The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition)

by V Bertolaccini

  “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 furthe
r 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.

  He nodded in agreement, and examined my face a little more.

  For a moment I considered there being a danger in the treasure hunt, and why he wanted my assistance, and I also wondered why it would still exist, and doubted the value of the objects, and waited patiently.

  What I knew was that I had been given a major clue to its location and I wondered if he wanted me to determine where it was, to see if we came to the same conclusion.

  I got out a recent map of the region and studied it in detail, and he watched on with curiosity, and I watched him open the document Dr Barrymore had when he had first met us, and told us of the treasure.

  He examined the ancient tattered piece of parchment with a magnify glass, where there were lines and words scribbled over it, as though the writer had been doing something and was in a great rush to finish it!

  “So it’s a verified 1568 map?” I asked, and he nodded, and continued to try to grasp what it meant.

  Marple finished examining it and placed it on the table, and looked over and asked, “So you want to know what’s on the map? I’ve had it rechecked and it is Langside, and the area you’ve been working in …”

  I realized it was there, but it never gave the proper location, and there was only a mark of something on it, which I was sure was something that was not part of the landscape.

  “The paranormal investigators phoned earlier and they asked you to join them in their investigation of the hospital.”

  “You want me to join them working there and to search for it?”

  “Yes! I’d like you to search for it, when you do, and to phone me with anything of interest, or for information!”

  Chapter 15

  The Shaft

  I was staggered at the deadliness of it altering in magnitude or something was playing tricks with me and it was being magnified!

  Sounds were unidentifiable and I realized that I was observing another form of the encounter! This time it was far different than the last. Even though I had collapsed and went unconscious at the last occurrence, when I had activated the metal detector.

  What was going on! The world about me seemed to be going crazy! The war was accelerating on and the Home Guard I was in was being activated more for a potential attack. Marple was going crazy trying to capture the killer, with his ultimate challenge, and all the investigators were pursuing every lead.

  The hospital seemed to be on the brink of an entrance point to the afterlife or some form of supernatural region of space, and all the paranormal scientists were working away there, every night, as occurrences were occurring everywhere, and though they were delighted in it they were not only not making any progression in what was occurring and they were accumulating a repeatedly increasing amount of unsolved mysteries, and I was investigating one of the most baffling of them.

  Something was occurring down a major shaft in one of the walls, which we found hidden away in a wall at the top of the hospital, and I had entered it and was going down it, when something had activated, at precisely the same time the occurrences occurred in the hall of the house in Craigmillar Road.

  I had only entered and shifted down the shaft, when the sounds emerged below me and had amplified, and as I slowly moved down, they had gone mind-bending!

  They were screaming up at me through the shaft with a dangerous fury that stunned me, and no matter how I tried to shake them off and contemplate their identities I could not form stable recognitions of what was there.

  I never had a clue what was there, and had never thought paranormal could be so strange, and unrecognizable.

  I shifted around in complete darkness, entirely alone, with nobody at the opening above anymore, where there was darkness now, and I finally managed to find my blasted light in my backpack and tried to grab it and force it out to use it.

  Clouds of powdered cement from walls swirled about all over me, going into my lungs, and I tried avoid coughing it out, while I tried to breathe in, in a way I could avoid the dust clogging my lungs up, while occasionally gasping at the sounds below blaring up at me, taunting me, threatening me about something I could not grasp, as if I was hovering over the depths of some form of hell.

  Once I got the light and attached it to me I put the light on and I realized straightaway that the batteries were far more used and the small torch was virtually going out, and I realized that I might not be able to climb back up as there was nothing to grip and I would have to climb the thin rope itself, and I was sure the harness I had on stopped me doing it.

  I examined the dust that swirled about me through dim barely visible beams of light and I released some rope, edging me downwards, seeking to get away from it, and I avoided touching the sides and making more of the dust blow up, and I started to consider if I should go to the bottom after all.

  The others were bound to emerge eventually at the opening above and get me out but the harness and dust was choking me, and then decided that I would have to go down again anyway, and that my mission would be a failure if I never competed it and I decided then to investigate what was there, and wait at the bottom for them to arrive and help me up.

  What was incredible was I did think it was dangerous, and I was in actual danger! While I was listening to the blasted sounds, another sound appeared that I felt going through the ground below and I knew it was entirely different, and was positive it was a bomb or something going off.

  The Second World W
ar was going on, and I wondered if the hospital could be bombed as it was a major structure.

  For a few seconds I even considered being left trapped at the bottom of the shaft, and builders or archaeologists discovering my skeleton remains away in the future.

  I groaned and dangled about on the rope, spun around and around, and grabbed hold of part of the wall to steady myself, while I glimpsed parts of the shaft all about overhead.

  I really wanted to explore what was there and what was below! The last encounter had left an increasing amount of unanswered occurrences and questions and I knew I would have to answer them eventually. It was as if it was my destiny and something would have to happen.

  I really wanted to do it! I wanted to explore the shaft! And I had always wanted to explore and discover something incredible and new, with perhaps value and greatness, and perhaps even be remembered in history for it.

  What interested me and the others was why what was there was there and in such a place!

  What was it we were dealing with anyway? Was doing some elaborate plan to do something?

  Something of an unfathomable unidentifiable supernatural nature sounded as though it were below, and even waiting on me, and yet I had already confronted it, and I could not grasp why, and if it was so powerful why did it not just get me there, and trap me in some form of magnetic field or energy, and I suddenly listened to it and wondered if it was something trapped and trying to free itself from something, ultimately escaping and gain liberty, and the more I listened to its strange sounds I realized that it might actually be true, and I imagined some form of ghost trapped there for hundreds of years, perhaps in an ancient dungeon below, and I wondered if my future mission was to find a way to free it.