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The dark void around him pressed in on him, compressing the air to the point that it was too painful to bare. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out, and the dark void pressed in closer.

It was pure black and dome shaped and empty except for him.

But who was he?

He tried to think...

Randy Picket...

His name was Randy Picket.

It was then that the silence of the dome was broken by the faint sound of laughter.

Familiar laughter.

His brother's laughter.

His brother had been dead for four years. He'd been hit by a car when he was six. So he couldn't be hearing him right now.

But he was.

And as the laughter grew louder, a faint trace of light appeared, sending a tremor through Randy.

Except Randy couldn't feel the tremor. The tremor had been in his mind.

The light grew brighter, a hellish orange, and a figure began to take form. His brother, moving closer, and closer...

And closer...

At last Randy found his voice.

"What do you want from me?" he wailed then realized that the voice hadn't been spoken when he heard it echo in his mind. Nor had he felt any words issue from his lips. There were no lips, no body, nothing...Only his mind and his brother. And despite the fact that the words had only been in his mind, his brother responded to them.

"I want you to pay," was the reply.

"Pay for what?" Randy cried desperately. "I didn't do anything Adam!" But he knew he had. He remembered what he'd done, and so did Adam. Now there was no escape.

"Where am I?" Randy whispered in his mind. "What's happened to me?"

"You're dead," Adam smiled, his cold eyes stony. "I killed you. I killed you the same way you killed me!"

"Y-you were gonna tell! You were gonna tell about what...what..." He couldn't complete the sentence, couldn't face up to what he'd done.

"About what you did?" Adam's voice darkened. "Of course I was gonna tell. I saw you. I saw you set that fire. It was you who burned down the house, damnit! It was you! And for what? So you could get your kicks? How many other fires were there?"

Randy felt chilled by how adult his brother seemed. Though Adam still looked six-years-old, his voice held a note of maturity and a silent fury that was like that of someone beyond his years. His eyes, burning red embers, plainly showed his carefully controlled rage, reflected the intensity of his emotions, and the hatred he felt toward Randy.

Yet, behind that rage, fury, and hatred was a depth of pain and loneliness so intense, so carefully hidden, that Randy not only almost missed it, but didn't want to see it, didn't want to see what he was responsible for.

"I saw you set that fire! And when I told you I was gonna tell what you did..."

"It was an accident!" Randy cried out desperately. "I didn't mean-"

"Of course you meant to. I was gonna tell and so you killed me!"

"I didn't intend for you to die Adam! I chased you down that hill, hoping I could talk to you. I didn't want you to tell and I thought if I could catch up with you, I could convince you not to tell."

"That's why when I got to the bottom of the hill, you shoved me! I was right at the edge of the forest and you shoved me into the road!"

"I didn't mean for you to stumble onto the highway," Randy whispered. "Honestly Adam, I didn't. All I wanted when I shoved you was for you to fall at the edge of the forest so I could stop you before you got home. Stop you and talk to you! But you didn't fall down, not at first anyway. You stumbled a few yards and then fell, stumbled right into the road and..."

"I know what happened, damnit!" Adam snapped. "I collapsed in the road just as the big semi came barreling down the road. It was only a few yards away from me when I fell and I couldn't get out of the way. I didn't even have a chance and you didn't care. You meant for it to happen!"

"No..." Randy began, but Adam didn't let him finish.

"Yes!" his voice rose dangerously. "You meant for it to happen. That's why you wouldn't own up to what you did. That's why, when you saw me get hit, you turned and ran back into the forest before anyone saw that you were there."

Randy shook his head. Only there was no head to shake.

"I saw you, damnit! I saw you turn and run back into the forest!"

"But you were-"

"I was dead? Oh, Randy, I know! Indeed I was, and still am, but you don't seem to get it. I was dead but I wasn't lying on the ground anymore.

"No," he went on. "I wasn't. My body was dead and in the road, but I was still getting to my feet even after the truck hit me and sent my body flying off the side of the road at the edge of the forest. Indeed, I had regained my feet by the time the truck was able to pull to a complete stop after hitting me. I could see everything then: my body a few yards down the road and to the side, the semi a few yards further, and then I saw you, still standing in the same spot where you shoved me. I saw you turn and run back into the forest just before the truck driver got out of his truck. Then, later on, I saw the authorities arrive, and I heard every damn word that driver told them. He never saw you. All he saw was me. He saw me stumble into the road and a few seconds later it was over. You were all but concealed in those trees, but that makes no difference. By the time I had stumbled into the road, that driver was so damned focused on me and stopping his truck that you could have been standing right on the side of the road in plain view and he wouldn't have seen you. And then you just turned and ran off instead of owning up to what you did."

