Chapter 5: [5] Ghost.

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     "Go easy on me..." the Brazilian woman said sensually as she leaned frontwards, hand on hip.

     "Wrrrooaaaar." the panda replied while standing on two legs, its other two spread upwards.

     "Round one. Fight!"

     Violent tapping could be heard in the unlit room as the two friends smashed their fingers over the consoles. Noah was playing with Panda while his friend took Christie, surely for her kickass skills and not her breasts. Their game of choice was Tekken 6.

     Another sound in the room, next to the tapping and virtual moans of pain, was Noah's monotonous voice as he explained the happenings from earlier that day. His friend Skoog just listened quietly, appearing more focused on the game than on what he was saying.

     "And then I pedaled away before he got to remember he still had my laptop. He's forgetful as fück."

     While his friend processed their little adventure, Noah took off his glasses, rubbed his eye with the back of his hand and placed them back on. Yeah, photophobia, just another perk of Albinism.

     "So... why?"

     "So that he looks through it and finds my gay porn folder."

     Skoog looked at him for a second, eye squinted, before returning his attention to the screen.

     "Uh... why?"

     Noah took a sip of his coffee. He couldn't do without the thing. "He keeps doing me favors and maybe knowing I'm gay will scare him off. He has to go."

     "Uhuh... why?"

     "Because he's hot and distracting. Next thing I'll know I'm blackmail banging him and shït turns into some sappy office drama crap."

     "Hmm... why?"

     "I dunno, he just seems like the sort of guy with..." he scrunched up his nose. "Feelings."

     Skoog hummed, and the sound increased the moment Panda slammed his girl to the ground. "Shït." he sighed. "But really, you could score him on it. I mean, the video is pretty damn lame." he laughed brightly at the memory. Skoog was a cheerful guy.

     The door of the room opened. "Totally. I'll get mad karma for this." his other friend, Shawn, announced, his eyes glued to his phone. Karma were internet points on a site called Reddit.

     "Huh?" Noah voiced, glancing at him for a second.

     "Oh." the man sat down next to them and took some cheese puffs from the table. "Skoog sent me the video and I posted it on Reddit."

     "Hahah." Noah laughed shortly. "Cool."

     "Man, you guys are wicked." Skoog commented.

     "Thanks, I try." Noah said.

     Skoog sighed. "I know you do."

     "Oh quit the humanitarian crap. I'm a cunt and that's fine with me."

     "Whatever you say, Noah."

     The Apple of sin in the Garden of God.

     In the current case, the Apple laptop in Morris's bedroom.

     It stood on the centre of his bed, the little apple symbol glowing menacingly in the pale light of sunset. The cream sheets and pillowcases invited him teasingly, almost getting an aura to them thanks to the brown background that was the room's walls.

     Morris took some popcorn from the transparent bowl he was holding and munched on it thoughtfully for a few moments before jumping on the bed and making himself comfortable.

     It would be all right, he was pretty sure it had a password and so he'd have no other choice but behave like a decent human being.

     Of course it wouldn't have a password.

     Morris sighed, eyeing the desktop background. It was of some video game looking shadow art, picturing a forest. On the bottom it said 'Limbo'.

     Morris could see his reflection and looked away guiltily for a second before getting on inspecting the stuff on his desktop. A bunch of disorganized work folders. One of them was named 'Porn'.

     He chuckled quietly at the joke and clicked to Documents instead before deciding to go for Videos.

     He was surprised to see actual personal clips and not movies or other stuff from the internet. One particular video had a outstandingly white thumbnail, and it wasn't just the snow featured. Noah was upclose to the camera.

     He hugged his popcorn closer and clicked it.

     Noah was lying on the snow facing the cloudy sky. His legs were parted since he was on a snowboard, and next to his spread arms he looked as though having paused from forming a snow angel. Or as if he himself was the snow angel.

     Yeah, that was a weird thought if Morris ever caught one.

     "Something wrong, Snow White?" the one holding the camera teased, approaching smoothly. By the sounds of it he was on a snowboard as well.

     "I may have cracked my head open is all." Noah announced monotonously before pulling up his snow glasses, over his thick gray beanie that matched the rest of his snow suit.

