Alibidibuddy

Years ago, Billie would’ve been the first one to roll her eyes at the mention of ghosts, to say that they were just a manifestation of someone’s subconscious, that people who claimed to encounter spirits just needed to believe this for some reason. And she still believed it, but not she understood it. So what if you needed to create an entity for some reason? It all started when she moved out of her old childhood bedroom into the master bedroom, her mother’s room, still undisturbed. Things would be misplaced, shadows seemed to move unexplicably, lights dimmed from time to time. All those things had logical explanations... but the young woman chose to disregard them. 

Everyone said that they were watching over her, that they were still there, but Billie loved the idea of a physical presence. It helped a lot, it reassured her a lot. Some days, she would just sit cross legged on the floor and she could feel -or imagine at least- the eerie weight of a ghostly arm around her, or hear encouraging whispers. Be it a ghost or a guardian angel or just her own brain’s way to heal, it helped a lot. She was standing on her own two feet now, stronger day by day, more confident. For months, the young woman struggled to figure out who she was now that she didn’t have to stand behind two incredible legends. And it wasn’t until an old photo album was mysteriously knocked down from a shelf that she came to term with what she really wanted to be: a legacy, the very best of what Debbie and Carrie were. That night, she dyed her hair brown and stared in the mirror for hours. She looked like her.

But through this self-discovery, through the painful and the nostalgic, maybe she did forget about others a little. She made new friends, she hung out with them but her mind wasn’t always there. Had she been a better friend to Colton, Billie would’ve seen the signs from a mile away. She was typing away on her computer when he told her he’d be working in his room all day, and she nodded... but for the first time in a while, she felt her heart drop at the bottom of her stomach. She couldn’t say what it was, but her gut was trying to tell her something. Surely if something was wrong he would’ve told her? They lived under the same roof, she would’ve seen it. Sudden guilt forced her to ignore it for a while.

In the middle of a sentence, her laptop shut down. “Shit.” She looked around for her charger, then remembered her roommate had borrowed it. By the time she knocked on his bedroom door, the gnawing feeling was back. When he didn’t answer, she knocked louder. Still nothing. Her heart was in her throat. Somehow Billie knew, something was wrong. Very wrong. She feared the worst and for a moment hesitated. A light breeze coming out of seemingly nowhere blew the now brown hair away from her face and she gasped. That’s something her mother used to do, whenever she got nervous or down. The friendly ghost was there, and holding her breath but emboldened by the presence, the young woman forced the door opened.

It was a little heartbreaking how quickly she assessed the scene, moved around, knew what to do. Maybe Billie should’ve been shocked when she found her friend unresponsive on his bed, anyone else would’ve. But this house had a history with these things... some witnessed by the girl. Putting her phone down and on speaker after dialling out to first responder, she got to work. She grabbed everything she could find that would be useful for the paramedics and put it in a plastic bag she shoved in her back pocket. She explained everything to the lovely operator, her voice cool calm and collected, as she worked on Colton. It was almost an out of body experience, where she completely disconnected from herself. She had to, because if she paused even for a second to think, everything would be too much. She had to keep it together for him, she had to do everything she could because he had needed her before and she didn’t see it when she should have had.