Ghost Hunt 2: MORE Chilling Tales of the Unknown by Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson Page A

the audio recorder, and Mike took the camera. Then they made their way down to the Citadel.
    Just outside the archway leading into the Citadel, Lyssa stopped and looked through.
    “Everything okay?” Mike asked.
    “Just wanted to get a good look. Are you ready?”
    “Yeah. You?”
    “Yeah. Let’s start.” Lyssa calmly walked forward. A few feet into the Citadel she turned on the audio recorder. “Hello? Is anybody down here?”
    Lyssa and Mike moved side by side. Every twenty feet or sothere was an opening in the wall that led into a different chamber of the Citadel.
    “My name is Lyssa Frye. I’m not here to harm you or get you in trouble. I just want to talk.”
    Mike whispered to her, “I think we should check inside these cells.”
    “Okay.”
    They went into the closest one. The roof was lower than the hall, and Lyssa had to duck a little to fit in. It was very uncomfortable, and after only a few minutes her back began to ache.
    She and Mike studied the walls. There were carvings everywhere. At the back of the cell, Lyssa sat down on the ground. She didn’t want the sounds of her moving to mess up her audio recordings. Mike sat a second later and focused the camera on the entrance.
    “Is there anybody here with us?” she called out.
    She waited for a response.
    “Lyssa… do you hear that?”
    Lyssa closed her eyes to concentrate. She breathed slowly, feeling her lungs expand and contract. Then she heard it. A faint scuffle.
    “Footsteps.”
    “I thought so, too,” Mike whispered.
    “It’s coming from the hall. Let’s check it out.”
    They got up and walked out of the cell.
    “Whoever is here, please walk toward us,” she called out.
    They stood their ground, waiting to see what would happen. Lyssa’s muscles were so tense she felt as if they would snap. Her fingers tingled. The footsteps were coming closer. And they were faster!
    Closer, closer… coming right at her. Then they stopped.
    “We’d like to communicate with you,” Lyssa said loudly. “Can you make that noise again?”
    Every second that passed was like a year. Lyssa knew there was a spirit present; she could feel it. Whoever it was stood only an arm’s length away. Lyssa strained her neck forward, hoping to hear another footstep.
    But what she heard instead made her jump back in shock.
    It was clear as could be.
    “NO!”
    For an instant Lyssa couldn’t focus on anything. She was too stunned. Lyssa rewound the audio recorder and played it back, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. She heard herself say, “Can you make that noise again?” A few seconds of whooshing noises from the recorder followed. Then she heard it again.
    Someone with a deep voice growling, saying,
“NO!”
    Mike was amazed. He kept staring at the recorder in disbelief.
    “Lyssa, we can’t stop now!” he said at last.
    She nodded. Lyssa fast-forwarded to where she left off and began recording again.
    “Who am I speaking with? Tell me your name.”
    Silence.
    “How long have you been here?”
    No answer. She continued to ask questions. After a while, it became clear that whoever responded to them before was not willing to talk anymore.
    “Lyssa, I think we got more than enough for one night. Let’s pack it in and go over this in the morning.”
    On the way out she took one more look at the Citadel. When she had walked in just a little while ago, she saw only an empty room. But now she had the awful feeling that there
were
prisoners in Alcatraz.
    And they would be prisoners forever.

     
    The next day in their hotel room, Jen and Lyssa were going over the evidence. Jen had her eyes fixed on a monitor, watching each corner for anything that went unnoticed the night before. Lyssa had headphones on and listened to the audio evidence. She wanted to go straight to the part she recorded in the Citadel, but she knew she had to listen to the whole recording first. A few times she thought she had caught EVPs, which are sounds made by spirits that can