You’re in my House! (Conclusion)

If you missed the first part of this sto­ry, you’ll want to read that first.

It was a rainy evening when Grant, Frankie, and Donna met with the Tri-State Paranormal Society in the par­lor of the Prescott House. Grant was sur­prised by all of the tech­ni­cal equip­ment they had brought with them. Frankie and Donna were gid­dy with excite­ment. The inves­ti­ga­tors, Trae, Jeremy, Angie, and John, want­ed to sit down with them to get a lit­tle his­to­ry about the home and hear about the expe­ri­ences that they were hav­ing. Trae start­ed off the conversation. 

“This is an absolute­ly beau­ti­ful home! Can you tell me a lit­tle bit about it?”

“Absolutely! The home was built in 1825 by Reginald and Madeline Prescott. Reginald was a suc­cess­ful busi­ness­man work­ing in the rail­road indus­try. He accu­mu­lat­ed quite a sum of wealth and built this grand home for his beloved wife Madeline. They had always want­ed a large fam­i­ly, but fate had oth­er plans. The cou­ple had one son, James. Reginald want­ed James to fol­low in his foot­steps, but James want­ed to be a teacher. 

“James was an aca­d­e­m­ic and thrived in that envi­ron­ment. He even­tu­al­ly moved to Boston where he became a math pro­fes­sor at Boston College. Reginald and Madeline both died in the home, both in their bed­room. Reginald died in 1848 at the age of six­ty-three of nat­ur­al caus­es. Madelaine died ten years lat­er of pneumonia. 

“After that, the home was left to James who sold it to a local woman, Beatrice Jenkins. Beatrice turned it into a board­ing house. It changed hands a few times until it was begin­ning to dete­ri­o­rate. Our preser­va­tion orga­ni­za­tion, Friends of the Prescott House, bought it thir­ty years ago and has been main­tain­ing and rebuild­ing it ever since.” 

Grant loved talk­ing about the his­to­ry of the home. He was still unsure of the idea of hav­ing peo­ple snoop­ing around in it.

Trae was tak­ing notes. “So, what para­nor­mal expe­ri­ences have been going on?” 

The rest of the inves­ti­ga­tion team lis­tened intent­ly, tak­ing notes of their own.

Donna spoke up quick­ly. “The oth­er day I was clean­ing the library when I heard some­one behind me telling me that I was doing a ‘fine job.’ Those are the words they used. I turned around to thank them and there was no one in the room. I yelled for Frankie and just as she came in, a book fell right off the shelf. Then — you are not going to believe this — it float­ed right back to where it came from! We both saw it!” 

Donna was excit­ed to tell her sto­ry to inter­est­ed peo­ple. Frankie nod­ded in agreement.

“Wow. That’s awe­some.” Angie made a note of it. 

Grant added to the story. 

“I’ve nev­er believed in ghosts. Stories have been float­ing around for a long time about the home being haunt­ed. I have heard my fair share of nois­es here. I just always fig­ured it was the house set­tling. But that same day that Donna and Frankie saw the book, we all three went up to the attic to retrieve two rock­ing chairs that I was going to spruce up and place on the front porch. As we got clos­er to the door, we could all smell pipe tobac­co. When we walked in, both rock­ing chairs were sit­ting in front of the win­dow, rock­ing. The smell of pipe smoke was strong! Then the rock­ing just stopped. We imme­di­ate­ly just turned and left. That’s when we called your group.”

Trae lis­tened care­ful­ly. “Excellent. I can’t wait to see what we find! 

“One more ques­tion: Whatever hap­pened to their son, James?”

“After he sold the home, he went back to Boston. He retired from the uni­ver­si­ty. He died in Boston and was buried there. He rarely came to vis­it. James and his dad had a rather tense rela­tion­ship. Reginald nev­er approved of his son’s career choice. James also nev­er mar­ried and from let­ters we found, Madeline was always pres­sur­ing him for grand­chil­dren. I think he avoid­ed com­ing home. James was very hap­py in Boston.” 

