Return to the Mill

That night, all seven sleep soundly.

No strange dreams. No unexplained visitors. No voices, footsteps or shadows.

For once, nothing happens.

When Jessica wakes Sunday morning, she hears her mother talking on the phone downstairs. She cannot make out the conversation.

By the time she reaches the kitchen, the call is over.

“Who was that?”

Her mother smiles.

“A very dear old friend. She’s coming for dinner tonight.”

Jessica does not think much of it. She gets herself some breakfast and moves on with her morning.

Later, her phone buzzes.

A message from William.

Brenda emailed him. She wants to return to the property and take a quick look inside the old mill itself. Because of the building’s condition, she only wants a couple of people with her.

William asks whether Jessica wants to go.

Jessica answers immediately.

Absolutely.

A second message arrives a short time later.

Meet at my place at noon. Brenda will pick us up here.

Jessica replies and continues with her Sunday chores.

She reaches William’s house around eleven-thirty.

He has already told her to come straight in, so she opens the front door and heads downstairs.

William is on the phone.

“Okay. Have fun. Talk to you later.”

He hangs up as Jessica reaches the bottom step.

“Hey, Jess. Come look at something.”

She sits beside him at the laptop.

“I was talking to Matt. I told him Brenda wanted to go back with a smaller group. He didn’t seem too upset about not being invited.”

Jessica smiles.

“Why would he be?”

William raises an eyebrow.

“He’s taking Alexis fishing.”

“Well, that explains it. I’m sure spending the day alone with Alexis sounds much better to him than wandering through another dusty building with us.”

William laughs and rewinds a video on his laptop.

“Okay. Watch the window. Especially the curtains.”

Jessica leans closer.

The familiar footage begins.

The strange glow crosses the room and disappears near the window.

A curtain lifts.

Jessica waits.

“So?”

“Did you see it?”

“I saw the curtain move.”

“Exactly. One curtain.”

He plays it again.

“The one beside it barely moves.”

Jessica watches more carefully.

“So one curtain moves more than the other. Why is that bothering you?”

“Because the broken part of the window is actually closer to the curtain that barely moves.”

Jessica watches again.

She still does not see why it matters.

“I don’t know, William. Maybe they’re different weights or hanging differently.”

“Maybe.”

He stares at the paused image.

“This has been bothering me all week. It feels like one of those little things that doesn’t make sense until suddenly it does.”

Jessica smiles.

“And until then you’re going to drive yourself crazy.”

“Probably.”

William closes the video.

They head upstairs, grab coffee and wait outside for Brenda.

Her car arrives a few minutes before noon.

She waves as they approach.

Jessica takes the front seat and William climbs into the back.

Brenda seems unusually cheerful.

“I really enjoyed yesterday,” she tells them as they pull away. “You guys got me interested in the history of that property all over again. I couldn’t stop thinking about the other buildings.”

She glances towards Jessica.

“Did you tell William what you remembered in the kitchen?”

Jessica turns around.

“No. I forgot.”

William immediately looks interested.

“Forgot what?”

Jessica tells him.

“When we were near the kitchen yesterday, I remembered another part of the dream. Mrs. Johnson found one sack of gold in the woodpile that her husband missed. She was about to take it outside when a pot boiled over. She put the sack down on the counter.”

She pauses.

“I have this feeling the gold might still be somewhere in the house.”

William smiles.

“It would be pretty amazing to find treasure today.”

Then he shrugs.

“But if gold has been sitting there all these years, you’d think somebody would’ve found it by now.”

When they arrive at the property, Brenda repeats her warning.

“The mill is nowhere near as stable as the house. Stay close to me, watch where you step and don’t touch anything that looks structural.”

They walk through the tall grass towards the river.

William keeps glancing back at the house.

Even from outside, his attention returns to the sitting-room windows.

Why did one curtain move while the other barely reacted?

As they approach the mill, the condition of the building becomes obvious.

Part of the roof has collapsed. Warning signs identify the structure as unsafe.

Brenda explains that the city hopes to repair and stabilize the mill so it can eventually become part of the historic site.

A heavy padlock secures the entrance.

Brenda unlocks it.

They step carefully inside.

The interior looks as though nobody has disturbed it in years.

Old flour sacks have been chewed by mice. Tools sit beneath thick layers of dust. Moisture has darkened and damaged sections of wood.

Part of the mechanism that once connected the waterwheel to the grinding equipment has fallen apart.

William slowly turns in place.

“This is incredible.”

They begin taking photographs.

Jessica looks towards Brenda.

“Should we try an EVP session?”

“Go ahead.”

Jessica starts the recorder.

“Is anyone here with us?”

She waits.

“If you’re here, can you tell us your name?”

Silence.

“Are you the traveller who stole the gold?”

Another pause.

“If you’re here, can you knock on the wall?”

Nothing.

“Please give us some kind of sign that you’re with us.”

Brenda listens to the recording through her earphones.

After a moment, she shakes her head.

“Nothing obvious.”

Jessica looks disappointed.

Brenda hands the recorder back.

“Doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. It only means we didn’t record anything we can identify.”

