16 Not Alone.

Final chapter.

John was genuinely worried about Ethan.

Ethan was not telling him much but told some very vague things. So it made him more worried as John knew that Ethan lived alone.

After taking a small break, they again fall back into their work cycle. It might be beneficial as it could work as a good distraction for Ethan. Both had to finish before the day ended. It was already near the end of their working hours, that is, only a few hours before they have done for the day.

The anxiety didn't completely vanish but moving along with work seemed to be an obvious option.

As Ethan was wrapping his day in the office, tiding his desk.

He was on the way to throw the waste piece of paper.

He got a ping on his phone.

Again.

He was sweating. "no way..no nono!" Ethan was on were of panicking even before opening the notification.

John was not there. He was going to meet him at the entrance of the building. He had some work on the floor below where their office was.

He was also excruciatingly aware of the fact that only a few people were there.

So he was alone. Mostly.

His computer was on his desk.

Not watching was making him more anxious, so he opened the tab. Notifications were still flaring on the main screen.

That floating notification bar was showing new alerts!

Pings were keep coming on the screens, which was making his phone beep again and again.

But all the nauseating feelings and feelings of absolute disgust made him change his decision. He chickened out.

He was about to slam the screen of laptop down, but even before he could do that, he caught the movement on the screen and halted.

Again that dread came all over his body. That feeling of dread had become all too familiar to him.

That haunted room.

The rocking chair was moving on its own, and that movement was making very long but dreadful creaking noises.

Even in his fear stroked mind, he was able to identify the sound.

That creaky sound he was able to hear through the screen was, however, was not the first time he heard it.

" Oh. I am going to vomit again."

He used to hear all night. Even when he was in the bathroom,

the source of all his fear was that chair.

The screen showed the time, and evidently, The camera was capturing the movement for a very long time.

Ethan didn't know for how much more he could watch it moving and not faint. He was not even able to move a muscle.

Buzzing sound and vibration from his pocket made him break out of his frozen state, and the moment he realized it, Ethan, without second-guessing, just slammed the screen and just threw it inside his bag.

Ethan had a hazy memory of picking up the call and mumbling some very vague reply. Someone, probably John, was instructing him to come down to the lobby. He was feeling nauseous and very disoriented.

Ethan felt like he was in a trance-like state, didn't even realize when he left his office floor, only realized that he was standing in front of the entrance when someone shook him.

John was the one who shook him back to present, and he was the one who had called him to tell him that they were getting late, but Ethan was not giving any understandable replies like, was mumbling overall was not making sense.

John became more nervous, and when he saw Ethan clutching his bag and his eyes, his eyes were looking so out of it, he was sweating very much.

Ethan was very shaken up, so much that he had become numb momentarily.

His friend didn't ask questions as he thought that Ethan might be thinking about the incident. Could have gotten reminded about some awful things that had made him panicked before.

They hauled the cab, they sat, and John observed that Ethan was, for some reason was giving ominous looks to his bag.

" hey, I know you had a bad day but try to relax a bit, okay? You are going to damage the bag," John smiled a bit softly and took Ethan's bag from him to make him a little less agitated he took it from him and placed it on the seat next to himself, away from Ethan.

When they reached his house, Ethan was reluctant to move, but as John tried to pay the cab driver, he stopped him and signaled him to go on. After giving, with a sigh, Ethan came out.

He was fidgeting around the path. The lock clicked and before they could enter inside Ethan, grabbed his friend by the shoulder. His hold was firm, was wrinkling his sleeves of the shirt, " Okay, before we enter- arrgh!!" "I am sorry" Ethan, irritated and frustrated by himself for dragging another person into his hell, was giving John a pleading type of look with sadness around the corner of his eyes with heavy dark circles surrounding them.

" Whatever it is, I am not leaving you." "And I need you to be more transparent with me. You need to tell me. You Need to"

John, with all respect, never wanted to peer into anybody's personal life.

But he also can not just watch his friend fighting with anxiety and just leaving him be.

He already was expecting some weird or, to say, some unique kind of issue if he said that he was having concerns with the house when he lived alone.

" Fine, i-i will tell you everything." With a small, hopeful smile, he ushered John inside.

"Thank you fo-for doing this for me," he stuttered little. His eyes were getting a little numb, but after receiving a smile back, Ethan shut his mind and offered his friend to sit on the couch while he grabbed some beers for them.

The house seemed pretty standard at the first sweep of his eyes over it.

But Ethan's body posture and quivering eyeballs were telling a different story. It looked like he was expecting someone to jump on him out of nowhere.

"Okay, it's getting creepy but still very sad to live every day with the fear of your surroundings," John thought.

John also observed that the neighborhood also looked peaceful, or at least less problematic.

So, he was at a loss for words as he sat patiently and listened to everything Ethan was telling him.

It felt like flood gates opened, as once he started talking, which admittedly took a long time, but when he got confident enough to speak, he was not stopping.

And with time, his eyes were becoming bigger and bigger, and for him, the last nail to his sanity hit when he saw the evidence.

When Ethan stopped telling him details, he was curled on his sofa with his head in his hand, and John felt like he was having an out-of-body like experience.

" That, that- okay, I don't know what to say. I can't believe that this, a decent looking apartment could be-, " As if to respond, lights flickered, and the door of the above rooms was sounding like they were vibrating.

" OKAY! OKAY! I BELIEVE YOU," the movement John screamed, more hard rumbling came from the room. The room with heavy-duty locks attached to them.

