Ghost Hunters International - Wester Drumlins

"Welcome to London, England," Barry Fitzgerald said into his walkie as he drove the van one-handed, "Kris, tell us where we're going today."

In the other van, Kris Williams took out the papers from a folder and spoke into her walkie, "Well, today we're going to an abandoned mansion called Wester Drumlins just outside of London. It's been a hotspot of sporadic paranormal activity since it was built in the late 19th Century. There are numerous reports of disappearances - ranging from a few from the early 1900s to the most recent disappearance of Katherine Nightingale in 2007. Since then, there have been no disappearances, but people keep seeing movement in the windows of the mansion - shadows, silver apparitions, and the strange angel statues that keep getting moved with no evidence of what moved them. There's also a message on one of the walls that was written in 1969 by someone called The Doctor warning a girl named Sally Sparrow about those angel statues. The mansion is to be demolished in hopes that the paranormal activity will cease; however, if there is a chance to save the mansion and get rid of the activity, it would become a historical site and museum."

"Have those statues ever been removed?" Joe Chin asked.

"The demolition crew found four angel statues in the basement and removed them one by one from the premises," Kris told him, "When they came back the next day there were four angel statues in the garden, weeping into their hands. They weren't the same angels, but there was no evidence of them having been moved in. After that, they kept hearing movement, footsteps, and seeing shadows."

The two vans had almost arrived at Wester Drumlins so Barry spoke into his walkie, "Thanks Kris. We'll probably find out more when we speak to the foreman."

"Woah, this place is creepy," Scott Tepperman said as they drove through the very sinister-looking gate and drove up to the mansion.

Ghost Hunters International (GHI) got out of the vans and met with the foreman who was standing uneasily at the main entrance to the mansion. He took a step forward, "Welcome to Wester Drumlins. I'm Ken Hansen, the foreman."

Barry shook his hand, "Barry Fitzgerald, and this is Kris Williams and our tech manager Paul Brandford."

"It's good to have all of you here," Ken said as he shook each of their hands, "It's really good to have you here. Things have escalated again - one of my crew disappeared yesterday. Vanished without a trace."

Barry and Kris exchanged worried looks before Barry spoke, "Well, why don't you take us to the hot spots of paranormal activity and we'll see if we can get this sorted out for you."

"Right this way," Ken said, leading them into the mansion. He led them down to the cellar and stopped, "This is where we found the angel statues. They sometimes appear here with no rhyme or reason," He pointed to the indents on the floor, "You can still see where we found them, but there must have been something else because you can see another indentation from something big and square. Whoever or whatever removed it didn't disturb the angel statues. This place makes people really uncomfortable and drained. Many people also have the feeling of being watched and see shadows and hear a strange echoing grinding noise. I've even heard that noise down here and it is like a grinding or wheezing noise."

"So you have audio and visual paranormal activity here," Barry reiterated.

"That's right. Now, let's go back upstairs and I'll show you the weird message on the wall," Ken and the three GHI team members returned to the main floor. Ken suddenly stopped short and let out a curse.

"What's the matter -" Barry asked and let out his own curse. Standing just across the hall was an angel weeping into its hands, "That wasn't there before."

"See what I mean?" Ken glanced back with wide eyes, "Those angel statues move on their own! I swear!"

The uneasy feeling spread to the three GHI members and Paul cleared his throat, "Let's just... go see that message."

They headed upstairs to one of the bedrooms and saw a place where the wall paper had been deliberately peeled off. Ken turned to them, "We contacted Sally Sparrow about the message and she gave us her account of how she found this. She said she had come here to take some photos of the mansion and saw the corner of the message, the BE."

"Beware of the Weeping Angels?" Paul read the warning, "What's that mean?"

"As far as we know, the warning was about those statues, and I can see why someone would warn her about them."

"What about this other warning for her to duck?" Kris asked, "What did she say about that?"

Ken shrugged, "She said that as soon as she got finished reading that, she heard a crash and ducked. Someone or something had thrown a pretty good size rock at her head."

"Has this ever happened again?" Barry asked.

"Not that we know of, although stuff has been thrown, just not at anyone." Ken paused, "The last thing about this room is that right by the door is the last place Katherine Nightingale had been seen."

Kris looked out one of the broken windows, "There are two angel statues down there in the garden."

