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Ryan and Shane stand on a porch, clearly about to enter the house. Not much of their surroundings are visible in the light of their flashlights, but Ryan's anxious expression is clear as day. Shane addresses the camera, looking more or less indifferent.
"Here we go," he says, "another check on Ryan's bucket list."
Ryan laughs nervously. "Another horrifying, nerve-wracking check."
Back at in the studio, comfortably sat at the desk, Ryan says, This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, we investigate the supposedly haunted old FentonWorks house as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real?"
Shane can be seen shaking his head, but he says nothing.
This unassuming little home resides in Amity Park, Ohio, a small town which is purportedly "the most haunted place on Earth". Some locals claim that they encounter ghostly activity as often as every day, and as such, are also notoriously superstitious. Because of its ghoulish reputation, Jack and Madeline Fenton saw this town as the perfect place to settle down, and maybe advance their careers as ghost hunters. They bought a house that would quickly become a local landmark, largely in part due to the giant neon signs that they put up to advertise their brand of ghost-hunting tech.
Built in 1995, this house is one of the newest hauntings we've investigated. In fact, according to the current owner, ours will be the first ghost hunting show to film in this house.
"It's quite an honor, to be the first on the scene," Shane interrupts.
"Yeah," Ryan says. "I was actually able to get in touch with the Fenton family. We wouldn't be doing this episode without their approval, 'cause it just seemed like it would be disrespectful."
Shane hums. "Yeah, we only disrespect ghosts that have been dead and buried for a good long while, on this show."
"We? You're the one always trying to goad them into killing you."
Shane laughs. "C'mon, as if you've never cussed out a ghost on the way out. Don't deny it, I'm rubbing off on you."
Ryan gives him a glare, but doesn't dignify that with a response.
The ghost that we have been asked to investigate is that of Daniel Fenton, a fifteen-year-old boy that died mysteriously almost five years ago. According to Madeline Fenton, the mother of the deceased, they came home to, quote, "a trail of blood leading through the house", end quote, which led to the bedroom of their son.
Strangely, his body was not found until four days later, because it was hidden in a hollow part of one of the bedroom walls. It was only when the wall became discolored with rot that an investigator tore it open, and found himself face-to-face with the boy's corpse.
Ryan interrupts his own narration to say, "Can you imagine how bad that guy's day must've been? I mean, you're looking for a dead kid, that's not particularly fun, but at least you're helping a grieving family, right? Then you notice this weird stain on the wall, think to yourself, 'huh, what's that?' Then boom, dead kid."
Shane says, in a silly falsetto, "Hey honey, how was your day?" Then, in a gruff monotone, he adds, "Found a rotting corpse. It was pretty smelly. how was yours?"
Ryan laughs, and says, "What was this about not disrespecting the dead?"
"Oh, shut up," Shane says.
The coroner's report found the body to be seriously mangled, with numerous broken bones and other various wounds. Most notably, the boy's jaw had been brutally smashed, with eight teeth missing- two of which were clutched in his fist. The other six were never found.
Shane's only interruption is a profound, "holy shit," which is paired with a horrified expression.
Ryan nods, and then continues.
His parents, which had proclaimed themselves to be ghost hunters, tell us that they made several attempts to contact their late son's spirit, but were seriously disheartened by their findings. In the end, just weeks after their son's funeral, they moved to another nearby town, and tried to move on.
The folks who moved into the old house, however, soon found strange occurrences dogging their steps. Jessica and Lewitt Prior told us when they reached out to us, quote, "There's definitely something ghostly in our house. It turns our lights out, and cries out through the radio. It bangs on the upstairs walls, and responds to 'phantom'.
In the house itself, Shane and Ryan wave their flashlights around the living room. Ryan shines his at the floor, while Shane is distracted by an unusually-shaped lamp.
"So, this would be where the trail of blood was, roughly," Ryan says, waving his flashlight along the floor. There isn't even a hint of a bloodstain. The only eerie thing about the room itself is the lighting, which was likely a conscious choice.
"I seem to recall most of the ghostly activity being in the upstairs, wasn't it?" Shane finally turns away from the furniture.
"Yeah, we won't spend much time down here, I don't think." Ryan takes the lead, heading into the kitchen. He turns back, probably to check that Shane is following him, and at first it looks like a trick of the light, but then Shane points it out.
"Dude, is your nose bleeding?" It's almost flippant, at first, but then Ryan wipes his nose and his hand comes away red.
