The Camcorder

THE CAMCORDER
PART ONE
When Louise finally left for the office that Monday morning, an air of calm descended upon the flat. The peace and quiet were wonderful after such a hectic weekend. Don't get me wrong, it had been a fantastic trip with Jeff, my boyfriend, but I was quite exhausted now. Luckily, I had had the foresight to take the day off work so I just lay across the sofa and drank my morning coffee while listening to the birds singing happily outside. As the warm spring sunshine streamed through the window, I drifted off with romantic thoughts of Jeff. He had not been happy when, four weeks previously, I had decided to rent a room in a stranger's flat instead of moving in with him. I was in love but did not feel ready yet for such a major commitment.

The room had been advertised in the local paper and it was just what I had been looking for - Louise was a bonus. It was her flat and in the short time I had lived there, she had become more of a friend than a landlady. Yes, at that point in my life I felt content and very happy.

Suddenly, I was jolted out of my day dreams by a strange mechanical noise. It took me some time to figure out what it was - Louise's camcorder. She didn´t use it very often but kept it on a tripod in the living room and for some reason, it had switched itself on. I went over to investigate but couldn´t turn it off and none of the buttons were working so, in desperation, I took the battery off. When I put it back on, it seemed to be working normally. It was quite strange and a little bit creepy.

Being of an inquisitive nature, I decided to have a peep at the tape and played it through the video. At the beginning was Louise, her young nephew and her friend Liam on a day out at the zoo - a visit I knew she had made only the day before. The film ended abruptly as something had been taped over the end and as its contents unfolded before my eyes, I wretched before running to the toilet to be sick.

I was shaking when I returned to the living room and I didn´t know what to do. It didn´t make sense - I had spoken to Louise only a couple of hours before and she was fine. I decided that it must have been some sort of sick joke and watched the start of the video again but I could not continue - it was too horrific. It was not like her to joke, especially in this way and in any case I doubted she would have had the time to set up something like this in the few hours between returning from the zoo and my return from London.

In a state of fear and confusion, I called her at work but did not know what to say. She sounded her usual happy self and when I told her that her camcorder had turned itself on, she just laughed and said it must have been a ghost. She did mention that she had never had any problems with it and that it had been fine the day before. Her next comment chilled me to the bone. Apparantly, her nephew had tripped and fallen head first in some animal dung and she was so pleased that it had been filmed because she could send it to a television station and make some money. It was the last thing that she had filmed because she was frightened of erasing it by mistake - but I knew that it already had. Our conversation was cut short as she had to attend a meeting but we agreed to spend that evening together at home.

I knew that Jeff was finishing work early so I drove straight round to his flat with the camcorder tape. I was in such a state that he made me a large brandy which I drank in the kitchen as I could not bear to watch the tape again. When he appeared, he was white and shaken. He said that we had to ask Louise about it no matter how difficult it was and he agreed to come home with me to talk to her.
What we saw on the tape was a short film of our hall and front door which had been filmed from the exact position in which the camera was kept in the living room. I saw a man I didn't know pulling Louise along the hall by her hair. He lifted her up and pushed her against the wall. She had tape over her mouth and was struggling with him. Suddenly, he took out a large knife and cut her throat before stabbing her in the chest and stomach several times until she collapsed onto the floor. He then stood with his back to the camera and seemed to be stabbing her again but when he moved towards the front door, I saw that he had her severed head in his hand. He threw it down beside her body before running out the front door still holding the knife.

So it was with great intrepedation that we went back to talk to her. As we climbed the stairs to the flat, I noticed that the front door was ajar. Jeff slowly pushed it open and Louise's body was lying there beside her severed head. We both stood completely stunned. From behind, I heard the sound of footsteps and turned round to see Louise walking up the stairs. She was smiling but silent as we stared at each other. Something was wrong - so very wrong.

PART TWO
The following weeks were hell. The police held both the tape and the camcorder and Jeff and I were interrogated endlessly about the film. They knew the murderer, he was a convicted psychopath who had escaped from prison and fortunately it didn't take long for him to be recaptured. I had been honest about having seen the tape before the murder had been commited but it caused so much disbelief and confusion that I ended up saying that, due to the stress I was probably wrong, and that Jeff had only heard about it from me. The official explanation was that either the murderer or the victim had accidently turned on the camera. But I know I saw the future.

With hindsight it is easy to say, "If only I had done this or known that then I could have stopped it happening." But perhaps in this case if I had known one piece of information, I may have been able to save a life. You see, it was not Louise on the tape - it was her sister. I had no idea that they were identical twins. By a cruel twist of fate, Ann had gone up to the flat to pick up the very tape her murder was filmed on. She had wanted to see the video of her son at the zoo, but she was followed by a man whose sole purpose in life was to kill a young woman.

We received a call from the police and had to go down to the station. They had been reviewing the tape with special equipment and had noticed the faint image of a woman standing in the hall watching the murder with a pained expression on her face. Louise was able to identify the woman as her mother - who had died more than 5 years before.

So by now things were starting to make more sense to me, albeit in a paranormal fashion. It seemed as if Ann's deceased mother was trying to warn her or someone of what may have been her predestined fate. But if that was true then the message could have been relayed better and if it hadn't been for the tape then I would have been at home when Ann called round. Perhaps it was to save me ? Perhaps I was stupid and should have understood but how would anyone else have reacted ? I blamed myself at first but then it was pointed out to me that perhaps justice was the
reason . Her mother wanted the killer caught and by sending the message a little early thought that just maybe - she could save her daughters life. We will never know - at least not in this existance.

These events happened many years ago. I now live with Jeff who proved to be my greatest comfort throughout that difficult time and Louise and I are still good friends. All three of us now know that there is life after death. ©M WILLIAM 1999