Free Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown by Stefan Petrucha, Ryan Buell Page B

a patient of hers, suffering from severe schizophrenia, committed suicide on the property. Repeating the story for us on-camera, Helen described him as quiet and a little intimidating. He also had a box he kept with him at all times. It was never out of his sight. What was in it? She had no idea. One night, he left his bed and drowned himself in the pond. His box went missing at the same time.
    Ray described the weather at the time, saying it was a drought season, so someone wanting to drown himself would have had to walk to the center of the pond.
    “And he wanted to take that walk,” he said.
    This was around the time Chris was five years old, the same age his experiences began, according to Helen. I asked if she felt if the entity was related to the suicide.
    “I don’t know. It seems to fit in, but I don’t know.”
    I pushed for more information about this patient, but Helen was reluctant.
    Originally, we planned to hire a diver to go down to the bottom of the pond and search for the box. That was a great investigatory opportunity that was now affordable thanks to the show. It was less than twenty feet deep, so I had high hopes we’d find it. At the last minute, though, Helen decided against it. She never gave us a reason.
    I felt confident the clients were being truthful about their experiences, but there seemed to be something else going on. There had to be something more to this Dark Man and its relationship with Chris. Could Helen’s patient have abused Chris, either physically or mentally? Unfortunately, we never found out, but there were things we could research.
    To verify the timing of Chris’s experiences, I asked Eilfie if she’d found any records of the suicide. She had found one, a vague newspaper account, and the article did have a date. If it were correct, the death did occur when Chris was five—the same year he began seeing the Dark Man.
    That connection seemed strong, but there wasn’t much to go on. Maybe this man had been hostile to Chris in life and was continuing to be in death. Then again, it could all be psychological. I obviously couldn’t ask Chris. I also couldn’t look Helen in the eyes and tell her anything.
    Hoping Dead Time would give us something more, we broke off into two teams. The first, led by Joyce, Eilfie, and Serg, was out by the pond. I was with Josh and Heather on the second floor, in Chris’s room.
    We’d all already decided that during Dead Time that everyone except necessary camera and sound people would leave the house to keep the investigation as pure as possible. Often, the crew and producers were outside in the cold or in cars for the hours of Dead Time. The crew, meanwhile, wanting the best possible picture, brought in a slew of lighting equipment. Two large crane lights were aimed at the house from outside. It was like the gods had gotten drunk and turned the moonlight switch to “wake the dead.”
    Realizing the conditions weren’t perfect, I tried to get some response from the spirit.
    “They say you bang on the walls all the time. Why can’t you do it for us now?” I said. “Either communicate with us, or we’ll get rid of you.”
    Aside from walkie-talkie chatter and creaking floorboards from the crew, nothing happened. After nearly an hour, I decided to end it. Even under the best circumstances the paranormal won’t show up on command. I did realize I’d have to be clearer and more vocal about what conditions we needed to conduct our investigations.
    And then, as I turned off the recorders, and the film crew powered down, we had our first activity.
    In the hall, a motion detector, hand-built by Sergey and Josh, went off. It was the first time we’d been using these, and I had a hunch about putting one in the hallway. What could have set it off? Reviewing the surveillance footage from our cameras, we saw that no one was there. Could the detector be defective? Serg walked near and around it, but couldn’t trigger it until he stepped directly in