Ghost Hunt: Chilling Tales of the Unknown

by Jason Hawes

  “Ha, ha. Very funny,” Mike said.

  Lyssa didn’t think that was all that funny, but she laughed anyway. The way the twins talked to each other cracked her up. They finished each other’s sentences and laughed at the same things. They really were identical in every way.

  “Didn’t you guys grow up in the country?” Lyssa asked, keeping her eyes on the road. She was driving one of the team’s SUVs. Another first.

  Lyssa steered the SUV around a bend in the road. Up ahead, she could see the back of the equipment van that Jen was driving. Grant and Jason were in the lead in their own SUV.

  “We did grow up in the country,” Mark said now. “In southern Vermont. And before you ask, the stories are all true.”

  Lyssa snuck a glance in his direction. “Really? You guys actually grew up in a haunted house?”

  “Yep,” Mike piped up. “You could say the two of us have been Ghost Hunters since we were kids.”

  At that moment, Lyssa heard the crackle of static.

  “SUV One to all team members,” a voice said. “This is Jason. Do you copy?”

  Mike picked up the walkie-talkie and pushed the button on the side. “Mike here. Go ahead. Over.”

  Lyssa glanced in the rearview mirror. Mike was grinning from ear to ear. He loved using the walkie-talkie.

  “Just checking in,” Jason said. “Everybody clear on the Briscoe details?”

  In the front seat, both Mark and Lyssa nodded. This was Ghost Hunters SOP, standard operating procedure. Jason or Grant always did one last check-in right before arriving at a site.

  “I think we’re good, Jay,” Mike said into the walkie-talkie. “The reports include a lot of the usual: moving shadows, voices. Also, the parents report a general creepy feeling in the basement.”

  “Basements give me the creeps in general,” Lyssa muttered.

  “Don’t forget the pennies,” Mark said. “They show up in the boys’ room practically every night.”

  “Right,” Mike said. “The pennies. That’s got me pretty curious, I have to admit.”

  “I’m sure we all agree on that,” Jason’s voice said. “We’ve got a lot to focus on for this one, guys.”

  “Right,” Mike said. “Can’t wait to get at it!”

  “Copy that,” Jason said. “ETA is about two minutes. See you there. SUV one over and out.”

  Mike switched off the walkie-talkie and stowed it in his backpack. Then he took off his baseball cap and stowed that too. A lock of hair flopped down into his eyes and he pushed it back. Lyssa caught the movement in the rearview mirror.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” she cried. “You’re not Mike, you’re Mark!”

  The real Mike began to laugh. He took off his cap too. The twins had pulled a switch. Lyssa had been completely fooled.

  “Man,” Mark said. “I love it when we get somebody new.”

  The Briscoe house was two stories tall, white with green shutters. It had a wide front porch and a driveway shaped like a half circle in front. The house was set back a short distance from the road. There were two trees in the front yard. Their branches swayed in the late-afternoon breeze.

  Lyssa stared up at the house. She could feel her heart start to pound. This was it. The very first place she’d investigate as an official TAPS team member.

  I can do this. I really want to do this, she thought.

  She turned off the engine. All three of them got out of the SUV. The twins headed over to the equipment van right away.

  Lyssa paused. In one of the upstairs windows, she saw a sudden flash of light.

  “What was that?” she said, trying to sound calm. “Did anybody else see that?”

  “See what?”

  Jen Shorewood came to Lyssa’s side.

  “I thought I saw a flash of light in one of the upstairs windows,” Lyssa said. She squinted up at the house. “It’s gone now.”

  “We can check it out when we get inside,” Jen suggested.

  “Okay.” Lyssa nodded. “Let me give you a hand. Unless the twins grabbed all the stuff.”

  Jen smiled. “How was the ride? I love working with them. They’re so funny.”

  “Funny, right,” Lyssa said as they walked to the equipment van. “They pulled a switch. I called Mark Mike and Mike Mark the whole ride out. They had baseball caps on so I couldn’t see their hair. That’s the only way I can tell them apart.”

  “You got off easy,” Jen said. “They must like you. The last newbie we had was a guy. They kept the switch going for a week.”

