The International Writers Magazine: GHOSTWORLD

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The Squatter, The Pacer, Bride & Groom and The Dark One • Paul Dale Roberts There is a full moon out this night.  I can only wonder what is in store for me this evening as I get together with H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California.  H.P.I. will be headed down to Brookdale Lodge in the Santa Cruz mountains sometime in the future to conduct an investigation.  Due to family obligations, this is one investigation I will not be able to attend.

Imagine this.  A family calls H.P.I., they have some pesky ghosts in their home and they want to know what they are dealing with.  H.P.I. shows up with black or dark blue windbreakers on, emblazoned with large letters H.P.I. on the back of the jackets, similar to what the DEA, FBI, ATF wear.  All members are wearing sunglasses and have RAP4 Secret Service Ear Piece with Secret Service Throat Mic, prepared for action.  HPI Investigators pull up in 3 black SUVs with HPI displayed on the driver side of the vehicle.  There I go again, daydreaming on how this investigation will turn out.  HPI unlike the DEA, FBI, ATF are not seeking criminals, but are seeking ghosts, poltergeists, shadow people, demons, etc.  Of course, since we are all paranormal investigators, we would not turn down the opportunity to investigate an alien abduction, Bigfoot or anything else classified as 'paranormal'.

This night we will have two new paranormal investigators on the team, their names are Amanda Hopper and Janice Cameron.  I met Janice through my neighbor Nick Asevedo.  Nick paid his membership dues to HPI, but has yet went on an investigation.  He has experienced the paranormal.  He relates an incident in which he lived in Reno/Sparks, Nevada and his family saw a ghostly little boy sitting on the edge of their bed, they learned he once lived there and drowned in the tub.  The little boy ghost threw a plant off the coffee table at the family and the family decided it was time to move.  Nick has gotten his family involved, his niece Tiffany Cameron and her mother Janice Cameron went to their first HPI meeting at the Coffee Garden and brought along Nick's girlfriend Jamie Warden.  Tiffany, Janice, Nick and Jamie are all paying members of HPI, but only Janice is the lucky one who pulled the lucky number from the passed around hat and was selected to go on this investigation!   The H.P.I. meetings are a lot of fun, because we get to analyze the audio and video footage of various investigations.  The meetings are a learning experience.
 
Now let's get back to reality, the investigation begins, well almost.  I bring along Janice Cameron who lives in my neighborhood and we stop off at Amanda Hopper's home to pick her up.  Amanda is quite the character and greeted me with a third eye attached to her forehead.  We head over to Starbucks on Broadway/15th Street.  This is a popular Starbucks because it's located in a part of downtown in which you can sit outside on a warm nice day and people watch.  You get some interesting characters on Broadway, there is always plenty to watch.  Too bad, we couldn't have met at the Starbucks in El Dorado Hills, because the Starbucks in El Dorado Hills has a restless spirit that is known to toss around coffee filters at the employees.  Janice as a token of thanks, bought me a nice hot grande caramel macchiato.  

Shannon and the crew arrive and Shannon briefs us on the investigation.  Shannon goes through her spill of being professional at all times, respect the home, no drinking, no excessive loud talking, etc.  Roll Call for HPI Paranormal Investigators are:  Shannon McCabe/President; Paul Dale Roberts/Ghost Writer/Assistant Organizer; Carol Gillis/Secretary; Tim Hawkins; John Wachter aka Vlawde; Michele Paykel; Mary Casiano; Member who wishes to remain anonymous; Janice Cameron; Alicia Perry and Amanda Hopper.  I am introduced to the occupant of this house, that looks like a miniaturized Amityville Horror home, with the 2 large windows that look like eyes.  The occupant of the house identifies himself as Scott Bailey, a locally known artist.  In fact he works at the B Street Theater which is reputed to be haunted also.  Scott's artwork is all over the house, such as a Barbie Doll entrapped in wire mesh and gothic type of drawings.  Carol Gillis comes over to me and reports that she felt a sharp coldness on her back.  

In my interview with Scott, he relates that he has a low grade intuition and constantly feels like someone is watching him from the closet.  There are possibly five entities in the home.  Scott has a name for each one, there is the Squatter.  The Squatter is in the closet and he squats and stares.  He believes the Squatter is a Hispanic man.  The Pacer, an active ghost that paces the hallway.  He believes this is the ghost that gets right up in his face and he feels a face right next to his face.  Bride & Groom, his sister detected the presence of a bride and groom in the home.  The Dark One is a spirit that seems to have a darkside to his character.  The Dark One is a weak spirit, but seems to be somewhat on the sinister side.  A friend of Scott once spent the night and dreamed about a family, a man, woman and a child naked in the field and being forced down a grain chute into a grinding machine and being scattered into the fields as fertilizer.  He believes this dream came to him by The Dark One.  Scott relates that the prior owner was combative in his persona and would stir up the spirits.  When Scott first moved in, there seemed to be a lot more activity.

There seems to be more ghost activity in the bedroom and hallway and at times the ghosts seemed bored and fall into stagnant energy where nothing occurs.  This is how Scott describes on how the ghosts of his home behave.  

The home was built during the 1800s, the bathroom is a newer addition to the house and built in the 1940s. The lower floor was once a deli and they would serve sandwiches to the dairy that used to be across the street in the 1940s through the 1950s.  While the investigators were setting up video cameras, using their EMF Readers, there was detection at the closet area, the same area the Squatter hangs out at.  The reading jumped from 1, jumped 2 more times to 1 and then there was no more readings for this area of the closet.  EMF Reader is an electro magnetic energy sensor.  I went into the back room and Michele felt like she was pushed in her chair.  There were some orbs captured on video.  Some cold spots detected.  Amanda, a sensitive was picking entities in various parts of the room, she would breathe deeply and sense the area around her and feel where an entity may be at.  Hmmm....what did I personally detect, you might ask?  At one time I felt a cold sensation on my back, then I turned around and I was next to a window.   I was looking through a video camera on a tripod and thought I saw some orbs, but they were only dust particles.  I had Mary shake her jacket and when the dust fell from her jacket, they appeared to be orbs on the camera.  Now the West Sac orbs moved erratically, especially when you have 3 flying in unison.  I didn't see that kind of orb activity at this haunting.   I'm not from Missouri, but I do enjoy the State's motto..."show me".  I experienced more at the National Hotel in Jackson and the West Sac haunting, than what I experienced here.   

Of course, we haven't received our results yet from the audio and video tapes.  Sci-Fi Channel's Ghost Hunters weren't always successful and perhaps there are ghosts in this strange looking home, but I guess I wanted to see something that was extraordinary.  Enough of the feelings.  Two words..."show me!"   As I got home, I turned on the Cartoon Channel and guess what was on?  Yep, Scooby Doo and the gang doing some ghost busting.  I thought to myself, when will we have a haunting that is as frightening as the ones you see on the Discovery Channel's A Haunting?  

What I like about Shannon is that she has a skeptical eye and she seeks the truth through science, in fact she was the one that told me to always make sure that orbs are not dust particles or reflection of light from another source.  Shannon is seeking not a Scooby Doo haunting, but the real thing and I must agree with Shannon on that!  If anything, this is a learning experience.   For more on H.P.I. go to: www.HPIparanormal.net

© Paul Dale Roberts, March - 2007 - Freelance Writer
www.jazmaonline.com
JazmaPika@cs.com

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