NaNoWriMo - The Pearl Necklace - Part 1

Some of the stories are based on my own personal experiences.

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Have you ever wondered how you would react if you came face to face with a ghost? No? Jessica didn't either. Truth be told, she wasn't really sure she believed in them at all.
That all changed the night she met Mark. Tall, dark, broody, Mark. Mark wasn't a ghost, but Mark knew ghosts. He could see the ghosts, communicate with them. He could also unknowingly grant the same abilities to one other person. That person was Jessica.

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I heard more than just the whisper of the wind in the trees. I heard my name. But it had to be my imagination.  Trees don’t talk.
“Did you hear that?” I asked my friend Paul. Sure he would buy into it and convince me he heard something as well.
“No, what was it?” Paul said.
“Shhh. Listen,” I said.
“I really don’t hear anything, what exactly am I supposed to hear?”
“You don’t hear that?”
“Jessica, I don’t hear anything but the wind in the trees.”
“Oh. Weird. I could have sworn I heard someone call my name.”
“Definitley not. I heard nothing. Its windy.”
“I guess that must be it. But I swear it sounded just like my name,” I said. “How much farther until we reach our destination?”  
I think that Paul was really enjoying this secret. He knew how much I like to know the details and that it would drive me crazy not knowing.  
“We are getting close, another five minutes perhaps.”
As we continued walking down the street, the dark finished setting in and the wind settled down. It wasn’t long before Paul took a turn down a side street, Brier Lane, I had never been down before. The houses were older, more run down, they reminded me of a movie set.  We were maybe halfway down the street when he stopped and turned to face a house. It was a large Cape with gray shingles and crooked shutters. It looked like it belonged on the set of a haunted house movie.  
“We are a few minutes early,” Paul informs me.
“Early? For what?” I ask.
“For your birthday present.  We are going to be a part of a ghost hunt in that house!”
“A ghost hunt? Really? You know I don’t believe in ghosts.”
“Thats the point. They say this is legitimate. That they don’t try to scare you, that they don’t produce anything. That sometimes they can have groups come in and nothing happens, no personal experiences, no sounds, nothing. But, sometimes there is lots of activity. You are such a skeptic that I bet the ghosts will be jumping out of their skin, no pun intended, to get you to believe!”
“Or, I just might be able to say once and for all, there is no such thing as ghosts,” I replied smuggly.
“We shall see,” Paul replied.
He wandered over to the front steps and took a seat. He motioned for me to join him.
While sitting there waiting, Paul had estimated that it would be approximately another 15 minutes before everyone arrived, I was trying to decide just how I felt about this gift.  Paul could find a way to give a gift that was more for him than the recipient, but I couldn’t help but love him. We grew up together. He was my best friend.  I decided in that moment that I was going to enjoy my birthday gift. After all, it wouldn’t do any good to ruin it by being a sourpuss.
While Paul was busy getting his final fix with his phone, he warned me that we would have to power down our cell phones and that we couldn’t use them all night, I took the opportunity to check out the outside of the building we would be staying in that night.
As I rounded the corner, a shadow seemed to lean out and away from the side of the house. It made me start.
“Watch yourself Jess, its just a shadow,” I said to myself. I turned back around to walk back to Paul to await out guide and the rest of the group.
“Hey Jess! Come meet out guide,” Paul called to me. He was standing with several other people.
It wasn’t until I joined the group that I realized it felt like someone was walking behind me. By the time I turned around to see, they were gone, and there were too many new people for me to know if I was right.
I sidled around to stand next to Paul and focused my attention on our guide.
“Good evening everyone. My name is Brian, I am the founder of Vermont Paranormal Research Society, also known as VPRS. This group was created out of my need to know and understand the paranormal. I have had many personal experiences that led me to this point. I will get to those in a little bit. Tonight we will be entering Martin Manor. We will go on a quick tour, then down to business. If you have any questions or concerns now or throughout the night, please come to me or to Mark. Mark, why don’t you join me up here.”
There was movement behind me and a man emerges from the shadows and joins Brian. This caused me to start, again. Something about him was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Mark has been with VPRS since the beginning. Mark and I attended college together, and when I expressed interest in forming a group, he was right there with me. He also has his own personal experiences that he will be sharing with you, some of which take place in this very house.”
“Hello everyone,” Mark said, “shall we get inside?”
Beside me, Paul was jumping up and down. He was anxious to get inside and raced to be the first through the doors. I followed a few steps behind, knowing he would shout for me to keep up otherwise.
