heya - on my way now, but whatever this is better be good! just canceled my first date in months for you...
I hit send, waiting for the check to appear. True to my word, once it was delivered I started driving to Emma's apartment. She had seemed intense in her last few messages -- "Chloe, you absolutely HAVE to come over, it's important!" and so on. She wouldn't clarify any further, and with her I never knew if it was a real emergency or if she had just gotten bored. To Emma, I had figured out after years of friendship, it was almost the same thing.
I pulled up to her street and found an open parking spot a few buildings down, all as the sun was starting to tinge orange. I should have been on my way to a nice steakhouse, meeting with the one person on Tinder who didn't seem to want to fuck on the first date. Not that I was saving my virginity for marriage or anything so old-fashioned, I simply wanted to explore that part of myself with someone I was truly committed to already. No hookups, no "third-date rule", and frankly... I had never really tried anything on my own, either. Anything about self-pleasure just seemed weird and taboo, like it was morally wrong. A puritanical upbringing at its finest.
Shaking my head clear of my imagined soapbox, I got out of my car and straightened out my oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. Not one to dress for a special occasion, I kept my wardrobe simple and comfortable; Emma always went on and on about how boring I dressed whenever it came up, showier as she was. I walked towards the apartment, brushing my blonde, chin-length locks out of my eyes. I wasn't in much of a rush; my bet was on this
not
being an emergency. Emma was lucky I came at all.
"Hey! Open up!" I called out, now at my friend's unit, and I pounded a few times. Not a second later, the door swung open, and I all but fell into the room.
"Chloe, you're here! I'm so excited!" Emma gushed, her bubbly personality no less intense than usual this evening. "So I found this cool old book, it had a bunch of spells, I can't wait to show you--"
"Emma! Emma, slow down," I interrupted suddenly, fingers to my temples. She was sometimes a bit much. "Is this really an emergency, what happened?"
Emma took a deep breath, collecting herself at least a little for me. I looked around her apartment as I finally took a few steps inside, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary besides a folded pile of clothing on her couch. Was laundry day the emergency? Looking at Emma again, she was wearing black denim short-shorts and a bralette -- a stark, skimpy contrast to my own outfit, but that was what she normally wore. I decided I'd need to let her explain.
"Okay, okay! So, I was thrifting this afternoon, and you know I usually go for the clothes, but there was this cool book," she said, holding a very antiquated, leather-bound book in front of her. Not exactly the college textbooks we were both used to seeing. "It has a bunch of spells in it, and I didn't think they'd actually work, but I bought it anyway, and I took it home and tried it out, and it works!"
I stifled an exasperated sigh. Even trying to slow down, she spoke in run-ons. I couldn't help but get drawn into what she was saying, though. A spellbook, and it
worked?
I'd be certain it was her own active imagination if Emma didn't seem so earnest about it all. "O-kay..." I responded, trying not to sound too doubtful in the face of her excitement. "So, mind showing me? I guess I get the urgency if this is, y'know,
real
..."
Emma, beaming, opened it up and uttered a few words carefully from the page. Was that Latin? Did the book have a pronunciation guide, too? My train of thought came to a halt, though, when the book suddenly glowed bright white, lighting the room up.
That
is not something most books I've seen do. Then, all of a sudden, I felt my whole body lifted off the ground, my sneakers untying themselves and pulling off my feet, settling neatly a foot away. I stared back at Emma, mouth agape.
"Wha-? Huh?
What the hell was that?
" I asked, completely shocked. That was...
real
. My shoes were no longer on my feet. They were sitting on the doormat now, after they took themselves off without a single effort from either of us.
My friend just smiled brightly at me as she responded. "See! I told you, you
had
to come over! There's so much in here, but there was one particular spell I needed someone else for, to try it out on, y'know." As she spoke, Emma pulled to another page, bookmarked this time. She'd clearly tried it earlier.
Ignoring the millions of questions I wanted to ask, I kept it simple for now. "So, uh, what's this one?"
"A 'ghost' spell! Like, it'll make me a ghost, flying, turning invisible, everything! I tried it already, but no one was around to see or tell me if it worked. Like... I could still see myself normally before I dispelled it, but the rest of it... you'll see!"
Now incanting from the new page, both she and the book glowed this time. I could only stare in awe, as my friend of many years started floating herself, her skin taking on a transparent effect. I could see
through
her! And now she was flying!
"See? How do I look?" Emma asked with glee, pirouetting in place.
"You're- you're transparent, Em!" I responded, finally finding my words again. "How's this all possible?"
"I don't know! But who cares, I'm a ghost!"
To accentuate that fact, she did a few more twirls and flips in the air, then disappeared for several seconds before popping into existence inches away, eye-to-eye with me. I looked down, and rather than the slight squat she'd normally need for us to be at eye level, her transparent shins seemed to cut off right at the floor. Emma simply giggled and 'booped' me on the nose -- which felt much less like human touch than a sudden cool draft of air. I shivered at the strange sensation, at a complete loss for words.
"It also lets me possess people! Just like all the horror stories and stuff!" she continued, far too casually for everything she was revealing. Then again, she'd never been too concerned with thinking things through, preferring to jump head-first into everything. "Can I try it? Pleeease?"
I balked. Everything I had seen in the last several minutes was breaking my mind a little bit, and as much as I wanted to see everything this apparent magic could do... possession? Me? I just wasn't sure if I trusted anyone that much, even as close as we were. "Em, um, I don't know..." I responded meekly.
"Oh, trust me, it'll be fun!"
At that moment, she disappeared completely, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. There wasn't much I could do but wait for her to materialize. Or...
"Em, you're not really gonna, you know--"
Then, that same cool sensation that tickled my nose washed throughout my whole body. It was like I had become immaterial myself, the drafts in the room passing through me, but I knew that it had to be Emma instead. I would have tensed up or even run away, how strange the feeling was, but I found that I could no longer move my body at all. Even my breathing felt off; it had a different pace now, and I couldn't even switch to "manual". Well, I realized, it looked like Emma was serious about the possession.
I tried to struggle, to force my body to move, and it did -- but not in the way I was expecting at all. Instead of running away, I stood still, my arms stretching out to my sides in a graceful t-pose. It was an alien feeling, as I could feel the nerves and muscles working just like they would normally, but I hadn't given them a single command to move. Emma, she was doing all of this like it was
her
body instead of mine.
My arms continued, above my head now. My hands joined at the top, then came down in a 'prayer' formation as if I were doing some odd yoga routine. Finally, my own lips betrayed me and the corners lifted into a mirthful smile.
"See, I told you it'd be fine, Chlo'!" my own voice said, in a completely different cadence to my own, and my throat tickled as it vibrated in rhythm. Emma again.
