Purgatech: Aaron's Terrible Realization

Chapter 12

"There you are."

We looked up to see Turner checking the mail in front of the Purgatech house. Was he looking for us again?

"Yeah, we just went for a walk," I said.

"I believe that I told you to let someone know if you were leaving the house." His voice carried a strong note of disapproval.

"You did. You told us," said Jada. Her sarcasm was thick. "No offense, Mr. Turner, but you are in charge of us as employees, not as people. We don't need your permission to go anywhere if we aren't working."

"Is that so, young lady?" It was clear that he had indeed taken offense to her words. "In that case, I welcome you to terminate your employment so that you may pursue walks whenever the fancy strikes you. What do you say?"

"I don't want to quit, I just want..."

"Well, if you would like to keep your job, you should probably follow my rules, shouldn't you?"

It seemed like Jada needed help, so I cut in. "It's just that the rules are a little strange, aren't they? Why are we not allowed to leave the house without telling you?"

"Yes," Turner said, turning slowly toward me with hard eyes, "the rules are strange. Strange rules are needed to govern a strange job. Or are you too obtuse for such an understanding?"

"Wait a minute, you can't..." Jada was on the verge of shouting but I stepped on her toe. I didn't actually want to quit and I didn't want her to get herself fired. Not after the meeting we'd just had in the library. There was too much going on to walk away from Purgatech.

"Look," I said. "We understand the rule. We understood it before, but it honestly just slipped our minds. There was no ill intent and no deliberate rule braking. Just a oversight."

Turner squinted and pressed his lips together. He looked from me to Jada and the nodded his head. "Very well. Accidents are, I supposed, inevitable. Especially when dealing with employees of your caliber."

I felt Jada tense beside me and bumped her with my elbow. "We will do our best to keep your rule in mind from now on," I said, quickly.

"Very good. See that you do." He eyed Jada. "And keep an extra eye on her for me, would you?"

I didn't respond, there was no real need to.

"Take a few moments and compose yourselves. Then, proceed to the sitting room for your second hunt. There is a man named Charles who I would like for you to download." Without another word, he turned and disappeared into the house.

"That son of a b***h," Jada muttered. I put an arm around her and we made our way up to our room.

The second hunt was different from the first. Charles was easy enough to find after Turner told us the story of his death. It had happened during a company Christmas party. Each year, mill workers would gather for two parties. The first was a family affair, with everyone welcome. There was food but no drink, so as to keep the atmosphere safe for children. Games were played and small presents gifted to the wives and children of the mill’s workers on behalf of its owners.

The second party was held the following evening. This one was for actual employees of the mill only. There was an abundance of alcohol available to the workers, as this was their one night of the year to really unwind with their employers and attempt to foster good workplace relationships.

During a particularly raucous episode of the male only party, Charles was accidentally pushed into the massive hearth, where a roaring fire had been burning for hours. There was so much commotion in the room that it was several seconds before anyone realized that anything was amiss. Charles was so intoxicated that while his coworkers attempted to pull him from the fire, he was unable to help himself. He died of gruesome burns very shortly after he was pulled from the embers.

Jada suggested that we try the fireplace itself first when we began to look for him. She was right and we had a lock on him in no time at all. I could tell that the images that Charles was showing her were even worse than the ones that Anna portrayed. Her voice trembled as she described him to me.

"He is laying there, writhing. His skin is blistering and bursting open. He looks like he is screaming but there’s no sound. He just sort of jerks around and burns and burns and burns. I can see his muscles, now that the skin is peeling back. The bones of his knees and elbows are charring."

I cut her off and we set about the task of trying to download him. He did not, however, seem to want to cooperate with us. We tried talking to him through my app but he wasn't making any sense. Just kept feeding me strings of only vaguely connected words. Maybe being in so much agony had fried his brain?

Rather than staying still for us, he began to move around the room. Sparks was observing this hunt and we told her what was going on.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "I've had that happen a bunch. Try moving with him. Sometimes it helps."

We did as she suggested, moving around the sitting room, trying to pin him down. Eventually he backed himself into a corner. Rather than slipping through the wall, which would seem like the most likely move for a cornered ghost, he became still and allowed us to capture him. Later on we asked Sparks why he had done so.

"You know, its weird," she said. "Most of the rules of the living don’t apply to the dead. They still obey spatial boundaries though, for some reason. We think that it has something to do with where they died. It seems like they are bound to stay within a certain distance of that space. That must be why he didn't fully flee fro you guys. They also will go through doorways and around furniture, rather than through like you see in movies. Who knows why?"

