The Haunting of Amy Meyer

Chapter 2

We got to the house already. Jackson is laying on the couch, blankets on top of him. He's been sick this week so Aunt Mae gave him yesterday and today off. But he has to be fully healthy by Monday. "Hey Jackson. How are you feeling?" I ask and rub my hands through his hair.
"Better." he says. "Fever went away."
"Yea, suck it fever!" Noah says as he plots down next to Jackson on the couch.
"You hungry?" I ask.
"Starving. What's for dinner?" He says.
"Pizza." I say as I sit across from him.
"Again?" He throws puppy eyes at me.
"I'm sorry! But Aunt Mae didn't go to the store this week. She didn't trust me in buying groceries." He makes a disappointed face reminding me of his soup dilemma. Anytime he is sick he must have soup for whatever reason. "I promise I'll make it soon, okay?" He nods. "By the way. Rosie, you still have to order pizza for us."
She grunts and walks out the room with her phone.
"You missed an interesting day today." Noah tells my brother. He raises his eyebrows. "Amy saw that teacher who died at school."
Jackson shoots up with wide eyes. "You saw him?! You're so lucky!"
Confusion hits me. "What do you mean 'lucky'?"
"I've been trying to find him since forever. He seems to always be hiding from people."
I guess he is doing a good job hiding from people for the last 25 years. "I didn't know you were looking for him. And he was only out for a couple of seconds. Rosie scared him away."
"I heard that!" she screams from the kitchen making us laugh.
Lucas shows up and sits next to me. He looks over at Jackson, "Dude, you still look gross"
Jackson looks around, "I heard that, Lucas!" he says. I chuckle. "So, what's the update today?" I ask him. He shrugs. "I can only hear them today. But Maggie has been keeping me company, trying to keep me conscious and breathing."
Maggie is another spirit. She was living in Aunt Mae's house when we moved here. She's really old so I'm guessing she died of old age.
I remember the first day when we moved here. Aunt Mae gave us permission to wander around the house. Obviously, me and Jackson were too depressed to focus on anything so we walked around the house, barely paying attention to our surroundings. We came upon the attic and that's when we saw her. We shrieked, but only because we didn't expect to see anything up there. She caught us by surprise. Aunt Mae came running upstairs with a broom in her hand. It made us laugh because she looked so insane, thinking she could hurt whatever scared us with a cheap broom. We then explained who was in there. We started asking her questions. It turns out that she had been staying in that house for about 160 years, she died 80 years ago. The room that Jackson was going to have was Maggie's when she was living here with her husband. She explained that her husband died in the war and that she loved him very much. Later, Maggie died and was able to meet with him again. Years passed by and Aunt Mae bought that house. She turned Maggie's room into a guest room so nobody was really in there. Maggie continued to stay there with her husband until that day, when we showed up. She said that she got nervous and went to the attic to not disturb us. We met her husband later that day, His name was Joe.
They don't stay in that house anymore so they left to an abandoned cabin a couple miles into the woods. Creepy, right? It's pretty ironic if you ask me. Since we were able to see and hear them, they decided we needed our space. They come and visit almost every other day, that day being today with Jackson being sick, Maggie stayed to look over him. That's one thing about them. They love looking over us and making sure we're okay.
"Pizza is on their way." Rosie says as she sits down next to me. Technically, on Lucas.
"Woah, I never had a girl on my lap before." Lucas says with a grin. "Interesting." Me and Jackson laugh.
Rosie raises her eyebrows at us. "What?"
"Nothing" we say at the same time.
"Hey, Amy?" Jackson says.
"Yea?" I get up to get the remote control from him.
"Did you see them today?"
The whole room becomes quiet. We know who he's talking about. I look over at him and the first thing I see is his bracelet. Mom and dad gave it to him when he was 6. It's amazing that it still fits him. It's brown and leather and has a bead in the middle. I have a similar one but it's a bit thinner than his. They said that as long as we wear it, good things will come to us in our lives. I guess we haven't been so lucky.
I choose my words carefully, hoping I don't say anything that I might regret later. "No, not today." There's silence again. I rattle my brain to find something to say to fill in the tension.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings. No one bothers to move.
"I'll get it!" Noah, Rosie, and Lucas suddenly yell. I don't know why Lucas yelled. Maybe he just wanted to leave the awkwardness from the room.
I take a step closer to Jackson and put a hand on his bracelet. He doesn't look up. Rosie and Noah come back with two boxes of pizza and they set it on the carpet.
"I'll get the plates." Rosie says.
"No, I'll get them. I have to be a gentleman." Noah says.
"No, I'll get them. You do enough at school for me. The least I can do is get the plates." she says. They start arguing to see who can get the damn plates.
I roll my eyes. "I got an idea!" I yell over their barking noises. "Why don't you both get the plates."
Noah points at me. "Great idea! I knew you were so smart."