"Yeah, the activity down there... well, the angels move by themselves and sometimes different angels replace them. There's only one thing they have in common - they're always weeping either into their hands or their arm."

"Okay, well, we'll go talk to the rest of the team and get this investigation started." Barry said and they headed back downstairs to the vans.

"What have we got?" Joe asked.

"Possible demonic activity," Barry said uneasily, "Surrounding the angel statues."

Susan Slaughter frowned, "That's kind of ironic."

Barry nodded, "We'll have to be really careful. No provoking just to be safe."

GHI unloaded their cameras and recording tech and began to set up for the investigation. Ken had left for the evening and the five of them were alone at the very creepy abandoned mansion.

"I don't like this," Scott voiced his opinion to Paul, "I don't like this at all."

Paul smirked, "Scared of a few statues?"

"There's something wrong with them. I keep thinking I see them moving every time I blink."

They split up into teams with Scott and Susan staying with the laptops in the entranceway.

"Kris and Barry in the upstairs bedroom where the message is written," Barry said to the digital voice recorders in the room before looking to Kris, "Let's get a thermal sweep before we start our EVP session."

He turned about the room as Kris spoke, "You know, it's really weird that someone from 1969 would know what to write on the wall to warn someone about a rock being thrown at them. Are we sure that that's not a hoax?"

"I don't know what to tell you. We might have to go speak to Sally Sparrow tomorrow." He moved the thermal to the window and gasped.

"What?" Kris asked, swinging around.

An angel statue stood in front of the window with an arm covering its eyes. Barry cautiously approached it with his thermal camera, "What are the readings for this thing?"

Kris looked down, "It's just a statue. There isn't anything out of the ordinary with it. No cold spots, although it does have this weird yellow aura around it. Take a look."

Barry kept the camera on the angel as he walked to Kris to look at the screen. His brow furrowed, "Now that is strange. I've never seen anything like that before."

"What do you think it means?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe the camera's malfunctioning. There's no reason a statue should give off that kind of heat energy."

Kris nodded, "Okay, then let's start the EVP session." She turned on her portable voice recorder, "This is Kris and Barry in the upstairs bedroom with the message in it."

"Who is here with us in this house?" Barry asked and they both paused for thirty seconds, "Are you the one who keeps moving the angel statues?"

Another thirty seconds past. Kris asked her question, "Doctor, we found your message. How did you know what was going to happen to Sally Sparrow?" Another thirty second pause. "Why do the angels keep moving?"

There was a crash and the two investigators gasped and jumped, turning toward the door, "What was that?" Barry asked when he found his voice, and before Kris had even recovered he was dashing out the door, "Scott?"

"Yeah?" He was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes wide.

"You heard that?"

"Sure did. What the hell was that? Where did it come from?"

Paul and Joe came pounding up the cellar stairs, "Did you guys hear that?" Joe asked.

"That was a huge crash." Paul added.

"We all heard it. Kris and I were just conducting an EVP session in the Message room." Barry told them.

"We were doing the same thing downstairs," Paul said.

Susan came running in, "We got it! Something moved the chandelier in the living room and it dropped to the floor. I didn't see what happened I'd looked away from the computer for a minute and that's when the crash happened. When I rewound the tape, it goes all fuzzy just before the chandelier spins and crashes to the floor!"

"Let's see it then," Barry went back to command central to watch the clip. It was exactly as Susan said. The chandelier was fine, the monitor went all fuzzy, and when the picture came back the chandelier was spinning before it dropped to the floor with a crash. "That's very interesting..." Barry murmured.

"Hey Barry," Scott said, his voice quavering a little, "The angels in the garden moved."

"What?" Barry was startled, "Let me see it."

Scott enlarged the camera view that focused on the garden and rewound the tape a few minutes, "See, there are two angels in the garden. Both with their eyes covered. Then, like the camera in the living room, it goes fuzzy and suddenly," The camera view went fuzzy just as he said and then...

"Oh my god." Barry breathed. There were three angels standing in the frame, and they were in different spots than they had been before. "Rewind and slow it down. I want to see if we can see through the static."

Scott did exactly that and noticed the static really only lasted a few seconds, "I don't think there's enough time for anyone to move the angels like that."

"I'd have to agree with you." Barry said, "Good catch. Mark it."

