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Phoenix Park is considered a hot spot in the ghost hunting world. Even before... recent events
From the millions of photos of barely visible apparitions documented online — most being obviously edited — to the very real missing person cases.
It’s a gold mine for bored teenagers and hardened streamers seeking for views.
And since the park opened again in march, great minds such as John Zaffis, the founders of the Atlantic Paranormal Society and many others have come to the park looking for ghosts and demons, but most happened to just be kids.
With equipment spanning from their apple iPhones and paper ouija boards to cameras worth more in their weight in diamonds, paired with their high tech spirit boxes and touch-controlled torches.
But regardless of the quality or quantity of their gear, most come out empty handed. Leaving the park with merely cracked screens, broken hearts, and clickbait titles exclaiming their disappointment. The most credible of evidence coming in the form of cold spots and light taps on the shoulder.
But that changes today.
"Hello, my name is Emily, and I have evidence for Phoenix Park—"
"I'm Alex, and I think I have—"
"My name is Coco, and I have evidence—"
"I suddenly saw what looked to be a demon in—"
"It just felt like I was being watched—"
"It looked like an angel—"
"Everything was dark—"
"Then I saw her at the end of the hallway—"
"Every shift was a new adventure."
"Can you guys investigate?"
“Welcome to Ghost Files, where we take your evidence and our tools into the field to expose the supernatural."
Regular viewers were quick to sit back, excited for the start of another season, quickly tapping on the click-bait worthy thumbnail with a big red circle around what looked to be the shadowed silhouette of a woman in a long dress and tall hair, next to the zoomed in image of Ryan's face. An expression only an expert YouTuber could pull.
Once starting the video though, seasoned fans would sit back, fixing their blankets while waiting for the Ryan to get on with it already, ignoring the long winded introduction as they made themselves comfortable.
"My partner, a skeptic. Myself, a believer. Both of us, truth seekers.”
While first time viewers would note the duo's matching jackets, the intricately decorated backdrop placed behind them, the hauntingly dim lighting, and the episode title….
We Went To ACTUAL HELL in Phoenix Park - Ghost Files… which was a way to start off a new season, for sure.
“This week, our team travels to San Francisco, California to investigate," Ryan paused… purely for dramatic effect. "Phoenix Park.”
The subtitles appear in big white letters 'dark foreboding music'
“Wow,” Shane scoffed.
The camera pans around and suddenly the two were in the dark empty carpark of the aforementioned theme park, the only light source coming from the film crew’s flashlights and the long setting sun.
As Shane spoke, the camera then swung around to look where he was facing, pointing up to a gate modelled after the late Pauline Phoenix's face, the once brightly coloured paint dulled and pealing off the wooden surface.
“It's unique," someone behind the camera muttered, making Shane burst out in laughter.
“Unique, sure, sure” Ryan smiled at back at the camera, resting his hands on his wildly expensive looking gear, angling his camera to Shane's face as the perspective suddenly switches suddenly to his own hand held device. Suddenly close enough to see even the smallest of hairs on his face.
But then Shane pans the camera back to the archway, focusing in on the… odd choice of design.
A certain genre of joke coming to both investigator's minds… but it was a little too lewd for YouTube.
“Welp, let’s get this over with!” Ryan said through closed teeth, deciding to walk ahead, leaving Shane to record him waltzing up towards the gates, the vague image of someone in a security jacket opening the gates for them, before the footage cuts away.
“Phoenix Park San Francisco, formerly known as Pollywood, was officially opened in the early 1950s, and its sister park, Phoenix Park Europe, opened later that decade." Ryan's voice played over a slide show of images. Construction of the park, magazines advertising the park with drawn pictures of woman in 50s fashion waltzing through the park, and rendered images and blueprints of earlier rides. "Themed around the former Hollywood Star, Pauline Phoenix, the park houses many rides and forms entertainment centred around the former's star's iconic movies, targeting all age groups. There are many restaurants, petting zoos, bowling alleys, and way more.”
“So it’s basically a Disney ripoff,” Shane asked, cutting Ryan off. The camera moving over to Shane as he sits forward in his chair.
Ryan then looked to his side, glaring over at Shane, shaking his head.
“What no—”
“Roller coasters. Restaurants? Why hasn’t Disney sued their asses?”
“Because it isn’t– Disney didn't copyright the idea of a theme park— wait… no actually I’m pretty sure they did–” Ryan paused for a moment, rubbing his chin. “Legally speaking—”
“Wait so they did sue them?”
“No— I’m not sure,” Ryan looked down at his script, flicking through the pages. “Anyway! We’re off topic.”
“Right…”
“Many accusations have come out against the park. Multiple missing persons cases, identity theft, kidnappings, murders—”
“Murder?” Shane asked with a shocked tone — the camera panning back to him, again — fake shock, mind you.
“Yes!”
“Who was murdered?”
“Well, th—there’s been accusations that Pauline was murdered.”
“Pauline was murdered? Pauline Phoenix?”
“There's been some accusations, including the identity theft and kidnapping. Some believe the current owner—” Ryan explained, making a 'bleg' noise as he used his thumb to imitate slitting his throat. "—her"
“So, she wasn’t murdered?”
“Possibly not,” Ryan sighed. “Nothing has been confirmed. Legally speaking," he held his breath, whispering to Shane. "I don’t want to be sued.”
Ryan paused again. Seeing if Shane had anything else to say before he continued.
“So, as I was saying…”
“Many accusations have come out against the park. Including murder. But more importantly to our investigation, hauntings. It’s widely regarded as one of the most haunted theme parks in America, with strange occurrences happening across the park, from ghost sightings to full scale demon invasions. Many believe this is due to a portal that's thought to reside within the derelict horror mansion, known as Dead End, that resides in the centre of a park. With sightings of the park's infamous demon, known coequally as Courtney, and Pauline’s ghost herself.”
“Courtney?” Shane interrupted the image slide show again, which was slowly seeming to wear down on Ryan’s nerves. “What kind of a name is Courtney?” He asked, furrowing his brow. "For a demon?"
“That’s what she calls herself.”
“Oohh, so it’s a girl demon?”
“I believe so," Ryan shrugged. "That's what the reports say, it mostly use 'she'.”
“That’s weird.”
“How is that weird?” Ryan squinted.
“I haven’t heard of many female demons,” Shane speculated. “Asides from like, succubi… It’s always like— the devil! Or Satan or… the devil baby.”
“Well, the devil baby could’ve been a girl.”
“True.”
“We never actually talked to him.”
“Yes, we never did,” Shane nodded along. “We need more female demon representation," he laughed, pointing at the camera.
“The park is sectioned into five zones based on Pauline’s most popular movies, music, and tv shows. Those zones include: Camelot Creek, Luna Lookout, Prehistoric Pavilion, Western Walkway, and the Scare Square.” Ryan seemed to put extra emphasis on ‘the Scare Square’, even getting a spooky ‘whoo’ noise from Shane’s direction.
