TOUCHED

TOUCHED Part 7 of 10

"Don't kill us, Esmerelda!" Neil pleaded.

Are you serious?

Alex and I rushed over the fireplace to examine it.

"The fireplace must've come on automatically like the lights did when it got dark." Alex conjectured.

"It's wood." I observed. "Not gas. And there's no ignition system I can see."

"Figments of our imagination can't affect the real world." Alex whispered, trying to convince himself more than me. "This must be something else. Ghosts aren't real."

This isn't good.

I stood up. "That's it! Something or someone is either playing with us or maybe something worse. I don't know yet. We can leave or we can stay. I vote for staying, but if we stay, we're searching this entire mansion from top to bottom right now. I want answers and I want them now. Neil. Ready to set up all your equipment?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alex. Ready to put your preconceived notions aside and assist me in finding out the truth?"

"Yes, but I only want the facts."

"Correct. No assumptions on anybody's part. That means you too, Neil." When no one else said anything, I continued. "All right, let's go."

Under my direction, and sticking together, the three of us began searching the mansion, room by room. Neil set up his remaining video cameras and some other equipment I didn't recognize around the house. "All my equipment is tied into the laptop in the main room via Bluetooth." Neil informed us.

Apart from the overabundant use of mirrors in the decorating of the mansion, we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary or anything to give us a clue as to the "wraiths" and "ghosts" we'd encountered earlier. After an hour or so, we'd searched every room.

Except for the study we saw the ghost of Esmerelda Lee disappear into.

"That's all the rooms except one." I commented.

"Why did you want to save that room for last?" Alex asked.

"That's the one we saw the 'ghost' thing disappear into." I explained. "There must be a reason."

"So you agree that it was a ghost, then?" Neil asked.

Alex replied before I could. "We're not jumping to conclusions."

"No." I answered Neil. "I just don't know what else to call it is all."

"Ready for the library, then?" Alex asked.

"You mean the study?" Neil corrected.

"It looked like a library to me." Alex shot back.

"Alex, a library would only be books, that room also had a desk and stuff. It's a study." Neil countered.

Are you two serious with this?

"Time for the last room." I stated, avoiding calling the room either a study or a library.

Opening the door slowly, Alex caused it to creak loudly. After the drama of the creaking door, we were all disappointed to find the room exactly as we last saw it.

"Neil, you check the computer. Alex, the desks and files over there. I'll check the bookcase."

As we began searching the areas I'd assigned, I noticed the strange titles of the books in Doctor Lee's study. In addition to numerous medical books and computer programing manuals, I found titles dealing with life after death, and several occult themed books, some with names I couldn't even pronounce. After a lengthy search, I didn't come up with anything.