Author's Notes:
Hey all! Thanks for checking out my story :D This is a silly tale about the Halloween shenanigans of drunk college students and Izzy's occult skepticism. It's set in the future of my Digimon fanfic, Four Years, an AU set in an American college. Thus, I use their dub names, and 'Izzy' is a nickname for 'Isaac' rather than 'Izumi.' This doesn't come up 99% of the time, but it's mentioned in this segment.
I tried to give some quick background info in Ouija for readers who haven't read Four Years, so the first scene is a touch exposition heavy. But hang in there, because the seance is pretty great XD Four Years has two OCs, Amy and Hana, and they are in this story. Also, for those of you who haven't reached college age yet, Halloween is a drinking holiday for young adults, and that's why people are drunk and partying XD
This is a three part comedy/horror story. It will probably run about 15,000 words in length. I'm posting the next chapter next weekend and the final chapter on Halloween. I hope you'll enjoy it :D Happy Halloween!
The Ouija Board
Part 1: The Seance
Izzy staggered off the campus courtesy shuttle, gripping the handrail tightly. Despite his attempts to pace his imbibing, the night of drinking at Halloween parties had taken its toll. There was a slight disconnect between what he wanted his legs to do and what they actually did.
Cold air blew around him, a relief after being crammed in a packed shuttle. He breathed in deeply, tasting the crisp air of autumn. It smelled of leaves and alcohol, although the latter scent might have been rising from him. He moved off of the sidewalk and onto the grass, making room for other passengers to disembark. His friends gathered around him, some chatting, some staring sleepily into the darkness.
Something struck his back, and Izzy stumbled forward. "Ow! Izzy, what're ya doing just standing there?" Davis seized his arm for balance, nearly pulling him down.
"Hey," Tai called, stepping down the shuttle stairs. "Don't you think you're forgetting something, Davis?" Izzy and Davis turned to see Tai half-carry Ken out of the shuttle and onto the sidewalk. Davis yelped and draped Ken's arm over his shoulders.
"You feeling any better, man?" Davis asked. Ken groaned.
"I told you I didn't want to drink." He swallowed hard and pinched his eyes shut.
"I'm sorry, Ken. Come on, we're almost there. TK, little help?"
TK stepped off of the shuttle, followed by Kari. Shaking his head, he wound Ken's free arm over his shoulders. "You shouldn't pressure people to drink if they don't want to, Davis," he said.
"Just carry him," Davis snapped.
Kari sighed and turned to her brother. "We're heading back to our dorms. See you later!"
"Do you want me to walk you back?" Tai asked.
"I didn't drink, Tai," she said with a grin. "If anyone needs an escort, it's you."
"Fine, fine. Good night," Tai replied. He watched them leave with a faint smile. "Ah, their first Halloween on a campus. And to think, Kari was dressing up as a kitty princess just a few years ago…. All of us are okay to walk home, right?"
He peered into the assembled group, checking everyone's faces. Izzy was surrounded by his house mates: Sora, Matt, Joe, Mimi, Amy, and Hana.
"Are you alright, Hana?" Sora asked. The tiny brunette scoffed and pirouetted, but her foot wobbled beneath her. Sora caught her when she tripped, and Tai sighed and knelt to the ground.
"Climb on, Han," he said, indicating his back.
"I'm fine," she grumbled, but Tai stared at her with narrowed eyes until she wrapped her arms around his neck. He rose in an easy motion and hooked his elbows beneath her knees. Izzy acknowledged a begrudging admiration for his alcohol tolerance.
"The rest of you are on your own," Tai said. "I'm out of arms." He started walking towards the house that Mimi's father rented to them, and the others trailed behind.
Amy fell into stride with Izzy, yawning enormously. "Are you alright?" Izzy asked.
"Just sleepy." She tipped her head back to observe the night sky. "The moon is swirling."
Although he knew that the moon was behaving as usual, Izzy followed her glance. She was right; it did seem to move a little, or at least vibrate. "We drank too much," he sighed.
"And it was fuuuuuun!" Amy sang.
"I'm glad." Izzy held her arm, preventing her from wandering off the sidewalk.
Their group trudged along wearily, moving like a pack of slugs. They passed rows of old houses, mostly rented to groups of college students. The homes were probably charming once upon a time, but decades of harsh use had rendered the suburb shabby and worn. White fences had faded to gray, and some of the posts were broken, or missing entirely. Halloween parties still raged on many of the lawns, and they would continue into dawn.
