"it's gonna be okay"

~39~

When Harvey first arrived at the apartment, what, two weeks ago, he thought everything was gonna be normal.

No ghosties, no weird voices in his head echoing random words like "diet seven-up" and "yer a wizard Harry!" and that ever elusive "dune buggy."

But boy was he wrong.

Not more than a few hours into getting to know the rest of the group, he heard a faint whisper from down the hall.

Not one- two voices bickering in the distance.

"Oh my god, shut up Nick!"

"What, you don't like my singing?"

He could hear agonizingly bad caterwauling.

Harvey winced, trying to ignore the faint off key singing, but it was simply too much.

He excused himself from the group, saying that he was feeling light headed and wanted to get some fresh air.

"You alright?" the blonde- Clay, asked.

"Yeha yeah," he reassured him. "Just a headache. I've been getting them recently."

Accepting a bottle of water and heading out of the apartment, down to the next floor and down the hall, he heard the voices get louder.

"I was a girl in a village doing alright, then I became a princess over-"

"OH MY GOD, NICK SHUT UP!"

Harvey turned the corner, expecting to see a couple of guys animatedly bickering, but there was nothing.

"Hello?" he called out, tentatively.

"I'm so excited to beeeeeeee-"

"Oh my god, I know no one else can hear us, but is it possible for you to shut up for one second??"

Harvey winced, a thrumming pain developing just behind his eyes.

"Yeah, Nick, shut up," Harvey echoed softly, massaging his temple.

"Wait, did someone say something?"

"I don't know, I couldn't hear over your terrible screaming."

He looked around, confused.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is there someone there?"

"You can hear us?" a slightly higher pitched voice called out. He had just a hint of a British accent, but not from a particular region that Harvey knew of.

"God yes," Harvey replied, walking down the hallways. "You guys are so disruptive, I could hear you from the floor above."

He peered down another branching hallway, to see two pale figures sat down on the ground.

"Oh, he can see us too," the other responded.

The specters looked like normal people, just with the transparency turned up all the way.

There was one boy wearing black adidas track pants and vans, paired with a white sweatshirt. He was toying with a strip of white fabric, currently tied loosely around his wrist.

The other sat across from him in the hall.

He was wearing a light grey hoodie with a white rectangle and red border embroidered on the front. Perched atop his head were a pair of glasses- a slight blue tint to them.

"You . . . guys are dead?"

The one in white sighed, looking up at him.

"Yep."