A Spirit Between Us (bxb)

Chapter 4 - Unnerving chill.

That night, Finn lay wide awake on his bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, though his mind was far from the stillness of the room. The events of the day churned endlessly in his head, as if time had unraveled and twisted everything he knew. In just a few short hours, his life had been turned upside down. He couldn't stop thinking about it, couldn't settle the storm of confusion that swirled in his chest.

His thoughts drifted back to his encounter with Archie. The memory felt disjointed, as if the moments had blurred together into something dreamlike and unreal. One second, he had been talking to Archie, heart pounding, ready to confess his feelings. The next, he was being ushered out, barely able to process the bombshell that had been dropped. Archie, calm, pragmatic Archie, had claimed to be a medium. Worse yet, he said Finn was being followed... no, embraced by a spirit.

A spirit.

It sounded absurd, like something ripped from a cheesy paranormal TV show. The kind you watch with half your attention while doing something else, never really believing. Finn almost laughed at the thought, but the sound caught in his throat, cold and hollow. As much as he wanted to convince himself that Archie had been messing with him, trying to lighten the mood or play some elaborate prank, something in Archie's eyes had told him otherwise. There had been no hint of humor. No teasing smile. Just a grim, unsettling seriousness.

Maybe Archie would laugh it off tomorrow, tell him it had all been a joke. Maybe Finn could wake up and go back to believing in the normalcy of his life. He clung to that hope, even though it was fraying at the edges. But what truly haunted him, what made his stomach tighten into knots, was Archie's final words before he had shut the door.

"It's really strange"

The phrase echoed in Finn's mind like a bell tolling in the stillness of the night. Those three words looped in a never-ending cycle, each repetition heavier than the last. What's strange? The ghost? The fact that it was... attached to him? And why did it matter? What did any of this have to do with him? His mind twisted in bewilderment at the thought.

Archie hadn't explained anything further. No clarifications, no comforting words, nothing. It was as though Archie had dropped a bomb and then vanished into thin air, leaving Finn stranded with nothing but questions.

Finn squeezed his eyes shut, hoping for sleep that refused to come, but the same thought kept returning, uninvited and relentless.

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Finn woke up feeling more drained than usual, his body heavy and sluggish as though the weight of his restless night had followed him into the morning. The thin light seeping through his curtains barely stirred him. He stumbled through his morning routine with the same mindless motions: breakfast that tasted like nothing, the bitter taste of medication, a cold shower that did little to wake him. Clothes, toothbrush, backpack, everything was the same, his life playing out like a worn-out tape on loop. Yet, beneath the familiarity of it all, something was different.

A growing sense of uncertainty gnawed at him, something he couldn't quite shake. His eyes darted nervously to the shadows behind him more than once, lingering in the empty corners of the room, the darkened hallway, the foggy reflection in the bathroom mirror. It was irrational, he told himself, but the sensation crawled across his skin like icy fingers, like something..or someone.. was there. Watching. Clinging.

His walk to school felt longer than usual, the morning air thick with a strange tension he couldn't name. By the time he arrived, he was late enough for the hallways to be nearly empty, the distant murmurs of students and the shuffle of backpacks echoing through the corridors. The clock was ticking down to the first period bell, but he moved without urgency, his mind elsewhere, clouded with paranoia.