Purgatech: Jess' Horror

Chapter Fourteen

Dylan hadn't left his office in the last 24 hours. He confiscated a bunch of monitors from the tech room and hooked them up on the long conference table. He managed to reroute the live feed from the house and it now played on each of the screens before barricading the door.

Lisa had come to check on him multiple times. He had heard her soft rapping on the office door a few times but he completely ignored it. After the first few times she gave up again and went away but this time, she remained outside the door, talking to him through the crack.

"Dylan, I'm really worried about you now. If you don't answer me soon I – I'm going to have to call someone."

Dylan scoffed and sat back in his chair, watching the feed on the screen. She wouldn't do that. Lisa was smart but she didn't have a backbone. The last thing she would do was call the authorities and have Marshall finding out what was going on.

Jess, Rob, and Grace had hold themselves up in one of the large sitting rooms on the second floor of the house. After their encounter in the hall, Jess stood at the entryway to one of the sitting rooms will Grace cowered behind her. Rob was still part way down the hallway clambering to get up from the floor.

He seemed to be okay, moving a bit slowly but at least he could still move. Dylan didn't really care about him. All he could think about was Jess.

Dylan could barely move. He couldn't take his eyes off the screen. On one screen, he could see the three houseguests in the top hall and the hallway on the second floor. On the next screen, was a live feed from each of their Purgoggles. One of the techs had set it up so anything that they recorded with their goggles would be shown back would be transmitted back to live feed in the tech room. Each of their viewpoints was in a separate window and below each of those windows was another, showing what they saw on their screen.

Dylan was astounded. There was nothing in front of them, no one, and yet in the infrared screen he saw a very distinct outline of a person standing in front of them.

..what about Erica???

“You really gonna leave your friend behind?”

“I’m doing all this to get us out of here. To get her help. Now either shut your trap and help me or get out of my way.”

Jess continue to talk to the shape is that was a person standing in front of her.

"We are not here to harm you. We're here to talk to you, is there something you want to say? Some message you didn't get to pass on when you were still living?"

Dylan sat poised waiting for a response but there was none. Except from Rob, who had managed to stagger his way up the hallway, using the wall as support.

"I don't know what you're expecting, but that thing Inc. going to respond. Ain't going to answer back."

"You don't know that."

"I sure as hell do." He cupped his hand around his ear and tilted his head to one side. You hear anything? No. Didn't think so."

Jess held her hand out front of her and gestured to the shape. "You're telling me don't see that?"

I see – something. But is probably like what was upstairs something this Purgatech people or beaming into the room to make us think there's a ghost in front of us to make us think there's something there in front of us when there's nothing."

"What about you Granny?"

Just spun around and lunged for him. "You leave Grace alone."

Dylan nearly jumped back from the screen. Had never seen just get aggressive like that. Maybe it was taking a toll on her already being in that house. He had seen it before. With the guy from the previous trial. And that made Dylan blood run cold. Wasn't just what they were being put through that was turning them this way? Was there something in the house that was making them act out of character?

"Maybe we just don't have the right technology."

Jess pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen.

"Who you gonna a call?" Rob said.

Jess paused for a moment. She got a strange look on her face like she was going to cry but then she went back to what she was doing. Dylan sat forward and watched her screen, which was super-imposed on the screen thanks to Noah’s picture-in-picture setting. It looked like she was loading up something on her phone.

"Remember when Lisa told us at they sent us all a newer version of the Purgavision app? She said it was more powerful and it would give us more options for how to communicate with the spirits we might find?"

"You really think some kind computer program is gonna make it easier to talk to whatever it is you think is in front of you there?"

"Well, I’m willing to try anything at this point."

Dylan knew exactly what she was talking about. The techs had been working for the last week since the last trial ended to upgrade the app and make it more easier to communicate with any spirits.

Dylan pounced on the phone tapping the call button to get in touch with the tech room. When Noah picked it up Dylan nearly jumped across to the phone at him.

"Noah, what was that new upgrade you added to the Purgatech app?"

"Dylan man! You okay in there? Were all worried about you dude."

"Look I don't have time for that right now. I need to know you did to the app."

"Look, Lisa's out here freaking out –"

"Not now, Noah. Tell me what you did."

"It was Marshall. He had me upgrade the app and an ethernet chip to all their phones."

"What does the chip do?"

"It makes it easier to locate energy orbs in the room. It also acts like a mobile Ouija board so the users can ask questions hold it out and the entity will supposedly use their energy to move the dial on the screen to communicate."

Dylan looked back to the screen he could see Jess holding out her phone in front of her.

