𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄 / 𝗏𝗈𝗅𝗎𝗆𝖾 𝗈𝗇𝖾.
chapter 𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍, electric touch
𝗇𝖺𝗋𝗋𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗏𝖾
NOW THAT THE GROUP had finally heard a few stories and even had a few encounters of their own, it was finally time for the investigation. The plan was to investigate the room in which Chambrea felt a touch, and the bank vault where the miners died and Charlotte was also touched.
Colby holds the camera as Sam sets up a REM Pod, which they explained to the two Madden girls detects touch through an EMF field. Almost a soon as Sam puts it on the ground, it starts to beep and light up.
"It was not doing that when you set it down over here." Amanda comments. "Can you make it stop?"
As soon as Amandas asks, the light turns red and the noises stop. Everyone jumps and looks at each other, Charlotte holding on tighter to her sister.
Amanda and Colby ask for the REM Pod to go off again before commenting on the slight draft that they felt. Sam moved over to the doorway and leans on it, asking the potential spirits to set off the pod again.
It beeps slightly, earning a gasp from everyone. "What is that? Is that the temperature?" Colby moves closer to the pod, getting a closer view of it for the camera.
"What the fuck is that? Is it a miner?" Sam asks the spirits. The light flashes, but no sounds go off. "The solid beeps is what makes it say 'now the temperature's changed a drastic amount.' But it wouldn't go on an off like that so fast. Maybe that is a malfunction."
As Sam moves to reset it, Charlotte and Colby both stop. "Did you hear that?" Charlotte asks.
"Was that you?" Sam asks Mackie.
"I went like that." She steps on the wood flooring.
"I don't know. I thought I heard it from that way." Colby says.
"Yeah, it sounded like a footstep down there," Charlotte nods, pointing down a darkened hallway.
"I'm gonna reset the temperature thing."
As soon as Sam resets the temperature on the REM Pod, it starts going off repeatedly. "Oh, my God, dude. All the lights. All the lights."
"Does it do that a lot?" Olivia asks, pointing to the piece of equipment.
Mackie shakes her head. "I rarely see it do all the colors like that. Ever."
"Yeah, that never happens."
Amanda nods. "Someone has to be grabbing the antenna for that to happen."
"Can you grab the antenna?" Sam asks. There's silence while they wait for it to go off again. Another noise sounds from around them and Sam moves to the other room. Then, another one. "There's something above us," Colby comments.
"This is the sidewalk, isn't it? There's nothing above us." Amanda says.
"You would not be able to hear anyone walking up here. No. Not at all."
They ask a few more questions, hoping to get responses but are only left to hear noises. "We just want to talk respectfully, so if you could give us a knock, then we'll know you want to talk."
After a few moments, the REM Pod goes off at an alarming rate. "I think he wants to talk!" Amanda says.
"No, he definitely wants to talk." Charlotte adds.
As the pod continues to go off, Sam reaches for an EMF detector and holds it near the pod. The meter stays still, but the REM Pod continues to go off. Sam and Mackie ask the spirits questions, trying to get another sign that they are there before Sam decides to reset it, all while the guide walks in, claiming something is happening outside.
"Can you hear footsteps in here usually?"
The guide says she's never heard footsteps, but tells them she heard some knocks just outside. Charlotte gapes and looks at Sam and Colby. "That's what we were hearing!"
BANK VAULT
After Chambrea talks about the noises she heard, she explains she heard them from the other area. The bank vault, which in the true Sam and Colby fashion, they decide to go toward.
"I don't know about you guys, but I find it kinda hard to breath in here. It could be the dust," Colby warns.
"No, I feel it too." Charlotte says. "It felt like when I walked into the hotel. Like, it's really heavy."
"Yeah, it instantly feels thick in here."
Colby starts setting up equipment around the room, describing what each one does in the process for both the viewers and Olivia and Charlotte. Then, they turn out the lights.
Charlotte stands beside Colby, her hands stuffed into her pockets while Olivia stands between Sam and Amanda. Both girls look at each other nervously as they start to prepare for the second investigation.
"Alright, we're in the room where supposedly two robbers got shot. If we're talking to those robbers, or if you're with us, could you make an obvious sign. You can use our equipment. These flashlights, this ball behind me, or this light in front of me. We want to communicate. Tell us your story, what happened that night."
They wait for a moment but are left with silence.
"If you're a bank robber, or you're just a worker here and you want to talk with us, just let us know."
The REM Pod goes off once. "That was a yes." It continues to go off.
It starts to go off in the corner, moving back and fourth when Sam jumps and turns around. "I thought I just got touched in the back too." The REM Pod immediately goes off again. "Oh, my God!"
