Phantom by Retifer M. (debian ebook reader .txt) 📖

close. It lands on the floor, spreading a green smear under it. I feel my jaw go slack and a lump in my throat.

“Tuck.” I call out, my voice hoarse. “T-Tucker.”

He doesn’t stir.

I look down at the green stain below me. I guess they’d stayed up late, watching me, cleaning. I don’t think any of us have slept in this late before. I don’t think any of us have been this messed up before.

“Sorry, guys.” I mumble.

I grab some paper towels conveniently right beside me and scoot to the side onto a dry spot. I wipe my feet and exposed leg down, noting that the bandages on my leg are the only clean thing on me, then crawl over and sit on my knees in front of the two sleeping people.

“Tucker.” My voice is raspy. I put my hand on Tuck’s leg and, having no energy to shake him into consciousness, just lean my weight into it. “Tuck, I need to have a shower.”

He grumbles in his sleep. I sigh.

“Tucker,” I say a little louder, firmer. I swallow some goo that had risen up into my mouth and cough into my arm. “Tuck I need help to get to the bathroom, I think I’m gonna be sick again.”

He blinks his eyes open and I exhale slowly.

“Danny?”

“Yeah.” My voice cracks. “Help me to the bathroom?”

“Yeah, sure of course, buddy.” He lets Sam slide to the ground before standing and helping me up. “You okay?”

“I feel like crap.”

He laughs humorlessly. “You look pretty much how you feel then.” I try to glare, but focus on climbing the stairs instead. “Are you gonna pass out again?”

“No, might puke though.”

“Good to know.”

He drops me off in the tub and leaves to get me some clothes that aren’t filthy. I take my remaining clothes off, turn the shower on and just sit, letting the water run over me.

I don’t go to the toilet when I feel it coming; I just throw up in the shower and let it wash down the drain. It’s not as much as before. I hear Tuck come back in a few minutes later, but he just sits on the toilet on the other side of the curtain.

“I’m sorry, Danny.”

“Why?” My throat is like sandpaper, gooey sandpaper, so I gargle some water. “You’re the ones who had to clean up… I think.”

“Yeah but you’re the one who’s going through something that might kill you, and we didn’t even try to get any help.” He sounds like he might start sobbing. “You coulda died and we just sat there.”

“I shouldn’t’ve brought you guys down there in the first place though. This isn’t-”

“No, we convinced you to show us. If we’d just watched the movies none of this would have happened.” It sounds like he has his face in his hands, his voice kind of muffled. “I should have gone to get someone when I wanted to.”

“You probably had a good reason not to-”

“No, I didn’t have a good reason.” Before I can argue he goes on. “I was gonna go get help, but you said not to so I freaking stayed like an idiot.”

“Wait- I said what?” I’m like, 67% sure I never said that. I wanted to, but I’m pretty sure… I shake my head. “Never mind that. You had a reason to listen to me, right?”

“I should’ve gone anyways!”

“Look, playing the blame game isn’t gonna help anyone, Tucker. It happened, no matter whose fault it is.” I peek around the shower curtain. “Can you get me something for my stomach? Like Gravol or whatever.”

“Yeah.”

While he’s gone I cough up more ectoplasm into the shower and hope I’m not contaminating the water supply or anything. I sit with my right leg out of the way so it doesn’t get wet and lean back against the side of the tub, face tilted upwards, letting the water rinse me off better than those facecloths and some paper towels could.

When Tuck comes back in he passes me a bottle and I take a pill that I hopefully won’t throw up.

“You think I’m radioactive now?”

“Seriously, dude?”

“Too soon?” I laugh, but it’s frail, hardly a laugh at all.

“I hope not.” I hear him shift. “Just don’t pass out in the shower.”

“Yeah, that’d be awkward.” I try my best at a sarcastic tone but it comes out a whisper.

Tucker speaks up again after a moment. “…Are you gonna tell your parents when they get home? Or call them when the power comes back on?”

“They’ll kill me.” I start rubbing my skin down, less for getting any remaining gunk off, more for the feel. “But I’ll have to. If I have radiation poisoning- or ectoplasm poisoning- they could pro’lly help.”

“Yeah, and hey, on the bright side, maybe they’ll be so relieved you’re okay that you won’t even be in too much trouble.”

“That’s great, Tuck, I’m sure that’ll happen.”

A knock on the door cuts off his reply.

“Danny? You in there?” It’s Sam, of course.

“Yeah,” Tucker answers.

A pause, and then, “You’re showering together?”

“What! No!” Tucker clarifies. “I’m just making sure he doesn’t pass out and drown.”

I almost make a quip about worst case scenarios, but feel it isn’t appropriate so I scrub shampoo into my hair and listen instead.

“He okay?”

“Yeah, I gave him some pills and he’s stopped throwing up.”

I work my lip between my teeth, and try to prove Tucker right.

“What about… you know…” She makes a frustrated noise. “The falling through the floor?”

“Danny?” Tucker asks.

“I dunno.” I mumble.

