When I was a kid I hated darkness: I was scared shitless of the monsters and the ghosts that could hide in it.

It's normal for kids, no one thought much of it.

Then I grew to be a teenager and I was still scared of the darkness; that's when you think “That's still normal: rapists, murderers, thieves, right?” Nope, still monsters.

I'm 23 now and I swear, I still run to my bed after I turn off the lights, and lie in bed with my phone's flash on for hours before I can fall asleep.

Now I see that I had always been right until today. Today I said, fuck monsters, I'm getting laid tonight.

Tonight I was wrong.

I'd like to say that I yelled like a man and started running faster than a cheetah when I saw that… That thing, but I sounded like a little girl, and I fell on my ass and started crying.

If the thing wasn't going to kill me already, I could have died of embarassment.

-HOLY SHIT.

I started crawling backwards and I couldn't stop staring at the mouth of the creature that was slowly floating towards me.

It wasn't really a mouth I guess, it was just a huge black hole that oozed black goo and not only it was scary, but also fucking gross.

I had a lot of feelings sucker punching each other in that moment, including a slight surprise as I expected to be just fucking terrified of facing my deepest fear.

As my back touched the wall and I was starting to accept my fate a loud bang came from my right and the door slammed open.

Some random twink came with a pipe and hit the thing with it. I was being saved by Bill fucking Kaulitz's sad cousin.

-What the fuck was that?

The took a box out of his bag and started to talk to it.

Nuts

-Who the fuck are you?

He crouched and started drawing circle white powder around me.

-That was a ghost. Welcome in Wonderland, Alice. Now sit and stay.

I would have barked at him but the thing appeared right behind his back. My expression probably gave it away, because he stood and threw some of the white powder over his shoulder, and the ghost faded.

-Stay- he repeated -and don't break that circle- and then he left the room.

I was alone once again, and this time I was fucking terrified. Sitting still had never been so hard.

The front gate slammed and the door to the door I was in creaked.

-IT'S THE WIND- I yelled to the ghost. I had no idea what I was doing, but maybe ghosts worked like fairies?

They didn't, instead it almost looked like I had just summoned it, it appeared right in front of me, inches away from my face.

-Shit!-

I backed away pushing my back to the wall, the ghost lookedlike it was trying to push through an invisible wall.

Then light came through the window, and it looked like dawn, the ghost started crippling and falling to pieces, until all was left was ashes.

I stood, back to the wall, not knowing what I was supposed to do. Was it over? Was I supposed to just stand there like an idiot for the rest of my life?

Twink ghostbuster guy came in the room, the moment he took the first step in the room the ashes flew away as if they were blown away by a strong wind.

-Free to go, go home and forget all about this.

-Are you serious? I just got attacked by a ghost!

-Yep, and you gotta be thankful it was the ghost I was hunting and not some psycho.

He's a frigging ghostbuster alright

-Why were you hunting a ghost?

-Why were you alone in a haunted house?

At that I felt my cheeks burning a bit, I was real thankful for the dim light. I was in that crazy place because I was waiting for a lady that I met online. Not really romantic meeting in an old creepy shack, but hey, anything for the ladies right?

Hearing my silence, the guy rolled his eyes.

-Your fuck buddy is not gonna come, alright? Just leave this place, people are probably gonna be here soon for the fire.

So the light out of the window was a fire?

Now that he made me notice, I could hear the crippling sounds of something burning. I decided to avoid to ask if he started it, and what was burning. It was time to go as far as I could from that weirdo.

-Uh sure, I'll… I'll go-

-You do that- he answered and he winked at me. Weirdo.

____

When I woke up the day after I felt like I was hungover. I had an awful headache, and I was pretty sure I had had nightmares all night. I remembered flashes of images that I saw, but I wasn't sure which were nightmares and which were reality.

It really started as a shitty day, but the soothing smell of coffee dragged me out of it a little bit.

I was living with a high school classmate of mine, we went to college together and he was a morning person. Well, morninger than me at least, let's say that in the weekend he woke at ten and I woke around noon.

He always prepared coffee first thing after shower, because we were both very groggy after waking up. It felt like routine which I guess was nice after yesterday's mess.

-Hey dude- he said without sparing me a glance. -How did the date go?

-I was almost eaten by a ghost.

-Uh-uh.

He was reading the news on his phone, like a techno-friendly grandpa.

-Is that why you set fire to the place?

I poured myself a cup of coffee, I didn't blame him for not believing me, I kinda had hoped that he wouldn't.

I peeked at the article above his shoulder, they found a circle of kitchen salt in the house, and the remains of a fire in the graveyard.

I hit the salt bottle with my elbow, and some spilled on Hunk.

-Dude! What are you doing? It's bad luck!

He pinched some of the salt that had spilled on the table and threw it over his shoulder, giving me the biggest deja vu I had in a while.

Oh.

I went to work early, I wanted to get busy and distracted, but when I got to the Altean Library it was empty. No desperate students, no old geezers sitting around, not even the homeless guy that stopped by to read Greek poetry.

I picked up some books from the basket, wrote down the titles and started reshelving them. I wasn't really looking for their place, I was just walking idly around the aisles, looking at the dusty titles.

It was really quiet but the soft light coming through the windows made it feel cozy and safe rather than creepy, and I was starting to get sleepy.

