You Shouldn't Be Here

Story by bobthecreep

In my effort to further procrastinate on updating Squishy because I can't decide where I want to go with the next chapter, I decided to start up yet another new project.

What I'm hoping to do with this is sort of a community-wide collection of stories with a similar premise, being ghosts or, more specifically, poltergeists. It might work out, might not, but I wanted to get an idea out there that I've been playing with for a while, and even used in my first story. I tried to keep it 2spoopy and maybe a tiny bit sexy, though the sexy parts weren't supposed to be the focus at least for the first part.

Let's begin

“Oh man, I still can't get over how awesome this is!”

“How do we know that voice wasn't faked? Do you even know the guy who sent it to you?”

“Of course I know him, Drew!”

“Yeah. Through that forum you both live on.”

There was a brief pause.

“Well, he only showed it to me.”

“Whatever you say, James.”

The SUV sped down the straight two lane road, parting two equal seas of bone dry sand. Having seen no one else for hours, James felt the need for speed. To say the older brother was excited would be an understatement. This was the sort of experience he had been dreaming of for years.

James was irresistibly attracted to the paranormal; ghosts and that sort of thing. He recorded countless episodes of every ghost 'hunter' show he could find, no matter how obviously faked or produced they were. He was convinced at least most of it was real and was dead set on proving it to his family. Every cent he could spare went into purchasing some new piece of equipment: electromagnetic field detectors, top of the line handheld audio recorders, high definition night vision capable cameras, the works. Anything he saw on his ghost shows that showed even the slightest promise of helping in the hunt was in his possession as soon as he could get it.

Many long nights were spent in all sorts of locations around the brothers' shared apartment. Any legend or story of a haunting immediately piqued James' interest and he would set up his equipment as soon as he was allowed on the property. Unfortunately, every potential piece of evidence turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking. Glowing orb? Just a bug or a speck of dust. Shadow figure? Homeless person looking for a place to settle down for the night. Ghostly voices? Pimps and drug dealers out on the street. It was enough to put a little annoying doubt in the back of James' mind. Maybe it was all fake; just some misdirection and pre-shoot setup by the crew. No, ghosts had to be real. James could feel it in his heart.

Drew, on the other hand, sat squarely on the exact opposite side of the believing-in-ghosts spectrum. He watched the same shows his brother did, but for a different reason. Behind every camera was a producer instructing the supposed ghost hunters, telling them what to freak out about, point at and run from. Behind every wall was another lackey ready to knock on a wall or run down a hallway, which the cameraman would conveniently ignore when they went to go 'investigate'. Every cut and take specifically crafted to deceive and confuse the viewer. He found it especially laughable when the investigators would point directly in front of the camera at what they were told to see, when the only thing on the screen was a couple of pointed fingers and a murky, dark, and empty hallway.

Drew didn't even really want to get dragged along on his older brother's little crusade. James never bugged him before except with the occasional 'discovery', before it was quickly debunked, revealed to be yet another homeless person living in an yet another abandoned house. But James just wouldn't shut up about this one; constantly saying this was the one, that it was going to be different. It was like he was a hopeless romantic chasing girl after girl. At least he didn't really have to do anything except sit in the back of the SUV and watch a monitor or two while James did all the work. Plus, James was also paying for dinner if he didn't come back with concrete proof, so Drew had a free meal to look forward to.

With James' lead foot on the gas, the brothers' destination soon peeked over the horizon: an old rotting house literally in the middle of nowhere. There were no records of its construction and only one family, a single mother and her three daughters, one older and a pair of twins, ever lived in it. It was said that the family, whi

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