Amateur Detective Files On Paranormal Encounters

So Close Yet So Far-away

“No, no—please let me go. Don’t do anything to me. I don’t know anything, I swear I don’t know anything at all. I was doing what I was told. It was just a dare, you see—someone dared me to go into that street and said they’d pay me if I did, that’s all it was. I swear I didn’t mean to intrude at all. If I’d known this is what would happen, I wouldn’t have accepted that stupid dare at all. But I promise I won’t tell anybody about this if you all just let me go, so please let me off just this once… I’m begging you, please!”

“Do any of you hear that ticking sound?”

“Hmmm!”

“Who’s making all that racket? It doesn’t sound like Grant at all.”

Duncan, who was buried in the ground, slowly dug himself out with practiced ease, taking his time while doing it so as not to make too much of a commotion.

Since he didn’t know where he was buried and what the situation was like outside, in order to avoid digging himself out only to end up being surrounded by zombies, Duncan took his time while digging.

After all, with his exceptional physique, Duncan could hold his breath for a very long time, so there was no rush this time.

But just when Duncan estimated that he was close to the surface, that is when he started hearing some muffled words being spoken by an unknown voice.

At first, Duncan couldn’t make out what the words were because he was still some distance underground and the soil blocked most of the sound coming from above, but as he got even closer to the surface, Duncan started to make out everything clearly and then his mind began to fill with doubts.

“Is that somebody begging for his life?” Duncan thought to himself.

Duncan was almost unable to believe his ears.

Thinking that sand had gotten into them, he wondered if he was hearing things, but that wasn’t possible, so it could only mean that what he heard was real.

“It isn’t Grant’s, so does that mean another person was transported into this realm and was captured by the zombies after appearing above ground?”

“Seriously, what part of ‘Cursed Street’ and ‘Keep Out’ do people not understand? How do they still find themselves running into trouble all because they could not heed proper warnings and decided to run to their deaths?”

More than anything, Duncan was puzzled by the audacity of this new victim, including Grant too.

According to what Duncan understood, the influence of the ghost realm on the main world was limited only to the street where a lot of people went missing because they had been abducted into this place.

Beyond the street, though, it didn’t look like the ghost realm could take people away, so as long as people avoided going into the street then they were perfectly safe.

Duncan’s case was different—that was his cursed boots acting up like it always did and taking him to places he didn’t want to go… as for others, simply giving the street a wide berth was enough to keep them out of harm's way, so why were there still two people that stumbled into trouble with their own two feet?

“The owner of the voice mentioned something about a dare—about somebody paying him to enter the street, which is how he ended up here.”

“Is it a coincidence?”

Hearing what the second victim said about being paid to enter the haunted street on a dare, Duncan’s detective instinct immediately kicked in, feeling like something was off about the matter.

From what Duncan knew, before Grant and this new person, the last person to be reported missing disappeared weeks ago, which was around the time the street was closed off by the authorities.

Since then, there hasn’t been a report of people going missing again, so if that was true, then it seemed like one hell of a coincidence for two people to suddenly appear in this ghost realm at roughly the same period of time.

But all of this was Duncan’s speculation, though, because he didn’t know why Grant had entered the street in the first place, so everything could only be chalked up to it being a coincidence at best.

Taking all of that to the back of his mind, Duncan thought about what he should do now.

“Since this person has been captured, it means there are zombies above, but I can’t be sure how many since I don’t know how many remained after I lured the rest of them away.”

“For that matter too, since I hadn’t seen any trace of this person before, it means that he’d been captured long before Grant arrived, so he should’ve been hidden very close to the exit.”

“That’s a relief,” Duncan sighed.

“It means that I’m at least very close to the exit light, which is the only good news I’ve had since all this began.”

“Now I just have to think about what to do, and I’d better think of it fast. I’m safe for now, but I won’t be able to keep on holding my breath forever. Eventually, I’ll have to resurface, and by then I’d better have a plan.”

Duncan didn’t rush to come out of the ground even though he suspected he might be very close to the exit light.

He figured that he was at least safe for now as long as he was still underground, since Duncan suspected the ground blocked the senses of the zombies and ghosts in this realm, preventing them from sensing what was happening inside.

With this assurance, Duncan had about one minute before he could not hold his breath any longer, so he immediately began devising a plan.

Seconds passed and Duncan increasingly found it difficult to breathe, and yet, in all that time, Duncan hadn’t come up with any good plans.

“Time is running out,” Duncan thought, his throat and chest painfully screaming at him for air as he forced himself to hold on.

“I can’t hold on for much longer, but if I go out there now, then it means I’ll only be able to follow that plan.”

