Paranoid Paranormal

A man is fumbling around on a very disorganized and cluttered work bench filled with all kinds of pieces and parts of electronic devices. He picks up a couple of pieces and is attempting to combine them when a woman’s voice comes over an intercom. “Lenard, your 4:30 interviews are here.” The man continues to work on his gadget ignoring the woman’s announcement and after about a minute the voice says again “Lenard. Your 4:30s are here, Lenard I know you can hear me.” Forgetting the intercom is still on the voice says “Oh for pity’s sake…..DOCTOR Morlock, your 4:30 appointments are waiting in the lobby.” Lenard reaches over to the intercom pushes a button and replies “Thank you Brenda I will be right out.” Lenard stops his project and walks over to the door and before he goes out to the lobby he puts on a doctor’s coat and adjusts his glasses then check himself in the mirror, then walks out into the next room.

He stops by a small desk where sits a woman obviously frustrated and says, Thank you Brenda and would you please get me the Robertson’s case file.” Brenda gets a confused look on her face and says “You mean the couple who think you are an exterminator?” Lenard glances at the two people sitting across the room smiles and replies “Um….well I think they don’t really know what they’ve got there” trying to sound important “I will take a closer look, so just get me the file and I will look at it in a few minutes.” Brenda rolls her eyes and picks up a scrap piece of paper and grabs an empty file and deliberately places the note in the file and hands it to Lenard. Lenard takes the file folder and turns to the two sitting on a couple chairs near the window. “So you must be Jeff and Charlotte, let’s step into my office and we can talk about the position.” Lenard gestures towards the door he just came out of.

The two stand up and Jeff steps forward holds out his hand “My name is Jeff (last name here) It is a pleasure to meet you Dr. Morelock, I have read your papers on the cross dimensional parapsychology link. ‘Where does the mind go?’ I wrote my thesis on it.” He says smiling as Lenard shakes his hand. “And you must be Charlotte” (last name here) says Dr. Morlock who doesn’t wait for a reply and turns back to Jeff. Charlotte rolls her eyes and glances at Brenda who catches her eye and looks away quickly . “I was particularly intrigued by the possibility of contacting the ‘other side’ through the frequencies of brain waves.” This made Lenard smile as they walked around the office. Lenard started pointing out some of the devices sitting on the work benches. “This is an alpha wave signal receiver” he says holding up what looks like a cross between a pocket calculator and a television remote control with 2 small antennas coming out the sides. “And what is this?” Jeff asks picking up a small device that had some shiny blue liquid bubbling inside of it. Lenard takes the device from Jeff and says “This is an ectoplasm residue detector.” He flips a switch and the liquid begins to glow and bubble faster. “What is the liquid inside?” Jeff asks. “It is a combination of very sensitive chemicals that help detect and identify the presents of ectoplasm.” The doctor replies and covers a bottle of dishwashing liquid without them noticing.

As the 2 men are talking Charlotte is lagging behind them looking very uninterested. Brenda’s voice comes over the intercom “Leland, the Robertson’s called back and they were asking if there was anything we could recommend for wasps.” Lenard looks at the intercom and rolls his eyes as he reaches over and pushes the intercom button and replies “Thank you Brenda, I will call them later.” Lenard holds up the device as if they were not interrupted. “It has a range of 12 and a half meters but I am trying to extend that to 20. Oh and here is my latest acquisition” he says moving down the table to a large item that is covered with a drop cloth, he is reaching for the cloth when Brenda’s voice comes over the intercom again “Lenard, there is a package here for you. Lenard, (pause) are you listening to me, hello…” Lenard with draws his hand and looks at the wall towards the other room. “Excuse me” he says to Jeff and leaves the room and goes in to the front office to find Brenda standing next to a large box sitting on her desk. The box is marked ‘Entertain Apparel’ “What did you order now?” A broad smile crossed Lenard’s face “Great my protective uniform has arrived.” He says reaching for the box. “Um, if you can afford a costume to play dress up, you can afford me a raise.” She says scowling. “Well Brenda” Lenard replies “First of all this isn’t a ‘costume to play dress up in’ he says quoting the air. “It is a needed piece of equipment that is vital for the success of this business.” “Business” Brenda says sarcastically back “What business, all I know is that I haven’t been paid in a month and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.” And she sits down in a huff behind her desk. “Well Brenda, I know things are slow right now but if you feel as though you want to quit, I sure with your qualifications you would have no trouble finding employment in the housekeeping or home healthcare industry…” he says smirking. “I’ve quit better jobs than this” she mumbles under breath as Lenard takes his box and goes back into his office.

