Page 31 - mcdanielfreepress2010-11

____ .i~:~:iI;I.~:l;l.1_.. iI=r~'lIJt~::I_..·IJl[·~I,.,'1I1Il[.... IIIJ.4- Ghostbusting at McDanie~: The Hounlinq of Elderdice Hall AMBER SLATER SloffReporter There's nothing left to live for. Your girlfriend took her own life, and she took YOUT unborn child along with her. As you were pre- paring to propose, she committed suicide our of shame ami ernbar- .. I1\.Isment~ She was going to be your wife, your whole life, and now she's gone. There's nothing lefi:to live for. The rnasirsheavy :mdsharp and your stomach. As you slide the rope around your neck, you fed glad mar it will all end in a few short seconds. There's nothing left to live mr. Asyou kid. the chair our from beneam you, you know mat you are erasing yo=lf6:om'this world forever, But are you? The Legend and the Plan With its Gothic style and forboding appearance, it makessense that ca- Iamitywould occur in Elderdice, ln a uagedyakin to Romeo and Juliet, nnnor has it that a formerresidemof the Tower Room hunghirn.sdffrorn a pipe afier finding out that his girlfriend, Betsy, had previouslydone the same in the closet of her room in McDarlid Hall. At the beginning of rhe semester, a friend relayed this tale to lTleand said that people living in the residence hall on the Roor below had often heard the tortured soul reenacting his death night after night. Skeptical,I assembled a group offdlow freshmen ro spend the night i~thesupposedJyhaumedbuilding. Weplanncdtoasktheghostques-- nom and leavetime for an answer while recordingwim a computer. The ho~ was that when we n:played the audio, we would hear sounds and w~~pers that would provide conclusiveevidence as co the existenceof me ~~~ ~he~o:e::~ng terms, these noisesare called EVPs, or Electronic Apparently not, because directly afrerward, a monstrously loud ~r_~~~i~;=p~u~~~~~~l;~~n~!!~:;~~ cashtng scund. like someone throwing themselvesagainst adoor, comes our lives. '" from rhe srorage room next to us. Our fight-or-Hight responsesscream, "Youcan't win this onel" and "rm notgningup thad" we stumble down the stairs to our fellowghost hunters, pale-faced and Sevm of us siccross-legged in the Tower Room, ready to communicate. oucofbreath. Fini~,thelightsan:n'tworking,soitispitchhlackS3veformelighr Once our heart rates calm, we realize that Gtiffin's audio recording :::g through the windows and me glow of Paul Griffin's computer equipment shut itselfoff during the crash. Catching Our Bmitb and Making Sense of the Sounds dtei=~~~~:~:r~:to~w~es:~~o:t:~~C:~ Our group explains mat they heard the noise, tOO,and Mercurio and Roberds born felt vibrations from me impact of the crash. :;:e:~p~~:i~ru~~ ~~n~ ~!:~e:~!;.ghmtcomes Unnerved and unable to decide ifwe should call it quits, we decide inouTheoffi~areinsceadoneflighcofSrairsbclowusemenainingthose to play back me audio Griffin has gathered on his laptop. . with~!;~~~~~see the room, bur preferred nor to hangout While the knocking from the beginning is evident and spooky, we also pick up on several whispers thcoushom the audio. We cast some beet OfficerSherfeyexp[runsthat.hedoesnotlike.belngin.Elderdiceatall ,..id..,..creaks·fromthe-bui1ding,..,Q-6Ij.-.l