The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The small house on the North West corner of fourth and grasshopper lane was the perfect storybook cottage with it's Tudor wooden support beams painted a dark hunter green to accent the beige colored plaster that covered most of the exterior of the house. The yard around it was decently sized with old sycamore trees in the back surrounding one lone willow tree. There was a swing made of two ropes and a plank of wood hanging from the willow tree. On the South side of the yard there was a small arching foot bridge leading to the garage.

We lived here when I was a little girl but I was too young to really remember anything but the events that caused me to go into this professional field.

As I stand at the front gate looking at the house and waiting for my team to show up little hints of old memories rush through my mind as if the house is calling me closer. Dark figures darting in and out of the shadows, doors opening and closing on their own, footsteps in an empty hall, and then over so lightly I heard music from an older time. I was enjoying the piano and violins when Richard Wong, my over enthusiastic Electronic Voice Phenomena specialist, tapped my shoulder breaking the trance I was in.

"Hey Cc, are we ready?" Rich asked. He was a tall, heavier set man who reminded me of a sumo wrestler with his Asian heritage and currently he stood behind me and to my right slightly. It made me feel small when he was around. I am only five feet and change tall but he towered over me when he slouches let alone if he were to stand up straight.

"I think there's two more showing up but we can start setting up the equipment if you want"

I grabbed the key to my big green 1970's ford and unlocked the cab. Rich grabbed the three equipment boxes and brought them inside the house while I started setting up our outdoor base. The table, computer and cameras 2, 3 and 4 were set up when the rest of the crew showed up. Finally, the last of the stationary cameras and the stationary audio recorders could be set up and the thermal imaging system calibrated.

They arrived in two separate vehicles one in a dark colored Sports Utility Vehicle and the other in a like colored minivan even though it was only two other people as I thought it would be it took both of their vehicles to carry the rest of the equipment. Shane, a shorter than Rich man with short, spikey hair and special colored contacts that made his eyes look like lime green flames emanating from the pupils was the one driving the SUV and Amanda, a stalky woman with long dark red hair that hung in waves to the middle of her back and wearing a big chunk of quartz crystal around her neck was the one driving the minivan. The sun was starting to set and we were quickly losing light fast when we were finally puting the last infrared lights in place. The time on my phone was 8:30 pm when we finally let the house settle back down, at 9 pm I gathered everyone around the outdoor base and gave them the run down on tonight's investigation.

"Listen up everyone, don't let this house fool you, it may look like a typical nice house on the outside but inside you will be met by the entities that made me what I am as an investigator today and they're not like anything you've ever experienced." I said looking from Rich to Shane to Amanda "you will know almost instantly if you are welcome in that house or not once I walk through the front door, this house is protective of me and acts out towards those who would harm me or get too close to me, it's like the house itself is a child and I am it's favorite toy. When I lived here my own mother was locked out of the house with a two year old me still inside alone with whatever it is. I still to this day can't describe how I felt that day. So please, Please, PLEASE! Be careful."

I let the others position themselves in the house first and watched the first round on the screens on the base table. The house seemed a little too calm so I took that as my cue to go in. The moment I touched the door knob I could feel the atmospheric change of the spirits finally realizing that I was present. The air suddenly became heavy and made it difficult to breath like there was some invisible five pound weight that hit my chest and weighing my lungs down, the already dark house darkened even more as shadows started to grow with the presence of spiritual activity, it felt as though I was being watched from every corner of the front room as I turn my audio recorder, night vision camera, and laser grid attachment on and proceeded to walk around the house looking for my team.

Out of habit I went to the room that used to be mine when I lived here and then quickly came back out to the front room, crossed into the dining room and then finally found the crew in my parents’ old room. As I approached the room there was a thump on the ceiling as if something heavy was set down right above my head. I reacted by looking up and making a few foul-mouthed regards like "what the hell was that?" or "WTF?". The rest of my team jumped and shined their cameras in my face and towards the ceiling as they all had similar reactions to the sudden event after twenty minutes of silence and no activity. We all headed towards the attic opening when we heard it, it sounded like an orchestra tuning their string instruments. We gathered around and drew straws.

