Ghost Repellent... and oh yeah, a Cursed Werewolf

Who: Kyle and Gabe
When: Noon
Where: Gabe's house

Kyle was frustrated. It happened pretty often, for various reasons, but at that particular moment, Kyle was letting his frustrations start to boil over concerning the 'ghost issues'. The news was still reporting on them, people were still talking about them, and Kyle had yet to see one with his own eyes. So he had Kavin insisting they had been there before Kyle arrived, he had Alexis pissed at him for not believing her and his own parents were murmuring about it when they didn't think Kyle could hear them. It felt like a massive joke was being played on him by the entire world - or he was just too stupid, or blind as Alexis had said, to see any of it. It made him want to go spend the night in one of the cemeteries, just to see if he could spot something. Even a flicker of a ghost would be cool at this point.

After he woke up and showered, Kyle ate breakfast in front of his computer. He watched YouTube for awhile, choosing people's 'eye witness accounts' of their own ghostly encounters. Only to Kyle, the video seemed sort of blurry and not very distinct, just like the news. It was like watching the fucking Big Foot video. Not hard evidence, in his opinion. After awhile, he got up and grabbed his jacket to head out. He found himself at Gabe's house about fifteen minutes later, grateful to see the guy's new car in the drive. Kyle got off his bike and left it up against the garage before he went to Gabe's door and knocked. He was hoping his friend didn't have company, because he didn't feel like talking about this stuff in front of other people. He didn't think he could call Alexis, since she seemed mad still, and didn't seem to grasp that he just wasn't seeing what she was. Gabe was more or less Kyle's best friend, and if he couldn't talk to him about this shit, he was pretty much alone in it.

Since ordering his cage earlier that morning, Gabe had been in his room, reading everything he had on werewolves. There was a lot to cover and then try to absorb, but it was starting to feel crucial that he understand what was happening to him. The whole "pack mentality" thing still had him a bit confused, since he couldn't actually turn into a wolf like the werewolves that were born. Did that mean he'd form a pack of humans? It was just weird to think about, even more so when he started thinking about who might be in his pack and how to handle that. Most of them knew what he was, and could hopefully deal with his weird behavior, but those that didn't-- specifically Kyle-- would probably think he was crazy. Gabe was just wondering how he would explain any of this to Kyle when there was a knock on the door, and the guy seemed to appear. "Hey," Gabe smiled, opening the door and letting him in. "What's up, man? Just out riding around and thought you'd drop by?"

"Hey." Kyle wiped his feet before heading inside Gabe's house. He went directly over to flop on the couch with a sigh. "No, I actually came over for a reason. Sorry, I know I should have called first but I was kind of on a mission and I left my cell at home before I remembered." Kyle waved his hand dismissively. "None of that matters..." He sat up suddenly and glanced around. "Er, you're alone right? No company or anything?" He half expected Claire Korey to pop out somewhere.

"You're always free to drop by," Gabe said, coming to sit on the other end of the couch. Kyle's question prompted Gabe to look around, just in case there was something there that he hadn't seen. But, no, he was still alone. "Just me today. Why? You want me to call some friends over? Have ourselves a little party?" He wasn't really in the mood for one, but that could all change once people arrived. Except for the fact that a mid-afternoon party would seem kind of odd.

"Nah, I'm not feeling the party thing right now." Kyle relaxed back against the sofa again before rubbing both hands over his eyes. He lowered his hands and looked at Gabe with a hopeful expression. "You got any weed? That would be excellent, right about now." Maybe getting high would open his fucking eyes and he'd be able to see ghosts all over the goddamn place.

"No," Gabe said with an amused little smirk. "I get that stuff from you. You know that. What's up though? If you're ready to light up, then something's gotta be buggin' you." It was an easy assumption drawn from two years of similar situations. They got high when they were stressed or things were bad. Gabe was willing to say that things were fucking insane lately, but if he got high for that now, he'd never have a reason to come back down.