Grant spoke con­fi­dent­ly and with author­i­ty on the subject. 

Trae jot­ted down more notes. 

“Interesting. All very inter­est­ing. Thank you so much for this infor­ma­tion. This is great! We will get set up and begin inves­ti­gat­ing after the sun goes down.”

Grant was get­ting nervous. 

“Please be care­ful. There are a lot of antiques here.”

Trae under­stood the concern. 

“Yes, sir. We will treat the home with the utmost respect.” 

He held out his hand to each of the clients and thanked them for trust­ing them. They had a job to do. Best to get started.

As dark­ness fell, Madeline and Reginald pre­pared for a good night’s rest. They climbed into bed dis­cussing the day. Madeline was relieved to have the house qui­et again. 

“I am so glad every­one is gone, Reginald. They have been act­ing so strange late­ly. This evening they were putting box­es and things all over the house. Why, it looked utter­ly dread­ful! I am speak­ing to them in the morn­ing and demand­ing they take all of that out of the house imme­di­ate­ly! I don’t know what they think they are doing.”

Reginald was relieved to lie down. He had been in deep thought all day. He lis­tened to his wife’s concerns. 

“Boxes around the house? Why, yes, I think you should talk to them about that. I was think­ing maybe we should hold a din­ner par­ty soon. We have not done that in quite some time. It would be nice to vis­it with friends, don’t you think? I sure­ly do not want any­thing gaudy sit­ting around the house. Indeed!” 

Madeline agreed and made a men­tal note to dis­cuss this first thing in the morn­ing. She set­tled her­self into the bed beside Reginald enjoy­ing the qui­et of the house. 

Trae and his crew sat out­side wait­ing for night­fall. They had planned the night’s events and set up all of the cam­eras around the house. John was the tech guy and was excit­ed to catch what appeared to be an anom­aly in the mas­ter bed­room. It looked like they were in for an active night. 

Although the house was large, they decid­ed to go inside to inves­ti­gate in pairs. Jeremy and Angie would go in first. They want­ed to go straight to the mas­ter bed­room and see what they could find or com­mu­ni­cate with after John caught the activ­i­ty on the mon­i­tor. Jeremy checked his watch; it was 10 p.m.

“Alright Angie, are you ready to go in?” 

Angie was def­i­nite­ly ready. She was excit­ed to inves­ti­gate the Prescott House. She had heard sto­ries about it being haunt­ed since she was a child. 

“Heck yeah, I’m ready! Let’s go.” 

Jeremy was excit­ed, too. “Great.” 

John and Trae would watch the monitors. 

“We are going to see what is going on in the bed­room and then maybe you guys can inves­ti­gate the library later.” 

John nod­ded in agreement. 

“Sounds good!”

Jeremy and Angie climbed the steps to the front porch and opened the front door.

Madeline sat up in the bed. Someone was in the house! 

“Reginald! Reginald, wake up! Someone is in the house. I believe we have a burglar!”

Reginald rose, wip­ing the sleep out of his eyes. 

“A bur­glar? Are you sure, Madeline? Could it have been a bad dream?” 

But then, he heard foot­steps com­ing up the stairs. 

“Oh my! Someone is in the house!” 

Reginald stood up to con­front the out­law who was invad­ing their home.

Jeremy and Angie made sure their EMF detec­tors were on and that they were record­ing with their dig­i­tal recorders. EMF detec­tors mea­sure elec­tro­mag­net­ic field lev­els. These lev­els can be caused by poor elec­tri­cal wiring or, it is believed, they can indi­cate the ener­gy of spirits. 

“Here’s the mas­ter bed­room. Let’s go in.” 

They opened the door and stepped inside.

Reginald was wait­ing with a club. As soon as Jeremy stepped in the door, Reginald swung the club toward the top of Jeremy’s head. 

“Take that, you char­la­tan! How dare you come into my house! I will not tol­er­ate thiev­ery in my home!!” 

