Guardian Angel

The car slowed to a stop, she could see the skeleton of a house sneering through the overgrown trees and bushes. It looked as ominous as she remembered. Set back from the road, it wasn’t immediately noticeable, mostly secluded and surrounded by huge trees and corn fields. It stood hollow, with its deep dark vacant windows contrasting the chipped white exterior paint, its door open just enough to entice you closer, but caution entry inside. A feeling of increasing anxiety was intensifying, but perhaps it should be more aptly attributed to the unlawful trespassing she was about to participate in versus an “other-worldly” explanation. For some reason, breaking and entering as a teenager seemed much less of an issue.

“You ready?” Amy asked, nudging her friend who seemed lost in her own head.

“Yeah let’s do it.” Steph replied, unable to break her gaze on the house.

The friends got out of the car, peering down both directions of the gravel road looking for any potential witnesses. There was nothing. They slowly approached the house for the first time in years, remembering all the eerie feelings and odd experiences they’d had here in the past. They carefully navigated through the foliage and spider webs up to the front entrance, backpacks in hand. Steph knew if she was going to get the evidence she needed for her paranormal project, this was the place.

Amy grabbed the door handle and tried pushing the door open wider, but it was hitting something on the inside. She tried a second time, forcefully shoving her shoulder into it and it opened a little more to allow them to sneak inside. As they waited for their eyes to adjust to the much darker interior, they scanned the front room and all of the piles of junk inside. Everything from old computer monitors, to bedding, trash everywhere, even an old dilapidated piano.

“Remember when things used to appear and disappear all the time in here?”

“Yeah I remember that,” Amy replied. “Do you think other people really knew about this place and were coming in and taking things and leaving other things? I mean that’s weird right? Or things just….moved on their own.”

“I mean, neither makes sense really. You’ve seen the Conjuring though yeah?” Steph asked, smiling. “I mean, the Warrens wouldn’t just rule anything out without a proper investi-“

“SHHH did you hear that?!” Amy whispered. There was a silent pause.

“No?”

Then she heard it. A sort of scraping/squeaking sound, much like moving furniture. “Where is that coming from?” Steph asked. Neither could tell, and the sound stopped.

They slowly started proceeding further into the house, things crunching beneath their feet.

Amy picked up a toy horse, bringing back memories of her and Steph’s days in 4-H club. She looked back at Steph holding it up. “Man, I wish your Grandma was still here to see this project. We are guna get proof, I can feel it. She always believed in whatever crazy thing you were into.” Amy laughed, and shook her head. She took her camera out of her bag, and a flashlight as some of areas of the house didn’t get much outside light.

“Very true, Grandma D even used to go drive around with me to cemeteries and trespass to take pictures!” Steph mused, taking her own video recorder and camera out. “I mean, you know, when she wasn’t busy saving the world that is – raising all the kids in the neighborhood, volunteering at the senior center even though she herself was a senior, giving everybody money she didn’t have. Seems like the whole town was helped by her somehow. Best person I ever knew.”

A sudden CRASH came from the kitchen.

“Shit what was that?!” Steph exclaimed, frozen in place as sounds of movement in the other room continued.

“Hello?” Amy called out, questioningly.

There was no answer, but it sounded like footsteps and something falling, and the sounds were getting closer. Amy picked up a rake that was laying on the floor, bracing herself for whatever might come around the corner, and Steph shakily snapped some photos in the direction of the sounds. Scratching sounds became louder. Suddenly the intruder emerged, and ran right toward Steph, who jumped on to a broken couch for refuge.

The giant racoon scurried its way out the door.

“Wooo!” Steph laughed, breathing a sigh of relief. Amy joined her laughing and dropped the rake. Steph hit record on her camera and stepped off the couch, they ventured through the kitchen where they came to a wall with three doors. They knew from the past that the one on the left, with a chair shoved under the door handle as if to block it from opening from the other side, went to the basement. It had creeped them out trying to decide why that door was propped shut, and they removed the chair years ago to see what was down there. They couldn’t tell because all the stairs were missing. Out of uncertainty about what that could all mean, they had shut the door and replaced the chair under the handle as they had found it. It appears to have stayed there all this time. The second door goes upstairs, and the third goes outside to the back porch.

They chose to venture upstairs. In the past they found a lot of odd things upstairs so they decided to revisit it. Steph could still see the image in her head of the upside-own crucifix she had seen, the bunches of legal papers on patents for some sort of invention, maps, and newspapers on Hitler. She recalled seeing things moving on their own on a perfectly still day inside the attic. There were packed suitcases as if someone was planning a trip they never took. And there was the notebook, perhaps in its own way the creepiest thing of all. And we never did of course have cameras or catch any footage of anything we saw, Steph thought to herself. So frustrating!