During this short time, it wasn’t that Duncan hadn’t come up with any plans at all. The problem is that…

“It is a very stupid and risky plan, but it’s the only one I was able to come up with. Do I have no other option than to go with it?” Duncan lamented to himself.

Usually the meticulous and cautious type before all his life went to shit, Duncan was used to being prepared before heading off to do anything.

He was the type to develop several contingencies to deal with various situations in case anything ever occurred, and his motto was to always be prepared.

But ever since he became involved with the supernatural, all of that preparedness and caution went completely down the drain.

Instead, Duncan was taught a very serious lesson, which was that you could never be prepared for when the supernatural strikes.

No matter how prepared you thought you were and how many plans you came up with when faced with the supernatural, all of that becomes moot and you’re left only able to react to whatever comes your way.

It was a very humbling lesson, one that Duncan still found very hard to adapt to as he found himself always going back to his same old habits too many times to count and suffering the consequences of doing so just as many times as that… just like now.

So caught in a dilemma caused by his indecision and constantly feeling the burning of his lungs due to lack of air, Duncan was about to give in and follow the only plan that he’d come up with when he suddenly heard a commotion coming from above.

“Are those footsteps?”

Duncan didn’t have much time to think—his throat was already giving up on him, so he didn’t think too much and simply analyzed what he could as fast as possible.

“Those footsteps sound like a large group is approaching. Taking a guess, I would say that Grant is being escorted by the zombies that captured him.”

“This is my chance!” Duncan yelled internally, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

He thought, “With any luck, all the zombies will be too focused on Grant and the other person to notice me coming out of the ground.”

“As long as I’m fast enough, after coming out, I can spot the exit and quickly rush towards it before the others realize anything and then I’m home free.”

“Yes. That’s what I’ll do.”

And so, making up his mind, Duncan suddenly applied all the power he could muster from his body and shot out of the ground.

…

Duncan was already very close to the surface, so when he decided to burst out of the ground, it only took a simple push for him to do so.

Crack!

Bam!

First, Duncan’s hand broke through the earth with a loud sound that didn’t travel far as it was somewhat muffled by all the sounds filling the area, which didn’t draw much attention to him.

Followed by that, Duncan quickly placed his palm solidly on the ground and used all his strength to pull the rest of his body using only one hand.

Urgh!

Duncan grunted, the rough maneuver leaving him sore all over, and with short but quick breaths he sucked in lots of air to fill his drastically deprived lungs.

But Duncan didn’t relax; he didn’t have a lot of time and no matter how low the sound he made was, others were bound to notice, evident from the fact that a lot of zombie heads had turned to stare at him, including a pair of frightened eyes belonging to a pale-faced teenager who was staring at Duncan with a look of shock and trepidation.

Duncan noticed all this in passing, but he didn’t dwell on them.

As he pulled the rest of his body free from the earth, Duncan’s eyes scanned the surroundings until he found what he was looking for.

“There it is!”

Seeing what he was searching for, Duncan, who was now completely free, immediately bolted towards its direction.

He was in a bit of luck because his position wasn’t that far from his goal, as it seemed there were many zombies around.

It was at this moment that the zombies finally reacted and immediately lunged at Duncan.

There might have been some confusion in the zombies’ simple minds initially as they doubted whether Duncan was one of them or not.

But that changed shortly after as the unique scent of a living person reached them, so immediately, the zombies began pursuing Duncan.

But it was already too late…

Duncan could not be stopped. Like a tank, he barreled through all obstructions with his almost supernatural body, knocking away all the zombies’ outstretched hands that tried to hold him down.

Duncan was determined to make it out of here no matter what, and he wouldn’t let any mindless zombies stop him.

But there was one thing Duncan forgot about which he should never have…

There was more than one supernatural creature in this realm, and zombies were only the minority, and forgetting this is what cost Duncan his one chance to escape this time.

With singleminded focus, Duncan ran for the exit light, feeling like he was about to escape any moment now. But then, a loud sound blasted into his ears like a blast from a ship’s horn, which caused Duncan to lose his footing and almost stumble.

By the time he reacted, though, it was already too late.

With a terrifying chill, Duncan felt something pass through his body, and much like the first time it happened, Duncan immediately froze and collapsed on the ground.

Feeling his life force draining rapidly from his body, Duncan cursed, realizing what had happened. But there was nothing he could do now.

Before losing consciousness, Duncan’s eyes stared straight ahead at the comical pillar of light that should’ve been his way out.

That was the last image Duncan saw before darkness consumed everything in his sight.