Out of the Darkness

26

"How about we do this at least once a month, brother?" I said, turning the music down as we pulled into our driveway. He grinned at me, his blue eyes shining happily. "If we can find somewhere to explore that's legal, then hell yea, I'm down." We got out, grabbed the duffel bag and headed inside the house. I felt so lighthearted, as I climbed the stairs to get to my room. When I opened the door, that fruity scent hit me dead in the face, and I remembered. I remembered that there was a fucking haunted doll in my room, and a ghost girl named Anna was attached to it. The music was still playing, so I walked over to shut it off. "Anna?" I asked, glancing around my room. I noticed a shimmer over by my bed, before I heard her voice. "Hi, I'm so glad you're home! Did you have fun? What did you do? Give me all the deets!" I laughed at her exuberant tone of voice. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Sam and I just went exploring an old bando. The way we used too." "Bando?" she asked. I could picture the look of confusion on her face and wished that I could actually see her. For a moment, her figure appeared, then faded back out. She was gorgeous. Her clothes were outdated, that much I knew. Leave it to me to start falling for a fucking ghost girl. Talk about unavailable. Hi, my name is Colby Brock and I'm a lost cause. "An abandoned building," I explained, a slight grin on my face. "Oh, I've never heard that word before." I wasn't surprised. A lot of people didn't know that's what it meant. "So, how was your day?" I asked, sitting on my bed, and taking off my shoes. I was surprised when I felt the mattress shift a little. I glanced behind me and saw an imprint of someone sitting there. "It was okay. I tried learning to be a ghost. Your roommate walked in, and I think he heard me," she said, her soft voice floating over from the other side of my bed. "Shit, what happened?" I asked, laying back on the bed. "Nothing. I was trying to do something and I was so focused...that I kind of screamed when he came in." "Oh no, Annaaa," I groaned. "Which roommate?" All I could think about was that Corey would be in here any minute, letting me know that my room was haunted and we needed to calla  priest or something. "Um, I don't know his name. Seemed like a pretty deadly guy though," she answered. I frowned and looked over to where I knew she was sitting on my bed. "Deadly? Neither Jake or Corey would hurt a fly. What did he look like?" I heard her light, tinkling laugh. "No, you dingus. Deadly! Like wickedly cool, or something. He had blacker than black hair, a dangly earring, tattoos, and black painted nails." I chuckled and shook my head. Who would have thought there would be such a language barrier between a ghost and a human? Well, wait a minute. I guess everyone thinks that, because we aren't normally able to speak with ghosts. Her words were foreign to me though. I thought it was really cute when she said them, even if I didn't know what they meant. "That would be Jake. Okay, that's fine. He probably didn't think too much of it. He's the skeptic of the group. Still doesn't believe even when it's right in his face. What was he doing in here?" I would much rather have Jake hear her than Corey. Jake would shrug it off, thinking he heard a cat fight outside or something. Corey, not so much. "Oh. Well, he went into your closet. Your closet is really big, by the way. He came back out with a Ouija board." "Oh shit," I exclaimed, sitting up quickly. "Don't have a cow. It'll be fine," she said. For just a moment, I forgot why I had been upset and remembered something else. "I said that to Sam earlier. Why did I say that? I've never said that." I felt the air around me shift and could picture her shrugging. "I don't know. Sometimes I speak and you can't hear me. I'm not strong enough, but maybe, like, your subconscious mind, or whatever, can hear me." I thought about that. "You could be right," I mused. "Back to Jake though. Why don't you think it's a big deal? Won't that call you to it or something? I told you what would happen if they think the house is haunted." "I don't think I have to answer Colby. I only answered before, so that I could warn you," she said. Her voice was started to fade in and out a little, like a radio station that I couldn't quite get the right connection too. "Anna, are you okay?" I asked, starting to worry a little. "I don't know. I feel weird." Her voice sounded a little frightened this time, making my heart slam against my chest. What could a ghost be scared of? I answered my own question when the memory of that black smoke figure crossed my mind again. "Col-" my name was cut short, then her fragrance filled my room, before completely disappearing a second later. "Anna?!" I said, as genuine fear for her safety ate at me. "Anna!" I yelled, getting a little frantic when she didn't answer me. I tried to tell myself to calm down, to chill. She was a ghost. It wasn't like she could be hurt...could she? Jake. The Ouija board. I bet anything that whatever he was doing had caused this...whatever this was. I jumped up and ran downstairs to his room. I banged on the door a couple of times, then swung it open. Jake was sitting on his rug, with his girlfriend Tara, the Ouija board in between them. "What the fuck are you doing?!" I exclaimed, taking in the assortment of mixed colored candles, and the incense he had burning all around them.