Specter Files #1 Part 3

The Final Part of their New Orleans Hospital Adventure.

(You know the drill by now. These are written by me, the super cool Amelia Zhang. They are my write ups on the videos released by the Specter Detectors. I’ve written them for my friend, who is super kick-but in real life, but is totally freaked out by PG ghost movies. This way she can experience the awesomeness of the Specter Detectors!!!!! This is the 3rd part in a 3 part file about their adventure in New Orleans. Read the other two first. Or don’t, this is when things get spooky!!! Anything in these parenthesis is my voice) - A.Z.

There’s a scene of them running back downstairs. And shots of Mark’s legs—he’s wearing cargo shorts like Justin does all the time—as he tries to steady his shot his balance while keeping pace with the rest of the team. Klaus quickly falls behind, but the others all rush ahead. I know it’s Klaus because I can see the bottom of his trench coat next to his shoes as he speaks to Mark on a landing. “I wonder what it is.” Klaus wheezes out. “Come on.” We hear his voice, and renewed breathing from both of them.

The footage zooms ahead, fast forwarding through Mark’s race to catch up with the others, slowing down again so Klaus can overtake him. The video returns to normal speed as they reach the open door into the ER and the blue Nurse’s station. Sheryl, Clancy, and Cody are standing in the lobby. Mark focuses the camera on them as he steps through the threshold, but we see the Spook Detector’s light turn red as he walks through it.

Sheryl has already pulled out the EMF reader, and it is blazing red! It’s no longer flashing, but constant red! Clancy has already been at work. He’s cleared off space on one of the abandoned hospital beds, where he has set the recorder and the Spirit Box. The device is on already, and as Mark steps closer we can hear it scrolling through static and blips.

Klaus has to shout above it. “Doesn’t it seem like some things have been moved around in here?”

Cody shrugs, but the video pauses and narration picks up.

“We looked through our footage, and indeed several of the beds have been moved, along with some of the smaller equipment. “Cody narrates from the future, while different images of the room are placed side by side. And rough red circles are drawn around each of the objects which had apparently been moved. (I can tell that these videos were taken at different angles, but it really does look like things were moved!) “As far as we can tell, this was not done by a living person. We tried to trace the floor for any signs of footprints in the dust, but all we could find were our own.”

The video resumes, and sure enough, everyone is moving around inspecting the various discarded objects. The light is too low to see anything they are seeing, but Clancy stands up and shakes his head. ““I told you we need to start leaving cameras with the Spook Detector. If we could rig the camera to start recording when something triggers the Spook Detector, we could catch footage of anything moving.”

“We can look into that later.” Klaus nods. “For now, let’s see if we can talk to anyone.”

Everyone, Mark with camera included, returns to the lobby. Donning their masks. They ask new questions. “Is there someone here?” “Did you come here to send us a message?” “Did you move the equipment in this room? Is there something you want to tell us?”

The Spirit Box mostly responds with its normal blips and chatter, but several words come out clear as day. ““Patients…here…crisis…”  These three repeat, along with two more words. “When back?”

The new words come in quick succession. And Sheryl seizes onto them. She closes her eyes, trying to get a feel for the conversation. This is something she does often. “Are you trying to tell us that there was a crisis here? With the patients? Do you want to know when people are coming back?”

Normal static.

“There was a crisis here, a Hurricane, were you here for that?” Sheryl asks.”

Normal static, then “…doc…”

“Are you saying doctor?” Klaus asks. “Could you repeat that if you are.

Normal static.

Sheryl continues. “Were you here during the hurricane? Were you watching over the patients then or a patient yourself? Or are you from further back in time?”

Normal static, but then, “When back?” repeats.

Sheryl puts her hand too her chest, her low, husky voice dropping into a bit of a southern accent we don’t often hear from her. “Oh, honey. I can feel the sadness. I’m sorry. No one is coming back. This hospital has been closed for years now. It was abandoned after the hurricane. We’re here to explore it, and to tell the story of anyone left here. Like you,” she ventures.

