Simple Complexity

Part 8

An older man had met the three women at the Farmhouse, he had been caretaking it for a few months, noticing eerie lights and sounds at random times. And although he'd never actually seen anything it was only as he was getting ready for bed that evening that a voice screeched from within the house.

He had felt a presence, he knew something was there, and as he stood in the kitchen, filling his teacup with boiling water he had seen something move through the room ahead. A shadow, something. He had dropped his cup, scalding his hand, but the fear was enough for him to forget the pain walking forward a couple of steps and then suddenly the black mass, distorted features, a buckled, broken body rushed towards him. He had fallen to the floor, and clutching his burned hand he'd scampered up, running fast, pushing his way out of the kitchen door. He'd stood in the middle of field next to the home, picking up his phone and dialling the Ghostbusters.

After the women had arrived and he gave them another run down of the events he'd sped off in his car, already having booked a night in a local motel.

The women fastened on their proton packs, Patty switching on the PKE meter and they wandered the home, nothing coming up on the meter, no readings. They scouted out all the rooms, the lower floor and basement, then outside into the stables and then the barn.

'There's nothing here,' Holtz said, scratching her head, turning and looking around, shrugging.

They walked from the barn back to the homestead, walking up the aged wooden steps and paused on the wrap around verandah. It was silent, eerily silent. There was no noise at all, not even the sound of the soft breeze or music from wind chimes that were hanging on one of the awnings.

And Patty noticed, pointing towards the hanging mobile, the other two following the line of her finger, watching as it moved in the small wind, yet made no metallic sound.

'Let's do another sweep,' Patty said, shivering from the cold, looking around.

'Yeah,' Abby said, not taking her eyes off the chimes, 'that's not right.'

'I'm going to check out the barn again,' Holtz said quietly, her proton gun held tightly in her hands, and she turned to the others. Patty nodded and Abby let out a quiet murmur in agreement.

'Yeah, let's split up,' Patty said as she walked back inside, using her head to point towards the upper level of the abandoned farmhouse and Abby began to walk away, entering the lower level as Patty walked towards the stairs.

Holtzmann walked back down the porch steps, the barn not far from the house, the night air was cool, and the silence was almost painful, she couldn't even hear her own breathing. There wasn't even the sound of a cricket chirping, and she looked over to the ECTO sitting parked not far the house behind her, and then she glanced back to the house. She could see a soft glow of light from the upper and lower floors, the torches from her teammates, and she turned back towards the direction of the barn.

There wasn't any sign of a ghost or spectre of any sort, not even any ectoplasm evidence in the house and Holtz's boots crunched in silence along the gravel driveway as she approached the large open barn doors. Her breathing was shallow, not that she could hear it, only feel it, clouds of white escaping her lips as she walked to the doorway, stopping. She flicked on the torch that was attached to the pack's shoulder strap and she moved her body so it could light up the interior, not seeing anything and she slowly walked inside, farming equipment and tools hung along the walls. Shears, saws, ploughing equipment hung from big hooks on the roof, some of them slowly swinging from a breeze that was coming in through the aged slats that formed the walls. The barn floor was relatively empty apart from a tractor and a couple bales of hay. Holtzmann walked into the centre, turning in a circle as she looked around. There was a sudden loud screech, and then a shriek and as Holtzmann turned toward the noise everything suddenly went black, and the blonde hit the ground hard.