Pete's Folly

Pete's Folly Part 1

October 4th, 2013

“Hey everyone, it’s Pete again. Welcome to my ghost hunting Youtube channel. Umm, so yesterday I tried to do some stupid seance crap to try to talk to a ghost. Mainly my mother, God bless her soul. And uh... well it obviously didn’t work.”

Pete stared into the webcam, his weary blue eyes were hidden behind locks of scraggly blond hair. He looked lost, like a soul floating on an ocean of mediocrity. He gathered his thoughts and continued to speak into the webcam.

“I’m starting to think that ghosts don’t exist. I’ve made a video of every attempt I’ve made to summon a ghost and I got nothing. I’ve googled so much shit, that I can’t type in the search box without something from the occult turning up. Hey FBI guys, just as an FYI I’m not trying to kill anybody here.”

He takes in a deep drag from his cigarette and blows smoke off to the side. The burning ash filled the corners of his spartan apartment. He tapped the end of his smoke stick on the edge of a nearby ashtray. He put down his cigarette, and turned in his chair. It creaked as he reached for something hidden out of view. The kitchen ambience flickered through the video feed of the webcam, the fluorescent lighting cast a green hue throughout the room. Pete leaned back into the view of the camera and brandished a Ouija board. He smiled and raised his eyebrows as he wiggled the “game” back and forth.

“I’m gonna be honest, this is the last time I’m gonna try to contact a ghost. It’s too boring waiting around for something to happen. A lot of people seem to believe these Ouija boards can open a gate to hell or some ridiculous shit.” He looked at the Ouijia board with a skeptical look across his face. “I dunno, I dunno.” Pete looked back at the camera and excitedly said, “Well, let’s find out!”

He grabbed his cigarette and sucked on it until the paper burned away. He jammed the nub of the cigarette into the ashtray and grabbed the webcam from its watchful perch. The camera lulled about as if sailing through a hurricane, refusing to settle down until it was placed on the kitchen table. Pete struggled for a few minutes to get the camera to focus, its vision constantly shifted from blurry to clear as if looking through the machine at the optometrist office.

The camera finally focused its image just as Pete disappeared into a different part of the apartment. The camera sat at the kitchen table, staring into a blank wall for a lonely eternity. The sound of Pete’s footsteps rang through the corridor, followed by the sound of wood furniture scraping across the floor. Pete’s hands would appear in the frame from time to time as he dispersed homogeneous candles throughout the kitchen table.

Pete ignited each candle one by one with his lighter. He lowered his head into the frame and stared directly into the camera. “Don’t smoke kids.” He vanished one last time from the frame and turned off the kitchen lights. The candles were so bright, that stretched out lens flares spread across the screen. Pete sat down at the table, his face now orange in color. The shadows danced around his nose and jaw as he stared into the Oujia board in front of him.

“All right, I doubt this is gonna to do anything, but I’m out of ideas at this point. Hopefully... maybe I’ll get a knock or something, but I really don’t think anything’s gonna happen. Sorry guys.”

Pete placed his fingers onto the planchette and sat at the table for a few moments in silence. He became lost in thought and ignored the camera for a solid three minutes. When he came out of his trance, he looked at the camera and said, “Oh sorry. Was trying to think of what I want to ask. All right... here we go. Is there anyone here with me right now?”

Pete fell silent and waited for the planchette to move. A few seconds passed by and Pete’s fingers started to move with the planchette. He spoke each letter aloud.