“Today, we’ll be starting our investigation in the Scare Square, thought to be the most haunted section of the park. It’s the area where many demons have been spotted, a ghost known as Jules, a large hand-shaped apparition, multiple sightings of ghost orbs, and even some angels."
"For our investigation today we have placed cameras and audio recorders in the three most active parts of the park in hopes that we can catch activity throughout the night. One in the aforementioned Dead End mansion, particularly in the front room where other paranormal investigators have said the spiritual vortex resides, one in Pauline’s museum, and one in the Diner-saur. where an entity, known as the Night Hag, is said to haunt. And, finally, to end our investigation, Shane and I will each be forced to explore the haunted house one at a time.”
"So, wait, is it a haunted house, or a haunted, haunted house." Shane interrupted again, the camera instead focusing on Ryan's face, a visible nerve appearing on his face.
"What?"
"Hypothetically speaking. This house. It's haunted, by real ghosts?"
"Yes," Ryan nodded, which Shane scoffed at.
"But it's also a—"
"A haunted house, like with actors."
"Zombies? Demons?"
"Yeah, exactly," Ryan nodded along.
"So, maybe," Shane hummed, scratching at his beard. "What if these so called 'real' ghosts, where just actors."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"That's what we're here to find out."
“The first place we’re investigating today is the haunted mansion. Specifically, the most haunted room in the whole house, the front room. The ghost of Pauline Phoenix has been seen sitting on an armchair in the corner of the room, wearing a long flowy green dress. As well as the demon, known as Courtney, hanging from the chandelier.”
Shane and Ryan step through the front door of Dead End, as, almost instantly Ryan shouts out, feeling a hand on his shoulder before their tour guide can even let them inside.
“Woah!” Ryan turned around, looking out at the path behind them, the cameras turned back to him, cutting between Shane's and the camera crews' perspectives before focusing on a zoomed in image of his face.
“Uh— are you ok?” The guy behind the camera asked, subtitles highlighting his voice as he appeared to quiet without a microphone.
“I just felt something on my back!” Ryan proclaimed, his hand pressed against the back of his neck as he turned around again to face the crew.
“Really?” Their tour guide asked, the boy in a security jacket, as the camera catches a glimpse of him. The perspective hovering on him for a moment along as he appears to look around the room, like he was looking for something.
“Yeah! It was like… a chill down my spine.”
“A chill?”
“Yes!”
“Oh shush up you big woosy,” Shane rolled his eyes as the camera panned to his face, walking past Ryan and continuing into the house as the footage cuts.
And the camera moves to what looks to be a library, the camera set up in front of a chair as the investigator's tour guide sits down in front of it — interviewee style — as Ryan and Shane and the producer sat behind it. Asking the questions.
A little bar appears at the bottom of the screen, the name ‘Barney Guttman’ appearing as well as his occupation ‘security guard and tour guide’.
“So, Barney, how long have you worked at Phoenix Park?" Ryan asked from behind the camera, subtitles highlighting his voice.
"Umm," The boy murmured, looking sheepishly to the side, behind one of the bookcases. "Since the beginning of march?"
"Oh, not very long then?" Shane spoke up too, the camera panning to him as he rose a brow.
"No, sir," the boy said with a forced chuckle, fixing his scruffy blue hair.
"What kind of things have you experienced since you started working here?” Ryan continued to ask.
“Uh,” Barney bit his lip, looking up as he thought long and hard. “Not a lot.”
“Not a lot?” Ryan mimicked.
“Hmmhm." The boy nodded.
“Well,” Shane spoke up again, “Can you tell us about any ghosts you may have seen, maybe a demon that’s thought to live here?”
“Demon?” Barney asked.
Visible sweat began dripping down his face, his palms shaking as he went to wipe his sleeve across his forehead.
“Yes!” Ryan proclaimed. “I believe other investigator have seen a demon in this mansion before, she likes to sit on that uhh chandelier, right?” The perspective shifts to another camera, looking through the drawn curtains, focusing on the fuzzy chandelier in the distance. Every candle lit with cracked bulbs.
“On the chandelier?”
“Yes!”
“Oh— well…” Barney started to fumble over his words, twiddling his thumbs, and wiping away more sweat as rivers rolled down his face. “Well— I— uh wouldn’t know– I don't know of— uh… any demons on chandeliers!”
'Spooky music plays' was written in the subtitles again as we look back to the dimly lit front room, with another camera pointed to Ryan's face as he speaks up.
“So, this goes out to anyone that’s here,” he shouted out, the tour guide, Barney, seemingly having walked off into another room as no angles the video cut through seemed to catch him again. “Can you show us that you’re really here, that would be great.”
“And that could be… speaking, moving something,” Shane spoke over his partner, including himself in the conversation, pointing his light at Ryan’s face as he squints.
“You could touch us.”
“Yeah!” Shane insisted. “Touch us up real good!”
They pause for a moment, waiting for any kind of sound or presence…
But, predictably, it was just dead air.
“So here on the floor,” Ryan crouched down, setting the REM-pod down onto the rug near the centre of the two staircases against the far wall. “This is a little device, next to this uh… elevator?” Ryan steps back again, looking at the centrepiece of the room. A golden coloured pair of doors with a picture of the young Pauline Phoenix positioned high above it.
“Maybe that’s the portal you were on about,” Shane suggested blindly, visibly shrugging his shoulders in the background of the video tape, watching Ryan walk back up next to him.
“Maybe…” He mumbled, “Anyway, if you would— like to walk towards the REM-pod like this,” Ryan demonstrated by walking back towards the device again, enthusiastically. The device beeps as he gets closer and closer, a little green then red light flickering above it. “This will signify a yes.”
The video then cuts to a fully rendered virtual image of the device as Ryan's voice played in the background. “The REM-pod creates its own circular electromagnetic field and will alarm when anything penetrates that field. The more colours on the alarm, the more significant the intrusion. The REM-pod also detects temperature fluctuations.”
“So uh— with that– uh…” Ryan paused, thinking about a question he could ask. “If someone is here right now, can you walk towards the elevator—”
But before he could finish his sentence, the REM-pod goes off.
First flickering red, then green, it started eventually getting to purple, creating such a loud and abrasive sound. Increasingly getting higher and pitchier the longer the investigators watched it paralysed.
“Woah!” Shane laughed out after a second of this, watching as the REM-pod got to a volume that was almost painful.
“Stop!” Ryan covered his ears, hoping his demand would stop the noise.
And it does.
For only a second. Going absolutely silent, like a flick of a switch, before suddenly turning on again, at top volume, a shock wave of noise blasting through the house.
“Sto— STOP!"
It did eventually do what it was told. Going completely quiet again, but only after throughly annoying Ryan.
“I think someone's here,” Shane eventually said in response, a grin crossing his face.
“It’s never been that loud before,” Ryan proclaimed, slowly removing his hands from his ears, clearly surprised by this discovery.
“Maybe it's broken," Shane suggested, only to get a common glare from his partner.
After a moment of drawn silence, and some nifty dramatic sound effects, Ryan asked his second question.
