Chris moaned reminding me where I was. Although Joey could barely stand himself, he helped me up. My knees were shaking that I could barely stand. Joey looked at me with his chocolate brown eyes and was relieved. I wrapped my arms around him in a hug.
Chris and Lance looked at us worriedly, “What happened? What the hell happened, tonight?” Lance asked us both wanting an explanation.
Joey looked at them seriously, “ I don’t know.”
“Why were you and Tabitha banging on my door at 3: 30 in the morning?”
My head finally left Joey’s shoulder, “Because they were chasing us.”
“Who?” Chris asked.
“Them.” Lance and Chris looked at each other and slowly looked over their shoulders. Fear crossed their faces as they saw whom I was talking about. More ghosts were lined shoulder to shoulder around us.
“My god,” Joey whispered, “they’re all around.” My hands were clenched into fists holding onto Joey’s shirt. His hands were at my waist holding me close.
“Joey,” I started, “ did you by any chance say you didn’t believe in them?”
“No.”
“Then why were they chasing you?”
“Well, I might have said something in my head.”
I looked at him, “Then make them leave.”
“How?” he asked looking around us at the spirits.
“Ask them.”
Joey looked around at the ghosts, “ Leave us alone, please.” The ghosts with one last look at each of us turned and left the room. We stared in silence for several minutes. Lance and Chris turned to look at us. Their faces were white like powder.
Lance turned and slowly walked to his waterbed. “I’m going to bed now and try to forget what happened earlier. Don’t ever remind me, ever, about this morning. Wake me when hell freezes over. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll never wake,” he flopped heavily on his bed.
Chris moved over to a recliner chair, “ Yeah, what Lance said.” Joey and I stood their a little longer watching Lance and Chris sleep off the nightmare. Finally he pulled me to a small couch. I laid my head on his chest covering him completely with my body. Our legs wrapped around each other. We were scared form the nights happenings. Our hearts finally beat at their normal race. It was only then, did we fall asleep.
I woke later that morning from a light kiss on my forehead. My eyes fluttered open to see Joey smiling at me. I was on my side, my back against the couch facing Joey, who still held a firm grip on my hips. I smiled back wiping the sleep from my eyes.
“You finally got to sleep?” I asked.
“Yeah, it wasn’t the best but I eventually fell asleep.
“Same with me. So why did you wake me?” I jokingly asked; draping my free arm around his waist.
“I needed to hear your laugh.”
“ My laugh? Why would you want to hear my laugh?” I asked trying to hold my laughter in.
“I like hearing your laugh, it sounds so innocent,” Joey said smiling at me. I laughed at his flirtaousness trying to hide my blush that I could feel starting.
“See,” he pointed out, “that’s what I like.”
I looked into his eyes; smiling, “Is that all you like?”
“No, I like your eyes. They tell a lot even when you don’t talk,” he brushed my cheek with his fingertips. I moved my head against his soft hand. His thumb brushed over my closed eyelid.
“What are my eyes telling, now?” I asked opening my eyes.
He looked at them for a brief second. “They want me to kiss you.” Joey waited for me to protest but when I didn’t he started to slowly lean into me. I closed my eyes waiting for his lips to touch mine. A blood-curling scream rang out throughout Lance’s room. Joey fell heavily on the floor. He groaned loudly. Lance ran over to Joey.
“What did you do to her?” Lance stood on top of Joey.
“Dude…get… off… I… can’t…breath,” Joey said in between gasps of breaths.
“Lance, it wasn’t me. He didn’t do anything.”
Lance looked down confused. “What?”
“It wasn’t me. Lance you’re choking the poor boy.”
Lance looked down at a gasping Joey, “Uh, dude, I’m sorry,” as he got off and tried to help Joey up.
Chris looked around sleepily, “What happened? Who screamed?”
“Man, Joey, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t fully awake.”
“Obviously,” Joey said gasping for breath sitting beside me.
“Who screamed?” Chris asked again louder.
