The Haunting of Isola Forte di Lorenzo

by Sherlyn Colgrove

  As if he could read his mind, Syd continued. “I understand why you might be skeptical,” he said, though did so in Jonas’s general direction and not Nigel’s, “but you have to understand where EVPs come from. The reason we don’t hear them is because of the frequency on which they travel. I’m sure that you know that not all sounds are audible to the human ear-”

  “Like a dog whistle,” Saph interjected.

  Syd gave a nod. “It’s only when we record these sounds and enhance them, exposing them to various frequencies, that we can hear them. It truly is the only way we have of bridging our two worlds.”

  Jonas’s expression didn’t change much, he apparently remained skeptical, but Nigel thought he finally understood. It could have been wishful thinking, but for now he would allow himself to believe.

  “It’s your turn,” Matt’s voice rumbled, breaking Nigel’s reverie, “time to tell us if your two-day trip to the mainland was worth the expense.”

  Nigel wasn’t about to tell Matt that Jonas fit the entire bill and he quickly glanced at Jonas to make certain that he didn’t say anything either. They had discussed it on the boat ride back to the island. Jonas didn’t care one way or the other if Matt knew or not, but Nigel knew that Matt would hit the roof if he found out that a client paid for anything concerning the investigation.

  Of course, Nigel had to convince Jonas to keep his mouth shut by assuring him that Matt would invalidate the investigation if he found out that Jonas spent a dime outside of own personal expenses, so Jonas had agreed not to mention anything.

  “We took a trip up to Father Lorenzo’s first monastery in the Alps and found something curious. It seemed that he founded that monastery as well, which when you put it all together, would make him about five hundred years old from the founding of that monastery to his death at this one,” Nigel explained with skepticism. “We checked the local gazzettas around the times of both monasteries and found very little. Best we can figure is that the same name was passed down from father to father until the order died out altogether.”

  There was only silence around the table, no murmur whatsoever, though Nigel hardly expected anything otherwise.

  “When we were unable to turn anything up in the northern regions, we headed back down to Rome and found even less there, so we headed out to a small village not too far from the mainland pier just south of Naples. It happens to have been the closest village on the mainland to this island and it seemed to have been abandoned not too long after the death of Father Lorenzo.”

  “Abandoned?” Jesse questioned. “Why?”

  “Apparently the townspeople thought that it was cursed,” Jonas stepped in. “It seems that from the time of the monastery, strange happenings would occur in the village, many of them following the arrival of monks to trade. It seems that as soon as they left, something odd would happen.”

  “Odd?” Tony questioned, the skepticism in his voice made thick by his deep voice. “How so?”

  “Someone would get deathly ill, maybe even die. On two different occasions babies were born with unexplainable deformations and died shortly after birth. A witness to one of the births said that the baby was born with a tail and a deformed face that looked more like a demon than a child,” Jonas explained, not entirely hiding his own skepticism.

  “To hear it told, from what I could translate myself anyway, it seemed that many of the villagers felt that demonic forces were at work, and when the babies were born with their deformities, it only bolstered their beliefs,” Nigel added.

  “Where did you find this information?” Jorden questioned – her focus completely on their conversation.

  Nigel pulled a digital recorder out of his jacket pocket. “We found a witness…of sorts.”

  “Of sorts?” Matt questioned.

  Nigel handed the recorder to Syd. “You’re far more fluent than I.”

  Nigel could see the enthusiasm in Syd’s eyes when he passed the older man the recorder.

  With anticipation Syd took the recorder and looked around. “I am going to translate as literally as I can, so I will be speaking in the first person.”

  The others around him nodded and with that acknowledgment, he pushed play.

  “My name is Isobel Petrelli. My mother is Safia and my father is Guido. I grew up in this lonely village, it is my home. I can never leave. My Grandparents lived in this village. It was where they were born…where my parents were born…where I was born.

  “When my Grandparents were still quite small, strange things in the village happened. It was near the end of a time of darkness. It started years before when the fathers from the island began to visit our village for trade. Sickness started to fall over many and there were many deaths. Then, things seemed to get better, but only for a while. When my mother was born, there was another. In my Grandmother’s womb, with my mother, a demon grew. My mother came first…then the demon. It was dark, with red skin and a tail as long as its body. It died almost immediately, but the birth was seen as an omen. My Grandparents were cast out to the woods behind the village, it was believed that God did not want them there, so they fled,” there was a pause, “but the evil did not stop. More demon babies were born…three…and more sickness fell. My Grandfather demanded to move back into the village and to prove that his family was not involved with the evil that embraced the village, and he vowed to find who was responsible. It was not long before they looked to the island and the monks. My Grandfather believed that the monks were not holy, but were in fact evil, and he convinced the others in the village that they must rid themselves of the evil once and for all.

  “On a moonless night, every elder in the village sailed to the island, taking with them torches and enough fuel to supply the Doge’s personal army. The fire could be seen from our village. My parents stood on the shores with the other children from the village and they watched the glow in the distance. There was rejoicing in the village and when the elders returned, there was a great party. But the rejoicing did not last.

