Waking the Dead
Before 13th Ghosts
Dennis Rafkin looked around his apartment. He had been living off some pay that he got for contacting some woman's dead husband. Naturally it had been a painful experience, but now he was running low on money again. Being a spiritualist wasn't exactly steady work. And the way that he contacted the dead made it worse. He hated the spasms. He hated seeing a life and death so full of pain and terror. But he couldn't even hold a job at Burger King because when he touched something there he would see everyone's life that touched that object. Like when he had touched the deep fryer at the last Burger King he got a job at he saw a boy who's hand got caught in it. He could feel and smell the burning skin. The way the boy dropped to the ground. All of the horror in that little fryer he could sense. And he hated it. Even that simple a job he couldn't hold. When it got down to it his curse was his best form of employment.
He began wondering when he was going to get a call from some old lady that wanted to contact her dead husband when his phone rang. He picked it up and waited. The phone had a history has well, but lucky for him it was his own. He waited to hear the sound of a voice and was about to hang up when a man's voice came on the other end.
"Excuse me. But are you Dennis Rafkin?" The man asked sounding unsure of himself.
"Yeah this is he. What can I do for you? Want to contact a lost lover? Maybe you are searching for a childhood friend that passed on?" He asked.
"Not exactly Mr. Rafkin. My name is Samuel Livings. I am an author and right now I am writing a book about murders and haunting. How they are connected. Well I found a couple of places where several people had killed. And honestly I would like for you to help me out. I am willing to pay well for your services. And it will be a steady couple of months work." The man said.
Dennis thought about it. The prospect of having a steady job was appealing even if it was doing this. Still he didn't want to get into any of the vengeful spirits and the truth was spirits of murder victims where usually vengeful. After debating with himself for a few minutes the prospect of getting enough money to pay his rent and to update his prescription of painkillers where too good.
"Alright Mr. Living you got yourself a deal." Dennis said knowing that he would regret it later.
"Very good Mr. Rafkin. I will call you tomorrow and we shall go on a little road trip. I will pay for your expenses. I have a feeling that this book will be a best seller." Samuel said.
Dennis hung up the phone and knew that if the man wrote down exactly what he saw, then he would have a best seller no questions about it. But then Dennis began to wonder where they would need to go to get the stories. After all New York was full of murders and more than crowded with ghosts. It had taken Dennis a while to find a building that had a low consternation of spiritual energy. And even then there where a few ghosts, but nothing really dangerous. Dennis decided that the best thing was to go to sleep and then worry about it in the morning. He lay down on the bed that he bought from a factory direct store. He had a chance to buy a Victorian style bed, but declined because of all of the memories it had in it.
The next morning at six am he got a call. He turned over and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" He said sleepily.
"Dennis this is Samuel Livings. Are you ready to start our little journey?" He asked in a chipper mood.
At that moment Dennis knew that he didn't like Samuel's early morning attaude.
"Yeah let me grab some clothes. Then I will be ready. So do you know where to pick me up?" Dennis asked.
"Yeah one of your former clients Mrs. Johnson told me. I got a lot of your information from her." Samuel said.
Dennis remembered the woman. She had been a paranormal nut. Everything in her house was from the occult and touched with the evil from their uses. He remembered when he walked in her house the bad vibes hit him hard and he didn't want to be there. However she had offered 300,000 for him to do some history on an object that she had collected. It had been an axe and like she had been told it had a history. The axe had been the weapon of a serial killer and he saw each murder it held in its history.
"Great. Alright then meet me there in half an hour." Dennis said has he shook his head. He knew this wasn't going to be much fun at all if this guy had been in contact with her.
After a few minutes he had gathered a few clothes and got a couple of other things that he had used when finding vengeful spirits. Mainly barrier spells that he had learned from a spiritualist. After getting everything he took off toward the doughnut shop around the corner. People wondered why he liked to meet them there. Since the Doughnut shop had been there most people in it where pretty good and didn't have a lot of pain in their lives. So it wasn't so bad to go into it. He saw a man that looked extremely well feed walking toward him. The man stuck out his large hand to shake hands with Dennis. Dennis smiled and shook his head.
"Sorry but I don't shake hands or hug or any other physical contact if I can keep from it." Dennis said.
The man nodded.
"I'm Samuel Livings. And that LTD over there is my car. Before we head out. Want something to eat?" He asked hoping that he would say yes. Dennis looked at him and then nodded.
"Sure why not?" Dennis said has they walked inside of the doughnut shop.
Mr. Livings ordered what looked to be 2 dozen doughnuts and offered Dennis a box of them. Being hungry Dennis accepted. He touched Samuel's hand and a flash of memories passed through him. Pain and heartache over loosing a girl friend at a young age. Loneliness of the everyday life and then writing that was taking the void of it all and putting his mind to use. Dennis tried to shake it off. At least this man wasn't has bad has some of the others he had touched before.
