Chapter Text
The inside of Dennis’ skull was quiet, it was a place that did not house another voice, it did not house anything but his own voice and he had long grown tired of that sound. The quiet was new, the quiet had a pressure and when it was quiet he could hear himself far too loudly.
Homes creaked, homes groaned and whined when left alone for too long. At the end of the day Dennis was just a haunted house…So of course, when left in the quiet for too long he could hear himself groan and whine.
Dennis Doe was a home for one and he had no idea where his occupant was, still inside the house. Still inside the labyrinth of self. She could not escape him any more than you could escape gravity. They were simply fundamental to the function of the other.
But his occupant was upset, his friend was hurt and so she hid in the dark of him. She had decided she did not deserve help and pity had turned putrid. She wanted the dark because in the dark you had nothing else but yourself and time.
So in the middle of a class that had been far too dull for even Dennis to pay attention he decided that he had only so many options to help his friend. If she would not come out of the house then he would have to go and find her…Or he had to lure her out.
Which is when Dennis started to smile, a crooked little thing that had anyone noticed it they might have been worried. His smile was not a happy one, but it was the one that came before people went to the emergency room.
Dennis knew what he wanted to do. He just had to find people who could help him do it.
So Young and So Afraid
Haunted House Waltz
“Poppy.”
The doll jumped nearly out of her skin and spun around to see Dennis looming over her. His eyes were wide, not half closed but utterly, inescapable. Great big searchlights. Poppy swallowed as he took a slow, measured, step backwards.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he leaned to one side, “too important.” He looked at the person who had taken up Poppy’s attention. The shop keeper, Oberlin Beta or perhaps Oberlin V.1 was more appropriate. The cat girl was currently selling a number of novelty stickers to a little mushroom person.
“I’m just,” Poppy chuckled, “you know hanging out.”
“Yes.” Dennis replied. “Hanging out.” He repeated with a soft smile, the faintest hint of teeth. “I’m in need of your help, Poppy. If you can spare a minute or two.”
“Oh, yeah?” She asked. “What kinda help do you need?”
“Nothing too serious, nothing too drastic.” Dennis said as he rubbed at his cheek. “I just need to borrow some of that string of yours. The special string.”
“Ummm,” Poppy looked down at her finger, “you need the enchanted string?”
“Yes.”
“What for?” Poppy asked and Dennis licked his lips very quickly. “I mean it doesn’t really do much that regular string can’t.” She curled her hands into fists and Dennis’ great big eyes watched them disappear behind her back. “It’s kind of rare.”
“Ah, I see.” Dennis mumbled. “I wasn’t aware it was so vital.” He said. “I just need it for something.” He chuckled. “Have you heard of Minos?”
“Is that one of your lord of the ring things?”
“No…” He paused. “I mean a few things sound like that,” he leaned his head on his shoulder, “god it probably is an intended reference or origin point for some names.” His eyes started to close and for a long moment they did. He stood there, frozen, eyes shut and Poppy thought he might have fallen asleep on his own two legs.
Then he straightened up and his bones cracked at the speed. “If it’s valuable and rare, then best I not bother you for it.” Dennis sighed. “I can’t promise I’d return it after all. It just felt very fitting.”
“Well hey,” Poppy stood up, “let me hear your idea. Maybe I can get you something like magic string.”
“That’s an idea.” Dennis turned to Poppy. “I have to send someone into a nightmarish and confusing place that might not ever truly end in the desperate hope they can find someone for me.” He rubbed at his jaw. “I’d do it myself but, well, I sort of can’t this once.”
“Hmm.” Poppy put her hands on her hips. “HMM.” She repeated. “THAT is a tricky one,” she said, “why magic string?”
“Find your way back to the entrance.” Dennis said frankly. “You know like the old stories.”
“Oh I see. My string isn’t that type of magic.”
“What?”
“It runs out dude.”
“Oh, what?” Dennis leaned on the lockers. “That’s lame, what the hell. What makes it magic then?”
“It can like do stuff that isn’t go on forever. Why would you want forever string?”
“Making lots of sweaters, endless hell mazes and.” He stood there. “I mean I think infinite sweaters or endless hell mazes are the only reasons I would ever want an unlimited amount of string.”
“See it’s basically useless except this one time,” Poppy said, “endless string is kind of dumb.” She sighed. “Still you need to send someone into some nightmare maze to find someone. Who would be crazy enough to do that?”
“Well see I already have that part worked out.” Dennis said with a smile. “I have a couple of volunteers.” He went on. “Well I might not do it at all if I can’t figure out a way to get them back safely. This might be a drawing board moment.” Dennis rattled.
“Well if I think of anything I’ll let you know.” Poppy told him. Dennis for his part looked over at Valerie and then back at Poppy, a little smirk on his face. For some people emotions were just so bloody simple. He’d quite like that, a little bit of blood going South or some hammering in the chest area.
It’d cut the quiet down.
“You should talk to her,” Dennis said and wondered where he got off saying that. You don’t talk to Abby, you keep quiet all the time. There it was again, the whining of the house echoing around him. That angry petulant little voice.
“It’s just, what do you say?” Poppy asked.
“Hi. I like your hair, tail, ears, piercings, clothes, money and or all of the above.” He shrugged. “You got to talk to someone to have any hope at all.” He gave the doll a light shove. “Don’t haunt the corners of their vision.” He pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his jacket. “That’s for professionals.”
He marched off, he’d have liked to go through the floor, he’d have liked to disappear all cool. Leave behind a glimmer of a smile in the air but with Abby in the dark. The powers were as well. He was, right now, just some guy in a nice jacket with a smirk on his face.
Once he was clear of Poppy even that didn’t last.
He saw Kimmy close by…She sometimes palled around with The Coven she might have a solution for him.
“Ki-” He started and the girl leapt headlong to one side. Dove clear out of sight. Dennis baulked and ran over to where Kimmy was, she had stood by the stairs a moment ago and when he looked down she was gone. She’d…Ran? Jumped down all the stairs to avoid him? Had she been pushed?
Some of the other ghost students messing with her? It had to be that, his hand turned to a fist.
Kimmy couldn’t turn invisible very well but she wanted to be utterly gone right now. She wanted to be a smear on the wall, she wanted to be a body in the foundations and she had no idea how to fix what she’d done.
Magic was involved! Yes it was. Magic had forced her to out her friend Dennis’ biggest secret to a trio of other students. She had told Scot, Zoe and Bella all about Dennis and Abby and she’d spent the last several hours thankful she didn’t have a stomach to upend into a toilet. All she wanted to do was disappear because she knew there was no conceivable way she could possibly undo what she had done.
Scot maybe forgot! He got hit on the head a lot, almost every single day, he might forget this whole story. Zoe? That girl remembers everything, she’s always spying on people and paying attention so she can scrawl it down. She’d never forget, she’d never ever let go of this information.
