The Most Haunted Story in History

Dash had fallen into a light doze when he felt something hard thunk against the back of his head.

“Ow!” he shot up; glancing over his shoulder but nothing was there. He shifted in the tub, looking around for what had hit him. Finally, he saw, on the floor right beside the top left foot of the tub, a bar of soap. Reaching over the side he picked it up, rivulets of water dripping from his arm down onto the floor. “How the hell?” Something moved, a dark shape, flittered for an instant just at the farthest reaches of his vision. He turned his head, startled, but again nothing.

“Rats.” He said aloud. They had rats here, or cockroaches. Really big cockroaches, or maybe the bug had cast a long shadow. Yeah. That sounded reasonable enough.

The water was cooling, he realized, he’d been asleep for quite a few minutes. His parents were no doubt wondering where he was, and the food had probably already arrived. Ah well, he felt a bit more relaxed now. Gripping the edged he pulled himself up into a crouch, leaned over and unplugged the tub, then stood to get out.

And felt another hard object hit him, this time on his back. He turned around fast, a bit too fast, and slipped. He fell back into the water with a large splash, sloshing big puddles out onto floor. “Ow.” He said again, rubbing his bruised arm that had hit the rim of the tub, preferable to rubbing his bruised ass that had hit the bottom of it. In the water he saw the oval shape of another soap bar, reaching in between his bent legs he retrieved the slippery object and studied it.

Something wavered in his vision and he looked up, right in front of him. There was something there, over in the corner near the soap rack, it was hard to make out, but he knew something was there. Like waves of heat coming off a hot stove, it kind of shimmered.

Light blue eyes glared defiantly at him.

He blinked in surprise, and it was gone. Just an instant, a single sweep of his eyelids, and it disappeared. Dash dropped the soap back into the water, now a scant few inches deep, and rubbed at his eyes. He felt a slight sting from the residual soap on his fingers, but when he looked around again he saw nothing out of the ordinary in the room.

“Gas leak,” he mumbled, “have to tell Dad there must be gas leak somewhere.” He sounded, even to himself, a bit hollow and shaky.

Picking himself up from the tub a second time he padded over to the towels, careful of the spilt water that, even as he looked at it, was already slowly streaming towards the floor drain under the tub. With a heavy sigh, he dried himself off and, picking up his cloths, left the tub room and after a moment, the washroom as a whole and walked briskly down to his room. Glancing suspiciously every now and then out of the corner of his eyes.

-

Danny snickered as he watched the edgy teen hurry into his room to get dressed.

“Oh no, haunted bathroom!” He said allowed, and laughed again. Two hundred years, he learned to get his amusement where he could, and that often meant laughing alone. Settling down on the carpet, because floating around in nothingness was just a bit too creepy, even after a few centuries, he walked through the door and into the room.

He hadn’t expected Dash to be leaning against the door, and so was surprised so walk right through him.

“Euuhg.” The blonde shuddered, clutching the towel around his waist. Danny did not like the feeling either, and quickly zoomed over to the other side of the room, startled. Anyone who said ghosts walked through people for the fun f it, needed to die and find out first hand. It was not fun, total invasion of privacy.

“Ass.” He hissed, but Dash didn’t hear him. With a sniff he walked over to the window seat to take another peak at those papers. He wanted to know just what was going through that old woman’s mind when she handed the years of work they’d done together over to this idiot.

Dash dropped his towel the exact moment his curtains fluttered, he stared at the thick drapes in confusion a moment before rolling his shoulders and, walking over to the bed, unzipped his overnight bag. A pair of old blue jeans and a loose shirt should get him through the rest of the day.

Kicking his pile of cloths and wet towel over into a vacant corner he flopped down to tie his shoes back on.

“I think I can like living here.” He said to himself with a smile.

“Not for long.” Danny answered with a laugh, slipping back through the curtains. “Not at all.”

Dash didn’t notice the movement this time, and simply got up to go back down to his parents. Danny stared thoughtfully after him a few moments, but decided against following him, instead he turned and disappeared into the large floor to ceiling wardrobe.

-

In case you forgot, Dash’s mom called Dash’s name when she came into the room. So Danny knows Dash’s name from then. And he will tease him about it, scared little Dash, dashing away.

Next chapter probably not coming for another week.

Or maybe it’ll come tomorrow.

Depends on whether or not I sleep tonight.

-Rin