Free Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum by Stephen Prosapio Page B

Whatcha got?”
    “First, thanks for waiting until the last
minute to give me that information last night. I had to pull all kinds of
strings to get what I got at that hour and I’m still nowhere near finished.”
    “The fires? I told you, it was a last-minute
tip.”
    Wendy appeared all the more peeved that Zach
was ignoring her prima donna act. She wasn’t used to boys not falling
over themselves for her when she batted her crystal blue eyes.
    “Anyway, I found something.”
    “What?”
     “Well, I discovered something late last night after I’d written my presentation and after you told me to focus on
events relating to fires.”
    Zach nodded. “Okay?”
    “I knew you and Sara wouldn’t want me to
divulge this right up front in the historical section. It’s creepy as shit.”
    “Okay, spill it already.”
    “So, on July 4th 1899, on the site of the
female quarters destroyed by fire earlier that year, some guy doused himself
with kerosene and set himself ablaze.”
    Zach realized his mouth was ajar, but
quickly composed himself. “Lit himself on fire? Who?”
    “They didn’t have the technology back then
to determine his identity, but there had been an ongoing investigation into
series of fires including the original Pullman Market Hall that burned
down in 1892—”
    “Wait, Market Hall? Same location as the one
that burned in ’72?”
    “The one and only,” Wendy said.
    “1892 was the same year that the hospital
opened?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Are they connected?”
    “That’s what I need to research today. There
were a lot of fires around that time, including the White City in 1894.”
    Evelyn had mentioned the White City the
prior night. Zach had looked it up online. “The site of the 1893 World’s Fair?”
    “Well technically, it was called ‘The
World's Columbian Exposition,’ but yes.”
    Zach ignored her anal retentiveness, and
motioned for her to continue.
    “But here’s the kicker,” she said, “from
everything I gathered, after the suicide by fire here in 1899, high-profile
buildings in the area stopped being torched, the arson case was closed and—”
    “And the haunting here at Rosewood started
full force.”
    “Aren’t you a smart one?”
    “Good work, Wendy.”
    “Well,” she said donning her on-air
flirtation. “Is that all I get?”
    “You come up with a connection between all
this and our haunting, and I promise you’ll get a lot more time in front of the
camera.”
    By the glee on her face, he might as well
have just told her she’d won the lottery. She batted her eyes at him. “Well in
that case,” Wendy said, “it might be a coincidence, but that incident with the
Lovecroft girl?”
    “Yes?”
    “It happened one year to the day from
when that man set himself on fire.”

 
    Chapter Ten
     
    Bryce spoke in dramatic tones for the
cameras. “In a moment, giving us the opening tour of Rosewood Asylum will be Demon
Hunters very own DemonHistorian – Patrizia!” He extended his arm
toward her. “You may be asking yourselves, why is Patrizia leading the tour? As
most of you know both Demon Hunters and XPI typically have the
property owner give us a tour and point out the hot spots. Well friends, we
couldn’t find one person working for the State of Illinois who was brave enough
to walk us through Rosewood!
    “But first, Zach wanted me to remind all you
amateur Demon Hunters and XPI’ers why a tour is so important.”
    Zach had done no such thing. He set his jaw
and attempted to feign ambivalence.
    “Knowing the ‘hot spots,’” Bryce continued,
“is necessary to document evidence of an intelligent haunting.”
    No, Zach thought, they weren’t. It helped to
know where to look, but it wasn’t necessary. Even if Bryce’s facts were accurate, this kind of speech was the type of spoon-feeding the audience that
Zach often butted heads with Sara about. Next, Bryce would be telling the
audience the most basic of ghost hunting facts like that