Roommate from Hell, Chapter 3, Julie Steimle [bookstand for reading txt] 📗

was psycho!”
I set a hand to my head and leaned on the wall. So that was it.
“You are psycho!” Dawn shouted back, jumping off her bed. “You had a dream. Obviously a nightmare! Nobody has wings!”
“It wasn’t a dream! I went to her room to confirm she was missing!” Tabitha’s voice had a shriek to it that pierced the inner part of my ear. It wasn’t unlike an imp’s shout, and I started to wonder if maybe she was part imp somewhere in there. Her voice certainly was getting on my nerves. “And she wasn’t there! And when I asked, her roommates said she went surfing!”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “Of course. Eve always surfs in the morning.”
Tabitha splashed the holy water on Dawn, still shouting as her voice fell into a sob, so much that I almost felt sorry for her. “Out demon! She has you under her spell! Wake up and see that she’s a monster!”
“Stop that! You’re hurting me!” Dawn shoved her back.
“You’re possessed!” Tabitha shrieked back, dumping the bottle all over my sister, tears of terror in her eyes. “I have to save you!”
“Goodness sakes.” I nearly jumped forward to bat Tabitha off.
But even after uttering that one phrase Tabitha stiffened and turned, her eyes fixing right on me. “Ghaaaahhh!”
I wasn’t sure what happened next. I do know that Tabitha had jumped up, Dawn looking flummoxed as to what was going on, and I had slipped back through the wall and ended up in the next room where the girls were staring at the wall to the room where my sister and Tabitha were.
“What is with her this morning?” one of the girls said.
Her roommate shook her head. “She’s been like that since she woke up, screaming her head off about her roommate being possessed and a demon living in the building.”
“She should be checked into a psycho ward.”
I hopped back from them, intending to go. But hearing the pounding feet of Tabitha as she literally charged into that room, flinging open the door, I lost a bit of my sense with a flap to get out of the way. I was half prepared to back out through the ceiling, but Tabitha looked around searching for me as one who could not see me anymore.
“What are you doing in here, psycho?” One of the girls shouted the words her imps were yelling, climbing off of her bed to shove Tabitha out.
“The demon!” Tabitha panted for breath, looking panicked as she held out her cross. “Did you see it come through the wall?”
All the girls rolled their eyes.
That was when I took my leave. I slipped back into the room where Dawn was, watching her mutter to herself about Tabitha and me and being all wet. She was fine, which was all that mattered. I guess compared to vampires and other freaky beasts, Dawn could take on one religious zealot.
So, I flew back to the roof, picked up my surfboard, dropped feet first off the roof as my broad wings slowed me down so I could land softly outside the dorms. From there I found a dark corner on the main floor to materialize and retract my wings so I could hike up the stairs to give show that I was not a demon but a girl gone surfing like my roommates had said. I wondered how much it would work.
The details of my ascent in the stairwell are too boring to mention, only that when I reached the third floor and all the girls turned to look at me walk in with my sandals, damp tee shirt and surfboard, snickers erupted, I had to play dumb.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, giving a blink while the others looked me up and down to see what a ‘demon’ looked like. Their imps were suggesting they tease me about Tabitha. I knew the onslaught would come anyway.
“You know Tabitha Raines?” one of the girls asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s my sister’s roommate on the sixth floor, bit of a Bible fanatic.”
They busted up more. Expected, of course.
Nodding to me, that girl slapped a hand on my shoulder and said, “She’s been running around here all morning declaring that you are a demon and that you’ve possessed your sister. She’s come to exorcise you.”
I cringed with a sick expression, entirely appropriate considering the situation. Their laughter exploded exponentially as they watched me roll my eyes and continue toward the showers to wash up.
“She says you don’t have a reflection, like a vampire,” the girl added. “So, all of us want you to stand in the bathroom and show us.”
Giving her a dry look as they cackled, dragging me by the back of my neck into the dorm bathroom where I was planning to shower anyway, we all soon were standing in front of the dorm mirrors. Of course I had a refection then. Their hands were all on me, and their arms were slung over my shoulder. However, they all pretended they couldn’t see me.
It was really funny, and it was hard to keep from laughing even as I washed off my surfboard and then showered to get off all the other sand from the beach. However, I figured next time I was to go surfing I would just wash my board at the beach and put it into my room when I got back. I felt ridiculous carrying the thing around with all those girls watching me.
The moment I dressed and came out of the shower stalls, I met up again with one of those teases, and we walked back to my room where both of us came in laughing. Of course I had to put on a show for Star and Lisa, and here was my chance.
“…Well, you know how some people are. They get weirded out by anything.” We opened the door and walked in. I then turned to look at Star who was staring up at me, though I caught her glancing in her makeup mirror. All of the stuff was on now but she was separating the clumps in her eyelashes. “Hey! I heard my sister’s roommate raided our room this morning. Did she take anything?”
I was laughing, something that I hoped would take them off guard.
Lisa rolled her eyes with a smile, rising from her leg stretches. She was all dressed to go running now. Her imps were still telling her to steal a laxative though.
Star leaned with one arm on her desk, not smiling. “Yeah. She did. What did you do to make her so paranoid?”
Letting my smile fall, I cast the girl I’d met in the hall a slight look and said, “What did I do? Nothing. I never do anything to make people freak out. But you’re freaked, aren’t you? Don’t take Tabitha seriously.”
Sighing, Star grabbed her lip-gloss and twisted the top off. “Fine. Whatever.”
That wasn’t the response I wanted. Her imps seemed tense. There wasn’t a naughty temptation they could suggest, which indicated to me that Star was worried. When people worried their imps did one of two things: suggest panicked crazy things to do to make them more worried, or they sit back and wait for when the worrier was more relaxed so they could have more fun. It was clear hers were the latter.
I set my surfboard along the far wall, walked to my bed, letting my new friend go for just a second, picked up my wallet, and then walked back to her with a nod. I said to Star, “I don’t know what your problem is. Yesterday you thought I was a goody-two-shoes and now you’re looking at me as if I am a monster. Tabitha Raines is a nut.”
“There you are!” Tabitha stomped into the doorway, holding up her cross and prayer beads.
“Speak of the devil,” I murmured.
My new friend, whose name I still had yet to learn, cackled, leading me towards the door. We had already made plans to get our textbooks together.
Tabitha huffed, holding the cross up higher as if it were a shield to keep me away. “You are the devil! Release Dawn McAllister from your spell!”
I moaned then glanced to Lisa who rolled her eyes.
With a sigh, I reached out and wrapped my fingers around the cross with a gentle touch. I looked Tabitha in the eye, leaning in. “Cut it out. You are only humiliating yourself.”
I let go then walked out with my new friend. The others watched us go. I listened to their imps as we departed. Most of their shouts were of the same old thing though Tabitha’s imps still bellowed that she really just ought to stake me. But it wasn’t her imps that I was really listening for. Star’s were still silent. That made me feel sick with a twisting knot in my stomach. I didn’t need people like her to get nervous around me. I just didn’t.
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Text: (c) Julie Steimle 2012
Publication Date: 07-28-2012

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