039. Fictional creatures

“Do you believe in the ghosts?”, said Donnie. “That a spirit can leave the body and go somewhere else?”

Boyd eyed him in disbelief.

“You're kidding, right?”

It was a stupid question. They were staying the night in a supposedly haunted house, weren't they? Anyone who truly believed the stories about this place would be nuts to spend even ten minutes here.

"Yes or no?" Donnie stared back. Eyes flat. He was being serious.

"No”, said Boyd, “Of course not, man".

His eyes flicked around the room. It was huge. One time, long ago, it had been the dining hall of this old mansion. They had lit well over twenty candles but big chunks of the room still bathed in darkness.

Every now and then the wind would crash into the exterior walls and the wooden mansion would creak as if someone walked upstairs. Or tried to break through the walls. How had Donnie talked him into this?

"I think I do”, said Donnie, “I believe in ghosts”.

He cupped his hands in front of his mouth and blew heat onto them.

“Maybe. The definitions seemed simpler way back when.

“When they had devils and werewolves and sea monsters. Witches, and succubi, and creatures in the woods that would coax gullible men to do stupid shit.

“We've rationalized away true evil and substituted it with mental health issues.

“Like we know so much about the world. We split the atom and decided we'll be our own Gods. It's all so subjective, right? We get all caught up in definitions of reality and everything needs an explanation that doesn't spring from fiction. There's no monsters. Just sick people.

“But fuck that shit. What do we know? Maybe there's someone on death row right now that had to slaughter a bunch of people just to stop a zombie outbreak? We don't know.

“Or, like, right now? I don't know if I've got a tumor making me see shit, if it's the shrooms I put in our water or if the lady behind you is an actual ghost”.

A spiky chill shot through Boyd. It grabbed hold of him like a tentacle that reached up through his ass and replaced his spine one vertebra at the time. But when he turned around there was no one there. Just his shadow dancing on the wall. He could almost feel his bowels unclench. Fucking Donnie.

“There's no one there, Donnie”, he said and, internally, “Asshole”.

"So you can't see her, then."

Boyd shook his head and turned back around. He tensed up. Donnie had a knife. Where had Donnie found a knife?

“Where'd you find the knife, Donnie?”

“You can't hear her either?”

“No, man”.

“Oh”

The hint of a smile teased at the corner of Donnie's mouth but Boyd found no comfort in it. He wasn't fucking with him. This wasn't the smile Donnie sometimes let slip when he hid Boyd's car keys or tried to gull him into believing he'd slept with his sister. This was the dreamy, drugged smile of a man seduced.

“Guess it's just me then”.

"What's she saying, Donnie?", Boyd asked, careful to not stare on the knife so hard he lost sight of the man holding it.

Donnie sat with his head cocked slightly, listened intently, and stared at a point somewhere slightly above Boyd. The knife hung loose between the fingers of his right hand.

“She says that she's lonely. And it's such a big house to be lonely in, every room a reminder of a life lived so long ago it'd be history if anyone cared to remember. But all the people that could have remembered have moved on so she's left here to carry on for them, in an echo chamber of loneliness.

“Every now and then people, people like us, Boyd, come to tell stories and to try frighten each other and she sits by them and feels their warmth and tries to remember what it was like to have a heart beat and for a moment she gets to be a little bit less lonely. But the people always leave.

“She thinks she'll go crazy soon. She has no one to talk to. She's forgotten the names of her parents. She doesn't know when she was born. There are so many things that are slipping away from her.

“It takes awhile to create a monster. But eventually, time takes everything. It's a cruel thing, time. First, it takes your youth. And then your body. And if you stay around long enough it'll take away your humanity. Peel it away just to see what's below.

“Someone needs to stay here to keep her sane”.

Donnie finally seemed to notice Boyd. Horror had crept into him, pushed his eyes wide open and frozen him to the spot.

“Oh, don't worry, Boyd”, he said and stood up. His right hand had started to clench the knife. The knuckles on that hand were pale.

“She says that she likes you”.