Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (24 page)

But while moving back down the stairway, the reading on the EMF detector jumped. Sara had instructed Miriam to let her know if she saw a spike larger than .5 on the readout. This one jumped nearly three full points and happened twice in rapid succession. They all stopped on the stairs, Sara snapping pictures around them from her second roll of film. As she did, the master bedroom’s door clicked shut, indicating something caused it to close when just moments ago it stood wide open.

Sara frowned and shook her head, and then led them up the stairs and down the hallway to the bedroom. This time, she allowed David to turn on the hall light. She moved up to the door and tried to open it. It was locked. Miriam tried to open it as well, but it wouldn’t budge. Using the small universal key that worked when the kids locked themselves out of their rooms didn’t help either.

“
Well, it looks like we’ll have another door to replace,” said David, wryly, ready to ram it with his shoulder. Before he touched the door, the latch unlocked and it slowly opened. He took a step to move inside, but Sara stopped him.

“
Don’t do it!” she warned, moving in front of him. She took a step inside the doorway, but then retracted her foot. “This is very strange,” she whispered. “I’m not allowed inside the room.”

David tried to go into the bedroom and she prevented him again, much more forceful this time.

“
No, David!” she scolded. “I don’t know what we’re dealing with here. It feels too dangerous to venture beyond the door’s threshold!”

She closed her eyes and began to chant, and the temperature around them began to drop. Miriam clung tightly to David’s arm as they looked on. Sara’s chants became more fervent, and as they did, a rustling noise emerged from the master bedroom’s darkness. The noise grew louder in response to Sara’s efforts to match it with her words, until finally the floor in the hallway shook, causing them all to fall backward. The hall light above them flickered and went out, leaving partial illumination from its partner on the other side of the hallway. Rather than further test the entity’s resolve they ran downstairs, hearing the bedroom door slam loudly upstairs as they hurried out of the house.

***

Janice and the kids returned from their trip to Walgreens just after 10 p.m. David and Miriam sat with Sara at the kitchen table. No one smiled, and for the moment their collective attention stayed focused on Sara’s recorder.

Jillian tried to cheer them up by excitedly telling them about the pictures, though Janice made the kids wait to sift through the four packs of exposures until Miriam viewed them first.

“
I guess it’s safe to say tonight’s visit didn’t go so good, huh?” she said, starting a fresh pot of coffee. “There’s still nearly half a torte if anyone wants some.”

“
I believe we’ll all pass on that, dear,” said Sara, echoing less than enthusiastic responses from David and Miriam, who sat on either side. “Coffee sounds good, though.”

“
Are you sure?” Janice asked Miriam. “I noticed you passed on it earlier, Mir. It’s double Dutch chocolate, the world’s best mood lifter!”

“
I should’ve had some then, Jan,” she said. “I guess getting the hell scared out of me is an effective appetite suppressant. If I gain a few pounds around the holidays this year, at least I’ll know how to quickly take them off again.” She smiled weakly.

“
So, what happened?” Janice joined them at the table with a pot of coffee. She opened the bag from Walgreen’s containing the photo packets, handing them to Miriam.

“
Well, she’s back,” said Miriam, her eyes still red from the experience. “She pretty much chased us out of there.”

“
Allie Mae’s spirit?” asked Janice, sounding disappointed. “Did the equipment Sara brought help pick anything up?”

“
I plan on getting the pictures I took tonight developed tomorrow,” said Sara. “But we also got one of the highest EMF spikes I’ve seen in quite awhile. Here’s the thing that really gets me.”

She pressed ‘play’ on the recorder sitting in front of her. At first they heard only light conversation among the three of them, along with David’s comments about checking the thermostat again before they left. It marked the point where they headed downstairs, preparing to leave. Then, Miriam excitedly mentioned the EMF spikes. At the same time, the recorder captured what sounded like a chorus of dissonant whispers.

“
This was right when things got hairy for us,” commented Sara. “Keep in mind we didn’t hear any of the whispers you’re listening to now.”

“
It sounds like there is more than one voice…can you tell what they’re saying?” asked Janice, leaning in toward the recorder.

“
Hardly,” said Miriam. “We’ve been sitting here listening for the past twenty minutes, but we can only make out bits and pieces from most of it—sort of like what happened the other day when the kids and I heard the whispering in our living room.”

“
And, it gets noisier and most strange,” added Sara. “Right about now we’re on our way back upstairs, because the master bedroom door closed on its own.”

A crackling sound punctuated the undecipherable whispers, followed by the discussion between Sara and David about entering the bedroom. Janice’s eyes grew wide as she listened to Sara’s alarmed tone on the recorder and the ensuing rustling noise that steadily grew to a windy roar. The recorder caught the powerful tremor moving through the floor, as well as the panicked trio scrambling down the stairs, gathering Sara’s duffel bag and exiting the house without bothering to lock the front door. Before Janice could comment on what she heard Sara stopped her.

“
Sh-h-h!” she said, waiting for another section she wanted her to hear. “This is the most important thing, right here.”

Everyone leaned in closer. At first, they only heard the excited chatter about what had just happened. But as Miriam and Sara climbed into the minivan, and David came around to the driver’s side, a voice spoke clearly into the recorder he still carried.

“
Watch yer back, Billy Ray-y-y! Yer reckonin’s comin’ soon-n-n!”

The words were followed by a girlish giggle that echoed and died away.

“
After doing this for nearly thirty years, it’s the strangest haunting I’ve ever dealt with—sorry to say that,” said Sara. She stopped the recorder and looked over at Miriam, her eyes misty. “Normally, EVPs contain fragmented phrases from an entity, and difficult to define. I’ve only witnessed a handful of lucent statements, and none of those were as clear as this one. The only thing I can compare it to is the Bell Witch of Tennessee. That spirit reportedly conversed for hours at a time with the local ministers who tried in vain to get it to leave the Bell family alone.... Maybe there’s something in that Tennessee water.”

