Out of the Darkness

57

"I do remember seeing the bright light after Sam was hit, but then I blacked out.," I finished. "This has to be the wildest shit I have ever experienced in my life," Kian said, sitting back in his seat heavily. "Look, no offense but we aren't doing these damn videos with you guys again. This is it. Fuck this haunted shit. Bring on the rat traps." I chuckled again and thanked Kian silently for bringing a little laughter into the situation. "Deal. I don't know how much haunted shit we're going to be doing after this either," I answered. Sam didn't say anything, but he was chewing his lip looking at his hands in his lap. Being spooky and haunted shit was his brand especially. At least around Halloween. Then we still did haunted things on the duo channel so that was going to complicate things. A lot of people only watched us for our spooky content. Weird since we didn't start out that way. The rest of the trip to drop Kian and JC off was pretty quiet, besides our goodbyes. Once I pulled back out onto the road, I waited anxiously for Sam to speak first. Maybe he forgot? Then he cleared his throat, and I caught his eye. Not a chance. "So you want to tell me what really happened back there?" I looked back at the road, and kept driving. "I did tell you what really happened Sam. I got knocked out too. I don't know what happened after that. I don't know who the woman was who almost killed us. I don't know anything about that ship." I didn't look back at him, but I could feel his stare on my face. "Nice evasion. What about the girl? The ghost girl that we first saw, flickering in and out of view? You didn't look nearly as surprised as you should've when you saw her. I need you to tell me the truth Colby. We don't lie to one another. We don't keep secrets. Not me and you." Damn it Sam. I sighed heavily and pulled off into a store to get gas. I had plenty but I didn't need to be driving when I told him the entire story. Once I parked next to the pump and killed the engine, I took off and my seatbelt and turned to face him in the seat. "You sure you want the whole thing Sam? It's heavy and, to be honest, I'm not so sure you'll believe me." I laughed a little, noting how dead and hollow my voice sounded as I ran my hand through my hair. "You'll probably think I'm crazy actually." I looked up and met his gaze, knowing that mine was unsure. I really didn't know how he would take this, especially since I had known about Anna for a while now, and hadn't told him. "I'm not going to think you're crazy Colby. Tell me." "Okay, okay," I said, as he looked at me expectantly. "You remember the house? The Witch's House that scared the shit out of us?" He nodded, his eyebrows going down. "Remember the creepy ass dolls?" I asked, twisting my earring nervously. He nodded again, and his eyebrows went back up. "THE doll. The one you have. You took it from there, didn't you?" I nodded, biting my lip. "Colbyyy," he groaned, then let his head fall back on the headrest. "Dude, we talked about this. We can't keep taking things from reportedly haunted places. Because shit LIKE THIS happens. Bro..." He looked back up at me. "Tell me the rest." So I did. Every little detail, to me taking the doll, to trying to throw it away, to finally accepting that I wasn't crazy and Anna was real, to every other damn thing that had happened concerning her and me. I watched his face change, showing several different emotions, ranging from surprise, to anger, to disbelief, to just a silent stunned look. "And that's what happened on the ship. I don't know why she started glowing so brightly, or where the hell she is now. I just know that she somehow saved both of our lives, and well, here we are," I finished. I let my words hang there, in the tense silence between us. I needed him to register everything, to take it all in, the entire story, and everything that I had been through since the night at that damned house. After what seemed like forever, but was only about 3 minutes, he let out a heavy sigh and shook his head before meeting my gaze again. "So that's it? All of it?" I nodded, and twisted my rings. "That's all of it." "Okay. Okay. I guess we should figure out how to help her then. If she isn't gone for good." I breathed a sigh of relief at his words, while simultaneously feeling a pang in my chest at the thought that she might be gone. He surprised me by opening his door and getting out. "What are you doing?" I asked. He turned around and looked back in at me, with a "what does it look like" expression. "Getting the gas," he replied, motioning towards the pump. "Oh yeah," I said, then popped the gas lid. I had totally lost myself in the retelling of the story and forgotten that we were even at the gas station. Once Sam got back in the car, I pulled back out onto the road and headed home. I wait for him to speak first, mainly because I didn't know what else to say. I had spilled the entire story. "We should probably apologize to Jake after all of this," Sam said, after a couple of miles of silence. "What?" I asked, a little confused. He met my eyes and grinned. "Well, we did basically blame him for everything this Anna chick has done. I mean, we can apologize sooner, but I assumed that you wanted to keep this just between us for now." This was why we were best friends. Sam knew me so well. "Yeah, just between us," I repeated, and made my next turn. He nodded in agreement. "Okay. Done. So, you said you brought the doll onto the ship, right? Did you bring her back with us?" I kept quiet while I pulled into our driveway and into my parking spot. Once I killed the engine, I turned to look at him again. "Yeah. She's in my bag," I said, pointing towards the trunk. He stared at me for a minute, his eyebrows knotting together in deep thought. "Hopefully she'll come back Colby. So that I can thank her for saving my life, and yours." I nodded, and choked down the sudden lump that appeared in my throat. "Yeah. Hopefully," I repeated, my voice low and hoarse. We got out and grabbed our things, then headed towards the front door. "Oh, and Colby?" Sam replied, before we walked inside. "Yeah Sam?" I asked. "Don't keep things like this to yourself. I'm always here for you."