Out of the Darkness

44

My dreams were anything but calm. Almost nightmares even. I awoke feeling very shaken and disturbed, although I couldn't remember why. I just had an overwhelming feeling of darkness and foreboding despair. I stretched, rolling my muscles to ease the tension in them. "Good morning sleepyhead," I heard a girl's voice say. I jerked up, bunching the blanket around my waist as I did. "Fuck Anna," I said, seeing her ghostly form standing at the foot of my bed. I scrubbed my face with both hands, then tried to straighten my hair. "You finally decided to come back huh? I wasn't sure you could." She looked confused at my words. "What are you blabbing on about? I was only gone for a few hours." I raised my eyebrow at her, then threw the covers back to get out of bed. I stood up, grabbed my jeans from the day before off of the floor, and slid them back on. When I looked back up to Anna, her face was turned away, and even though she was transparent and had no blood, I could almost swear that it was rushing to her cheeks. "Oh, sorry," I replied, shaking my head at my thoughtlessness. "I'm dressed." She turned back around and surveyed me. "You're anything but dressed. You're just not in your underwear," she replied, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she stared at my naked chest. "Yeah well, um," I said, now being the embarrassed one. "You've been gone for a week. I thought you had moved on or something." She met my gaze with her sad emerald one, and shook her head. "No. I wish that I had. Anything would be better than stuck in a world where you don't technically exist. I was really gone for a week? It feels like it was just yesterday when you guys were downstairs having fun." I shook my head. "Nope. 7 days today since the night you told me to leave you alone. When I came back, you were gone. I didn't know where you gone or still around." I grabbed the doll off of the foot of my bed, and held it up. "I took to staring at her, trying to talk to you. I thought that I could see you in her eyes sometimes. I wasn't sure though, so I left her where I could see her, just in case. Where were you?" "Uh I-" She was cut off by a knock on my door, followed by someone immediately opening it. "Yo, you up brother? We need to get going if we're going to make it to-" Sam's eyes met mine, then traveled down to my hands. "Colby, why do you still have that doll? I thought you had agreed to get rid of it. I just heard you talking to it again, didn't I?" Fuck. He had confronted me a couple of days ago when he had caught me talking to the doll, trying to pull Anna out of it, if that's where she was. I told him that I was just tired, and that maybe the doll really was haunted. "Do you really think she is?" He had asked, keeping his blue eyes trained on Anna's doll. I shrugged, like it didn't matter. "I dunno. Maybe. I think my lack of sleep is just getting to me though." "Why does she look familiar though?" he had mused, moving to take the doll from me. I had instinctively snatched her back, almost cradling her in my arms. His eyes turned from curiosity to worry in 0.2 seconds. "You're right. I think there's something weird about her too. Maybe you should try to sell her or something." I had cleared my throat, and held the doll haphazardly down by my side by her arm. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll list her now. Shouldn't be too hard." So I had lied to Sam, not once, not twice, but multiple times now. I found him later that day and told him that I was shipping her to her new owner the next day. "I just forgot to ship her, so I was about to put her in the car and go to do that," I answered. I could tell by his face that he didn't believe me. "Really?" he asked. I nodded, and grinned at him. "Yeah, what else would I be doing?" He didn't answer me, but kept those cool blue eyes locked on mine. He was actually making me nervous. If anyone knew that I was lying, it would be Sam. He knew me too well. "What are you hiding Colby?" he asked. "Whatever it is, whatever is wrong, I can help you get through it man. We're brothers. You know I've got you." Now he was unintentionally making me feel like shit. "Nothing brother. I'm fine. Just didn't get much sleep, that's all." He nodded like he knew what I was talking about. "Why didn't you come downstairs if the noise woke you up?" I was almost afraid to ask. "What noise?" "I thought you said...never mind. Jake was up, probably getting something to eat or drink, and ended up dropping a glass on the floor. It smashed everyone. Him and Corey were already in the kitchen when I got there." "Really? Nah, I didn't hear it. I guess I was actually sleeping during that time," I half heartedly joked. His eyes went suspicious and worried again. "Yeeahh," he mused, glancing down at the doll again. "You know, Jake said he didn't do it though. Said the noise woke him up too." Damn it, Anna. "Jake always says it wasn't him," I replied, feeling badly for throwing my friend under the bus. I'd make it up to him as soon as I could. "Yeah, he does...but, come to think of it, he will usually admit it eventually. He never admitted to the Ouija board thing with Tara either. Maybe we did haunt the house. Or maybe that doll haunted the house. What do you think?" I had to think fast. "I think that the sink was so full of dishes that a glass could've honestly rolled off and hit the floor. You know we aren't the best at cleaning up sometimes. Maybe Jake won't admit to it because of how mad Tara got? I never claimed to know how the guy's mind works Sam. That's scary territory. Even for us." That got a smile out of him, and his face to relax. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Guess we'll just have to wait and see before we try to summon any demons huh?" he said, laughing. I cracked a grin. "Yeah, probably a good thing. Just in case." "Okay, well we have to pull out soon to make it to the Queen Mary with Kian and JC. I can't believe they agreed to go again, to be honest." "Yeah, let me jump in the shower and pack a bag. I'll be down soon." He nodded, and started to leave, but paused at the door, and looked back at me. "Don't forget to bring her downstairs. I have a box you can use in my room to send her off." I nodded, and swallowed hard. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this one. "Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks."