TWELVE

 

One week had passed and I went from being awake all day and night, to sleepy all the time.  That was how I spent the day on Sunday, sleeping.

Monday came around and I could barely get out of bed.  Kelly had taken the day off and she made me breakfast.  When I mentioned stopping by the coffee shop to get something to wake up and keep me awake, she literally flipped out.

She put me on a caffeine-free diet until my sleeping conditions were back to normal with no assistance from sleeping pills.

“I’ve always said that you are too young to drink that much coffee, Kayla.”

I rolled my eyes and agreed to everything she was saying.

I went to school and again, avoided everything and everyone.  Two things I noticed though and they both bothered me.  One, Emily and Jess were back to talking to Ashley, and second, every time I saw Hunter hanging around, he was staring at me and I felt an urge to go and talk to him, try to make sense of it all.  Only I didn’t want to take the risk of Benjamin showing up again.

When the day was finally over I rushed to my car to find there was a note on my window.  The note was from Hunter.

Kayla,

Carolyn contacted me again.  We need to talk.  Meet me at my house this afternoon.

I didn’t go.  Carolyn was talking to him now and that made her his problem.

I went home, did my homework, and fell asleep.

Unfortunately me not showing up at Hunter’s didn’t stop him from coming to look for me.

Kelly came to my room and woke me up.

“Kay, your friend Hunter is here.  You must have forgotten to tell me he was coming over to work on your project.”

I was still disoriented from having just woken up.

I got up and followed Kelly downstairs to find Hunter sitting in the living room.

“Hey.  What are you doing here?”

“Kayla!”  Kelly looked embarrassed.  “I apologize for her, Hunter.  She just woke up…”

Hunter looked at me.

“Group project, remember?”

I didn’t exactly respond in any way.

Kelly excused herself by saying that she was going to be outside, working on the flowerbed if we needed her.

As soon as she left, I asked, “What are you really doing here?”

“You got my note.  We need to talk.”

“Umm, no we don’t.”

He acted as if he was annoyed.  “Look… whether you want to or not, I’m going to talk and you are going to listen.”

“Whatever.”  We went to the kitchen where I could keep an eye on Kelly to make sure she was still outside while he talked.

“Fine.  You want to talk, talk.”  I snapped.

“Carolyn is not trapped anymore.  But she needs to talk to you, I just get bits and pieces of what she is saying.”

“Okay, well.  I haven’t seen her around, so apparently she can’t talk to me anymore.  Problem solved.”

Hunter shook his head and laughed.  “What are you on?”  He asked.

“Huh?”  I asked, confused.

“You know… drugs? Medication?  What are you on?”

“Nothing… I mean, sleeping pills.  What does that have to do with it?”

He shook his head as if I had just asked something dumb.  “Medications or drugs sometimes intervene with the part of your brain that allows you to communicate with … you know… them.”

I clasped my hands over my mouth.  That is what he wanted; keep me from helping Carolyn, keep her away.  Apparently that also kept me from seeing him and that was a plus.

“Why are you taking those pills anyway?” he asked.

“None of your business.”

“It has something to do with him doesn’t it?” he said as he looked into the living room.

I looked around.  “Who?”

“You know… the same one that was at school the other day.”

I shivered.

“That answers my question,” Hunter said.

“I – I ca--can’t talk to you about it.”

“Why the hell not?”

I was so afraid… knowing that Benjamin was there, but I wasn’t able to see him… Before I knew it, I ended up spilling out the truth… reverse psychology, I guessed.

“Because he will hurt you if I talk to you about it.”

Hunter looked at me, puzzled that I was concerned about his safety.

“He can’t hurt me, Kayla.”

“Yes, he can.  He can touch things…people.”

Hunter walked toward me, putting his hands on my shoulders and meeting my gaze.  “I know he can.  Listen Kayla, he cannot hurt me.”

I don’t know if I felt vulnerable, afraid, safe, or what, but I did something that I had never done in my entire life.  Sobbing, I said, “I need your help.”

“I know.”

I thought Hunter was about to pull me into a hug, but what he did was pull me behind him.  For a split second, I was confused by what happened, but as soon as I remembered him looking into the living room where Benjamin seemed to be, it all made sense.  Watching Hunter, it looked as if he was grabbing Benjamin, who I could not see and throwing him across the room.  The only reason why I knew that he went across the room was because a chair on that side of the room was flipped over.

Hunter faced me again.  “He is gone.”

“How did you do--?

Kelly came in.

What was that noise?” she asked.

“Sorry about that Mrs. Gallagher, I can be a klutz sometimes.  I tripped over the chair.”

“Oh.  All right kids, I’m going to go pick up dinner.  Hunter, will you stay and eat with us?”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Gallagher.  I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Oh please, it is no problem at all.  I insist.”  Kelly smiled and I knew that because Hunter was so polite, she really liked him.  If that had been Justin, she would have never left me alone with him.

As soon as she left I asked him how he had done that.  “It doesn’t matter.  We need to figure out how to keep you safe.  He will come back.  And you need to stop taking your meds or you won’t even see him coming at you.”

“I shouldn’t have told you.  That only provoked him.”

“Trust me.  You did the right thing.  Whatever it is that he wants, it can’t be good.”

I met Hunter’s gaze.  “What is he?”

“What do you think he is?”

“Well, I thought he was a ghost, but he is strong and he can touch things… he is just different than Carolyn.”

“Lets just say that you are on the right track.  That is all you need to know for now.”

“He is more than just a ghost, isn’t he?”

Hunter hesitated.  “I will take care of him.”

“Why are you helping me?”  I asked.

He shrugged.  “Many reasons.  One is because I didn’t have anyone to help me…. Well, not at first anyway.”

I felt so awful for him going through whatever he did alone.  It just made sense why he distanced himself from everyone.  I just felt really bad for him.

I nodded, not sure what to say.  I actually felt relieved to talk to him, but I was now even more afraid of what Benjamin would do.  And I also had no idea how I would get away with not taking those pills and still be able to sleep.

We heard the front door opening.

“Kayla, can you go grab the food from the my car?” Kelly asked, as she bolted for the bathroom.

“Sure.”

“Is your mom okay?”  Hunter asked.

“Yeah, just pregnancy stuff, I guess.  She doesn’t really get morning sickness.  It is more like before dinner sickness.”

Hunter looked pale.

“What is wrong?”  I asked him.

He didn’t say anything. 

“I will just go get you some water,” I said.

He grabbed my wrist pulling me closer and whispered “I think I know what he may want.”