BEAR VALLEY MANOR

3

I finished the history of the home just as we made it to the front of the building. The pictures others had taken of the manor online really didn't do this place justice. The deteriorating parts of the building failed to take away from the majesty and wonder of what this home once was. It was easy to feel the creative inspiration that Maxwell hoped to give Delores when he had this home constructed. It felt as if a piece of Victorian England had been transported into the twenty-first century, and she half expected to see a large horse-drawn carriage come around the corner of the home any second.

"...and so now here we are, outside the home of Maxwell and Delores, and it is time to see if the local legends about Bear Valley Manor are true. Do Maxwell and Delores haunt their once beautiful manor? Do they seek justice for their deaths? Or perhaps they are just angry and want to take out their pain on others from beyond the grave. Highly doubtful, but let's go in and find out," I finish saying to the audience. I nod to Tanya, and together we enter the home.

Surprisingly the front door is unlocked. The doors creak and the wooden frame groans as I push the double doors open in front of me. I pull out my flashlight and look around the foyer, marveling at just how big this manor is. A large chandelier lays on the floor, having fallen from a great height years ago. Shattered glass lays all around us, and dirt litters the floor. The once red and gold wallpaper is peeling and revealing the cracked walls beneath.

I walk around, amazed at the nostalgia of the home's decor yet saddened by the disarray the home has fallen into. Old photo frames reveal a hauntingly beautiful couple in a black and white photo, the glass cracked and cutting into the image. The sound of footsteps draws my attention away from the photo, and a quick look at Tanya tells me that it wasn't her or I that made the noise. Following the sound, we find ourselves in a large living room, where a torn apart fireplace sits below an extravagant oil portrait of the same couple as the one in the black and white photos. The couple surprisingly doesn't come across as wealthy and elitist like many old Hollywood types would have, but instead, radiate warmth and love that spoke to their iconic relationship. I smile as I see his hand gently laying on her shoulder as she grasps it with her own hand. I look over at Tanya and smile, feeling a connection with this couple deep within my bones.

"It appears we've found the lord and lady of Bear Valley Manor," I begin to narrate. "This large oil painting shows the true images of Maxwell and Dolores Williams. As you can see the home itself is in complete disarray and does not hold the glamor it once had. However, the painting seems to still hold a glimmer of that love the couple was known for. Who could have wanted to hurt this beautiful couple?"

"Should we do an EVP session here?" Tanya asks.

"That would be great. Let me fire up the recorder and we can begin."

Pulling out the recorder, we stand near the fireplace and set the recorder down on the mantle just below the painting. After the light blinks on, we begin our routine chat with the spirits.

"Hello there, my name is Danielle and this is my partner Tanya. We don't mean to intrude on your home, but we wanted to speak with you if that is ok. Can you tell me your names?"

We waited in between each question, knowing more likely than not we'd get maybe one or two hits on the recorder. After about ten minutes, we stopped the recording and hit play. The response we got was shocking, to say the least. After I asked them to tell us their names, we got a clear response that said, "We are...Max and Dolores. Welcome..."

"Holy shit, did you hear that?" Tanya asked, filming me as I played the recording over and over again.

"Hell yes, that was the clearest response we've ever gotten. Let's keep going."

We spend the next few hours exploring the house much like this. Max and Dolores are definitely within the home. Their excited responses to us to be heard through EVP sessions and EMF work showed us just how much their spirits were ingrained into the home. We decided that the home was doing so well with our investigation and giving us some of our best evidence that it was time to go to one of the most unknown parts of the home and really delve into the activity. So we took our equipment and made our way to the dreaded 4th floor, the area where the killer was said to have hidden from Max and Dolores the night they died. This is where things took a dramatic turn for Tanya and me.