"Oh, right," Kyle muttered, remembering now that Gabe rarely had any of his own in his house. "It's this whole ghost shit. Alexis is still pissed at me about it, I think, but I fucking don't know what she wants from me! If she sees ghosts? Then, okay, fine, but I don't so I can't help if I can't see the problem." He tried his best not to growl over the damn situation. "And then yesterday, Kavin and I met up because he'd been around the ghosts and he wanted... me to see them myself. But when I got there they were... you know..." Kyle waved his hand around impatiently as his mouth struggled with the word in his mind. "... gone. They were fucking gone. So...? What's that mean?"

"Wait, okay, so your girl's pissed at you for not seeing ghosts?" Gabe asked. While he thought it was weird that Kyle hadn't seen any, he couldn't be mad at him for it. That didn't make any sense. "And what do you mean, they were gone? Like, they saw you coming and ran away?" Gabe asked with a smile. "They wandered off? I mean, it's not like they just hang out all the time. I suppose they could walk away before you got there. I'm not exactly the ghost expert." He'd learned a bit, though, and was much more willing to keep an open mind than he used to. It was a lot easier to believe the shit that was out there once he'd become a part of it.

"No! Kavin said one minute they were there, then I showed up and suddenly poof! They were gone. I doubt I scared them away," he grumbled, still irritated. "I think she's pissed at me because I said she was like, giving into mass hysteria or something the other night. I found the whole thing... er, crazy or something when it first started so she got mad, which is fine, but she made me feel like a moron for not seeing them." Which rubbed his ego the wrong way, of course, and he was still grouchy over it. "I just wanna see one of these things, man, so I know everyone isn't crazy, and that I'm not crazy."

"Dude, in my experience? Telling a girl that she's freaking out when she really is, usually results in her being a bitch." Gabe didn't think he was the best source to get advice for women from, since he wasn't doing all that hot, but he still thought he could impart advice from time to time. Unfortunately, he didn't know Alexis well enough to tell Kyle what to do about it. "So, what do you wanna do? Go ghost hunting? I mean, if the ghosts disappear when you show up-- you realize how fucked up this is, right? There's nothing exciting about seeing them, so can't you just believe those of us that do? You're not crazy just because they disappear when you show up."

"I don't know. I can say I believe you, but how am I suppose to believe when I don't see what you see? It's frustrating for me to hear about it, and to be told to believe it, when I can't see it myself. And I don't know if these things all disappear when I come around, but Kavin told me they happened to when I came around the corner. Don't know what that means." Kyle reached up to rub at the nape of his neck. "Put yourself in my shoes, man. Say the whole world is suddenly seeing... flying pigs. With capes. It's on the news, your friends are talking about it... then you go outside, look up and... nothing but birds. As far as you can see. Wouldn't that frustrate you?"

"Fuck, yeah, that would frustrate me, but I think at some point you've gotta believe it without seeing it for yourself," Gabe said. "It's called news. We're here in Marquette, and when things happen other places, we have to rely on other people's accounts. When there's, like, a bombing in the Middle East, you don't question it, right? And you don't because you actually find it believable. So now there's a report that aliens landed in Washington and are shooting the place up. Sounds insane, but it's on the news and you don't really wanna be there to find out. But now people are seeing ghosts. Not just a handful of freaks who think their hotel is haunted, or some bullshit like that, but non-believers all over the world. How can you not believe? I get that you wanna see them-- and we'll deal with that issue next, cause that's some fucked up shit-- but... If me and thirty other people, people you know to be sane, say we saw something crazy, does that really mean you'd stick us all in a nuthouse before you'd believe us?"

"No, I wouldn't put you in a nuthouse. But I feel like people are looking at me like I'm the nut because I don't see them. It's just hard to believe, not only because I don't see it, but because it's ghosts! This shit isn't suppose to exist. It's worse when I turn on the news and they say it's happening right in my own front yard, and then I look out there and see nothing out of the ordinary. Okay, so say I believe it all. Ghosts are all over the place except wherever I am, apparently... what does that say about me? I know you don't know, but it's fucking hard to deal with. It's irritating, and frustrating." Kyle leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and scowling. "Alexis calls me and wants me to come over and protect her from some scary ghost? How the hell can I do that if I don't see it? Then not only do I look like a moron, but she's still scared and I can't do a damn thing about it." The whole fucking thing was pissing him off and he had no clue why he couldn't see what they did. He'd rather be in denial and think it was still a joke than to think they were all special and he wasn't.

