He watched the man, the one he latched his anchors to, talking to another man. The tripod, with its silver frame, drew attention to the camera. It seemed to be pointed at the man he had hoped to harvest. The man got up and went inside.He watched the other man, who remained where he was seated, for some time. He could not send his anchors yet as he could not tell what might happen after so he observed. The man seemed to be taking notes and pondering. After minutes with barely anything happening, he turned his attention elsewhere.He moved positions to get a better view. At first he thought it was just the lights playing tricks, but now he could see it clearly. A broken truck sat in front of the house. He noted how it seemed to lean sideways, towards him, and some windows, including the windshield he noticed earlier, were cracked. His eyes scanned the front of the house, including the other car to his left but did not find anything that could explain what happened to the truck.How did
Upon entering, Cain noticed that Matt was eager to show him the videos. He was leaning towards Jon’s laptop when Cain came in. Jon went outside briefly to get the camera and set it up such that it now pointed towards the back door. It was a simple repositioning, no new wires needed to be run but it still took a few minutes to get the angle right. When he was done, Jon played the videos captured by the CCTV’s.As his interview progressed, his doubts disappeared. He no longer called it a presence or spirit. It was a demon. What it wanted out of this family, he was still unsure. It wasn’t uncommon for seemingly happy individuals to be pestered by demons. It was rare but it happens. It was why he told Matt when he asked. Everyone save the little girl seemed to have gone through the stages of Infestation and Oppression already. A possession was a high likelihood, given the circumstances.He kept quiet and contained his reactions to temper Matt’s expectations. While he recognized the value
“Are those…” he paused mid-sentence to look at Matt.Matt nodded to confirm his unfinished question. His skin crawled with hairs standing up. He listened to Matt who was doing his best to seem unfazed. Matt related seeing the creature through the mirror. And how it appeared to him like it was squatting on the bed. He proceeded to describe what it looked like then added that it was holding his daughter up, which was why they saw a chair flying over the bed.“I tried to throw it where I was sure it would connect, based on what I was seeing in the mirror, but it went wide. There was only empty air.” Matt explained.Cain realized what it was – a show of power. The demon was toying with the child and the parent’s emotions. He kept his own feelings in check and watched apprehensively as the video unfolded. Cain did not want to react in any way that could be misconstrued by the house’s occupants, but it was obvious what was happening. The demon was powerful enough to keep the child afloat wh
The pain in his head throbbed and seemed to only get stronger. Jon stopped thinking about getting medicine for it, fearing he might overdose or have an allergic reaction due to the may tablets he had already taken so far. As soon the discussion about the video was over, Jon followed Emmy to the kitchen, asking if he could get a sampling of the late snacks she had prepared.He went back to his makeshift station with a plate half-filled with potato fries and ranch dip. Jon could still function. His only job was to monitor whatever inputs came to his laptop. The laptop did most of the work, he only needed to watch and listen. As usual, on investigations with Cain, his laptop was strained to the last bit.When he was halfway through his plate, the laptop played sounds the recorders upstairs were picking up. It let out a garbled mechanical voice that meant nothing and sounded like pure nonsense. Jon pursed his lips.The software recorded the audio feed and played any sound that was above t
Jon was left to man his station, checking on his equipment as Cain and the family started. He was familiar with the ritual. He heard Cain call it a blessing when discussing with the family, but it was a cleansing rite. If it didn’t clean up the entity or entities hanging about, it would at least bolster the energy of the place, at least that’s how he saw it. Cain explained it to him before by saying that it made the area akin to a consecrated ground, giving him more to work with in case the worst happens.It was a procession. It started from the living room and proceeded slowly. Cain led, reading from his missal, and the family followed behind him. Matt, Emmy, and Gina were given copies of the parts of the rite they were to read along. His job was to monitor any activity and alert Cain later, after the procession was done. It was going to take a while with the house having two storeys. Jon was not sure he could last.His headache made his vision blurry sometimes. It was sporadic. Some
The sounds came from the software controlling the cameras. It started giving off notifications when the family was upstairs. The notifications were coming from the camera pointed at the dining area. Jon inspected the feed, including the ones captured by the full spectrum cameras and found nothing, so he ignored it.The cameras’ tracking was controlled by the software itself. Jon found it annoying that that the feed kept panning to one side, then the other but the display showed nothing. He brought the window forward to stop it from giving off more sounds from the notification.When the group started descending the stairs, the cameras upstairs started behaving in the same manner. As opposed to motion sensing equipment, his cameras were controlled by the software and any changes in the scenery, anything at all the software detected was moving, caused the cameras to follow.He got more notifications, this time from the software handling the sound recorders as the family was almost down t
He felt it. Even with only one anchor out, an anchor that was latching on to the man who kept giving off pained vibes, he felt it. A deep kind of anger. Anger that bordered on hate and malicious intent.He heard it too, the sudden rumbling and sounds of things breaking, of things being thrown around. As fast it came, the heavy emotion disappeared. He was unnerved.He had spent decades honing his skills, his ability. He could do the same thing and flood the entire area, even beyond the house with the same vibe and probably make it just as strong but for it to vanish that quick, in an instant. That was something that took more than just years of training.Like it was never there. Fascinating.His was like smoke, the old man had told him. When he flooded an area with an emotion, it gradually disappeared. It may hang around, for those who feel more deeply than others, but it fizzles out the moment he stops concentrating on keep it up. This one was different. It came and went in almost the
Emmy was thankful that despite their fears, all the grown-ups seemed to understand the unspoken rule – no talking about paranormal things while the children were present.It was already late, but the children enjoyed the snacks she had prepared anyway. Normally, the family would be upstairs already at this hour and even if they weren’t the children would be yawning on the couch as they watched the TV. Tonight, the children did not show a hint of sleepiness. The sisters chatted happily as they snacked.Jon joined in and had coffee. Matt followed shortly and engaged Jon in a conversation about his hobby and the different kinds of equipment he used. Cain came in and joined them at the table, asking for a cup of coffee too.Cain and Emmy talked about their previous occupations. As Cain did not have any, most of the conversation flowed towards Emmy’s previous jobs. She spoke about her plans on picking her online gig back up once internet was available in the house again.As Matt sat with h