Once everyone filed into the house, we gathered around a table in the entryway. There was a book open on the table with a pen. It was a guest book and we all signed in.  The book was something that was kept by the owners of the house, not by the VPRS team.  As I looked around, I tuned in to the fact that Brian was giving us a rundown of the basic rules.
“You must be with a partner at all times throughout the night, unless we are on a break and you are using the bathroom.  Partners can change, they don’t have to stay the same.  This is for your own safety, as well as corroboration of experiences.  We will take a five minute break every hour, we will take a 30 minute break every three, once we have reached the six hour mark, we will devise a schedule based on whomever is left.  Everyone must turn their cell phone off and place it in this box.” At that, Brian pulled out a box and passes it around.
“Phones can come out for the 30 minute breaks.  I will pull out our equipment and go over how to do EVP’s, and what they are, and everything else in 15 minutes. I am letting you loose in the house to explore. Stay with your partner.”
I turned to ask Paul where he wanted to check out first, and found him enamored of a cute brunette on the other side of him.  Reaching out, I touched his arm, asking if he was ready.
“Jess, I know I signed us up for this, but do you think Dakota can go with us? He is here by himself,” Paul asked.
“Sure, why not. I don’t think that we have to be in pairs, as long as we aren’t alone.”
“Your the best. Thanks,” Paul said. Then as an after-though, “Oh, Dakota, this is my friend Jessica. Jess, this is Dakota.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“Likewise,” Dakota said.
“Shall we get started? We are losing time,” I said, moving towards the stairs. I was halfway up the stairs before I realized that they weren’t following me. “Come on guys. I really want to check out the house.”
“I’ll go with you,” Mark said stepping out of the shadows, again.
“Thanks, but its ok,” I said.
“I don’t mind. You aren’t supposed to be walking around by yourself, and I don’t see those two as being especially cooperative at the moment.”
Mark was right. Paul and Dakota were totally absorbed in conversation. It was like, as soon as I gave the ok to let Dakota go with us, Paul totally forgot I was here.  With a sigh, and a shrug of my shoulders, I resigned myself to partnering with Mark. At least he is a guide, I can keep my eye on him and will know if he is trying to pull anything over on us. He will also not be jumping at every little sound. What started out as a resignation of spending my night with Mark was looking more and more appealing.
“Why don’t I let you lead the way then. You know the house, you know the stories, and you can probably give me a full tour in the 13 minutes we have left.”
With that, Mark started down the hallway to the left, not up the stairs.  He was giving me a running commentary of the house as we went.  There was a half bath in the front corner of the house, and what I mistook for a hallway was actually furnished as a library. There were floor to ceiling shelves, all filled with books and artifacts. This was a room I wanted to spend time in. The wingback chairs placed in front of the fireplace were deep and inviting, the table with the desk tucked into the corner begged to have someone writing at it.  I was so enamored of the room that it took me a moment to notice that Mark was standing at a doorway waiting for me.
“We have to keep moving if you want to see everything before the hunt begins,” Mark tells me.
“Oops. Sorry,” I said.
We entered into the living room, it too was inviting.  I didn’t allow my eyes to linger, I just continued in Mark’s wake. We then stepped into the kitchen.
“Other than the bathrooms and kitchen, which have been updated to modern conveniences, the house is much as it was when it was built. The furnishings have been updated over the years, but nothing has changed since the mid 1950’s when the Bannister’s were living here full time,” Mark said.
This caught my attention.
“Are people living here part time?” I asked.
“The Bannisters spend some weekends here now and again, the occasional week, but they mainly use it as a vacation house. Sometimes there family will use it.”
“So how is it that you are able to give tours here?”
“We pay for the privelage,” Mark said, leading me into the dining room.
“Interesting. I can’t wait to hear the history then, since its worth paying for.”
“Well, lets check out the second floor, and then we will join back with the group and everyone will hear a bit of the history.”
We were halfway up the stairs when Mark pointed down and said directly under us was the stairs to the basement. He would show me the door when we got back downstairs.
At the top of the stairs, it looked pretty self explanatory. There were four bedrooms, one bathroom, and a door with a set of stairs to the attic. All the doors were open, so we walked over to each one.  The first room, which was above the library area, was a feminine pink room. The room next to it, over the dining room was a masculine blue. I was guessing these were girls and boys rooms respectively. Next was the door to the attic, we didn’t go up. Approximately over the kitchen was what appeared to be the master-bedroom. There was a large canopy bed, elegant dressing table and a large wardrobe. Between the master-bedroom, and the last room was the bathroom. The final room appeared to be a guest room as it was spartenly filled.
With a quick glance at the clock on the wall, Mark led me back downstairs. He pointed out the door that appeard to be under the stairs, telling me that was the door to the basement. I had assumed it was a closet.

