Blood Ink

Chapter eight

Morning rolled around as if I'd been hit by a school bus. (That notion didn't even cover  the half of it.) When my alarm clock blared loudly, as if it had been supernaturally amplified somehow. My eyes pried open heavy with exhaustion, as Cole stood there grinning from ear to ear. I recoiled into a momentary jolted fully awake mode, like I'd been dumped in an ice bath. Seeing him even as a ghost still had a bit of a shocking effect. The alarm continued buzzing louder than usual, while he stood there amused.

"Morning, Melissa." He sneered in his immature sort of attitude.

"Cole will you shut that stupid thing off." I groaned groggily. I didn't recall having set an alarm for this morning, and that's when I noticed his hand was resting on the alarm clock.

"You need to wake up though." Cole stated. This was one of the few things, I didn't miss about Cole. He was a damn early bird even as a ghost. While I was a night owl.

"Fine. I'm awake. Now turn it off!" I complained loudly.

"I'm a ghost, Melissa I can't shut it off."

Oh right.. ghost. I knew that...but how was his hand resting on the clock then..?

I rolled onto my side slamming my hand down on the device. I freed myself from it's annoying continual ringing. A migraine slowly springing itself to life. In my defense:

This was my brain when I was fully awake and functional>  •
This was my brain after just waking up > .

Comprende? .. I sure hope so.

Getting out of bed was the same hassle it had always been, that hadn't changed. The weight of exhaustion I felt was something that had changed. I didn't want to climb out of bed. Breakfast, in the notion itself seemed to take effort, that was equivalent to qualifying for the Olympic Games.

Cole just studied me as I gripped onto one of my pillows and buried my face into it. "Five minutes." I grumbled through it.

"Melissa you said you would wake up." Cole complained.

"Bite me."

Cole progressed with his whining as I tried my hardest to muffle his voice out with a pillow. I had wanted so much to see him, that now I was growing a small twinge of regret in wishing for it.
I eventually heard my brother give into his complaints and fall silent. Finally peace and quiet.

I smiled as I snuggled deeper into my pillow. My mind was slipping back into its dream state when odd noises were heard around the house. My eye opened only slightly, and checked my room. Cole was gone, he wasn't around in the room.
He could be wondering the house.
Although that could have made for a rational explanation, Cole was still a ghost so the noises couldn't be really explained by him making them. Cole's hand phased through just about everything. My stomach knotted, panic mode kicked in slowly. I felt myself sit up slightly, Cole had been trying to get me to wake up. Shit.
My mattress creaked with every movement I made. I felt like a serial was going to burst into my room and murder me in cold blood. I'd watched one too many horror flicks by myself in Cole's absence.

I tenses moving slowly creeping out of bed, I hit the ground loudly and froze. Maybe the serial killer is a dinosaur - if you don't move he can't see you. My mind mocked me. I winced, as I managed to untangle myself from the covers I wrapped myself up in. My Star Wars t-shirt momentarily pushed upwards with a partial chunk of my hair stuck to my face and inside my mouth.
I yanked it down, and began searching under my bed for an old baseball bat. I found an old hair scrunchy I'd been looking for last month and grinned. That's where that thing had gone..

Focus! I grabbed the wooden bat, and opened my bedroom door. I looked around slowly the hallway was clear. "Avoid the spots of creaking wood.." I whispered to myself and took two steps forward.

"Creak.." I practically jumped out of my skin when I heard Cole say the word loudly in my ear. I instinctively swung out and hit the wall with a loud bang. I blinked and took a deep breath as Cole crackled at my expression.

"Damn it, Cole!" I hissed at him.

He continued laughing at my frightened expression. A considerably huge hole was found in the wall where I'd swung. I wished I could punch Cole in the forearm for a split second, and then I tensed. The noise I'd made would have been enough to alert whomever was in the house of my presence. Cole was treating this as a joke, he appeared oblivious to the notion of someone being in the house.

"Cole." I whispered. "You should have seen the look on your face." He managed to choke out.

"Cole!"

"What, Melly?"

"There's someone in the house." I mumbled gently. Cole blinked, growing quiet and listened intently for any sounds. Sure enough, he heard them too, the opening and closing of cabinet doors downstairs. The rummaging of items, inside of drawers. Whoever that was here hadn't heard me hit the wall with the bat in my hands.

"Call the police?" Cole stated softly. That was a rational idea, but if it was my parents that would be awkward to explain to the cops. They had a tendency to come home at random points in the day at times. Though it seemed unlikely that it was them, since as of lately they didn't even act like they were even married. The whole 'Cole being dead' thing destroyed any left over shreds of their relationship.
I gripped the wooden bat hard as I inched toward the stairwell. My flight or fight response was getting the better of me. My breathing hitched slightly, Cole was close behind me. His expression was blank as he followed behind me, the noises only grew louder.

I backed up, when I heard something click from inside the kitchen. I felt a crunch under my feet, it was glass. This confirmed that it was not my parents. It was too late to turn and run toward my room. My cellphone was still on my dresser hooked to the charger. It was likely that would end up a ghost like Cole. Something felt unusual, with it having been a break in since this sort of thing never really occurred often. At least not in the neighborhood I lived in for the majority of my life. It was quiet and simplistic, there was an abundant of families with children - nothing like robberies ever occurred here.

My stomach knotted and unknotted. I felt like throwing up, and my hands where beginning to hurt from gripping onto the bat a little too harshly. I turned back to look at Cole, but he was gone. I was alone in this again. I heard silverware clutter against the ground, and took another deep breath.

Escape.

My brain was screaming the word repetitively. Even if I did my peace of mind would be robbed. I wouldn't be safe in my own home anymore if I ran. That figure of someone or something having been here would always linger inside my head. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I had to see whatever this was through. Yes, this was indeed the stupidest thing I'd ever be doing.

I wasn't going to allow something else to plague my mind anymore. I hardly had peace as it was, plus if I died at least I'd be with Cole in the afterlife. That was the deciding factor, as I lifted my bat to swing and barged into the kitchen.