When they reached the top of the stairs it was not entirely different than last time they were there, although there was more evidence of animals nesting, water damage from the rotting roof, and mold. The two wandered slowly in and out of the bedrooms recording what they saw, and then both stopped immediately. A moaning sound was heard.

Steph spoke softly into the camera “ We just heard a moaning sound…..” “Amy?? You hear that??”

Amy did not answer.

“Amy?!” Steph walked out of the bedroom she was in as softly and quietly as possible. She started to panic not seeing her friend or hearing a response. Steph rounded the corner to the last room and saw Amy staring out the window.

“What’s going on?”

“Shhh.” Amy replied, just pointing at what looked like a man walking off the property.

“He was here this whole time?! What if he was in that trailer? Where we found the notebook!”

Amy turned to her, still wide-eyed and nodding. She remembered the creepy black notebook they had found out in the trailer. The trailer had been mostly trashed and contained what appeared to be materials used to make meth. There was some expired food, some old clothes, and then in a drawer there was a destroyed floppy disk from an old computer and the black notebook. There was only about 12 pages in it and one small entry on each page. Things like, Body found County Rd N., Missing Girl Fremont, NE., etc.

“Seriously what was that notebook?” Amy pondered. They had tried to make sense of it in the past, looking up any news articles that might correspond with what was written, they researched who used to own the house and discovered they were dead, even though mail continued to be delivered to the address and bunches of it lay unopened everywhere. Everything just kind of came to a dead end.

“Yea I know…..but also, did you hear the moaning??”

“No, what?”

“Listen.”

There was a faint thud, and then again the moan was heard. It was coming from downstairs. “We have to check it out, yea?” Steph asked.

“Yeah….Do you think that guy saw our car parked? You think he knows we were here?”

“I don’t know, I don’t even know if he’s real?? We saw a lot of stuff, remember, when we were here before? Shadows, things that would just suddenly vanish. How would’ve we not heard him drive up? And if he didn’t drive up, where would’ve he home from? No one is going to walk here, nothing is even close-by??”

“I seriously don’t know.” Amy replied, and started walking toward the stairs, gesturing for Steph to follow. They descended and the moaning got louder.

It was coming from the basement.

Amy removed the chair, and placed her hand on the doorhandle. She took a deep breath and swung it open.

“How are we guna get down there? And if we do…..how are we guna get back out with no stairs?!” Steph asked.

They scoured the room for something that might help them. Amy grabbed a kitchen stool and threw it down the basement. “If you go down, record whatever you see, and then stand up on the stool, I can pull you up. You in?”

“Ok let’s do it.” Steph lowered herself to the floor, then situated herself so she was hanging off the kitchen floor by her hands to minimize the drop. She let go and hit the ground.

“You good?”

“Yeah.” Steph replied, maneuvering to get up and get her camera back out. She was interrupted by a bunch of noises.

She looked around and didn’t see anything expect a single chair in the middle of the room. It was rotting, old, and terrifying sitting there by itself. Steph snapped a couple photos and the flash lit up the room. The moaning started again and the noises. Steph was sure whatever it was, she had captured it on video or photo and she was ready to get out of there. “Ok I’m coming up!” Her heart was pounding, but she paused. She saw something in the corner of the room where there was an old fruit cellar. It took her a second to realize it was a person! A real, live person. She rushed over and saw a woman tied to a chair that had fallen over, there was tape on her mouth. Steph untied her and removed the tape, realizing that she was a long way from having evidence of the paranormal, but that they uncovered something far more important.

“Call the police!” Steph yelled.

Three days later, Steph and Amy found themselves receiving an unexpected cash reward for the safe return of the Dolling’s missing daughter. They were invited to receive it from the family themselves and stood watching the woman tell those around her about her traumatic experience.

“Funny we thought we were going to end up in jail for trespassing and instead we call the police ourselves and end up doing something good!” Amy joked.

“For real. I can’t believe someone was in there, like…..whoever did that maybe has been doing that for years? I hope they catch him. I guess none of it was paranormal after all though….”

“That’s ok, I mean your Grandma D would be way more proud you saved someone’s life than proved evidence of the paranormal.” Amy said, winking.

Steph felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see the woman from the basement.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I overheard your conversation. I don’t know much about the paranormal, but I know I saw lot of things in that basement. And I know I saw Grandma D.”

“You knew her?”

“Yep, she helped me out when I ran away from home when I was younger. And I know she was with me in that basement.”

“You’re saying…..she’s a ghost? I mean that doesn’t…

“No, a guardian angel.”