While cleaning out my newly purchased rental property and getting it ready for some new tenants, I found a camera in the basement. The equipment appeared relatively new and pretty high-end and after I recharged the camera, I discovered that the SD card was full. I scrubbed through the videos and was shocked that the latest recording, which goes for over fifteen hours, has the outside of my new property as its thumbnail. When I bought the property, I was told there may be a few “fanatics” popping by, but I didn’t think any would enter the premises, let alone get into the basement. For my own safety, I will watch the video attaching the transcription of the footage below. Hopefully, they don’t come back to look for the equipment while I’m still cleaning.
“Hello everyone and welcome back to the channel. As you all know I am Alec…..” said a teenage blonde-haired boy.
“- And I’m Astrid,” added a short-haired blonde girl who entered the frame.
“And this, is Phantom Facers.” They whimsically said in unison to the camera.
It’s night and the pair of apparent ghost hunters are superfluously equipped with cheap tactical equipment: utility belts, flashlights, head torches, walkie-talkies, a hunting knife along with some other gizmos. As Alec delivered exposition down the lens of the camera he held, Astrid utilised bolt-cutters to open a passage through the property’s barbed wire fence.
“Okay guys, so Astrid and I are literally outside the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse right now. This pre-war residence was originally built and owned by Philip Sergstrom and his wife Eva, back in 1902. There are plenty of conflicting theories on the internet about what actually went down to the Sergstrom family, but all that is concrete is that one night in 1914, the whole family died. After that, there have been countless stories of ghost sightings and disappearances in and around the house. The most recent of which, a high school student called Taylor Maisie, who entered the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse on a dare and was never seen again.”
Alec’s delivery was oozing with charisma to a non-existent audience.
“All done,” Astrid announced, turning to the camera and giving a thumbs up.
After she placed the tool back in her duffle bag, they awkwardly crawled through the hole in the chain link fence, right next to a no trespassing sign. On the other side of the property line, they readjusted themselves before addressing the audience once more.
“Guys we have just stepped foot onto the Sergstrom property and I am so excited and a bit nervous for what we may encounter. How are you feeling Astrid, do you sense anything?”
“I definitely can feel something in the air. There is a certain acidity to the spirits here.”
“Wow. That sounds like we are at the right place then,” Alec proclaimed, turning the camera around to show off the house’s exterior.
The red paint had evaporated from the wood slates and besides an awning at its entrance, nothing projected off of the tall walls of the house. Shaped like a brick with a roof, the house stood in the middle of substantial acreage. Many fences secluded the house from the nearest road, but this did naught to deter its fanatics.
“There should be a loose slat around the back. Can you turn on your torch so we can better lighting for the next shot?” Alec asked.
“Sure,” Astrid’s demeanour changed from the sparkling one she used earlier.
As they circled the house, through the nightmarishly long grass, Alec panned the camera across the many boarded-up windows. The house had lived through a time where, for some ridiculous reason, there was a tax for the amount on the windows of a house. So one of the many owners of the property opted to “fill in” the majority of the house’s windows.
“Alec, this place looks pretty secure. Are you sure there is a way to get inside?” Astrid asked while leading the way forward.
“I am certain, that we will find a way inside. Hold on, I think I see our way in,” he replied while zooming in on a slight opening in one of the downstairs windows.
Astrid dropped the duffle bag and shone her torch into it. While pointing the camera to the ground at nothing, I could hear Alec rummaging around in the bag. After a moment, he displayed a newly bought hammer in front of the camera. He then shakily palmed the camera off to Astrid before he tore open the window with the claw of the hammer.
“Should I be recording this?”
“Probably not, we can always cut it later. Like when you forget your lines.”
“Shut up!”
I am glad that I watched this video. After finishing this transcription I will surely have enough evidence, that being of their social media account name and the video footage of a crime being committed.Alec laughed and returned the hammer to the bag after the opening in the window was sufficiently large. He then addressed the audience.
“Perfect! We have just found our entrance to the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse guys, look at this. As you know the last person to come through here, was never heard from again. Well, I will see you on the other side Astrid,” he said before pulling himself through the window.
Out of the darkness he said, “Pass the bag first.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, tilting the camera back down at nothing.
