The Ghost

Chapter 5

Tea is the first to wake. While she tries to muster the energy to move, her blurry gaze aimlessly wanders the room. It finally settles on Miho, who is sleeping comfortably on her mound of bedding. Aches in Tea's shoulders and back cause her to wince. Two pillows and a blanket are not enough for sleeping on the floor. Tea looks away from Miho in annoyance although the annoyance disappears when she recalls the reasons behind her night on the floor.

The girl pushes herself up. As she stands, a dull ache travels through her muscles, but she ignores that to check on Ryo in his bed.

The bed is empty.

Tea's breath catches, and she almost shouts out. However, she is distracted when the door to the bedroom clicks then opens. The dancer takes several steps back. A tall bulky figure stands in the doorway. Tea breathes hard and fast as she backs against the wall. Because the adrenaline kicks in, the last of the blurriness fades from Tea's eyes. The shadowed shape of the man comes into focus as Tea opens her mouth to shout her friends awake. Instead, she visibly relaxes.

Alister stands in the doorway. He looks at her with sharp eyes but then softens his gaze when he focuses on the sleeping boy in his arms. Alister enters the room and walks towards Tea. The calm Tea felt at realizing that it was not a complete stranger dissipates when Alister brings Ryo closer. The dark circles under his eyes are so pronounced, and he is paler than ever before.

When Alister nears her, Tea moves out of his way to the bed. As Alister steps over Miho and lays Ryo on the bed, Tea almost touches Ryo in a comforting gesture. However, when she thinks about accidently waking the exhausted boy, the urge vanishes.

Alister steps away and walks out of the room. A brief hesitation occurs before Tea follows him out of the room. They walk to the kitchen where Alister sits back down at the table and continues looking at his cards.

As she turns the main light on and switches off the stove light, Tea says nothing. The girl walks over to the fridge and starts rifling through the freezer and fridge compartments. Ordinarily, the few bags of frozen vegetables, the TV dinners, and the lack of raw ingredients in the fridge would bother her, yet she feels nothing as she takes stock of her options. After a few minutes, she moves her search to the cabinets and cupboards. She takes a few items out, and places them on the counter.

"Thank you." Her voice is clear and moderate in volume. When Alister looks at her, she has placed a kettle, with melting butter in it, on the stove and is cutting up the only unfrozen vegetable- a single onion- in the house. Alister is silent.

"Thank you for helping him so far. If you hadn't he would not be here right now." Her voice trembles near the end of the sentence. Her cutting remains steady. Alister considers his next words.

"Don't thank me. Any decent human being would have done the same." He does not go back to his cards quite yet. There is a long silence until Tea dumps the onion into the pan.

"How was he last night when the rest of us were sleeping?" She avoids any personal questions.

"More nightmares." Alister pauses. "He's the only one who should tell you about them. However, I can say that he did talk about normal things, too. He is trying not to have a repeat of yesterday."

Plastic bags tear and frozen peas and corn mix are tossed into the pan. Time crawls. It is only when it is time to dump instant noodles into boiling water that Tea speaks.

"Are you going to be staying here for long?"

Alister picks up his cards and responds.

"All of you have school, so yes." He stands up and snatches his trench coat from over the back of the chair. He turns to leave.