She was probably already knuckle deep in some grotesque little fiction about the two and their horrible situation. Some macabre mush fest of smooches and grim analogies. She couldn’t face him.
She hadn’t helped him fight Damien, she hadn’t helped him set up his party and she didn’t do anything that night but blow it. She had to fix this, she had to do everything in her power to keep Dennis’ secret from getting out.
Kimmy went to find Zoe and she readied herself to do whatever the hell that little purple lady wanted. She passed a classroom in which Scott and Polly were hiding. The two of them were currently filling a number of fake moustaches with lice when Scott, not for the first time, sighed.
“Something wrong big guy?” Polly asked. “We’re about to pull off a totally nuts prank and you just seemed so not Scott about it!”
“Oh no I am totally ready for this prank. This is one of the funniest pranks ever.” Scott held up some combs and ultra-mega-super-gorilla glue. “People put on the fake moustaches, get lice, then we sell these anti-lice combs to them…BUT it’s not anti-lice it’s superglue. So now they have combs stuck to their moustaches which are stuck to them now. SO it looks like DOUBLE fake moustaches.”
“Right! What’s funnier than two dumb as hell moustaches?” Polly cackled. “Oh man not to mention we’re gonna make some cash on this. Valerie is selling those haircut vouchers for that new place across town. Promised to give us a flat percentage of all the customers we sent her way!”
That flat percentage was 0 by the way.
“It is funny!” Scott laughed as she spread more glue on the combs. “But…” He tilted his head to one side. “I recently heard something I shouldn’t have and I dunno what to do about it.”
“Oh is it gossip?” Polly asked and Scott nodded. “Oh that’s great, tell me.”
“Polly I shouldn’t! It's super private.” He shook his head.
“Is it though?” Polly put down the bag of angry lice she’d been shaking around for the past few minutes. “Maybe it only feels like it’s private. Maybe this is a secret everyone already knows.”
“Like that time I thought nobody else knew the Santa at the mall was just Kale in a costume?”
“Just like that.” Polly said. “So tell you what. You tell me the secret and we can both work out if it’s an actual secret or not a secret at all.”
Scott nodded his head and Polly just grinned, she leaned her ear toward the big wolf.
“So…I heard that guy with the poofy hair, cotton candy guy, has a girlfriend.” He said and Polly scoffed.
“That’s not private.” Polly said. “Lots of people know that.”
“Oh do they also know that his girlfriend lives inside of him and they’ve been lying to the entire school this whole time?” Scott asked and Polly pursed her lips, eyes bulged and she turned to look at Scott. “Cause if everyone did know that then it’d make stuff way easier for me.”
Polly put her hand on her face and dragged downward. “Scott, how did you hear that?” Polly asked. “Who told you that?”
“This other ghost I met. She told me and Zoe and Bella.” Scott counted on his fingers, he somehow was holding up six fingers. “It was after that party the other night.” He laughed. “Oh that was a fun party but then I found that stuff out. I’m so glad to hear everyone already knows though.”
He wiped sweat from his forehead. “That’s great news. I was worried I’d been told something really personal and private.”
Polly nodded, you sure had Scott. You sure had. That said maybe, she clasped her hands to her chest and started to grin. IF everyone did know then it wasn’t a secret. If it wasn’t a secret then it wasn’t a big issue? If Zoe knew…If Zoe knew it was only a matter of time before she started to ask him questions.
Zoe was always hounding people for their most private and intimate information. She kept asking how she had died for example and didn’t seem to like any of her answers. Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she worried her hands.
Her options were to somehow keep a massive blabbermouth quiet, find a way to make sure nobody could be told or somehow retroactively make none of this matter. It wasn’t a fun choice, it wasn’t a good one…But if they had to be mad at someone?
Polly looked at Scott and thought. Had to be Kimmy, Kimmy gave it away. She’d be crushed if he got mad at her, she’d be beside herself if he got mad at her. Polly though? She pissed people off all the time, she fucked people over for fun and rarely considered profit. She did the math of it all.
Nobody would ever call Polly a good student to her face. But when it came to cold logic, it would eradicate anything approaching fun or whimsy. Kimmy loses someone she trusts and so does Dennis or Polly Geist makes an ass of herself and ruins everything again. Hardly even a difficult question.
She steadied herself and nodded. Tried not to think about her friends, tried not to think about the good nights and imagined it would all be better if she just threw herself in the way of a bullet.
“Hey,” Polly heard how quiet she sounded and put some umph into it, “Scott! I got an even better idea for a prank!”
“Better than double moustaches, really Polly?” Scott chuckled. “Oh no I can’t imagine that.”
“It's as funny as at least three fake moustaches.”
“Oh my god,” Scott shoved everything off the table for no reason at all and crawled across it to Polly. “Tell me everything.” He said with enough enthusiasm to melt her heart.
“So…We’re going to need a lot of slip and slides, some microphones and to take over the gym.”
Scott started to write all of this down and knew that for certain this was going to be the best prank the PrankMasterz ever pulled. Today, probably, unless this afternoon got really crazy.
Dennis made his way through the corridors and swore the entire school felt quiet. No Kimmy, no Polly, nobody around. Just the sound of his shoes on the cold floor as he tried to consider what he needed to do. He had to find a way to get Abby out of him, or at least up from the depths. He didn’t like the idea of her down there alone, for too long. Abby was in a bad way, everything had gone wrong for her and now she was out of it.
He had only himself to blame, he supposed. He treated her like she was a thing of glass and now that the first sign of adversity showed up she had buckled. Not that he could blame her. Polly told him that she got cornered in some magical game of truth or something. Forced to scream out that she had stalked him and made him take her which was…He felt his knuckles go white.
Not what happened.
She was scared. She was so scared and alone.
He recalled a shaggy faced younger Dennis. Whispering he could see her and he’d get her out. He bought her, he carried her outside and she asked him to put her on. Not a second of doubt he had done it. Then she had…
He drummed his fingers on his chest. “Say something,” he begged her, “let me know you’re okay.” The only reply was silence. “Talk to someone, please.” He whined. “I’ll wait, I can wait.” He told her and became more aware of how he sounded. He wrapped his arms around himself and hoped that maybe this feeling could reach her somehow. Let her know he was here.
As if she could ever forget.
As if she could ever forget the jail walls and the bars of bone.
He wanted her to be okay, needed her to be okay, she had to be okay. What would he do if she wasn’t? If she didn’t talk to him again? If she decided to go where he couldn’t get to her? Where he couldn’t reach her in the deep, deep dark of Dennis Doe. The place he hid his secrets, the place he hid everything…The place fear lived.
An itch. It was contagious and Oz wasn’t sure what to do about it. He could feel it moving through the school, an inexorable gravity. Light into a blackhole, birds flying South, booze into hot ghosts…Fear back to its source.
Something was coming for him and Oz knew the signs.
