Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Eighteen: God's Away On Business

Driving back to his home was the easy part, it was stopping outside the once pristine house that now seemed to be littered in filth, overgrown grass, graffiti-stained walls and three boarded up windows that made Adrian Beck re-evaluate what he was doing with his life. Even leaving it that morning, Adrian didn’t realize quite how bad it turned out to be.

Now, with another entering the property, he considered the thoughts that would be running through Ben’s mind.

The Filthy bastard sprung to mind. He was a man that didn’t take much care of himself, but it seemed he put a lot of time and effort into looking after the things that he owned. His car was impeccably clean and Adrian couldn’t help but assume his home followed the same trend.

When they pulled up the driveway, stopping in front of his home, the door swung open. Inside, three faces looked back. They were unmistakably the three demons that had been haunting Adrian. Not that he’d seen them now in over six months, but they knew what was coming, so they showed their fear. It was a good feeling, he thought.

Tommy stood in front and showed the most visibility of the three. A little smile on his face before he turned around and ran deeper into the house. Owen Guthrie stood tall, dressed in drag, before walking back into the house himself. Then there was the lanky figure of the Old Hag who didn’t move until Adrian opened his door, looking away a moment to step out. When his eyes moved back to the door it was closed again, and from within he heard a muffled cackling.

“Well, this should be fun,” Ben said, moving to the back of his car and opening the trunk again. Adrian still held onto the stun gun was given to him earlier, it was now just a matter of the bigger weapons. He seemed giddy at the hunt, opposite to Adrian’s terror. Adrian now understood that fear was the one thing you shouldn’t show a ghost, but these were his own personal demons, and fear seemed to be the only response to the situation.

“Right,” Adrian replied, knowing that he would prefer to show less weakness to Ben, than what he was actually feeling. For all intents and purposes, he needed to be the big strong man, he always dreamed of being, “So you said we can probably get through the Owen without much difficulty but how do we get the other two that are here for more than just not moving on?”

“Tommy, I’m not sure about. A strong enough electromagnetic pulse might shoot him off. We rattle the little b***h to his core and he might not stand a chance against the second stunning shot,” Ben brought another tool from his trunk, this time it was something that Adrian noticed resembled an iron. The handle seemed to fit perfectly in Ben’s hand, he held it towards Adrian and pressed the button. A small blue light shone from the metal that formed the flat surface that would have originally just been the heating plate, “This is the Electromagnetic Pulse device we’ll be using,” He took a second from his trunk and handed it to Adrian, “It’s fine to use against people. What I did there, was literally the entire process of the item.” He explained, “It’s VERY dangerous towards your electronics though, so don’t point it directly towards anything like a TV or DB Board.” A light word of warning, “So if you can get Tommy stuck under one of these and you zap the little bastard with the stun gun, he should go down without a hitch.”

Ben slot the flat side of the EMP Gun on his belt, with the flat iron side facing his leg for ease to draw if necessary. Adrian did the same, but he didn’t know why they did it this way.

“And the Old Hag?” Adrian asked.

“That’s where things get a little more dangerous for both of us.” Ben laughed, “We’ve established the Old Hag is strong, which means she won’t go down without a fight. The biggest fight we can bring to her? Bullets.” Ben went back to the car and pulled yet another gun from his trunk. These were actual guns, however. Unlike the stun guns that proved no real threat apart from sending the one struck into a spasm, this could really kill, “These bullets have been made up of iron. The exact origin is traced back somewhere to a cross that was discovered near the border of Jerusalem. Hard to say exactly what went into these bullets but they’re potent with holy magic. Either that, or you know, iron is just the thing that beats ghosts. I haven’t really tested either theory in depth.” Ben took another cigar from a container in his pocket. It was a ritual now, more than anything, to smoke a cigar while killing ghosts. He thought it made him look like a badass. To Adrian, the effect was exactly as intended. Adrian drew a box of Marlboro from his own pocket, lit one up, and thought that maybe this was a good ritual while he killed.

“What’s that piece of s**t you’re smoking,” Ben said abruptly, mid-sentence, “Have one of these,” Handing Adrian a cigar, he continued with his conversation about the Old Hag, “So we have to plaster her with bullets. She’s not going to go down easily, but the problem is, I used a lot of bullets in my last big hunt. So we’ve got four. It should be enough to put the Old Hag down, but we can miss one shot and we obviously, probably, shouldn’t hit one another.”

Adrian noticed that Ben’s thoughts were a jumbled mess at that point, and this was alright. After all, he was the man saving the day. He needed to be sure that everything went according to his plan, even if that meant Adrian only had the bare minimum information to what was going on.

“Now, what I’d suggest, old Adrian, we don’t separate. I’ve never seen you with a gun before, especially not one of this caliber,” He handed the pistol to Adrian, drawing from the trunk one last gun, a shotgun, “Now, the two in there are 9mm shells. The two in here are slugs. I’ll keep a handle on this, I think.”

