3
"Writing has come hard to me in this dark place. It's a hole with slippery sides and no ladders. As a last ditch effort to escape, I'm trying this out: the storytelling. I'm forcing myself back into writing. For as Stephen King said, life isn't for supporting art. It's the other way around."
Oh dear holy boxers of Potter, 5am was a terrible hour to be awake and ready for and not hyped up on Monster for an essay throw down.
I still couldn't quite see straight, even standing in his overly bright, bland office. It just had books. Couldn't he get, like, a poster or two? Wouldn't kill him.
I recognized the charismatic music major next to me, who was pinching in his knees in delight, though it just made him look like he had to pee.
But the real surprise, and why I made it here at all, was the presence of my red-haired roommate, who snapped bubblegum as she stared down the laxidazial Professor Davis lounging in his blackety black office chair.
Thankfully, I packed the night before. I still had that plaguey feeling of forgetting something important, though.
Professor Davis nodded to each of us, as though mentally checking off his chickens or checklist, and stood up. "I hope none of you get carsick."
Ayako gaped. "We-we're driving to San Fransisco? That's a freaking twelve-hour drive!"
"Yes, and about $600 cheaper than taking a plane with all my equipment," he said, once more smack to the face blunt—as though it had been a mistake even using her voice at all. So mean…hee. I mean, wait, bad Professor! Being so mean to Ayako.
Takigawa let out a low whistle. "Thank god for Yugioh Duel Links."
"And Plants vs. Zombies," I said, though my half-awake brain was looking forward to all the smack talk I'd be able to hear the professor dish out.
Ayako rolled her eyes at both of us and proceeded to put her attention to her phone, as though already threatened by death of boredom.
She still had enough multitasking power to follow the rest of us as we followed Professor Davis out into the dark parking lot, where a, get this, blackety black beast van, that kind people always get kidnapped in movies with, waited in the parking lot. A tall, very tall Asian looking guy got out to open the sliding door for us to the lone seat that remained in a van that potentially kidnap at least twenty people. Rest of the inside was stuffed with boxes and totes.
The professor loaded up without a word as the three of us squished together on the van bench. Yeah, it technically had three seatbelts, but it didn't really work with a rather large Takigawa and a wide-hipped Ayako. Skinny little me got squished in the middle.
But, hey, smack talk dishing, right? Right? Thrill of a lifetime? Horror ghost case here we come?
Nope. Takigawa conked out first, head thrown back. Since he didn't seem to mind, being unconscious and all, I ended up commandeering his arm for a pillow and passing out as well. And since I'm not exactly a log-heavy sleeper, I can assume not much talking happened between the predawn hours.
I woke up to the too loudspeaker of a McDonalds drive through.
"Can I take your order?"
"Orders," said the professor over his shoulder in the passenger seat. Didn't even know the name of his lanky assistant.
"Oo! Oo! A hashbrown and a sausage McMuffin with orange juice!"
Thankfully, I was loud enough to jostle the other two from their stupors and or comas. Takigawa wiped at his mouth.
"I'll have the same thing as Mai, doubled."
Ayako wrinkled her nose. "Would it kill you to stop by a Denny's?"
Professor Davis didn't even look at her.
Then we got to hear Jacky Chan speak for the first time as he related our orders in a low, serious kind of voice that made me think of bad assess in action movies. What can I say, I have a thing for the way people talk.
I didn't bother to see where we were until my lap was properly filled with breakfast.
"Had kind of a funny dream," I said to Takigawa, as we related to each other the wonders of sausage McMuffin. "I was a kid that got stuck in the closet and threw up a bunch of quarters. I was getting all excited about where I'd spend them all when I woke up."
"Ooo, deep," he said, snickering. "Let me know when you throw up rainbows. I didn't dream anything."
"Please, not while we're eating," said Ayako.
The black duo in the front said nothing. And continued to say nothing throughout the whole trip, to my dismay. Plants vs. Zombies on my phone could only entertain me for so long, and it wasn't like I was rich enough to even HAVE any data for playing other games.