The footage of the two breaking into the property is obscured and muffled, I imagine they will be editing this part out. After the footage clears up, it appears as if they had entered through the kitchen window and now were setting up the next scene. Alec was back behind the camera and was directing Astrid.
“- so the Oma story and then psychic moment?”
“Yeah and try to make it believable this time.”
Astrid nodded and cleared her throat, before talking again.
“So, guys, we are currently in the kitchen of the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse. It has been rumoured that, in this very place, Eva Sergstrom fed her family their last supper. A special recipe of beef stew with the added ingredient…. Poison!….wait Alec….do you feel that?”
“No Astrid. What is it?”
“There is a strong presence in this room. Quickly, check for electrical interference.”
Alec pointed the camera at his other hand, where a home-made electronic gadget was flashing.
“Woah!” He exclaimed
“What is it, Alec?”
“I am getting some serious readings on the EMF. There’s unquestionably some supernatural activity going on in this house,” he proclaimed, as he panned the camera around the kitchen.
The pair followed the beeping device out of the brassy kitchen, into the barren living room. The house has an indescribable lifelessness, like nobody had ever called it home. There are no paintings or any signs that there ever were paintings on the wall. There are no ornaments or knick-knacks anywhere and there is a rudimentary amount of furniture around. I was told by the real estate agent, that the previous owners took the majority of their belongings with them.
“How do you feel Astrid? Are there any spiritual forces in this room?”
“I feel…itchy. This place is probably crawling bugs.”
“Hey, stay in character,” he said, flashing his torch directly in her eyes.
“Pattaglytt!” She cursed.They walked a couple more steps before Astrid dramatically stopped and looked up to the ceiling.
“Did you hear that?” She asked the camera.
“Yes, it was a wail of sorts, right?”
“Possibly a death echo. It came from upstairs. Let us go and investigate.
”While advancing up the stairs to the bedrooms, Astrid walked backwards with one hand on the stair surprisingly not dusty railing.“I need to describe to you guys the smell of this house. It is unlike any of our previous locations. Normally these old haunts smell of mothballs and aged rat droppings, but this place, is totally different. This house is potent with the smell of life like the spirits which inhabit this place are bringing it back.”
Alec panned the camera across the yellow wallpaper. The house is unusually clean and cobweb-free for a property that has been vacant for such a long time. The wallpaper does not sag, nor has its colour faded. An electronic whirl emitted from Alec’s tactical vest.“My EVP spirit box is spiking. We are getting closer now,” Alec announced.As they opened the master bedroom door, both of the electronic devices rang out at maximum volume.
“I am switching to infrared mode. Astrid, what can you see?”
The dark video flickered from the image of the unlit bedroom to a bluey-purple thermal image of the quaint interior room. From the hallway, Alec zoomed into the bedroom and scanned its contents for something.
“There is a presence with us. I can sense that it is in this room. I think it may be a malevolent one. Yes, I can see it now. It is the ghost of Philip Sergstrom,” said Astrid.
“I am picking us some hot readings over near the bed. Is that where Philip is? Should we start communing with the spirit?”
The colour of the video’s image did not change from the cold blue it displayed earlier. I think the pair were planning on adding some sort of post-production effect over the footage, to solidify their inaccurate statements.
“Well, from the research we have gathered, I am certain now that the presence in the room is none other than the killer of the Sergstrom family: Philip Sergstrom, husband of Ava and grandfather of Tim and Sue Sergstrom. The story goes that after the untimely death of Tim and Sue’s parents, the children were sent to live in this very house with Philip and Ava. Maybe out of demonic possession or maybe he went insane: on one unsuspecting morning, whilst he was shaving, Philip snapped and with his cutthroat razor, he massacred his wife and grandchildren before ending his own life in this very room.”
“Why did you do it Philip!?” Alec bluntly asked the empty room.
From within her satchel, Astrid produced an almost invisible thread of black string. She then tied it to the bedroom’s doorknob and walked behind Alec, out of the camera’s view.
“Ready?”
“Yep.”
The thin string went taut as Astrid yanked the bedroom’s door shut. They both then gave stagy reactions to the event before bolting back down the stairs. In the living room, they recapped the events to the audience.
