Pete's Folly

Pete's Folly Part 1

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Pete stared at the camera in shock, horrified by what he was seeing. He allowed a few seconds to pass before turning his frightened expression into cheeky laughter. “Just kidding guys, that was me.” He cleared his throat. “Are there any spirits present with me right now?”

The room fell silent, only his quiet breathing accompanied him. The sound of metal pots shifting suddenly rang through the kitchen, causing Pete to jump in his seat . He covered his face with one hand and said, “Holy shit.” He shook his head and smiled towards the camera. “That scared the shit out of me. Sorry guys, I did the dishes earlier and didn’t put the pots away.” Pete bellowed a deep sigh and said, “Okay, let’s try this again without any interruptions. Are there any spirits present with me right now?”

The quiet returned once more with only the ambient sound of a heating unit to keep him company. Pete looked around the room while both hands remained placed on the planchette. He waited for several minutes, hoping for a response that wasn’t caused by his own doing. When nothing happened, he felt disheartened. The candle wax continued its slow melt into nothingness, and Pete found himself becoming frustrated with the expected turn of events.

“If there are any spirits here, please give me a sign. Move something, anything.”

If “nothing” were a humanoid being, it would be cackling at Pete’s failed attempts..

“Sorry guys, looks like tonight is going to be another dud. It’s about 12 in the morning right now, and I’m not seeing any chance of something happening.” He looked out into the blackness and yelled, “Is there anyone here with me right now? Please, do something, say something.”

The only thing that said anything to Pete, was nothing at all, the silence of his loneliness.

“Are you fucking scared huh? You scared to come out and do anything? Of course, typical! Of course nothing’s gonna to happen,” he raved. “You’re not real, ghosts aren’t real, none of that after life bullshit is real. God and the Devil, none of them are real!”

The sound of a body dropping on the floor tumbled somewhere in his apartment.

“What the fuck?”

He grabbed the wireless webcam and started towards the apartment corridor. He turned the hallway light on, which flickered to life and filled the area with a sickly green hue. The camera bounced inside his hands as he moved around, ever watchful of anything being amiss. He looked inside the bathroom, but there was nothing, just an empty toilet and dark shadows lingering within the room. He checked the bedroom, but only saw his messy bed. Ironically, his clothes were folded neatly in a pile.

Finally, he checked one more spot in his very small apartment--the closet. The door sat ominously at the end of the hallway; as if it were a portal into another dimension. There was nothing particularly striking about the door, it was white and slender with a brass knob. It was as it appeared. Just a damn door, Pete thought. But he couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling emanating from it.

He placed his hand on the knob, his other hand holding the camera. The circular handle was cool to the touch, the metal was worn and poked his skin. He opened the door slowly-- a hard hat fell over the top shelf, his shoulders jumped with a bolt of energy. He looked down at the floor and saw his work clothes sprawled across his feet, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After picking up his orange safety vest and placing his clothes on the hanger; Pete did a quick survey of the room and walked back to the kitchen. He turned off the lights and placed the webcam back on the table. He leaned in towards the glow of the candles and said to the camera, “Well, looks like my clothes fell. Not really proof of supernatural activity, sorry viewers. I’m gonna try one more time to communicate with a ghost and then call it a night.”