Lenard carries his box into his office and lays it down behind his desk and walks back over to Jeff who is looking over his work bench at all of the various pieces and parts. “You have quite the collection here Dr. Morelock.” Jeff says to Lenard as he walks up. “Yes, it has taken me years of work to collect and build my arsenal for the discovery and exploration of the paranormal.” Lenard picks up the device he was working on before Jeff came in. “I was just working on this as you came in, “ he says holding up two of the pieces to show Jeff. “What does this one do?” Jeff asks interestedly. The doctor replies “When it is complete, it should be able to detect trace amounts of psychokinetic energy left over in any object and I have a lead on a potential hotspot. He says pointing to a black and white photo on the wall of an old farm house. Charlotte picks up and battered child’s video game looks at Dr. Lenard and shakes her head sarcastically and drops it back on the table.

“I have received word that this house has a history of paranormal activity. We will be going out there on Saturday.” Jeff glances back at the covered object on the table “And that?” he says as he points. “Oh yes this will be instrumental on this excursion.” Lauren says walking over to the object. “This is an ectoplasmic molecule stabilizer. It has the ability to hold and maintain any paranormal energy in a given area to help enhance the possible of greater findings. This weekend will be its debut.” Jeff looks a little worried and says “What if it ‘holds’ paranormal energy we don’t necessarily want. I mean if we hold something that does not want to be held; won’t that put us in danger?” Lenard smiles and says “It’s nothing we can’t handle my boy; with my equipment and knowledge, no paranormal entity will stand a chance.” He says looking around the office. Jeff has a look on his face that clearly says he is not totally convinced. Charlotte has stopped paying attention and does not reply to their comments.

Jeff is standing in front of Dr. Morelock’s building waiting to go to the deserted farm house he saw in the picture the day before. A van comes driving around the side of the building and Jeff sees Lenard step out of it and has to suppress a laugh. His white jumpsuit along with various gizmos and gadgets strapped all over himself, he looked like a cross between a futuristic exterminator and someone going to a scyfi convention and with the addition of the oversized goggles made the whole outfit almost too much to handle. “Ready to go?” Lenard asks Jeff. “Ah um” Jeff replies “Yes, Sir” enthusiastically. Dr. Lenard looks around, “Where is your fellow student?” then he sees a person sleeping in a car a few feet away. He approaches the car to find Charlotte sleeping soundly. He knocks on the window and Charlotte wake abruptly and rolls down here window. “What!” she says irritated. Dr. Morelock is a little taken aback and replies “It’s time to go “Absolutely’ says Jeff “Am I riding with you?” Lenard glances back towards his van “No, I think it will be better if you follow me, my van is pretty full of equipment.” Jeff looks over at the van as well. “Sound good to me, what’s the address and I will put it into my GPS.” Lenard walks back to his van and pick up a folder and reads “Farm road 123666 Alter’s Ridge Missouri 457666, it’s about 5 hours away.” Jeff gets into his truck and starts laughing and Charlotte grumbles to herself and starts her own vehicle as they pull away heading for their destination.

Several hours later while getting gas Jeff is talking on his cell phone and Charlotte is sitting in her car with her head back and eyes closed; Jeff starts talking to his wife “Yeah this will be a long haul honey. I should be back sometime tomorrow. If we are gonna be any later I will give you a call. Okay, talk to you soon, bye.” He turns to finish filling his truck with gas and he watches Lenard come out of the gas station followed by the sound of laughter and snide comments. “When is the mother ship picking you up ET.” “Hey Poindexter, could you take a look at my tv it seems to broken.” Lenard just ignored them and climbed back into his van and Jeff followed him trying hard no to laugh, Charlotte wakes up just in time to see the other two vehicles pulling away and she peels out of the parking lot trying to catch up.

The three vehicles come to a stop in front of a gate leading into a wooded area. To the far side of the lane is a dilapidated mailbox with reminisce of a name and address on it. Jeff gets out of his truck and walks to Lenard’s van; Lenard looks at his folder again and says “Well we’re here. This the place described in the file. The house should be at the end of this lane.” Jeff opens the gate and as they start driving up the lane Lenard switches on the ectoplasmic molecule stabilizer. It hums slightly and several lights glow softly next to him as he drives.

