The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette)

by V Bertolaccini

  I realized he had read my report on what had happened and had entirely missed what had occurred and what I meant, and I could not explain any further anything of what had happened and he never seemed to think anything had happened to me, and I realized again that even though he had a great interest in investigating the paranormal he never believed it, and consistently explained it with logical solutions, and he believed that he could explain virtually anything, and as I made my way back to the house at Craigmillar Road I realized that I would really like to find something of that nature, and which he could not answer!

  The elderly woman was delighted to see me and did everything to welcome me in and not put me off the case, and at dinner we discussed the case and she told me what had been happening since I left and she told me that the haunting had continued occurring every night at the same time, and had increased since my visit, and that neighbors in the surrounding buildings and streets had witnessed strange occurrences like it, and she showed me mentions of it in newspapers and other publications.

  What could it be? I was left baffled, once again! I had considered everything, and only had the metal detector that had activated it, and it never added up to anything!

  I realized that the two paranormal investigators had not even known what it was, and I realized that they should be the ones that should solve it, and they could at least witness the occurrence, and information, and I realized from the information they had given that they had not actually given me any mention of such an occurrence, and I was sure that they had not told me of anything authentic of a supernatural nature, and which they had confronted, and I was sure that they had not properly found anything as solid as it, and that their stuff was not really authentic, and going by Marple’s view of them and their work he never believed that they had discovered anything of that nature.

  I left the building and got to a phone and called them up, and I explained the situation and the occurrences and Higgins was astounded, and he sounded more astounded than I had heard him, and he was deeply surprised, and was not able to explain anything to me, and he put Oswald on the phone, and he was confused, and they agreed to come and see the occurrence, and they decided to bring their best equipment, and try and help the woman.

  It was amazing that I had not fully realized the idea before!

  I had been too busy not wanting to go back, and had no interest in finding out what was there, and the damage I had been bad!

  It was incredible that all the time I had been with them I never properly explained what had happened, and I still believe they never picked up what I meant.

  I recalled how powerful it was, and that their other scientists could also help out, and I told her about them, and their experience, and she was excited at the outcome and glad to have me bring them.

  So I phoned Marple and told him of what occurred and he just ignored the occurrences and told me the two paranormal scientists had become famous over the Loch Ness monster story, and he agreed that their technology had vastly improved, and that if anyone could find anything they would be the ones.

  Chapter 12

  The Paranormal Scientists

  Paranormal scientists and technicians rushed back and forward setting up their new equipment all over the woman’s corridor, while Oswald and Higgins checked everything.

  I watched on, and the woman in her living room relaxing, joyously listening to the scientists at work.

  They gave me the impression that they might be going to do something or come to a conclusion, and that they might well have found the right location to do it.

  I started to realize the implications, and recalled what had happened to me the last time, and that it might be deadly, and I realized that they might find something was there of deadly origins and be of great danger to everyone there and even in the region! Yet when I thought of it I could not realize anything that could do such a thing!

  Higgins quickly told the scientists, “Investigate all these walls, the floor, and roof ...”

  I felt tiredness from the events of that day and wished that I could have rested.

  When I examined the equipment they now had I was surprised at how advanced it had become and at its capabilities and I wondered how they could make a large enough profit to pay for it, but realized it surely was funded somewhere.

  Their visit there was clearly giving them far more of an insight and knowledge of things than I had realized, and they had gained a great deal of information from their earlier questioning of the woman, who had been desperate to get them to solve the problem.

  I was becoming positive that they had found far more than they had indicated, and were keeping secrets from me.

  I wanted to grasp what they all knew that I should know, and I regularly strolled about examining the equipment for clues, and recalled something that I had forgotten and reading about some of the work that the two paranormal scientists had done years ago, after they had given documents on their paranormal investigations.

  I recalled their stuff had been surprising, and even alarming, which had drawn my attention at the time, but I recalled that I had just dismissed it later as them using it to advertise their work!

  At times I thought they were deliberately putting the psychic research there to cover their real work and discoveries! Whatever that was! They never mentioned anything on other stuff that they did, which I had found existed at occasions, and I had hardly even seen anyone even check them.

  They informed me that they were checking for virtually all known forms of disturbance, energy and matter disturbances, in and around the haunted region and I was sure that they could, from what I had heard earlier from some of the other scientists, which just confused me even more later as I could not grasp what they were actually talking about at times, and I realized that so far I just never knew what was there!

