Mike was the last one out of bed the next morning. The last few nights and lack of solid sleep had taken its toll on him. When he finally made it down stairs everyone including his sister Janet was sitting around the table laughing and having breakfast. There were platters of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, and some fruit.
“Nice spread.” He said as he took the empty seat next to Jen. “I think I’m still kinda full from dinner.” He let out a small laugh
Mrs. Lachey smiled as she handed him a plate. “Well big day ahead of you all so I wanted you to have a nice breakfast so you get some energy.”
“Why are you being so enthusiastic about this?” He spooned some eggs onto his plate. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool of you but just odd…”
“Well if it helps keep your mind off of everything then I am all for it.”
“Makes sense.” He said as he finished filling his plate with food. “I was just curious.”
“I’ve been listening to your plans.” Janet said. “They have been saying that house has been haunted since before I was born and I think it’s silly to be honest.”
“Yeah, we’re just looking to have some fun and see what happens.” Mike responded. “When we catch crazy stuff on camera and get rich and famous you’ll be feeling awfully silly yourself.”
“Whatever you say big brother.” She smiled and stood up. “I am off to work, have fun children.” She laughed and walked off through the front door.
Mike laughed as he poured himself a glass of juice.
“When you’re done eating we are going to head over and unpack everything.” Jen said as he began to eat his food. “Want to show Trace around before we actually set everything up.”
“Good idea.” He responded between bites.
“Are you going to want more?” Mr. Lachey asked Mike as he stood up. “If not I’m going to start clearing the table.”
Mike shook his head. “Want some help”
“Nah I got it. You just finish your food before it gets too cold.” Mr. Lachey grabbed a few plates and walked them out to the kitchen. Mrs. Lachey followed suit and began to empty the table off, by the time Mike was done eating the table was cleared and the extra food was put away.
“We are going to go get ready.” Jen said as she and Tracy both stood up from the table. “We’ll meet you outside. We’re going to pull the car out too.”
“I’m wearing this so I’ll pull the car out.”
Jen nodded then kissed him on the cheek and she and Tracy walked down the hall and disappeared up the stairs.
When he was done Mike stood up and took his plate out to the kitchen then grabbed his keys. “Ok we’ll be back after bit.”
“Have fun.” His parents said in unison.
He made his way into the garage and by the time he opened the garage door and pulled the car out, Jen and Tracy were standing out in the driveway ready to climb in.
“I am so excited.” Jen said as she climbed into the passenger seat of the car. “This is going to be so much fun.”
Tracy who was now in the back seat nodded. “I think it’s going to be exciting.”
“I hope you two are right. I hope it’s fun and exciting and not dangerous and horrifying.”
A silence took over the car and the smile that adorned Jen’s face went away. She no doubt was remembering what had happened the last time they were in the house. “I was trying not to think about that.” She said to him as he pulled into the drive at Wes’s house.
“I understand babe but we need to be aware of it. You remember what Wes wrote in his journal…” Mike paused as he shut off the engine and turned to face Jen. “What he did to Wes was much worse than what happened to us and I don’t want anything to happen to you, or you Trace.” He glanced in the back seat.
“I agree completely.” Tracy said. “In the journal he said that the spell only worked if the spirit wasn’t released and since the door was opened, we know he is obviously free.”
“And we know he is angry, you could just feel it.” Mike said.
Jen began to stare at the house. “I’m not looking forward to this now.” She placed her hands on her stomach. “I’ve been trying not to think about all this and had my mind busy with the fun part of it. Not feeling so hot now…”
“You want to stay out here for now?” Mike asked as he sat his hand on her leg. “You don’t have to come in right away.”
“I want to, I really do… just nervous now.”
“Well we still have to go do a walkthrough and set up all the equipment.” Tracy sat up in her seat and placed her hand on Jen’s shoulder. “If after we do that and you don’t want to do it we can call it off, it’s ok.”
“No you need this for your grade and I think it’s something I need to do.”
Tracy smiled. “Speak up if you change your mind ok.”
She nodded and smiled then all three exited the car. Mike lead them up onto the porch, glancing at the railing where the little figurine sat the last time they were here. He began to feel an overwhelming feeling of dread as what had happened when they were in the house before began to form in the back of his mind. The image of Warren standing there with his bright red eyes boring a hole through him took over his vision. His stomach began to turn as the fear of the unknown and the fear of Jen getting hurt began to take over. It made him wonder if they should even do this.
“You ok Mike?” Tracy asked, noticing his hesitation.
Lost in his thoughts he didn’t notice his hand that held the key to the door was shaking inches from the keyhole. “Yeah sorry.”