By the time evening rolled around and we finally stopped in front of some big-ass, old-school Los Angelos Victorian mansion, I demonstrated my seat oozing for Takigawa and Ayako, wondering if sitting for long periods of time could turn your butt into a pancake. My bubble but was, like, my only redeeming quality.
Takigawa let out a low whistle. "Looks like an 1800's. Pristine."
"Please tell me we're going to have decent food for dinner," said Ayako, who, as far as I could tell, had only eaten a salad from Wendy's at lunchtime.
"Depends on your effort," said the Professor. "And how quickly you get the ingredients out of the back."
Ayako's face dropped. Takigawa grinned and cracked his knuckles.
"Prof, you don't know how crazy awesome my cooking skills are."
"Adequate is quite enough."
Was it just me, or did Professor Davis seem tired? That was one thing to say about me or any other college student, but the professor didn't show much of how he was doing, besides grumpy and disappointed. I had never really seen him tired before. It was like witnessing a rare natural event.
That awe vanished the moment the tall Jacky Chan opened the back of the van and told us to start carting things inside. I'd just been demoted from ghost hunter to moving company.
"His name is Lin," said the professor, once more in the tone that was like a slap to the face—like I should have known.
Lin? Easy enough to remember.
And that crap was heavy! Eventually, I just ended up staying by the van until someone could hand me something light enough to carry in. Cables, computer monitors, a pickax? At least my idle time gave me the chance to appreciate our quarry.
She stood tall and white, at least three stories, with arched roofs and blue and yellow wooden garnishes swirling beneath the eaves. Two porches, one of those turret like sides that rounded at the top, charming blue shutters, and just the general awesomeness one often beholds in refurbished, huge, beautiful Victorian houses. Why don't they make them like that anymore?
Inside was just as delicious. The door opened to an entryway with a large, ornate staircase of dark wood took up half of all the room. As I went towards it and looked up, expecting a chandelier, I saw that I could see all the way up to the last floor, and the carefully polished railings around the opening framed by staircases.
"We'll be using the foyer for base."
Turn left to the open arch of the hallway and, sure enough, a foyerish foyer. The seats were, sadly, pretty modern and leather backed couches and chairs, though the coffee table showed some promise of being old, albeit sparkly. The walls were painted a summer sky blue with white paneling half way and a yellow and blue rug, framed with designs of twining flowers, covered the majority of the dark wood floors. A counter with a door next to it stood opposite to the front windows, where the navy blue side of the sunset could be seen if one craned their neck to look past the skyscrapers.
"Guess that's the call in desk," said Ayako, rapping her knuckles on the counter. "Just got the chairs back there, no computers or anything. Not even bad art."
I snapped my head around from craning past skyscrapers to give her an aghast face. "You mean they're going to turn this beautiful place into a business office? Blasphemy!"
"A Bed and Breakfast, technically," said our young professor as he dropped a box by a wall of collecting totes and boxes. "And there's something I'd like to inform you about before we settle in. A bit of disclaimer for this particular case."
He turned about and put his hands in his slack packets. I did my cadet stiffen and salute while Takigawa and Ayako just leaned their backs on the walls to show they had their attention.
Lin the tall was outside, getting another load.
"The reason we are called here is that the owners, who have recently just bought this place and refurbished it, if you can't tell by the new paint smell, are concerned about the house's past with numerous suicides. It has a reputation for, as they said, 'killing off' its inhabitants, even though the suicides are one at a time and spaced far apart." His eyes narrowed for a moment, as though with disgust. "That's why there isn't a sign up front. They want to know if there's any basis to this so they can advertise it as being legitimately haunted. But, because there is a record of there being a negative effect in this house," he crossed his arms. "If anyone finds themselves entertaining thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you are to inform me immediately and get out of the house. I already have a fund set aside to send those who are affected home."