As the vehicles clear the heavily wooded lane they see what appears to be a turn of the century farmhouse and coming off the front porch to greet them are an elderly couple. The two men get out of their vehicles and Lenard says to Jeff “Let’s get this on tape and we can review it later, I don’t want to leave any information out.” Jeff nods and gets out his camera and starts to film and Charlotte takes out a note book and stands looking around waiting to take any notes. “You must be the Andersons.” Lenard says holding out his hand to the approaching couple. Mr. Anderson takes Lenard’s hand and replies “Yes I am Richard and this is my wife Grace” he nods towards his wife. “Thank you again for allowing us to come out to your home. These are my associates Jeff (last name here) and Charlotte (last name here) they will be documenting for our research” and Lenard nods towards Jeff and Charlotte.

Mr. Anderson leads the team up the porch and into the house. He pauses in the hallway and turns towards a door connected to the underside of the stairs. “This door leads to the basement, which is where we lost our son. He committed suicide down there. He was into a lot of peculiar goings on. All sorts of strange sounds and smells coming up outta there at all hours of the day and night. We only found him because we hadn’t seen him for goin on a week and mother had me go down to check on him. I found what was left of his body and took it out back and buried it under that big ol oak tree.” He says gesturing out the window towards a very large tree they all could see in the very back part of the yard. “We have also heard a lot of noises coming out of the attic and I know I have sealed every hole big enough save for a mosquito could get in. Mother has seen things moving around and heard strange sounds like laughing when she was working out in the yard.” Lenard tries to keep the excitement from showing on his face while Jeff’s face is getting more and more tense and Charlotte is hardly paying attention and is staring out the opposite window wishing she was anywhere but there.

A loud bang sounds through the house as the screen door from the front porch slams behind Mrs. Anderson who comes in. Jeff jumps violently and spins around making Charlotte snort with laughter. Jeff gives her a scathing look and turns back to Dr. Morlock who was completely unaffected by the sudden noise. Mrs. Anderson walks through the hall and towards the kitchen saying “Would any one like some lemonade?” a general noise of agreement came from those in the hall. Mr. Anderson came to a stop at the living room and the rest follow him in. “Mr. Anderson gestures towards the couch and a couple of chairs. Everyone but Mr. Anderson takes a seat, “So when was the most recent encounter?” Dr. Lenard asks. Mr. Anderson replies “Just this morning, we were sitting outside on the porch and we heard the strangest noise, in fact just a few minutes before you pulled up.” Jeff sits nervously while listening to Mr. Anderson and tries to keep the camera on Mr. Anderson while he is talking but keeps moving the camera off Mr. Anderson because he is looking around the room. Charlotte on the other hand is doodling on her notepad a picture of Dr. Lenard looking like an overstuffed cartoon figure being chased by ghosts.

After a few more stories of encounters Mrs. Anderson comes into the living room with lemonade for everyone. Dr. Morelock stands after he finishes his drink and says “Well we had better get to work. We need to get some equipment and if it’s ok we will get started up stairs in your son’s room.” Mr. Anderson agrees and the team goes out to the vehicles. Dr. Morelock speaks to his team. “Ok Jeff let’s break out the equipment and Charlotte if you would get the digital cameras ready. I want photo documentation of each room and anything out of the ordinary. Jeff you will continue to run the video and you will also be monitoring the thermal scanner. I will be manning the ectoplasmic detector and I will also be monitoring the EMP meter. I think we should also mount some static camera around the house to record any activity we might miss while in other rooms.”

They all grab the equipment and move back into the house. They are making their way up the stairs with Dr. Morelock leading the way followed by Jeff with Charlotte bringing up the rear still moving slowly and very non-enthusiastically. As they climb the stairs they are passing several portraits hanging on the wall Dr. Morelock gets to the top of the stairs first and turns down a hallway, Jeff is about halfway up and out of the corner of his eye he thinks he sees one of the pictures move. We can see one of the pictures did move but when Jeff stops to take a proper look the picture remains still. He turns to climb the remaining stairs and the picture moves again just outside of Jeff’s view causing him to stop again. Jeff turns back to the picture but again it remains unmoving. He turns back again and starts to move quickly up the stairs hoping he did not see what he thought he saw. Charlotte is still oblivious and was putting in earbuds to listen to her music and did not see any of the interaction with Jeff and the picture.

