Spook

Chapter 10
Big Mistake

DANNY couldn't explain how he felt when he saw Charlie walking with another guy as he was pulling up the parking lot. They looked like they were talking about something important.

"Probably about Spook again," he muttered to himself as he got off his car. He looked at the two boys again before he went inside the dorm.

He saw Charlie giving the guy a sweet smile... a smile that he hadn't seen for quite a while... before waving goodbye.

He tried to clear his thoughts as he went to the reception to check his mails. He didn't have any. He turned around to go to his room when he saw Charlie walking in. Their eyes met and the look that Charlie gave him was loaded. It was like Charlie had a lot to say to him, but since they weren't speaking, he was just communicating through his eyes.

Danny suddenly felt guilty about the way he'd been treating his roommate. He turned his eyes away and instead of going to their room, he decided to walk to the dining hall instead.

He didn't know how long he could keep it up. Each second that passed, he just wanted to run to Charlie and hold him tight. He wanted to tell him everything. He just wanted to be close to him again.

"You are such an asshole," he heard Tim say as he passed by him. He didn't notice that Tim had been observing him since he walked in the building.

Danny stopped and looked at Tim. "I know," he said sadly.

Tim walked up to him and said, "Why don't you just tell him?"

"Tell him what?" he looked at Tim nervously, feeling his heart start to beat so fast. "Could I be that obvious?" he asked himself.

"You know what I mean," said Tim, still looking intently at him. Then Tim broke into a smile and said, "And the answer to your question is yes. But, you're not the only one. I suggest you stop being so confused and all and just accept it for what it is. Do something about it before you totally mess it up."

As Tim continued to lecture him, he suddenly felt something badgering on his heart. He felt a moment of panic and Charlie came to his mind.

"Charlie," he said, finally realizing that something must be wrong.

Danny suddenly ran as fast as he could towards their room, leaving a perplexed Tim behind. He ran up the stairs two or three steps at a time and almost slipped when he got to their floor. He almost slammed his body to his door and was surprised to find that it was locked. He searched for his keys and quickly inserted it into the knob and he opened the door.

He got in and found an empty room. No trace of Charlie. His bag wasn't there. No keys. No cellphone.

"He didn't get in," he thought. Panic was creeping up on his mind.

He hastily got hold of his cellphone and dialed Joseph's number.

"C'mon, pick up," he said impatiently after a couple of rings.

"Hello," said Joseph on the other line.

"Have you seen Charlie, like, a few minutes ago? Or is he with you right now?" Danny said urgently.

"No dude," said Joseph. "I'm still in class. Why? What's wrong?"

"I... I'm not sure," said Danny. "I just know something's wrong. I gotta find him." He hung up and started to call other people who might have seen Charlie. No luck.

"Charlie, where are you?" he said in frustration as he absentmindedly walked out of the room.

Then he noticed a mess of white powder in the hallway near their room. He observed the patterns and it looked like there was a bit of struggle. At least three pairs of shoes. It seemed like someone was dragged from there to the far end of the hallway, where Oliver's room was located.

Danny clenched his teeth as the realization started to dawn on him.

"Oliver..." he said under his breath. "If you'd done something to him, you're dead."

CHARLIE closed his eyes expecting that Oliver's hard cock would soon touch his lips and invade his unwilling mouth.

He couldn't believe that this was happening to him. He thought of Danny and how much he wanted him to be his first time. A small tear formed in his eyes as he resigned himself to this fate. Then, anger began to consume his mind. He knew that as soon as he could move his limbs, these two guys would lose theirs.

Then he thought about Spook and how the ghost warned him about Oliver.

Spook was right. Oliver was bad news. But Charlie doubted if Spook knew just how much bad news their RA really was.

"Spook," he thought. "Help me..."

He heard Marcus yelp. His eyes flew open in time to see Oliver being thrown across the room and crashing against the iron bars on the window, before falling down on the floor.

Marcus had his face squashed against the wall and he was slowly being lifted up until his feet couldn't touch the floor anymore.

Charlie couldn't see clearly who was helping him. All he could see was black smoke emanating from a human-like form.

