“Well, do whatever you want,” Jason said, rolling his eyes as Michael walked out of the office. That man was no good, and it seemed to be up to Jason now to make this show a hit… and he would. This would be it, the show that made him famous. “But I’ll take a look at that letter.”

‘And maybe get a head-start into the project, if this turns out to be something good,’ he thought to himself.

The letters were just a jumble of loops and snirkly handwriting, and it seemed almost impossible to figure out. Almost. Lucky for him, the word impossible didn’t exist. Hopefully.

Jason pushed the letters back and forth, hoping to, as Will had said, decrypt it.

“A-ha!” Jason exclaimed, cracking a triumphant smirk as he started seeing a pattern. This was going to work out just fine for him, all he needed was a little bit of time.

John looked at the letter over Jason’s shoulder. “Hold on a second.” He said, moving over to get a close look at it. “I might just have something for this.” He reached into his trench coat and pulled out a small device that looked like a magnifying glass with a wheel of letters. Placing it onto the letter, he began turning the wheel at each word, writing every letter he translated down on a spare piece of paper. After going over the entire letter with the device, John put the decoder away and looked at what he wrote down. “Well,” he said, scratching his head. “It is saying something about an old house with ghosts in it, but that’s nothing unusual. Wait! It says here: ‘Beware the spirits of the past, for if one shall awaken them, God will not be able to save them.’ What do you think of that?” He laughed nervously. Sure this was most likely some sort of prank or the other, but still, this had never happened before…..

Pastor Nick speaks to Jason quietly on the way to the location.

He is fairly new to the team - to be a resident expert on spirits and possessions, and find something captivating to say when the location does not have much to say for itself.

“You know, I can do some camera work myself. I reckon this place could be worth checking out. Why don’t we do the filming Michael wants today, and then see if we can’t track this place down and do a piece to camera ourselves?
Between your acting skills, and my commentary, we should be able to come up with something that even Collins can’t deny is worth pursuing.
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

On location, Pastor Nick tried to be at once unobtrusive, and helpful. He wanted to get to know the others, but in particular study Michael, to consider how best to persuade him to try this new venture. He did not want to get in the way or tread on toes, but he was happy to help with any preparation or even basic camera work.

Of course, above all he was looking for opportunities to offer his trademark wisdom and insight, to add a bit of kudos and gravitas to proceedings. Some houses need a little more help being haunted.

Jason sighed, fixing his hair and straightening his tie. He looked good, the rest of the show… not so much.

As he spinned away from the mirrow, Jason caught sight of Nick in the other end of the room. At once he came to think of the suggestion that the man had made on their way to the location.

“Nick!” he called out, approaching the man in a steady pace. “What about that idea of yours? You reckon it can be any worse than this? I assume we could even get the cameraman to help.”

Nick answered without hesitation,
“We have not been sent the message for no reason. There must be something going on. Even if it is a hoax, the message sender would have picked a location that looks the part, and the message will give us something to work with. And if it is not a hoax…”

Pastor Nick approached Michael with care.

“Michael I have not been here long and I am not one to rock the boat. But I have a good feeling about this place we received the note on. The note itself will add interest, and even if this is a hoax, they would have picked a building that looks the part. I think this could really give us an edge - please would you consider letting us try? “

“We can do both! With two locations in the can, we can make two episodes for only a fraction more than the cost of one!
You don’t even need to attend - let us do the production on site, if you like, and you can do the final gloss in the editing studio. If the Board like it then you win, if it does not work out you have lost neither time nor money.”

Pausing for effect, he said
“This could make you look really good!”

“So what exactly do we know? Has any more of the message been de-coded?”

John watched the scenery flash by while half listening to the conversation about the coded letter. Where am I going professionally thought John. When is my break going to come? Sitting around doing reality TV isn’t going to earn me an Emmy and so far hasn’t provided any valuable network connections to bigger and better projects.

Rolling his lucky half dollar across the back of his knuckles John had a thought. “What if we use the letter in our shoot? We can hide it in a floor vent or maybe bury it in the backyard and pretend we discover it by accident. We can then have Pastor Nick decode the letter on air.” The wheels in John’s head started turning more quickly as he thought about the camera angles and lighting he was going to use to overemphasize the discovery of the letter for the audience.