"Oh, shit, it is. That's ominous," he says, "Does anyone have a tissue?"
"I think there were some in the other room," Shane says as he walks away.
Shane comes back with a box of tissues, and as Ryan tries to stem the bleeding, Shane asks, "Do you blame ghosts every time you have a nosebleed, or just when you're in a haunted house?"
Ryan, somewhat annoyed, says, "I'm not saying the ghost did it, I just think it's a bad sign."
"It's a sign that you've got a nose with blood in it, I think," Shane says.
Ryan scoffs, looking like he wants to say more. He grabs a fresh tissue. "Let's get out the spirit box in just a sec," he says, instead of arguing.
And so they do, the rapid bursts of static filling the air. Before Ryan can even prompt the ghost, the box begins to chatter unintelligibly. Nobody speaks as the box spouts nonsense syllables for a solid thirty seconds, then dies to static again. Ryan wordlessly grabs a fresh tissue.
"Is there anyone in here with us tonight?" Ryan calls out, as is customary for the host of a ghost hunting show. "I'm Ryan, my big, tall friend here is Shane. Can you repeat our names back to us?"
The box stutters, but the sounds it makes could be anything.
Ryan tries again. "Is there anything you'd like to say to us?"
Just static. For a moment, it seems to be a bust, but then the box seems to say, "I'm-here-"
Shane replies, "You were very chatty there, for a minute. Did'ja run out of things to say?"
The box seems to spit out, "got-him-" It doesn't say anything more.
"Alright," Ryan says, "I'm gonna turn this thing off for now, but you'll have another chance to speak with us later, alright?"
Ryan pauses, then turns the spirit box off. In the quiet, the room feels different, somehow. Nobody seems to want to acknowledge it, though. Instead, we cut to them in what is clearly a young boy's bedroom.
The lights are off, to set the atmosphere, but glow-in-the-dark stickers on the wall form constellations that are almost endearing in their accuracy. There's a few clearly well-loved books on the bookshelf, and a model rocket on the dresser, but otherwise, the room is empty.
"So, this is the room where he was found," Shane says, as if commenting on the weather. "Ghostly ground zero, so to speak."
"Yep," Ryan says, audibly nervous. "This is where our ghost is most active."
In the next shot, the spirit box is already on and blaring. Ryan opens his mouth to say something, but is cut off by the box saying what sounds like, "can-you-hear-me-"
Ryan replies, "Yes, we can hear you." Almost frantically, he says, "I'm Ryan, this is Shane, we're here to help."
There's a moment where the box just spits out more static, and Ryan looks discouraged, but then the ghost says, "too-late-for-me-"
Ryan repeats back, "'Too late'? Uhm, can- Who is it we're talking to?"
The box stammers out, "It's-me-It's-me-Dan-ny-"
Shane's eyebrows make an impressive attempt at reaching his hairline. He calls out, "Danny, is there anything you'd like to tell us?"
The box seems to get louder, almost, as the static seems to change somehow. It sounds almost like heavy rain, or a thunderstorm. In borrowed syllables, Danny says, "No-go-a-way-" And then the static sounds normal again.
Ryan calls out, "I'm really sorry that what happened to you happened to you." He looks like he wants to say more, but instead turns the spirit box off.
Shane says, "Do you want to try the flashlight thing, or should we move on?"
"Let's move on," Ryan sighs.
An audio recorder left in this bedroom captured these knocking sounds.
The shot is in monochromatic night vision, and is aimed at the plastered-over hole still remaining in the wall. Two knocks can be heard, followed by another two. They sound like someone pounding a fist on the wall.
It's notable that there are four knocks, instead of three- which would mock the holy trinity. Could these knocking sounds be the spirit of Daniel Fenton, still lingering in the walls where he died?
Back in the studio, Ryan adds, "I should probably mention, before I forget, that literally nobody knows how he got in the wall in the first place. Like, there was no evidence of any kind that someone opened it up and then covered the hole."
Shane nods along, considering this information. "Yeah, and why's this guy going around mangling kids and shoving them into walls anyways? That's pretty messed up. Did they never catch the guy?"
"No," Ryan says. "There were a few suspects, but nobody was convicted.
One suspect that caught the attention of the media was the mayor of the little town of Amity Park, where the family lived. Vlad Masters, who was an old college friend of the Fenton parents, did not see eye-to-eye with their children, but there simply wasn't any evidence that he would commit such a grisly murder.