"Look, Dylan man –"

Dylan slammed down the phone and hung up on him. He went back to the conference table and bumped of the sound on the monitors.

"We need to write this down," Jess said. "Rob, you got a pen?"

"I'm no one secretary," he said.

Jess lunged for him.

"Look, this is getting old really fast. You're acting like a child. Now if you want to make it out of this place alive, you'll write down whatever I say."

He held up both hands and protest. "Okay, calm down. I don't think the ghosts are what I need to worry about."

He fished around in his bag and pulled out a small notepad and pen then use the small headlamp and turned it on.

Jess turned back to this shape in front of her and held out her phone.

“Who are you? What is your name?”

Jess was silent as she watched the digital dial on her phone swing back and forth until it landed on the letter R.

Dylan scrambled around his desk for a pad of paper and a pen. He had scribbled down the letter before Jess continued.

"E. You got that, Rob?"

"I ain't deaf."

"Maybe not but let's hope you can at least spell."

Dylan snarked to himself. She still had lost her sense of humor.

"Go on, were listening to you," Jess said to the void they waited for a few moments but nothing happened.

"So much for that," Rob said.

"Just wait a minute!" Jess barked. "You see! It's moving. You just have to give her time to muster up the energy to communicate with us. It's an easy acclamation Mark another E. Write that down Rob. Go on."

Dylan sat forward. He didn't know he didn't have to watch to know what letter was going to come up next. It was Renee.

"We're still here,” Jess said. "Were listening. R – E – N. Ren. What does that mean?"

Jess had started pacing the length of the hallway holding her phone out in front of her. She had her hand clutched into a fist and he could hear her shallow breaths.

"Are you still there? We aren't leaving you here alone any longer. Were here to listen to what you have to tell us. Just help us! Help us understand!" Jess cried.

"Told you," Rob said. "None of this makes any damn sense. It's All just bull."

"How can you say that!" Jess said as she spun towards him. "You've seen it with your own eyes. You hear it you're hearing what I'm hearing. How can you question it?"

"Because that makes any damn sense. This doesn't make sense." He held out the device to her. The digital display on the device was going crazy jumping up and down like the equalizer on the stereo. "All this jumping around but I don't see anything from us. The only ones here are me, you, and Grace who by the looks of it is about to Keel over from all your excitement."

Rob was right. Grace was cowering in the corner, holding onto the wall as though she would fall over at any moment.

"I don't know what you're expecting when you decided to do this Rob but it's like they're going to deliver a handwritten letter with what they want to tell us. There ghosts! It probably takes everything in them to muster up the energy to communicate with us."

"You will other communication sucks. R EN. What does that even mean? Did you ever think that maybe the trying to spell run? It with her trying us to get the hell out of here before they do to us what they did to your friend back there."

"You shut up!" Jess said, lunging toward him with her arm out in front of her. She poked him in the chest with her finger. "You shut up about Erica.! You leave hurl the hell alone!"

"What you mean the way you did? I don't see you standing over there looking after your friend. Maybe she didn't fall by accident. Maybe you pushed her. Maybe you're so guilt ridden that you're trying to make up all this ghost nonsense to cover up what you did."

Rob was going at Jess now. He had stood up to her, and they were now chest to chest, bumping one another back-and-forth getting more and more agitated the longer they were there.

Grace clapped her hands to her ears and sobbed. "I can't take this! I can't take any of this anymore! I need to get out, need to get out of here before they get us!"

Dylan finally jumped up and went around the desk, unlocking his door yanking an open. He fully expected one of the techs or even Lisa to be standing outside his door but there was no one there. He rushed down the hall and when into the tech room where they were all gathered around the display monitors watching what was going on inside the house.

"Are you guys monitoring this?"

The tech turned and looked at Dylan over his shoulder. "Dylan acclamation Mark finally!"

"I asked if you guys are monitoring all this activity in the house?"

"Of course we are. We been rolling this whole time."

"And the readings they're getting? Where they coming from?"

"All over. We still of activity up in the attic but it seems like there something going on in the main corridor where the participants are."

"Who's keeping track of the air the data from the Purgavision app?"

"I am," Beth said.

Dylan bolted over to her workstation and leaned over the back of her chair. "R EN. Is that all of gotten from the app so far?"

"So far, but it seems like the app is still active even though Jess isn't asking any questions."

"What's it saying?"

Beth pulled up the output from Jess’ app onto the main screen. The digital display showed the overlay of the Ouija board on Jess's screen. The digital cursor was zipping around the screen wildly, pointing to letters more quickly than Dylan could recognize them.

