You saved me (3/?)
These characters are still borrowed.
I already have most of the next chapter, so I'll be posting it soon.
---Nothing had really changed between them but there was an unspoken boundary set when it came to the physicality of their interactions.
George noticed.
Everything seemed normal. They would laugh and tease but when in the past both the ghost and the vampire had been very comfortable touching, they now appeared to respect more of each other’s personal space. It had become clear for him the night they had shared watching the telly together. Mitchell was sitting to the right side of the couch while George was on the left. Annie came carrying her trademarked teacups and handed them over. After receiving his own, George noticed how Annie’s actions were more deliberate, she had handed the cup to Mitchell avoiding the touch of his fingers, and he had seemed to do the same. In the past Mitchell would have even pulled Annie down on his lap to take something from her.
“What did you do to Annie?” Asked George when she had gone back to the kitchen to fetch her own cup.
“What do you mean?” Mitchell asked in response with a hint of worry.
“Well obviously something happened because you both are acting very strangely around each other.”
“I don’t know what you mean, everything it perfectly normal between us.” He said reassuringly.
“And that is how I know something is wrong. You are too normal. It’s like you’re both following a script or something of how flatmates are supposed to interact when we’re anything but normal.”
“What does the supernatural have to do with any of this?” Mitchell asked exasperated.
“Nothing! You really think the supernatural is the only thing keeping the household not normal? It’s really embarrassing to be this naïve at your age.”
“Your condescending tone never ceases to annoy me.” Mitchell replied.
“Whatever. Before she comes back. Spill.”
“Everything is fine George.” His tone was getting more and more upset.
“Fine. Don’t tell me. I’ll wait for Annie to tell me what you did.”
“What I did?” He asked.
“What are you boys talking about?” Annie intervened approaching them.
“Nothing.” They replied in unison.
Annie started sitting down wedging herself in between George and the arm of the sofa.
“Annie!” George wailed.
“What?! I’m just sitting down. Don’t get your knickers in a bunch.”
“Do you have to sit on me?” He asked while their mate watched half delighted.
“No! You’re supposed to scoot over. Didn’t anyone teach you manners?”
“Pot? Kettle? Ring any bells? Sit next to Mitchell, there’s plenty of space there, you know? Are you now afraid of catching vampirism or, I don’t know, some exotic strain of supernatural gonorrhoea?”
“George! I don’t have STDs!” Now it was Mitchell’s turn to have his voice raise a few octaves.
“Well, I don’t understand why you’re not sitting next to each other.” The werewolf explained.
“Why do I have to sit in between you guys? I don’t recall it being written down in the house rule book or something.” Annie complained.
“Well, I want you to sit in the middle because at some point one of us is going to start cuddling with the next person and, no offense mate, I rather not cuddle with Mitchell.”
“None taken, bro.”
“Is that what we do?” Annie asked worried.
“Yes Annie, that’s what we do, I cuddle with you or you cuddle with Mitchell or you cuddle with both, but Mitchell and I don’t cuddle with each other.”
“I seem to recall an exception the night we watched ‘The Notebook’.”
“Urgh, don’t bring that up!” Mitchell complained. “It was a long movie and it was boring and I was tired! I didn’t know I had fallen asleep on George’s shoulder!”
“That’s exactly why we need you to sit in between us.”
“Okay fine! But you have to agree that there is something seriously sick about our house dynamics.” Annie said at last.
“Well, add that to the list. Now, you kiss and make up with Mitchell so we can watch the film.”
“I’ve already told you George, we’re not fighting!” Said Mitchell with exasperation.
“What did he tell you?” Annie asked turning to look at him.
“That apparently there’s some… weirdness between us.”
“Exhibit A: You avoiding Mitchell and treating him like a leper.”
“I am not!” Annie protested.
“Why am I always the one with horrible diseases?” asked Mitchell.
“It’s called a figure of speech!” George explained.
“I think everything is perfectly normal.” Added Annie.