He’d been around long enough to know when someone was making a pilgrimage to him. Was he a god? That’s a difficult question. He was here before the idea of god permeated, he was here when things didn’t have defined shapes and over the centuries became what he was. Once he was the loss of life in the night. For a time a sharp edge of a claw that dragged people away and those people were never seen again. Over time he became more but he never stopped being what he was.
He never stopped being the dark. He never stopped being everything you and I are afraid of. From time to time he’d get an itch, a feeling of something moving towards him. If he sat out on a salt flat in the middle of nowhere. He’d be able to see them coming towards him. Whoever it was, whatever they were going through it was something that petrified them to their core.
It was something th- Oz nearly leapt a foot in the air when his leg vibrated madly…Oh wait that was his phone, all this thinking about being terrified had him on edge. He fished his phone out and peeked at it with all the stealth of a tire fire.
A message that was short and simple.
I have nobody else I can talk to right now. Would you mind if I just vomited something at you?
The text came from Abby, Dennis’ girlfriend he met at the party. Oz didn’t know her very well, he had thought she was made up at first. Then mistook someone for her. THEN met her and probably didn’t leave the best first impression on her. Given he was himself he was sure of that last one.
Sure. Is everything okay?
The reply was fast.
Everything isn’t okay but it’s not as bad as I know it could be. Which is, somehow, not a relief. Because when I tell you that I know it can get bad, understand I speak from an absolute wealth of experience.
Oz didn’t have a tongue to click but he somehow made a little sound, not unlike lips popping. The Phobia rose up and looked at the phone, then each other, sank back into the dark of Oz and he tried to work out what you say to that.
Something reassuring. Something hopeful.
Okay.
Fuck. God. Fuck you.
Oz, I’m going to level with you. I am going to be real with you and I want you to know there is a ripcord. You can at any time block my number and I will think no less of you. I can’t talk to Dennis right now, I can’t talk to anyone else and trust me when I say my only other option is to vomit this at a stranger.
Oz took a breath.
Hit me.
You asked for it. Have you ever just felt like you could be so much more than you are? Have you ever recalled a time and place when you were exactly that and wondered what the fuck happened? Because right now, that’s my entire existence.
Oz recalled a cathedral of bones. Oz remembered a town driven mad by a story about him. Oz remembered a lifetime of fear and all the things it had transformed him into.
Honestly? To a degree, yes. To a greater degree not really?
There was a couple of moments and then the response was a photo of Abby, with one eyebrow raised sitting somewhere utterly dark save for the faint glow of her ghostly flesh.
Is that how you emoji? I haven’t sent many. I’m trying to say I’m curious. I might not do another emoji.
Oz chuckled to himself. Where the hell was she? It looked utterly…Familiar. Which was not comforting to Oz at all. He swears he knows exactly where she is…Despite the fact there’s nothing there to see. It just feels…Intimate.
Oz sits up straight. That was a thought, that was a word choice. The Phobia gave his face a little series of slaps, get your head on straight young being. Do not get lost in the thoughts now.
That’s not quite right…But it’s just as good if not better. Let me…Try and explain, just as soon as class gets out.
Abby took a breath. She sat in the dark and she waited. She was an expert at waiting, it just wasn’t something she could do forever.
Until the end of class? She could wait that long, that was easy. She once waited for six years, all alone, screaming until even her ghastly throat wouldn’t make any sounds. So she sat there, in the deep and the dark of her haunted house. So deep she couldn’t hear the sounds of the world outside. So deep she couldn’t see the light through his eyes and she did her best to keep still. Her best to be quiet.
Her and Dennis had spoken all night about trying again. About ideas of what to do next but all of that was just words wasn’t it? It was all just empty little statements. He’d never hold her to the fire and make her do it and after her display last night. She felt like nothing as solid, everything was like her now. The floor wouldn’t support her, the walls wouldn’t hold up the roof and it was all because Abby couldn’t handle a few questions.
It still tortured her. Screaming out at the prod of magic what she’d done, running and getting all moody. Ruining the night out. She had partied with Polly a thousand times. She’d gone out and gone crazy over and over again. Talking about herself though? Having to be honest? That killed her…No gravity killed Abby, she knew that…
She wasn’t like Polly. She knew what killed her.
Her memory was flawless, no matter what she inflicted on it. The damn thing remembered every sin, every crime, every flaw like an IMAX super show. So now she had plenty of time to consider who she used to be and all the things she had lost. She lost her life and she had lost everything she once was.
What had she gained? Lost some weight…Found out she’s very good at messing with people’s minds and stealing their bodies… Dennis.
She closed her eyes and tried not to think of him. She could imagine him trying to come up with nightmarish idea to get her to talk to him. He’d give her space but he also couldn’t give her an inch. She’d take the mile.
The idea was tempting…Taking a mile.
Aeg wanted to take a hike, clear their head. A few miles out of the city, where the air got less smoggy but the likelihood of running into a masked murderer was…Actually about the same! This place sucked ass. The only thing suckier was watching the little furball beside him turn inside out.
Wilson was annoying at the best of times, Aeg rather enjoyed Wilson at his most annoying. Wilson was an agent of chaos who could be aimed at anyone or anything with little issue. Sure he might target Aeg but that was the cost of business. They had never seen Wilson look like he did now.
The tiger had his chin flat on the table and was working the top of his tail ragged with one hand. Running his thumb over the top of it, twisted it between his fingers and just fidgeted with it.
“Dude,” Aeg managed to say as they looked down at Wilson, “you are gonna give yourself a massive bald spot.”
“Nah, nah,” Wilson shook his head limply. “Fur for days, me.” Wilson kept his eyes on the door, waited coiled and ready to pounce.
“Why are you trying to rip your tail off?”
“You know.” Wilson said. “I am 100% the reason that those two left the party early last night.”
“No you are not. They left because they wanted to.” Aeg repeated and even they knew how utterly hollow it sounded. Wilson snorted and looked up at the dragon. “They’re adults, they can do what they want.”
“Yeah I did a dumb game and it led to one of them freaking out and running off. An hour later both are gone, flying off alone.” He rubbed at his face, claws flexing in and then out. “Face it Aeg, I fucking blew it.”
“You didn’t dip a magical wand in truth slurry and make her play that game.” Aeg said. They also didn’t point out it wasn’t Wilson that asked the question that caused everything to get fucked up. Aeg had no idea the answer would be…What it was. Dennis had always said clothes shopping, he’d always said clothes shopping was how he and Abby met. Aeg had no reason to doubt him! They just wanted the girl to spit out some corny lame story about trying to buy a jacket.
They didn’t expect it to get absolutely wretched.
Aeg just ignored it, shoved it down. It was a mistake, mistakes happen and getting caught on one means spending all your energy on working out how you could have avoided it. That was like trying to dodge a bullet that had already hit you, right in the face. The worst had happened, you didn’t get to avoid it anymore.
You just had to live with the aches and pains.
