Community Report #10 - The Silver Lake Specter

Our fearless podcast host tracks down the Silver Lake specter.

Transcript

Minos  0:00
In the early 1900s Silver Lake was part of a larger area known as Edendale. Rolling hills, chaparral and farmland characterized this sparsely populated area just north northwest of downtown. Farmers’ accounts from around that time period make mention of an eerie pale figure sometimes seen floating thru the area. Accounts from others, non-farmers, were similar.

Hyp  0:22
The fog was upon us again late last night and I couldn’t sleep. The constant shifting between hot and cold, cold and hot, has me guessing what to put on at night. Last night I had dressed again too light and when I awoke I noticed some of the horses uneasy in the stable. After settling them down, I headed back to the house but was frozen in my tracks by something white in the distance, a palely lit human form, making its way through the lemon grove. The fog was so thick and the area so dark that how it could have illuminated itself was a mystery, for it carried no lantern. Fearing death herself had come for me — and at what a time, when you were away — I fled inside to guard over the children until morn.

Minos  1:18
Around the same time period a spiritualist association had purchased a tract of land just outside the reach of Los Angeles municipal officials.

Bill Roberts  1:26
It was an ideal site because it was sort of the gateway to the valley and points north, while at the same time having access to downtown. The residents could trade their farm goods in either direction. And since their community did not fall within the borders of Los Angeles, the community was exempted from certain taxes and regulations.

Minos  1:53
Seems like an idyllic lifestyle. Sort of till the land, sell your goods to an expanding city and live in the hills there just north of downtown.

Bill Roberts  2:06
Yeah, as long as you didn’t upset the officials.

Minos  2:09
Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good.

Bill Roberts  2:12
No, not really. The association had a penchant for midnight seances and activities that did not sit well with their neighbors.

Minos  2:22
Bill, Bill Roberts is his full name, city historian, pulls out some early 1900 newspaper clippings from the city archive. Wow, ‘Five arrests made in connection with July riot.’ A riot?

Bill Roberts  2:37
Yep.

Minos  2:39
‘Residents upset with the midnight doings of the fakers’ - that’s funny, even the newspaper didn’t believe them - ‘stormed the forested area after being awakened at 1am by the sound of revolver shots, drunken whooping, and nude spiritualists fleeing the tall timbers covered in a dark blood-like liquid.’ What the heck? What the heck happened?

Bill Roberts  3:12
The accounts vary. But according to the spiritualists they had unintentionally opened some sort of portal, and when whatever it was emerged from the portal, they fled for their lives. Unfortunately for them, local residents had been afflicted by these sorts of midnight gatherings for years and this was the night they were going to do something about it. So when the spiritualists fled down the hill they were met by an angry mob of locals and, understandably, a melee broke out.

Metal grate creaking sound  3:47
Metal grate creaks open.

Dog barking sound  3:48
Dog barks.

Marta  3:50
Come in, come in. Never mind her. She always does that. All bark, no bite.

Minos  4:10
None of the spiritualists we contacted wanted to go anywhere near the subject of the specter. The average response was something to the effect of specters being unpredictable entities here to collect the souls of evildoers, but willing to collect a few extra souls along the way. Then there was Marta.

Marta  4:27
My name is Marta Mafta. I am 95 years old and Silver Lake’s oldest spiritualist and fortuneteller.

Minos  4:48
What is your earliest memory of Silver Lake?

Marta  4:54
Well, back then it was still called Edendale. But I remember my auntie, she raised me, Auntie Jo. Auntie Jo used to take us once a year downtown on the Red Car Line that passed by all the movie studios there on Glendale Boulevard. And I remember, it must have been lunch time, because I remember being on the street car and it had to stop, because suddenly all these people, they looked like carpenters, you know, with their overalls and caps, came out of the movie studios there and like a swarm of bees just proceeded to the sandwich shop on the opposite side of the street. And I started yelling at them, ‘Move you fools! Move you fools! Or we will squoosh you!’ 

Minos  6:31
That’s funny. That’s quite a sight. What made you want to become a spiritualist?

Marta  6:40
Well. I was a wild child, sort of a Mabel Normand of my day, never really following rules, always partying, always getting into trouble, causing quite a lot of trouble for other people, in fact. And I thought, this, this just isn’t right. This can’t persist. And I was always very good with people, reading their thoughts, their intentions, connecting with them. So I began studying under a local fortune teller who trained me on how to connect those human-to-human skills with the unexplained, the mysterious, the parts of our universe that do not follow any laws.

