The Waiting Father Ghost - part 3

It was cold as balls in the upstairs room. Doug was right, the windows had frosted over. Since it was the middle of August, this was pretty odd. But sometimes the appearance of a spirit is a process that draws a lot of energy, and by doing that it drops the ambient temperature. I'd never seen one drop a room this much, though. And the EMF was through the roof.

Something was in the middle of the room.

It wasn't showing up on the camcorder, not exactly. But when we swept the room with the infrared thermometer, there was a pocket in the middle of the room that was colder than the rest of the room. The Professor leaned in close and blew softly on the pocket, and the fog of his breath seemed to seperate in the middle, forming a vague outline.

"Holy fuck," whispered Raj. The Professor held a finger to his lips, shushing him.

"Is that you, Bill?" he asked.

Something prickled across the back of my scalp. Like I had almost heard something.

Suddenly, I was scared to death. I wasn't entirely sure why, but I was stomach-churning afraid. I felt like something utterly horrible was about to happen, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

"Guys, is anyone else scared shitless right now?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"A little amazed, but not really scared," said Raj.

"I'm terrified," I said.

The Professor looked at me. "Are you afraid of the ghost?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think that's it."

"Does it feel like you're about to find out something really bad, like a loved one has died?" he asked.

Then I got it. "Yeah. Is it the ghost projecting?"

The Professor said he thought it might be. So I tried to calm myself down. It wasn't a real emotion, at least not MY real emotion. It was something someone else felt years ago coming back up, like a bad piece of fish. A father worrying himself sick over what he would find out about his daughter. I felt so bad for the man, the ghost, whatever. To go through that, it was horrible. A parent should never have to lose their child.

Then, like someone flicked a switch, I could see him. In the middle of the room, like a smoky shape that kept trying to move in and out of focus. Bill. He was wringing his hands and shaking his head. He was distraught.

Then he turned and looked at me. His mouth moved, and although I didn't hear anything, my skin prickled again.

"I can see him. He's trying to say something," I said.

Then his head snapped back straight ahead. He pointed at something I couldn't see, and his mouth moved again. This time, angrily. He was shouting something and pointing. I couldn't see anything else, but whatever it was had Bill's panties all in a bunch.

Then he was gone.

"EMF dropping," said Mia.

"Temperature coming back up," said Doug. "Looks like it's over."

"Yeah, but just what the hell IS it that's over?" asked Raj.

I knew we had witnessed a true haunting. I don't know what the data will say, but I knew what I knew.

But it also seemed to be something more.