Randy was speechless. He'd given up arguing with Adam and had just listened to him tell what he'd been through. All of it, Randy knew, was true, all of it except for one thing. He hadn't meant for Adam to die. He'd only been trying to stop him from telling, had only hoped to catch him before he'd gotten home so he could convince him not to tell. Yet, even if he couldn't have convinced him he wouldn't have killed him. He'd almost been able to catch Adam long before they'd reached the bottom of the hill, when he fell and twisted his ankle. Then, when he'd regained his feet, his ability to run was subdued by his injured ankle and wasn't able to catch up to his brother-who was half his age-until Adam reached the bottom of the hill. Then after the semi had hit him and he'd turned and fled back into the forest, he'd found it hard to run on his bad foot. Yet, he'd done it.

Later, after it was over, no one had suspected the truth about what happened. Even if they had, Adam's body would've been too mangled to find any evidence that someone had pushed him. Everyone just thought that Adam had been running down the hill and tripped at the bottom, stumbling into the highway, where he got hit.

When questions had risen about what Adam had been doing out when it was dark, Randy said that he and Adam had been up in the hills searching for their lost dog, which was true. The part that wasn't true was the reason Randy had given the authorities for Adam's running off.

"He got scared while we were up there," Randy had said. "He told me he thought the woods were spooky at night and that anything could jump out at us from any direction. Then, when we heard a sound like a twig breaking, Adam just panicked and ran. I think the reason he panicked was because my flashlight had gone out just before we heard the sound. We had given up on finding the dog, and were both on our way home when he took off, and without my light...well, I just couldn't tell which direction he went and had no way of finding out."

They'd bought it. All of it. And no one even thought about the possibility of Adam's death being anything but the accident it appeared to be.

"I didn't mean for you to die," Randy tried once more. "I..."

"It doesn't matter what you say," Adam whispered. "Because your words mean nothing to me. All that matters is that you killed me. You killed me, so I killed you."

Randy felt a wave of shock by the words Adam had just spoken. Then, he realized Adam had made the same statement earlier, and it had gone over his head. He'd been too shocked by seeing his brother to comprehend that Adam had told him he was dead. Yet, this time Adam's words hit home.

"What?" he breathed. "You..."

"I killed you," Adam repeated. "The same way you killed me. I've been trapped here ever since I was buried, but now I'm free. You're dead, so now I'm free. Now, you'll be confined to this place for the same four years that I've been here. Only you won't be seeing your funeral, the way I saw mine. Oh, there'll be a funeral. You just won't be allowed to see it. My death wasn't the only death you were responsible for. There were more. People died in those fires you set. They died while you stood there jacking off, watching their houses burn down. People died, and you have to pay. Your punishment has begun, but now I'm free." A stream of cold laughter erupted from Adam's spirit, echoing in Randy's mind, torturing him. Then, the laughter began to fade, as did the image of Adam's spirit, and as it faded it also moved further away along with the light. And then it was gone: the light, the laughter, and Adam's spirit. Adam was gone, and Randy was alone, the memory of Adam's laughter still echoing in his mind...

*    *    *

The above defines my understanding of Biblical teachings of the nature of God and the nature of human beings. Humans are born in sin or disobedience to God. A soul and body cursed by a sinful nature. No spirit. Damnation. Christ, the Son of God lived in the flesh, fully human and fully God. He lived the perfect life we cannot. He faced the wrath of God as no other human can. In doing so, He paid for our sins. He was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day He rose again from the grave, defeating death so that like Him we will also be raised from the dead. To receive the gift of eternal life, a person must confess his sins; ask forgiveness; accept the Holy Trinity, the six day creation by the Holy Trinity, the seventh day of rest, that Christ is God who lived the perfect life, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. By receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, a new spirit is born. The new person is born. The God like conscience dwells here. The new born spirit struggles with the old sinful soul. Hence, the new born man of faith still sins, but is looked at by God as if he were free of sin, forgiven.