Minos  8:08
And why are you not afraid of specters?

Marta  8:11
The specter.

Minos  8:13
The specter?

Marta  8:14
The specter. There is only one around these parts.

Minos  8:22
Oh, I did not know that.

Marta  8:27
What is there to be afraid of? It is like a wild animal, a tiger, a bear, a shark. If you know its rules and respect its rules, then you can observe it, interact with it without getting hurt.

Minos  8:58
For a fee, Marta offers spectral tours once or twice a year. This is a chance for customers to camp out in the neighborhood and maybe catch a glimpse of the specter passing by. But rather than waiting for conditions to be just right, Marta has agreed instead to conduct a seance where we can interact with the spirit of the specter and ask questions of it.

Marta  9:19
Spiritus terrae. Te vocamus. 

Minos  9:24
Marta begins her incantations. On a late fall evening rain has started to fall. Hyp, Marta, and I are seated around an empty coffee table adorned with one candle, a stone planchette, and a Ouija board.

Marta  9:37 
aperiant portas suas et coom 

Minos  9:43
As her incantation goes on, Marta’s eyes roll gently back into her head and she begins to sway gently back and forth.

Marta  9:50
spectrum arcesse, qui hos colles ambulat. Questions. Questions.

Minos  10:19
What’s going on?

Hyp  10:20
Questions, it wants to know your questions.

Minos  10:23
Oh, yeah. Sorry. Ummm. Hi. We come from the land of earth and have questions for you… What do we do now?

Hyp  10:39
Ask your questions.

Minos  10:41
Oh yeah, of course. Ok. Where do you come from? Where do you come from? Ok. Let’s try the next question. Why do you visit us? Why do you visit us? It’s not working. So it’s kind of hard to detect from the audio, but I’m trying to interact with Hyp at this point. And I notice that she has become rigid and has started to stare straight ahead. And at this point I completely freak out and go over to the light switch. Ok. So that’s enough. We’re done. And right before I get to the switch.

Sound of planchette sliding across table  11:30
Sound of planchette sliding across table.

Minos  11:32
The planchette shoots across the table into Hyp’s hand and begins to move her hand in wide arcing motions across the table. The same pattern over and over. Hyp. Hyp! Are you okay? And then she gets this evil grimace across her face and begins to press with force into the table, still repeating the same arcing pattern, but now violently carving something into the table with the stone planchette. I try to grab her arm and stop her, but with some sort of superhuman strength she just shoves me to the side and continues. Until suddenly, just as quickly as it had all started, it stops. Hyp lets go of the planchette and sits rigid, staring straight ahead. Marta looks forward past the end of the table with an intense gaze. And the lights, which hadn’t worked by the way when I was trying to put them on, slowly come up. Once they fully come up, Marta slumps over and begins to snore. and Hyp’s entire body relaxes, head falling to the side. She’s completely asleep.

Middle of the night outside noises  13:02
Middle of the night outside noises.

Minos  13:05
We, Hyp and I, are on an abandoned, overgrown lot in southeast Silver Lake. Ooo. It looks like you’re bleeding.

Hyp  13:13
Huh?

Minos  13:14
Right there, on your shin. Are you okay?

Hyp  13:15
Oh. Yeah, cuts there just bleed a lot.

Minos  13:19
That’s comforting. Anyway, you might ask why we are here, it is nighttime by the way, and why we are whispering. Technically we are not supposed to be here. There’s a big no trespassing sign and we had to climb a fence, hence the bloody shin. By the way, Hyp, did you remember any of that seance? 

Hyp  13:43
Grab a shovel and get started.

Minos  13:45
She’s already started digging. Hyp - did you remember any of that seance? The answer to that, whether she remembered anything, would be, No. She just remembered basically falling asleep and waking up - nothing about carving up poor Marta’s table, who, by the way, is not climbing fences with us in the dark, thank goodness. As to why we are digging?

Hyp  14:15
Hurry up, someone is going to call the police.

Minos  14:18
During the seance, Hype, or whoever was in her body, carved the words dig and four numbers. We looked around the neighborhood for streets with these four numbers and there were only two - a liquor store and an abandoned property with lots of succulents and bushes. So the choice was easy.

Hyp  14:47
Shhh shhh shhh. Do you hear that?

Mr. Tethys  14:52
Y’all need to get out of here. This is not a place for squattin’. 

Hyp  14:56
Get down. Get down.

Mr. Tethys  15:01
I ain’t squattin’ here. I been invited by the owner. Ya’ here me?

