Unexpected Reality: Book 1: Gamer Girl

by L. Foster

  The lid came off easily and Laura placed it next to her on the bed. Inside, were a bunch of old newspaper clippings and a few scraps of letters. She rummaged through the box a bit deeper until her hand grasped the blue envelope she was searching for. She pulled it out and traced the poor handwriting on the front. It had her name on it.

  She opened the envelope and took out a small note. The handwriting on the note matched that of the envelope. She started to read it.

  'Henry. You are my friend. My only Friend. Something happened. Something bad. I will not write any more. I want you to know I will always remember you. And that flower you gave me that day, I shall give back to you.

  'Remember Me Always.

  'Abigail.'

  Laura's hand carefully picked up the dried flower and gently placed it back into the fold of the letter. Laura sat in the near dark, staring at the envelope.

  Chapter 28

  Henry sat in his parked car and scribbled into his notebook. He took a look at his watch and then back out on the street. He could see the headlights from Matthew's car cut through the darkness. Henry got out of his own car to greet his friend. While they exchanged pleasantries, Henry confessed he was surprised to see Matthew arrive ahead of Laura who seemed to be ecstatic about their planned adventure the last time they spoke at the pub.

  Since it was getting a bit chilly outside, they decided to take a walk up the pathway. A small sign that said ‘For Sale’ in great bold red letters that ran alongside a photo of the estate agent's face was hammered into the front lawn. Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out the key Colin had given him earlier in the week.

  The key turned in the tumbler and the door pushed gently open. Henry pulled out a small blue torch from inside of his pocket and asked Matthew to stay put while he fetched the lights. He waved the torch around and found the switches. The hallway lights sprung to life and illuminated the entrance way. The furniture was untouched from the last time Henry visited the house. It appeared that the electrician fixed the light, but the heat was still an issue. The sofa was ice cold to the touch, although central heating ran throughout the house.

  'So, this is the infamous Rose View Screw, huh? I don't suppose you can show me the bleeding walls.' Matthew was looking all over the house trying to find nothing in particular.

  'No, apparently, Colin had them painted over immediately.' Henry replied.

  'What a disappointment for you then. Proof of life after death wiped out by a coat of brown paint.'

  'Did I miss much?' The voice was Laura’s.

  'Jesus, you about scared me half to death. When did you come in?' Henry asked.

  'I came in just long enough to hear dear Matthew here make an arse of himself.'

  Henry smiled.

  'Whilst you two bash on me, I think I'll have a pop over to the sofa. Bleeding hell! This thing is like ice.' Matthew said.

  'Cold spot. Paranormal activity brings temperature changes.'

  'Yeah, and so does bad insulation. These windows ain't even sealed properly. Probably a draft.'

  'A draft? Localized in just the sofa? Yeah, that's a rational thought for you.' said Laura.

  'Better than your answer of Demons or God or the Bogeyman or whatnot.'

  Laura pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and headed towards the kitchen to get some cups while Henry asked Matthew to help him plant the sensors he had brought around the house. By the time they returned to the living room, Laura had made herself at home on the stuffed chair next to the sofa. Her hand held a glass that featured a Manchester United logo. She had two other similar glasses lying next to each other on an end table.

  'So, you boys done being mysterious yet? Almost thought I had to send for a search party. Come, your drinks are getting cold.'

  'Don't you mean warm?' asked Henry.

  'No. Cold. I put them near the sofa. It's like a freezer there.'

  Henry picked up his glass and the cold bit his fingers. He blew on it to warm up his hands and saw Matthew handle the glass with his shirt.

  'Still think it's just the windows?'

  'Night's still young, like you said. So far the only thing not normal here is a girl who brings a bottle of whisky to a stranger’s house. Probably spiked my drink with something so I'll see ghosts.' snipped Matthew.

  'Hun, unlike you, I don't need to spike anyone's drink. Cheers.' Laura retorted.

