There were different types of invisibility.
Obviously there was the superhero kind, which could usually be engaged and disengaged at the hero's own will.
There was social invisibility, such as those experiencing homelessness, overlooked by the eyes of the world; not something
they could turn off.
Likewise there was invisible illness, as in the case of Carson Usher, diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy when he was five.
Then, there was rather a different kind. . . .an existence unto itself.
The Unperceived.Aggie Trussté was one. Unperceived visually, auditorily and tactilely -often completely, occasionally only for the most part. She could be speaking yet wouldn't be heard, or her voice would be like a whisper on the wind. . . She could brush against you yet would feel you more than you would feel her, if you did at all. You might catch a glimpse of her -could swear you just saw someone, but did you?
However, there existed those who
could perceive The Unperceived so completely, they wouldn't even realize they were speaking with one until a third party came over and asked why they were carrying on a conversation or a meal with themselves?
Aggie reasoned there was something extra in the brains of the so-called "Perceivers" - that they could dial into the different frequency The Unperceived were on. Or, that there was something missing. Like how if you write the same word in a row -"the the"- you could miss that during a read-over because your brain interprets the second "the" as extra, unnecessary, and not worth perceiving.
There are other examples.
Maybe the brains of those who could perceive her, just didn't go for such filtering and shortcutting.
She honestly didn't know but she was interested in the story.
That's what drove Aggie: interest in the stories. The need to tell the ones not often told. To open the eyes of the world to the parts of it unseen.
Her invisibility gave her an edge as an investigative journalist.
She could get closer than any other, the
insidest inside scoop.
Nobody knew how she did it.
Her boss certainly didn't. He not being a "Perceiver" himself wouldn't even know if she were standing right next to him. That was the benefit of a digital world where you could work remotely for an online news source. Aggie's friend, Arianne, helped her with the phone and in-person portion of the interview -
having a Perceiving friend made life as an Unperceived SO much more functional- After that, her boss had no occasion to need to see her.
One could say Aggie's life didn't start out this way.
When she was born, she was completely "normal" for the first day before "disappearing" to anyone outside of her immediate family. They later reasoned she was kept on her mother's "frequency" while in the womb, shifting over to her own once outside.
Beyond her parents and older brother, three more key players would come into Aggie's life: Lisa Oriol, who Aggie discovered could see her one day when they were both playing in the sandbox of the local park. A steadfast friend, shier about speaking openly with Aggie where non-perceivers could look at her like she were crazy, but never embarrassed about being Aggie's friend; the aforementioned Arianne, bold and deft enough to make the
starers feel like the crazy ones. Aggie met her in highschool -of course Aggie had been homeschooled most of her life, but thought to try actually attending in her teenaged years. It's not as though she couldn't simply place her assignments and exams on the teacher's desk like any other student. Of course the school thought she was chronically absent -she got her diploma through correspondence.
Then there was Carson, who was Aggie's husband. Smooth towards her invisibility when out in public, he often had fun with it. Like one time on the bus. Carson always took the aisle seat since any Aggie sat in would appear unoccupied, and this saved her the usual trouble of having to be watchful and quick so as not to get sat on. On this occasion, she had her carrier bag in her lap.
A strange fact about The Unperceived: when they were
holding items, the items came under their invisible "vibrations" and became invisible as well. Just having the bag on her lap, however, it remained visible and looked as though it were sitting perfectly on the seat; not floating at lap height or anything.
Another passenger came on and asked Carson if he could move "his" bag so they could sit down.
"Oh, that's not mine," he answered with a smile.
The other passenger smiled back, a little impatiently: "Still, could you move it to the floor?"
"Sorry," he responded with a shrug of his hands, "as a general rule I choose
not to touch unclaimed bags anywhere. Have you heard about those bomb threats?" He shook his head. "This world."
The woman just nodded and moved on.
"You know," Aggie pointed out afterward, with a knowing smile, "you could've played the part of the gentleman and given her
your seat."
"Did you see the size of
her bag? You might've wound up with two on your lap."
