Page 11 of Haunting Salem

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We founda table in the back of Mass Hysteria, away from the bar and noise—not that it mattered because the place was alive—literally. The minute we stepped over the threshold of the establishment, like with the library, my senses went on high alert. We weren’t alone and there was something unusual about the people surrounding us. Jack noticed it too, and he’d needed a moment outside to gather up enough courage to be in there. The place was cozy, so it wasn’t the physical atmosphere that had me glancing around. I felt so tightly wound, the minute someone approached, I’d jump out of my skin and there was no rhyme or reason for it.

“So this place,” Nolan said. “Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?”

Always. “Yeah.”

“But not from one particular spot,” he added. “It’s everywhere.”

Sure was. I kind of liked it. Mass Hysteria added to the charm of Salem. “I wish I understood what we were feeling.”

“Same,” Jack agreed. “Though the place is... Interesting.”

I laughed. “Totally.”

"Is the bartender staring at us?" Owen pointed to the man with green eyes who appeared watchful and astute. A shadow-ish thing appeared behind him, larger than the man's already imposing size. The grey-brown image swirled with silver and carried a power I'd never seen before. Come to think of it, if I paid attention to the others inside the bar, I noticed the same, only they were different colors mixed with that silvery shimmer.What the fuck is going on here?

I pulled my gaze away from the man, determined not to stare, even though he'd piqued my curiosity. "Maybe. He probably does the heavy lifting if shit goes downhill."

“Here are your menus, your server is Ryan, he’ll be with you shortly,” the hostess, Lore, said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Enjoy your night and remember, you’re never alone when you’re at Mass Hysteria.”

Not too creepy.

Halloween was only four days away and the atmosphere around town was supercharged. I'd asked Kael before we left the hotel if he could dampen any of the residual activity playing out around us. I knew Jake would have a hard time processing it for starters and two, nothing says spooky like seeing live people carrying on ruckus conversations while enjoying their dinners, and a barmaid in colonial garb walking through one of the people on her way to the backroom or the old fireplace at the back of the tavern. Most were oblivious to it. Some paused and glanced behind them, while a scattered few paid attention.

Kael had done his best, but residual wasn't something any one spirit, guide, or guardian could switch off. It'd been the leftover energy from the dead. Every house has it, even new build sites, believe it or not. We all leave our imprint wherever we go, which, if you think about it, when we die, someone else will see or sense us going about our daily routine. However, Kael had managed to dial back the active hauntings. Yes, the idea of seeing ghosts and whatever else people hoped to experience in Salem was the draw and the moneymaker for the town, but they were also a distraction for me and Jack—for now, anyway.

“I want a beer,” Nolan said.

“Coffee for me,” Lucy added.

“Same,” I replied.

Jack took a moment to stare at the menu card in his hand. “I think I’d like a soda, root beer sounds about good right now.” He pointed to the menu. “Looks like they have a local company that sells to them—The Brewmstick. Might be interesting to try.”

“Soda here too,” Owen agreed, “and some nacho fries.”

I’d been eyeing the fries as well. “Great maybe we should grab a triple order along with some burgers?”

“Add in a double order of wings,” Nolan said, “and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Perfect.” I grinned.

When Ryan made his way to our table the same kind of shimmery shadow followed him. The question sat right on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it and instead put in the order, minus the blue cheese dressing for the wings. Some of us at the table were highly allergic to the dressing, namely me. I was the one. Once Ryan left to put in our order, Jack retrieved his tablet from his bag and set it up in the middle of our table along with a few of the articles we’d gathered about Salem. Jack recalled all of the information Betty Good gave us during our initial meeting, including a few curious deaths around the area.

In the winter of 1979, a woman was found out in Harmony Grove Cemetery, propped up against a headstone two days after a nor’easter blanketed the area in three feet of snow and ice. According to the newspaper article and the information Betty gave us, the woman wasn’t from Salem. She'd been part of a traveling performing arts company who'd decided to stop in Salem only hours before the storm struck. The official cause of death was hypothermia due to prolonged exposure to the elements. Consequentially, she was found next to the grave of Caroline Emmerton, the founder of the settlement for The House of Seven Gables. It gets even crazier. Captain John Bertram was also buried there along with several other notable citizens of Salem.

Also in 1979 a boating accident happened no more than fifteen feet from the dock, both boats were slow-moving and there shouldn't have been any fuss or muss. Unfortunately, due to the boats colliding as they did, one person fell overboard and drowned. The way Betty explained it, the person was an excellent swimmer, the dock and inlet area were clear of debris, so the person should have been able to swim back to the surface. The body of Jim Askew was found six days later downriver at Pickering Point.

Then about twenty years later, near Gallows Hill, there was another freak accident involving a mother and her three children. The mother, Elizabeth Paul, had brought her children out to her vehicle to put them into their safety seats, but as she turned to grab her coffee—which she was in desperate need of after not sleeping the night before—her car began rolling backward down Hanson Street toward Varney Street. Elizabeth screamed for help, for someone to save her babies, but it was too late. At the same moment, a trash truck driver had been collecting garbage, not more than a few hundred feet from the runaway vehicle. As both approached the intersection, the driver never saw her vehicle until it was too late. All three of her children died upon impact. The youngest was only sixteen months old and the eldest was five.

But, the story gets worse.

Hours after the scene had been cleared, and her children's bodies had been carried away, tragedy struck again. Elizabeth's husband, Howard Paul, had been on Swissair flight 111—bound for Switzerland. Of course, all of the passengers had perished, but the official word hadn't come until a clergy member along with another officer came to her door to inform her of her husband's fate. In a macabre turn of events, a sheriff's deputy and a member of her church were already at her home to console her about her children.

Elizabeth Paul killed herself only hours after the deputies and clergy left. Her suicide letter read more like the manic ramblings of a woman who’d experienced profound loss and grief and couldn’t continue a life without her husband or children. But what struck me as a little odd was a sentence in the suicide letter;Oh Lord, help me. It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands...The original author of that quote was Rebecca Nurse, seconds before she was hanged. And, in typical spooky form—for Salem—Elizabeth was found hanged in a tree not far from Proctor’s Ledge, which was formally the crevice where all of those convicted and killed for witchcraft were thrown.

“But, what does all this have to do with the bigger picture or is it all build up?” Owen said, before stuffing a handful of nacho fries into his mouth.

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