Out of the Darkness

39

"I don't even know what YouTube is," she grumbled, before sitting on the couch. I chuckled, then set up my laptop on some old TFIL videos. I thought she might like to see all of the adventures we had. "Okay, I guess that's it. I'll be back soon." She nodded, but was already engrossed in what was happening on the screen. I threw my hat on, checked my image and walked out my door, before I could convince myself not too. I liked to be alone a little too much sometimes. I guess, technically, I wasn't alone since Anna was with me...but I wasn't sure that a ghost could count as company. I walked down the stairs and started smiling as I recognized the music that was being played. "Yoooo Colbbyyyyy!" Corey shouted when I entered the dining room. Sam and Kat were going head to head in a game of beer pong. "What's up man?" I said, grasping his hand. "I didn't think you were gonna come down. Jake said you had a headache," he replied, looking at Jake and sticking his tongue out. "See Jake, he does love us, ya ASS." I laughed and shook my head. "I took some Tylenol," I said shrugging. "All better." "God dangit!" Sam yelled as Kat bounced a ball into one of his cups. "When did you get so good at beer pong?" he asked, rolling his eyes and turning up the cup. She laughed and shrugged. "Guess I had a good teacher." He smiled at her, a look in his eyes that I recognized well. The man had it bad and I could admit to myself that sometimes I could get a little envious of his relationship with Katrina. They knew each other so well, and they just worked. I enjoyed being single and my life was so full right now, that I wasn't really looking for a relationship. The fandom tried to ship me with every girl that I stood next too, and that made things uncomfortable for sure, but what was wrong with wanting to be single for a while? Maybe I was just telling myself that because I hadn't found the right girl...I didn't know for sure. I really didn't think that the right girl was in LA though. I sighed and sat down next to Corey at the table. They had a song by Juice Wrld blasting out of the speakers, and Jake was filming Tara, as she spun around showing off her outfit. I felt my spirits lift a little, and the stress rolled off as I looked around at my friends. I loved and appreciated them so much. I thought about Anna and how her life had been cut short at such an early age. I wasn't sure how old she was for sure when she had died, but she had to be around my age, maybe a couple of years younger. Too damn young for your life to be taken though. I knew it could happen, because I had lost friends, but it was so damn unfair. Life really didn't make sense most of the time. "You've been locked in your room more than lately man, you doing okay?" Sam asked, sitting down next to me. I glanced over at the ping pong table to see Jake going against Katrina now. "Yeah man, I'm good. Just needed a little me time. Didn't mean to worry you," I replied, meeting his gaze. He grinned and rolled his eyes. "Emo ass," he said. I laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. I think that the last trip just really got in my head. You know, we haven't really talked about what happened all that much." He was quiet, his eyes going to the White Claw sitting on the table in front of him. His fingers tightened on it for a second, and I could've sworn that I saw a shadow cross his eyes, but then he met my gaze and smiled. "What's there to talk about? Whatever happened can't really be explained. I'm not even sure what I saw. You guys said that you didn't want to go back so what's the point?" I shrugged. "I don't know. I feel like we're avoiding it, pretending like it didn't happen when it obviously did." "What are you guys talking about?" Corey asked, from the other side of me. He had been on his phone not really paying attention until now. "The house," I stated, meeting his soulful brown eyes. They lit up in fear. "We are NOT going back to that house. It's evil man. I'm telling you. Stay away from that house. We shouldn't even talk about it." "What is talking about it gonna do Corey? We need to see if what we saw is the same for everyone. We need to talk about what we experienced, what we heard, or saw. It's important." "Why are you so adamant about this Colby? What's the big deal?" I looked back over to Sam. "It's just- I don't know, okay? It's just important!" I exclaimed, running both hand through the sides of my hair, before bringing them back down. Tara showed up in front of me, on the other side of the table, and passed me a White Claw. I looked at her questioningly. She held hers up and smiled at me. "You didn't have on in your hands. You seem stressed. Thought you could use it." "Thanks," I replied, popping the tab and turning the can up. "You know, ever since we went to that house, you haven't been yourself. All of us have caught you talking to yourself. Jake said that he saw you with a weird doll last night. What's going on Colby?" I glared at Jake for a second. "I had the doll because I ordered it. It's one of those haunted ones, like the ones that you get for your videos. Just thought since it was close to Halloween, that I'd try it out. But if you have a problem with it, then I can find something else to do." Sam scrutinized me for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't have a problem with it. I don't own the rights to making YouTube videos with haunted dolls or anything. I'm just trying to make sure that you're okay." "I'd be more okay, if we could talk about what happened at that damn house," I replied, starting to get annoyed. "You guys are avoiding it like it's the plague. Have you even told your girlfriends? This was huge. This is what we've been looking for. Something drastic and real, proving that there is more than just this reality that we live in. We finally get something, and you're just pretending like it didn't happen!" My voice had gotten louder, and I didn't realize that I was shouting or that I had stood up, staring down at Sam, until Kat touched my shoulder. I rounded on her quickly, stopping when I realized who it was. "Sorry," I muttered, sinking back down into my chair. "Are you okay Colby? What have you not told me Sam?" "Nothing Kat, it's not important. I'm not keeping any secrets from you. I'm just not ready to face it yet. Is that what you wanted to hear Colby? It scared the shit out of me.