[R1999] Short Stories' Collection

Click meets Horrorpedia (1)

“Hey, you are The Ghost Photographer that Vertin mentioned, right?”

Hearing the sudden loud voice from below, Click changed his sight from the tree to the strange man who was striking up a conversation with him. 

‘Who was he?’ 

Scratching his messy curly hair, Click thought. As he recalled his ghost-life memories, no image of that man came out.

Why didn’t he include his human time? Because it has been so faint since the day he became a ghost.

“Finally catching up with you.”

The man’s voice seemed relieved when he saw the ghost photographer pay attention to his speech.

That strange man had a pair of black eyeglasses and a bit long brown hair which was low tightened. Based on Click’s memories, the clothes he was wearing had the style and symbol of St. Pavlov Foundation, for which Vertin was working. 

‘He may be one of Ms. Vertin’ colleagues…’

“Can I ask if your image reflects in the mirror or appears in the picture?”

The man spoke really fast, as if he was worried that Click would disappear before he completed his sentence. 

“Oops, my bad…”

The man seemed to realize he had spoken out loud what he was thinking in his head. His expression showed sorry to the other, who actually didn’t care about his behaviour.

“Yes, both the mirror and the camera can reflect my image.”

Click gently nodded and answered the man’s unexpected question.

“Wow, cool indeed.”

The sorry face was nowhere to be seen. Replacing it was the full of excitement one.

“...Thanks.”

Click politely replied.

“So-” 

The man’ brown eyes somehow  sparkled to the extent that Click could see it clearly with his bare eyes.

“Can I ask you some, ahem, more questions about Ghost?”

“I will pay you, of course!”

He quickly added.

The offer didn’t have any problems. There was no harm for Click to be asked some questions about the characteristics of his “species”. Furthermore, he remembered the reserved films that were running out. Since his cameras were the real things, they needed real films to take pictures. Therefore, he accepted that man’s offer.

“By the way, you can call me Horrorpedia.”

“Click.”

“Okay, let us meet at 8pm on Saturday. Luckily, I finally have some free time for myself…”

Horrorpedia’s voice gradually faded after the first sentence. But then, he raised his voice to ask the ghost photographer.

“Are you free at that time too? If not, our interview can take place on another day. But it will be difficult to determine when I will be free next time…”

‘It changed into an interview, huh…’

“I’m fine with Saturday 8pm.”

Click answered.

“Great! See you in my room. The one in the suitcase!”

After that, Horrorpedia hastily ran down the hall while waving his hand to say goodbye.

‘Oh, we lived in the same suitcase…’

Click once again scratched his unkempt curly hair. He thought this might be the fastest job offer he had ever received, even back to his alive time.

“...Oh, that blue bird appeared again.”

The unique blue bird he had found out a few days ago reappeared. He had been waiting for it at this site since then. 

‘I may know why that man could find me.’

The blue bird raised its gorgeous small head and then twittered on a branch of the tree. 

Now, the light, the scenery and the main character that he needed all gathered. They quickly captured his sight and also all of his mind.

‘It came with another blue bird.’

An unexpected element would even make this picture better.

Instantly, Click blended into the tree leaves behind them and silently picked up his camera.