“If Pauline Phoenix is with us right now, could you please step towards the elevator.”
They waited, but got no response.
“Hmm, ok… Jules! If you’re here, please could you step towards the elevator?”
They let the question sit for another long second, yet nothing.
“Ok. Umm… Who else?” Ryan asked, getting cut off by Shane
“If the demon is here! The little chandelier demon! If you’re here, step towards the elevator!”
The REM-pod blips after a moment. It wasn’t as loud as before, but it was a blip for sure. Just getting to green before stopping again.
“God sake.”
“Ok. That’s cool!”
“I don’t want to talk to a demon,” Ryan groaned, looking away from the REM-pod, it bleeps in response. Louder this time.
“I don’t think it liked that—” It bleeped again, cutting Shane off.
“Umm…” Ryan thought for a moment, thinking of a question to ask this supposed demon. “Do you like it when people visit you here?”
The REM-pod goes quiet.
“Do you like scaring people?” Shane contributed.
The REM-pod made another loud blaring noise until Shane spoke again. “Oooo~”
“I don’t like that.”
“I don’t think the demon cares,” Shane cackled, hearing another bleep but speaking over it. “Hey! Demon!” he turned back to the REM-pod, addressing this demon friend of his directly. “You have my full permission to fuck up my friend here, my kind sir—”
“It’s a girl dem—” Ryan started to correct, but the REM-pod made another glaring noise over him, making the two go quiet.
“Uh.”
“Are you a female demon?” Ryan asked, inquisitiveness.
The REM-pod sat quiet.
“Are you a boy demon?” Shane asked, joining in on this line of questioning.
But the REM-pod stayed quiet.
“Hey, looks like we’ve got a non-binary demon here, folks,” Shane laughed, quickly coming to conclusion, even though the REM-pod kept quiet in the background, as he began teasing Ryan again.
“I really don’t care,” Ryan said in response. “I just don't want it to kill me.”
“I’m sure they won’t.”
“Anyways uh… We’re gonna head into another room,” Ryan declared, going over to turn off the REM-pod, but got a small beep from it before he was close enough to trigger it. “You don't want us to leave?” he asked.
No response.
“Nothing?”
“Welp,” Ryan then goes to pick up the device, it beeps as he gets closer before he switches it off. “Sorry, had your chance."
'Tense foreboding music' white text spelt out at the bottom of the screen. Again.
“Our next room in the mansion, before we adventure elsewhere in the park, is in the mirror maze. A room full of mirrors, but also the place one of the many missing persons cases — Jennifer Swan, one of Pauline’s professional park impersonators — took place. This very room being the spot she was seen before going missing, only to be found on a much later date later date, completely unscathed, at the front of the park, with seemingly no memory of the event, but even before and after this there have been sightings of Pauline’s ghost walking through the mirror maze and reports of other lost souls being trapped inside. It’s thought that Pauline’s ghost kidnapped Jennifer, but Pauline wasn’t pronounced dead until after Jennifer was found.”
Shane and Ryan were sitting on opposite sides of this maze, Shane making noises to try and scare Ryan while he desperately tried to investigate. Running his fingers across the glass.
“Shane! I know that’s you.” Ryan shouted out to the other side of the maze, walking around a corner, expecting to see Shane making a scary face or something. But instead he meets the face of someone new.
Another security guard.
“Oh— Jesus!”
“Oh ghosts! I’m so sorry,” the new girl gasped, her hands raised high above her head.
“Are you a ghost?” Ryan asked authentically, his eyes wide with fear.
“No, no, no, far from it,” the girl chuckled. “I’m replacing Barney as your tour guide, I'm sorry I scared you.”
The camera switched back to the same place Barney was interviewed, the library, but now, where he sat, the new security guard stood.
The young teen, known as Norma Khan according to her informational plaque at the bottom of the screen — which also explained her joint role 'security guard, fellow believer' — seemed to be on the same level of nervousness as Barney. Nervously twitching and making ringlets in her hair.
But her fear was likely for different reasons.
“So, Norma, if that is your real name,” Shane asked first, cutting off Ryan before he could even think of speaking. Getting a blank response from the tour guide.
“It is…” She eventually responded, with a blank look, speaking into the microphone placed on the coffee table between them.
“Anyway," Ryan continued, glaring at Shane from the corner of his eye. "Have you experienced anything paranormal while working here?” he asked, expecting a similar response to the other tour guide.
Only to be surprised by the sudden shift in Norma's expression. The deer in headlights look replaced with childhood whimsy.
“Oh yes! Of course!” She proclaimed, placing her hands together as she became suddenly quite giddy, like a child in a candy store.
The candy being… ghosts apparently.
“Really?” Ryan asked, mimicking Norma as he placed his hands together, resting his chin atop his fists. “Can you maybe tell us about it?”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” she said through a toothy grin. “Well… uh I guess there’s Pauline for starters—”
“You’ve met Pauline’s ghost?”
“Oh pft— yeah several times!” she waved off, acting as if it was a small feat. “She’s uh…” she paused, pressing her lips firmly together making her eye twitch. “a character.”
“Did you get any pictures? Did she speak to you?” Ryan continued to question, his eyes bright.
“Oh, uh. Well, she sorta possessed me.”
“Possessed you?”
“Hmm. Not my best work,” scrunching up her nose, Norma itched at the back of her neck. “but I talk about it all in my podcast! Paranorma, with Badyah and Norma! It’s free to watch on YouTube—!”
"Alright, no free advertisement," Shane pulled the camera away from the teen before she could finish, the flash of his ghostly pale skin appearing before the screen went black.
'Sinister music plays'
The camera shifts away from the blank seen as the boys were back in the boo bunker, silent before Ryan unfurls two blueprints. One of the mansion and one of the park.
We focus on the first map, a handy visual showing each room as Ryan explains in detail about each one.
"As before mentioned, the mansion sits at the very centre of the park, and is a measly 2000 square feet—" but Shane cuts off his monologue again.
"Ok, so it's not a mansion?"
Ryan paused, peering over to his partner again, looking up from the blue print. "What?"
"2000 square feet isn't a mansion," he scoffed, only to get a blank look from Ryan. "To qualify as a mansion, a house must span at least 8000 square feet or more," he explained, but Ryan remained speechless. "What I'm saying is—"
"No I understand what you're saying."
The two pause.
"Then why—"
"Why do you know so much about mansions?"
They go quiet again.
Before Shane quickly replied to the camera. "I hold many secrets."
"Anyway, like I was just explaining... the haunted house spans around 2000 square feet. Downstairs there is a front room with a pair of grand staircases, a kitchen to the right, a storage cabinet under the stairs, and a joint living room and library. There also appeared to be an elevator built between the two staircases, but I couldn't find anything about where it leads to… While upstairs is taken up by mostly winding corridors, designed to make any guests get lost while touring the mansion, with multiple rooms including a mirror maze, 3 bedrooms, a master bedroom, a toilet, and through a trapdoor, an attic."
