The Conduit

It was by complete happenstance that I found it, yet I felt like I was drawn to it. While travelling for work one day I noticed an overgrown backroad I hadn't seen on my GPS, no signs, no indication it was even there. Being curious, I took the short detour and took the rock road to just see where it led, no further intentions beyond my own curiosity. Furthering down the poor excuse for a road there was a small turn around, nothing but trees surrounding the entire area. My only thought was that there may have been a house back here at one time that had since been demolished and turned around to head back. That's when I saw it.

Tucked back behind a small cluster of trees it stood, barely, decrepit yet unwavering. It was an old run-down church, paint peeling and chipping from the wooden lap siding, some windows intact and some broken, the doors now replaced with peeled painted plywood and padlocked chain holding it shut, the glass arch over the door since covered with what looked like paper and tape. As bad as the building looked, the landscaping was neatly manicured aside from some overgrown vegetation closer to it. Someone was at the least trying to half-ass take care of it, sort of, but the question stood in the back of my mind, what kind of church? Not that I particular care about religion, but it's always neat to see an old church sign that states something along the lines of "Welcome All, Church of God, Pastor Francis W. Eldridge", however, there was nothing to allude to it was even a church other than the shape of the building.

To me, this was the extent of my "find", nothing. An old church-like building, and nothing else of value to take note of, I did take a picture for posterity's sake because it was a cool looking building. I grabbed my notebook and jotted something down about it and closed it up. With that, I took my leave and went about my business, the church already gone from my mind. Following the road back out, I continued to my jobsite and finished my workday flawlessly. It wasn't until that evening that I thought about it again, somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to look at the picture. I left my couch to grab my phone from where it was on the charger and unlocked it, opening the photo gallery I clicked the picture of the church. It looked the exact same as when I was there, but something seemed off. It felt almost as if the picture was studying me just as much as I was studying it. I immediately grabbed my laptop and opened it up, syncing my phone to it, I transferred the image over so I could enhance it and look at it better. Were those eyes in one of the windows? A person? Maybe. It was getting late, so my eyes were likely playing tricks on me, so I shut everything down and just called it a night, letting the church leave my mind, and going to sleep.

I had to go back. There was something about it that just left me with that feeling of unsatisfaction and I needed to know why. Now, I try to claim to be a smart man, so I dialed up a friend to tag along with me, she was into this kind of stuff as well and would enjoy a short getaway. Throwing some stuff in the back of my truck, I set off to pick her up, and we were on our way. Brief side note here, she claims to be a "witch" and to be honest, knows quite a lot when it comes to those kinds of things, where I, on the other hand am more of a paranormal enthusiast, our interests align in that respect. Showing her the picture on the drive, we were coming up with all kinds of crazy stories of the building, but nothing prepared us for what IT really was.

Upon our arrival there was nothing out of the ordinary, but for the sake of caution, I pulled around behind the church to park out of sight. Now, like I said, I'm a paranormal enthusiast, to the extent that I have the little gadgets, EVP recorder, EMF detector, a thermal imaging camera, temperature gun, various boom mics, a good set of headphones, the works; and it's all situated in a backpack that I keep with me at all times for interesting "finds" like this. I don't get all crazy with the information I find, but I do like to write about it and look over some of the photos and what not, just because it's fascinating and would be awesome to find something. My friend on the other hand has a flashlight, some book in all Latin, and a small bag she keeps with her that has some crystals and salt in it. Total professionals. We got out with our gear and walked up to the church to start looking around. All my fancy little tools led me to nothing out of the ordinary, no spikes on the EMF, just an overall sense of wariness. As I do, without thinking, I approached what could only be assumed was a door and gave it a try, and to my surprise it opened. I pulled out a little container with a note from earlier in it and placed it next to a rock out front, then I gave my friend a grin saying "Hey, this door is wide open", and walked inside, pretty sure I caught her rolling her eyes as she tailed behind.