After a few minutes, their house came into view. It was a white structure in the Victorian style, cheerful during the day, but imposing at night. Mimi stepped to the front of the group and gestured to Joe, who pulled his keys from his pocket. He passed them to Mimi, and she climbed the porch stairs and worked the lock on the front door.
"Oof," Tai groaned. "Stairs. Han, can you climb them on your own?"
Hana grumbled, but when Tai lowered himself, she slid off his back. She lurched up the stairs like a shambling zombie, and the others followed.
As they filed into the foyer, Tai poked Izzy's shoulder and leaned close. "Come back down after you get Amy settled."
"Why?" Izzy whispered back, but Tai was already facing the opposite direction, hauling Hana towards her bedroom. Izzy scowled at the athlete's back. He was ready to get out of his costume and fall into bed, but it seemed that Tai had something else in mind.
Izzy had no clue what Tai was thinking, but experience suggested that it wouldn't bode well for him. He was neither drunk enough to play along with Tai's schemes, nor sober enough to argue his way out. Sighing, he ushered Amy up the stairs and steeled himself for whatever would follow.
A Little Later
By the time he helped Amy to bed, Matt and Tai were waiting in the foyer. "What took you?" Tai whispered. "Come on. We have to go; I think Hana knows that I'm up to something."
Izzy cocked a single eyebrow. "Prepping a drunk girl for bed is no small task."
Tai shrugged and shooed them towards the front door. "Whatever. Let's get moving."
"Where are the others?" Izzy asked.
"TK and Davis are meeting us there. Apparently Ken passed out the second he came home, and Joe did, too, so it's just the five of us."
Izzy's shoulders bunched up beneath his cloak. "And why have you only invited males to this... whatever it is?"
Tai opened the front door and ushered them back into the night. Sighing, Izzy drew his costume's cloak around himself to block out the chill. His mind went to Amy, warm and sleeping peacefully in their bed. What the hell was he doing out here, following Tai into a nascent fiasco?
Tai switched on the electronic lantern in his hand and held it aloft beneath his chin. It lit his face into a grotesque pattern of shade and light that rose, disembodied, from the darkness. "I didn't invite the girls because I don't want to give them nightmares."
The muscles in Izzy's face shifted into a deadpan expression. Matt's snort floated behind him from somewhere in the dark. "Please," the blond said. "You didn't tell the girls because Hana can't back down from a challenge, even though she's terrified of the occult."
Tai sighed and lowered the lantern, illuminating the sidewalk underfoot. Izzy stared at the halo of light, using it to maintain his footing. Alcohol still sang in his system, complicating the everyday business of walking. "I'd love to see her freak out, but I'm afraid she'd literally piss herself. We'll bring her another time, when she isn't drunk and it isn't Halloween."
Scowling, Izzy kicked aside a discarded beer can. "Bring her where, exactly? To do what?"
He didn't need the lantern's light to visualize Tai's responding grin. "To the local graveyard. To hold a seance."
Izzy stopped so suddenly that Matt walked into his back, nearly toppling them both over. Izzy turned, swayed, and was forced to carefully consider the movements of his feet.
Tai clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Graveyard's this way, man."
"I'm aware," Izzy said through gritted teeth. "Our home is in this direction, and that is where I'm going."
Tanned fingers curled around his shoulder, applying pressure. "C'mon. It'll be fun! You have all day tomorrow to sleep."
If Izzy's eyes rolled any further back, he'd have a view of his retinas. "Tomorrow is a Wednesday, Tai."
"No one goes to classes the day after Halloween."
Sensing that engaging Tai would get him no where, Izzy turned to Matt. "Surely you're not interested in occult nonsense."
Matt shrugged. "Never tried it. Sounds interesting."
Somehow, Izzy managed to simultaneously wince and communicate an air of unimpressed disbelief. "And by what means are you contacting the dead?"
Matt handed him a slim package, and Tai held his lantern over it. It was roughly the size and shape of a board game box, and the lid was covered with stars, a sun, and a crescent moon. Izzy squinted to read the text in the dim light.
"A ouija board?" He swallowed the urge to groan.
Tai clapped him on the back, nearly knocking his nose into the box. "Yep! They say it's the best way to talk to ghosts and stuff."
Although he hesitated to dignify Tai's suggestion with a question, Izzy couldn't resist. "'And stuff?' What else would you expect to contact?"