  “Good to know!” Lyssa picked up a laptop case in one hand. Jen watched her as she slung a roll of cable over her shoulder.

  “You look like you’ve been doing this forever,” Jen said. She picked up two more cases and they walked toward the house. “Nervous?” Jen asked.

  “A little,” Lyssa admitted. “I want to do a good job.”

  “Jason and Grant think you have what it takes,” Jen said. “You wouldn’t have made the team otherwise. Still…” She paused. “I remember my first case. I was so scared I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking. Totally embarrassing.”

  Lyssa smiled. All of a sudden, she felt much better.

  A short flight of steps led up to the Briscoes’ front porch. Grant knocked on the door. It flew open almost before he was finished knocking. Two boys with bright red hair and curious green eyes stood just inside. They were dressed in faded jeans. The older boy wore a green T-shirt, and the younger boy wore a blue one.

  “Are you here to catch the ghost?” the taller of the two boys asked.

  That’s Jerry, Lyssa thought.

  “We’re here to investigate,” Jason answered. “To take a look around and see if we can figure out what’s going on.”

  “But you’re called Ghost Hunters,” Jerry protested.

  “And besides, we already know what’s going on,” the younger boy spoke up.

  And that’s Scott, Lyssa thought.

  “It has to be a ghost,” Scott went on. “Jerry and I figured it out. We used logic and everything, just like Mr. Spock.”

  “Easy, there, Scotty,” a tall man said, appearing behind the boys. He laid a firm but gentle hand on Scott’s shoulder. “No need to go to maximum warp right off. These people came a long way. How about we ask them to come inside?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Scott said. “Sorry.”

  “Duh,” Jerry muttered.

  Scott’s face turned a dull red. “Duh yourself.”

  “I’m Henry Briscoe,” the tall man said. With Jason and Grant in the lead, the TAPS team entered the house. “You’ve already met the boys. My wife, Janet, will be out in a minute.”

  Henry Briscoe led them to the dining room. “We’ll take you on a tour of the house. But I’m thinking you might like to put your equipment here.” He pointed to the dining room table.

  “Great,” Grant said.

  “Are you going to use all that stuff?” Jerry pointed to the cases and cables.

  “Yep,” Jen said, nodding.

  “But what is it?” Scott asked.

  “Well,” Jason answered, “we have cameras and voice recorders. They’re both digital, so we download any evidence they collect to one of Jen’s computers. That way, we can go over it later, back at the office. This is Jen. She’s our technical manager.”

  “Hi.” Jen gave the boys a smile. She opened a case and took out something that looked sort of like a TV remote.

  “We use these too. They’re EMF detectors. EMF stands for electromagnetic field.”

  Jen shot an encouraging glance in Lyssa’s direction.

  “Electromagnetic energy is kind of like an invisible force field,” Lyssa explained. “Lots of things give it off. Things that have nothing to do with ghosts. Like, say, your refrigerator.”

  “But sometimes it might be a ghost,” Scott insisted.

  “Yes,” Lyssa said. “Sometimes. That’s why we like to carry these. If we get a big reading and there’s no electrical stuff in sight, we know t
here might be more to investigate.”

  “Can we help you set up?” Jerry asked.

  “Thanks for the offer, guys,” Jason said. “But that’s something we need to handle ourselves. Tell you what, though. You can take Lyssa here”—he put a hand on her arm to show who he meant—“upstairs to your room and tell her what’s been going on. That will help us decide where to place our cameras.”

  “Outstanding,” Scott said. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Lyssa followed the boys into their room. She saw two twin beds, two dressers, two desks. Colorful movie posters covered the walls. She sat on one of the beds—and saw a quick flash of light.

  “What’s that?” She jumped up.

  Jerry rolled his eyes. “Crystals,” he said in a disgusted tone. “Mom made us put them up.”

  “They’re always doing that flashing thing,” Scott volunteered. “And sometimes they make rainbows on the walls.”

  Lyssa pulled a small notebook out of her back pocket. “I should write that down.” She made a quick note. She turned on her digital recorder and said, “Okay, guys. Why don’t you show me where you’ve seen the pennies.”