"If you touched Sam can you make this REM Pod stop going off?" Mackie asks.
"It's getting more hot in here," Colby comments after a few seconds and everyone nods in agreement.
"Thanks for giving us a sign. Can you step away from the REM Pod?" The pod stops for a split second before going off again.
Sam moves to reset it again, but it keeps going off. Colby comments about the energy possibly being trapped, before they decide to pull some money out as a trigger object to get a more responsive interaction.
They move the REM Pod onto the shelf behind Charlotte and Colby, beside the money. "Feel free to take it. It's all yours, if you want."
They watch the REM Pod, waiting for it to go off, and again are left with nothing but utter silence.
"It literally freaks out two rooms in a row, and then we move and it's gone." Sam comments.
"Alright, this is going to be your last chance. We just want to know if we are actually talking to somebody or that was just a malfunction. Can you make any piece of our equipment go off?" They look around for an interaction, but there is none.
"You reset it two times. Completely turned it on and off."
"But it still freaked out and then we move it and then nothing. And literally it won't even do—"
Before Sam could finish his sentence, the flashlight on the shelf flicks on. Charlotte notices from the corner of her eye and jumps back, bumping into Colby as he grabs her to stabilize her. She grabs his arm back. "Oh, my God!"
Charlotte holds on for a few more moments, listening to Sam, Mackie and Amanda talk before realization hits her and she looks at him. Colby looks down at her and smiles a little, causing her cheeks to flush and she immediately lets go. "Sorry," she murmers.
He shakes his head, laughing it off. "It's all right."
After the flashlight turns off again, they decide to leave the bank vault. Sam questions if they should leave the money before they go.
"That was my money." Colby says sadly.
"I'll venmo you a dollar." Charlotte says.
Colby looks at her. "I'll be expecting that later."
Charlotte salutes him, jokingly. "Yes, sir."
The next spot the group moves onto is the deemed basement hotspot with a spirit box. Sam and Colby explain the functions of it off camera to the Maddens and they all stand in a small circle, attempting to get a few voices through. "People?" Sam asks after hearing a voice.
"People or bolt."
"Run."
"Run?" Colby asks
Charlotte groans, looking behind her. "Oh, hell no."
"Maybe he's upset that instead of leaving the entire basement, we just moved rooms."
Olivia nods. "Yeah. Maybe that's what he meant when they said they wanted us to leave back in the vault."
"True, maybe."
"Is that it?" Amanda asks. "Are you upset that we're still in the basement?"
The spirit box doesn't say anything.
"Are you telling us to get out of here?" Olivia pipes up.
"Yes. That just said yes, didn't it? Or did I just hear that?" Amanda asks quickly.
"Maybe it was just you." Sam says.
Charlotte shakes her head. "Yeah, no. I didn't hear—"
"Just you." the spirit box says.
"Just you! Just you!" Amanda shouts before clamping her hand over her mouth. "Who are we talking to right now? Can you tell us your name?"
"I'm from here."
Everyone gapes. "I'm from... something. Did you hear that?"
Mackie nods. "Yeah, I heard 'I'm from something'."
"I think it said I'm from here," Olivia adds. "Like from the hotel."
"Did you work at the hotel?" Charlotte asks, but receives nothing in response. "Well, it clearly doesn't like me..."
"Are we talking to Rose?"
"It's me."
"It's me?" Colby and Sam ask in unison. "We both heard the same thing. And it was like a soft voice too."
"Woah."
"It looks..."
"It looks....?" Sam repeats as Amanda turns around, scratching the back of her head as everyone looks to her. "I keep feeling something touch my hair, but I keep looking and it's like— I'm pretty far away, aren't I?"
Everyone nods, muttering small yeahs. "It's over and over again," Amanda notes.
"Are you here with us? Are you standing with us?" Sam asks.
The spirit box doesn't answer, but everyone hears a noise around them, causing all six heads to swivel up. "What the hell was that?"
"Hello?" Sam asks.
Colby rushes out of the room, everyone following behind. They see Chambrea in the next room, her head bouncing around eerily. "Are you good?"
"I'm literally just trying to Snapchat my friend and something fucking pulled my hair," she explains with a nervous laugh.
Colby points over to Amanda. "Right after you felt something touch your head."
"Does that happen? Like hair pulls?" Sam asks.
"Well, she said someone was touching her head," Mackie says. "And Charlotte felt it earlier in the vault."
"It was like somebody was running their fingers through my hair. It was like way up here, not down here."
Another crash sounds from around them. "What was that?"
"That was loud."
