TIMING: Mid March LOCATION: Thea's house/Worm Row PARTIES: @longislandcharm and @notstinky SUMMARY: Thea invites Winter over to check her house for ghosts. Things don't go as planned. CONTENT WARNINGS: None!
Thea stuffed what remained of her hair into a beanie, hoping it looked like a style choice and not the attempt of a desperate woman—girl? It still felt strange to call herself a woman; most days she still felt like she was twelve years old except for the days where she felt impossibly old. She wasn’t an adult or a child but a strange in-between thing she was meant to figure out. When would her adulthood finally start feeling like an adulthood? The past year had only felt like a fever-fueled nightmare. She’d missed the major marker of it, running away before the final year of university. Now she hung in the air, unfinished, untethered, waiting for something to prove that she had left adolescence behind. With a sigh, Thea pushed her thoughts away and opened the door, smiling brightly. “Winter!” As she had learned the woman’s name was online. “Come in!” For some reason, with a name like Winter, she had expected the woman to be dressed in thick winter clothing.
Thea stepped aside so Winter could enter her extremely humble abode. Aged by time, shitty landlords, and the occasional pest, her house was nothing to look at. If the paint wasn’t bubbled or peeling, then there was a weird stain. Still, it was a house; the heating and air conditioning worked and her toilets clogged the normal amount. “I know it’s not a pretty house,” she said, “but it’s really not bad once you get to know it!” Despite currently staying with Van at Dr. Kavanagh’s much nicer apartment, Thea was unable to let go of the room she rented here. She needed the space to cry, to be weird, to do all of the things that she knew Van would hate her for. She was fond of her shitty rented room and the freedom it gave her. Financially, it might have been better to move out for good. But Thea couldn’t do it; she needed this house.
For a moment, she’d forgotten why she’d invited the woman over, and thought of it like a fun hangout between friends-to-be. “Oh, I bought one of these off the internet.” Thea pulled a cheap plastic device from her pocket; its sides were adorned by dials and knobs and a small silver antenna stuck out at the top. “It’s a ghost radio! It says it helps with communicating with them! Um, when I turned it on once it was just playing top forty hits but maybe it was a singing ghost!”
For a while now, Thea was sure that the house was home to spirits. Things moved around, whispering was heard in the walls, strange chills erupted in certain corners and sometimes the electricity fizzled in and out like an anemic rave. Winter had said she could help, even if Thea wasn’t sure how that could possibly happen. Still, having people over was nice. Mostly, this was an excuse to make friends.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know that this was a bad idea. Not only was her mood sour but deep down Winter knew that she did not have the skill to be doing something like this. If she identified a ghost what the hell was she supposed to do then? Lil had been teaching her about a few things here and there but getting rid of them was something entirely different. It was still better to know so she could get someone who could do something about it right? The internal battle had been playing out in her mind ever since she was asked to do this and still there she was, standing in the girl’s living room and staring at the hat on her head. What secrets was that hiding?
With Thea’s words, she was able to tear her gaze away from her head and let it wander around the house. The girl was right, it wasn’t much to look at, but knowing she liked to hang out in toilet stalls at work, what could Winter really expect? “Hey, you keep it clean, right? That’s all that matters to me. I’m not the one living here.”
Raising an eyebrow as Thea brought out the device, Winter’s lips quirked up, shaking her head softly while looking over at Henry. He was also amused, the ghost rubbing the back of his head while trying to avoid looking at the other girl as if she could see him trying to hold back his laughter. Thea obviously didn’t understand the whole situation with the medium and Winter didn’t know whether to fault her or not. The conversation online was a blur of toilet talk and self love in her mind so she wasn’t sure if it had been mentioned.
“I don’t think we’re going to need that, Thea. I’m not even sure if they work, honestly.” Another question to add to her growing list. Lil was going to love her by the end of this mentorship…if they even got through it. “This might help though.” Winter dug through the bag that was slung over her shoulder, pulling out a container of salt that she’d brought with her. She didn’t make it a habit to carry this around but she knew what she was coming here for. If this ghost was as mischievous as Thea was making it out to be it might be handy to have it. “Do these strange things happen in a concentrated area or throughout the whole house?"
“Are you sure?” Thea made poor work of disguising the disappointment in her voice. The radio wasn’t expensive—a respectable twenty dollars on amazon—but still. Still. Thea clicked it on and jazzy notes singing over the crackling bass of some new hit filled the air before she snapped it off again. “You’re the expert,” she said. She was sad as she stuffed it away in her pocket. She stared at the container. “Is that sugar?” she asked. “Um, do ghosts like sugar? Should I have baked them a cake?”
