Roomies R Us

[Tess Abrahams]

Poking her head out of the closet, where she'd retreated to don a fresh pair of shorts, Tess nodded. "Ha ha, yep! Thanks."

Jacinda lobbed it over and Tess caught it, slipping it onto her one bare foot. After a moment's thought she turned and rummaged about in the closet, digging under a pile of clothes and sneakers. From under the mess a neon green frisbee was rescued, held up by a grinning mutant teen. "Just in case we get bored."

Tess eyed Jacinda and her sweater doubtfully. "You sure you don't want to change? It's like seventy-five degrees out there..."

[Ghost]

On the wall behind Jacinda, a faint shadow appeared and closed in upon her, then disappeared. In her hair, she felt the touch of gentle fingers.

[Jacinda Blake]

Whatever Tess had been asking Jacinda had been lost. She was frozen, mouth slightly agape. Half of her wanted to spin around and ask Tess if there was some kind of mutant Peter Pan's shadow person that appeared suddenly on the wall of their room, but she was unable to move. She wasn't exactly afraid, so much as in shock.. Time seemed to slam into a standstill along with Jacinda, she couldn't say how long she stood there, frozen stiff, not breathing, she was sure that she felt something brush through her hair. Positive, in fact. She was not given to bouts of imagination, something was going on..

..and she couldn't move..

[Tess Abrahams]

At first Tess tried to convince herself that she'd imagined the looming shadow figure. It was a trick of the light, something to do with the way the sun streamed in through the window and the breeze blew the curtains.

Of course it was much harder to believe when Jacinda was rooted to the ground, an expression of mute horror on her face.

Tess swallowed thickly, her heart thumping so hard she felt momentarily dizzy. The two girls stared at each other, both breathing in short gasps.

"Jacinda," Why was she whispering? Tess's eyes flicked to the door. "Let's just go. Quick."

[Ghost]

The silence was suddenly broken by a loud, piercing ring. The alarm clock on the bedside cabinet sprung to life, its bells clanged so violently that it trembled across the wooden surface of the cabinet and fell off. It crashed to the floors and broke, splaying its mechanical innards across the bedroom floor.

[Jacinda Blake]

The sudden unrelenting ring of the alarm clock jolted Jacinda out of her petrified state with the accuracy of a bucket of ice water. She jumped, sucking in a long denied gulp of air and turned toward the offending noise. She heard Tess, and she agreed. They should go, but Jacinda was still watching the alarm clock like it might jump off the cabinet and bite her. When it crashed to the floor and smashed to bits, she reacted much like any other high school aged girl would in the situation.

She ran, grabbing Tess on the way through the door, they both ran down the hall like the were escaping a particularly scarey haunted house at a Fair, rather than their dorm room. It was only when they blasted out the front doors of the school and spilled outside did Jacinda start laughing.

"Oh.. my.. God!" She doubled over, gasping for breath from the scare and from the mad dash out of the school.

"Did you see that?!" Of course, they both had.

Jacinda wasn't as scared as she was making it seem. She was more curious than anything. "Tell me that was some trick Carlos was playing on us?"

[Tess Abrahams]

A sort of giddy relief spilled over Tess as they burst outside, and she shook her head at Jacinda's query, laughing too hard to answer. There was nothing funny but the giggles still spilled like water from her lips. Jacinda's laughing only fueled her own and Tess waved her hands frantically as her stomach began to hurt.

"I-i-it better not have be-haha-en!" Collapsing onto the ground, Tess wiped sweat from her forehead. "Oh man, oh man. That was weird. I swear I thought I saw..." The sentence went unfinished, as it's truth threatened to end the relieved humour of their escape.

"... d'you think we ought to go check? Make sure Carlos isn't up there laughing his butt off?"