"And get some drinks while you're at it." I say. They both disappear to the kitchen. I don't know where Lucas went. No surprise. He always leaves without saying a word. I tap Jacksons cheek. "Chin up, kid. It could always be worse."
"I feel like they don't even want to see us."
My gut twists in knots. "Don't say that. They loved us very much. And think about it. What if we didn't have this gift? We would have never even thought about seeing them again after the accident." I start to think about the teacher and how his daughter never saw him, maybe just pictures and faint memories. How he never saw her growing up and going to school and getting her first boyfriend. At least, that's what I think about. Mom and dad are never going to meet my first boyfriend or Jackson's first girlfriend, or seeing us graduate, or go to college. My chest starts to feel hollow, so I gulp to try and make it go away, but it doesn't. "And at least we're trying. I don't want you to say that they don't want to see us. Maybe they're not ready to see us yet." Of course, I don't state the most probable one. That they may have crossed into the light.
"Eat up, bitches!" Rosie says and sets the plates, napkins and sodas down. I give a reassuring smile to Adam, saying that everything is going to be okay for now.
We're 15 minutes into eating when the door opens. Aunt Mae walks in from work. She owns a vintage shop in our small town and she is a hardcore hippie, literally. She's always wearing bell bottom jeans, flowy shirts and a lot of jewelry.
Aunt Mae is pretty young. She was 22 when we first moved in with her. She's 28 now and she does some volunteer work and takes pictures of nature which she later sells. There's so much land in this town, I'm surprised she hasn't gotten bored of it.
Once in a while I feel guilty and wonder if we took her social life away, if she had any. She was really young, yet really responsible when we moved in. But, she hardly ever goes on dates. I'm not sure if it's because of us or because she's not ready. She told us about this boy that broke her heart when she was younger, and ever since then, she only goes out with a few guys. They never last long.
"Hey guys!" she says.
"Hi Aunt Mae!" we all say at the same time. Rosie and Noah are really close to her so they ended up calling her Aunt Mae too.
"What are you guys up to today?"
I shrug. "I don't know. Hang out. Study"
She tilts her head back and snorts into laughter. We turn to look at her with a strange look. "Study? Seriously? On a Friday? Why don't you guys go out to, like, the movies or something?"
"Aunt Mae, the movie theater is miles away from here. It'll take us forever to get there." We live miles away from the center of the city, which has all the main stores such as the movie theaters and restaurants, so we need a car to get there. Unless you want to walk, which is not such a bright idea.
"Well, do something fun. You guys are just sitting here like sacks of potatoes and stuffing your faces with so much fat and grease. You want to know what I was doing at your age?" she says.
"We don't want to know. And if we did, then you'll be sending a bad example." I say with a smile.
She rolls her eyes. I might have gotten my eye rolling from her. "I'll tell you what. You guys can take the car."
"Seriously?"
"Of course!" She tosses the keys to me and disappears upstairs.
I give everyone a grin. I look at Jackson. "Do you feel any better to go with us?"
He takes a deep breath. "I think so. I'm tired of laying down all day. Do you have any Tylenol? I ran out."
"Sorry, Aunt Mae caught me sneaking some last week for my headache. She took them away. We'll stop by the store and buy some."
"Ok. Let me put something decent on. You'll never know who we'll bump into." he raises his eyebrow and fists pumps Noah on his way to his room.
"Why did Aunt Mae take away your pills?" Noah asks.
"She doesn't believe in medicine. She prefers to go the natural way. To let the body heal itself or some herbs and teas." Usually I wouldn't mind going natural. But there are those days when the pain is too strong and it makes me want to stab someone so they can understand my pain, so I sneak some pills into my room and try my very best to hide them from Aunt Mae. Jackson and I often have each other's back when it comes to needing medicine, but today I failed him.
"So, how's Jackson holding up?" Rosie asks.
"He keeps asking me every day if I've seen them. He usually doesn't get upset when I say no. But when I mention that I've seen someone that wasn't them, he gets hurt. Like my parents can easily find us but they choose not to." There's silence again. I notice Lucas sitting on the couch. I didn't see him come back. He has a look like he's in deep thought. I know he's listening to what I'm saying.
I sigh. "I'm going to throw away the trash." I get the paper plates and napkins and take them to the trash. There's a picture hanging in the kitchen. It was when I turned 1-year-old. Aunt Mae is in the picture and mom is pregnant. I have a Princess crown and my dad is holding a small pink cake. I hate pink now. Why does every parent assume that little girls like pink so much? I don't really remember that day. Obviously, I was too young. I have more pictures of this day in the family album that we kept. My mom looks so beautiful with her blue pixie hair. She let it grow later on. She said she wanted to look like a real parent, but in my opinion, she looked perfect. When I turned 13, I convinced Aunt Mae to let me dye my hair blue. It was fun the first couple of months but then the dyeing process got tedious and I kept staining almost everything blue, so I stopped. I ended up dying my hair silver afterward, which was so much better and stuck with me to this day.
