Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Six: Lucky Day

Rebecca placed the phone onto a small, hanging platform outside the window, beside the laptop. She connected a USB charger, fidgeting with the laptop until a small bar began to flow.

“To ensure fair testing, I’m not allowed to touch the phone again, once the product is loaded no it again. So what I’m going to need you to do is pick up the cell phone, disconnect it from the laptop, install Purgatech’s app and then you will be able to use it.” Rebecca explained, “What the Purgatech app does, is it lets you find the energy orbs of ghosts in a certain radius around you, and with the Etherchip, you can communicate with the dead. The reason we are doing it here, is because of ease, as mister Lorraine explained. There is no fumbling or hunting for ghosts, just the result. That is why we’re giving applicants a six month trial period, to be able to find and discover various spooks and report back on the products.” Rebecca finished, turning to the laptop to see if it was finished. The little green bar had only gone about halfway in the time she spoke.

“Okay, so basically I’m going to talk to a ghost in this room and then we’re getting out of here so that I can do the rest of the work at home? Got it.” Adrian replied, looking around the room. He thought about those years before, when Alex sat beside the fireplace, a smoke in one hand, whiskey, dapper and ready for anything. The town of Evergreen faced the epidemic of young deaths through the eighty’s until they finally shut the building down to any who were not a part of the Richardson family, even urging them to leave the home.

Adrian could even recall the article surround his death, speaking of a linked universe, attached specifically to this room through a wormhole of some sort, sucking up the victims from one world and replacing them with another. Adrian found this thought to be nonsensical. It would mean they were in the exact same place, surely? Then again, it was a fluff piece for some magazine that delivered on the daily dramas of celebrities and households across the country. There was no reliability in their news reports, even though masses of housewives throughout the years clung to the magazines each week.

“It’s going to be exciting, Adrian,” Rebecca stated, stroking his arm in a far too informal manner, which made Adrian feel uncomfortable. At his reluctance to her touch, Rebecca pulled away. She had done it unintentionally, as a means to make him feel more comfortable here but Adrian had misconstrued the signals as though she may have been interested in him instead of what they really were.

“Will you be able to see what I see?” Adrian asked, looking at Rebecca who shook her head.

“No. You are going to see everything through the cell phone’s application. Now what we want from you is, you will communicate, at first and get a feel for the app, then I’m going to give you our Purgoggles, so that you can see first-hand, the extreme heats and colds of the room and once you are satisfied we are going to give you augmented reality glasses so that you can actually see the spirit you are talking to. It’s going to be simple enough and you’re going to move through the steps quite quickly. Again, to ensure that the test is done without any interference I’m going to step out into the hallway, a few feet away so that I can’t influence any results.” Rebecca said, again turning to face the laptop that dangled from outside. The bar had hit one hundred percent and now it was all up to Adrian to do his part.

“You don’t mind if I just take a minute before I grab it, right?” Adrian asked, his voice shaky. He knew that this must have just been part of the ploy but with such an intense build-up, there was nothing he could do but feel anxious. It was the same reason that one would go and watch a horror movie. You know that whatever’s happening in the movie, isn’t going to happen in real life, still, you get terrified and for nights after consider that if you walk down a dark hallway alone, the monster was coming to get you.

“Take all the time you need. When you are ready, you can take the phone off of the platform. On the front page, you’ll be able to find the Purgavision app. Just hit it, it will install, fill in the details you’re going to use on your own items and then begin.” Rebecca walked to a table and took two boxes from beside a desk. The first had a large one on the side and the second box had a big two, “I would suggest, in fact, that you try the Purgoggles now.” She said, Adrian couldn’t help but wonder why she changed her mind now, as the trial begun, but he wouldn’t ask either, “Once you’ve gotten a feel for what energy looks like, then get the phone, start talking to the ghost and when you’ve had your fill of that, put the glasses on. That will give you the best experience in terms of user interface and feel, just in a shorter span of time.”

Rebecca finished what she was saying, lit a lantern and walked off into the hallway. Adrian considered that this is where the trickery begins, that she was not only going into the hallway but into a secret room, where a projector and various other aiding tools were around to show off the extent of their products.

Then again, why would they be willing to pay six months of Adrian’s salary, had they not actually had any reason to? There were far too many holes in all of this and it was bugging him. Adrian was far too analytical for this situation.

“Okay, got it.” Adrian replied. Rebecca walked out into the hall. He looked out the window first. Out on the horizon, he could see the clouds of a storm brewing. He found it funny, usually in the same movies that he so fondly considered earlier, there was always rain during these scenes, but today it was a bright, sunshiny day, apart from the impending threat of rain clouds in the distance.

