“Joe, I’m telling you – it is here!” The shovel bites into the ground again.
“Why is this taking so long then?” The long haired man looks over his shoulder.
“You wouldn’t have buried it close to the surface – would‘ya?” Pete shovels the dirt away a couple more times.
“Hey, give me some light bro’.” The flash light is quickly turned on again.
“Ok. Turn it off. It’s your turn to shovel.” The shorter man climbs out of the hole. The silence is thick between them as they dig deeper into the ground. Finally, after what felt like hours there is a dull thud.
“Bingo! We’re rich!” They high five before Pete gets into the hole. Quickly they wipe the dirt from the top. Before long a big wooden chest sits on the side.
Joe pulls out a pistol.
“You backstabbing...”
“Shut up! It’s my treasure!”
“Your treasure! I’m the one that found the map.”
“Thanks for that.” Joe pulls the trigger.
A deafening bang echoed through the trees.
A small tiny hole appeared on the spot where Pete’s heart is. He crumbled to the ground. Joe looked around, trying to see if someone saw them.
He didn’t even feel bad about it. Pete was going to do the same to him. He saw how Pete was eyeing the gun.
Joe climbed down into the whole lifting the treasure out. He dragged the body inside the hole and almost got crushed by the weight.
The following evening Joe was at an inn a couple of miles north from the forest where they dug up the treasure. Joe was quite drunk from having been there since the early morning hours. He worked through a few jugs of beer, trying to sooth his conscious and then to top it all he had lost quite a lot of the treasure in a poker game. His head was bent over staring down the beer jug. He was sitting at the bar counter and speech was no longer possible. Something made him look up. He looked straight into Pete’s face. He could see how the color drained away from his face in the mirror. He flew up from is chair, knocking it over. In the split second that it took him to look at the fallen chair and again in front of him, Pete was gone.
Joe swayed to the end of the bar where the innkeeper just gave him a strange look as Joe mumbled that he wanted a room. Joe glimpsed into the mirror at the back of the bar. Seeing his own ragged and scared face, he couldn’t really blame the innkeeper for thinking he was crazy. Just as he was turning away from the counter he caught a glimpse of Pete in the mirror again. Joe fled from the bar up the stairs, to his room falling over a couple of times as he missed a step or three, bracing himself with his hand.
With a sigh of relief Joe shut the door behind him only to turn around and see Pete again.
He couldn’t help himself then. He screamed like a woman. No a little girl. Pete vanished into thin air just as quick as he’d appeared. There was a thunder of footsteps coming up the stairs followed by anxious knocking on his door.
He quickly opened the door and reassured the innkeeper that it was only a spider and he was deathly afraid of them. He could see the innkeeper thought that he totally had lost it.
Joe couldn’t close an eye that night in fear that Pete would come knocking again. Joe sat straight in bed, his pistol aimed into the air around him. The slightest sound made him quiver with fear and jerk the pistol around. Luckily he kept his finger on the trigger guard, otherwise he would’ve have surely been thrown out of the inn for shooting at thin air. The innkeeper already thought that he has gone mental.
Sometime in the early morning hours the toll of the whole day’s drinking took its toll on him and Joe fell asleep.
“Joe! Joe! Wake up!”
Joe mumbled in his sleep. He wanted to shake of the hand that shook at his shoulder only to find that there was nothing but air. That woke him up fast enough as the haunting memory of Pete came back.
In one leap he got to his feet. Swearing at himself for being so careless and falling asleep.
Pete was sitting at the window sill looking quite pleased.
“Finally! You’re awake.”
Joe dived behind the bed trying to make himself extra small in the corner of the room.
“Go away Pete! You’re...you’re supposed to be dead.”
“I figured that much...the moment I could walk through the walls and no thanks to you.”, a sarcastic smirk appeared around the corners of his mouth.
Joe didn’t answer. He could only stare at Pete sitting in the window looking as if he was enjoying himself tremendously. He even started whistling. Moments later Joe couldn’t take Pete’s whistling anymore.
“What do you want? Your part of the treasure? Wasn’t there a bright light or something?”
Pete sat forward, narrowing his eyes.
“To answer your last question first: Yeah, there was a light alright.”
“Then why didn’t you go into it? Isn’t that what you are supposed to do?” Joe asked looking puzzled. His voice was getting stronger as he felt a bit braver. If Pete wanted to hurt him, he would’ve done so already.
“Can you still see the light?”he quickly asked before Pete could answer his previous questions.
