Current or Past?

Chapter Two, Independent Studies

A half hour later, I was fully bathed and changed, but still laid away in bed, sleep free. The thick blanket molded onto my body, adding comfort. The soft material tickled against my bare skin as I laced my clammy fingers through Hocks', who was snoring away.

It was unusually cold tonight, prickling my skin and nerves. The master bedroom seemed to stretch on, a circlar infinity of walls and ceiling. We had the room stuffed with cardboard boxes, tuns of items just scattered along the worn out floor.

I rolled to my side, finally feeling the need to turn over. Instant comfort washed over me, producing much needed sleep.

*****

I awoke to a cool swift air current. It went in the perfect direction to pull my blanket down, going low enough to uncover my chest. I sighed, and rolled over. Another air current blew in the room, this time stronger. The blankets pulled down to my thighs. I sat up in the bed, bed hair flowing around my face.

“Ugh, fine I’ll get up.” I rolled my head back and talked to no one in particular, well, I thought I didn’t. A light rasp sounded on the thick white door. Instantaneously, I answered to it.

“What is it, Hock?” Another rasp. “Hock, you do realize that you can come in, right?” Yet another rasp and no spoken words. “Hock?” No one spoke. “Oh God.” A sickening feeling boiled inside me, realization slamming into my face. But then another sensation jumped. I needed to be strong, and to be able to do that, I have to be brave. 

“Hey, ghost dude, I’m getting up, ok? Calm down.” I self-fived myself mentally, pulling off what I thought was my first step into strength.

Quickly, I jumped out of bed, rushing to the box marked ‘Cassidee’. It had all my clothes, prized possessions, and anything else I found necessary to live here, or just knew I couldn’t part with. I pulled out a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of aero sweatpants. Crossing the room to the box with our shoes, I fished out some fuzzy boots and then once again crossed the room to get the socks. Waste of time, but it provided great exercise.

It took me a vast amount of time to get fully clothed, and freshened up. The mansion didn’t have calefaction, so we had to put up quite a few house warming machines, one in all the halls of the west and north wing. We didn’t put up much more in the other wings, knowing we wouldn’t use them for a long time.

I strolled casually to the kitchen, going down three flights of stairs. The kitchen was made of pure wood, which would have looked grand before, but two lonely centuries later… not so much. The walls were rotting; the floors had humongous holes in them, and what looked like an old rat’s nest in the far corner.

“Ew.” I crinkled my nose up, grimacing at the sight. “I really have to get this fixed.”

“Yes, please.” I nodded my head in agreement, and then opened my eyes wide. That didn’t sound like Hock’s voice. It sounded like the ghost guy’s voice.

“Hello again.”

“Stop doing that! It freaks me out!”

“It… what?” I looked around me, finding nothing but a cloud of white next to me. Guessing it was him, I directed my words to it.

“It freaks me out. I get scared. I don’t like it. Please don’t do that.” I creased my eyebrows.

“Oh, fine then.”

“So, why are you here again?”

“Because,” he began, a soft depressed murmur. “I need you. We all need you. The fate of this world lies in your hands.” I stared blankly at the cloud, his words barely skimming the surface of my understanding.