“Again with the normality! Since when have we all been anything remotely similar to normal? ”
“Okay George, fine. I think I just been thinking too much about my interactions with you both and thought that I had to take a step back. I know I’m too nosy and clingy and touchy feely. I was just respecting your personal space.”
“That’s silly Annie.” Mitchell argued.
“No it’s not. It’s the truth.” George commented. “But that’s who you are. I’m going to ignore the fact that you imply it’s about me as well, when you don’t seem to worry about my personal space but only Mitchell’s.”
“Fine! Look I’m sitting down in the middle! And look I’m holding Mitchell’s hand and I’m not catching syphilis!”
“Oi! I have feelings too! I’m not a leper and I don’t have STDs. Put the bloody movie on!”
---
A couple of nights after the whole movie fiasco Annie had gone out at night to wander the streets and think. The boys had started to accept it as another one of her idiosyncrasies and let her be but reminding her to be careful. It sounded so idiotic to her. What could happen really? But that was the perfect explanation of why wandering the streets of Bristol at night was important to her. She had felt so sheltered growing up, so caught up in the image of what she should be. She had never walked at night on her own because it was deemed too dangerous. The biggest joke was that her demise had come in the shelter of her own house. At night, in the deserted streets, she felt free and powerful. She could walk for miles thinking, until dawn would find her and wake her from her reverie.
She had still been ruminating the changing nature of her and Mitchell’s relationship. It was still the same, best friends but still slightly different of how her friendship with George was. They had not talked anymore of what had happened and everything had gone back to the usual with the sole exception of physicality. Closeness was now painfully obvious to both and their interactions seemed over thought and analyzed.
The first light of the day had not yet broken but it loomed near when a sudden screeching of tires caught her attention. She was just in time to see the car crash against a pole. She ran instinctively to try to help the three figures inside slumped over. She tried to open the door unsuccessfully until she noticed the absence of movement. It was clear now that it was too late to try to help the people inside.
The thought had barely started to form inside her head when she felt someone pulling at her arm. She turned to see the former passengers from the car in their ghost state and as she was about to start her explanation to calm them down and point them towards the next step in their journey, she realized they didn’t seem to need any help.
“You’re quite a pretty thing aren’t you?” One of them asked in a way that unnerved her.
“Let go of my arm.” She replied sternly.
“Aren’t you going to guide us to our afterlife?” Another one asked.
She saw the doors.
“Let me go!” Annie yelled when she knew what they intended to do.
“Oh! But we could have so much fun! I’ve heard you like to play hard to get.” She was backing up as the three of them were tugging at her sleeves.
“Those are not my doors. You can’t make me go!”
“Well dear, rumour has it you don’t like your door so much.”
Run. The word was being yelled inside her head.
“That’s not where I belong!”
“Well this is not where you belong either, so you’re coming with us.”
The struggle was now getting truly violent.
“Let me go! She said running and letting them keep the grey knitted cardigan.
“Oh, you can run Annie. But you’re going to get caught! Can anyone see you lately? I’ve heard you used to work at a pub but everyone started ignoring you!”
They knew how to get her attention. She turned slightly still trying to get away.
“George and Mitchell can see me!” She yelled trying to convince them as well as herself.
“Yes… But for how long?” One of the cruel men taunted.
She was running away now, but she still heard them talk to her.
“You fan of Kundera Annie? Can you feel ‘The unbearable lightness of being’?”
“You look a little pale, or is it see-through? One day they’ll let go of your hand and you’re going to levitate like a helium balloon and no one is going to catch you.” Another voice said.
“She’ll be gone, gone, gone.”
Annie ran as fast as she could, she could feel the tears prickling her eyes and the fear caught in her throat.
Soon enough she had reached Windsor Terrace. She just needed to find her boys, let them tell her those had been just lies. It was still dark but she could hear sounds from inside the house, the sounds of people getting ready to get to work.
Unbeknownst to Annie, George had already left a couple of hours before, but Mitchell was coming out of the shower and he was starting to dress just as she was going for the doorknob. She couldn’t grab it. She went through the door even more frightened.
