Watching

3 - Incorporeal and Confused.

Danica

Standing outside Kylie's house, my heart should be pounding.

It's not, I don't have a heart.

I just "ripple" in and out of existence. This seems to happen whenever I get emotional. I don't have answers. I wish I did. I remember my past. I don't really remember what happened to me, but I remember a man approaching me at the park while I was having a smoke.

And then... this... Whatever this is.

I used to go to the park close to my Grandma's trailer some evenings. It's not the "nice" park where people take their kids to play or go for Sunday picnics. It's an overgrown mess with a set of dirty, broken-down swings and a rusted slide.

No one ever goes there so I was surprised when a neatly dressed man approached me and asked for a light. I felt uncomfortable as it was becoming dark and I couldn't see him well. I wanted to leave but he had such a gentle voice and he seemed harmless.

The next thing I remember is being outside Kylie's house. Confused and incorporeal.

Yeah, imagine wanting to knock on someone's front door and your hand goes right through it.

For some reason, I am tied to Kylie. Yes, I can get pretty far away from her but at some point, I start to ripple and then just end up somewhere around her house... Or wherever she is at the time.

I figured out pretty fast that no one could see or hear me. I had my five minutes of fun, flipping people off but that got old quickly. I guess I must be dead but I'm not 100% sure. I don't remember dying.

Another thing that I realised immediately is that I can't affect things. The fact that I knocked the alarm clock off the table is confusing as hell. And Kylie saw me. How? And what was up with the time travelling business?

One moment I was on a mission to find the man from the park as I have a feeling that he did this to me. I want revenge. However, I don't even know what he really looks like except the colour of his eyes, maybe. I remember his voice but what does that help?

Also... I can't do much in the line of an investigation when I am stuck to Kylie.

I decide to go hang out in Kylie's next-door neighbour's house and watch TV or listen to her talk to her poodle. That's always entertaining...

So not!

Neighbour Lady is watching some dramatic Soap Opera and just as things get interesting, I begin to ripple again.

Oh, what the f...

Kylie

"Danica. Please. I know something weird is going on. I know you were in here last night."

What am I doing? Danica went missing about 2 months ago and is presumed deceased. Actually, I'm not even sure what the story is anymore. There was an article in the Clear Springs Herald about 2 missing girls, Danica and another girl but the article stated that they probably left town and not to be concerned.

That changed when Amy's body turned up.

I was probably dreaming. Some weird stress-induced dream-in-a-dream kind of thing. There is no way that Danica was in my room last night.

First, I was dreaming about the day of my mother's funeral when Danica was the only person who actually talked to me and everyone was mostly ignoring me. That's the day she gave me Ms Bells.

The next moment I'm in my bed, seemingly awake, with Danica standing in my room, looking like she'd seen... A ghost? And then Sammy walks into the room and right through her as if the situation isn't weird as hell enough already.

Yeah, I'm sure it was just a weird dream. Yet... I'm standing in my room trying to summon her. I sit down in front of my laptop on my desk. I was working on an essay for science. As I start to type I look at the last sentence.

"How dare you summon me, mortal!?! You disturb my slumber! I require a sacrifice!"

Danica

Yeah, Kylie "summoned" me to her room and I have no say in the matter. Highly irritating!

Trying to decide whether I should make myself known, I look at her bed and see Ms Bells, the bunny, on Kylie's pillow.

There's a reason I'm stuck to Kylie. Maybe she knows something without knowing that she knows something, you know? Besides, I'm bored and lonely. Yes, I think I should make contact.

But first... Some fun.

No, I did not type the message in her essay. I don't know how I was able to interact with the alarm last night, but I haven't been able to touch anything since. I stuck my hand into the laptop and the sentence appeared.

Kylie seems torn between being scared and being unimpressed.

"Stop messing around. What the hell is going on? Are you haunting me? Or am I going absolutely bonkers? Are you really here? And if you are, why can't I see you now, but I saw you last night?"

She does the entire speech without taking a breath.

"Slow down and breathe, Sally-Mae, before you pass out from oxygen deprivation. I'm really here. As to the whys, wheres and wtf's... I don't know."

She reads my reply and frowns, "Are you... dead?"

"There's a definite possibility that that might be the case, yes," I reply.

"Who...?"

"I don't know. But he's still out there. I... can sense him."