"I don't like attics," Ryan exclaimed, pausing the visual display of the building again so the camera can pan to the pair as they stand above the blueprints.
"No, you famously don't like attics," Shane agreed with a sinister chuckle.
"I don't like that laugh either…"
'Foreboding music plays' again.
The camera returns to the mansion as the boys are walking down one of the corridors, following after their new tour guide, Norma, as she guides them away from the mirror maze.
"—And up there is to the attic," she explained to the investigators, hands on her hips. "Though I wouldn't recommend going up there." she laughed nervously.
"Why, is it really scary up there?" Shane said mockingly, jabbing Ryan in the ribcage as he made an exaggerated 'ow' noise back.
"Uh, sure, I guess if you find dirty laundry and trash scary," Norma chuckled to herself, waving them off.
"Dirty laundry?" Ryan asked, a loud boom effect playing through the screen. "Why? Is something living up there?"
"Well, I mean, she lives in every room of the house, not just the attic," Norma informed them, saying it like it was obvious. The answer making Shane squint towards the camera. "But I guess you could say it's her bedroom? I don't know why she doesn't just take one of the actual rooms though, seems silly to me—"
"Wait— wait." Ryan cuts Norma off mid-ramble, the camera pointing back to the pair. "Who— who are we talking about? Who's 'she'?"
"Oh, sorry, I meaning Courtney—"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Ryan laughed, looking to Shane for guidance, only to see him pull a face. Not helpful. "Courtney?" he asked, looking back. "as in the demon? The demon we just talked to downstairs?"
"Downstairs?" Norma squinted at the boys, then at the camera as it points towards her. She seems to get nervous again as she becomes the centre of attention.
"He's meaning with the REM-pod," Shane explained.
"Wait! You guys have a REM-pod?" She asked, her anxiety vanishing as quickly as it came. getting a nod off camera. "So cool! Barborah said she might get us one of those, but it didn't end up being within the budget—"
"Hey, hey, hey!" The camera pans back to Ryan again, his face considerably redder than it was a moment ago, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Back on topic. You were just saying that. Courtney. The demon. The chandelier demon. Lives in the attic?"
"Sleeps there, sure," Norma shrugged. "Though if you're looking her she's more often in the library watching the tv. Dunno where you got chandelier from... She's always leaving a mess for me and Barney to clean up," she muttered under her breath, the camera barely picking it up for the subtitles to highlight. "Like yeah, it's nice and all that she got us this job, but she could really do with cleaning up after herself, because I end up being the one with penalties on my—"
"Ok, no, I'm sorry," Ryan chuckled again, the camera looking back to him again as he'd now begun to pace back and forth, his hand sat firmly on his forehead. His eyes strained so much a blood vessel could pop. "I'm not understanding."
"Sorry," Norma dislodged a lump from her throat. "Uh, what aren't you understanding?"
"Look, sorry, little girl," Shane then stepped in.
"I'm 18."
"Sorry, young adult," he corrected himself, the camera barely picking up the teen's eye roll. "What my friend here is trying to ask you, is what do you know about this demon? And why are you speaking about it so casually—"
"What do I know about Courtney?" Norma asked Shane back, getting a strained nod. "Uhh ghosts… don't get me started!" She laughed out, the camera focusing in on her again. "She's bratty, annoying, snobbish considering all she does is eat trash and tiny live animals all day. She's abrasive, mean, lazy, condensing, and a pain to work with," She ranted, the camera focusing on Ryan's reaction — which was anything but calm — as she continued to talk. "Don't get me wrong. I don't hate her, hate her. We're past that. Plus, when she's in a good mood, she can be helpful, but I just wish she was a little more considerate of those around her. Yeah, she's gotten better since she tried to sacrifice us to the demon king and all but I can't help but—"
The camera cuts to the ghost boys walking out of the mansion. The music gone still.
Having long abandoned a camera and sensor in the front room of the mansion for them to return to later, the camera focusing in on them as Shane speaks over to Ryan, who was looking not far from traumatised.
"So we can both agree she was talking about her non-real-demon, demon actor, coworker," He asked, the camera zooming in on their faces. "Right?"
The pair go quiet. Barely the sound of their foot steps, and the crews', could be heard in the background.
Before Ryan pulls a face gritting his teeth. "Right…"
'Haunting music plays'
"We now head over to another section of the park which is also well known to be haunted, the Prehistoric Pavilion. This area of the park is also often referred to as the child zone. With the volcano museum, dinosaur themed gift shops and fairground games, outdoor play park, and a limited amount of rides including a tiny rollercoasters and the spinning dino-cups. But for today, we are going to be focusing on the diner-saur with its large soft play area inside. The place where multiple children have been said to have gone missing."
"Do you think they disappeared into the ball pit?"
Ryan scoffed as the camera switched back to the boo bunker. "There's a ball pit?"
"I mean," Shane shrugged. "It's a kids soft play, there's always one of those… rainbow coloured. Sticky..." The camera zoomed in on Shane's face. The look of disgust passing through his features. "Full of… germs."
"You don't like ball pits?"
"No, no I do not," Shane agreed, looking back to Ryan, his brows deeply furrowed, his mouth turned into a strong thrown. "Nothing good has ever come out of ball pits."
"Touché."
'Eerie music plays'
"Woah, this place is massive," Shane exclaimed as the crew walked into the diner, looking above them at the hanging pterodactyl models, tall fences covered in soft foam and rope, and large dinosaur foot prints lined the floor, leading a trail up to the soft play area. "Why couldn't they make the so called mansion this big?"
The camera pans back down as the pair look at each other in the dark (even though there were very functional lights barely a metre away from them...)
"So where to first?"
"You want to play in the jungle gym?" Ryan asked Shane, the camera turning back around to the dimly lit play ground, full of plastic colourful balls, dinosaur shaped platforms and decals, and foam matts.
The camera focused on Shane's face for a moment. The look of disgust immediately recognisable.
"I'm good," Shane made a click sound with his tongue.
"And this is actually where we will share our first piece of evidence," Shane's voice appeared from the dark again as a new face appeared in front of a low quality camera.
The text: 'Submission - 001 Tucker Chandler' written beneath his face.
"Frequent guest of the park, Tucker Chandler, believes he may have captured footage of a creature known as the night hag."
Tucker began to talk to the camera. "It was on one of our last visits to the park, on my son's 10th birthday. He'd been watching this tv show in the cinema room, when he ran to his mother, frightened to death! Saying a creature was going to eat his sleep," the man explained, eye bags falling under his eyes as he spoke. "So I'd gone in to check, just to ease my poor boy's mind, when I took this photo."
It was a very blurry image, dinosaur statues and painted clouds lining the walls with a large tv imbedded into the far wall, many tiny sleeping bags lining the floor with a shadowy figure vaguely in the shape of a haggard old woman poking her head out from behind one of the dinosaur decals.
"Am I crazy or have I heard of the night hag before," Shane asked as the crew walk towards the cinema room near the edge of the play area, walking around a large t-rex statue.