So Aeg tried to stop Wilson from doing the stupid thing and worrying about what he had done wrong. Because worrying about what's already happened serves no purpose. Aeg tried to consider what could be done. You’re supposed to go to your friends when they hurt. Try to help them through it, give some advice, talk about good times or just let them know they aren’t alone.
Aeg wasn’t a great friend. It required effort and listening and giving a shit. They could do those things but articulating it was like attempting to eat an asbestos eclair. Aeg would rather not do that…
“No but I suggested the fucking game.” Wilson growled. “There has to be something I can do to fix this! Why is it everytime other time I chill with Dennis I cause a fucking catastrophe?”
“I have no idea.” Aeg shook their head, poked at what was advertised as spaghetti but Aeg was pretty sure it was just lunch lady hair. God this place fucking sucked ass. They pushed the plate aside and leaned back.
“He probably hates me.” Wilson muttered.
“Oh come on, I don’t think Dennis hates anyone. I don’t even think he hates Leonard.” Aeg nodded toward the Kappa, currently just sat there eating lunch. “Fucking Leonard.” Aeg said with all the venom they had in reserve.
“No. He hates me.”
“Leonard hates ever-”
“NO.”
“Wilson, fuck sake. There’s nothing to be done getting sad. If you feel bad…Go find Dennis or something and tell him we’re gonna hang out later.” Aeg threw up their hands. “I dunno!”
The tiger looked up at Aeg. “We?”
“I’m not doing anything, besides, you probably need someone there to stop you crying all over him.” Aeg replied and Wilson narrowed his eyes. Oh fuck did they do it again?
“Aeg you really gotta find a way to say this shit better.” Wilson groaned and pushed up off the table to flop back bonelessly. “I dunno what to say, how to say it.”
“Yeah and?” Aeg shrugged their shoulders. “Do you think total silence or just being there would be better?” The dragon exhaled smoke through their nose. “I haven’t seen him either but I swear he was for sure in the class across from me. Hard to miss that hairdo.”
Wilson stood up and adjusted their hoodie. “Maybe you’re right,” a smile that wasn’t quite a bear trap yet, “we should try something. Sitting around is just gonna lead to pulling out my hair.”
“Thought you had fur for days?” Aeg asked and Wilson snorted.
“Come on Aeg, everyone knows hair and fur are totally different.” He walked off and Aeg sat there for a moment, closed their eyes slowly as that sentence wedged itself into their brain. Then stood up, the very effort of which felt like shifting the crust of the Earth from their shoulders.
“I’m sorry what the fuck did you just say?” Aeg moved after Wilson, irate. The tiger walked faster and Aeg stalked after them, wings wrapped tight around their chest and shoulders. The speed at which Wilson ran off was truly one to behold, chuckling evilly as he went. Aeg was at times far too easy.
Kimmy hadn’t found Zoe yet but she did find Polly and Scott. Polly was unspooling an ungodly long franken-slip-and-slide made up of dozens of stitched together slides. Kimmy was pretty sure they stole these from a bunch of kids, a fact that felt more confirmed when she saw out the window numerous children wandering around crying their eyes out.
“Polly, what are you doing?” She asked and Polly turned around, hot glue gun in hand and safety goggles on her face. When she saw Kimmy she stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Scott told me.” Polly said and Kimmy’s face fell. “Kimmy what-”
“It was some magic staff.” She said quickly. “Zoe had some funky stick that if she said your name and asked you a question you had to answer. I blabbed! The same thing you told me about from the party.”
“Fucking magic sticks,” Polly said through her teeth. She gave Kimmy’s arm a squeeze, very tight despite the fact neither could feel it too well. “Okay listen. I’ve convinced Scott it’s no big deal.”
“He believed you?”
“I mean it really isn’t a big deal and yes he did.” Polly smirked. “Scott would kind of believe anything which is why lying to him sucks ass.” She smoothed out a wrinkle in the giant slip and slide. “What are you doing?”
“I have to find Bella and Zoe and let them know they can’t tell anyone.” Kimmy looked down at the slip and slide. Scott emerged from a classroom with a hose slung under his arm.
“There’s no sink Polly, I think we’re gonna have to mine through the floor to the water main.” He said excitedly. “Man, this prank is high effort.”
“Makes it all the better.” Polly chuckled. “Do you still have those power tools?”
“I think so. If not Damien has a spare jackhammer we can borrow.” Scott noticed Kimmy. “Oh hey there! You’re the ghost I caught last night. How are you?”
“Well not flying through the air screaming in terror.”
“I can see that!” Scott nodded a couple times. “Good stuff. Oh Polly told me your buddies secret isn’t a secret so don’t worry.” He gave a thumbs up before he dropped his limp hose. “I’m gonna try and find that jackhammer.” He bolted down the corridor and the ghosts gave him a quick wave.
“Not a secret?”
“It’s…Not anymore?” Polly offered a weak smile but all it did was cause Kimmy to bang her head on a locker, as she wasn’t the best ghost her head just clanged into it. “Kimmy trust me, I am going to fix this.”
“How?”
“I’m going to give everyone something else to talk about.” Polly said. “That way things will be totally normal.” She clasped her hands. “I dunno anything about Bella, is she a gossip?”
“I’ve done like two class projects with her, ever.” Kimmy said. “She’s a werewolf. Very energetic at times and kinda shy.” Kimmy leaned back on the lockers. “I think I’ve got one or two classes with her, I have no idea if she’s gossipy.”
“That’s not so great.” Polly sighed. “Zoe…I don’t think she is a gossip but she does just sometimes say stuff and often has follow up questions.” Polly fished out her phone. “I am pretty sure I can send her a text, you can meet her.”
“That’d be great!” Kimmy said. “Don’t you want to-”
“Listen, I think if we keep quiet,” Polly whispered to Kimmy, “about who knows. It’ll be easier. You handle this Kimmy, I know you can.” Polly nudged her and gave her a thumbs up. “I’ve got to commit to this.” She pointed at her slip and slide. “If I do this right then none of this will matter. Everybody will be talking about something way crazier.”
Polly noticed the way Kimmy just smiled at her.
“Thanks, Polly.” She said. “If you think I can do this then, that means a lot.”
“Does it?” Polly asked and Kimmy just scowled. “I mean yeah, totes, the goats, they do it!” She said. “Forget what Polly said, Polly’s probably wasted.” She took out a flask and chugged from it, quickly.
“Right well…You text Zoe, tell her to meet me…”
“The gym.” Polly said. “The gym would be the best place.” Very quickly. “You start heading there and I’ll get her on the way.” Polly shoved her forward. “Get going, Kimster, you got a lot to do.”
“Thanks, Polly! Thank you.” She bolted and Polly could only sigh. That stupid smile on Kimmy’s face, the big blind hope and optimism that she could fix this. She wondered if every ghost had that feeling. Ghosts were at the end of the day fragments of someone long past. They all had their issues with regrets, unfinished business and it was just part of them now. They had, maybe, forever to exist on this plane of reality. Or shuffle off to the Zone and just dissolve into the ether.