It is thought that the soul is like a ghost inside the body which I believe to be false, and it is often mistaken that the soul and spirit are the same thing. They are not. Further, it is often thought that astral projection is when the spirit leaves the body and travels somewhere else. However, in my Biblical studies, I've never read of a person's spirit actually leaving the body. There is a place in the Bible where it mentions that an individual was caught up in the third heaven, but was unsure whether he was in the body or out of the body. In Revelation, John had a vision of the final days on earth, the second coming, the wrath of God, and the New Jerusalem. It is thought that he possibly traveled to these places in time even as he simultaneously existed on earth in his own time. In many places in the Bible, such things are referred to as being in spirit, never as the spirit leaving the body.

So, what if astral projection is not really the spirit leaving the body? What if it is the ability to be in spirit, thus defying the laws of physics as we understand them? Hence, what if being in spirit means to physically be in two places at the same time, defying the laws of physics and existing by the laws of spirit? In other words, what if astral projection or bilocation is the ability of the physical body to be in two locations at the same time?

Consider this: After Christ's resurrection, he physically appeared to several people at the same time. He walked through a locked door. His physical being is God in the flesh, and His ability to defy physics is God in Spirit. Hence, he can not only bilocate, he can physically appear in infinitely many places; one God; one physical body; multiple places; defying physics.

As for human bilocation, it is my belief that a person can only be in two locations at once. Further, when a person dies, what if they are physically dead on Earth, and physically alive in heaven, or-if not saved-physically located in hell and spiritually dead? Bilocation: physically in two places at once; sinless in heaven, but not yet possessing the glorified body that comes with the resurrection, or-if not saved-fully sinful and purely wicked in hell. Hence, at resurrection, the body is no longer physically dead on earth while alive in another realm. It is then alive in a single location again.

So, if we are a single body, what then defines the soul and the spirit? How can the human body be fully human, while this physical body is not the soul or spirit? How can the human soul be fully human, while it is not the physical body or the spirit? How can the human spirit be fully human, while it is not the physical body or the soul? Is it possible that we cannot fully comprehend ourselves?

My answer to that question is, yes. At least we can't fully comprehend ourselves in our conscious mind. I think in our subconscious mind we can.

I once had a dream that I was being filmed for a television show and at the same time standing in my living room watching myself on my television. I was conscious of being in two places at the same time. In this dream, the laws of the spirit were fully understandable. Sometimes I speak in a different language in dreams and understand every word of it. However, while awake I can't comprehend these things. I can't imagine being in two places at the same time. I can't understand the language I speak in my dreams. Perhaps this is why we forget our dreams. Perhaps it is because while we are awake we can't comprehend the things we understand in our dreams.

In essence, my conclusion is that astral projection is not a supernatural experience, but rather a paranormal experience. Moreover: Sometimes when a person bilocates, they are not always visible in the second location because they are abiding by the laws of the spirit. It is clear to me that when bilocation takes place, the person is subject to the laws of physics a we understand them in their original location, while they are subject to the laws of the spirit in their second location. Sometimes they appear as a phantom in the second location. Sometimes they appear in solid form.

By definition our physical body is the matter that makes us up; the soul is the life of that body, the awareness, the emotion, the thoughts, the ideas, the personality, and everything that defines who that person is; and the spirit is the conscience or lack there of, the state of a person's salvation or lack there of. The spirit is what gives life to the soul.

In bilocation, the body is the physical mass of the individual, while the spirit is what defines the person's ability to defy physics, and the soul is the awareness between the two locations. The awareness is often interpreted as a silver cord, which I believe to be an illusion the mind creates as a form it can understand. There are times that when physical injury is inflicted on an individual in a place they have projected themselves, their body in its original location sustains the same injuries. Other times, in the second location the person will be invincible to injury, while in the original location they are subject to injury. Then there are times where a person is invincible in both places. It seems to depend on how far displaced they are from the laws of physics and how much more they are complying with the laws of the spirit.

So, why is this important? How does this relate to Randall and Adam Picket? It explains everything witnessed in Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington concerning the Picket brothers from June 2, 1999 to June 22, 2007.