“We can even have a shot where Pastor Nick gets a paper cut and spills a droplet or two of blood onto the letter. Something that will really hook the audience into the story line.” John thought if he could create a memorable episode it could possibly lead to a movie spinoff based on the episode project. This letter may be the jump start for his career if he played his cards right.

“What do you think Pastor?” asked John.

Pastor Nick rubbed his chin. He liked the idea.

However:
“A false witness is not acquitted, And whoso breatheth out lies perisheth. Proverbs 19, verse nine. We don’t have to stretch too far from the truth. It’s sufficient that you come into shot, brandishing the note and saying “Look what I have here!”. It will be inferred that you just found it and I can set about translating as you say. I like the idea of the blood mark! How shall we say we came across the house? Maybe just that we heard local rumours that it is haunted!

Speaking of which, is this not the place coming up now on the right?”

It did look creepy. There was a large unkempt garden behind an imposing iron fence. It was a large, tall house, long overdue for a lick of paint, and windows at the top that seemed to slope slightly at an angle, giving the appearance that it was frowning.

They parked up just in front.

John appraised the house with a director’s eye as the van came to a stop. The house was fairly unassuming. John had seen his fair share of haunted locations and as this one went it wasn’t particularly unique, but its old, near Victorian presence would translate well for the camera. John started framing camera angles in his mind as he walked across the front of the property.

Jenna got up that morning, dazed, half asleep, hair all over the place. her room is quite basic, a bed, an end table with a small lamp, a dresser with a small mirror and some make-up on top. other than that, the walls of her room have pictures of wild life and grand scenery, a picture of young jenna with her father stands on the end table with a vast scenery behind them. she dose her usual morning routine, shower, breakfast, and looking for a job in film. that past week, she has sent out job applications to 50 places that where looking for someone who knew film and editing. looking thought her email on her laptop,only 10 bothered to thank her for sending her application to them. she leaned back in her chair, tilting her head back and giving a moan of misery. (well, back to doing retail agin.) was the thought the went thought her mind that moment. she closes her laptop and goes to her room to change.

A cold chill crept down Skye’s back as the morning breeze crept into her apartment and directly onto her neck. She could barely pay attention to it, however, what she was looking at was much more important. Skye was browsing her investigation site, Discoverthetruth.com, when she saw a particularly concerning tip. A father who’s 5 year old son disappeared. Though it was probably a desperate father trying to hold onto the thought that his son was still out there somewhere, she couldn’t help but notice the parallels to her own disappearance. Her eyes narrowed as she read the harrowing story, and she eventually decided to reply. Skye told him the basic things like; research your home’s history, nearby burial sites, or if your family had any ties to the satanic. But in the back of her mind, Skye had a feeling that the child wasn’t a victim to a supernatural occurrence, but an all too natural tragedy.

With a sigh, Skye closed her laptop and languidly grabbed a cigarette and lit it with a nearby zippo lighter. Smoking was a bad habit she picked up after Blaine disappeared. She’s tried to stop doing it in the past but no amount of nicotine gum or patches could truly curb her addiction. As smoke escaped her mouth, Skye looked outside of the window of her 5th story apartment. Below she could see people going out for their morning jogs or making their way to their early morning jobs. She could never imagine working a 9-5, with her job as a private investigator she could mostly work her own hours.

Skye almost dozed off before her phone buzzed against the wooden coffee table. With a silent yelp, she sat up and checked her phone. It was a text message from an unknown number. The message was only a set of coordinates, along with the words “Mystery”. She read the message multiple times to make sure she wasn’t mistaking it, but alas that was what it actually said. The logical part of her brain told her to delete the number and go about her day. But her need for excitement completely overtook her. Skye quickly opened up google maps and typed in the coordinates. They were…to a house? It didn’t seem that mysterious, though it didn’t seem all too friendly either. This was her line of work, though and it would be a tragedy for her to miss out on something like this.

So she dug her phone and pack of cigarettes into her pocket as she slipped a suit over her white button-up shirt. With a final look in the mirror, Skye walked out of her apartment and down to her car. The same chill creeping down her spine as she approached the black sedan. “Well Skye, you sure got yourself into some weird stuff.”