  “When I was quite young, sickness fell over the village once again. Once again, the monks were blamed. Many of the village’s elders believed that the evil on the island could not be put to rest. Soon, they abandoned the village, believing it to be as cursed as the island itself.”

  “Why did you stay?” Nigel asked on the recorder.

  “This is my home. I cannot leave.”

  The recording ended and all in the room sat quietly.

  “I didn’t believe it the first time I heard it and I still don’t believe it,” Jonas said finally.

  “Why not?” Isis asked. “After this last week, I would have thought that you would see that there is another world out there.”

  “I’m still not entirely convinced that there isn’t some other explanation for the voices either, and as far as demons and five hundred year old monks…well let’s just say that my mind isn’t quite that open,” Jonas scoffed. “I’m going to need to see something in front of my face to convince me otherwise and I can assure you that my partners will feel the same.”

  “I already said that I’m looking into more corporeal reasons for Father Lorenzo’s name popping up over a five hundred year span,” Nigel stated firmly and not without irritation.

  “And as far as the demon babies, I’m sure that there could be any number of explanations,” Ana said then stiffened. “Though I wouldn’t completely say that they do exist for the same reason that you say they don’t…no proof either way.”

  The story was a lot for those in the dining room to take in; the silence that followed was proof enough of that.

  “Well,” Matt said, breaking the uneasy tension, “I think that we’ve worked the monastery angle to death…no pun intended. Aside from the mausoleum and the bell tower, I think that we’re done. It’s time we checked out the hospital and prepared for the next phase of the investigation.”

  There was a low grumble from everyone in the room.

  “However,” he quickly added with a sm
ile, “Contrary to what some of you might think, I am not completely without a heart and I understand the need for a brief break.” He took a moment to look around at the anticipation in his team’s faces. “I had planned on letting this happen today, but since Nigel and Jonas kept our boat out for a day longer than planned, I see no reason in not allowing all of you to take tomorrow off for some much needed R-and-R.”

  The grumble lightened into a relieved cheer.

  “However, first things first,” Matt said. “For us to enjoy any kind of relaxation, we need to get some rest,” he said then looked at his watch. “My last order for the night is that we all go to bed and get a good night’s sleep.”

  Everyone in the room stood to leave with the exception of Nigel. When Isis noticed that he was still in his seat, she joined him at the table. “What is it?” she questioned with the genuine curiosity and a bit of concern.

  For a moment he could only stare down at the laptop on the table before finally looking up at her with troubled eyes.

  “Are you all right?” she asked with more concern than curiosity, and she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  Over the last couple of days he’d worked as if he’d been chasing down a lead for a story, but now the job was over and he felt drained. What’s more is that his mind raced with the memory of the night in the courtyard and his conversation with Isis. It was when he raised skepticism about the existence of ghosts that the disembodied, unheard voice reached out to him as if to assure him…and then she asked for help.

  “You know as well as I do that EVPs often pick up calls for help,” Isis said after his choked up explanation. “When you take a close look at the way some of these people died, the last thing they thought of was needing help and you know as well as I do that the absence of help resulting in their deaths are the bulk of residual hauntings. It’s one of the most tragic and traumatic things on the planet, and what’s worse is that with all of our equipment, there isn’t a damned thing we can do for them.”

  “It makes you wonder though,” he said as he rested back in his chair, “what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been saved…if my call for help hadn’t been answered.”

  “How so?”

  He looked at her, knowing that his exhaustion was starting to manifest into tears that he was powerless to stop. “Would I be forever a disembodied voice calling for help to those who are around, but unable to hear me?”

  Isis scooted closer, so close that her leg touched his and she slipped an arm around his shoulders, and for a brief moment, he felt comforted. He even started to crawl out of his abandon and started to think of the slightly older but gorgeous woman beside him. Still, in spite of her proximity and his often yearning for her, he couldn’t get his mind off of where they were and the last couple of days.

  “So,” Nigel said as he scooted away from her just a bit, “what do you think about the old woman’s story?” he asked.

  Isis propped her elbow on the table and rested her head in the palm of her hand. Her eyes were dark and captivating and she shrugged. “I don’t know. Given the time frame we have for the monastery, even if she was born just after it was abandoned, she’d be over a hundred years old, and it’s all hearsay besides.” She thought a moment. “But I will say this…that growl that was recorded in both the bell tower and in the mausoleum is a step in the right direction as far as proof to back up at least some of her claims.”

  “It was pretty creepy…wasn’t it?”

  Her brows rose briefly and she nodded. “Fucking frightening.”

  He looked at her with a smile that stretched clean across his face and he feigned a gasp of astonishment. “Such language!”

  A smile stretched over her face as well. “Oh I know…your virgin ears. What have I done?”

