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Trevor Baker had to admit it, Breckenridge sure knew how to throw a party. Or whoever had rented the house for the evening did, he’d heard it was a group of necromancers. Music blasted throughout the large, two storey house. This DJ was crushing it with their picks.
Trevor dodged through the party goers who were dancing, drinking, doing drugs, yelling at each other just to be heard. In the centre of the large room, there was a dance floor with a disco ball and neon, flashing lighting hanging above it. The DJ was currently playing Blondie’s Heart of Glass.
The song was just wrapping up. The DJ spoke into the mic set up in front of their records. “Any requests?”
“Call me!” “Eye of the Tiger!” “Take on me!” were among the shouts.
“Ok, we got some Blondie fans in tonight. I just played them though. For now, let’s go with… Take on Me!”
The crowd erupted into screams. Most of them moved onto the dance floor.
“Take on me, I’ll be gone….” Blasted from the speakers.
Trevor tuned it out. He stopped by the snack table. He grabbed a red solo cup and filled it with punch. He took a sip, wincing at the strong taste. He was pretty sure this punch was spiked. He reached into a bowl of Jiffy pop and shoved a handful in his mouth.
Trevor was a young man in his late 20s, he was probably one of the older people here. He was wearing a dark blue jean jacket, bright green polo shirt and tan slacks.
He had emerald eyes that stood out on an otherwise unremarkable square face. His naturally blonde hair had been styled into a mohawl for the party. A pretty, young woman tripped in her platform heels and fell backwards. Trevor grabbed her. “I got you.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you ok?”
“For sure. Care to dance?” She indicated towards the dance floor.
“Sure, this song is rad.” David Bowie’s Lets Dance began to play.
They got on the dance floor. “Let’s Dance, put on your red shoes and dance the blues.” Neon lights flashing and other partygoers dancing around them.
Trevor spun her around to face him. “I’m Trevor.”
“Hi Trevor, I’m Luna.” Luna slid her body across and back the floor, moving her upper body like a snake. Trevor stepped forward, immediately sliding his foot forward and back.
“You can do the Running Man? That is so cool!”
“I know!” Trevor continued doing the move. She mirrored his motions so they were both doing the Running Man.
The song began to fade as it came to an end. “Ok, next song,” the DJ said through their microphone. “Whoever requested Eye of the Tiger is about to be very happy.”
They got off the dance floor and moved away from the crowd, ending up sitting on a bench in an alcove in another room. “So, Trevor, you from here?”
“Yeah. Spent my entire life in Colorado. You?”
“I’m from Nebraska.”
“Oh. Isn’t that like 6 hours away?”
“Yeah, but my BFF persuaded me to come, and I couldn’t say no to a chance to hang out. We don’t see each other as much as we did when we were high school students. Y’know?”
“I get that. I haven’t caught up with my homeboy since we graduated. Go Eagles.” Trevor pushed his fist up in the air.
Luna chuckled. “But I gotta admit, life is going pretty good. Especially now. Wanna know why?”
“Why?”
She leaned in, holding up a bag of drug gummies. “These boys.”
Trevor squirmed. “I can’t. Not because I don’t want to. I just – I got my sister in trouble because a bag of my edibles were found in her locker. She got kicked out, in her final year.”
“Oh, that’s not good.”
“I know, I know. Not the best big bro moment. I want to make it up to her, I just don’t know how.” He ran his hand over his face.
“She’ll forgive you. Siblings don’t stay mad at each other about the trivial stuff
“Do you have siblings?” Trevor decided to change the subject, not wanting to dwell on this right now.
“Nah, I’m an old child. But we are all part of the larger sisterhood.”
Trevor ran a hand over his face. “Are you a sorority girl?”
“Yeah, I am. The initiation was kind of sexist, but the girls are really nice. I thought why not conform to at least one movie stereotype,” she paused. “It’s weird to think I’ve only got one year left and then I’ll be in the adult world. I feel like I only became the person I’m supposed to be.”
“I still barely know how to function in this world and I’m 27.”
“I’m gonna try to request the next track.” .”
“Ok, I gotta pee.”
On the way back from the bathroom, he got lost. He was trying to find his way back to the room where the dancing was. “Where the Hell am I?” He wondered. How big was this house? He went up a flight of stairs and walked down the corridor. He pushed open the door.
Trevor leant against the window sill, looking out at the surroundings. The only thing in the room was a table, an empty umbrella stand, some shelves and chair.
