The Way She Is

Chapter 9 ~ When The Cracks Start To Show

Chapter 9 ~ When The Cracks Start To Show

Phil's P.O.V

The atmosphere was tense and pressing down on me from all angles. Attempting to shrug it off, I glanced back from the camera to Chris's perplexed face. I needed to get him out of the room somehow, so that I could check to see if the camera caught my odd behaviour. But how ...

"I ... I think I heard Pj call you." I stated, craning my neck to peer past him to the door. His eyes followed mine. 

"Oh, really? I didn't hear anything." Chris said, squinting through the tiny, glowing crack into the living room. Thinking fast, I said the first thing that came to mind. 

"Maybe he's in the hall talking to that pretty girl that he told me lives next door?" I said casually. Luckily, I got the result I was after, as Chris jumped up and ran through the door, but not before he chuckled suspiciously, excusing himself.

Sighing, I scrambled over to my camera and turned the record off. Digging through my clothes in my bag, I found my laptop and pulled it out, then the USB cable to connect the camera to it. Plugging everything in, I booted the laptop up and waited anxiously for it to load up. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the video screen opened and I clicked play. 

Leaning back in the desk chair, I watched attentivly as my past self stumbled to the closed window. It felt odd watching it. I mean, it shouldn't have felt strange seeing as I watch and edit my own videos almost daily, but somehow this was different. Glancing up at the very spot where my past self was currently sitting, a cold shiver ricocheted down my spine.

Allowing my eyes to slide back to the screen, I noticed how in the video, I was now sat on the window ledge with my feet pulled up, sitting cross-legged. Evidently, it was wider than I'd thought it was. But ... I can't actually remember doing that. Nor could I remember how I'd closed my eyes and learnt back against the cool pane of glass. It stayed like this for a while, maybe 3 minutes or so, before ... 

No.

That's just not possible.

How could it be?

A wispy, black 'smudge' materialised on the outside of the window I was lent against. To say that it materialised is actually a much too solid word to use, it was almost transparent, to the point where if you hadn't have been looking directly at the spot where it had appeared, you'd never have noticed it at all. Neither was it particularly large, it was merely a small shadow ... But now begs the question. Of what?

Leaning closer to the screen, I thought maybe it could just be a smudge on the actual computer. But then, it hadn't been there before so ... That rules out the chance of it being on the camera lens as well. Glancing up at the window, I half expected something to be there. But of course, there was nothing. 

Back in the video, the 'smudge' moved slightly to the left, to where the partition in the window was, and I watched in horror as it seeped through it. Upon reaching the other side, it hovered for a moment or two, unmoving, before it reached out a dark tendril-like wisp, which touched my face. 

"What the fuck?" I muttered to myself, pausing the video and zooming in on the small, dark cloud. It looked pretty harmless, and maybe that is just what it was, a cloud? Okay, no. But seriuosly, what?

Zooming back out and unpausing it, the video only progressed into something far more sinister...

The tendril-like whisp looked as though it was stroking my face, which caused me to involuntarily shudder. But then out of nowhere, my past-self's eyes snapped open, and he scrambled desperately for the window latch, it was like he couldn't breathe without the night air. So why don't I remember any of that?

Frustration started to set in as I continued to watch as the cloud hovered over my shoulder, leaning as I did, further and further out of the window. Almost as though it was dragging me with it. 

Chris' P.O.V

I'd spoken to Pj, and he was adamant that he hadn't called me, nor had he left the apartment. So confused, I stumbled back to Phil's door, and pushed it open before walking in. He as sat super close to his laptop screen, and at first I thought he was watching porn from the close proximity of his face to the screen ... Or is it just me who does that? 

Then I picked up on the fact that his eyes looked to be glazed and misty, as though he were about to cry or something. Tentatively, I began walking toward him.

"Phil? You alright, mate?" I asked gently, watching as he looked up at me, an emotion similar to fear scrawled across his features. He shook his head, which worried me further.

Calling Pj, I proceeded to rush to Phil's side and crouch beside him.

"T-there! Do you see that?!" He said shakily, pointing at the screen. Glancing up, I looked to exactly where his finger was ... There wasn't anything there, it was just him sitting dangerously on the ledge, right before I came in and saved his goddamned life. 

"Chris? What's going on?" Pj was crouched at Phil's other side within seconds and the three of was all stared at the screen. Phil kept repeating the same thing over and over and over again. 'It's there! Right there, can't you see it? There!" While Pj and I sat willing something to suddenly appear. Nothing did ...