It’s been a long day after class and work, and all I want to do is collapse onto my bed and sleep. Unfortunately, when I get in my dorm, I’m quickly reminded of the ladder that stands between me and my beauty sleep. I settle for a wooden chair, crashing onto its hard surface. Ouch. As it turns out, it’s just stone painted to look like wood. I should have figured. Only a few furniture items in the entire underground are truly wood, and they’re all antique, uncomfortable, and one gentle push away from collapse. I would know- just ask my old stool.
My roommate looks up at the noise from the corner of our room. They’re sitting up against the wall, a tattered tactician textbook sitting in their hands. The machine I saw them working on before is next to them, shiny with glue. I awkwardly wave at them, and they take it as a sign to keep reading. That reminds me of the comic book in my backpack, so I unzip my bag and pull it out. It catches Squid’s attention again, but this time, they say something. “Mr. Shadowstirrer, huh?”
“Yeah. I borrowed it from Lava. Have you read it?” I inquire. If they’ve read it, we might have something to talk about. They’ve lost their standoffishness towards me, but we still have nothing outside of the knights to talk about. If we’ve got a comic in common, we might be able to get out of the weird, neutral state we’re in and finally become actual friends.
“Not yet. I haven’t found the time.” Oh. Well, that was a nice fantasy. “But I do have the first issue. I just haven't read it yet,” they add. Suddenly, I get an idea.
“Hey, why don’t you read it now? And then we can discuss after. Like a two-person book club!”
They look intrigued, but instead respond, “Nah. I’m getting dinner soon, and right after, I have to get to class. Besides, this textbook is a very riveting read.” The last sentence paired with their blank expression squeezes a chuckle out of me. They lift their book back up to their face, but right before they’re completely obscured, I catch a small smile.
The comic is short, but really fascinating. It’s about a man named Sephtis Martin, superhero name Mr. Shadowstirrer, who can control ghosts by pulling spirits either from the spirit world or right from someone's body. He’s also mastered the ability to manipulate his own spirit, giving him ghostly powers. I bet a lot of this was inspired by The Warren’s very own Mr. Shadowstirrer, Lazer. I can definitely see the resemblance in a few panels. He uses his powers to protect innocent people to the best of his ability from a group called The Gazing, who also have powers, but choose to use them to cause chaos and despair. There’s a lot of fighting, and it’s kind of violent. Mom would never let me go to the library without her if she knew I read it. Still, I just can’t put it down. The ending throws me for such a loop that I find myself reading the last three pages over and over again. He finds his brother on death’s doorstep from a murder, and even more surprising, he finds the killer and steals his spirit forever, effectively killing him back.
By the time I finally comprehend what happened, Squid closes their own book, the bookmark much closer to the back cover than it was before. How do they read so fast? They look over at me, noticing the closed comic in front of me. “How was it?”
“It was good. It left off on a huge cliffhanger, though. Let’s hope Lava has the second one.” They nod and stand up.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” they mutter, eyes wandering until they land on their bag. “Ghosts might actually be real. Sounds crazy, but when I was looking at the curatin mechanisms back in sector six, I swore I could hear singing coming from the theater, even though it was definitely empty. And I looked through a record of song lyrics at the library to find out what she was singing. And guess what?”
“What?” I echo.
They grab a couple books from off of their bed. “All songs from Apparition in the Aisle, specifically the parts of Christie. But the singer didn’t sound like the one we listen to on the phonograph. She sounded almost exactly like Elyse Erie, who was supposed to play her when they remade it a long time ago. But she died on opening night.”
“So you’re saying that the ghost of Elyse Erie lives in the theater and sings when there's nobody there?”
“Pretty much.” I have to bite my lip to keep a straight face.
“You’re being serious?”
“Dead serious. No pun intended.” They grab their bag and slide the books inside.
“I dunno, it just sounds kind of…” I hesitate to find words that aren’t too harsh. “...Out there.”
“I know, but there’s apparently real, honest-to-the-gods magic on the surface, so anything’s possible, right?” They shrug. “Besides, the admins are so weird, there has to be something magical happening. I tried for years to find some scientific explanation, and I still found nothing. I’ve just learned to accept them as ‘certainly something, all right’.” Huh. They seem a lot less heated about the admins than I remember them being. I guess it has been years since I saw them last. A lot has changed.
“I guess you’re right, but still. The surface magic thing could always be a hoax.”
“Fair point.” They toss their bag over their shoulder and head towards the door. “But the idea of magic still sounds nice. Call it wishful thinking. It definitely is, but it’s tiring to have to base every little thought in facts and probability and years of research. Sometimes you just gotta be optimistic, y’know?”
For someone who I’ve only ever seen reading about or obsessing over science, tech, math, and how weird and untrustworthy the admins are, it’s interesting to see how much they like magic and the paranormal. And how they brought up the admins in a completely neutral way. They shrug again, pushing open the door. “Enjoy your dinner,” I hear myself say without thinking.
“Thanks. You too.” And now I’m alone.
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