The door cracked and it was Camryn. She dropped her track bag and grabbed her shower stuff.
“Hey, thank you.”
She smiled at me and walked closer. “You’re awake. How are you feeling now?”
“Pretty groggy, but I don’t want to sleep anymore. I know I can’t really do anything can I?”
She shook her head. “Nope, no TV, no phone, no reading, no computers.” She made her way back to her shower caddy and her towel. “But right now, I have to shower. I smell terrible. We ran bleachers today, way more than I thought it would be.” She shook her head, “It was stupid. Anyway, when I get back, we can talk a bit if you want. I did my homework before practice. I didn’t want to be in here.”
“That was so nice. Where’s everyone else?”
She shrugged, “I told them you needed to rest, and they had a million other places to be for one day. They were cool with it.” She reached the door. “I’ll be back.” She ducked out, and the door closed again.
So, my room mates all were cool with giving up their room for the entire day so that I could rest. Hmm, maybe athletes were way cooler than I was giving them credit for.
I laid back down waiting for Camryn to come back. Somehow, I drifted off, and woke up to the door opening.
Camryn held a to go box of food from the cafeteria. “Hey, sorry I was trying to be quiet. Are you hungry?”
“Did you shower?”
“Yes, then I came back, and you were asleep again. So, I went and grabbed food. They said you should eat, and I should try to make you eat a little if you didn’t want to on your own.”
“I am a little hungry. I had some crackers a while ago.” I looked around, realizing I had no idea how long ago it was. “Oh, and I had a Pop Tart.”
Camryn laughed, “Well, that is a feast.” She turned on the little lamp over one of the other girls’ desks. “Is this light ok?”
My eyes were still really sensitive, but it was much better than the fluorescent ones. “Yeah, I gotta go to the bathroom.”
The hallway felt too empty. Everyone must have been out doing fun stuff. Walking back, a thin image appeared at the end of the hall. It wasn’t a full person, more like a misty figure. I couldn’t zoom in to see any detail. It felt like an unfocused screen.
Odd.
This wasn’t normal. My brain couldn’t even decipher if it was a man or a woman.
I tried to focus, but it kind of evaporated. I blinked, and the hallway was once again empty. I reached my door and turned the knob.
Could that have been a new ghost? I sat on the edge of my bed. “Camryn, I think I saw something, but it disappeared. It didn’t look right. Like it didn’t look like anything, which is new.”
She froze, “Saw something? Like a ghost? Was it the guy?”
I nodded and shook my head at the same time. My brain still felt like it was unset Jell-O. “I saw something at the end of the hall. But then it was gone. I don’t know. It didn’t look familiar, but I could barely focus on it.”
“So, it may have been a shadow.”
I shrugged, “I guess, but I really don’t think so. It felt different.” I sighed, sinking on to my bed. “I haven’t seen misty smokey things like this before. Even in the beginning, they were people. Maybe thin, but definitely images. When I tried to pretend, they were not there, and I would try to push them out of my mind, I still could see full figures. I could tell they were people-in a way. And since seeing him, it has been easy to tell it was him. He always brought such an ick vibe with him.” My head started to pound like a background drum in a song. “I don’t know. It was just different.”
“Savanah, you had a pretty intense head bang. It could be that part of your brain just isn’t clicking where it should be right now.”
“Yeah I guess.” I took a fry from the box. “I mean if it’s gone, that’s a good thing. I’ve never wanted this anyway.” I swallowed, but my throat felt tight. Could that have been the guy from the stairway, and the hall I saw before? If so, why was he coming in so weak? Did something really change in my brain when I fell? Concussions were a serious brain injury; I knew that from the science classes I had to take. Could it have been taken away in the fall?
“Well, then all is good.”
“Yeah. I guess it is.” I took a fry. My mind went to the girl in the window. “I fell because I was trying to see her.” I took another fry. “The girl in the window? The one who lives in Blachley? I had decided I was going to try and talk to her.” I shrugged. “I sort of worked on some stuff over Thanksgiving and was going to test it out on her.” I took a swig of water, downing more as I relished the feeling of it cooling my throat. “It didn’t work obviously.”
Camryn looked at me with a serious face. “So that’s a girl, huh? I knew it was something, but we hadn’t actually talked about that one.” She took a pull from her water bottle. It amazed me how well she dealt with all of this. “That’s what happened. I figured it had something to do with a ghost. You gotta do that stuff on soft surfaces.” She smiled, “I really hate the ER.”
‘I know