“Gather around everyone,” Brian said, “since not everyone knows each other, lets all give a quick introduction.”
Since I was standing next to Mark, I introduced myself first, “My name is Jessica, Jess, and I this was a birthday present from my friend Paul. I am a complete skeptic and he is hoping this will open my eyes.”
This caused Mark to look at me strangley.
“I am Crystal,” said a dirty blonde girl in her late teens.
“I’m her sister Michelle,” the brunette standing next to her said.
“We are,” they both started at once.
“We are staying in town visiting our grandparents. It was getting a bit boring, and since they are in bed early, we thought this would be the perfect entertainment for the night,” Crystal said.
“Yeah, we have no expectations, and no idea exactly what we have gotten ourselves into, we are a bit nerdy so it seemed perfect for us,” Michelle said with a laugh.
Next to them was Paul and Dakota.
“Well, I’m Paul,” Paul said, smiling at me, “I fully believe in ghosts and I hope I get to see something tonight. I watch all of the ghost hunting TV shows.”
Dakota introduced himself. Simply stating his name, and he was here for a blind date. I couldn’t help but smile since it turned out his blind date hadn’t shown, but he was finding himself on one anyway. Good for Paul. I know this was my birthday gift from Paul, but I knew that we would both enjoy the night a whole lot more apart from each other.
The other two, Alexa and Dana, were a couple from out of state who were here just for the ghost hunt in the Martin Manor.  They said that they were traveling all over doing these ghost hunts. It was something they got hooked on when they decided to go on a ghost hunting walk near there hometown on Halloween two years ago.
“We were skeptics ourselves,” Dana said, “until we had our own experience at that first hunt.”
“Not that we are full believers yet,” Alexa interjected, “but there is definitely something out there.”
While we had been giving our introductions, Brian and Mark had been pulling things out of their bags and laying them on the table. There were a few items that seemed pretty normal, there were also items that I wasn’t expecting to see.

“Well Paul, I am going burst your bubble.  While a few of the things we do are like the TV show, you have to keep in mind that you are watching an all night, sometimes a multiple night, investigation that includes the hours of the house, interviews, reviewing, and reveal, all in an hour. Whatever equipment we use tonight has to be reviewed at a later date so the time involved is easily double what we do tonight,” Brian said.
Paul’s face fell, but it was soon brightened at the mention that as part of the package of the ghost hunt, everyone would be getting their own digital voice recorder to use and bring home after the fact.

