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After Mr. Keller left, nothing was said at first of Gary's incident in the dining room. Everyone set about setting up for the up coming night.
Tal set up video cameras in every room of the house. Each one was numbered and connected to its corresponding video screen on one of three computers set up on the kitchen counter. Each screen was set up to show up to four different sights for a total of twelve rooms at its full capacity; this house had nine, including the basement.
Walter went from room to room with another instrument similar to the one Maury used, except that instead of a microphone, this one had a hand-held sensor that picked up electrical currents from the air. He recorded everything on a clipboard; that would be his baseline for that house.
Gary followed Maury around as he recorded each room. There was a slight jump on the meter from time to time, but it was hard to tell if it was picking up voices of the dead or just Walter telling Tal to shut up. Surprisingly, in the room where Gary had seen the curtains move, nothing registered on the EVP recorder. He knew that it didn't mean there were no ghosts in that room. It just meant that, if there were, Maury would have to work harder when extracting what may have been said there. With EVP, nothing was for sure until Maury did his voodoo on the computer downstairs.
After a couple of hours setting up and familiarizing themselves with the house, they met back in the kitchen. Gary closed the dining room door and the door to the front foyer of the house, effectively barricading themselves inside that room.
Walter took out a Pepsi from a cooler they had brought along and slumped into one of the kitchen chairs. "This is going to be a bust," he complained. There's so much free electromagnetic energy running through this place that it was hard to get a baseline for my readings. Usually, you can just tell that a place is infested-get a gut feeling about it. I get nothing gas from this place." He took a long drink of Pepsi and let out a big belch.
"High readings are usually indicative of hauntings," Gary said. "You don't thing your readings have any significance?"
"Usually, sure. But if I use the numbers I got for baselines, there's no way, short of a lightning strike, that the numbers will go any higher then what I've already registered. Now, I've taken note of the abundance of electrical lines in the area. This house in only six blocks from I-90 and the multitude of lines that run right along side it. Plus, there's a power station not far from here where a lot of these local electrical lines originate from. With that in mind, I don't put any credence in the high readings I'm getting."
Tal said, "I see you've done your homework."
"Only when I have to."
Gary sighed as he sat on the floor and leaned his back up against the stove. "I'd put a little more stock in those readings, if I were you."
"Tell them what happened in the dining room, Gar," Maury said as he was copying what he'd recorded onto his computer.
Gary told them about the icy current that passed over him. Ghosts were usually first sensed as a cold current of air, especially noticeable in a hot room.
"So I don't think this'll be as boring as you think, Walter," Gary said after telling them what had happened.
Tal took a seat next to Walter, turning the chair around and leaning up against the back of the seat. "So tell us again what's up with this house."
"Well, the owner didn't have a lot of anything significant to say. No one had ever died in the house, so I ruled out a familial haunting. I also did a record search of the area and didn't find any old cemeteries that had been dug up to build here. I only found one hint as to what might be the cause of the hauntings-an old road."
"How does an old road tie into this house?" Maury wondered aloud.
"Well," Gary began, "there was an old road that, at one time, people used to travel from here to Kramersburgh eighty miles north. We're talking early eighteen hundreds. Irish immigrants and Gypsies used the road extensively when they looked for work. It was cheaper to live here and travel to the bigger town than it was to stay there. Besides, Gypsies were rather nomadic, anyway, so it was in there blood. Well, whole families traveled together because whole families worked together, mostly. If some unfortunate accident or illness had overcome any member of the family during the trek, they would bury them along side the road and continue on. As far as I can tell, that road passed near here, maybe right on this very spot."
"Why the hauntings now?" Tal asked. "This house has been here for fifty-some years. And why not any of the other houses along this street?"
Gary rubbed a heat-induced weariness from his face and wiped the perspiration on his pants. "As for why here, I suppose we're probably sitting on or near some of those old grave sights. As for why now--." He shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose we'll never fully understand the anatomy of the supernatural. That's why what we do for a living will never be accepted as science."
Not much happened for the next two hours. Walter checked the rooms for any electromagnetic variations and found none. Tal kept vigil at his monitors for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing stirred in any of the rooms. Maury was having a hard time getting his EVP's to run properly and twice had to take the system apart and rewire it. Finally, he had to go out into the van and get new cables.
