The tall host came into center stage of the holographic television program, looking very serious and somber. He also looked a lot like Mitch Pillegi... "Welcome back. So far this year, ladies and gentlemen, we've taken you into haunted homes, morgues, and the site of a horrible hover car crash. And now - we come to the small township of Sunnydale, California..."
The balding host paused for a moment, before continuing. "Never heard of Sunnydale? Well, you're not alone."
Flashes of old 2-D photographs filled the screen. Some of the images were in black and white, and others were in color. The host spoke as a voiceover, as the images appeared on-screen, "Sunnydale. Originally an obscure frontier town, it was officially founded in the May of 1899. But its past goes way beyond that. Countless tales of death and unexplained murder fill the pages of the area's history..."
The holographic image changed again, to show the show's host in a trench coat. A light mist flowed at his feet, and he talked into the holocamera as he walked down a street.
And just for effect, dark and semi-destroyed homes could be seen covered in graffiti behind him...
"No one comes to Sunnydale anymore. Though most people who've heard of this place, can't figure out why anyone ever came here at all. The first Spanish settlers who came to this area called this town, la boca del infierno..." He paused for dramatic effect. "The mouth of Hell, or more accurately - the Hellmouth."
A momentary pause. "If the numbers are to be believed, Sunnydale had the highest death and casualty rate in the Western world. That's quite a record. Although many consider that to be a falsification, to romanticize Sunnydale as some sort of bloody tourist attraction..."
The host looked around the dark street. "Countless stories could be told about the many deaths that have been claimed to have happened here. But what we're here for today, is a place that most don't expect to see as a haunted house..."
The camera moved past the host to show a destroyed front of a two-storey building. What was left of the walls seemed to be in a very old Spanish style, that originally might have been of excellent construction.
"Welcome to Sunnydale High School."
Ridiculously old 2-D videos filled the screen, showing students walking the halls. A date-stamp on one of them read, 02/21/94. It was disturbing in a way, seeing kids from over 100 years ago - who were now little more that bleached bones, buried in the dirt...
Once again, the host's voice came over the images. "In almost all stories in the gruesome history of Sunnydale, young teenagers seemed to be the ones to often fall victim to the curse that seemed to plague this area."
The hologram TV program refocused on the host. This time, he was standing in an open area - one that was surrounded by destroyed walls in the background. "This is the very spot where most agree that Sunnydale ended. In the May of 1999, 100 years to the day after the town was founded, the senior class of Sunnydale High gathered for its graduation ceremony..."
The host's eyes seemed to bore a hole in his target audience. "According to many, something happened at that ceremony. But as to what it truly was...we can only guess." The host walked to another spot near the edge of the grass and gestured, "The stage was right here. It was at this exact spot, that the students would cross and pick up their diplomas. Back when they still used paper." He pointed off-screen. "This spot also gives a good view of the school's bell tower. Or rather, it used to..."
The camera turned and showed the jagged, destroyed rubble jutting out from the roof. "No one knows why or how portions of the school blew up, during the graduation ceremony. The conspiracy theories abound; officially, it was an accidental explosion from a gas leak. And yet, traces of C4 explosive, fertilizer and kerosene were supposedly found afterwards on campus. Did someone in the government put an official stamp on a lie, and call it the truth? Who knows..."
Next, the host showed up in a burnt hallway of lockers. "Not many people in their right minds would be brave enough to come into this school, these days. Some natives to the area say you risk your life, when you do so. But not everyone heeds the warnings."
The screen instantly flashed to a twenty-something young woman. A superimposed title on the holoscreen indicated her name to be 'Tiana Ellwood'. "My friends and I were on a cross-country trip, when we heard of Sunnydale from some people in Oxnard. We thought it would be really buzzing, to see an actual ghost town..."
The host came back on, in the hallway. He was in front of a huge hole in the wall; a large, damaged room could be seen behind them. "Little did Tiana know that some of the ghosts she wanted to see, wouldn't like her and her friends snooping around..."
Tiana spoke as a voiceover alongside a picture of the darkened hallways. The word 'Dramatization' showed on screen; three teens could be seen walking through with flashlights. "We arrived in the town at night, right, and when we saw the condition of the school - hey, we knew that's where we wanted to look around first!"