Pastor Nick posted a photo of the house with a commentary:

Luke11 An unclean spirit leaves, but finds no rest. It says, “I’ll return to the house whence I came out.“

It comes and finds the house quite ready for it. It goes, and brings 7 spirits worse than itself: they enter in, to dwell there.
Would this house a gaggle of spirits?

He then used the official Haunted Houses account to re-tweet, with some teaser hash-tags designed to generate interest in the spooky place and create an appetite for the up-coming episode.

jenna drives her beater honda to her job at a retail clothing store that serves the older lady types. she hates it but it pays. most of the time the ladys that come try to set her up with their sons or some guy they know that is single. from what they say about them she knows that they are not her type. she bears with it in hopes of something mite come up.

John pulled out his cell phone and used his finger to swipe away the locked screen. The location held promise and they needed to assemble a full team quickly. John pulled up the show’s Twitter feed and quickly composed a tweet announcing an opening for a camera person in the area.

After sending the tweet John ran a hand through his hair. He was used to working through challenges with a shoot, their regular cameraman was in a car wreck last week and was going to be out for awhile. Even their substitute cameraman they used in a pinch had had a death in his family so he was unavailable as well. John didn’t like to place random shout outs for a crew, but he had little choice.

John turned to Pastor Nick, “ I think I’ve seen everything I need to see here. What about you?”

The Pastor rubbed his hands together, fiddling with his signet ring and adjusting his leather jacket.

“Are you kidding me? I want to get in there. It does not look like anyone’s in. The cryptic note’s an invitation in, isn’t it. Look we can get over the side wall just there, if we climb onto that skip - then I reckon we go round the back. French windows will be easier to get in than the front door, and I’ll bet a house of this style has got them.”

As jenna was taking her lunch break, she got a text from a friend of her’s who she went to film class with some years ago. the text read [ hey jenna, saw this and though of you. this mite be a good jumping off point for you to some day do your wild show. tinyurl. tweetlink. 2444587675….] she planed on applying for this job as soon as she got back to her apartment that day.

“I don’t know Pastor. Breaking and entering is one thing, but…” John quickly ran through options in his head. “I guess if we’re just doing some exploratory research, we can feign ignorance with the letter in hand. Plus…”, John looked around, “the site is pretty secluded from any neighbors that might call the cops. Okay, let’s take a quick look around.”

John walked around the house toward the back. On the side of the house were a couple of boarded up windows and what appeared to be a grime stained basement window level with the ground. He looked carefully for signs of recent human activity. John had run into squatters a couple of times when exploring abandoned properties, and didn’t want to run into any surprises. He didn’t notice any worn foot paths in the grass, nor did he hear any sound that didn’t fit in the environment. Rounding the back of the house the Pastor was right, there was short porch and a door framed on either side by large French windows. Despite the majority of windows being boarded up, John could tell that one set of the French windows was partially open.

“Well Pastor, I guess God answers prayers, there is our point of access”, as John pointed to the barely, opened window. “This is your party so after you.” John stepped aside, holding his arm open to the window.

The Pastor reached through the gap, to complete opening the latch and get the door fully open. All more deftly than you would expect from a priest, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.

He stepped in, brushing cobwebs from his face, and looked around for any clues about the nature of this place and it’s recent - and not so recent - history.

as soon as jenna got off from work; she headed strait to her apartment, and got on her laptop computer to put her application in as camera man that her friend sent a job link to. she put a few samples of her work in as well. after she did that, she turned off her computer a prayed that she would get the job. than she got up, took a shower and ate some food in front of the tv watching some nature shows and than went to bed with hope that this would happen. her one big break has hopefully come.

John followed Pastor Nick into the house. A dampness of stale air blanketed them and dust motes stirred in the dying rays of of sunlight. They entered what appeared to be a sun room. There was a small dining table with a couple of chairs around it. With the exception of a fine layer of dust everything looked reasonably cleaned and straightened. John couldn’t get over the stillness and absence of sound outside of his and the Pastor’s quiet movements. Moving through the space was almost reverential. Over a kitchen island hung a circle of frying pans and copper pots ready to be used.

