other-worldly

“Testing. One, two, one two.” Eden hit the stop button before playing the tape back to herself. Her voice echoed through her car. “Hey guys. I’m currently parked outside of…” She paused. It probably wasn’t wise to announce her workplace to her podcast, “I’ll explain later.” Maybe. She clicked the off button on her record before throwing it in the dash of her car. Eden climbed out the car, gathering her suppliers from the trunk, shoving everything in her rucksack.

When she started at Hawthorne Electronic she had zero interest in dragging her podcast into her professional life, until she overheard some of the other receptionists claiming the building was haunted. Things going missing, doors slamming shut, cupboards swinging open. Classic sign of a haunted building. Eden nearly broke her ankle jumping out of her chair to join in on their lunchtime chat, prying all the information from the ladies.

The job interview for a receptionist was advertised in the local newspaper. It wasn’t exactly her dream job, but the company her dad worked for wrote her a glowing reference after she did a brief internship with them after school. Her dad was desperate for her to join the company alongside Eric, but Eden had other plans which involved ghosts and witches. Her parents couldn’t accept the fact that there was money to be made in the world of technology. How could she make a living out of speaking into a microphone? Easy, considering she could talk to a brick wall. Sometimes she’d recoil after realising she had been talking throughout most of the episode and Billy had uttered about three words. She couldn’t imagine the podcast working with anyone else but him.

Eden hadn’t told Billy she had planned on bringing her equipment into work, knowing he would give her a disappointing look, telling her it wasn’t worth risking her job for. She wasn’t doing anything wrong though. There was nowhere in her terms of employment that said she couldn’t look for ghosts in the building, so all was good.

Eden started on the top floor, slowly making her way down, weaving in and out of empty rooms, occasionally passing someone and flashing them an over friendly grin as she hid her little gadget. Most of the rooms she got were all clear, until she reached the fourth floor. The dial started ticking upwards as soon as she got out of the elevator. Excitement surged through her body as she slowly walked down the corridor, focusing on the device. She came to an abrupt halt as the dial shot up further near a room. She pushed the door open, but there wasn’t a lot inside the room bar a few cabinets but there was a ghost lurking inside, according to her gadget.

Eden let out a gasp as the door flew open and a male was standing there. She exhaled harshly, bringing her hand up to her chest. “You scared the life out of me.” She glanced down at her device, which was beeping continuously. She flicked the switch and it fell quiet. “Nah. It's a device which like detects ghosts and stuff… paranormal activity y’know.” She held it out for him to inspect. “People reckon this building is haunted and according to this thing it is.” Although she wasn’t sure what type of ghost would want to linger in a boring corporate building. “Oh I’m Eden by the way. I work down on reception.”


CURTIS HAWTHORNE

There were hundreds of non-believers out there. Some people were too scared to accept there was something else out there but others were just uneducated about the supernatural. That’s usually where Eden slotted in, armed with years of research and stories. It was like a personal mission for her. Convince everyone that ghosts, witches, and all the rest actually existed. Once she had evidence she could run back down to the woman in reception and show them. Well, what she considered evidence probably didn’t satisfy some people. “Yeah! There’s gotta be other stuff out there… like ghosts.” Or maybe aliens. The whole Area 51 shit proved aliens existed though. Why else was it super secret?

She carefully took the EMF reader back from the man, as he went on to explain how it works like Billy hadn’t said the same thing a million times before. “They’re usually only unreliable when there are power lines nearby… but still it doesn’t explain why the reading is so high in this closet. There’s nothing techy nearby.” He could stand there, trying to explain it away all day long, but Eden wouldn’t budge from her own theory. The place was haunted, just like her childhood home back in Australia. Her mom grew tired of trying to tell her daughter there were no ghosts lurking in the cupboards.

Curtis Hawthrone… shit… Hawthorne.

She lowered her EMF reader slightly, “Far out… you’re the Curtis Hawthrone… so sorry I didn’t realise I’ve never actually seen a piccy of you or anything.” The other woman could have at least pointed him out to her when he was walking through reception. He didn’t seem too pissed at the whole hiding in the closet and looking for ghosts thing. Out of all the people to find her it had to be him. “I’m pretty sure Sandra down at reception has some. That woman is like a walking pharmacy.” Her bag was constantly rattling with the number of prescription pills she carried.

Eden was ready to shuffle past Curtis and rush off down the corridor as nothing had happened, but he asked more questions. For the first time in her life, she was considering backpedaling on the whole thing because her job could be on the line. Her parents would be furious if she lost her job because of her bizarre hobby and she’d never hear the end of it from Eric. “Just whispers amongst the staff… doors slamming shut on their own, cupboard doors swinging open, lights flickering on and off. That kind of thing… they reckon something weird is going on in here.” And she’d be inclined to agree.


CURTIS HAWTHORNE

Maybe being psychic was another thing Eden should add to her resume because she could sense instantly when someone wasn’t on her side of the fence in regards to the supernatural. Billy was firmly on the side this man was on, but she could tell he was now balancing carefully on that fence. He would never admit it, but Eden had begun to wear him down and draw him over to her side. She twisted her head around, looking at the wall behind her. Okay, she didn’t realise the serves were behind that but that still didn’t explain all the other stuff that was going on. She turned back to the man, “Maybe… or maybe not.” She said with a shrug. It was only a working theory that the place was haunted, she wasn’t fully convinced.

Her mom would have clipped her around the back of her head for speaking to her manager so casually. Well, not even her manager but her manager's manager's manager. Curtis sat at the very top of the hierarchy and Eden was at the very bottom, but that didn’t mean she had to treat him differently, right? Who knows. She wasn’t very good at these sorts of things, like meeting the CEO of the company you work for. Good job it was the King standing in front of her. “I fancied killing some time during my lunch hour.” Instead of gossiping with Wendy about whether or not Ben in HR was single or not, even though Eden couldn’t give a shit. Wendy kept hinting about setting Eden and Ben up on a date, clearly missing the obvious signs that Eden had zero interest in men. The sensible shoes were the first giveaway.

Eden waved her hand in the air, dismissing Curtis’ concerns. “Nah she’s got all sorts of ailments. Probably best not to ask her about them though because you’ll be stood talking to her for a day.” She said with a wide grin on her face.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, laughing lightly as she did so. “And are you?” She knew the answer to that question because they would have had some kind of email sent around about it. Plus those cupboards and drawers looked pretty ordinary, with no devices attached. “I’m all finished!” She shoved her reader back into her rucksack before swinging it on her back. Damn, it was a good job she wasn't recording for her podcast when Curtis walked in.

Even if she was finished she was smart enough to realize it was a queue to head back downstairs. She followed Curtis back toward the elevator, “Bit of both really. So, when I was younger I was in the house alone and I could hear someone playing the piano upstairs so I ran upstairs to see who it was but no one was there but there were some fingerprints all over the keys. Turns out my great great great nanna died in that house way back and she loved playing the piano.” She pressed the button on the elevator to the ground floor, “Happens everywhere but apparently Mystic Falls is like some hot spot for supernatural activity. Lots of weird stuff going on like people going missing or found dead with all their blood drained… gotta admit that’s a little spooky.”



CURTIS HAWTHORNE - wrap up with yours?