Out of the Darkness

83

"What's up?" I said, answering his call. "Where are you? Kat left a while ago. I was looking everywhere until I noticed your car was gone," he replied. "The beach," I answered. "I just needed some air, Sam. This is all a little overwhelming." "I get that. I just got worried. You coming back soon?" I sighed, and looked out to the skyline again, where the sky met the ocean. "Yeah, I'll be there soon." I stood up, brushed the sand from my jeans, and walked back to my car. After putting my socks and shoes back on, I started my old Corolla up and leaned back against the seat. I thought about the danger that Sam was placing himself in, just for me. For some ghost girl that had somehow crawled her way into my heart. My mind drifted, wondering what the point of all of this was. Was it really going to help anything? Or would we get stuck in whatever dimension Anna was in, forced to live in a thick Darkness that erased almost everything about us? Once again, my heart twisted when I thought of Anna stuck in that horrible place, being tortured with that unbearable pain. I had to do what I could. I knew that. Even if it meant death. For me, there was no other option. I felt like I would try to help anyone in a situation like that, but I had to admit that Anna meant more to me than any random person. I still didn't understand how I could fall, or start falling, for a ghost girl...leave it to me, I guess. By the time I made it home, Sam was in the living room, sprawled out on the couch, his legs crossed, with his laptop in his lap. I walked over, and shoved his legs down onto the floor, so that I could sit next to him. "Hey," he said, looking up at me. "You good?" I nodded, and leaned over to see what he was staring at on his computer. "Any progress?" He chewed his lip and scrolled up to the top of the page. "Not sure," he said, highlighting a paragraph and then pasting it to a note document. I noticed that there were quite a few paragraphs pasted in that document. "So, you still think witches then?" I asked, noticing that most of the notes were about said subject. He shrugged and met my gaze. "I think so. It's the only thing that makes sense, unless we have a mythical creature that steals people's souls and traps them in another dimension." I frowned, thinking about how I had literally thought that about the other dimension just a little while before. "What if that is what it is?" I said quietly. "How are we supposed to fight that?" "Don't get ahead of yourself, Colby. We need to try and figure out what we're working with first. I have an idea." I stared at him for a minute, noticing how his fingers were shaking just a little, his expression stoic. He was nervous. Scared, even. "Is this idea going to get us killed?" I asked, knowing the answer before I asked. "Uh, maybe? It's all I got Colby. We need more info on what this is, before we can find any real information. I want to go talk to your witch friend again. What was her name?" "Amethyst?" I asked, confused. She wasn't my friend. I barely knew her. He nodded though, and opened a new window in his browser, adding to the 10 he already had. "Yeah, her. You said that you think you might've traveled, or your consciousness did, to wherever Anna was. Or where she used to be. Right?" I nodded, thinking back to that awful place. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. It was definitely weird, but felt real." "I think it felt real, because it was. Look," he said, turning his laptop towards me. "Astral Projection?" I asked, reading the screen. "Yes! Don't you see? I'm almost positive that's what happened when you were with the witch. Read this part." He pointed at the screen, and I began to read. "an intentional out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an "astral body" that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe." I was quiet, letting that sink in. "I thought things like that could only happen if you were sleeping, or have a near death experience or something," I answered, trying to read more of what was on the screen. "It does say that on most of the websites that I've checked. BUT, it also says that if you have someone who is trained in astral projection, someone who is very open to it, then it may be possible for them to take you along with them." Is that what happened with Amethyst? She had seemed just as surprised as I had been though. "Maybe we should go talk to her again," I muttered, the words in front of me blurring together. "You ready?" he asked me, closing his laptop. "What? Now?" I asked, surprised. "I mean, right now? You don't want to...I don't know, prepare or something?" I knew it sounded stupid before I even said it. "Prepare?" he asked, his eyebrows going, as his expression questioned my sanity. "How the hell are we supposed to do that brother?" I shook my head. "I don't know. This is just really sudden. Moving so fast." "Don't you want to know as much as can? To help Anna?" I sighed and closed my eyes. "Yes," I replied, opening them and meeting his gaze. "Let's go then," he replied. We piled into my car, and I watched as Sam put the Anna doll carefully into the backseat, not saying a word to me about it. I was grateful because I knew how dumb it was that I was so careful with a damn doll. "What do you think this will be like?" I asked, making the turn into heavy traffic.