There is something wrong with my tiny house Part 1
I was doing okay these last few weeks, but weird things began to happen again over the previous weekend. I had primarily been busy at work. If anything had been going on, I wouldn’t have noticed it. We were working on a new hologram system for a gaming program at our work. I helped develop security for online players once it went live, so much of my time was devoted to the new project. I needed a break, so I went to my buddy’s birthday extravaganza in Auburn.
I would be out of town for the weekend, bonding with old friends. While I was away, I kept getting hits on my camera app. Not too unsettling; most of the things I got notifications for were deer and birds, and on occasion, I’d see Dave’s truck driving by in the distance. Also, not unusual. He had to haul feed to the cows and goats on the other end of the property.
On my last night in Auburn, I woke up shortly after midnight. My camera app had over twenty notifications in two minutes! I didn’t even know something like that was possible, yet here I am.
When I clicked on the first notification, it was pitch black. Nothing too alarming, but when I began clicking on the third, fourth and fifth, a ball of light kept getting closer to the camera in each shot. The last notification I selected was of a blue orb and what looked to be a figure. I couldn’t make out who or what it was.
I showed my buddy the next day but didn’t tell him about the previous weird occurrences, and he suggested it was ball lightning. I thought about it and decided that he was probably right. It was nothing I could explain.
Later that afternoon, when I arrived home to my tiny house, I found nothing around the property that appeared off. I saw Dave coming up the drive, and he waived as he always did as he went to his home.
I decided then I had an idea. I ran up to Dave just as he got out of his truck.
“Dave, remember when you told me I could look at your security camera footage? Would it be alright if I looked at it from early this morning?”
Dave looked at me puzzled but agreed. We went into his small farmhouse, and his wife, Margeret, offered me coffee. I politely declined, and we went into his office to view the footage.
He sat down at his computer, moved some things around, and then opened one of the browsers. He clicked on the most recent footage he had uploaded and let me sit at his desk to browse through it.
“Feel free to take as long as you like. Are you still having issues up there?”
“Well, I’m not sure I have any answers, but something popped up on my security footage early this morning. I wanted to compare it to what you have.” I didn’t detect any dishonesty from Dave. He seemed to genuinely be as concerned as I was.
I looked at the footage, but when I looked at the footage from around midnight, I couldn’t see anything that my camera had picked up. No ball lightning, no car lights, nobody in my yard flashing lights. It was all extraordinary. I got up, thanked Dave for his kindness again, and retreated home.
I hesitated before entering my house. I looked down, and that hole had gotten bigger. I unlocked my door, tossed my bags inside, and then inspected the hole. It was practically big enough for a grown man to fit in. It didn’t appear deep enough to go anywhere; it was just a two-foot-deep hole.
I called Dave immediately for him to come to look. When he got there, he did what one of you suggested. We filled it back in. Dave apologized and said he would put out some groundhog traps that afternoon.
He was so matter-of-fact; I figured he had dealt with this sort of thing before. Once we filled the hole, Dave put in some garden stone boulders. They were not sizable but heavy enough to keep a groundhog out. I thanked Dave again.
I went inside and decided to relax. I closed my blinds, drew my tv screen down from the ceiling, and turned on my mini projector to watch a movie. I was watching some action flick about a maniacal terrorist when suddenly I heard something hit the window behind my head. I pulled the blind up and looked outside. There was nothing there.
After a few moments of me looking around and then I saw it. Suddenly, hundreds of birds began to drop from the sky, hitting my tiny house and landing in the several feet of the yard I had claimed for myself.
I got up, pulled up my projection screen, and went outside. I looked around, and then I looked up. Something was above my tiny house. I couldn’t see anything except the sky, but something was cloaked as every bird flying over hit that very something and fell into my yard. I looked down and saw that all the boulders were now moved.
I am not a believer in alien abduction. I have never seen a so-called UFO. Yet, something was going on out here. Dave came running out of his house, perplexed about the birds flying over and why there were so many of them.
It was about an hour when all of a sudden, it stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
Dave called a wildlife officer who came out to investigate the possibility of potential diseases. But after the officer inspected the birds, there were no signs of infections. They all had died from broken necks.