"The person who draws the longest straw grabs the ladder, the middle two stay here with cameras rolling and the shortest is the one going up first" I said while making 4 straws of different lengths look like they were equal length.

Shane drew first in silence and a nervous look on his face, then Amanda drew one shorter than his and his face lit back up to the intrigued and excited mood he's been in all night, Rich drew the last straw and was excited about getting a straw until he noticed it was the shortest straw.

"Why is it always me?" he asked.

Everybody shrugged and went about doing their delegated jobs. I had the longest one and was headed out the front door when the music suddenly stops and in the awkwardly sudden silence we all heard a man's voice yelling "Cecilia!"

I thought it might have been Shane so I walked back down the hall way and around the corner to see what he wanted.

"Was that you that just yelled my name?"

"No. I was just talking to Rich about his feelings on the music" he responded

"Weird. Maybe someone should come with me to get the ladder. for safety purposes..." I said nervously.

"Yeah, right. Safety purposes huh? Nothing to do with the fact that you're scared huh?" said Rich sarcastically

"I'll go with you cc." Amanda stepped in and glares at Rich then whispers to him "be nice boy"

Rich snarled and made growling noises like some deranged dog and then snaps back to normal and starts laughing.

We made it out to the ladder and spied on the cameras when Amanda and I noticed a dark figure in the view of my old room that didn't look like any of our crew. We grabbed the central walkie talkie and alerted the rest of the crew.

"Central command to dream team do you copy" I said into the small microphone on the small cellular shaped device.

"Dream team loud and clear"

"There is a figure on camera 5 center of the room semi corporeal"

Semi corporeal meant was only slightly transparent around the edges. What I saw looked like a man with a rope around the nape of his neck dangling from the light. Which with the current lighting fixture would be impossible and I could see as many details about the man as if he really were hanging there. I watched as Shane and Rich walk into the room the IR beams from their cameras interacting with the IR beams from the stationary cameras. as soon as they got there the figure disappeared but as soon as the boys stepped in to the bed room the door slammed and locked behind them. Not less than two seconds later the boys came over the walkie talkie.

"Dream team to center control. We are stuck in bed room one and the door is locked please come to the rescue."

Amanda and I ran back in forgetting our personal gear on the table outside. When we got to the bedroom door we noticed the heaviness in the air and the feeling of danger being near. I slammed my shoulder into the weak spot in the door and swung it open. The air immediately lifted long enough for the boys to get out of the room before the heaviness returned and again the voice yelled out. This time it spoke out in a weird language that sounded like Latin but older and made the room so dark that even the cameras didn't catch much.

The temperature in the room kept dropping; the room that had started at 80 degrees tonight was now reaching 72 degrees and rapidly dropping on the thermal imager. Suddenly there was the image of a little girl standing where the head board of my bed once was and slowly moving towards me. When I looked up from the camera screen all I could see was the window with the blinds down and shut, no little girl, no dark shadow, nothing. I looked back at the camera screen and as I did the figure quickly shot back into the shadows as soon as it got near enough to me to reach out and touch me. The temperature immediately went back up to 80 degrees and the whole house got bright enough that shadows were crisp lined and long across the floor. We all needed a breath of fresh air after that so we headed out to the control center in the front yard. Shane was the first one to make it to the screens and immediately starts to watch the house that just locked him in a room with something that obviously is possessive of me. I was shaking and pacing in anticipation to go back in while everyone else debated whether they wanted to stay for the rest of the night or not. I wandered off to the back yard with a walkie talkie, flash light, voice recorder and camera. I took a few minutes to myself to wander around the areas of the yard I used to play in when I was little. After strolling around the bushy edges of the yard around to the garage, I took the small arched foot bridge to get back to the center of the yard. I don’t know what it was but I could feel a strange internal force pulling me towards the swing in the center of the yard. Almost as if there was a little kid trying to get my attention every time I tried to ignore the swing. I took that as a sign that something or someone was over there and wanted me over there too, so I briskly walked over to the base of the willow tree. I remembered that tree being a lot taller as a kid but it was still a tall enough tree that it was taller than the house before the branches started to taper in size and drape down in awkward arches like a giant cat of nine tails whip planted deep in the ground. The air was oddly still under the tree but the swing started moving slowly back and forth as if someone was swinging. The slow movement of the ropes made a loud creaking noise like a loose floorboard on a hardwood floor. I slowly sat just out of the range of the swing and sat my recorder down. I twisted the top of my flashlight so that all I had to do to turn it on is lightly tap the face of the light and then sat it in the off position next to my recorder facing me.

