Amateur Detective Files On Paranormal Encounters

Rising Tensions

“It’s good you understand.” Seeing Grant nod, Duncan was relieved; then, he proceeded to say, “Now listen to me very closely because this part is very important...”

“You see that big white conical light behind us?” Duncan asked while gesturing behind them.

With a quick turn, Grant looked behind him before turning back around to nod his head.

“That light is our only exit out of here. To escape and return to our world, we must first get to that because it is our only hope; but we can’t get to it with all these zombies chasing behind us, can we?”

“No, we can’t,” Grant shook his head. He could understand all of what Duncan was saying, but there were still some things Grant couldn’t figure out, so he quickly asked Duncan.

“How do you know all of this? Who are you? Exactly who are you?”

It was only now that Duncan finally realized he hadn’t introduced himself, so he quickly said, “My name is Duncan, and I’m a detective.”

Hearing this introduction, a strange expression came over Grant’s face as he looked Duncan over and asked, “What kind of detective are you, really, that you would end up in a place like this?”

“The kind that’s qualified to save your life and get you out of here; so unless you’re comfortable with being roommates with a bunch of zombies, I suggest you keep quiet and let me finish speaking... is that clear?”

Clearly, Duncan was getting annoyed by Grant’s questioning, so he quickly spoke out to shut him up—which worked as well as you’d expect, because after that, Grant no longer spoke and instead listened to Duncan.

“As I was saying, we need to get to that light to escape, but we can’t do that without first dealing with these zombies. Fortunately, I have a plan for that, but it’s a risky one, and I’ll need your full cooperation if we are going to have any chance to pull it off.”

“Are you following me so far?”

Grant answered, “Yes, I am. So, what’s your plan?”

Duncan replied, “First...”

Duncan told his plan to Grant, explaining in detail exactly what needed to be done in order to succeed. He mainly focused on the role Grant needed to play in this plan and the risk he might face in the process.

Listening to this, at first, Grant had no reaction when he heard the first part of the plan.

But when it got to the part where he was involved in, that is when Grant finally reacted.

“Hold up a second,” Grant said, interrupting Duncan.

“That’s your plan?”

“That’s what we have to do to get out of here?” Disbelief in his voice, Grant questioned Duncan, who answered, “Indeed it is. This plan, while being a bit risky, is the only shot we’ve got to escape, and I know it sounds like I’m asking you a lot...”

“Oh, it sounds like you’re asking me a lot, eh... what do you think?” Grant said, raising his voice to yell.

Ignoring Grant’s interruption, Duncan said, “...I know it sounds like I’m asking a lot out of you, but if my guess is correct...”

Once again, Duncan was interrupted by Grant, who shouted, “If?”

“So it’s ‘if’ now, eh? You’re not even sure about this plan of yours, and yet you expect me to risk my life for you to carry out this brain-dead plan of yours... what do you take me for, a fool?”

Allowing Grant to finish his tirade, Duncan finally spoke once he had stopped talking.

“Are you finished?”

Not quite finished, Grant was about to continue yelling some more when Duncan abruptly stopped running without any warning, causing Grant to slam head-first into him, which sent him to the ground while Duncan remained standing like nothing had happened at all.

Cursing, Grant shouted as he landed heavily on the ground.

“What the hell, man! Why would you stop so suddenly like that? Shouldn’t we be running so that we aren’t captured by those monsters?”

As Grant was speaking, he quickly tried to pick himself up from the ground, only for Duncan to plant his feet on his chest, kicking him back onto his back and preventing him from getting up.

“Are you crazy? Get your foot off me this instant!” Grant yelled, trying to remove Duncan’s feet from his body, only to find out that he couldn’t.

Despite the way he looked, Duncan was unimaginably strong—so strong that Grant felt like an anvil was sitting on top of him.

No matter how he tried to lift it up, it wouldn’t budge.

That was when Grant looked up at Duncan’s face, only to see a completely blank stare in Duncan’s eyes as he looked at him.

There was no anger, no panic or fear, not even a bit of smugness or hint of emotion in those eyes... there was nothing but a blank gaze that seemed to peer straight through Grant’s body like he was not even worth being seen at all.

But it was this lack of emotion that scared Grant more than anything else.

This was the look of someone who didn’t care about any other person’s life, probably not even his own; and this terrified Grant because it was impossible to tell what someone like this was capable of.

While Duncan kept Grant pinned down under his foot, he said to him slowly and clearly, like he wasn’t in a hurry at all.

Duncan said, “You’re done talking; now it is time for you to listen—so listen to me and listen very clearly, because I will not repeat myself twice.”

“I don’t care what objections you have about my plan, but if you want to live, you’re gonna have to do exactly what I tell you to do; or I swear to God I will hold you here until those zombies arrive, and then we’ll see just if my guess was right or not.”

“Have I made myself perfectly clear?”

The situation had changed so suddenly, and a conflict had arisen between Duncan and Grant—only the two of them knew what had caused it.

The tension between the two men was almost palpable; and to his credit, even though Grant was very terrified of Duncan at this moment, he didn’t immediately balk under pressure.

Instead, Grant asked, “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“You’re the one who almost left me to die even after I asked for your help, and now you’re threatening me like this to go along with your dangerous plan... what’s to stop you from suddenly abandoning me once we start and you feel like you have no use for me anymore?”

“And even worse, what if you’re completely wrong and we end up dead because of you? What then, huh?”

Faced with this question, Duncan didn’t hesitate and said, “You’ve got no choice in this matter. Either you follow me and have a chance at escaping, or you don’t and keep on running until your energy finally runs out and you collapse in exhaustion.”

“By then you’ll still get caught by the zombies because, believe me when I say this, they never tire, they never hunger, and they never rest; so your fate has been sealed from the very beginning.”

After he said this, Duncan finally removed his foot from Grant’s chest, allowing him to get back up again, while leaving a few final words for him.

“Better a shot in the dark than none at all... think about that before you decide to do something stupid that you’ll end up regretting for the rest of your life.”