by Eva Pohler
Carrie paused for a moment before continuing. “We have brought equipment with us today that we hope might help us to communicate with you. We’d like to hear your voice and see your image. We’ve brought an electromagnetic pump along to feed you the energy you may need to make contact with us. Please feel free to use that energy.”
After another moment of silence, Carrie said, “Is there anyone here who would like to talk to us?”
Ellen glanced at Sue, whose eyes were wide open, as though she could see something above Carrie’s head, but Ellen dared not talk. She didn’t want to ruin the investigation.
“If there is someone here,” Carrie continued. “Can you tell us your name?”
Ellen felt the room get colder. She thought it was all in her mind until Carrie asked them, “Do you feel that? Eduardo? Are you seeing a change in temp?”
Eduardo nodded. “From sixty-four degrees to sixty.”
Aloud, Carrie said, “Is there only one spirit here? Or are there more of you? How many are here with us?”
The light on Eduardo’s device began blinking rapidly. Ellen wondered what that meant as the feeling of being suffocated began to make her uncomfortable. She wanted to go outside and get air, but she didn’t dare move from her spot.
“Why do you remain here?” Carrie continued. “Is there something keeping you here, in this place?”
From the corner of her eye, Ellen noticed Miss Myrtle’s frantic writing over and over of one word: Fire.
Carrie noticed this, too. “Eduardo? Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”
“I’m getting a reading of fifty-seven degrees, but I feel much hotter. I find it hard to breathe, like the room’s filled with smoke.”
Ellen nodded, wanting to add that she sensed the same thing, but she was afraid to interfere.
“Are you feeling it, too, Ellen?” Carrie asked when she noticed her nodding.
“Yes,” Ellen said. “It’s suffocating.”
Sue nodded. “Tanya and I sense it, too.”
Aloud, Carrie said, “Do you have a message for us?” After a moment of silence, she asked, “Were you alive during the Indian Removal Act in the late 1800’s? Were you part of the Trail of Tears?”
After another moment, she asked, “Were you alive on June 1st, 1921, during the Tulsa Race Riot?”
The lights on the cameras suddenly went out, and the room was nearly pitch dark.
“Everyone stay where you are,” Carrie whispered. “Tell me, though, if you sense anything else unusual.”
Ellen blinked several times, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness. Her heart had picked up its pace and her knees felt weak. She hoped to God she wasn’t going to pass out.
The room became very cold.
“It’s fifty-two degrees,” Eduardo said softly.
“Can you sense anyone with us, Eduardo?” Carrie asked.
“Too many to isolate.”
“Any idea how many?” Carrie asked.
“At least a hundred,” he said.
Aloud, Carrie asked, “Were you alive when this was the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s home for men?”
Ellen held her breath, wondering if the spirit of the murderer could also be here.
Then, Carrie asked, “Were you alive when this was a circus?”
For a moment, the stifling air cleared.
Then Carrie asked, “Where are your bodies? Can you show us where your bodies are?”
As they waited in silence, Ellen thought she heard a growl. She’d forgotten that she’d heard it once before.
Hesitantly, she asked the others, “Did you hear that?”
“What did you hear?” Carrie asked her.
“It sounded like a growl,” she said.
“I heard it, too,” Tanya said.
“Me, too,” Sue said.
“What about you, Margaret?” Carrie asked. “Did you hear it?”
Margaret didn’t answer.
“Margaret?” Carrie repeated. “Miss Myrtle, are you okay?”
A flashlight suddenly flickered to life and was shined in the direction of Miss Myrtle.
Carrie neared her with the light. “Miss Myrtle?”
Eduardo joined her with his flashlight as well.
Miss Myrtle was in a trance, as before. She kept writing the same line on her paper over and over: We are here. We are here. We are here.
Chapter Fourteen: Reviewing the Evidence
The next day, Ellen and her friends received a call after breakfast from Carrie. She wanted them to come to her home on the other side of Tulsa to go over some of the data she’d compiled from the previous night.
