Ghosts, are they real? That is a question that we may never have the correct answer to, but I’m determined to find out.

When my mom’s boyfriend (let’s call him Bob) takes me ghost hunting, we go out to a place we believe is haunted and use a device called a spirit Box SB7. This device scans through FM and AM radio, along with static. Words and phrases are heard from this box that we believe are entities trying to communicate.

We also use a ghost box, which is basically a briefcase that has cables that hook up to the SB7 and a speaker so we can hear the words coming in at a higher volume. It also cuts a little bit of static so the words are clearer. The box also has lights installed so the entities can be attracted to the box.

In October, we went to the Coronado Building downtown on E. Palace Avenue. According to the website hauntedplaces.org, the building used to be an old courthouse. Word is if an accused person was found guilty, they would take them outside to a big tree and hang them. The branch supposedly hung over the road, but they cut the branch off for obvious reasons.

The building is now used for offices. Some people in the offices, a few nightwalkers, and passersby have reported that they hear screams, moans and maniacal laughter.

Obviously, the best choice was to go check it out for ourselves because we are invincible.

Driving there, I honestly felt a little queasy. “You’ll get that feeling for a while,” Bob told me. Going at night didn’t exactly help either. Pulling up to the spot, I was feeling a little better but I also felt unwelcome.

We parked by the tree and started setting up Bob’s equipment. Once we had the equipment together, we turned up the volume and asked some questions.

The questions we first asked were simple:
“What’s your name?”
“How old are you?”
“How did you get here?”
“My name is Cheyenne — can you say my name?”

We got a few responses:
“Hello.”
“Guilty.”
“Cold.” (This is a common response.)

Other responses were unpleasant. Usually, when we get rude or disrespectful answers, we ignore them so that the evil or upset entities can’t feed onto us, by following us home or trying to harm us in any way.

We also used an app on Bob’s tablet called The Portal, which allows the entities to talk to us, but all the words are recorded backward. The app has a female voice. both older and younger. and a male voice. both young and older. The entities we encountered that night used the older male voice and just said random words for the most part.

After sitting in the car for a while, we decided to go outside and stand next to the tree. Going outside, I felt fine. I was actually really pumped to get answers from these entities. When we turned the SB7 back on we asked, “Can we stand next to the tree?” “Can we touch the tree?”

The entities then got really upset.

What I remember is that the entities told us they would kill us and to stop touching the tree. We then asked if they wanted to leave a message to anyone before we left. As usual, they had no goodbyes to say to anyone or any message they wanted to pass on.
We told them to please not follow us home and that we were just listeners, and we would come back only if they did as we asked and stayed there. They ended up just saying, “Goodbye.”

We left after being there for about two hours. When we went back to the car, I was feeling the need to throw up and fall asleep at the same time. As Bob was talking to me about what happened, it was truly hard to concentrate due to how tired and bad I was feeling. I told him I was feeling this way, and he explained to me that entities will feed off of the energy of anything they can, such as humans, cars, light, and lots of other things. So it was a normal feeling to feel.

This adventure was pretty creepy. Where should I go next?