going to be easy.
***
“These are…well you can see for yourself that it’s disappointing.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. She had always got on well with Robert Forrester, the head of Ghost House’s production team. But lately, he had been getting on her nerves. He had been good friends with Rory and Lydia suspected that Robert’s newfound issues with the show were partly a result of the team losing Rory, who Robert had described as his “wingman.”
Robert slid the sheet across the table and Lydia glanced at it. The ratings had fallen, it was true. The evidence was right there in front of her. But it wasn’t by a huge amount.
“It’s only been a month,” said Lydia, pushing the sheet of paper away from her. “Give it time.”
“The ratings are usually high at this time of year,” Robert said, shaking his head. “We usually see a boost right after Halloween, but not this time. Applications from guests have hit a low. Rory’s absence hasn’t helped.”
“How can it possibly be to do with Rory?” Lydia asked, frowning. “The show always takes a short break and returns around Halloween. Rory was working on the show right up until Halloween. There hasn’t been enough time for his…”
Lydia caught herself, her voice trailing off as she tried to avoid saying the word “death” out loud. This wasn’t because she didn’t want Rory to be dead, but because she didn’t want to upset Robert any further, especially not when her career was on the line. “Disappearance” would hopefully be a more fitting word, so that’s what she used.
“…for his disappearance to affect the show.”
“Rory was a good manager to you,” Robert said, studying her.
Lydia wanted to argue that a manager who throws a person’s pills away in the trash to make them dependent is not a good one, but she didn’t. Instead, she remained silent.
“Without him, you…you’re just not the same, Lydia. You’re not as easy to work with and quite frankly…you’re not getting any younger.”
Not getting any younger.
The words floated into Lydia’s ears and buried themselves in her brain, where they settled with all the other negative words that were stored in there. Words uttered by Rory and every other person in Lydia’s life who had had a problem with her physical appearance and her strange and unusual personality.
Ageism was a common thing in a career like hers, but Lydia had hoped that the audience would care far more about her ghostly investigations and less about her age and physical appearance. Robert’s next action confirmed that this wasn’t the case.
“Take a look at this,” he said, scrolling on his phone and holding it out to Lydia. Lydia’s eyes raked over the comments on the Ghost House forums.
A thick skin was a must for anyone working in the entertainment industry, Lydia knew that. Years of comments about her choice of attire and her strange fascination with ghosts had enabled Lydia to build up that thick skin, but the breakdown of her marriage to Richard and her experience with Rory had ripped it all away and she had found herself becoming more bothered by what people thought of her in recent years.
When she first started presenting Ghost House, the producers told her that she fit the part perfectly. Her gothic appearance and her morbid interests had impressed them, though she suspected that, like Rory, some of them doubted her ability to communicate with the dead. The audience liked her to start with, the producers had told her that. But Ghost House was now on its tenth season and, somewhere along the line, something had changed. The show was attracting younger viewers, and it was clear that these viewers not only wanted entertaining television, but they also wanted a presenter who conformed to societal beauty standards.
Lydia continued to scroll through the comments, suddenly feeling nauseous.
Is the presenter ok? She always looks so pale!
She needs a new make-up routine! She would look SO much better with some contouring! Check out my tutorials on my TikTok!
She looks like a middle-aged Elvira but without the big tits.
Her fringe looks like it was cut by a five-year-old.
And there, nestled amongst the biting criticisms of Lydia’s appearance, were comments about her ability, with the most recent influx of younger viewers complaining about the lack of ghosts.
Can she even see ghosts? Because we never actually see any in the investigations that she does.
I think she’s a fake. She just enters the houses, sees a few pots and pans flying around and then leaves. We never see any actual interactions with the ghosts.
The words continued to bury themselves in Lydia’s brain and she shakily handed the phone back to Robert, who was looking at her with a “told you so” expression. Lydia felt that this was harsh of him – he had never pointed out negative comments about her before. In fact, the action seemed out of character for him. Lydia felt that something was amiss, but she could only assume that such an action was due to the production team being under pressure to get back the viewers that had been lost. Still, she could not help but think that it was a shitty move to point out her age and draw her attention to those nasty online comments. She took a deep breath, not wanting to let the criticisms bother her. She was fifty-two, for god’s sake. They shouldn’t bother her. But they did.
