Halloween 2022: Whispers in the Walls (Intro-Journal 4)

It’s Halloween 2022, which means it’s time for me to post my annual Halloween Solo Journaling Game. This year I am playing Whispers in the Walls by Pandion Games and written by Andrew Boyd.  Whispers in the Walls is available on itch.io.  In Whispers, you are investigating a crime or event. Many of the clues you find are discovered by listening or watching what the walls and rooms tell you.

The game is played using a standard 52-card deck with 2 Jokers.  Following specific guidelines, you create a nine-card deck that will reveal the prompts for each page of your journal. The first card/journal entry sets the location for your story.  The remaining eight cards prompt you as you visit different rooms in that location. The final card also doubles as the prompt for ending the story.

I began by drawing my first card to set my location. Then, before writing the first journal entry, I developed a background of events that led to my being in that particular location.

One last word before the story begins. I am formatting this adventure a little differently than my past journaling posts.  Instead of listing the prompts with each post I will be presenting the narrative of the story first. Then, when it is complete, I will post the prompts I drew for the game and any other notes I want to share about the experience.


WHISPERS IN THE WALLS: HALLOWEEN 2022

Background: I used to work for the insurance company of Madison and Baines as a claim investigator looking into supposed medical injuries. I would interview neighbors, take pictures and videos, and watch claimants. While I would occasionally reveal a true case of insurance fraud, most of the time the company would simply use the information I gathered to reduce the payments of legitimate claims by as much as possible. It was slimy work, but I was good at it.  Some said I had a sixth sense to just know when something was off, or compared me to a bloodhound because I could “sniff out” lies and deceptions.

After four years of working for M&B I’d had enough of their greed and decided to strike out on my own. Okay, to be fair, while their underhandedness was a factor, the real reason was that I wanted more exciting cases. I wanted crime, missing people, and cheating spouses.  The juicy stuff. My shingle had been hung out for barely a week when a middle-aged woman walked into my one-room office. I’d like to say she was an attractive blonde in a tight dress with mysterious eyes and a husky voice, like in those old detective noir films. But she was nothing like that. She was of medium build and wore jeans and a solid purple sweatshirt. Her dull brown hair was frazzled and unkempt. She wore no makeup, revealing dark circles under her eyes. Needless to say, she was a bit distraught.

Her daughter Karin was missing. The police were convinced she was a runaway. Single parent home, the father left years ago without a forwarding address. Mother working two jobs to make ends meet, leaving the daughter alone to fend for herself. Poor grades. Sketchy group of friends. All the classic signs.

But her mother wasn’t convinced. For all their troubles, she assured me they had a happy home life. Karin had plans. She was looking at colleges, even though she was still a junior in high school.  She even hoped to start a summer job waiting tables at the Pork Pit, the local BBQ restaurant. Her daughter wouldn’t run away. Something must have happened to her.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much to go on. I asked my client a lot of questions, developed a list of people to talk to, then went and asked them a lot of questions. While no one knew where Karin was, a common statement was that her favorite place was South Creek Elementary School, where she was a student during some of the happiest years of her childhood. The school was closed several years ago after a newer facility was built. It was sold to a developer, but so far nothing had been done with it. The building and surrounding area were falling into disrepair.

Whenever Karin was depressed or wanted to be alone, her friends said she would go to the old school, sneak inside, and spend hours there alone. Of course, the police searched the building when she was reported her missing, but they found no sign of her . . . alive or dead. Still, something may have been overlooked, so that’s where I’m going to search next.

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Journal 1/Location:

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The Case of The Missing Teen. (Need to think of a better name.)

Early evening. It will be dark soon. South Creek Elementary is several hundred feet off the main road. Surrounded by vegetation. Not easily visible from homes. Still, quick in - quick out - best course of action.

Outer fence was easy to climb.  Found unlocked door. In classroom. Posters on the walls - Goosebumps books, cartoonish Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster. Pumpkin faces. Obviously Halloween. Signs of a party. Candy wrappers. Old paper cups and plates in trash. Was school closed right after Halloween? And no one cleaned up?  Need to check on history of school. Probably not relevant but now I’m curious.

Dirty chalkboard. Remnants of word list: Anticipate, Catastrophe, Genuine, Suspense. Vocabulary or Spelling lists?  Was this an English class?  Book posters suggest that.

Will make this my base of operations.  Big metal teacher's desk. Good place to take notes, organize my thoughts.

Sun is going down.  Place is creepy.

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Journal 2:

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Police found nothing on their search. Perhaps only a cursory search of the main floor?  Need to check basement. 

Dark. Using flashlight. Musty smell. Water dripping.  Leaky pipes? Doesn’t explain formations. Spikes from the ceiling. Drips form spikes rising from the floor. Stalactites? Stalagmites? But how?  Don’t those take years to form? And in a building?  

[Sketch of stalactites and stalagmites]

What started as a few small protrusions grew in size and number as I walked further along the halls and entered what appeared to be a storeroom. Columns larger. Closer.  Had to squeeze through.  How did the police miss this?

Heard a sound. Whimpering. Followed to a corner of the room.  Dog. Mangy mutt. It was scared. Pulled back from me. It was missing a leg.  Fresh injury. Looked torn. Bleeding bad. 

Used flashlight to trace blood trail. Followed as far as I could before stalactites got too dense to pass. Are they growing that fast? 

Don’t want to be trapped. Tried to get dog to follow me, but it just snapped back. Bleeding bad. Can’t help it.  Have to leave it. 

WHAT HAPPENED TO ITS LEG??!!

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Journal 3:

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On the way back to the classroom I spot a puddle on the floor in the hall. Getting larger. Growing?  Surface rippled. Bead of water falls . . . up!? Nature in reverse? More drops raise.

Compelled I reached out and caught a drop. Smells salty.  Tastes like tears.

Where the water (tears?) hit the ceiling I see a faint greenish glow.  It formed a picture. Couldn’t see very well standing up. Layed on my back Looked up. 

Faces. Children, roughly 8 to 10 years old. Students? Boys. Girls. One looks similar to a picture Karin as a child her mother showed me.

[Sketch of faces, some fading]

Slowly, faces begin to fade.  More water flies up but fading doesn’t stop. Drops turn to streams. Then to a geyser.

Struggled to get to my feet as the collected waters poured off the ceiling back down on top of me.

I ran from the crying ceiling!

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Journal 4:

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Weird things.  Need to investigate more. Headed out to another room. Smocks hang on hooks. Paint jars on the shelves. Boxes of Crayons. Stacks of construction paper. The Art Room!

Half-finished projects rest on the small tables.  Artwork is pinned to the walls. Before I got a good look something caught my eye.

A sculpture of hand hung on the wall. Attached midway to the elbow. Marble?  Exquisitely detailed.  Advanced - even for a sixth grader. No seams. Is it part of the wall.?

[Sketches of arm on the wall]

Suddenly, a button formed on the wall a few feet away. Two more right next to it. A fourth. A fifth! Soon the shape of an entire hand pushed through the wall. Not through exactly. but the wall became a hand. Another formed. Then another.  Soon a dozen small, childlike arms, or sculptures of arms, covered the wall, all pointing at something. The artwork across the room.

My flashlight reveals homemade Valentine's Day cards. Each one is for a teacher, signed with a child’s name. Block letters.

[Sketch of a Valentine]

Confused?? Halloween in one room. Valentines another. Was school closed in October or February?

I turned back to the hands. They were gone! Mind tells me to leave. NOW!

But I’m intrigued.

(Continue the story here.)