Haunted Library

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was making one of those few rare trips to the library to get a hold of a few books that she needed for classes she was going to have next year. She liked to make sure she had all her books in advance so she could read ahead and pretty much know what was going to be taught. If she knew what was going to be taught then she would know if she needed to bother with going to class or not. Part of her wondered why she didn't go for skipping ahead to college but then another part just really, really didn't care. She didn't like school, didn't want to keep going to school, and was only going to college cause her dad suggested it for the sake of getting more money in her paycheck.

Still, she had to do it so that meant at least doing it her way. So here she was in the library, using her power to avoid having to talk to anyone or really deal with anyone until she had to. This was supposed to be a quick in and out. The one thing that was becoming a problem was that no doubt people would see a book sitting on a table one moment and then gone the next. It was because of her power working specifically when she was touching something; it put less strain on her then projecting a whole area around her in which her power would work. The other problem with that was that every time she touched something she would reappear for one second and then gone for the next, the same with the objects.

Of course she didn't think it was that big of a deal but then she was starting to hear whisper about ghost. "Lame, people thinking ghost are real. No such thing." Erin said out loud, not that anyone would hear her. She rounded a corner and bumped into someone, canceling out her power and also causing the books she had been holding to fall down onto the floor. “Ouch.” Erin muttered under her breath as she pushed rubbed her wrist which she slightly hurt in the whole falling down event after running into someone.

[Victoria Foster]

"What the hell?!" Tori screamed in both surprise and horror as an invisible, yet very solid figure ran into her. The large book of photography she had been cradling in her arms was released, causing it to fall towards the floor and crush her toes, eliciting another scream from the girl. At least instead of falling on her butt, Tori had stumbled backwards into a bookshelf, successfully catching herself and keeping upright but noting she would have a few nasty bruises where the shelves had dug uncomfortably into her back.

With her pulse beating a million miles per second, Tori stared wide-eyed at the girl who had appeared out of no where. Her eyes flickered down to stare at all the books scattered on the ground. She didn't know what to say, her brain was still trying to catch up to the situation. She was also trying to concentrate on breathing so she wouldn't have a fit of panic. Every nerve in her body was alert. The warning signals made every muscle in her body buzz with energy. Fight, flight, or deer in light. It was unfortunate for Tori that her defence mechanism told her to freeze like the deer. And so she did. She was frozen as if ice itself had taken her limbs hostage and froze into her an icicle. So, basically, she had a bunch of pent up energy due to fear buzzing around but no where to expel it. That just caused her nerves to spike even more.

Calm down, Tori, it's okay. No threat here. Just a girl. Just a girl. Just a girl.

"Uh..." Tori rose a shaky hand to her face to rub the back of it against her forehead. This girl was a mutant, obviously. That's why she was invisible. Tori did go to a mutant school after all. Duh. But what really made her uncomfortable was the sudden interaction. Why had the girl been invisible? Tori absolutely hated being snuck up on and spooked. It caused her to react the way she currently was. Her body was shaking, her skin was glistening with some sweat due to stress, her head was buzzing and heart was racing. It was always an uncomfortable state to be in. And very embarrassing. Tori hoped she could pull herself together fast enough to pretend she wasn't as frightened as she was.

Breathe and ask how she is. Who is this girl anyway? Never seen her before. Time to be polite. Talk and you'll be fine. Go on, Tori.

"You okay?" Tori finally asked while she pushed herself from the shelf, groaning at the soreness that was already setting in. "Why were you hiding?" She bent down and began to gather all the books that had been dropped, spinning them around so she could see the covers and see what sort of things the invisible girl read.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn't really do well with interacting with people and she was not a fan of being scared, so this whole event was not fun for her at all. It was one thing to bump into someone and cause them to fall, but it was a whole other story when they yelled out because you scared them and then yelled out again once they ended up hurting themselves. Yes, it was Erin's fault the girl had let out both yells but that didn't help the fact that Erin too was now freaking out. She didn't mean to scare or hurt the girl and the yelling just made Erin flash out of sight for a moment before she reappeared.