It was damn hard, reading negative comments on social media and forums and Lydia had always tried to avoid the internet. Ghost House had an official forum, Instagram page and other social media pages, but Lydia hardly ever interacted with fans on any of these pages, instead preferring to stay away from them.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
Perhaps, Lydia thought, that was why she had managed to remain in the spotlight for so long. Her decision to stay away from social media had resulted in her having no idea what people had really thought of her as a presenter. Until now. The newer younger viewers were harsher critics than the ones who were a similar age to Lydia, that was for sure.
“Evidence is right there,” said Robert, gesturing at his phone dramatically in a manner not unlike how Rory would have done. “We need a change.”
Lydia folded her arms.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked, glaring at him. “Shall I get a boob job? Cover my face in blusher? This is a show about ghosts, Robert. I wasn’t aware that people would care so much about my skin tone and chest size.”
“This is the entertainment industry, sweetheart,” said Robert, shaking his head. Lydia had to resist the urge to walk out as he uttered the endearment and breathed in deeply, trying to fight the surge of anger that had just bubbled up inside of her.
“Times are changing. Of course people are gonna be bothered about how you look, especially the younger generation. The truth is, we need to change things up a bit, get the show in a position where it appeals to these new viewers.”
He ran a hand through his perfectly styled dark hair, which was flecked with grey. Lydia wondered how much criticism he would be receiving if he was the one presenting the show. How many comments, she wondered, would these younger viewers make about his grey hairs? If she had to guess, it would be hardly any at all.
Robert exchanged glances with Jeff, one of the other producers, and Lydia suddenly found herself disliking the production team who she had previously had a good working relationship with. Rory, it appeared, had been a bad influence on them. Everything had been fine until he had shown up and wormed his way onto the team.
Not for the first time, Lydia found herself wishing she had never met him.
“The truth is,” said Jeff, studying Lydia through hooded eyes, “People’s viewing preferences are changing, Lydia. They wanna see more than just pots and pans flying around a house. They want thrills and excitement. They want…danger.”
Lydia closed her eyes and sighed. She should have known this day would come. She had, for most of her time on the show, taken on tame assignments. The ghosts that she had encountered had been mostly harmless spirits who wanted to remain in their homes, much like Adam and Barbara had. The producers had never given her risky investigations. Lydia didn’t have the ability to remove ghosts from homes and she had made this clear to the producers when Ghost House was in its infancy.
She was a psychic mediator, simply someone who tried to help the dead connect with the living. She had always aimed to help the ghosts live in peace with the people whose homes they haunted. This was a far more achievable goal than removing the ghosts completely. It had taken her a long time to make the decision to televise her ability. Lydia hated the thought of exploiting ghosts, but becoming a parent and buying a family home had placed a lot of financial pressure on her and Richard and so she had made the hard decision to showcase her ability to communicate with the dead.
Then there had been the divorce, which had been costly, and then Richard’s death, which had forced Lydia into life as a single parent. Richard had, of course, left everything he owned to Lydia and Astrid, but there were still bills to pay.
“I can’t give you danger, Jeff,” she said, after a few moments of silence. “I’m a psychic mediator, not a ghostbuster or an exorcist. I don’t have the ability to deal with dangerous spirits.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to find a way to start trying to do just that,” said Jeff. “We’re losing viewers, and this is the only way we can keep the ratings up.”
Lydia shook her head, sighing. She should be walking away, refusing to meet the demands of the producers, and quitting her job. But the truth was, it was a lucrative career. She had money, but being a parent was expensive, and she wanted Astrid to have a secure future.
Her reluctance to let go of the Winter River house was also causing issues. The mortgage had long been paid off, but the house was huge, and the bills were costly. She should have gone through with the sale that Delia had planned, but the truth was, she couldn’t. She didn’t want to let go of the house where she had met the young ghost couple who had shown her so much love and care.
“We’re gonna put out some applications for more thrilling investigations, get people who are being haunted by nastier spirits to appear on the show,” Robert announced. “We’ve got Silverstone Manor on our radar too.”
