Speaking bluntly, Pez hates everything and everyone. To put this into perspective, there has only ever been one exception to this rule, purely due to a freak progression of incidents unlikely to ever occur again.
Of course, it must also be mentioned...
At first, Anton thought that it was just his imagination. After all, limited as his imagination was – for he was a simple man with a simple mind – there was no other explanation.
It started with the smells.
It was a rule in their home – if you call it that. No one, absolutely no one, is allowed lilacs of any kind to enter the threshold. Whether it be in the form of perfume, washing detergent or the actual flower, no lilacs allowed. So, when the distinct smell of lilac started wafting around, Anton when mad searching for the source. It was in the bathroom when he showered. It was there when he was dressing for bed. Suddenly the overpowering scent of lilacs filled every room.
Then it was the missing objects.
While Anton was a simple man, he prided himself on being organised. Everything had a place, and in its place everything should be. So, he put his set of keys and his cell phone down in the place he always put it. And he turned around for a minute – a single minute – and they were gone. Suffice to say, Anton panicked. The keys were fine, he could do without them for a day or two, but his phone – he could not go without his phone. He searched high and low for it, but it cannot be found – he had even hired people to search for him. Days later, both phone and keys had mysteriously reappeared in the very place he had always put it. This had happened multiple times within the next month and, more bizarrely, he later started finding objects in ridiculous places, like high on a bookshelf, in a shoebox in the closet or some other spot where he'd never put it in a million years.
Followed by that, was electrical interference.
Anton was having a tough time at work of late, and sometimes when he entered the living room with that scowl on his face, the overhead light and lamps flicker. No matter how many times he got an electrician to look at it – he even complained to the building manager – no one could find anything wrong. Or it would turn 3 o'clock in the morning every second day and – without fail –he'd shocked out of sleep by the stereo in the den turning on full blast. Only, it doesn't have a remote control that could have set it off accidentally, either from inside or outside the house.
From there on, things got worse and worse.
The antique clock on the fireplace mantle hasn't worked in years, quite suddenly begining to chime and the second-hand resumes moving, even though the clock hasn't been wound in ten years.
He'd be sitting there watching TV, totally engrossed in a dramatic movie, when suddenly the bowl of popcorn he'd been munching from rises from the coffee table, floats through the air a few feet, then drops to the floor.
He would be in his office trying to balance the check book, but he found it hard to concentrate when his wife was in the other room banging on the wall for some reason. He go to investigate, but then remember she was off in Russia visiting her parents — she wasn't even home. No one else was. Not even Petra. So, where's that knocking coming from?
Finally, it all got too much.
He called in the best parapsychologist money could buy.
In other words, he hired a ghost hunter.
Who then told him there was nothing wrong, and that he was delusional paranoiac with no life that should admitted to the nearest hospital.
Anton, was at his wits end.
When Pez briefly returned to gather some things for the holiday, he truly was a sore sight. All the lights were off and apartment smelled rank. He was nursing some amber liquid, with bloodshot eyes trained unseeingly at the blank TV as he lowly muttered to himself in Russian.
"Anton . . . are you okay?" Pez asked crouching in front of him.
In his delirious state, he couldn't see nor hear the amusement radiating from her every word and gesture.
His eyes focused on her face – her sweet, sweet face – and he smiled slightly. Even though she was sometimes a bit stand-offish, he knew deep down that Petra cared.
Just as he was about to respond, he saw something over her shoulder.
Translucent, transparent, shimmering and gaunt, eyes black as wells, flowing and pearly white, Anton couldn't look away.
The apparition was no more than a distortion of the light, a human cut out of colours that weren't right.
Where it moved the things behind it appeared bowed, as if looked at through a mild fish-eye lens. Vibrant blue swirled and bled in to red, oranges and greens blended, and purples snaked through them all.
Anton couldn't stop himself from letting out a stream of mumbled"no's", unable to stop staring into it glowing red eyes.
"Anton, what's wrong?" Pez asked, not bothering to look behind her. She was having far too much fun watching Anton's face contort in terror – besides, she already knew what was there.
After all, she'd invited him over.
Quivering, shaking, trembling, and reaching out, it moved, easily passing through the furniture.
Dust on cadavers And fog in the corners
Anton scrambled out of his chair and screeched.
"No, no, no, no, no,"
Broken and jagged The world's many horrors
The phantom advanced, backing Anton into a corner. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed until he tripped, and even then, he kept screaming
Phantoms that lurk And the shadows they bring
Suddenly, it changed.
Headless, limbs severed, open black mouth, vacant stare.
Soulless eyes.
These are a few of my favourite things . . .
It was too much for him.
Anton passed out in an embarrassing show of screaming, blubbering and vomit.
The ghost and the girl stared down at the man in surprise.
You weren't joking, the poltergeist said to her, he really is pathetic.
"Yup."
Barely even did anything and he collapsed in on himself.
"Uh-huh."
Wow, it looked at the girl, I kind of feel of sorry for him.
"Mmm."
. . . Not enough to feel guilty though. He deserves everything he has coming.
"Amen to that."
The End.
Pez will return in Lethal Seas, the Second instalment of the Percy and Pez universe, The Sea of Monsters.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy my artistic impression of Pez :))
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