Paul and Joe headed back down to the cellar and redid their EMF sweep to see if anything had changed due to the activity.

"Nothing unusual about the EMF," Joe said, "All about .5 or .6." He continued his sweet to the indents on the floor, "Wait a minute. That's really weird. 1.2, 1.6, 1.9, 3.4. Holy crap, this is just continuing up and up. 6.6, 7.2, 10.4." He stepped into the square indentation, "There's no reason for it to -" The EMF numbers plummeted, ".2, .3. That's so weird." He stepped out of the square again, "4.3, 6.4," He followed the readings around the circle where the four angel statues had once stood, "It's just in this area, and just within the indentations where the angel statues were. It goes way down when you step into the square indentation."

"Let me try," Paul took the EMF meter and soon got the same results, "That is really weird."

"Why don't we -" Joe let out a string of curses.

"What? What's the matter?" Paul turned toward Joe, "Oh my god!" An angel statue stood in the corner, its hands over its eyes. "How did that get here? Was that here when we got down?"

"No, I remember doing a sweep of the walls when we got down here after the chandelier crashed." Joe said.

"Then how could we not notice it?"

"I really don't know."

Paul walked over and brought the EMF meter up to it, "6.7, 8.2, 11.4, 18.7. This statue's EMF readings are off the charts! 20.6, 45.2. 76.5. 130.2!" The EMF meter went blank, "It can't measure the amount of energy this thing has!" Paul looked up at the angel as a chill went down his spine, "I think we should get out of here right now."

He looked over his shoulder and saw Joe pointing his flashlight at another angel on the stairs, trapping them in the cellar. Paul picked up his walkie, "Barry," He called out, but there was only static on the other end, "Barry, pick up the line." Nothing. "Barry!" He turned to look back that the other angel and dropped his walkie, "Oh god."

"What's -" Joe let out a string of curses. The angel no longer had its eyes covered and it no longer looked very angelic; it looked like a demon. He looked back at the angel on the stairs and stumbled towards Paul, "Oh god..." It too had moved and had that demonic look on its face. He grabbed his own walkie, "Barry? Scott? Anybody? Answer me!" His flashlight flickered off, "PAUL!"

"I'm here, Joe." His voice quavered. Joe's flashlight flickered back on and both angels had disappeared. "Are you alright?"

"I think so. Everything's intact. Check the cameras." They went to their DVR camera and checked the video.

"Nothing. It's all static. It's all gone! How's that possible?" Paul asked.

"I don't know, but now we know why that Doctor person was warning about the angel statues." Joe said, "Let's get upstairs before anything else happens."

"We should -"

"I don't think we're getting any answers if its only the statues causing the activity." Joe said, although it was obvious he just wanted to get out of the cellar. Paul didn't argue; he wanted to get out of the cellar before the angels came back and actually did something more than scare the crap out of them.

Joe and Paul took over at command central and Susan and Scott headed to the message room while Barry and Kris went down to the cellar.

"Susan and Scott in the Message room," Scott said for the general recording as he began taking EMF readings starting at the message from the Doctor and going all around the room, ".6, .8, .6, this is all normal." As he neared the door, he frowned, "1.2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8. I've got a spike here right where Katherine Nightingale disappeared."

Susan walked over to take a look, "That's so weird, 9.4," She continued to read the numbers as Scott traced the door frame. Susan shivered.

"What's wrong?"

"I... I don't know, really," She said, "I just have this weird feeling, and I'm cold."

Scott turned toward her with the EMF and, "14.6! Susan, there's high EMF all around you!"

"That's impossible. It shouldn't," She clutched her stomach and bent over in pain, "AK!"

"Susan! Are you okay?"

"What do you think?" She snapped, clutching her abdomen.

Scott glared around the empty room, "Let her go! You let her go right now! Stop whatever it is you're doing to her!" He pulled her away from the door and Susan began gasping.

"It's - it's going away."

"Tell me what you felt."

"It was like - like I was being pulled somewhere, sucked through a tiny hole." She said as her breathing eased. They both then looked toward the message on the wall and jumped backwards when they saw an angel standing to one side with an arm covering its eyes.

"How the hell did that get there?" Scott asked and he looked back to Susan who was looking ill. "You okay?"