Then, he felt the familiar feeling when Spook was around. Only this time, he felt intense anger rather than confusion or lust or love.

"Spook," he called out with his mind.

Spook turned around to face him and he saw red gleaming eyes on a dark, terrifying face. As soon as their eyes locked, the eyes lost the horrifyingly red gleam and softened to Spook's familiar beautiful eyes. The darkness cleared from Spook's face and Charlie saw love and concern as they gazed at each other. The black smoke around Spook's body turned white all of a sudden and Charlie felt the anger subside.

The momentary distraction freed Marcus from Spook's grasp and he fell on the floor. Marcus quickly got up, ran to the door and out of the room screaming like a maniac and totally oblivious of the fact the he was naked.

The manic screaming broke Spook's gaze with Charlie. Just as quickly as he felt peace, anger consumed him once again.

Charlie saw Spook's eyes burst into red flames and his body was quickly consumed by black smoke as he disappeared from Charlie's sight.

DANNY was starting to walk towards Oliver's room when he heard someone screaming and running away from the room. He was quite shocked to see the man running naked and looking like he had just seen the face of death.

"Charlie," was his first thought. He didn't care what he'd find in Oliver's room, whatever it was that scared the shit out of the crazy naked man, all he knew was that he had to get Charlie out of there. He burst into a sprint and barged into Oliver's room.

He saw Charlie lying motionless on the bed with his fly open and his shirt pulled up to his chest.

Oliver was getting up from the floor looking terrified and angry.

"Get the fuck out of my room," said Oliver when he saw Danny looking menacingly at him.

"Not without my roommate," Danny hissed.

"Fuck off, Danny," said Oliver. "This is none of your business." He took a step towards Danny.

With one swift move, Danny got Oliver within striking distance and quickly gave the man four consecutive punches targeting the pressure points on both his arms and legs.

Oliver fell down feeling nothing but numbness on his limbs. Danny looked down on him and clamped his hand around Oliver's throat. Oliver was starting to choke.

"Charlie is my business," Danny whispered in Oliver's ear.

"D-Danny... d-don't," Charlie said weakly, finally regaining his voice.

Charlie's strained voice washed away Danny's anger. He let go of Oliver and quickly walked towards Charlie. He pulled down Charlie's shirt and fixed his pants. Then he lifted Charlie up and carried him back to their room.

Danny gently put Charlie down on his bed. He choked when he looked at Charlie and he began to sob. He lay himself beside Charlie and wrapped his arms protectively around him. He continued to sob on Charlie's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," said Danny. "I should never have left you alone. I'm so, so sorry..."

Charlie wanted to say something. But he felt so tired... and so comfortable with Danny's arms around him. He slowly fell asleep in Danny's arms, where he had always felt safe.

They were both so consumed with each other that they didn't even hear the noise on the third floor, where Marcus was being slammed from wall to wall. Or the screams of the other residents who witnessed it. They didn't even hear Marcus' horrifying scream as he finally jumped off the fire escape in sheer terror.

JOSEPH was restless as his class dragged on. His professor was discussing their assigned readings, but his mind wasn't anywhere near the subject. He couldn't get the tone of Danny's voice out of his mind. He quickly became worried about Charlie. And he was never worried about Charlie.

"Why would I be?" he thought. "Charlie could beat the crap out of anyone. He's not afraid of anything. For fuck's sake, he even befriended a ghost!"

He and Charlie had been friends for a very long time. He tried to bully Charlie in kindergarten just like he bullied every kid in the class. But Charlie just stood up to him and said, "If you don't stop right now, you will never be able to walk again." He was so mad that he tried to throw a punch, but Charlie simply ducked, got a hold of his right foot and made him fall down so swiftly. Charlie then twisted his foot and asked him one last time if he would stop bullying or would he rather lose his foot. That was the last time he tried to bully anyone.

No, Charlie was not afraid of anyone or anything. He could handle himself well. But something in Danny's voice terrified Joseph. Something is wrong.

He couldn't stand it any longer. If Charlie was in trouble, then he should get out of here and try to help him. He gathered his things slyly and slipped out of the room unnoticed by the professor. He broke into a run as soon as he got out of the building.