     "This is a great shot. Pose for me baby!" he teased.

     Noah grunted and turned onto his belly, displaying a smile as fake as possible. His teeth were really frontwards, he could barely close his lips around them, so this must've been a while back. They somehow didn't look too bad on him, his mouth was emphasized.

     "That's right, give me some love."

     Morris chuckled, munching on popcorn absent-mindedly. Noah gathered some snow on his palms and then blew it at the camera.

     Morris could laugh all he wanted, but if he thought that was funny, he had another thought coming when the next video started playing.

     Noah... Noah was scared of fireworks. Well, anyone would be while they're on the ground and not in the sky, but Noah was just... terrified.

     The video looked like some high school party. It was dark all around but the colorful sparkles and explosions lightened things up enough for the people around to be seen.

     And there was Noah. His hair was in that awkward shapeless state between short and long and a little curly, and his glasses were just huge. Too cute.

     "Guys, guys quit it!" he complained angrily while running and jumping away from snappers. "It's not funny you little shits! I'm closing our Conquer guild I swear to God!"

     "Yo." the cameraman laughed in a low voice, he was most likely African American. "Stop being a whiny bitch!"

     Noah snapped his head to the camera, biting his lower lip involuntarily. The teeth and all.

     "Stop filming, this isn't-" he ducked, covering his head as pops and laughter could be heard. Quickly, he took off his shoe, straightened up and threw it at them. "Stop recording Connor it's not funny." he was frowning and panting, it was too much. "My eyes hurt."

     The camera had its light on and the fireworks must've been of little help.

     "Well your butt's about to join." Connor laughed.

     Noah's gawked at an approaching firework and ran to a tree before quickly climbing it. Morris was in a fit by then, watching the guy swing his leg as to kick the camera until he eventually managed to, point at which the recording stopped.

     He... was keeping that one.

     ...You know, potential blackmail and stuff.

     The door to his office opened. "Morris?"

     "It's not my fault it didn't have a password!" he yelled defensively at his secretary.

     Rae tapped her sparkly nails on the doorknob. "Morris, this-"

     "Not another word until I call my lawyer. You know nothing."

     "You called me at 2am whining about having intruded an employee's privacy. Noah Vinson I should assume."

     Morris covered his lower lip with a fist and stared pointedly at his desk, brushing invisible specks from the black leather cover on top of the white wood.

     Next, he spoke in a calm and collected tone. "Yes well you sneaked a handful of buns into your purse and yet I chose to be loyal rather than professional about it."

     "You forced me into doing it and ate more than half."

     "Nae would you just-" Morris spun his chair to face the grandfather clock in the corner of his office. It went well with the brown bricked wall. "Why are you here? Isn't my inner conflict enough of a burden on my William Westmancott covered shoulders?"

     "That's an Armani suit."

     Morris spun around. "Can I help you with something?"

     "I was just reminding you that the day after tomorrow is..." she sighed before murmuring something.

     "What was that?"

     "Bring your pets to work day." she moaned. "I still don't know how you convinced the CEO into agreeing with such..."

     "Google does Pet Day." Morris straightened his tie. "Are you in position to consider yourself superior to their standards concerning work environment?"

     "You don't even have a pet-"

     "Shush." Morris raised a palm. "Good girl. Now roll!"

     Rae did a twist as if meaning to exit but then returned and resumed tapping her nails on the knob. "Also, Valentine's Day Party is approaching."

     Morris brought his palms together and smiled. These were the fun parts of HR, he liked fun parts of HR rather than dealing with countless tree corpses. Papers, that is. He was all for Green Is Life and stuff. Could be because he hated dealing with papers...

     "The CEO insisted that everyone joins it this time because we're going to be having some important guests that might look into advertising us and... It'd be lame if last year happened again."

     "The less people the more drink, math, Nae." Morris shook his head. "It was a good time."

     "It's Rae." she grunted and moved to leave, but hesitated. "Good luck with returning that laptop."

     With the slam of the door, Morris's smirk dropped.

     Noah wasn't in his office.

     Morris stood frozen in the door frame, eyeing the monitor on which he'd seen him scroll though footage.

