My name is Aramus Churchton. On December 14, 2004, I came to the town of Belkonson, Maryland

in order to spend a night in a tenetless house on a quiet road. It was a three-hour drive

from the western part of the state, and I arrived shortly after 10 pm, parking my car

almost a half mile away. I walked onto the property and went around to the back of the

house unnoticed as it sat on seven acres of isolated scrub land. The previous owners,

the Marclay family, had left a month before after their daughter was kidnapped. The temperature

when I arrived was slightly less than 30 degrees. I broke into the basement door with a crowbar

and entered the house. I removed the flashlight from my backpack and shown it in front of me

as I walked through it. I did not want to turn any lights on yet for fear of drawing

unwanted attention, although the closest other dwelling was some distance away. The house

was large and fully furnished. I looked through every room, the study, the playroom,

the three bathrooms, three bedrooms, the kitchen. Then I went back down to the basement where

I felt the house's presence the strongest. I had little to-do but wait, I decided to

pass the time by reading the notes my colleagues' savage doubt had made since July regarding

potential investigations we would soon embark upon. I fully expected Theodore Gantz ghost

to appear in some form before too many hours had passed. Almost immediately after I settled

in, there were three sharp, evenly spaced wraps against the basement door. I rose from my chair

and walked into the tiny alcove where the door was. I opened it and looked up the narrow flight

of cement steps which led up to the ground level and saw nothing there. The knocking had most

likely been a simple physical preamble from the ghost I had come to Bill Conson to encounter.

His full name was Theodore Gerald Gantz and he had bought the house in 1968 after his wife Zoya

died under mysterious circumstances. She had suffered a sudden heart attack at the age of 41.

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