Things That Go "Beep, Beep" In The Dark

31 October 2024

Story #1127

R. Linda:

By pumpkins fat

And witches lean

By coal black cat

With eyes of green

By all the magic

Ever seen

The ghosts will rise

On Halloween

And they did! I visited my friend, Jesse, who just bought a gigantic house. He has always lived in small homes or one-room flats. Having worked his way up, he decided to live in a large house for the first time. He could afford it; it was a lifelong dream, and why not? After many months of looking, he found what he thought would be the perfect fit. A five-bedroom, three-bath home on ten acres of woodland. He wanted to show it to me, and as a homeowner, I might give him some tips. 

I accompanied him to his new abode, an impressive palace for one person. I asked what he would do, knocking about the vast expanse on his lonesome. He said he didn't know yet. I could see he was in heaven, owning a manse. 

He had partially moved in, and I offered to help him move some furniture. At first, he declined, but then said yes, please. We worked most of the day setting things up. I thought having a woman's touch would help because we had difficulty deciding what went where. I finally suggested we call Tonya, and he said he was there for that.

When she arrived, an alarm went off that "beep beeped" in the upper hallway. 

"What is that?" I asked.

"I don't know," Jesse said, looking up toward the upper hallway.

He went up as I let Tonya in. She asked what was the matter as I looked concerned. I told her what had happened, but we didn't know the sound. Well, there is an alarm system that, when someone drives down Jesse's very long driveway, a sensor picks up the motion, and the alarm sounds in the house. He seemed amused but thought it was good, "You know, deliveries and all."

A half-hour later, Tonya had everything in place. Wow, things went fast. She knew what went where and directed us like a general. We had one room left. It was 6:30, and Tonya offered to pick up takeout. When she drove off, the alarm went off. 

"Well, it works," Jesse said, getting plates out.

At 6:49, the alarm went off. Not once, but four times in a row. Jesse looked at me, and I looked at him. It was too soon for Tonya to be back, and this sounded like more than one car. He looked out and saw no one. It was twilight and getting dark, so it was hard to see. He shrugged. 

At 7:30, the beeper went off again several times. We looked out. But it was dark now. Jesse got a flashlight, and we both searched for the beeper. We found it halfway down the driveway. A tiny red light gave it away. One wouldn't notice it because it was so small. He flashed his torch at the woods, but nothing was on either side of the driveway. We walked quietly, and you could hear snaps of branches and falling acorns, but nothing could we see. It was eerie, and it was Halloween night. We went back to the house. 

The sensor

A few minutes later, the beeper went off, but only once, and we could see headlamps coming down the driveway; it was Tonya. 

We told her what had happened while she was gone, and she suggested the sensor's battery might be low. Yet, as Jesse pointed out, it worked when Tonya drove in and out, so why would it malfunction?

We left an hour later, and I told Jesse to call if anything went crosswise. And he did. At about 10:00, I received a text that the beeper had gone off at 9:30 on the dot. He walked outside with his torch but saw nothing. It unnerved him, but he was ok. 

Well, I rang him the next day, and he was fine. He said the beeper went off again several times, and he did not sleep well, though the doors and windows were locked. This went on for a straight week. He had ideas that it was the wind, that it was falling leaves, and that it was an animal, maybe. 

He asked me to come over for an evening and see for myself because he was out of ideas about what was happening. He had put in a new battery and set up a trail camera. It had been set up for two days, and we went and retrieved it. When we looked at the card, there was nothing on it. Notta. All we saw in the photos was the sensor light.

Notice the light at the lower part of the sapling; that's the alert, and the trail camera did not capture anything. 

At 6:49, the beeper went off several times. There was nothing out there. At 7:30 sharp, the beeper sounded again. At 9:30, it went off once more. We stood outside with torches, his and mine. We walked the length of the driveway, and neither of us saw anything. 

It seemed odd that the beeper alerted at the same time every day, and nothing around us could set it off.

A week later, the strangeness stopped dead. The only time the system alerted was when someone real drove down the driveway. 

Then, suddenly, it started again. This sent Jesse to the Town Hall, where he found out a man had died on the property from suicide at this precise time of year. He had hung himself in the woods, not far from the sensor.

Jesse hasn't been able to get much info on the man. The man had his "viewing" in the house. The only information Jesse had was that the man had had a fight with his wife and had committed suicide in the woods.  

Once again, the sensor going off at nothing has stopped. Jesse shared his weird experience with a co-worker who suggested that Jesse purchase a cheap infrared camera and put it out. The trail camera picks up movement but won't show ghostly images like infrared ones. Jesse is tempted, but thinking he might see a ghost freaks him out. 

This is a classic example: Be careful what you wish for. In this case, a big home with lots of ghosts.

Stay tuned.

Postscript: 6:49 the estimated time of suicide, 7:30 discovery of the body, 9:30 body taken away. Spooky, huh?

Gabe

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