N-O-T-A-L-O-N-E.

“Nota…not…not alone!” Dylan said.

“Holy crap!” Noah said.

“Just pay attention!” Dylan shouted. “What’s next?”

Noah turned back to his screen and called out the letters as they appeared.

H-E-R-E-G-E-T-O-U-T.

“Her…her who?” Dylan said, watching as Noah scribbled the letters down on a scrap piece of paper. “Her…or maybe here. Get out.”

O-U-T-O-F

It was agonizing watching, waiting for the random letters to make sense. Dylan stood right over Noah’s desk now, watching as they came up on the screen.

M-Y-H-O-U-S-E.

He looked up at the screen.

“Not alone. Here. Get out. Of my house.”

“Sarah Ridgeley! It has to be her!” Noah said excitedly.

“Whose device is that coming from?"

"Grace's,” Beth said. “Here look."

She brought up Grace's display in a different window. Dylan watched as the cursors on both Jess’ and Grace’s screens moved independently of one another. Below each window there was a text window where the data from the app was printed on the screen.

"This is remarkable. We have two different spirits talking at the same time. But who are they?"

"The first one. Ren."

"Oh my God!" Beth spun around in her chair and looked up at Dylan. "You mean Renee?"

Dylan nodded quickly.

"But how can that be?"

Think about it,” Noah said. “You know exactly how that happened. All because of us in this freaking study!"

Dylan turned toward Noah. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means, Dylan. You know what's been going on in all these studies with these trial users. And I know you haven't been exactly too keen on going along with whatever Marshall says. Especially when after what happened with the last group, I thought this would've been shut down by now. But no. We keep going on, moving forward, putting more these people in danger leave them like lambs to the slaughter. Literally!"

Dylan gritted his teeth together. He wasn't wrong. Is exactly the same things that he had been in turmoil over for the last few months. But he couldn't let his team know he felt that way.

"Don't you think I know that! Don't you think I feel like the lowest scum of the earth knowing what happened to all those people on our watch. On my watch. Because I know how much time you you guys a put into this but this is my whole life! US can go on to another job but when the chickens come home to roost, who do you think going to take the fall for everything that's happened here on the estate?? Not you, not Marshall. Me!"

"So? What the hell are you going to do about it then, Dylan?"

Dylan felt his face go red. He didn't need to think about it. He knew what he had to do we just had to have the balls to do it.

"I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to gather the data, figure out what's going on in there, and get the those people out of their without losing another one. If any of you have any qualms about this, there's the door."

He pointed to the door. When no one move, he continued.

"Good. Because I'm going to need all hands on deck for this one. We need to figure out what Renee wants. We need to figure out who that other entity is. And we need to get that poor girl out of the attic. And we need to get the last three trial users out of their without losing another one. You got that?"

Noah nodded and then spun in his chair quickly turning back to his monitor. "Just another day at the office then, huh?"

Dylan slapped him on the back and chuckled for the first time and he didn't know how long. "Glad you still have your sense of humor, Noah. Because I have a feeling you're going to need it."

Dylan could feel the tense pull of aggression lifting. He had a clear vision. Now he just had to execute it.

“Okay so the plan of attack now is to figure out from all the data we've gathered who this other entity is. We know one of them is Renee and we know why she's trapped in there. But this other one – is it one of the other trial users? Is it one of the people from the previous trial?”

“Or, is it Sarah Ridgely”?” Noah said.

“You really believe that?” Dylan asked.

“I mean, you saw what I did. ‘My house’. Who else could it be?”

Dylan let out a deep breath. “Until we know more we have to keep level heads, alright? Noah, you and Lisa make sure every blip, every orb, every pece of data coming out of that house is recorded. Got it?”

“You got it, boss,” Noah said, hunching over his desk.

“On it,” Lisa said, turning back to her workstation.

“Beth, I want you to monitor Erica up in the attic,” Dylan said, moving behind her. “Tell me if you any sign of movement and monitor the spirit that's up there to make sure it isn't harming her in any way. And then, in the most discreet way possible I need you to get medics to the scene so the moment we’re able to get access to the house, I want her brought out of there and taken to the hospital.”

Beth nodded before turning her attention back to her screen.

Dylan watched them for a few moments, feeling a sense of pride as his team get down to work. He knew they were out of the woods yet but at least they were finally working toward something the he could feel good about. Because the longer he watched feeds and the more the longer time the his team were in there being subjected to not only the spirits but the effects of the Purgatech technology, Dylan was afraid of what or who if anyone would come out of that house alive.