Seeing Ghosts
Venn's

“Gina?You okay?”

Itwas almost eight o’clock and Ria had come to pick me up to go to the pizza barfor karaoke night. I knew I must not have looked very good. The night beforehad not been kind.

“I’mokay,” I said, with a bright attempt at a smile.

“Really?You were kinda zonked out today at school.”

“No,no, really,” I insisted. “I kinda…well, I had kind of a bad dream or somethinglast night and…well…it wasn’t easy to fall asleep after that.”

Riashook her head. “I know you don’t think it, sweetheart, but I’m sure you’ve gotsome kinda ESP going on. I’ve you’re having prophetic dreams on top of yourcreepy chills…”

“Therewas nothing prophetic about it!” I said, exasperated. “Come on, are we going toVenn’s or not?”

“Alright,alright,” said Ria, unlocking her car door to let me in.

Whatshe was saying wasn’t untrue. What with that face in the window and then thevoice in my room, my evening last night wasn’t exactly pleasant. I didn’t hearthe voice again except for that one time, but I’d had an uneasy feeling eversince, causing my day at school to be more difficult than normal. Still, Iwasn’t going to bail on Ria. Singing at Venn’s was often the highlight of herweek, the normal act of rebellion against her parents. I was going to singwhether I felt like it or not, for her sake.

Ihopped into her car and we headed out right away. As we pulled out of mydriveway, I took out my make-up bag out of my purse and started applying blacklipstick and copious amounts of eyeliner. I would have to change clothes oncewe got there.

Riareached over and turned on the radio. “Aquadeus! Oh, I love this song!” shecried, turning the volume up.

“In a world where all things perish and die

Where everything ends in the blink of an eye

There’s only one thing that’ll never pass by

It’s music alone that lives, never to die!”

Weboth started singing along. This was the newest song from a rock singer thatwas super popular right now. “Oh, I just love Aquadeus,” sighed Ria. “He is so hot!”

“Andhe’s not one of those pop star kinda guys either,” I commented. “He’s got areally unique style. His music is awesome.”

“Andhe’s hot,” Ria said again, winking. “Hey, maybe this could be one of the songsthat we sing tonight. I’ve always wanted to try singing one of his songs.”

“That’sa good idea,” I said, happily. “We’ll start with something easy first, though,to warm up. Singing a guy’s song isn’t going to be easy.”

“Tonightis going to be awesome, Gina,” said Ria. “Totally awesome. I can just feelingit somehow!”

Inodded and smiled. “Yeah, this will be a night to remember.”

Notfar outside of town, a large tour bus was zipping along the freeway. From theoutside, it was enormous but you could only really get an idea of howextravagant and ridiculously expensive it was on the inside. Just behind thedriver’s seat was a miniature living room/kitchen with two couches, a tablewith two chairs, a refrigerator, a counter and several cabinets. Behind thekitchen area was a tiny bathroom and a bedroom, complete with queen-size bed,dresser, and a floor-length mirror. There were only three passengers in the bus, the driver, the man on thecell phone, and the kid staring out the window.

“Arewe there yet?” the kid asked.

Theman on the cell phone glowered. “No! Now, shut up, I need to take this call.”

“ButI’m bored,” the kid said. “I’ve riding around the country all day and I want towalk, and I’m hungry.”

“Walkaround the bus!” the man replied. “There’s plenty of room.”

“It’snot the same, though.”

“Well…!”the man said, torn between the kid and his cell phone. “You’ll just have towait, ok?” He then returned to his phone conversation.

Theycruised along the highway passing green signs indicating certain exists andupcoming towns. Just as they passed a sign announcing that Ammonville was upahead, the driver suddenly called behind him to his two passangers.

“We’rerunning out of gas, sir,” the driver called back. “We’re almost on empty. We’llhave to get fuel as soon as possible.”

“What!?”the man on the cell phone cried. “But we got gas only a couple of hours ago! Weshould have been set until we reached the next city!”

Thekid looked out the window again, hiding a slight grin from the other twopassangers.

Theman on the cell phone looked out the window as well, in time to see a secondsign announcing Ammonville. “There’s a small town up ahead,” said he, turningaround in his chair to face the driver. “We can stop there really quickly andget some.”

“Youwant to bring something like thisinto a small town?” the driver asked, confused. “Tim, if they see him, we’llhave to deal with a mob.”

“He’snot getting out,” said the man named Tim with the cell phone, turning around tolook at the young man sitting by the window of the charter bus. “Aren’t you, Cameron?”

Thekid, apparently named Cameron, did not reply. He had his back turned to Tim andwas staring out the dark window at the lights of the town up ahead. Timgroaned.

“I’mgoing to call the agency and tell them we’re running late,” said Tim. “Stopinto town and get gas and…” he got out of his chair and moved over to thedriver. “Watch…him…like…a…hawk! I’vegot too much money on this kid to have him pulling anymore crazy stunts.”

“Noproblem, boss,” said the driver.

Timsniffed and hurried into the back of the bus, pulling out his cell phone anddialing numbers. When his voice could be heard talking in the back, Cameronspoke.

“Hey,pops, why did we run out of gas so quickly?”

“Ah,um, I…don’t know,” said the driver. He felt nervous. He normally didn’t speaktoo much with Cameron when Tim wasn’t around. Frankly, he seemed like an okaykid, certainly one of the better ones he’d had to drive in his time, but therewas definitely something creepy about him…

“Don’tthink it might have been siphoned, do you?” Cameron asked, conversationally.

“Idon’t see how anyone could have done that, we haven’t stopped,” the driverreplied, keeping his eyes on the road, determined not to look to closely atCameron.

Cameronsmiled. “Well, at least we get to stop. What’s this town supposed to be called,anyway? I didn’t know anything was out here.”

“Um,the GPS says Ammonville,” said the driver, checking.

“Ammonville,”said Cameron, slowly. “Hmm.”

Thebus rolled into Ammonville and quickly found a gas station. The driver got outand started to fill up the tank, when the bus door opened again.

“Ah!Um, Tim said you weren’t supposed to get out,” said the driver, soundingworried.

“Don’tmind him,” said Cameron, throwing a coat casually over his shoulders. “Tell himI hit you if you want. We’ve been on the road since Santa Monica, I have to get up and stretch my legs, don’t you agree? Besides, I’mhungry.”

“But…but…”

“Isaw a sign for a pizza place down the road,” said Cameron, lightly. “That’swhere I’m going. Don’t worry…I’ll be good.”

Beforethe driver could do anything to object further, Cameron hurried away down theroad toward the large, neon sign that read “Venn’s Pizza and Grill.”

“Now,”Cameron said, his violet eyes shining. “Let’s see what this place has tooffer.”