Brookside
By Roy Buckingham II
I, James Kinnard, being of sound mind and body, leave this as my last will and testament. I give this document that I am writing to anyone who happens to find it to please make sure my story is told. I know this is not a typical will because of how I am leaving it, in a plain white envelope saying read me, but I cannot remain silent anymore. I must tell you what happened. I must expose the truth and hope something can be done about it in the wake of my death.
First, some back story:
Once a shining jewel in the crown of the San Pablo County public medical system, sitting along the east side of San Pablo Road in the tiny community of Point Richtown, was Brookside Hospital. Opened in 1942 during the second world war, this hospital served the community well. Not only helping residents with everyday ailments, but also helping out in the war effort when it could since the town was across the bay from a major US port city. Many babies were born there, one of them including a former Vice President of the United States. It was an award winning hospital that people came to trust and love.
The saddest news I can give, however, is that as the town and hospital got older, the love for it by the powers that be faded away. Years of budget cutbacks on medical funding and also the evolution of much more high tech hospitals in the major cities around Point Richtown has caused the hospital to fall into disrepair due to neglect and lack of interest in funding it. To seal the fate of the hospital, a major 7.1 earthquake hit the San Pablo County area on October 7th, 1991.
The epicenter turned out to be right under the hospital itself.
The building sat abandoned and left to rot since then. Surrounded by gnarled and rusted barbed wire and signs telling people how unsafe the property was, it sat as an eye sore for years. Due to this, it caused property values in the once beautiful coastal town to plummet. Many left the town in search of better horizons. Some stayed trying to prevent the once thriving town from turning into a ghost town, but the efforts were failing.
The building began to become part of urban legends and myths in the area, like old fashioned tales of spooky folklore and such. Some said that the place was just cursed after the earthquake due to the Earth cracking so hard that it unleashed an evil entity onto the community. Some said that the hospital itself caused the earthquake. Many stories started to go around, but none as strong and rampant as the strange lights that could be seen from it once in a while at night from the residents. Some residents made amateur films on camcorders of this phenomenon and because of this, the local news began to take notice out of human interest.
It was on October 29, 1999, that the national news took interest when KTTV reporter Jean Thorndack caught footage of the lights on live television. She was doing a local public interest story for Halloween about the myths and legends around this once historical hospital, and while giving her live portion from the scene of the abandoned building, the newscasters pointed out to her the lights. Curious to see what was causing the flashing lights, Jean and her crew went through the gates with the cameras rolling live to investigate more. As she and her crew got into the building, the cameras stopped recording and no sound could be heard.
The next day authorities went into the building to see if they could find the crew and Jean. They were found dead. In some cases the bodies appeared to be torn apart. No one survived. In order to prevent any further incidents like this, it was decided to demolish the building. However, due to the history and interest around this building, it was turned into a public event by the city of Point Richtown to draw in curious minded tourists and also to offer closure to the surviving families of the victims. So they set the date of January 1, 2000 to demolish it. The city council saw it as “Point Richtown’s way of rising from the ashes of its’ past like a phoenix” or some dome bullpucky. At any rate, ti was to be a big thing for the town. The biggest thing since the hospital opened, in fact.
Unbeknownst to the powers that be, an underline internet website who called themselves NieBuck Entertainment was interested, too. Run by site owners and fellow trust fund kids Roy Niesar and Christen Buckingham, these two took their mutual interest in ghost hunting and broadcasted live streams on their website of ghost hunts that they did. Along with their crew, they decided that on the evening of December 31, 1999, while everyone was out enjoying their New Year's Eve celebrations, that they would host an online live stream of them breaking into the building and recording all that was inside.
I was part of that crew as well. My job was to stay in the remote studio that was set up in the Hotel Mac about a block away from the location to make sure the broadcast ran properly from my remote station. I honestly was glad that I had this job. I used to go in with the rest of the gang and record any activity found, but once you are attacked by a ghost you never want to be in the thick of it again. Especially when an attack leaves you harmed.
It was at an abandoned kennel. Known for rampant animal abuse, it sat abandoned for 12 years after a court order and animal activists got it shut down. Rumors were that the place was haunted by the spirits of the animals that were tortured and killed there. As we went down the corridors filming, I felt a presence. I turned around to see what looked like a German Shepherd charging after me. The others came running to me after they heard me scream and found me lying on the ground with a wound on my leg.
To this day I swear the ghost of the dog but me. I know because I felt it. However, because it was not captured on film, the gang just accused me of being clumsy and falling down cutting myself. I was offered to be replaced but I liked the money and fame too much, I must admit, so I stayed. To make sure I could not be an insurance risk anymore to both Roy and Christen, they put me where I am now.
As I sat there eating my nachos and drinking my energy drinks, I watched the footage feeds and also the live chat feeds. Had some trolls calling us fake, and honestly that is to be expected. We get it all the time, and honestly we just let it slide. If it gets too rowdy and out of control then I just kick them. Sometimes I will respond back or give commentary on what I am seeing, and the fans seem to like it. It was fun and we got a lot of attention due to it. So much so that we were even approached a few times to take this to television. We declined. Wanted to keep it directly unfiltered to the fans online instead of having a television company tells us what we can and cannot due.
Especially since most of our feeds were done without permission from the property owners. Like this one. This was our riskiest one to date and also our most hyped up one. Honestly I was shocked that the news did not get to the authorities or anything because with as popular as we were, I was expecting someone to blab and it get picked up by the right people and we would have the man waiting for us at the fences. None. So, let’s put on a show we yelled.