Thea shut the door behind Winter, nervously picking at the ends of her sleeves. “Upstairs,” she said, pointing up the dark staircase. “They seem to popup everywhere but you can always feel something weird upstairs. I mean, stuff moves around my room all the time and it’s cold--like seriously cold! Heat rises, right? So you’d think the ground floor would be cold but it’s not. Even on hotter days, it was cold up there. Come on…” She led Winter up, hugging her arms. Darkness clung tightly to the corners of the second floor and it was cold, no matter what she did. “It might just be a ventilation issue?” She didn’t believe in ghosts, not really, but after Nora’s floating, nose-punching one, she thought it was probably more logical not to rule things out. “Hey, are you going to sprinkle that around?” She gestured to the container. “It--um--I just mean, it would be such a pain to clean up…” Haunted people probably shouldn’t complain but Winter wasn’t the one who was going to be vacuuming.
As disappointed as Thea sounded, Winter couldn't in good conscience recommend a product she wasn't sure would work. In her research, she'd read about these devices and how people tried to use them but she had also read about everything that could make them malfunction too. Besides, she could see them. She didn't need anything for them to talk to her. “I'm sure for right now. But I'll look into it more and let you know if they work or not, I haven't done too much research on them.” She would ask Lil. Winter trusted her judgment and she was the real expert in this situation. Again, it occurred to her that maybe Lil should be the one handling this but if she didn't practice how would she ever get better?
“This?” She looked down at the container in her hand and slowly shook her head, the girl's words making her question this whole thing once more. “Why would you bake a cake for a ghost? They can't eat it. No, this is salt. And they hate it.“ Even Henry was eyeing the container, his amused disposition completely gone. ”The stuff hurts.“ Winter glanced at him and stuck her bottom lip out in a mocking way, prompting him to scowl at her.
As Thea started explaining the situation, she knew that it sounded like a haunting but there could always be explanations. “Do you ever witness the stuff move on its own or do you notice it when you go back into the room?” If it was the latter it was plausible to say that was probably her roommates doing but she could see how uncomfortable Thea was while talking about this. “Heat does rise...” She looked up the stairs, eyes searching for any sort of movement before they began their journey up there. Why was she so nervous all of a sudden? The lack of confidence was foreign to her and it felt so unnatural.
As they made it to the landing, the hair on Winter's neck started to stand up. It was freezing on the second floor and she knew this wasn't a ventilation issue almost immediately. Something felt very...off. Before she could say anything though Thea was asking about the salt and Winter gripped it more tightly. “I think you can handle a little salt in your carpets. I'm not going to lay it out anywhere, it's only going to be used if I really need it.” As she spoke, the medium made sure to open the container, causing Henry to step back from them. She didn't even need Thea to point out her room, Winter could hear muttering coming from inside one of them and she was pretty sure they'd been alone when she got here. ”Let me guess, that one's your room?“ Without an answer, she took a few strides towards it and caught a glimpse of someone inside before the door slammed shut in her face. ”Yea…there's somebody in there...and I'm assuming there shouldn't be.”
Thea pulled her lips into a thin line. She thought about the ghosts in movies and shows and how, maybe, some salt was involved. Mostly, she thought about how slugs didn’t like salt. Were ghosts like slugs? “Maybe the ghosts would like a cake,” she mumbled; Winter was slowly destroying her dreams of a fun ghost adventure. She hummed as they moved and considered her answers. “I’ve never seen it move. I mean, I come back to my room and things are different: the lamp’s tipped over or my mug’s been moved, stuff like that. At night, when I try to sleep, I hear this horrible scraping noise…and when I turn on the lights, everything’s moved over by, like, an inch. Even the bed!” If she did have ghosts, which she wasn’t convinced of, she also wasn’t sure what she did to piss hers off.
And she didn’t believe in ghosts, not really. Not actually. When the door closed in Winter’s face, nearly taking her nose, Thea laughed with a quick, shrill sound. “Must be the draft!” she said, opening the door again. A gust of frigid air shot around the room and poured into the hall. At once, goosebumps rose along Thea’s skin and she wrapped her arms around herself. Her moth-eaten curtains billowed, but her windows weren’t open. As she opened her mouth to speak, a plume of white breath burst from her chapped lips. “M-maybe something’s broken? I-in the pipes?” She swallowed. “Are you sure…are you sure that…” Was now really the time to be skeptical? She was sure if they spent any longer here, hypothermia would claim them.
Her room, despite the odd circumstances, looked like it always did; sparsely decorated but adorned with all the old wooden furniture that had been here when she moved it. Everything was kept in great condition and Thea didn’t see a need to change it; whoever had lived here before really loved the place, she thought. The large dresser didn’t have any scratches, the vanity mirror was decidedly uncracked, and the bed didn’t even creak when she flung her body on to it after work.