John jumped with a startle when his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. Cursing to himself John pulled the phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. There was a text from the office saying that an application for a camera person had been received.

“Good“, thought John to himself. “That was quick. One less delay going forward.“ John turned to Pastor Nick, “that was the office, someone has applied for the camera person job.” John looked at his watch. “Let’s continue with a quick look around then wrap up for the day. I have another appointment I have to get to this evening.” Unbeknownst to the crew John had been in dialogue with another TV network about doing some work for an up and coming chef. It wasn’t what John was interested in, but there was a little more pay and the potential for a lot more exposure. John looked at jobs as stepping stones to his big break in the movie industry, one step at a time.

Lost in thought for a moment John’s shin caught the edge of gas pipe that was capped, but sticking out a few inches from the wall. John bent over and grabbed his shin, “blast it!” Pulling his pant leg up John saw an abrasion on his shin. A small trickle of blood ran from the abrasion and fell to the tiled floor. “Dumb, dumb, dumb. I can’t believe I did that.” John blotted the small cut with his sock, wiping away the blood.

The Pastor had a small bottle of sterile solution in his pocket - working with kids and the elderly from time to time these things were needed. He helped John sort himself.

“It doesn’t look bad. That camera person - we had better get them in if they are available. No need to stand on ceremony - if they know how to capture a piece they will be good enough for this, and we could be a bit short handed otherwise.”

“Okay, go ahead and capture some video on your phone Pastor. We’ll use the footage for story boarding when we draw out the outline later.” John walked across the kitchen area to a large wooden that appeared one could push through. John placed a hand on the door but it wouldn’t budge. John looked over the door, but there wasn’t a visible handle or lock.

“What’s going on…” John lightly nudged the door with his shoulder, but it wouldn’t budge. As he ran his hand over the door he felt tiny indentions around the edge of the door. Upon closer inspection John noticed that nails were hammered into the door affixing it to the frame. john turned to Pastor Nick.

“What is this all about?” John walked over to the far end of the kitchen to an open doorway with stairs leading upward. The steps were steep and cut upward at a sharp angle. But about four steps a significant amount of debris blocked further passage including a bed frame, mattress and some wooden chairs. Odd thought John.

“Okay, we’ll have to leave and come back with some tools and manpower to gain access to the rest of the house. Lets call it day.” John was frustrated. He hated delays, and hated wasting time. At least they knew they had easy access to the house. John walked back to the french doors and looked over at Pastor Nick.

“Ready to go?”

Pastor Nick took some footage of the house, getting some shots of the sealed-up door and general rubble. He got a long shot capturing the dust hanging in shards of fading daylight for effect. He also took pictures of key features such as the fireplace, and tiles with strange markings. He found a brick in an old piece of wall with a date and a strange inscription. He captured all this so they could study it later.

He finished up with some shots of the exterior before they headed back.

He got the details of the camera person and gave her a call He asked her a bit about her background and confirmed she could join them the next day.

Then he spent some time in the editing suite, printing out some good shots for storyboarding, and also putting on some effects to get some little snatches of first-person footage. They would be able to use some of this raw as cut-away shots.

Jenna got up the next morning, she took a shower, made some breakfast and ate it as she went on her laptop. going thought her email, she saw that she got one from the place she sent an application in for and wanted to meet her to talk about the job at 1:00PM that day, she didn’t have to work that day. there was an address on the email and she put the address in a maps app and found that it was not far from where she was. there was also a number to call to confirm the appointment. she talk the a lady (the secretary) from what she could guess to confirm it. she was so happy the she spent most of the day trying pick out what she should wear. the time to go came fast to her and she got in her old beater honda and got there with a few minutes to spare in the waiting room. she wearing a flower pattern blouse with jeans and red flats.

John heard a soft knocking on his office door. He glanced at his watch and saw he was 3 minutes short of his lunch break being over. “Yes?”