“
So, what do you suggest next?” asked Janice, her voice reticent after hearing the taunt from Allie Mae and Sara’s advisement.

“
I plan to speak with a friend of mine tomorrow after I drop off my own film to be developed. He’s a parapsychology professor at the University of Denver,” said Sara, taking the recorder and placing it in her duffel bag, open next to her chair. “I’ve already spoken with him about what I found in your house yesterday. He’s especially curious about the hemlock leaves, since aside from being long renowned for their mystic and murderous properties, hemlock isn’t native to this part of the country. But it does thrive in the southeastern portion of North America, in the very region you visited a week ago. I’m also hopeful he can hook me up with some of the sound engineering graduates at the University. Maybe they can gain better clarity from the whispers we captured.”

“
I want you to know I appreciate everything you’ve done for us, Sara,” said Miriam, and echoed by David and Janice.

“
I know,” she told her, reaching out and patting the back of her hand. “Let’s take a look at those pictures.”

Miriam opened each pack, passing the individual shots around to everyone else after taking a look. The first roll of film, taken entirely in Gatlinburg, revealed nothing unusual. David’s keen photographic eye produced several shots that everyone commented would be excellent candidates to be enlarged and framed. The first few shots from the next roll proved much the same, but the photographs taken from the time Miriam and David ventured past John Oliver’s homestead through this afternoon’s final shot in their backyard revealed a variety of anomalies.

Miriam noticed a few streams of reddish light and solid yellow orbs in some of these photographs. But not knowing specifically what to look for, she passed them all to Sara, who examined them more closely. Sara set the majority of the photographs from the second roll aside in a pile, stating they contained significant paranormal evidence.

Dismayed to see the shot he took of Miriam in the ravine marred by a bright orange streak, David thought he messed it up and that all the trouble he went through in getting the picture was for naught. However, Sara told him the hazy streak could signify something noteworthy took place when the photo was snapped. She brought the image close to her eyes to get a better view, squinting as if trying to decipher something else she just now noticed.

While they sat at the table reviewing the pictures, Janice’s phone rang. Ned Badgett called for David, and Janice apologized for not delivering an earlier message from him. He excused himself and took the call in Janice’s office.

“
Sorry to call you so late,” said Ned. “I know this has been a terrible day, especially for you. How are you holding up right now?”

“
It hasn’t hit me fully yet,” he confessed. “The true test will come after things get back to normal again, and Norm’s not there every day like he has been for nearly twenty years.”

“
I imagine it’ll take some time to heal, David. If there’s ever anything I can do, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“
I’ll do that.”

An awkward moment of silence passed before Ned spoke again.

“
Maybe your idea of taking a few things home to work on might do some good after all,” he said. “It’s really to help keep your mind occupied since we’ve got everything covered this coming week in your absence.”

“
I’d like that,” David agreed. “Can I stop by the office tomorrow and pick up a few reports?”

“
Either that, or I can bring them to you if you’d rather,” said Ned. “The police have finished with most of what they need from us, though some areas are still taped off and will remain that way until next week. I have to take care of a few things at the office tomorrow morning. No one else will be there since it’s Saturday, and I thought it’d be a good opportunity for you to stop by, or like I said, I can bring the files you want by your house in the afternoon. The weather forecast calls for heavy snow tomorrow evening, so I’d like to come by there no later than three o’clock, if that’s all right.”

“
Why don’t I meet you at the office around eleven tomorrow morning?”

“
Eleven will be fine. See you then, David.”

After he hung up, David remained for a few minutes in Janice’s desk chair, admiring the award plaques on her wall for the outstanding editorial work she had done on several bestselling novels. While reading the presentation comments on the bottom of the largest plaque; Tyler and Jillian pushed open the office door.

“
Dad, you’ve got to check out some pictures of you from last weekend and today!” said Tyler, excited.

“
There’s a ghost’s face in them!” added Jillian.

He followed the kids into the kitchen, where Christopher leaned against his mother’s shoulder while she examined six photographs spread out before her.

“
Come look at these, David,” she said, pushing the pictures toward him.

He joined her at the table, looking down at the photos while everyone else awaited his reaction. In each one, either solo or with Miriam, strange white mist-like forms appeared near his right shoulder. The two most prominent images showed up on the pictures taken by Miriam as they exited the trail to the ravine in Cades Cove and the one where she got him to pose like Paul Bunyan in the backyard less than eight hours ago.

“
Here, David, use this,” said Sara, handing a magnifying glass to him, in order to get a better look.

He held it over the photo from Cades Cove, snickering nervously before placing the magnifier above the picture of him holding the rake Paul Bunyan-style. In disbelief he leaned in closer, comparing the two images.

“
This is incredible,” he said softly, studying the hazy images again and then examining the other four pictures.

He couldn’t believe what he saw in all of the photos, caught by the faster shutter speed of the modern camera. He started to look at other pictures in a pile next to Miriam, but she stopped him.

“
None of the others look like these,” she advised. “So, no, it’s not a problem with the camera or the film. The only pictures that look like this are ones with you in them. There are a few other shots containing orbs and colored streaks, but none look like these.”

He looked at the pictures of him again, noting the figure next to him in each one appeared identical. Each hazy image consisted of a partial face, with the portion closest to him too faint to discern. Only the right side, from the bridge of the nose to the wispy ethereal hair, was clear and cast a shadow behind it. The eye’s details and prominent cheekbones determined the face might belong to a gorgeous young woman, whose paleness resembled a film negative. She seemed to be looking directly at him, and one might think she favored him. But the shape of her mouth said she didn’t. Her mouth opened wide into a terrible scream.