  “We thought you’d want to know that,” Scott said, his tone proud. “So we marked them.”

  He pointed to the rug.

  Lyssa grinned. “I was wondering about all that masking tape stuck to the rug. So, X marks the spot.”

  “Spots,” Jerry corrected her.

  “Right. This is really nice work, guys. I’ll make sure Grant and Jason know you did this.”

  “Cool,” said Scott.

  Lyssa walked around the room, studying each location. There were five in all.

  “Have the pennies ever shown up in the same place twice?” she asked.

  Jerry shook his head. “Nope.”

  “What did you do with the pennies?” she asked.

  “We saved them,” Scott said. He walked to one of the twin beds. Then, to Lyssa’s surprise, he got down on his hands and knees. He pulled a jam jar out from underneath the bed. Then he scrambled up and brought it over to her.

  “Here.”

  Lyssa reached out and took the jam jar. All her senses seemed to tingle. I’m holding my first real piece of evidence, she thought.

  Did a ghost really leave these pennies? She was about to find out.

  It was 11:00 PM, a time when most people are asleep—but not TAPS people. For TAPS, nighttime is ghost hunt time.

  Jason, Grant, Jen, the twins, and Lyssa stood in the dimly lit dining room, where they had set up the TAPS Central Command Center. That’s the place where the team can meet and get instructions from Jason and Grant. Lyssa saw several computer monitors on the table. They allowed the people in the Command Center to see where all the team members were during the investigation.

  “Okay, everybody,” Jason said. “In just a few minutes we’re going to go dark. If you have any last-minute questions, now’s the time to speak up.”

  This is it, Lyssa thought. The moment I’ve been waiting for.

  The Briscoe family was upstairs. The boys were sleeping in their parents’ room for the night.

  “Grant and Mark will stay on the main floor. Jen and Mike, take the upstairs,” Jason continued. “Lyssa and I will check out the basement.”

  Lyssa’s heart sank. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She hated basements. They were small and dark—one of her least favorite combinations. She felt a tiny bead of sweat roll down the center of her back.

  Keep it together, Lyssa, she told herself.

  “Let’s all make a first sweep, then come back here,” Jason said. “Everybody set?”

  Along with the rest of the team, Lyssa nodded. There was no way she was going to confess that small dark places made her want to puke.

  “All right, then,” Grant said. “We’re going dark in five, four, three, two… one.”

  “Let’s start by taking some EMF readings,” Jason said. He and Lyssa crept down the basement stairs. Lyssa’s heart pounded. She felt as if she were running up the stairs instead of walking down.

  Just keep going. You can do this, she told herself. Still, she was seriously glad Jason was first in line.

  “Okay,” Jason said in a low voice. “I’m at the bottom. Do you have the camera ready?”

  “Ready,” Lyssa said. If the EMF detector picked up anything, it was Lyssa’s job to take a picture of the hot spot. She was ready. She just wished her hands would stop shaking.

  Lyssa reached the bottom of the stairs. Her chest felt tight. Her head was pounding like a hammer. Her skin felt itchy, like there were bugs crawling on it. She resisted the temptation to scratch her arms. Instead, she switched on her flashlight. The thin beam of light made her feel a little better.

  “That’s interesting,” Jason said suddenly.

  “What?”

  “I’m getting a pretty high reading,” Jason said.

  Lyssa peered around Jason’s arm. The first four LED lights on his EMF detector glowed bright red.

  “Do you know where it’s coming from?”

  “Not yet,” Jason answered. “Let’s do a sweep. Watch your step. The floor looks kind of rough.”

  They began to walk around the basement. Lyssa aimed her flashlight beam in front of Jason so he could see where he was going. As he walked, Jason slowly moved the EMF detector up and down and side to side.

  Lyssa could hear someone breathing loudly, in and out. In and out. Then she realized she was doing it herself. The air in the basement was cold, and it had a weird, sour, damp smell.

  “How are you doing?” Jason asked.

  “Fine,” Lyssa said at once. She didn’t want to tell Jason she was freaking out.

  “I’m going to try making contact,” Jason said. He stopped walking.

