Afterworld - Chapter 2 now up.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Heres an idea ive had rattling around and this time i think i have an actual plot and story to go with the premise . Reviews give me motivation hehe.

Afterworld

“Is there anybody there?” a voice asked out in the darkness. The air was chill and the breath of the speaker and his 6 companions could be seen in the light of the sole flickering candle on the table they were all sat around. The dancing light giving their faces eerie reflections.

“Is there any presence here with us?” he asked again. The room was deathly quiet and his voice seemed to boom out as it often did in the type of old house they were spending the night in.

There was a loud scraping sound and they all jumped, wide eyed, their breaths catching in their throats as they looked around.

“Sorry” came a voice from the darkness and a small torch was turned on illuminating a man holding a boom mike a meter above their heads. “I tripped on a cable.”

“For fuck sake Mike!” snapped the Host of the show before calming down slightly. “Its fine, we’ll fix it in the edit lets just calm down and get back to it.”

There was a rustling of movement as the surrounding camera crew shook out the tension that had built as the séance had begun and now settled back to silence as it resumed.

“If there is anybody there…” began the Host, pausing for effect “…could you knock on the table.”

They paused for a moment, listening to the faint whistle of the wind in the glassless windows.

Knock.

Their eyes went wide again, the host span around to glare again at the sound-man but he shook his head in innocence.

Knock

It came once again, and another, this time faster. The crew began getting excited at actual possible contact with the other side; this would be great for their ratings.

“Can we ask you some questions?” the speaker asked again “tap twice for yes and once for no” but the tapping continued, alternating from fast to slow, repeating a rhythm.

“What’s going on?” asked the host. “There’s definite activity but it seems to be ignoring us, just tapping as it likes.”

“Wait a minute…” said one of the girls around the table “…I know that beat.”

The host looked at her confused for a moment before stopping to listen to the rhythm being tapped out on the table by seemingly invisible hands.

“Is that…..” he asked with a slight pause, knowing how silly this must sound

“…is that 'We Will Rock You'?”


“I wish you’d stop fucking with them like that” spoke a deep gruff voice in the darkness. A voice that none of the crew could hear for the simple fact that the speaker was dead and infact one of the ghosts this team had come to hunt.

“I know but its so much fun” replied a lighter more teasing but equally as dead voice from the woman leaning over the crew drumming out the solo of ‘In the air tonight’ over and over again on their table. “You need to learn to relax more Duggan” she teased. “It’ll be the death of you.”

“Har Har” he replied with no trace of humour in his voice. He leaned against the far wall watching this team of ‘ghost hunters’ as they went through the motions of psychic investigations. He would have made an imposing sight if any of them could have truly seen him. He stood a little over 6ft and seemed to be almost as wide across at the shoulder. He looked like the typical army vet that could never quite give it up. The grizzled beard and weathered face added to that effect. His partner on the other hand was the opposite. Slim, petite and always carrying that look of mischief on her lips. Her red hair occasionally covering one eye as if to keep something a secret.

“Get serious Kat, stop wasting energy” he sighed in a low rumble. “One day you’re going to make a serious mistake and have all sorts of media attention investigating the afterlife.”

“3 things” she said smiling as she turned to walk back to him.

“Number one, I like attention” she winked as Duggan shook his head.

“Number two, I don’t make mistakes. I admit that occasionally I do unwittingly create situations that are unplanned for however can still be turned into an unusual advantage. Never mistakes.”

“And 3?” asked Duggan, already knowing what her next excuse would be.

“Number three is that this table is loaded with energy, they must have been using this thing for years.”

He could see the traces of glowing blue/green energy, the energy of creation, the fuel of life itself and the same energy that people in his world used to interact with the world of the living trailing from her fingers before falling back to be reabsorbed into the table. Only living things gave off life energy, the humans in the room were almost alight with the stuff but natural materials, especially wooden, could absorb it sometimes, the older the better, and it allowed them some level of interaction. This table it seemed had absorbed a lot over the years.


“Is he any good?” asked Kat as she moved to lean on the wall beside him, looking at the member of the crew that Duggan had been paying special attention to. This one claimed to be their psychic, the medium of the group and although from the extra energy the two Ghosts could see radiating from him it was obvious he did have psychic potential but it was unharnessed.

“Nah, he’s Bullshitting his way through it. Apparently the tapping is coming from an evil old witch.” replied Duggan, considering the obvious joke but the scowl on Kat's face made him think otherwise.

He stood and stretched, wincing as he did. It was odd really when he thought about it, to be dead and still have aches and pains. The same old dull ache in his shoulder he picked up long before any of these crew members were even born. Truth be told he had been dead for a long time before any of these people were born but he had still been here all this time, doing this same job. Kat too, while new relatively speaking was still more than likely older than any of the living in the room yet she had the appearance of a girl barely out of her teens.

