First Steps

The trio looked at each other before they made the first steps into the unknown. Drew was the first to go in; he reached for the door and grabbed the doorknob. The pressure from him touching it caused the door to collapse where it stood. Years of decay had caught up to it. Seeing the door collapse like that causes the trio to worry, if the door was in that bad of shape, how good would the floors be?

"Everyone needs to step lightly when we get inside, actually hold on." Drew said as he pulled a rope out of one of his cargo pockets. "Tie this rope around your waists that way if one of us falls the others can catch us. We need to be as safe as we can."

"Safe as we can?!" Terry shouted in an uncharacteristic high pitch. "Man, we got damn ghosts hunting our ass and trapping us in this god forsaken place. You up in here talking about safety."

"Calm down Terry." Sam said as she tied the rope around her waist. "It really is a good idea, this way we won't get separated."

"You two can tie yourselves together but Terry don't want no part of it!" Terry shouted back. "If Terry sees a ghost, he is getting the hell up out of there and Terry don't need to be tied to anyone that's going to slow Terry down."

"It's fine Terry," Drew said, "we won't force you. I just thought it would be safer, you do what you think is best for you."

"Damn right." Terry responded. "Now you are going in or what?"

"Yeah." Drew turned on his high-powered flashlight and illuminated his path. The house was that of a classic American ranch circa the eighteenth century. Cobwebs and dust lined the walls and ceilings. An inch of dust covered the floor as if it were a light snow and particles floated freely throughout the room. Before entering Drew scanned the floor with his flashlight. Then he saw them. A set of children's footprints in the dust. "Hey someone pull out their cell phone camera and film this."

Sam pulled out her camera and started filling. "Okay Drew we are rolling." She said.

Drew turned to the camera; the light was blinding in the darkness of the night. "Hey everyone, on this incredibly special episode of Paranormal is the new Normal, we are going deep into a deserted ranch and the locals all say is cursed! One hundred years ago a cult committed a mass suicide in an attempt to open a portal to the other side. According to all the local accounts, they were successful. We normally share the location of our episodes, but due to the violent nature of this spirit, we are keeping it concealed."

"You really going to make this into an episode Drew?!" Terry shouted. "Our damn lives are on the line and you trying to film it."

"Terry is a bit extra worried tonight," Drew said to the camera, "honestly I am too. This is unlike any investigation we have ever done, if it does not go well, it could be our last. Anyways, enough talk about the gloom and doom, am I right?! We just found our first piece of evidence and we have not even entered the house yet." Drew reached for Sam's phone and took it from her hands. "You see the dust on the floor is completely undisturbed, years of not being walked on, but if you'll look over there you will find a set of footprints that belong to a child. Could these belong to our ghost? The locals say that all the deaths that have been entwined with this location have involved people seeing a faceless little girl before their death. Could these be the first evidence of that little girl?"

Drew handed Sam her phone back and she continued to film Drew as he took his first steps into the house. Due to the particles in the air he pulled out a respirator from his pocket and put it on. Sam and Terry did the same. The first room they entered was the living room. They took very delicate steps, worried they would fall through the floor. The floor creaked and cracked with every step adding to the tension.

"Alright so in this room we are doing to do an emf reading." Drew said as he pulled out his emf meter. "This place doesn't have any electricity running to it and it is miles away from any civilization so any readings we get will be the spirit in question." Drew turned on his meter. Immediately it began to buzz lighting up with three of the five lights. "Oh, a level three right off the bat! Let's get closer to those footprints and see what we pick up." Drew careful stepped over to the footprints and held the meter over them. The reading changed from a three to a five, indicating the highest level of paranormal activity.

"We have a level five ladies and gentlemen!" Drew said excitedly. "When was the last time we had a five Sam?"

Sam sighed because she knew they had never really experienced a ghost, they always faked it for the show. This time though the evidence was real and there was a lot of it. "It's been a few years; I think it was the castle in England wasn't it?" She said just to appease the question.

"Right I remember that place!" Drew smiled. "So much evidence there, but this place is on another level. Alright!" Drew pulled the black book and pencil out of his pocket and placed it on the floor next to the footprints. "I am placing this here in hopes of communicating with the spirit. If we can find out what it wants maybe, we can help it rest."

Drew took a deep breath and shouted out to the spirit in the house. "Spirit if you can hear me, I mean you no harm, nor do my friends. We only seek to make contact with you. Can you write in the book and tell us what you want?"

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped several degrees and the light on the phone flickered. Drew and the others could see their breath in the air it had gotten so cold. The flickering continued on the phone until finally it and the flashlight in Drew's hand went dark for a few seconds. In the darkness they could hear the laughter of children all around them. The lights turned back on and the book contained writing. Just a few words, not written with the pencil however, they appeared to be burned on the page. The page simply read: [Play with me].