Investigating a location a second time, as mentioned in previous blogs, allows SRI to adapt and adjust to things seen during the first investigation. In our case, the first time we investigated The Deep End Antiques in Beckley, we were unable to use our internet based cameras due to WIFI issues. Distance would also prove to be a difficult hurdle in our first visit to the location, in particular when it came to the former hotel room turned storage for The Deep End.
Returning to The Deep End allowed SRI members Kaysee, James, Theresa, and myself to adjust to some of the logistical issues experienced in the previous visit to the location. Now armed with a multicamera DVR system, and hundreds of feet of wires, we were able to place a static cam in the hotel room, roughly 300 feet away from our DVR setup. This allowed SRI Members to avoid to complicated WIFI issues of the previous trip, and canvass the facility far more effectively in our second trip. Now, we had four cameras covering the two major rooms in the store, while at the same time covering the storage room throughout the evening.
We arrived on location at, around, 5:00 P.M. The sun had already dropped below the horizon, and the temperature had quickly dropped on our drive down 77 to Beckley. Upon arrival, SRI began setting up our equipment. Voice recorders, sound equipment, DVR, IR Camera, Shotgun Mic, K2 & EMF Detectors, Lazer Grid, and more all were laid out and ready for easy access for a short staffed SRI on this night.
Further complicating matters, Theresa and I decided to work with Kaysee as our new videographer, in order to create more content for social media outlets and our new, developmental Youtube channel, with hopes of expanding our offerings moving into 2022. By doing this, however, James was able to focus on audio and Kaysee video, while Theresa and myself were functioning as floaters, carrying various equipment along with us throughout the evening. It felt, for the first time, like assigned tasks made the evening easier and less chaotic. Work in progress, to put it mildly.
Kaysee conducted several interviews with SRI Members, and owner Travis Aurednik, about prior experiences at the location and Travis' own personal experiences with the "Phantom Hat" and The Ovinnik, a popular spiritual being from the location that numerous SRI members had experience with during our previous investigation. Check out Kaysee's interviews on Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook!
Team members left for dinner, and a general overview of the night's gameplan, at around 7:30 and returned at around 9:00. During this time, cameras were left rolling throughout the location, as well as audio equipment. The owner and several of his friends were engaged in a Jam Session in the office, allowing us to further discuss the night's approach and strategy. On the way back to the facility, several SRI members stopped at a local gas station for various necessities for a long night's investigation. For myself, Mello-Yello and fruit snacks -- why am I telling you this? Because it becomes an important part of our evening, in the most unexpected way.
SRI immediately, upon returning to the building, put our supplies in the front room and prepared to investigate the old hotel room. This time, however, the storage room was relatively quiet until much later in the evening. Shadows and feelings of cold electricity were pretty much the extent of our early encounters.
Upon returning to the facility itself, however, business began to pick up. Our little friend, the Ovinnik, would begin his nightly rounds. Unexplained sounds were common. Kaysee and Theresa spent some time in the store's backroom, and heard the Piano, directly in front of them with keys covered, playing a few notes as if something was inside the piano, walking on the wires. Later visitations including small green eyes, and a small, whispy shadow appearing behind the antique glass in a cabinet, and behind vases on the back of the piano. At one point he/she was seen walking on shelves, in the front room, in the reflection of a mirror in the back room. It should be noted that, in one of the pictures above, salt was laid out for the creature. This will, also, be important later in our story.
Throughout the night, SRI members were busy checking out the locations various locations, splitting time largely between the front room, back room, and the storage facility in the back of the complex. At one point, late in the evening, in the storage room it seemed as activity had awakened to some degree, as several members reported strange, seemingly threatening shadows, strange sounds, and more.
Another interesting circumstance arose around the case of my, now missing, drink and snacks for the night. My bag from the gas station had disappeared at some point through the evening, much to my annoyance, only to turn up in a very unlikely place -- our battery and cord storage box. While I cannot definitively chalk this up as a paranormal scenario, it felt as though our little friend, who legend states can sometimes be a bit of a trickster, was making his presence known at my expense.
At around 5:30 A.M., SRI began to pack our equipment up, including our DVR system. By 6:15, everything was loaded up, and members were saying our goodbyes, when in the back room, a loud noise caught our attention from the back room, where no one was at that time. Travis and I went to investigate, to discover the pumpkin, now circled in red, on the floor rolling around. What made this interesting is how the blowmold was tucked behind the lip of the cabinet, which you can see in the picture. Notably, this blowmold would have to be pushed up and out, in order to fall without hitting the glass circled in green. No glass was broken, nor was anything out of place. Physically, this suggested that the blowmold had not simply fallen, but was pushed or thrown into the floor, much to our alarm. Unfortunately, our cameras had been packed away at this point. Why this pumpkin, though? In our previous investigation, our Echovox and Ovilus had repeatedly said the word SALT, and after putting salt out for the Ovinnik, and audible squeal of delight could be heard. The answer, possibly, could be the location of the salt dish on the same cabinet, seen circled in blue.
Stay tuned for more content from our wild night at The Deep End Antiques!
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