Spook

Chapter 3
Closet Graffiti

DANNY felt the chills running down his spine when Charlie said that. He unconsciously touched the ring around his thumb and slowly turned it. "Well, as long as he's sleeping in your bed, I don't have a problem with that," he laughed nervously.

Charlie couldn't help but laugh with him. "Well, I dunno, man," he teased. "I mean, after he sees you, he might wanna change bedmates."

"I don't think so," Danny smiled. "I think he'd much rather be with the tall, fair-skinned boy who could see him," he said as he led Charlie out of the door.

Charlie laughed as he followed Danny to his car. They got in and decided they'd just go to McDonalds for lunch. Danny kept on teasing him about his visions and he teased him back. "Oh, don't worry," he said, "When I get the chance to speak to him, I'd urge him to go after you instead."

Danny shivered at the idea. "Jeesh, man, don't do that to me," Danny complained. "I get creeped out quite easily, you know."

Charlie laughed. "You really shouldn't expose your weakness this early," he teased.

"Well, I trust you," Danny said, looking at him and smiling sincerely. He just melted. He was amazed at how Danny could just shut him up with a simple smile. He felt himself blushing as he tried to smile back.

Danny pulled up and found a good parking space at McDonalds. They got in and Danny ordered a BigMak and a coke, while Charlie ordered the Chicken and Spaghetti meal and an iced tea.

"So," Charlie said as they were munching on their food. "Aside from your name and the fact that you're afraid of things that lurk in the dark, I still don't know much about you."

"Well, I'm originally from the South," Danny began. "Born and raised in Davao City in Mindanao Island. My parents are still there with my younger sister, Annie. She has Down Syndrome, so she needs a lot of special attention. But I'd been living in a dorm and staying with my older sister, Angela, since I started high school at PhiSci¹."

"I also have an older brother, Conrad," Danny continued. "He's in Law School in Ateneo². And I have a girlfriend, Abby, who goes to UST³."

"Oh," Charlie said, disappointed at the thought that Danny had a girlfriend. "I mean, that sounds great," he tried to hide his disappointment with a smile.

"What about you?" Danny asked him. "Aside from the fact that you see ghosts..." he chuckled.

Charlie smiled. "I'm from Quezon Province, about six hours south of here," he said. "Been there all my life. Aside from the month-long summer vacation I had two years ago in Bicol, I'd never been away from home or from my family for a long period of time. My younger brother, Kyle, thinks it's awesome that I'm here in UP. He's a junior now in high school and he wants to go here as well. My 6-year-old sister, Carrie, didn't want me to go at all. And my grandmother... I feel kinda guilty leaving her. I mean, she wouldn't tell us, but I know she's really sick. She couldn't even travel anymore to see me off. It's funny 'cause just a few days ago I was so excited to finally get away from home... be on my own, you know. Now I feel how hard it really is being away from the family," he sighed.

It felt strange that he told someone he hardly knew exactly how he felt at the moment. But he was glad he did. He couldn't quite understand it, but he felt totally at ease with Danny.

"Don't worry," Danny said emphatically. "I'll be here for you." He looked at him intently and put a hand on his shoulder. Charlie felt his heart skip a beat as he gazed into his eyes.

But Danny broke the silence between them by grinning and saying, "Besides, I don't think your ghost would leave you alone, either."

Charlie made a face, which made Danny laugh out louder.

They spent the rest of the day together. They went to the mall to buy some school stuff. And then they hung out at the UP Sunken Garden⁴ just talking and looking at the people playing frisbee and soccer.

They were heartily laughing at the small kid running around with the frisbee, not wanting to give it to anybody, when Charlie's phone rang.

"Hey asswipe," Joseph yelled. "Where the hell are you? I've been texting you since lunch and you haven't replied once."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I haven't checked my cell since I left for lunch. I'm with my roommate, Danny."

"Oh, you've finally met, huh?"

"Yup," he said smiling. "And he's really pretty cool," he added while looking at Danny. He couldn't help but smile.

"That's good," Joseph said. "At least one of us has a cool roommate. Would you guys like to grab some dinner. I'm famished."

"Hold on," Charlie said before turning to Danny who was still laughing at the kid with the frisbee. "Hey, would you like to have dinner with me and my friend Joseph? He's stuck in the dorm."

Danny turned to him and said, "Okay. Tell him we'll pick him up and we'll have dinner at this place I know in Katipunan Avenue."

"Not too fancy, I hope," Charlie said.

"Nah," Danny chuckled.

Charlie smiled and got back to Joseph on the phone. "Okay, loser," he said. "Get your ass ready and we'll pick you up in about 10 minutes."

Charlie was so glad that both Joseph and Danny seemed to get along great during dinner. Charlie made Danny promise that he wouldn't say anything about their "other roommate", as they'd come to call it, and Danny never mentioned anything to Joseph. There were a lot of childhood stories about him that Joseph was telling Danny to embarrass him, to which Danny laughed uncontrollably.