Will cracked the door open, “your one o’clock is here.” John answered with a momentary blank stare, “the person for the cameraman position.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Give me a minute then send them in.” John wadded up the last bite of his club sandwich in a napkin and tossed it into the trash can. He then pumped two blobs of sanitizer into his hands and rubbed them vigorously together, encircling each fist. Punching a few keys on his keyboard he brought up the applicant’s resume along with a basic set of interview questions.

Exactly five minute later Will led the applicant into John’s office. John didn’t rise, but mentally recorded his first impression. First, the applicant was female, they hadn’t had any female camera operators before. She was clean cut and dressed appropriately, meaning with the exception of her shoes she was ready to go.

“Okay…”, John glanced over at his computer screen, “…Ms. Winklee, tell me about your professional background. Have you ever worked on reality based show like this?” The interview went on for about thirty-five minutes and John was satisfied with all the answers.

“So here’s the thing, you have the job, we need to get started today. We started working on the episode yesterday and need to move quickly on it because it is a bit of a special project.” John scrawled an address down on a post-it and slid it across his desk to Jenna. “Here’s the address. Get changed, grab a quick bite, meet us there at 3pm and be prepared to work late. We have to get this wrapped up as soon as possible.”

Jenna was escorted in a office room, she saw a man with very short hair like a buzz cut, he don’t even get up to shake her hand. she didn’t have lunch yet and could smell your standard club sandwich and hand sanitizer, she could see some crumbs at the corners of his mouth. he is most definite not her type. she sat in a chair that was closest to her and they started the interview. she was surprised that this would be a reality show, she knew of a few but it was not her thing. shows like survive and thrive was what she saw most of but not her favorite. it went on for a few minuets and that was told that she got the job and had to go to an address, get changed and eat something and be there at 3 pm and to expect to work late. with a look of concern she asked “ok, but do you have a camera i can use?” the one i have is not that great”

John looked up from some notes he was reviewing about the location. “Yes, of course. Someone from the office will pack the equipment today and you can familiarize yourself with it on location. This is not YouTube. Our show is carried on cable, this is a professional operation.”

John returned to his notes, already re-engaged in formulating potential story arcs.

“oh okay, um thanks and i’ll be there ready to go.” she gets up to go to the door. “i’ll just show myself out than.” she opens the door.

(2:36pm)
John stepped out of the van for the second day in a row onto the patchy grass in front of the looming Victorian House. The placement of windows and sloping roof did give off a somber, facial look. The sun, already beginning to leave its highest point cast a myriad of shadows through the surrounding trees.

“Pastor we have a solid plan in place for shooting today. The footage you got yesterday looked great on screen.” John began walking toward the back of the house, following the path they took yesterday.

“Ready?”

Pastor Nick jumped out of the van, clutching a clipboard. It contained the storyboard but added gravitas in some scenes when he referred to it like he was looking up historical records, or conducting a ceremony. He also had a doctors-style bag, containing such essentials as a torch, filming make-up, candle, Bible, bell, and flask.

The flask contained coffee, not holy water. He also had some sandwiches, and some other bits and pieces which could be used as props to create a bit of drama.

He got a strange feeling as he approached the house. Cold. Almost as if he was being watched.

Great! Nothing made for good filming like feeling genuinely unsettled.

He checked that he was not really being watched by any mortals who might call the police, and slipped round the back.

The doors opened easily enough, and they moved in to make themselves at home.

Jenna left the building and ran to her car, she put her beater honda thought its paces back to her apartment. she took off her dress cloths and put on long tight pants, t-shirt, long socks, and hiking boots. the other things she got was a back pack, a camel back for water, she put a compass, lighter and lighter fluid, mag striker, box of energy bars, paracord, hammock tent, small shovel, flash light, batteries, some extra cloths, tooth brush, some other hygiene stuff, first aid kit, into the back pack. she took it out and put it by the door and walked in to the kitchen and ate some cold mac and filled the camel back with water than put on a multi-tool on her pants belt loop, a mans wallet in the left pocket, cell phone in the right,trucker hat, and rain jacket with pockets. she than put on the camel back and the back pack over it and left her apartment locking the door and putting the back pack and camel back in the trunk, and got in her honda and left for the place she would meet the other people at the address she was given to go to. she hit a bit of traffic but got there at 2:47 and saw a van in front of an old house. she didn’t see anyone by the van, and she shotted out to see if anyone was in the van and heard nothing, than she honked the horn of her car.