As they continue looking around, the extent of the moisture damage becomes more obvious.

Brenda does not want them inside any longer than necessary.

They step back outside and head towards the smaller structures behind the property.

William looks over his shoulder at the mill.

“Wouldn’t it have been amazing to see that place when it was actually running? The wheel turning, all the gears moving, flour being ground…”

Brenda nods.

“It would. Restoring it to that point would be a huge job, though.”

Jessica has moved several steps ahead.

Without hesitation, she walks towards one particular shed.

She stops in front of it.

“This is where Mr. Johnson melted the gold.”

William almost laughs.

Then he remembers how many details from Jessica’s dreams have connected with things they later discovered.

He says nothing.

Brenda unlocks the door.

Inside is an old forge.

Nearby are several metal moulds shaped like small trapezoids.

William picks one up.

“Why aren’t these just rectangular?”

Brenda points towards the sloping sides.

“If you pour molten metal into a mould that widens towards the top, the solid piece is easier to remove once it cools.”

William turns the mould in his hands.

“Makes sense.”

Nothing about the building feels unusual to Brenda, but she takes several photographs while Jessica prepares another EVP session.

“Is anyone here with us?”

Pause.

“If you’re here, can you tell us your name?”

Nothing.

“Are you in here, Mr. Johnson?”

BANG.

The sound comes from somewhere near the back corner.

Jessica jumps.

William turns immediately towards it.

Jessica keeps recording.

“Is that you, Mr. Johnson?”

She waits.

“Please give us a sign that you’re here.”

Silence.

“Can you make that sound again?”

Nothing follows.

Brenda reviews the recording.

This time she pauses.

“There might be something there.”

Jessica and William listen.

Neither can identify it.

Jessica asks several more questions, but no further response comes.

The three spend the next couple of hours moving carefully between the remaining outbuildings.

They inspect the old barn and several storage sheds.

Nothing particularly unusual happens.

Brenda is slightly disappointed. She had hoped the unexplored buildings might produce new evidence.

William does not seem to mind.

For him, seeing the old equipment and artefacts is interesting enough.

Jessica feels much the same way.

Ghosts or no ghosts, she is enjoying the investigation.

As they walk back towards Brenda’s car, she reviews some of her photographs.

Many are filled with bright circular spots.

She smiles.

“Here’s a good lesson.”

Jessica looks over.

“Ghosts?”

“Dust.”

Brenda enlarges one of the images.

“These buildings are full of it. Flash photography makes airborne particles show up everywhere. If we called every one of these an orb, this place would have more ghosts than people.”

William laughs.

Then he looks back towards the house.

The curtain question returns to him.

“Brenda, can you think of a logical reason why one curtain would move and the one beside it wouldn’t?”

She looks confused.

“What do you mean?”

William explains the original traveller video.

“When the figure disappeared near the window, one curtain lifted in the breeze. The other one barely moved. But the broken part of the window is closer to the curtain that didn’t move.”

Brenda considers it.

“Not without seeing it.”

William looks towards the house.

“Want to?”

Brenda follows his gaze.

“Actually, yes.”

Jessica smiles.

The three turn away from the car.

They are going back inside.

Brenda unlocks the front door.

Before any of them can enter—

BANG.

The sound comes from upstairs.

All three stop.

Brenda calls into the house.

“Hello? Is anybody in here?”

No answer.

She waits.

Nothing.

“Could be an animal,” she says quietly.

They enter and move cautiously upstairs.

At the landing, they stop again and listen.

The second floor is silent.

William notices something.

“All the doors are closed.”

Jessica looks down the hallway.

He is right.

“I’m almost positive they were open when we left yesterday,” William says. “I remember being able to see into the rooms.”

Brenda studies the hallway.

“I think you’re right.”

Nobody has an explanation.

They enter the first room.

William suddenly notices something else.

“You didn’t bring the infrared camera?”

Brenda shakes her head.

“Battery was dead. I forgot to charge it last night, and this morning I got distracted catching up with an old friend.”

They search the room.

Nothing appears disturbed.

William approaches the closet.

He slowly opens the door and shines his flashlight inside.

A face stares back at him.

William jumps away.

“There’s somebody in there!”

Brenda immediately steps forward, Jessica close behind.

She shines her flashlight against the wall.

Jessica begins laughing.

“William.”

He looks again.

Dark moisture stains cover the wall.

Together, several of them resemble the features of a human face.

William stares.

Then he groans.

“Oh, come on.”

Brenda smiles.

“Remember our lesson from yesterday?”

William points towards the stain.

“Face perception.”

“Exactly. Your brain saw a familiar pattern and turned it into a face. And because this is the same closet you couldn’t open yesterday, you may already have been expecting something unusual.”

William looks at the stain again.

Now that he knows what it is, the illusion seems obvious.

“I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”

Jessica grins.

“Absolutely not.”

He closes the closet door.

They continue through the second floor.

Nothing else happens.

No unexplained sounds.

No unusual sensations.

Nothing appears to have been moved.

Eventually, they return to the staircase.

William looks towards the main floor.

There is still one thing he wants to understand.

The curtain.

They head downstairs towards the sitting room.