“Is there anyone here with me? If there is, can you talk really loudly into the red light on the ground or turn the flashlight next to it on?” I spoke loud and clear in the direction of the swing in hopes I would get a response from whatever or whoever was moving the swing.

The swing kept moving but slowed down like someone suddenly jumped off mid-motion and then felt as if someone was standing just on the other side of the recorder but I couldn’t see anything. The flashlight lit up the front half of the yard as it flickered on without me touching it.

“Ok, thank you” I said in response to the flashlight “can you turn the flashlight back off for me? I want to play a game with you”

The flashlight turned back off immediately and my skin started to crawl with goose bumps.

“Thank you. The game I want to play is I’m going to start counting and when I get to your age I want you to turn the flashlight back on ok? Can you blink the light twice if you understand?”

I waited there in silence for what seemed like two or three minutes until the flashlight blinked twice really fast and then shifted itself so that it was now facing the swing instead.

“One… two… three… four…” the flashlight still lay motionless in front of me “five… six… seven… eight… nine…” the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up “ten… eleven… twelve…”

The flashlight blared brightly towards the swing as it turned on brighter than usual. There was the sound of quick, small footsteps heading away from me and then the swing started again.

“So, you’re twelve years old. I remember being twelve. I used to play in this same neighborhood when I was that age.”

The swing stopped fully as if whoever it was I was talking to stopped swinging and just sat there on the swing.

“In fact, I used to live in this house before that. I had to move when I was six but I still stayed in the neighborhood. Do you like this house? Is that why you stay here?”

I heard footsteps again and then the flashlight turned back to facing me and turned back on.

“Thank you. Can you turn it back off now?”

The light flickered and then went out.

“Are you a little girl or a little boy? If you’re a girl can you turn the light on once and if you’re a boy blink the light twice.”

There was a long pause in silence and then the light turned on. As it turned on I got the vision of a little girl that looked like me when I was a kid but creepier with long, dark hair, a pale sunken face, dressed in what to me looked like a Victorian forbidden tea dress with an apron in front and a big bow on the top of her head.

“If you like that I’m here and talking to you can you turn the flashlight off?”

Right as I said that the light turned off.

“Thank you. I like talking to you too. I want to ask some different questions, more grown up questions if that’s ok with you can you turn the light on?”

The light tried to flicker on but didn’t fully turn on before turning back off.

“If you’re nervous about it that’s ok, I won’t ask any questions that you’re not comfortable with.”

The light then turned on and slid closer to me, as the light got closer it felt like a small child sat on my lap.

“Did you used to live here when you were alive? Turn the light on if you did”

The light turned all the way on and then turned back off again.

“Are you the one sitting on my lap right now?”

The light turned on again and by the time it turned back off the goose bumps on my skin multiplied.

“Do you like swinging under the willow tree?”

The light turned on and stayed on this time while the pressure on my lap went away, there was footsteps again and then the swing started back up.

“Ok. I’ll take that as a yes. I’m going to take a picture real quick with my camera will you please show yourself to me in the picture? My camera’s going to flash in three… two… one.”

I snapped a round of four consecutive shots towards the swing.

“I’m not going to look at these pictures until later so I hope you showed yourself I would love to see who I’m talking to”

Just then the light turned off and I felt a small hand on my shoulder and instantly thought of earlier when I had seen a little girl in my old room and that was all I could think about.

“Are you trying to tell me I already have seen you?”

The light turned back on and then quickly turned back off. I got the feeling like something else had come out to the yard and whatever or whoever it was it didn’t like that I was talking to the little girl.

“Did someone else join us? If so will the little girl please flicker the light twice?”

The light flickered like I asked it to and then everything went dark slowly. I tried not to react to the sinking feeling that came with the darkness.

