Loose Ends

Doll County Paranormal has a final meeting about the Witch's Cove investigation before turning the job over to a video production company.  

Jeremiah: Let's go over the data from the Raging Rapids area.  Diana's data tells us this land was originally owned by a farmer named Schmidt, and remained in the family until bought by Kida.  

Nova: Lottie reported it as a sad place and we got the photos of the white shape and the vortex of lights in this area.  The best guesses on the single EVP are "leave me alone" and "repeat the note".  There are records of several deaths, as we can expect with a multi-generational family farm in the days before hospitals.  

Esperanza: "Leave me alone" and the sadness Lottie sensed makes me wonder if there were any suicides.  But nothing on record supports that.  

Nova: We do have a few questionable deaths, but nothing so obvious as a note days after being left at the altar.   The strange thing, in my opinion, is this:  We got the photos, which indicate something very strong there, but none of the witness reports were on this side of the park.  

Kenna: It hides from the living, but can't hide from the camera.  It really does want to be left alone. 

Hagrid: Definitely more sightings at the grove by The Overlook.  Kids, mostly. 

Peeta: We ran the movement patterns through a comparison program.  Closest matches were small animal activity and children running.  And by children, the computer specified ages three to five.  

Hagrid: Them EVPs sure sound like kids laughing.  What did we decide they say? 

Jeremiah: First one is "Can't catch me", "Fantasy", or "Don't touch me".  The first and last ones seem very fitting for kids at play.  Second one is probably a response to our asking for a name.  "Antonio." But others heard "Float my boat", "Broke my nose", and "Don't I know".  

Diana:  Well, what I found in the archives fits almost perfectly.  There was an orphanage in the area.  (reads from tablet)  Hillcrest Children's Home, managed by two spinster daughters of the Chase family.  A tornado took it out in 1959.  

Lottie: It must not have been like the orphanages I read about in stories.  None of them are happy places.  

Diana: The ladies who ran the place must have been very nice.  (refers to the tablet again)  Census records list a few boys named Tony - some with Latin last names, so possibly short for Antonio.  One Antonia, in 1930.  And "broke my nose" is a fairly common complaint among rowdy children.  

****

While they talk ghosts, the Pike women enjoy the newest luxury at Windu Acres.

Morgan: I could've used a hot tub back when I was digging up bones for a living.  Academic life is making me soft.  (pokes at her belly)  I've been slacking off on workouts since Candy left.   What is with her, running off to war zones and disaster areas every chance she gets?

McG: She always had an overdeveloped sense of adventure.  I'm pleased that Rose-Grace is more of a homebody. 

Rose-Grace: Hey, don't put the mothers of your grandchildren into competition!  (they all laugh)  She's not comfortable staying in one place long - that's why she divorced Pike when he left the military - but I wish she'd satisfy her wanderlust by selling her photos to travel magazines instead of news magazines. 

Morgan: Probably the result of growing up in foster care.  They move kids around so much. 

Rose-Grace: You'd be amazed how many of those moves are for the kid's safety.  The screening for foster parents is nowhere near as good as it should be.  (pointedly changes the subject)  I heard a rumor that you were applying for Mrs. Moneybags.

Morgan: Mom wishes.  You'd think after getting eight grandchildren out of my brother, she'd leave me alone, but no.  My biological clock is driving her nuts.  

McG: I just mentioned the idea.  As a topic of idle conversation. 

 

Memories and a Mask

Jeremiah and Nova work on Doll County Paranormal's report for their Witch's Cove project. 

Nova: I think we can edit out the bit where Frodo and Peeta are talking about Peeta being a fairy.  We all know that's playful banter, but if this is going into a video for Pocahontas to sell in the park, that could cause problems.

Jeremiah: Not sure how you can do that without editing out the problem with the sensors falling over.  

Nova (listens to the audio): Wait, Peeta calls himself a fairy.  I think we can safely leave it.  

Lottie:  Daddy, I want to be in the video.  Maybe I can get famous.  

Jeremiah: I don't know about that.  Our medium being a little kid, that might open a whole can of worms.  Not to mention the way you'd get teased at school. 

Lottie: I already get teased at school.  And you can put one of them misclaimers Nova was just talking about. Tell watchers that I got all them eighty million tests and stuff. 

Nova: She has a point.  You really can't use a medium without showing her, not with any credibility. 

Jeremiah: Nova, you're not helping! 

Lottie:  Oh, how about a special features called meet the medium! That'd be a big misclaimer! 

*****

Later, they record some footage for the video with Diana and Pocahontas.

Jeremiah: You don't need to introduce yourself, we'll put your name and credentials across the bottom of the screen. 

Diana:  Okay, then, I'll dive right in.  Barbieville was founded as part of the early 1800s Utopian Movement.  The land that eventually became Witch's Cove Amusement Park was divided into farm plots by the founders. 

Diana:  Only the hills directly bordering the stream were known then as Witch's Cove. The roads leading into the property from the north still bear the names of Hadley, Carson, and Handler.  The Carson and Handler families intermarried and it was their joined land that became the original park.  I'll let park owner Pocahontas Smith take it from here. 

Pocahontas: The land had been farmed poorly and the crops were failing.  My grandparents, in danger of losing the property, agreed to host a traveling carnival.  Their daughter Kida, my mother, fell in love with the owner of the carnival and with the idea of owning a permanent park.  Despite being left to raise two daughters on her own, Kida succeeded. 

Pocahontas: The area in the northwest corner was recently added to the property and we're currently rebranding.  We changed the name to Witch's Cove, a traditional name for the area, and the spinning barrels are now cauldrons.  We bought more land and installed the Windigo, with plans for more rides to come.

Pocahontas: The stars on the 1812 map indicate areas of note to the medium, Lottie Russo, who has consented to help me point them out on a modern map.  Lottie? 

