Three Idiots and a Ghost

When a ghost dreamed of an idiot

How could he betray me like this...?

...S-Sky...?

...Eleven days.

Rags's eyes shot open to another bright morning. She'd woken up earlier than usual, around the time the three guys were getting up too.

"Coops! Rise and shine, bud!" Archer shouted, banging on his blonde friend's door. "Oh, good morning, Rags. I didn't expect you to be up yet."

Skyler followed shortly behind Archer, and that was when Rags was pulled back to the vision she had in her dream. She'd definitely seen Skyler's face. Plus, there was the moment of déjà vu she'd experienced the day before as well, although she'd long forgotten about exactly what she'd heard in her head back then. It was becoming increasingly clearer that Skyler was connected to her previous life somehow. But just how was the big question.

Rags wanted to address this issue, but things between her and Skyler were more distant than ever. She hadn't spoken a single word with him since he angrily told her to get out of his room. To make matters worse, Skyler didn't even look at Rags as he made his way to the kitchen to cook breakfast for everyone.

"Someone's grumpier than usual," Archer remarked, noticing Skyler's rigid face. What he didn't know was why he was acting that way.

Skyler chose not to tell his friends about Rags's misadventure in his room. While that did relieve her, it also meant Rags was on her own to fix things between the two of them. She thought about following him to the kitchen to talk but couldn't bring herself to execute her plan at the moment.

Tonight. Rags thought. I'll talk to him tonight after he comes home from school.

"Morning, Rags," Cooper said with a big yawn, walking into the living room.

"Good morning. Guys, I have something I should tell you. I think I might have figured something out relating to my death."

"Oh, that's great news," Archer replied.

Cooper added, "Well, lay it on us."

Even though she couldn't mention the part about Skyler just yet, Rags decided she could at least let her friends know about something else that had caught her eye. "I've been having these weird dreams every single night since being dead. In one I was drowning, in another I was falling, and in another—Well, you get the point. I'm not entirely sure about it, but I think they might have been visions from my own death."

"That's pretty spooky stuff," Cooper said, sitting cross-legged next to Rags on the floor like he was preparing for story time. "Did you see anyone else in your dreams? Like, maybe your murderer!"

"Coops, let's not make any big assumptions. We don't even know if she was murdered."

"Yet."

"No, I didn't see anyone..." Rags lied. Though at the mention of murderer, she couldn't help suspecting Skyler for just the shortest of a second. She did feel a huge sense of betrayal whilst looking at his face in her dream. Could Skyler really have been capable of killing someone? Could that be why he'd kept his distance from her since day one?

Rags was becoming more convinced of this theory than she would've liked. However, as Archer had said, she knew she shouldn't be making any big assumptions. The last thing she wanted was to wrongly accuse someone of a crime he didn't commit. She'd just have to give Skyler the benefit of the doubt for the time being until she gathered more clues about her death. She really wished he wasn't a bad person though.

"Guys, there is one more thing I've noticed. Just before waking up, I'd always hear this whisper. Thirteen days...twelve days...eleven days... At first, I had no idea what it was. But now, I think it might be a countdown."

"A countdown for what exactly?" Archer inquired.

Cooper felt a shiver run down his bony back. "That's some straight up Ringu shit right there."

"Ringu?"

"You know, Arch, that movie with the videotape. You'd get a phone call from a creepy girl who whispers, 'Seven days...' Ringu."

Archer frowned. "Why don't you just say The Ring so we could all understand?"

"Hey, you've got to pay homage to the original source. But this reminds me, the 2017 sequel was a huge disappointment."

"Uh, we're getting off topic here, guys," Rags said.

While the three friends continued playing detective with Rags's dreams, Skyler was busy frying up eggs and bacon in the kitchen. This didn't mean he completely cut himself off from the conversation in the living room though. He couldn't help listening on to the discoveries Rags had made, even beginning to piece some of the clues together himself. He would never admit it out loud, but as much as the ghost had creeped him out, he was still curious to learn some things about her. He rationalized that perhaps the quicker she figured things out, the quicker she'd disappear from his life. He wanted things to be back to normal already.

Even in the midst of his pretend hatred for his dead roommate, it was impossible to hide the lingering guilt Skyler felt in his chest. Maybe he had been too mean to her since the beginning, especially yesterday.