The Pastor cocked his head at the sound from outside.

“I wonder if that is out new camera girl announcing to the neighbourhood that she has arrived?” he asked John sardonically, with a “are you sure this was a good idea?” sort of look.

He went out to investigate what all the noise was about, and returned with Jenna, hoping she had not drawn unwanted attention.

Jenna sees Pastor Nick come from the back of the house and meet her by her car. He introduces himself to her, she’s not quite sure what to think of all this but shakes his hand and gets her back pack and camel back from the trunk of her car and walks to the back of the house with him.

John looked up from the the tools he had laid across the table as Pastor Nick and Jenna walked in.

“Good you’re here, we can get started.” John pointed to the large duffel bag containing the camera equipment. “There’s the camera and tripod equipment, go ahead and start getting it prepped.” John picked up a crowbar from the table and headed over to the door that was nailed shut. He ran his hand slowly over the edge of the door and over the slight indention of each of the nails.

“I’d like to get a shot of us opening this door. Some close-ups of us prying it open and a reaction shot of us opening it. I we can’t get it open with this crowbar we’ll take a sledgehammer to it.” John took the crowbar and tried to fit it into the gap between the door and door frame, but the wood was too smooth and the gap not large enough. The nails were also sunken so far into the door that he couldn’t get the crowbar wedged under the nail heads. John knocked on the door, a dull thud responded.

“This door is solid oak.” John felt a growing twinge of uneasiness at the prospect of tearing this door down. Oddly, the idea felt sacrilegious. The oddest thing was that John had never thought twice about anything he had to do to get an episode made. John stepped back from the door re-composed himself.

Turning toward the Pastor, John said, “maybe we should try to go through the front door instead.” Even as John offered this alternative suggestion he felt drawn to staying in this room, which was odd. John was typically so self assured, that this feeling of uncertain was foreign and unsettling.

Jenna went over to the duffel bag, the thought of just putting camera gear in a duffel made her think that this guy doesn’t know how to take care of his equipment. and the fact that this mite be a low budget job made her wonder if she’ll get payed for this. but the guy hired her on the spot so she had to show she could do it and more. the camera was a bit old and a little beat up, she look over at john trying to pry the boards of (a real, smart man would use an axe but some men just have to do it the hard way.) she thought with a small smirk on her face. she got the camera on the tri-pod, she saw that there was a case with extra lenses, and a manuel for the camera that she was reading and making sure the camera worked.

John turned to Jenna, “what do you think about the lighting? With the exception of the window we unlocked the door through everything is boarded up. The sunlight will be fading…” John looked around. The shadows at the corner of the room would be growing as the afternoon wore on, stretching out into the kitchen.

“There are some battery powered lights in the equipment bag for later that will help. I really want to get through this door and explore the house a bit.” One of the challenging aspects of working on this project would be doing it without their main host whom was indisposed at the moment. No matter they could lead with Pastor Nick and given the show a slightly unique perspective. Instead of Nick serving in a supporting role, who knows, maybe this would lead to a spin-off series in the future. While racing through the logistics of the shoot in his mind John noticed Jenna for the first time outside of the interview earlier in the day. Most cameramen came to work in a t-shirt and shorts, but Jenna looked professional and prepped for a working shoot. Shoots were so much more complicated and went over schedule because of the network’s low budget for the show which led to a transitional crew. By the time a cameraman became familiar with the flow of the show and gained some experience they left for a better paying gig. Having someone that at least looked confident and prepared gave John a spark of hope that this would be the episode that he could put his creative stamp on and move himself up the rung on the ladder of success in the business.

“Also, Pastor Nick we’re going to make you the main host for this episode since Jason can’t make it. Don’t hesitate to put your own unique spin on how we run this episode. I don’t want this to be a Haunted Houses episode with you as a stand-in. I am looking for something more tailored to your talents, in the spin-off or alternate universe range. Let’s treat this episode as a special bonus episode and test something different for audience. Sound good?” John felt some of his confidence returning as he rubbed his hands together.