He brought the club down with all of his might. Madeline applaud­ed her brave husband. 

“Yes! Get him, Reginald! Get him!”

Jeremy swept the top of his head, shin­ing his flash­light above him. 

“It felt like I ran into a spi­der web. I don’t see any­thing though. The house is very well kept.” 

Angie shined her light above him and on the top of his head. “I don’t see any­thing. What does the EMF say?” 

Jeremy looked at the read­ings. “They are high­er than normal.”

Reginald was flab­ber­gast­ed. His blow had bare­ly phased the intrud­er. He looked at his wife. 

“His head must have no brain, only skull. He act­ed as though he felt noth­ing! My God! Who are these people?” 

Reginald noticed Angie now stand­ing in the room. 

“One of them is a woman! She must be a prostitute!” 

Reginald stood direct­ly in front of the pair. 

“I demand to know what you are doing here! You need to leave imme­di­ate­ly. I say, immediately!” 

Reginald stood strong in front of the intrud­ers. Madeline kept her dis­tance, proud of her husband’s bravery.

Angie noticed the EMF read­ings were high. 

“We should try communicating.” 

Jeremy agreed. Angie held the recorder out. 

Reginald jumped back. “What kind of weapon is this? I will not be threat­ened by a harlot!”

Angie began speak­ing into the emp­ty room. 

“Hello. My name is Angie, and this is my friend Jeremy. We have been invit­ed here to try to see who is haunt­ing this home. We are not here to harm you. The box that I have in my hand is a recorder. If you speak into this red light, we might be able to hear what you are saying.”

Reginald stepped for­ward and spoke direct­ly into the red light. 

“Get out of my house you … you … prostitute!”

Angie began ask­ing questions. 

“What is your name?” 

She paused for an answer. Reginald stood sto­ic in front of the two stand­ing in his bedroom. 

“My name is none of your business.” 

Angie decid­ed to lis­ten. They heard a scratchy voice speak after their intro­duc­tion. Jeremy and Angie took turns lis­ten­ing to it. 

“Sounds like a growl to me. Could this be demonic?”

Reginald lis­tened to the inves­ti­ga­tors speak­ing. He looked at Madeline. 

“Why I believe they are idiots, my dear. Now see here, leave these premis­es imme­di­ate­ly! You do not belong here!”

Angie con­sid­ered Jeremy’s the­o­ry that it might be a demon. 

“I think it is too ear­ly to tell. Let’s try speak­ing direct­ly to the for­mer own­ers. Reginald? Madeline? Are you here with us?”

Reginald was gob­s­macked. He looked to his equal­ly aston­ished wife. He turned back to Angie. 

“I demand to know how you know our names!”

Angie turned off the recorder to rewind and listen. 

“It sounds like it said mur­der. What do you think?” 

Jeremy lis­tened.

“Yes. I think you are right. Do you think some­one was mur­dered here?” 

As the inves­ti­ga­tors con­tem­plat­ed the mes­sage from beyond. Reginald placed his hands on his hips. 

“Darling, I will see these hooli­gans out. They should be com­mit­ted to the sana­to­ri­um. Both of you, out. Out I say. Go find your fam­i­lies now.” 

Reginald began shew­ing Jeremy and Angie out the door.

Jeremy looked at Angie. 

“Does it feel cold­er in here to you?” 

Angie shiv­ered.

“Much cold­er. Let’s go to the van and see if they caught any­thing on the monitors.” 

They turned to go back down­stairs. Reginald fol­lowed them to the door and when it shut behind them, he stood defiantly. 

“And stay out! The insane should not be walk­ing among us.”

Reginald shook his head and went back upstairs to calm his wife.

Madeline was sit­ting on the edge of the bed. The stu­pid­i­ty of the two intrud­ers had her per­plexed. They were so calm but com­plete­ly unable to under­stand plain English. What was hap­pen­ing? The ser­vants were act­ing strange and now odd peo­ple were break­ing into their home. Reginald walked back into the bed­room and closed the door. Madeline looked at her hus­band confused. 

