He loved TV screens ever since he was little. He'd always get fixated whenever walking past a shop that had TVs in the window. He didn't mean to. It just made him think nice thoughts. Nice thoughts of being in the spotlight.
Even if the TV read static, Michael loved it. He liked the noise screaming so loud that he couldn't hear his own thoughts.
He watched the TV through people's windows, wondering what was on nowadays. He hadn't sat down and watched normal TV ever since he was about ten, so he didn't know what was going on in the world. He just liked what was going on in his own world.
On the other side of town, Calum and Ashton were watching the news in boredom. Neither of their families were home, so they decided to unite at Calum's, considering it was bigger, even though Ashton had a larger family.
Ashton's trips to Calum's were frequent. He liked his best friend's house a lot more than he liked his own. Probably because his house was in a caravan where he had to sleep in the same bed as his siblings. It was so cramped, and horrible, and Ashton hated it. But he never complained.
"The ghost infamously known as MikeyMikey is still haunting Western Sydney after five years. He comes through your windows and says hello, so, just a friendly reminder. Make sure to lock your windows during the night."
It switched to their local police officer. "We are fairly confident that this is just a few kids messing around. There's no need to be alarmed. However, there is a reward for pictures or even the capture of this 'MikeyMikey'. If he is found, return him to the Norwest Police Station and you will get your cash reward."
Cash. Ashton needed cash. He already had two part-time jobs, and his younger siblings weren't old enough to stay by themselves, so his Mum had to look after them. So it was just his two ten-dollar-an-hour jobs that were attempting to fend off the owners of the caravan park.
"How can kids mess around for four years with the exact same face and voice?" Calum sighed, putting his feet in Ashton's lap.
"Twins can run around for five years."
"Who has the time?" He furrowed his eyebrows, listening to them drawl on about the ghost-person-thing.
"MikeyMikey."
Calum turned to his best friend, sitting up and punching him in the shoulder, "Shut up."
Ashton just laughed, punching him back, which led to massive wrestle around on the floor. Ashton won. Ashton won every time because he was quite obviously the bigger one of them two. But Calum always kneed him in the balls to make it even.
Ashton winced covering his manhood like it needed surgery as he sat up, changing it to the music channel. He watched a couple of songs and winced at the techno. There was so much auto-tune, couldn't anyone make real music?
"We should get Luke over here so we can play."
Calum shrugged, ringing him up. He came ten minutes later with his guitar in his hand and a pout on his face. Calum raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong with you now?"
"I try and flirt with the same customer, right?" Luke looked at them both to make sure they were paying attention. "And he rejects me every-fucking-time. Like, he legit throws money at me and leaves."
"Maybe he's just not that into you." Ashton laughed at his own reference before turning his attention back to the TV. Once he'd remembered they were doing something, he got his cajon and sat on it.
They started to make noise together, singing random things to see if they'd fit. And by random, there were socks and how good they felt and how being naked was so liberating. That type of random.
Mikey heard the noise, and popped his eyes just over the window frame. He wanted to see the music. He knew this was the Maori guy's house, and since he was bored, he just wanted to see what they were doing.
They were making nice noise.
All he had heard lately was screaming and techno from the nightclubs and static. They were using guitars. He hadn't heard a guitar in quite some time.
He knew it was stupid sneaking around in broad daylight, considering they could see him if they looked, but they were too caught up in their own fun to notice. He left shortly after they'd started to talk about playing Xbox.
He stopped at the fence. He wanted to scare them, but he knew it couldn't work. Nobody gets scared when the sun is shining.
Ashton's eyes widened as he went to go get a drink of water from the fridge. He dropped the glass, letting it shatter as he saw it. A pale figure, standing at the fence, scars and bruises all over him, his hands burnt. His clothes were ripped, his hair dyed bright red and on the back of his shins printed in red 'MIKEYMIKEY'.
"Holy fuck." He whispered, blinking a few times.
The barely-human winked, blew a kiss and jumped over the back fence.
The boys came into the kitchen, looking at him like he was possessed. "You good, Ash?"
He tried to respond, but all he could do was think about him winking with those eyes. How could someone have eyes so soulless? "I j-just . . . I just saw MIkeyMikey."
"In daylight?" Luke's eyes were almost as wide as Ashton's. "A ghost can't appear in daylight."
Ashton looked at him. "Did you seriously believe it was a ghost?"
"Are you sure it was MikeyMikey?" Calum crossed his arms, giving him a serious look. He highly doubted that Ashton saw a ghost in broad daylight. And he didn't really think a ghost (or whatever it was) would be game enough to go out where everybody could see him.
Maybe this ghost was stupid.
Or maybe he just liked Calum.
"We need to catch him." Ashton continued, ignoring his best friend because his question was stupid.
"Are you asking for a deathwish?" Luke stressed, using his hands for emphasis.
"I need money, guys. They're so close to kicking us out, and we can't have that." The eldest sighed, rubbing his eyes in frustration. "Please help me?"
Calum didn't answer, he just cleaned up the glass and sat down on the counter. "How are we gonna catch this fucker?"
