Nightmare (42 page)

After all we had been through, after actually entering the
spirit world and experiencing the freedom of not being constrained by a feeble, flawed human body ... After everything
that had happened, I finally understood.

I turned back to Pierre. "It's the wrong question," I said. "I've
been asking it myself for so long ... but it was always the wrong
question to be asking."

Derek and Jordin watched me with keen eyes as Pierre spoke
again. "Then what's the right question?"

"The right question, Mr. Ravenwood," I replied, mimicking
his use of my last name, "is `What happens when we live?"

Do I believe in ghosts? I imagine this is the question I will be asked
more than any other once Nightmare is consumed by readers.

It's a provocative question, one that captures some part of
childlike imagination in all of us, because regardless of whether
ghosts exist or not, the question speaks to a world beyond the
one we know, and a life beyond the one we live today.

These are the facts: the kinds of events depicted in this book
happen. They don't happen to everyone, and they don't happen
every day, but they happen. The paranormal, ghosts, apparitions,
whatever you want to call it: they're real. They exist. But what
they are exactly is open to debate. Or to science, should it ever
find a way to explain it to us.

I believe that there are all manner of supernatural things
happening in the spiritual realm at all times. And I believe that
the spirit realm exists parallel to the mortal world we live in, and the two overlap in ways we can't and won't fully understand until
our time here is over.

Disembodied souls wandering the earth have been reported
almost since the dawn of time, and the majority of people alive
today either claim to have encountered a ghost or at the very
least believe in them.

But ... do I believe in ghosts?

I'll give you this much: I've never seen a ghost in person (and
frankly, I'm not sure I'd ever want to). And though I keep an open
mind when it comes to the paranormal, my view of the world
tends to look a lot like Derek's.

But there's enough legitimate evidence for the reality of the
paranormal that I can accept that something really is happening
in many haunting cases. And as Maia points out in the book,
I'm not at all convinced that that "something" can always be
chalked up to demons. Having reviewed thousands of reported
hauntings in preparation for this book, even if only a fraction
of them are legit, there's still way too much evidence for them
to simply be dismissed.

I wrote this book as a way of challenging you to make your
own conclusions, and I hope you will do just that.

In no way should this story be considered an endorsement
of taking part in the field of paranormal investigation. The story
depicted herein is just that: a story. It's not meant to be absorbed
as anything but fodder for contemplation, conversation, and
entertainment.

While I'm fascinated by the work of paranormal investigators, it cannot be overstressed that touching the paranormal is inherently dangerous. I would no more recommend it than I
would recommend swimming with sharks or sword swallowing.
There may be people in the world who can do it safely, but that
doesn't make it a smart idea.

Every location visited by Maia and Jordin in this book is real.
These locations exist exactly as they are described here, and each
one of them has had countless reports of paranormal activity,
and continue to. Nearly all of them are listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.

Though dramatic license has been taken in the number
and frequency of paranormal events that occurs at each one of
these places in the book, every instance of paranormal activity
depicted herein is based on events that have really happened at
one haunted location or another, all of which have been verified
by recordings and/or multiple eye-witness accounts.

It should come as no surprise that the fire that burns the
abandoned Mount Hope Methodist Episcopal Church to the
ground, as depicted in chapter 16, is a bit of fiction on my part;
at the time of this writing, the church has never caught fire and
still stands (though just barely) within the very dead woods
that surround it, where no plant life of any kind has grown for
decades.

To my family, most especially my wonderful Karen and my adorable little Evan and Emma: I love you more than you will ever
know. Thanks for letting me be a dreamer, and for dreaming
with me.

To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: You are mighty to save,
and always faithful and true.

To you, dear reader: Thanks for taking this ride with me.
Let's take another one soon.

PHOTO CREDITS

My deepest thanks to the talented photographers who are responsible for the
incredible photos of the real-world locations seen in this book (with the exception
of the Devil's Den photo in Chapter 20, which is credited to yours truly).