Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Eleven: Midnight Lullaby

Both Adrian and Eliza made a conscious decision to not let the thoughts in. They would pretend, no matter the fear both of them felt. It was the only way to get by. Adrian moved onto the long couch where she sat and curled up into her arms, and she hugged him firmly. This was a good night in, they both thought, knowing that around the corner could be the next terror that would give them all the grief they tried to avoid in ignoring it all.

“I think I’m ready for bed now,” Eliza said, getting up with a long stretch. She yawned a squeaky, soft yawn that brought a smile to Adrian’s face.

“No problem, babe. I’ll be in, in a few hours.” He replied, hopping up and giving her a kiss on the cheek. He couldn’t face sleep now. He knew it wouldn’t come if he tried. So he would stay up until he was exhausted, not that sleep would come, even then. What he really wanted to do was get the glasses. There was obviously a good deal of movement from the supernatural entities in his home and he wanted to see what they were all doing around there. He wanted to be let into their world, even if they weren’t welcoming.

“I think you should give up on the Purgatech experiment before it sucks you in too deep,” Eliza said, turning to face Adrian one last time. He wanted to say yes to her and the plan was all there for the answer, but he knew that it would eat away at him. And their money was already in his account, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to give up on the money that they paid him, just because of a few frights and scares.

It could have still been fake, he considered. Knowing that there was more weighing in favor of reality, his skepticism was still strong. So he clung to the idea that the experiment was a potential fake. IT was the right thing to do, for in case he was correct. Then at the end of it, he could laugh all the way to the bank.

“I’m not sure if I can do that, Eliza. I know you want me to and you’re probably right, it’s almost definitely the right thing to do, but I need to do it for myself. I need to know that I can get through this if there’s a problem. I want to be able to do my part in fixing the problem and if there are ghosts running around, there’s definitely a problem. I want to be a ghostbuster.” Adrian replied, turning his head in slight shame to the last comment.

Eliza burst out into a gushing laughter, her hand cupping his face, “You’re so god damn cute,” She said between the giggles, “Look, if you think this is what’s best for you then I won’t get in the way of it but I want you to be sure that you’re going to be able to get away from this freely. Ghosts are some dark business, babe. At least, that’s what I believe hey. But just take it easy. Don’t think about it and call me if you need a hand with anything.”

“Of course, my love. Get in bed and sleep well, I’ll see you in a little while.” Adrian replied, getting back down on the couch. Eliza went into the kitchen, got herself a bottle of water and headed to the bedroom where she fell asleep fairly quickly. Adrian remained seated on the couch. He knew that by the end of the night he would have the glasses on again and that would mean he would commune with the hag, or at least he hoped so. Tommy was another he wished to speak with, but with all those he wanted to communicate with, the ghost of Owen Guthrie was not one of them. That man gave him the creeps, even more than the other ghosts. A possible child molesting cross-dresser was not a pretty sight to picture.

But Adrian waited, pulling the phone from his pocket and waiting with it for a moment. He wanted to make sure that when he got into it, that he was ready. Not the same as before. That was unprepared and he got the fright of his life.

So he played with the phone. In the meantime, he’d downloaded a good deal of apps that wouldn’t work on his own phone. He fidgeted with them for a while, until he was bored, his finger ever hovering over the Ghost Hunter app. This was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done. Pressing that button would open the doorway as to who was in his home now, waiting for him. It would show their locations, which made Adrian uneasy, knowing that there was a chance they were here in the room with him; or worse, in the room with Eliza.

But he headed to his study first, getting the goggles before returning to the lounge. He made himself a cup of coffee, which he instantly considered counterintuitive to the reason he wanted to stay up in the first place. Still, he drank it before returning to the lounge, sitting down in his recliner and pulling the Purgatory Doorway glasses over his eyes. When he felt ready, he took the phone out of his pocket again. Holding it between his fingers, there was only one thing between him and the ghosts that were around all afternoon.

One little press of a button.

And when he finally did, setting everything up to find his own location, there was nothing. Not a single blip on the map. Not blue, green, orange or red. It was empty.

“So ghosts sleep at night too?” He joked, putting the phone down on the table. He pulled the glasses over his head, resting it on his brow while he returned to the television. It was another round of channel hopping, inspecting various movies and shows, nothing catching his fancy. He occasionally looked at his phone, zooming out from his house so that he could see the rest of the map, but still, nothing seemed to be showing.