The original incident occurred in Clark County, Washington north of Chelatchie Prairie. The Pickets live on a large piece of property on Hanley Curry Road off of State Route 503, also called Yale Bridge Road. The Picket residence is in a wooded area north of the Yacolt Burn State Forest. The heavy currents of the Lewis River can be seen from the northern edge of their property. The smoke from the fire that burned the Picket house an May 16, 1999 could be seen by some of the residents on the other side of the river.

After the fire, it was determined that an accelerant was used on the back deck on the home's second floor. Arson investigators were certain it was kerosene. The empty can was found at the edge of river, where it appeared to have been tossed from the edge of the Picket's property.

At the time, no one knew who started the fire. However, it fit the MO of several other fires set in Clark County in the Yacolt, Amboy, and Chelatchie areas. Multiple fires started on the back decks of homes that cost three people their lives. Melissa Langley, a six-year-old girl who died in the first fire. Her parents and older brother got out alive, but firefighters couldn't get to Melissa. It was determined that she died from asphyxiation before the fire reached her. The body was scorched but there was enough left to detect smoke inhalation.

The second story of the house was badly burned, and the rest of the home suffered extreme smoke and water damage. This fire was set on August 5, 1997. Randy Picket had turned ten years old five months earlier. This was apparently a preadolescent fetish with fire.

Cahill Straker, 62 years old, a widower, died at Southwest Washington Medical Center from third degree burns following a fire that started on his back deck, destroying his house. He lived alone. This was the fourth fire fitting the MO. It was set on April 27, 1998. Randy picket was eleven years old at this point. The second fire had been set on January 12, 1998, and the third fire was set on March 15, 1998.

Heidi Lansinger, 16 years old, an only child, found asphyxiated in her bed. Her parents had been unable to get to her because their room was on the ground floor and Heidi's on the third floor. The fire burned the second floor and was started on the back deck. It never reached Heidi's room but burned most of the third floor, preventing firefighters from getting to Heidi during the fire. It was the night of August 5, 1998 on the anniversary of the first fire.

Picket's house was fire number six. The police never suspected Randy, who was twelve at the time of the sixth fire. Forensics found semen at the scenes of all six fires. The arsonist stood in the woods watching every fire, and apparently masturbated. Not uncommon for a serial arsonist to respond sexually to the sight of fire. The DNA from the semen found on the properties matched Randy Picket's DNA. The match was determined four years after the picket residence was set on fire, not long after Adam Picket's actual death. Apparently Adam saw Randy set the fire on the back deck from his bedroom window then followed Randy into the woods after escaping the fire, where he witnessed Randy masturbating while watching the house burn down. This fire destroyed both floors of the Picket residence, and the family had to move into the cottage at the back of the estate. All six houses had multiple floors and stairs accessing the back decks. Shoe prints showed size six adult shoes. The size of the prints led police to suspect the arsonist to be in the early stages of adolescence. The semen indicated a sexual sociopath. Kerosene was the accelerant used in every fire. The Pickets apparently had a large collection of kerosene lanterns. This should have been a red flag that Randy should be a person of interest. Somehow this detail was overlooked.

Other facts were also overlooked. Randy loved playing with fire more than what was the norm for even an adolescent boy. He was caught several times at school with a can of hairspray and a lighter. He apparently enjoyed torching insects on the school grounds. Not necessarily unusual for a boy his age. What was unusual was the fact that he seemed obsessed with it. Some of the neighborhood pets went missing, too. All of them were found in a pile on the corner of State Route 503 and Healy Road. All of them were burned, as if scorched by a blow torch. Traces of flammable material were found on the bodies. The very same ingredients found in hairspray. There were also traces of semen on the bodies. The same DNA found in the semen from all six fires. Randy's DNA.

The final detail that was overlooked was Adam's strange behavior after the fire that burned the Picket house. The boy was withdrawn, at times volatile, and demonstrated extreme terror in the presence of Randy. More interesting was the fact that Randy seemed to become obsessed with his brother, never letting him out of his sight, claiming he was just trying to protect Adam. Randy insisted Adam was just afraid whoever set the house on fire might come back, and that he just wanted to protect Adam from the arsonist. Exactly why the authorities bought into Randy's explanations so easily even mystifies Edward Ramsey, a former police detective for the Vancouver Metropolitan area, who retired in 1993.