Ryan adds, "Apparently, the kid hated this guy. One news article from something unrelated to his disappearance quotes him as having said," Ryan flips to the page in his manila folder, "here it is, 'If someone in my family went missing, he'd be one of the first people I'd suspect.' Which is..." He shakes his head, trailing off and grinning despite himself.
Shane laughs incredulously. "Oh my god, that's incredible." He continues to laugh as he says, "The kid straight-up said, 'that guy is probably going to kill someone', and then died, and now the cops are like," he shrugs, "What're you gonna go?"
"They searched his mansion and didn't find anything concrete to prove he was guilty, so, yeah, what are you gonna do?"
"How thoroughly did they look, do you think? I mean, did they check in the walls?" In a moment of inspiration, Shane adds, "How hard can it be to hide six teeth?"
Ryan looks like he's not sure if he should be laughing or horrified. He shakes his head, and the camera fades to black.
Back in the Fenton house, Ryan and Shane stand in the living room once again. In this lighting, Shane looks particularly strange. Ryan sighs.
"It's time for the individual investigations," Ryan says, "I'll just wait out on the porch."
"Alrighty." Shane doesn't sound the least bit nervous. The camera cuts to a shot of his face on the go-pro mounted on his head. "Let's do this."
He immediately goes down into the basement, calling out, "Hey ghosts," then pausing to listen to his voice echo. "ghouls?" The effect is quite spooky. "Perhaps... phantoms?"
The response is almost immediate. A knock on the wall behind him makes him jump. He whirls around to face whatever threat may be there. Another knock comes, but this time he's staring at the wall, and he stands firm.
"Hey there," Shane quips. "Wanna talk?"
Two more knocks come, ringing out like funeral bells.
"Alright," Shane says. "We'll do it like this. One knock for no, two for yes. If you're not really a ghost, then don't knock at all."
Two knocks- a yes. Shane grins.
"Am I speaking to the spirit of Daniel Fenton?"
Two knocks.
Shane pauses, trying to think of a question. "Do you remember who killed you?"
Two knocks, again.
"Okay, lotta yes's. Let's see if I can get a no." He thinks for a moment. "Do you think Ryan is cooler than me?"
No knocks come. Someone giggles. It's not Shane, so it must be the ghost. Shane takes a deep breath. "Well, this has been fun, but I'm going to go somewhere else." He turns tail and half-runs up the stairs.
Outside, Ryan says to the camera, "Oh, I bet he's doing his usual, 'come and kill me' grandstanding." He scoffs. "As if the spirit of a fifteen year old kid is going to be particularly murderous."
In the kitchen, Shane is saying, "If there's any ghosts out there, feel free to come and kill me." When there's no immediate response, he adds, "Don't be shy! Come on out and rip my heart out."
There's a sound that could be something falling, or perhaps another knock. Shane jumps. He looks around, trying to find the source of the noise.
Ryan, sitting on the front porch, says to the camera, "awful quiet in there. Should we check on him?"
There's a cut, so it's hard to say how long it's been, but it can't have been long after Ryan says that when Shane comes back outside. He seems completely unfazed by his time alone in the house.
"Well? How was it?" Ryan is smiling, but jittery.
"Oh, it was alright. Made a lovely little ghostly friend." He nudges Ryan towards the door. "Your turn now, Boogara."
Ryan glances between Shane, the camera, and the dark interior of the house. "Yeah, I guess it is my turn, huh?" He doesn't look- or sound- thrilled.
Against his better judgement, Ryan enters the house.
The place looks the same as it has been the entire episode, but its effect on Ryan is more profound than ever. His eyes are perpetually wide with fear, and he can't stand still for more than a moment at a time.
"I am not my fear," he says, clearly quoting something or someone, "I am stronger than my fear." His voice shakes like an old barn in a hurricane. Slightly louder than is strictly necessary, he calls out, "Is there-" He clears his throat. "Is there anyone in here with me tonight?"
He's answered by nothing. He doesn't relax, not in the slightest. It almost looks like he's about to cry.
"If there are any ghosts present, could you give me a sign? Bang on the wall, or, actually, don't do that. Please do me a huge favor and don't give any indication that you're there, please?"
Ryan swallows thickly, staring out into the darkness.
The camera cuts back to Shane, who is telling the audience, "You know, I- we joke a lot on this show about pants-shitting, but I really do think this might be the one. I really, honestly think that, if this episode doesn't get Ryan Bergara shitting himself on camera, nothing will."
