It all started with an app. The year was 2011 and I was still a nursing student. Horror films, scary stories and pranks were my kind of entertainment. One night, as I was browsing Google Play Store, I came across an app that lets me take pictures and put a ghostly image in the background. It was a precursor to Augmented Reality games nowadays, I think. I installed it and felt excited imagining the scared faces of my friends if I do this prank on them. Graphics-wise, the app exceeded my expectations. The resulting 'ghost picture' was believable or at least according to the standards back in those days.

The next morning, we went to a company for our Industrial Nursing exposure. After all the orientations and introductions, we finally had our free time in the company clinic. We spent it playing fun games together with our clinical instructor. When we got tired from all the games we played, someone suggested having some picture-taking to commemorate our first day in the company. I offered to be the photographer. I had a prank in mind, after all. I already had one of my group mates in on the prank. She helped position the rest of the group carefully to give way for the "ghost" as I positioned my phone on the table and set the timer. When the picture was taken, I edited it quickly before showing it to them.

Most of them were horrified by what they saw. The others were thrilled. A ghost of a lady in white stood just beside me. I fought the urge to laugh seeing the looks in their faces. Then, one of them said that we should show it to the company nurse, too. I was worried where this prank might lead to if I showed it to someone else. So, I decided to tell them the truth. They were more amazed than mad at me.They told me that no one else should know about this. Apparently, my group mates and I shared the same interest in doing scary pranks.They decided to upload the picture on Facebook the next day.

It generated hundreds of likes and comments. Most of them accepted it to be genuine and shared some scary history about the company. Alone in my room, I couldn't stop giggling as I read the comments.Moments later, I went down stairs to drink some water. I took my phone with me to tinker more on the app. I took a selfie as I drank my water and placed a ghoul behind me. I was amazed by the technology. I placed my phone on the table while I prepared some coffee for the night. When I went back, the app has already updated itself. I was thrilled. More updates meant more ghosts and better graphics.

The app looked entirely different. The logo of the developer was not in the loading screen any more. There wasn't even any loading screen at all. Most of the features were gone. I couldn't select the kind of ghosts I wanted. It was more of a downgrade. The user interface was more like my phone's default camera. I aimed my camera towards my door. There was no hovering ghost any more. I tried to fiddle more but I couldn't find some other options that would let me do that. So, I decided to snap the picture to see what would happen.

When I saw the picture, I was relieved. The app was still working.There was a ghost of the same lady in our group picture standing behind the window next to our main door. It looked so cool and believable. I was thinking that they have improved their 3D technology. I sent the picture to one of my group mates with a caption: "Guess what? I updated the app and look what it did! Cool,eh?"

"Geez! It's giving me the creeps. Are you sure it's just the app?" He replied.

"Chill! It's just the app. LOL!" I typed. Then, I sent him a screenshot of the app's new user interface.

"IDK man...looks like the basic camera app to me."

"That's the best part of it! No one will know it's a different app! LMFAO!"

I snapped another picture of our living room. The same ghost was now inside the room. Cool, I thought. I snapped another picture of the room. This time, the ghost was standing in the middle of the living room. I felt a little chill down my spine and was beginning to feel uneasy. I climbed up the staircase and stopped at the top. I aimed the camera down at our living room again and snapped. The ghost was now standing at the bottom of the staircase. That was when I began to sweat profusely. My heart was beginning to beat rapidly. I love doing scary pranks but I hate it when I am the subject of the prank. I was beginning to feel like this was just a prank or more like hoping that this was just a prank on me.

I went inside my room and sent the pictures to my friend. Seconds later, he called me. He was cursing.

"Dude, I'm sure it's not the app anymore!" He said.

"Relax, bro! It's just the app. It's their new update." I chuckled, trying to hide my anxiety.

"I don't know man! It's just too real to –"

"Hold on! Someone's coming in!" My bedroom door opened slowly,creaking as it went.

"Mom?" I called out.

I could hear my friend's muffled cursing through the phone. "Dude,I'm hanging up," he called out.

"No no no no... dude! Wait up! Don't hang up yet!" I tried to whisper but I couldn't hide the urgency in my voice. "Someone opened my door but no one's there!" I added.

He cursed again. "Dude! This better be not one of your stupid pranks! It's freaky! I'm hanging up!"

The line went dead.

I looked at my open door. Then, I thought of the craziest idea I had that night. I took my phone and searched for the app through the"recently opened apps" tab. Then, I realised something that made my throat dry in an instant. The app was nowhere to be found. I was simply using my default camera all along. I froze - just standing there, looking down my phone, afraid to even look up and see what was coming. My hands started to shake. I could hear the deafening sound of my heart beating so fast.

I did some deep breathing in an attempt to calm myself. It was futile. Somehow, I found my hand rising up, holding up the phone and aimed it's camera towards the door. I couldn't steady my hand. I looked through my screen, tapped the capture button and closed my eyes as soon as the camera shutter snapped.

Click.

Everything fell into silence.

It must have been a couple of minutes before I opened my eyes to look at my phone. My hands were still shaking. When I looked at the picture, there was no ghost. It was a relief. I was still holding up my hand as I deleted the picture. I felt stupid and laughed at my own stupidity. I couldn't believe that I thought all of these were real. I lowered my hand and looked down on my phone. I sent a text message to my friend.

"Dude, you should download this app! ASAP! It's great! Try searching for Ghost App on the Play Store."

I took a deep breath and looked up. But when I did, all I could see was a lump of hair and everything went dark.