Here I’ve posted, and will continue to post as time goes on, photographs that Nick took during his numerous investigations around the world. I’ll try to provide background information as best I can.

ABOVE: An abandoned house in Belfort, France. This house has gained quite a reputation in the general area of Belfort, and some other areas in France where word of paranormal activity has spread. Amateurs investigated the property often until it was partially destroyed by the ravages of time in 1997, and finally demolished for everyone’s safety (because trespassers continued to visit the property even when it was incredibly dangerous) in 1998.

Paranormal phenomena here began with reports of lights going on and off and visible through various parts of the house, even visible through the seams and joins where the windows were shut up. The light reportedly looked electric, not like candles, gas lamps, or flashlights. However, electricity to the house was long ago cut off as it was abandoned in 1963. The power lines were removed entirely, leaving absolutely no way for electric light to appear inside the house.

Because he was fluent in French and loved the French countryside, Nick made many visits to France for various investigations. This was the smallest investigation he conducted. He couldn’t find any explanation for the electric lights, but the numerous voices people have heard in and around the house he believed to be a trapped spirit of a young woman who died of tuberculosis in the house in the early 20th century. He attempted, he hoped successfully, to help her cross over to the other side.

ABOVE: A castle in Cumbria, England. This was one of the largest investigations Nick mounted, for two reasons. First, it’s an huge structure. Second, he went with a film crew as part of a 1993 BBC documentary on haunted history. The castle’s construction began in the late 11th century and continued for centuries, with preservation efforts beginning in the 17th century. Today the castle is mostly intact and in tremendous shape, which allowed Nick virtually unfettered access with little concern for his own safety.

Numerous ghosts are said to haunt the place. One dates back to the 13th century and is believed to be the ghost of a priest who visited the castle in the summer of 1232. There are some records, fragile and incomplete as they are after all this time, that he was the cousin of one of the castle’s servants. His ghost manifests through disembodied religious Latin chanting or prayer. Words are only recognizable here and there, but enough for those who understand the language to know it’s religious talk. Nick himself heard the chanting. He believes it is a psychic memory, not an actual haunt. Sometimes we leave impressions - bits and pieces of ourselves like emotions, words, or even our movement - in a house or property. The “haunt” is therefore a replay, over and over, of those memories come to life. The spirit may have moved on but the memory of the person remains.

Another spirit dates to the Elizabethan era, a noblewoman guest of the then-owners. Little is known of her, but she is seen in shadowy form wandering a long corridor in clear Elizabethan period dress. Nick couldn’t see or sense her. While this doesn’t mean she’s nonexistant, his powers are such that when he can’t feel a presence or see through his flashes of post-cognition any connection between the person and the place, it usually means there is nothing there. She could be the result of overactive imaginations.

One spirit Nick clearly identified as being in the castle and stubbornly resistant to his attempts to help him cross over to the other side is a gentleman of unknown background who died during the Cromwellian era. He was a royal loyalist and, when hearing Cromwell’s agents were in the area, died of a fright - a heart attack induced by surging adrenaline. Nick concluded that this ghost considers himself a guardian of the castle and won’t move on because he feels he must keep eternal watch. There was nothing Nick could do.

Finally, the only other spirit that presented itself to Nick was a young girl who drowned in a pool in the sunken garden (much like how Pam drowned in Ellen’s pond in Rose Red’s sunken English garden). She appeared to him very clearly, a spritely spirit who wanted him to play a game with her. He said he’d play only if she would play a game of his choosing, too. And the game he played was really a ruse to help her cross over to the other side, which he felt he succeeded in doing.

The film crew didn’t catch any visions, but they did catch strange sounds like voices they couldn’t account for, literally bumps in the night, and displaced furniture/objects.

ABOVE: A delightful private residences in Pesaro, Italy. Nick came here in 1998 (one of the many trips I grew accustomed to him taking; he was usually only gone a few days at any time, a paranormal jet setter!) to investigate claims of a demonic spirit. The house was built between 1906-1907, long before the modern office and city buildings that now surround it were even in the works. The original owner is said to haunt the place after he died in his bed there in 1931. What began as a benign haunting grew progressively more vicious as the juggernaut of city construction continued around the place. The owner seemed to resent the activity deeply, and that is not unusual for ghosts who live on a property that’s been disturbed. While the house remains well-preseved and cared for today, a reminder of a bygone era, by 1998 the owner’s spirit prowled unpleasantly hurling objects, screaming in the middle of the night, and creating a horrible stench that not only filled the house but disturbed others in the neighborhood.

