Page 7 of Shadowing My Dreams
“I’m coming over, dude. You sound… You don’t sound right.” He used his serious voice whenever he worried. He had been worried about me a lot. I didn’t deserve him. I barely deserved anyone.
“Ok,” I agreed. I felt totally defeated. Was I going crazy? If two plus two equaled four – something was wrong with me. My phone was upstairs – seeing things that weren’t there – all of it added up to my brain, didn’t it? Maybe they hadn’t found the damage – but I was experiencing it. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
I hung up the phone, slowly stood from my bed, and walked back to the window. The street lamps were burning brightly, making the shadows from the tree outside dance against the ground. The Santa Anna winds were starting. They always made me feel uneasy. A coupleof years ago, they broke a branch that almost hit my car. Thank God I didn’t live in the valley.
I turned to walk away and froze. To the left, a shape moved. Human, but… not. Not solid. I didn’t dare move for fear of losing it. It had stopped and was standing against the wall as if it could see me, too. A chill ran up my spine, and I shivered.
Leave.
The bodiless voice hit me like a fucking freight train. Before I could think straight, I ran downstairs and jumped onto the couch. I pulled the cover over me and tried to make myself as small as possible.
Did that really…
What the fuck was that? Was that real, or was I imagining things? I had never wanted Daveed to get here faster than I did. My brain was trying to make sense out of what I just heard – or imagined – no, heard. It was with my ears, not inside my head. I wasn’t crazy. Fuck, Daveed, walk faster. It’s only one block.
The knock on the door made me jump off of the couch, and I slammed my knee into the table. I grabbed at it and tumbled to the floor. “Fuck!” I bellowed, and Daveed started knocking louder. “Fuck! Coming.”
He had his own set of keys and I heard him quickly unlocking the door. “Dude? Are you ok?”
I slowly picked myself up from the floor. That was going to leave a bruise. “No, man. I don’t think I am,” my voice shook.
I told him what was happening and how worried I was about this being a part of my injury. Before he could say anything – something crashed upstairs.
We both stared at each other, and I slowly stood up. “You heard that, right?”
“Yeah, man. Something fell.” His eyes grew big, and he followed me to the bottom of the stairs.
“I guess we should…”
“Do you have a bat or anything down here?” He whispered.
I shook my head. “Come on.”
We slowly walked up the stairs and looked down the hallway.
“You sure no one’s in here, bro?”
“I don’t think so. I mean… I don’t know, I guess. It sounded heavy, though.” I walked towards my bedroom and stopped abruptly in the doorframe once again.
“Shit,” Daveed’s hot breath hit my neck as he stared around me. “What the fuck?”
Underwear lay everywhere, and the drawer from my nightstand lay on the floor as if someone had pulled it out and thrown it.
“You see that?” I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“I see it.”
“What the fuck,” I huffed. I walked over to the only place that someone could hide and threw the closet door open. Only myneglected dress shirts and polos hung there. “What the fuck is going on?”
Daveed looked like he was about to have a meltdown. “That’s some fucking ghost shit! Nope – black people do not do this. When the house says leave, you walk out the fucking door.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh at him or be happy I wasn’t going insane.
Daveed slept on the couch. I had to beg him to stay.
Nothing else happened all night.
I didn’t believe in ghosts. Did I?