Dr. Morelock arrives to the son’s room first and he enters the room and turns on the light. He sees a dresser, a large bed, a chair, a small desk and large wardrobe. The bed is made and looks as though the Anderson’s son could walk in at any moment like he has never been gone. Dr. Morelock has moved to the small desk when Jeff enters the room. “Take a look at this.” Lenard says to Jeff. Jeff moves to the desk to see what looks like a diary. It is open and there are several entries and rough sketches visible. Lenard picks up the diary and starts to flip through the pages. “This young man was into some pretty unhealthy stuff.” Lenard says while turning more pages. While Dr. Morelock is looking at the diary, Jeff continues to look around the room. Jeff moves towards the wardrobe and opens the door to find it is still full of clothes. Jeff starts to go through the clothes and in the bottom of the wardrobe he finds a small box with the top tied with a piece of string. Jeff picks up the box and takes the string off and when he opens the box he feels like something comes out of the box and it looks like a small breeze moves his hair. He is startled by this at first and doesn’t think anything of it. He gazes down into the box and to see what looks like a small cloud sitting in the box. He shakes the box but the “cloud” does not move. No matter what he does the little cloud stays in the box. Curious he slowly reaches down to touch the “cloud”.

Suddenly a hand reaches out and grabs Jeff hand. Jeff yelps and drops the box and jumps backwards. Dr. Morelock looks up at the sound and says “Jeff are you ok?” Jeff turns to look Dr. Morelock and when he looks back the box is laying on the floor on its side completely empty and with no sign of neither the cloud nor the hand that came out of it. “Yeah I’m fine I just thought…..” and his answer trials off “It was nothing I am just jumpy that’s all. Sorry Dr. Morelock.” Lenard goes back to the diary and Jeff moves over to the box and nudges it with his foot but it does not move. He reached down carefully and picks up what now seems to be an ordinary box save a small black and white photo of a young boy standing next to a large gnarly tree. Jeff takes out the picture and walks over to Dr. Morelock and holds it out “This must be the Anderson boy.” Lenard takes the photo and then looks out the window at the same looking tree in the back yard. Lenard says “We really need to check out that tree.” Jeff looks out the window with a worried look on his face.

Meanwhile, Charlotte makes her way up the stairs completely unaware that the people in the pictures are staring at her as she passes each one. She turns the corner and the pictures go back to being just pictures. Charlotte walks into the room to see both men staring out the window and rolls her eyes and stands in the doorway waiting. Dr. Morelock turns back still holding the diary and closes the book and sets it back on the desk and starts to open a few of the drawers. Jeff walks over to the bed and pushes down on it to see if it is sturdy. The bed springs a little at his touch and he sits down. Jeff is looking around the room and sees Charlotte in the doorway “Have you seen anything…um …strange, yet?” She doesn’t respond but continues to look at him. “Charlotte, I said have you seen anything strange yet? Hello.” He says a little louder even though she is staring at him she does not respond. Jeff waves his hand at her and she blinks like she was lost in thought. “What?” she replies and pulls the earbuds out of her ears. Jeff repeats his earlier question. “I said have you seen anything strange yet?”

She shakes her head and replies “No…. I think we are wasting our time.” She says under breath. Dr. Morelock opens the bottom drawer of the desk and finds another picture. This picture is of the same boy but older and there are a couple other people standing on either side of him and they are all standing by the same tree in the back yard. One of the people is holding a small lamb and the other has something draped over their arm and none of the people are smiling. While Dr. Morelock is looking at the picture, Charlotte is leaning against the doorframe looking out into the hallway as Jeff is still sitting on the bed. Jeff looks down on the floor and sees a coin near the leg of the bed and bends over to pick it up and as he is picking up the coin he glances under the bed. Shadows move under the bed causing Jeff to fall over onto the floor as he was unbalanced while picking up the coin. Now lying on his back Jeff slowly turns his head and glances under the bed again. Even though the room is filled with light, the space under the bed seems unnaturally dark. Jeff rolls over on his side and tries to get a closer look under the bed. Jeff fumbles in his pocket and brings out a small flashlight and shines it under the bed. The light seems to be swallowed up and does not penetrate to the other side of the bed. Jeff moves closer and takes the coin he had picked up earlier and rolls it under the bed.