This brings me to what I refer to as the original incident. The night of June 2, 1999, when Adam Picket stumbled down a wooded hill into the middle of Yale Bridge Road, where he was hit by a semi and left comatose on the side of the road. His body was horrifically maimed and Adam suffered severe brain damage. The section of State Route 503 where the incident occurred had several tight curves. The truck driver was coming around one of these curves when Adam stumbled onto the highway. At the time, no one knew Randy Picket had been at Adam's heals when the boy got hit. More to the point, no one knew Randy actually witnessed the event itself.

This incident was the first instance of Adam's strange ability, or perhaps the origin of his ability. Apparently when the truck hit him, he was left standing in the middle of the road staring at himself lying on the side of the road. This was his first occurrence of astral projection. He was lying injured on the side of the road and physically standing in the middle of the road staring at his injured body simultaneously. It was not a complete projection because he was not visible to the human eye as he stood in the middle of the road.

He was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center, which at the time was the only hospital in Clark County. There, it was determined that Adam was so severely brain damaged he'd never come out of his coma.

Everyone believed Randy Picket's story about how he and Adam were searching for their lost dog and that Adam got scared and ran off. No one doubted Randy when he said he didn't see his brother get hit by the truck.

Then, things started to happen. Paranormal activity surrounded Adam every time Randy was around. A mirror shattered in Adam's room at the hospital when Randy stepped into the Room. Another time Adam's IV mysteriously exploded when Randy tried talking to his comatose brother. Cabinet doors banged open and shut, a clip board was knocked out of a nurse's hands, and once a doctor swore he saw a boy that looked exactly like Adam standing over Adam's hideously disfigured body.

"The boy was as physically real as you and I," the doctor said to me during a taped conversation. "Not a phantom. Completely real. It was right after Randy and his family had left. Then, the boy walked into the bathroom. After a minute, I went into the restroom and he was...well he was just gone. Vanished. You have to understand Dr. Jessup, this bathroom has no windows, no other doors, and he couldn't've left that room without me seeing him. All of the other incidents in that room occurred whenever Randy was there."

The incident that finally led to my involvement took place after something shoved Randy against the wall and lifted him off the floor. Randy was then dropped like a ball, and fell to his hands and knees. There were bruises on his neck as if whatever had attacked him had tried strangling him.

After this, the incident leading to my involvement took place. The Pickets had their minister, Pastor Warren Ellsworth, pray over the room. As he did so, Adam materialized in the room in solid physical form. He did not rebel as Ellsworth prayed, but he didn't leave either. He was completely unaffected by the prayers.

"He didn't behave like you would expect from a demon," Ellsworth said to me during a taped conversation. "He just stood there, gazing at me, a look of terrible sadness in his eyes. He walked right up to me as I prayed over that room, and then spoke. He told me, ‘I'm not the one you should be praying for. It is my family. They're living with a monster.'

"He said nothing else to me. Just stood there as I continued to pray. It was spooky...like nothing I've ever experienced. I've only had one demonic encounter in my life and this was nothing like it. I had the impression that what I was seeing was Adam himself. It wasn't a ghost. It was him, laying in bed and standing next to me at the same time. It scared the hell out of me. I finally had to leave the room, and just as I was leaving...well I look back and see him staring at me with sad eyes. I also see anger, you know? And he says to me, ‘Pastor Ellsworth, why did he do this to me?' Then just vanishes. Just like that.

"That night, I thought of you. I thought of your studies of the paranormal, and your theories about astral projection. I don't believe in ghosts, and...and I know you don't either."

So, at Pastor Ellsworth's request, I came to see Adam Picket. He knew I was a man of faith and that I would take an interest in what was happening. What I wasn't prepared for was the extent with which Adam was disfigured.

I sat next to Adam for hours, and with the consent of the Picket family and the hospital, I put a video recorder in the room. I saw nothing out of the ordinary until the Pickets brought their son Randy into the room on August 12, 1999.

What occurred made all of us in the room jump. The door to the bathroom slammed shut, then opened and slammed shut again and again until Randy fled the room. I left the camcorder set to record every time there was movement. The tape picked up nurses and doctors coming and leaving of course, but the only paranormal activity captured occurred when Randy was present. Objects mysteriously flew across the room. The sink turned on full force seemingly of its own accord. Cabinets flew open and banged shut. All of this happened when Randy was present over the next four years. Most notable was what occurred immediately after Randy and his parents left the room on December 14, 2002.