“We really don’t have to do this. I can wait and see if Grant is able to make it and then we can just do a quick investigation or we can scrap the whole plan. Seriously, it’s ok.” She smiled trying to project the immense feeling of sincerity she had.
“No, Jen is right it’s something we need to do.” Mike wanted to face his fears just like Jen did but he had other reasons to want to do it. He recalled the conversation Tracy and him had in the kitchen at his house back near school. He hoped that if something had attached itself to Jen then they could get rid of it here. He inserted the key and turned it unlocking the door. His other reason being that he felt he owed Wes an apology and if he had a chance to do it, he wanted to take it. “So it begins.” He pushed the door open and entered the house.
Tracy walked through closely followed by Jen. She quickly took the lead as she made her way through the front room and into the large great room that acted as the living and dining room. She took a few steps then stopped and slowly turned a circle taking in every inch of the giant room. “This is beautiful.” She said as she ran her hand over the mantle of the fireplace.
Mike noticed her face intensify as she eyed down the mantle. He had seen himself get that same face eyeing down defenses when he watched one of his games that was broadcasted later on TV. Its game time. He thought to himself as he smiled. “Yeah lots of time and money in to it.”
“All to try to appease Warren.” Tracy said. There was a faint thud that sounded like it came from the far side of the upstairs. She turned to face the sound.
Jen stiffened and slowly walked toward Mike grabbing his hand when she reached him.
“Wow.” Tracy said as she began to slowly walk in the direction of the noise. “I don’t think I have ever been in a place where there has been activity at the start of the walkthrough.” She smiled and turned back to see Jen standing next to Mike squeezing his hand. “You ok?” She asked as the smile faded from her face.
“Yeah.” Jen forced a smile. “Just nervous, I’ll be fine.”
Tracy turned her gaze back in the direction of the sound. “Stairwell that way?”
Jen and Mike nodded in unison.
“Can we go see?” Tracy asked “You can just point and I can find it.”
“No I’ll go.” Mike said. He began to walk towards the room with the stairs.
r /> Jen let go of his hand and followed closely behind Tracy.
They walked through the kitchen and into the smaller room where the door to the stairwell stood open. “Right there.”
Tracy walked towards the door and looked up the dark stairwell. The room they stood in was decently lit by the sunlight coming in through the window but the stairwell was dark. She slowly reached her hand out, pausing at the point the light stopped. She moved her hand up and down, side to side as if she was sliding it on a giant pane of glass. She paused with her hand back in its original spot, took a deep breath and moved her hand forward into the stair well. “Wow.” She yanked her hand back out. She began to stare at her hand as if it was the first time she had ever seen it, like it was some sort of newly grown alien appendage. “I have never.” She moved her gaze back up to the stairwell.
“What is it?” Jen asked “What’s wrong?” She reached out and grabbed Mike’s hand squeezing it hard enough to make her knuckles turn white. “That wasn’t like that before. That was how the doorway at the top of the steps was, remember Mike?”
“Yeah we walked up the steps and there definitely wasn’t that wall of darkness there.” He said as he glanced towards the stairwell. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure. I do remember you telling me about the top door though.” Tracy reached over and closed the door to the dark stairwell. “Up to the dark it’s normal but when you get right on the edge, there is an energy and you have to use a good bit of force to get past it.” She pushed on the door making sure it closed and turned to face Mike and Jen. “The other side has to be a good ten to fifteen degrees colder. It’s not subtle at all and it’s immediate. I have never seen such a drastic change in temperature like that.”
“And you don’t know what it means?” Mike asked.
“Not exactly.” she paused still mesmerized by the steps. “Can you show me around some more?” She asked finally breaking her gaze from the stairwell.
“Yeah of course.” He turned and started to walk back towards the kitchen with Jen in tow as she was still clinching his hand. “I’ll take you upstairs.” His hand tugged back a bit and when he looked back he could tell that Jen was now reluctant to finish the tour. “Why don’t you go outside babe? I’ll take her upstairs and show her around and then we will meet you outside.”
“Yeah Jen, some fresh air will do you good. I know you want to do this but baby steps are a smart thing.” Tracy smiled.
“I think I will.”
He started walking and when they were out in the front room of the house he kissed Jen on the forehead and watched her till she was out near the car. “She isn’t very excited anymore.” He turned and made his way up the main set of stairs.
Tracy looked out at Jen, smiled, and turned to follow Mike up the stairs. “No she isn’t. It happens though, see it all the time on investigations.”
