The boy finishes his tale

Note: Sorry for the delay in posting this as November has now come and gone but I've been very busy, hopefully it won't take too long to finish but given how busy work has been it may still take some time.

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The boy stuck close to the professor, IT was lurking behind them but was keeping ITs distance. The trees around the campus were mostly denuded of leaves and the orange glow of the lighting around the edge of the campus gave them a slightly menacing aspect. It was truly cold, the boy shivered and wondered what he’d been thinking when he chose his outfit. After all Jamie reasoned, although she’d recently outgrown the obsession with pink that she’d had since childhood, she still had that nice coat that her Nana had bought her with some winnings from the lottery. She smiled thinkin’ of when her Nana gave her the coat, she’d seemed so happy, she’d said she suited it, that it made her look even prettier, but she supposed her Nana always said things like that.

The boy’s smile turned to a frown something was wrong there; he knew why he wasn’t wearing any girly coat even if his Nana had bought it. He worried that his mind kept wandering; he needed to keep focused on the task in hand. He supposed it was the stress and tiredness that he felt that made him so distracted.

Charlotte saw the frown but decided against asking and they soon arrived at the hotel opposite the university. Once they’d quickly checked in they headed to Charlotte’s room and ordered room service.

As they waited for it to arrive the boy continued his tale “I think I ran for a good ten minutes and arrived at our usual startin’ bar a bit dishevelled, the others were already there, so I tald them what happened. We spent the next hour or so comin’ up with a plan it seemed like a goodun. Well it seemed like that at the time anyway, so we decided to celebrate by gettin’ merry.

I think I was quite drunk by the time it hit me. Somethin’ had been botherin’ us al nite about Lee, he didn’t seem like his usual self; I assumed it was worry and al. We were heedin’ to another bar and I was fair jumpy at the shadows and wanderin’ a bit behind them, when a group of lads passed by and made sort of kissy kissy gestures towards his back. It al suddenly hit us about what had been different about him. Lookin’ at him normally I just saw what I always saw which was a fairly slobby boy, but when I actually paid close attention to him I saw that he looked totally different. He was sort of dressed well smartly I suppose, if a bit unisex, but the real change was the way he was actin’ it was well sort of effeminate. It’s not somethin’ I like admittin’ to but I was sort of relieved that the girl had turned her attention to him instead of me, or least that’s what I thought as me hair hadn’t suddenly grown agin. It was freaky though that we hadn’t noticed him changin’.

I decided to talk to him when we got to the new bar, so grabbed him and dragged him to one side after getting’ me drink. I asked him about what he was wearin’ but he didn’t seem to have much of a clue what I was gettin’ on at. I got a gradual sinkin’ feelin’. It got worse when I asked if he’d gone home to get changed for the nite owt as I remembered him wearin’ his usual slobby clothes this mornin’ and was hopin’ that he’d just decided to make some effort like he some times did on nites owt. He said he hadn’t, I wasn’t sure how to break this to him, as I didn’t really want a scene at the bar. If I was a girl I would have dragged him to the bogs, but I thought he’d might find that peculiar.

By this time he was getting’ worried, he could see I was tryin’ to get at somethin’, he looked in a mirror behind the bar and he still didn’t get it, but then again he was always remarkably dense. It probably didn’t help I was tryin’ to be tactful. I eventually asked if he ‘normally wore this type of clothes?’ He still looked confused so I gave up and decided I needed a less subtle approach. I went to tell Chris, as he was as about as subtle as a sledgehammer. He soon saw what I’d seen and as I’d expected soon had Lee up to scratch. He didn’t cope very well with it, although he seemed to be gettin’ obsessed with bein’ a tad fey; but he was always a bit bigoted like that. Frankly I was tempted to tell him he needn’t worry about that for long.

We decided to stay owt as there was nowt we could really do about Lee, he wasn’t te happy about it, but we wanted to forget things. Still eventually, it was time to gan back, but I insisted we get a taxi and I was soon in me bed and asleep with the light on.

Next mornin’ was disturbin’ as I woke up with hair in me eyes, it had grown back durin’ the nite even longer, fortunately me parents were up so I got me Dad’s electric razor and shaved it off before havin’ a shower. I nicked meself a couple of times like doin’ it though. I then discovered I had another problem as I was gettin’ dressed as half me kecks had been replaced by girl’s knickers. I was havin’ none of that so I grabbed them along with the scrunchies and some hair brushes that seemed to have appeared and flung them in me bin with the hair I’d chopped off.” The boy stopped at the knock at the door as room service delivered their food to the room.