"The digital voice recorder is perhaps the most used and second best tool for ghost hunting. Who knows the first?” Brian asked the group.
“A night vision camera.” Paul said.
“No, actually, we don’t use a night vision camera.” Brian said, “the best tool for ghost hunting is your own body. Your senses, your perceptions.  Pay attention to things that make it hum, something that makes the hairs on your arm stand up. Often times there are reasons for these reactions in your body, but not always. If you have a tool, like a K2 or something similar...”
“What is a K2?” Crystal asked.
“It is a type of EMF meter. I will get to it in a minute.” Brian said.  “If you are using a tool like a K2 meter, and all you are doing is paying attention to what the meter is doing, you can miss out on a lot of details that are happening around you. If something doesn't feel right to you, or something seems to be important, it needs to be checked out. It could be that the TV is turned on with no channel selected so it is emitting a higher amount of electromagnetic energy than if it is was off.  There could be a window that is cracked open, it could also be the presense of something paranormal.”
“When you are actually holding an EVP session, a form of ghost hunting in which you are trying to obtain an EVP, it is important to tag everything that you hear. If someone coughs, tag it, if a car drives by, tag it. If someones stomach growls, tag it. No matter how inconsequential you feel the sound is, if you can hear it with your ears, it needs to be tagged. Not everything you hear is going to be picked up by the recorder, but a gurgling stomach sounds a bit like demonic voices on a recorder. The other key detail for a successful EVP session is placing your recorder on something stationary, not held in your hand as it can pick up the sound of your pulse.  It is very difficult to distinguish between your pulse and footsteps, or much of anything else.” Mark explained.
“Speak clearly, no whispering. You want to ask questions, be specific.. Take in to account where you are, what you might know about the entity that is haunting the location. If the person was from the 1800's they might not know what glasses are, but they would know what spectacles are. Think about your questions. Also think about how you would respond to a question. Is it something that would make you mad or upset if you asked it? Then it might not be the best question to ask, but then again, it might be. The recorders can pick up sounds sometimes that we cannot hear with our own ears. That is why it is called an EVP or electronic voice phenomomen. It is not an EVP if we hear it with our own ears and it gets picked up, that is just a VP. Sometimes it isn't voices that are picked up, but foot steps, or the sounds of something crashing. These are all different things that we want to listen for and pay attention to when reviewing the recordings." Brian said.
“Lastly, always open and close an EVP session the same way. ‘EVP session, master bedroom, Martin Manor, October 23, 2011, 10pm. I’m Mark, and this is Brian with me.’ Always say hello, ask them to come talk to you, let them know you aren’t going to hurt them, and if you dont’ want to be touched, ask them not to touch you. If you want to be touched, you can ask them to touch you.” Mark said, “any questions on how to do an EVP?”
Paul raised his hand, “Can we just sit quietly and listen? or do we have to ask questions. Also, what if we want to try to get a response by asking hard questions, can we do that?”

“You can absolutely sit quietly. Sometimes the best responses are achieved that way. You are also welcome to ask hard questions, or questions that might make them mad or upset, it is often times called provoking. We try to save it for the end fo the night, and it is something that must be done carefully.” Brian said.
Mark started to hand out the voice recorders to everyone. Showing them where the power switches were located, as well as how to start and stop a recording.

“Does anyone know the different type of hauntings that there are?” Brian asked.

"There are active hauntings and dormant hauntings right? You know, ones where things are heard and seen and things happening, and others where you know its there but it hasn't been active in a long long time." Paul guessed.

"That is partially correct. There are hauntings that are called residual hauntings. A residual haunting is something like a movie or a recording. You can hear something or see something, but it is going to be like a recording. It is the same movement or series of movements that occur over and over again. They don't interact or touch. They just are. They can be attached to the house itself, or to an object within the house. It is how a brand new house could have a ghost from the 16th century. These are very different from active hauntings, also known as intelligant hauntings in which the ghost has the ability to go where it wants to go when it wants to go there. It can answer questions, it can ask questions, although we dont always hear them. They can move objects if given enough energy to work with. They also can touch you. Although most will respect you if you ask them not to." Mark said.

