Jessica stood at Rosie's door, AGAIN, but this time she was standing alone, Elizabeth and Zakary were standing by the car with smug looks on their face. She looked back at them, and they both shrugged, made a waving motion with their hands to say "go on." She turned back around and pushed the doorbell button.
Josephine answered the door promptly, as if she was waiting for Jessica to ring the bell. Jessica said, "Hello Josephine, I was wondering if I could speak to Ms. Rosie again, if you do not mind?" Josephine nodded, turned around and walked away. She left the door open, so Jessica assumed that was an invitation to come in. She closed the door behind her and was standing in the large entrance way looking at the stairway that Zakary had gone on and on about, until Rosie came out a door on the side of the stairway.
"Well, well, twice in one day, what do I owe this pleasure young lady?" She said as she ambled over leading with her cane.
Jessica smiled and said, "Well, Ms. Rosie, you see, we have run into a little snag with our first plan and we were hoping you would be able to help us with Plan B.? It is a plan to possibly intercede while we are awaiting the results of Plan A."
Rosie looked perplexed and commented in a very friendly tone, "Young Lady, you are being quite cryptic in your talk of plan's and intentions, just spit it out, what do you need from me?"
Jessica smiled shyly and asked, "Can we go sit down and I will explain everything?"
Jessica opened the front door and waived for Elizabeth and Zakary to come in, then she followed Rosie into the sitting room that they were in before. They all sat down and got comfortable. Jessica began to explain the plan.
Jessica explained that Plan A was to dig up the road and to properly bury the remains that were found in the cavern; they felt that may settle the apparition's anger. But the Mayor did not understand the urgency of the situation, or was just not encouraged enough to proceed in a quick manner. With this development the threesome had decided to move on to Plan B. Elizabeth and Zakary quickly corrected her, to let Rosie know that Plan B was all Jessica's idea. Jessica rolled her eyes and continued.
Plan B consisted of using Rosie as a sort of "enticement or allurement" for the Ghost. The Screaming Lady was obviously drawn to her, so she would be the best to lure her out. Once she is lured out and defenses down, then Jessica would make contact and attempt to enlighten her memories of the current state; let her know that we empathize with her situation, that we are here to help her. Jessica said, "I may also be able to figure out what her connection to you is, and we may be able to use that connection."
Rosie sat back in her chair, her face showed no emotion, she said, "let me get this straight, you want me to sit and talk with the SCREAMING Lady, like she is family, while you are hiding? I will be all by myself, ghost bait with nothing to protect me. Did I get that correct?"
The three nodded in unison.
Rosie continued, "Then as I am having this wonderful conversation with my long-lost Great Grandmother, who will probably be SREAMING at me, you are going to probe her mind and place some "thoughts" in there to convince her to cross over to the other side? Am I on track?" She looked at all three of them sternly.
They all looked down immediately, then looked up and shrugged, one by one, and nodded.
"All the while, you think she is just going to sit there and have a conversation with me? Knowing these five years, all she has done is SCREAM at everyone that she has come in contact with?" Rosie was on the verge of panicking her voice starting to raise.
Elizabeth very calmly said, "Rosie, there is no need to work yourself up, Ghost's inherently cannot hurt you, they make noise, yes, and they can move things, occasionally; but all in all, they cannot hurt you."
At that point, Zakary leaned forward and put his hand on her knee, "We will be there in the kitchen, right on the other side of the swinging door, if ANYTHING goes wrong, or if you are uncomfortable in any way, we can be there in a second."
"I assure you; we will not let anything happen to you," Jessica said, "We will be with you every step of the way."
"Why me?" Rosie said. "Why not Remy? It has made a home in HIS Diner, for gosh sake, I am sure he would make better bait than me?"
Jessica softly said, "Rosie, it is the connection, there is something there, we need to use that if we can, but we need to understand it first."
Elizabeth reiterated, "We will be there, you are safe; no harm will come to you. It may be a little scary, but that is all."
After along moment, Rosie conceded, "Ok, I will do it."
Jessica jumped up excitedly, "GREAT! We are on for tonight, you can meet us there at 9:00 pm, or we can pick you up if that is more convenient?"