Aggie and Carson were a balance to each other. He had emotional stuff she was his ground for, and she had the trials of living an invisible life which he mitigated. Like how he'd always walk
just in front of her, hand stretched back holding hers, when going through a crowd, so as to "snowplow" the crowd away: they would move out of the way for
him thus allowing Aggie a free path forward as well. Again, saving her the need to be quick; weaving and dodging.
She knew she was one of the lucky ones. Between Carson and her girlfriends, and sheer luck at times, she had a lot more "normal" of a life than many -or most- Unperceived.
She had a job. She'd been lucky enough to get her SIN card because an employee was a Perceiver.
Same with opening up a bank account. If she had needed to talk to someone over the phone, growing up her Mom pretended to be her. Now, Arianne tended to field it, like she did with Aggie's job interview. Likewise, Lisa would go to a separate medi-centre than the one she'd go to for herself, and get certain medications for Aggie under the guise of getting it for herself. Much easier than "shopping around" for a Perceiving doctor; it was lucky Aggie was healthy and not the type who felt the need to hit up a doctor for every little ailment.
But her circumstance made things scary with Carson's condition. If he were ever seizing long enough to require an ambulance call, it was likely Aggie wouldn't be heard by 911. The occasion had occurred. Fortunately, hearing nothing but the sounds Carson was making, an ambulance was sent out anyway.
Being an Unperceived wasn't all trials, tribulations, and facing a myriad of challenges with cleverness, though. Some of it could be uniquely entertaining.
Especially this time of year. . . .* * *
"OMG! This place is beyond!" A teen laughed nervously into the camera in her phone, filming herself a la
The Blaire Witch Project on a dare; her current location the inside of a haunted Victorian mansion.
"Using all my ghost gear I've detected faint noises, picked up whisps of movement from the camera trap and found hot spots--" Suddenly she screamed as her friend came up behind her. "Don't do that!" She turns the camera on them.
"I keep telling her ghosts are evidenced by
cold spots. She doesn't listen." They look at their friend. "You don't listen." They revert to the camera: "Also,
she didn't pick up on those images and sounds. I did. Without the bogus ghost gear, actually."
"Would you stop -why are you even here?" But she whacks their arm good naturedly. "You're messing with the vibe--"
BOOM
A heavy piece of furniture falls in the room down the hall from them.
"Okay! There is absolutely
NO WAY that could've fallen on its own!" The duo is tentatively making their way to that room when the girl reacts as though she's suddenly lost her balance, falling into her friend. "Something just ran past me!-"
"-I saw it! A body part!"
"A
what?! We've got to get out of here-" -she's already running- "That's enough footage -I've had enough -let's go!" She needn't have beckoned -her friend was right there as they hurried down the staircase. "Wait! The stuff! It was expensive."
But not one second later they nearly trip down the stairs as a sight down in the foyer catches them off guard.
All their ghost gear -camera trap, recorder, parabolic mic they'd accidentally left in another room, etc. -had been neatly placed on the small, clawed table by the door, the knob of which turning even as they watch and the door opening.
Nobody is on either side of it.
Except- "Don't you see that
disembodied arm?!" The friend asks the other teen, wide-eyed.
"What the Hell!"
"Go now -it moved back -GO
NOW!"
* * *
Benny saw the video on Shudder like everyone else did. Frankly he didn't believe it. People
designed videos like that all the time. He was sure there was invisible string and editing tricks involved. Why did he have to be dragged along to this place himself to satisfy his cousin's need to join a trend?
"Okay, we're gonna' set the stuff up. Then-"
"I
know," Benny interrupted. His boredom contrasting with his cousin's taking-this-way-too-seriously persona.
"Fine! Stay here then."
"And do what if I have to?" He let out a gusty breath. "I'll come with."
And so the boys made their way through the house in a thought out, calculated way. But as they did, Benny was beginning to notice something. ..they were being slowly and creepily tailed by a kid about their age, and he noticed other, older people stationed in certain areas of the room. It reminded him of something from the family's vacation last October.
"I thought this was supposed to be a
real haunted house! Not the kind with
actors! Those other videos
were fa--"
"
Shhh! You're messing up the reading --what are you even
on about?!"