Near sunset, a breeze kicked up, ruffling the curtains on the open kitchen window. Its coolness was a welcome reprieve from the choking heat that had settled on the area like the lid over a boiling pot. But with that draught came the sudden disappearance of the red-orange glow of the sun. It had disappeared behind ominous, slate-gray clouds that were rushing in headlong from the west. A storm, created from the humidity of the day, was almost upon them.
That was when things got interesting.
Long shadows began to overtake the kitchen from the abrupt disappearance of daylight. The only illumination in the room was from video displays, and no one seemed to welcome the sudden gloom; a melancholy had settled over the group. It was an apprehension over the surreal knowledge that something besides a storm was looming. Anxiousness was always part of ghost hunting because you never knew what you'd get. Mostly, you'd get nothing. Sometimes, only hints into the deeper realms, a pin-prick of something otherworldly that would make the hairs on the back of you neck stand on end with excitement. But rarely did you ever get something that you could really sink your teeth into-something substantial. He couldn't speak for the others, but despite the house's quaint look of naiveté, Gary felt something here. Something-substantial. He knew instinctively that they were going to get a belly-full tonight.
He got up from the floor and closed the kitchen window then went to the light switch near the dining room door and returned a blanched light to the room.
A quick flash of lightning spilled through the window and, after a long silence, the distant bellow of thunder followed.
"Is everyone's auxiliary power at full strength?" Gary asked. "I don't want this storm affecting any of the readings by using the house's power."
Everyone nodded and began unplugging their equipment and using battery back up.
But Maury said, "I'm almost through with the EVP conversion. I'll finish it then go to back up-unless you want me to stop now. If I do, I'll have to start from the beginning, and that'll be another hour before we have anything to listen to."
Gary shook his head. "No, finish up. If there's anything significant on that EVP, I want to know what it is as soon as possible."
He then turned to Tal. "Turn the video display off on number six. I have to go to the john."
The basement doorway was in the kitchen next to a pantry. Mr. Keller had told them about another bathroom in the basement that they could access from the kitchen. That would leave the upstairs bathroom-and the entire upstairs-free from their comings and goings. The less they disturbed the areas under surveillance, the more likelihood of spotting anything out of the ordinary.
The basement was cool and damp. It felt refreshing, and a tingle wiggled its way down Gary's wet back as he felt for and found the string that activated the overhead light.
In the far corner was the other bathroom. It was not housed within a separate room but was open for all to see. It was obvious that this was put in at a later time, probably out of necessity. The four daughters and wife plastered on his living room wall had probably facilitated that necessity.
As he relieved himself, he closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and sighed. He was tired already, and it wasn't even 9 p.m. This was definitely going to be a long night.
Another sudden chill opened his eyes. This bite was numbing. He looked around the room. No one. He felt someone. Some-thing.
As he re-zipped his pants, he noticed it: his breath. It was whisping to the ceiling in vaporous plumes. He felt as though he were standing outside in a blizzard.
Something was happening.
He quickly went to the sink to wash his hands and looked into the mirror. He gasped in horror. It wasn't his face he saw. The blurred outline was the rotted face of an old man. A face that had been eaten away by decomposition and by ants and by worms. It was the fractured face of carrion.
The image in the mirror smiled devilishly at him.
Gary's heart leapt up into his throat, and for a moment, he couldn't breath. Every heartbeat was an explosion that loosened his head from his shoulders with its pain. His feet seemed cemented to the floor, and he could not force himself to look away from the horrific sight staring back at him.
Without warning it closed the gap between them, as if it were about to come out of the glass that separated it from Gary. The fetid figure appeared to be only inches from his face and closing in quickly.
Suddenly, the door to the basement opened up across the room behind him.
"Gar!" Maury yelled down.
The face in the mirror abruptly disappeared. Gary's chains of horror finally unloosened, and his feet were freed from the floor. He breathed out but no more vapor issued from his mouth.
He stared at his reflection. It was his reflection.
"Gar?" Maury yelled again.
Did he really see what he saw? Or was the heat of the day finally getting to him?
"Gary!"
Maury never called him Gary unless something important needed his attention.
He turned around as Maury descended about half of the stairs.
"What is it?" Gary asked in a shaky voice.
"You need to hear what I got," he said in an admixture of giddiness and fear. "You really need to hear what I got."
Gary smiled anxiously. "You got good EVP's?"
He nodded. "And it was talking specifically to you!"
©2002 StoriesByEmail.com
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