Tai stooped forward and held his arms out in front of him, like a raptor stalking prey. "Demons. Ghouls. Maybe even the devil."
Matt shifted uncomfortably beside him, but Izzy was unimpressed. "To clarify, you're planning to sit in a graveyard with a plastic board and a pointer and wait for dead people to speak through it."
"Yep," Tai said, popping the 'p'. "C'mon. Don't you believe there's something beyond our world out there, Izzy?"
Izzy flicked his glance back to the box. "If there is a gateway to another world, then I doubt that it's mass produced by Hasbro."
Matt laughed and leaned over his shoulder for a look at the box. "Oh, look. Ages eight and up..."
"Shut up," Tai sighed. "Don't you guys know anything about ouija boards? They've literally driven people crazy."
"That's merely a testament to the powers of fear and hysteria on suggestible minds," Izzy said tartly. "Nothing more."
Still grinning, Tai poked him in the chest. "Keep talking, Izzy. I can't wait to say 'I told you so.'"
Izzy snorted, then remained silent for the rest of the walk, ignoring Tai's chattering and Matt's occasional input. It was well past midnight, technically no longer Halloween. Yet people in costumes still trailed along the sidewalk, most drunk, loud, and disheveled. Izzy's mind drifted back to his bed and its occupant, then to a problem in the code he was working on.
He didn't realize that they had arrived until Davis's voice ripped through the darkness. "Over here! What took you guys so long!"
Tai raised a hand in acknowledgment. "Don't yell. You'll scare off the ghosts." Izzy sighed and fell into line behind Matt, picking a trail single file through tombstones, squinting for bearings in the faint light of the lantern.
The graveyard was situated in a clearing surrounded by trees. Their bare branches reached towards the sky and trembled in the slight breeze, like supplicants appealing to the heavens. Moonlight shone between the them, creating dark silhouettes that dappled the gravestones. Izzy could see the inscriptions, inky slots in aged stone, but could not decipher them.
The graves might have been in orderly rows once, but it seemed like the space had filled in over the years. The markers were crowded and disarrayed, choking the brown grass in between. Only the larger monuments provided enough open space for them to sit in a group. Tai led them towards one, a dark shape towering in the distance. When they reached it, Izzy observed the stone figure towering over him. Its head drooped beneath a veil that fell to the ground in a puddle of carved folds. TK and Davis were lighting votive candles at its bare feet.
"Why here?" Matt asked. Izzy wasn't sure, but he thought the words contained a trace of hesitance.
Davis grinned at them over his shoulder. "It's creepy, yeah? Who puts something like this over a family grave?"
Matt stared at the inscription, just barely legible in the candlelight. Izzy flinched when he suddenly jolted backwards. "Davis, there are kids buried here. Don't you think this is kind of gauche?"
TK's lighter blew out as he turned towards his brother, checking the dates. An uncommonly serious expression passed his face, but it was there and gone in a moment. "Maybe they have something to say. Maybe they're bored."
"Don't turn this into a story," Matt sighed. "It's a real person's grave."
Tai clapped Matt on the back. "Everyone's here, Matt. Can't back out now!"
Matt stared at the flickering candles for a long moment, then slid the ouija board from under his arm. "Do you even know how to use it?"
"How hard can it be?" Tai asked. He grabbed the board and tore off the shrink wrap. Matt scowled and bent to pick up the plastic, but Tai was too busy unfolding the board to notice.
"I've seen these in movies," Davis said, kneeling beside Tai. "You touch the heart thing, and the ghost moves it over the board."
I very much doubt it. Izzy allowed himself a tiny smile as he sat on the earth beside Matt. The cold instantly seeped through his pants, and he shuddered.
"If Sora asks about the grass stains on the pants she made me, you're explaining," Matt grumbled. Tai ignored him in favor of Davis, who was shoving his hands into the box.
"Here's the heart!" he cried, holding it up. It was white and plastic, with a round window near the tip. Izzy fought the urge to shake his head. The pointer was about as supernatural as a coaster.
"Here are the instructions." TK extracted a piece of paper from the box and held it near the lantern. "Okay... It says that a lady and a gentleman should sit knee-to-knee and place the board over their knees." He lowered the paper and grinned. "I think we're short a lady."
"We're low on gentlemen, too," Matt pointed out. Tai snorted.
"You're the closest thing we have to a lady, Matt. I guess it's you and me."