"There was this one time," Joseph said, "when all the classes were cancelled because the whole faculty was gonna have an emergency meeting. So all the boys in our class decided to go to Charlie's house to watch porn. We were in the middle of it when we suddenly heard the garage door opening and we saw a car coming in. Charlie's parents came home early that day as well. I had never seen someone move so fast! Charlie was like The Flash! He removed the porn from the video player and replaced it with a wholesome movie in less than a second. I swear!"

Danny was laughing so hard at the story. "Did they suspect anything?" he asked when he finally regained some composure.

"Well, they did ask me what I thought about the movie afterwards," Charlie answered. "I just said I didn't really understand it 'cause all the guys were messing around. I don't think they bought it." He laughed.

After dinner, they went back to the dorm and said goodnight to Joseph before they climbed upstairs to their own room.

Before Danny stuck the key in the knob, he turned to Charlie and said, "Is he here? Can you feel him?"

"Not yet," he replied.

Danny took a deep breath and opened the door. He turned on the light before he let out another deep breath.

"Well," Danny turned to him again as he was opening his closet to change his clothes. "Is he here yet?"

"Why don't you ask him," Charlie said without looking at Danny. "He's right beside you," he teased.

"Jesus!" Danny jumped at him and got behind him. Charlie laughed his heart out.

"I'm kidding," he said between laughs. "He's not here."

Danny punched his arm and said, "Jerk!"

"Told you you shouldn't expose your weakness this early," he teased as he grinned.

"You're gonna pay for that," Danny retorted.

"Looking forward to it," he challenged as he finished up stripping. "Meanwhile, I'm gonna take a shower while you two get acquainted."

"Nah-uh," Danny said. "I'm not staying here. I'm gonna take a shower, too."

Danny quickly stripped off his clothes and tossed them on the floor. Charlie couldn't help but admire the well-developed pecs and the six-pack that the boy had. Danny simply had the most gorgeous body he had ever seen. Charlie's dick responded almost immediately when he saw Danny's back muscles and biceps flexing as he stripped off his shirt. He wondered how those strong arms would feel wrapped around him.

Charlie willed himself not to stare at Danny and he said, "Sure thing. It's not like he couldn't get in the shower with you anyway."

"Keep that up and you'll be forced to share a cubicle with me," Danny said menacingly.

Charlie wondered how Danny would look without any clothes on and he was tempted to freak him out some more, but decided against it. He just chuckled some more as he grabbed his towel and then he headed for the showers with Danny right behind him.

In the showers, he felt the presence again. He felt a cold blast of air running from his back down to his ass. Memories of what happened the previous night and that morning rushed back to him.

"Get away from me," he muttered silently. "You're not gonna do this to me again," he said with deadly conviction. And he felt it go, just as suddenly as it appeared. He sighed.

"What did you say?" Danny asked from the next cubicle.

"Uh, nothing," he replied. "I was just mumbling some song."

"Well, quit it," Danny snapped. "You're freaking me out."

He thought to himself, "If I told him what had really just happened, then he would really freak out."

He turned off the shower, grabbed his towel and started to dry himself up. He heard Danny turning off his shower and started to dry himself up as well. They went out of their cubicles almost the same time and walked back to their room together.

Charlie just grabbed a clean boxer shorts from his closet and put it on. Danny, on the other hand, grabbed a pajama bottom. Charlie laughed at him and Danny just smirked. But Charlie couldn't believe how thin the cloth of the pajama was. If he looked closely enough, he could almost see Danny's cock and balls through the cloth.

As they were getting ready for bed, they heard a knock and the door gently opened.

"Hi," said the man in the doorway. "I'm Oliver and I'll be your RA⁵. I'm gonna be checking on you guys every night just to make sure you don't break the curfew. And if you're gonna be late, just notify me. My cell number is posted on my door in Room 225. And if you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know."

Danny and Charlie just both nodded. Charlie thought that Oliver was handsome in the classical sense: nice, defined cheekbones; strong jaw; straight nose; piercing eyes. He seemed to have a nice, well-defined body as well. Not too muscular, but very little fat. He looked like he was 2 or 3 years older than them.

"So," Oliver continued. "You must be Charlie," he said smiling sweetly at Charlie. Charlie nodded. "And you must be Danny," he said to Danny.

"Yeah, hi," answered Danny.

Oliver smiled. "Alright, you two. Have a good night," he said as he closed the door. After a couple of seconds they heard him knocking on the next door.

They both giggled.

"Jeesh! I didn't know this dorm would be wound up this tight," Charlie said. "We have curfews. Some guy is gonna be checking on us every night. Every move we make needs approval. We can't even bring non-residents in our room! This is worse than being at home."

Danny chuckled. "You'll get used to it," he said.

They fell silent for a while. Charlie got up and walked to turn the light off. Danny reached out to his desk to turn on his study lamp. And they both got into bed.

"Charlie," Danny said after a while.

"Hmm..." answered Charlie.