"Okay, I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but if your girlfriend-- is she your girlfriend?-- wants you to protect her from some ghost, and ghosts disappear when you come around, I think all you have to do is go over there," Gabe shrugged. It seemed far too simple, but sometimes the simplest option was the right one to take. "From what you said happened with Kavin, it's not that he's standing next to you and seeing them while you're not. It's that they literally disappear when you get close. I don't know why that would happen, but if that's the case, then... maybe you're something special." Gabe couldn't believe he was suggesting such a thing and fully expected Kyle to look at him as if he'd just grown three heads, but now that he knew what was out there, he didn't think it was quite so hard to believe Kyle might be something and just not know it.

"I didn't know about all that when she texted me," Kyle explained. "I didn't believe her either, which I'm sure is a shitty thing, but what sane person would believe it? It's ghosts, Gabe." Kyle leaned back to look at his friend again. And while his look didn't indicate Gabe had thrown three heads, it was definitely skeptical. "Special? Yeah, Kavin called me a ghost repellant. I don't know if that's special or not, and I don't know what's going on either. It's one thing to hear about a bombing on the news... but when the news talks about things that aren't suppose to be real? I have my doubts. I can't help that. It's worse that I can't see them for some reason. I just feel like a freak somehow."

"Um, yeah, probably didn't go over well with her," Gabe cringed. He felt bad for Kyle on that part, since Kyle obviously had thought Alexis was crazy at the time and now didn't know what to think. And he could see how Alexis would've been upset at Kyle not believing her, since everyone else could see the ghosts. That... wasn't a problem he knew how to solve. "There are a lot of things out there that aren't supposed to be real, Kyle. But they are. And I don't blame you for having your doubts, cause I had them too when this all started. I'm just kind of at the point now that I can't not believe it. If you really do repel ghosts? You're not a freak show. And if you insist you are, then I probably am too."

Kyle threw up his hands in exasperation. "Well, what am I suppose to do, man? Maybe it's easy for people who already believe in the weird shit. But I didn't." And a part of him still didn't. No one could prove this stuff to him other than by wanting him to believe what they're saying. "Why are you a freak show? Do you repel shit too?" He was just waiting for Gabe to tell him he was a vampire or something ridiculous. Kyle was pretty sure he'd be carted off to the loony bin then.

"I dunno. Continue to test it? Maybe go down to that bookstore and see if they know anything about people that repel ghosts? Somebody's gotta know something. You can't be the first person to ever have this problem," Gabe said. When he'd said Kyle was special, he didn't mean completely unique to everything else out there. If there was such a thing as someone who repelled ghosts, then maybe someone who knew more about this kind of stuff would have an idea what to tell Kyle. "I don't repel shit," he said with a little laugh. "It's just that... something happened to me recently, but I didn't wanna tell you about it, cause I knew you wouldn't believe me. And I'm still pretty sure you won't, cause it's a lot more fucked up than ghosts."

"Then I think there ought to be more people in the news saying they don't see it," Kyle grumbled. He didn't really want to go to that bookstore where Alexis worked. He thought most of the stuff in there was a rip off, but now he wasn't so sure. "What happened to you?" He didn't say whether or not he would believe Gabe, but he was curious now as to what might have happened that Gabe would consider weird enough that Kyle wouldn't believe him.

"Saying you didn't see something isn't news," Gabe said with a little smile. He suspected there were other people like Kyle, but he didn't think there would be reports about them. It didn't seem like something news worthy, unless people really realized that someone made the ghosts disappear. "I'd be careful who you tell, though. I'm sure there's some people out there that would love to get their hands on someone who'd keep the ghosts away." He'd learned really quick that any kind of ability, no matter how odd, should be kept quiet. "Well, you know those animal attacks that had been happening?" Gabe asked, sure that Kyle couldn't deny that. "I... I didn't really get in a car crash. One of those things bit me."

