12. Why.?
C losing the door with a happy sigh, Ollie’s smile slipped a little as he looked back up into the dark library.
Out—he was going out for lunch. Yes, getting out of there for a few hours would be a good idea!
Meow!
Ollie jumped before huffing as he looked down at his cat. “Red, I really, really wish you’d wear a collar.”
Meow . The sound this time was not friendly.
He rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. Hurrying behind the circulation desk when he reached the top, he grabbed the bowl for Red that he kept behind it, and filled it with cat food, before setting it down.
“You eat that, I’m off.”
The cat that had started to eat as soon as he set the bowl down lifted his head, letting out a discontented MEOW!
“No, you can’t come.”
He slipped from behind the desk and headed back down the stairs. Oddly…Red followed, and when he reached the door, the cat rushed in front of him, as if to block him from leaving.
Nudging him gently aside with his foot, Ollie unlocked the door and quickly used the panel next to it to set the door alarm to turn on after a countdown.
But when he reached for the knob, Red wound in front of his feet, hissing.
“Red! What has gotten into you?!” he grumbled.
Once again, he gently nudged his cat out of the way and opened one of the doors just enough to slip through, before quickly closing it behind him so that Red wasn’t able to follow. He could only shake his head when the loud meows and hisses of protest started filtering through the doors. His cat had apparently woken up on the wrong side of the bed today.
Finding his car keys from his mass of library ones, Ollie headed to his small, compact and adorable vehicle.
Eyeing the red Volkswagen Beetle, which was painted to look like a ladybug, he patted the hood happily before getting in. His mood felt entirely lifted now that he’d looked into its eye-lashed headlights.
And it was about time. Time to push yesterday’s nonsense from his mind and just have a nice day! No, not a nice day, a wonderful day!
Oh, maybe he’d go to Old Bits and Bobs after eating? Yes! Perfect idea! The antique store usually got new shipments in on Sunday, so it was the best day to go.
Starting his car, he turned on the radio and pulled out of the parking lot. Ollie sang loudly to the fun pop song that was blaring from his speakers, continuing to sing as he came to a red light and pulled to a stop. The words, however, caught in his throat as he looked over after catching sight of something out of the corner of his right eye.
Ollie screamed, blackness swarming his vision as he stared at the white translucent man in his passenger seat. He began to fear he was about to pass out, but then, between one blink and the next…the ghost disappeared.
His heart was thudding away in his chest, as Ollie stared at the now empty red leather seat, his hands clamped tightly on the wheel as he trembled.
HONK!
Flinching at the car horn, his head snapped frontwards and he hurriedly hit the gas, driving through the now green light. With a shaky hand, Ollie turned off the radio, leaving the car silent except for his frantic attempts at breathing, while his heart continued to pound loudly in his chest.
“It wa-wasn’t real…it wasn’t real. I-I didn’t… I-I—” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t see anything.”
Ollie made it to his favorite diner without another incident, or crashing. Pulling into the small parking lot nearby that was usually full, he, for once, found a spot. Instead of feeling lucky to have found it, Ollie felt nothing except dread, even if it was unrelated.
Once parked, he stared at his passenger seat. The red leather with polka dots didn’t change.
After a few more moments of nothing, Ollie shook his head and got out, heading inside Bab’s Dinner. The inside was as retro as the chrome outside suggested, and it was just as it always had been. There were checkered floors, red booths, chrome tables, white and chrome stools, and spinner seats at the counter. The beige walls were covered in old electric signs of various foods and more, while there sat an old red jukebox against the far-right wall.
Ollie forced a smile on his face at the sound of the happy door chimes, as he was met by the grin of the waitress, Sammy Harper.
“Ollie! I was wondering when you’d grace me with your beautiful freckled face again?!” she cried as she spotted him.
His smile became more genuine at her words. “I was going to make you wait a few weeks more, but alas, I was craving pie.”
“Ah, you cruel boy! Don’t you know it’s rude to make an old lady wait?!”
He chuckled. “Old?! Sammy, don’t you know it’s rude to lie?”
“Grab a menu and seat yourself, sweetums.” She giggled. “I’ll be right with you! Just don’t think you can get out of telling me about all of the crazy things you’ve been up to.”
With his mood lifted, Ollie grabbed a menu off the podium near the door and slid into one of the empty booths by the windows.
He did a cursory scan of the menu. It really hadn’t changed much in the years he’d been coming there. And that was saying something, as he was pretty sure the first time he came to Bab’s, he’d been five.
Ollie looked up at the sound of movement, his mouth already opening, but whatever he’d intended to say was lost under his scream as he found himself face to face with another ghost.
He barely let the white translucent woman register in his mind before bolting out of the booth, and the diner, ignoring Sammy when she called out to him.
Ollie ran as hard and as fast as he could, not towards his car, but blindly away. He was not thinking about where he was going, he just knew that he had to get away.
When his sides started to cramp, and his legs grew tired, Ollie stumbled to a shaky stop in what appeared to be a dead-end alleyway. Clutching at his side, he leaned against the brick wall of the building to his left, hunched over a bit as he gasped for air.
After a few moments of struggling to breathe, he weakly lifted his head and eyed the mouth of the damp, dank alleyway he was in, while brushing aside a few sweaty curls that had escaped from his messy bun. More sweat trailed down the sides of his face, and his glasses were smudged now.
He bit his lip when tears started to prick at the corner of his eyes.
“I’m…” He sniffled as this overwhelming helpless feeling bubbled up. “I… What…is happening…?” he asked no one, as who the hell would be standing in a stupid alleyway filled with nothing?
Sniffling again, he pulled his glasses off and cleaned them on his pants as best he could, before putting them back on and looking down toward the dead end. He stiffened as he locked eyes with a new translucent figure that now stood where nothing had been before.
“Why…” he whimpered. This time, barely holding back his urge to scream.
The ghost’s head tilted, its expression angry, much more so than the other three he’d faced so far. More so, there was something…off about him compared to the others. His eyes seemed hollower, his face gaunt, while his hair was disheveled and long. The rest had been in different clothing, from all different eras…but this man’s were more tattered. But it looked less like old clothes being worn to their limits, and more like pieces of clothing being oddly sown together.
“What… What happened to you?” he whispered.
The ghost gnashed his teeth at him soundlessly, revealing teeth that were much sharper than any humans should be.
A whimper of fear slipped past his lips, and he took a step back, stuttering out, “I-I’m le-leaving.”
But then those angry gnashing teeth were surging toward him. As his scream caught in his throat, Ollie stumbled away, tripping as he did. A startle cry was finally forced past his lips the moment he hit the ground.
During his failed attempt to get away, the ghost kept coming. But at the first touch of what he could only describe as a horrible, unnatural coldness against his pants leg, Ollie managed to scramble back to his feet.
He rushed from the alleyway, looking back while he ran. Ollie slammed right into someone solid, unable to stop his fear-filled scream as the person grabbed onto him.