“But he’s got all that potential.” said Kat, indicating the corona of energy she could see surrounding him.

“Yeah but he doesn’t know about it. He’s basically woken up one morning and said ‘I’m gonna pretend to be psychic and have some schmuck believe I can talk to ghosts‘ when in actual fact, if he learned how he probably could.“

“And now it’s our problem.” said Kat.

“And now it’s out problem” said Duggan, echoing her sigh as the corona grew brighter and the ethereal winds picked up, the candle flickered wildly.

It was happening.

***

Today was the worst day of Seth Bryant’s life. He hated days like these. The ones that seemed to go on and on. The ones that if you looked at the clock you could swear it was going backwards.

Today had been a nightmare. Late for work because of road works, no lunch because he had forgotten his wallet and now, to cap it off his car decided it was time to give up the ghost and with no money for a bus his only option was to walk home. In the rain. Sometimes it just didn’t pay to get out of bed.

His attention was taken by the beep of a car and he turned on autopilot to wave to whichever colleague it was taking the piss that they were nice and dry in their car. He held off on the annoyed expression and obligatory raised middle finger when he realised it was Abby from accounts.

“Never know, it always pays to be nice” he said through a forced smile.


After almost an hour’s walk the rain eased off. With not far too go till he got home he realised he had made pretty good time considering he was soaked.

He was starting to look forward to getting his feet up. A hot shower, a hot meal and a night in front of the TV to start his weekend off. He had considered going out but payday was Monday and he’d rather have one big night tomorrow instead of stretching it out to two little nights.

He smiled to himself realising that Sunday was probably going to be a day of headaches and sleeping till the afternoon but he knew it was going to be worth it. And it would have been, if he had looked both ways before stepping out into the road.


He couldn’t remember the bus hitting him. Just a flash of something very large and very fast out of the corner of his eye. Then, for a second there was nothing. Just darkness with some bright point that he seemed to be drifting towards. As it got closer he looked around, the light began illuminating his surroundings, a tunnel, some sort of huge tunnel that he was floating down towards this point of light.

He knew he should probably be panicking, should be worried about what was happening but he wasn’t. Something inside him just said ‘relax’ and he did. The same instinct seemed to explain to him that he was dead, but it was alright, and he believed it. He just let himself float along.

Something here wasn’t alright though. He could see other people around him, they were fine, and they were just floating along like him. But one wasn’t. There was one person in front of him, he looked like he was swimming, thrashing wildly as if fighting the invisible current.

‘Why would he do that?’ Thought Seth, ‘the voice said its all ok’.

As the thought formed the swimming man came close enough to Seth that their eyes locked. The man reached out, grabbing Seth’s arm and pulling, using him to pull himself against the current, fighting desperately. Seth pushed back, finding himself unable to speak to tell the man to let him go, that he wanted it to be alright.

As they fought they drifted closer and closer to the walls of the tunnel, and when they finally touched it Seth saw only a flash, then the blackness again.

When he woke the man was gone but he found himself in a room, a dark and draughty room with hard wooden floors covered in dust.

Realising his voice had returned he coughed and looked around.

“What the hell is going on?”

***

They had seen him come through; Duggan and Kat stood patiently watching him. The portal had opened as it usually had, directly above the psychic and had launched this spirit across the room to land heavily. The candle flickered as if agitated but the room itself, for the humans at least was calm. The ethereal winds of energy however blew a gale. Kats hair blew up around her face and her eyes quickly glanced to Duggan, beginning to get unsure of the situation.

“This one feels powerful” she half shouted over the roar of power in the air.

“So why isn’t he changing?” asked Duggan taking a step towards the man sprawled on the floor trying to get himself up.

“What do you mean changing?” asked Seth looking up into the faces of two people. One was a huge stockily built man, the other an attractive but worried looking woman. Both wore some sort of black bodysuit with what seemed like padded jackets over the top.

As if to answer his question he heard a thud beside him followed by cruel laughter, and the two figures backed away, the man reaching out to drag Seth with them.

“It’s a Double!” shouted Duggan, dragging the first spirit away before turning to face the source of the laughter.

Seth turned to look and saw the man he had struggled with in the tunnel. His eyes were bright and seemed to glow. His arms outstretched from a kneeling position and Seth could swear he was seeing some sort of greenish blue energy whirling over his head, radiating from the walls and being absorbed by this man.

As his body began to bulge and deform he turned to the large man and asked again.

“What the hell is going on?”

The big man looked down with stern but sympathetic eyes.

“Ill explain later, for now stay out of the way. Welcome to the Afterworld kid.”