Tiana's voice seemed to lose its cheerfulness. "But then, all of a sudden, we saw something that gave me nightmares for years, afterwards..." On screen the teens, two girls and a boy, were walking around the darkened hall. One of the girls appeared to see something, and screamed. The other two turned, and also yelled in terror.
A ghostly image of a white, overweight man in old-style maroon clothing was gazing back at them. His clothes were covered in blood. And entire chunks of his flesh looked like they'd been eaten off of him.
Tiana's voiceover resumed. "We just stood there, way shocked for a few moments. But then we heard a man's voice...but it didn't come from the ghost, or whatever it was. At least, not that we could tell. It kept saying 'You don't belong here!' Then it just came at us!"
The host came back on-screen. "Tiana and her friends ran for their lives. Not knowing the layout of this strange building, they wound up here - where I'm standing now. The place which used to Sunnydale High's library." The camera moved into the room. A large gaping hole was in the tile floor. Shards of a wood table were sticking out of the hole. Many destroyed, empty book shelves littered the area.
"Little did they know that the library was the only safe haven..."
The dramatization resumed on-screen, as the three teens ran into the darkened room. "I almost fell into the hole!" Tiana's voice said over the video. The scared teens then ran to the upper level railing, trying to move the bookcases to find a way out - when the ghost suddenly appeared behind them. "Its voice yelled that we didn't have school spirit. I thought we were dead for sure!"
The host came back onto the holoscreen. "What happened next...is something that could not possibly have been predicted by Tiana and her friends."
"Another ghost appeared, right next to us!" Tiana's voice said excitedly, as the screen went back to the three teens. "The first ghost was trying to get at us, and then suddenly right beside me a new...man appeared." On screen, a male teenage-looking ghost appeared. And apparently, his appearance startled even the first ghost - who many would have recognized 110 years ago as Coach Carl Marin, of the Sunnydale High swim team.
"The angry ghost backed up, in...uh, I would have to say surprise at the sight of the second ghost," Tiana said. "And weird as, but the second ghost seemed to wink at me - before he charged the first..."
The three teens watched, stunned, as the two ghosts collided with each other. White light then flashed over their faces, as the kids looked at what was happening off-screen. "They didn't seem to have the shape of bodies, as they battled. No kidding! It was like this ball of light, that flashed red and white. They seemed to be fighting..."
Tiana appeared back in the present, continuing to speak. "After whatever we saw was over...the first ghost, he was gone - and the second one just stood there, watching us. But even though I was freaked - we all were - I have to say, I-I didn't feel any fear on account of him. He seemed to look around the wrecked library with a smile, before he pointed towards all three of us. He pointed at us, and then to the hole we'd come in from..."
She paused for a moment. "He seemed to smirk at us, and then - he was just gone. It was like an old-style light bulb being shut off, y'know? He was just - gone."
The host came back on from within the library. "Tiana and her friends took the indication towards the exit as an order to leave the building, and not to come back. And ever since that night, they haven't. Tiana Ellwood declined to return here, to film this segment with us."
Another man came up to the host. "We've asked respected psychic Peter Lyods to tell us what he feels about this room," the balding man spoke to the holocamera.
Lyods nodded, as he looked around the room. "I'm ready."
The holocamera then followed the Lyods around the room. He touched the table sticking out of the hole and murmured, "I'm sensing...teenagers. Mostly girls...one or two boys...and some adults. One of the adults seems to have the stench of death on him - but I don't sense any hostility here. More like - a family atmosphere..."
He looked around to the counter. "Though I am sensing death close by. A girl died in this room...from the Caribbean? Yes, she was from...Jamaica - and there's a very negative energy present. I can sense a man here, he's old but somehow not...he seems to-" the psychic trailed off, as if he was listening to something. "He keeps saying his destiny was taken from him. Well, that and something about a speech..."
The holoscreen suddenly cut to a new scene, with Lyods looking over the destroyed empty bookcases on the mezzanine level. "I'm sensing two people taking some books, here."
"They're stealing the books?" the host asked.
"No," the psychic said as he felt the energy of the room. "They're not thieves...they seem to have some sort of strange feelings for one another..."
"They're lovers?" the host inquired with an odd look of anticipation.
