(Author's note: I based this story as a variation of a 2chan story that's been translated in
different places around the net. I changed the twist slightly to make it a little more paranormal
so hopefully its a little more ambiguous than the original story.)
Arpeggio was tying his tie adroitly around his neck, smoothing his hair as Felipe quickly went about trying to compose himself. They'd both overslept and the 20 year olds are in a state of pressure.
"Damn it, I'm sorry Pege," Felipe mumbled as he fiddled with his tie, sliding on one of his black chucks with one foot. "Forgot to set the other alarms last night."
"Its fine," he said, fixing his hair, smoothing it. "I didn't expect to be so tired."
With a smirk and a quick action, he slyly grabbed him by the waist and gave him a deep kiss, but ever the efficient one, quickly finished Felipe's tie and the last few buttons on his shirt before breaking it and reaching for his blazer.
"We can do more later, Fel, but if we don't motor, we're going to be more late."
"Sorry about last night then. Didn't think you'd be able to walk though so."
He flicked him good-naturedly on the forehead, over his orange and black dyed hair. "Fel."
Arpeggio quickly finished putting himself together and was exiting the door, when Felipe called out to him.
"Pege. Wait....I don't have all the files on the laptop." He looked crestfallen. "I totally forgot to move everything over from the desktop here."
Arpeggio nodded and pointed to their rooms. "All right, I'll head in first then, sign you in, then dodge the uppers til you get there."
"Gotcha."
Arpeggio quickly made his way down to the ground floor, crossing the main road to the main district building, where construction was beginning to take place in retrofitting the record-library building. Cranes were lifting large bars for the structure, and the construction was expectedto take a couple months to finish, so in the meantime, most of the city block was cordoned off for safety.
He glanced at his watch, seeing Felipe's text from his phone ticker past. I'm bringing the external. Be there in 3 mins.
Arpeggio paused, waiting to wait for him, but decided that he should head in first to head off any hostility from their tardiness, and continued. If anything, Felipe would catch up in just minutes, since he was quick when he wanted to be, and headed in.
Felipe was crossing the street, taking a shortcut by passing between the retrofitting building and the one next to it, harddrive in hand when he heard a blood freezing scream rip through the air, followed by one of the largest crashes he has ever heard in his life. His body quickly clicked into action as he turned towards the sound behind him. Besides himself in this narrow corridor, the alley was empty except for a pile of rebar and other long, heavy bars were lying on the ground and a young woman only yards away, trembling on the ground as she stared at the construction materials.
He was at her side as the construction workers streamed out like ants, as he knelt to her. She was shaking as if a gyroscope was turned all the way up, so much so her legs wouldn't support her weight at first.
"Is she all right?!"
"Did it hit anyone?!"
"What the fuck happened??
"Holy shit, what the fuck are you guys doing down this way?!"
"This place is off-limits!"
"Who was moving those?!"
As the head worker and his crew tried to shoo her away, Felipe managed to get the young woman, her armband an off-white, indicating she was a Traditional. She clutched at him, eyes glazed from fear, and it took her a little bit to get her to speak.
"Are...are you all right?" he asked gently. She nodded, her eyes glued to the mess. "Was there anyone else with you...??"
She shook her head, found her voice as it croaked out weakly. "I'm alone...I was just trying to find a shortcut to the office...."
"Come on...let's...let's go see the infirmary." He looked around as the construction workers started to cordon off the whole area and shooing passerby as they came to see. He and they had their hands full.
~~
When Felipe arrived nearly 45 minutes later, Arpeggio was concerned. A thousand ugly possibilities swam through his head as his texts and calls went unanswered, to the point that 8392, and a few other Trancers in the area were fanned out and searching the other buildings for him.
Blessedly the young Trancer entered his office where Arpeggio was pacing, and the raven-haired TC, without thinking, threw his arms around him.
"God fucking damn it, Fel...where the hell have you been?!" He was angry but relieved and held him even as Felipe languidly put his arms around him.
"Sorry, Pege....I was at the infirmary." He pulled back and explained what had happened nearly an hour before, as 8392 entered the office. Reassured of his safety, he repeated the events, but was obviously shaken up.
"Another 4 feet....and she'd be dead."
"Not the way I'd like to go," affirmed Laika as she shivered a little. Sharp put his arm around her.
"Was anyone else hurt?" asked Tungsten, horrified.
"No. No one else was under that stuff, thank god...but....well, I stayed with her until they got her a little more calmer. I'm sorry, I shoulda called you guys back, but she was so shaken up."
"What's important is that you're ok, and she's ok." Arpeggio said, his hand on Felipe's. His partner nodded. "Do you...want to go back home?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I just...need to distract myself a little while I process it."
Felipe was a little out of it that day, understandably so, but Arpeggio was able to anchor him, even going as far as finding an empty practice room, locking it, and just playing guitar and piano until Felipe dozed for half an hour.
About 8 pm that night, they finally checked out, but as they started to leave, Sharp hurried up to them.
"Arpeggio, I'm so sorry, but I need a hand. I don't know how to get this synth to talk to the laptop."
Felipe cocked his head. "You sure you don't want me to?"
"Oh, if you want to?"
Arpeggio shook his head. "Fel, I can do it. Why don't you go on ahead and get dinner started. I don't know how to make pasta noodles."
Felipe chuckled. "All right. Tomatoes and spaghetti for 5 then. I'm on it."
It took Arpeggio only a few minutes, thanks to Felipe's lessons in computers these days, and 8392 and Arpeggio headed back along the way to their apartment. They rounded the building and saw the morning's accident still laid out in the street. The rebar and steels bars had made quite an impact on the concrete, cracking around it. It's going to turn into quite a pothole if it isn't tended to before the rains come.
Felipe was standing nearby, his back to them as his gaze was settled on the roped off area, with caution signs and the like keeping other people away from them.
It wasn't until Arpeggio came to his side that he realized that Felipe's face was drained of color.
"Fel...?? What's the matter?" he asked, his tone touched by concern, so open that even Laika could hear it and the rest of 8392 came over to see.
"You look like you saw a ghost," Tungsten said.
Sharp's eyes roved over the sight, and was relieved to see that it was free of human debris, but couldn't tell what it was that was arresting Felipe's gaze so much.
It took the young Trancer a few minutes, taking shaky breaths, and trembling. Arpeggio took his hand gently.
"I...c-came by here....I know I shouldn'tve...but...."
Arpeggio nodded gently.
"She was here too."
"The woman who almost got....?" Laika couldn't bring herself to even say it.
He nodded. "She looked...better....like calmer, but she still looked scared. I came to talk to her, maybe to make her feel better. I mean, she was steps away from dying...so horribly.... If she hadn't stopped..... But...but she said something really....weird."
They all looked at one another as he turned to look at the rebar.
"I said to her, 'That was prolly really scary for you.' "
Arpeggio nodded.
"And she says....'Yeah, it was. But what scared me the most...was the scream right before it."
A numb silence descended on them as they worked out what he said.
"Y-you mean....she wasn't the one who screamed...?" Tungsten finally said in a hoarse whisper. "Then...who...did....? The buildings are supposed to be empty...."
The silence was heavy as the street lights weakly flickered in the October night.
Felipe shook his head. "Sometimes...you never know you're in a ghost story....until its too late."
--Dio (10/28/16)