He can see and hear the coin rolling until it reaches the darkest part of the bed and then it completely disappears. No matter how Jeff tries he cannot find the coin. Just as Jeff starts to move closer the coin comes rolling out from under the bed. Jeff picks up and looks at the coin and then rolls it back under the bed. He waits for a few moments and the coin comes rolling back from under the bed. Jeff rolls the coin for a third time and this time it doesn’t come back. Jeff gets even closer to the bed and suddenly the shadow forms a hand and arm and reaches for Jeff. Jeff yelps with surprise and rolls away making both Dr. Morelock and Charlotte move across the room to where he is curled up on the floor. “What is wrong with you?” Charlotte says loudly. Jeff replies “There under the bed….it tried to grab me…..” he says pointing under the bed. Dr. Morelock and Charlotte both bent down to look under the bed and the y can see all the way through to the other side and the wall.

“Just exactly what tried to grab you?” Charlotte says in an ‘I don’t believe you’ tone of voice. “It was a hand and it was reaching out of the shadows under the bed. Dr. Morelock is still looking under the bed and says “Um, Jeff there are no shadows under this bed. I can see clearly all the way to the wall, take a look.” Jeff hesitates and turns back over towards the bed and the shadowy hand has disappeared and he too can see the wall on the other side of the bed. “I don’t understand, I was rolling a coin under the bed and it would roll back out to me. I did this a few times and then it stopped rolling back out, then I started to reach under the bed for the coin and a shadowy hand reached out for me.” “I think you are imaging things.” Charlotte said rolling her eyes and turning back to the doorway. Dr. Morelock however took his meter and pointed it under the bed. Nothing happened, he go no readings at all. “Sorry Jeff, I’m getting nothing on the meter. Are you sure you saw what you saw. You’ve seemed kind jumpy all morning.” Jeff stared under the bed for a moment now unsure what he saw. “It seemed so real thought….I just don’t know…..yeah, I must have been seeing things….sorry doc, I will pay more attention.” Jeff says sitting up and moving to the other side of the bed. He looks down to see the coin he was rolling lying next to the wall. He picks it up and puts it in his picket still wondering if he saw anything at all.

The group move back out into the hall and head towards a small set of stairs leading up to the attic. At the top of the stairs is a door that is standing ajar. Dr. Morelock pushes the door open pointing his meter into the room. He still doesn’t get any readings and they all gather inside the attic. The room very large and has several pieces of old furniture and several boxes scattered around. There is a large window at the far end of the room that provides the entire room with light. Jeff walks towards the window and Charlotte leans against the banister near the stairs and turns her back on both Dr. Morelock and Jeff and takes out her phone. Dr. Morelock goes to several stacks of boxes by a far wall. The boxes are draped with several cloths and are covered with a fine layer of dust which makes a large dust cloud as Dr. Morelock pull them off as to get a better look at the boxes.

Dr. Morelock opens the first box and finds several very old toys. The toys look like they were well played with and some of them even look like they had been taken apart and some of their heads or arms were missing. Dr. Morelock did not think too much of this as he knew a lot of kids would have broken toys. He then opens a second box to find several school books and papers assumedly belonging to the Anderson’s son. He is finds several papers written in a child’s had that tell a story of imaginary friends and about playing hide and seek around the large oak tree in the back yard.

Jeff is standing next to the window and looking into the back yard and the large oak tree which branches are as tall as the house itself. Jeff notices that the dust that rests on the window seal is covered with what looks to be scratches. Too large to be an animal, He thinks to himself that it almost looks like something has been dragged over the window ceil. He starts looking around and sees what looks like a large mirror also covered with a cloth in a corner near the window. He takes the cloth off and looks at the mirror. He sees that there are several intricate carvings. Jeff moves around the mirror to look at the other side and does not notice his own reflection stop and stare at him as he walks around to the back of the mirror. Jeff notices that on the back of the mirror there are several symbols he recognizes as occult symbols. He takes a picture and moves around to the front of the mirror again. As he moves around to the front he notices his reflection, he stares at it for a moment and reaches up to move the mirror and the reflection moves just slower than he does. Thinking he is seeing things again he goes through the cliché of moving one hand, the another then making a funny face and is starting to have fun when the face in the reflection turns demonic but in the next second the reflection is completely normal. He looks around quickly to see if anyone else had seen the same thing but Charlotte’s back was to him and Dr. Morelock was across the room going through boxes. Jeff cautiously picks up the cloth that had covered the mirror and quickly throws it back over it from the side making sure he does not look into the mirror again.

