“After I looted the house for supplies for my investigation - filling my father’s old Boy Scout mountaineering backpack in the process - I felt a nagging need to figure out what had happened to get me here. I tossed my stuff in my car and quietly went downstairs to where I had what you all call my Garage Sale Library of the Macabre. I started searching for time travel spells and came up empty. That’s when I started thinking about what Ted would say about me being in the past messing around. About how I could change history. One wrong move, and I would create an alternate timeline. But wouldn’t the original timeline continue? Maybe it would continue without me, but you would go on with your lives once you stopped looking for me.
“Yes, I know, I wasn’t thinking this through. Instead, I joined my family for an early breakfast, and I pretended to go to school but headed south. My original plan was to meet up with Mike, maybe look up Ted and get him to make some of those machines he creates so effortlessly, and then tackle the investigation. We would have to use whatever video camera we could afford. Maybe a Sony Ruvi if Mike chipped in some money. He and I wouldn’t organically meet until ten years from now, but once I told him what the future had in store, I was sure I could convince him to join me.
“As I sit here, I wonder why this investigation seemed more important than, let’s say, finding a way to subvert the Cynosura in this time or maybe even rescue you from the world of hurt you’re living through. But all I could think of was getting here. Was it my selfishness or something else? Why was this investigation so important? Did the ghosts from this wretched place call to me across time and space? I really wish I had stayed on course and ended up at Mike’s house.
“I was driving south when I had the overwhelming urge to pull the car over. I parked on the verge of the road and pulled out the map my parents insisted I carry in the Dodge. I was in the Shadow Hill River Valley! I mean, what were the odds of that? Well, I’m now convinced that my subconscious was in the driver’s seat. Otherwise, I would have to say that fate was in charge, and you know how I feel about fate. Anyway, Mia, I thought that I may as well see if the building was still there. In my original timeline, I ventured there with a bunch of kids. We sprayed our mark on the trees as we passed, just in case we got lost. If I could find one of those marks, I could find my way there.
“In retrospect, I should have just closed my eyes because something else was pulling me here. I had wasted time looking for the marks. But after a half an hour, I found the first mark. If it weren’t for my heavy pack, I would have run all the way here. The building isn’t in good shape. I found the public rooms intact. I assume that the crazy doctor insisted on extra quality in order to convince the visitors of the insane that their criminal, although loved, ones were in excellent hands. But the deeper I got into the facility, I noticed the decay.
“Damn, I’ve got to flip this over.”
Burt fumbled with the machine. His fingers had lost their grace. He feared that this was a symptom of what was happening inside his head. Was there swelling around his brain? He felt the urgency to complete this tape. He had to put on record Burt Hicks’s last paranormal investigation.
“Back. This is side two.”
Burt took another sip of water.
“I first started to see shadows on the main floor in the front of the building. Nothing distinct or menacing. I took a few snapshots with my camera. I’m not sure where my camera is now. I lost track of it in my fall. I’ve got plenty of time to look for it,” he said with a sad chuckle.
“Where was I? Oh yes, the shadows. There was a particularly strong one on the public staircase. I approached it, but it moved upwards before I could make contact. Yes, it was leading me into a trap. I can see that now, but I was viewing the haunt through the intermittent snaps of the pictures I took. The excitement of seeing so much activity drove me upwards. I had abandoned every rule of paranormal investigation in order to have this evidence. Was it hubris - here I was young again with the knowledge of decades of paranormal research - that made me think I could do this alone? That there wasn’t any real threat? How could there be? There were only threats when you were involved. Before you say anything, I don’t really think this way. I know it was your special talents and connections that saved PEEPs time and time again. You and Murphy.
“Hubris and ego. Which of them destroyed us? Oh and that damn flitch. I’m digressing. Back to how I got here.”
Burt stopped and took another drink of water. If he kept this down, he would open the thermos of vegetable and beef soup he brought. It was cold when he put it in, and he imagined it was going to be cold to eat it, but at least he would be putting something into his starving body.
“I followed the shadow down the hall until
