Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Ten: You Can't Unring The Bell

Adrian couldn’t contain his thoughts. The fact that there was more to the Murder at Red Barn than he was bargaining for terrified him. And with everything going the way it had, he couldn’t help but think, now, that ghosts were real. That the devils outside found their way’s in.

It was an interesting feeling, knowing that the supernatural communities existed. Did that mean his once, long forgotten dream, of being a ghostbuster could actually happen? How would he do it? Were there any tools that could stop these monsters?

There must have been. It made sense to him that if they were real, there was a way to stop them. Everything in life had a solution, even if it was difficult to come by, he considered.

His first thoughts were to keep everything to himself, but he knew if he did that there would be no outside input that could actually help him in this situation. So he mulled over, between the library and his home, which it would be best to speak with Eliza. She would know what to say to him to calm him down. So why wouldn’t he make use of her expertise in the matter of Adrian Beck?

But on his return home, there was no one. The house was still empty and he felt alone. He felt scared and for a moment, there was the ever present threat of eyes lingering over him as he made his way through the empty home.

But those thoughts were just childish, weren’t they? He knew that there was something out there but that didn’t mean he had to change his ways. Still, the cell phone in his pocket would give him the answers he needed. All he had to do was remove it and watch for the green blips. The thought terrified him, so instead, he poured himself a shot of Malibu, pineapple as the mixer and a three blocks of ice, which he crushed against the counter in a cloth and a rolling pin.

“Now this is living.” Adrian took his drink to the lounge, where he switched on the television. A thin layer of static plagued the screen and he couldn’t help but think it was the ghosts that he had dabbled in. Nervously, he moved towards the tv, his heart racing with every step. If he turned back now, he would see the ghost from before, his battered face weeping and muttering red barn and the murder tales. It would launch at him again, and this time it would probably get him.

He burst out into an awkward laughter.

“That’s just childish, man.” He got behind the tv and started fiddling with the connecting wires. When he was done, the static grain was gone and his heart settled down. Until the giggling of a young boy echoed through the house. It was a comfortable laugh, one that was more familiar to Adrian than he cared to admit. The light pitter patter of footsteps echoing over the hollow wood floors that made up the staircase. Adrian considered going after the voice, but chalked it up to nothing more than his own mind playing tricks on him. Tommy wasn’t around anymore and he hadn’t been for a good thirty years, so why would he resurface now?

“Adrian, come and play with me.” The voice shouted from above the staircase. Adrian pretended there was nothing, it was just the booze talking.

“I will come and play with you,” He sipped at his drink and fell back onto the leather recliner centred in front of the television. He wanted Eliza to return. He knew that she would know what to do but there was no reason to worry her while she was having a good time. He finished his drink in one big gulp, flipping through the channels of the tv.

~ ~ ~

Adrian struggled to settle on a particular channel. Nothing caught his fancy, yet everything engrossed him for a moment or two. He took the time to inspect every channel that came on, to make sure he had no intention of watching it. When he finally did settle, it was on a British gameshow about quizzing. He’d watched The Chase before and knew he enjoyed it enough to get into it now. He enjoyed playing along, too, wanting to beat the brains that would sit there, and sometimes, he knew the answers many didn’t.

It was on a question about the early British Empire, a question that he had to guess, relating to the timeline of King Edward the Second’s rule, that he felt something touch his shoulder. He’d already finished four Malibu and Pineapple Juices since – each growing more potent in alcohol content – and believed that in his more drunken stupor he didn’t even hear Eliza come into the house.

“Baby, I didn’t even hear you come in.” She had a habit of coming in and stroking his head, or his shoulder, when he napped on the couch. It was his favourite place to catch a few winks, and when woken to her gentle touch, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Baby?” Adrian asked, a few seconds passing with no reply. Adrian turned his head, the hand on his shoulder not that of Eliza. The hand looked like it had been decaying for a good long while. On seeing it, he imagined it smelling and his brain filled in the blanks. The stench of a decaying corpse came from the hand, and as his eyes rose, he noticed that it was the old hag. Good chunks of her face replaced by the jaw, or hollow skeleton that sit below. Adrian broke out into a screech of sheer terror. From the right corner, where meat remained, Adrian could see the crooked upturned smile on her face.

“You’re not going to get out of this alive, Adrian. You don’t know the game you play.” The old witch said. A croaking, hollow laughter followed. Adrian lay on the floor, crippled by fear, hyperventilating and ready to die.