I heard a light clicking sound, I froze completely. I put my back to the shelves and held my breath. No, it couldn't be, he lived a normal life until then, that weird shit wasn't gonna happen two days in a row. Anyway I slowly moved towards the end of the shelf, trying to be as quiet as I could. I heard a light hissing sound. My heart was going at it like crazy, the sound stopped; then there was some shuffling, and after that it was quiet again. I peeked just a little be, just to be sure if I had to stop being a kid or run, just a little glance…

-AAAH!

-AAAAAAH!

-You're such an idiot!

-Pidge! What the hell are you doing here?

-What does it look like?

She gestured to all the huge books surrounding her, she was sitting on the ground with her laptop open.

-Uh research?

-Well library things! Why are you here so early by the way? I usually don't see you for at least two more hours.

-Rough night, didn't wanna stay home

-Alright- she said, and she went back to her research. I don't know if I was more relieved or disappointed that she didn't ask me about my secret ghost story.

The morning went slow, there were a few people at the desks, after a while Pidge took a break from her research, and we started sharing memes and trying to laugh as quiet as possible. Pidge was crying, such a nerd. Of course I wasn't… crying.

-Hey Pidge, do you believe in ghosts and stuff?

-Yep- she said, without even blinking -Why you met one?

-Yeah, one tried to kill me last night, but Gerard Way's korean son saved me.

-You share some of that stuff you smoke to sleep one day, alright?

I didn't even try to push it further, I was satisfied with that. It was kinda funny that no one would believe me, I could just tell everyone about it. Of course I also felt like I was just going fucking nuts.

At lunch time Pidge went to a McDonald's close by and got us some food.

-How could you get salad at mcDonald's?

Pidge rolled her eyes as she opened the little bottle of oil and took like three portions of salt from the bag. I stole one, just in case.

-It's a Caesar salad, Lance! And I like it.

-Yeah sure- I said biting into my burger -And you're putting olive oil on it?

-Shut up- she said, but she was smiling -I'm not the one sporting bbq sauce all over my face!

We chatted a bunch during lunch, spending time with Pidge was easy, she was like my little sister: we liked the same stuff, we fought over food, and we fought over who got to play games on the couch in the staff room when days were slow.

We used to look at people stepping in and tried to guess what section they'd go for, extra win if we got one that went for the erotica. I usually won, but today Pidge guessed some teen getting Oscar Wilde's big book with all of his works, including erotica. Dang.

So she spent most of the day on steam on her laptop, while I was reading some comics at the counter.

I heard the door opening, and I instinctively looked up and I wish I hadn't. The guy was there, the ghostbuster guy walked in and went down the fairy tales section. So, since that wasn't shady at all, I started following him around. He took one book from the shelf but wasn't actually reading it, he was looking at his side, glancing at a student that probably fell asleep in the middle of a studying session.

Weirdo.

He put the book back and went to the staff room. There was Pidge gaming, I stayed at the door. I must say, I felt kinda cool.

-Hey there wasn't anyone at the counter, I just really need to use the toilet.

Pidge looked annoyed hearing that I wasn't doing my job, but she showed him where the toilet was and went back to her games.

He disappeared from my field of vision, and I was about to step away when he opened the door and found me peeping like a perv.

-Uh, hi?

-Are you following me?- it looked like he wanted to yell but he was whispering.

-I work here, are you following me?- I whispered back

He scoffed and pushed me to the side.

-Go keep company to your friend, I can't babysit you this time.

-Rude.

He didn't pay attention to me, he just went towards the toilets looking pretty on edge.

-Lance, where the fuck were you?

-That's Gerard's… Listen, you gotta stay at the counter for a bit, please? I'll let you have the couch next time too.

She shrugged, and went to the desk with a sigh, I followed the guy again. He went in the ladies' toilet. Oh well.

He didn't even go in a stall, he instead proceeded to take a dead chicken out of his bag. He put it on the floor. Next thing he took out of his bag was a snake skin, he put it in the shape of a ring around the chicken. The toilet was starting to smell weirder.

He stepped back and he took a mirror from the wall. He saw my reflection in it.

-What are you doing here?- he went pale and looked very pissed off.

-Go away now!- it was kinda scary.

Then I saw something moving in the sink, coming up the tube, it was scaly and white…

-CLOSE YOUR EYES!

I did, and I heard gushing, and cracking, and the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.

Then something approached me. With my eyes squeezed shut I took a few steps back, but I found myself against the wall. I could hear light steps on the wet floor of the bathroom, I could hear the light sound of something breathing very close to me, and I could almost feel the heat.

I reached in my pocket and tore the little bag of salt open and threw it in the general direction where the sound was coming from.

-Really, salt?

-It worked last time!- I kept my eyes shut for good measure.

-Yeah but this was a cockatrice, not a ghost.

-What would I know?

-You can open your eyes now.

-How can I know you're you?

-You can't, just open your eyes!

I slowly opened my eyes, the scene was way less bloody than I expected: the snake skin was broken and the dead chicken was still there, and close to It there was some clay, and some sand.

-Do you do this for a living?-

-Kind of- he shrugged.

He didn't look like he was up for some chat, and I wanted to go away as soon as possible, but I stayed there for some reason and looked at him while he cleaned up after his mess. There was something about him, something weird and unpleasant. Maybe it was just some pavlovian shit going on, but is seemed too early for that. No, it was something in his appearance...

-Are you still here?- he asked

-Nope! Leaving, and I honestly hope I never see you again.

-I get that a lot- he smiled -And right back at you.

…He has a fucking mullet.