Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:43:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com
Subject: Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His Chapter 9

Story is fictional with fictional characters and is not based on any kind
of reality whatsoever. All the usual caveats apply.


		  "Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His"

				 Chapter 9


It was Friday and the last day of camp. It was also the last Friday before
Quincy started at his new school. Quincy had not seen Erik since he had
vanished from the room the previous day. He had not appeared at any point
during the rest of the evening, and Erik wasn't there in the morning when
he woke up. Quincy couldn't figure out why Erik was behaving this way, and
he was more than a little angry about it when he left for camp that
morning.

Quincy spent the last day at camp doing the usual activities. Timothy
stayed on him like glue. Quincy had been expecting to get the business from
the other boys about Timothy hanging around him, but it turned out to be
the opposite. The other kids were now leaving Timothy alone because he was
with Quincy, who had the other kids respect. For this reason, Timothy would
always keep Quincy between them and himself like a protective
shield. Quincy decided with a measure of resignation that it would probably
be that way during the school year as well.

When the day ended at 3:00, Timothy insisted on exchanging phone
numbers. Quincy then invited Timothy over to his house the next
afternoon. He was kind of hoping that Timothy could meet Erik, although he
wasn't quite sure how that would go. He figured that he could maybe somehow
convince Erik to act like a normal kid, maybe put on a pair of shorts and
not cause any supernatural events to occur. As Quincy rode home in his
mothers car, he started to regret his decision to invite Timothy over.

Carol dropped off Quincy, said that she had to go run some errands, and
then go pick up Steve at the Capitol. Once she had left, Quincy went up to
his bedroom and turned on his computer. After about a half hour, Erik
materialized by the window.

"Hey, where have you been, Erik?" Quincy asked as he shut off his computer.

"In this house, of course!" Erik said spitefully.

"I haven't seen you since yesterday."

"Maybe that's because I didn't want to be around you." Erik said with a
nasty tone.

"Why are you being such a dick?" Quincy asked.

"Why are YOU being such a dick?" Erik countered.

"What did I do?" Quincy almost yelled.

"You said I was your friend and then you were really nice to me, and I was
friends with you back, and now you're ignoring me!"

"How am I ignoring you? You haven't even been around since yesterday
afternoon!"

"So how was your day with 'Timothy'?"

"Is that what this is all about? You're mad because I made friends with
someone?"

Erik looked down, shut his eyes, and burst into tears.

"Erik...hey...come on, don't cry. Come on..." Quincy said as he got up and
put his hand on Erik's shoulder.

"It's not just that..." Erik said in a high pitched sobbing squeak. "You're
gonna be going to school soon! Then I won't be able to see you again! Maybe
for a while!"

"Why won't I be able to see you again?" Quincy asked.

"I don't know. I just won't." Erik said as he wiped his tears with his arm.

Quincy was wondering exactly what Erik meant by that. He gave Erik a
tissue, and then realized that he felt a little bit hungry. "Erik I'm going
to go downstairs and get a snack. I'll be right back and we'll talk about
this some more, OK?"

"OK." Erik sniffled.

Quincy went out into the hall, shook his head at how complicated Erik could
be, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

As Quincy entered the kitchen, he felt a cool draft and caught a brief,
faint whiff of that odd wet dog-rotting meat smell. He looked and saw that
the basement door was wide open. Quincy figured that his mom must have left
it open, although that would be strange as she was really big on keeping
that door closed at all times.  Quincy walked over to close it, As he did,
he heard a strange sound come up from out of the blackness. It sounded a
little bit like a pig, but much lower, and it seemed to be combined with a
snuffle, and a high pitched human voice very faintly as well. The sound
only lasted for a split second. He wondered if some animal had gotten into
the basement, so he poked his head in and leaned into the blackness.

All of a sudden a face appeared near the bottom of the stairs. It was not
human, though. It was hideously shaped and skull like. It had a blackish,
silver sheen all over it, as though it were decayed. The hair looked like
dead grass, and it had two hideous yellow, glowing eyes. It had a huge
lower jaw, and a blackened, toothless mouth. Quincy screamed in pure
terror, slammed the door shut, ran shrieking up the stairs, bolted full
speed into his room, shut the door, and collapsed crying onto the bed.

