Amateur Detective Files On Paranormal Encounters

Confrontation And Grievance

“What’s all this racket about?” Duncan uttered after regaining control of his body.

While not fully recovered, Duncan was well enough now that his mind wasn’t feeling hazy, and the fire on his body no longer burned as fiercely. With that no longer being a concern, Duncan started observing his surroundings.

Meanwhile, after seeing Duncan rise from the ground, Grant immediately mocked him in a sarcastic and derisive tone.

“And the great detective lives. What a wonderful surprise. You were sleeping so soundly and for so long, I thought you’d already joined the dead and would wake up as a zombie—good thing that didn’t happen, or I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“But imagine my surprise when I saw you sleeping here surrounded by so many zombies after abandoning me back there… again! I thought that with such a marvelously concocted plan you’d have left this place already, but instead, you decided to fall asleep in the midst of all these walking corpses.”

“So then, tell me, Detective, how does it feel? It must have felt very blissful, didn’t it?”

Duncan ignored Grant’s mocking words, choosing not to deal with him, and instead continued observing everything around him. In particular, Duncan’s eyes were fixed on the white conical light that was the exit, which was right in front of him and separated only by a few feet. It was the first time that Duncan was getting a clear and proper look at it up close, and he wanted to see what he could discover.

Meanwhile, although Duncan didn’t pay any attention to Grant, there was somebody who couldn’t stand to listen to what he was saying and immediately confronted Grant on Duncan’s behalf.

“Hey, seriously, old man, what’s your problem? Is that really the way to talk to somebody who’s in the same predicament as you? I mean, take a chill pill or something—you’re seriously dampening the mood.”

The punky youth was the one who had spoken, expressing his dissatisfaction with Grant through his words and a look that clearly showed his annoyance.

Faced with this, Grant quickly rebuked the young man, saying, “Don’t call me an old man; I’m not old at all. And what do you know about this guy for you to judge me like that… do you know what that bastard did to me?”

“That bastard abandoned me when I was being surrounded by those monsters. I screamed for help and begged for somebody to save me and he heard me—I know he heard me—but instead of helping, he just ran away and used me as bait so that he could escape.”

“So tell me, if it were you, how would you have acted after seeing him again?”

“But what am I even saying… is it the same for you? Didn’t this bastard also abandon you?”

“When I was brought here, I met you, and you were also crying and begging not to be killed, and he was also there unconscious on the ground. Knowing him and what this man is capable of, it doesn’t take much to guess that he must’ve also abandoned you too so that he could escape, only to be thwarted in the end. So why are you speaking up for him?”

As Grant spoke, the memory of what he had gone through when he had been captured by the zombies, and the trauma and fear that had overcome him when he thought he would be eaten, caused Grant to lose control of his emotions and start yelling at the top of his voice.

In that moment, Grant was not concerned about the consequences of raising his voice; he simply wanted to vent all the negative emotions he was feeling inside.

But the punky young man was scared to death seeing Grant behaving so recklessly that he hurriedly reached out to hush him.

Shush!

“Old man, are you trying to get us killed or what? I don’t know if you’ve given up on living, but I’m still very young and I have plenty of days ahead of me, and I fully intend on living out the rest of those days to the fullest. So don’t risk it—or I’ll definitely make you pay.”

Grant and the young man were huddled close to each other, so the young man was able to grab onto him and cover Grant’s mouth with his hands.

But Grant struggled free and shouted, “Get your hands off me, you brat! What do you even know about youth? Just look at you, with your wild hairstyle and distasteful dressing—is this what living your life means to you?”

“I bet you haven’t worked a day in your life and simply go around wasting away your days looking for handouts from people like me who have worked so hard to make sure that spoiled brats like you can continue ruining the world that we’ve built.”

“And then you’ll simply come take away everything that we’ve worked so hard all our lives to achieve, and we’re supposed to give way to you like it’s your right!”

“Take, take, take—that’s what all brats like you ever do, is take away from good men like me. You’re the reason why I am in this mess in the first place.”

After venting all the things he wanted to say, Grant finally fell silent, and the silence extended for a few seconds as if the entire realm was trying to process everything that he had said.

In the end, the young man, acting very cavalier about the entire thing, said to Grant in response:

“Geez, old man, I don’t know what your problem is, but it certainly ain’t me. You’ve got some serious issues hidden inside that closet of yours, and I seriously think you need to consider therapy once we get out of here. Who knows, it might actually do you some good.”

After finally venting, Grant was too spent to pay any mind to the young man anymore, so he simply turned away and ignored him, choosing to remain silent—but not after saying one more thing.

“‘If’ we get out of here,” Grant said in a soft whisper.

“What was that?” the young man asked. “I didn’t quite hear you.”

But Grant no longer paid him any mind and didn’t respond, so the young man turned to Duncan.

“What about you, mister?”

“That old man said you were some kind of detective and that you previously came up with a plan to get out of here.”

“Seeing the way you suddenly burst out of the ground and almost made it out of here, I can only say that I’m convinced. And although you didn’t help me when I was begging for help, I can’t blame that on you ’cause I’d have done the same if I was in your shoes.”

“But seeing as you didn’t succeed before, and now there are three of us, I think we can work together and come up with a good plan to get us all out of here… so what do you say?”

Faced with the young man’s question, Duncan, who had been focusing on observing the conical light while ignoring everything else, finally turned to look at the young man very closely.

Duncan ran his eyes over the young man’s style and manner of dressing without making any comments before moving to look at his face and the pair of dark eyes that held a deeply hidden intelligence and cunning.

Looking into those eyes for a moment, Duncan blinked before finally responding.

“Alright.”

“But first, you have to answer a question for me.”

“Great,” the young man smiled, seeing Duncan agree. “Anything you want. No matter what questions you have, I will answer all of them without hesitation. So, what would you like to know?”

With that, Duncan asked, “Previously, when you were begging, you mentioned something about being paid for a dare that caused you to end up in this place…”

“Tell me, what is this about, and who promised to pay you if you took that dare?”

“Tell me everything you know about that person.”