Ghost Hunt: Chilling Tales of the Unknown

by Jason Hawes

  He turned away from the breaker box. “Let’s head back upstairs. I wonder how Jen and Mike are doing in the boys’ room.”

  Me too, Lyssa thought.

  “Do you see any pennies?” Mike asked.

  He stood in the doorway of Scott and Jerry’s room, shining his flashlight around at the walls.

  “Not yet,” Jen said. She took a few steps inside the room. “But you know, Mike, I’m thinking they’re going to be on the floor.”

  “Yeah, okay, I know that,” Mike said. He aimed the flashlight beam at the light blue carpet. “Just trying to get a sense of the space, that’s all.”

  “This is Jen and Mike,” Jen said so the video camera would pick it up. “The time is 11:10 PM. We’re beginning our investigation of the boys’ room.”

  Mike swept the flashlight beam across the boys’ beds, then over toward the window. The last place Jerry and Scott found the pennies was right in front of it. As he moved the beam across the window, the room suddenly seemed to explode with light. Jen threw a hand up to cover her eyes.

  “Whoa,” Mike exclaimed. “Did you see that? What was that?”

  “I don’t know. But we should definitely check it out. Go slowly, though.”

  Carefully, walking on tiptoe, as if they were cats stalking mice, Jen and Mike crossed the room. They were almost at the window.

  “Okay,” Mike said in a low voice. “Shine your flashlight on the window again.”

  Jen ran the flashlight beam across the window. There was a second explosion of light. All of a sudden, Mike laughed.

  “Oh, I see now. It’s those crystals Lyssa mentioned. I should have remembered about those. They’re reflecting the light from our flashlights. That explains that.”

  “Uh-huh.” Jen nodded. “Weird flashes of light, check. But those crystals don’t explain the other weird things.”

  They turned away from the window and looked around the room. A low howl sent a shiver down Jen’s spine. “Look. The wall,” she said, pointing to the space above Scott’s bed.

  Jen saw strange dark shapes. They looked like long arms with big claws. Shadows. The Briscoes said they saw shadows. Okay, but shadows of what? The shadows flickered in and out in rhythm with the eerie howls.

  “What is that sound?” Mike asked.

  Jen turned and gazed out the window. “I think it’s just the wind.” She watched the tree branches in the yard bend under the wind’s force. “The light from the streetlight is causing the shadows. But it only happens when the wind is strong enough to blow the branches in front of the light. The combination of the howl and those shadows could scare anybody. But there’s no ghost here.”

  “Jen, you’re wrong,” Mike said.

  “No, Mike. It’s the wind.” She turned around—and gasped.

  Mike stood between the two beds, staring down at the floor. He was staring at a flower made of seven pennies.

  “This afternoon we’re going to review the evidence on the Briscoe case,” Grant said.

  It was about a week later. The entire TAPS team sat around a big table in the back room of the TAPS office. Jen had her laptop up and running, ready to play back the evidence recorded at the Briscoe home.

  The team had spent three nights at the house. Every night, pennies appeared in Scott and Jerry’s bedroom.

  “We were able to debunk a lot of what the family was experiencing,” Grant went on. “It was everyday stuff like cars going by, light reflecting off those crystals, or branches moving in the wind.”

  “And the high EMF from the breaker box in the basement.” Lyssa spoke up.

  “That’s right,” Jason said. “I told Mr. and Mrs. Briscoe to have the box repaired. They should feel better once that gets taken care of.”

  “So that leaves us with just one area we still can’t account for, right?” Lyssa went on.

  “Right,” Mike said. “The pennies.”

  “So what do we tell the Briscoes?” Lyssa asked.

  “Nothing just yet,” Grant replied. “The pennies are a clue. What do they mean? Do they belong to a spirit? What does the spirit want? We’ve got to find out about the pennies.”

  “Maybe the answer has to do with the people who lived in the house before the Briscoes,” Jason told the team. He gave Mark Hammond a quick slap on the back. “Mark, that means you’re up. It’s time for you to do some of your research magic!”