The camera cuts back to the other room, with Sam and Colby in front of the camera. Sam holds the spirit box, asking Rose to follow them upstairs. "It knows."
"No?" Colby asks.
"That was a man." Amanda says. "What if that was they guy that killed her?"
"The jealous guy? Holy shit," Sam questions
"Well, Rose, we're inviting you specifically if you want to come."
"If you meet us up on the fifth floor for a little client work, we can give you a good pay check." Charlotte face scrunches up and she looks at Olivia, both of them giggling slightly. "Will you meet us up there?"
"Happily."
"She'll happily come up for a little, uh, little extra work."
Olivia cups her hands over her mouth. "Someone's getting lucky tonight," she sings.
"It's me, guys." Colby whispers.
Charlotte looks at him, laughing. "Did you just say it's me?"
"Colby has a thing for ghosts," Sam comments.
"Hey! You said you wouldn't tell anyone, man!"
THIRD FLOOR
The girls follow Sam and Colby up to the conference room, where they explain had been known to have a lot of activity, although Charlotte isn't sure how anything could be more terrifying than what they just experienced.
As soon as they walk in, everyone stops, claiming they hear something jumping on the couch. Sam and Colby go over to it, lighting it up with the light on the camera.
The group decides to set up a Boo-Buddy on the couch after Amanda explains it's function. "We brought you a toy. This is just for you."
"Maybe you can touch his belly or hold his hand?" Amanda and Mackie move over to the couch, sitting on either side of the bear when it says a few words. "That means something touched it's stomach."
Sam and Colby set up a few pieces of equipment while the Madden girls grab chairs and sit themselves around the couch. Charlotte and Olivia sit in between Sam and Colby while Sam puts the REM Pod down on the ground. As soon as it's on, it freaks out for a few moments and abruptly stops.
Mackie comments on it and the flashlight on the table turns on. She starts to say something, before the pod turns on for a split-second. The bear goes off next.
Sam holds up the other gadget in his hand. "Do you want to play with this little box? It might make some music." The flashlight turns on and Sam stands up. "That scared the fuck out of me, I don't know why."
"That's crazy how everything up here is going off, but downstairs almost nothing did." Charlotte comments, crossing her arms over her chest.
Colby nods, pointing the camera over to her. "Yeah. Like, he wants to play or something. Like they're toys."
"I'm going to point this over here just in case he's like close." Sam moves over to set up the music box, letting it calibrate before sitting back down. "Just gonna get away in case people think it's me doing that."
"Can you touch this blue flashlight on the table one more time for us?" Amanda asks.
It stalls for a moment but turns on on Amanda's command. Everyone jumps slightly, Sam even getting up from his seat.
"Maybe you can come and touch this little red light by my feet?" Amanda asks, pointing to the REM Pod when the flashlight turns on.
Olivia points to it. "That turned on again."
"If you prefer the flashlight can you make the flashlight go off a couple—" The music box goes off in the middle of her sentence, causing Sam to stand up again and clutch his chest.
Charlotte feels something and jumps slightly, running her hand through her hair and looking around before her eyes go wide and she reaches out to Colby as he holds the camera. "Colby. Colby, turn the camera— over here. Over here."
"What? What's going on?" He asks, his hand reaching out and grabbing her gently.
"I'm not even kidding, I swear I just saw a figure or something over there."
"Actually?" Sam asks.
"No. Yeah, I'm not kidding." Charlotte moves herself to her feet. "I thought I felt something messing with my hair so I looked over and I thought I saw, like, a little kid hanging out over here. It wasn't very clear, but it was like a very faint white figure."
"No fucking way," Colby says, going over to her.
"Did you say it was white?" Amanda starts to explain the white figures that she's seen when the Boo-Buddy goes off again.
"It was, like, this tall and it was only like the side of a face, peering out over here." Charlotte says, sitting down again.
"That's literally the height of a little kid, too," Mackie points out.
The music box goes off for a second and Amanda grabs the back of her head again. "Something's picking up my hair."
"What? Oh, my God." Colby moves over to her.
Amanda covers her face. "Is it lifting?"
"It was. It was. I think you're covering it now."
"I could literally feel it."
"Something was playing with her hair."
"Again," Sam exclaims. "It was doing that in the basement too. And it just happened to Charlotte too!"
There's a noise behind the group, averting everyone's attention and causing Charlotte to grab her sister's leg and whip around. "What the fuck was that?"
They sit back down and the equipment starts to go off again, only this time it's all out of sorts. "Everything's happening, it's just like not listening to us."
"Well, it was in the beginning," said Amanda.
"It's almost like a kid being mischievous."