They were unable to feel anything physical but they were absolutely riddled with the ability to feel their emotions. Endless memories that would come from endless time to waste. There was a reason so many ghosts turned to going wild, beyond the freedom of flesh no longer letting you down. Sometimes you had to force a blank spot into eternity, a cosy darkness in the crystal clarity of your mind.
New regrets? Oh what a fresh hell. Imagine making a new mistake, a new fuck up that could haunt you forever. Polly escaped this issue by not caring. Well not caring out loud. Polly was a known fuck up, she messed up and caused harm on the regular. She didn’t stop to worry about it, people would just leave her alone.
This one, her hands balled to fists. This one would cost her but to keep another ghost from an eternity of regret? What are friends for if not that?
She’d probably have to burn the “Boo Crew” jacket. If she found that by accident it might break her down. Polly knew this would suck, there was no world this wouldn’t suck in. Dennis was pretty fun, Abby was great to mess with but the idea of them both going away?
It sucks when she has to think. It sucks when she has to actually consider all the ways she can help and the most obvious answer she can come up with is to just ruin everything faster.
Polly closed her eyes and pulled down her sunglasses, eyes were stinging suddenly. Probably these cheap lights, these cheap annoying lights that sometimes made your vision blurry at the edges and made your chest feel all tight.
Like it could just cave in at any second, that even when you don’t have to breathe it could crush all the air out of you in one horrid and wretched sound.
“Polly,” Scott ambled up carrying a bright red drill with Damien’s name stencilled on it. “Damien said I can use his drill so long as we get it back to him by the end of school! He needs it to cave in asses, which I dunno how big a cave he’s gonna find in an ass but-”
Scott stopped when he saw Polly’s head tilted to one side, her shoulders shook just a little bit and she stifled a noise. Maybe nobody else would have heard it but Scott had those fine senses.
He dropped the jackhammer and moved over to his friend. He put his big hand on her shoulder and he asked her a simple question.
Are you okay?
Oz had left Abby waiting for a while and so wanted to make sure she was still there. He had made his way to the library, the only other people he could spot here were using the computers in the back to try and print money off the internet. A pair of ghouls were trying to use the magical books in the back to case spells and well that was about as quiet as this place got.
I’m not. If there’s one thing I can confirm it’s that I am not okay.
Oz was afraid of that. What do you say to people who are stuck? He had no idea who Abby was beyond a very tall ghost he met just last night. He’d had a few random conversations over text with her.
So- what’s up?
Oz knew that worrying about everything was stressful, it was a much smarter idea to narrow down your worries and fears to a precise dagger point. Then you at least know what’s bleeding you. The shadow man set down a blank word pad and got out a pencil. He never wrote in pen if he could help it, people might find it if he didn’t erase it. What if he wrote down something private and personal and someone used it against him!? Pencil was the way to go.
Oz knew a thing or two about worrying.
It is a long story that will lead to more questions. So the easy version is that last night went really bad. Maybe twenty minutes after I stopped talking to you. I said some things and reacted badly. I’d not have done that before.
Oz let his pencil tap on the paper as he let the phobias hold up his phone so he could work. He typed back a reply.
Now when you say before…Do you mean a sort of recent before or a more general before?
I mean before I wound up in my current situation. I suppose if I had to be as close to a definite time frame it’d be before I died.
Oz winced, he was afraid that might be the response. Death was tricky, death was very tricky. He’d never done it but he knew a few people who had. They didn’t seem to recommend it.
I see. So you had a party foul?
Oz was not expecting the reply of Abby leaning on her fist, still in that dark place. A soft smirk on her face.
That’s supposed to be the emoji for- you know- duh.
Oz shook his head, did not have very duh vibes at all. But okay, sure lady.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, I’ve been studying party 101 with the professor recently. There’s never a perfect party and stuff can always go wrong. We were trying to make a party more cool recently and accidentally transformed a bunch of people into humans.
Oz didn’t tell her that they got the spell wrong and actually turned all of them into one human. As in, dozens of people were the same guy in the room. Dozens of copies of a guy called Rupert. Rupert was a very boring man who had a pog collection that he had dozens of photographs of.
All of them had this same collection and had a collective breakdown that their continued existence devalued their pog-collections…Then they started murdering each other to protect the scarcity value of their little disks. He made sure to tell Abby all of this.
Okay- Oz. THAT is a party foul, that’s kind of very nuts. Wow. How many people?
We decided not to count and went to laser tag instead. Scott was there, he’s very good at laser tag.
Abby drummed on her skull. This was your competition, dude accidentally caused…Suicide? Murder? Oh god what do you even call that? You’re sulking because you can’t talk to people. What a wimp.
Okay so…I didn’t quite cause murdercide- for lack of a better term. But I basically…
She had sent that and sat there, awkwardly. Does she just…What do they call it? Vent to this guy, this total stranger? I mean Oz wasn’t a total stranger. She’d hung out with him once by herself and dozens of times through Dennis. Which, god that’s awkward. Hey I know you super well because I’ve always been here, stalking your conversations with my best friend thanks to out-
She took a breath. Spiralling was not helping. Talk, communicate.
I basically admitted that me and Dennis’ relationship didn’t start on the best of terms. Magic was involved…In me admitting this.
Oz looked at the Phobias on his wrists and even they looked like they would LOVE to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Not dealing with this conversation right now would be absolutely glorious. Still here he was, looking into the yawning maw of this conversation.
Remember. You can bail.
Abby wanted to remind him, the ripcord was there and Oz did know exactly where the block option was on this phone, he learned it very, very quickly when Amira got into her habit of sending everyone drunk texts at 3 AM about her new business ideas.
Her latest one was for microwave meals that also played music when you cooked them, because people love dinner and a show. She had an idea that involved taking lots of musicians hostage to record these tracks and she just wanted to know who was onboard for it.
Oz was not.
Well…I suppose that would be a pretty awkward thing to admit. That said- I ask this with all the respect I have- does it matter?
He didn’t get a reply that was a very angry face or a dozen knives appearing inside of him so Oz considered that a pretty good start. He adjusted and scribbled on his notepad, just nonsense shapes to help him think. The curve of a face, he tried to sketch, keep himself focused and thinking.
What I mean is that- sure it started off not great. I won’t pry…But aren’t you past how it started? Aren’t you way further along than the start of this relationship now?
Oz drew a long straight line on the page and began to add details, a cross section and a curve along the bottom.
I don’t know how you two started but I assume you guys are fine now. Good! Not fine, sorry. Dennis talks about you like…I mean, I don’t know what’s appropriate to say. He talks about you like someone who is pretty hopelessly smitten.
Abby looked at the phone in the dark and hung her head as Oz went on.
He talks about you and his whole face just turns up. He has never said anything or implied he was anything less than all about you. It’s kind of amazing to hear him talk about you and what you mean to him.