As he got nearer the dorm, he saw a lot of people gathering near the fire escape of the Boys Wing. He stopped running and walked his way up to the people who were all talking in hushed tones. What he heard, though, sent shivers down his spine.

Then, he heard the sirens of the ambulance coming. The first thing that came to his mind was that Charlie was hurt. He squeezed himself in the sea of people to get in front of the crowd. He saw a naked body sprawled on the ground. The man was battered and bloody, but he was clearly breathing. A couple of RAs were crouching beside him, talking to him. He sighed when he confirmed that it wasn't Charlie.

Somebody broke in front of the crowd carrying a blanket, which they draped over the man's body. Soon, the paramedics came and tried to disperse the crowd, while they attended to the injured man.

He decided to find Danny. I must know where Charlie is.

When he got in the lobby, he saw a couple of paramedics carrying another guy on a stretcher. The guy looked naked under the blanket as well. And he also had bruises all over his body. The people in the lobby were also whispering, talking about what happened. Joseph tried to listen to what they were saying. And he suddenly had a very bad feeling about it all.

"What the hell is going on here?" he silently muttered.

He quickly ran up to Charlie and Danny's room and unceremoniously burst in. "What the hell happened?" Joseph said as he closed the door.

Danny shushed him up and pointed to Charlie who was sleeping on his side. Tim was sitting on the other bed looking terrified being in that room.

Joseph sighed and began speaking in a hushed tone. "You have no idea what they're saying, do you? They said that a ghost beat up that RA from upstairs and pushed him out of the fire escape. Your RA was found naked and immobilized in his room and he looked like he's been wrestling with a gorilla and he refuses to say a word about it. And all that happened right after that weird call you gave me about Charlie. And somehow, I think all of these things are connected. So, give."

"Oliver and that RA from the third floor drugged Charlie and tried to rape him in Oliver's room," said Danny. "I think Spook got there before I did and gave them quite a good beating. When I got to the room, I immobilized Oliver and carried Charlie back here. It seemed that our friendly ghost didn't let the other guy off the hook."

"If I weren't so afraid of ghosts, I'd really like to see him and thank him for what he did," Danny sighed. "He saved Charlie. If not for him, it'd probably be too late when I got there."

Joseph's mind filled with rage as he listened to what Danny was saying. "Those assholes are not gonna get away with this," said Joseph angrily.

"And what the hell are you gonna do?" countered Tim. "Tell the dorm manager? Let the whole truth come out and let Charlie be the butt of jokes for the rest of the year?"

Joseph sighed. They all fell silent. "Let's just kill them then," said Joseph.

"Believe me, nothing would please me more," said Danny. "If there's a way to make them pay without exposing Charlie or any of us in any form of danger or humiliation, I'll do it. But it's not that easy."

"I almost killed him, you know," said Danny after a while. "I had Oliver in my hands and I almost strangled him to death. I was just so angry at him. But then Charlie told me not to. And now that I had the chance to calm down, I'm glad that Charlie stopped me. I hate Oliver and I want him to pay. But I don't know if I'll be able to sleep soundly at night if I killed him."

"You're right," said Joseph. "We're not criminals. We don't have the guts to actually intentionally kill anyone. And we can't squeal the SOBs. So what do we do?"

"Honestly," said Tim. "I don't think they'll be a problem."

"What do you mean?" asked Joseph.

"Marcus would never set foot on this place again, from the looks of it," answered Tim. "As for Oliver, he'll probably still come back because of his pride. He'll want to make both of your lives here as miserable as possible. He'll want to destroy you both," he said to Danny. "But if he comes back here, he won't be able to do any of that. He won't be alive for long," Tim looked at them intently.

"No, they won't be a problem," continued Tim. "But they've made a very big mistake of angering a restless spirit. Spook will make them pay. With their lives, if they dared to come back and anger him some more."

"I think we've just experienced how powerful this spirit can be," Tim shivered at the thought. "He could actually hurt people. He has the capacity and capability to do so."

"The question is whether Spook's anger will subside after he makes them pay," Tim said shaking his head a little. "If it doesn't, then we'll have a totally uncontrollable, angry spirit... and a very, very big problem."