He stopped at the last step leading to the long single hallway of the upstairs. “Last time I was up here I was with Wes the night we first saw her.” He took a deep breath and took the final step into the hall. “Um… The room with the wardrobe in it should be there.” He pointed at a door to his left that was halfway up the right hand side of the hall. “And from the journals the room with the bed should be there.” He now pointed at an open doorway that was across the hall and just to his right. “Which means the little room with the drawings in it should be there.” He turned to his right to face another open doorway. “Should we start there?”
“Good a place as any.” Tracy said with a smile. “Can we turn the hall light on? It is kinda dark.”
“Yeah sorry.” He began to look around and finally found a set of switches on the wall behind him. He flipped the first one and the light above the stairwell came on. He flipped the second and the hall lit up. “There we go.” Mike turned back to face the doorway at the end of the hall and began to walk towards it with Tracy following closely. “Wow...”
When he entered the room it was only halfway redone. It looked as though someone was remodeling it from the top down and when they got to about three feet off the floor they just stopped then skipped two feet then decided to finish the last foot of the wall. The two foot strip of the wall that wasn’t touched showed the old wall paper and drawings.
“It’s exactly how I pictured it.”
Mike turned and looked at Tracy giving her a questionable grin. “Exactly?”
“The part that wasn’t done over.” She waved off his questionable look. “The drawings.” She walked over to the walls and kneeled down. She began to lightly trace one of the drawings. “It’s almost surreal you know. We read about it in his journal and here it is. It’s like when you were in elementary school and you saw your teacher out in public.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Not how I would have explained it but I get your point.” He stood back in the doorway looking around the room, watching her move from drawing to drawing. “Actually now that I’m thinking about it, it’s pretty much exactly how I pictured it too. All the way down to that orange elephant…” He paused walked over to the drawing and bent down to take a closer look. “So odd that I would picture this.” But what isn’t odd about this whole situation? He thought to himself.
“You have been here before so you’ve probably seen it before.” She stood up after inspecting the last drawing. “It is right across from the door you probably saw it when you were here before. All the thinking about it you’ve done lately your brain just picked up on the memory and pulled it to the front.” She turned to make her way out of the room. “Brains work like that. Let’s go to the wardrobe room.”
When Mike stood up and turned around she was disappearing through the door he had pointed out earlier. He hurriedly went to join her. Sure enough the room had been completely redone new light fixtures and flooring. The walls were covered in a crisp coat of light blue paint and there against the far side of the room stood the same exact wardrobe that he had seen on that Halloween night all those years ago. The memory of that night flooded his mind but he was quickly snapped back to reality by Tracy asking a question.
“Is this it? Is this the wardrobe?” Tracy was standing in front of it wide eyed and grinning from ear to ear. “It is isn’t it?”
“The exact one, it’s been cleaned and refinished but that’s it.”
Tracy began to slowly walk around it inspecting it inch by inch. “It really is beautiful. I can see why Emily liked it. The amount of clothes this could have held is…” Her sentenced trailed off.
“What?” Mike asked noticing the sudden stopping of her sentence.
“Oh nothing…” She let out a small sigh. “I can just picture her here staring at it from the way you and Wes have described it… and it’s just so sad.”
“What is?”
“Being stuck in time not changing and the longing she must have felt to just be able to try on dresses or get her hair done, or her nails even… sad.”
“Yeah I never really thought about it like that.”
“I’ve seen enough. We can go get Jen and start setting up.”
“Yeah I could use some air.” He led the way out of the room and down the stairs making his way outside the house. He saw Jen leaning against the driver side door chewing on her fingernails. “What’s wrong? You haven’t done that in a long time.” He walked to her and grabbed her hand and took it away from her mouth.
“Why were you two running around up there?”
“What?” Tracy asked.
“Running?” Mike looked at her puzzled. “We weren’t running.”
“I saw you run by that window there.” She pointed at the window to the far right of the house. “And in that one there.” She pointed to the middle upstairs window. “I was getting worried.”
“Jen we weren’t running around. We weren’t even in the room over there.” Mike pointed to the far right window. “We were in the middle room but we weren’t running.”
“I saw you.”
‘
It wasn’t us Jen.” Tracy answered.
“I can’t do this. I don’t think I can do this.” Jen pulled her hand out of Mikes grasp and started chewing on her nails again. “I wanted to and I thought I could but… I just don’t think I can.”
“We have to go set everything up do you just want to wait out here?” Mike asked moving her hand away from her mouth again. “You are going to be mad about that in a couple days so stop.”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“Ok well how about we stick together and just see how it goes?” Mike opened the driver side door leaned in and pushed a button. There was a click from the back of the car and the trunk popped up. “Just stick with me.”