I turn around and see Lucas leaning against the kitchen island but he's not looking at me, he's looking at the picture.
"Huh? I still can't imagine you in pink."
I give him a shrug. "Too bright, don't you think?"
"Slightly." He looks at me and grins. "You look like your mom."
I look at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact with him. That feeling comes back. The feeling of emptiness in my stomach. Like I need something to fill it up. Every person that knew my parents always tells me that I look like my mother. That sometimes I act like her when she was my age. I just wish that she were still around to tell me about her crazy teenage days.
"Hey," I look up from the ground. "Do you need a hug?" Lucas says and takes a step towards me.
I take a step back. "Lucas, stay away from me. You know what happens when you touch me."
"Aw come on!"
"Stay back!" I walk backwards but my back hits the wall. Then, Lucas hugs me. Although I can't feel an actual body hugging me, I still get this weird tingly sensation coursing throughout my body. My head starts feeling woozy and I start to get nauseous. I feel my legs begin to tremble.
The feeling starts to go away and when I look up, I see Lucas grinning from afar. I glare at him.
"Feel better?" he asks.
"No. I don't."
"Well, at least you know it came from the heart." He places his hand over his chest and disappears. I smile, because I know it did.
I grab my bag, coat, and keys.
"Jackson! If you don't hurry, then we're leaving without you!"
Noah and Rosie are waiting outside while I wait by the door. Jackson comes running down the stairs with half the cologne bottle on him. I slightly gag. "Dude, next time why don't you just pour the whole bottle on you. It'll be easier."
"What? A little too much? I can't really smell any on me."
"Obviously. You're sick so you can't smell anything. I'm surprised you're still breathing." I playfully shove him out the door. "Now, hurry up. Maybe we can still catch the good movies."
I unlock the door and we all get in. Rosie gets in the passenger's seat, Noah and Jackson in the back.
Noah's the first to complain. "God, what's that smell?"
I roll down the windows. "I suspect Aunt Mae maybe saved a homeless dog and took him to a shelter. Let's hope." I say.
We talk and listen to music the whole way.
I park on the street next to the theater. The store is across the street, so we walk. We enter and Rosie drags me away from the guys. "Go get what you need, Amy and I need to look for something." I don't question her, so I let her drag me.
We start walking aisle by aisle and we come across the hair dyes. "You should dye your hair red." Rosie says.
I scrunch my nose. "No thanks."
She shrugs. "Just a suggestion." We walk to the next aisle. "Oh! Right here" She reaches for some pregnancy tests.
"Jesus! Rosie! Seriously?"
"What? I took one last week, but just to make sure."
"Who was it this time?" I ask, even though I know the answer.
"Erick Knight" She's been fooling around with him lately. No one knows but me. You want to know why? He's a jock, and obviously, jocks and an outsider don't go well together. At least not in this town. They both got drunk at a party, one I don't remember, and they spent the night together. Rosie told me the next day and she felt disgusted. Later during the week, they started sneaking out of school and making out in his car. Then they'll go back to class and pretend they don't know each other, like nothing happened. This has been going on for a couple of months and I'm surprised they haven't been caught.
"Ugh, fine. Let's go check it out."
"Are you kidding? What if Noah sees this?"
I raise an eyebrow. "Since when do you care what Noah thinks?"
"I don't. But what if he 'accidentally' tells someone. Then the whole school will know." I give her a look. "I'll be back" She grabs a box and walks towards the store restroom.
I walk outside and see Noah and Jackson waiting. Jackson is drinking water; which I'm guessing he drank his medicine already.
"Where's Rosie?" Noah asks.
"Restroom."
Minutes later, Rosie comes out. We start walking across the street to the movie theater. Me and Rosie stay behind a little. "So?" I ask her.
"Negative."
I shake my head at her. "I'm buying you a box of condoms for your birthday."
She hits my arm. "Shhh! I'll be more careful next time."
My eyes widen. "Next time?"
She smiles and shrugs. She catches up to the guys.
I laugh and rub my temple, wondering how this friendship came to be.
It was back in Fifth grade. I was stupid enough to tell the whole class I can see dead people for show and tell. The whole class started laughing at me and the teacher got concerned and had to send me to the principal's office, which meant a phone call home. Mom and dad weren't upset or anything. They said that most people will not accept who we are and that we should learn to stay away from those people. So, pretty much, stay away from my classmates.
Then, the next day, I was afraid to go to school. As expected, everyone was making fun of me. Except Rosie. She came up to me during recess and asked if I can actually see spirits. I was afraid to tell her the truth, but what more did I have to lose? So I told her. She said that I was the coolest person she had ever met. And BAM! the beginning of a friendship. She's basically a sister to me. She was there for me when my parents died. She was even there for Jackson. She punched anyone who gave me a hard time, which gave her detentions.
Up to this day, we have been inseparable. We will always have each other's backs.