  They raised their glasses in salute. Henry took a shot of his drink and set the cup down on the other end of the table. The end away from the sofa. He went over to where he set his stuff and pulled out a laptop from his bag.

  'So, what's that in aid of? Ghost hunting seems to have gone high-tech.'

  'The lappy? Have it rigged. Remember those sensors? Well, they are beaming data here as we speak.'

  Laura asked if the sensors could capture ghost images and after Henry had told her no, mentioning that parapsychologists made more use of gathered analytical data which had hard evidence recordings on certain variables like temperature, audio variations, and others, instead of using photos which often produced weak evidence as it could be easily faked. He concluded that it was better to have a camera trained on the sensors with a running time code.

  'Gotcha. Photos would be too fuzzy, too unclear, or too good to be true.' Laura added.

  'You mean too fake like someone dressed up in sheets with holes poked in for eyes?' Matthew said.

  'Funny man.' said Laura.

  'The thing funny here is three of us adults sitting around in the dark trying to tell ghost stories. Jesus, it’s freezing on this thing.' Matthew started to rub his arms to warm up.

  'Maybe you should get off the haunted sofa?' Laura suggested.

  'Haunted? Or just want the sofa for yourself. Not my fault you two were too chicken to sit on it.'

  'If not wanting to have my soul taken over by an evil entity is chicken, then bawk bawk.' Laura said.

  'So what's the deal with this house anyway? Besides the obvious window insulation problem.' Matthew asked.

  'Can’t tell you. That'd be front-loading. You know, disclosing information before an experiment. I'd hate to influence the accuracy of the results.' replied Henry.

  'What results? Of me freezing my willy off? You needn't worry. I won't be converting anytime soon.' Matthew remarked.

  Matthew wouldn’t stop asking questions if Henry simply ignored him. From what he had observed so far, Both Matthew and Laura were both inquisitive. This, he found appealing. The genuine will to learn as much as they could. So it wasn’t a bad idea to give more updates about the house they were in at least. He asked Laura to listen if she wanted to and he soon got both their undivided attention as they both locked their gazes on him, anticipating his first words.

  Henry told them the house was built in the late 1950s. The house wasn’t a typical source of activity neither was it built anywhere sacred or the whole neighborhood would have been affected. He explained that what must have happened was a bit more local, more personal to the house and it all started 30 years ago. He was interrupted briefly by a curious Laura who asked what happened.

  Henry simply smiled and resumed his story telling. A father had returned home from work in a drunken rage and battered his young child to death. The kid wasn't found until the mother came home. When she saw the broken body of her son, she completely lost it, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and headed for the room her husband had slept off drunk on an armchair where she stabbed him repeatedly to death. It was indeed a horrible case. He recalled seeing it in a lot of newspaper clippings.

  'Bullshit. Next you're gonna say that this sofa was where the armchair sat. Aren't you?' Matthew asked.

  'How would I know? That was 30 years ago. I'm just inside the house for the second time in my life.'

  'So why this house? Why you?' Laura asked.

  'A friend I know, name's Colin, you might have seen his picture on the way in.'

  'The one with the two-tone hair?' asked Laura.

  'Yeah, that�
��s the one. He rings me up saying he needs my help selling this place.'

  'How does a teacher become an estate agent?' Laura was confused.

  'He doesn't. He wants me to write up a statement saying that I checked it out and it was fine. Said he'd give me a 20 percent finder’s fee if anyone bought.'

  'So, are you hoping to find evidence or will you write up saying everything was fine no matter what?' asked Matthew.

  'I'm a scientist. I won't dirty myself with trying for a specific conclusion to my experiment. If nothing happens, then that's what I'll write up. If something happens, well...' Henry stopped. He assumed they understood what he wanted to say quite well.

  'I'll save you a heap of time. Nothing is going to happen, mate. It's what? Almost 1 in the morning.' Laura ignores Matthew’s protest and Henry does also, his attention on the laptop screen. Matthew sighed and after complaining a bit more, he announced he was going to call it a night. He stood up and stretched.