“Darling, why is every­one act­ing so strange­ly? Is there an epi­dem­ic we are unaware of?” 

Reginald went to his wife’s side to com­fort her. 

“It’s over now, dear. Honestly, I am not sure. Things have been becom­ing more and more strange, it seems. They are gone now though. Let’s try to go back to sleep. I do believe they have got­ten away from their care­tak­ers and just wan­dered in.” 

Madeline nod­ded in agree­ment. They crawled back into the bed to try and get some rest.

As Jeremy and Angie approached the van, Trae and John were excit­ed­ly motion­ing them over. Trae was pos­i­tive­ly thrilled. 

“The door just closed on its own! After you walked out­side, the mas­ter bed­room door closed! We have it on camera!” 

The four gath­ered around the screen to watch. Everyone was elated.

Madeline could not sleep. She decid­ed to go to the library and calm her nerves. Maybe she could find a nice book to read that would help get her mind off of the night’s events. As she walked down the stair­way, the inves­ti­ga­tion team was watch­ing the mon­i­tors. An anom­aly was form­ing on the stair­way. Trae saw it first. 

“Look at this! On the wall of the stair­way, see those dark pix­els form­ing. It looks like some­thing is com­ing down the stairs. C’mon, John. We need to investigate!” 

The two men grabbed their equip­ment and head­ed for the Prescott House. Madeline was qui­et­ly enjoy­ing the library.

Madeline heard the front door open and close. The intrud­ers were back! Reginald was upstairs asleep. What could she do? Madeline quick­ly looked for a place to hide. 

Please, just leave, she thought to herself. 

Trae and John stepped into the library. Madeline gasped. Trae imme­di­ate­ly stopped.

“Shh. Did you hear that?” 

John stopped to listen. 

“I didn’t hear any­thing. What did it sound like?” 

Trae thought for a moment. 

“It sound­ed like a breath, is the best way that I can describe it. Do you have your recorder?”

John turned on his recorder along with Trae in case there were more sounds. Trae sat on a sofa by the win­dow where he could observe the entire room. Placing his recorder on a near­by table, he began to ask questions. 

“Madeline? Reginald? Are you here? My name is Trae and this is John. We were invit­ed to come here and try to talk to you.” 

Madeline crouched down hid­ing behind a bookcase. 

“I did not invite you!” She protested. 

Trae con­tin­ued.

“It seems the mem­bers of Friends of the Prescott House are fright­ened by your pres­ence. They are just want­i­ng to find out what you want. Do you need anything?”

Madeline was con­fused. Who were these peo­ple? Why would their friends invite strangers into their home? She screamed at them from her hid­ing spot in the library. 

“I want you to leave!”

“Did you hear that?” Trae was gid­dy with excite­ment. “It sound­ed like cry­ing! Madeline is that you? Are you sad?”

Madeline stood up from where she was crouched behind the books. 

“I most cer­tain­ly am not sad! I am furi­ous! Now I demand that you leave at once!”

Trae nudged John, “I thought I saw a shad­ow in that corner.” 

John looked but could not see any­thing. He called Angie and Jeremy on the walkie. “Hey guys, we are get­ting a lot of activ­i­ty in the library. Why don’t you come in and check the attic and see if any­thing is going on there.” 

Angie and Jeremy grabbed their equipment. 

“On our way.” 

They left the van and began walk­ing toward the house.

Reginald had not been able to sleep. He went upstairs to the attic to smoke his pipe and look out the win­dow at the dark street below. Tonight’s events were prov­ing his ear­li­er feel­ings. Why did every­thing feel dif­fer­ent? Why had they not heard from James? Why were these strange peo­ple here in the mid­dle of the night? He con­tem­plat­ed this as he rocked slow­ly in his favorite spot. He did not hear the foot­steps com­ing up the stairs.

Angie and Jeremy slow­ly approached the door to the attic. 