“Shouldn’t you be getting back to the party? Don’t think there’s much going on up here.”
Trevor jumped. He turned around to see a figure standing in the doorway. “Oh yeah, I was just taking a moment.”
“Hmm.” There was nothing much that stood out about the figure.
Trevor couldn’t help but notice the knife in his hand. “What’s up with that?”
“Oh, it’s just, there’s a lot of people around. Thought I’d have a little fun, look for something, fresh. Looks like I found it.”
“Bite me.” Trevor muttered.
“I intend to do more then that.”
With that, the attacker launched at him, pinning him to the wall. It was so fast that Trevor didn’t have time to react. The attacker held the knife to his throat. Trevor tried to shove them off but they were too strong.
“Let me go!” Trevor kneed the attacker in the groin. The attacker winced, loosening their grip. Trevor took the opportunity to duck out from the knife.
The attacker surged forward, finally getting in a hit, stabbing him in the chest. Trevor screamed in pain, the sharp pain followed by a slight wooziness. “Argh!”
“No one’s going to help. Some of them want to be abused, some of them want to abuse you.” They sang along to the downstairs music in a mocking tone. They raised the blood stained knife. Trevor who had one hand on his chest wound was unaware of the next attack, which hit him just above where his hand was.
“Gah!” He seethed in pain, losing balance and slipping to the ground.
He tried to get back up but the attacker stood on his hand, stamping on it. Trevor scrunched his face up, trying to fight through the pain. He grabbed onto the attacker’s leg with his other hand and forced them off his hand.
He pushed himself up and put some distance between him and the attacker. He spun round, trying to get to the door. His gate was unsteady from blood loss.
He reached out to grip the wall and the attacker seized it. They twisted it behind Trevor’s back, holding him in place. Trevor struggled against the grip, kicking back at the attacker, barely managing to land the strike in the attacker’s lower leg.
They dragged Trevor across the room, holding him tightly. Trevor fought against them, he wasn’t sure how long he could hold on before he blacked out, but he intended to make the time he had count.
They slammed Trevor against the sill and stabbed him in the chest again, an inch from the heart. The attacker stabbed him repeatedly, making the wound deeper. His vision began to blur, and large spots appeared.
“Trevor?” Luna called. She pushed the door open and continued walking, heading for the next room. She bumped into someone.
“Hey, watch where you’re going.”
“Oh sorry.”
“It’s fine,” the person she’d bumped into was a gangly young man with straight, black hair styled in a slick back quiff and round, light blue eyes. He was dressed in a mishmash of denim, plaid, and leather. “Can I help you?”
“Most definitely. I’m looking for this guy, his name’s Trevor. We were dancing earlier. He went to pee and now I can’t find him.”
“Well, maybe he went to the garden or something. I’m Chester Grayson.”
“Nice to meet you Chester, I’m Luna Fredrickson.” She smiled widely at him.
“And if I run into this Trevor guy, I’ll let him know you were looking for him.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks.”
“You look glam by the way. I don’t know if anyone’s told you that tonight, but you do.” Chester blurted out. He placed a hand over his mouth, flushing bright red.
Luna grinned at him. “You think so?” She glanced down at her printed blouse with shoulder pads that accentuated her bony shoulders, sparkly ruffle skirt, and tights.
“Yeah. It wasn’t cool of him to wander off on you. There could be a serial killer in the house.”
“Isn’t that something a serial killer would say?”
“Maybe,” he leant in closer to her. “But would I tell you if I was?” He smirked.
“Hmm, good point.” She grinned at him, trying to ignore how when he smiled, it made his pale awkward face light up. It was like he’d been brought out of his shell.
“I hear there’s going to be fireworks later, you want to check them out?”
“Err… ok.”
Luna could hear True Colours playing somewhere. She took a step forward, her foot sliding. Chester instinctively grabbed her, holding her tight. “Strong grip you got there.”
“I’m a woodworker, it’s a requirement for the job.” He helped her steady herself. He continued to hold onto her. She leaned into his grip.
The next thing Trevor knew, he was standing on the ground outside the house. He looked up at the second storey window. “Must have been quite a fall. How…?”
There was something in front of him. He took a few steps forward. “What…?” He inspected and realised it was a body. “Oh, Jesus fucking Christ!” He recoiled, his entire body trembling. A speck of white drifted past his vision. He blinked and it was gone.
He circled the body. He noticed something, there were a pair of chunky orange sunglasses lying near the body. Trevor fished in his pocket and pushed on his own pair. “Weird.”