  Laura sighed. 'Maybe you're right. It's been a quiet night.'

  'You know it's bad when she agrees with me, Henry!' Matthew was grinning now.

  'Lightweights.' Henry said.

  'Hey, a duck's a duck whichever way you describe it. You need help packing?' Matthew asked.

  Henry closed his laptop. The battery was low already. He asked Matthew to fetch the sensors they had placed upstairs while he got the one fixed at the back room.

  Matthew started up the stairs. He made the way up to the top and moved towards the bathroom where he and Henry laid the sensor a few hours earlier. As he bent down to pick it off the floor, he heard a growl. He thought someone had a dog put up the stairs as he looked around in the dim lighting. The door at the end of the hallway opened slightly ajar and a small human-like shadow darted past the opening. Matthew turned towards the door and made his way slowly in the direction of the shadow.

  'Henry's got some nerve trying to spook me like this. I'll show him.' Matthew muttered.

  He edged closer to the door and got ready to jump into the room. The sound, now more of a primal growl from a Puma than anything a dog could make, got louder. Matthew’s fingers clasped around the door frame. He felt the cool wood warm against his hand.

  'Come on out...' whispered Matthew.

  'Got it, Matt?' Henry's voice rang out from the ground floor.

  Matthew looked at the door he was about to open and then back towards the stairs where his friend's voice came from.

  'Jesus...'

  Matthew could feel a cold creep into his fingers. A shape started to leak out from the doorway. Matthew pushed the door shut and backed away. The door blew back open with enough force to knock Matthew back on the ground. He kicked it shut hard with his feet and made his way quickly downstairs.

  'I got it! I got the sensor.'

  'Took you long enough.' Henry said.

  'Hey, don't rush perfection! Here you go, mate. I guess I'll be seeing you two a bit later. I should go now.' Matthew hastily handed the sensor to Henry and made his way out the door.

  Laura followed and Henry went over with his torch to the kitchen, flipped the fuse box switches to shut the house down and exited, locking the door.

  'I guess I'll have to live with getting 20 percent then. You better sell!' Henry said to the empty house.

  Laura went on about how she couldn’t wait to get home to sleep, yawning intermittently to prove her point. Matthew announced he was leaving for the second time as he approached his car. Laura was disappointed he didn’t offer her a lift or at least, allowed her to keep warm in his car till she got a ride home.

  'Yeah, looks like you two really hit it off, haven't you?' Henry said as he took out his car keys. 'That's just Matt. He's always been like that. Always. Think nothing of it. He doesn't mean anything by it. He's just tired.'

  'He's an arrogant arsehole. That's what he is.'

  'Hey, chill out. Come on, I'll drop you off. See, chivalry isn’t dead!' Henry teased.

  Matthew drove up to them and slowed down to throw a wave at the two. As he passed them, Laura could see a pale girl in his back seat. The girl had a smile on her face.

  Laura was shocked to think Matthew had left the girl in his car all through the time they were in the house. Soon after, her shock seemed to have dissolved into sheer surprise. Of course, she knew Matthew could be crazy. She just never thought it could get any worse. Now that it did, she probably just had to get used to that as well. She had called Henry’s attention to what she had seen. She called his name thrice before Henry bolted back to reality.

  'What? Yeah, right. Henry hadn’t paid attention to what she had said earlier. 'I'll drop you off. I promise to behave too.'

  Laura teased him a little bit more and followed him to his car. Henry opened the door for Laura and made his way to the other side. He got in and started the ignition while taking off the handbrake.

  As they started to pull away, a face peered out of the house window. It was a portly man. He stood staring at the two drive away. His shirt was bloodied and filled with stab holes.

  Chapter 29

  Jenny entered Matthew’s bedroom with two mugs of tea. Hers was spiked with brandy, but she had put two lumps of sugar in his. She walked towards her sleeping brother and set his tea down on the bedside table.

  'Matt, here's some tea.'

