After the meals, Jon immediately set to setting up is equipment. Per Cain’s request, he set up one camera for the interview in the porch. Jon, thinking of clips to put up in his channel, did not like the lighting much, but it was sufficient enough to at least capture the faces and the background properly. Susan was the first to be interviewed so Matt could help Jon with the setup.
He massaged his temples as his headache has not subsided yet. Jon already took two tablets and was thinking of getting another. Setting up took his mind of it but it would flare from time to time, making him cringe.
The children played in the living room. It seemed to Jon that the older sister was just indulging the little one. He wondered how long that would last considering the TV was smashed and there was no internet in the house.
“You have so many cameras.” Matt remarked.
“Yeah, need to capture just about anything that might be helpful.”
“What are these for?” Matt pointed to six identical cameras.
“They’re still cameras, but I can set the modes differently to capture in different spectrums.”
“Like night mode and thermal?”
“Yep. Just like that.”
“Never thought cheesy movies were at least on point on those.”
Jon laughed. It never got old. He would have loved better equipment but those were really expensive. Even with the payout he was getting with his channel, it wasn’t enough. But Matt’s comment made him laugh for a couple of reasons. The biggest one being, those shown in movies were just the very basic.
“They show it alright,” Jon answered, “but those are just like, basic stuff.”
“You mean there’s more kinds?”
“Seems like that. Every year, someone invents something or at least innovates on the existing ones that it does seem like I’ll never own all the best things.”
“I’m betting they’re super expensive too.”
“That they are. So, were going to be putting up stuff, some of them together, and that might need a lot of wire. Is it fine to drill down your wooden floors upstairs so we can run the wires? Only if needed of course.”
“That’s okay. As long as I can repair or cover it up later, that’s fine. What are these meter things?”
“Oh, those? Those are multi-sensing meters.”
“Like radio?”
“It does pick up radio. It’s mostly for RF or EMF detection.”
“Electromagnetic fields? I never got the answer to that, but why do ghost hunters, no offense, always seem to use those? Seems to me in the electronic age that there’ll be a whole lot of radiation and EMF stuff going around.”
“You’re right on that. Those things can be set to narrow their ranges, like a couple of yards only. It doesn’t work if you set the sensitivity too high. Picks up all kinds of stuff that you mentioned.”
“Just between us, does these things really pick up otherworldly… traces.”
Jon had to smile. Another question he keeps being asked a lot only this time, the person asking really needed to know it works.
“It would seem like that. Honestly, these things don’t pick up much. Like less than half the time. But when they do, it’s really quite something.”
“You’re saying you set it to just work within your intended range, that’s why they don’t pick things up.”
“Yep. That’s exactly what I do. Cases like these, it doesn’t help when your attention is split. You find you’re focus has been engaged by something only to find out it was nothing. Then you review your recordings and find you might have missed on something important instead.”
Matt lined up the equipment that Jon handed him. They were going to set up at the second floor first.
“Say, I, forgive me for asking,” Matt said, hesitant, “but how long have you known Cain?”
“Long enough to know he’s legit.”
“Like actual cases like ours? How do you know he’s legit?”
“Matt, first of all, I’m going to claim credit for you finding his details on that old website. I thought I already scrubbed everything off, his request. That was his deal with me when he agreed to take me to investigations – that no one should know who he is or what he does.”
“Still doesn’t explain how legitimate he is. Again, forgive me. It’s my family we’re talking about here.”
“I understand. Cain, well, he’s a special one. I don’t claim to know everything about his talents except the ones he’s told me and the info I got from reading about it, although there’s not much on it on official publications. Cain is a man that feels what people are feeling. People around him. Would have made him a damn good psychologist, if I have to say so, but he chose this instead. Probably because the church sent him to college to get his degrees and diplomas and all that.”
“He mentioned something like that when I called him. He really works for the church?”
Jon signaled with a head tilt that they should go upstairs and begin set up.
“I don’t know what to call it really. Like a contractor maybe?”
“The church hires him out?”
