Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Two: Crossroads

“Baby, just relax. No one thinks that.” Eliza tried to calm Adrian down. The entire car ride home he spoke of how disappointed he was in himself to let the situation escalate to the point where he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about what he said and how he acted.

It was a usual Friday night. They went out drinking and the gang riled Adrian up. They had made their small bets here and there to see which turn it would take that night. They were good friends, when necessary, especially Martin, but they had to make their fun and what was more fun than watching a man lose his mind on the trivialities of life?

“I don’t know. I just do it so often. Those bastard’s know how to get me going.” An awkward laugh accompanied his words. Adrian knew that this was all in jest. It was all a means to an end. He was just the puppet more nights than not, taking life a little too seriously and they just knew how to get him.

They walked up the three steps leading to the front door when Eliza stopped, faced him and cupped his stubble filled face in her hand, “Adrian. Listen to me. It’s not that bad. You’re overreacting again.”

Adrian leaned forward and gave Eliza a kiss on the cheek before unlocking and going into the house.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m just playing things up in my mind that aren’t there.” And Adrian was a man to do this a lot. He would make a mistake, such as when a waiter brings him his food stating enjoy your meal, Adrian would have the nervous habit of accidentally letting, and you too, slip out. Something that the waiter will have seen a thousand times before, not giving it a second thought, whereas Adrian would have sleepless nights over one simple sentence.

Embarrassment was not his forte.

“When am I ever wrong?” Eliza snapped back cheekily. Adrian laughed and shook it off, heading towards the kitchen to find a slice of pizza from the night before. A stoutly man, Adrian enjoyed the late night snacks, overindulging in sweet drinks, with his favorite saying being a chocolate a day, keeps the doctor away.

He was never ashamed of his looks. He’d been on the slight overweight side since he was a child and never found shame in being so. His embarrassment came from mental anguish not the looks department.

“Pizza? Beer?” Adrian asked Eliza, who was locking up behind herself. A direct counterpart, Eliza was as thin as a reed. No matter what she put on her, she never got bigger. Where many called her an unhealthy weight, she too, never cared about her looks. They were too intelligent for such trivial matters. They had life to worry about, why would a few extra pounds on either side of the scale bring them down?

“Not for me thanks, babe.” Eliza replied, “I think I had too much to drink. Bed seems like the right idea for me now.”

Adrian had already shoved a slice of pizza in his mouth, washing it down with a beer so that he could reply faster. Eliza walked into the kitchen, watching him do this and she chuckled.

“You should slow down. You’re going to get hiccups.” Eliza started taking her jacket off, hanging it on a coatrack in the hall that stood opposite the kitchen door.

“Hiccups? That’s not the worst thing that could happen. I could choke and die.” Adrian replied, laughing awkwardly and Eliza followed with one of her fake laughs that Adrian had picked up on when making his useless jokes. She never liked his dark jokes, especially the distasteful ones.

“So I’m heading to bed,” Eliza stepped in, throwing her arms around Adrian, who awkwardly pulled him closer with his beer and pizza fumbling awkwardly behind her, “Don’t stay up too late.”

“Of course baby. I’ll be in soon.” Adrian wouldn’t be in soon, or at least he thought not. The thought of the old witch plagued his mind. This wasn’t the first time he had seen peculiar things. Since he was a child and the first conversation he shared with a hag, there were many peculiarities. Looking over his shoulder to see a woman dressed in a white wedding dress, black hair flowing down her shoulders, a veil covering her face with one, long and bony finger pointing directly at Adrian as he ran down the hall.

The hulking, lurching terror with the sound of chains connected from behind his bedroom door, when opening it only seeing the remnants of the figure taking a corner down another hall.

Adrian had always chalked it up to his imagination. After seeing the old witch, he believed that his imagination had made such a massive increase that all these things were just part of the vivid, lucid thoughts.

Tonight was the first time in many years that he had seen one and with work, life and everything in between getting the better of him lately, he knew that this could no longer be a part of his imagination. This must have been something different.

“Until tomorrow, my love.” Eliza pecked him one more time before heading down the hall and to the bedroom. Adrian stood in the kitchen, finishing his pizza and downing half his beer before heading towards his study.

“Okay.” Adrian put on some music. He’d usually listen to music from his record player while he worked but for convenience, he decided to just put Tom Waits on from his computer. It was easier to do than having to flip the record around every time it hit the end, and where he loved the crisp sound and listening to music the way it was intended, sometimes you just had to sacrifice the quality for quantity.

Adrian fumbled on the trackpad of his laptop, too lazy to get the mouse out of the drawer less than a foot from his hand and plugging it in to open the internet browser. When he finally did he wondered what to type.

