Corpse in the Mirror [SAMPLE]

Chapter 5 - The Apartment

        I arrived too early at McDonald’s that Saturday morning, where our group was supposed to meet up before going to Richard’s apartment. These days Dad and Mom were trying to jog at least once a week at this place called Manila Bay, so they’d given me a ride since it was on their way.

        “Hey Sam.”

        I almost jumped at the voice behind me in the order queue, and turned to find Migs smiling sheepishly.

        “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

        “It’s okay.” I smiled back. “You actually woke me more than scared me.” I yawned at my last word.

        Migs chuckled. “I can see that.”

        We both ordered breakfast combos and got a booth near the window, so the others could see us right away.

        “You’re wearing my earrings,” he said, almost surprised, after wolfing down three successive spoonfuls of his rice meal.

        “Yeah.” I tucked the sides of my hair behind my ears, exposing the hoop earrings Migs had made for me last year. They were actually audio recorders designed to help me catch electronic voice phenomena. “I thought they’d come in handy today.”

        Migs cleared his throat. “About that…” He took a gulp of his coffee, then looked at me with a serious expression. “I’m actually wondering if it’d be safe for you to go there.”

        “What do you mean?”

        Migs smiled softly. “I mean this…” he said, and in the next moment he deliberately let me hear his thoughts—his memories, to be exact.

        They came in the form of sound snippets in his head. Most of it was of my voice, at different levels of panic, from that time when we stood side by side in the darkness of the Little Theater as we investigated our first case for the SPRG.

        Hearing it for the first time from Migs’ perspective, I had to admit I did sound a bit unnerving. He never said anything about it before now, but I guessed I’d freaked him out more than he’d let on.

        “I think I’ll be fine this time,” I told him bravely, but even I heard the slight quiver in my voice. “I mean, we’ll be in broad daylight, right? Not like before.”

        “I guess,” he said, finally. He was down to the last spoonful of his full meal, while I was barely halfway through my regular burger. “But I’m not letting you stay in the elevator.”

        That actually made me feel relieved. “I’m definitely okay with that, Sir Migs.”

        We both laughed, and just then our newbie member Mark himself came in through the doors and said “Oh! Good morning Sir Migs!”

#

        It was starting to rain by the time our group made the short walk to Richard’s building.

        After getting over how Sir Julius looked too much like a fellow college student in his casual shirt and faded jeans, we had a short round up of reports from the groups he’d assigned to do background checks on the case.

        Lana had gotten most of our newbie members in her group, and she summarized the results of their interviews with the building’s guards and janitors. Basically, they confirmed that what Richard and I experienced with the elevator was something that had been happening to other people, too, particularly the building’s night shift staff.