As they passed the La Quinta, Sue, who was driving, said, “I wish we’d stayed there again. I could have used my points and gotten my own room. I didn’t get much sleep with the two of you getting up every few minutes.”
“That must have been Tanya,” Ellen said from the backseat. “I slept like a rock. I had nightmares, but I never woke up from them.”
“I got up one time to use the bathroom,” Tanya said.
“You got up more than once,” Sue said. “Every time you opened and closed the bathroom door, it woke me up.”
“I swear it wasn’t more than one time,” Tanya said from the passenger seat. “You must have been hearing things.”
“I know what I heard,” Sue said. “Maybe you were sleep walking.”
Tanya sighed. “I wasn’t going to mention this before, because I thought it was my imagination. And maybe it was. But, when I went to the bathroom, I thought I saw a man in there.”
“What are you talking about?” Ellen asked.
“I’m not sure,” Tanya replied. “It was more like a dark silhouette of a man—totally black, like a shadow. When I opened the door, he was standing in front of the commode. I almost screamed, but, instead, I turned on the light. When I did, he vanished. But after I’d used the restroom and was walking back to my bed, it felt like he was following me. It took me a while to fall back asleep.”
“Great,” Sue said. “I doubt I’ll sleep tonight, either.”
Carrie French lived in a quaint little townhouse in a quiet cul-de-sac. The van from the night before was parked in her driveway next to a white Prius. Jack-o-lanterns lined the short sidewalk to the front of the house. Sue parked behind the van, and the three of them went up to the door where they were greeted by a Halloween wreath adorned with a raven and a skull.
Before Sue had knocked, the door swung open, and Carrie said, “You’ve got to see this.”
They followed her into a small living area where the sofa and two chairs had been pushed all the way back against the walls to make space for an eight-foot plastic and metal folding table in the middle of the room. The table was covered with equipment. Justin sat at one end of the table with a laptop. Eduardo was looking at the screen over Justin’s shoulder.
Ellen and her friends squeezed together behind Justin next to Eduardo while Carrie said, “We compiled audio from the EVP recorders with video from our full spectrum cameras using some special software. You won’t believe what we captured last night. Have a look.”
“Ready?” Justin asked his mother.
She nodded. He struck a key on the laptop as everyone watched the screen.
They were looking at Carrie from the point of view of the back of the room, where Justin had been standing. In fact, part of Justin’s arm was visible in the shot. Carrie stood in the center of the room, and you could see Sue and Tanya on the far left of the screen. You could also see the back of Miss Myrtle’s head and Ellen’s arm beside Sue. Eduardo was standing at very back of the screen.
On screen, they watched Carrie begin. “Spirits who may be here among us, we mean you no harm. We come in goodwill out of a desire to help, not hurt.”
So far, nothing looked out of the ordinary. They watched as Carrie continued. “We have brought equipment with us today that we hope might help us to communicate with you. We’d like to hear your voice and see your image
. We’ve brought an electromagnetic pump along to feed you the energy you may need to make contact with us. Please feel free to use that energy.”
Both lamps flickered.
“Did you see that?” Carrie pointed as Justin paused the screen.
“Yes!” Ellen said. “I didn’t notice it last night.”
“Me, either,” Sue said.
“None of us did,” Eduardo pointed out. “It wasn’t visible to the naked eye. Justin slowed the video down so we could see it.”
“Could it have been the generator malfunctioning?” Tanya asked.
“Our cameras were running on the same generator,” Carrie said. “We try not to rely on batteries, because they often get drained. Go ahead, Justin.”
Justin unpaused the recording.
On screen, Carrie said, “Is there anyone here who would like to talk to us?”
A dark orb flickered over Carrie’s head and then disappeared.
“Oh my gosh!” Sue said. “I thought I saw something above you last night, but it was so fleeting, I wasn’t sure. You captured exactly what I saw!”
