Murder Out By Caster Bridge

Chapter twenty-two

Dreaming. I was dreaming. I knew because I was laying on the blanket with Hayden and holding his hand as we watched the stars together.

And then it ended when I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but the bed under me felt off and the room seemed different even if I couldn't see properly.

I leaned over to get my glasses only for my hand to slide through the air and cause me to tumble out of bed. Instead of hitting a hardwood floor, there was carpet under me. What was going on?

Something told me I wasn't at home. I was somewhere else. But where?

I tried to wrap my head around what happened. I remembered being with Norman and following Mr. Newman and then something to do with ghosts or something like that.

Suddenly, I could hear loud voices. It sounded like yelling. I got up and used the wall since without my glasses I was blind. Feeling a cold knob, I leaned against the door.

I didn't mean to eavesdrop on a conversation between Norman and his dad, but I wants to find out what was going on.

"Why did you bring him here?"

"I didn't have a choice. He collapsed on the road. He didn't look too good."

"Then you should have taken him to the hospital."

"I couldn't do that."

"Why not, Norman?"

"Because his mother disowned him. Everyone in town knows it. Also, what if he has no insurance? He can barely afford the bills."

"So what? It isn't your responsibility to look after him. You know he's a prime suspect in these strange suicide cases."

"How so?"

"Norman, I don't have time to get into the details. But know this. Everywhere that boy goes trouble follows him."

"You are the only one to believe that." Sudden footsteps started approaching.

I quickly moved back to the bed, hitting my knee on something sharp as I did.

The door opened as Norman said, "You're awake."

Looking up, I could see his blurry outline. "Uh, yeah," I said. "Do you know where my glasses are?"

"Yeah," he said. I watched blurrily as he went over and heard a drawer being slid open and then his blurred figure walking towards me and holding them out. "Here you go. When you passed out, I took them off you and placed them in a safe place."

I took them without touching his hand and then put them on. "That's better," I said when the blurriness completely cleared. I then looked around the room.

There were posters all over the walls. Most of them were alien-related. He had a UFO one. There was one with a flying saucer over the pyramid. The ones that weren't related to aliens were punk rock bands. I knew Norman was a little weird, but that was completely strange. He also had a desk with a laptop on it with a black piece of tape over the camera and folders stacked off to the side.

Norman sat on the bed. "How are you doing?"

I looked up at him. "I'm fine."

"Uh-huh," he said. "And I am the gingerbread man which means I don't believe you."

"I know what that means, Norman. I do know sarcasm when I hear it. I am fine."

"Sure. You were the one who passed out in the middle of the road after talking to yourself or rather talking to what I presume was a ghost."

"It was multiple ghosts. Too much all at once."

"I see. Did you manage to at least talk to one?"

I nodded. "He didn't say much. Pretty much the same as the last one I saw. He wanted me to stop her."

"Who do you think she is?"

"I wish I knew. He didn't stick around long enough to tell me anything more."

"Did you get a good look at him? What does a ghost even look like? Do you feel them before they show up?"

"He was an older man. I didn't recognize him. I had never seen him. You would think I would considering I lived in this town my whole life."

Norman chuckled. "Dude, we live in a town with a population of 8,503. It's easy not to see people."

"I'm surprised you remember that," I said. "As for your other questions. Ghosts look like you and me. They don't seem different. They are a little transparent, but not much. And I don't know if I necessarily do. Did you feel anything when you pass through them?"

"I passed through them?"

"Twice," I said.

"Huh," said Norman with interest in his tone. "I didn't feel anything. Then again, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings at the time. I will have to take note of it more often."

"You do that."

"So, was it the ghosts that made you pass out like that? Because, to me, you were on the verge of collapse before that."

I sighed. "It's complicated. And I mean that because I don't understand it myself."

"Could you try? I think I at least earn an explanation for you almost passing out at the wheel."

I leaned back on the bed. "I hear memories through contact."

"Excuse me?"

"I can hear people's memories. My true talent isn't empathy. It was psychometry. But my grandmother said that my ability was too much that she ended up having to give me a potion to suppress it. But since she did, somehow the psychometry talent separated into empathy and some kind of clairaudience power. It makes no sense, honestly."

"So, you can't see anything?"

"No. Just hear. And it's not on everything. Only certain items. But almost always on people. And it usually is tied in with a certain emotion. Like when I touched you, I heard you and your father arguing. But if you asked me what it was, I couldn't tell. I'm still trying to figure this out."

Norman hummed. "Why doesn't your grandmother give you another potion?"

"Because she said it could kill me."

"Yikes. That's terrible."

It was then that Norman and I sat in silence for a while before Norman spoke up

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Who is Hayden?"

"Huh? How... Where did you hear that name?"

"From you. Right before you fainted like a total girl, you said Hayden. Is he your boyfriend?"

"I wish," I mumbled as I fell back on Norman's bed. "But sadly he's not. He is engaged to a woman. We aren't allowed to be with each other."

"Why? You like him, right?"

"Of course I do. I always have. I had thought he liked me back considering..."

"Considering what?"

I looked at him. "Promise you won't laugh or be weirded out?"

"You two didn't...do the deed, did you?"

I scrunched my nose in disgust. "No. We simply kissed. Why would you even think that?"

Norman rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I didn't mean to ask that. It's just... You read things online."

I sighed. "Not all of us are like that. I'm not. The internet is a weird place and you can't believe half of it."

"I see." He then smiled. "So, you guys kissed. Was it your first?

"My first true kiss, yes."

"True kiss?"

"Well, I never told anyone, but Zelda Goodman kissed me when we were twelve. I pushed her away."

"Is that when she started bullying you?"

"Almost. It was a year later when she started the bullying nonsense."

Norman hummed but didn't say anything else about instead he asked, "So, how do you know Hayden doesn't like you back?"

I thought back to our kiss. "I honestly don't know. I do know that his mother doesn't approve."

"How do you know?"

I sighed. "Because she caught us."

"In the middle of the kissing action."

"What?" I asked, horrified. "No. No. Gods, no."

Norman threw his hands up. "Sorry. Just had to ask."

I rolled my eyes. "She caught us when Hayden and I were in this meadow. We were just chatting and talking about the stars and then...then she just showed up."

"Man, that sucks."