The Hunt Resumes

Once everyone is back inside, Brenda leads the group towards the second floor. Halfway up the stairs, she suddenly stops. Everyone behind her freezes.

For a moment, nobody moves. Then they hear it—footsteps. The sound seems to come from the landing above them, moving away towards the hallway.

Brenda immediately raises her digital camera and takes two photographs. She checks the first, then studies the second. “Take a look at this.” Near the edge of the landing is a small round shape, only partly visible as it appears to move around the corner.

William studies it, then hands the camera to Matthew. “So all orbs are dust or bugs, right, Matt?” Matthew starts to answer, then stops when he sees the picture. William grins. “What? Never seen one peek around a corner?” Matthew keeps staring. “Well… I guess I’m willing to reconsider.”

Once everyone has seen the photograph, Brenda continues upstairs and quietly asks Jessica to begin another EVP session at the landing.

Jessica starts recording. “Is anyone here with us?” She pauses. “If you’re here, can you tell us your name?” Another pause. “Are you afraid of us?” She continues with several more questions, asking for a knock or some other sign.

Brenda listens to the recording through her earphones. A smile slowly appears. She turns up the recorder and presses play. Jessica’s recorded voice asks, “Are you afraid of us?” A faint female voice answers, “No.” None of them heard the response when the question was asked.

They continue along the second floor. As they approach the room with the locked closet, a loud bang comes from inside. The closet door is now wide open.

Matthew looks at William. “You’re positive you couldn’t open that?” William nods. “Positive. I couldn’t even make it rattle. It felt like something was holding it shut.” Matthew scans the room and closet with the infrared camera, but nothing obvious appears.

He suggests that Brenda and Jessica conduct another EVP session while the others search the remaining rooms. Alexis smiles at him. “Look at you taking charge. Who expected the non-believer to be this excited about looking for ghosts?” Matthew glances at her. “I’ve heard a few things today that are making me question what I believe.”

Brenda and Jessica remain behind. Jessica asks whether anyone is present, requests a name, and asks whether whoever is there is upset that they are in the house. Brenda adds several neutral questions of her own. Nothing obvious follows. They note the time and location and move on.

At the far end of the hallway, William points towards a dark bedroom. Matthew enters first with the infrared camera, Alexis directly behind him. As he pans across the old bed, Alexis catches something on the LCD screen. “Wait. What’s that?”

Matthew moves the camera back. A faint shape appears to be lying across part of the bed, roughly the size of a person.

William approaches with the EMF meter. As he moves it near the bed, a sudden chill touches his hand and the meter jumps. Sarah takes temperature readings from nearby surfaces. “There’s about a ten-degree difference.”

The others begin taking photographs. Then, as quickly as it started, the EMF reading returns to normal. The cold sensation disappears, and the shape vanishes from Matthew’s infrared display.

Jacob becomes unusually quiet while reviewing his camera. Sarah walks up behind him. “What’s that on the bed?” A hazy, cloud-like distortion appears in the photograph directly in front of where William had been standing.

Jacob looks up. “You don’t think it’s a ghost, do you?” William comes over. “It’s definitely something, little man.” Matthew studies the picture and smiles. “You may have caught your first ghost in a photograph, bud.”

It is not a clear human figure, and it is not definite proof of anything paranormal. But after all the times Jacob has desperately wanted to see something, the image means everything to him. William and Matthew congratulate him, and soon everyone else does too. Jacob seems to grow several inches taller.

When Brenda and Jessica catch up, Jacob simply grins and hands Brenda the camera. Jessica leans closer. “What’s that on the bed in front of William?” Jacob answers with unusual confidence. “That’s the ghost I caught.”

William explains the sudden chill and EMF spike, and Sarah describes the temperature difference. Everyone looks towards Matthew. He only nods towards Jacob. Brenda and Jessica understand immediately. This is Jacob’s moment.

As the others move into the next room, Matthew hangs back long enough to show Brenda and Jessica the unusual shape recorded by the infrared camera. Jessica lowers her voice. “That was a really nice thing you did for Jacob.” Matthew smiles. After so many investigations together, he has begun thinking of Jacob almost like a little brother.

The group continues from room to room. No further sounds occur, and the remaining EVP sessions on the second floor produce nothing obvious. Eventually they descend to the main floor.

Brenda asks Samantha to show her exactly where she saw the man who appeared to be arguing. Samantha leads them past the sitting room to a smaller room beside the kitchen and points towards an old table and chair.

Matthew begins recording while William checks the EMF meter. Nothing unusual appears on the infrared screen, but the EMF needle begins moving rapidly as William approaches the table. Brenda tells everyone to take photographs.

Jessica conducts another EVP session beside the table, but nobody hears a response and Brenda finds nothing obvious during the quick playback. As they start towards the kitchen, Samantha suddenly stops. “Oh my goodness. I think I caught something.”

Her photograph shows a bright circular shape above the chair between Brenda and William. Brenda studies it. “Interesting. Keep that one. We’ll compare it with your other pictures before deciding what it is.”

While the others examine the photograph, Jessica stands in the kitchen doorway staring at the counter. Brenda notices. “What’s wrong?”

“My dream from last night. There’s something I forgot. Mrs. Johnson found one sack of gold her husband missed. She was about to take it outside when a pot boiled over. She put the sack down…” Jessica points towards the counter. “Right there. And I have this feeling it might still be here.”

Brenda considers this. “Let’s keep it between us for now. Everyone is focused on the investigation. If we tell them there might be gold in the house, nobody will be thinking about anything else.” Jessica nods.

The group conducts a careful sweep of the kitchen but finds nothing unusual. Compared with the rest of the house, it seems almost completely inactive.

Finally they head towards the sitting room, where they previously saw the traveller. Matthew enters first with the infrared camera pointed ahead. As he walks, he glances sideways at Alexis. She smiles at him.

For several seconds, Matthew’s attention is on her instead of the camera screen. He never notices the reddish-orange shape that crosses the display and moves towards the window.

Brenda tells everyone to take their time because this is the final room of the day. William checks the area where they saw the apparition, but the EMF meter remains quiet. Matthew sees nothing unusual either.

“This is ridiculous,” Matthew complains. “I finally start opening my mind to the possibility of a real ghost, and now he doesn’t even show up.”

Sarah suddenly steps into the middle of the room. “Everybody take my picture.” She begins striking exaggerated model poses while camera flashes fill the room. Everyone laughs.

Brenda shakes her head. “Very cute. I think that’s enough ghost hunting for today. Ending with everybody laughing isn’t a bad thing.”

She reminds them that they have recorded interesting audio, taken photographs worth reviewing and captured video that deserves a closer look. More importantly, they have learned to approach an investigation methodically instead of deciding that every strange sound or image is paranormal.

The day has been unlike any investigation the seven have done before. They have used infrared video, a digital thermometer and an EMF meter. They have learned to review EVP recordings while still at the location, check possible evidence against ordinary explanations and put safety ahead of excitement.

The traveller never appears in front of them this time. But they have plenty of evidence to review. And for Matthew, perhaps the strangest discovery of the day is that he is no longer quite as certain about what he does—or does not—believe.