Of Course You Know What I Did Last Summer, You Were There (Part 1)

The ghost only came around when I was eating Cheetos. Weird, I know, and it took me a while to realize it.

The first time I saw it was about a month ago. I was sitting in the back of the auditorium eating my lunch. Normally I ate on the stage, with the rest of the geeks, but Trent was still mad that I had told Joannie how he felt about her (even though, let's be honest, everybody knows how he feels about her).

I had decided to forgo the awkward drama and eat my PB&J with HP Lovecraft. No, HPL wasn't the ghost, I was merely reading Charles Dexter Ward during this first encounter. I know, a teenage Lovecraft fan sees a ghost, that seems totally plausible. Trust me, I wondered if it was a case of the power of suggestion. But after over three weeks of encounters with it, I am 100% certain this is the real deal.

So, anyway, I had finished my yummy sandwich and ripped open my bag of Cheetos when, cliche though it is, the temperature dropped. Not a lot, but noticeably, like someone opened a door to the outside on a winter day. For the record, the auditorium has no doors that open directly to the outside, and a month ago was mid-September, hardly winter in the Midwest.

I looked up and there it was. I should say "she," I suppose, since I've come to realize the ghost is the spirit of--, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. And besides, during that first appearance the ghost was little more than a translucent oval, an it. An it that was about 5 feet tall, 2 feet wide and hanging in the air about a yard in front of me. I looked around the room, but no one else was looking back here. I looked back at where the ghost was. It was still there.

I suddenly realized I should be screaming or running or something. Maybe all of the horror novels and role-playing games had prepared me for this encounter. Maybe the ghost gave off a peaceful vibe. Maybe there's something wrong with me. But I wasn't afraid. After the initial shock, I felt curious and, weirdly, honored, that this ghost was appearing to me.

I sat there and just stared at it, the bag of Cheetos I was holding was all but forgotten. The background noise of the other two dozen or so students receded to a dull buzz. I just stared. It just hovered. After a few minutes, it just faded away, the temperature rising back to normal as it disappeared. I was pretty sure I was going crazy.

Awakening on Ysmault

red, red blood...
in my eyes,
and in my hair,
and in my ears,
and in my nose,
and in my mouth,
and in my lungs,
and in my stomach;
deep in a sea of blood,
i writhe
and thrash,
convulsing,
contorting,
while both around me
and within me
an overwhelming pounding,
a migraine of my entire body,
a booming thump, thump-thump,
thump, thump-thump,
my soul contracts to a single point,
a red hot spark
that ignites my blood,
burns my blood,
frees my blood
gives new life--
my true life--
to my blood;
i break the surface of this scarlet sea,
i breathe in the stale, heavy air of this strange world
and scream as i exhale the fiery blood;
i roar to the heavens,
i growl at the stars,
at everything that is,
i rage