Rosie looked at Jessica through slit eyes, "wait a minute, what do you mean 'we are on for tonight'? What if I would have said No? How did you know I was going to say Yes?"
Jessica smiled a shy smile and said, "Well, I didn't, but I figured that we would take a chance and go ahead and ask Remy to have the Diner ready, just in case. We really need to put this investigation to bed."
All four of them started laughing, mostly due to nervousness. Rosie said, "I will have my driver bring me over at 9:00 pm, I'll pull up to the back and come in through the kitchen."
The three nodded and stood up and proceeded for the door. Jessica said, as they were going out the door, "see you at nine."
Rosie said, "it's a date." And smiled, but as she turned around, her smile faded and fear crossed her face.
The triplets had left to go set up the Diner; Rosie was left in the sitting room to ponder what was going to happen that evening.
Josephine walked in very gingerly, and put her hand on Rosie's shoulder, "Are you really sure you want to do this?"
Rosie was staring out the window, she sighed, "No, Josephine, No, I am not sure at all."
The triplets had all the equipment set up in the Diner by 8:30 pm that evening. This time they secured all the equipment out of eye shot. They had a computer station set up in the kitchen that had eyes on the whole Diner, so that they could stay in the kitchen while Rosie was in the Diner. They also had microphones and speakers set up to keep constant voice communication with her, so that they would know what was going on that was not visible, such as how she was feeling and what the environment was; also if she decided she did not want to go through with it, she could call out for help.
Remy had left the Diner to the triplets; he left them the keys and had shut it down early. The Diner at this point was dark and all locked up to give the impression that it was closed for business, to keep any unwanted patrons out of harms way.
Once the clock hit 9:00 pm, and there was no Rosie, Elizabeth said, "I had a fleeting thought this afternoon that we should have insisted on picking her up, so that she could not back out."
Both Jessica and Zakary looked at the back door, Jessica said, "give her time, she may be just running late."
Zakary said, "Rosie is not the type to run late."
Just as Zakary was making his comment, they heard a car drive up. It was driving up very slowly, they could hear the tires crunching in the gravel of the parking lot behind the Diner. Zakary opened the back door and a large black car with tinted windows was parked behind the Diner. As Zakary approached the car an older gentleman got out and opened the driver's side rear door and assisted Rosie out of the car.
Zakary took her arm to help her into the Diner, and said, "You are just full of surprises."
Rosie was dressed very elegantly. She had on a dark navy skirt suit with a white blouse. Her and Zakary walked into the back door of the Diner. Jessica and Elizabeth both went up to her and hugged her. Jessica said, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you."
Rosie said, "Do not thank me yet, I have not done anything yet."
Elizabeth said, "Just being here is a HUGE step."
Rosie said, nervously but trying to sound confident, "lets get this ghost show on the road." All four of them laughed nervously.
Rosie was positioned at the booth farthest to the left side of the Diner, this allowed for ease of access to her from the door of the kitchen and around the eat-at counter. They wired her up so that everything that happened in the Diner and around her would be recorded, they also put a temperature gauge, and a heart monitor on her. After she was all prepared, they ensured she was comfortable, and exited to the kitchen to watch what would unfold on the screen set up there.
Jessica was sitting behind the eat-at counter on a tall barstool. She could see Rosie, but was up against the back wall by the swinging door. She needed to stay in eye shot of Rosie, and hopefully the Screaming Lady, so that when she put her guard down, she would probe her with her third eye. She could only do this if she could see what was going on, and Rosie had to keep her attention. If at any point the ghost's attention was turned on Jessica, it could be extremely harmful to Jessica.
The entity could spiritually injure, mentally cripple, or subconsciously torture her to the point of coma or ultimately, death. Rosie understood all of this, it was explained to her as they were equipping her; so even though she was intensely nervous, she understood there was life and death consequences to what she was going to do here.
Within a very short time of Rosie being positioned in the booth, the temperature in the Diner began to drop.
Zakary said to everyone through their head pieces, "The show is about to start."