“Something like that. Pays him, gives him allowance. Sends him to cases that are referred to the church, cases the church deems are mostly probably real demonic activity.”
Matt went silent. Jon turned his gaze on him and found his conflicted expression.
“Sorry, I… I tried to find other explanations until there were no more explanations to be found. The word just… it just brings a whole different vibe to everything, you know?” Matt explained.
“Nobody expects it. That’s the thing. All these years I’ve been with Cain, that’s the most common thing I find. Everyone has explanations, like people going crazy or deep trauma or things like that.”
“And these cases the church sends him to check on, they’re all… supernatural?”
“My experience, it’s about fifty-fifty. The other half are mostly possessions. The second half are physiological issues.”
“Never both?”
“Oh, sometimes it is both. Like the first case we stumbled on together. I mean he was sent, and I got wind of it. That’s when we met.”
Jon set the sensors where he thought they would get the most chances of getting a reading. He placed more on the older girl’s room as Cain asked.
“What does that mean, both?” Matt asked, kicking a cable wire to the side.
“The case, I think this is where you found his details, exhibit psychic phenomena. Some would say it was the work of demons.”
“It wasn’t? I remember the forum discussion saying it was full of things that pointed towards the boy being possessed.”
“The boy was not possessed. He was abused. By his uncles.”
“That bit was true?”
“Hundred percent. I did not address that part on the post on purpose. Better have the people in there speculate. For the sake of the boy.”
“But the other things. Like stuff flying around and attacking people. What was that about.”
“My understanding about that,” Jon answered, securing wires to cameras, “is it is a very rare phenomenon called manifestation. There’s nothing in it in official psychological studies unfortunately. But Cain’s explanation is simple enough – it’s just the mind trying to protect itself.”
“Even when one is passed out?”
“Yep, like the boy. Some, exhibit traits of being possessed. Like they become a different person while all these things are happening. The unfortunate thing about these cases is that damage has already happened. People have already been hurt.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” Matt agreed. “Hey, you ok there, bud?”
“Yeah, just the headache. Still hasn’t disappeared. Spikes from time to time.”
“There’s still more if you need them.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll take you up on that.”
They progressed through the other rooms setting up cameras and sensors then started running wires towards each.
“What are these? Looks like an old recorder, but… new.”
“That is my very own creation.” Jon answered, laughing. “Pretty proud of that. It’s just a digital and analog recorder, sort of spliced together.”
“One is not enough?”
“Digital, well the sounds are cleaner, but the capture range is limited. More ambient sounds are captured by the analog one.”
“Damn genius way of making them work together. I’m guessing you both turns on and off at the same time?”
“Yep. And everything is controlled from my station where the laptop is.”
“You can do that from just a laptop?”
“It’s a pretty expensive laptop.” Jon answered laughing. “Seems the wiring will be adequate. Come, let’s do the first floor too.”
When Jon showed Matt how he could control the camera’s they just set up, Matt was so impressed he offered to have him use the cheap CCTV cameras. Never one to shy away from getting more data, Jon accepted. They set each one up on the first floor, one facing the kitchen, the other facing the living room.
“Thanks.” Jon said, taking the bottle of pain relievers from Matt. “All things considered, I really like this house and the lot. Seems like I need to be a billionaire to find something like this nowadays.”
“It’s just a bit of luck, really. You noticed all the farms you passed by coming here?”
“Yeah. What about them?”
“Well, the strips of land on this side, I am told, are not for farming. City zoning stuff. Something about keeping the river clean. Anyways, it puts off those who wants to farm and those who want to have a nice place.”
“Because of the farms.”
“Right. People being picky. I can’t even hear or smell anything remotely farm related from here.”
“The air does seem to be fresher. So, want to try out the toys?”
“I mean, if that’s okay…”
“It’s very much okay, Matt. I just need you to see and know what I’m capturing, just so you and I are on the same page. If you find something not to your liking, we’ll take it out.”
“People do that? After asking you guys for help?”
“Not outright, most of them after the fact.”
“Well, I’m not going to. I’ll tell you that right now. But I’ll play with them anyway.” Matt said, smiling.