“It’s probably just a side effect.” Says Tuck, but his tone falters. “You know, from the ectoplasm?”

I nod, though no one can see it. “It’s probably temporary… it’ll be gone after it washes out of my system.”

“…and his leg?”

Tuck doesn’t say anything at that, and I don’t know enough to comment so I just stay silent. It seems like an unspoken conversation is happening between them two.

“Did- did you want your burger after you get out?”

I think for a moment before answering her.

“I guess.”

“He says yeah.” Tucker repeats louder.

“Okay, I’ll… I’ll heat it up.”

Sam leaves me and Tuck alone.

I spend a few minutes picking pieces out of my hair and just enjoy the feeling of the water pittering on my skin. The water swirling down the drain slowly fades from tinted green to clear.

My stomach seems to have settled but I’m still cold. I can’t really feel whether the water is hot or not, but there’s steam in the air so it can’t be cold, yet I’m still shivering like I’m waist deep in snow at the North Pole. If I wasn’t sick to the point where I’m probably delirious still, I’d think that there was frost on the shower curtain beside me.

And then I recognize the feeling. It comes in a cold flash I guess.

I gulp and warn Tucker. “Tuck, it’s happening again.”

“What is? Danny?”

Shaking like a leaf, I reach out past the curtain and go to grab a towel only to realize they’ve all been used up. Tucker respectfully looks away, even though I’m covered by the curtain, and holds up my clothes; a NASA shirt, pj pants, and clean boxers. I turn the water off and grab them despite being soaked. I pull my shirt over my head and stumble through the rest, but eventually get it.

“What’s happening, Danny?” Tucker asks again.

My breathing becomes ragged as the cold feeling grows a little more intense than the three times I fell. I hold my hands to my chest and shut my eyes, not really sure how but it helps a bit; calms me down. I brace myself for the fall down into the kitchen, a pun already forming on my tongue to say to Sam who must still be down there.

I don’t fall. I can tell before I open my eyes that something’s… off. There’s something over my face for sure, but the thing that really catches my attention is the secondhand feelings and the pain in my arm fading away. The final nail in the coffin is the “oh snap” from Tucker.

I pull my hands away slightly and note that Tucker is pressed against the door now, staring with large eyes. But I don’t really look over at him, because there are gloves on my hands. I magically conjured gloves onto my hands…? I don’t want to see any more of this but I’m reacting before I can stop myself. I look down.

Now, I’m not stupid. I come from a family of literal geniuses, and even though I tend to procrastinate, I still get B’s and A’s in school. I’m not dumb, though I admit I’ve done dumb things in the past- I’m fourteen years old. Things, especially things I don’t really like, don’t easily slip my mind.

So that brings me to this. Even though the monochrome hazmat jumpsuit is inverted for some reason- it now being mainly black with slightly stained, white gloves instead of the reverse- I recognize it as the one my parents gave me, except it’s glowing- no, I’m glowing. Oh. Oh.

“You-you’re…” Tucker stutters from across the room. “Oh man.”

I’m frozen in place, holding my breath as if that might explain or fix anything. I don’t know what to do; all I can think of is Sam trying to explain what happed.

A ghost? No, that can’t be it. I was just alive, just human a second ago. Did I die? Did I really have ectoplasm poisoning or whatever? Is that what it feels like? You just get cold and then, oh, there you go. You are now a ghost, thank you for shopping DeathMart™.

“What-” I’m cut off by, well, myself. I would’ve shivered if that voice hadn’t been mine, so I don’t blame him when I see Tuck pull his arms a little closer to himself.

It… sounds like I’m speaking from the inside of a long tunnel, all echo-ey. There’s also the fact that I’m wearing the gasmask again, muffling my voice a little. I wonder for a moment if it sounds the same to Tucker, or worse somehow. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m hallucinating all of this, or dreaming.

But it’s too real.

I swallow down some bile that’d risen in my throat and try again.

Sort of. “What- I’m- I don’t-” I stammer, not sure on what to say.

Tucker takes a small step forwards, but hesitates, seemingly deciding whether or not to do something. Then, “You’re a ghost again.” He breathes.

“Again? As in more than once?” My voice quivers, but that might just be the echo.

He moves his mouth a few times before he decides on one thing to say. “When you- when you came out of the portal…” He grits his teeth. “You were a ghost, Danny. You’re a ghost…?”

We both just stare around the bathroom for a minute, but avoiding the topic seemed to just build it up into an explosive.

“A ghost?” I finally let my hands drop stiffly to my sides.

“A ghost.”

“Am I dead?” My voice hitches. “Did I just die? Am I dead right now, Tucker!?”

“I don- I don’t know!”

“But I’m a ghost I’m dead!”

“I’m gonna be arrested for murder!”

“What the heck Tuck! I’m the one who died! Why are you freaking out!?”

“Because I’m the one who killed you!”

“You didn’t kill me! And why am I still wearing this!?”

“I don’t know, dude! I don’t know how- how- how ghosts work!” He waves his arms at me. “You’re the one with the ghost hunter parents you should… be the one to…”

He fades out and