- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:

I know this part is long, but you need to feel for the characters right?  right?  Just stick with it, the pace becomes much faster by the end of the chapter! 

It was dark.  The sun had long since set.  Shadows crisscrossed the house while the bright moon shone through the window.  It was passed midnight, and everyone was asleep.  Well, almost everyone. 

            Actually, not even a majority.  Noah was staying up late.  Not out of enjoyment, but out of panic.  He had been working for hours, his fingers quickly fluttering across the keyboard, hurriedly trying to finish.  The light emanating from the laptop screen was the only light in the room, and it illuminated his face in a ghostly way.  He didn’t mind his ghoulish appearance though.  His family had gone to bed much earlier, and there was no one who could see him.  At least he thought.  The truth of the matter was that he was not the only thing awake in the house.  Not even the only thing awake in his room. 

            His eyes were locked to the screen directly in front of him.  The words that appeared on the screen as quickly as his fingers hit the keys.  He was in his 6th hour of nonstop work, and by the looks of it, he was almost completed.  All he needed was a closing paragraph.  An ending to this god-awful paper, this horrid night, and a beginning to the few hours of sleep he had well earned. 

            But in his eagerness to finish he missed the shadow crawling along his floor.  The wraith that slid on the ground slowly passing into the moon light, then out again as it inched closer to the bed.  It crawled up the covers behind the still oblivious Noah.  Its shapeless body crept closer to him, almost touching.  It gave out a low moan.  Not any moan that could have been interpreted as friendly.  Nothing that could have been misunderstood as good, or even of this world.  The type of moan that crawled up your spine, turning your whole body cold.  As it reached your head it filled your mind with horrors that you knew couldn’t compare with the real thing.  Noah’s fingers stopped moving.  His heartbeat quickened.  Then it came again.  The low moan.  The horrible sound uttered from the very depths of hell.  And it was right behind him. 

            He took a deep breath and slowly, ever so slowly turned around.  He didn’t see anything.  The only object he could make out was the window, and the small pile of blankets at the end of his bead.  With a trembling hand he reached out and grabbed a hand, not noticing the shadow that had started climbing up his side. 

            With a quick motion he grabbed the blanket and threw it from the bead.  It rolled onto the ground, but nothing came out of it.  His heart was still racing.  He was breathing hard.  He didn’t know what to do.  He didn’t know about the shadow on his shoulders. 

            He turned back to the computer, intent to finish his project and go to sleep, hopefully drowning out the cries of whatever monster had chosen to haunt him.  But this monster was not so easily deterred.  It waited for a moment on his back.  Listening to the boy’s heartbeat as it slowed down to normal.  His body radiating heat in the summer night.  A sensation that the being hadn’t experienced for so long.  It was tempted to move.  Tempted to scream.  Tempted, but not to the point of action.  It knew to wait.  It knew the pleasures of patience.  The time was not yet perfect, but it soon would be. 

            Noah hit the save button on his computer.  He was thankful to finally be finished, but the moan was still fresh in his mind.  He tried to reassure himself, tell himself that it was his imagination, but it didn’t work.  Images of black horrors crept into his mind.  Pictures of death and pain, of a slow and torturous end.  He could not push these thoughts from his mind.  Even as he put his computer away.  Even as he drew the covers around himself and shut his eyes.  Even as the shadow rapped itself around his unknowing body. 

            Noah soon fell asleep thoroughly rapped in his warm blankets.  His heavy breathing was the only audible sound in the room.  The shadow made its move.  It slowly crept along his neck, an into his open mouth.  Its form traveled into the boy.  It could feel itself grasping hold of the boys mind, taking control. 

            In a few minutes, the possession was complete.  The shadow grabbed hold of Noah’s brain, firmly attaching itself to him.  Molding into him, fusing with his very being. 

            Noah sat up in bed, suddenly wide-awake.  His heart was beating quickly, just as it had done only a few minutes ago.  Then he heard a voice.  A sweet, melodious noise, that didn’t seem to be emanating from any actual source.  Like a thought, but more powerful, more defined.

            “Don’t worry.”  The voice calmly stated.  “Just go back to bed.”   Noah felt himself lie back down on his pillow.  His eyes slowly closed against his will.  He was plunged into darkness again. 

 

            He awoke some hours later, momentarily forgetting the events of the previous night.  The sun shone through the window as it did almost every day.  He glanced tiredly at the clock.  He still had half an hour before he had to get up and go to school.  He rolled over, pulling the warm blankets around him.  Just as his eyelids closed, the voice came again.  It spoke in the same soothing tone it had used last time. 

            “Noah, don’t go back to sleep.”  It simply said.  Noah opened his eyes wide again as the events of the night before came rushing back to him.  He remembered the moan.  He remembered the feeling of dread.  He remembered the voice.  He was breathing heavily.  He looked around the room trying to find the source of the voice, but he could not. 

