Prologue

Pale late afternoon light descended through the windows of the appliance part and repair shop at the end of the street near the edge of town. It was just about half an hour before closing time, the clouded sun of autumn already hanging low in the sky, but Finnegan Burnett still had enough to do in his shop. Just when he had finished a tricky repair on a coffee maker and started packing up his tools, the door opened. Another customer, at this hour? Well, some days it was like that. A man entered, approximately in his fifties or sixties, looking very serious. With him, the man carried an upright vacuum cleaner, all dark brown plastic hard-shell. It looked like it was from the 80s, or maybe late 70s.

"I heard you take old appliances to salvage parts?" the stranger asked as the shop owner looked up from his work.

"Sure I do," he replied, "whatever can still be used."

The customer nodded contently and held the vacuum in front of him. "Please take this, and take it apart. It's important that this machine is disassembled and any parts are sold separately. I would stay to watch you do it if I could but…" He paused and took a breath. "Just make sure it's destroyed."

The shop owner was perplexed. "Sure I can do that, but… uh, why, sir?"

The man looked him in the eyes, with an unreadable expression that made the shop owner shiver. He looked dead inside. "Because this thing is possessed. Be careful with it."

With that, the man shoved the vacuum over the shop's counter and left without any more words, leaving the machine, and a shop owner full of unspoken questions.

Finnegan stared at the door for a while, wondering about the strange scene that had just taken place. When he was able to collect his thoughts again, he lowered his gaze to have a clear look at the vacuum cleaner. The scratched dark brown plastic surface seemed to have been cleaned recently, but in some less accessible places, he found a few dried splatters of rusty red… The stains made him shudder a little, and he frowned. No, it couldn't be what it looked like, could it? But then again, the stranger had claimed that the machine was possessed…

"Supersticious nonsense," Finnegan huffed and sat the vacuum cleaner down. But was it really? He had heard rumors of a part shop similar to his own near the big city that was haunted… something about a ghost, and all the appliances in the shop disappearing at once… He shook his head. Just a silly urban legend, nothing more. He took another look at the vacuum. It was a Hotpoint, but he had never seen this particular model before. An obscure model that was probably quite rare. And given this, the probability of customers needing replacement parts for this model was quite low. So, why should he take it apart anyway? It looked like a formidable machine. He didn't want to destroy such a rare appliance just on someone's word that it was possessed. Instead, he decided to try if it worked. As it turned out when he plugged it in and shoved it over a dirty corner beneath one of the workbenches, it did just fine. The more he used and looked at it, the more absurd it seemed to him to just take it apart. It worked, and it was unlikely that anyone would show up in need of replacement parts for another one like it. Possessed? Supersticious nonsense. No. He decided that he would keep this vacuum in his shop; to use it himself, or maybe even to sell it as a whole. The mysterious stranger didn't want it and had given it to him, so now he could do with it what he wanted, right? And so, Finnegan carried the Hotpoint into the back room, where he kept an assortment of replacement parts and various old appliances that had been given to him for salvaging used parts, or, if they weren't in too bad of a shape, to restore and sell. He'd decide another day what to do with it. It was almost closing time, and he was ready to head home after a long day. And so, after leaning the vacuum against the wall in a corner of the backroom, he closed the door behind him, and, moments later, the turning of the key in the front door lock could be heard as the shop was being closed for the night. Darkness and silence fell.

And there, the mysterious vacuum sat, emanating a gloomy aura. He didn't move or speak to the other appliances in the backroom, and they kept away from him, full of fear and mistrust. While many of them were curious about the sinister newcomer, they didn't have the courage to talk to him. Not yet…