“Do you not like who joined us?”

The light flickered even quicker than before. It then felt like the little girl gave me hug but then was ripped away back towards the house and the darkness lifted.

I picked my gear up and walked back to the front yard. My face was pale when I reached the central table.

“Cc? Where the HELL have you been?” Shane asked in an irritated tone of voice when he realized I was coming out of the shadows.

“I was in the back yard. Conducting an impromptu flashlight session on my own where I was being drawn to.” I said in response.

“You tell US not to wander off on our own and then you go and disappear like that? What if something would’ve happened?”

“SOMETHING did happen but obviously I can handle myself. I grew up in this place, if it didn’t hurt me then, it won’t hurt me now.”

“How do you know you can handle yourself? It’s been nearly two DECADES since you were here last for longer than a few moments, and like you yourself said earlier the things that go on here are different than anything else we’ve experienced.”

The whole team was upset with me now. They were going to go back in until I had wandered away and none of them felt comfortable with going to the back yard to find me after what they’ve seen happens inside the house. I hooked up my camera to the computer and uploaded the pictures from the swing and started looking at pictures on the bigger screen.

“What do you think you’re doing girl?” Amanda asked

“I’m curious about these pictures real quick” I responded “Then I’ll go back in to the house with you all”

“Alright, just hurry, ok?” She asked with a concerned look on her face.

I started with the ones I had quickly snapped on my walk around the yard. That’s when I realized that there was a child sized figure sitting in the swing in every picture with the swing in the back ground. I marked that on each of the pictures and saved the marked photos in a separate file from the originals. I then went through the rest of the pictures of the edges of the yard. The picture I had taken alongside the garage showed something I hadn’t seen while I was there. Poking it’s head around the front corner and looking my direction was a male figure, at least eight feet tall and so darkened I couldn’t make out any detail other than that it was looking directly at me. I finally got to the pictures of when I was conducting the flashlight session. Out of the four shots taken only one of them had anything worth showing. On the third picture you could see what looked like a child’s hand curled around the rope of the swing but nothing else and then the next picture went back to nothing. I pulled the team over to the computer and showed them the pictures I had caught.

“And you were drawn to the back yard?” Rich asked

“Yeah, it was like I knew something needed me back there…”

“Ever think it needed you back there to attack you doll?” Shane burst in

“Just because I said it’s like nothing else YOU’VE never seen doesn’t mean I haven’t, I grew up in this house and remember and still experience some of the events that have happened to me every day. So, I think I handled myself quite well in that back yard. I guess the question now, HUN, is if you can put that behind you and enjoy the rest of this fine night after we view these pictures?” I went off on him. I felt so infuriated by what he was saying that I couldn’t go back in now, not in this mood anyway.

It took another five minutes or so for everyone to get a good glimpse at the pictures and point out everything I caught. Then I switched files and showed them the four pictures of the swing.

“Here’s picture number one during the flashlight session, nothing, picture number two, nothing again, and then here in picture number three someone decided to say hi.” I zoomed in on the hand.

“Oh my gosh, that’s a hand!” Amanda cried out when she finally looked back over.

“And to me it looks like a child’s hand” I replied.

I looked at my watch, it was only 10:30 pm. We’ve only been investigating for an hour and a half and already there’s so much evidence to go through. We had to push through though. If we gave up this early we would never forgive ourselves. I let everyone take a short break until 11 o’clock before gathering back on the front porch. The moment I stepped onto the porch I could feel it. The air around the front door was thick and still and I felt like we were being watched. I turned to face everyone before going back inside.