  Jenny waited for Matt to respond, but was greeted only with a small snore. She went into her own room for a moment and returned to her brother.

  'What do you think of this? I think it's gorgeous. Thought it'd go with this room. You know, when it's painted. Picked it up at a shop on the high street.' Jenny took the perfume bottle out of her bag. The snakes on top of the bottle seemed cold to the touch. Matt still didn’t utter a word.

  She asked Matthew if he was alright as she put the bottle down next to Matt's tea. She waited a few more seconds and when he didn’t respond, she hit him in the back and yanked the covers off him.

  'The hell? What you do that for?'

  'Wakey, wakey now! It's already gone half-eight.'

  Matt put a pillow over his head.

  'Come on! Time to get up! We have to paint, remember?'

  'Go away!'

  Jenny immediately moved to scold her brother. She held nothing back during her infamous vitriol-spitting mood swings Matt had almost gotten used to. Within a minute, she had reminded him he lived with her for free and never did any work to earn a space in her apartment. The work she needed him to do on that occasion however was to go get paints. Matt tried to play the sick card, but Jenny wasn’t having it. She confessed she had been waiting for weeks to get the paints at a discounted 30 percent off the normal price and needed Matt to go with her to the store as early as possible if they ever wanted to buy them as the queues would most definitely be huge.

  'Look, I said I'm not well. Just leave me alone.' Matt snapped and pulled the duvet above his head.

  'You were feeling well enough to stay out all night. When are you going to...’?

  'Don't know, okay? Matt cut in. 'Sod off and shut the bloody door when you leave!'

  'Sod off? Your lousy pig! Sponging off of me for months and this is the thanks I get? You better be recovered and ready when I get back or you can find yourself another relative to sponge off of!' Jenny slammed the bedroom door on her way out.

  Matt jolted upright and threw a pillow to the door. Jenny simply ignored the outburst of her brother yelling through the door. She made her way to the front door before whipping her mobile out and in a few seconds, she was connected to someone on the other end of the call.

  'Kate? Yeah. You were right. Useless as usual. So, you busy? I need some retail therapy! I'm buying!'

  Chapter 30

  The library was an older building off the center of the campus. There wasn't much point in going to most of the book stacks any more as the popular reads were always loaned out. The book budget had been cut each year since the first Kindle popped into existence. Inside the library was a large desk where thre
e librarians sat. One of them, Ethel, claimed to have been there since the last war. She was old enough to back that claim. Mean enough too.

  Henry sat at a table towards the window. It had a few books on the paranormal resting on it. One of the books outlined the mythos of night stalkers. Henry had his pencil move from mouth to hand while he took notes.

  'All work and no play?' Laura said as she came up from behind Henry.

  'Hey you! What are you doing here?' Henry asked while putting a note in the book.

  'Me? I've got a thing for book worms. A real kink, you could say. You wouldn't happen to know any bookworms now would you?'

  'I'm sure you can find a few in the here. What about that guy at the table over there?' Henry pointed at a teen. The youth was wearing his school uniform—a few sizes smaller—and pushed his glasses up on his chubby face.

  'Oh my! I said book worm, not cradle snatching.'

  Henry laughed. The noise attracted the stares of Ethel. She glared at Henry from over her glasses which remained magically glued to her face, despite the rims barely touching her nose. Laura quickly cautioned Henry against raising their voices as she waved to Ethel.

  Ethel put her head back down towards her work. She was binding a book that had been water damaged and ripped along the spine.

  'Seriously...how did you know I was here?' Henry asked.

  Laura leaned close and whispered in his ear. The heat of her breath caused a visible goose-pimpling of Henry's flesh. She told him she saw his car out front and stopped in to treat him to lunch.

  Henry looked down at his watch. 'My God. I didn't even realize how the time's gone. I guess I could use a bit of lunch. You said you're buying, right?'

  Ethel looked over at the table Henry was at. She put her binding down and raised her finger to her lips. 'Shhhhhh...'