Reverence [Shyan]

work

Shane opened up his email, checking to see if there was anything that needed his utmost attention. In reality, he was just using it to mask the fact that he was listening to the podcast that girl had told him about earlier. 

The website itself that it had previously been hosted on and currently resided in did not seem like that much of an unreliable source, as it was a national Canadian sponsored radio. Maybe that girl had driven down or had family from the North. 

The podcast itself was rather difficult for Shane to determine whether or not it was accurate or just wild, spun-on stories that people happened to have guessed by chance. They did have one scientist opposing the topic theory, however, as he had suspected would happen, there was another scientist who was able to rebuttal that idea. As much as the scientific part of their theory tried to enlighten him, he still sat on a more skeptical side of the issue at hand. The idea that they could be electromagnetic waves or radiation seemed the most logical to him that had been mentioned, and decided that he would probably end up keeping a closer eye on Ryan's fancy EMF detector in the future. 

One of his coworkers rolled back in his chair to speak with Shane: "There's another issue in the database, Shane. Jack already is on it but they said they probably need someone like you on the job."

"Got it," he sighed, watching the email notification pop up. Database admin wasn't the main thing he ever really wanted to do in his life, but what else could he even realistically shoot for? Young Shane had aspired to be an astronaut, but once he got into middle school he got rid of any unrealistic thoughts and decided to go for something that he'd be good at. He decided he wasn't made to be an astronaut anyhow.

Perhaps he enjoyed hanging out with Ryan in dangerous situations, watching him freak out and feel some sort of teenage scare thrill that Shane wished he could somehow experience. It's not like there was nothing that scared him, but he didn't see the need to waste energy on being terrified of something that doesn't exist. 

What if he did become a full-time ghost hunter though? Granted, there would be little to no pay and barely anything to be gotten out of it but... just the experience he has already gotten out of it and all the time he has managed to spend time with Ryan already made it seem worth it. Perhaps it was Ryan himself that made it seem worth it.

Tapping enter, he sat back rubbed his face tiredly. Thank god being a database admin meant he could work a lot from his own laptop. Ryan had dragged him away from work so much that working on the go was inevitable, but at least he was sensible enough to only bring him away on weekends. 

There wasn't much else he had to do surprisingly on this Friday evening, so he ended up taking a look at a few videos explaining the 10 or however many dimensions the video presenter decided to explain. Shane had read a bit about them back in high school, but not enough to remember that well.

Shane's cell buzzed in his pocket, surprising him a little. At least the volume wasn't on.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Shane?" It was Ryan. Speak of the devil... or rather, think. 

"Do you even have a job?"

"Er... yeah," Ryan laughed awkwardly, "It's flexible. What, are you still at work or something?"

"Just leaving." Shane stood up as he said so, grabbing his bag and shutting off his computer.

"Oh."

"What did you need?"

"Oh yeah! I found another place." Shane smiled a bit at how eager his friend had sounded.

"Really? How great is it this time?" He could see one of his closest coworkers staring at him as he slowed to leave.

"Real good, I promise. It's a house about a state away - an hour should do. This one is particularly active too - I have a bunch of accounts of seeings."

"Alright, whatever you're happy with."

"I can pick you up on Saturday if you're fine with that, before noon?"

"Okay. I'm leaving now so I can pack up."

"Sounds good."

"Love you, honey," Shane made a face, slightly mockingly, directed to the staring coworker. The coworker turned back to their desk.

"Um, what?"

"Okay, okay, see you then."

"Oh, er, okay," Ryan laughed off, "Love you too then." He didn't seem to have quite caught the tone of sarcasm in Shane's voice.

"Alright, bye-bye." He ended the call as soon as he finished speaking, rushing to check himself out of his job.

The little 'love you' was supposed to be a joke to make his coworker mind his own business, but he didn't quite immediately process the effect that it was being said directly to Ryan. Not like he would care though. They'd been friends since university, of course they've said pretty weird things to each other. 

What really struck Shane was the beat of something that he felt when Ryan played along. Driving back home, he couldn't decide what it had meant, so he just decided to leave it at that and not worry about it.

_______

hi um

sorry ive been dead ive been meaning to post but... anyways ill probably post the next chapter tonight hopefully too cause its More Important and i have english homework to procrastinate

also i forgot to mention last time but in case yallr interested the podcast is on CBC radio and it's called 'Decoding Death: The science and significance of of near death experiences' - you can probably just look it up and the podcast will be on their website.