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Figured I have to write a quick story about it so here we go!
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Eli sat on the street corner, waiting for his best friend, Heron. Heron had just gotten off work about 10 minutes ago, and Eli had finished his work for the day about an hour ago.
He tapped on the weight of his cell phone in his pocket, contemplating the idea of calling Heron. He tapped on the weight of the spirit box held firmly by his work belt.
"Eli!" Heron ran up to his best friend, who was leaning on the lamppost at the street corner.
Eli gave him a quick wave, "How was work?"
"Kinda hectic, the control rods in the reactor core got a bit stuck, so we had to fix that problem without the core going super critical."
"I've got no idea what you just said, but I guess that was bad?"
"It could've been. How was your work today?"
"Exorcised a few poltergeists and malicious spirits, but it was just the usual."
Eli was a paranormal investigator, and Heron was a nuclear plant engineer. Despite the differences between the jobs, they actually used quite similar tools.
"I saw you tap on that radio on your belt. What's that for exactly?" Heron asked.
"It's a spirit box. It can be used to hear nearby spirits and communicate with them."
"Can I see it? I'll let you see my Geiger counter."
"Sure." Eli unlatched the spirit box from his belt while Heron got out his Geiger counter.
They exchanged devices and looked intently at their new technology.
Eli pressed a few buttons, and the Geiger counter made a slow clicking sound.
Heron turned the dials on the spirit box and heard simply radio static. Suddenly, Heron got a call.
"Shoot, it's from work, I better take this." Without noticing, Heron slipped the spirit box where his Geiger counter should've gone.
Eli also didn't notice the accidental swap, and attached the counter to his belt.
"Sorry dude, something weird is going on, I have to get back to work." Heron slipped his phone back in his pocket.
"Its okay, we have to actually hang out soon though."
The two men parted ways.
Heron made his way back to his workplace, at the city's nuclear power plant. He signed in, put on his safety gear, and went to check out the reactor core.
"What's going on?" Heron asked one of his coworkers.
"The core is making strange noises and stuff is moving in ways it shouldn't."
Heron entered the chamber and pulled out what should've been his Geiger counter.
At the same time, Eli got a call.
"Hello?"
A woman was on the other line.
"I think my house is haunted, could you please come check it out?"
"What makes you think that?"
"My devices won't work properly, and everyone in the house suddenly got really sick."
"Okay ma'am, I'm on my way."
Eli hopped in his parked car and made his way to where the call was traced.
When he got there, he immediately felt sick to his stomach. He opened the door and introduced himself to the woman and her kids.
His first course of action was to attempt to communicate with the dead. He pulled out his spirit box. Except... it wasn't a spirit box.
At the same time, the working men realized their mistake. They had accidentally swapped devices!
The spirit box in Heron's possession suddenly made noise other than static. It began to make a sound like crying and screaming. Heron looked over to the woman next to him, his coworker.
"I think this place might be haunted."
"What?" She looked at him strangely.
"Haunted." He held out the spirit box that was wailing incomprehensibly.
At a similar moment, Eli realized that he had a Geiger counter and not a spirit box.
He also realized the Geiger counter was not making the slow, normal ticking speed. Instead, it was beeping rapidly, and the small screen read HI.
"So is the place haunted?" The woman asked.
"Not... exactly. I'm not entirely sure how to tell you this but... how much do you know about Chernobyl?"
Heron called Eli, and he immediately picked up the phone.
At the same time, they both said, "We've got a problem."