Minos  15:08
Hey, hey. That’s Mr. Tethys.

Hyp  15:10
Who?

Minos  15:11 
Mr. Tethys. Mr. Tethys! It’s me! It’s me! Put down the gun.

Mr. Tethys  15:22
Hey there, Mr. Podcast Host. What are you doing here in the middle of the night? I could have shot you.

Minos  15:27
This is Hyp. You remember Hyp, right?

Hyp  15:30
Hello.

Mr. Tethys  15:32
Oh yeah. You were the star of the show. Of course, yeah. Now I remember.

Minos  15:37
For those not familiar with our werewolf episode, Mr. Tethys is a local trapper in the Silver Lake area who has been relocating coyotes, bobcats, and even the odd mountain lion from the Silver Lake area for decades. As it turns out, he spends a lot of time on the empty lot.

Mr. Tethys  15:55
Well the plot used to belong to my family up until 1961. That’s when my mammi lost her mind, took out my pappi with a mason’s trowel, set the house on fire, and jumped out the third story window with my baby sister. In fact they landed right over there.

Hyp  16:16
That’s awful. I am so sorry to hear that.

Mr. Tethys  16;20
Oh that’s alright. You didn’t do it. I’ve worked it out by now. That’s why I’m able to sleep here without it messin’ with my mental state.

Minos  16:29
According to Mr. Tethys, his father, a handsome dentist, had been targeted by a quote unquote, “30-something female conquistador of men,” with whom he began an affair. When his father came to his mother with the confession and divorce papers, his mother became hysterical, exacting her revenge in dramatic fashion later that night. Mr. Tethys, 5 at the time, ran down the street at the start of the attack, only to find the gruesome scene in flames when he returned. From that day on, he swore.

Mr. Tethys  16:59
If I ever find the woman who obliterated my family, because I’m sure she’s still alive - you just gotta’ do the math - she’s around. But if I find here, I am gonna’ ship her up to Mount Wilson for some winter time star gazing. You just can’t do that to someone’s family.

Minos  17:19
As it turns out, there was a span of several decades after the 1920s or 30s when sightings of the Silver Lake specter ceased. But after the 1961 murders and fire, sightings began anew. 

Mr. Tethys  17:30
Oh yeah. I see it every once in a while, but I stay clear. Marta recommends it.

Minos  17:36
Oh! You know Marta?

Mr. Tethys  17:37
Well sure I do. You’re standin’ on her property right now.

Minos  17:40
She owns this property?!

Mr. Tethys  17:42
Of course. She’s the one that let’s me stay here when I’m in town trappin’. Whadya’ think? I just squat here or somethin’?

Minos  17:50
I don’t know what to think - I’m continually surprised I guess.

Mr. Tethys  17:54
Sure - she’s a sweetheart. Just let’s me stay here for free. Brings me some biscuits and soup every once in a while. When it’s real cold, she even let’s me stay up at her house sometimes.

Minos  18:06
With some help from Mr. Tethys we explored the grounds, digging in various spots he had always found curious. And eventually we discovered what we had been sent for.

Hyp  18:17
It’s some sort of box. With letters. Dearest Mother, I cannot contain the joy I feel at our new life. Richard was able to use his earnings as a mechanic at the movie studio and purchase a plot of land for sale by one of the local farmers. The day after the purchase he stayed up all night laying down the foundations of our new house, and the next morning he was off to work again. He has been working such ever since, trying to prepare the house for me and the little ones. While he is away at the studio, I bring the little ones with me and help, to the extent I can, with clearing brush, breaking down old structures, and cleaning up the property. The work is hard, but the promise of a limitless future makes it not so. And this one is from about 18 months later:  Dearest Mother, the trappings of success are not all quite what they are purported to be. I care to think Richard’s children barely recognize him anymore. I fear to think the one in my stomach will never know him. We barely ever see him anymore. His time is spent either at the studio or at home fixing, mending, or adding on to the house. We want for nothing other than the companionship of a father and a husband. So I feel some guilt to complain. But I am sure it is temporary and will pass once the house reaches completion and the new one is born. And this one from six months later:  Dearest Mother, foreign perfume and letters have wrought terrible destruction on my heart. I discovered them in Richard’s car when cleaning it as a surprise for his birthday. He put up no fight, but confessed and said we would have to come to an arrangement about the children and the house. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But I say nature has no wrath like a wife betrayed.