“Apparently,” Angie whis­pered, “you can smell pipe smoke when you are up here. They also said that the chairs will rock by themselves.” 

As Jeremy was approach­ing the door first, he stopped. Turning to Angie, his brow fur­rowed, he asked, “Do you smell that?” 

Angie sniffed. “It’s pipe smoke!” 

They qui­et­ly opened the door where the rock­ing chair was slow­ly mov­ing back and forth in front of the window. 

“Oh my god!” Angie blurt­ed out.

Reginald was star­tled. He quick­ly turned to see that the intrud­ers were now in his qui­et spot. 

“See here!” Reginald stood up and faced them. “I have asked you to leave, and I demand you do so imme­di­ate­ly! How dare you return to my home!” 

Angie and Jeremy looked around the room. 

“It feels heavy in here,” Angie not­ed this on her recorder. 

Jeremy agreed. “Let’s make sure there is no breeze blow­ing through the window.” 

The two walked toward Reginald as they approached the window.

Reginald pre­pared for the con­fronta­tion, fists placed firm­ly in front of him. 

“I will take on the both of you! I have nev­er hit a woman but as I believe that you are a har­lot, I will not hes­i­tate to do so!”

Jeremy checked the tem­per­a­ture with his IR meter. “It is cold­er here, a five-degree dif­fer­ence. That’s substantial!” 

Angie checked the window. 

“These win­dows are old, but they do not appear to be drafty. I don’t feel any breeze or anything.”

Reginald placed his hands on his hips. 

“Of course, there is no breeze! These are the finest win­dows found in this area! How dare you insin­u­ate otherwise!” 

Reginald was angry, but more than any­thing, he was con­fused. He hoped Madeline was safe.

A voice came over the walkie. It was Trae. 

“Hey guys, let’s wrap this up. I promised that we would be done by 1 a.m.”

Angie and Jeremy were dis­ap­point­ed. They rarely get this kind of activity. 

“I’m going to say one more thing, Jeremy.” 

Angie turned to the room. 

“Reginald? Madeline? If you are here and you can hear me, I just want to tell you that you don’t have to stay. You can go to the light. Go and be with your son, James. He’s wait­ing for you.” 

Jeremy raised his eyebrow. 

“If Trae finds out you did that, he won’t be happy.” 

Angie smiled knowingly. 

“Trae doesn’t have to know. Besides, I feel like that some­times, they just need to know there are options.” 

Jeremy chuck­led.

“In your opin­ion there are options.” 

Angie laughed, “Yeah, in my opin­ion, there are.” 

They left the room.

Reginald stood dumb­struck and alone. 

“Go to the light?” 

He turned to look and there was a bright light ahead; it appeared to be a train. 

“I must find Madeline.” 

He hur­ried to the library. 

Reginald found his wife slumped over in one of the par­lor chairs cry­ing. Reginald hur­ried to her side. 

“Oh my dar­ling, are you alright?” 

Madeline answered through her tears, “No. No, I am not. This has been a hor­ri­ble night! I miss James. I don’t like the peo­ple that are always here. They are so strange. I am so unhap­py, Reginald. I am sor­ry for cry­ing. I just can­not take much more.” 

Reginald placed his arm around his wife. 

“There, there, my love. One of them said some­thing to me just now. They told me James was wait­ing for us and to walk toward the light. I saw the light upstairs! Come with me; let’s get dressed. I believe there is a train for us to catch and we shall go and see James. It will do us both good.”

Madeline looked up at her hus­band through tear-filled eyes. 

“Oh, dar­ling! That sounds won­der­ful. Let’s hur­ry before it leaves!” 

Quickly they changed into their finest appar­el. Reginald led his wife to the attic. As they entered, he point­ed toward the light. 

“They said to just walk that way!” 

Reginald offered his arm to Madeline, “Come, my dear. Let’s go see James.”

Madeline smiled, plac­ing her arm in his. 

“I can­not wait to see him. What a surprise!” 

The two walked arm in arm toward the light.