“Any others?” Brian asked, “No? Well the other type of haunting is a poltergeist. A poltergeist is essentially a noisy ghost, but it is more than just a noisy ghost. Inanimate objects have been known to be thrown across the room, loud knocking and such noises. They are often thought to be created out of thin air by the emotional stress and tension of children, mainly teenagers.”

Everyone in the group seemed to be getting a bit restless, anxious to get started. Brian gave us a rundown on the remaining pieces of equipment and informed us that we would each be able to get a chance to use the equipment when we were broken down into our groups. There were only a few pieces, a K2 meter, an instant read thermometer, and a camera.  
One group would go with Brian, the other group would go with Mark.  Since Mark had decided he would act as my partner for the evening, I was in his group. Paul and Dakota were standing next to Brian and said they would be on his team.  Crystal and Michelle went with Brian, Alexa and Dana with us.
Brian's group disappeared up to the second floor.  Mark suggested we start in the basement, that way there was a buffer for sound from the other group. We descended into the basement, not turning on the light so that our eyes were faster to adjust to the darkness.
"Brian, we are in the basement, already lights out. Watch alarm is set for one hour. Radio is being turn down, page it if you need me."
"Will do. See you in an hour." Brian said.

"Here is what we are going to do. Alexa and Dana, you are going to take the K2 meter and the EMF detector and are going to walk around the space, taking notes on the different readings we get down here. As you both are aware, a high EMF can signify one of two things. It is either giving the entity, if there is one, something to feed off of and allowing it to manifest, or the people who are experiencing things are sensitive to the EMF which is making them feel sick, paranoid, like someone is watching them, or just plain creeped out.  I want you you to note any area that has an EMF rating that is unusually high, or in an unusual spot. Jessica, you and I are going to do the same thing with the thermometer. We want to note if there are any warm spots or cool spots. This can help us figure out if there might be any drafts that can affect the temperature, or if there are just warm and cool spots normally. We will do this again at the end of the hour, as well as if we have any experiences." Mark said.

"Aren't you going to tell us what the experiences are that are down here and what might have happened that would cause them?" I asked.

"No. The best possible hunt is always the first experience in a new location. Before you know any of the details surrounding the experience, the details of what happened here that might cause those experiences. The fresher you are, the better chance that the experience you have is genuine and not contrived in your imagination.” Mark said.

It didn't take long for us to get settle onto the floor, each on a different wall. We got our recording started, our introductions made, then it was time to just sit. We were quiet for a good five minutes, allowing us to get used to the sounds that were around us.
"Is there anyone down here with us?" I asked.  There was the appropriate 30-60 seconds of quiet to allow anything to answer.
Around the circle, each person asked a question. They were pretty mundane, who are you, why are you hear, etc. With nothing happening on the meters, the focus was shifted to the corners. To spaces where something could hide and peek out.  
"If you are down here with us, can you bang on the pipe above my head?" Dana asked.
Within seconds, there was a banging on the pipes. It made me jump.
"Can you do that again? Prove to me that it was you, not just a coincidence." Dana said.
Again, there was banging on the pipes.
"One more time please. This time, please bang 5 times." Dana said.
This time, there was five bangs on the pipes. No more, no less. It freaked me out to say the least.
"I am going to radio upstairs, just because we haven't been able to hear them upstairs, doesn't mean they haven't been able to hear us. I also want to make sure they aren't banging on the pipes." Mark said, radioing upstairs.
Brian came back with the all clear. It wasn't them. They were in the master bedroom, in the opposite corner from where we were located in the basement. They didn't even hear the banging on the pipes where they were.
"We would like to ask you some questions. If you would bang once for yes, twice for no. Please bang only once if you understand this." Dana said.
There was one solid bang. I started to pay attention to where everyone was sitting, to find out exactly why these pipes were banging. I felt sure that it was Alexa doing the banging since she was sitting closest to Dana, and had pipes running behind her as well. There was no way that we were actually communicating in this fashion with a ghost.
"Are you a male?" Dana asked.
Two bangs.
"Then you are a female."
One bang.
"Are you the only ghost here?"
Two bangs.
"Are you the only ghost in the basement."
One bang.
I wanted to trade seats with Alexa. I also wanted Mark to trade seats with Dana. I wonder if they would be ok with that. There were no pipes near Mark or myself. I was sure that this would cause the banging to stop. There was no way that anything other than humans could make something like that happen.
"Mark, can you and I switch seats with Alexa and Dana?" I asked.
"Alexa, Dana, are you both ok with that?" Mark said.
"Of course. I think it will help Jessica see that it isn't us making the noise," Alexa said, giving me an uplifted eyebrow.
I felt outed, it didn't feel good. I wasn't sure exactly why that was. It didn't take more than a minute for the switch to happen.
"Jessica, why don't you ask the next few questions." Mark suggested.
"Did you die in the house?" I asked.
One bang.
"Did you die in the basement?" I asked.
Two bangs. Interesting, if she was a ghost, why was she haunting the basement and not the room she died in.