"It should be news," Kyle protested. "Both sides of the story, right? Gotta cover them both! Believe me, man, I'm not gonna tell anyone about this shit." Yeah, he didn't so much like the idea of someone out there figuring out there might be people who can make these things disappear. If that's what he did. Jesus Christ, this was insane. He couldn't even believe he was considering the possibility. His parents were going to have him locked away. "Yeah, I remember the animal attacks. One of them bite you?" Kyle's eyes ticked to Gabe's shoulder. "What the hell, Gabe? Why would you say it was a car accident?"

"Because... because it wasn't a wolf. And it wasn't a dog, or a cat, or a bear. And everyone that was in the hospital being treated by a bite from this thing? They died. Mom took me to the hospital in Ishpming, I got stitches, and we didn't stay, so no one really knows that I've been bitten unless I tell them," Gabe said. Though in the back of his mind, he thought of Oz and his contact, the one that had figured out Gabe's secret. Hopefully he was the only one that would. "But since then, I... I can hear everything. I can hear people whispering in the halls at school. I can hear the clock ticking in the next room. I can hear your heart beat from here. And it's not just my hearing that's changed. It's my sight, by ability to smell things... Let me die in a fire if I'm lying to you, Kyle, but I'm not making this shit up."

Kyle stared at Gabe for several moments as he tried to digest what the guy was saying. Because he was a bit lost at what Gabe was saying. "So what the fuck bit you then? How many animals could it have been?" He shifted uncomfortably at the thought that Gabe could hear his heart beating, if he was telling the truth. "If those people died, they were probably infected with rabies or something. Are you sure the new stuff you're experiencing isn't just the results from your medication or a vitamin or something?"

"I don't think it was rabies, but maybe that's not something we should get into just yet. Let's just say, I told people I was in a car accident because I didn't want anyone to know I'd been bitten," Gabe said, rubbing his hands over his face. "And I know it's not the result of some medication because I'm not on medication. Not anymore. What bit me... you don't believe it exists, but I saw it with my own eyes. Nate was there, helped me fight it off. I'd have been torn to pieces, just like Chrissy, if he hadn't been."

If it wasn't rabies, it was something. Especially if all the people who were bitten had died. Except for Gabe, apparently. Kyle shifted again, torn between wanting to get answers and just get up and leave. Go back to his room, light up a joint and get away from all of this. "Jesus, man. So are you gonna tell me what bit you or are you just gonna dance around it? I might not believe in it but... dude, come on. People are telling me ghosts exist okay? Just let me know what the fuck is going on with you."

Gabe had been hoping that Kyle would be able to put the clues together and figure it out, but it didn't appear as if Kyle's mind was even thinking in that direction. It made Gabe weary about telling him, since he was half sure Kyle would get up and leave, but he couldn't avoid it at this point. "I was bitten by a cursed werewolf," Gabe said, his voice somber, no hint of amusement in his eyes. "And now I'm cursed too." In Gabe's opinion, that was much harder to swallow than ghosts. He still felt like he'd fallen into a horror movie sometimes, one that never ended.

Okay, so now Kyle was staring at Gabe as though he had three heads. Because that? Was fucking crazy. He was sure Gabe was fucking with him now, even though there was no sign in his expression or tone to indicate that he was. Werewolves? Ghosts, now werewolves. What. the. fuck. "Okay..." Kyle began slowly, still staring. "Look... you know you're my best friend, right? I'm in a pretty pissy mood right now, and this shit isn't helping. Look me in the eye and tell me you're serious."

"If I was going to lie, I'd have gone for something believable," Gabe said, having expected a reaction like this. "I couldn't make up this kind of shit if I tried. I'm telling you the truth, and you don't have to believe me, because I know if I was you I probably wouldn't, but I do need you not to tell anyone." That was the part that scared him, the need to trust on something that was really this important, that Kyle might not appreciate. Because Kyle thought he was insane. "If you've gotta talk about it with someone, talk to Kavin, cause he already knows, but otherwise... Let's say that if I'm lying, there's people ready throw me in a loony bin, but if I'm telling the truth there are people in town who'd kill me in an instant."