"Well, you are crazy," Ryan replied, a smile dawned upon his face as Shane walked around him. "But yeah, it's from one of Pauline's movies," he explained, making Shane nod along. "Though, I'm sure it's based on a true urban legend."
The two then make it to the cinema room. It was brighter than in the photo taken by the guest, purely because of how many lights the crew were dragging around with them.
"True and urban legend should never be said in the same sentence," Shane proclaimed, just after the photo taken by the investigators appeared on screen, next to the one taken by the guest for comparison. The figure of the hag clearly not visible in their version of the image.
"Says you," Ryan says back as he walks fully into the room. "You wanna do the spirit box here?"
"Sure, yeah, can I be the—"
"Yeah, yeah, sure you can be the human radio—"
"Fuck— yeah! Amazing."
"You get to ruin your ears and I get to talk to all the ghosts."
"No, you'll be talking to me," Shane
"Yeah—" Ryan laughs at his own joke before finishing his sentence. "Yeah that's the same thing."
"Wow," Shane scoffs as Ryan continues to chuckle in the background. "I'm so insulted."
"Alright, be a stupid radio for me already."
"The Spirit Box rapidly scans radio signals to create white noise through which spirits can communicate." A faint 'Hello' is played in the background as the schematic of the spirit box appeared on screen.
The camera cuts again as Shane sits in the corner of the room with a pair of headphones on, sat awkwardly in a kid's sized chair with his arms crossed and his hands on the spirit box.
"He's in the naughty corner," Ryan whispered to the camera as it zooms out to meet his eye, laughing as he makes eye contact with the guy manning it. "Now, he can't hear us at all over there, so the idea is I will ask the spirits questions and they will answers them through our dear friend Shane over there," he explained, stepping back to look around the room.
As he does Shane blurts out "Lemon baller!" loudly.
"I haven't even said anything yet." Ryan laughed back, the camera trying to focus on the blurry image of Shane in the corner of the room. "Ok. So," Ryan cracked his knuckles. "Is there any spirits with us right now."
Shane appears to go quiet after his first outburst, making Ryan move on.
"Anyone. The night hag maybe?"
"Minor."
"What?" Ryan chuckles. Waiting for another word out of Shane.
"Ok. Quiet one today—"
"Incision. Cornea!"
"You wanna do what to my cornea?" Ryan laughed back. Pausing. "Cornea is the eye? Right… Yeah… No, no you can't have my eyes, sorry."
Shane then says an exaggerated. "Awww."
"No," Ryan continued to laugh. "Not aww," he paused for another moment. "So, is there nobody here—"
"Demon!"
"God no," he sighed, looking back to the camera for reassurance, the angle switching to his own handheld one as he does. "Ok, fine. Is this maybe… Courtney again?"
Shane goes silent.
"No? Not Courtney?"
"Close!"
"You're close?" Ryan asked back.
"Bones."
"Bones?"
"Reptiles!"
"Reptile bones?" Ryan squinted. "I mean, yeah, there's a lot here. We're in the diner-saur. The dinosaur section of the park. Can you say dinosaur?"
Shane goes quiet again…
"Am I talking to somebody or—"
"Night."
"Yeah, it's night time," Ryan agrees. "Or… are you talking about the night hag? Are you the night hag?"
Shane was silent for a moment before. "Gone. Cheryl. Linda."
"Who's Cheryl?" Ryan questioned, looking back at the crew. "We don't have a Cheryl or Linda with us, right? No."
Ryan looked back to Shane again, waiting for any other sounds from his end. But the camera cuts off.
The camera cuts back again to another part of the diner-saur, the two investigators sat at a booth by set of windows, the room too dark and their torches too bright to be able to see through them as the two seem to reconvene.
"So not much happening in here huh," Shane asked the camera, as his mouth was preoccupied with what looked to be dinosaur nuggets.
"Had a good conversation with a demon called Cheryl," Ryan noted. "Or Linda. Not sure."
"Should we set up the recorder and…?"
"While we didn't seem to catch any night hags, we did capture this chilling voice with an audio recorder just after we left."
The audio then plays, sounding like a loud grumble, but when played again with the text, it seemed to say 'Go away!'
"Could this have been the Night Hag? Or another spirit of one of the missing children's cases? It's hard to tell."
'foreboding music plays'
"Moving on, the final part of the park we'll be visiting today is The Pauline Phoenix Experience, also known as the Phoenix Museum. Another part of the park currently under construction, but for today only, we have been granted access."
The filming crew walk through the doors to the purple doors, pushing back the security tape as they walk out into a large open room, two sets of staircases sitting at the back of the room, the floor boards fallen in and ripped apart. And the centre of the room, surrounded by more security tape, was what looked to be a statue of Pauline herself, shattered into pieces — with bits and bobs, gears and cogs, suggesting something mechanical about the object — all scattered across the floor.
It looked even more dreary than dead end.
"They weren't lying about this place being under construction," Ryan joked as the camera followed after him, watching as he looked over the remains of the statue. "What do you think happened to this?" He asks, looking over to Shane as he could be seen looking across the painting lining the walls, all covered in a thick layer of dust.
"Meh, probably buncha kids wrecked it," Shane suggested, looking back at the camera.
"Yeah, I did hear something about someone being banned from the park the same day this attraction closed," Ryan thought aloud. "Anyway, we need to get to the hall of ex-husbands—"
"Hall of husbands?" Shane cackled, the camera shooting back to him again before he ran after Ryan. "That sounds interesting," he jokes, making Ryan roll his eyes. "Leaves a lot to the imagination."
The camera cuts again to the two standing in the abandoned theatre, lines of red chairs fill the room until the stage stood at the end. It had been completely deconstructed, no music playing from the speakers above and the broken bulbs and life size dolls removed from the stage, only the skeletal stands remain.
"I hate this room," Ryan shutters, standing next to Shane in the centre lane, walking down the aisle down to the stage. "Feels eerie."
"Everything feels eerie to you," Shane remarks, walking up to sit on the edge of the stage while Ryan begins to set up what looks to be a flashlight. "We could take you to my mother's house, and you'd find a reason to believe a ghost is haunting our refrigerator."
Ryan then looks up from his torch, the camera focusing on his face. "Extremely bad example, your mother's house is haunted."
"And how would you know that?" Shane says accusatorially.
"Because I've met your mother," Ryan squints his eyes, seeming to not catch the obvious set up for a 'your mum' joke. "And she's a very nice lady, but you used to live there. So by process of—"
"Alright I get it, just shut up and set up your little flashlight thingy."
"My flashlight thingy?"
"Yeah, your uh. The ghosts touch it," Shane then turns to the camera, beginning to do a horrible Ryan impression. "and— and, the spirits manipulate it cuz magic or whatever."
"Sure."
"A regular maglite, when turned to the space between on and off, can be turned into a touch lamp, which you can ask spirits to manipulate. However, the light will also randomly turn on and off in this setting, so responses need to be timely and repetitive for a compelling interaction."
