Out of the Darkness

56

Anna floated up in the center of the room, a gold light burning from the palms of her hands and the center of her chest. Her emerald eyes stared down at the other ghost for just a second. Then a million things happened at once. I felt the pressure release from my throat, oxygen forced itself into my greedy lungs, my feet hit the floor and my knees buckled. Then the room was flooded with a bright golden light that forced me to squeeze my eyes shut. That was fine really, because I was tired. Darkness enveloped me and I sank into it willingly. First, I felt my body shaking. Why was I shaking? I wasn't cold. It didn't feel like I was outside or anything. No, the surface that I was on was soft, like a bed. Was I in a bed? Was there an earthquake? My mind was going over a million possibilities, since I couldn't seem to get my eyes to open. "Come on brother, wake the fuck up. You need to be okay, and we need to get the fuck out of this place." Sam's voice was low, coming from right next to me. A memory flashed in my mind of him- I sat straight up, my eyes popping open, landing on Sam immediately. "Sam," I breathed out, then yanked him into a hug. His arms came around me, then he clapped me on the back a couple of times before leaning away. "You're okay?" I asked, my throat a little sore. He nodded and smiled. "I am. Are you?" I nodded, and stretched my arms to be sure. I was a little sore but okay. I looked around the room and noticed that we were still in our room at the Queen Mary. "We should maybe go," I replied, meeting his gaze. "How long have I been out?" "Not that long," he answered, fixing his hair. "About 5 minutes, maybe a little more. The doors unlocked finally, and Kian and JC came in. They helped me get you onto the bed. There wasn't really anything we could do until you woke up. They went to get a couple bottles of water for you. We didn't really know what to do...I think we need to talk when you're feeling better though. Some things that I think you should explain." In that moment, I knew that he knew that I had been keeping something from him. I was going to have to tell him about Anna. I prayed with everything in me, right then, that he would understand why I did what I did, why I had kept it from him. I sighed, and nodded. "Okay," I replied. "Let's get out of here first, and drop the guys off. Then we'll talk." He nodded, then stood to help me up. The world was a little swimmy at first, but then it leveled out. "You want to tell me what happened? Last thing I remember was that you were slung across the room and knocked out. Then An-" I cut myself off, my eyes growing big as I looked at him. He didn't reply but his mouth was a tight line as he held my gaze. Then he shook his head and sighed. "Later," he said, as Kian and JC walked through the door. "Hey Crosby, it's good to see you up!" JC replied, grinning as he handed me a cold bottle of water. I cracked the lid and turned it up, letting the cold liquid soothe my aching throat. "Did you enjoy your nappy nap?" Kian asked, packing the other bottles in his bag. I brought the bottle down and rolled my eyes at him. "Yes. It was very refreshing, being knocked out by a ghost. Thanks for your concern." He laughed, and clapped his hand down onto my shoulder. "Glad you're okay man." We made sure that we had everything, because we knew that we were not ever coming back. Our time with the Queen Mary was over for good. I put on some music for the way back, because I didn't really want to talk to anyone just yet. Anxiety from knowing that I had to tell Sam was pressing in on me, so when he turned the music down, I swallowed the lump in my throat and glanced his way. "So, what I was trying to ask was are we going to talk about what happened? Or pretend like it didn't? Either way, I'm good," Kian said, throwing both hands up, and shaking his head. I hadn't even realized that he was trying to say anything, being so focused on the future conversation that I had to have. "Um, well, what do you want to say about it?" Sam asked, his fingers pressing down into the headrest of the car since he was turned to face Kian. JC shrugged. "Dude, what the fuck happened in that room before we came in? There was screaming, a girl's voice, and yelling by you two. Then all we saw was some sort of bright light coming from under the door, a loud bang, then the door creaked open. I wanted to run." "Same dude. This is some fucked up kind of ghost shit. I don't fuck with this shit," Kian said, shaking his head again. "Then we just saw you two knocked out on the ground. What the fuck happened?" I glanced at Sam, meeting his eyes, then back to the road. God, I hoped he didn't say anything about Anna. "I can tell you what I saw up until I was knocked out," he said, then cleared his throat. "There was a girl, probably around our age, a ghost girl. She was flickering in and out of view, then the crazy pyscho laughter started. I'm not sure what was being said, because the wind was loud, and there were things breaking. Plus that laughter...so Colby was dragged up against he wall by his throat." "Oh my God," JC said, while Kian's mouth hung open. Sam nodded and continued. "We didn't see anything, or I didn't. Not at first. I tried to help him, but couldn't. Whatever was holding him was strong. Really strong. Then a lady came into view. She had gray skin, like in a black and white tv show. Her hair was pulled back so tightly, I swear she could've used it like a face lift. But her eyes," he shook his head and shivered a little. "They were dark. Not dark colored, although they were that too. But evil. There was evil in her. She scared me, but she had Colby. She was killing him. The girl screamed at her to stop but she wouldn't. So I tried to go at her, to help him somehow. She knocked me back with just a flick of her wrist. I hit the wall and that's all I know. When I woke up, you two were in the room." They all turned their heads to me, waiting for me to fill in the gaps. I had nothing to say though, so I shrugged. "That's really all there is. I don't know who either of them were or why we were the ones they came after. Crazy fucking women ghosts."