Minos  20:42
On Halloween morning 1927, Richard’s mistress, an actress on contract with one of the smaller studios, had been lured to the house by a false invitation from Richard’s pregnant wife under the pretense that she had taken the children back East to her mother. Upon arriving at the house, his mistress was met with nature’s wrath in the form of a carpenter’s axe, castor oil, and barbed wire. Richard’s wife took her own life as well. According to the police report, the scene was so gruesome that it took three officers four attempts each to recount it. Perhaps according to plan, Richard had been the one to first discover the murder suicide when he returned home from work and noticed the house was oddly dark and silent, with the front door wide open. Amazingly, the unborn infant survived. Richard mysteriously disappeared several weeks later. Marta was clearly shaken by the news of the letters, but agreed. It was time for direct interaction.

Marta  21:39
There are three clues that indicate conditions are ripe for a specter sighting. The first is a stark change in weather from very hot to very cold. And as you both can attest, this will occur late tonight, when we go from low 90s today to mid 50s tonight. This produces the second condition, a dense fog, one where you can barely see your hand in front of your face. And the weather bureau has already issued a dense fog advisory for the overnight hours. Finally, and a little more difficult to spot, is on the dawn before the visit, you will see a lone crow sitting on a street sign or telephone wire emitting a clicking or clucking sound, almost as if it were speaking from inside of a hallow wooden gourd. The noise is unmistakable when you hear it, and I saw that this morning.

Middle of the night outside noises  24:22
Middle of the night outside noises.

Minos  24:24
We — Hyp, Marta, and I — are on a set of secret cement steps in Silver Lake, the hillsides are laced with them, with a clear view down to the road below. It is in the middle of the night and Marta has picked this spot because she feels the specter will make an appearance on the road below. Marta leads these sort of midnight tours several times a year and they never fail to — 

Hyp  24:45
Come on.

Minos  24:46
Huh? Marta is indicating that the specter’s arrival is imminent.

Hyp  24:53
Shhh, shhh, shhh.

Minos  25:01
Oh my gosh. There it is. A massive white, apelike form with a gnarled expression, eyes fixed straight head, limps ahead one heavy step at a time. Its pasty skin emanates a sickly pale glow that is interrupted by blotches of, what is that? It looks like matted, thick body hair. Oddly, as heavily as it moves, its steps make no noise. 

Hyp  25:52
Hey. Marta’s freaking out.

Minos  25:55
Huh?

Hyp  25:57
She says we have to go.

Minos  25:57
No, no, no. Let it pass the steps at least. So at this point it becomes hard to understand what is going on with just the audio, but Marta is parked about three quarters of the way up, on a landing. And she suddenly turns and starts to make her way up, which by the way is no small feat for a 95 year-old. And Hyp is freaking out because it looks like Marta is going to fall down, she is going so fast just frantically trying to climb, practically crawl, up the steps. And these steps, there are about 100, 150 of them. No hand rail. So if she falls, it is over. The plan was that we were going to let the specter pass the steps, and I don’t know why, but that was critical for some reason, to let it pass the steps, and then Marta was going to attempt an incantation to get its attention. So at this point I’m like, Screw it, let’s at least let it pass the steps. But Marta’s pulling our attention so hard that I race back up the steps to try and help Hyp guide her up. But by the time I get back up to the top, Marta has already made it and is just booking it, I mean as fast as a 95 year-old can book it, round the corner and down the street at the top of the steps. So I take one last look, and the specter is actually coming up the steps. It never passed them, it just turned and started to climb them. Now I know why Marta was running.

Sound of footsteps running  27:39
Sound of footsteps running.

Hyp  27:32
Marta, Marta. Slow down. The car is back there.

Marta  27:36
We need to go.

Minos  27:38
Don’t you wanna’ do your incantation?

Marta  27:39
To go to the spiritualist tract. To shut the gate. To banish it forever. It’s after me.

Hyp  27:51
But the car is back there.

Marta  27:52
No, we need me as bait. We must travel by foot.

Minos  28:04
The tract of land Marta spoke of was the site of the news report from earlier in the episode. But that was way on the edge of Silver Lake, up near the Paul Landacre cabin, in about the only spot in Silver Lake you can go and still not be surrounded everywhere by houses. But after only about a couple blocks of fleeing, it was clear Marta was simply too old and too frail to make the trip without help.

Minos  28:29
Here. Hop on my back. Hop on my back. I can carry you.

Hyp  28:41
I mean Silver Lake is home to some pretty strange sights, but I can honestly say that I have never seen an elderly woman riding piggy back on a podcast host’s back through some of the thickest fog I can remember. And that podcast host was out of shape.