“So what do we have here?” Adrian stepped away from the window towards box number one. He opened it, and inside there was another, smaller box, with the Purgatech logo and a picture of the goggles that hid within, “Neat.”

Adrian took the second box out of the first, the glasses out of the second and looked them over. The instruction manual suggested that all he would have to do is put them on. Though the goggles worked best, in conjunction with the app, after finding a hotspot, he assumed that since they were in ghost mecca because of Evergreen Manor’s illustrious history, he would be fine just putting them on.

And he was. Adrian put the goggles on, flipping a switch on the side of them, a low hum from within, a screen on the goggles itself suggesting that it was booting up and when it was on, there he saw it. A blend of reds and yellows – after reading the manual, learning that the reds, oranges, and yellows displayed heat – mixed with the blues and greens of the cold. It was interesting, he thought, to see the two heat signatures blend together and assumed that it was the rarity of a place like this manor.

He took the glasses off, and again there was nothing in front of him, putting them back on he saw how the heat signatures emanated off the rooms floor, decorations and walls. They seemed to blend, change color and move. There was no pattern to the chaos that the signatures gave off. It was just beautiful, in a peculiar setting.

“Okay, well now that this is done.” He took the goggles off, walking back to the window and lifting the phone off the platform. There were no brands or markings that gave off any indication to what it could have been but it looked similar to the phone that Adrian had been using. Everything did lately, so he wasn’t surprised. Ultra-thin, six-inch displays, some even went so far as to have a tiny chip at the bottom of the screen, which powered the entire phone through glass.

The world was moving too fast for Adrian. He was the kind of man that still clung to the simplicities of the late eighties, nineties and early two thousand.

He followed the steps provided by Rebecca, to bring the app to life on the phone and then he fidgeted with it for a moment. He supposed that she gave him little to no information on the app because he was to struggle onwards, testing end-user usability. The app came with a few starter instructions and Adrian followed them to set up what he thought would be the settings he would have preferred: a dark skin theme, location, and camera-based settings so that he could see the orbs through his camera on his phone, activating the chat application and so on.

“Pretty simple. Now what?” He walked around the room, looking for any signs. From what he understood the ghosts could talk to him with the phone app, so he foolishly fumbled towards a seat, looking through the camera but not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

“Is anything out there?” He asked. Nothing replied.

“If there’s anything out there, come say hi.” That was so stupid, Adrian thought. He sat down in the seat, putting the phone down on his lap. The moment it touched his leg, he heard the sound of what seemed like the typing of a cell phone keyboard. He lifted it back up, the Etherchip asked for permissions to use certain requirements on the phone to display the message and when Adrian hit allow he got a very peculiar message.

Adrian? Is that you? How did you get so fat?

The message came up on the phone, one letter at a time.

“What the…” Adrian spoke but cut off the cussing because he didn’t know who was watching or who could have been toying with him.

It’s me, Alex. Alex Fulton.

Adrian wasn’t sure what was going on. Alex was speaking to him as if they hadn’t seen one another in years and this was just a faint meeting. That being said, he knew that if this was Alex, he wouldn’t have died in the suit and tie so Adrian stood up, walked over to the box and unpacked the Purgatory Doorway glasses in the same fashion as the other.

“Alex. Is that really you?” Adrian asked, holding the glasses in his hands a moment longer, hitting the on switch before even place the glasses on his head. The moment he did, he would know if this was true or if it was not.

Yes. It’s really me, man but we can talk about all of that later. It’s good to see you again.

Adrian wasn’t sure how to take the message but he took a deep breath, putting the glasses on his head, still facing a wall. He knew that once he turned to the side, he would see his friend again. He also knew that if he turned and saw his friend in a tux, there would have been more reason to be suspect.

Adrian took the plunge. Turning to face Alex, his suspicions were denounced. Alex stood, dressed in his red t-shirt, ripped jeans and sneakers. A usual outfit for him, and the one that his mates had claimed Alex was wearing the night before. He was still the fifteen-year-old boy that Adrian remembered.

He pulled the glasses off and put them on the table.

He looked at the phone, which in the time he spent going through motions had gotten another reply:

I need to go now, Adrian. Do the trial. We’ll speak again.

Adrian wasn’t sure how to handle the information and so he boxed everything back up, “Rebecca.” He shouted and she emerged from the darkness, lamp still in hand.

“I’m going to do it,” Adrian announced.

If only he knew, this would be his greatest regret.