And the door was rattling from the inside.

"John! You need to, believe me, I am not making things up I wish I was, "

" But to be traumatized by the spirit for a month is not worth anything."

Ethan was trembling, but still, he grabbed his baseball bat, more for his comfort than anything, as Ethan stood up abruptly after listening to his friend responding directly to the voices.

The laptop was open, but it appeared that cameras were having technical problems, as one by one, all were getting statics vision.

Nothing coherent was coming out of them.

But they were still aware of all kinds of activities happening in the apartment as they were physically present there, were also be able to see the light filtering from the crack under the door.

The door had started to rattle rather violently then, and the shrieky, squeaky noises of heavy objects shifting alongside the rattling noises came out the room.

Everything sounded scary and very loud to them, to their fear-stricken sensitive ears and hyperventilating bodies.

John got out of it earlier than Ethan. Ethan was becoming weak and was emotionally exhausted, so he was yet to recover from the panic attack.

So John took the situation in his hand.

He had an idea, vague one nevertheless and idea.

When they were standing in front of the room, He shook up Ethan by holding his shoulder, and when his eyes become sharpened again, he dragged him in the direction of the kitchen.

"Open your phone, hey focus, focus! Open the camera application and record! " John whisper screamed to him while hiding under the kitchen aisle.

He opened the lower cabinets, on the second try, he found out what he was finding.

The flour bag.

He took it and poked the bag to make a hole. Ethan was giving him a quizzical look.

Well, his idea was not an ideal one.

Holding his wrist and directing his body toward the door, he took the baseball bat out of his hand, which he was very reluctant to give up but eventually, he softened his grip on it and let John took it.

John told him the plan.

" Now listen, I am going to break the locks, please listen I know, I know,"

Ethan was going to say something against the idea of it, but he shushed him and continued, "we need to record it, for proof that there is no physically present inside the room. Otherwise, no one will believe the truth. The moment I break the lock, I am going to directly talking to the spirit and will try to agitate it and make him gave more reaction like it did before."

He could see puzzle pieces aligning in Ethan's head and finally approving the idea by nodding. With getting approval, he started the work.

While spreading the floor all over the front of the door, he explained the purpose of it to him, " floor is a powder which can move or blow when simply someone tries to walk over it, it will capture the movement."

Not waiting for the reply, he threw the bag sideways, his heartbeat was increasing rapidly, and before all the fear surface back, he banged the bat on the lock.

The locking hinge dented, and he twisted it out of the chain.

Putting the chain side and looking aside, and looked back once at Ethan to check up on him and check that he was angling the camera in the right direction.

Now or Never.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"WHY MAKING SO MANY NOISES HUH!!" John was speaking with as much authority he could muster up in his voice.

The reaction was fast. And the most disturbing one.

There was a shadow shaped over the other side of the door.

.

The growling sound came out of the said direction after then surprised both of them. Their heart was like stuck in the throat.

.

Roared like nothing they ever heard any animal making.

.

The noise they heard, it was packed with so much loath and also so low-pitched.

And after that, things happened that they both were dreading badly to happen.

.

.

As the shadow moved, the floor blew lowly in the air.

Ethan, as he behaved when his adrenaline level increases in his body, it making him impulsive. He ran toward the door and opening it with a hard swing, and scanning and recording everything.

.

No one was there.

.

He was recording everything, Even the part about the light. The room got illuminated even when the lightbulb was not attached to the plug.

He swung the door back and stepped fully inside the room. He moved his arm to make the whole room to be recorded.

As he moved and was standing in front of the dresser, which gave the clear view of the rocking chair, it was situated opposite to it.

And when he focused on the screen, he saw something.

Something through the phone screen.

.

The various terrifying scream came out of the mouth.

.

.

A figure with its head lolled low was reflected sitting on the chair!

.

When Ethan swung back, No one was sitting there.

But again, when he looked through the dressing table mirror, There!

The reflection was visible.

Ethan did what he thought he should have done earlier.

.

He ran. He ran toward the door.

When he saw the door, it was swing closed and also was not bulging open.

He realized the door was locked, and John was banging on the other side of the door and was trying to open it.

Ethan, in his panic, was not able to comprehend anything.

" LET ME GOOO!!" he screamed out of frustration.

Then, the door creaked, and John opened the door with so much sheer power it almost came out of hinges.

.

.

.

And after that, everything was history.

It was safe to say that no one entered that apartment again.

Ethan left his job, and John also did that.

Ethan made his company move his belongings back to his old city.

.

It seemed, creepily, that they were aware of it. But due to the small budget and also refused to believe in rumors and ignoring the warnings given by everyone, they let Ethan live there.

.

But they swore to each other that never going to mention about it to anybody else.

Ethan made a promise to himself that he will not let anyone suffer as he did.

*

*

*NEWS ALERT: THE ESTATE BUILDING, AN APARTMENT ON THE (XYZ) STREET WAS MYSTERIOUSLY LIT-UP IN FIRE.

IN DARKNESS OF NIGHT, NO ONE WAS ABLE TO WITNESS WHAT HAPPENED.

WAS IT DONE BY ANYONE PURPOSEFULLY? AS NO ONE WAS THERE NOR BOUGHT BY ANY NEW BUYER.*

*

*

Ethan may or may not was involved in that fire.

When asked, he refused to say a word and shifted all the questions to the company.

.

.

He might have left the company, but what else can he say,

Ethan was a petty, petty man.