Minos  28:59
Very out of shape.

Hyp  29:02
So we started doing shifts. And we would have to stop every three or four blocks, just to rest. And by the time we got to the spiritualist tract it was every block, or half block. 

Minos  29:13
I don’t think I can go on.

Hyp  29:16
We have to. Let’s switch again. Marta, no! Just Stop.

Minos  29:27
Let’s everyone just stop for a second.

Hyp  29:30
I’ll take you again.

Hyp  29:36
I think I see it again. Where’s Marta?

Minos  29:43
Follow her. Don’t lose sight of her. I’ll catch up. The tract of land is just east of the two freeway. Even today, it is very hilly and difficult to get to. And in the middle of the night in a dense fog advisory, almost impossible to navigate. One can see why spiritualists might have called it their home, and why spirits still do. After struggling up steps in the pitch black fog, we arrive at a street that had long ago been condemned by the City. Unpaved and unlit, it curves tightly around a steep hillside. Shafts of light from a housing development far below occasionally hit the rolling fog and confirm that we are away from the cliff’s edge as we proceed along the street.

Hyp  30:25
I think we’re here.

Minos  30:28
What is it?

Marta  30:29
The gate.

Minos  30:33
We’re at a spot on a grassy, gravelly, abandoned road with a steep drop off to the left—

Hyp  30:39
—very steep—

Minos  30:40
—an uneven hill rising up to the right, and in the distance a hole in what looks like a pile of dirt that fell off the hillside or more like a dirt cave entrance from which a soft, sick glow emanates, at times heavily obscured by the rolling fog. If I look behind me, I see nothing but blackness, even though I know the road curves back and disappears into the hillside. I only know this because we’ve been pawing at the hillside so Marta, Hyp, and I don’t go falling off the edge. Though it will undoubtedly arrive, currently there is no sign of the specter.

Marta  31:20
I must go. There.

Minos  31:22
Into that pile of dirt?

Marta  31:23
There. Into the portal. The specter will follow me. When it enters you must cover the entrance.

Hyp  31:41
We can go with you. 

Minos  31:43
Protect you.

Marta  31:47
When I was born, I was taken from the womb of my dying mother. She had extracted her revenge on my father’s mistress and then taken her own life. But before she passed on, I was retrieved by my father. He cared for me, night after night, week after week, until the specter found him, stalked him, and took him away, leaving me to fend for myself. Well I have fended for myself, and now it is I who stalk the specter.

Minos  33:21
At this point Marta goes to the hole in the dirt and, almost like a mole slowly diving into a mud bath, enters the dirt cave. And we were left alone there, sort of speechless in the silence and the dark.

Hyp  33:40
It’s coming.

Minos  33:43
Over here. Over here. So we’re looking from behind a fallen. A fallen. A soft, sick glow is slowly increasing in intensity behind the bend in the road. The wisps of fog are rolling by, getting gradually brighter and brighter, sicker and sicker in glow. There it is. Never stopping. Just slowly plodding along.

Hyp  34:28
It’s passing the cave.

Minos  34:29
It’s walking straight toward us. What do we do? Run. Run!

Sound of Feet  34:34
Sound of feet running.

Minos  34:36
So we ran further down the condemned road, almost to where it rejoined a regular, paved road lit by a streetlight. And we waited, watching the dark and foggy path from whence we had come. Waiting for that inevitable sick glow to return. But there was nothing.

Marta  34:59
You.

Hyp  34:59
Ahhh! 

Minos  35:00
Oh my god!

Hyp  35:01
What the hell.

Minos  35:02
Oh. Jeez.

Marta  35:03
You didn’t return.

Minos  35:05
You’re bleeding. What happened?

Marta  35:06
You were supposed to fill up the cave after it went in.

Hyp  35:07
Hold up the mic! You’re still reporting!

Minos  35:10 
Oh, sorry. So, so, we’ve just been startled out of our wits, and Marta has reappeared with what looks like a gaping wound on her side. Are you okay?

Hyp  35:23
We need to get you to a hospital. Hold the mic up!

Marta  35:26
No, no. I am okay.

Minos  35:30
Here. Help her over here.

Marta  35:32
I just need to rest.

Minos  35:34
Hyp helps Marta over to an old, fallen down tree trunk.