     He shook his head. This was going too far. Could entering people's computers become an addiction? Was there such thing? Was there a cure?

     Morris was on the chair a few moments of contemplation alter. The many devices around appeared to be humming louder and louder as though planning to jump the intruder.

     His fingers shook over the mouse as the computer opened and he kept glancing at the parted door nervously. He'd hear if someone walked down the hallway to the room.

     ... But Noah was an albino.

     Morris frowned. He surprised himself with the stupidity it took him to associate albinos with ghosts.

     The monitor went to life and- he sighed in relief. It had a password.

     Well, either way he would've been content. He'd either manage to delete that footage of him, or avoid getting into his computer once again.

     He moved the mouse to close it and knocked over several empty coffee cups. Doing a double take, he observed... dozens of them lying about the place.

     ... Clean Your Office day would come soon enough. You guessed it, Morris's idea. All the trash would be sent to recycling too! He just liked organizing stuff.

     After turning off the computer, he quickly left the office. With that, he went to the office he'd tried when looking for Vinson for the first time.

     Much like then, the man looked tired and troubled. He was hunched over the computer, nibbling on the rim of a plastic cup of coffee he must've forgotten he was holding.

     "Hello."

     The guy ignored him.

     "Okay. I am looking for Vinson, he's not in his office."

     "I don't care." he whispered.

     "The sooner you tell me the sooner I'll lea-"

     "Coffee vending machine main building 9th floor, bathroom, or fucking... dead in some trash I don't know."

     Morris frowned. "That was unnecessary and unprofessional of you to say."

     The man looked at him as though he'd certainly end up dead in some trash.

     Morris took that as his cue to go check the bathroom.

-------

     Turns out that Noah was one of those weird guys that pulled their pants below their butt to pee at the public urinals.

     Morris halted at the sight and rubbed his forehead, glancing around very much awkwardly. That way he wouldn't over analyze just how well-gifted Noah was in that area. It wasn't big it was just good quality. Round, tiny and soft looking.

     Butts have no gender.

     "Is it often that you barge into the bathroom and stare at people's butts for long periods of time?"

     "No, just yours." Morris cracked a grin. However, when Noah faced him with a blank stare it went away. "That was a joke-"

     "I know, Kent." he was chewing on gum.

     Morris watched him approach the sink. "You forgot your laptop yesterday."

     "Yeah, noticed." Noah smirked, leaning on the sink. "Liked what you saw?"

     Morris raised his eyebrows. "I don't know what you're talking about."

     Noah scoffed, eyeing him with squinted eyes. After a few seconds, they shook around but he rubbed them. With that, he turned around and poured soap onto his palm.

     "Sure you know. I mean the folder." he scoffed, and made a gum balloon.

     When it popped, his eyes widened in shock.

     "Shit."

     Morris approached, sliding the bag further up his shoulder. "What?"

     Noah parted his jaw a little to display a mess of gum tangled in braces.

     He raised his hands helplessly before realizing they were covered in soap. Before he got to wash them, Morris stepped closer.

     "Let me help!"

     Noah frowned at him confused. "I ca-"

     "Don't talk, it'll get worse." he approached and pulled at his lip.

     Noah scoffed, keeping his soapy hands out of the way and showing his teeth.

     "This is not the reaction I was expecting." Noah said while keeping his teeth slightly parted.

     Morris sighed. "I mean... they weren't bad or anything."

     "Oh?" Noah voiced, raising his eyebrows.

     "N-not that I looked! I didn't! I just assumed!" Morris stepped back, pulling the gum along until it got unglued.

     Noah licked his teeth and washed his hands. "The way I assume I saw you pass by the bathroom on your way to my office, in which you spent a suspicious amount of time?"

     He washed his hands, took his bag from Morris and left. The man stared ahead blankly.

     He'd somehow seen him... Morris knew it.

     Noah was a ghost.

hhhhh... hhhhh... can't think of after-note I'm nervous about a date the day after tomorrow. heehhhhhhehheeheheiuueehehe. first one at that. hhhhhiehuehuhehueheuh.

boom-tz boom-tz boom-tz.

god don't let me act like this then.

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