"Dude, who would I tell that would even believe me?" Kyle asked warily. Kyle was ninety nine percent sure he didn't even believe it. "I don't even know what to say about it... it's kind of, ah, big news? Kind of hard to digest it right now, with everything else." As much as he trusted Gabe, he didn't know what to think about anything now. He felt just as lost as he had when he had come over though the feeling was much worse now.

"Listen, I'm not trying to fuck with your head. I just... It's this huge part of my life now, and not telling you meant I actually had to hide it from you and I didn't wanna do that," Gabe sighed. "You don't have to believe me. I didn't expect you to believe me. But we were talking about ghosts, and what's out there, and if I am what I think I am-- and there's no doubt in my mind there-- then it's not all that hard for me to believe you're some kind of ghost repellent." He was pretty sure that he and Kyle had started off their senior year on the same page, believing or not believing in the same sort of weird that might be out there. This was never a conversation he thought he'd have with anyone.

Ghosts and cursed werewolves. He was suppose to just nod and accept it all? Kyle just didn't know what to say, or what to think, and that was most frustrating part. "I don't... it's just a lot, Gabe," Kyle said again, feeling like shit for not being able to be more supportive or accepting. "I think I just need some time to like, wrap my mind around it." He had been trying to figure out about ghosts and now he had werewolves thrown into the mix. Ghosts he could almost buy... haunted houses, shit like that. Yeah there could be a bit of truth to them. But werewolves?? Kyle got up from the couch and rubbed his temple which had begun to throb. "I don't wanna come across as a dick to you, and I hope I'm not... I just need to go home and think about this stuff, okay? Try to figure it out."

"No, you don't come across as a dick, and I'm sorry I-- I wasn't trying to overwhelm you," Gabe said, running his fingers through his hair before rising to follow Kyle. There was so much else he wanted to talk to his friend about, but he couldn't, not when Kyle already had so much to deal with. It was hard for Gabe to imagine being in Kyle's place, not able to see what everyone else was insisting was real. "I guess I wasn't very helpful," he frowned. "I just wanted you to know that if... if you do really keep ghosts away, like you were describing, you're not a freak. Really." Wow, did he feel like shit. He'd not only not helped, but he was pretty sure he'd made the situation worse.

"No, you're fine," Kyle was quick to say. To reassure. He didn't want Gabe feeling bad because everything was suddenly upside down and shitty. He felt like a freak, regardless of what Gabe said. Which was kind of funny, since he figured the people seeing the ghosts would have been the freaks. But then that would mean the world was full of freaks, and... yeah. "I don't know what's going on and I don't know what to believe. I think if I think about it right now, my brain might explode. I'm just gonna go home and... I don't know. Maybe once I figure some shit out, we can talk about this again okay?" Kyle was proud of himself for being as calm as he was being. He did it for Gabe more than anything, but it was damn hard.

"Okay," Gabe said, nodding even though he was considerably more worried about Kyle than himself at the moment. He couldn't tell what Kyle was thinking, but he could tell that he wasn't taking this all fabulously. Which... he supposed he was a moron to think he would. Gabe himself hadn't exactly embraced it all; in fact, he'd done a fabulously fucked up job of ignoring things that almost got people hurt. "Give me a call, or drop by, when you're feeling up to it. We'll talk. Or figure things out. And I'll try not to make things worse, okay?" Gabe said as he led Kyle to the door. He could tell Kyle was ready to leave, probably in hopes that things wouldn't get any worse. If he stayed, zombies might come into the picture, or something like that.

"I will, man, promise." Ignoring things would have been an ideal thing. Kyle had been more than willing to ignore the ghosts before certain people made him actually face it and think about it. Now he had other shit too... the fuck was wrong with the world!? Kyle zipped up his jacket and smiled faintly at Gabe. "I'll call you soon, okay?" Kyle opened the front door and headed out into the chilly weather to get his bike. A locked bedroom, a lit joint and his headphones with some blaring music sounded like a perfect solution to him at that moment.