"What happened?" Erik said frantically as he sat on the bed next to Quincy.

"FUCK YOU, ERIK!!"

"What...?"

"That was not cool! THAT WAS NOT COOL AT ALL!!"  Quincy screamed into his
pillow.

"I didn't do anything! I was up here!"

"Yeah! Right!" Quincy said as he got up sniffling.

"What happened?"

"You know what happened!"

"No! I don't! I don't lie, Quincy!" Erik said angrily.

Quincy was starting to think Erik might be telling the truth."All right,
Erik!" Quincy said, his voice trembling as though he were standing out in
freezing weather. "Tell me what that was that I just saw in the basement!"

"In the basement?"

"Yes!"

Erik looked at Quincy, puffed his cheeks out, and burst into laughter.

"So it WAS you who did that! Fuck you, Erik!" Quincy said as he buried his
face in the pillow.

"No it wasn't!" Erik said angrily. "Stop saying 'fuck you' to me!"

"Then what was that thing?" Quincy asked as he sat back up.

"That was just Mattheius. Don't worry, he's harmless." Erik laughed.

"Harmless? That thing just scared the shit out of me! Who's Mattheius?"

"He lives in the basement. He won't hurt you." Erik said.

"You mean there's TWO of you here?"

"Two of what?" Erik asked crossly.

"Never mind. So who is this 'Mattheius'. Why does he live in the basement?"

Erik suddenly seemed troubled and lowered his head."He's the kid who hit me
with the car." He mumbled almost inaudibly.

Quincy drew his breath."Oh.' He said.

"He always comes around about the time when he ran me over. I guess it must
be getting close to that." Erik said sadly.

"So he's the one who's been scaring everyone off?"

"Mostly. I only showed myself to that girl and to that lady and her husband
who used to live here. I thought they would want to be friends with me, but
they didn't, of course. They just got scared.  I got caught by a couple of
others, but he's the one who scared all of those other people away."

"Oh. I thought that was you who did all that."

"He's mad because he keeps wanting to apologize to me and I don't want to
talk to him!" Erik said as he folded his arms.

"Why don't you want to talk to him?"

"Because of what he did. I have to stay in this house all the time now
because of him."

"So if you let him apologize to you he'll go away?"

"I don't know, probably, I guess."

Quincy got up off the bed and grabbed Erik's arm. "Come on!" He said
firmly.

"What?"

"We're going to go down there and you're going to let him apologize!"

"No! I don't want to!" Erik said angrily while he pulled his arm
away. Quincy immediately grabbed his arm again.

"Yes you are! One of you in this house is way enough! Mom's already seen
him, and I don't want that ugly thing popping out at me anymore! Now come
on!"

"Ohhhh...!" Erik groaned in protest as Quincy pulled him towards the door.

The boys both went down the stairs and into the kitchen. Quincy grabbed the
flashlight out of the laundry room and opened up the basement door. He then
gestured for Erik to go down the steps.

"Come on!" Quincy said.

"No!"

Quincy held up his fist at Erik, who immediately laughed at him. "You think
I'm scared of that?"

"You should be." Quincy said. Erik just scowled and stared at the ground.

"Mattheius!" Quincy yelled into the basement,"Mattheius! Erik is here! He
has something to say to you!" There was no reply. "OK, Mattheius! We're
coming down!"

Quincy then angrily motioned for Erik to go down the stairs. Erik shook his
head and Quincy firmly gestured with a pointed finger towards the basement
entrance. Erik made a face like he had just swallowed a mouthful of sour
milk, and started down the steps. Quincy followed him close behind.

As soon as they hit the dirt floor, Quincy began moving the flashlight beam
along the wall. When the beam hit the opposite wall to the stairs,
Mattheius suddenly appeared. Quincy gasped at the sight. In addition to his
hideous face, he had a thin, blackened, skeletal body that appeared to have
maggots or something crawling all over it. His limbs were long and spindly
and almost resembled tree limbs with long, splaying fingers. The weird
stench was overwhelming. Quincy kept his bearings but he also had his eyes
squeezed shut as he held the flashlight in his trembling hands.

