Out of the Darkness

33

Sometimes, their pictures were in the articles, making it easier on us. When they weren't pictured, we had to see if any trace of them was on the internet with a picture to compare to her. This whole process was entertaining at first, just from her reactions on what we could find. I could tell that she wasn't familiar with having access to the internet. This intrigued me, simply because it was strange to know someone who had never used it before. After a while it did get frustrating when we couldn't even find a clue. We even included the guys so that she could see if she remembered any of their faces. I started within what I assumed her time period would be. Her clothes could have been any time from now to the 60's though, with the way fashion was. I knocked out as many possibilities as I could from the available pictures, making a good lead way before my phone signaled that I had a text. "Ready to film," Corey sent me. "Be right down," I replied, then stood up and stretched my stiff muscles. My office wasn't uncomfortable but after sitting for a while, I wouldn't exactly call it comfortable either. "I guess we'll pick this up later. Corey's ready to film," I said, looking over to her. She was staring at the computer, her hand shifting towards the  mouse, like she wanted to try it out. She turned her head and met my gaze. "Okay. I'll be quiet, I swear. It'll be like I'm not even there," she said, smiling. My heart stuttered a little at that, and I knew that I was falling too fast again. I was the type to fall too fast for someone, but a ghost? I was really just sabotaging myself right now. I knew it, but I didn't know how to stop it. I gave her a small smile, then walked out my door and down the stairs. I didn't check to see if she was following me, because I didn't want to know. If I knew she was there, I would keep looking for her and I already seemed crazy to the guys. I headed towards the living room, and found the rest of the guys on the couch. "What are we doing?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at Corey. He had a set of pink cat ears on his head, but that wasn't unusual. I was used to any crazy thing around here. Hell, I was even doing the crazy thing half the time. That's just the way it is around here. "BRUVAAA, WE'RE REACTIN TA OUR INDARECT TWEETS BRUVA! ARE YOU READY BRUVA?" I laughed and took my seat in between Sam and Jake. I noticed the camera was already filming so I turned on my YouTube persona. We were pretty much ourselves on camera, just amped up a bit for entertainment purposes. "YES BRUVVA, LET'S DO IT BRUVAA!" I replied. Corey set his screen recording up, and started scrolling through the tweets. Jake started humming some TikTok song, so I nudged him with my shoulder. He glanced at me, then nudged me back. It took all of two seconds for us to start shoving one another, and yelling shit. "CAN YOU GUYS-" Corey started. I heard a small, muffled giggle that made me stop automatically. "Did you guys hear that?" Corey whispered. Fuck. I shook my head and looked at him. "Hear what? I didn't hear anything." "It was like a giggle. A girl giggle. No one heard it?" he asked, looking around at us. Sam shook his head, and glanced at Jake and I. "I didn't hear anything but these two." "Sorry," Jake replied, laughing. "Oops," I said, grinning, happy that the subject was changed. "Hmm," Corey replied, looking around the room. "I think that I need to stop doing spooky stuff for a while. You guys are going to haunt me and this house, I swear." I rolled my eyes and played it off. "Whatever man. Come on, let's do this." "Yeah, okay," he said, looking around the room one more time. I did the same, wondering if I could see the small shimmer that Anna usually let off. I didn't see it anywhere but I knew that she was there. Her giggle had reminded me. Corey started reading off the tweets, and most of them had us laughing our asses off. The fandom was just as crazy as we were, and I loved that. The drama was always around in some form but for the most part, our fandom was amazing. I still couldn't believe how strong they were when they pulled together for us. Besides the funny and roasting tweets, there were ones that expressed their love for us, and how we had helped them. I loved seeing those because it still amazed me that we were actually helping people. Of course, there were the ones that turned a bit sexual but those didn't bother me either. I admit that some of them were a little hardcore and could sometimes shock me, but I was used to it. About an hour later, we were finished filming, and Corey set off to his room to edit it. He had to post the next day so I knew he would be in his room for a couple of hours, editing. "Want one?" Jake said, walking back into the room, and holding out a White Claw to me. "Sure, thanks," I answered, taking the can of alcohol.  I started to walk out of the room when Sam called out to me. "Yo Colby!" I turned back to see what he wanted. "Yeah," I asked. "Why don't you hang out with us tonight? Some of the gang is coming over and we're gonna hang out in the pool, get some pizzas, drink a few. You know, the usual." As good as that sounded, I really wanted to get back to my room, back to helping Anna, and talking freely with her. "Uh yeah, maybe I'll come out for a little while. Just text me or something, later on." His face was full of speculation and concern. "You sure you're okay? You seem...jumpy or something. You're not acting right." I ran my hand through my hair and grinned at him. "I'm fine Sam. I just have a ghost girlfriend that I'm trying to hide from you all. You know, since I can't get a real one." They laughed, and I felt the tension break. "Okay brother, but you know that I'm here if you need me." "I know. See you later," I answered, then headed up the stairs, back to my room. "That was fun!" Anna's whispered voice startled me as I reached the top step. "Shit," I gasped, putting my hand over my heart. A light giggle floated by ear, and I felt wind move my hair. "Sorry," she replied, but I could hear the laughter in her voice. I didn't say anything, just walked inside my room and closed the door. I walked to my computer chair and sat down, before turning to look at my side, where I assumed she would be. Sure enough, the small shimmer that I saw materialized into her form.