As she ran up the stairs she felt herself fading, she was trying to call for her friends but no sound was coming out of her mouth. Reaching the top, the momentum made her slam against the wall just as Mitchell was now dressed and coming out of the bathroom towards his room. His eyes looked up and they lined up with her own, she thought it would take a moment for him to take in the state of fear she was in, but very soon Mitchell’s eyes looked down and he walked past her and into his room.
Annie felt a deep despair grab her and fill her with vertigo. Somehow she got herself into Mitchell’s room and lunged herself through the door. She landed on her knees and the scream she had been silently holding made her breath in more violently than she had predicted. The resulting sound was a sad wail. Mitchell turned as she hit the floor and let go of all the repressed sound. He got down immediately to gather her in his arms.
“Annie! Annie!”
She looked at him and he was able to see the panic in her face. Her arms were bare and he could notice scratch marks on them. The sight made the borrowed blood in his veins boil.
“Tell me what happened? Who did this?” She felt him starting to let go and saw the strong bone of his jaw tense; his eyes going black with rage.
“No! Don’t leave me please!”
“It’s okay sweetheart. I won’t leave you. What happened?” It was hard for him to keep calm when he wanted to murder whoever had hurt her.
“They tried to take me.” She was now in full hysterics.
“Who’s they?” He asked begging for a name. That’s all he needed. Someone had to pay.
“The guys in the car, the crash, they were pulling me to their doors.”
“Annie, listen, love, did they hurt you?” He kept reminding himself mentally to focus on Annie. There would be time to deal with the culprits.
“I’m okay, they pulled me and scratch me a little, but I’m okay. I’m not hurt. But they said…” Whenever she remembered what they had said she’d feel herself falling down a great abyss.
“What did they say?” He asked gently.
“I’m fading Mitchell! I’m going to disappear!”
“No, no. They were lying, you’re not going anywhere.”
“They did, and they are right. I couldn’t grab the handle and you didn’t see me. You can’t see me! George won’t be able to see me.” He was only half understanding everything she said without the proper context, but it was enough to understand her fear.
“I can see you, and I can hear you. Calm down Annie please!”
Mitchell held her tight and reached for his mobile in his back pocket and called George.
“George, mate. I need a favour… Yes, yes it’s Annie. She’s fine now… I got her… Tell them I’m sick… She can’t be alone right now. It’s okay. I got her… Yes…Yes… No, I don’t think you need to… Listen, I think she’s going to need someone here all the time. We can’t leave her alone… Better you stay at work now and then I’m going to switch my shift tomorrow… Okay mate, yes… I’ll ring you. Bye.”
Annie heard Mitchell talk with George. It was easy to fill in the gaps. She didn’t feel the energy to intervene and say that she was okay and didn’t need their worry. She could be strong later, right now she needed to feel solid, to know she was truly there and that she wouldn’t be going anywhere. In other circumstances she would have argued that it wasn’t such a big deal but what she was feeling was much more powerful.
“Okay Annie. I’m here and I’m not going to leave. Calm down darlin’.”
“I’m fading, I can feel myself going away and they are going to get me Mitchell, they’re mad at me for not going through my door!”
It was something else that was his fault. The tears were running down her cheek now and it was his fault. She had given up on her door for him.
“You’re not disappearing, I can see you love. I can see you.” He needed to save her now.
“But you couldn’t before, I was screaming and you looked right through me and you didn’t hear me, I couldn’t hear me either.”
“I can feel you now, focus on this Annie, look at me. I can see you. Can you feel my hand on your face? I can feel you, I can feel how soft your skin is.”
He kissed her forehead.
“Can you feel that? I kissed your forehead and I felt it. Can you feel me? Can you really feel me?” He asked looking for her eyes.
“Yes I can. Mitchell…”
She had found her hope in him and she desperately needed as much as she could get.
She lunged forward into him almost knocking him down.
She kissed him hard and poured all her desperation into it, as if performing an experiment, trying to gauge just how much she could feel and not worrying at all of the implications.
“Annie…” He said understanding her need.
“I want to feel Mitchell. I need to feel something.”
He couldn’t deny her anything.