Out of the Darkness

172

He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "And I know that you told me to be careful. I know that you told me that it would never work. Of course it won't. I'm not stupid. Or maybe I am. She's a fucking ghost. How could it work? I just-" "Colby, shut the fuck up!" I snapped my mouth closed and cut my eyes to him for a second before looking back at the road. "Yes, I did warn you. I told you all of that. BUT," he said loudly, when he saw me start to speak. "I think I might've been wrong. Anna is a ghost...right? Or we think she is. But what if she's not." I shook my head. "That's stupid, Sam. What else-" "Hear me out. As long as we've been dealing with the supernatural, have we EVER had a ghost become solid? Sure, we've talked to them through instruments, and we've had things happen. We've even seen a few. What about the Queen Mary? We saw ghosts there, right? We've seen physical manifestations in other places too, but none of them became solid. Yes, they could touch us, and even harm us, but they were never really solid. Anna is." I let his words roll around in my mind, but I couldn't make sense of it. "So what, Sam? What does that mean? She's solid sometimes. Maybe it's just because we've never been able to be around one for long enough to see if they become solid. If she's not a ghost, then what the fuck is she?" My voice got louder, to where I was almost yelling, so I took a deep breath to calm down. "It doesn't matter. None of it matters right now. The only thing I care about right now is seeing what this Christine woman knows, if anything. Everything else...I guess we'll take it one step at a time." He sighed and sat back in his seat. "Okay...but I really think there is something more to this, Colby. I feel it." I didn't reply and kept my eyes on the road. We eventually made it to the restaurant but had to drive around the block a few times to find somewhere to park. We ended up having to walk a couple of blocks, from where we parked. Every step I took, closer to meeting this woman, the more anxious I got. My nerves were buzzing, like I had drank 10 energy drinks. "You gotta calm down, or you're gonna scare the lady off, brother," Sam said, putting his hand on my shoulder. I let out a deep breath. "I know. I just keep thinking about, what if she knows Anna? What if we've wasted all of this time trying to figure out who Anna is, and the answer has literally been right in front of our face. What is she going to tell us? Who was Anna before this? There's so many questions that-" I shut up and shook my head. "I don't know what to say to her. I thought that I would be able to wing it, but I'm at a total loss as to how to start this conversation." I reached up and roughly ran my hand through my hair. "Ouch, shit!" I exclaimed, bringing my bad arm back down. "Why didn't you ask me to bandage it?" Sam replied, grabbing my injured arm. "I meant too," I answered. "I just forgot..." If I wasn't feeling the pain from it that much, was that a good thing or a bad thing? Was it getting better, or getting so bad that it was killing the nerves that caused the pain? "Damn it, Colby," Sam sighed. "We're early, so when we get there, let's go to the bathroom and at least clean it up. I don't have anything to bandage it with, but the restaurant should have a first aid kit. Maybe they'll let us use it. How can you just forget about this? It looks even worse than it did yesterday. I think that I'll call Ash when we get home, to see if he knows anything else that might help. Or anyone else that can help." I took my arm out of his grasp and kept walking. "You know he doesn't, Sam. He already told us that. I promised you that I would try to find someone else to help me, and I will. Just not today. Today is about finding out who Anna is...or was... Anyway, it doesn't hurt that bad. Not anymore. Only when I move it wrong or hit it on something. I could see him staring at me, out of the corner of my eye. He was worried. I could see it in his eyes. Hell, so was I, but there was nothing I could do about it. I really didn't believe that there would be any hope of finding someone to help me, but I wasn't going to tell him that. We finally made it to Hasiba, and stood out front for a moment, looking in. The building was nothing spectacular, but still elegant, in a way. The front was just glass, underneath and awning with potted plants hanging underneath. Inside, we saw basic black, plastic chairs lining the walls, with black tables in front of them. A few smaller, but taller tables with bar stools as the seats were scattered in the middle. There was nothing grand about it. It was simple and tasteful. No big gimmicks, or drastic decorations. To me, that meant that they knew they had a product that people wanted, so they didn't have to oversell it. When Sam opened the door, the smell of the food hit me in the face. "Oh my God," I groaned, finally feeling hunger pains. "It smells amazing." "Yes, it does," Sam replied, taking a deep breath in through his nose. "Hi, welcome. Please seat yourselves and we'll be right with you," a dark skinned lady said from behind the counter. We nodded and walked up to her. She had a sweet, slightly plump face, with almost golden chocolate eyes. Her dark hair was shining under the bright florescent light. "Hey, do you have a bathroom and a first aid kit that we can use. My friend fell and cut his arm pretty badly on the walk here," Sam said, using his charm that he always saved for when he wanted things to go his way. I held up my arm for proof. The lady sucked in a breath, then started to cough, when she saw my injury. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, after she caught her breath. "That looks horrible! Should I call an ambulance?" Her hands fluttered around, like she was looking for her phone. "No, no, I'm okay," I said, before she could find it. "I promise. We just need to bandage it up for now."