"What?" Davis cried. "I want to try it!"
Matt scooched over on the grass, making room for Davis. "Be my guest. I'd rather watch."
"Yes!" Davis abandoned his perch by the statue and sat opposite Tai. When they were in position, TK lowered the board over their legs and gave Tai the pointer.
Izzy had never seen a ouija board before, so he inched forward for a good look. It folded open like a game board, with a horizontal crease down the center. Its face was brown with black writing. The top left corner contained an illustration of the sun, overlaid with the word 'Yes.' A crescent moon decorated the right, frowning at 'No.' The alphabet was divided into two rows beneath this, slightly curved. Below that, numbers ran sequentially from 1 to 9, followed by 0. For reasons unknown to him, the word 'goodbye' embellished the bottom of the board.
"It says that both of you should lightly touch the planchette- I guess that's the pointer?- on the curved sections," TK continued. "Make a few passes around the board to warm it up."
Warm it up? For what? Izzy pulled his cloak closer and clenched his hands inside of it. His body heat and patience were rapidly deteriorating.
Tai and Davis pushed the planchette around the board a few times as TK continued to read. "It says that only one of the players should ask questions." He allowed himself a tiny smile. "I guess the spirits get confused."
"I'll do it," Tai said. "TK, you watch the board for answers."
"Gladly. There's more, but do you want to give it a go?"
Matt's brow furrowed. "What are you supposed to open with?"
"I dunno," Davis replied. "How about... Is this thing on? Is anybody out there?"
"Sure. TK, stop laughing. Get serious, Davis." Izzy rolled his eyes as Tai lectured, making more noise than anyone else. "Okay. Are there any ghosts out there?"
"Spirits," TK whispered. "Say 'spirits'."
"Goddamit, TK. One speaker. Are there any spirits out there?"
They waited, but the planchette remained on the center of the board. Izzy's attention focused, searching for signs that he knew wouldn't appear. Everything was still and silent, save for the soft drone of insects and the far-off sounds of laughter and music.
"Ask again," TK suggested at last. "Keep moving the planchette."
"Are there any spirits out there?" Tai repeated. The planchette moved in a slow arc over the board for a few seconds, then drifted to the upper left. Izzy leaned closer despite himself when it came to a halt.
The word "yes" peeked out through the circular window in the planchette. "Whoa!" Davis whispered. Izzy shook his head. They were all drunk, or at least buzzed. Davis and Tai could easily believe that they weren't moving the pointer on their own in this state. He was just beginning to appreciate the true scope of the evening's potential for idiocy.
The dim light of the lantern reflected off the golden specks in Tai's eyes. Izzy groaned quietly. The athlete was already primed and excited. "So, uh... Are you a good spirit?" he asked.
The planchette moved in a sluggish circle, spelling out gibberish. Then it snapped into action, like a cat exploding into a run from a nap. TK leaned closer and read aloud. "R-e-l-a-t-i-v-e."
Izzy glanced at Matt, the only other sensible person present. His eyes were widening as Davis frowned. "I don't get it," the freshman muttered. "Is the ghost related to someone?"
TK grinned from ear to ear, eyes gleaming silver with moonlight. "No, Davis. The ghost is saying that the concepts of good and evil are relative, which invalidates the question."
Izzy shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's a bit hasty to infer so much from a single word." But despite his protest, a sliver of confusion joined his skepticism. How could a drunken duo of Tai and Davis answer a simple question with a high concept answer? And correctly spelled, at that?
"Whatever," Tai said, staring at the board. "Let's keep going. When did you die?"
The planchette slipped towards the bottom of the board, pausing over the numbers 1,8,9, and 2. Matt and TK jerked in unison, turning towards the monument.
"What?" Davis whispered. He tried to peek over his shoulder without breaking position.
Matt licked his lips. "That's... That's the year one of the children buried here died."
"Of course it is," Izzy muttered. But he was searching his memory, trying to recall if Tai or Davis read the dates when Matt brought it up. He couldn't remember watching them read the inscription, but that was not proof that they didn't.
Suddenly, the planchette surged upward, and Davis fell forward, knocking into Tai. "Whoa! Tai, did you feel that?"
Izzy's mouth thinned into a tiny line. Now what? Uncertainty passed Tai's face as the pointer went immobile.
"Yeah," he said at last. "The pointer was sort of... pulling at my hand earlier. But the tug cut off."