We thanked Sparks for helping us with the hunt before heading back upstairs, drained. Ghost hunting wasn't very physical, but it was completely exhausting.

My phone lit up. I half expected it to be a notification from Katie, especially since I hadn't heard from her in days. Instead, I saw Jada's name in the banner. I looked across the room at her, frowning. She put her finger to her lips and waved her phone around. I assumed she was telling me to just read the message.

"What the hell is going on?" it said. I looked up and opened my mouth to reply but Jada saw me and began to point violently at the dresser. Then she tugged on her ear. The microphone. Whatever it was that Jada was on about, she didn't want anyone but me to here it. My phone buzzed again.

"Keep you mouth shut. Things are getting weirder and I don't think I want people listening to us."

"What do you mean?" I asked. My heart was beating hard. Her frantic energy was pumping across the room.

"What do I mean!?" she replied. We just found out that the original owner of this place caged up his wife like a bratty lion at the zoo. She died on the other side of the hallway as a hostage in her own room. Now her ghost is in there? Trying to talk to you? What. The. Hell? Which part of that isn't weird to you?"

I just looked at the message for a moment. She was right, of course. It was like I hadn't really been paying attention to what had been going on around me. I was trying to think of what to text back with when my phone buzzed again.

"And what's with Turner? He really does not like it when we don't follow his stupid rules. After the other night, I really don't know if I feel comfortable with him. He is keeping secrets."

Again, she had a point. He really was very strange about our leaving the house without his knowledge. I couldn't think of any legitimate reason for that. Especially when we both had phones with us and weren't more than a call away.

"What do you think?" I sent her. Not complicated, I know, but I couldn't think of anything else yet.

"I think that we need to learn some things. We don't know enough."

"How could we possibly do that? No one here will tell us what's going on."

"Sparks and Tuner won't. Omri?"

I had to stop and think. Omri had been very reluctant to talk to me about anything. I remembered his terrified behavior when he thought that Turner might have over heard us. I sent Jada a message.

"No good. He is scared."

"Scared of what??"

"He accidentally told me something that he wasn’t supposed to. Mary's name. He was horrified. Pointed out the microphone but would not speak anymore."

"Why haven't you told me? He must know what's going on!"

"Didn't think to. But he will never talk."

Jada frowned as she read my message. She lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was quiet for almost five minutes. Then she sat up and smiled at me.

"I'm craving pizza. What do you think?"

"Mr. Turner?" Jada called. We were coming down the stairs and turning into the sitting room.

Turner looked up from his tablet and said, "Yes?" He wore a look of genuine surprise. It wasn't something I'd seen before.

"Aaron and me are really craving pizza."

The blank look on Turner's face was hard not to laugh at. He was totally unprepared for such a conversation opener.

"Um..." He said. Jada quickly cut him off.

"Do you think that we could go and get some? Sparks said there is a good spot in town." This was totally made up but we figure there was a good chance that there was a pizza place and he would believe her.

"Well," he said, fumbling for words, "um, I can't have you to out alone. Not after dark. For safety, of course."

"Of course, Mr. Turner," said Jada. Gave him a winning smile. "You wouldn't want anything to happen to us."

"No, I wouldn't. People who work for Purgatech are safe. We value the health and wellness of our employees."

"Well, what are we going to do?" Jada turned to me as she said it. Again, it was hard not to smile. She was playing the part so well.

"I guess we won't be getting any pizza. It's not that big of a deal," I told her.

"I'm glad you two are okay with that," Turner said. "Maybe some other time. Omri will bring you dinner from the kitchen as usual." This was what we had been waiting for. Jada jumped at the chance.

"Oh Omri! What if Omri took us there? You know, just to make sure that everything is safe."

"Um, well, so..." Turner had no idea what to say. There was no real way that he could argue with us. It was a very reasonable request.

"Don't worry, Mr. Turner," Jada said, "we can afford to pay for it. Money isn’t a problem."

"Um," Turner fumbled once more and then sighed. "Nonsense, nonsense. Of course, you two deserve a treat. You have been working hard and you should be rewarded for that. Here, take this. Omri will be glad to take you. He relishes the opportunity to drive the van."

Jada bounced forward and plucked the fifty from Turner’s hand. He smiled when she took it. I couldn't tell if it was endearing or disgusting.

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the van with Omri. He was, indeed, excited to be driving. Most of the delay in leaving the house had been for him to round up a few choices from his extensive collection of rap albums. After humoring him through a few tracks, Jada reached over and turned down the volume of the speakers.

"Omri,” she said, “we need to ask you a favor."