"Did you die in the basement?" I asked.
Two bangs. Interesting, if she was a ghost, why was she haunting the basement and not the room she died in.
"Do you hang out in different locations of the house?" I asked.
One bang. That makes a bit more sense. She moves around.
"Are you tied to a particular object in the house?" Alexa asked.
Two bangs.
"Was your death of natural causes?" Dana asked.
Two bangs.
"Was it murder?" Dana asked.
Two bangs. Must be accidental, I thought.
"Can you tell us your name? I mean so that the recorder can pick it up?" I asked.
One bang, a pause, two bangs.
"I think that means she doesn't know," Alexa said.
"Can I ask you something Alexa, how many times have you done this? And what was your experience that drove you to keep ghost hunting?" I asked. I knew that I was interrupting our session, but I felt like it was all lost on me since I still wasn't believing. I also knew that they had experiences so they were only losing a few minutes before getting back to the investigation.

Before Alexa could respond, a flicker of motion caught my eye. It made me jerk my head around, but there wasn't anything in the corner. There wasn't any pipes, there were no boxes, there wasn't even a shadow cast into the corner. Nothing that I could see that would cause me to look over that way.
"What did you see?" Mark asked.
"Nothing. Must have been my imagination. Alexa?"
Alexa started in on her first experience. She and Dana had gone on a ghost hunters tour that included a haunted history walk. Some of the places they stood on the outside and were told the story, a few of the locations they were able to venture inside. Nothing of any significance happened at first. Then they were led into a cemetery that was supposedly haunted by a man who had been accused of practicing dark magic and had died in one of the houses we would be touring later, and a girl who had died in a carriage accident next to the road. In the cemetery they were shown how to do EVP's and given recorders to use. Nothing happened until it was time to go. A woman was walking towards the exit when a she completely disappeared behind a black shape. Turns out, she had said something that royally pissed off one of the two ghosts that haunted the cemetery. She was pulled out of the cemetery moments later by the guide and while she was shaken, the tour continued.  They moved on to the last house we would stand in front of and were told the story of the man from the cemetery who was accused of practicing dark magic and all the things that had happened in the house. The group was led to the back side were they could look in the windows and that was where they thought they glimpsed something crawling around on the ceiling. The were sure it was nothing but a shadow since the shadows in the building were pretty crazy. No one else had seen anything. Then the group was led back around to the front where everyone had a chance to knock on the door to see if anyone would knock back. Nothing happened, but as the group was walking away, Alexa thought she glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye again, only this time it was something blocking the light from shining through a window. But it was gone before she could even fully comprehend what she might have seen. If that wasn't enough, Dana thought he was touched when they were inside the old jail that was the last stop on the tour. The guide shared an EVP with the group that had been recorder on a private tour. One of the people on the tour asked what color hair the ghost preferred and despite being given a list of options, simply stated "something else."

