Addicted- {Don't You Remember?}

Pancakes and Homicides

After the interrogation, I finished up the night by taking a long shower, trying a new mud mask, brushing my teeth, and heading to bed at around eleven. Usually, I stayed up later than that. But I needed to sleep, and I needed to, well, act like a responsible adult for once. Which sucked, but I'm getting a job soon. I applied to a few, but hadn't heard anything back yet. Anyways, it took a bit for me to finally drift off. I thought about Ghost. The killer was obviously organized, he had planned this out thoroughly otherwise we would have found the person responsible right away. There wasn't so much of a trace or even a hair of another person there. If Ghost had been hung or maybe drugged, it could have been ruled as a suicide. But the way this monster killed him... it made me think maybe they wanted us to know that he was killed. Like some sick, twisted game of show-and-tell. It made sense...

Once I fell asleep, I had another nightmare.

I was thirteen this time, sleeping over Ghost's house for the first time ever. My first sleepover. I wasn't allowed to go out much, my aunt was... abusive. She was my only guardian so whatever she said goes. She didn't want people to see the marks or bruises she left behind on my body from the beatings. She made sure to always throw a jacket on me before I went anywhere. So, there I was, clothed head to toe, watching a movie with my best friend. It was Jumanji, the original one. We played it on his tiny, portable DVD player which also had a TV screen in a pillow fort we had built. Like my other nightmare, it seemed... so freakishly real. Even every fold of the blanket the fort had seemed accurate to my memory of the night. I pulled my attention away from the movie around the part when that kid turned into a monkey. Ghost seemed really sucked into the movie, I didn't want to bother him but... there has been something I needed to tell him for a long time. I licked my cracked lips, feeling the empty, sick feeling in my gut.

"Ghost?"

He turned to me, smiling, "Yeah dude?" He was fourteen, his natural blonde hair falling a bit into his face. He had braces at the time and was a really geeky dude before he really went through puberty.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Of course." He paused the movie, blue eyes boring into mine, "What's up?"

Might as well cut the shit and get it over with, "... I'm gay."

Ghost frowned a bit, not in disappointment, but with certainty. "That's fine. You like what you like man. That doesn't change anything, you're my best friend! Plus... I always sort of knew."

I smiled a bit, relief pouring into me. I felt my eyes water a bit, "Thank you so much..."

Ghost rolled his eyes, smirking, and pulled me into a hug. I hugged back, heart thumping against my chest rapidly. The conversation had dropped entirely after the hug. We were going to continue watching the movie, as what really did happen, and head to bed. But... the nightmare changed things up a bit. Twisted it into something it wasn't. I pulled away after some time, only Ghost wouldn't let go.

"You can... let go now." I mumbled, trying to nudge him away. His grip only became tighter, "Ghost. Let go man."

His body suddenly turned as cold as ice. His fingernails dug into my back until I felt warm and sticky liquid arise from the cuts and stain my shirt with blood. I whimpered in pain, "You're hurting me!"

Buzzz...

Buzzzzz...

Buzzzzzz...

I looked around, a fly buzzing around us. Then two. Then four. Then eight. Every part of my body trembled in fear as I pushed Ghost off as hard as I could. He fell backwards, bag around his head and hands tied behind his back. This time, it didn't bring so much shock, as this happened before in the other nightmare. The DVD player began skipping and glitching out, static consuming the screen completely. I smacked it a few times before static vanished it played a familiar memory on the screen...

"Call me when you're actually capable of having a conversation."

"Call me when you're actually capable of having a conversation."

"Call me when you're actually capable of having a conversation."

I looked back at Ghost, breathing heavily and eyes feeling as if they're going to pop out of my head. Flies swarmed around his body like maggots, starting to rip off his flesh and eat it. The smell the corpse created was enough to make me gag. I expected to wake up now. This was usually the time where I would. Only, I didn't. I couldn't.

Not being able to stare at my best friend's corpse any longer, I stood up and barged out of the tent. I ran out of the room as fast as my legs could carry me. Only instead of seeing Ghost's normal hallway, there was only one other place. A dark void of absolute... nothingness. I walked into the darkness slowly. I couldn't tell when I was blinking or not anymore. But at some point during this walk, a chair sat ahead of me. I took a closer look to see... there was definitely someone sitting on it. As I kept walking, the picture began to unravel. This person was dead, a bag tied around their head and hands to the chair. Only, it wasn't Ghost this time.

This person was smaller, still taller than me, but smaller than Ghost. For some reason, this nightmare couldn't let me see the exact details of what this person looked like. But just like Ghost's eyes, his also stared at me, completely lifeless.

Before I could do anything else, I woke up to someone shaking my arm. I jolted awake, feeling sticky with sweat.

"Nicolaaas." A voice cooed.

"Zella?" I squinted into the dark, and surely, it was her. She looked dressed and ready to roll. I was too tired and confused to process the nightmare I just had, especially now with her waking me up.

"Let's go to IHop."

I sat up, rubbing my eyes with a yawn. After about a minute, I looked over at her once again, "It's late..."

"And? I'm craving it. Like reaaaally bad. Please?"

"I'm too tired." I mumbled, eyes already closing. Suddenly, I felt a strong grip pick me up, "What the!?"

"We're going."

"Zella! Put me down!"

"I want pancakes damn it!" She laughed.

"You're gonna wake up your mother." I scolded with a sigh.

"No, I won't, she took her medication late so she's out like a light." Zella hummed, "Damn Nicolas. You're lighter than a stick!"

I felt my face heat up, "Shut up..."

She headed out the door to her car, plopping me down in the passenger's seat. "There we go!"

"Ugh... if you weren't pregnant, I'd be heading back to bed right now." I yawned. When she turned the keys into the ignition, the car started up. The clock read two thirty-four in the morning. "It's so early!"

"Oh stop, it's not like you have anything to do." Zella backed up and drove onto the road.

"I was sleeping, that seemed like a good thing to do." I mumbled.

After a quick drive to IHOP, we got out of her car and headed in. There wasn't anyone there, except for one group of tired college kids. We were led to a booth, the waitress putting menus down on the table. I picked mine up, only cutting my finger on the edge of the menu. It started bleeding.

"Did you just cut yourself with the menu—"

"I'm tired." I grumbled in response. I looked up at the TV and frowned, my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach. Zella followed my gaze after seeing the look on my face.

"... Just in, there was another homicide reported, the call made by an eight-year-old girl, supposedly the victim's little sister. Twenty-four-year-old Renaldo Valdez found dead in his boyfriend's mother's house just an hour ago. Just like the first homicide, he was found dead, tied to a chair and his head covered with a bag. Homicide detectives claim that the person who ended the life of this victim also is responsible for William Goldburg's, the first victim found almost..."

I tore my gaze away, staring at Zella. She stared back at me, both of us beyond shocked.

The killer strikes again.