"Hey Mattheius..." Erik said sullenly while he looked at the ground. Quincy
opened up one eye and gave Erik a shove in the back to prompt him to
continue. "Mattheius, I know you didn't mean it. I know you're sorry. I
forgive you."

Mattheius began to shimmer a little bit. Quincy opened his eyes and stared
in wonder as the spirit began to coalesce into a typical looking teenage
boy. He had medium length dark brown hair combed on the sides into
feathers, a mild case of acne, and an athletic build. He transformed fully
and stood naked on the other end of the room. He walked slowly over to
Erik, dropped to his knees in front of him, and began to sob.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm so stupid stupid stupid
stupid stupid!" He sobbed as he punched himself in his left arm. He then
grabbed Erik's hands and held them down to his forehead."I'm so sorry I'm
so sorry I'm so sorry!!!" Erik walked forward a little and hugged Mattheius
who was crying and sobbing. Mattheius then threw his arms around Erik as he
wailed in pure anguish while he continued to scream about how sorry he was
over and over. Erik gently put his hand on the top of his head in what
almost looked like a benediction.

"I forgive you. It's already happened and it can't be changed now, but I do
forgive you. I really do. You can move on now, Mattheius." Erik said
quietly.

Mattheius looked up at Erik with his tear stained face and gave a tiny
smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." He said in a voice of relief. He
then let go of Erik after he kissed both of his hands, leaned back, closed
his eyes, and appeared to blow away like dust or sand. As Mattheius
dissipated, a slight electrical smell briefly appeared, and the temperature
in the room went up a little bit. Quincy walked over to Erik and put his
hand on his back. Erik began to sob, turned around, and put his arms around
Quincy as he began to cry onto his shoulder. Quincy put his arms around
Erik and stroked his hair.

"Shhh...it's all right, Erik. It's all right." Quincy said gently as he
held Erik. Eventully Erik stopped sobbing, and they left the basement and
returned to the bedroom. Erik then became surprisingly chipper after that,
almost as if forgiving Mattheius had unburdened him as well. Erik wanted to
go to the creek so they set out, snuck across the Williams' yard, and
headed down the path. This time they waded downstream instead of
upstream. They soon came upon an amazing sight. A group of beavers were
building a dam in the stream. Erik and Quincy sat on a fallen tree branch
by the water and watched the beavers as they toiled away.

"So why was Mattheuis so hideous looking when I first saw him?" Quincy
asked Erik.

"Because he was angry with himself." Erik said.

"So being mad at yourself can make you look like that?"

"In his case it did."

"Well, please don't ever be mad at yourself, Erik. I mean, I like you and
all, but I don't think I can handle seeing you turn into something like
that! It was bad enough when you flipped out on the street that time!"

"I was never mad at myself, but I was mad at him. Now that I'm not really
mad at him anymore, I feel sort of...lighter, you know? Thanks Quincy."
Erik then leaned over and kissed Quincy on the cheek. "I don't care if that
was gay." He smiled.

Quincy smiled, and then also leaned over and gave Erik a kiss on his
cheek. The two of them burst into giggles and briefly startled a couple of
the beavers. Quincy then noticed a tree near the stream that looked perfect
for climbing. Soon, the two boys were making their way up the thick
branches towards the top. As Quincy sat high up in the branches, he started
to wonder again why Erik hadn't "moved on". He was wondering why Erik was
still here, what was keeping him, and what he could do to help him. Could
he do ANYTHING to help him? He wanted to ask Erik, but he didn't want to
upset him, so he didn't ask anything.

"Come on Quincy, let's climb higher!" Erik said.

"I don't know, Erik. This is pretty high right now."

"I want to go right to the top!" Erik chirped as he started climbing
upwards.

Quincy got up to follow Erik. As he did, his wet sneaker lost it's footing
on the branch. As he slipped, he tried grabbing the branch above him. He
lost both his grip and his footing and he fell down towards the ground. He
could see the briar bushes and the thick tree roots coming for him as he
plunged towards the earth. He immediately thought that he was either either
dead or in a wheel chair for the rest of his days. Just as he was about to
hit the ground, he felt something grab him. It almost felt like he had hit
a trampoline that was made out of air, although he didn't bounce
up. Instead, he was slowly lowered head first into the briar bushes. He
felt the thorns all close in on him and envelope him. They were digging
into his flesh and tearing up his clothes all over. Erik then suddenly
appeared next to him.