Oz felt like he was pushing it a bit there. Dennis had said he loved Abby and she was his girlfriend. His face did light up when he spoke about her but it wasn’t so much what he said as much as it was how he said it. There was no awkwardness in it, nothing that even resembled compromise.
Dennis said he loved Abby and it was a fact of existence. The sky was blue. Grass was green. There was no denying his words or his intent.
Abby rocked back and forth in the no-space. Somewhere deep down in the dark and considered.
It’s not that I doubt we’re in a better place but I wonder. Could it have been even better? I made our first meeting something that, no matter how together we seem, it’s absolutely unavoidable.
Does she tell him? Does she tell this random guy what she did? Does she confess the first meeting?
She can’t forget it. Locked in that horrible building with that TV show on…
“It’s okay, Hope.” Joy told her. “No matter what they tell you about who you are…We know who you are.” Joy’s eyes were watery on the nineteen inch plasma TV. “You’re our friend!” She cried out and Abby groaned.
The Hope Replacement was a pretty boring three parter that served as a mid season 5 bridge, when they weren’t sure about renewal. They hit out with the old miserable ending if you cancel us gambit and it paid off. She’d seen this episode forty two times. She’d seen every episode before it forty two times. She had been here for six years, four months, three days and an agonising number of seconds.
The owner of the store couldn’t see her, none of them had seen her. The curse that bound her to her leather jacket made sure of that. Fucking cow, fucking cursed witch did this to her. She’d wring that girl’s neck, she’d dreamed of it a dozen times before. Back when she had a body…Before her freak out landed her here….
She had even tracked down the bitch. She looked her up and found-
The digital bell for the store dinged and automatically Abby said.
“Buy me you stupid blind fucking bastard.” She looked at the door to find a gaunt man. His hair tied up in a thick nest of black tangles. His eyes weren’t visible, as though he had two giant hollows in his skull. He was a lanky creature and walked with a slump that did nothing to diminish his height.
He walked right over to her and she rolled her eyes.
“Buddy you’re blocking the emotional reunion scene.” He took a step to the side.
“Sorry.” He said, voice hoarse. He scratched the back of his hand where Abby noticed what looked like a fresh wound healing. A patch of skin far lighter than the rest as if he’d had something removed from his ha--
She looked up at him. “Oh my god.” She wheezed and covered her mouth. “Oh my fucking god you can see me!”
“I can.” He nodded. “My name is Dennis, I’m going to help you.” He smiled at her, weakly. He looked like he was barely standing. He began to rummage through the clothing rack. Dozens of coats slung up next to each other. Squashed tight like sardines.
“Thank you, thank you.” She tried to grab him but her hands just slid through him. “Oh thank fuck, thank you.” She vibrated in the air. She trembled as she watched him pick through the rack. “It’s the purple one! It’s all dusty, you- YES THAT ONE.” She pointed at the jacket.
Dennis pulled the jacket free and swept the dust from it. She pointed at the door.
“Quick, come on, please.” She begged him.
“Got to pay for it,” Dennis said in that quiet voice he had, “then I promise. I’m going to get you out of here, miss.”
From the back came the owner of the store, an older man with thick glasses. He and Dennis spoke for a few minutes but Abby didn’t hear a word of it. She was losing her mind, she was laughing so loudly and holding herself. She cursed so loud it was a wonder Dennis didn’t flinch. She swore at every other article of clothing that hadn’t been sold, spat verses of vile words at the TV which had done nothing but play The Coven for the past six years and then she moved toward the door as Dennis carried out the jacket.
“Oh, thank you. Thank you.” She was in tears, shaking from head to toe. “Oh my god I’ve been here so long. Oh my god.” She wanted to hold him, she wanted to take him right then and there against the wall and then…She realised that yeah…She wanted to take him.
“Please,” she was by his ear, “put the jacket on.”
“It’s…A bit small.” Dennis said.
“No it’s magic, it’ll fit.” She told him. “It fits everyone.” She insisted. “Please.” She asked. “Please.” She begged. “Do it.” She demanded and he brushed down that jacket with the back of his hand and slowly. He slid it over one arm and the jacket shifted, twisted and expanded to encompass his back. It grew and wrapped itself around him as if it was made for him.
As if it was waiting for him all this time. Then Abby felt it, the tingle, the connection. The bridge between her domain within the jacket and new flesh. A new victim. Someone who she could take and live through.
Then she did it.
She gave him a smile, a horrible little smile. You see it on animals when it’s feeding time at the zoo. The world cracked as she fired herself into him and Dennis hit the pavement as if he’d been kicked in the chest. He exploded through the ground and now they were somewhere else.
She kicked down the walls he’d built, her eyes hungry and furious as she looked for the little light that would let her take over. She broke through memories, shoved aside ideas as she made a ruin of this place.
She found Dennis inside his own head.
She wasn’t going back on a shelf, she wasn’t going away again, she was coming back to life and if he wouldn’t make room then she’d take it. She hit him over and over again, she ripped at whatever this was…The Dennis inside of Dennis, the soul? She always thought that’s what it was.
She had no idea what spawned that. To dig her fingers into that bright shining him below the flesh and rip it out. Chew on it, swallow, crush him down into her and she could feel the chill again. The warmth in the air and the thump of his heart. Soon to be her heart.
She could feel it all and he had to go and touch her. She was ready for screaming, she was prepared to fight, she’d hurt him without a second thought. But Dennis Doe just ran his hand across her cheek and he spoke to her as surely as you would speak to anyone.
“Are you okay?” He asked her, his insides all over her hands. She was coring him out to make room for her everything. She wasn’t going to possess this one, she was going to take him. She’d never done this to the others. He just looked so sad, he just looked so sad for her. He didn’t cry out in pain but he rubbed at her cheeks, just under her eyes. “It’s scary isn’t it?”
“Being alone is so scary.”
She stopped, frozen in her carnage. He just kept making these quiet soothing sounds. “I’m sorry.” He told her. “I’m so sorry you feel like this.” He limply put his arms around her. “I’m so sorry but you don’t have to be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.” He was dead and dying then, utterly wounded in the deep of his soul and he was trying to tell her not to panic. She remembered not knowing what to do, in reality he had collapsed on the ground at that point. Half alive, half dead and at her mercy. A thing she’d seldom had much use for in her delirium.
He just held her and told her it was alright, she didn’t have to be alone.
That was the choice.
To be alive and alone in another shell that she’d have to wrestle into some semblance of shape, someone she’d have to rip free from friends and family and start them over. She’d still be alone and scared and frantic. Starved and furious at being ignored.
Or she could have…company. It was then she noticed it. Lost among the snarling and the teeth and the attempt to devour this stranger whole and take him for all that he was. She felt his hands on her cheeks. Slow, delicate pressure. She grabbed his hands then, she grabbed onto his hands and she pressed them tight to her face. She felt this, she could feel him.