"That's weird." TK was still grinning, enjoying the spectacle. Izzy looked away from him, exhausted by his constant enthusiasm. "Ask what's wrong."
"What's wrong?" Tai repeated. "Where did you go?" He and Davis passed the planchette over the board until it yanked itself into motion, rapidly spelling out words.
"Do not like him," TK read. "Whom?"
"Who don't you like?" Tai asked. TK hissed the grammatical correction, then fell silent as the planchette responded.
R-E-D.
Izzy glowered at Tai. He was moments away from accusing the others of setting him up for a practical joke when Tai and Davis chorused, "What does that mean?"
Matt turned to him, his expression unreadable. Before he said anything, the board helpfully specified 'R-E-D-H-E-A-D.' A host of faces whipped towards Izzy, indistinct in the darkness. Izzy frowned at the lot of them.
"I've had enough of this farce. If these spirits are going to call me out, they can at least use my name."
The planchette lurched into motion once more, spelling out S-H-U-T-U-P-I-S-A-A-C. Matt tensed, but Izzy rolled his eyes, still unimpressed.
"Shut up, Isaac?" Davis released a breath in a shaky hiss, then grinned and shrugged. "What the hell, board! I guess it doesn't work after all."
"What are you talking about?" Matt asked. "Oh, right, you might not know. That's Izzy's real name."
"Wait, seriously?" Tai demanded. Davis hissed beside him, and TK's posture slumped as he dug for the notebook in his pocket. Izzy hastened to intervene before the boy had a chance to chronicle the seance for future writing projects.
"You know my name, Tai," he snapped. "We've known one another for over three years. I'd appreciate it if you'd all kindly drop this flimsy pretext for a practical joke. I would much rather be sleeping than watching you mime your way through a script."
Tai's eyes widened. "Sorry man, but I thought Izzy was your name. I'm not making this up."
Davis laughed, but the sound was a little nervous. "You really didn't know, Tai?"
Izzy slapped his palm against his face. "He's heard my name before. Even if he doesn't consciously remember, the information is there. Therefore, the planchette offering my name is hardly proof of the supernatural."
"S-sure." Davis turned to Tai and lifted an eyebrow.
"I didn't know," he whispered.
"You're spelling out words again," TK said. Davis yelped and looked down. Izzy sighed as the board told him to shut up again.
"Now you're just pouting," he said, filling his voice with sharp sarcasm.
Tai frowned down at the board. "Okay, ghost. What's your problem with Izzy? Er, Isaac?"
"Doubt," TK read. "Mock." Izzy crossed his arms beneath his cloak. He was aware that he sometimes flubbed social interactions, but he wasn't ready to admit fault for upsetting a nonexistent spirit.
Matt stiffened beside him. "We should stop," he said. "Is that what the 'goodbye' is for?"
"What?" Davis cried. "No! This is just getting interesting! Hey, ghost! If you want respect, why don't you prove that you're real?"
Suddenly, a sharp breeze bit into the night, snuffing all the candles. The host of trees moaned around them, rocking and creaking with the rush of wind. Izzy groaned quietly, cursing nature's poor timing.
"What the hell," Davis whispered. TK lifted the lantern and turned up its intensity. For a moment, the board was bright and clear. Then there was a popping sound within the device, and it shut off, plunging them into darkness.
"Shit," Tai muttered. "I can't see anything. My phone is dead; does anyone have theirs?"
"Sorry," Matt said, holding his hands out. "We should pack up and go home. This is getting too weird."
"Dammit, I forgot mine," Davis sighed. "Izzy?" He lifted a single eyebrow in response. No one could see it, but they seemed to understand that he had no interest in prolonging the seance.
"I have mine," TK said. He pulled his phone from his pocket, turned it on, and held it over the board. The planchette was moving down the row of numbers from right to left, counting down from nine.
"Huh. That's weird," Tai said.
"Maybe the ghost can't see the board?" Davis suggested. Izzy snorted as the pointer finished its circuit, landing on the 1 symbol. It lingered there for a moment, then revved back into life, swirling over the board with no apparent goal.
"It's not spelling anything," TK said.
Although he was reluctant to participate, Izzy couldn't help watching. The planchette twirled in arcs, forming a familiar shape. "It appears to be drawing the infinity symbol," Izzy offered.
"The what?" Davis looked away from the board just long enough to give Izzy a questioning glance.
"The lemniscate? It looks like a sideways eight and represents the mathematical concept of infinity."