Saw an old witch hag looking thing.

Adrian wasn’t sure if that would yield results but on Google, there were always results to be given. The first page showed the results for:

Young Lady or an Old Hag ?! – Mighty Optical Illusions.

Scariest Old Hag Experiences – ThoughtCo.

The Old Witch Ghost.

The Old Hag.

Witch Ghost?

Has Anyone Else Seen an Old Decaying Woman?

He opened up three browser pages and began to read. The Old Witch Ghost and The Old Hag were wasteful reads. One was a short story about an old hag and the ghost story came from a debunked site that had nothing to do with what he saw. It was in the forum post titled Has Anyone Else Seen an Old Decaying Woman? That Adrian found something that hit a little too close to home:

Hey guys.

So today I was sitting on my lawn when I saw someone in my yard. It looked like an old woman. It looked like she was already decaying but she was very much alive. I think you could call it leprosy? I don’t know. Her cheeks were sunken, her nose was basically gone, her eyes were bleak and white like a blind person and there was a faint, what I’d call, attic odor about her. She gestured that I come over to her and when I did, she said that she was in pain. Her voice was raspy, much like that of an older person. She didn’t come closer and when I asked what I could do to help her, she didn’t reply to the question. She just said that something big was coming and that she was spreading a message to various people. Does anyone know anything else about this or is it just me?

Bruce.

Adrian read the post once quickly and a second time to gather the details. He thought back to when he was a child. He couldn’t remember the smell but he remembered the sunken cheeks, the rotting nose and the eyes. Scanning the post, Adrian saw that it was dated earlier that day. He read downward into the comments to see what others had to say on the matter:

Ben_Stone: Yeah. I saw a similar thing.

King_Dong: She told me that the world was going to flip around and the sun was going to blur into the moon.

Smithy: I saw it when I was a kid. I don’t remember much else and I don’t think I ever thought that it was a ghost until I saw it a few days ago again.

Adrian felt sick; scared. There was obviously more to the story if there were more people who could see it, hear it and it gave a warning. He wasn’t sure what to do with the information and so he created an account on the site, so that he could log his reply. Smithy seemed to have the exact same situation as he and so he wanted to get in contact with the man so that they could discuss it. He hit the reply button on Smithy’s post:

Adrian_B: Hey, Smithy. Just created an account to reply to your post. I’ve seen the same thing. The old hag when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure if it was real or not and I’m still not sure (Hyper imagination as a kiddo). I think I saw it again tonight but I was a little drunk and can’t be sure. You think we can chat about it and see if we can draw anymore parallel’s about the situation? Name’s Adrian and waiting to hear back from you. Cheers.

The message flowed through his drunken fingers smoothly. Now it was just a waiting game. Smithy had replied to the message four hours before Adrian found the post so that was beneficial but he could have been anywhere and also Googled the same thing never to come back to the site again.

Still, Adrian was patient, going through various other pages and posts, frequently adding new words to his searches trying to found out as much as he could until he found a paid add, just below the search bar.

Purgatech – Communicate with your dead.

Adrian couldn’t help but think it was nonsense. Ignoring the advertisement and going further down the search bar, still trying to find the information on the old witch. Entering another website, a banner ad on the side of the article, showed the same peculiar message as before.

Purgatech – Leading agents in the supernatural.

Having looked to the time, noticing two hours have gone by since he told Eliza he would be to bed, he thought he’d give this ad one shot. But he saw no value in it. He went into the site, it was well made and well designed. Adrian was a little surprised by this as he was expecting a low budget mock site, just to gain traffic.

Reading through the products, the case studies and all the rest, Adrian decided that he was going to contact them about the old witch. Maybe they had something on it? He was desperate for answers that he just didn’t think he would get had he not taken less traditional means:

Hi there.

I’ve got a question about something I saw as a child and now again recently. Wondering if you guys can help me. It’s an old woman. She’s decaying or decayed and she spoke to me. I don’t really remember the conversation too well but if the Purga-Products do what you say they can, maybe that can help me out.

Shoot me an email when you get the chance.

Adrian Beck.

Adrian added his contact information and hit send. Adrian was about to close his laptop, when near immediately after he hit send an email came through.

Hi there, Adrian.

This is Mark, from Purgatech.

We are currently looking for participants to take place in early trials for the products. We offer a generous compensation package for being one of the earlier members to test. I believe that if you join, you may find the answers you are looking for.

If you are interested, reply to this email and I can send you the necessary information to begin the application process. Once completed, we will send the products and you can begin the trial.

Kind regards

Mark Webb

Purgatech Rep.