The Night that the Paranormal Investigation Went Horribly Wrong

I often wonder about those TV shows where they like to turn out the lights and conduct "investigations" into the ghostly happenings of a location. Do they in fact have special powers that allow them to see in the dark? While the rest of us normal humans struggle not to trip over our own two feet in broad daylight. I wonder about that because it brings to mind the night that one investigation in a haunted location went horribly wrong.

It all started back in the early 1980's when a older home was turned into a college boarding house. It was not one of those grand old homes built during Queen Victoria's reign, nope more like a big house built in the 1930's. The 80's was a time noted for rampant drug use and drunken parties in the area, so when reports of strange happenings were mentioned at the house, everyone just nodded and mumbled under their breath, "yeah, strange." The reports went on for years, but most students that lived there thought it was the other people living in the house that were playing pranks on them.

In 2002 the house was sold. The new owners decided to have the house gutted and make it into a grand showplace inside. It was during the renovation that odd things started to happen. Tools would disappear then show up in the strangest places. Odd smells would seem to come from nowhere and then disappear. It was when one of the workers doing some rewiring in the house reported that someone or something tried to strangle him that the owners decided that there was more to the house than just stories.

Researching the history of the home revealed nothing. No deaths or anything bizarre went on at that location. The owners then decided to bring in a fledgling paranormal investigation team. The team was more like a club that liked horror movies but they were the only group for miles around that would come in for free.

Arrangements were made that the team would investigate the house on a Saturday and to the owners objections, the team wanted to conduct the investigation on the Saturday night. It turned out that half the team had to work most of Saturday so doing the investigation at night was not out of choice.

Saturday night came and 4 of the 5 team members showed up for the night. The owner let them in and warned them that the electricity was turned off and to watch out for the tools and debris still all over the place. They slowly entered the house with mini mag-lights in hand, just like on the TV show CSI. No recorders, no fancy cameras just them and their flashlights. As they got to almost the heart of the house, where the huge stair case was located, they all saw a small white misty looking object flee up the staircase. They followed.

The neighbors across the street had told the owner they would keep an eye on the house in case anyone might try and steal the tools and supplies he had on the property. Unfortunately the house owner had forgot to tell the neighbor about the investigation. The neighbor saw the flashlights dancing through the un-curtained windows and promptly called the police.

Meanwhile, the team was now upstairs trying to find that elusive white mist. They kept getting glimpses of it darting from room to room. One member reported that the small object was growing and was now the size of a dog. They then decided to go back down stairs. As they carefully picked their way through the debris on the floor to get to the top of the stairs, they noticed something flashing. It was coming from downstairs. As they finally got mid-way on the grand staircase they were greeted by the local police.

They tried to tell the officers about the investigation and that they had permission to be in the house at 1am in the morning but the officer in charge said they could contact the owner and have everything taken care of at the police station. All 4 members were put in the back seats of the patrol cars. Just before the cars pulled away the mysterious white mist appeared in the open doorway of the house. It appeared to be just a white cat that they were chasing all over the place. The white cat looked at them, blinked once, then grew larger. As it grew to the size of a dog it vanished only leaving two bright red eyes that were noticeable as the cars pulled away. At the police station the team decided to disband and stick to horror movie outings.