“this is the location on the property where I had my first experience ever.” I said softly, mostly because I was nervous and breathless. “I was only two years old and it was just me and mom at home that day.” My eyes instinctually drifted over to where I was when the story starts. “I was playing with dolls at the end of the hall by my room, mom had just brewed her second pot of coffee and dad had just left for work. I wanted a squeeze-it juice and the last pack was out here on the porch on a table mom kept under the window, right here” I traced the outline of the table with my fingertip in the air and kept talking. “ while mom was out here grabbing my juice the front door closed and locked itself behind her leaving me AND the only set of house keys she had access to alone in the house. I remember at that moment having a prick of paranoia run up the back of my neck and in my nervous state walked out to the dining room, just inside this window.” I pointed inside the big window to my right (to the left when you’re facing the house) “it felt like ten or fifteen minutes had passed but it wasn’t that long according to mom. And while I felt like I was standing here trying to yell for mom and not being able to scream or see her just outside the window, mom says all she saw was me standing just inside the window with a dazed look on my face and I looked straight at her at the same time she got the feeling like someone else was in there with me. When I was finally able to snap out of my stupor I was looking at mom and she was doing some frantic pantomime with the bottom of my squeeze-it bottle trying to demonstrate how to unlock the front door. Ever since that day I have felt like there is someone or something following me.” What we didn’t see as I said that was the eight foot tall dark figure appear at the end of the hall by my old room and let out a small “game on” chuckle to himself. I then opened the front door and stepped inside but kept a hold of the door to make sure it didn’t slam shut on anyone. We all headed for the far hallway that leads to my parents’ old room. I pointed my flashlight up towards the attic opening as we passed it just to be sure things were still in the same position when I saw quick but big movements in the shadows of the attic as if someone were up there and trying horribly not to be seen. I ignored the movements and continued on to mom and dad’s old room. Before we could settle things down and get our equipment set up for a flashlight session the bed room door slammed shut and locked on us. We had rich reopen the door and set a recorder just outside the room and then proceeded to get ready for the session. We had three lights set up with a video camera recording from the window and two different still shot cameras on opposite sides of the room.

“will whoever slammed the door please talk to us?” asked Shane.

The flashlights stayed dark but I felt a small tug on the back of my shirt as if a child was trying to get my attention from inside the closet I was standing in front of.

“If the little girl I was talking to earlier is in this room with us will you please let us know you’re here?” I said loud and clear.

I felt her push her way passed me before the flashlight flickered on and then back off quickly.

“can we talk to you? If so, you have to turn the light all the way on.”

We waited as the light tried to flicker all the way on. Each time the room went dark the air felt threatening around the edges and I looked to Amanda with a serious look on my face. “I think she’s not alone”

As I said that the flashlight flickered brightly and quickly at such fast intervals that it gave off the same look as a nearly dead fluorescent light bulb struggled to keep lit for a full twenty seconds and then went dark and as it went dark the door slammed again and relocked. It went silent and music started playing from just above us in the attic before hard soled boot steps came towards me from across the room and stop just in front of me.

“do I know you?” I asked whatever was staring me down as if it was anyone getting in my face.

The room slowly went darker and darker until I couldn’t even see my own hand and right as it was almost getting unbearable the flashlight flips on brighter than it can usually go and stayed lit long enough for everyone to realize the man shaped shadow right in front of me and then went dark again. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk, I felt like if I even breathed too loudly whatever was in front of me would tear me to shreds. The music up in the attic stopped and as the needle kept scratching on I started to feel a choking sensation and started to move against my own will towards the closet. I grabbed for Shane on the way by and started to drag him with me.

“Leave Cc alone!” Shane shouted taking a sturdier stance and trying to keep me near him while he reached for a crucifix he kept in his pocket for such occasions and draped it loosely around my neck. “In the name of the Lord I demand you leave Cc alone!”

Almost as if some bully child got caught beating up a nerd the dark figure backed down and disappeared. The room seemed to lighten up and although there still were no lights on I could now see the other side of the room in a blurry haze, the door opened back up and the music stopped. I turned and looked to everyone.

“Do we want to break down now and be out of here around midnight and have afters at Denny’s OR do we want to keep pushing through?” I looked from Amanda’s shocked face to Shane’s upset face to Rich’s overly skeptic but trying to explain the last five minutes face “Afters at Denny’s it is then. Let’s start breaking down.” I decided before anyone else could answer.

I grabbed the camera from that room and headed out to the command center before Amanda caught up with me.

“Cc, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked with a concerned look on her face.

“breaking down, see, camera” I said turning just enough for her to see the camera in my hand.

“Not anymore. You go sit down outside and we’ll deal with this.” As she took the camera and started towards the door making sure I shortly followed.