"I'm going to be sick," She said through gritted teeth.

"Stop it!" He glared at the angel statue, "You want to attack someone? Attack me!" Susan gasped, as if she was released and Scott turned his attention back to her, "You okay?" He asked again.

"Keep looking at the statue. Don't worry about me, just keep looking at it!"

"Why?" Scott look back up at the statue and cursed. It had moved toward them, arms outstretched and its face had a demonic look to it. He took a step back, his eyes wide. "What the hell is going on here?" He knew they were in danger. This thing was definitely not friendly and they had to get the hell out of there, "Susan, go back downstairs. Go to command central and stay there." He glanced down at her and then back at the angel, "Holy -" A string of curses left his mouth as he came face to face with a roaring demon angel statue. Scott took a step back, taking hold of Susan's arm. "Don't even blink!" He told her, "Stare at the statue, don't blink." They headed out the door backwards and then down the stairs backwards.

Joe and Paul looked up as they came into the entrance hallway, "What happened?" Paul asked, looking concerned at Susan's state and Scott's wide eyes.

"An angel, no demon, attacked us, or at least it started to." Scott explained, not really caring how crazy it sounded, "Susan, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, just... keep looking at the statues when you see them."

"We had a similar experience down in the cellar," Joe told them, "Except there were two of them."

"There is really something wrong with this house," Paul said, "We should really just get the hell out."

"Where are Barry and Kris?" Scott asked.

"They finished in the cellar and headed to the garden." Joe answered as he glanced at the laptops. He cursed when he saw that the camera they had set up in the garden was recording nothing but static. He picked up his walkie, "Barry, Kris, can you hear us?" No answer. "Barry, Kris! Respond now!" Still no answer. The four GHI members glanced at each other.

"What do we do?" Susan asked weakly.

Then they heard a scream.

"That was Kris!" Joe said and began charging toward the garden, the rest of GHI right behind him.

They found Kris on the ground, curled up in the fetal position with scratches on her back. Barry was not far away, but he looked more scared than anyone had ever seen him. An angel statue had its hand around his throat and the other around his waist. Joe ran over to Kris and shined his flashlight on the scratches. There were a lot of them, but they weren't deep, and they weren't bleeding, but they sure looked painful.

"Kris, it's Joe," He said, "Make a sound to tell me you're okay."

"Help me." She said softly, "Please."

Scott and Paul kept their eyes on the statue holding Barry. Susan kept watch behind them.

"What are we going to do?" She asked softly, "These things are going to kill us in the blink of an eye!"

"We need to call for help," Paul said, "We have to get help now!"

That's when they all heard a grinding/wheezing noise that sounded like it was coming from just around the corner. A few moments later a young man stepped out. He was wearing a tweed suit and a red bow tie. "Well, now, I've heard your cries for help and I just couldn't ignore them. What have we got?" He glanced around and wrinkled his nose, "Not Wester Drumlins again." He glared at the angel holding Barry, "Haven't you learned your lesson already? Go somewhere else! Stop hurting these innocent people, although why they're here is beyond me."

"Who are you?" Scott asked.

The young man spun in his direction and gave a big, confident grin, "I'm The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

The grin got bigger, "Now that's the question of the millennium. Doctor who? Maybe I'll come back and tell you the answer someday, but right now, I've got to get you guys out of here safe and sound and discipline these Weeping Angels." Then he saw Kris and his expression darkened, "How dare you," He took out a device that looked like a pen with a green light on top and walked purposefully over to Kris. The pen-thing made a whirring sound and he stared at it for a moment before nodding, "She'll be fine. Disinfect the scratches and she'll be good as new."

He stood again, his gaze shifting around the garden, "Ah, there the rest of you are." The other three angels had appeared in the garden while everyone was focused on either Kris, The Doctor, or the angel holding Barry, "Now, if you don't want to be erased from history, you are going to let these people go, and when I say that, I mean let them go in their correct time period, as in right here, right now." He glared pointedly at the angel holding Barry, "I promise you if you don't let them go, I will destroy you for all time."

"How do we get Barry out of there?" Paul asked.

The Doctor glanced at Paul with a grim expression, "Well, we'll all just have to blink and hope for the best."