Normal static.

“Is there anything you want us to say?” She asks.

But the static continues.

Eventually Klaus and several of the others try to ask their own questions, but they aren’t getting any new results. Suddenly, Mark’s voice echoes out over the camera, “Does it feel to anyone else like the room is getting darker?”

The others glance around, and they notice it at the same time I do. (I probably wouldn’t have noticed it except that Mark pointed it out. The room does indeed seem darker. It’s harder to make out everyone’s faces and the shadows all seem bigger. Klaus reaches down and gives his flashlight a little tap. It brightens and then dims. “Alright, who forgot to check the batteries?” He’s looking at Cody.

“I made sure they were all charged before we came in.” Cody replies.

Clancy’s light is out entirely. Sheryl reaches into the pockets of her coat and pulls out a smaller headlamp. It flickers but turns on. Then Cody’s goes out. “Are you doing this?” Clancy asks. (He rarely asks questions, preferring to be the behind the scenes guy.) His question is directed towards the Spirit Box, but his phone goes off again, and Mark whips around to show that the Spook Detector’s light has turned red again.

The static continues. The group asks several more questions, but they don’t get any more answers. The words “when back.” Repeat again, but as no one reacts to them, I think that Cody added the words in post. (Pausing to check, there’s a little note at the bottom saying this is what happened.)

When Sheryl’s headlamp flickers again, and the static remains unchanged, Clancy speaks up. “I think that’s our cue.” Clancy says. “We’ve been at this for hours, it’s time we wrap it up.”

Klaus nods. He’s standing further from the camera, so his features are hard to make out in the dark, and his voice is muffled by the mask. “Spirit of this place, whoever you may be, is there anything else you would like to say?” There is no response. “Then we are going to load our stuff and get out of here. I wish you the best, and from all of us, Goodbye.” He says this last part forcefully. (It’s something they started doing recently, apparently for safety reasons, to makes sure that spirits don’t follow them home. I don’t know why.)

Mark films the team taking down and packing all of their equipment, and then marching through more hallways until they reach the courtyard where they had entered. From the new perspective, Mark gets a better shot of the whole structure, which has kind of this cool art deco style to it, even though it’s all mostly concrete.

“Of course, there are other observers and observed to consider when thinking about how a spirit may be called. It’s not simply about the people who die, or the people around them. And there are other forms of impact which can make lasting impressions.” The new narrator Sam, or whoever, returns while they are walking. “A place can be both observer and observed, and a community can be impacted by larger events, or stories larger than life. Historic places, abandoned places, tragic places: storied places may host spirits which otherwise could not come into being.

Cody takes over the narration. “Charity Hospital was one of the largest, oldest hospitals in the United States. It went through many forms and iterations extending back nearly three hundred years. It saw plagues, wars, and provided care to people in need throughout. For many, it was essential to the lifeblood of New Orleans, until it was shuttered after Hurricane Katrina. There are a lot of stories about what happened, how the place was evacuated, and the aftermath. Those are made by people with a much better understanding of the community, and the impact of its loss. I suggest that you seek them out.”

“We simply came to see what it is today, discover the stories of those who might still linger in its empty corridors. Our investigation revealed, that, even though the structure sits abandoned, it may not be alone.”

The rest is just a rehash of some of the more convincing pieces of evidence, but I’ve gone through those already, and you can just read about them in the article above. What do you think? What was that sound in the basement? How about the shadow on wall in the ICU or the presence that they were going to talk to on the upper floors? And the best evidence, the sound recordings, and the Spook Detector going off while they are on the upper floors! So much good stuff.

So, Lucy, I know you were too scared to watch one of their videos. I hope that as you read this it’s daylight, but you are still shaking in your boots! Those are the Specter Detectors, and I can’t wait to meet them!