The Kinetic Ones (#Wattys2016)

The Job

I'm jolted awake by the sound of Muse's voice booming throughout the room. Wincing at the sudden noise, I glare at him. "Do you have to be that loud in the morning?"

"We have a job," he says, ignoring my remark and scanning his eyes across the rest of the group.

"Wait, wait what?" Michael voices in disbelief. "No one likes us, how did we manage to get a job?"

"Seems like not everyone hates us." The sentence was followed by a relieved laugh.

"Anyway, what are we to do?" Luna asks.

"Well, they're in the living room waiting to tell us, which is why I came in here to wake you."

"He can wait for a minute or two," Alex states, lounging back in his bed.

"She," Muse corrects with a slight look of amusement.

He jumps out of bed and heads to the dresser. "We don't want to keep her waiting, now do we?"

We all shake our heads at him as we crawl out of bed and begin to get dressed. I change into dark skinny jeans and pull on floral Doc Martens. I search through the dresser for a shirt, none of which I like. Going through my last drawer, I let out an exasperated sigh. Michael strides up to me and pokes my side gently. "Hey Love, what's wrong?"

"I can't find a shirt I want to wear." He stands there for a moment, then scans through one of his drawers and picks out a jumper. He hands it to me, and I unfold it. It's his black 'The Misfits' sweater.

"I always thought you'd look good in that." I look around the room; everyone's already gone. I pull off my sleep shirt and sprawl it on my bed. As I'm doing so, I feel his eyes on me.

"Enjoying the view, Clifford?" I giggle, calling him by his last name.

"I'm sorry, you're just so, beautiful."

"Oh stop," I shake my head as I change into the sweater. I stand in front of the mirror now, examining my appearance. Michael comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, resting his head on my shoulder.

"See? Beautiful." He places a light kiss to my neck. I spin around to face him.

"Thanks," I tell him, looking him up and down.

"Really? How thankful are you?"

"This thankful," I reply, then kiss him, our lips creating electricity between us. It got slowly heated when Muse came in and rolled his eyes.

"Man, for two people who are trying to keep their relationship secret, you do this in easily-spotted areas."

Michael and I jump, then relax when we see it's only him. "God, don't do that. You scared me half to death," I exclaim, and he just shrugs his shoulders.

"Anyway, we're waiting for you in the living room. Let's go." After that, he disappears through the door.

"We should probably get out there."

"One more kiss?" he asks, giving me the pout.

"Oh fine," I sigh, giving him a peck. He smiles contently. I walk past him towards the door, and I feel his soft hand on my back. His touch sends a warm tingle throughout my body, and I smile to myself.

We step into the living room, and Luna, Raven, Alexander, and Muse are all sitting on the couch. Across from them is a young-looking girl, but seemingly older than me, seated with her arms crossed against her torso. She was a redhead with porcelain skin and blue eyes; it's not every day you meet someone with the rarest hair-eye combination. She is wearing a black blouse with sequins on the collar, a red skater skirt with fishnet at the bottom, dark-colored tights, and bright red combat boots. I simper sheepishly at her.

"Hello. I'm sorry we took so long."

She glances up at me. "It's fine. I understand what it's like to be in love."

The rest of the group stare over at us. "What?" Raven says, flabbergasted.

I sit on the sofa, and Mikey places himself next to me. "Uh, anyway, what's the job?" he asks, changing the subject.

She flashes a grin to him, then to Muse, who was also smiling with amusement again. Then she speaks. "My name is Ambrosia Horan," she pauses and watches our faces. Only then did I realize that she was Irish. "Yes, I know it's a strange name. My parents love everything unique. My brother's name is Niall," she giggles quietly.

"You have such a beautiful name," Alexander gushes, resulting in Raven jabbing him with her elbow.

"Thank you. I have come here because I heard a lot about you from talk around. They say you claim to talk to spirits?"

"Well it's more a fact than a claim," Luna interjects.

"Right. So I came here today to talk about the nightclub my family owns. You know, Elements?"

Alexander shoots up. "Wait, your folks own Elements? That place is, like, the most popular place in all of New York City."

Ambrosia smiles. "Yes, it brings in good money." Her smile fades slightly. "You see, the nightclub has a reputation, but it's not for the music. It's for the ghosts."

We look amongst each other, then back at her. "Do you have eye- witness reports from customers, workers, or even your family or yourself?" Muse interrogates professionally.

She zips open her tan suede satchel and pulls out a black folder. She slides it to him, and he opens it slowly. Inside are papers with neatly written cursive in one side, and photos in the other. He scans the words carefully, then sets it on the table between them. He slips out the pictures and spreads them across.

She motions to one. "This is one a passerby took because of this." Ambrosia points out the odd mass that looks like it's pressed against the window, trying to knock for help.

"Eerie," I say, and she nods.

She goes through each one. One of a silhouette sitting on a chair by the bar, one of an orb phenomenon, and one of something on the stage.

"Is that everything?"

"Not exactly." She takes out a lime green iPhone and turns it on. After a minute or two of her scrolling, she turns the phone around for us to see. It's a video. She presses play.

The video starts out with someone walking towards a staircase in a darkened room. From the camera appears the stairwell with a light with a yellow tint. The light slowly turned on, then off, then on, then back off again. Then there was a sound so loud it made me wince. It sounded of either a large furniture item fell over with fervor, or a heavy door being slammed, but not out of anger, but out of fear.

"W-wow," I utter. "That's creepy."

"It could just be a light issue," Muse says blandly as Ambrosia put the phone into her bag. "And the noise could just be the building settling."

"So what does that mean? Are you not going to help us?"

We all stared at him, awaiting the answer that would settle everything. "No, of course, we'll investigate your nightclub. I just don't like to say it's definitely something until I can't prove it wrong."

She smiled with reassurance, and this time, it stayed. "Thank you, thank you all. I'll see you tomorrow at the club."