He picked at his Caesars salad as he continued “I’d thought the mornin’ had started out bad but then it got weirder when I got downstairs and walked into the sittin’ room and everyone just stopped and looked shocked. I was puzzled, I wondered what had happened now, I think Jake said ‘bloody hell’. I had to knaw so I asked them ‘what?’ Me Mam then had a reet gan at us about cuttin’ off me hair; it developed into a bit of a barney. I think it was probably my fault as I was annoyed with her as up till then she’d always been naggin’ us to gut me hair. It didn’t end until I stormed off round Mands to tell her our plan.

I got the same sort of shock from her parents as mine, and decided to just go with I fancied a change to stop al the questin’. Anyway I was about te tell Mands the plan, when her mam got a call. Mands’ mam sounded quite concerned as she spoke on the phone so we nebbed in to find owt what was ganin on. Al we heard were things like ‘is she ok?’ and stuff like that; both Mands and me got a sinkin’ feelin’.

Her Mam was soon off the phone, and cam in te see us. She told us it was ‘Lisa’s Mam’ on the phone, apparently ‘someone’ had trashed her room whilst we’d been out last nite. They’d had the police round and everythin’ there were there now taken statements. She said the others had had a similar thing happen, everyone was quite upset. She’d built up a head of steam by now and was havin’ a reet rant on, to be honest I wasn’t really listenin’ as I’d sank into a funk thinkin’ how we were already down by two, with only four left. I was also puzzled why me room hadn’t been trashed.

It was then that Mands interrupted her mam and asked if we could be alone. Well when her mam had gan she asked us if I’d heard what her mam had said. I tald her na I hadn’t really been listenin’, so she tald us how her mam had been rantin’ about how people could be so closed minded just because someone wants to gan by a girls name and wear women’s clothin’.

That cheered us up as we weren’t down another yet so I called Lee’s mobile. The voice that answered it sounded nowt like him though so I thought I’d better ask ‘is that Lisa?’ That got a groaned ‘not you as well man!’ from him. So I apologised and asked him how he was doin’. He told us apart from shrinkin’ a bit and loosin’ some tone he was still himself, well apart from everyone wantin’ to call him Lisa and the change in his wardrobe. I also asked how his parents had found out about his room been wrecked as we’d agreed to keep this thing between ourselves. He admitted that he may have made a bit of noise when he’d found the mess but then he had to gan as his parents wanted him.

I called round the others, they’d been equally indiscreet when they discovered the damage and were bein’ distracted with police and stuff. It looked like it would only be me and Mands that could put our plan into action, so I tald her about our plan to get the vicar involved and we set off to tell him.

We didn’t get far as Mam cam round just then, Lee’s mam had phoned ours as well. I got a reet lecture about why I hadn’t tald them somethin’ was wrong, if this was why I’d shaved me head, how I shouldn’t let people affect how I behave and on and on. It was time for lunch before she was done and I was dragged back for that.

Mam takes Sunday lunch seriously so it wasn’t till four before I tried to sneak off. I was fairly sick by then anyway they were all actin’ dead concerned even Jake it was getting’ on me nerves. I didn’t manage to leave though as Dad said ‘it’s getting’ dark, you shouldn’t risk it after what happened last nite’. I tried arguin’, I thought about sneekin’ out but Mam can be like a hark at times, I thought of tellin’ them I was ganin to church but I doubted they’d believe me. I even thought of tellin’ them the truth but then thought about what if this thing started after them or if the girl decided to start doin’ funny things to Jake or Dad. It wasn’t worth the risk.”

The boy looked at his salad, he hadn’t really eaten much but he wasn’t hungry. He looked at Charlotte “I’d hoped I could risk tellin’ you?”

To her shock Charlotte found that she actually was beginning to believe the girl. “We’ll see what we can do, but tell me what happened about the vicar?”

“Well nothin’ happened that nite. I slept with the light on again, but in the mornin’ the hair was back and al me kecks had gone. I decided to gan commando rather than wear knickers but givin’ the argument the day before thought it best to leave me hair alone. I got another lecture about been careful before I could heed off to college though. The others were already there; I wasn’t really surprised when Lisa turned up and admitted she was al girl now. Chris was late as we planned ‘operation get the vicar in’, but he was always late so we weren’t surprised.

The plan was simple in that we’d planned to skip college, go to the local vicar, tell him what was ganin on and get an exorcism performed. It didn’t work out quite so easily though, you’d be surprised how hard it is to try and convince one that you’re bein’ haunted. We tried the CofE a couple of times and the Methodists, and they were havin’ none of it. Honestly what’s the point of havin’ them if they’re not ganin to do anythin’ about ghosts!