Meanwhile, inside, Ryan is calling out to the seemingly empty house, "Okay, okay, okay, I'll do, just, I'll give you," he takes an unsteady breath, "five minutes with the spirit box? How does that sound?" He turns, his surroundings spinning around him.
A voice, young and boyish, says, "I'm right here."
Ryan whirls around, and screams.
Outside, Shane (who is clearly in the middle of a sentence) can be seen stopping halfway through a word at the sound of his ghoul brother screaming bloody murder. He grins devilishly, turning to the camera to make some or other witty remark. This time, he's cut off by a loud slam. It sounds scarily like a gunshot. His face falls. He looks genuinely concerned.
Off-camera, someone (likely their producer) says, "let's go in and make sure he's okay."
Shane quickly agrees. He hurries in, the camera crew close behind him. They rush up the stairs, and Shane throws door after door open in search of his friend.
They find Ryan in the master bedroom, staring blankly at the window. Shane reaches out to shake him, but Ryan shudders with his whole body, and then turns to Shane.
Shane says, "hey, man, are you alright?" His voice is soft, and that and the framing makes this moment feel private. To see it makes one feel like an intruder.
"Yeah, just got really wigged out. This place," he pauses, "just..." Ryan sighs.
"We heard a loud bang, do you know what that was about?"
Ryan sighs again. He shakes his head. "I... No, I don't know. Wasn't me," he says uncertainly. Then, he adds, "Sounded like all of the doors slamming at once."
Shane thinks for a moment, head bowed solemnly. "C'mon, let's get our stuff set up downstairs."
The footage skips to that of them unrolling their sleeping bags on the living room floor. Shane can be heard humming to himself as he unrolls his. Just this once, they seem to be sleeping in the same room.
From where he lays caddy-corner to Shane, Ryan says, "I am not going to get one bit of sleep tonight."
Shane scoffs. "You never do." The prod doesn't have the same bite it usually would. They're both too tired to really bicker.
"Well, goodnight, anyways."
"Goodnight."
A few short clips show the two tossing and turning. At one point Ryan gets out his phone. He seems to spend most of the night scrolling aimlessly.
At one point, at around 2:21 AM, Shane mumbles softly, "what if we just... left this stupid house."
Ryan startles, but quickly relaxes. "Oh my god, I thought you were asleep."
"Well, I'm not. I blame this stupid house." Shane hurries to add, "I'm not saying it's ghosts, just that there's something not quite right with this place."
"Yeah," Ryan nods. "Definitely."
There's a long moment of silence. Then, Ryan says, "What if I got out the spirit box? Just for a minute?"
Shane sighs from where he lays with one arm over his eyes. "Sure, go ahead."
The spirit box's shuddering static starts up again.
Ryan calls out to the air, "If there's anyone in here with us tonight, can you give us a sign?"
Shane adds, "This is your last chance to talk on the accursed box!"
Not even a nonsense syllable is spouted out by the box.
Ryan calls out again. "Phantom, are you there?"
The response is immediate. "In-the-wall-I-was-in-the-wall-" There's a moment of static, as Ryan gives the ghost a chance to continue.
"We're here to help," he calls out. "Can you tell us who killed you?"
Nothing, for a moment and then-! "a-ther-mos-"
Ryan says, clearly to Shane, "'Thermos'? What-"
The lights flicker on for a blinding moment. They turn off again, just as quickly. Ryan yelps. The box continues its static bursts. Shane, whose eyes were covered, lifts the arm over his face in confusion.
"The lights turned on!" Ryan says hurriedly.
Shane, unhelpfully, simply says, "spooky."
Not one to be left out, the ghost uses borrowed syllables to add, "my-lair-get-out-"
Ryan calls out to the ghost, "If there's anything else you'd like to say to us... Now's your chance."
The ghost replies, "good-bye-Ryan-"
"Uh, goodbye, phantom." Ryan turns the box off. The silence is audible. "I don't know why I thought that would help," he says.
A few more fast-forwarded clips of the boys are shown, to indicate time passing. Then, we cut to them standing on the porch, having just stepped through the front door. They look exhausted, but triumphant.
"We survived!" Ryan cheers half-heartedly. "God, fuck that place. And fuck its ghost." He looks over his shoulder to call out to the ghost, "Bye, ghost! Glad to be going!"
Shane says offhandedly, "glad to be going, too."
Is the old FentonWorks building really haunted by the spirit of a young boy, or is it just the local superstitions getting out of hand? The answer remains... Unsolved.