Part IV: Poke
“It has to be me, you said.”
”Another soon will die you said.”“She said,” Emily corrected. “But yea. That is not good. I think you may have been marked.”
“What do you mean, marked?” I asked, eyebrow raised.
“I mean,” she leaned in now, lowering her voice. “You are cursed. You might be in danger.”
Light pressed through the crack of the blinds, jostling me awake to pleasant blankness. For just a moment life was, contentment. The sound of scuttering student traffic below sparked fragmented memories of the events prior. Emily, Tim, Death, Kae, the book signing. Oh! The book signing. Being scared half to death had nearly suppressed the anxiety of the looming appearance.
I glanced down, snaking my gaze between the bed and the wall. From the third floor rooms I had a funny perspective on the morning commuters. They were not quite ants, but they weren’t people sized either. It was easy to imagine them as automatons on set paths just executing their subroutines. My dorm was a mix of spastic action and dead calm. The only kids left to leave were very well late by this time. Though our dorm had more than most. There were still a decent number of doors slamming closed echoing the halls.
‘Better check the post,’ I thought, sliding to the ladder for my bunk. Getting home was a bit of a blur. Everything, for that matter, was pretty fuzzy following the ritual. Had Emily really been possessed? Did she mean what she said? She had offered to let Tim and I stay the night, but we both really wanted out of there. Not sure if that was just a normal Tuesday night for Em,’ but it will be awhile before I try magic again.
My body was a bit stiff this morning, fighting me as I tried to descend the steps. Em’ must have really tossed me around. My ribs were sore, it felt like I had been elbowed in the eye and one leg definitely wanted to be favored. She and her roomate must work out, or something. Looking at Emily you would not expect she could lift more than a couple marshmallows held together by a toothpick.
The laptop was still in the closed position. There was a good part of me that was hoping to find is sputtering and smoking like the one Kae had communicated to us through. I slumped into my desk chair, tied my robe around my waist and slid the locking device open. Before the lid popped open, I caught a reflection in the red, glossy protective case. ‘Holy crap. What did she do to me?’ It looked like I had been through a fight, maybe several. The fear of seeing her again mounting.
The screen blinked to life, and my Facebook wall was staring back. Other than the post I had made last night there was no other activity. Not that this surprised me, but last night’s event seemed a much larger topic of conversation. My post did actually have a bit of ‘engagement,’ as my agent might say.
Chole Maeben, Tim Duncan and Emily Thompson liked your post.
Comments
Chole Maeben
“Hey!” It’s Em.’ I’m on my roomies account. Sorry for the black eye! Don’t pay attention to the buttheads. Maebe and I will be there. Can’t wait!”
Josh Wald
“Tim. You are a FREAK. So are your lame friends. That signing sounds booooring zzzz. Bye!”
Tim Duncan
“Thanks for pulling me out of that hole. Emily really smacked you hard last night, huh? XD”
I read over Emily’s post again. Her words a natural anesthetic to the pain she had caused. There was one more notification to open up.
Kendra Gustufson Poked you.
Would you like to poke back?
I shifted, now feeling nausea on top of the aching. No comment. No message. Just a poke and no other indications of life on the profile either. Even more bizarre is the timing. The ‘poke’ was around the same time as the ritual. All of this was hard to believe. Improbable, but creepy nonetheless. Part of me wanted to crawl back in bed and just wait out whatever was going on. Hide away in my room until the signing came along. Did I really need this place anymore?
My laptop pinged. Now I had a message. I saw her name. A resolve to continue leaning in to this experience formed.
Message from:
Chole Maeben: “Hey! It’s Em. My roomie just left for class and I can’t figure out how to get on my profile, again. “
”How are you?”
Zach Knight: “A little sore, honestly. Alright though. We were up kinda late huh?”
”You?”
Chole Maeben: “haha XD”
”Same, honestly. Punching you hurts!”
Zach Knight: “Hey… Do you promise this Kae stuff isn’t you? I mean. It is all so bizarre. None of it makes sense.”
”It’s a lot to handle.”
Chole Maeben: “Zach.. What are you talking about?”
Zach Knight: “It’s just creepy. I got poked by her this morning.”
”On Facebook I mean.”
Chole Maeben: “Hmmm. That doesn’t make any sense…”
”Hey! I gotta’ go. Maebe forgot a book and she is stuck in a coffee line.”
”Meet me at Kliener in like 15-20 min. Ok? *kissing face*
Zach Knight: “Yea. See you in a min.”
Another charged, confusing, but pleasant experience. Things with Em’ had a way of knocking you off axis. Those same actions also had a peculiar way of grounding you. I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to break out from the cocoon of my room, but I was hungry enough. Despite the reservations, there was a desire to talk about last night. I pulled on a pair of joggers and a hoodie and headed out to meet her.
The campus was at a peaceful in between. Those with AM routines, even the late ones, were well off to class or extra curriculars. The up at noon crowd still had awhile before their community began to stir. Typically my pace would be slow. Meandering. I liked to soak in the moments like this. Today, though, there was an extra speed in my gate. It wasn’t every day you got to discuss an insane magical ritual in a public setting, you know.
Still, there were questions echoing in my head. ‘Where had Emily learned to do that? Had she done it before? Had it ever worked? That ‘well?’ And, what the heck was this ‘another soon will die,’ crap?