(Image gently whooshing)
"So we're going to reintroduce ourselves, as we didnt really do that in the diner. Uhh, I'm Ryan."
"I'm Shane."
"If you can hear us, please turn off the light," Ryan asks, pointing his camera to the maglite rested on the stage, the light appearing to flicker a tad but nothing major.
Nothing.
"If Pauline’s deceased husband, Chester Phoenix, is here with us, could you please manipulate the light here for us?"
Nothing.
"If Pauline is here, or anyone else, any spirits that want to say hello?" Ryan continues to talk, the light seeming to slowly flicker again but it doesn't catch Ryan or Shane's eye. "Could you please touch the flashlight on the stage."
Nothing.
"Anyone?" Ryan asked, the cameras moving around the room as they catch sight on floating dust and exposed wiring.
"Seems we may be alone," Shane suggests, putting his hands on his hips.
"Hmm, well, we're going to approximately give you one more minute to show yourselves," Ryan declares, seeming more and more disappointed by the lack of activity. "Then we will move on."
"Back to the haunted house?" Shane asked, just as the light turns off.
"Yeah, yeah," Ryan nods, noticing the light. "Who turned that light off huh?" he questioned, the camera pointing back to the light as it turns on again, then flickers before staying turned off.
"Any ghosts?"
The light stays still.
"Guess we're moving on."
'Foreboding music plays'
"And now we move onto the final phase of the hunt. Our individual investigation of the haunted mansion, dead end."
"So here is how our solo investigation will go. Shane and I will each have 20 minutes of solid alone time in the location." Ryan explained as the familiar visual appears on screen. "Shane will go first and at the end of his time, will hide a walkie talkie in a room inside the building. Once Shane returns, he’ll reveal to me the walkie talkie location. Then it’s my turn. I'll enter the building and only after radioing back to Shane with the hidden walkie talkie." A distorted recording of Ryan's voice saying “found it” is heard. "Will the clock start on my 20 minutes of solo investigation." clicking of the clock at top of screen.
"Let the games begin."
"Quite a small house to explore," Shane said, located back in the bunker.
"As apposed to the full park."
"Yeah, the whole 20 minutes investigating would just be walking around," Shane chuckled, making Ryan laugh too. "Waiting in line."
"I'm sure the ghosts would be waiting in line too."
"Yeah waiting for the flume ride," they laugh together. "Waiting for a hot dog."
"So just dead end."
"Just the haunted house," Shane nods along.
"God I'm not looking forward to being in there by myself," Ryan sighs, "Even though I do this every single time."
"I don't know why you keep doing this to yourself," Shane agrees. "You end up freaking yourself out."
"Content," Ryan then says, looking to the camera.
"True, yep, content."
"Ok."
'Swooshing music'
"Welp, it's gotten to that time of the night," Ryan hums as the group reconvene around the house, the building looming over top of them as the moon illuminates it from behind. A sort of fog building the behind the windows which had notably not been there before.
"Yep!" Shane agrees, seemingly jogging on the spot, a contraption reminiscent of tech-horror built on the top of his head. "And I'm raring to go."
"Yeah, sure," Ryan continues to sigh. "Go have fun with your demon friend in there."
"Oh I will!" Shane agreed, turning to walk towards the front door. "Will start a party! Invite all the demons!"
"You think the devil baby will show?"
"I hope so!" Shane laughs. "And the goatman! He's not invited though."
"He'd have to get past the bouncer."
"Who would the bouncer be?"
"Hmmm," Ryan thinks aloud. "the nun?"
"The nun?"
"St Ignatius."
"Oh!"
"Nun bouncers."
"I love that idea," Shane scoffed, before finally opening the door. "Anyway, into the depths I leap."
"Off you go."
"Testing the talkies," Shane speaks into his radio, the perspective close to his face again, the zoomed in look with the dark background making his face appear ghostly pale.
"I hear you loud and clear, big guy," Ryan speaks back. "Over."
"Over and out," he mocks before turning off the radio, stepping through the front room, standing in front of the elevator. "What a fine looking elevator," Shane hums before going up one of the staircases. "Helllooo~ Dead End," he mumbles to himself, continuing to waltz through the halls, an eerie fog seeming to settle on the floor, though its unclear if that effect was because of the cameras. "Bit chilly up here," he then comments as he walks past the doors to the mirror maze. "Who's up here dropping the temperature, gonna freeze out this poor Illinois boy."
"I think Shane is enjoying the last couple of trips, been in California a lot," The perspective returns to Ryan as he sits in front the camera, notably with Norma just within frame behind him as the talks. "And I know that cuz he hasn't shut up about it since we got here."
"Real quiet in here," Shane continues to talk to himself, eventually making his way to the attic ladder he'd been to earlier in the night. "Was expecting more of a ruckus, but seems you're leaving me be." He hums, walking past the ladder. "Saving it for my friend, Ryan, I hope. He deserves a bit of a push and a shove I believe. Roughen him up a bit."
The camera turns back to Ryan, he seems to have been having a conversation with both Norma and Barney, as he returned at some point.
"So, which parts of the house do you least recommend, I go to. And I hope my friend in there, doesn't leave the walkie talkie in."
"Umm," Norma hums, looking to Barney who shrugs back at her. "The kitchen is kinda gross at the moment, think Pugsley tried to make something in there the other day."
"Yeah, I told him to clean up," Barney sighs. "Hopefully Fingers helped a bit."
"But yeah, kitchen, avoid. I've already told you to avoid the attic, as I know that's still messy. Mirror maze is fine, library is fine. Rest room, avoid," Norma lists.
"Ok," Ryan nods along. "And which rooms would you say are the… most haunted?"
"Oh, front room, easy," Norma informs. "Around the elevator in general, closer you are to it the more activity," Barney seems to sweat the more she talks about it. "Though Pauline likes to hang around the library usually, TV is always turning on isn't it Barney?" Barney seems to nod along. "You ever hear anything during the night? You should really be the expert here."
"Uh…" Barney clears his throat. "Umm, other than Pugsley waking me up with his classes, and if Courtney is doing something, not much goes on at night."
"Courtney?" The name catches Ryan's ear. "You've met her too?"
"Uhh, yeah," Barney nodded. "Sure, she's about," he says while pushing back his hair. "Usually making a mess or complaining about stuff."
"How does she communicate with you?" Ryan asked, seeming skeptical. "I think, Norma, you said you don't have an Ovilus, correct?"
"Yeah, too expensive unfortunately," She sighed. "Would be cool though. We usually stick to just ouija boards and stuff. Though I'm hoping Barborah finds it in the budget to let us have spirit boxes and such for when she opens up dead end again. The guests would LOVE it."
"Yeah," Barney coughs away a lump from his throat again, scratching the back of his neck.
The camera goes fuzzy as it attempts to focus in on the building in the distance, the vague silhouette of Shane slowly growing as he walks down the path, until there's a sudden cut and he's stood beside Ryan.