Paul swallowed and looked to Scott who was still staring at the angel holding Barry while Barry stared toward the three angels that had appeared on the other side of the garden. Paul then looked to Susan who gave a nod, and Joe, who also nodded.

Paul took a deep breath, "On the count of three everyone close your eyes. One. Two. Three." Paul closed his eyes, hoping this would work.

Scott closed his eyes, praying that Barry would be okay. Joe closed his eyes as he worried about what the angels had done to his friends. Susan closed her eyes and shuddered as she remembered how nauseous she had felt by the door of the message room. Kris already had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, coping with the painful scratches. Barry closed his eyes, hoping this action wouldn't get him killed.

"Alright you Weeping Angels," Came the Doctor's voice, "If you so much as touch myself, my box, or any of these people, I will erase you from time." He closed his eyes.

There was a rush of wind and then silence. Slowly, one by one, everyone opened their eyes.

"Barry!" Susan cried and rushed over to hug him. Scott and Paul breathed sighs of relief.

"I'm okay. I'm alright," Barry reassured his team.

Kris had finally relaxed and the Doctor was standing over her again with his pen light, "Well, let's see if my sonic can heal those since they're superficial."

"Why didn't you do that in the first place?" Joe asked.

"Couldn't take my eyes off the Angels. That would've been bad news." His pen light thing made a whirring noise that was higher in pitch than the one it had initially made, and the scratches slowly faded away. "There we go. Can't do much for the shirt, though. Sorry."

Kris slowly sat up, "Thank you."

"No problem. I'm The Doctor. It's what I do." He stood and pocketed the pen light thing. "So, where're you all off to?"

"Well, we don't know exactly what to do about this place," Barry told him, "It's going to be demolished soon if we couldn't get rid of the paranormal activity."

The Doctor's eyebrows went up, "Paranormal activity?" He looked thoughtful, "Well, I suppose the Angels could be classified as that. It doesn't matter if you destroy this place. Those Angels will just find a new home. It just so happens that this place has enough time energy to keep them alive when people don't come here. They might stay here even if the building is destroyed."

"What are they? Some sort of demon?" Barry asked.

"I suppose you could call them that," The Doctor tilted his head to the side, "They're called the Weeping Angels or the Lonely Assassins. Whole big long history for them, too long to tell now, so maybe another time." He paused, "I suggest you get out of here before the Angels decide to come back."

Barry nodded, "That sounds like a good idea."

The GHI team gathered all their equipment in pairs, making sure any Angels stayed exactly where they were. Once they had everything in their vans, Barry turned to The Doctor. "Thanks for helping us. I don't think we would've gotten out of that if you hadn't come along."

"I've had trouble with these Angels before," the Doctor replied, "Got sent back to 1969. Long story. Anyway, it was good meeting all of you, and watch out for the Gelth. They're nasty gaseous creatures that like to imitate ghosts." He gave Barry a pat on the back, "Good luck with your hunting." Without another word, the Doctor went back around the house and the GHI team heard the grinding/wheezing noise again.

After a few moments of silence Barry turned back to his team, "Well, let's go back to our hotel. No sense staying here any longer than we have to."

Over the next few days, GHI analyzed their evidence and noticed that any time one of the angels moved, the cameras' images turned to static. The only evidence of that movement was the fact that the angels were not in the same place before the static as they were afterwards.

Kris and Susan went to find Sally Sparrow and she told them of her experience and showed them the DVD Easter Egg of The Doctor.

"That can't be him," Susan said, "The Doctor guy we met was younger and wore a bow tie and had floppy hair."

Kris shrugged, "Maybe there are many Doctors?"

Other than their own personal experiences to add to Sally's, there was not much actual evidence of paranormal activity. They also hadn't really been on a full investigation since their lives had in fact been in danger. As the founders of TAPS, the original Ghost Hunters, always said, "When in doubt, get the hell out." They had gotten the hell out of there before one of them had gotten really hurt.

Their reveal to Ken the foreman was severely lacking in scientific evidence, but they recommended demolishing the building as soon as possible and sealing off the property as best they could to try to contain what they called a demonic presence that not even an exorcism could get rid of at this point in time.

Ken was pleased that he could blow up the building, but was confused by their last message: "Keep eyes on the statues at all times. Don't turn your back from them. Don't look away from them. And never, ever blink in their presence unless someone else is watching them with you."

End.