“Yeah!” Madi returned, sounding like she’d just ‘Duh’d’ me.
I rolled my eyes and grinned.
Sunny shook his head as I shoved past and entered the cell block that he, Levi, and Phil and fled from. We started on the bottom level, although the activity had occurred above us.
“Hi. My name is Callie, I’m here to talk to you and investigate what’s been happening here. Nobody here means you any harm, nor will we show any disrespect,” I called out. “If you’d talk to us, that would be great.”
We listened for a few minutes, and nothing happened.
“Take us to where you were standing when everything kicked off,” I said to Sunny.
Sunny headed upstairs, and we followed behind him. The cellblock was split in half, with cells on both sides with narrow walkways. The upper level had railings to prevent people from falling over. Of course, that didn’t stop someone from being shoved or thrown over.
“Are you here? Can you talk to us?” I inquired as I held the voice recorder out. An hour passed as I asked questions and talked to whatever might be here. Finally, after another thirty minutes of nothing but silence, I was ready to give up. I was considering whether to say I didn’t believe in ghosts—hat was something that’d be provoking, and I disagreed with—when Madi spoke.
“Is there anything you’d like to talk about?” Madi inquired.
We heard a faint hiss, and Madi startled a little. Madi’s eyes grew wide with excitement, and her cheeks flushed.
“Try again,” I urged.
“Will you talk to me? I’ve travelled a long way to speak to you. I’m from Spearfish in South Dakota, and this is Pennsylvania. Are you from here? Did you live in another state before arriving here?”
There was a hiss once more. There’d been a reply, so I hit stop on the recorder and pressed play. We all leaned in to listen closely. There was nothing until Madi spoke.
“A dame,”we caught the whisper. Unsure, I frowned, rewound, and listened again.
“That’s saying ‘a dame’,” Madi confirmed what I was hearing. We kept listening and gasped as we clearly heard‘Chicago’in answer to Madi’s question.
“Holy crap!” Madi exclaimed.
Madi’s temperature gauge activated, and she turned slightly so we could all see it.
“Shit,” Sunny muttered as we watched the temperature drop rapidly.
“What does it mean?” Madi asked as my EMF suddenly spiked at a three out of five.
“Callie,” Sunny said, but I ignored him.
“You’re from Chicago. Why were you here? Were you innocent of the crime you were accused of? What’s your name?” I inquired, with pauses in between to allow the spirit to answer, as my EMF hit four.
“We’ve dropped ten degrees,” Madi stated as she shivered.
“Damn. Let me see if our spirit replied.” I replayed the previous few minutes and received silence. I frowned. Last time I’d asked, I’d also been ignored.
“Madi, repeat those questions,” I said, turning to her. Madi did, and there was another hiss.
“The ghost likes Madi,” Sunny said, moving closer.
“Yeah, but why? I’m female too, and he’s ignoring me,” I mused. My eyes lit on Madi as she pulled her cardigan tighter, and I smiled.
“Madi’s clothing! It’s from the nineteen-twenties, and the spirit called her a dame! That’s how they used to address women back then. He thinks Madi is from his era,” I exclaimed.
We hit play again and listened. This time, a male voice distinctly said,‘innocent,’and when Madi asked his name, we got the reply,‘Dutch.’
“Hmm,” Sunny said eloquently.
“Harry, are you receiving?” I spoke into the radio.