"Er, yeah. I don't think the ten-year-old ghost knows about that," Tai said.
"He's been dead for a long time," TK pointed out. "Who knows? Maybe you can learn a lot while you haunt."
The light from TK's phone blinked out, and he gasped with surprise. "I just charged it," he mumbled. Davis muttered a surprised curse, but Izzy smiled.
Thank goodness. With no light source, there was no way to read the board. "I suppose that's that," Izzy said. He winced as he stood. His legs were numb from sitting, and the sudden blood flow made them tingle painfully.
"What? No way!" Davis reached for the lighter. "We'll just light the candles again."
"With this breeze? We'll never be able to keep them lit." Matt stood and collected the ouija board's box. "We're done for the night."
"He's right," Tai sighed. He handed the board and planchette to Matt, who packed them away. "It sucks, but what can we do?"
"Aww, man! I was having fun! But it was kinda creepy, right? How it knew Izzy's name and was mad at him?" Davis elbowed Izzy and grinned. "Are you scared?"
"Ah, no." Izzy's mind was sparking with annoyance and frustration beneath a terrible headache. He didn't appreciate being dragged out in the cold just to be ridiculed by Tai and Davis. While he knew Tai enjoyed pranking his friends, this one was too insulting to his intelligence for Izzy to tolerate.
The seniors said goodbye to Davis and TK, whose dorm was in a different direction. Izzy thought feverishly while Tai chattered about the seance, trying to concoct an appropriate revenge prank. But shenanigans weren't his strong suit, and by the time they returned home, he still had nothing. Ah, well. I suppose vengeance isn't in my nature, regardless…
Tai paused in the foyer before clicking off the porch light. "The old house looks kinda spooky in the dark, huh?"
"Go in, Tai," Izzy replied tartly. "You're letting out the heat."
Tai tsked, but obeyed. "Please. You were scared. Admit it."
Izzy turned on the foyer light, revealing a pretty entryway. A curved staircase with a delicate railing filled most of the space. A baby grand piano hugged the curve. A door to the left housed a dining room that Mimi's father had converted to a bedroom with a bathroom. The opening to the right led to the kitchen, and the last opening to the side of the piano led to the living area and an office that was now another bedroom.
Izzy walked to the staircase and paused at the first step. "If that was your aim, then you failed. I'm simply annoyed at the waste of time. Good night."
"Izzy, I seriously wasn't pranking you," Tai called, but Izzy ignored him. All he wanted to do was remove his costume and climb into bed. He trudged up the stairs, weary from a night of partying and still just a little tipsy.
The dark hallway was silent, save for Matt's slow steps a few paces behind. Matt reached his door first, and its squeal was like thunder in the silence.
"Good night," Matt whispered. Izzy echoed the sentiment and opened his bedroom door.
A night light shaped like a ladybug provided enough illumination to navigate to the bathroom. Izzy didn't want to disturb Amy's sleep, so he relied on the low lighting to use the restroom and brush his teeth.
When he was finished, Izzy leaned over the sink and filled his cupped palms with water. He splashed his face, reached blindly for a towel, and dried off.
When he lowered the towel, his eyes locked on a pale oval reflected in his mirror. Puzzled, Izzy leaned closer. Features seemed to form before his eyes, first an indistinct mouth, then a tiny bump for a nose. Dark slits appeared in the eye area, then slowly widened, like crescent moons ripening into full orbs. They flashed when they opened, and the little mouth curved into a horrible grin.
Izzy stepped back and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the mirror reflected his face, white and shocked. He stared at himself for a moment, then backed out of the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
I'm still drunk. It occurred to him that he might be seeing things because he was spooked by the seance, but he refused to acknowledge suggestibility to the occult. I'll drink less next time, he told himself firmly.
With that decided, he stripped down to his undershirt and boxer briefs and approached the bed. Warmth plumed out as he lifted the covers. Amy was sleeping on her side, facing away from him. Izzy climbed in and pressed his front against her back, winding his arm around her side.
She murmured, but didn't stir. Izzy's heart rate slowed to its natural pace as her body heat seeped into him. He pushed her curtain of long brown hair aside, kissed her neck, and closed his eyes.
And slowly, the irritation from the seance and the shock from the vision in the mirror faded away.
Author's note: Annnnd there's your set-up chapter! Things get really weird next time, so be sure to check back in next week! Tai might have reasons to tell Izzy "I told you so" after all…