"Have fun in there?" Ryan asks and Shane shrugs to the camera.
"So what did you do with the walkie?"
"Hmm?"
"The walkie talkie." Ryan repeats, squinting. "You remembered to hide it right?"
"Ohhh! Yeah, yeah, I did," Shane agrees, as he started to take off his head gear.
"So… where is it?"
"Oh it's in the attic."
From behind Ryan, the viewer can see the security guard, Barney's, face drop.
"Really?" Ryan asked after a pause. The camera continues to linger on his face as he turns around, eventually hearing a whispered 'fuck.'
The camera then cuts, zoomed in on Ryan's face as he's now equipped the camera to his head, the green-filtered dark vision camera zoomed into his face as he walked back towards the building. Quietly grumbling to himself.
He opens the front door, stepping inside slowly, anticipating something similar to last time he walked through that door.
Slowly, he closes it again, quietly looking around the room suspiciously. A long minute of silence dragging on as he continued to eye up the room.
"I'm sure he's enjoying himself," The perspective changes to Shane, Barney sat to his left as he's looking at his phone while Norma stood somewhere in the background fixing the security tape covering the entrance to the ride. "Probably chatting it up with the demons."
"Does he usually flirt with demons?" Barney asked, looking up from his phone.
"Well," Shane paused, looking up to think. "It wouldn't be his first."
"I think this is fine," Ryan whispered, walking around the front room, making his way towards the stairs, looking behind the curtain to the library and into the kitchen. "No creepy noises, not demons," he says to himself. "Just me… and a creepy abandoned scare house… Nothing weird about that."
But as he's talking, walking up towards the elevator, he notices the chandelier above him. Looking up, he watches it eagle eyed. Pausing.
"Is the chandelier moving or am I going insane?"
He continues to watch the chandelier, the bulbs flickering more the longer he watched it. The camera turned up to watch it with him.
And indeed, it did seem to be gently swaying side to side.
"Now, I don't know if that's just something that thing does, on purpose, or if…" Ryan speaks to the camera, pointed back to his face, he then pauses, pointed it back to the chandelier again. "It's probably special effects." He finally reasons, turning to the staircase, pressing his hand to the banister--
From where the rest of the crew were positioned, they suddenly heard a loud cry from inside the house, Barney and Shane looking back to the house as Norma walked back over to the group. Norma and Barney making eye contact.
"You did tell them about the staircase?" Norma asked, already thinking of the worse, one of the crew members with a medical kit in hand passing behind her as the camera posed to her.
"I thought you did," Barney's eyes widened, realising what she was referring to. "I didn't even get to that part of the tour."
"Ah ghosts."
"What's wrong with the stairs?" Shane asked, standing up as he watched one of the crew members poke his head through dead end's door. "Is he ok?" he shouts over to the camera man. He seems to nod back.
"They turn into a slide if you hold down on the bannister," Norma explained, fixing her hair. "I need to figure out how to disable them."
"I thought Barborah was looking into that?"
"She had, couldn't find any of the original blueprints," Norma sighed, looking rather deflated. "And I've never come across any of the electrical blueprints either, how I'd love to know how the smoke machines work." She said, resting her head against her palm.
"He's ok," the guy with the medical kit returns from the house, coughing a lump from his throat. "Just fell over on the stairs."
"Figured," Norma sighed.
"Is the equipment ok?" Shane then asked.
"Priorities," Someone laughs from behind the camera.
Back to Ryan, he struggles to stand as he's seemingly talking to one of the crew members, picking up his camera before repositioning it.
"I'm ok," He huffs, holding his chest. "Think I may have had a heart attack, but I'm ok," he says fixing his hair. "Anyway, where was I?" He laughed, walking towards the other set of stairs, not touching the bannisters this time as he slowly makes his way up to the attic.
The camera cuts again as he's by the closed trap door to the attic, Ryan slowly trying to fiddle it open as he curses out Shane's name.
"Why'd he have to close it?" He grumbled, finally getting the ladder to fall down to the floor with a thud, making him step back. "Ok," he coughs, holding his chest, settling his breathing before he makes his way up the ladder, hesitantly.
And once he steps
"Did you have a nice trip?"
"Haha very funny," Ryan says sarcastically, looking around the attic as he speaks. "Why'd you close the attic for you asshole."
"I didn't close the attic," Shane squints at the camera. "I didn't know you could close it."
"Alright quit it," Ryan rolls his eyes. "Start my—"
"No, no, I didn't close. I didn't close the attic you can check my footage." Shane ensures, "Well, you can't right now—"
"Exactly, now shut up and start my 10 minutes," He groaned, turning off the walkie. "Over."
Shane turns off the walkie on his side, looking to the camera, then Norma.
"Does the trap door to attic close itself?"
"No but Courtney does."
"Of course she does," Shane smiles weakly.
"Great," Ryan sighed to himself, still stood in this dirty attic. Beam bags, chairs, and other random pieces of furniture littered around the space, the only light seeming to come from a set of hanging string lights strung around the roof supports. Ryan turns them on, barely illuminating anything as he looks below and around him. "Well that's where the smell came from," he scrunches up his nose, pointing the camera below his feet at food scraps and wrappers stuck to the bottoms of his shoes, gum wedged between the creases of his soles. "Great."
He pauses for a moment, showing the camera around the space.
"I would stay up here for a session with the spirit box," he winces, his face caught in a spider web. "But—" as he speaks again he hears a loud creak coming from somewhere in the large room, spinning around to the noise, pointing the camera in the direction. But nothing seems to be there, the perspective shifting to Ryan's face, his heavy breath getting caught on the mic. "Yeah I'm going down stairs."
The Ryan narrator voice over plays again as the creepy green phone wallpaper appears back on screen, eerie music playing as he speaks.
"Around this time in the night, we still had the audio recorders set up around the house, and around this time, the one placed in the front room seemed to pick up this possible voice."
The audio recording then plays over the video, the text 'get out' written at the bottom of the screen as a very obvious husky voice shouted "GET OUT O—" before being muffled.
"Could this have been something in the attic? Telling me to leave?"
Back to Ryan, he manages to climb down the ladder, back into the corridors, dusting down his clothes of any webs or crisp packets.
"I'm not going up there again," he mumbles to himself, facing the camera to in front of him, before he starts walking. "May I should go sit in the mirror maze." he then reasons, taking the spirit box out of his pocket.
Which he does, navigating the maze to about the centre before sitting down, turning on the spirit box as it starts making a gargled nonsense, the volume occasionally getting louder as vague words sneak through the loud static.
"Alright," he breathes. "Is anyone is this mirror maze with me right now?" he asked,
"N— no—" a voice seems to pierce through the gibberish white noise.
"No, as is there's no one with me now?"
"Yy—"
"Was that a yes?" he asked again, almost laughing. "Yes, there is no one with me."
"Yes."
"That was clear," he scoffed.
"Yes," It repeated almost the exact same way it did the last.
"Alright, guess if no one's here I'll take my leave," he goes to stand, grabbing the spirit box again.