"Quincy! Quincy! Are you OK?" He said in a panic.

"Aughhh, I've got these thorns all over me!"

Erik vanished and the thorn bushes all immediately parted away from him. He
could feel the needles all pulling out of his skin and away from his
clothes. Soon, he was lying right in the middle of a clearing between the
bushes. He got up and stepped his way out of the thorns. He was covered
with little scratches and cuts, and his t-shirt was all torn up. "Mom's
going to kill me for this!" Quincy thought. He got out and went into the
creek.

"Oh my God, Quincy! I'm so sorry!" Erik said after he reappeared.

"Dude, I should be dead!" Quincy said as he sat down in the creek with a
splash, causing the beavers to scatter. "Did you stop me?"

"Yeah, I guess I did." Erik said.

"Then you saved my life! What are you apologizing for?"

"Because you're all torn up and bleeding."

"Well that's better than being dead!" He said, to his immediate
regret. "Hey, Erik. Sorry I just said that."

"That's OK, I guess." Erik said. "Come on, let's get back to the house so
that you can get cleaned up."

Quincy and Erik headed back up the stream and got on the path towards the
house. As they slipped through The Williams' gate, Quincy saw his parents
car, as well as a white van and a small hatchback in the driveway. When
Quincy went through the side door through the garage and into the kitchen,
he was surprised to see six people standing in the kitchen, his parents,
Dr. Singh from his trip to Kaiser a few nights before, and three people
whom he had never seen, although a couple of them looked strangely
familiar.

"Quincy, what happened? You're all scratched up and soaking wet! " His
mother said as she looked him over.

"I fell into a sticker bush at the creek." Quincy said.

"Whoa! The readings just went off the chart!" One of the strangers
said. She was a young blond woman with a portable device that resembled a
laptop on a strap around her neck. She had a wandlike device that she was
waving around in front of her and a pair of headphones on.

One of the other strangers, a young man with long hair and a beard, went
over behind her and peered into her laptop thing.

"Oh my God, it's right here in the room!"

The third stranger had a handheld camera and started filming Quincy. "Mom,
Dad, what's going on?" Quincy asked.

"What's going on is that I object to all of this!" Steve said angrily from
the kitchen table.

"We're getting readings off the charts right where the boy is standing!"
The blond woman said again.

Quincy turned to Erik,who had a panicked look on his face. Erik then
vanished and Quincy turned back to the adults.

"It just went away." The woman said. "I'm still getting a reading, but it's
not in the room anymore."

"It's gone to another part of the house." The bearded man said.

"I knew it! The spirit followed Quincy into the house. That explains
everything!" Dr. Singh said. Quincy looked at him and noticed that he
looked like he hadn't bathed or shaved since he had last seen him. He also
smelled bad, and appeared to be wearing the same clothes as he had the
previous Sunday.

"Mom, Dad, what's going on?"

"What's going on is that my career is down the toilet if any of this
bullshit garbage gets out!" Steve bellowed as he stormed out of the room
and into the den.

"Quincy, these are a group of parapsychologists. They're here to check to
see if our house is haunted, Dear."

"And based on these readings just now, it is significantly!" The bearded
man said.

"Mom...?"

"Quincy!" Dr. Singh said as he leaned over Quincy and grabbed his
shoulders. "Have you had any direct contact with a spirit in this house?
Was this spirit the one who bit your shoulder?"

"There were significant readings just now when the boy walked in. I'm still
getting them, but they're not from this floor of the house. I think it must
have gone upstairs." The woman said.

Dr. Singh shook Quincy's shoulders again with a manic look on his
face. "What do you know? Have you talked to the spirit ?" He looked wild
eyed and mad.

"Mom! Dad !" Quincy cried out.

Steve then came into the room and pushed Dr. Singh off of Quincy. "You! Get
your hands off my son and get the hell out of my house right now!"

"But Steve..." Carol said as she grabbed Quincy in her arms in front of
her.

