by Thomas Engen

Created on: October 22, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2009

The apartment was dark, couches, rugs, and lamps that were normally rich colors in the light, now all shades of grayish blue. He could see enough to set up his equipment though. Trevor looked at his watch, it was 11:02 PM, and he was trying to be quiet knowing he wasn't even supposed to be there. He carefully pulled out the legs of a tripod and opened a black hard case.

He intended to set up two wireless IR cameras, a regular video camera, and two digital audio recorders. Each would cover a different area in the DeCarl's apartment. The floor creaked with every guarded step and he gritted his teeth with each.

Stopping at the couch he stood for a moment, in the dark the blood soaked cushions and splattered wall looked like they were stained with black paint. A picture of Jason's and Sharon's lifeless bodies flashed in his mind, one image had stuck with him. Their faces were gone, bloody pulpy masses instead of pink human features. It was like they had been erased, gone for good, at least from this world. It was his job now to see if they were someplace else.

Trevor was an unlikely believer in ghosts. Growing up he would have teased the person he is now. He had a troubled youth with fighting, drinking, and drugs. He scoffed at religion, authority, and anything that wasn't based in his own greed and selfishness. His Grandfather took him in at 18 after his father had kicked him out of the house. Grandpa Shane didn't show him the back of a hand, but instead a reached out palm. Shane convinced the apartment tenants into letting him stay and help, especially since he himself was getting old and sick. Trevor owed everything to his Grandfather, and knew that if he could prove there was a "someplace else", it would reassure him they'd meet up again. That day he saw the first shadow figure he wasn't really scared, the world had already showed him enough scary things. It instead showed him the line between the "here" and the "there" wasn't solid. He decided to be an explorer, a sort-of Magellan of the afterlife, and the guilt of the past, the sneaking into places he shouldn't be, and the lack of respect for the dead were not going to stop him.

Trevor gingerly aimed the last camera at the bloody couch, picked up the large empty hard case, and quietly backed out of the apartment. "Jason and Sharon, it's time to come out."

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