The story so far…
I am being paid to watch a house on surveillance overnight. I got the email two weeks ago. At first, I thought it was a scam. I mean, $50,000 a night to watch a house that no one lives in? There’s got to be a catch somewhere. But still, I found myself curious. I had been looking for a job for weeks and coming up empty. Maybe… Just maybe…
I met with the woman who emailed me the ad. She’s just a standard woman in a dress suit. She told me that I didn’t have to do anything. Just sit in the surveillance room and watch the house.
We met at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Long Beach. Okay, this is a good sign so far. It’s in a nice part of town. I actually know where said restaurant is. (I’m not going to give out the name on here. Everyone who lives in the area will know the place.) On that night, there weren’t too many people around. Still, there were just enough to see us.
I found that woman near the back in a booth. When I saw her, she was on the phone with somebody. What I noticed was that she had a flip phone. The dim red of the lights washed over her white suit and hat. This woman glanced up at me as I stood at her table.
“I’ve got to go. My potential hire is here,” she said. The woman slapped her phone closed. Now, she had her eyes on me.
“Please. Take a seat.” She held out her hand to the seat across from her in the booth. I shrugged to myself as I sat down. The woman had her eyes on me as she said nothing. She didn’t have to say anything to make my heart pound against my chest.
“So what are your experiences with security work?” she asked. I shifted in my seat.
“Well, I watched over my uncle’s funeral home over the summer with my brother two years ago,” I said. The woman kept her eyes on me.
“I see,” she said. Her gaze made me feel uncomfortable. What was she expecting me to do? I lifted my chin as I shifted back into place in the seat. I just had to ask.
“Why $50,000?” I asked. “I mean, I can understand $50 a night. $100 a night. $500 a night. Hell, even $1,000 a night is generous. Pardon me for asking, but what gives?” The woman, I’m going to call her Shelby, pulled out a cigarette from a pack she had in her jacket and lit up. She looked at me as she took a drag.
“Hazard’s pay,” she said.
“I’m not following,” I said. She leaned back in the booth.
“If I tell you, you will think that we are crazy,” Shelby said.
“Try me.”
“We believe that the house has become haunted by a modern ghost.”
I wrinkled my nose as I made a face. “Come again?”
Shelby snubbed out her cigarette. “Have you heard of the Phillip Experiment?”
“Vaguely,” I said.
“We believe that somebody managed to break into the house and perform some sort of a ritual to make it haunted.” She said that so deadpan too. I just met this woman and I don’t think she tells jokes for kicks. I had questions but I waited for her to continue. When she didn’t, I just had to come out and ask another thought that had been on my mind.
“Why this house? Are you trying to sell it or something?”
“We were called by a house flipper company.”
“So… you were hired by someone too?”
“Correct.”
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