All of them could feel the temperature dropping, they could see the ice crystals forming on the windows, but all the temperature gauges were still registering the original temperature. Rosie's breath was blowing out in billows of foggy mist. Elizabeth whispered into the mic, "Rosie, be calm, it is ok, just breathe, in deep breath, out deep breath; so that you do not hyperventilate."
Rosie did as she was instructed, and soon her breathing was slowed to a normal pace. Before long, a shadow appeared in the booth with Rosie, it started as a shadow, then slowly materialized into a lady in period dress of around the 1800-1900's, she looked like a normal person, not ghostly at all. She was sitting across from Rosie, staring at her. Rosie was shaking violently and began to breathe hard again, but consciously slowed her breathing and controlled her shaking. They sat there for a couple of minutes just looking at each other.
Zakary said into the microphone, "Ok Rosie, now we need you to talk to her, ask her if she knows who you are?"
Rosie complied, and the Screaming Lady nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Good, Good, now ask her if she is your Great Grandmother?" Zakary said.
Rosie did this, and the Screaming Lady looked at her confused. She did not answer; she just kept looking at her as if she did not know the answer.
While the questioning was happening, Jessica had her third eye out and was probing the Screaming Lady's consciousness. She was again met with a large black slimy wall. Jessica was avoiding all the bugs and critters that were crawling and slithering all over the wall, while she was looking for a way in.
Zakary said, "You are doing great Rosie, we need to keep her giving us information. Ask her if she wants to be here in the Diner?"
The Screaming Lady looked around the Diner, then pointed a finger out the window to the place where the road construction was completed and repaved.
Rosie then asked, "Are you stuck here?" The Lady nodded, very slow, very deliberate. "Are you looking for something or someone?" Again, the Lady nodded.
At this, a small section of the Lady's consciousness wall opened up, just a crack, Jessica scrambled in quickly before it closed back up. The Screaming Lady's head swiveled around quickly to glare at Jessica, her appearance had gone from normal to ghastly, she was dripping with slime and her clothing was tattered. Her face was that of a rotten corpse, and the smell in the Diner spread quickly, smelling like a dirt, mold and rot.
The quick movement of the ghost, and Rosie not expecting it, caused her to jump but she quickly regained her composure and said, "We want to help you; will you please let ME help you? What ever you are looking for, we can help you find it." The Screaming Lady gained her repose and was once again sitting as a normal person across from Rosie.
Meanwhile, Jessica was in, she saw the Lady with a young girl child, then she saw the girl child ripped away from her; Jessica could feel the pain that she felt, the torture and torment that the Lady endured due to losing her daughter. Then she saw Rosie, and the feeling stopped, as if she believed that Rosie was the daughter she lost, Betsie.
When she saw Rosie that day in the Diner, there was calmness and tranquility; all she wanted to do was hold Rosie, who she thinks is Betsie, to say she was sorry, that she should have kept her safe. She feels guilty for her death, she has spent all this time self-condemning, but she could not voice it. Her mind would not accept her dereliction, so each time she opened her mouth to speak, a scream would escape instead.
Jessica released her third eye, and opened her eyes, tears were rolling down her face. She slowly slipped though the swinging door to the kitchen. She told Zakary and Elizabeth what she had seen, and said "She is so sad, all she wants is forgiveness from Betsie. She does not know how long she has been dead; she believes that Betsie may be still alive, and that Rosie is Betsie."
With this revelation, they relayed the information to Rosie, through her headset. Rosie started tearing up as well. Thinking quick on her feet, she said to the Lady, "Mother, I forgive you, you did nothing wrong. I was a strong child and you encouraged me to be who I was. Never regret what has happened, I love you."
The Lady looked at her, tears rolling down her face. She relaxed, smiled at Rosie then with a blink of white light, the Screaming Lady was gone. The Diner was once again a normal temperature. The ice on the windows were gone. The triplets came out from the back of the Diner and each hugged Rosie one after the other then sat at the booth, the two girls sat across from her, Zakary sat next to her.
Zakary said, "You did AWESOME! You're hired!"
Rosie giggled and said, "I have had about all I want of ghost negotiating in my lifetime, I will leave the rest to you three." They all laughed with relief.