“I don’t even know what woke me up. What happened?”
Chris walked up to us frustrated, “Who screamed?”
“Yeah, who screamed?” Lance asked.
“Yeah, Lance, you said that a lot better than I did,” Chris said sarcastically.
“It wasn’t any of us,” I replied; talking about Joey and I.
Joey’s breathing finally went back to normal, “I thought it came from outside.” We all got up and went out to the balcony. Groaning as the sunlight his us. Everybody looked below. I looked at the gleaming pond. Green like a ripe lime waiting to be peeled. The gray stonewall around the property was so dull looking. I smelled the pine trees beyond the tall wall.
“Well, nobody is here,” Joey, said. I turned around to go back inside. Chris stopped dead in his tracks. Color drained from his face. His eyes stared at something to the right.
“Chris what is wrong?” I wondered looking at him. Looking around I saw nothing peculiar. Lance and Joey looked around but couldn’t find what Chris was looking at.
Finally Chris spoke, “ Mirror.”
Our heads turned to where the only mirror stood. Letters in shaving cream spelled one word ‘Believe’. It was all it said and all it needed to say.
I saw a reflection of an old woman; smiling. Her finger white form the shaving cream. She turned to look at us personally. What I saw made me nocuous in the stomach but I was so scared I couldn’t move. Her right side of her face was nothing but red. Nothing but her muscle. Her muscles in her face clenched tighter as she smiled wider at us. I looked to where she should have stood but nothing was there. My eyes looked back at the mirror but she had vanished. The door to Lance’s room swung open Justin stood at the entrance with J.C.
“Hi guys. We just came to wake Lance up but,” Justin came over to stand in front of us, “ we can see you already did.”
J.C. moved his hand in front of Joey, “Hello? Earth to Joey. Hello? Hey, look Joey, Carmen Electrica naked. Hey Justin, Joey isn’t moving, do you think he is dead?”
Justin looked at him like he was crazy, “ Yeah right J.C. Maybe somebody kicked him in the balls and it just didn’t register yet.”
“Uh, I think I liked my possibility better.”
Justin stood beside me looking where I was looking, “What are we looking at?” he whispered in my ear. I snapped out to my trance, shaking my head.
“Hey we have a live one here,” Justin told J.C. Lance, Chris, and Joey came to the world only seconds after me.
“Man, I thought you were dead,” Justin told Joey.
“Yeah, right, I thought you were dead. Genius over here,” J.C. pointed to Justin, “ he thought you got kicked in the balls and it didn’t register. Man, you guys look like you just saw a ghost of something,” J.C. said with a little laugh. We looked at him seriously. The nauseous feel in my stomach came a second time remembering the lady with half a face. I ran in the bathroom quickly shutting the door.
“Was it something I said?”J.C. asked shrugging. Everybody looked at him. Joey knocked lightly on the bathroom door.
“Come in,” I told him from the cold, white marble floor. Hearing the door open I saw Joey looking concerned. He sat down next to me, “You, ok?”
“I’ve been better. Did you see her, the lady?”
“Yeah, I got nocuous too.”
“I never saw her before. She was so weird looking,” I told him. “ I was so scared, Joey, the way she smiled at us.” I placed my hands over my face and started crying. Joey’s big arms wrapped around me pulling toward himself. I wrapped my arms around his waist. My head rested in the crook of his neck. He started rubbing my back, soothing my sobs.
“You know what, I think its time for me to crack a joke. The only problem is, I don’t have one.” I laughed at his readiness to make me laugh.
“Oh, Joey, you’re funny don’t ever change,” I told him looking in his eyes. Joey pulled my face toward his. My eyes never left his as he pulled me closer. Suddenly Justin poked his head in just as we were about to kiss.
“Hey, you ok, Tabitha?” he asked.
I turned my head slightly to look at Justin, “ Yeah, I’ll be fine. We’re being out when we get up.”
“Ok,” with that Justin left.
“What do you say we get off the floor?” Joey asked.
copyright © 2001 AngelH