"Are you sure he's not here," asked Danny.

Charlie met Danny's gaze and then he pretended to look past Danny.

"Oh, he's there alright," he said jokingly.

"Fuck!" Danny jumped up from his bed. He took his pillow and faced Charlie who was clutching his stomach laughing out loud.

"That's it," Danny said angrily. "Move over!"

"What?" Charlie said incredulously.

"Move!" Danny said firmly. "I'm not sleeping on that bed alone."

Charlie laughed but moved to give enough space for Danny on his bed. Danny put his pillow next to Charlie and lay there. He grabbed Charlie's blanket and covered his body with it.

The bed was hardly big enough for both of them and Charlie felt nervous being so close to Danny. He consciously kept his hands to himself as he felt Danny drifting off to sleep. But the bed was so small that he couldn't help brushing Danny's muscular chest with his arms. He tried his hardest to think of his classes tomorrow to prevent his dick from reacting.

After a while, he felt Danny's arm wrapping around his body and grabbing him closer. He boned instantly. But he couldn't do anything about it anyway, so he just willed himself to sleep.

When he woke up in the morning, he found that his arms were around Danny. He didn't have a class until 11:30AM, so he just decided to enjoy the feeling of having this beautiful boy in his arms.

Then, he felt Danny stir in his sleep. Charlie instantly pretended to be sleeping as well.

"Fuck!" Danny said as he quickly got up, grabbed his towel and toiletry and ran to the showers.

Charlie was taken by surprise. "Did he think I was doing something to him?" he thought to himself. "Oh, God! Did he figure out that I'm gay? Is he totally disgusted by me?" Dark thoughts continually clouded his mind as he waited for Danny to come back from the showers, while he struggled to fight away the tears.

When Danny got back, he found Charlie sitting on his bed in deep thought.

"Oh man, did I wake you?" he asked Charlie. Charlie looked at him with confusion.

"I'm so sorry," Danny continued as he hastily began dressing up. "I have an 8:30 class and I'm already so late. I'm so sorry if I startled you."

A smile slowly crept on Charlie's face as the realization hit him.

"And here I was thinking you're an early riser," he chuckled.

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Danny grinned. "But I usually get up earlier than this. I guess I just felt so comfortable sleeping in your bed."

"Well, don't make it a habit," Charlie smiled.

"If you freak me out some more, I just might," Danny retorted as he tied his shoe laces. "After all, I really hate that my side of the room gets all the sun's rays in the morning."

"Well, you got here first," Charlie replied, puzzled by what Danny said. "You could've chosen my side."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said as he gathered up his books. "But when I inspected the closets, I noticed strange writings on one of the walls inside your closet and it really freaked me out. So, I chose this side instead."

"What writings?" Charlie asked, getting more and more intrigued.

Danny went to Charlie's closet and opened it to show him the writings. Charlie walked behind him and looked over his shoulder. But the closet walls were covered with new wallpapers.

"It should've been right there," Danny said as he pointed on a spot on the wall of the closet. "I guess you covered it up," Danny chuckled. "Maybe I should've thought of that."

"It was my mom, actually," Charlie said absentmindedly as he stared at the spot that Danny pointed out. "She arranged everything on my side of the room when they dropped me off last Saturday."

"Oh well, I'd better be off," said Danny. "I'm already 30 minutes late on my very first class in college. Good start, huh?" he chuckled.

Charlie looked at him, smiling. "Good luck," he said as Danny walked out the door. Danny smiled back before he closed the door and went straight to class.

Charlie stared at the spot for a while longer. And then he decided he needed to see it. He tore off the wallpaper on the spot pointed by Danny earlier and found out that the writings were occupying a larger area than he thought.

After he had exposed the entire writings, he looked at it closely. At first glance, it looked like it was written with permanent markers. But when he ran his fingers through it, it felt like it was burned into the surface of the wooden wall. He couldn't understand the writings though. It was hardly legible. It looked like just some random scribbles of a mad man.

He sighed as he sat on the floor before his closet. He had been staring at it for about an hour before he realized he had to get ready for his class. He stood up and got ready to shower. After that, he dressed up, gathered his things and started to walk out of the room.

As he was reaching for the knob, he felt the presence again.

He turned around and saw the tall boy standing by the window, looking intently at him with those beautiful, pleading, questioning eyes.

He looked back defiantly at the boy and said, "I'll figure you out. I'll figure this all out. Bet on it."

¹ Philippine Science High School, located in Quezon City, Metro Manila. Same city where UP is located. back

² Ateneo de Manila University, located right beside UP. back

³ University of Santo Tomas, the oldest university in the Philippines, located in the City of Manila. back

⁴ Not really a garden. It's a huge sunken area in the middle of the UP Campus covered with short grass and surrounded by trees on the perimeter. Ideal place for games (like frisbee, soccer, baseball, etc.), picnics and concerts. Also a very ideal place for lovers to make out at night. back

⁵ Resident assistant. back