More puzzled than frightened, I returned to my tiny house. I locked the door and went to lie down. It was now dark out, and the stars had come out. The place was beautiful. I hated that the beauty of it made me wish I could stay forever, yet I knew even with about seven months left on my lease, I would in no way be able to remain at my tiny house. I didn’t even want my money back. I thought of subletting it to someone or using it as an AIR BNB to cover the cost I had put into it.
Then the final and last straw broke the camel’s back. I had closed my eyes when my camera app went off again. When I looked at it, I could see that same woman from before in the camera. She was at my door. This time when I saw her, all my anger and fear got the better of me. I ran to the door and flung it open.
“What the fuck do you want?” Sorry about my language I don’t usually curse, but I was angry.
The woman was there this time, but there was something about her eyes. Something that I couldn’t even articulate. They glowed. I can’t even explain it, but they friggin glowed!
She looked at me under my porch light and put a finger to her lips. Then she slinked back into the night. I tried to follow her, and that is when I saw her go towards the hole in the ground and crawl in, and as he faded into the hole, all I could see was her eyes before there was nothing. The light in them disappeared.
I jumped off my porch in a frenzy and went towards the hole. Only when I went to try and follow where she went was the hole as it was before. It was maybe a couple of feet deep. Where could she have gone? There was no way she could have fit inside of it.
The following day I packed my things and went to my parents. Not something you really cared to do in your mid-thirties, but I felt I would lose my mind if I didn’t leave.
Dave was completely understanding. I told him I would figure out something with the tiny house. I could sell it and possibly get the money I had put into it. Let Dave use it as an AIR BNB property.
Until I figured out what to do, I would be at my parents’ indefinitely. My mother put me in my old room. My father offered his advice, but when I told him about everything, he looked like a man who figured his son had a nervous breakdown.
Maybe it was all in my head. I was hoping for that, but there is one thing I cannot explain. Why does my camera app still send me those damn notifications with the woman? She stands under the camera with those eyes and beckons me to come to her.
I have been overworked and exhausted, and I was sure there was a reasonable explanation. When I showed my father the videos, he seemed to be more concerned about the young woman’s welfare.
I couldn’t seem to express to him the fear I had every time I looked at her face. It was as if she didn’t show herself to others as she did me. Also, how do you explain that forcefield over my house? Dave’s doppelganger? All the weird stuff going on had me very unnerved.
I went to a doctor to get sleeping medication. I deactivated the camera app from my phone as well.
I feel a bit better these last few days, for the most part, now that I haven’t had to worry about it for a few days. Then last night, I got an update from my work email. It was regarding a system breach with the security program.
I noticed something strange when I clicked on the information to decipher where the breach had occurred to begin fixing it. The new gaming system had photos that resembled my tiny house. In the video game, players could activate the hologram application to appear in any room in any place or building they chose. Only the holograms would utilize the same space it was in. It would work similarly to Oculus; only goggles were not necessary because the hologram worked with the area you activated it in.
You select the hologram to appear in your display area, like your bedroom, living room, or office. So if you wanted to watch a killer character act out his rage or if you wanted to play the characters yourself, you would be in the room with them. They also could react to you. It would be like they were in there with you! Only the hologram in this game wasn’t your typical killer or action figure. It was now introducing a new character- that disheveled woman I kept seeing who was in my tiny house!
I know this sounds crazy. Technology is crazy. There are still a lot of bugs in this new gaming system. We only have a few prototypes, so it hasn’t been made public yet. I shouldn’t even be telling any of you about it. I need to tell someone about it because I don’t know what to do. Something is using it, and what about those birds?
I asked my boss if we could shut down the program for the time being until all the bug fixes were completed. He thinks that is a good idea but only gives me a month or two to fix those issues.
I’m no longer in the tiny house; I’m not there. But the other day, I noticed something else when I was working on some integration. Several viruses were not detected in the game previously. I can’t understand the language because it isn’t your typical syntax-type system. It is something I have never seen. It is as if the game has a mind of its own.
Here is the real kicker. One of the latest characters in the hologram game looks exactly like me.
I will be tired and working around the clock, trying to understand what is happening. Wish me luck.