  Eventually I started to get sleepy and at some point I fell asleep in a chair in my room, after a long day, and I was suddenly awoken from one of the strangest dreams I have had, and thought I sensed something strange, which I could not grasp, and kept trying to awaken myself further and prove that it was the dream and my sleepy state of mind. Yet there was something strange and I felt as though there was something there, but I could not grasp what, and I was sure I had not encountered it before, and I listened to all the scientists at work and their low level conversations, and I checked them outside my door, to discover if anything had been detected.

  Suddenly, in the darkness at the end of the corridor, two figures came rushing out, resembling a sort of dream view to me in my tired sleepy state, and the figures turned out to be two of the scientists, who I had thought had left the building, and I realized that they were working outside, checking stuff on their equipment about the zone, and building, and one whispered something in Higgins’s ear, making him look slightly surprised.

  Higgins’s face turned dramatic, making me wonder what the hell was going to happen, and I stood staggered waiting for something, anything, anywhere, and even regretting bringing them there, and I saw he was desperate to do something, and he rushed away with the two scientists to where they had been, and outside.

  “What are they up to?” Oswald muttered, staring, bewildered.

  “This is a hell of a place!” I mumbled, thinking of what had happened to me there before, considering if it could kill this time, and I was glad I had hardly even mentioned the metal detector.

  I decided to follow Oswald out the door to them, as I had to know what was there, and if something was going to happen.

  When I rushed out the door I was surprised to look up and see drifting currents of snowflakes blow about outside, and it starting to deepen, with gusts blowing over me, and I closed my jacket up and marched after Oswald going towards where Higgins was, and we tried to see what was there but we saw little, and only them bent over something on the ground, hidden away by their figures.

  It had been a very long day, and the next day could very well be far longer, and I watched Higgins rush
doing something and I wondered what I was missing, and if we should slow down and observe them at a distance first, as if they collapsed like I had done on the last occasion after using the metal detector there I wanted to observe what happened to them and finally know what had happened to me.

  The bright snowing sky seemed to darken over the area above them, and I pointed it out to Oswald, as heavy snow came floating down all about the area and we were amazed that it never entered a circle region about them, as though something was stopping it, which I tried to explain as a small thin faint whirlwind forming.

  Yet what was it doing there? Was it caused by them causing some form of disturbance there, and within the snowstorm?

  Faint tread marks of a car were below the snow on the road, under a layer of snow, and I realized how late it was, and that there were no cars or anything about and it was silent and lifeless.

  “What are the thermometers for in the building?” I asked Oswald, after recalling seeing them everywhere, and for something to say, wondering what the scientists were doing with them in such conditions, and to see if I could find out anything.

  He swiftly replied, as we moved closer to Higgins, “Where there have been manifestations drops in temperature have been found, discovered before and during the occurrences. Although I have never proven to myself that it happens!”

  I wondered if it could actually do other things and had centered itself around where Higgins was.

  “It’d be a good way to detect something near you!” I replied. “So a room should theoretically drop in temperature before and during it?”

  He nodded firmly, and we marched over to Higgins and the two scientists, observing them not even noticing us and our approach, so absorbed in what was there and what they were doing, and when we got just behind them they suddenly looked up, in another direction, and they started to react strangely, and I realized it was not to us but something else there, and I waited for something to make an appearance.

  Chapter 13

  The Paranormal

  Everyone seemed to grow in determination to find what was happening, and what was there, and I was left staggered, as what was there vanished when we arrived, and Higgins told us they had been monitoring the research equipment one of the two scientists had, which had discovered large power surges of some form of energy from the ground where they had been.

  They were left confused without any answer to it, and I wondered what the hell had been there, and if we would be left confused by the incident, and I tried to answer it with everything.

  Once back indoors they returned to what they were doing before they left, and I wondered how the two paranormal scientists would explain what had happened! If nothing else happened!

  I examined all their equipment for clues, when I got near them, and wondered why the disturbance in the hall had not occurred, as the woman had told us it had continued to occur, and this startled me the most!

  From some of the other scientists I heard of the work that two paranormal scientists had recently done, after they had released documents of the investigations on the paranormal investigations.

  Their stuff could be surprising, and alarming in places, which drew my attention, and I kept wondering if I had missed something! At times I thought they were deliberately putting psychic research there to cover their real work and discoveries! Though they never mentioned anything of other stuff, which I found suggestions of on occasions.

  I could not grasp if they were ignoring me and not giving proper answers to only avoid becoming fake ghost hunters!

  Also by the way that they reacted I believed that they might not have anything that could detect anything there, and I finally went to sleep in my room and left them and their equipment to detect anything, and wake me if it did occur.

