Creative Inspiration Part 2

Day 7~10:00 a.m.

         A full twenty four hours had gone by since Zaire requested the use of Dominique’s bedroom.  The more minutes that elapsed, the more he wished for his own room back.  Two hours had passed since he woke up.  He glanced over at Dominique—still sleeping like a rock—and sighed.  With both of them in the same room, it felt as if the room had compacted in on him.  Dominique was by no means as messy as him, but the open suitcase and stacks of clothes around the perimeter of the room made him cringe.  He didn’t mind a messy room, as long as it was his own mess.  He inched away from the walls and flopped down to the floor.  Drawing his knees up to his chest, he closed his eyes and tried to shrug off the claustrophobic feeling that made his skin crawl. 
         When he couldn’t stand it any longer, he scrambled to his feet and nudged Dominique hard in the ribs.  “Get up.  It’s ten already.”
         Dominique mumbled something about going to bed late and turned over, drawing the covers over his head to block out the light streaming through the window.  It didn’t last long, however, and he tossed the sheets off to look at Zaire.  “Are you staring at me?”
         “Yes.  I’m trying to give you that creepy feeling you get when someone is watching you.”
         “Well, it’s working.  So stop it.  I’m getting up now.”
         Zaire smirked and flung the door to the front room open.  He pounded on Nadya’s door and fell silent so he could hear footsteps.  When he heard them, he smiled and backed up a few paces as not to be right in her face when she opened the door.
         She pulled the door open, tying her hair back into a tight ponytail high on the back of her head.  She smiled and lowered her hands to her waist.  “Well, we made it through.  How do you think we did?”
         “We haven’t made it through yet.  We aren’t on the bus.”
         Nadya gave a half hearted, one shouldered shrug and crossed the threshold into the front room with him.  “I suppose you’re right.  Are you all packed?”
         “No.  I couldn’t stay in my room last night—resident ghosts in the closet.  Dominique isn’t packed yet either.  My guess for you is…you were packed last night?”
         “How’d you know?”
         He laughed under his breath and peered into her room through the open door.  Sure enough, her luggage was stacked in a perfect pile by the side of her bed.  He glanced towards his room and allowed his face to fall.  A lot of work needed to be done before the bus arrived in an hour. 
         “You want some help?”
         “That’d be great.”  He flashed a smile at her and led her into his ghost infested room.  He motioned to the closed closet door and shook his head.  “That’s where the little monsters are.  So be careful.  I’m not sure how I’m supposed to get any clothes I’ve thrown in there out…”
         “I’ll get them.  Be right back.”  She dashed out of the room and returned moments later with a strand of the protective charms dangling from the blanket she held it in.  She yanked the closet door open and shoved the charms inside.
         With a screech, the ghosts exploded from the closet one by one, almost bowling her over.  As if on instinct, Zaire reached out and caught her before she could stumble backwards and fall.           
         She gave him a grateful smile as she freed her arm and opened the closet door.  “There.  Your residents have been evicted.  Have at it.”
         “Thanks.”
         They spent a considerable amount of time collecting all of his scattered belongings and compiling them all into his suitcase.  When he was sure that they had located every article of clothing and electronic device, they met Dominique in the front room. 
         Zaire collapsed on one of the creaky couches and looked around the room.  “It’s kind of funny.  Everything started here, and we’re finishing in this room, too.  This week won’t be compared to any others, at least for me.  You know, I think I can stand you guys now.”
         Nadya crossed her arms and glanced at Dominique.  “He can stand us.  That’s so kind of him isn’t it?”
         Dominique grinned, but his expression switched to one of surprise as his gaze drifted toward the window facing the road.  “The bus!  It’s on the street that turns into this one!  I can see it!”  Gathering his things, he motioned them to follow him to the door, his face gleaming with its usual cheerfulness.
         Zaire peeked out of the window and watched as the bus disappeared behind a row of thick trees.  “It will take a few minutes for the bus to get here.  That road loops around to get here, remember?”
         “Oh yeah.”
         Zaire smiled, but it fell when he felt his body temperature drop a considerable number of degrees.  He knew this feeling; he also knew that turning around wasn’t going to bring a pleasant surprise.  He wheeled around, and his mouth dropped open.  “Guys…we might want to run…”
         The gaping eye sockets of the three ghosts from his closet stared deep into him, and he fumbled around to find the door handle behind him.  He whirled around to face Nadya and Dominique, glad to see that both of them had turned around and saw what he did.
         “Open the door!” Nadya exclaimed, nudging him toward the door as if it made him move at a quicker pace. 
         “I’m trying!  It’s still stuck!”  A frantic noise from Dominique made him turn, and his stomach felt like he had just been dropped from a skyscraper. 
         Dominique cowered into a corner as one of the ghosts from Zaire’s closet advanced, driving him deeper into the small space.  He whimpered and closed his eyes, ducking his head toward his shoulder. 
         Nadya took a step towards the ghost but stopped in her tracks when one of the other ghosts swooped down in front of her with a roar of protest.  Eyes wide in panic, she whirled to face Zaire.  “What do we do?  It won’t let me through!”
         “Just run, Dominique!”
         Dominique shook his head and pushed himself further back into the wall.  “Make it leave…” he choked out. 
         Zaire dove through the specter and scrambled to grab at Dominique’s sleeve.  “Come on, Dominique!” he exclaimed, pulling on him in desperation.  He let a pained grunt slip when the third ghost from his closet rocketed through him and knocked him to the ground, an icy chill searing through his body.  When he managed to pull himself back up again, his face fell and his heart skipped a beat.
         The last distraction had been what the first ghost needed.  It hovered above Dominique, who lay shaking on the floor, his eyes wide with a blank expression.  Zaire took a moment to process before he heard Nadya’s screams of terror and realized what was unfolding before his eyes.
         He scurried over, waving one arm around in an attempt to shoo the ghost from its prey.  It let out a piercing shriek before tearing through the house, back to where it made its home.  Noting that their fellow ghost was gone, the other two followed, leaving Nadya and Zaire to examine the scene.
         Nadya crept over and knelt down next to Zaire.  “Is he…alright?”
         Zaire sat in silence for a moment before daring to speak.  “I…I’m not sure…”
         “What was it doing?”
         “I think it…took his life…right out of him…”
         Nadya stared at him with wide eyes, her face paling to a color that matched the ghosts.  She bit her lip and closed her eyes, a sick look passing over her face.  “So he’s…”
         “He looks like it.”
         They both jumped when the door swung open and Mr. Marshall strode in uninhibited.  He smiled a toothy grin at them and clapped his hands once.  “Well, how was it!  Did you have fun?”
         “This place…it’s really haunted, Mr. Marshall,” Zaire spat, his hands balling into fists.  “We’ve been under attack this whole week, and we haven’t been able to get out.  Now…look…he’s…I can’t…even say it.”  He forced himself to stop babbling and tore his eyes from the body.  He felt nauseous, and all he wanted to do was run screaming from the house.  But he knew someone had to explain it all.
         Mr. Marshall laughed and shook his head.  “Funny, kids.  Put that into your stories.  I like it already.”
         “It’s not a lie,” Nadya returned.  “Go ahead.  Check him.  He…isn’t breathing.”
         Mr. Marshall’s smile dropped and knelt down, concern now written all over his face.  He pressed his fingers against Dominique’s wrist, and after a few moments, he stood up, no trace of a joke in his expression.  “Go get on the bus right now.  Call the police and tell them that there has been an accident.”