But when he opened his eyes again the witch was not there. It was just him, the noise of the television and the unlocking of the front door where Eliza came through. He jumped up, his chest hurting from what seemed like palpitations. There was no way Adrian would let Eliza see him like that. She would make him cut the experiment there and then but he still needed time to take up the role of Doctor Peter Venkman and save himself and the world, form the ghosts.

“Adrian,” Eliza looked at him. Immediately she could tell that there was something wrong with him, “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just got a fright when you unlocked the door.” He replied.

It’s all the ghosts you’ve been playing with. They’ve got you on edge.” Eliza knew about Adrian’s first experiment. He kept some of the details from her, knowing that the full extent of the story would only give her the heebie jeebies and he didn’t want that. So he just told her how the phone worked, and that he could see someone in the garden but believed it to be complete nonsense.

The library, however, that provided a good deal of extra security to the matter. There definitely was something out there, no matter what Adrian cared to say or would have preferred to believe. So now it was another round of trying to keep suspicion off of him and diverted away until he could bring up the conversation about what he truly saw. Eliza deserved to know, and after his extensive research, he found that this house was the burial ground to the boys Owen Guthrie slaughtered. Their own home was a murder ground. Red Barn was destroyed and replaced by this house shortly after the incident. Owen was killed, the children’s bodies were never found and he was left to burn in the barn until both he and it were destroyed. So there was one of two options. Continue on his battle with booze or give in to her warm and inviting smile. That’s what he actually wanted to do. Just make things more comfortable and easier for her and him. But that didn’t mean it was going to happen so easily. Things were on stormy waters for the moment.

But finally, Adrian made his decision. He went to the kitchen, poured a drink for himself and for Eliza and returned. She kicked off her shoes, changed into more comfortable clothes and her satin robe and took a seat on the table, shouting out the answers to the quiz show that still played in the background. It was do or die time and Adrian was nervous. What was she going to say? How would she react to the news of what he saw outside, what he heard with Tommy and that the old witch was around?

“So I’ve got to talk to you about something.” Adrian brought her drink to her.

“What’s up, Love?” She asked.

“I may have changed the truth a little bit. About what I saw with the glasses. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t some weird game that they were playing with me before I actually gave you the information.” Adrian replied.

“What do you mean?” Eliza took a sip of the drink, her face scrunching up at the potency.

“Well there’s a bit of a problem. There was a murderer outside. His name was Owen Guthrie and he’s one of the town’s most hidden secrets.” Adrian explained, “Before this house was built here, this man killed a whole heap of young boys and buried them across the grounds. He was later killed outside the barn. They threw his body inside and set it alight. Some say he was still alive and they could hear him screaming, even after he was bludgeoned, others say he was dead before he was set on fire. It was one of those things that everyone conveniently forgot after it happened because it wasn’t something they wanted to deal with.”

Eliza looked at Adrian, confusion washed over her face. She didn’t want to deal with this mess and that’s why she cautioned him in moving into this venture. She knew him and knew how he was. He wouldn’t let the smaller things slide. He would put on his best Sherlock Holmes impression and take on whatever challenges came his way.

The worst of it all, Adrian believed that he lost his boyish spirit. That it was stripped from him in school, university and working life, but it was one of the many reasons Eliza fell in love with him. She noticed that he dreamed too big for this world. That Adrian Beck would someday aspire to finishing that novel he worked on late at night when she begged him to come to bed. The Purgatech experiment was cause, and his vivid temperament to get to the bottom of things was the effect.

“Then today I heard the footsteps and laughter of an old friend. He called out to me and said I must come play. His name was Tommy, an imaginary friend from when I was a child. I ignored the f**k out of that because there’s no chance I’m going to run around the house chasing after a ghost.”

“Is that all?” Eliza asked.

“No. The reason I was so startled before you came in was because of an old nightmare I thought I forgot about. A decaying old hag used to come to me as a kid and I saw her a while ago. It’s the reason I took on the experiment. I don’t know what else to do but this experiment because I need to try and figure out what’s going on in my own life. I’m scared and this is making it worse. I’m not trying to scare you by telling you this, I just need you to understand where I’m coming from.” Adrian replied. Eliza sat back, drank from her glass and put it on the side table.

She too, was terrified.