Chapter 3: Who Says Death Is The End

"Are you O.K.?"  My roommate Shanna asks looking concerned after she knocks on my door and sees me sitting in my dorm room alone, crying on Halloween.

She is a big girl, about 6 foot and stocky with dyed pitch black hair and wearing heavy black liner.  She looks like the type of person you don't want to meet in a dark alley.  In reality, she is actually very insecure and unsure of herself.  Not at all what you would think.

Glancing up at her, I fake a smile.  “Yeah, just in one of those moods.  You know how I get.”  I say mournfully and the frown that follows, tells all.

“I completely understand.  So, what happened today with idiot?”  She replies as she picks up a piece of trash off of the floor and throws it away.

Shaking my head, I say, “He tried to apologize, but I blew him off.  I hate it when he gets that way.”

Standing up, I turn the depressing music off and decide to go grab something to eat with her at the cafeteria.  I look over at the mirror and notice the dark circles under my eyes.  "Boy, I need to get some sleep."  I mutter without Shanna hearing.  After quickly brushing my pixie-cut bleach blonde hair, I grab my I.D. and lock the door behind me. 

“I wonder what’s for dinner tonight?”  After asking, I turn to her and stick my tongue out, acting like I'm about to puke.

“I don’t know.  Why do you ask when it’s always disgusting?” 

Turning the corner of the dorm, we start to smell lasagna and then she laughs while opening the door to the cafeteria.  Several of our friends are sitting at the table by the windows.  When I see them, I point them out to her.  “Looks, like they beat us here.” 

I start to move forward so I can get food and she lightly smacks me on the back.  Seeing John, she stops dead in her tracks and holds onto my forearm tightly, forcing me to stop too.  We stand there in the middle of the room and wait for her to make her move.  Figuring out that she isn’t going to, I take a hold of her hand after freeing myself and make her follow me to his table. 

“Hey, what’s up?”  He looks up at us both with a smirk on his face, then he turns his attention solely to Shanna.  “Well, it looks like I’m eating pig slop for dinner.  What about you?”

She still doesn’t move or say a word, even when he winks at her.  I end up elbowing her and when she finally snaps out of it, she tries to leave.  Stopping her with my hand, I can't help but to laugh.  This whole situation is so funny. 

They like each other so much it hurts to watch, but neither one has the guts to talk about it.  I guess it’s up to me.  “Shanna was wondering if you were doing anything tonight?”

He glances over to me and smiles, flirting with me.  Seeing recognition in his eyes, he shakes his head and replies,  “No, nothing I can think of.  Doing something with you sounds like fun though.”  Staring at her, he waits for her response.

She begins to blush and tries to escape, but I stop her dead in her tracks by blocking her exit.  I’m not about to let her go anywhere, especially when she is about to get a date with the love of her life.  After having a serious crush on John for the last two years, tonight she should find out if he likes her just as much or if he is just playing with her. 

I step on her toe when she doesn’t respond to him and she gives me a dirty look.  However, she does finally ask,  “What do you suggest?”  She stares directly at him and waits for an answer.

“Hm.  I know that there’s a party over in Rowan Hall tonight.  A bunch of the grad students are getting together and they asked me to come over.  Do you want to come with?  I can pick you up at your dorm room first if you want.”  He pats the seat next to him, motioning for her to sit.

My stomach starts growling, so I wave to her when she sits down and I get in line for food.  As I wait, I scan the room and watch my friends stare at Shanna and John flirting.  Amazed, I shake my head and the food line finally moves.

When I get up to the counter, all the different aromas combined practically make me puke.  I see mashed potatoes and carrots, then lasagna.  Pointing to the mashed potatoes, the server plates it up and then hands it to me so piping hot that I burn my fingers.  Almost dropping it, I place it on my tray and continue to check out after grabbing my chocolate milk. 

Sitting down at my friend’s table, I eat and listen to their conversations.  “What was all that about?  I noticed, she’s still there.”  Kim points jealously over to them.

“Oh, that?  Shanna has a date tonight with John.  Hopefully, now she will stop daydreaming about him all the time.  I really worry about her sometimes.”  Glancing over at them, I smile and continue to eat.

Everyone at the table laughs.  Looking up at the clock, I realize that I need to hurry.  Class is going to start in fifteen minutes and I still have to grab my books and get there.  Scarfing down the last couple bites, I put my tray in the trash and run back to the dorm room to get my backpack.

Barely making it to class in time, I sit in the back and start to fall asleep.  Looking around, I try to stay awake by counting the white tiles in the ceiling as Mr. Miller tells us about Tchaikovsky.  I hear him speak up and everyone stares at me. 

“Ms. Smith, what was Tchaikovsky’s most famous work?”  He waits for my reply while staring me down, knowing full well that I wasn’t paying attention.  In the nick of time, the bell rings and saves my butt. 

“Since it’s the end of class, I guess you lucked out today Ms. Smith.  Tomorrow, try to pay more attention to my lecture.  Everything I say in class is always on the tests after all.”

He leaves me to go back to his desk and I pack up my things.  Heading back to my dorm room, I look up to see that it’s dark out and there aren’t any stars.  I hurry along, but before I know it I hear a noise behind me.  Scanning the surrounding area, I find what was making the sound.  A squirrel, stares at me and then runs up a tree. 

Hearing another noise from behind me, I start to run and trip.  Frantically, I push off of the cement and stand up.  Starting to run again without looking back, I reach the door to my hall and feel a tugging on my shirt from behind me while hearing a strange whisper that makes my hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I swing around with my hands fisted tightly, but there isn’t anyone there.  With my heart pumping and almost in tears, I open the door to the hall and make my way to my dorm room.  Not having a clue what just happened, I seek refuge in my bedroom from the source of my fear.

Sitting down on the edge of my bed, I turn the music on loud and put my head in my hands.  For no reason at all, I feel really depressed like I just lost someone and start to cry.  My favorite song comes on, so I lift my head and belt it out at the top of my lungs. 

When I have calmed down, I sit on the floor and find myself drawing a picture of my brother in my sketch book.  He killed himself when I was 12 and for the longest time I couldn’t ever cry.  After several years in therapy, I managed to become somewhat normal, but still to this day I can’t deal with the loss.  It haunts me and I know in the back of my head that he is always around me.

Just as I’m about to finish the picture, I feel a strange presence in the room with me.  It makes me feel unusually saddened and a tear cascades down my cheek.  When it lands on my brothers face, the tear starts to move strangely from side to side.  Not being able to take my eyes off of it, I watch as it slowly sinks into the paper. 

I look around the room and a thought pops into my head.  Speaking out loud, I ask, “Billy, are you there?  If you are, please let me know somehow.”  I have heard that on Halloween the veil between the worlds is thinnest.  Maybe he is trying to contact me and let me know that he is watching over me.

At the very moment I ask that question out loud, a plastic glow in the dark skeleton decoration on my door decides to move it’s arm straight up, right in front of me.  If it had moved down, I could have just dismissed it as gravity.  This was not the case unfortunately.

Instead, I watch as the arm moves slowly up and then to the side.  My heart leaps into my throat and I jump up so fast, that I don't know I have it in me.  I dash down the hall to my boyfriends and when I reach his door, I start to pound on it feverishly, till it opens.

Stay tuned for Part 2. Please comment and vote for me and if you feel like it. Swing by my f******k page M.D. LaBelle or my i*******m account at @m.d.labelle