Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Sixteen: Whistling Past The Graveyard

Adrian Beck’s dream had become a reality. In all his years he would have never imagined that someday he’d be an actual Ghostbuster. How could he? Up until six months before he would have fought the belief of ghosts to the very end. But six months, that can change a man. You can see things, learn things, develop fears and phobias and overcome your weaknesses. You can transform your mind, body, and spirit into something to be proud of. You can become a warrior, a king, and a God if you so choose.

Adrian wanted none of that. He just wanted to fight ghosts. He wanted to teach those who wronged him, what it felt like to be wronged. And so he joined a man, Benjamin Stone, on a crazy adventure he would have never thought real, had he not been a part of it.

And he only narrowly became a part of it. Avoiding the man that implied there was a chance for him to reclaim his manhood from the loss that these spooks brought for the simple reason; Ben Stone seemed insane. But with his insanity came a great possibility, one that would give him the power to ascend to the place of power he’d always wanted to be.

He wanted to fight ghosts and have a good time doing it, not in his later life, of course, that would have been foolish. The ten-year-old boy inside him, however, was screaming at the opportunity of being able to do what he’d always believed he was destined for.

“So how are we going to do it then?” Adrian asked.

“We’re going to hit them where it hurts, with these babies,” Ben pulled from the trunk of his car, two guns that were oddly similar to Tasers.

“They look like stun guns,” Adrian replied, the disappointment in his voice evident. For years he wanted a gigantic pack that was flung over his shoulders, a large rod-like structure acting as the guns, and the streams that should never be connected.

“They are stun guns. The frequency f***s up the ghosts. No need for anything more and it’s a waste to get anything else anyway.” Ben handed Adrian one of the guns and slotted his own in a holster around his waist. He then drew a cigar from a small container in his pocket, struck a match to light it up and turned to the building where they met for the afternoon.

“Why are we here, anyway?” Adrian, still disappointed, asked.

“We’re going to do a start-up course in ass kicking.” Ben puffed on the cigar between his lips, “These ghosts want to take us on? Well, they’ve got another thing coming. I’ve faced many personal demons to get here, Adrian, and now I’m just trying to rid the world of the monsters that Purgatech have introduced into our world. Purgatory? That’s for the dead. The living shouldn’t have to stress about it.” Ben’s words were concluded with a continuous stream of puffing on his cigar.

“Right on. So what are we taking out today?” Adrian asked.

“Well, I thought we could start with something simple. A child ghost. Nothing too difficult.” Ben started walking towards the building. It was in the middle of a dead street in town. The building itself, rundown and dilapidated, with graffiti tags fading on the walls. From the windows, Adrian could see them. Faces that watched back.

He’d driven past this building a thousand times in his life, it was on route to work, but he’d never seen the children. None of them. He knew why they were there, it was once an orphanage that was shot up by some sick freak that wanted to get a thrill from killing easy targets. The building was left to ruin after that. No one claimed it and for good reason, too. Who would want to try to build a fortune atop of 37 dead children?

“These little bastards won’t know what hit them,” Ben added as the pair got to the door. He turned to face Adrian for a moment, a look of intensity in his eye, Adrian never thought he’d see, “Don’t think they’re harmless. They don’t have any physical ties to the weakness they would have felt as kids. They can still kick the s**t out of you if you’re not careful, so don’t get cornered by a troop of them and you should be fine. When aiming, make sure you actually hit their frame in some way. Also, don’t fire blindly. The guns rigged to retract but only has so much charge in it. I’ve never hit the limit, but I’ve never had the chance to shoot so many of those bastards.”

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Adrian asked.

“Not at all. They’re not kids anymore.” Ben finished.

Ben groaned, knowing that if he didn’t take this opportunity now, it would have slipped him forever. He forced a heavy right leg into the door, smashing the lock, bringing light into the dark halls that hadn’t been touched in a good long while. Not since the hobo infestation, and before that, it was the drug den.

The moment the door flung open, everything got tense. Adrian felt it in his neck and shoulders. Chills ran down his spine, with low moans echoing through the corridors leading throughout the abandoned orphanage. Mattresses stained in s**t and piss lay strewn about the floor. A thick, musty stench wafted outward into the bright sunshine behind them, accompanied by the unmistakable odor of death and decay. There was something dead inside here and Adrian didn’t know what, but they would no doubt find out what it was soon.

“You shouldn’t be here.” A child’s voice echoed through the building, accompanied by giggling from a few that joined him.

