The Ghost Box

Here are the facts, as I have gathered them from newspaper clippings, internet research, eye-witness accounts, phone records, and the personal journal of Jacob “Jake” Townsend:

In many mythologies, a person’s soul leaves the body with the person’s last breath. This was first scientifically tested in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Massachusetts, who concluded that the soul weighs approximately 21 grams.

Thomas Edison is a well-documented believer in the supernatural and had been looking for a way to communicate with the dead for a considerable amount of time before his death. In 1920, Edison was quoted as saying: “I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it’s possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us.” No plans or prototypes of this so-called Ghost Box have ever been found.

In 1931, When Thomas Edison was on his deathbed, Henry Ford convinced Edison’s son, Charles, to seal Edison’s last breath within a test tube. It was sealed with paraffin wax and is currently on display in the Henry Ford Museum in Deerborn, Michigan.

Modern paranormal hunters use broad-spectrum electromagnetic scanners to search for apparitions and other anomalies. Some search for disturbances in normal magnetic fields, while others search for ambient radio signals and convert them to audio. These devices, often homemade, have not been scientifically verified.

On October 12nd, 2013, at a flea market, Jake Townsend met an old woman who claimed to have a box made by Thomas Edison. It was red, approximately twelve inches on a side, seemingly made of leather-wrapped wood with tarnished brass fittings, and solidly locked. She did not have the key. Jake bought it for $15. The flea market had no records of this woman, and she could not be found to corroborate Jake’s story.

On October 13th, 2013, Jake bought a lock pick set for $17.95 from Amazon.com. It arrived October 16th. Between that and several YouTube tutorials, Jake had the box open within 24 hours.

According to his journal, inside the box was a bronze handset nestled in a bronze cradle, with a rotary dial, much like a circa 1930 telephone, and a hand-written note. The note read “I have succeeded in contacting the Other Side, and in so doing, I have torn a rift between our world and the next. The box does not stop ringing.”

Jake picked up the receiver. There was static on the line. He asked “Hello?” several times, but there was no response. He returned the handset.

Immediately, and despite no obvious power source, the handset rang. Jake answered.

There was static on the line again, but, as Jake described it in his journal, “it rose and fell like a whisper.” Jake thought he heard voices within the white noise. He wrote: "I can't make out any words, but I'm sure there was more than just static on the other end."

He hung up the phone, closed the box, and left it on the dining room table. The lock engaged automatically. The phone rang again, muted but still audible through the closed lid.

He largely avoided looking at it for three days, though each time he walked by it, it was still ringing.

Jake began to receive calls on his cell phone from unrecognized numbers. Sometimes the number had five digits, sometimes seven, sometimes ten. They began to occur more and more frequently, until he was receiving multiple calls per minute. This was confirmed with Jake’s service provider. Jake attempted to have the numbers blocked, but the calls continued. On the few occasions when Jake answered, there was only the gently rising and falling static. In his journal, he wrote that he listened to it once for a over an hour. He described it as “melodic” and “soothing” yet “sinister in ways [he] couldn’t quite describe.”

Eventually, Jake removed the battery from his phone. Within a minute, it began to ring again.

On October 26th, other electronics within Jake’s house began going haywire. Analog clocks moved rapidly or not at all; digital clocks displayed symbols he’d never seen before; the television turned on, displaying static. Jake unplugged it, but the static remained. Jake’s alarm clock began ringing nonstop, also continuing after it had been unplugged.

The next entry in Jake’s journal is dated October 29th, and the handwriting is considerably harder to read. He claims he has been without sleep for upwards of eighty hours at the time of writing, and that he has been in contact with “The Old Ones” for some time. Whether this is due to the success of Edison’s machine or hallucinations brought on by acute sleep deprivation is unclear.

He wrote about “The Old Ones” in several sections, but the after the first mention, his writing immediately begins transitioning between English and a language I cannot understand. I have sent the text to several linguistics experts, none of whom can discern the text's meaning. Jake uses the language fluently, but exactly who or what “The Old Ones” are is locked behind those indecipherable symbols.

There is no date indicating October 30th. The writing continues for dozens of pages without a break but at one point mentions “the last dawn.” He describes the tear between worlds mentioned by Edison, saying “it widens. It widens with every moment, bringing more and more of the damned spirits back to our world. Soon, I fear that it will be wide enough to allow their Masters through as well.” Among other nonsensical writings, both in English and the aforementioned other language, Jake describes the static he feels growing within his own mind and the whispers that fade in and out “like a radio as you’re driving through mountains.”

“I can hear Them now always,” he wrote in one of the last lucid sections. “I understand what They are looking for. I cannot let Them have it.”

On October 30th, 2013, at approximately 3:22 pm, Jacob Townsend’s next-door neighbor, Wilhelmina Hawkins, noticed smoke outside her kitchen window. When she approached Jake’s house to investigate, she saw fire throughout the downstairs. By the time she had phoned the fire department, the whole house was ablaze.

Jacob Townsend died of smoke inhalation and severe burns on October 30, 2013, at approximately 3:43 pm. His body was identified through dental records. A red box, somehow unhurt by the fire that consumed the entire house, was the only salvageable item. The fire investigator, Sergeant Rick Spencer, determined that the fire had been set intentionally, likely by Townsend as all the doors and windows were locked, and that evidence of multiple accelerants had been found. Spencer went on record, saying it was “like he’d taken everything flammable in his house, put it in a pile, and struck a match.”

After the investigation, the box passed to Rebecca Townsend, his closest living relative, who passed them on to me; I have a fondness for antiques and puzzles. Yesterday, November 8, 2018, I successfully picked the lock and found the journal and handset. I did not know at the time that I had been following in Jacob’s footsteps.

Today is November 9, 2018. The time is approximately 10:48 pm. I have my laptop and webcam ready, along with pen and paper. I have recorded events here as clearly and logically as possible. I will attempt to do so going forward as best I can. The box is not currently ringing, but it has a certain energy around it, like it’s waiting for something.

Waiting for me?

I am about to lift the receiver.

Wish me luck.