Adam was left alone in the room a full minute before the incident. The motion detector on the camcorder documented the date and time each time it was activated. This time it was activated when a figure stepped out of the bathroom. It was a boy. A boy who looked exactly like the photographs I have seen of Adam Picket. It wasn't a phantom, wasn't transparent or ghostly. It was in solid form, as physically real as I am. I saw documented proof that what was happening was paranormal, but not supernatural.

As I reviewed the tape, I saw the boy walk over to Adam's bed and stand over his disfigured body. He then looked up at the camera with eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and rage. After a minute, the boy moved slowly around the foot of the bed and walked right up to the camera. He seemed to be staring at me through my television screen. Then he spoke, and what he said scared the hell out of me.

"Why, Dr. Jessup?" the boy said. "Why did he do this to me? Why did he kill those people? Why did he kill me? Tell me. I know you're watching me Dr. Jessup. I know you can hear me. You have to stop him. You have to stop him or I will!"

Then the boy vanished. He didn't fade like a ghost. He just disappeared. This isn't what disturbed me, though. What frightened me was the fact that he knew my name, the way he looked at me through my television screen, the rage in his eyes, and the fact that I knew it was Adam himself.

I also noticed something else. Even though Adam had stared at his own disfigured body hooked up to all those machines, he didn't comprehend the fact he was still alive. He believed he was dead.

This incident was the last thing I captured on tape before Randy Picket's admission to the hospital. On a number of occasions, I spoke to Adam's mother and taped our conversations. Each time she spoke only of the things that occurred in the hospital when Randy was around, but I always felt there was something she wasn't telling me. Then, on May 13, 2003, when I finally showed her the video of Adam speaking directly to me, she broke down and admitted to me that there was something she hadn't told me. As usual, I recorded the conversation.

"He visits me," she said. "He thinks he is dead, and that's my fault. After the doctors told us he'd never wake up, my husband refused to give up, but I did. I gave up. I insisted on having a memorial for Adam at the Amboy cemetery. Randy also accepted the notion that...that Adam was dead, and told people his brother had died. He helped me plan the memorial. Adam apparently thought it was his funeral. He tells me this in his dreams. He keeps asking me, ‘Mom, why did he do this to me?' but never tells me who he is talking about. I tell myself he is talking about the truck driver who hit him, but on some deep level I know he's talking about someone else.

"He thinks he is dead, Dr. Jessup. He saw the memorial and thought it was his funeral. I dream about him...dream about him every night. And always...always it's the same question. ‘Why did he do this to me?' He's trying to tell me something, trying to...to reach out. He's trapped and he's frightened and he's angry. I just...I just don't know who he is angry at."

She broke down in tears then. I shut off the tape recorder at this point. I just don't feel right recording someone's suffering. Once she regained control, I turned the tape back on.

"There's something more, isn't there?" I said.

"Yes," she said. "There is. Last night I saw Adam while I was awake. I was in the garage straightening things up, you know? Just putting things away. I was bent over the old tool chest putting the screw drivers away and...well I straightened up, and as I turned around I saw him...just standing there, gazing up at me. It scared me so bad I...I just screamed, you know? I just didn't expect to see him. And...and well I just froze up. I screamed and then I just went into shock or something. And he...he just stared up at me with big sad eyes that were filled with...they were filled with rage. Sadness and rage. I've never been as frightened as I was then.

"He just stared at me for a long time then finally spoke. He spoke in a little boy's voice, but the way he spoke...it wasn't the words of a little boy. In fact, it was just like in my dreams. He was a little boy, but yet his eyes had the look of someone much older, wiser, and frightening. But what he said to me in the garage...what he said made me...it made me go weak at the knees. He says to me, ‘Why won't you listen to me? I've been trying to tell you what he did to me, and you won't listen. You just keep letting him do it. He has set six other fires since I've been dead. He's caused two more people to lose their lives just like he killed me, and you keep letting him do it!'

"I asked who he was talking about. I begged him to tell me, but he just...he just got angrier and angrier. ‘If you don't know who I'm talking about,' he told me, ‘then it's because you don't want to see it. He's doing it right under your nose and you're letting him because you don't want to see it. If you won't stop him then I will. He took my life and I'll take his. I'll make him pay!'