“Shut your mouth, Demon.” Ben stepped inside without care, Adrian waited, hesitant of what he was about to do. Was he actually brave enough to face a horde of ghosts? On paper, it seemed like the best course of action. This was his dream, in reality, well, that was a different story. There were so many unknown variables that weren’t given to him. Ben might have known the answers, but Adrian was lost to it all. He was walking headfirst into a battle with ghosts that didn’t seem to want them around.

So fear was the wrong word. He was quaking in terror, collapsing and unmovable all at the same time. He felt like someone punched him in the gut, he couldn’t breathe and he was ready to cry…

Still, he walked inside after a good deal of contemplation. He knew it was the wrong thing to do, but he had to do it anyway.

“Ben?” He called out. All Adrian would have to do is follow the smell of cigar smoke to find him, but he was crippled with fear.

“I’m in here, Adrian. I’ve got one of the bastards.” It looked like, from Adrian’s perspective that Ben was in the kitchen. He ran over, as not to be alone in this place for too long, and there he saw it.

Ben Stone, the giant man with his cigar between a locked grin, hovering the stun gun over two kids that cried in the corner of a cupboard set.

“Adrian, take the shot. Show these little freaks what’s what.” Ben seemed truly elated.

“I don’t know if I can,” Adrian replied. The children were cowering, they were afraid. Maybe they weren’t ready to go back and face the fear of being alone again. They made it back to this world somehow, maybe that’s what they needed for peace.

“They’re not afraid, they’re testing your mind, Adrian. Shoot them now. We need to show them we’re not afraid. They have no control over us, we control them.” Ben said a look on his face that showed nothing but disgust.

“I can’t,” Adrian replied.

The moment the words left his lips, one of the two children that Ben had cornered turned to face him. Her eyes were stained with tears, but the sobbing came to an end. She just looked at Adrian without any movement. Her head twitched once, then a second time, before her lips turned up into a sickly smile.

“There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile, he found a crooked sixpence, upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, who caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a crooked little house.” The ghost chanted slowly. Each syllable growing slightly faster in speed. She repeated the rhyme again, this time the boy did the same, whispering it with her. Then another voice from behind the doorway, in which Adrian stood began chanting. He caught a fright and turned to face the new chanter and realized there were more children behind him, all just looking at him with a blank expression. Every time one instance of the chant came to an end, another child would join in until the house was in rapturous unison.

“There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked – f**k you!” Ben shouted, the stun gun aimed at the boy beside the young girl who started it all’s head, pulling the trigger. It screeched and disappeared, which sent the entire collection of children into a frenzy. They all made their ways towards Adrian, the blank expressions turned to rage.

“What’s happening?” Adrian asked, turning and running towards Ben.

“They’re after you because they think you’re weak. Shoot the kid,” He pointed at the girl that didn’t move, “You need to show them that you mean business.”

Time froze for what seemed like an eternity and Adrian considered his options. He was going to die here if he did not attempt to wipe out a wave of children. But somewhere there had to be something wrong with this.

After all, they were still children. Some of them wouldn’t have even been legal now, had they lived to make maturity. The incident happened a little over seven years ago. The child that sat in front of Ben, with the wide, black, dead eyes, couldn’t have been more than five. She would have been twelve now.

So how do you put a bullet in a child’s head?

But they thought he was weak, and Adrian knew that if he did not act, he would surely be killed. He didn’t want to die just yet. Not when he only realized the potential of possibly being a ghostbuster in the real world. So he was torn between two perplexing situations.

Go against his morals or doing what he had to, to survive:

“Right-o.” Adrian placed the gun against the girls head as he neared Ben and her, pulling the trigger. The pins shot out from the stun gun, flew towards her, she screeched in what he thought was agony as the pins connected and before they struck anything else, retracted themselves back into the firing section.

“What the hell?” Adrian asked.

“They’ve got sensors. I got them from some guy online. He says they can pick up the signatures of the ghost and when they’ve been struck, they retract. I thought It was a total scam until I shot one for myself. It’s a good feeling, right?” Ben replied.

“Fucken A-right it is,” Adrian did not know why he was speaking like that. Maybe it was the adrenaline of nearly being killed, maybe it was who he was becoming.

“Now let’s kill some kids,” Ben said.

“You seem to be liking this idea a little too much.” Adrian teased, but still, they slaughtered the hoard that headed towards them. The ghosts that came, paused at the sign of strength. They were still young, young enough not to have developed everything they would need to know to survive in this cruel world.

And somewhere, though he would never have wanted to admit it, Adrian enjoyed the firing range. It reminded him of video games. It wasn’t real, not in the traditional sense. They were ghosts and he was alive.