"No, definitely not lovers of any sort," Lyods replied. "And as to why they're taking the books - I have no idea."
"But why only some of the books?" the host wondered, staring out at the audience of the holoscreen. "Only the first few shelves are empty, as you can see. All the others in the back are still full of burned books."
The man with the second sight shrugged. "I can't say-"
The screen then changed yet again, to show the host outside the school on the street once more. "Peter could not sense anything about the first ghost encountered by Tiana. Though he speculated one of the two boys' energies, could very well be the second ghost that seemed to rescue our witness and her friends..."
He moved closer to the camera. "An impasse, or so it seems. Thus, to solve the mystery, we need to search using more mundane means."
The view changed to a home in Chicago, Illinois. The host's voice continued as a voiceover, "We looked through several old records of the last few years, leading up to the end days of Sunnydale. And that search leads us here, to Chicago. Here we talked to Caitlin Harnden -a 37-year-old mother of three..."
An attractive brunette woman appeared on a couch at her home. "Yes, I know all about Sunnydale," Caitlin said. "And the things I could tell you - well..."
She paused then went on, "It's well known within my family that my maternal great-grandfather grew up in Sunnydale, along with my great-grandmother. The stories they told their children and grandchildren were of...well, things not for the timid to hear. My sister has all my great-grandmother's diaries of that time," Caitlin said. "But I do know that she fell in love with my great-grandfather, because of the things that went on in Sunnydale when they were teenagers. Oh, they separated for a time - before getting back together, after their high school graduation-"
The host stopped her right there. "Mrs. Harnden? Are you saying you have documents that mention details about the last graduation of Sunnydale High?"
Caitlin frowned. "Sir, I am not going to share any of my family's private papers with you. Not under any circumstances. And before you ask why - I have many personal reasons to do so."
The host frowned at that statement. "I see. But can you at least tell us - who do you believe that the second ghost we told you about, actually was?"
Catherine frowned. "You said the second ghost showed up in the library?"
"Yes," the host answered at once, leaning forward in expectation.
"Well then, if I had to make a guess..." Caitlin mused. "...my money would say it was my great-grandfather."
"How can you be so sure-" the host started to say.
"Because," Caitlin said as she cut him off. "He and his wife -girlfriend, at the time - spent a lot of their time in that library. It was like a second home to them. Well, there and the school's utility closets..." Chuckling, Caitlin took out a very old laminated 2-D wedding photograph. "Why don't you make a holo-scan of this, and show it to your witness? See what she has to say."
The scene changed back to the host, again standing on that street amidst the ruins of Sunnydale. "And we did just that. And Tiana did indeed identify the groom in the wedding picture, as the second ghost she and her friends saw that night. Believe it or not..."
The wedding scan showed on-screen. The dark-haired groom and bride were shown at the altar, looking radiant and blissfully happy, along with a blond and redhead as bridesmaids. A redheaded young man and two older men were also present, as groomsmen; and the entire euphoric scene seemed to provide an unwelcome sharp contrast, to the theme of gloom and horror that the holoTV program was trying to project.
The voiceover then resumed, "Through our search of public records, we have discovered a wedding license for Alexander Harris and Cordelia Chase issued in San Francisco during March, 2002. We compared those names with the last yearbook printed from Sunnydale High School - and they match up precisely. Therefore, according to all the evidence -Alexander Harris was the second ghost present that night..."
The host came back on screen. "Examination of the public database reveals that Alexander Harris died at the age of 83, under unknown circumstances. His wife, Cordelia Harris, followed him just six months later. Tiana has requested to meet Mrs. Harnden, to talk about her great-grandfather. We hope to bring you that meeting in a later episode..."
The host looked around at the decaying homes. "It may never be known what really happened, in this town nicknamed the Hellmouth, for over 100 years. And why, after some mysterious event following the class of 1999 graduating, did everyone suddenly leave the township in droves -never to return..."
The balding man looked deadly serious. "But then Sunnydale, California is just one of many stops in the road of Haunted America."
The end theme music of the show started to play, as the host said, "Join us again next week, as we try to solve another tale of ghostly encounters. Good night."
The screen faded to black...and somewhere up above in a heavenly dimension, the shades of the Scooby gang started laughing their asses off.