"That's what he said to me. That's what he said and then he just vanished...vanished into thin air like someone flipped a switch. Just like on your tape. I think he wanted to tell me, but for some reason he was unable to...to stay long enough. It's like he can only appear to someone for so long, but he's getting stronger. And...and if I don't find out who he's talking about, then one day he'll get strong enough to hurt whoever he's mad at. I've sat next to his bed at the hospital. I've tried to get up the courage to tell him that he isn't dead, that he's just stuck unable to ever wake up again, but I just can't bring myself to say it. I can't bring myself to tell him the terrible truth about why he is trapped."

What Elaine Picket said haunted me. I even tried talking to Jason Picket about this, but talking about his son is too painful for him. Still, it haunted me. It hung over me like a black cloud. Over and over I heard her telling me that one day Adam would become strong enough to hurt whoever hurt him. It was June 12, 2003 when Adam finally gained that strength. This was the day Randy Picket was admitted to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Elaine Picket called me that day in hysterics. She told me she found Randy in his car with the garage door shut and the car running. He had a head injury and was unconscious. She was calling me from the hospital, and she told me Adam appeared to her in the garage again when she discovered Randy. She said he spoke to her. Her words as I remember them were, "He said to me, ‘See Mom? I told you I'd make him pay.'"

So, I grabbed a second camcorder and raced from my house in Stevenson to Vancouver, certain that if Adam Picket had somehow put Randy in the hospital then something might occur in Randy's room. I wanted to make sure it was documented.

Something did happen. Adam appeared in full physical form in Randy's room. Out of respect for the Picket family, I have kept most of what Adam said to Randy out of this book. However, I will say this. When Adam appeared in Randy's room, Randy who was in a coma suddenly yelled out, "What do you want from me?"

Adam answered, "I want you to pay."

What followed was an argument, and Randy remained in a coma as he argued with his brother. Adam apparently believed he killed Randy, just like he believed himself to be dead. As Adam put it, "You killed me, so I killed you."

The argument revealed the truth about the fires Randy set, and what led to the accident that left Adam brutally maimed and comatose. More interesting is the fact that everything Adam was saying when he appeared in Randy's room he was simultaneously saying in his own room where he lay comatose. Another interesting fact is that while Adam was ten years old by this time, he still looked like a six-year-old when he projected himself. I believe this is because he was abiding by the laws of the spirit. He believed he was still six years old, so he appeared as a six=year-old. He was physically in two places at the same time and in two different forms. Both were the same physical body. The laws of the spirit just allowed his physical body to appear in the form of a six-year-old when he bilocated.

The last thing Adam said to Randy was this: "I killed you the same way you killed me. I've been trapped here ever since I was buried, but now I'm free. You're dead, so now I'm free. Now, you'll be confined to this place for the same four years that I've been here. Only you won't be seeing your funeral, the way I saw mine. Oh, there'll be a funeral. You just won't be allowed to see it. My death wasn't the only death you were responsible for. There were more. People died in those fires you set. They died while you stood there jacking off, watching their houses burn down. People died, and you have to pay. Your punishment has begun, but now I'm free."

These final words were followed by eerie laughter that made my skin crawl. As he laughed, Adam faded away like a sunset as did his laughter. His image and laughter stopped at the very moment his heart monitor flatlined in his room.

"He appeared to me in another dream," Elaine Picket said to me two days after Adam's death. I had my tape recorder running during this conversation. "It was the night before he...before he...died." She broke into tears. "He said something to me. He said, ‘I saw him, Mom. I saw him from my window. I saw him set the fire. I saw him disappear into the woods just before I ran outside. I went after him. I ran into the woods where I saw him go and I saw him. But he didn't see me. He was staring at the fire as if in a trance, and he was pulling on his penis. I saw it all, but he didn't know I saw. He was so busy watching the fire that he saw nothing else until the end. That's when he turned and looked at me, and I ran.'

"That's what he said to me Dr. Jessup. That's exactly what he said. Every word. As much as I want to, I can't forget what he said to me. And...and before I could ask him who he was talking about, I woke up...But...but I guess now we all know who he was talking about."

