April Slaughter by Ghosthunting Texas Read Free Book Online Page B

artists who completed works between 1865 and 1965—many of them coveted by other art collectors.
    Before I knew it, Allen and I were in the Bull Ring with a small group of investigators listening to Bill has he began to tell us stories of strange occurrences he had experienced in his time employed there.
    “Charlene and I were in the basement one afternoon having a late lunch, and no one else was in the building,” he began. “Both she and I heard the distinct sound of heavy footsteps walking above us from one side of the building to the other, which is impossible if you look at where the counter sits. Whoever it was would have had to walk straight through it as if it weren’t even there.”
    “Just a few days ago, something else happened I can’t explain,” he continued. “Knowing this used to be a gambling hall, I took a deck of cards and I dealt out two hands on one of the basement tables. I laid the cards faced down, one hand right across from the other, and placed the deck neatly stacked in the middle of the table. I checked both hands and wrote down what they were just to see if they would change. The next morning when I came back, the cards were the same but the deck in the middle had been fanned out. No one else had been in the building since I left.”
    After hearing about all of the different experiences that seemed to center around the basement, we decided it would be
best to set up most of our equipment there. Bill made sure all of the doors were locked so that we would not be interrupted. The lights went out, and the investigation began.
    Only minutes in, I was chatting with fellow investigator Adam Norton when Allen’s recorder caught the first of many EVPs we would eventually obtain throughout the evening. Adam and I were discussing updates to The Paranormal Source website when what seemed to be another woman’s voice joined the conversation.
    “That’s nice,” she said.
    Not even a minute later, a female voice was also heard humming a short tune while Adam’s fiancé Gabriella was asking a series of questions.
    Normally, genuine EVPs are few and far between. They do not occur in every location and can be quite difficult to catch. A common mistake among investigators is whispering during investigations, which can make the review of the audio confusing. Each time a sound was heard or made among our group that we were responsible for, we made sure to call it out so that it would be identified properly on the recorders. We were definitely attracting the attention of someone unseen, and they were doing really well in responding to us.
    For a short time, everyone fell quiet to see if we would see or hear anything unusual. Sudden onsets of temperature changes began to swirl around various members of the group. The basement is a fully functional part of the building, and the heating system was continually running. The cold spots would appear and just as quickly disappear. At one point, deeply cold air seemed to hover between two of the group members for several seconds.
    Sometimes I will seek validation that someone unseen is with us by asking them to repeat a series of knocks, whether it be on a wall or a piece of furniture. I tapped a few times on
the wooden table I was sitting at, and we all anxiously awaited a response. None came—at least not immediately. Approximately two to three minutes later, however, the same pattern I had tapped on the table was heard by several of us on one of the tables nearby that no one was sitting at.
    Adam told me that he had been watching an area near the basement exit door, and had repeatedly seen quick, shadowy movements. I was curious about what could be causing them, so I walked over to the door in hopes of seeing them as well. Immediately after sitting down alone at the bar area near the door, several team members closer to the stairwell said they had just heard two or more people conversing on the floor above us. While I had not heard it, most of the others had.