Dr. Morelock continues going through boxes and comes across several more pictures and clothes that he believes to be the son’s. He finishes going through the boxes and makes his way around the room trying to get any readings at all and he meets Jeff standing a little ways from the mirror still staring at it like he is expecting it to move or something. “Everything okay Jeff?” Jeff just nods and follows Dr. Morlock as he turns to leave the attic. The team head back down the stairs and go towards the kitchen and the back door leading to the yard and the large oak tree. The gather on the far side of the tree away from the house and see what looks like a makeshift altar Dr. Morelock sets out several instruments and instructs Charlotte to start taking pictures and he tells Jeff to run the video camera. The two interns begin to carry out their instructions. Charlotte is taking pictures of the altar and Jeff is videotaping the tree itself. Dr. Morelock is setting up different devices around the tree by is still not receiving any readings or indications of paranormal activity at all.

Jeff has now made his way around the tree and the others are around the far side and he is getting a close-up of some symbols that are similar to those on the mirror in the attic. These symbols are carved around a deep knot hole that is about at Jeff’s eye level. He looks out from behind the lens of the camera and sees something shiny inside the hole. Jeff stands on his tip toes and reaches into the tree. He takes hold of the object and is withdrawing his hand when something grabs him from the inside and pulls his hand back into the tree. Jeff struggles to pull his hand free but whatever has his hand is stronger than he is. He is being raised off his feet and Jeff starts to panic. He puts one foot on the tree and tries to free his arm from whatever has hold of him. In and out he pulls his hand and arm, until final he is released and he rolls backward and into an heap several feet from the tree. Dr. Morelock walks around the tree and sees Jeff on the ground and says “No time for a break my boy we’ve got work to do.” And Jeff rolls his eyes towards the sky and picks himself off the ground and follow Dr. Morelock back around the tree staring at the knothole all the way.

After several minutes of getting no readings Dr. Morelock get frustrated and says “Well this is a bust, I was sure we were gonna find something out here.” Jeff looks slowly back over his shoulder at the tree. “Well I hope the basement will be worth the trip.” Jeff looks at Dr. Morelock’s back with a mix of fear and apprehension. “Um Doctor, hve you gotten any readings what so ever?” Jeff asks as the move back into the house. “Nothing what so-ever. Have you seen anything?” Jeff hesitates a moment and says “N…No…I was hoping though, how about you Charlotte?” Charlotte is not paying attention as usual and Jeff had to repeat himself “Charlotte, I said, have you seen anything?” Charlotte takes out her headphones and says in a droning voice “No, not a thing.” Dr. Morelock misses the tone and continues into the house.

Mr. & Mrs. Anderson were both standing in the kitchen when they come in. Mrs. Anderson is the first to speak “So, have you found anything?” Dr. Morelock tries to sound important “Well we have collected a large amount of data and it is too soon to release any findings just yet, we have one more section to explore and we will be able to better answer your questions. Nobody sees Charlotte rolling her eyes behind them. Mr. Anderson says “So it’s the basement then?” Dr. Moerlock replies “After you…” Mr. Anderson takes a small step back and says “We would rather not join you down there…too many memories…” “Completely understandable” Dr. Morelock replies and opens the door to the basement and starts to go down the stairs closely followed by Jeff and Charlotte slowly bringing up the rear. As the team make their way down Mr. Anderson has turned on the lights and after a few seconds the team are standing at the bottom of the stairs is a very large room, which even with the lights on it is filled with lots of dark corners. Dr. Morelock immediately starts setting up equipment and instructs Jeff and Charlotte to move around the room and take note of any possible activity. After a few minutes Dr. Morelock calls them back over to him and says “Jeff I have left a few things in the van I gonna take Charlotte and we will be right back. Jeff looks less than thrilled with this and replies “Why don’t I go with you, I can carry more stuff and Charlotte can continue taking pictures?” Charlotte hears the fear in his voice and sarcastically says “Yeah you two big brave boys go I’ll be fine.” Dr. Morelock replies “No, I think it would be better if you stay” he says directing his comments towards Jeff “We’ll only be gone for a couple of minutes, you’ll be fine.” Jeff watches as they climb the stairs and as Charlotte smirks just as she disappears up the stairs.