After Adam's death, Jason Picket told the police that Randy may have been responsible for setting all twelve of what became known as the deck fires. An investigation revealed Randy Picket was the arsonist based on the fact his DNA matched the semen found at the crime scenes. Six of these fires were set after Adam's accident on the following dates: January 12, 2000; November 2, 2000; August 5, 2001; April 13, 2002; November 18, 2002; and May 2, 2003. It is interesting that the frequency of the fires escalated over time. The fires prior to Adam's accident were only months apart then tapered off. It is believed that Randy may have come close to being spotted at the scene of the fourth fire and might have stopped setting fires for a time in an attempt to be cautious. He then set a fifth fire on the anniversary of the first fire then likely waited to see if he'd get caught. When on May 16, 1999 he realized no one suspected him, he apparently made a bold move and set his own house on fire. Then Adam confronted him and afterward got hit by a truck.

After that, Randy got cautious again. The fires he set were several months apart, but escalated over time. An elderly couple died in the last fire: Sixty-year-old Warrick Asher and 62-year-old Edna Asher. It is my belief that after those two deaths Adam was more desperate than ever to stop Randy, and a little over a month after the last fire, he finally grew strong enough to stop his brother on June 12, 2003.

An investigation into the incident that put Randy in the hospital revealed Randy had been hit over the head with the wrench kept in the glove box and was rendered unconscious. The wrench was lying in Randy's lap when Elaine found him. Adam's finger prints were on it. They were also on the garage remote clipped to the visor above Randy's head. It was at Elaine picket's insistence that police compared these prints with Adam's. It is my belief that Adam physically bilocated that day and appeared in the car just as Randy pulled into the garage, retrieved the wrench from the glove box, knocked Randy unconscious, and closed the garage door with the car still running. There was evidence of a brief struggle before Randy was clubbed with the wrench. My guess is Randy was shocked by his brother's sudden appearance and tried to fight him off. Adam likely possessed an unnatural strength of paranormal origin and also of pure rage, and was able to quickly overpower Randy.

The appearance of Adam's finger prints reinforce my conclusion that astral projection is not an out of body experience but is the ability for the same physical body to appear in two places at once. Spirits don't leave finger prints. People do.

The police refuse to acknowledge the paranormal aspect of this case and chalk up their findings in regards to Randy Picket's crimes to good old fashioned detective work. They also ruled the incident that put Randy in the hospital an attempted suicide, refusing to acknowledge evidence that Adam Picket was the one responsible.

It is interesting that Randy suffered carbon monoxide poisoning just like most of his victims. This caused so much brain damage that he was left in a coma he would never recover from.

On June 22, 2007, Randy Picket's heart stopped, and doctors were unable to revive him. Adam Picket died four years and ten days after he was hit by a truck. Randy Picket died four years and ten days after Adam's death. Both died at 22:23 hours. It is clear Randy believed Adam's final words. Adam told Randy he'd been dead four years and that Randy would be trapped for the same four year period. Apparently Randy took this so literally that he died after being comatose for the exact amount of time as his brother had been. Apparently there is such thing as a biological clock. Randy was somehow aware of exactly how much time had passed.

The two of them believed themselves to be dead. Adam believed Randy killed him, and Randy believed Adam when he told him he was also dead. These were illusions that seemed real to both of them. In the end they finally did die. So, ultimately Randy did kill Adam, and Adam did kill Randy.

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Comments (4)

Posted by Dirkin 2008-01-21 02:06:29 .... Wow this was quite a read, but worth it. You created an interesting drama with some thought provoking subject matter. I felt that after the first section the style of writing of the doctors report was very authentic. + Report this comment
Posted by Reverand 2008-01-22 02:38:49 Glad You Liked It Thanks for the feedback. It took a while to write this story, but it covers to interests of mine: Criminal psychology and the paranormal. I've read some of your work and love it. I read all of the "So There I Was" stories. I especially liked the one about the guy who goes to a party and is given a drug by a hooded figure and has the drug trip of his life. Scary... Anyway, thanks for the feedback. + Report this comment
Posted by Chase07 2008-02-03 12:33:21 .... good read indeed. Good job on this one man. + Report this comment
Posted by Reverand 2008-02-04 23:49:52 Glad You Liked It I had fun writing this story. I'm working on another short story called "The Resumé" I'll post it when it's done. Sometime this week I'll read some of your work and tell you what I think. + Report this comment

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