The Freedom Between You and Me

Chapter Five

After deciding that no matter where I stayed, be it my house or a hotel, whatever was happening to me was still going to ensue, I decided to check out. I threw my things into my duffel bag, let the front desk know that I was checking out early, and I made my way to a nearby department store so I could purchase some in-home cameras. Even though I never had any reason to go into the other bedrooms in my house except for storage purposes, I also purchased cameras for those rooms. I purchased enough so that every square foot of my home could be monitored and recorded, along with the audio. It was something I cursed myself for not thinking of earlier, particularly when I found the roses all over the floor a few nights ago, but I was sure that no matter what happened from here on out, I would be able to catch it on film.

Once I set up all the cameras in the house, I began to get ready for Lacey's surprise party that I admittedly wanted to back out of last minute, as I talked to my aunt Catherine on the phone.

"I think I'm being haunted by a ghost." Might as well come right out and say it.

I was standing in front of my bedroom dresser, watching myself in the mirror as I flat-ironed my wavy dark hair.

"You think you're being what?" Her Brummie accent was thick, as it usually came on stronger when she was surprised or confused about something.

"I... well with all this weird stuff that's been happening to me... the more I think about it, the more it seems like...I don't know like it's more credible to think that there's something supernatural going on. I mean what're the chances, right? But...the flowers in my bedroom, and the one in my car...it would be impossible for someone to do that without breaking in, the police said so themselves there were no signs that my house had been broken into. It's gotta be some kind of ghost...which is why I'm back home." I took one of the last pieces and began to run the iron through slowly.

Her silence was accompanied by the sound of her nighttime shower being shut off, and I already knew what she was thinking. Of course, she didn't believe me, who would?

As I finished the top section of my hair, I sighed quietly to myself while I waited for her to speak.

"Alex... you're gonna have me bawlin' at you in about two seconds."

"Well...he sent me this necklace in the mail..."

"You think a ghost has been delivering you packages? FedExing em' to you? Are you being serious with me? And how do you know it's even a male ghost, what do you mean he?"

"I'm not completely sure, but...last night I went to bed, and I had this really weird dream..." I decided not to go into detail about it or talk about the strange dream I had two nights ago. "But when I woke up, I was wearing it, the necklace. There was no way someone broke into my hotel room just to put a necklace on me in my sleep, besides I would've heard them."

"You mean to tell me you never brought this necklace to the police? Alex, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you holding on to that thing?"

I opened my mouth to protest, but I realized she had a point. There wasn't a concrete reason I had for keeping the necklace, it wasn't necessary for me to have it, I already researched the stone like I wanted to. I did plan on taking it to the police but now I worried I'd be running late for Lacey's party.

"...I don't know... I'm gonna take it to Detective Banks on Monday after work."

"Are you still wearing it?" Her tone was irritated, and I didn't blame her...

"No, of course I'm not still wearing it." I set the flat iron down on my dark wooden dresser, before immediately unclasping the necklace from around my neck. Setting it on my dresser, I turned off the flat iron before combing through my hair.