Cyan Sleeves

Something Spooky

When it was finally time to go back to school again, things that seemed much more important a week ago were finally pushed back into my brain.

Johnathan... should I ignore him, or talk to him? What about Ochre?

Ochre was probably a more pressing matter, since she was also hurt. I would have to ask her if she had been seeing the strange things I had seen as well. Over the weekend, I had seen three more of the strange ghost-animals in our house, and one more outside. All of them were different in shape, but looked like they were all related. They weren't ever taller than a couple feet, and they liked to disappear whenever I got close.

The bus rolled in, and I climbed aboard. For a moment, I was worried that Ochre wasn't here, but I saw her where she normally sat once I reached my usual spot.

As I sat down, I turned to her and immediately leapt into conversation. "Hey, could you sit by me? I really think we should talk."

Ochre looked like she agreed, and picked up some crutches I hadn't seen before. In one movement, she moved across the aisle while moving her injured leg as little as possible. The jeans around the leg seemed to be covering up bandages or a cast.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. Just stuck with these stupid things for a while." She moved her crutches around and rolled her eyes. I almost laughed until I noticed the bruise on her left temple. It had faded, but was still clearly visible.

"Okay, about that – has your injury been healing ridiculously fast?"

Ochre shook her head. "If anything, I think it's going too slowly. It's still all gross and gory underneath my bandages. It makes me kinda squeamish to look at it."

"Oh... sorry about that. I'm asking because... mine is basically gone."

"You're kidding, right? You were bleeding a ton; how can it be gone in four days?" Her eyes were brimming with curiosity behind her lenses. She looked like a scientist who had just discovered a new species.

"Not sure. I'd show you, but I'd have to take off my coat and stuff. My mom didn't even bother bandaging it today. It just looks like all of my other scars at this point."

Ochre seemed to wince when I mentioned my other scars so off-handedly. I chose to shift to another talking point. "Also, have you seen weird ghost animals recently?" Probably not the best way to phrase it if I didn't want to sound insane, but whatever. That was what they looked like.

"Uh, no?" She laughed a little. "Was that a joke? What do you mean by 'ghost animals'?"

"Like, little transparent animals running around in your house and stuff. I've seen at least three so far in my house, but no one else has noticed them."

Again, she shook her head. "Trust me, I would notice them if they were in my house."

The bus stopped moving, and I realized that I didn't want my time talking with Ochre to end. "Hey, sit by me in class so we can keep talking, okay?"

"'Kay." She picked up her crutches and walked out, while I followed behind her. I tried slowing down my steps so she wouldn't get left behind. She seemed relieved when we finally made it to class – apparently walking with crutches was nearly as exhausting as hopping on one foot to class.

We sat in the back to talk without getting caught by the angry, coffee fueled teacher. "Have you seen anything off recently at your place? There's a lot of small things happening at mine. One or two wouldn't be so weird, but..."