Thankfully, Kliener matched the vibe around campus. Wendy, my late night conversation buddy, occupied one of the couches by the fire. The warmth of the flames was a welcome reprieve from the late morning chill, even if offset by an awkward tension. Things had been ‘off’ between us since her boyfriend scolded her for spending too much time with me. He was jealous and still in high school… and who the hell cares?
I sent a shriveling smile her direction and got a distinct nod in return. Her body language was closed and she shifted back to her book as swiftly as she could. She hunkered down in a ‘don’t talk to me’ kinda’ way, so I mad my way to the breakfast line.
There was not much left, though the couple working the café were slowly restocking the hot box. I grabbed one of the remaining pancake boxes and took a spot on one the couches opposite from Wendy. ‘You should have messaged Tim,’ popped into my head, rather invasively. I should have though. Things like this often did not dawn on me until well after I was meant to have participated in them.
“What’s up author!?” Emily shouted, making her arrival well known. It came off kind of corny, but it was earnest, if not a little offsetting. I had come to expect sarcasm and wit. Today she sounded earnest and proud. I sat for a moment with my mouth hung open. Words attempting to come out, but my brain experienced a critical syntax error.
“I didn’t know you wrote a book! That is so cool. How could you not tell me?” She punched me in the arm before throwing herself into the couch. She blew right past the awkwardness of having her tongue in my ear and, instead, went in for the friend dunk. She careened directly into me, like she had when we first met. Before I could recover, she had her hands in my food, stealing a pancake from the tray.
Emily appeared no less disheveled today. What I had thought was just a late night look for her, appeared it may be more her ‘thing.’ Pink tights were poking their way through baggy, rolled up sweats. The same PINK logo as the ones Tim had worn last night. The body suit and track jacket looked almost ‘stapled’ on to her minute frame. The 1980s scrunchie really tied the look together.
I smiled.
“Uh. I know. I had to run out and save Chloe!. All I could find this morning were her things.” She puffed loose hair out of her face and crowded the far corner of the Sofa. Still chomping away at the lifted breakfast items.
“How does such a small girl take up so much space.” I smacked my mouth closed, but it was too late. The words had been said. I had not slept particularly well and was a bit bemused by Emily’s attitude. Enough to have thought it out loud, apparently.
She didn’t seem too bothered by it though. In fact she moved in a bit closer, and… was she blushing?
“Zach,” she addressed me, a stern hint in her tone. Her whimsy faded and I prepared myself for what would come next. “I am worried about what I said.” She stopped and readjusted herself for a moment. “What ‘Kae’ said. Are you sure you heard her right?”
“I mean yeah. You were only a few inches away. What you said is burned into my brain.”
“Zach I am sorry. That has never happened before. Usually nothing happens, but I am worried about the monkey paw wish.” She returned her position close to me. Now she had her hands in my lap, cradling my hands as if prepared to tell me terrible news.
“It has to be me, you said.”
”Another soon will die you said.”
“She said,” Emily corrected. “But yea. That is not good. I think you may have been marked.”
“What do you mean, marked?” I asked, eyebrow raised.
“I mean,” she leaned in now, lowering her voice. “You are cursed. You might be in danger.”
Emily explained how monkey paws work. In reality she had never seen one before, but she had done quite a lot of reading about them. What she did know, is that things rarely turned out well. Some of the members of her coven had found one in an attic. They made a wish for money, and their lives slowly started to unravel. They received a giant windfall, but members of their families began to become ill or pass away. A lot of what they received ended up going toward medical bills.
Me; however, I had wished for something related to death. If the fate of fortune was so grim, how would this one turn out to be? Best case scenario we get the evidence needed to prove something happened to Kae. At worst?
“I have an idea,” she said. “There is this play I need to go to for theatre class later. Why don’t we spend some time in the library until then, looking up any info we can find on monkey paw curses. Then we can blow off some steam and go check out this silly play. We could both use a breather. What do you think?”
Emily asking me to hang out? The two of us had already spent more time together than I had with almost anyone else on campus. If I wasn’t roaming around at insomniac hours then I was typically locked in my room or in class. Social ‘altercations’ were not typically my thing. This seemed fun though. At the very least it could be research for a new story. It was hard to deny that it was kinda’ fun playing detective with her.
“Sure,” I said. Hiding my enthusiasm. Trying not to drool at the idea, like every other guy surely did.
“Alright. Grab us some more food though. I am starving,” Emily grinned.
Lost in contemplation, she had eaten nearly all the food straight from my tray. Other than my first few bites, before she arrived, I had hardly touched anything. Though she had no boundaries, Em’ did seem a tad guarded. I could not tell if the flamboyance was all an act, a cover for insecurity or if she genuinely was just that full of life.
“We should invite Tim, too.” She continued. Another mouthful of breakfast muffling the words. It did little to dull the edge cutting into my understanding of the moment. We had spent less than a day together, but this moment felt as if we had done it hundreds of times. Two friends, old and gray, sharing an autumn morning meal. I had felt special, just for a moment.
“Yea. I had meant to message him earlier. I wonder how he is doing?” I tried to hide my disappointment.
“Come on, let’s see if he is at his dorm.”
With that Emily polished off the rest of the second tray. There were crumbs dotting her face, mouth, clothing and nearly every inch of her being. She wiped them away with a long back handed draw and slogged down the rest of my OJ before slamming it back on the tray. She sprung up, disposing of the cups and containers, before racing for my hand to pick me up.
She yanked me from the café as I desperately grabbed for a few granola bars before we found ourselves outside again.