“I’m sorry.” He had told her, torn apart and still sounding so delicate and careful. Pieces of him flowing around, memories bleeding out, thoughts splintering he held her with all the strength he had left.
“My name is Dennis. Would you like someone to talk to?”
“I’m…” She found words hard. “I’m so alone.”
She didn’t say sorry, she can never forget that.
“It’s fine,” he told her, “not anymore…”
“I think…I killed you.” She said quietly. Unsure, certain that the diminished shape in front of her wouldn’t survive. He was in pieces, she could…taste him on her lips. He didn’t even look hurt, his attention was on her.
“It’s fine,” he said, “it’s fine.” He said again. “If you’re…Going to take my body that’s okay. Just…Promise me you’ll find people, help them.” He chuckled. “I sort of promised an old friend I’d help people with my second chance.” He shook his head. “Sorry to make that your job…I suppose I helped one person didn’t I?”
He chuckled and she looked at him. The way the shape of him blurred with her, the way their forms joined and twisted together.
“Help…Yeah okay.” She pulled back her hands. “Let’s start now!” Then she dove in, deeper than the flesh and bone. Deeper than the self and into the very core of him. A soul mauled and twisted and close to fracture. She grabbed onto what she could and she held tight…So tight it ached through both of them.
She was tired of being alone. She was so tired of being alone and unseen in the dark. So she held tight to this one…
She’d crushed them together. Tight, so tight that there was no seams and no separation. She made him live again and through him she would exist. Tethered, inseparable and trapped.
Abby’s tongue moved across her lips and sometimes, when it was very quiet and she wanted to hate herself…She swore she could still taste him.
I hurt him. Oz. I hurt him so badly that I can’t imagine a full recovery is possible. I can’t fathom him without the wound I dealt, I can’t look at him and not see the scars.
She kept typing, unable to stop herself. The confession fell from her like tears would.
He says he forgives me. He has told me he forgives me but I can’t not see the wounds. Even now, years later, when nobody can tell he was ever hurt. I can. I know. I hurt him.
Oz sat there in the library and he swallowed. Then he did something he never thought he would have. He picked up the phone and pressed call. She answered immediately.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was shredded. “Oh god I’m-”
“Do you want to meet?” He asked her. “It doesn’t matter where you are. I’ll be there.”
“You can’t there’s no way to-” There was a sound like a gasp, the world twisting just a little bit out of order and Abby turned around. Then she did scream, she actually did scream at the top of her lungs. The dark moved, the whole of it actually shifted. A thing that was all around her twitched and moved and then stopped moving.
“Sorry. Sorry,” Oz actually walked out of the dark…No that wasn’t quite right. It was more like the dark broke off a piece and that piece was Oz. There was less darkness in the room, there was just now a little guy that took its place.
“I forget the teleportation has a latent fear enhancing effect.” He rubbed at his neck. “I stopped using it because it kept doing that, super awkward to enter a crowded room to a thousand screaming voices.” He chuckled and looked down. He had remembered his clothes this time, why did Abby look like she’d seen a ghost.
“You can’t be here…” She said in utter horror. “Oh my god you can’t be here.”
“Why no…” Oz heard a dull sound above him, a loud, hollow thud. He looked up and then he saw it. Miles of spine, ribs the size of skyscrapers and the rotten remains of organs hung in the sky the size of worlds left to turn sour.
“...Holy fuck.” Oz said and then looked at Abby. “Wh…Where…Who is this?”
Dennis felt something like tar in his throat, he coughed, wheezed. Too much smoking? Not enough of it? He shrugged his shoulders, something felt a little different. He swore he could hear scratching sounds now.
He was sure he was missing something, did someone just call out his name? Why did his head hurt all at once? He shook it off, no. Focus, you have a job to do. It just sounded like someone was drilling into his skull with a jackhammer.
He paced down the corridor, hands in his pockets. Where was everyone? It felt like he’d turned invisible and forgot to remind anyone of how to find him.
No Polly pranks, no Kimmy schemes, no Oz wanting to rehearse his next attempt at flirting. Just the quiet and the sounds of the house creaking with every step. Maybe he had to give Abby more time. Just give her the space she needed to work things out.
“Umm.” A voice that he didn’t recognize at first. “Hey.”
Dennis peered up from his feet at the werewolf girl, Bella. He recognized her, he’d met her once or twice during one of those awful attempts to clean up the woods around the school.
“Hey there,” he smiled at her and squared his shoulders, “sorry I almost walked right past you. I got a lot going on in here today,” his knuckles tapped against his skull. Bella fidgeted and adjusted herself as if she was about to make a big speech.
“I just wanted to say,” Bella hadn’t practised this because every single thing she imagined saying just sounded absolutely awful. How do you tell someone you know a great big secret about them? She had hoped to avoid him but he was just…Everywhere. His scent was inescapable, once she knew to avoid him she had to work out how to track him. The issue with tracking him meant she knew where he was all the time…
Which just became a game of running away as the smell of leather, dye and the faint but unmistakable odour of violence. That wasn’t metaphorical, a werewolf can smell everything and while the man reeked of leather shampoo there was another constant companion there.
Death and the acrid stink of gunsmoke.
He didn’t look violent but that was the thing about some monsters. They looked like they couldn’t hurt you and then they’d raise a single hand and break the world apart.
Was that the type of monster you are? What type of monster were you Dennis Doe?
“You wanted to say?” He leaned on the lockers and fished out a cigarette. He didn’t light it, just put it between his lips and stared at the end as if the thing was supposed to do a trick. He smirked and began to fumble through his pockets.
“I,” Bella paused, “I had wanted to say that it was really cool to meet you at that party last night.” She said and then stopped when Dennis tilted his head. Oh god did he NOT know? “I mean your friend!”
“Oh you met, Abby?” He asked and his smile didn’t falter. Abby had mentioned this girl being at the game. “I think she said that to me actually,” he held up a hand and pointed upward, “oh yeah! She said you and her played a game.”
“We did an-”
“Hey,” he held out his arms, “far as I’m concerned it happens. Let he who hasn’t been made to say something utterly stupid cause of magic cast the first stone.” He was stoneless and held open his jacket to demonstrate that fact. She couldn’t help but notice for a moment the inside of his jacket was…Pitch black. Utterly void. Despite being open she couldn’t see his torso or the back of the jacket. It was just a yawning hole.
“Yeah,” Bella chuckled, “that’s fair.” She bounced on her feet. “She had said some.”
“I know what she said,” Dennis told her and Bella was pretty sure that yeah he must. She’s all up in there, in the great big hole inside him. “It’s in the past, isn’t it?” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and tugged down on his jacket, forcing himself to lean forward, down to Bella’s level.
“I just- I-”
“Hey it’s alright,” he said with a chuckle, “you’re alright.” He told her. “There’s no need to say sorry for something you heard, it’s big of you to come find me.” He chuckled. “I mean most people would just turn tail and head for the hills.”