            “Where are you?”  He asked, hoping for an answer.

            “I’m right here.”  The voice said back, a hint of mockery in the soothing tone.  “In your head.”  Noah was on the verge of panicking. 

            “What?”  Was all that he managed to ask.

            “Listen, let me start from the beginning.”  The voice started.  The warm tone was helping to calm Noah’s nerves, but not as much as he would like.  “You have been possessed by a ghost.”

            The voice said it so calmly, almost like it was something that everyone had to deal with.  Like a position was an everyday accordance. 

            “Now I know what your thinking.”  The voice said.  “Your worried because the only thing you know about positions is from horror movies, but be assured that is not the case!  Most times at least.  And defiantly not this time.  I have no intentions to hurt you.”

            Noah’s pulse had returned to normal, although he did not know what to think.  There was a voice in his head claiming to be a ghost! 

            “So what are you planning to do?”  Noah said worriedly. 

            “I don’t know.  Just have some fun.  I have been drifting alone for a while so I decided to have some contact with you mortals.  Sadly most people can’t hear me.  Only a few people can actually communicate with the otherworldly, and your one of them!”  It said happily. 

            “Lucky me.”  Noah said sarcastically.  “So your not an evil ghost or anything?”

            “Nope, just an incredibly bored one.”

            “Well I guess that’s not so bad.”  He was starting to accept everything.

            “Not at all.”

            “So can you do anything besides talk to me?”

            “Of coerce I can.  In fact I can take control of your whole body at any point I want.  Make you do anything.  But don’t worry, I don’t plan to use that power much.”

            “Ok I guess.  Do you have a name?  And for that matter how do you know mine?”

            “The name’s Zack.  As for your other question, I’m inside your mind.  I know everything about you.  Everything.”

            Noah was more than a little unnerved about Zack knowing everything about him.  He was about to say so, but was shortly cut off.

            “I don’t judge.  In fact I think we can have a lot of fun together.” 

            “Just don’t do anything weird.”

            “Fine.  I’ll just be a voice in your head for the rest of the day.  And you know I can hear you fine if you just think.  You don’t have to actually speak.”

            “Well that’ll be easy.”  Noah thought to himself.  At least he wouldn’t look like a raving lunatic with voices in his head. 

            He laid his clothes out on his bed, but hesitated a moment before changing.  Zack quickly picked up on why. 

            “I’m in your body.  I know what you look like without clothes stupid.”  Noah sighed to himself.  He could just feel that this spirit was going to be a pain.

 

            The rest of Noah’s morning went by rather normally.  His breakfast consisted of a plate of rather pathetic looking frozen waffles that he only managed to swallow after drowning them in syrup.  He ate with his brother Ryan.  He was two years younger than Noah with short dark hair, a youthful face with a few freckles, and a look of complete exhaustion.  From the looks of it he had gotten about as much sleep as Noah had.

He rode the bus to school like any other day.  Noah was still a junior in high school.  He went to his classes, and almost forgot about Zack.  He was quickly reminded in math class when Zack started pointing out his mistakes. 

            “Hey silly, you forgot the negative.”  Zack would say. 

            “I didn’t forget anything.  I was about to put it in.”

            “Right.  And I was about to be reincarnated into a rabbit, which might actually be an improvement.”

            “If you don’t like my body, then get out.”

            “Hey, I’m just saying that a rabbit probably wouldn’t have forgotten the negative.”

            “And I’m just saying shut up!”

 

Soon fifth period rolled around.  It was Noah’s English class.  Everyday was the same.  Sit down, and pretend to enjoy a stupid conversation about the literary genius the class happened to be studying that week.  Normally he would just sit in the back of the class as the three people who actually like this sort of thing carried the conversation.  Today was no different. 

            Noah glanced at the clock for the tenth time.  It still read that he had over twenty minutes left.  The class was about half over.  Didn’t help him now though.  That was still twenty minutes of boring discussions he had to sit through before he could go to lunch. 

            “Hey, what do you think would happen if I jumped out the window right now?”  Noah thought pessimistically to Zack.

            “Well, it might get you out of this god awful class.  Might.  Honestly I think it’s worth the risk.” 

            Noah just put his head down on the desk and closed his eyes.  Maybe if he ignored the class, it would go away.

 

            Those twenty minutes went by faster than he had thought they would.  Him and Zack had started up a conversation about the best ways to shut up the three people who were still insisting that The Scarlet Letter was interesting.  So far Noah’s favorite was shoving the book up their asses, because that was obviously where the noise was coming from. 

            The bell finally, mercifully rang.  Even though Noah was the furthest from the door, he was the first out.  He was not about to spend a second more than he had to in this hell.  He breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the packed hallway and was swept into the crowd. 