"So where are we headed?" Dennis asked.
"We're heading to a little community called Sliver Springs. It's in state, but it was the place of a massive killing spree that a man called Charles Bartlet preformed. The man was clinically insane but no one would admit it. Since his father was the head of the hospital people just said that he was just being spoiled. It wasn't until after he walked through the hospital with a sawed off double barrel twelve gauge shotgun and killed 20 people that they realized how dangerous he was." Samuel said.
Dennis got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wondered exactly who Samuel wanted to find. The thought that he might want to find this Bartlet guy instead of the victims passed through his mind. He didn't want to search for some dead mass murder. Those guys often liked to continue what they did in life. And he wasn't in the mood to be dodging an insane ghost for the next couple of days.
"So are we looking for the victims or this Bartlet?" Dennis asked.
Samuel looked at Dennis has they got their respective boxes of doughnuts and a coke apiece. They began to head out of the shop opening the simple glass door and then walking to the car.
"Well I am not going to lie to you Dennis. We are going to find the victims. Afterward we might try to find Bartlet, but I doubt that we will be there long enough to search for him after we find the victims." Samuel said.
Dennis felt a sort of relief flood over him. The victims would be mad sure, but it was doubtful that they would be very harmful. Once Samuel got the car started he reached for a box and opened it. The box had a collection of clinical charts, pictures and personal effects of about twenty people.
"Dennis this is the collection that I got from the hospital of the twenty that died. It took some doing to get them. But I think that you should be able to use them to be able to find the ghosts. Also. These where even harder to get." Samuel said has he lifted a pair of glasses. They looked odd like some kind of tripped out 3-D glasses.
"What are those?" Dennis asked
"Well I got these from a man that I did some research for. Seemed that he was really interested in the occult and stuff like that. So in payment he gave me the money and then offered me a pair these things. He called them spectral viewers. Supposable they allow you to see the spirits around us. I haven't really used them yet but figured why not?" Samuel said.
Dennis looked at them and decided that if they worked then it might would make his job easier. He looked at the box of articles and saw a teddy bear. He touched it and a flash of memories happened. It was a little girl. She couldn't have been over 5 years old. She was getting a surgery and was scared. Her mom had brought the teddy bear to her. She was clutching it when a man broke into her room. She saw him holding a gun like her daddy's. She screamed and saw the smile on his face. He laughed and pulled the triggers. The pain of the gun ripped through her. She looked down at saw her tiny body cut in half by the shot from him. Looking at him she saw him walk closer to her. Why? He licked her forehead.
"Enjoy that honey?" The man asked has she slipped away into nothingness.
Dennis dropped the bear. He was sweating and his body shaking.
"What did you see?" Samuel asked.
"A little girl. She was in the hospital and was scared. She was holding this bear and man walked in. He had a shotgun and shot her. Then he licked her head and asked if she enjoyed it." Dennis said feeling sick.
"That would have been Bartlet. And that girl's name is Susan. Susan Morgan. She was 5 years old when he killed her."
"I want to know about all of them before we search for them." Dennis said.
Samuel nodded. He looked down the road has they drove toward the hospital where the murders happened.
"Alright. You already know about Susan. Let's see. There was Jessica Prittichet. She was a young intern there. She ran into the room where Bartlet first walked into the hospital with the shotgun. She tried to get out but he shot her in the back. They said that the shot didn't go all the way through her. And that she still looked like a vision of beauty when she died. That hair pick is hers if you want to see." Samuel said.
Dennis looked at it. He didn't want to but in order to see what she looked like he would have to. He touched an old hair pick and he saw her. She was tall and very shapely. She had been at the doctor's room for part of the day. The doctor that she was under asked her for a date. She had been happy and accepted. Finally everything was going good for her. Then she saw him. The owner and director's son Charles walked into the hospital. She didn't like him, but she had to go and see if he was lost again. She ran to the room where he was. He grinned at her. "Hi Jessica." He said has he raised the shotgun. Her eyes widened. She turned to run away and he shot in her in the back. She fell forward and tried to crawl away. She didn't want to die. Not like this. She felt his shotgun lifting her skirt and he whistled. "Yep, you did have a fine ass Jessica." He said has he walked into the hospital. She was still dying. She heard shots rang out and felt herself get cold. Her vision blurred. She tried to crawl but she was so tired. She just needed a couple of seconds of rest. She closed her eyes and never woke up again.
Dennis dropped the pick. He was shaking again. His eyes tearing from what he just saw.
"What was it this time?" Samuel asked.
"He shot her. And then he lifted her skirt up and mocked her has he walked on into the hospital." He said remembering the vision.
"Barlet was a sick son of a bitch I grant you." Samuel said.
No sooner had Dennis saw both of them then Samuel stopped the car.
"We're here." He said has he killed the engine.
