Finn Arwr and the Spirits of Concept

Chapter Two

E.T. wandered down a hallway one floor above the one he lived on. Doors lined either sides, each opening up into someone else's life. He was having fun trying to guess who lived behind which door; usually, he'd found, smelly rotting wreaths of flowers belonged to old ladies and the ghosts of handprints meant little kids.

Down the way, a tall boy with a mop of reddish dark hair opened a door and shut it behind him. He froze when he saw E.T., in his too small hockey gear and plastic helmet. E.T. recognized the boy; it was one of Eilie Pahlawan's older brothers.

E.T. had dreams about Eilie Pahlawan. Not normal ones, like normal guys, but weird ones involving some dude named Finn Arwr. He didn't understand what they were, so he just tried not to think about them. But when he would get a chance to talk to Eilie, lovely Eilie, it was like the dreams were themselves from a past life he still half remembered.

E.T. raised his hand in salutation at the newcomer. The boy-whose name was Alex, if he was correct-walked forward to get to the staircase.

"Hullo," E.T. pressed. Clearly, Alex didn't really want to be seen talking to this strange kid dressed like a Spartan. He nodded once before walking down the stairs. This was one lost conversation.

E.T. was about to give up and just go home in the hopes that Grumpy Neighbor Number One would be gone when the door opened again, this time spitting out the other two Pahlawan boys, Christopher and Eoin.

"Hey, E.T.!" Eoin called. Eoin was the youngest, and closest in age to E.T. himself. It didn't hurt that they shared an intense love of comic books. E.T. turned, and walked over to the seventeen-year-old.

"Hi, Eoin." The older boy pulled a rolled up wad of paper out of his pocket. It was a battered copy of one of the Green Lantern comics. "Has Eilie read this?" E.T. asked, upon recollection of the book. Eoin shook his head.

"Naw, she's-um..." He caught himself mid sentence. His eyes darted nervously around the room. Chris, the only sandy-haired Pahlawan sibling, had frozen on the steps.

"We gotta go," he said hastily, running up and grabbing his brother's elbow. "C'mon Eoin..." They hurried down the stairs before E.T. could say another word to them.

E.T. shrugged, pretending that it wasn't the first time the Pahlawan brothers had acted all weird and suspicious. Even though it was the first time... He shook his head as though to forget the incident. Just keep going, he thought to himself.

Now that he was on one of the higher floors, E.T. decided to take the lift back down to the lobby. He always found it amusing to have a whole bunch of people you don't really know get on the lift with you. You learn a lot about your neighbors that way. The only danger was when someone starts talking to you-then it's just creepy. Nobody wants creepy Mrs. Next Door to figure which apartment you live at. The escape route was surprisingly simple: get out on the wrong floor on purpose.

E.T. walked to the lift and smacked the down button. The thing rattled and shook, before slamming to a noisy halt. The doors dinged open. The elevator was empty, which was usually a good thing. It meant no one was there to watch you.

He stepped inside. The place was actually pretty gross. The once shiny metallic silver walls looked like little kids had come in and licked them or something, not to mention the prominent smell of bleach. A little dimming monitor told him which floor he was on, just in case he was so bored he wanted to watch it tick down. Instead, he decided to remove the ridiculous padding. In the event of a zombie attack, padding would make it hard to run. He kept the helmet and golf club though: just in case.

It was around floor two when things went weird. The lift stopped moving with a heavy jolt that slammed E.T. against the wall. It took him a gulp and a few seconds to recollect himself, but once his brain had gotten over the initial shock, he remembered that he was supposed to push the red emergency button.