“I didn’t know that I was supposed to go there.” Pete said shrugging.
Joe looked dumbstruck, convinced that his fiend of almost twenty years was serious.
“Just kidding!” Pete laughed. “I knew, but since you killed me, I felt that I would rather keep you company for a while.”
Joe looked as if he could start crying.
“You must be kidding? Please tell me you are!” Joe was starting to sound hysterical.
“Nope. Does it look like I’m kidding?” Joe could see that Pete was looking very serious.
“So that’s it. I’m stuck with you?” Joe asked.
With a wicked grin Pete disappeared from the window. Seconds later there was a knock at the door.
Joe crept to the door, getting up in front of the door. As he cracked the door he hoped that it wouldn’t be Pete.
It wasn’t Pete. It was the innkeeper telling him that breakfast would soon be ready. Seeing that Pete wasn’t around Joe excused himself from breakfast. The innkeeper looked relieved as Joe grabbed his bags and fled out of the inn. He was walking as fast as his legs could carry him. The people walking past him stopped in their tracks to stare at his odd behavior.
Once Joe was in the woods he let out the breath he was holding. It looked like he was rid of Pete. Apparently killing him wasn’t enough, Joe thought to himself.
People said that you could be haunted by your actions but this was quite literal.
Pete suddenly appeared in front of Joe.
“Where do you think you are going?” Pete asked folding his arms in front of his chest, a confusing look across his face.
Joe stopped dead in his tracks.
“Em em em, I’m just walking. Don’t you have a bright light to go into?” Joe asked, getting quite irritated with Pete. He stepped around him.
“You know you can try and hide but I’ll always find you!” Pete’s taunting voice drifted up to him from behind. Joe ignored him and just walked faster.
Just as Joe passed the next tree on his way down the hill Pete jumped out in front of him.
“Boo!”
With a yell he started running down the hill. Half way down his foot got caught onto a root sticking out of the ground. He went down hard, rolling and stumbling until he came to a stop against a big oak tree with a sickening crunch.
Pete was laughing so hard he was bent over holding his stomach, if he was alive, tears would have been streaming down his face. After a minute of silence he realized that Joe was not getting up. He walked over cautiously, stopping a few feet from where Joe was lying.
Joe suddenly sat up, making Pete jump backwards. First shock registered on Pete’s face then he started laughing again, even harder than before.
Joe, being really fed up with Pete,got up, walked over to Pete and took a swing at him. His fist made contact with flesh. Dumbstruck Joe looked at his hand before looking up at Pete who was stil laughing.
Pete was cracking up, each time he started to speak to Joe he was overcome by laughter.
Joe turned on his heel, and started to walk away from Pete. He stopped cold in his tracks. There on the ground, strung around the tree was his body. Furious with Pete he swung around and attacked Pete again. They fell to the ground, swinging wild at each other and taking as much hits as they were giving. A few feet away a bright light started to shine through the trees. They were too busy fighting each other to notice the light. Just as Pete pinned Joe to the ground they both saw the light. Pete scrambled off Joe, crawling towards the light. Joe grabbed his leg pulling him backwards before running forward.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Pete jumped on Joe’s back bringing him down hard. He pulled at Joe’s hair. Joe was trying to throw him of his back. He wiggled and squirmed. Pete just pulled harder on the handful of hair in his hand.
Slowly the light went out. All fight left them. They just lay on the forest floor breathing hard.
Pete got to his feet and started to walk away. He only got a few feet before an invisible wall kept him from going forward.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”Frustration was making the veins stand out in his neck.
Joe lifted his head to look at Pete.
“What?”
“I think we are stuck together.”
Joe smacked his head back on the ground pulling his arms over his eyes.
“This. Is. Not. Happening!” With each word he hit his head on the ground.
Silence fell over them.
“Pete?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry for shooting you.”
“Ok. I’m sorry for making you break your neck.”
Pete came over to where Joe was still laying on the forest floor.
“Ok Pete. What are we going to do now?” Joe asked looking up at Pete.
“Let’s go haunt your mother” Pete said, looking mischievous.
“Why not your mother?” Joe asked as got to his feet.
In South Africa today security plays a vital part in any business or private home. This book and the volumes to follow, will guide you step by step through the essential precautionary measures to be taken in protecting your family and valuables. From employing security guards, evacuation of your site and security measures to burglar bars and alarms in your private home.
a Book compiled by me from experience gained after 10 years in the security industry as Industrial relations officer with Nosa qualifications, 1st Aid, fire protection and also S.O.B. grade A.
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