~

Two weeks later~ In class

         “Hey, Zaire,” Nadya voiced, dropping her bag and sliding into the chair next to Zaire.  She cast him a small smile and pulled a thick manuscript out of a binder.  “Did you get your manuscript done?”
         “Yeah, but it was a close call.  I’ve had a lot of explaining to do about the accident.”
         Nadya nodded and broke eye contact.  “Yeah…that has been a mess, hasn’t it?  It’s hard to keep such a supernatural death bound to something so trivial.”
         “No kidding.”  Zaire glanced around at the rest of his classmates.  Anyone inside of the creative writing class knew the truth.  Anyone outside knew a lie.  To Zaire, the idea of falling to your death on a flight of stairs seemed a rather obvious lie, but he figured to someone who didn’t know the truth, it could seem plausible.
         “So,” Nadya began, breaking the awkward silence that fell over them.  “What did you write about?  Zombies?  Ghosts?  Sparking vampires?”
         Zaire laughed under his breath and shook his head.  He fished through his bag and drew out a manuscript, pushing it towards her.  “You can look.  I tried writing about a rock star in a small town who’s just begging for any way to get out into the real world.  Cliché, I know, but considering the situation, you know…but…I couldn’t do it…I kept reverting back to the horror story that played on repeat in my mind…I mean, people think it’s fiction, so it works.”
         “Yeah, mine was about a woman in the workplace striving to make a name for herself.  Kind of cliché for me, too, but again, you know…but like you, it went back to what we saw, too.  More of the supernatural parts like the ghosts and the haunting and all of those kinds of things.”
         “Yes.  Hey, I know it sounds weird coming from me and at probably at the worst timing, but would you want to hang out later?  We could celebrate completing our manuscripts.”
         Nadya smiled and nodded.  “That’d be fun, sure.  I’d love to.  After school?”
         “That’d be great.”  He smiled at her, then dropped his gaze to his manuscript.  Whether for the good or for the bad, he knew that life was going to be different from now on, but unlike before this field trip, he welcomed the changes and knew that he was ready to challenge them with full force.