Chapter 3 - Peaceful

Hayden -

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Between work, my studies, and that stupid rave I've been feeling so tired. I'm typically an exciting guy who loves to tell stupid jokes or even tell people exaggerated stories just to entertain them. That's how I always work. But for some reason, I feel burned out so much that I don't even want to go back to campus.

When I visit Spirit, I tell a half-assed story about me being a hero and saving the people from some treacherous monster, resulting in some terrible scars. Of course, the truth was that I went out, planning on going back to my car, when a cop car ran me over.

I tell the stories one after the other, and usually Spirit believes every single one of them. Like the one where I said that our ex-friends convinced a random boy to confess to her. Yeah, well, I knew that the dude actually liked her, so I made sure to embarrass him and make up so many lies about him so that Spirit wouldn't like him at all.

I have tried to embarrass every single guy that Confessed to Spirit, even scared off some guy she was dating, which I honestly understand now that I was in the wrong. But I don't want her to just go out with some guy when he has one right in front of her.

You can call it jealousy, but it's hard when you're trying your hardest to make your bestie fall for you.

That's why I tell her so many lies just so I can seem cool, and maybe I overexaggerated this one, but it made her happy.

"Dude, that's the shittiest story I've ever heard. But it's so shitty, it's funny," Spirit cackled.

Hearing her laugh will always make my day. But hearing her call me dude didn't.

"What's wrong? Oh my god, your stupid smile always makes my day."Spirit sympathetically asked

I guess we both like each other's smiles.

"Nothing really; I'm just so damn tired. I have no energy for anything," I admitted, sighing.

Spirit hugged me forcefully.

"Hugging someone I care about always helps whenever I feel tense about something. Maybe you need to hug someone or talk to someone about it," Spirit suggested, hugging me tightly.

Why do I always feel so nervous whenever she's close to me? I've been with her for almost ten years and have never felt as nervous as I do now. Why do I have to like her? She makes life even harder for me.

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you, but yeah, I actually saw the JD fan in person at the mansion," Spirit explained, and then stopped hugging me.

Why is she calling Jeffery Dahmer JD?

"Wait, you decided to tell me this now. Right now." I looked at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay, listen. You must understand that the insane killer is actually the hottest man alive," Spirit says, and I start shaking my head.

"Oh no, no, no, Spirit." I was so disappointed in her.

"You don't understand how fine the guy was. I could've died just by looking at that Greek god of a man," Spirit exaggerates, then pretends to faint.

"Girl, that man is a killer." I wasn't even surprised because Spirit will call anybody with a face 'fine.

"But he is a handsome one. The best way to die is to die in the hands of a god," the Spirit squealed.

You see, because she acts like this around me, I forget how she has social anxiety.

"But anyway, my dad said that his team would search for the killer. While I heal," Spirit informed

Heal? She seems fine to me. What is this other excuse to not come back to class? Or campus in general?

Every time she's sick or badly injured, she always makes an excuse to stay away from university for as long as possible. Or at least stay in her room.

I just truly hope she gets better. Even though she did say her anxiety wasn't as bad, she's still not good.

A few days later, in the middle of the hallway, there were a bunch of photos of different students who died in that mansion. A few surrounded it and either cried or took videos. They couldn't keep their phones out of their hands for two seconds just to honor someone who died; instead, they posted about it.

One of the pictures in the middle was of a girl with her eyes gauged out and red lipstick x'ed out on her face, who I could only assume was How could people be so disrespectful and think of something so cruel? Even I'm a person who's never seriously known when something is taken too far.

Tiffany may have been a spoiled rich kid, but she didn't deserve this.

'Yeah, she did'

I turned around, hearing what I thought was a man talking to me. No one was behind me, just students walking by. I could feel my heart beating fast, which made no sense because it was just a random sound, but it felt so weird, and the voice was so menacing.

This random voice just gave me memories.

A creep that no one liked. But then everyone found out he raped one of my ex-friends, which was what caused him to get so much hate. Afterwards, everyone avoided him and even tried to ruin his life online. Then a rumor went out that he was going to assault Spirit just because of the way she was, and because he was too friendly with her, because Spirit rejected him out of nowhere, he committed suicide, and that Spirit had seen the whole thing unfold.

This one dude ruined the friendship between us, our ex-best friend, and Spirit's mentality. He was a curse from the beginning; he belongs in hell for everything he's done. This voice reminds me of that curse, and god, it's unsettling.

The candles went out, and the sound of a door closing caught my attention due to how loud it was. I saw a person far away in the distance looking in my direction. He was right across from me and staring at me. As soon as someone walked by my line of sight, he was gone. I immediately went to the left and went to my dorm.

Skipping a few classes for the day isn't such a bad idea. Maybe I need a break from everything so that my mind doesn't see crazy things again.

I lay in bed with my face buried in my pillow. I think to myself that maybe a break was truly all I needed. I need to stop overthinking things sometimes or just stop thinking in general. A break is what I need, and that's what I'm having.

The lightbulb in my room shatters, scaring me and hurting me as a glass shard from it penetrates my left hand. I am being forced to get up; why can't I relax?

I took the glass shard out of my hand, which was very painful. But I put a bandage on it and cleaned up the glass mess.

I was about to go back to bed when something rolled off my counter. I decided that maybe my room wasn't such a good place to be, so I left.

Right outside was a black and white bunny. I looked at the bunny, confused. My roommate didn't have any pets, and he rarely ever saw him leave his room, so whose bunny is this?

I cautiously went over to pet the bunny, and it didn't bite me or turn into a monster and kill me, so it's not dangerous.

I picked up the bunny and rubbed it, which felt oddly calming. I needed something calming, and thankfully I had something that wasn't trying to stress me out.

I lay on the couch and play with the bunny.

Finally, some peace and quiet.