The Commune

VIII. Xena.

Xena

Ghosts? You've got to be freaking kidding me...

I can deal with the fact that we all got screwed over by a manipulative psycho who only cared about himself. It sucks, obviously, but not entirely unexpected.

His dead ghost tormenting us from beyond the grave however? Completely off the table.

"This is insane, you guys are being ridiculous. You did not see Gwen's ghost flashing by in those woods" Alex tries her best to reason with Niccolò and Vivian.

We decided to go back to Niccolò's dorm to try to figure out exactly what we saw back there. I only got a small glimpse of that shadowy figure, but it was enough to send chills down my spine. Even if it wasn't a ghost, which it probably wasn't, it's still pretty horrifying to think of some weirdo just spying on us like that.

"For once, I agree with Alex. That's just a little bit too much crazy for me." Way too much crazy.

"Hey I was mostly joking back there, just for the record." Vivian clarifies. "Mostly. But still, you have to admit it was pretty sketchy..."

"Yes! Sketchy in the sense that there's some creep trying to mess with us, not sketchy like the ghost of my dead, shithead boyfriend has come back to haunt us for shits and giggles." Alex scoffs. "Because manipulating and lying to us for 2 years wasn't already enough."

"Okay well when you put it like that, it sounds insane..." Nic admits.

"Because it is." Alex glares at the lot of us. "I went along with your dumbass plan to go out into those creepy woods, but that's it! Im drawing a line now, I refuse to encourage this wack job mentality of yours any longer."

"But Alex just listen.."

"No! I've had enough. In fact why the hell are we still worried about this creep? They have nothing. For all we know they didn't even see all that dirt Gwen had on us and we're just freaking out for no good reason..." She poses. "And even if they did, so what? Who the fuck cares? The dumbass didn't even take the box with them. It's in our possession now and I say we burn all this shit."

She makes a good point, as much as I hate to admit it.

"Yeah that's true actually. I was too busy freaking out when we first found this stuff but what can they really do?" Vivian adds.

"What if they made copies?" Nic raises.

"Doubtful. Let's just get rid of this junk and be done with this." Alex declares ad she reaches into her bag, probably looking for her lighter.

"I don't know Lex, that seems too easy..." Nic suddenly pauses while he's digging through the box yet again.

"What is it now?" I sigh in frustration.

"Nothing, I just realized... Gwen was into some pretty weird shit. I mean look at this stuff..."

"No I don't really care to. I never thought I'd say this but I actually really can't stand to hear his name mentioned anymore." Alex places her hands on her head in contempt.

Well it's about damn time!

I've never really had much of a problem with Alex, until she started bitching at me and treating me like shit because of the lies Gwen told her. She was so brainwashed by him for the longest time. It all made me sick to my stomach, still does when I think about it.

But that's what Gwen did best: lying, cheating, manipulating. If it was an Olympic sport he'd win every single time.

I still can't believe he dug into my past like that. Whatever happened at my old university was none of his business. He had no right. And not that he'd care, or that it even matters now, but whatever he thought he found out was nothing compared to the full story. Im glad he'll never have it though, whatever his thoughts about me were are irrelevant now, they can rot away with the rest of his misery.

"Lemme see" I walk over to see what Nic's referring to. It's just a bunch of books on spirituality and different religious practices.

I mean he wasn't exactly a poster boy for spiritual well-being and all that, but to each their own I guess.

"I don't understand. What's so weird about this?"

"I don't know, I just... he never really seemed like much of a zealot for these things, I mean some of these books are just downright cult like." Nic sorts out the maze of books he found. "Like what is this? Ressurection, Ascension, Connecting to The Higher Power, Embracing Your Darkness" he begins listening the names of all Gwen's precious finds. He also tossed out some spell books and a couple rituals for us to see. "Since when was he so interested in all this stuff?"

Wow, so not only did Gwen have time to cheat on his girlfriend with just about half the girls on campus, but he also found time to gather dirt on all of us and a bunch of other random people, study strange deities, practice his little imaginary spells, and pray to some darkness that doesn't even exist. I mean that guy could really do it all.

"Who knows? Who cares?" Alex shrugs. Guess she's officially over him now.

"I do!" Nic and I tell her simultaneously.

I don't know if I even really believe in ghosts and all that stuff, but I can't lie, this just added a whole new layer of creepy things I didn't need to know about Gwen.

"I won't go as far to say that Gwen's ghost is haunting us, but..." I trail off.

"But what? Because it sounds like you're actually starting to believe this shit." Alex scolds me.

"I'm not!" I maintain. "Okay well maybe I am, considering the possibility at least, sue me. But you have to admit, this kinda changes things..."

"The only thing this changes is that I just went from realizing I was played by a pathological liar, to now realizing that I was actually played by a pathological liar and delusional lunatic who thought he was some sort of high priest that could come back from the dead like he's the freaking second coming of Jesus Christ!" Alex vents, nearly out of breath by the time she's done talking.

"Talk about a God complex." Vivian teases.

"Look I get it, you think I'm crazy for suggesting that Gwen could be haunting us, and hell, maybe you're right." Nic tries to compromise. "But before you get on your high horse and rule out that it's completely outside the realm of possibility. Let's just go with it ok. Entertain the idea for a little bit yeah?"

"And why would I do that?"

"Because... the four of us," he gestures to each of us, "are gonna hold a seance, and then we'll see if he's really haunting us. And if he's not , I'll drop it."

"You're disturbed." Alex sneers.

In all fairness, I kind of understand where she's coming from. A seance seems a little extreme.

"I don't know if I'm cool with that, that's s little bit much." It's actually way, way too much. What the fuck is this guy on?

"Just give it some thought ok?"

"Why? So I can be just as deranged as you? Come on Nic, you're better than this..." Alex tries to get through to him.

"When would we even hold this Seance, I'm swamped with homework and exams remember?" Vivian informs us.

"Yeah but that'll all be cleared up in a couple weeks, around Halloween right? And that's the perfect time to do it."

Well that's it folks, we've lost him. He's officially gone off the deep end.