            “Hey, duck into the bathroom for a second.”  Zack said.

            “Why?”  Noah asked.  He didn’t need to go, and he doubted a spirit borrowing his body would need to either. 

            “I need to show you something.”

            “What.”

            “You are so stubborn.”  Zack said as he took momentary control of Noah’s body, walking him into the bathroom and into one of the stalls.  He gave control back to Noah only after he locked the door behind them. 

            “Fine, you dragged me in hear, what do you want.”

            “Well, this is your lunch.  I figured you had a few minutes to do something fun.”

            “Not really.”

            “Well to bad.  Now close your eyes.  This might take a minute.  And put your backpack down.”  With a sigh Noah did as he was told, first resting his backpack on the ground, and then closing his eyes,

            “You almost done?”  He asked after a few seconds.         

            “Wait… just… one… second…  OK!  You can look now!”

            Noah opened his eyes.  He was staring down at the floor, which still looked as normal as ever.  Then he glanced up.  Something was defiantly different.  He hurriedly glanced from side to side, then down at his body in horror.  He was a bug!

            “What the hell Zack!”  He shouted.

            “Well tiny, how does it feel to be an inch tall?”

            “Not great.  Turn me back!”

            “And why would you want that?  This is one of your fantasies isn’t it?”

            “Yeah, one that I never wanted to live out!”

            “Loosen up!  Have some fun.  Go outside, make some friends.”

            “NO!”

            “I could always do it for you, if you would prefer.”

            “You’re an asshole.”

            “I know.  Now go live out some fantasies, then I’ll change you back.”

            Noah reluctantly scurried out of the stall.  He was amazed at how quickly he got used to his new bug body.  He was a rather large black ant, but that fact did not make him feel any better.  He couldn’t lie to himself though.  He was excited about this, although his fear of death was taking some of the fun away. 

            He pressed his small body to the ground as he wiggled out from under the door, into the open hallway.  Most kids had since gotten to their classes.  Thankfully he was safe. 

            Just as he started to feel a bit better, and giant walked around the corner in front of him.  He didn’t know the person.  He had short dark hair, and was wearing a T-shirt, baggy sweat pants, and a pair of purple skating shoes.  He walked closer and closer to the tiny bug on the ground. 

            “Zack, I don’t want to do this.”  Noah said as the giant’s feet hit the ground in front of him.  Zack didn’t reply.  Noah tried to move, tried to get out of the path of the giant kid heading towards him, but he found that his legs were rooted in place.  He couldn’t do anything!

            The giant was almost on top of him now.  Literally.  He took one more step.  He lifted up his foot.  The shadow fell on Noah as the massive sole of his shoe blocked out the light above.  Then it suddenly came down, crushing the pathetic bug underneath him.

            Everything went dark for Noah.  He thought he was dead.  He thought the giant had crushed him.  Killed him.  Smashed his body into mush.  This was not the case.  He soon realized this as the pain started throbbing through his body.  He could feel the grooves of the giants shoe pressing into his back, smushing him into the floor.  His head was caught between two of these grooves, uncrushed. 

            The giant lifted up his shoe, and continued walking down the hall, oblivious to the tiny bug he just stepped on.  Noah still couldn’t move, although Zack probably had given his body back to him by now.  The intense pain throbbed through his tiny form.  Everything hurt.  The only thing he could see was his antenna.  One of them was ripped off about half way up.  The other one was flattened, almost uniform with the ground.  Then the sweet embrace of unconsciousness took over. 

 

            When he woke up, he was back in the bathroom stall, normal sized.  He was relieved that his body hadn’t been crushed, but that isn’t to say he was happy.  He had gone through the worst pain of his life!

            “Zack!”  He screamed in his mind.

            “Oh good, you’re awake!”  Zack replied all to happily.  “So how was it?  Everything you ever wanted?”

            “NO!  It hurt!  I should be dead!”

            “Well what did you expect being stepped on to be like?”

            “I didn’t want to get stepped on.”

            “Your subcontiouse says differently.”

            “Well I never want to be stepped on again.”

            “Keep telling yourself that.”

            “Shut up!”

            “Make me bug boy.”

            In a normal situation this would have been Noah’s cue to punch someone in the face, and rightly so.  But sadly the only person around to punch was himself.  He had made a lot of stupid decisions in his life, but that was not going to be one of them.  So he was forced to accept what happened.  He was stepped on.  Nothing to do but move on. 

            “Just promise me you will not turn me into a bug again.”

            “But it was awesome!”

            Noah sighed.  He knew enough about this ghost to know he wasn’t going to agree to anything.  He reluctantly picked up his backpack and head out.

            “What period is it anyway?”  He asked.

            “Still lunch.  It only takes a minute or so to bring someone back from the dead.”

You must login (register) to review.