Possession

Chapter 9: Warning

Chapter 9
Warning

I did end up seeing Tory again but he was the one to seek me out. He was waiting for me when I got out of school after getting a bit of extra help with my homework after school. Its been hard to focus in class lately after all.

"Hey, geek, I never got your name." He said the second I exited the doors.

I jump. I wasn't expecting him. "My name is Dyllan." I replied, "Isn't Andre going to be mad you're talking to me?"

He scoffs, "That jerk isn't the boss of me. I can talk to whoever I want to. Why are you scared of him?" Tory asks challenging.

"Just a little." I admit.

Tory rolls his eyes at me, "He's not here. Andre will already be home with his nose in a book for the rest of the night. Just be gone before dinner and he'll never know." Tory might not admit it but he's a little scared of his brother too. I decide to let him keep his pride and not point it out.

When we got to Tory's house he ran up the stairs and scouted the whole level then waved for me to tip toe up. He then closed and locked the door.

"There we should be safe now." He sighs relieved.

"So why did you want to talk to me today?" I asked him.

"Because I've doing some thinking about our last chat and I think you're on to something. I looked at my fallen homework papers and managed to connect a few words of a message before Marble messed then up." He says looking pointedly at a black and white cat on his bed. Marble yawns and comes over to be petted.

"Weird, has that happened before?" I ask scratching the cat's head. Cats do hate it when people read in their presence.

"Probably, I never looked at the fallen papers as something supernatural before. Also I'm positive the message was from Andre." He says looking irritated.

"What did it say?" I ask warily.

"I read five words, 'Stop ignoring me you little' and then I can only imagine the next word was dumbass. Like I said he wasn't very nice until recently." He said.

Yup that sounds like Andre alright. "He sounds irritated." I reply trying not to smile

"What's so funny?" He snaps at me.

"I don't have any siblings but I always guessed it'd be something like you and Andre if I did have a brother." I laughed to myself.

He looked offended, "I think it'd be the same if you had a sister. Andre and I have two older sisters and another brother, god knows where." He replies.

"So your older siblings don't live here?" I ask.

"No, Athena is 23 and attending college, Jenny is 25 and married, and Jason was kidnapped from the hospital when he was born. If he's still alive he'll be 29 in a few weeks." He says nonchalantly.

I had no idea Andre had an older brother and two sisters. "Wow, holidays must be crowded." I joked.

"A little. Especially Christmas. Oh, about Jason, don't tell anyone about him. Mom gets really depressed when he's brought up." He pleads.

"I promise. I don't want to cause your family undo strife." I promise.

"Thanks. Hey you could stay over tonight and read the message in the morning. I usually have supper in my room when my friends come over anyways. I'll just say you're Will from school. Will's my best friend and comes over all the time so Andre won't ask." He explains to me.

I nod my agreement, "Sure but I'm not prepared for a sleepover. I have no clothes or even my toothbrush."

"Don't worry about it. I have plenty of clothes that are too big you could wear and my mother is kind of anal about hygiene. She makes us change tooth brushes on a monthly basis so we have a bulk pack of them under the sink." He assures me.

"Okay, I just have to call my parents for permission." I reply kind of reluctant. I've never been to a sleepover and I kind of just met Tory. I call my mother and after telling her five times Tory is an honor student in the middle school she let me stay.

"Okay, my mother says I'm all good." I tell Tory as I close my phone.

He looks at me, "You were home schooled and grew up in a really small town didn't you?" He says with a straight face.

"How'd you know?" I ask.

"Only in small towns do people trust others that much. My mother would never let me stay at a friend's house until she met my friend and my friend's parents personally." He explains.

"Oh," I reply. We spent the rest of the evening in Tory's room avoiding Andre. The one time Andre did come to the door I hid in the closet and the cat practically climbed the ceiling to get away from him. After Tory told him he had a friend over for the night he left.

Despite my determination to not fall asleep until the papers dropped I crashed around midnight. I was startled awake at three in the morning by rustling papers. I sat up and saw Tory's school papers on the ground being rustled by a non present breeze. I scootched over to get a closer look and put my glasses on.

It took a moment to find where the message started but the rest was easy. 'That's not me. Warn them!' It said.

"Andre, are you in here?" I asked. A true and false quiz fell to the ground and slid under the other papers leaving only a question Tory had answered as true visible. "Are you a ghost? Have you really been following us?" I ask.

The papers explode into the air and resettle with a new message. 'Behind you!' Spelt out of ripped sheets of paper.

"What?" I ask him and look over my shoulder just in time to see Andre before he puts a sharply scented cloth over my face. I try to pull away but his grip is like steel. When I can't hold my breath anymore I take a deep breath and feel dizzy before passing out.