Purgatech: Jess' Horror

Chapter 12

Dylan felt like the confines of the tech room were closing in on him. He paced behind the techs who were observing the feed from the house.

Noah tilted his head up, looking at Dylan over his shoulder. "You're going to wear that piece of carpet out, man."

"Can you blame me? Did you see what happened up there?"

"Yeah I did. This is all fantastic. We got some great stuff here."

"Are you kidding me? We shouldn't be out here watching after what we've seen. We should be in there, attending to our recruits."

"You know we can't do that," Lisa said, coming over toward Dylan. "You know what Marshall says."

"I don't give a crap what Marshall says! After everything that happened with the last group, you expect me just to stand here while some girl's up there lifeless on the floor? We're responsible for those people in there. Don't you get that?"

"She's not lifeless anymore!" Noah said. "Watch this!"

Dylan lunged forward, clamping don on to the back of Noah's chair with both hands.

Noah shook his head, laughing as he clicked the mouse and brought up a separate window on one of the screens. "I'm rewinding it. You have to see this to believe it!"

Dylan could barely tear his it would eyes away from the screen. Jess sat slumped over on the attic floor sobbing into her hands. But when he heard Lisa gasp beside him, his gaze darted to the other screen.

The feed was from a light fixture overhead in the stairwell of the attic. It gave a bird's-eye view of where Erica had fallen. She lay there motionless as Jess came barreling down the stairs. But when Jess landed beside her, Erica seemed to come back around. First there was a twitch in her legs, and then her head started to move.

"So she's okay?" Dylan asked.

"Just wait. Watch what happens."

Erica's head snapped to the side so violently that Dylan cringed. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, so much so that Jess had started to recoil from her, trying to claw her way back up the stairs. But when Erica opened her mouth to speak, Jess froze. Dylan didn't blame her. The ungodly sound of the voice coming from Erica's mouth made Dylan's skin prickle.

"You'll be stuck here like me. Forever. You can't get out. You're going to be stuck here like me forever."

"What did she say?!"

Noah rewound the recording and played it again. Lisa gasped behind him when she heard it.

"Jesus!" Dylan said running his fingers through his hair.

Dylan couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as she tried to get away from her friend. But she didn't seem to be able to muster the strength to go anywhere. She simply sat in the stairwell, shaking from head to toe.

Noah whooped and clapped his hands together before leaning forward and replaying the recording over again. Dylan stood there watching it dumbfounded, glancing at Lisa beside him, who looked just as confused as he was. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open, mirroring Dylan's bewilderment.

There was no way to explain it. Maybe by watching it over and over again it would somehow make sense. Surely it was some kind of trick or enhancement that Noah had done with his computer expertise. But there was no way he would fake it, not after everything they'd put into this venture. No way he would risk Marshall finding out he'd falsified evidence, not when so much was at stake.

And Jess? There was no way she and Erica were putting on a show. This was real. You can't fake terror like that.

"Play it again. Slowly this time," he directed to Noah.