He crouched down to the body. “Who are you?” He reached out to try to turn the head. It didn’t budge. He tried again, pushing as hard as he could. Trevor found himself looking at his own face. The mouth was open in a scream. The face was covered in bruises.
“What the fuck!?!” Trevor recoiled, springing away from the body – his body. The leafy branches poked through him. Trevor flinched. A shiver ran down his spine and he shuddered.
“No, no, no. It can’t be.” He looked down at his hands to see they were translucent and glowing. They were covered in cuts and bruises, spots of blood dotted the fingers. He looked from himself to the body. Blood stains covered his shirt and jacket, dripping down into the ground.
Trevor looked down at himself to see there was a full match. Down to the last smudge of dirt. He could see a bit of broken bone sticking out from the neck. His hand instinctively went up to his neck to feel the bone sticking out.. He pulled up the collar on his jacket to cover it up.
He ran his hands over his face, trying to slow his breathing and calm himself. “Oh no, oh no, I - ” He sobbed, his entire body racked with fear and panic as the inevitable sunk in. “I don’t think I survived that fall.”
His hand finally moved down to his chest. He gulped as his fingers touched the blood stains. He listened intently for something, any indication there was a sign of life. There was no heartbeat. That confirmed it without a doubt, there was no hope for the body, for him.
Every day was the same, open his eyes, get out of the spot he’d dozed off at, drift around this stupid house, try not to lose his remaining sanity, get run through with a knife by a mysterious figure, be thrown out the window. Rinse repeat.
As Trevor wandered through the house, he began the motions of his day. He started tapping his leg. “If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me, time after time. If you fall, I will catch you I’ll be waiting, time after time.”
It was one of the few perks of being a ghost, he could do and say anything he wanted, and no one would judge him. In this case, it was scream-singing Cyndi Lauper.
He drifted past the bathroom. “Check.” He had to at least go past the place. Instead of going up, he went down, falling through the ceiling.
He landed on the downstairs foyer. He threw his hand out to catch his fall. Despite being a ghost, protective instincts, self or otherwise refused to die. There were voices coming from the distance. Trevor got to his feet and walked towards the source of it. “This is new.”
Two moving guys were loading boxes up onto a dolly. “Why are we moving all this stuff into storage? It’s halfway up a mountain for Christ’s sake.”
“Eh, it’s all part of the job. Apparently, they want to use this place for a safehouse or something. All I know is we get all of this on the dolly and move it onto the forklift. The next guys will get it down the mountain.”
Trevor couldn’t help but notice the house was completely clean. The vacant walls, doors, stairs and floor almost shone. The only thing that filled the foyer now were neatly stacked boxes, some loaded on a dolly. The workmen continued to load the boxes onto the dolly.
“A safehouse might not be the best idea for a place like this. What with it being halfway up a mountain.”
“But it’s in the middle of nowhere. There’s a bunch of secret routes in and out. Supply lines could be laid in. I could see it. It’s far enough away from the town that if humans were to need somewhere to hide out, this would be a pretty good place for it.”
“Maybe. All I know is we need to pack everything up and get it out of here by the end of the day. Since this is winter, that’ll be soon.”
“Why are you so worried about the dark? It’s not like vampires are going to attack the second darkness hits.”
“I wouldn’t put it past them. All they do is eat humans.”
“You talkin’ about the pizza delivery guy they found a couple weeks back? Cops are still looking into that.”
“Who else leaves victim drained of blood?”
“Good point. You want to go for a drink after this? It’s our last day of work, December 1999.”
“Ok. First rounds on you.”
“Deal.”
“Weird that this millennium is almost over. My kid is going to be born in 2000.”
“No way.” Trevor’s hands began to shake. The temperature began to drop. The lights flickered, the temperature dropped steadily. The blankets started rising and the boxes fell off the dolly.
One of the workmen picked up the boxes now on the floor. “I just got these on the thing.”.
“Is it just me or is it getting colder? There’s certainly no electrical problem. Maybe… this might be haunted.”
“It’s been checked. Multiple times. If there is a ghost, it’s either very good at hiding. An exorcist’ll probably take care of it at some point.” The two men left.
“It’s 1999!” Trevor threw his arms up in the air. He passed through the ceiling and wound up in a corridor, he could sense a presence behind him. He began to run down the corridor without thinking.
He pushed himself forward, running quickly. He refused to let his legs stop, there was no reason for him to stop. He couldn’t run out of breath that hadn’t been in his lungs in a decade.
