Tipsy Moon

"Hey! Hi, buddy! How are you? Want to join us?" – I said, patting his feathered chest, which he didn't mind at all.

I don't know if O'Connell minded, but he looked at me strangely.

"What are you, a raven whisperer?" – he asked me, smiling. – "I've never seen the local ravens behave like that. They're pretty wild here. We feed them, so they're not afraid of people, of course. But to sit on someone’s shoulder like that – that's the first time!"

"He must have liked me", – I smiled back. – "I love birds. I've always gotten along with them. I've never had any ravens, though… Only parrots".

At that moment, the raven apparently decided that it had paid us enough attention and, with a loud flutter, flew back to its nest.

"Oh… He made me bleeding…" – I rubbed my shoulder where the raven had just been sitting. – "Such a beautiful bird, but those claws… It hurts, damn it!"

"It's okay, we have a first aid kit. Let's finish here and I'll give you some antiseptic", – Bridie waved her hand.

"Yeah, go ahead, it's getting close to midnight. I wouldn't want to spend All Saints' Day in this chapel!"

"Well, dear inhabitants of this castle, good night to you! Forgive us for this uninvited visit. We are not here to harm you or offend you in any way. We simply want to talk with you", – Bridie finally began the conversation.

"Bridie, we have already offended them by not introducing ourselves…" – I noted.

"Ah! Please forgive us! Yes, it was very disrespectful of us to barge into your home without even introducing ourselves. That brown-eyed brunette shaking with fear is called Katherine, or simply Kat," – Bridie took revenge on me for my comment.

"And that red-haired witch is called Bridie", – I responded in kind.

Bridie and I had known each other since high school and were very close friends. When the paranormal investigations became popular, I decided to start my own company that would organize such activities in the haunted locations. In Ireland, I was one of the first, so the business quickly took off. We have lots of such mysterious places in our country, so there is plenty of work.

"I have a small box with an orange light on it", – Bridie continued, raising her hand with a recorder. – "Please talk into this light, if you don't mind. We would be very grateful. I will put it here".

Bridie put the tape recorder on the floor near the altar and took a couple of steps back.

"Tell me, did you live in this castle?" – she paused, giving the ghost time to answer. – "Perhaps you were the owner of this castle or one of the employees?"

Pause. Then Bridie nodded her head at me, as if to say, go ahead and ask something too.

"Tell me, do you know what happened in this room?" – I asked.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door behind me. I immediately jumped away from it with a squeal.

Jesus! It was right behind me!

I pointed the camera at the door, praying that no ghost would fall out on me from there…

"Let me check, maybe one of the staff suddenly came", – our knight suggested to us. He slowly opened the massive door, behind which… there was no one…

"Guys, as you can see, there is no one behind the door", – I said to the camera in a trembling voice. – "Bridie, let's listen to the recording. I hope it managed to catch that sound. Although I’m sure it will be on the video too. I almost went deaf from that knock… Not even a knock! A strong blow even!"

Bridie took the recorder and came over to us so that the recording could be heard on the camera microphone. She rewound the recording, and we began to listen intently. After the second question, I thought I heard something.

"Stop! Rewind a couple of seconds… Right here. Some kind of whisper? It sounds like someone says "No"…

All three of us put our ears over the recorder and listened to that part several times.

"I don’t hear anything", – said Bridie.

"Neither do I", – agreed O’Connell.

"Okay… Let’s listen further. I must have imagined it", – I lied, because I clearly heard that "No" every time we listened. We leaned over the recorder again and continued listening. After my question, a sharp hum was heard on the recording, followed by that loud knock on the door.

"And there was no hum then", – said Bridie.

Finally! She heard what I heard. I was starting to attribute paranoia to myself…

"Well, it’s not much", – said Bridie in a calm, professional tone. – "But that knock on the door was definitely interesting!"

Oh yeah! Interesting enough to make your hair gray…

Bridie returned to the center of the room and, putting away the recorder, took out the headphones with the radio.

"Yes, guys, we know that this is just a broken radio that picks up words and phrases from different radio stations. But ghosts can manipulate it and try to communicate with us in this way", – Bridie explained and looked at me. – "Kat, you or me?"

"Please, you do it first, and then I'll try".

Somehow, I didn't really want to listen to ghosts right now… Especially near the altar, where Bridie was standing, putting on her headphones and turning her back to us.

"Okay, guys. Bridie can't hear us, so we can ask questions. Hello again, inhabitants of this castle. My name is Katherine. What is your name?"

"Blood!" – Bridie's loud voice rang out, making me jump.

Goosebumps ran all over my body…

"Whose blood?" – I started asking leading questions. – "Yours? Did something happen to you here?"

"Call!.. Gates!.."

"Were you called here? Were you the one knocking on the door just now?"

After this question, there was silence for a few minutes. Bridie took off her headphones and turned to us.

"Nothing", – she said disappointedly. – "At first, a couple of words were really clear. A loud female voice. And then everything turned off… Here, maybe you should try?"

Bridie came to me. I reluctantly took the headphones with the radio from her and gave her the camera.

"Just please, don't ask the ghosts to pull my hair, like you usually do. I swear, if I feel anything, I will disappear from here the same moment, and you'll go home by yourself!" – I immediately warned her menacingly, to which she only smirked slyly.

Yeah, like hell she'll listen to me… I'll see how you'll smirk when I cut your salary!

I went to the middle of the room and stood in the circle of lights. At least a little further away from this creepy altar.

Bridie was standing by the door with a camera pointed at me. O'Connell was still standing quietly by the wall, but his face seemed very tense. Or maybe I just didn't see him well in the semi-darkness.