Jeff slowly turns around in the same spot and takes out his flashlight and starts to shine the light in the far areas of the room. As he turns back to face the stairs and thinking to himself that he could wait at the top of the stairs until he hears them coming back, he notices a faint glowing coming from the floor on the far side of the room. He shines his flashlight towards the glow and says “Is there someone over there?” After receiving no reply, he moves very cautiously towards the far side of the room. Once he gets to the place where the glow is he sees what looks like a mirror on the floor but instead of just his reflection he sees a glow from behind is reflection. Having gone through the previous encounters, he is taking no chances and tries to look from a ‘safe’ distance. His reflection however has different plans. Suddenly his reflection reaches out and grabs his foot and starts dragging him in. Jeff drops his flashlight, struggles and cries out to no avail. Slowly he is being drawn into the reflection, Jeff struggles and struggles, almost getting away a few times and final Jeff grabs his fallen flashlight and hurls it at the reflection shattering it into nothingness and just as the door opens ups Jeff is getting off the floor and moves quickly back to the part of the room where has the most light and as Dr. Morelock and Charlotte are coming back down he knows that they would not believe him if he told them but he will not go to any other part of the basement unless there is plenty of light and at least one witness.

Charlotte is first down the steps and says to Jeff in a low whisper so Dr. Morelock cannot hear “Good to see the Boogieman didn’t get you.” Jeff glares at her as she passes with an arm full of gadgets. Dr. Morelock is setting down several pieces of equipment and walks over near the place where Jeff was almost dragged away. Jeff makes a move as if to stop the doctor but as the light from their flashlights fill the space Jeff can see no sign of the glow or the reflection. The doctor takes hold of a table and says “Jeff grab hold we can set things up on here” and they move the table back to the place where the equipment has been piled on the floor. “Let’s get this equipment set up, Charlotte, would you put those sensors in the corners and the infrared camera near the stairs.” Charlotte does as she is instructed and Jeff busies himself around the table setting up equipment, just to stay in the most well lit part of the room. They finish setting up the equipment and Dr. Morelock starts walking around the room with his infrared monitor and Charlotte is sitting on the bottom step of the stairs listening to her headphones and Jeff is still standing in the middle of the room acting like he is monitoring and adjusting the sensors, while he is really just glancing around the room nervously expecting some other encounter to happen while no one is watching. We see the digital clock tick of the time until it is a couple of hours later. After Dr. Morelock has circled the room again and again, he comes to a stop by the table with a very disappointed look on his face he touches Jeff on the shoulder causing him to jump “Ah…oh, sorry Doctor, I was lost in thought” he lied. “No problem, I didn’t mean to startle you. I don’t think there is anything here. We have been here for hours and not a single sign of anything.” he says dejectedly. “I hate to do it but I think we should pack it in and head back to the office.” Jeff quickly agrees with the doctor and begins packing up the equipment. The doctor walks over to Charlotte who was sitting on the bottom step fast asleep. The doctor reaches down and taps her on the shoulder “Come on Charlotte, we’re packing it in.” Charlotte groggily and stretches and says “Sorry doc, I must have dozed off.” Dr. Morelock replies “I don’t blame you; this place was a complete bust.” Jeff half rolls his eyes in a mixture of frustration and exacerbation but does not say anything.

Jeff has been quickly loading equipment and even took a couple of items from Charlotte and has the van loaded while Dr. Morelock and the Andersons are talking. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are standing near the front porch and Dr. Morelock approaches them “Well we will be heading out and we will get back with you as soon as all of the data has been analyzed.” Mr. Anderson replies “Okay, sounds good. Thank you for coming out.” “You are welcome, and thank you for letting us come to your beautiful home.” The doctor says shaking Mr. Anderson’s hand. Charlotte and the Doctor are standing in the back of the van when Jeff comes around towards them “Well doc everything is loaded, shouldn’t we be going?” The doctor looks at him and replies “Yes, I guess so. I will see you back at the office. He reaches in and shuts off the ectoplasmic molecule stabilizer and as the three of them are walking around to the front of the van Jeff freezes in his tracks with his mouth open. The other two notice him and follow his gaze to see the farmhouse and the Andersons have disappeared and left and where once stood the beautiful house is now a burnt out husk that looked like it had been that way for many years. Jeff passes out and falls backward and Charlotte and Dr. Morelock stand there with their mouths gapping open.