“Yeah,” Bella went on. “I just, it was such a thing to hear someone say and I know that it was true.”
“Well,” he exhaled around his unlit cigarette, “was it?”
“What do you mean?”
“What is the truth, huh?” He shrugged. “I don’t mean that in an alternative facts kind of way but honestly.” He took a look around. “A famous old guy I met once on a train journey once told me.” He held up his hands. He coughed and put on a strange sort of voice, one that sounded very gruff and tinny.
“ Depending on who you place in the same situation, the characteristics of said incident change kaleidoscopically. In other words, there is one incident; however, there are as many stories explaining it as there are people involved in it.” He wheezed at the end. “Oh god I can’t do his accent justice. I think my point is less that what she said isn’t true…But it’s what she thinks is true.”
Bella tilted her head slightly. “What the hell kind of accent was that?”
“I dunno. I met the guy for ten minutes on a train. Said his name was Jermaine? German?” He leaned his head back. “He worked in the news.”
“That’s not helpful. That accent was so weird. What the hell?”
“Well whatever.” Dennis rolled his eyes and stood back up, full height and the sound of his spine popping filled the corridor. “My point here, Bella.” He snarled without any malice. “What Abby considers the truth and what I consider the truth might be different.”
He walked past the werewolf and she turned. “I mean…Really?”
“She said she stalked me right?” Dennis groaned. “Overplaying it.” He waved his hand. “She didn’t stalk me at all, she was more or less trapped.”
“Trapped?” Bella asked. What the fuck was he talking about, how are these comparable words in the situation. “Wh- she said she stalked you and made you take her then and there.”
“Yeah,” Dennis shrugged. “She was at a clothing store and made me take her out of there.” Dennis said flatly. “She was trapped in a pretty dead end place,” he shrugged his shoulders, “so I took her outta there.”
Bella’s eyes twitched. “No, what? No.” She held up her hands. How did this make sense? Kimmy said Abby was trapped inside Dennis, they were basically sharing a body. How did you even, what was their entire deal? She claims she stalked the guy and made him bang her and he says he just took her out of a crappy situation?
“I dunno,” Dennis shrugged, “the simplest way to put it without overstepping her right to privacy.” He let a little iron into his tone there. “Is that she was stuck and desperate and I was there at the right time.” He tugged on his jacket. “That’s all there is to it.”
Bella started to walk beside him as he trekked through the corridor.
“Can you hear that?” Dennis turned to her. “That like hammering noise?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Oh thank god I thought I was hearing things,” he laughed and rubbed at his chest, “oh I thought I was going nuts.”
“So to get back on track.”
“Must we?”
“I mean listen! I’ve been working up what to say all day and you’re just not giving a crap.” Bella said. “I rehearsed for this.”
“What did you use to fill in for me? Lamppost or cotton candy?”
“Upside down mop in the janitor’s closet.” Bella said and Dennis nodded.
“Yeah throw a jacket on that and it’s a pretty good stand in, I used that to get outta math class once.” He tapped his nose. “Okay, I get that sometimes people gotta air themselves out. So let me have it, let me hear what you wanna say, Bella.”
“I heard something I shouldn’t have. It was very clearly private and even if I learned it through magic or an accident it felt bad.” She said. “Like I found out something I shouldn’t know.” She wanted to try and lead him to water, let him take a drink. “Like someone reached deep down inside and pulled out the truth.”
He nodded as the pair moved through the corridors. Behind them just out of sight Polly and Scott dragged their frankenslide through the corridor and tried to keep it from getting caught on anything. Scott with his jackhammer pointed at the wall, Polly shoved her head into it and then back out, marking a spot with a big X.
Scott started working that spot with the jackhammer as Dennis and Bella made for the roof.
“I don’t like it when people are exposed,” Bella said, “made public and aired out. It’s not fair,” she took a breath, “there’s a loss of belonging when you’re just thrown out there.” She took a look at Dennis who didn’t cut her off, just walked slowly with his cigarette bobbing up and down.
“It’s…A transformation thing.” Bella said, hands clapping. “Yes. It’s like you know how werewolves transform?”
“I’ve heard.” Dennis said. “I’ve seen some people in various states of change.”
“Right but have you SEEN it happen?” She asked and Dennis paused. He leaned on the bannister of the stairs and peered down the stairwell. “You-”
“Sorry I thought I saw someone.” He shook his head. “No I haven’t actually. I thought maybe once or twice but no. I haven't seen a werewolf transform.” He paused. “I have seen The Wolfpack in various states of it though.”
“Well there’s like,” Bella waved her hand, “levels of comfort. Like you can wear that jacket all the time, but I bet you’d take it off on a hot day.”
“No.” He said.
“....A really hot day.”
“Never.” He said. “They will find my skeleton clad in this jacket.” He nudged. “Don’t get cold feet, talk me through it.”
The pair moved upward towards the roof, why? Bella had no idea he just walked upward and so she followed him. Kimmy peered up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way towards the gym. She had to use this stairwell didn’t she?
“Well not to make it too alien a metaphor but transformation is private.” Bella told him as they went. “It’s a moment of great empowerment but also vulnerability. We literally shed our form, some of us explode out of what we appear as into what we are.” She told him as he held open the door for her. Looming over as she moved onto the roof.
“Some wolves believe that it might be those who contain their otherside, tie it and bind it explode into beasts. Others say it’s the moon and ancient gods. Some say it’s a whole thing about Caligula and the Romans.” She scoffed and looked back at them. “There’s a lot of reasons people give.”
“Like I said,” Dennis shrugged, “kaleidoscopic reactions.” He held up his hands. Bella gave him a pouty look. “Sorry, go on.”
“The thing we all agree on though is that the change is…OURS.” Bella put a hand on her chest. “It's a private thing and being seen changing is…Well it’s personal.” She said. “We change if we feel comfortable, if we feel like we should or…Sometimes something out of control happens.”
“Like full moons?”
“Oh no, come on.” Bella scoffed. “Dennis, there are apps and shit for that. Meteorology is super fucking easy to keep track of. We’re not ye olde village people who think the moon is a miracle.”
“Okay wow!” Dennis scoffed. “Sorry for assuming.”
Bella laughed a little at him. “No but that’s my point! Transforming for us is a big deal, it’s revealing, it’s having things forced out of us. It can also be nice to let someone see you, unvarnished and unbound.” She said. “Some consider it very intimate, very liberating. But the choice has to be yours.”
“You’re saying that Abby’s choice wasn’t authentic.” Dennis nodded. “Yeah I can get that.” He said. “Exposed is a word for it.” He looked out onto the campus and blinked a few times. “Huh.”
“I know it’s a novel idea but-”
“No that.” He pointed and Bella scooted closer. She stared down at the gym, it was covered in long yellow slip and slides coming out of every door and window and stretching out to the school.
“What the fuck?”