  Later I was unsure and they became unsure if there was anything really there, and I wondered if anything existed that could be used to properly detect anything there, but why had we not seen the ghost formations there, and what had Higgins had found outside?

  Presumable if it had emerged its presence would produce effects to indicate it being there – such as altering air currents, gravity, magnetic fields, radioactivity, scent, sound waves, static, and the light spectrum ...

  Their equipment was there to check everything to a degree that had not been done, and I realized that they could have chased it away, and I realized that if it had that it would prove it had intelligence, and a fear of something occurring!

  Chapter 14

  The Hospital

  Marple rushed over and got a drink for me and placed it in front of me and returned to the fireplace.

  It was incredible! Marple looked more baffled than I had seen him, and I knew we had problems! The serial killer was still killing people and they still never had any clues to who he was, or anything, and they wanted him to solve the case, and not only was the sum of money for solving it now incredible he would get the fame and prestige he wanted, and become a major and historical investigator, if he solved the unsolvable case, and its insolvability was a major factor that kept teasing him, and he seemed obsessed with it, and all his investigators and connections were virtually on the case, checking for anything, and any remote clues.

  Eventually Marple grew tired of the lack of evidence, and thinking over it, and asked, “What happened at the house at Craigmillar Road?”

  “Nothing!” I moaned.

  “Not even with all the scientists and their most advanced equipment?”

  “But the paranormal scientists phoned and told me of another major discovery at another nearby location. While we had been investigating there it had been occurring at a nearby hospital! There were reported encounters of something at the Victoria Infirmary and in the middle of the night!”

  The two paranormal scientists checked out the hospital and its hidden history and found sightings had actually occurred there before, and before it had been built, and they had given me a folder full of all the information to prove it to me, and what fascinated me about it all was that all the major occurrences seemed to occur on the same dates, and there was hardly anything marked in between, and after going over it I noticed that there were specific reoccurrences and the same lengths of time between the occurrences.

  Yet, though I confirmed it, I could not grasp what it meant! There was no sign proof of anything! Was it a new form of haunting? And if so what the hell was happening?

  Even though it was the site of a large famous battle, and massacre that could have caused such an occurrence, and bodies could well be below there, or nearby, I could not grasp what was actually happening, and really wanted to.

  I investigated everything I could, and all the information and history of the region, trying to grasp something, and some clue, and found the main regions of the battle, where I found the woman’s haunted flat and the hospital were at.

  I wondered if it was the large amounts of deaths, and how it had been executed, or if Mary Queen of Scots had actually died there!

  What was incredible was I was starting to realize and sense that what had occurred there could have been another event, which occurred far further back in the past, before what had happened there, centuries before, and it could have caused the battle itself, and that something there had caused the battle to take place.

  I decided to investigate it further and find what had happened!

  I watched Marple playing with something inside an envelope, and asked him, “What have you got?”

  “It’s the 1568 map Dr Barrymore gave me.”

  I curiously watched him play with it, and realized he was happy about something, even though it was not the discover of anything to do with the serial killer, and I sensed he might tell me what it was, and I sat considering what it could be.

  “I’ve been searching through maps and I have found one source with similar maps, as Dr Barrymore’s map, which have been proven to have been made around 1568 …”

  I was surprised as I realized the date 1568 had been
when Mary Queen of Scots had the battle at Langside, and sat wondering why it was the exact date, and if the events were linked or if it was just luck, and I recalled what happened and the events.

  “According to the history books,” I replied, “the battle at the site of the woman’s house and the hospital occurred at the same time as it!”

  “Correct?” Marple instantly replied, confused. “It was a clue!”

  “So have you found something?” I replied eagerly, seeking answers, and why he was so joyful.

  “Perhaps! If there is lost treasure! The lost jewels could easily have been found by someone! If it exists! There are only a few accounts of it! It was thought to exist there by only a few explorers, who have carried out searches for it.”

  Marple handed over an ancient map of Langside and I immediately scanned it and searched where Queen’s Park was, and the rest of the hill and wondered if someone could actually have hidden it away it the park.

  “So you have found out something?” I moaned, depressed at the lack of finding anything on the map.

  “I’ve recently located a form of map!” he gasped, trying to rest.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked, curiously.

  “I discovered something of significant importance that could be of great interest! I will need your help!”

  “Alright!” I gasped, and sat back examining him, and silently gulped, and watched him put his pipe in his mouth.

  “According to Dr Barrymore and legends there have been people that have been found dead after searching for it …” he announced, silently.

  “Legends?” I replied, and watched the flames ignite as Marple rolled up an old newspaper and threw it into the fire flames.