  Late that night, Mark was still at work at his desk. The rest of the team had gone home, even Mike. But Mark didn’t want to leave yet. Not until he solved the puzzle.

  Who was leaving the pennies in Scott and Jerry’s room?

  Why only seven pennies?

  Why the same arrangement, time after time?

  Mark was sure the history of the house held the answers. His fingers tapped quickly on the laptop keyboard. He found out that the house was built in 1925.

  Good news and bad news, Mark thought. From 1925 to the present is a pretty long time. He stared at the jar of pennies sitting on the table beside him. Jerry and Scott had let the team take the pennies back to the office to help with the investigation.

  Mark unscrewed the jar lid and dumped the pennies out. He stared at them. Do they hold a clue?

  He turned all the pennies heads up. Then he placed them in a line. He took a magnifying glass from his desk drawer and looked at the pennies super close up.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” he said.

  All the pennies were from between the years 1955 and 1967. That has to be important, he thought. Why those years?

  Mark went back to the website on his laptop. About ten minutes later, he thought he had the answer.

  Now all he had to do was wait till tomorrow. Then he could tell the others.

  “All the pennies come from the same time period,” he explained the next morning. The team gathered around the long table the Hammond brothers shared as a workstation. They looked at the pennies, which Mark had lined up in date order.

  “From 1955 to 1967,” he went on.

  “Twelve years,” Grant said.

  “That’s right,” Mark said. “During that time, two families lived in the house. One for five years and the other for seven.”

  “Seven,” Jason echoed.

  Mark nodded. “I focused on the second family, because the number seven seemed important.”

  “What did you find out?” Lyssa asked.

  “From 1960 to 1967, the house was owned by a family named—” Mark paused. But his hands were busy moving seven of the pennies into the same shape the boys always found in their bedroom. “A family named Flowers. Parents were Stan and Jessica. And one son, Daniel, who died in 1967. He was twelve years old.”

  “Did he die in the house?” Jason asked.

  “No,” Mark answered. “But he did die nearby. He was riding his bike along the road and got hit by a car.”

  “So there’s a pretty good chance Daniel’s room is now Scott and Jerry’s,” Mike said.

  “I think so,” Mark agreed.

  “He might be trying to contact them,” Grant said.

  “But why leave pennies?” Lyssa asked.

  Grant shook his head. “We’ll probably never know. But it’s time to tell the Briscoes what we do know.”

  “Right,” Jason said. “Lyssa, you talked to the family first. I think you should make the call.”

  “Thank you for coming back,” Janet Briscoe said. “The boys really appreciate it. My husband and I do too.”

  “We’re happy to be here,” Lyssa said. “I can’t wait to see the surprise you said you have for us.”

  Lyssa had explained the team’s theory about Daniel Flowers several days before. The family thanked them, and Lyssa mailed back the pennies in their jam jar. Then, just yesterday, Janet Briscoe had called. Scott and Jerry had something they wanted to show the team.

  “Come see what we did!” Scott said as soon as he saw Jason and Grant.

  “Yeah,” Jerry said. “Come on. It’s really cool. You’re go
ing to like it.”

  “Okay,” Jason said. “Lead the way.”

  The two boys dashed up the stairs, heading for their bedroom. The grown-ups trailed along behind.

  “It’s over by the window,” Scott said as the group entered the boys’ bedroom. “Hurry up. Come on.”

  Lyssa noticed that the crystals were gone and the jam jar stood on the windowsill. On one side of the jar stood Jerry’s Anakin Skywalker action figure. A Spock action figure stood on the other side.

  “We made a spot for Daniel’s pennies,” Jerry said. “Then we added some of our favorite stuff. Because, you know.”

  “We thought maybe Daniel might like them,” Scott explained. “It’s sort of his room too, right? And, I mean, he never even got to see any of this.”

  Lyssa smiled. Trying to imagine a world without Star Trek or Star Wars was hard!