  Nigel allowed a laugh, his first in days and for the first time in as long, he finally felt relaxed…but it didn’t last. Again he thought of the disembodied voice that called out for help…called him for help. And then there was the growl of the unknown entity. Could the woman asking for help actually be an intelligent haunt and not residual? And if she was an intelligent haunt, could she be asking him to help her escape whatever belonged to the growl?

  Nigel’s mind raced with the possibilities and as he made his way up the stairs to his room, he couldn’t stop thinking of the disembodied voice and the more he thought about it, the more he believed that the woman was intelligent. He also knew that he had to do something to help her, and if it killed him, he was going to find a way how.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Mainland – 12:39 pm…

  Once the team hit the mainland they scattered in all directions; some heading north, some heading south or just vanishing altogether.

  Matt would have liked to have known where each member of his team was going but the best he could do before they scattered in three of the four available directions was to tell them to be back at the pier by nine-thirty local time. At least he knew where four members of his team were; himself not included. While it wasn’t necessary, because Matt would have taken on the task himself, Syd and Ana elected to stay behind and keep an eye on the equipment while Tony and Jorden were with him visiting the infamous Vesuvius. After the sightseeing tour around the volcano and through the humbling ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Matt drove them to the smaller town of Portici for lunch. In all the morning had been rather pleasant, though when Jorden excused herself and told them that she’d meet them at the pier at nine-thirty, Matt couldn’t help but be a bit curious.

  “What’s so important that you need to do it now?” he asked as nonchalantly as his disappointment would allow.

  “This may be the only chance I have to come to the mainland during the investigation and there’s something I need to check on,” she vaguely explained as she gathered up her backpack and pulled it over her shoulders. With her faded jeans, snug t-shirt and her dark hair pulled back in a simple ponytail she looked more like a college student visiting Italy for a summer hitchhiking tour than a ghost hunting, high school teacher.

  “Well hold up,” Tony said as he gathered his cell phone and sunglasses. “We’ll go with you.”

  When she gazed at them from beneath her raised brows the teacher-look reappeared. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is your day off as well and I don’t know how long this is going to take. You two enjoy the rest of your day and take a lot of pictures for me…” she said then dawned a wicked smile, “…especially if you happen to be caught in an eruption,” she added quickly.

  Tony returned her playful, sarcastic smile, but Matt could only wallow in disappointment. Still, he said nothing as she walked off.

  “What do you think that was all about?” Tony asked as he reclaimed his seat.

  Matt could only shrug and his tone was sour with disappointment. “You think she told me?” he questioned.

  Tony shrugged also. “Either you or Isis,” he said with disappointment. “Don’t get me wrong, I love her like a sister, but she never tells me squat.”

  Matt couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Well whatever it was I’m sure that we’ll hear about it sooner or later,” he said, though still not completely over his disappointment, and stood. “Come on.”

  Tony, who had just reclaimed his seat, stood with a grunt. “Where?”

  “Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get in,” Matt said evenly.

  Tony narrowed his eyes. “What did you have in mind?”

  A wicked smile filled Matt’s face. “We’re going to take some pictures.”

  Tony returned Matt’s smile with a wicked smile of his own before the two of them headed out of Portici for a day of trouble.

  Naples – 3:30 pm…

  Jonas had to hold the phone away from his ear while Seth lectured into the other end. It wasn’t that the old man was loud, but his tone was only an octave short of yelling, not to mention the condescending tone when he was reminding Jonas that he was the one who brought in this team of ghost hunters and that he wa
s the one who said that they were the most likely to give them the answer they wanted.

  Of course, it was hard to know what Seth and Stanley really wanted. Certainly not a demonic haunting, but possibly something along the lines of a quaint, harmless, residual haunting would have been enough to satisfy their clientele who wanted the novelty of staying at a haunted spa. Nothing too frightening – just good, paranormal fun.

  “I thought that you said it was set up,” Stanly Cushman sneered on the other line of the conference call. “At least that was the impression I was under.”

  Jonas hadn’t arranged anything and he was offended by the idea. He knew about the activity after being in touch with the caretaker and at best he had the caretaker embellish on some of the stories of activity, but never did he arrange to fool the others, which made him wonder if the others had. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. However, if you arranged to have someone set up audio or video equipment I should know about it.”

  “And why’s that?” Stanly Cushman questioned. The man’s arrogance was nauseating as it filtered through the phone and Jonas had to refrain from ending the call. He needed to know what was going on and losing his temper would accomplish nothing.

  After a breath Jonas’s temper steadied. “So I can keep these investigators from discovering any subterfuge,” he reasoned. “They’re very thorough, far more thorough than I realized. If they find anything that can be construed as a proxy they will leave. And knowing them the way I have gotten to over the last few days, they’ll make damned sure that the rest of the world knows that we tried to fake a haunting here and we’ll end up looking like nothing more than desperate frauds. I’m not entirely certain that’s the kind of attention you wanted to garner.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the line though in spite of the silence, Jonas could hear Stanly Cushman seething. That was not what bothered him however, if anything that kind of reaction from the old bastard was expected. It was the long silence from Seth Crandall that set Jonas on edge.