The Cottage - Part 5

Considering the heightened activity around my daughters, I decided it was time to do a little ghost hunting.  I ordered a webcam with a microphone that had “moonlight” capability, which would allow me a good picture even in low light. I got it set up and running on my wireless network while the girls were at school, and decided to put it in Sarah’s room first.  

Thankfully both girls are little hoarders, so camouflaging it wasn’t an issue.  I got it connected to my laptop and set it up on motion detect, figuring it would make it easier to go through any footage that might be recorded.  It also had an alert system that would cause a little popup window in the corner if anything caused it to turn on, but I figured that since I had a big enough case of the willies already, I’d turn that off.  I decided to give it 24 hours, and check on it the next morning.  

I checked for files in the morning, and there was nothing.  Not sure whether to be angry or relieved, I moved the camera into Olivia’s room, and waited another 24 hours.  Once the time was up I dutifully checked for new files, and this time I found two.

The first one was short, just a few seconds.  It showed one of Olivia’s stuffed animals fall off her chest of drawers.  Curious, but nothing really earth shattering.  

But the next one was a different story.  It was about three minutes in length, and showed a misty form come together, and move back and forth across the room.  At one point, it even made its way towards the camera, as if peering into the lens, then backed off.  The form was vaguely human in that it had the shape of a head and shoulders, but there was no real body, just wisps that came down, and eventually trailed off.  I cranked up the contrast to see it better, but was unable to discern any facial features.  And turning up the volume yielded no sounds coming from it.  Eventually, it just faded away.

I sat back, just stunned.  I went up to her room, and looked around, trying to find something, anything, to explain what I’d just seen but there was nothing that could.  The fact that the spirit acknowledged the camera made me realize this was more than just a residual haunting…this spirit was active and aware.

Knowing that the camera was recording with me up there moving around, I let out a tentative, “Hello?  Is anyone here right now?”  I paused for a few minutes to give it time to reply if it chose.  I then asked the following series of questions, with pauses in between.

“Can you tell me why you’re here?”

“Is there anything that you want?”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

I started to feel silly talking to the air, so I ended with the following, “I don’t mind you being here, and I’ll help you if I can.  But please, don’t scare my girls.”

I headed downstairs, and saw the file that had been created from my trip to Livvy’s bedroom.  I went to click on it, then hesitated.  I’ll admit, I had thoroughly spooked myself, and couldn’t bring myself to listen to the file just yet.  Instead I opted to go out and talk a brief walk to clear my head.

The brisk air felt wonderful and I closed my eyes and lifted my face to the wind as I walked, which is why I ended up bumping into my neighbor, Larry Durbin, who was out cleaning his yard.  We hadn’t talked much, just a few pleasantries here and there.  He was an older gentleman, about my father’s age, and a widower.  But he seemed to have a fairly cheerful demeanor for the most part.

I let out a “Whoops!” and a laugh, and apologized for being so clumsy.  He smiled, and took it in stride, and asked how our holidays had been.

“Oh, it was wonderful.  We had the whole family over, and it was so much fun.”

He nodded, “You had a full house for sure.  It was nice to see the place all decked out.  Good to have some life in it after being empty for so long.”

I felt a twinge of guilt for not inviting him over, so I changed the subject, “So, were you here when the…murders happened?”

“That I was.  It was a bad time for the neighborhood. Helen and her two kids were well thought of.  It was a terrible thing what happened to them.”  He looked off for a moment, almost wistfully, then turned and gave me a hard look.  “Are you having any problems over there, Annie?”

I looked at him, a bit surprised, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Sometimes a house holds on to things...especially unhappy ones.”

I narrowed my eyes a bit, “Why do you ask?”

Larry shrugged, “While the house was empty, I heard things. And people saw stuff…hell, I saw a few odd things myself.”

My voice caught in my throat a little as I asked, “What kinds of things?”

“Well, there was one time I was out here in the yard and looked over and saw some balls of light moving behind the blinds.  And knocking sounds coming from inside.”

“Could have just been some kids roaming around inside trying to scare themselves.”

He shrugged, “Possibly.  But another time, well, nevermind.  It wasn’t anything.”

I could see he looked troubled, as if he got carried away, and had begun to say more than he should.

“Larry, please tell me.”

He looked down at the ground, and shuffled a bit, then looked up at me. “It was real late.  I couldn’t sleep, and got up to go downstairs and get a snack.  I glanced over at the house, and saw a woman in the kitchen window looking over at me.  It must have been about 2:00 in the morning.”

“When was this?”

“About a month before Helen and her children were murdered.  Anyway, the woman was looking right at me.  Her face was calm, with no expression.  But then she just seemed to melt, and I was looking at this howling face with black eyes and a big gaping hole where the mouth should be.  Shook me right the hell up.  I started back, but when I looked again there was nothing there.”

I felt the hairs on my arm stand on end despite my fleece jacket, and rubbed my hands vigorously over them.  “Please tell me it was just moonlight and clouds on the window.”

“Could have been…could have been…and you know, you’re right.  It probably was.  We’d had a big storm that afternoon, and it was still a bit overcast.”

He peered over at me, “You never answered my question, Annie.  You having any problems over there?”

“There’s been a few little things, but nothing really problematic at this point.  Just, well, the house has its little eccentricities.  And the girls have heard a few things too, but they don’t seem to be scared of the place at all.  It’s nothing I’m going to call the Ghostbusters about just yet.”

Larry looked over at me, and I saw a tinge of concern on his face, “You ever run into anything you can’t handle, you pack your girls up and come right over, you got that?”

I gave him a reassuring smile, “I got it.  And thank you.  Say, would you like to come over for dinner this evening?  You know, see the place for yourself?  I make a tasty meatloaf.”

“Well now, meatloaf just happens to be a favorite of mine.  You got a deal.”

“Great!  Dinner is at 6:30.  We’ll see you then?”

“That you will.  I’m looking forward to it.”

(Want to read from the beginning?  Click on the "The Cottage" tag, or go here.)