  “Have there been any more pennies?” Grant asked.

  Scott shook his head. “No. But that’s okay too, because…” He paused, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say next. “Because it is, that’s why.”

  “I think so too,” Grant said. “What about you, Jay?”

  “Me too.” Jason nodded.

  “Mom made chocolate chip cookies,” Jerry said. “You guys want some?”

  “Absolutely,” Jason said.

  “Race you!” Scott cried.

  He darted around Grant and Jason and out the bedroom door.

  “No fair!” Jerry shouted. “You didn’t say ready, set, go!”

  “I’ve been thinking about the Briscoe case,” Lyssa said a couple of days later. Lyssa, Jason, and Grant were the only ones in the office. Everyone else had gone home for the day.

  “Good work writing up the case notes,” Jason said. “How does it feel? Your first case?”

  “It feels good,” Lyssa said. “And working with the team is awesome. I know I still have a lot to learn, though.”

  “Jay and I feel that way all the time,” Grant said with a smile.

  “I’ve been thinking about Daniel Flowers,” Lyssa said. “If it was Daniel leaving those pennies, I think I understand why he stopped. I think he got what he wanted.”

  “What was that?” Jason asked.

  “Friends,” Lyssa said.

  Grant and Jason smiled.

  GHOST ON THE WATER

  What was that?

  Diana Martin sat straight up in her bunk on her family’s houseboat.

  Ba BOOM. Ba BOOM. Ba BOOM. Her heart pounded. Usually, Diana was a sound sleeper. Her mom always said Diana slept like a rock.

  Not tonight.

  Tonight, something jolted Diana so wide awake that she knew she couldn’t go back to sleep.

  Diana tossed back her covers and got out of bed. She stood for a moment, letting her legs adjust to the motion of the boat. The boat rocked gently from side to side.

  The water was calm. Diana liked the calm nights. When a storm came in, things could really rock and roll.

  She crossed to the door of her cabin. The cabin was so small that it took only two strides. She carefully stepped over the high threshold and out into the narrow hall.

  Diana was twelve. She looked forward to vacation on her family’s houseboat every summer. Her dad piloted the boat wherever they wanted to go. They would put all the places they liked into a hat and then draw them out one by one.

  At least, that’s what they used to do, but that changed when Mr. Martin discovered Heron’s Point Dock, on a small island off the coast of Rhode Island. Heron’s Point was her dad’s favorite kind of place; it had one old wooden dock and nothing else. No tourist attractions. No crowds.

  From their very first visit, Diana didn’t like Heron’s Point. She thought it was boring. And now… now she found it frightening.

  At Heron’s Point, Diana heard things. And saw things. And some of her things were moved or taken. Weird stuff happened every time the family tied up the boat there.

  Her dad said the strange noises were harmless. He accused Diana of forgetting where she put things, then claiming someone moved them, but Diana knew the truth. Something was going on—she just couldn’t explain it. Not yet anyhow.

  Maybe she could find out tonight.

  She reached the starboard steps that went from the sleeping cabins belowdecks to the main cabin above. She listened for a moment to the gentle, lapping water.

  Then she gripped the handrail tightly and started up. There weren’t that many steps, but they were steep and narrow. It was easy to trip and fall.

  Slowly, carefully, Diana poked her head up into the main cabin. The white deck gleamed almost as bright as in daylight. Full moon, Diana noticed.

  Her eyes darted around the boat. Trying to see as much of it as possible. “All clear,” she murmured to herself.

  Maybe it was a false alarm. Maybe a raccoon had jumped on the dock. Raccoons were big and fat. They could make a lot of noise. Enough noise to wake her up.

  Bam! Bam!

  Diana gasped in surprise and her foot slipped off the step.

  BAM BAM BAM!

  “Ohhh!” she cried out as her head bashed hard against the wall. Pain shot down her body. She clamped her eyes shut, trying to force the pain away.

  She held on to the railing. Felt the boat rock from side to side. Slowly she opened her eyes.

