The Haunting

Chapter Sixteen

After I got out of the shower, I headed back into the room I seemed to be sharing.  I don’t know with who, though.  I got dressed, and I headed downstairs.  Derek was sitting on a couch, and Tori was nowhere in sight.  I saw that Simon was having a heated conversation with Jason.  All of the sudden Jason’s eyes flew to me, and his eyes widened.  He looked at Derek, and then back to Simon.  The conversation concluded, and they shook hands.

I walked over to them, and tapped Simon on the shoulder.  He turned around, and smiled.

“Ah, Sleeping Beauty.  Whatcha doing?”

“I, um, came to talk to Jason.”

“Go right ahead!  I should be going anyways.”

“Bye!” I said.

I turned back around to face Jason, and once his eyes landed on me, they went soft.

“Uh.  S-sorry for being a j-jerk.  I tend to get a little, uh, uppity, when other people are around.”  So much for overcoming the stutter.  I didn’t point that out though, I bet he was silently cursing himself for doing it, anyways.

“Uh,” I mumbled.  I hadn’t seen that coming.  “Can we go outside?  I thought maybe we could, um, talk…?” I trailed off.

“Sure.  I know this great place near a stream.”

“Cool!” I exclaimed.

We walked out of the house in silence, and the silence continued outside.  I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.  He really did look like the boy version of me.  Strawberry blonde hair stuck up at an odd angle around his head that gave him a slightly rumpled look.  His pale skin had a certain shimmer to it, and he was only a little taller than me.  His bright blue eyes caught mine, and I wondered if that’s what people saw when they looked at me.  All in all, he looked very non-threatening, and had an air of innocence around him.

“So,” I started, trying to break the silence, “whose older.  Me or you?”

“I don’t know.  I think you’re older than me though.”

“Score for me!  I’m usually the youngest.”

He chuckled.  The next thing I knew I was eating dirt.  My nose throbbed, and I tasted blood.

“Oh my god, are you okay?”

I groaned in response, and he helped pick me up.  “Jesus Chloe!  I think you broke your nose!  How’d you manage to do that?”

I groaned again, and it was followed by a whimper.  I held my shaking hand up to my nose, and when I pulled it away, it was bright red.  “Ow!”

“Don’t worry; I’ll take you back to the safehouse.”  He picked me up, and held me like a baby.

I must have lost track of time, because I was now lying in the same bed that I had just woken up in.  I tried to sit up, and I was carefully pushed down again.  My eyes fluttered open, and Derek, Tori, and Jason stood over me.  I put a hand to my head, and groaned.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, I had to reconstruct your nose, and staunch the bleeding.  Fun, fun, fun.  So, how’d you feel?” said Tori.

“I feel like and elephant stepped on my face.  Then decided to sit on my head.”

“We heard the story.  And, wow, Chloe.  I thought you were klutzy at first, but I think that tops everything I’ve ever seen you do.  And I didn’t even see it.”

Jason started laughing, and Derek shot them both a glare.

“Derek, It’s fine, really.  It was kind of funny,” I said, cracking a weak grin.