“Did anyone else notice it?” Carrie asked.
Ellen and the others shook their heads.
“Go ahead, Justin,” Carrie said. “Roll it.”
“If there is someone here,” Carrie said on screen. “Can you tell us your name?”
The dark orb flickered beside Tanya, and in the next moment, the silhouette of a man became visible. Justin paused the screen.
“See it?” Carrie said.
“It’s just like the shadow I saw last night,” Tanya said. “Exactly.”
“He must have followed you home,” Eduardo said. “For some reason, you seem to have an affinity for spirits—Vivian the other day, and then yesterday, this one. It stays with you through the duration of the video.”
“Are you serious?” Tanya asked, with a frightened face. “Do you think he’s with me now?”
“I don’t sense him,” Eduardo said.
“Neither do I,” Carrie said. “But watch the rest of our coverage. Notice how he flickers in and out between you and Margaret.”
Justin unpaused the recording.
On screen, Carrie asked, “Do you feel that? Eduardo? Are you seeing a change in temp?”
At the back of the screen, Eduardo said, “From sixty-four degrees to sixty.”
Aloud, Carrie said, “Is there only one spirit here? Or are there more of you? How many are here with us?”
The dark silhouette beside Tanya lifted its arms in the air and opened and closed its jaws. Justin paused the screen.
“You can barely hear this, so I’m going to turn up the volume all the way and slow down the play speed,” Justin said.
In a low, guttural sound, Ellen heard one word play over the laptop: Many.
Justin paused the screen. “Hear that?”
“Many!” Sue said. “It sounded like the ghost said many!”
“Exactly,” Carrie said. “Play it again, Justin.”
Justin took it back and replayed the audio. Again, very clearly, they heard: Many.
Ellen still wondered if it was at all possible that the old Native American woman was responsible for the EVP.
“I listened to all of your handheld recorders and confirmed that none of us whispered the word, and the sound seemed to come from the silhouette near Tanya.” Carrie pointed to the screen. “Now watch the screen very carefully for what appears next.”
“Why do you remain here?” the Carrie on the screen continued. “Is there something keeping you here, in this place?”
In three different spots on the screen, gray little smudges appeared and disappeared.
“See them?” Justin pointed to them.
“What are they?” Tanya asked.
Justin shrugged as the Carrie on the screen said, “Eduardo? Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”
“I’m getting a reading of fifty-seven degrees, but I feel much hotter. I can barely breathe, as if the room were filled with smoke.”
“Is it smoke?” Ellen asked, squinting at the laptop screen.
“Maybe some kind of imprinted memory of smoke,” Carrie said.
On screen, Carrie said, “Are you feeling it, too, Ellen?”
“Yes,” Ellen said on screen. “It’s suffocating.”
“Tanya and I sense it, too,” the Sue on the screen said.
Then Carrie said, “Do you have a message for us?” After a moment of silence, she asked, “Were you alive during the Indian Removal Act in the late 1800’s? Were you part of the Trail of Tears?”
After another moment, she asked, “Were you alive on June 1st, 1921, during the Tulsa Race Riot?”
The black lights on the camera turned off, and now the screen was a spectrum of colors, because the camera had filmed the images using infrared light.
“Everyone stay where you are,” the Carrie on the screen said. Ellen could see the outline of her body and the colorful heat it produced. She could also see the outlines of the others. Beside Tanya was a very subtle white orb where the dark silhouette had been. It began to move up and down beside Tanya. “Tell me, though, if you sense anything else unusual,” the Carrie on the screen said.
“What is that?” Tanya asked, pointing to the orb beside her.
Justin paused the screen. “It’s the shadow man getting excited.”
“We think it could be an indication that he’s one of the riot victims,” Carrie said. “Now, watch the back of the screen near where Eduardo is standing.”
Justin played the video.
On screen, Eduardo said, “It’s fifty-two degrees.”