“Wow.” I said. It was a bit overwhelming. Perhaps I didn’t want to know. It reminded me of a horror movie, or a tale told around the campfire. This wasn’t something that was supposed to be real.

"Ok, we only have 15 minutes left before we have our first break." Mark said, "Does anyone have any other questions they want to ask while we are down here?"

We all sat quietly for a minute.

“Whats your name?” I asked.
“Thats not a yes or no, I thought we were asking yes or no questions.” Alexa said. A bit huffy.
“I wanted to know what her name was. I hope we can hear it when we listen to the recordings later.” I said, “I don’t have any other questions.”

“Do you like this house?” Alexa asked.
One bang.
“Do you like people coming to talk to you?”
One bang, a pause, two bangs.
“Do you like us talking to you?”
One bang, a pauge, two bangs.

Alexa didn’t know what to make of that. Dana was too busy watching the meters, which weren’t doing anything. I wondered if they were used to being the only people in a room, or not used to someone so disbelieving as me.

I was happy to sit in silence, waiting to see if anything happened, whereas they were almost trying to will something to happen.

“Mark, we are ready to break,” the radio squawked, “we will meet you in the entryway.”
“Ok guys, that means we need to break too. We don’t want to run a recording or try to get information when people are actively walking around the house, up and downstairs.” Mark said, “end of EVP session in the basement of Martin Manor on October 23, 2011.”

**********
Everyone gathered upstairs around the table again. There was a slight hum as people were talking about what they experienced, that they needed to go to the bathroom, that they wanted a drink or a snack.
"How did you guys do upstairs?" I asked Paul.
"It was awesome! It started off really slow, which was so disappointing, but then we had the light on the K2 meter going off.  After that we kept hearing what sounded like footsteps pacing in the hallway outside the door. When we asked if they wanted to come in, it stopped." Paul said.
"Wow. What did you ask for questions?" I asked.
"Lots of things. Why they were here, how long had they been here, and what did they want. The meter went off after each question, so we are hoping that we have responses on the recorder.  How did it go downstairs? Are you mad that we are not in the same group? Dakota is amazing." Paul said.
"I am glad you and Dakota are hitting it off. I hope it continues. I am not at all mad that we are in different groups. I am really enjoying it, which wasn't that the point from the beginning anyway? and we had some pipe banging to questions. They seemed to be in direct answer to our questions. One bang for yes, two bangs for no. I don't want to tell you anymore to see if you can get the same responses and answers that we did." I said.
"Are you finally starting to believe?" Paul asked.
"I am not sure, but if you get completely different answers it will sway me to no, but if we get the same answers, it will definitely help sway me to yes. But I really don't know how this is going to make me feel in the end." I said.
"But," Paul started.
"No buts. You are much more into this than I am and I really want your responses to be genuine and for you to get the best experience you can out of this."

Before Paul could say another word, Brian was calling for our attention, our time was almost up and it was almost time to settle in for another session.  He wanted to know if we wanted to keep the same groups or if we wanted to change things up. He also let us know that we could break apart into slightly smaller groups if we so desired, but we would have to be careful about where we positioned ourselves to avoid cross-contaminating our possible evidence.

Paul and Dakota informed Brian they were happy to stay with him, and that they really wanted to go into the basement.
Alexa and Dana wanted to go back to the basement as well.

"Can we go to the basement too?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah, I know that makes it a much larger group, but we would really like to experience what the first group did, hopefully while the ghost is still willing to participate." Michelle added.
"Fine by me, Mark, how do you feel?" Brian said.

"I am fine with that if Jessica is. We can go check out the one of the bedrooms or the attic. Are you ok with that Jessica?" Mark asked.
"Sounds good. I am happy to go wherever. We didn't get a peak at the attic when you took me on the whirlwind tour of the house. Can we start there?" I asked.

With a nod of his head, Brian led his group downstairs while Mark and I headed towards the attic.