“You can help set up home base that is the most time consuming anyways.” Tracy said as she walked to the back of the car, opened the trunk, and took out a large black case.
“Ok just don’t leave me alone please.”
“Never babe.” Mike gave her a reassuring smile then he followed suit and made his way to the trunk and pulled out more black cases.
It took only a few minutes to empty the trunk of all the different cases and to take them inside. The rest of the work was much more time consuming. Each case needed to be opened and the contents removed and inspected. There was yard after yard of cables that needed to be unraveled and hooked up. They had plug after plug that needed to be checked and plugged in. After about an hour they had home base set up.
“Ok that was the hard part, now the technical part.” Tracy said as she bent over and grabbed one of the IR cameras off of the ground. “Now we need to place these.”
“We still want them all in the same spots that we decided last night?” Mike asked.
“Yeah I think they are good spots.”
“Stay here babe I am going to set the cameras up.” He kissed Jen on the forehead, grabbed the camera from Tracy, and carefully began to take the camera while laying the wire as he went to its final destination.
Tracy sat down at the table that had the monitors on it and watched the screen that was linked up to the camera Mike had. When he made it to the hidden stairwell she could see that the door was now wide open again. Mike was sitting it down and propped it up so it looked into the dark stairwell. “Can you tilt it up a bit more?” She yelled to him. Looking at the screen she could tell that he heard her. Liking the new view on the screen she yelled “That’s perfect!” and a few seconds later he reappeared in the room.
“One down three to go.” He said as he made it back to the home base table.
“Here, I almost forgot.” Tracy reached into a small bag and pulled out two small walkie talkies.
“Thanks, I’m going to set the upstairs two now.” He reached down and picked up two cameras and carefully began to walk them through the rooms and up the stairs trying as best he could to not tangle the long cords. He sat one down at the top of the stairs and walked one to the doorway of the room with the drawings. After some adjusting following the instructions of Tracy through the walkie talkie he moved on to the next camera position. He took this one just inside the doorway of the wardrobe room and sat it facing towards the wardrobe trying to get as much of the room as he could and after a little instruction through the walkie and a few adjustments it was set. He once again made his way back down to the home base table. “Last one and we are done with this part.”
“Next we need to tape down the wires so they are out of the way and we don’t trip over them.” Tracy said as she held out a large roll of tape. “Last thing we want is loose wires in the dark.” She sat the roll down on the edge of the table.
“I have to completely agree.” He picked up the last of the cameras and took it to its destination. “How’s that?” He asked Tracy.
“Perfect. I’m going to tape the cords down to the camera by the back stairwell.” She grabbed another roll of tape from one of the bags. “Jen you want to come with me?”
“I’ll stay here.”
‘You can come with me babe.” Mike said
“You are going upstairs. I’ll wait here… just be ready in case I scream.” She said as she took a seat and began chewing on her finger nails again.
“I’ll be right in the other room and it won’t take me but a minute to tape down the cord so I’ll be able to hear you yell.” Tracy said and then she turned and started slowly walking the path of the cord stopping every few feet to place some tape.
Mike followed suit and started to tape the cords as best as he could so they were out of the way. He taped them to the railing of the stairs so they were off the steps and tried to keep stuff taped to the bottom edge of the wall whenever possible. After he was done he made his way back down the steps and joined Jen and Tracy at home base.
“What do you think of the views?” Tracy asked him as she stared at the monitors.
“I like them.” He placed his hand on Jen’s shoulder. “What do you think babe?”
“Good.” She forced a smile.
Just then Tracy’s phone went off causing all three to jump. “Oh my God.” Tracy said with a laugh. “That scared the crap out of me.” She took her phone out of her pocket and smiled at the notice of who was calling. “Hello!”
Grabbing his chest Mike began to laugh and even Jen cracked a smile.
After a minute of talking and pacing, Tracy hung up the phone and slid it back into her pocket. She looked up to Mike and Jen smiling. “Grant is coming!” Her smile grew even bigger. “He left a while ago so he should get here just in time.”
“That’s great!” Jen said. ‘Why didn’t he call earlier?”
“He said he did. Said he’s called ten times but it went straight to voicemail.”
“Odd.” Jen said as her smile began to fade. “Can we leave now?”
Mike and Tracy smiled at her.
“Yeah we are done. Everything else we have to do right before the investigation.” Tracy said as she walked to the table and powered down the monitors. “If we come over just before sunset we can finish up and be ready to go when it’s dark.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Mike said as he took Jen’s hand and led them outside locking the door behind them.