“Wow, oh my god guys. That was so intense,” panted Alec.
“I think he wants us to leave. I am certain,” Astrid said as Alec switched off the camera’s infrared light and relaxed his hands.
“Great work, and nice improvisation with the cut-throat razor bit,” Alec said.
“Thanks, bror, where shall we film the ending scene? Back upstairs or…”
They turned to the short innocent-looking door under the stairs.
“The basement!” They said in uncanny unison.
Alec led the way this time and Astrid followed behind providing inadequate light. The stairs were solid, yet chalky granules of dust crunched under their heels. With each step, they furthered themselves from the 18th-century architecture of the building above and into the decrepit 15th-century basement below. The ambience licks of the moon’s lights did not dare touch the basement.
I never really took notice of it before, but there is a quite stark difference in architectural styles. I’m guessing that the house must have been renovated over the years, Philip’s being the most recent restoration.After they set foot on the dirt ground, Alec and Astrid surveyed the potently musky cellar. Religious iconography, empty candles and an unsettling amount of small bones occupied the high-ceilinged basement. There aren’t any storage boxes or extra furniture in the basement, just piles of unorganised articles.
“We have hit the jackpot. Go and stand over by the crosses,” Alec ordered.
Astrid walked over to the far wall of the basement, next to an assortment of occult paraphernalia as Alec framed the scene. I have just finished tidying all that up.
“Guys, we are back and you won’t believe what we have found in the bowels of the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse,” she said with expressive hands.
Alec moved the camera from her onto the items scattered in their vicinity.
“-It appears that the Sergstrom family may have been a part of a religious cult of some sort. There have been a few theories suggesting that, but until today, there has been no evidence to support the theories. We have found some witchy black candles, upside-down crosses and satanic symbols, along with…”
The camera began to shake and Astrid stopped talking. Light debris fell from the ceiling as the pair quickly hauled themselves under the stairs. Neither of them spoke during the tremor.After the footage stabilised again, it looked as if the house was unaffected. I wasn’t told this place was an earthquake hotspot, I hope that it doesn’t deter any potential renters.
“Alec, I do not feel comfortable being here anymore…can we..”
“Astrid look!” He interrupted.
He panned the camera over to a section of the rear wall, next to the crosses. Before Astrid had a chance to protest, Alec made his way to the wall, through the still-settling soot. A section of the brick wall fractured during the tremor, creating a hole to a place that was too dark to see. Most of the basement footage was hard to decipher, due to the lack of light, but I thought I could see strange serrations around the edges of the fissure. I just went and hand another look at the basement, but could not find any fissures in the place shown.
“I am being serious Alec. Can we please stop? We have enough footage, can we go?” Her quiet voice uttered as it drifted further away from the camera. Alec surveyed the fissure: its savage, almost rectangular fracturing and ambitious depths. It didn’t appear to produce any rubble, on either side of it.
“….Alec.” “Astrid! We have been doing this fucking show for how many fucking months and never gotten more than a hundred fucking views! This, Astrid, THIS, is what will get us a sponsorship! So for once, can you stop whining like a dog? Or do you want to go back home, to them? I am trying to get us out, for good. FUCK.”
He didn’t turn the camera back to her, it just stayed pointed into the hole, focusing and un-focusing. Even though the tremor had passed, dust and inorganic crumbs continued to trickle down from the fissures maw.Since Astrid was a bit away from the camera it was hard to make out, but I thought I could hear some muffled sobs in the background. Alec returned to the role of camera operator: recording B-role of the basement. He found a string of wooden effigies to show the camera, along with a large pile of old clothes. The pile looked as if it had melted into one gloopy mass.
After Astrid finished sobbing, she rejoined Alec at the fissure. He took a step away from it and positioned her and the fissure in frame. Astrid tried to fix her face, to make it seem like she hadn’t just cried. She closed her face and after a shuddered inhale and exhale, she was ready to present.
“Oh em gee guys, you have to check this out! You are not going to believe what just happened,” she enlarged her puffy-red eyes and signalled the audience closer.
“As Alec and I were investing the basement of the Sergstrom Slaughterhouse, a freaky earthquake struck. We are okay of course, but look what opened up,” like a caricature of a TV show host, she directed the audience.