Marta  35:38
I just need to rest. Do you know why the specter grabbed my father in 1927? My father had become obsessed with his work and with fixing his new house, with everything but his family. And then he chose the path of a mistress, while my mother slaved away at home. She was not the guilty party for doing what she did. He was the cause of her misfortune. Her downfall. That is why the specter came for him. To deliver justice.

Minos  36:58
And why has the specter come for you?

Marta  37:05
You’re not a very good radio host, you know. Waiting so long to ask such an obvious question.

Minos  37:23
Oh, uh. Thank you.

Marta  37:26
I used to treat men like conquests. The more unattainable they were, the more I sought them. And I conquered many. Most of them with families. One of them proved a real challenge, a dentist in 1961. But I persevered, and the vanquished wife burned her husband, family, and house off the face of the earth.

Minos  38:26
Mr. Tethys.

Marta  38:27
Yes. I knew I had gone too far. But it was too late. The specter had returned to Silver Lake, but this time it was hunting for me. To keep it distracted I fed it my clients. All of those lost souls who come to me for palm readings, for tarot interpretations, for life coaching, they were easily guided into self-destructive choices that consumed their children, wives, friends, all in the name of reaching their full potential.

Minos  39:38
During the course of her speech. Marta’s eyes begin to emit a dark, red glow.

Marta  39:41
And it usually takes the specter several visits before it can claim its victim. So you see, I would lead tours to watch as the specter slowly, clumsily, pursued its victims, all the while distracted from what brought it back to this world in 1961.

Hyp  40:21
But that could only last so long. Because it couldn’t forget its original mission.

Marta  40:26
Precisely. Excuse me if I stretch for a few moments.

Minos  40:41
Your cut. It looks like it’s… Oh my gosh— it’s almost totally healed.

Marta  40:47
Yes. I knew the moment we laid eyes on it tonight, it was here for me. But I had been preparing, I had been working on… a transformation, I suppose you could call it. But such transformations require certain sacrifices, if you catch what I mean. Please, follow me. We need to return to the portal for the final sacrifice.

Minos  42:04
At this point Hyp and I were watching a tall, strong, muscular Marta walk off back in the direction of the portal, and what could we do, but follow? When we rounded the bend, before the portal, laying face down and clutching a hunting knife lay Mr. Tethys.

Marta  42:23
Oh, forget him. He didn’t quite make the cut. But two brainy individuals like yourselves. Time travelers? Is that what you call yourselves? That should do it. Maybe I can stay here another 100 years or so. Please. Don’t be afraid.

Minos  43:12
Marta reaches up a leathery claw, beckoning us to join her before the portal. And it was odd, we just calmly approached her, like in a trance.

Hyp  43:26
Then it happened.

Mr. Tethys  43:28
Ahhhhhhrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

Minos  43:30
Mr. Tethys rose from the dead slashing and hacking like a blind butcher on a killing spree and struck Marta right through the heart. As Marta shrieked and stared at the knife sticking out of her chest, Hyp and I without missing a beat pushed forward like two football players and shoved Marta presumably back from where she came, into the portal. Then we all, Mr. Tethys included, began madly filling up the hole with the dirt around it, as originally instructed.

Sound of dirt  43:48
Sound of dirt.

Minos  43:59
This is what it sounds like when dirt is being thrown on a microphone.

Hyp  44:04
Or when you’re being buried alive.

Minos  44:09
Wow. You’re dark. Being the good little reporter I am, I also managed to drop my mic in the hole, never to be seen again. Mr. Tethys had been out trapping and relocating that evening when he had heard us from several blocks away. Unable to locate exactly where the sounds were coming from, he trailed the specter, figuring it was somehow connected to the sounds. Once the specter passed the portal at the spiritualist tract, he remembers examining the portal briefly before being hit in the head by something and everything going black. Fortunately for Mr. Tethys, his demonic wound was restricted to a blow to the head that left him temporarily unconscious. After the incident, apart from some lingering headaches, he was able to return to the quiet life of arguing with Silver Lake residents while trapping & relocating dangerous animals on behalf of other Silver Lake residents. With Marta gone, much to the chagrin of some neighbors, he was also able to move a trailer onto her abandoned property, his former childhood residence. He slept much easier there, now knowing the source of his family’s demise and what had become of it. As for the site of the portal, when Hyp and I returned one rainy day to examine it, it had been covered up by a mudslide. All that remained of Marta were some missing signs posted by clients who had also adopted her sweet dog. As for the specter, incidents of people torturing their families in the pursuit of their own desires persist. But whether 30 feet of mud and rock is enough to keep justice at bay, only time will tell.