  There’s something here! she realized.

  Something on the other side of the boat.

  An intruder.

  NOT a raccoon.

  But who is it? WHAT is it?

  Diana opened her mouth to call her father. But then she stopped herself. He never believed her stories. She had to get proof on her own. She fought back her fear, took a deep breath, and climbed onto the swaying deck. Staying low, she slithered across the main cabin on her belly like a snake.

  The main cabin was the family living room. There were big windows on all sides. It made looking out easy. But it made looking in easy too.

  Don’t think about that now, she told herself.

  Keeping down, Diana reached the starboard side of the cabin. She was as close to the dock as she could get and still be inside the boat. She was breathing in short, fast gasps. She felt as if she had been running a race. Her head still throbbed from her fall. She was determined to ignore it. This time she was going to solve the mystery of Heron’s Point.

  Diana climbed to her hands and knees and peered out. The full moon made the world outside nearly as bright as day. But the color had all been drained away. And the bluish black shadows were long and creepy.

  Nothing looks real, Diana thought. It’s like I’m dreaming.

  She could see the wooden dock beside the boat. She could see the moonlight sparkling on the water. Diana stuck her head up a little more.

  She squinted through the window—

  —and her heart stopped.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Someone was on the dock. Covered in shadow. She saw him only a few feet from her face.

  He was staring right at her.

  Diana opened her mouth to scream. She couldn’t make a sound. She froze. It was as if her entire body had turned to stone.

  She stared at the man. He was dressed in the kind of old clothes her dad wore when they went out in bad weather.

  Who is he? How did he get here? Where’s his boat?

  Does he live on the island?

  What does he WANT?

  The figure moved. A strangled sound escaped Diana’s throat. She blinked. She didn’t believe what she was seeing.

  The man didn’t walk. His feet didn’t move. He seemed to glide.

  He moved to the edge of the dock. Close enough for Diana to see clearly.

  He wasn’t standing on the dock. He was above it. Hovering in the air. Floating over the edge.

  “Go away,” Diana murmured. Her voice came out in a choked whisper. “Please—go away. Leave us alone.” To her surprise, the floating figure fell back.

  “Go away!” Diana repeated. Her voice came out a litt
le stronger this time.

  She pulled herself up from her hands and knees. Stood as tall as she could. “Did you hear me? Go away and leave us alone!”

  The man began to sway from side to side. As if he wanted to go somewhere but couldn’t decide which direction to take.

  “Go away!” Diana screamed. “Go away!”

  The floating man vanished. Like smoke.

  Diana still stared at the gray dock.

  Just shadows now. Shadows and moonlight.

  Her knees started to shake. She reached out for the nearest chair and dropped into it. With a deep, shuddering breath, she pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. She rocked from side to side.

  “Don’t come back,” she whispered. “Go away. Go away and leave us alone.” Over and over. Rock, rock. Back and forth. From side to side. “Don’t come back. Go away. Go away and leave us alone.”

  That’s how her parents found her the next morning.

  At least this time they believed her.

  They believed her when she said she had seen a ghost.

  “I have to ask,” Jen said. “Have we ever done anything like this before?”

  Jen’s question made Lyssa shiver. The TAPS teammates plus Jason and Grant were in a small powerboat. They were on their way to Heron’s Point Dock to investigate a haunted houseboat.

  “Nope,” Jason answered. “It’s pretty much a TAPS first.”

  He tucked one hand into his jacket pocket. He held on to the side of the boat with the other.

  The sun was lowering in front of them. It made the water sparkle with red and gold. The air felt chilly. The water had choppy waves. The small boat bounced up and down, like a carnival thrill ride.

  Lyssa held on tight. She felt excited. Jen was right. How many times did you get to investigate the possibility of a haunted boat?

  “Do the Martins live on the houseboat year-round?” she asked.

  “No,” Grant answered. “They mainly use it in the summer for vacations. It’s big enough to live on, but Diana, the twelve-year-old daughter, has to go to school.”