Chapter 19
The first week of class went quickly and anticipating the semester's workload, every student left that Friday with a great sense of relief. But at the same time, they also felt the anxiety of having to return the following Monday. However, as Saturday morning arrived, Samantha had already learned how to manage her time, and had spent Friday night reviewing the camcorder's footage from the Cumming's house. Henry had previously expressed his anxiety in examining the video, but Samantha was too excited to wait and took the liberty of watching it without him. Later, she would meet with him to go over the video's points of interest, without showing the entire footage.
Staying up late into the night, Samantha studied every frame of the video, every detail, every sound. Connecting the camcorder output to her laptop, she downloaded the tapes contents. She also plugged in a set of headphones in order to listen more closely without waking her mother. The initial footage was uneventful, with the exception of a few white glowing spheres drifting in front of the lens. Relying on logic, Samantha assumed these to be dust particles, until she realized that, at night, the air becomes heavier and dust tends to settle. She made a note of this and continued watching. There were also a few, nearly silent murmurs on the audio that seemed out of place, possibly occurring in response to Samantha's attempts to communicate with Cora. These clips she copied out of the video and saved them as separate audio files. It wasn't until their investigation of the tower that the footage became more interesting. At the time, Samantha believed she had recorded a vague, nondescript shape crossing the second floor hallway and as she continued gazing at her laptop's display, the odd form lit up like an oncoming pair of headlights. Samantha gasped in a mix of amazement and terror. During the recording, she wasn't sure that what she was seeing was real. Now, she was certain, and after organizing the files, she would post them to a few on-line groups, leaving those who worked in the field to judge for themselves.
Following this, Samantha paid close attention to what occurred immediately after the collapse of the circular stairway. The sound of the eight-foot iron frame crashing to the floor sent a chill over her entire body, raising goose flesh from every inch of her skin. Within the next few moments came the gunshot that sent Henry running for his life. She remembered how the air was absent of the smell of gunpowder, yet the air within the library appeared to be layered in a fog of smoke. This was accompanied by a faint, muffled sound. It was only a few moments long, but after Samantha turned up the video player's volume, it became apparent that she had recorded something. She isolated that portion of the audio and loaded it into a sound editor, attempting to make it more understandable without over-engineering it or talking herself into hearing something that wasn't real. Sometimes, if one’s beliefs are strong enough, the illusion behind suggestibility can be as real as anything else, and words can be heard where none exist. But having cleaned up the audio clip enough without destroying it, Samantha played it back and was shocked by the results. The recording was still muffled, however, a woman's voice was definitely present. Samantha wrote furiously as the recorded words came to life.
“Those poor people...”
Pausing the audio, she flipped back in the book on local ghost stories, reviewing the chapter on the Cummings house where Cora, grieving for those who had perished in the downtown fire, had taken her own life. The association between those events and the voice on the recording was more than obvious, and those three words on the audio were preceded by what sounded like a moment of quiet weeping, followed by the gunshot that had terrified Henry to the point of seeking calm in a house of God.
The video was cut off at a place near the middle of the staircase, right before Samantha and Henry made their hasty escape. Now, having concluded her review of the video footage and as excited as she was for a productive first investigation, there was still the matter of how Henry would react. She came to the conclusion that the best way to handle it might be to describe the results first. Only then, would she ask him if he wanted to review it and planned to sit with him, pointing out the audio and video clips she had saved. The next day, she found herself sitting on the fronts steps of Henry's house, listening to his assurances that everything was, more or less, fine.
“So, I went over the video from the camcorder last night,” Samantha said. “We got some really interesting stuff.”
Henry broke eye contact, and glancing down at the sidewalk hesitated in his response.
“And...you want me to see it, right?”
Right away, Samantha came to regret bring up the subject, and assured him that he didn't have to watch the entire tape. But Henry was curious and far less troubled than earlier in the week.
“So, what did you find?” he asked.
They sat on the front steps for roughly half an hour as Samantha described the collection of clips in striking detail. By the end of the conversation, Henry's fear had subsided, replaced by fascination and a request to see the footage for himself.
Henry quickly ducked back into his house and having told him mother where he was going, returned to where Samantha now stood on the sidewalk.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Henry answered. “I really want to see this.”
Given the previous magnitude of his anxiety, Samantha was surprised at his sudden eagerness, and suspected he may be trying to demonstrate a certain degree of toughness. But she was excited to show him the results of their first paranormal investigation, and within the next fifteen minutes, they arrived at Samantha's house. Her mother had the day off, and was spending some time catching up on a novel, written by her favorite author. She gave Henry a pleasant 'hello' as the two walked through the living room towards the stairs, and entering her room, Henry quietly commented to her regarding her mother.
“Sam,” he began. “I never noticed how hot your mom is.”
Samantha could hardly believe her ears and just as quietly turned to scold him.
“Oh my God!” she said. “I can't even believe you just said that.”
It seemed that Henry was becoming more comfortable in his visits to Samantha's house and perhaps, was developing some small degree of confidence.
He stood behind Samantha as she sat at her desk and turned on her laptop. The moving images on the display bore a greenish cast, a result of the camcorder's night vision. The video was crystal clear and drew Henry's attention like curious eyes to a train wreck.
“What was that?” he asked.
One of the white glowing orbs had crossed the camcorder's field of view, prompting his interest.
“I have no idea,” Samantha replied. “But I'm going to post in on-line and see if anyone can explain it.”
Showing him the next clip, they watched the blurry shape cross the hallway, leaving Henry in a state of disbelief as he, again, asked what he was looking at. Samantha supposed that the object seemed to move with purpose, as if it knew where it was going. This too, would be posted for discussion. Pausing to tell Henry about the next clip she played the audio file of what she believed was Cora's voice, briefly grieving. Henry, hearing the words, was caught off-guard by the clarity of the recording and expressed his amazement.
“Holy shit.”
Not knowing Samantha's mother's policy on language, he spoke quietly so as not to be heard, but he was clearly excited about the results of their first investigation. There was, however, one last piece of video, and Samantha felt the need to first describe it to Henry, letting him decide if he wanted to watch it.
After a bit of discussion, Henry decided that he was able to watch the last of their footage. He held his breath just before the gunshot rang out as Samantha watched him for any signs of panic. The video clip was short, and was over within a couple of minutes. To Samantha's surprise, Henry appeared emotionally unaffected, assuming he had experienced far less stress by seeing recorded events, as opposed to being there in person.
“So,” he began. “What's next?”
Again, Samantha was surprised at how Henry had recovered from his experience at the Cummings house, but was even more surprised that he seemed to want to continue their explorations of Norway's dark side.