Again, his suspicions grew. It seemed that the ghosts only showed themselves in the daytime, the normal running hours of Purgatech, he supposed.

“Well that makes it easier, I suppose.” It was hard for him to admit, but he was a little disappointed. He wanted to believe that ghosts were real. He wanted to know that he could be the fourth Ghostbuster, setting up an entire headquarters ready for the destruction of the world and only they could stop it.

It was a magical thought. He felt teary but he wasn’t sure why. He noticed the magic for a moment and it was stripped from him. There was nothing else to do but listen to the sound of the tv.

Until it, all came rushing back to him, with the shattering of a picture frame out in the hallway. He pulled the glasses over his eyes, turning to his phone and there they were, three blips of green flashing and moving across his cell phone’s screen. One he assumed was Tommy, the other was the Hag and the final must have been Owen Guthrie.

Which of the three was the one to shatter a picture frame, though?

Adrian ran out into the hall, Eliza screamed from the bedroom. The glasses on his head, he dashed towards their bedroom but there was nothing there. Nothing in the hall, there was nothing on the staircase and there was no smashed picture frame.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“I saw something. It was a kid, with black hair. He wore a white shirt and white pants. Looked too fucken clinical to be anything normal.” Adrian knew who that was. That was Tommy. Having seen Tommy as a friend when he was younger, he never noticed the attire but now that he was older, he could place it. Tommy wore an outfit that was befitting of a hospital, in this case, it was more something like an insane asylum or something of the like. Tommy always spoke of his times in the home, how he had to fight to get free. But he never spoke about his death, and Adrian assumed that’s why he never thought him dead.

“That’s Tommy.” Adrian looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of any of them. He turned back to the phone, where three blips moved earlier there were only two now.

“Murder in the red barn.” Adrian heard a voice from down the hall.

“Did you hear that?” He asked Eliza, and she nodded.

“Murder in the red barn.” The voice grew louder, nearing the bedroom it seemed.

The giggling of a child came through too. The voice echoed, with the footsteps that moved up and down the staircase.

“Come play Adrian. Come play.” Tommy shouted with glee.

“Murder in the red barn.” Owen’s heavy feet in high heels clanked against the tiles leading to the bedroom.

“Come play,” Tommy shouted again. This time it seemed he was growing angry. Murder in the red barn. Continued coming freely with every step Owen took. The two voices blended in a cacophony of the two sayings. Eliza felt scared, starting her own bout of screeching to try and drown out the rest of them. Adrian stood there, eyes fixed on the door that was now closed, and waited for whichever of the two to come through.

Both, it seemed, stood on the opposite end, shouting their phrases respectively. Neither of them dared open the door, however. Not yet, and it was the anticipation of what was to come that truly terrified Adrian. He wanted them to just come through, if they were to die here tonight, then so be it. But not being able to get the answers was harder for him than doing this.

Eliza could barely function. She was in bed, rocking back and forth, muttering something that Adrian couldn’t quite make out. Shame washed over him at the knowledge that he put her in this situation and left her to cower like this. He didn’t want her to face the same fate he did and she didn’t deserve any of this.

Suddenly, the lights flickered off. Eliza began screaming again, the door swung open but nothing moved. The only sound was the pair of voices screaming from behind, Murder in the red barn, and Come play, Adrian.

It was only when the light flickered back on that Adrian could see the two figures. They stood still, now, neither of them moving or saying a word. Wide-eyed, Tommy looked past Adrian. Eliza looked on at fear, in the same general direction.

He couldn’t tell what was going on until Tommy raised a finger and pointed towards what he was looking at, and there, stood the old witch. In her full decayed form, hair sparsely decorating the top of her head. Her jaw loose in the skin that held it there, a wicked laughter billowing from her.

“Adrian Beck, you play with the devil and now you will face him.” She extended her hand, touching Adrian’s shoulder and squeezing hard.

“There’s nothing you can do, Adrian. You should have come and played with me. She would have left you alone if you did.” Tommy said, shaking his head.

“There’s going to be a murder in the red barn. Your murder.” Owen added, both looking on in disappointment. Neither of them offering a service or a hand, just leaving the witch to crush on Adrian’s shoulder until she was done. Then she turned away, walked towards the wall and stepped through. He didn’t know what just happened, and Adrian didn’t care. Everything went back to normal and that’s all he could ask for, for the moment.

He ran to Eliza’s side, pulling her into an embrace.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen.” He said.

“I can’t stay.” She replied.