“Woah, what is it Astrid?” Alec urged her to continue.
“It could be anything Alec, we do not know. It could be the secret back room where the Sergstrom family performed occult rituals, or even Philip Sergstrom’s torture chamber, where he played with his kidnapped victims. We do not know, but we will get to the bottom of this together. So keep watching to find out, and if you haven’t already: react to this video and share it!” The strain in her eyes was palpable.
“Good. Now go in,” Alec’s voice resumed its controlling tone.
Astrid didn’t fight him, she wiped her eyes and raised her torch before entering the fissure. She quickly disappeared into the darkness, after which Alec approached the opening and heard a gagging sound from within.
“What?” His voice held little genuine concern.
“Nothing, it just smells of hot death in here,” she sneered.
As Alec stepped into the fissure, the vague space on the other side was revealed. The walls were raw, they were muddy-red and looked as if they had been manually excavated. It was a narrow alcove that teetered out quickly, but it was long enough for the pair to both stand inside.
“It is different in here. It is hotter right?” He asked.
“It is weird right Astrid?” He asked again, this time pointing the camera towards her.
Astrid was standing at the deepest point of the chamber, dead still. She pointed her torch down, into a circular hole in the floor. The space was silent, besides a few abnormal cycles of wind. Alec turned the camera around to himself and began talking to it with his back to the fissure.
“Wow guys, check this out. We have just entered the fissure and found a secret room! This is literally insane. This place looks like it has been mined by hand. Maybe it is a secret bunker, mined by Philip Sergstrom himself, hidden behind the brick walls of the basement for decades until that earthquake revealed it. What is more, Astrid has discovered another hole. I wonder where this will lead us,” he finished and flipped the camera back to Astrid as she swiftly slid into the hole.
“Hey!” He shouted as he shuffled over to the hole.
As he peered the camera into the hole in the floor, I could only just make out Astrid. After a moment, he ungraciously followed her into the vertically descending tunnel. The undiscerning pair climbed down the ribbed hole. It was so easy enough to navigate, Alec was still able to operate the camera while he descended.
“Do you smell that Astrid? I think I can smell vinegar. Maybe the ghosts are cooking some poached eggs down there,” he sounded like he genuinely was trying to make her laugh.
The cylindrical tunnel’s walls appeared slippery, like they were coated in something. Condensation began to form on the lens of the camera, making the footage blurrier. A noise, like a large gust, distorted the video’s audio as Alec gripped tight to the side of the tunnel. Then, a cascading “thuck” beat down from the top of the hole, making its way to Alec. It looked like the walls were compressing him. It was then that he either lost his grip or was pushed down by the tunnel’s ribbed walls.
He screamed as he perilously fell. He gave up on his camera duties and used all of his limbs to claw at the walls for a footing. His momentum suddenly stopped as the camera, pointing downwards, gently swayed back and forth.
“Ari…ARI!!!” Alec cried.
Below Alec, Astrid sunk into a gurgle ooze. She thrashed and flailed but failed to scream. Alec looked as if he was dangling above a bubbling cavern. Alec switched his hands over, using the one with the camera attached too to hold his weight above the caustic pit. With his other hand, he retrieved the knife from his utility belt and plunged it into the side of the cavern, perhaps this was an attempt to escape or perhaps a frail attempt at revenge. A deep croak belted from below the acidic cavern before the boiling lake below began to rapidly rise. As Alec struggled to ascend back up the tunnel, Astrid vanished into the amber liquid below.All of a sudden, a liquid blast erupted from the carven, swallowing Alec and the camera and after what sounded like a torrent of water belted him.
The liquid on the camera subsequently evaporated, as a static-like hiss sounded. Alec was on his stomach, back outside the fissure. The camera had slid in front of him a couple of inches and his hand reached out to the audience as he suffered. His skin, flesh and hair dematerialised from his body. His hand rapidly disintegrated from a mottled mess to a lucent white as behind him, the roof and floor of the fissure slowly closed until it was flush again with the brick wall.
Over the next few hours, until the camera presumably ran out of battery, Alec slowly dissipated, until there was no organic matter left, just melted cloth.