He didn’t look over his shoulder. He didn’t need to, he knew that presence was still behind him and it would never stop chasing him. He ran through a wall and realised what he’d done a moment too late. He’d wound up in the room he’d died in.
The figure appeared. By this point, it was just a humanoid shape completely made of darkness. Trevor couldn’t see anything else. The figment approached him. They pulled out the knife, going to grab Trevor.
Trevor stepped to one side. “Not today, it’s not 1988 anymore barf bag.” He spun out of the way of another attack. He swung his fist, but it didn’t quite land.
The killer figment swung the knife, stabbing him in the arm. “Rude.” The killer lunged forward, but Trevor ducked.
The knife still went into his shoulder. Trevor was knocked back, slamming into the wall. The figment lunged again. Trevor ducked, kicking out at it with all his might. The figment was thrown back. It quickly recovered. It brandished the knife. Trevor swerved at the last moment. The thing seemed almost frustrated.
Trevor was reminded of something he heard a long time ago. His sister had been the last person to say it to him, his stubbornness was either going to get him killed or save his life.
He stepped forward. “I’ve never been the type to back down from a fight. I don’t see why death would stop that,” he swung at the figment, his cut covered hand shoving through them. “NOW GET THE FUCK OUT!”
He held out his hands, flecks of thick white goo gathering around them. The glow that lit up his otherwise dead skin intensified. The flecks built up and up, forming into globs and spheres.
The spheres expanded, strings of the white substance shooting out. They all bound together, forming a wave of ectoplasm that blasted out of him. The wave sped towards the figment, pushing them across the room.
Trevor watched determinedly as the explosioin of built up power blasted the figment back towards the door. The figment dissipated from a solid form of darkness into a mass of dark particles.
The particles intertwingled with the white, translucent ectoplasm. When the wave had finally disbanded, the thing that had been haunting Trevor for over a decade was gone.
“I can’t believe I did that! That was so gnarly!” He looked out the window. Snow was gently falling, coating the mountains in a layer of pristine snow. He looked back over his shoulder just to check he was fully alone.
Wailing and panicked breathing were coming from somewhere. “Where…?” He sank through the floor, landing on a dark and dusty floor. This was the basement, a corridor lined with doors on both sides. He didn’t usually have enough reason to stay long.
The wailing sounded more muffled now. He poked his head through a door, not finding anything. It wasn’t until he reached the door at the end of the corridor that he found the source.
He walked the rest of the way through, squeezing into the dark, cramped space.. It was a young man sitting hunched on the floor with his arms around his knees. A cuff was strapped to his right arm.
“Well, you’re clearly no ok. You look like shit.” He said, leaning against the doorway.
“Says the guy in a blood-stained jean jacket.”
Trevor froze. “You - You can hear me? Can you also see me? Because only being able to hear me would really suck. No, you must be able to see me - .”
The young man looked up at him. He wiped at his nose, trying to suppress the stream of snot. He had puffy, bloodshot stone-grey eyes. There was a crack in one of his thickly framed glasses’ lenses. “I can see and hear dead people.” His voice sounded cracked and raw.
“Oh,” Trevor raised his eyebrows. “That sounds kinda righteous.”
“It can be. For the most part, it’s just annoying to be a psychic. Most kids have teddy bears at their tea parties. Me and my sister had a bunch of dead people,” he tucked a lock of shaggy, sandy hair behind his ear. Despite being hunched over, Trevor could tell this guy was lanky. “I’m guessing you haven’t talked to anyone since the 80s.”
“Ok…,” Trevor shook his head. “How’d you know I was from the 80s?”
“Dude. You look like you walked out of the 1980s. You also kind of sound like it.”
“That’s fair,” Trevor took a few steps forward. He waved awkwardly. “Erm… hi.”
“Hey.”
“Last I heard, they were moving everything out into storage. Not sure how long ago that was.”
“That was, like, 20 years ago.”
“Trippy. So, it’s 2020?”
“2021. I’m Robin.”
Trevor glanced at the cuff. He decided not to probe any deeper. “Nice to meet you, Robin, So, what are you doing here?”
Robin sniffed again, using the sleeve of his shirt to blow out the last of the goo from his nose. “Just… trying to pass some time.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve done that too,” Trevor slid down beside him. “I’ve been passing time here for decades. I’m practically an expert.”
Robin raised his eyebrows. “Wanna pass some time together?”