Nick visited to try to determine if the events were in fact paranormal, something that is not easy to do in an urban environment. Screams could be from people outside. The smell could be a sewer. Moving objects could be the result of heavy trucks shaking the ground as they drive by. But he spent two nights in the house and experienced many inexplicable events personally. Much to his frustration he couldn’t force the spirit to cross over, but he was able to give the owners practical advice how to placate the ghost and protect themselves against his antics. A follow-up phone call with them in 1999 put Nick somewhat at ease; following his advice they were able to establish a sort of truce with the spirit, as long as they continued to promise they’d keep the house in good condition and protect it from its environment.

ABOVE: The famed Winchester Mystery House. There are a lot of parallels between this house and Rose Red, insofar as construction goes. Sarah Winchester was told by a psychic, just as Ellen was, that she would not die until the house was completed. Unlike Ellen, Sarah did die, and the house stopped growing.

Nick was well aware of the parallels between the two houses when he embarked on his Rose Red journey. He’d been to the Mystery House in 1997. He went alone, a personal curiosity, something he’d intended to do for many years but had been too busy to manage. He combed the parts of the house that are available to the public and was unfortunately not allowed access to the parts that are unfinished and deemed unsafe to enter. But whenever possible he touched things, concentrated, sought for any evidence of the restless spirits of those killed with Winchester rifles - who were said to plague Sarah to the point of madness. Or the Holy Grail of the Mystery House stories - signs of Sarah herself.

He found nothing. Not a single piece of paranormal evidence, either with his own talents or with the scientific equipment he brought with me. Piecing together the story of Sarah’s life through independent research and extensive interviews, he concluded that the Mystery House is nothing but a tale of insanity. A sorrowful and pitiful tale, the story of a woman who was haunted by nothing more than mental illness…likely both biological in nature and exacerbated by the guilt she felt that her fortune was made through the deaths of others. Whenever he talked about the house Nick simply seemed sad. Rose Red, he knew, was a whole different situation.

ABOVE: A rather spooky looking house in Haiti. While it seems abandoned, the electric meter visible on the wall shows that it was inhabited not too long ago. Visitors of my old site will remember that I talked a bit about Nick’s love for Haiti. He adored the spirit of the place - a nation founded on slavery who, guided by their gods, rose up to overthrow and slaughter their captors. Haiti is a place of unrest, a tormented place, but it’s filled with people who have incredible passion and tremendous beliefs. This particular house was one Nick could never gain access to, but he liked to photograph it and visit its exterior, because he felt strongly there was paranormal activity within.

ABOVE: This house Nick was able to visit, and he documented evidence of all kinds of weird stuff inside as research for an article he was writing for a paranormal magazine. The place made him uneasy, or as he told me it made him truly afraid. It looks simple enough on the outside, because it was abandoned. But it was once owned by a Bokor, or black magic sorceror. Blood stains, bones of sacrificed animals, pools of molten candle wax, scribbled symbols of power invoking the Haitian gods, and other unusual artifacts were left inside after the Bokor’s sudden death.

Nick had a sensation that his spirit was still nearby, and it felt like a very dangerous spirit. Someone who wielded power even in death. In fact, as he was leaving the house after his investigation, Nick received serious scratches on his back from an unseen force. He was wearing a shirt and there was no ripping or tearing in the shirt, but his back began to sting, and as the pain grew worse his interpreter noticed blood appearing on his shirt. When he removed his shirt there were five long, deep scratches along his back…as if someone had scratched him hard with fingernails or claws.

It’s the first time that Nick was caught off guard and attacked that way. When Nick came home the scratches were mostly healed, but I saw enough to worry me. I forbade him ever going back to that place but he told me not to worry, he had no intention of returning to the Bokor’s house. It takes a lot to scary Nick Hardaway, but the Bokor did the trick!

Oddly enough, he has no scars from the attack.

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