Out of the archives #1

[fbhjr]

Doug hated working late. He sat at his computer terminal entering the numbers from the meeting today, redoing most of his report.
He envied the people who had been here long enough that they didn’t have to prove themselves. But, Doug had been with the company less than a month, and was still trying to show he could earn his keep.
The fact that the report he made today had been exactly what his boss asked for made it worse. His boss had him spend a week on the report, only to have it ripped apart by the vice-president. His boss had worked for the VP for six years, he should have known what format the VP expected the report to be in.
“He probably did,” Doug said, to himself. “This is probably some test to see if I’m dedicated enough.”
He looked at the charts he was reformatting, and saw a reflection of movement in the monitor screen.
“I’m just working late,” he said, turning around.
As he had expected, he saw one of the company security guards standing behind him. What he had not expected was to be able to see through the man, who was now walking towards him.
He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him until the pale man stepped through a chair as it approached him.
Doug screamed, and turned away from the sight. He threw his head onto his keyboard and covering it with his hands.
He sat there, shivering in the silent room until his heart slowed down. Then, without looking behind him, he calmly hit the save command on his keyboard.
He vaguely noticed that one column of his spreadsheet had filled with random letters, from his head hitting the keyboard, but he ignored it.
Still without looking back, he reached to his side and picked up his brief case. He closed it and stood up.
Finally, he turned and headed for the door out of his department. He sighed in relief when nothing stood between him and the door.
As he walked down the corridor away from his department, he risked a look back.
He saw nothing but the light coming from his office. Then, the light went out on its own, and Doug ran for the exit.
As he came around the corner towards the exit, he collided with another security guard. Unlike the one in his office, this guard was very solid. They both tumbled to the ground on opposite sides of the corridor.
“What’s wrong with you!” the guard shouted, picking himself up. “What are you doing running around in here like that?”
“Sorry,” Doug said, getting up. “I just wanted to get out.”
The guard took a step closer to Doug, and looked at the badge clipped to his belt.
“You’re the new guy, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Doug said, looking towards the door on the other side of the door. “I’m Doug Granger. I started two weeks ago.”
“Seen old Bill, did you?” the guard said, nodding. “Don’t worry about him. He won’t hurt you. He was probably just checking you out.”
Doug stood there with his mouth open for a second before he could bring himself to ask.
“Old Bill?” he asked, finally.
“The ghost of Bill Peterson,” the guard said. “He worked here as a guard until three years ago. He died of a heart attack while making his rounds. Lots of people still see him. Looks like he never gave up on making his rounds.”
“Oh,” Doug said, still trying to think he imagined it. “I’ve got to go.”
“Don’t forget to sign out,” the guard said, and started his own rounds around the building.
Doug signed out, and headed for home.
The next day, Doug sat in the lunch room talking about what he had seen.
“It was really creepy,” he told the others at his table. “He was coming towards me, and I didn’t know what to do.”
“He usually just waves to me,” Martha said. She said it in a way to indicate ghosts waved to her all the time. “I usually just wave back.”
“But you were here when Bill was alive,” Phil said. “He knows you. He didn’t know Doug.”
“He certainly wanted a closer look,” Doug said.
“Next time, show him your ID badge,” Bob said. “Then he’ll know you belong, and leave you alone.”
“I don’t want any next time,” Doug said. “Someone has to do something to stop his from roaming about scaring people.”
“And what do you think you can do?” Phil said. “Are you going to offer him a retirement package?”
“When I got home last night, I looked up exorcisms on the web,” Doug said, pulling a sheet of paper out of his pocket and spreading it on the table.
“They’re real easy to do,” he said, pointing at the text. “But, I need help to do it. One person isn’t enough.”
“Count me out,” Martha said. “I liked Bill when he was alive, and I’m not going to do anything to him now that he’s dead.”
“I’ll help,” Bob said. “Maybe he’s trapped and needs to move on. I’d like to think I helped him move up to heaven.”
“OK,” Doug said, getting up from the table. “Meet me in my office after five and we’ll start.”
When Bob got to Doug’s office, Doug had set up a small circle of candles on the table in the center of the department. The lights were out in Doug’s bosses office, and his co-worker walked past Bob shaking his head.
“I’m not staying for this,” he said as he passed Bob. “I’m surprised you’re helping him.”
Bob just shrugged and moved into the department. Doug was lighting the candles and mumbling to himself as he did.
“So, what do I do?” he asked Doug.
Doug glared up at him, and kept lighting the candles. When all five were shining in the dim department light, he stood and looked at Bob.
“You have to call him,” Doug said. “You call out to him, and I’ll do the rest.”
“OK,” Bob said, and sat in the chair next to the candle lit table. He bumped the table sitting down, and Doug glared at him again.
“Bill, come to us,” Bob said, ignoring Doug’s look. “Please come and visit, we need to talk to you.”
“Good,” Doug said. “Keep it up.”
“Bill, please come to talk with us,” Bob said. As he said this, he heard someone moving in the hallway outside the department. “Bill, come in and see us.”
The door to the department opened, and the vice-president stepped in. Bob leapt to his feet and looked over at Doug.
“What is going on here?” the vice-president demanded, looking at the table. “No one is supposed to burn things here, it will set off the smoke detectors.”
“Sorry, sir,” Doug said, blowing out the candles. “We were conducting an experiment.”
“What kind?” the vice-president asked. “There aren’t any company projects I know of that need candles.”
“We’re trying to dispel Bill,” Bob said, looking at Doug. “He frightened Doug last night, so we’re trying to get him to move on.”
“Is this true?” The vice-president asked, walking up to Doug. He took the sheet of paper from his hand and looked it over. “I can’t believe you’d try something like this at this company.”
“I’m sorry sir,” Doug said. “I didn’t think about the smoke detectors.”
“I don’t care about the smoke detectors,” he said, looking hard at Doug. “You’re trying to get rid of our best employee!”
“What?” Bob asked, looking at the Vice-president.
“I can’t get most people to work weekends,” he said, still looking at Doug. “And, you want to get rid of someone who is still working three years after they died?”
“Sorry, sir,” Doug said. “It won’t happen again.”
“It had better not,” the vice-president said, and turned to leave. As he did, he saw the pale shape of Bill standing in the door of the department.
“Bill, you’re the best,” the vice-president said, walking to the door. “Ignore these two fools, you’ll be with the company much longer than they will.”
The ghost nodded, smiled and got back to its rounds.

Comments

[capt-amos.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!
If this is an example, post all the stories you want!
We have a VP who would do exactly the same thing...made me laugh.

Hope you are well.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

There are no promises of quality on the stuff written that long ago. (Or, for that matter written now.)
But, I'm glad you liked it.

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

That is a good one !

Brings up some memories of N.E.D, for some inexplicable reason. I swear that
Bill and I saw a ghost there while working in one of the sound studios one night.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

For all I know, that's what gave me the idea...

I wrote it at tautron about tautron. Even now, I can see the corridor, lunch room, and offices I talked about in the story. And, the people are the people I used to deal with there.
But, no ghost.