Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
STEFAN PETRUCHA
Kleck’s face went blank. He looked as if he’d heard
the voice of God and it had told him, in one sentence,
all he’d ever needed to know.
“Everyone hear that?” he asked, wanting confirmation
of his senses. Then he laughed, and repeated,
louder: “Everyone hear that?”
Jobe nodded, transfixed. “Play it again.”
“Maybe you just picked up a horror film on a
channel right near it,” Shutty suggested. But by the
time she finished the sentence, the file was playing
again. Only now, it sounded different, saying something
like:
Thank you.
“Oh my god! It’s the same file, the exact same
fucking file, but it changed. It’s not saying the same
thing!” Kleck insisted gleefully.
He played it again:
One for you.
A voice spoke between static.
You crazy bastard, another voice said. Then the
flashes again, firecrackers. Screams—just like in the
movies, only infinitely sadder.
“Wait a minute, I know those voices—that’s you
and Jobe,” Bilka said. Then she turned her pale white
face accusingly toward her boyfriend, one eyebrow
raised, and said, “Are you trying to trick us? To scare
us?”
“No, I swear,” said Jobe. “You think that sounds like
me?”
“Yeah, if you were trying to sound all spooky,” Bilka
accused.
“Play it again,” Shutty said. She was focused now,
feeling adamant.
“I don’t know….” Kleck began.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, play it again!” Shutty shouted.
Across the room, inside the dusty bulb of a standard-issue,
white-shade-and-black-base lamp, the
hair-thin filament snapped with a pop, giving more of
the room to shadow. While the others turned to stare
( 36 )
6