Before 13th Ghosts
Dennis Rafkin looked around his apartment. He had been living off some pay that he got for contacting some woman's dead husband. Naturally it had been a painful experience, but now he was running low on money again. Being a spiritualist wasn't exactly steady work. And the way that he contacted the dead made it worse. He hated the spasms. He hated seeing a life and death so full of pain and terror. But he couldn't even hold a job at Burger King because when he touched something there he would see everyone's life that touched that object. Like when he had touched the deep fryer at the last Burger King he got a job at he saw a boy who's hand got caught in it. He could feel and smell the burning skin. The way the boy dropped to the ground. All of the horror in that little fryer he could sense. And he hated it. Even that simple a job he couldn't hold. When it got down to it his curse was his best form of employment.
He began wondering when he was going to get a call from some old lady that wanted to contact her dead husband when his phone rang. He picked it up and waited. The phone had a history has well, but lucky for him it was his own. He waited to hear the sound of a voice and was about to hang up when a man's voice came on the other end.
"Excuse me. But are you Dennis Rafkin?" The man asked sounding unsure of himself.
"Yeah this is he. What can I do for you? Want to contact a lost lover? Maybe you are searching for a childhood friend that passed on?" He asked.
"Not exactly Mr. Rafkin. My name is Samuel Livings. I am an author and right now I am writing a book about murders and haunting. How they are connected. Well I found a couple of places where several people had killed. And honestly I would like for you to help me out. I am willing to pay well for your services. And it will be a steady couple of months work." The man said.
Dennis thought about it. The prospect of having a steady job was appealing even if it was doing this. Still he didn't want to get into any of the vengeful spirits and the truth was spirits of murder victims where usually vengeful. After debating with himself for a few minutes the prospect of getting enough money to pay his rent and to update his prescription of painkillers where too good.
"Alright Mr. Living you got yourself a deal." Dennis said knowing that he would regret it later.
"Very good Mr. Rafkin. I will call you tomorrow and we shall go on a little road trip. I will pay for your expenses. I have a feeling that this book will be a best seller." Samuel said.
Dennis hung up the phone and knew that if the man wrote down exactly what he saw, then he would have a best seller no questions about it. But then Dennis began to wonder where they would need to go to get the stories. After all New York was full of murders and more than crowded with ghosts. It had taken Dennis a while to find a building that had a low consternation of spiritual energy. And even then there where a few ghosts, but nothing really dangerous. Dennis decided that the best thing was to go to sleep and then worry about it in the morning. He lay down on the bed that he bought from a factory direct store. He had a chance to buy a Victorian style bed, but declined because of all of the memories it had in it.
The next morning at six am he got a call. He turned over and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" He said sleepily.
"Dennis this is Samuel Livings. Are you ready to start our little journey?" He asked in a chipper mood.
At that moment Dennis knew that he didn't like Samuel's early morning attaude.
"Yeah let me grab some clothes. Then I will be ready. So do you know where to pick me up?" Dennis asked.
"Yeah one of your former clients Mrs. Johnson told me. I got a lot of your information from her." Samuel said.
Dennis remembered the woman. She had been a paranormal nut. Everything in her house was from the occult and touched with the evil from their uses. He remembered when he walked in her house the bad vibes hit him hard and he didn't want to be there. However she had offered 300,000 for him to do some history on an object that she had collected. It had been an axe and like she had been told it had a history. The axe had been the weapon of a serial killer and he saw each murder it held in its history.
"Great. Alright then meet me there in half an hour." Dennis said has he shook his head. He knew this wasn't going to be much fun at all if this guy had been in contact with her.
After a few minutes he had gathered a few clothes and got a couple of other things that he had used when finding vengeful spirits. Mainly barrier spells that he had learned from a spiritualist. After getting everything he took off toward the doughnut shop around the corner. People wondered why he liked to meet them there. Since the Doughnut shop had been there most people in it where pretty good and didn't have a lot of pain in their lives. So it wasn't so bad to go into it. He saw a man that looked extremely well feed walking toward him. The man stuck out his large hand to shake hands with Dennis. Dennis smiled and shook his head.
"Sorry but I don't shake hands or hug or any other physical contact if I can keep from it." Dennis said.
The man nodded.
"I'm Samuel Livings. And that LTD over there is my car. Before we head out. Want something to eat?" He asked hoping that he would say yes. Dennis looked at him and then nodded.
"Sure why not?" Dennis said has they walked inside of the doughnut shop.
Mr. Livings ordered what looked to be 2 dozen doughnuts and offered Dennis a box of them. Being hungry Dennis accepted. He touched Samuel's hand and a flash of memories passed through him. Pain and heartache over loosing a girl friend at a young age. Loneliness of the everyday life and then writing that was taking the void of it all and putting his mind to use. Dennis tried to shake it off. At least this man wasn't has bad has some of the others he had touched before.