  “Okay,” Lyssa said, and nodded. Here goes, she thought.

  “Hello,” Jason said, raising his voice a little. “My name is Jason Hawes, and this is Lyssa Frye. The Briscoe family asked us to come and spend some time in their house. Some pretty unusual things are going on. We’re here to see if we can understand why.

  “If there’s anybody in the basement with us, will you please give us a sign?”

  Silence. All of a sudden, Lyssa realized she was holding her breath. The basement walls felt like they were pressing in on her. It’s like being in a tomb, she thought.

  “We mean you no harm. We just want to know if you’re here,” Jason went on. He resumed his walk around the basement, holding the EMF meter out in front of him. “If there’s someone here, can you give us a sign?”

  Nothing, Lyssa thought. Just the beam of her flashlight and the red glow from Jason’s EMF detector. As she stared at it, a shiver crept down Lyssa’s spine. The meter showed five lights now. One more than before.

  “Why don’t you try?” Jason suggested in a low voice.

  Lyssa’s throat was so dry, she wasn’t sure she could make any sound come out.

  “Hello,” she croaked. She cleared her throat, then tried again. “Like Jason said, my name is Lyssa, and, um…”

  This is harder than it looks! Lyssa realized suddenly. She was talking to the dark. She was asking a ghost to show itself. Most people would be running the other way.

  But I’m not most people. I’m a TAPS investigator. Or at least she was trying to be one.

  “I’m going to set my flashlight down on the floor,” she went on. “If you’re with us, will you make the flashlight roll? It’s not very heavy. I’m sure you can do it if you try.”

  She crouched and placed the flashlight on the cold cement floor.

  “Whoa,” Jason suddenly said.

  Lyssa stood up fast. “What?”

  Jason held the EMF detector out so Lyssa could see it. Ten LED lights were showing now! This was the biggest EMF reading Lyssa had ever seen. Suddenly she began to shiver uncontrollably. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

  “But the flashlight hasn’t moved,” she whispered.

  “No,” Jaso
n agreed. “But something’s definitely going on. We need to find the hot spot.”

  “Okay,” Lyssa said. “I’ll get the flashlight.”

  Lyssa took a step toward the flashlight, then stumbled on the basement’s uneven floor. With a cry, she pitched forward. Her toe caught the flashlight, sending it spinning away. Over and over it turned, the beam of light making crazy circles on the ceiling and walls.

  “Oh, no!” Lyssa cried.

  The flashlight stopped. The beam winked out. The basement was plunged into total darkness.

  “That’s okay. Everything’s okay,” Jason said quickly. “I think I can use the light from the EMF detector to find the flashlight. Stay where you are.”

  Hurry! Please hurry! Lyssa thought. Her heart pounded. She hated this creepy basement.

  She heard Jason move away. The red LED lights danced before her eyes like spots.

  “Got it,” Jason grunted. The red lights dipped as Jason knelt. A moment later, the flashlight beam came back on.

  “Oh, thank goodness!” Lyssa cried out. She was relieved—but embarrassed. Now Jason knew how nervous she was.

  “You’re not kidding,” Jason agreed. He handed her the flashlight. Lyssa gripped it tightly. “I don’t really like small, dark spaces,” Jason went on. “Never have.”

  Lyssa let out a nervous giggle. “I don’t like them, either,” she said. “I was having kind of a hard time being brave about it.”

  “So we’re even, then,” Jason said. “Don’t be afraid to admit you’re scared, Lyssa. We all are sometimes. Now let’s see if we can find that hot spot.”

  Lyssa and Jason made their way to the far corner of the basement.

  “There, you see that?” Jason asked. “That’s the breaker box. Now check out the EMF readings.”

  “Still off the charts.”

  “Right. There’s a problem with this box. It’s leaking electricity. You know, a high EMF like this can sometimes affect people. The high electronic field can make some people feel sick. Or it can make people feel nervous and strange. Maybe that’s what the Briscoes were feeling.”

  “I know it made me feel strange,” Lyssa admitted.

  “Me too,” Jason said. “I’m going to recommend they get an electrician in here. We’ll do a follow-up, but I think we can rule out the paranormal in the basement for now.”