Adrian didn’t mind. He didn’t really want to be a part of this gun-toting insanity anymore but he knew he couldn’t let Ben do his dirty work when he was the one to bring the ghosts into his own home.

“So we’re going to go after Owen Guthrie first, but plans seldom go accordingly, we all know this,” Ben continued, “So if we split up, if I run off and don’t see you again for a while, or if something else pops into our way, make sure that your trigger finger is steady and that you’ve got the plan sorted. What’s the plan?”

“We’re going after Owen Guthrie. If we get split up, I’ll keep this boy holstered. Guthrie gets the stunner. Tommy gets the EMP and then stunned to s**t. The Old Hag has four dedicated bullets with her name on them.” He relayed the orders.

“Correct, my friend. Now let’s go kick some ass.”

~ ~ ~

Getting to the front door was the easy part of the walk, Adrian knew that entering the house was difficult. He stood with Ben Stone, a dangerous man that had no ill intentions towards anyone but the ghosts that were, apparently, starting to penetrate the world. Adrian knew that this man was not the right person to follow, and yet, without following him, he would not be able to realize his childhood dream.

He pushed the door open, walking inside with great pomp and vigor, Adrian trailing behind with slow, steady steps.

“Why did the ghost cross the road?” Ben asked. Walking deeper into the house, taking everything in. It was dark inside, due to drawn curtains that neither men would open. He started with inspecting the kitchen, to no avail, then the living room; again, nothing.

“Why?” The voice of Tommy replied before Adrian could.

“To get to the other side,” Ben turned to Adrian, “Get it? Because it’s the afterlife.”

Cheesy 80’s movie lines. That’s what Adrian wanted to hear in this situation. It gave him an odd comfort as if he was with Rambo or Rocky. A very strong, protective figure. Tommy also found enjoyment from the joke, giggling from wherever he was.

“What’s down the hall?” Ben asked.

“Under the stairwell leads to the garage. End of the hall is my bedroom. To the left is my study. Upstairs is a guest bedroom, spare bathroom, and Eliza’s old art room.” Now he knew the layout and he could get to work.

“Right, let’s start upstairs.” Ben began walking towards the stairs and as he neared, the pair began hearing the sobbing.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” A disembodied voice said, “I really didn’t. It was a murder in the red barn. A murder in the red barn. Don’t do this, it wasn’t me. Please, stop.”

“I think we’ve found our target,” Ben puffed the cigar one last time, ashed, and then began running upstairs. Adrian, who was far too afraid to lose Ben, followed quite closely. Both men had their stun guns drawn. Adrian dodged the shotgun that was flopping on Ben’s back from its loose straps.

“It’s going to be a murder in the Beck residence today, b***h,” Ben shouted getting to the top of the staircase, but when he got there, it was all silent again. All apart from one door that remained only slightly open, with the short child looking back, a droplet of blood running down his cheek into a sickly grin.

“That was a good joke, mister. Can I tell you one?” Tommy asked. There was no clear shot, not from Ben or Adrian’s perspective so they had to play along in hopes that they would get a chance to get him.

“Sure, kiddo,” Ben replied.

“How can you help a starving cannibal?” Tommy asked. Ben continually moved forward, gun aimed at the door for the chance that Tommy opened it, even a sliver further. Adrian trailed behind, his gun too, fixed on the door and keeping Ben’s six covered.

“What do you do?” Tommy waited on the response for a little while and Adrian wondered why. It was only as they came to pass the spare bedroom that he gave out the punchline, and by then it was already too late:

“Give him a hand.” Tommy swung the door open to reveal himself, but before Ben could fire, a hand holding an ax came down on Ben’s wrist.

“It wasn’t me!” Owen shouted, the ax in his hand gone, but the implications that Ben would face were permanent. Ben dropped to the ground screaming, Owen had cut his hand off at the wrist and left in its place a stub. Adrian had the choice between firing at Tommy or at Owen, and after their briefing, he supposed that doing Tommy would be pointless and planted the stung guns beads into Owen. He vanished in a flurry of screaming and terror, being sent from this world to the next.

When Adrian finished with Owen, he realized Tommy was gone. He fell to Ben’s side, grabbing the hand that had been cut off moments before, knowing that if they could get him to a doctor on time, it could be replaced and that there would be no implications towards the situation. Apart from, maybe, the agony.

“We’re going to get you to a doctor, Ben. IT’s going to be okay.” Adrian promised.

“No. We need to finish this. I’ll be okay, it’s just a flesh wound.” Ben said through the pain, fumbling with his left hand to find his cigar that fell in the commotion and placed it back in his mouth, “Just hit me with a strike of the EMP. Let’s see what healing factors that baby has.”

Adrian thought he was joking, but he was not. He started the EMP and brought it over the wound, surprisingly to both, it stopped the blood flow.