"But nothing, Carol!" Steve shouted right before he turned back to
Dr. Singh. He pulled his small Glock out of his pocket and held it up to
Dr. Singh's face. "Get the hell out of my house this instant or you're a
fucking dead man! Nobody touches my son like that!"

Dr. Singh slapped Steve's wrist and the pistol went flying. It landed
outside of the kitchen door in the hallway. He then grabbed Steve's shirt
at the shoulders. "You don't understand! Your son has made contact! This
has just been confirmed! This is history! He has made the first reliably
confirmed contact on record with the Afterlife! For the sake of science we
must..."

Steve then punched Singh full in the face, who crumpled to the floor. Steve
then picked him up by his collar and pushed him against the stairwell
wall. "Get the hell out!" He bellowed as he pushed Singh towards the front
door.

"Steve! Stop!" Carol screamed.

"Mom...?" Quincy sobbed.

Steve opened the front door, pushed Singh out, and closed it and locked
it. 'The rest of you get the hell out too!" He yelled as he went and picked
up his gun off the floor.

"No Steve! These people aren't going anywhere! This thing attacked Quincy!
We need to find it and get rid of it before it does something worse! "
Carol shrieked.

"Carol, this is all SO ridiculous!"

"There is something here! I've seen it! " She screamed.

"Sir!" The bearded guy said. "I have never seen readings this strong ever!
Before your son came in, there was nothing. When he entered the room, our
instruments went crazy! I've never seen anything like this! We must be
allowed to investigate!"

The cameraman continued filming.

"This is unprecedented. No readings of this nature have been recorded
before." The woman said as she waved her wand looking thing around.. "It's
still in the house too, just in a different part, probably somewhere
upstairs. That seems to be where the readings are coming from."

"Now do you still think I'm crazy, Steve?" Carol asked angrily.

"I want all these cranks out of my house! I can't believe that you did
this, Carol! Can you imagine what will happen if this gets made public?!"
Steve bellowed.

" This is too significant a find for us to just leave! You can bet that
we'll make sure everyone knows about all of this if you don't let us
investigate, Congressman! Your wife has already signed the release papers!
We have you on tape assaulting a man! You can bet that we'll go to the
Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, and Aunt Sally's blog if you make us leave!
I've been waiting my whole life for this level of contact!"

"Carol...!" Steve said anguished as he sank into one of the chairs at the
kitchen table. "How could you...?!"

Quincy then recognized who these people were. He ran out of his mother's
arms and bolted up the stairs full speed. He sprinted into his room and
slammed the bedroom door behind him. Erik had been hiding in the closet,
and he stepped out looking scared and confused.

"Erik! You got to get out of here! I know who these people are! They have a
device that can detect you!"

"Who are they?"

"They're The Spook Stalkers. They come on every Monday night on The Science
Channel! They're going to find you! Mom must have called them! I knew
something like this would happen!"

"There's a science channel now?"

"Never mind that!"

"What do we do?" Erik cried.

"What do you think? You gotta leave the house and go out to the shed or to
the creek or something!"

"But I can't!" Erik cried.

"Can't? Why can't? You go out with me all the time!"

"That's because you're there! I have to attach myself to you to leave the
house! Otherwise I'm stuck in here! For me to leave you have to leave too!"

Quincy then heard a commotion as the group came up the stairs.

"It's in the last bedroom to the left!" He heard the woman say in the
hallway.

Quincy went over to the window that faced the backyard. He opened it and
punched the screen out.

"Can you do what you did earlier when I fell out of the tree?"

"I don't know! I've never done that kind of stuff before!"

Quincy got on the sill. "Break my fall like before and then follow me out!"
Quincy said as he jumped out the window. Erik vanished just as The Spook
Stalkers and Quincy's mother burst into the door.

"I just lost all the readings. There's nothing now." The woman said.

Carol looked around the room in a panic. She opened the closet and saw it
empty. She then saw the open window. She leaned out of it and saw nothing
in the yard but the window screen lying in the grass below.

"Quincy! Quincy!" She yelled out the window, but there was no answer.
Quincy and Erik were already running behind the Williams' shed and were
racing full speed down to the creek. Mr. Williams, meanwhile, was watching
the unfolding scene as he calmly smoked his cigarette behind his house.


			     End of chapter 9