Benny pointed and turned, so his point became more like a sweeping motion. The kid tailing them paused as though he didn't know what to do now.
Benny's cousin just raised an eyebrow. "
Whaaat? What are you pointing at?" His face suddenly paled. "Are you saying you've seen the ghosts?!"
Benny's brow furrowed. Wasn't
his cousin seeing these "ghosts", too?
"Uh....I dun-nnnooo...."
His cousin regained his composer, his mouth twisted impatiently: "Don't make stuff up to satisfy your boredom, Benny. Why don't you double back and check some of our stuff
then you'll see it was worth coming here. I'll bet you money on it."
Benny put his hands in his pockets and turned around again.
The other kid was no longer there. He didn't see the older people, either.
He started back into another room thinking this place was messing with his head. "Maybe there's something in the air and we're all just halluci--"
"I'm not a hallucination." That kid stepped out from behind a wardrobe. "You just have the ability to perceive The Unperceived."
"What are...?"
"We all are." Came an older voice, as a man stepped out, placing his hand on the kid's shoulder. Then two elder folks, a man and a woman, and finally. . .
Aggie: "And though this is a fun sport, it would be preferable if these nice people," -she gestured to the Unperceived family- "could live in their new-to-them house without regular drop-in guests." At this she moved passed Benny, cupping him reassuringly on the shoulder as she walked passed him -he seemed like a reasonable kid.
Not a hallucination for sure! Benny felt her hand as if it had been his own sister's. Not the least bit chilling like a ghost's...He looked like he was turning things over in his mind when he heard Aggie's voice coming from another room. "How attached are you all to the chandelier in this living room? I'm getting the vibe that bringing it down might scare this other one away."
Unperceived Man: "Just do it carefully."
Benny whipped from the sound of Aggie's voice back around to the the others. His cousin
should have been able to hear that exchange. Instead Benny heard his cousin's voice faintly: "Wicked -got some voice-like static in this room."
"Why can't
he hear or see you?"
"Like we said," the man answered, "we are The Unperceived. Invisible to
most of society's eyes and ears."
The kid chimed in: "Even when I run full on into you -which is a favourite trick of mine to get out unwanteds- you don't feel it like you would from a typical person. Well,
you would."
Benny's chest started to thump. He was perceiving ghosts -no, invisible people. These ones in front of him and that lady in the other room were apparently
invisible people, and the evidence of this being fact A.K.A. his cousin's obliviousness, checked out.
"How many of you are there?"
The elder man answered: "In this house, or the world?"
Dumbstruck, Benny could hardly form his next question: "But I've never. . .How come. . ?"
"
Noticed us before?" The elderly woman asked with a kindly smile. "You may've crossed paths with many in your life you wouldn't even realize were Unperceived.
The kid adds matter-of-factly: "
Everyone's had an experience with one of us."
"Not all of us can be so lucky to find an abandoned place of our," -
*ahem*- "
own, like this." The man's eyes shift up at the sound of what's surely a crashing chandelier freaking out a 5th grader.
Benny ignored his cousin's yells -his foot falls as he hurried away -even ignored what is clearly the sound of his cousin leaving him behind, to ask: "Are you saying you live in other people's?"
"Know anyone who's ever found something in a different place than they're
sure they left it?" An amused smile crosses his face.
Unperceived Kid: "Or felt the sensation of something brushing their skin? Like a breeze on a windless day?" They grinned in a way that Benny could only think of as creepily. "We're literally the things ghost stories are made of. Some people can only perceive us part way."
Suddenly an out of tune piano started to play. Benny leaned to look through another doorway and saw Aggie playing it. To most anyone else, it would appear as a
player piano.
Unperceived Kid: "Tell your friends to respect the sounds that go bump in the night, Benny. They may be a friend they haven't met yet," the creepy grin remains.
While the implications of this percolated through Benny's young mind, Aggie played on, sporting a decidedly
not creepy grin;
the non-Perceivers were sure to have some
captivating stories!
by
@Master EffeX
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