"Yes," it continued to repeat, with the exact same voice again.
"Very talkative for a nobody."
The spirit box then makes a louder grumbled noise, but no obvious words, followed by a ring or a ding? A almost bell-like noise.
"So there is no demons in this maze with me?" He asked, looking down either path, ignoring his reflection as it made a mockery of his appearance.
The spirit box dips, going quiet for a second, before turning up again, a similar growling noise coming from the speaker again before it somewhat sounds like it says "Gotcha."
"No demons, no ghosts? Is Pauline Phoenix with me maybe?" He asked again. "I really liked your movies as a kid," he tells, hoping to get the spirit's attention. "Me and my brother were obsessed! Every evening in front of the tv." but as he tells this story the spirit box seems to grow tired. The spikes in volume lessening as he continues. The spirit getting bored. "That's if we weren't allowed to play video games to be fair."
He paused for a moment. Thinking what to say.
"BORING!"
That was incredibly clear. It might as well have been someone over the phone. Ryan's eye widening before he bursts out laughing.
"Damn ok!" He continues to chuckle. "I'm boring, sure, you aren't the first to say that," he smiled, resting the spirit box back on the floor as he begins to pace up and down this long straight path in the middle of the maze. "What do you want to talk about instead."
"—D-W-F—"
"What?" Ryan shakes his head confused. "What did you say?"
"Anything but—" it makes another growling noise before finishing. "—that hag—"
"Hag?" Ryan says aloud. "As in the night hag?"
The box then makes another loud noise before cutting off entirely, the spirit box turning off.
Ryan blinks, waiting for the noise to turn back on again, expecting the volume to have just dipped again. Before he leans down and grabs it, inspecting the device.
"It turned off…" He whispers, looking back and forth. "I don't like that…"
He then puts the spirit box in his pocket, walking out of the maze rather rushed, closing the door behind him.
And he begins making his way back to the front of the house, humming to himself, repeating that he's ok to himself.
Which around this time the walkie beeps, catching Ryan's attention just at the top of the stairs.
"You doing alright in there?" Shane asked, hearing a quiet grumble from Ryan's side. "Meet anyone fun?"
"Well," He speaks louder this time, his voice over the radio getting caught by Shane's mic. "I had a conversation with something in the maze. Got bored of me though."
Shane laughs out at this, quickly responding. "Aye, guess we have something in common!"
"Alright shut up," Ryan tuts, seeming a bit calmer his end now. "Just tell me how long I have left."
"Uhhhh," Shane's voice says from over the radio. "About— 1 minute."
"Thank god."
"Use it wisely."
"Sure will," he says with a level of exhaustion in his voice, finally coming up to the top of the stairs, realising his on the wrong side. The steps still retracted into the floor. "Hmm, can I go around…" He looks around the corner, trying to find the right corridor leading to the other staircase, but as he looks back the camera catches sight of something at the end of the hallway the same time he does. It appears to be a dog, not too large, maybe a beagle or maybe a pug.
But it startles Ryan regardless, immediately making him turn back to the stairs, forgetting it had turned into a slide, before changing his method and shimming down to the first floor on his ass, scared shitless as he grabs for his radio, shouting at Shane on the other side.
"—HEL— DO—"
"What?" Shane says back, squinting. "Are you ok over there?" He tries not to laugh.
"I SAW— I don't— I can't… maybe it was a hellhound?!"
"A hellhound?" Shane raises a brow, continuing to hold back a laugh. "I'm sure you were seeing things." As he said this, the security guards seemed strangely absent from the background. "Stop being a wuss and finish up in there."
Back to Ryan, he's managed to get back to his feet, standing just in the front room as he starts trying to make his way through, confused as now, suddenly, a mist had filled the room. From the perspective of the viewer it just looked like a fog but Ryan would describe it as having a green tint, a thick enough that he could barely see in front of his face. His vision completely obscured.
And this terrifying scene wasn't helped by the dramatic music playing over the scene, raising viewer's heart rates.
He began fanning it away, walking around aimlessly as he tried to navigate, switching on the radio again to speak with Shane.
"Shane!"
"What is it now?" Shane huffed, glaring at the camera.
"Why— I can't see! There's like a fog in the front room."
"Huh," Shane bit his lip. "Where's… uh, did you see where the security guards went?" He asks the camera crew, he gets a chorus of 'no's and 'meh's. "Hmm well," Shane turns back on the radio. "I think it's just one of the special effects, the security guards mentioned it to me earlier."
"Well can they turn it off!" He shouts back. "I can't see anything! I can't get out!"
"Ok, ok," Shane sighed, looking back to one of the crew, someone with a camera takes it with them to the front door. "Only you would get yourself stuck in a scare house."
"No—" The radio seems to begin to glitch.
Back to Ryan again, he's trying to traverse through the fog, we can barely see his face.
Back to Shane again, they hear a sudden scream as Ryan is booking it out of the building.
They group back together, Ryan is hyperventilating. The security guards have also returned, now with a dog between them. A small pug.
Shane starts calling him a wuss again but he explains what he saw as the camera shows the footage.
It's barely in the footage but it looked like something had landed on his shoulder, vaguely human shaped with an odd shaped face. Though it was blurry enough that it could've easily have been just a smudge on the screen.
Then the elevator doors open, the footage from Ryan's other camera pointed up as the silhouette of a large hand shaped thing emerges from the fog, making Ryan shriek and run out of the building.
"That was probably just Fingers," Norma explained, "He said he was heading upstairs this morning, thought he wouldn't be back for a day or so."
"The elevator goes upstairs?" Ryan asked, exasperated, still gripping onto his knees, looking down at the floor when he makes eye contact with the dog. Who seems to look sheepishly away.
"I mean, yeah. That's what elevators are for," she rolled her eyes. "I sure he didn't mean to scare you, he probably didn't know we had people around."
"What type of a name is Fingers anyway?" Shane asked, also noticing the dog.
"You can go ask him if you want," Norma suggested.
"HAH! No!" Ryan laughed, backing up behind one of the cameras. "I'm not going back in there!"
"What? C'mon! It'll be fun." Shane agreed.
"NO!" Ryan laughed as he shouted. "We're getting out of here now."
"Fine," Shane rolled his eyes.
"Once one off the most popular spots for tourists, made around the infamous Pauline Phoenix, late actor and singer." "Since the park had gained notoriety now as one of the most haunted parks in America."
"Did we actually talk to the night hag in the diner-saur? Did we pick up the presence of multiple of Pauline’s late husbands in the museum? Did we capture an image of a real physical manifestation of a demon from hell?"
"Our job as investigators is to collect and present, questions, possibilities. interpretation, however, belongs solely with you."
"But for our part, Phoenix Park can now be locked away," dramatic pause… "in the ghost files—-
Courtney sits up from her arm chair, pausing the video prematurely, "Meh, what a bunch’a phonies,” she scoffed, chucking the mobile she'd stolen from barney onto the floor, hitting poor Pugsley in the face before poofing away.