After wasting most of the day we eventually got an evangelical minister to perform one, I wasn’t that impressed with it at the time, it seemed to be more some weird sort of blessin’ than anythin’ designed to solve our problem. We were even less impressed when we left the church and saw it sort hidin’ in the shadows of the car park. Lookin’ back maybe we should have gone to a catholic church, they’ve been in the business longer, they’re probably more kosher.

Anyway with that as a busted flush we heeded round Kev’s to try and plan what to do next. It was only when we got there that we realised Chris still hadn’t turned up. I tried callin’ him but he didn’t answer. So we agreed I should gan round to his to see what was up, whilst the other geniuses came up with a plan to get us owt of this mess.

It didn’t tak long to get there and his dad answered the door lookin’ knackered but he seemed happy to see us. He shouted for Chris and was then ganin on about how he was surprised nee one else had visited, I wasn’t sure what to mak of that. I found owt when Chris cam in, he was well on the way to the other side, and he also looked shattered.

I asked what had happened, he said well apart from the usual as he pointed to the girlish top and jeans he was wearin’, he’d had a bad time of it. Apparently after the cops left on the Sunday, he’d taken it upon himself to do a bit of research around this Sally girl. He’d not really found much but he said as he’d been on the net he got this gradual creepin’ feelin’ that he was been watched, it eventfully forced him to give up as he was gettin’ te worried. He claimed he’d been jumpy all nite and when he went to bed slept with the light on. Anyway seemingly sometime durin’ the nite he was woken up by a loud crackin’ sound and found himself in the dark.

He said that he tried to sit up but couldn’t, something was holdin’ him down, he claimed he looked at his chest and that thing was crouchin’ over him. He apparently screamed and had a bit of a fit, which got his parents attention. He’d then tald us he’d tald them everythin’, he said they’d not believed him. In fact the way they reacted seemed to him to imply that they thought he was havin’ a breakdown, he started worryin’ about bein’ sent to a shrink. His parents even insisted that he not gan to college that day.

He needn’t have worried however about any of that, he said his parents seemed to forget as the day progressed, they remained worried but seemed just concerned about him. It wasn’t till sometime in the afternoon that he noticed the changes happenin’ to himself, although he seemed quite resigned to it. I wasn’t really that surprised when Chrissie turned up at college the day after. But then again we al had a pretty bad nite that nite, windows were smashed, police were called, it was al a bit unpleasant and I think we were al sort of thinkin’ about other things by then.

We were al fairly worked up, everythin’ we’d done had seemed to make matters worse, we decided to see what would happen if we did nowt for a day. It worked, we al had a peaceful nite that nite. That’s when we cam to the conclusion that investigatin’ this seemed to make it worse and I think me, Kev and Craig went into a bit of denial about everythin’, especially as not much happened for the next couple of days. Well apart from the continuin’ creepin’ changes to me room.

We just sort of coasted along on a wave of fatalism really. But then Craig changed durin’ the course of a maths class, which was disconcertin’ to watch. Then Kev went over the course of last week. To be honest I don’t think even that would have knocked us out of me sense of denial even though I was still gradually changin’.

I think it was after I went round Hels last Tuesday to try and sort out the strained relationship between her and me that I was knocked out of me stupor. When I got there I was shocked that Mark thought me and him were now an item, it was a bit embarrassin’ tryin’ to get out of there really. He was bein’ really sweet though but it was just so weird, it didn’t help that Hels seemed to want to be best girlfriends. I probably wasn’t as polite as I could have been leavin’, but I just couldn’t cope with any of that. Still it was on the drive back from Mark’s that I saw that thing followin’ us home, I thought we’d got rid of it but there it was again and I got the feelin’ it weren’t too happy either. I didn’t sleep that well that nite and I was even more worried when me Dad woke us. Me car had been wrecked, me parents were havin’ a fit but I knew what had happened, I just didn’t know why, we’d been leavin’ everythin’ well enough alone. Anyway I decided if leavin’ it alone hadn’t done any good I’d try to find a solution, which one way and another led to me find you and comin’ on over here.” The boy finished he felt so tired but also relieved that he’d finally told his tale, he looked expectantly at Charlotte.

She paused thinking, then looking at the girls pink backpack said, “That’s quite some story, I would say that you seem convinced but that makes me wonder why you haven’t brought out your evidence.”

“It’s risky.”

“I think I’m big enough to handle it, besides even if what you say is true I’m already a girl.”

He paused she seemed pleasant and he didn’t want to risk anything but he’d come this far. “Ok, I suppose it’s what I came here for”, stated the boy as he reached into his backpack to retrieve the Ouija board he purloined from Karen. He placed it on the bed.