Lottie climbs onto a chair to reach.  

Lottie: The grove in front the Overlook.  People see children in old-fashioned clothes playing here, but when they look closer, the kids vanish.  I felt like this was a happy place. 

Pocahontas: The only other location in the park Lottie sensed spirits was here, near this curve on the Raging Rapids ride.  Lottie, is this also a happy place?

Lottie: No, it felt sad.  But no place in the park felt mean, and that's very good.  We're going to find out who your spirits were when they were people and maybe help them go wherever they're supposed to go.

****

Albus gives an account of his own experiences in the park.

Albus: I've been here since the start.  Came with the carnival and never left.  My official title is Head of Ride Maintenance, but I do a little bit of everything.  The girls couldn't run the place without me.  It'd all just fall apart.  (laughs) Anyway, about the ghosts.  I have seen children in the off-limits areas, but when I go to run them out, no kids are there.   I never noticed how they were dressed, though.

Albus:  I was out by the log ride earlier and found this mask.  Just in case it comes up in any of the pictures.  

 

The EVPs

 Jeremiah tells the team to listen closely to the audio files from Peeta and Frodo's equipment.  

Peeta: Do the motion sensors first.  I'm sure we got something there, the way that one kept falling despite being weighted.  (The data comes up on Jeremiah's screen.  It's like a flatlined heart monitor, but the line wiggles slightly before a large jump.  The pattern repeats twice.)  That was me making it stay upright.  We stepped out of range and started doing EVPs.

The line on the screen remains flat, except for rapid bursts of small spikes. 

Jeremiah (to Esperanza, the team rookie): Normal footfalls, like Peeta and Frodo would have made, don't look like that.  Might be small animals.  Remember, we never assume it's paranormal until we've eliminated all other possibilities.  

Peeta: We put down the powder.  No paw prints.  

Frodo:  The EVP we got definitely isn't animals.  Give it a listen.  (To Esperanza) Electronic Voice Phenomena.  

Jeremiah cues up the file.  Frodo is heard asking any spirits to talk to him, then a distorted voice is heard.  The voice is followed by distant childish laughter and Jeremiah pauses the recording for input from the team.  

Frodo: Can't catch me.  

Jeremiah: I hear "fantasy".

Esperanza: No, it's "don't touch me".  

Jeremiah (to Esperanza): You see how we all hear it differently.  That's the norm.  A clear EVP is rare.

The recording continues with the laughter and Frodo asking "who are you?" Jeremiah pauses it again after the voice, or a similar one, responds.

Jeremiah: Antonio?  Did we just get a name? 

Nova: Sounds like "don't I know" to me. 

Frodo: Float my boat.

Hagrid: Broke my nose.

Esperanza: Man, this is nothing like those ghost shows.  They're always like "oh, yes, a kid named Antonio dropped dead in this very spot in 1834".  

Hagrid: They get the history and stuff beforehand, don't they? They're listening for certain things.  It's like that thing with faces, para-doily, but with ears instead of eyes.  This way we'll know it's probably Antonio if we find an Antonio in the history.

Jimin: That's why we avoid places like Lizzie Borden's house - everyone knows that story, everyone has opinions, so they're likely to hear what they want.  (laughs) I saw on one of those shows, they insisted the EVP said "Lizzie killed me" but it sounded to me like "feta cheese".

Ken:  Normally all we can make out is vowel sounds and tone.  It's like back in the day, when everyone was hearing devil messages in records played backwards.  What we do is note what our impressions are and then compare to the history.  

Esperanza: Play that last one, the one from near the log ride. 

Nova: Hey, that's my husband you're bossing around!  (To Jeremiah) Play it.

Jeremiah plays it. 

Jimin: Leave me alone.

Esperanza: Repeat the note.  

Results Are In

 After gathering data, Doll County Paranormal gathers in the Overlook to corollate the data.  

Jeremiah:  EMF readings seem normal, except for the unusual spikes Hagrid noticed.  Esperanza, do we have any sources of electro-magnetic energy around there? 

Esperanza:  That's the lightning bolt and magnet marker, right?  We've got two of them at the Windigo, and Kenna said they were right under the tracks at the time.  

Jeremiah:  So probably interference from the coaster.  Let's move on to the photographs.  

Frodo: That was Ken and Nova.  (To Ken) Y'all better have found something.

 

Jeremiah (clicking through the photos):  Nothing outstanding.  Little bit of either backscatter or orb activity, but so far...  Whoa!  Will you look at that! 

Jeremiah:  Didn't you report feeling watched near the Raging Rapids, Nova? 

Nova:  Yes.  But where is that other one from?  Raging Rapids, also?

Kenna: The ride lights don't look anything like that, even if they had been on.  There wasn't, by any chance, a dance troupe with flashlights out there with us?

Esperanza: I'm way more interested in the white blob with the pink blob under it.  That second one could be backscatter. 

Kenna: It's inconsistent with the backscatter in the other pictures, though.  And there's connecting lines.

Peeta: Let's check the sensors and EVP attempts.  I want to see if Frodo and I got anything.  

Hagrid: It was weird how that one sensor kept falling over.  We got em weighted so they shouldn't do that.  

Jimin: Esperanza and I picked up temperature drops all over the place, but nothing dramatic.  These pictures and any possible EVPs are probably our only solid leads.  

Esperanza:  As far as we know.  We don't know what happened on Lottie's walk through or in the park history.  Jeremiah has to compare all the different sources before we know for sure. 

Jeremiah: Exactly, Esperanza.  All we know from any of that is that most reported activity is along the path we put the sensors by.  I was with Lottie, of course, on her walk-through, but neither of us has shared anything.

Peeta:  That's nice.  Can we get to me and Frodo's work?