Haunted

Six

Caleb's eyes go wide when he sees the bed shaking. He seems to realize something is happening and ducks, barely avoiding the blow. The lamp smashes into the side of the bed instead, the bulb shattering upon impact. Glass sprays back at him, landing in his hair as he covers his face and curses.

"Shit!"

Myka crawls over me but doesn't let go of my hand while I just sit there, surprised that these two aren't freaking out more. I mean, I get why I'm not a mess. I'm used to incidents like this. But the two people in the room with me are acting like this is just another annoying everyday occurrence.

"Caleb, the bottom drawer!" Myka points to her nightstand, but the shaking bed is making it difficult for her to get a grip on any of the handles. Plus, she's lying across my lap and she won't let go of my hand, which probably isn't making things any easier. I should snatch my hand away, but no matter how many times my brain tells my hand to drop hers, my fingers remain clasped.

Caleb rushes forward, crawling across the carpet as tiny glass shards fall from his hair. More objects shoot across the room as he yanks the bottom drawer of the nightstand open, and one particularly pointy item catches me in the shoulder as it flies through the air, making me grit my teeth. But it feels like nothing in comparison to my back from last night, so I barely even flinch.

"I've got it!" Caleb announces. I look down to find him holding some sort of device in his hands. It's got a gauge that reads from zero to ten, and as soon as he flicks a switch on the side of the small plastic box, a light bar blinks from green to red, up to the number eight.

So, what, on a scale of one to oh shit we're at a solid eight?

What the fuck is he doing?

Caleb rolls to the side, dodging the nightstand as it's lifted from the floor and thrown over him.

Okay, time to get out here.

Ignoring the pain in my back, I stand and pull Myka with me. "We have to go! C'mon!"

Objects keep smashing into the walls around us. I slide off the mattress and dodge an alarm clock, hand in hand with Myka. We hurry towards the door, but her dresser brings us to a halt as it slides across the floor and blocks our path.

Fucking ghosts.

"Watch out, I got it!" Caleb yells. He pushes past us with the device still in one hand and shoves at the heavy furniture.

Myka grunts as something strikes her, and I see her grab at her upper leg as a different object hits my back, directly over the bandages. This time I do flinch, and I can't keep myself from crying out in frustration as my healing wound is irritated.

The hand wrapped around mine tightens its grip as Caleb finally manages to push the dresser away from our exit, and the three of us pull the door open wide and rush out into the hall.

Scrambling, we each trip over our feet and land in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor, and I lose my grip on Myka's hand. Lying here, we breathe hard as we catch our breath, allowing our pulses to slow back to normal.

"Ahem."

As someone clears their throat, I look up slowly and find a boy standing five feet away with a backpack over his shoulders. He blinks down at the three of us.

"Um, are you guys alright?" He looks over each of us as we lay sprawled on the tiled floor, then over to the room we just came out of.

I push off of Caleb to get to my knees. He twists underneath me impatiently, and I accidentally elbow him in an area that makes the air in his lungs release in one loud gasp.