“Can you sense anyone with us, Eduardo?” Carrie asked in the video.
“Too many to isolate,” he replied just as a white orb flickered above his head.
Justin paused the video and pointed at the screen. “We captured this one and one other over by me. Watch the right side of the screen now.” He pressed play.
“Any idea how many?” Carrie asked on the screen.
“At least a hundred,” Eduardo said.
In the video, Carrie asked, “Were you alive when this was the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s home for men?” And then, after another moment, she asked, “Were you alive when this was a circus?”
The figure beside Tanya disappeared.
“Where are your bodies? Can you show us where your bodies are?” Carrie’s voice came over the laptop.
On the right side of the screen beside Justin’s arm, another white orb danced for a few seconds before flickering out. The one next to Eduardo had also disappeared, but the one beside Tanya reappeared and began to jump up and down.
“Now check this out,” Justin said. “I’m going to slow down the speed again and turn up the volume all the way.” He pressed play and clicked the mouse on the volume to crank it up.
Ellen listened carefully as a low and drawn-out moan played throughout the room.
“Oh, gosh!” Sue said. “It sounded more like a growl last night. But is it a moan?”
“I’m not sure,” Carrie said.
“It could be both,” Eduardo pointed out. “A sound of desperation in between a growl and a moan.”
“Keep listening,” Justin said, resuming the video.
“Did you hear that?” the Ellen on the video asked.
“What did you hear?” Carrie asked her.
“It sounded like a growl,” she said.
“I heard it, too,” Tanya said.
“Me, too,” Sue said.
“What about you, Margaret?” Carrie asked. “Did you hear it?”
“Margaret?” Carrie repeated. “Miss Myrtle, are you okay?”
“I edited in the point of view of the other camera here,” Justin said. “Check out Miss Myrtle.”
From this new angle, Eduardo was no longer in the shot, as the camera was somewhere beside him looking at Miss Myrtle’s profile. The back of Tanya was in the shot, and the dark silhouette was still beside her. The i
mage was no longer in the colorful infrared designs but in the white light of the flashlights pointed at Miss Myrtle. Her eyes were rolled back, revealing their whites. Her lips were moving, though no sound came from them. And she was suddenly surrounded by at least a dozen dark orbs bouncing over and around her head as she fiercely pressed her pencil to the paper.
We are here, she wrote, again and again.
Justin stopped the video.
“Where’s Miss Myrtle now?” Sue asked.
“She’s not feeling well today,” Eduardo said.
“And I need her rested up for tonight,” Carrie said.
“Do y’all have Halloween plans together?” Ellen asked.
“We’re going back to the property,” Carrie said. “I want to try to capture more evidence in some of the other rooms. Want to come?”
Chapter Fifteen: Miss Myrtle’s Past
Before Ellen and her friends left the home of Carrie French, Carrie invited them to join her later at one of her favorite Greek restaurants for lunch. It was directly across from The Tavern, where they had met weeks before, for the haunted pub crawl.
After they had ordered their food, Carrie said, “I wanted to meet with you away from the rest of my team, because I need you to understand something about Miss Myrtle.”
Sue arched a brow. “We’re listening.”
“There’s a good reason why she doesn’t like to talk about the riot,” Carrie said before taking a sip of her water. “Her ancestors were victims, and when she was a young woman, she worked with black politicians to get justice, but people around here put a stop to that.”
“Who? And how?” Tanya asked.
“The Klan,” Carrie said. “And to this day, she’s still afraid if it.”
“Wouldn’t the members of the Klan be dead by now?” Ellen asked.
“Oh, no,” Carrie lowered her voice. “The KKK is alive and well in America and here in Tulsa. So please be careful of what you say and who you talk to about finding the bodies of riot victims.”
“Seriously?” Tanya asked. “I didn’t know that.”
“Wasn’t the Klan responsible for that church shooting in South Carolina a couple of years back?” Sue asked.