What I was not ready for, nor do I think anyone was, was what was captured on camera.
When the crew got in, both Christen and Roy, with fellow camera people Dustin and Sara, immediately saw where the charges were set up to demolish the building. I asked if they wanted to abort but the refused. Especially after finding out we had the highest viewer count in the history of our website. Dustin went off with Christen and Sara went with Roy. I had two camera feeds running on the computer screens with a third screen showing my reactions and a fourth being used for the chat section.
For about a good eight minutes, the gang did their typical stuff that we normally do on haunt broadcasts. Asked if there was a spirit present, tried doing White Noise Electronic Voice Phenonmena communication, EVP for short, and it produced nothing. The chat started getting a bit ugly with people getting disappointed in nothing happening, but that all changed at nine minutes and twelve seconds into the broadcast when Christen picked up something on her EVP recorder. A voice. A male sounding voice. She called out to Roy and asked them where they were. When it was discovered that Roy and Sara were at what appeared to be the maternity ward, so Christen and Dustin found their way to there to meet up. They played the recording again, and Roy listened closely. Suddenly, the voice’s words could be made out: “Not welcomed here”
It was that point a baby started crying from inside the maternity ward area. It was also at this point that the chat picked up with people going “Oh my God did you hear that? Is this real? This is fake!” and the such. However, no one was ready for what happened next.
As Roy walked into the ward to see if there was anything, the baby cried again. Roy asked if there was someone there, but was greeted with silence. However, on Dustin’s camera he caught what looked like woman standing behind Christen. Just as he was about to tell her, the ghost screamed out “DON’T TAKE MY BABY!” causing Christen to fall to the ground in fear.
The chat room became more active as speculations flew as to whether or not this was real or staged. Christen herself looked frazzled and scared. As Sara checked on her to make sure she was ok, a loud scream suddenly was heard from what sounded like a chamber under the floor. The crew walked around in confusion trying to find the source of the scream, when suddenly Roy noticed a glowing light. Hesitant at first, the crew went towards it.
At this point, the chat wall was filled with people pointing out how this was abad idea dn saying stuff like this is not what to do as horror stories have taught us. I will admit I was beginning to get uncomfortable myself. It was at this point, however, when the chat feature suddenly froze. No more feed was happening. I tried to check to see what was going on, and it was then I realized that our website had crashed. As I was about to tell this to the gang, that was when Sara’s camera suddenly fell to the ground.
I then realized they were in the room where the glowing light was coming from, and what I witnessed was the stuff that nightmares are made of. I could hear the gang scream as Dustin filmed Sara, only she didn’t look much like Sara anymore. Her body convulsed and she began to foam at the mouth. When Dustin turned to see how Roy and Christen were doing, he noticed Roy was doing the same thing. He then yelled and Christen to move away from Roy when suddenly these slimy tentacle looking objects began to break out of their skin. They were becoming some sort of monster in front of us, and at this point I am screaming at them to run.
They do run off only to be suddenly stopped by what looked like a man dressed in doctor scrubs approaching them. As he got closer to the camera, I then noticed his eyes were solid black. He grinned and said “I said you were not welcomed. Alas, you now must do”
I then realized they could no longer hear me because I was yelling at the top of my lungs to get out of there. I saw Dustin turn around to run away but stopped when he saw what was once Roy and Sara now approaching him, tentacles flapping all over reaching out at him. With glowing eyes and what appeared to be a sharp beak, I could tell Dustin and Christen were trapped. Dustin turned around to find the doctor holding what looked like a deflated balloon version of Christen and was laughing He threw it at Dustin, causing him to drop the camera. All then I could hear were screams.
At this point, I ran to the door of the room to go save them, when suddenly the door broke down and I was greeted by what appeared to be members of a SWAT team. I was then arrested and taken to jail. Turned out someone watching the feed was a local and reported us to the authorities. I was arrested for trespassing and pleaded guilty.
Instead of going to jail, I was sent to an undisclosed location where I met with some people that looked like scientists who wanted to speak to me. They asked me what I saw, and I told them. Without saying anything to me, they forced me to sign a confidentiality document. It was after I signed it by force that I felt something against my head and blacked out. When I woke up, I found myself in a padded room in the State Mental Institution.
I told my story to a couple of doctors, but no one listened. The one thing they could not explain though was the fact that despite me being the age 22 at the time I was submitted, I looked much older than that. About 25 years or so older.
The year is currently July 17th, 2017. My birthday. I am 40 years old now as I write this .
I look, feel, and have the health of a 90 year old man.
If you are still reading this, do not let my death be also the death of what I am about to tell you. I know what you read may seem a bit too fantastical and out there to be true, but I swear to you everything you read is 100% truth. I refuse to let others keep me silent even in death, so do what you will with this. At least I shall not be silenced anymore.
Do not let the truth die like me. Please.
(James Kinnard was found dead at the age of 40 on July 18th 2017 of apparent complications of Progeria. He is known for having the most historic case of the disease, since most cases last on average 13 years. It was also reported that as a result of such long life with the disorder, that his mind fell into the most complex state of dementia on record.)
(On the date of January 1, 2000, the former location of Brookside Hospital was demolished to make way for a a new shopping center and residential area. Plans fell, however, when a giant sinkhole opened during construction, causing the death of 32 crew members. Point Richtown now sets as a Ghost Town, as residents abandoned the town accusing it of being cursed. As of this date, no one has lived in the town, nor entered it ever again)