“That wasn’t a draft.” Something wasn’t right here. Ghosts that wanted to talk were usually willing to come and find her, not try to keep her out. This didn’t seem normal when she looked back on her other interactions. But before she could stop the other girl, the door was once again open and the rush of cold air was making Winter shiver. She’d gotten used to the cold ever since Henry showed up but this was…this was much more intense. “Thea, wait!” But the girl was already inside and Winter let out a growl of frustration. She had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well.
Sure enough, when she followed Thea into the room she noticed the other entity standing in the corner staring at the girl who now took up residence in this room. They didn’t look happy, not one bit, the rage in their eyes as they stared at her while ‘breathing’ heavily frightened Winter. “Thea…” She whispered the words but the ghost’s eyes still landed on her despite the effort, making Winter audibly gulp. “I’m sure. We need to get out of here.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth the door behind them slammed shut again. She moved as quickly as she could to the door to try the knob but it wasn’t budging no matter how hard she pulled on it. “It’s okay, this is okay.” The medium was nodding her head as if she were trying to assure herself, not just the other girl, before she turned to face the room again. The salt in her hand trembled while she tried to open the top without drawing much attention but the poltergeist only tilted their head before the container was flying across the room, breaking through the bedroom window and falling to the ground below. Henry’s voice cut through, the sarcasm only slightly present as the ghost eyed their foe. “Yea, I think you’re in over your head here, Winter.”
“Not. Helping.” Venom laced the words, Henry shrinking back from her with his hands raised in surrender. Before Winter could say another word to Thea something started to build within the room, some sort of energy flowing through every inch that made up the bedroom furniture. It all started to shake at once, vibrating the floor beneath them as the vanity and the bed posts hit the ground harder and harder. The ghost was still staring at them both but a sneer had appeared. “Where can we hide, Thea? Anywhere?”
“Who are you talking to?” Thea asked with a trembling voice. Okay, ghosts weren’t real. Probably. Maybe. Truly. But her room wasn’t right; everything was shaking. It was like a very cold, very scary earthquake. “I don’t like this!” She told Winter. “I really don't like this!” The furniture shook with a ferocity that sent her shrieking with every rattle and knock. It was like everything had been tossed into the blender. Thea couldn’t even debate the validity of ghosts with herself; everything felt like a battle just to survive.
“The closet!” She gestured to it. “Let’s go into the closet!” There was some irony in how hard she, as a lesbian, had battled to get out of the closet only to run back into it, but Thea wasn’t going to make the joke. She ran up to the worn doors and threw them open as furniture crashed against the wall, lifting into a violent vortex. The wallpaper peeled as Thea gestured for Winter to follow her. “Run!” The room raged like a typhoon, smashing wood against the walls which cracked and blistered like a burn.
Inside, Thea’s voice dropped to a whisper. “D-do you know anyone that can help us?” She sniffled. “Can you help?”
“The ghost standing next to you.” It had been a deliberate act to leave out more information. Winter was annoyed by the both of them at that point and she really was in over her head a feeling she was not used to but was starting to become more prominent in this town. That was enough to get her to lash out at anyone who dared talk to her in that moment, even the sweet girl who was just as terrified as she was feeling. Deep down she knew that Thea didn’t deserve any extra taunting in this moment but she couldn’t bring herself to explain any further after a lamp went flying in her direction and she had to duck out of the way. All she could muster was a high pitched squeak before dropping to the floor to avoid damage to her face.
It was as if the thing standing across from them knew why Winter was there and it was not happy as it glared in their direction, the sneer still ever present. The room was starting to get destroyed all around them but all she could do was stare at this…thing wondering if poltergeist was a better word for it than ghost. Lil had only briefly covered the topic with her but she was sure that this entity was just as angry as she was imagining them to be when they spoke.
She heard the word ‘closet’ and then the sound of scrambling feet but she sat there for a beat longer until Henry was yelling at her to ‘get the hell up.’ She then heard Thea yelling for her to run and Winter was scrambling to her feet just before the poltergeist sliced through the space she’d been sat with a large piece of the mirror that had been smashed during some point of all of this.
It was trying to kill them before they could get rid of it. Her shoulder slammed against the back wall of the closet, her feet not able to slow her down in time before she got to it, and Winter slid down the wall to sit. Thea’s questions were going in one ear and out the other while her mind raced. What had Lil said about poltergeists? What had she told her to do if she ever ran into one? Henry was walking through the door then, making her realize that this other ghost could do just that but it seemed its anger was getting the better of it. It wanted to continue its tantrum first. Then Thea’s questions hit her again and Winter nodded as she pulled out the cell phone from her pocket. Lil. She could call Lil. At least that medium knew what she was doing.