Lydia’s eyes widened. Silverstone Manor was an old house located on the outskirts of Connecticut. Lydia had heard stories about it. It was supposedly haunted by a dangerous spirit and there had been stories of people going in there and never coming out. Lydia had always been fascinated by it, spending hours researching it online in her younger years. It was currently derelict; the dangerous spirit had driven everyone away from it.
“I’m not doing investigations like that,” Lydia said firmly. “It’s too risky. I have a daughter to think about. I’m not putting my life on the line because you want to pander to the younger generation.”
Robert and Jeff exchanged glances, then Jeff spoke.
“Have it your way, Lydia. But I’m afraid your refusal to agree with the new changes that we want to implement will result in your dismissal. We will have to search for a new presenter, but I’m sure we can fill the role easily.”
Lydia folded her arms and let out a hollow laugh.
“Good luck with that,” she said. “This is a risky job and it’ll be hard for you to find someone who can communicate with ghosts.”
“Well, as long as they can act…”
And there it was. Confirmation from Robert that the production team believed her ability to communicate with ghosts was an act, just like Rory had. Before Rory, the team had always been respectful to Lydia. But Rory had clearly brainwashed them. Lydia thought back to all the times Rory and the rest of the team had fallen silent whenever she had entered the room. She hadn’t really thought much about it at the time, but now she knew that Rory had been talking to them about her, no doubt telling them how he thought her act was “bullshit” and that he needed to be the one to be her manager because he could “help” her. And they had let him.
The man had disappeared from her life but was still ruining it.
Lydia clenched her fists, feeling an overwhelming surge of anger. She couldn’t let Rory win anymore. She couldn’t let all the fears and anxieties that he had fuelled continue to take over. She could do this. She wouldn’t let them beat her.
“My ability is not an act,” she said, glaring at Robert. “I can do this. I can take on the assignments.”
Robert and Jeff exchanged glances again. They both looked sceptical, but Lydia wasn’t going to let this bother her.
“Maybe get a makeover too…” Robert added, nodding at Lydia’s outfit. “There’s this great TikTok page with some excellent tutorials. This girl really knows her stuff.”
He held out his phone and showed it to Jeff.
“Super hot too,” he muttered, while Jeff glanced at the young woman’s profile and nodded appreciatively.
Lydia rolled her eyes and stood up. She was done with this meeting.
“I’m happy with the way I look thanks,” she said, trying to hide the shakiness in her voice. “Just send me the details of the assignments.”
“Hmmm? Oh, yeah…will do,” said Jeff, his eyes still fixed on Robert’s phone. A video was playing, and Lydia could hear a young female voice talking excitedly about a new make-up trick.
“We’ll email you when we’ve sent out some applications for potential guests on the show,” said Robert, smirking at Jeff’s appreciative facial expressions as the producer watched the video.
Lydia didn’t answer and stormed out of the room, feeling angry and hurt. As she exited the studio and breathed in the fresh autumn air, she felt tears sting her eyes.
Don’t let it bother you, she thought, angrily wiping away a stray tear. They’re jerks, just like Rory was.
She sighed heavily as she walked down the steps. She had no experience with dangerous spirits and her stomach churned as she thought about entering the buildings. There should have been safety measures in place whenever she entered a haunted building, but there never was. Lydia found herself wondering, at that moment, whether this was because the production company doubted that the ghosts actually existed.
She had been lucky so far but now that the production company wanted her to communicate with unhappy ghosts, Lydia knew that she wouldn’t be able to do this alone.
The only one who could help her was the six-hundred-year-old ghost who she had hoped she wouldn’t have to see so soon after Halloween. She closed her eyes in defeat as she knew that she had no choice but to summon him.
***
The attic was, as usual, cold. Lydia shivered as she stood in front of Adam Maitland’s model, her gaze shifting from the tiny trees and houses to the gravestone of the black and white striped suited bio-exorcist.
There had always been hesitation when summoning him and this time was no different. She knew he would want to make a deal, knew that there would be a quid pro quo. There always was. But this time, she had clear requirements for her side of the deal. She only hoped that he would agree to it.
She closed her eyes, uttered his name three times, and waited for him to appear.