"So where are we headed?" Dennis asked.
"We're heading to a little community called Sliver Springs. It's in state, but it was the place of a massive killing spree that a man called Charles Bartlet preformed. The man was clinically insane but no one would admit it. Since his father was the head of the hospital people just said that he was just being spoiled. It wasn't until after he walked through the hospital with a sawed off double barrel twelve gauge shotgun and killed 20 people that they realized how dangerous he was." Samuel said.
Dennis got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wondered exactly who Samuel wanted to find. The thought that he might want to find this Bartlet guy instead of the victims passed through his mind. He didn't want to search for some dead mass murder. Those guys often liked to continue what they did in life. And he wasn't in the mood to be dodging an insane ghost for the next couple of days.
"So are we looking for the victims or this Bartlet?" Dennis asked.
Samuel looked at Dennis has they got their respective boxes of doughnuts and a coke apiece. They began to head out of the shop opening the simple glass door and then walking to the car.
"Well I am not going to lie to you Dennis. We are going to find the victims. Afterward we might try to find Bartlet, but I doubt that we will be there long enough to search for him after we find the victims." Samuel said.
Dennis felt a sort of relief flood over him. The victims would be mad sure, but it was doubtful that they would be very harmful. Once Samuel got the car started he reached for a box and opened it. The box had a collection of clinical charts, pictures and personal effects of about twenty people.
"Dennis this is the collection that I got from the hospital of the twenty that died. It took some doing to get them. But I think that you should be able to use them to be able to find the ghosts. Also. These where even harder to get." Samuel said has he lifted a pair of glasses. They looked odd like some kind of tripped out 3-D glasses.
"What are those?" Dennis asked
"Well I got these from a man that I did some research for. Seemed that he was really interested in the occult and stuff like that. So in payment he gave me the money and then offered me a pair these things. He called them spectral viewers. Supposable they allow you to see the spirits around us. I haven't really used them yet but figured why not?" Samuel said.
Dennis looked at them and decided that if they worked then it might would make his job easier. He looked at the box of articles and saw a teddy bear. He touched it and a flash of memories happened. It was a little girl. She couldn't have been over 5 years old. She was getting a surgery and was scared. Her mom had brought the teddy bear to her. She was clutching it when a man broke into her room. She saw him holding a gun like her daddy's. She screamed and saw the smile on his face. He laughed and pulled the triggers. The pain of the gun ripped through her. She looked down at saw her tiny body cut in half by the shot from him. Looking at him she saw him walk closer to her. Why? He licked her forehead.
"Enjoy that honey?" The man asked has she slipped away into nothingness.
Dennis dropped the bear. He was sweating and his body shaking.
"What did you see?" Samuel asked.
"A little girl. She was in the hospital and was scared. She was holding this bear and man walked in. He had a shotgun and shot her. Then he licked her head and asked if she enjoyed it." Dennis said feeling sick.
"That would have been Bartlet. And that girl's name is Susan. Susan Morgan. She was 5 years old when he killed her."
"I want to know about all of them before we search for them." Dennis said.
Samuel nodded. He looked down the road has they drove toward the hospital where the murders happened.
"Alright. You already know about Susan. Let's see. There was Jessica Prittichet. She was a young intern there. She ran into the room where Bartlet first walked into the hospital with the shotgun. She tried to get out but he shot her in the back. They said that the shot didn't go all the way through her. And that she still looked like a vision of beauty when she died. That hair pick is hers if you want to see." Samuel said.
Dennis looked at it. He didn't want to but in order to see what she looked like he would have to. He touched an old hair pick and he saw her. She was tall and very shapely. She had been at the doctor's room for part of the day. The doctor that she was under asked her for a date. She had been happy and accepted. Finally everything was going good for her. Then she saw him. The owner and director's son Charles walked into the hospital. She didn't like him, but she had to go and see if he was lost again. She ran to the room where he was. He grinned at her. "Hi Jessica." He said has he raised the shotgun. Her eyes widened. She turned to run away and he shot in her in the back. She fell forward and tried to crawl away. She didn't want to die. Not like this. She felt his shotgun lifting her skirt and he whistled. "Yep, you did have a fine ass Jessica." He said has he walked into the hospital. She was still dying. She heard shots rang out and felt herself get cold. Her vision blurred. She tried to crawl but she was so tired. She just needed a couple of seconds of rest. She closed her eyes and never woke up again.
Dennis dropped the pick. He was shaking again. His eyes tearing from what he just saw.
"What was it this time?" Samuel asked.
"He shot her. And then he lifted her skirt up and mocked her has he walked on into the hospital." He said remembering the vision.
"Barlet was a sick son of a bitch I grant you." Samuel said.
No sooner had Dennis saw both of them then Samuel stopped the car.
"We're here." He said has he killed the engine.