Hot damn. We all looked at one another with raised eyebrows. I’m not a big believer in coincidence on a good day, but the interactions with the Ovilus so far were almost impossible to write off as mere chance. The homeowner and Randy went upstairs after our break, determined to investigate matters further. I remained downstairs with Robbin, Jason, and Linda, running the Oviluses and recording their responses.
It was 9:45 and fully dark outside. We had no idea that the physical phenomena were about to start…
“I ain’t scared of you,” Jason said, every word dripping contempt. He nodded toward the K2 meter. “See that box with the lights on it? You ain’t strong enough to take those lights all the way up to red. Go on, I dare ya!”
Obligingly, the K2 flared to full-on red. Whatever was causing it (and there were no electrical devices in the untenanted building that could cause the sudden, massive spike) had generated a significant A/C field.
BEWARE, the Ovilus seemed to caution us.
Linda invited the entity to touch somebody upstairs. She did this in a whisper, so the two men upstairs couldn’t hear her saying it. Five minutes passed uneventfully downstairs. Then Randy and the homeowner trooped downstairs. In what had once been the children’s bedroom, they both believed that they had seen two points of light in the corner of the room. They were a greenish-white in color. When we asked them why they had come back downstairs so quickly, the homeowner told us that a cold hand had touched him on his left arm, and then something similar had touched him on the outer left leg between the ankle and the knee. That had pretty much been that for him. He was ready to head out for the night and leave us in charge of the place.
“You really need to grow a pair,” Linda said, feigning scorn. BIG BALL came the response from the Ovilus. Well, quite.
As I’ve said many times before, I used to look at Ovilus devices with a great deal of skepticism. After all, even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day. I’ve seen far more misses than hits, line after line of meaningless drivel. Asylum 49 in Utah made me look at it a little differently (for details on that week-long investigation, my book The Haunting of Asylum 49 (co-written with Cami Andersen) will be published by Career Press/New Page on August 22nd, 2016). Don’t get me wrong: I believe in coincidence as much as the next guy. But a number of recent investigations have made me question just how much of the Ovilus output is random, how much is coincidental…and how much is influenced by something which we cannot see…
Although I haven’t announced it on the blog, a few weeks ago I started working as a tour guide at a very haunted historic Colorado hotel. I’m not going to name it, but unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know the one I mean. To celebrate my new job, my wife and I spent a weekend up there in the company of some good friends. We weren’t staying in a room that is reputed to be particularly haunted. Having slept late, we woke up the next morning to find a deep crescent-shaped scratch mark on my right buttock…deep enough to have drawn blood. My wife’s nails are every bit as short as mine, and despite attempts to replicate the scratch intentionally, we were unable to do so.
I had just finished telling Randy this story, complete with a photo of the scratch in question, when the Ovilus chime in with SCRATCH BOTTOM.
The loud thud from upstairs at 9:54 made us all look up in surprise. BODY DROP was the Ovilus’ contribution this time, followed by BEWARE again. Two of our K2s flashed into the orange simultaneously.
Usually my team does not provoke, but in the case of a child murderer we were willing to make an exception. “You should be sorry for what you did!” Linda said, earning a response of ATTACK and the K2 pegging itself full-on red.
I joined in with, “Only a coward would attack a woman and child,” to which the Ovilus responded with JERK BRITISH. Randy agreed with me. The Ovilus piped up: RANDY GRAB. Coincidence? I wasn’t buying it.
“Where’s the little girl?” challenged Linda.
UPSTAIRS.
Trying to get another personalized response, I asked the device where it was that I had come from, fully expecting another reference to Great Britain. I was therefore rather surprised to receive the equally accurate BATH, JERK. I had indeed come from the bath, not too long before. The second part…well, let’s just say that my ex-wife would agree with that assessment…
“If you really murdered your wife and child, then I hope you burn in hell,” Randy said provocatively.
COOK.
“Can you make a noise from upstairs?” Robbin wanted to know. Sure enough, it seemed that it could indeed. The ceiling creaked, directly beneath the bathroom. CEILING, the Ovilus said.
Another break. The atmosphere felt charged, even to somebody like me who has the sensitivity of a house brick. “I think we should try a different Ovilus unit,” I said, thinking out loud. “Just in case the responses are unique to this one.” We switched out the Ovilus for a second one and fired it up.
“What is it like when you die?” Robbin asked, opening the new session with a general test question.
ALIVE.
Interesting. But not nearly as interesting as what it said next.
ATTACK. ROBB. 2. NITE.
We all looked at Robbin. “Attack Robbin tonight?” was the question on everybody’s lips. Refusing to be intimidated, Robbin asked if it wanted us to go upstairs.
ROBB. ASCEND.
Well, that seemed pretty clear.
Before we could go upstairs, we heard a bang from down in the basement, where the father is reputed to have hanged himself after killing his wife and child.
DADDY. FAMILY. TRAGIC. HANGED.
“Holy shit,” Jason said, and I couldn’t help but agree with him.
DROWN.
We all looked at one another. Then Linda said, “I think it’s time we all went upstairs…”
Unbeknownst to any of us, the town house had more surprises in store. They weren’t going to be pleasant…