Of course this also meant that she got the stupid headache and her eyes bothering to go with her 'flicker' as she called it. A part of Erin was tempted to just get up, use her power, and run. Then she could hide away for a little bit until they girl would wonder off and she could go get her books then. That would have been rude and it was important to note that the girl was also now bending over to help pick up the books that Erin had ended up dropping to the floor. Erin just sat there, in a state of half panicking, checking the girl out, and feeling bad that she had caused this to happen.

It would have been just better for her to vanish since how she was acting was as if she was not even there now. Oh man, I hurt her. She yelled. Twice! I should just run. Hide. Not like she will remember me...I'm sure I'm easy to forget. No, don't be rude. She is helping you. Crap, she is talking to me, pay attention. Say something back! Erin thought to herself as she remained sitting there and was kind of staring. "Y-yeah...I'm fine. S-sorry about that are...are you okay? I'm really sorry." Erin managed to get out, stuttering a little.

She was quick to get up them, shifting to be on her knees as she tried to pick up the other books the other girl had not gotten to pick up yet. All the books were for class so Erin was not really embarrassed by anything that would have been fine; all of them were just regular general education stuff. Then came the question on why she was hiding which had Erin slowly turning redder by the second. "I...I don't really...I wanted to avoid having to talk to anyone. Not that I don't want to talk to you but I'm not...like I'm n-not good at it. All the time. some of the time...I'm Hackett. Hi." Erin said, struggling yet again and went for the whole introduction thing as a sort of subject change.

[Victoria Foster]

One book. Two book. Three book. Stack them nice in neat in your arms. Concentrate on that. Good. Be calm. Just get the books.

Tori swallowed heavily and glanced up at the girl as she spoke. Though the gears in Tori's head were runnin, it took her a while to understand the words that were coming out of the girl's mouth. She probably looked absolutely ridiculous with the blank stare she was giving. But finally, Tori blinked her eyes and began to shake her head vigorously. Of course the girl who had been hiding was stumbling over her words. It made Tori feel bad for her.

"Oh, no, no, no! I'm okay. Apologies aren't needed." That was a lie. The apology was appreciated. Though Tori highly doubted the girl understood the damage done- but Tori didn't want her to know the damage; or to see it. It took a lot of effort to hide spiked nerves, and even more effort and time to let it go and return to normal. But, hopefully, as long as Tori was concerned, by the time she went to sleep and woke up the following morning, this situation would be long forgotten and treated as if it never happened.

The way the girl sounded- Hacket, she called herself- was nervous and embarrassed; understandably so. These emotions successfully began to creep their way into Tori's soul, causing her cheeks to redden and her eyes to move downward to avoid any eye contact. "O-oh. Heh, yeah, I understand" She scratched the back of her head trying to get a grip on the new negative emotions that accompanied her own. "Uhm, I'm Tori. I understand the whole, you know, not wanting to talk thing. It's okay, you're in good company. I think. Yeah."

A pause. A long pause. It was obvious Hacket didn't want to talk about the awkward situation they were in, but...

"You really scared the crap out of me. Handy mutation, though. For, uh, hiding. Which you were obviously doing... Sorry."

[Erin Hackett]

Erin felt like she was some kind of fool with how the other girl was looking at her. She probably ended up speaking another language or maybe she had not actually said anything at all. Crap, had all of that been inside of her head. Hell, she hoped not. That was a lot to say and if it had ended up all in her head then that would have sucked. The other girl was speaking about how she didn’t need to apologize, but that didn't feel like it was meant. Who didn't want someone to say sorry when another person ran into them?

She just nodded her head but didn't plan to take her apology back since she was in fact sorry. Erin did not know what she had done to the other girl and if she had she would have tried to make it better. Erin had not understood that she had ended up using her last name, which she was used going by back at home. The girl said that she understood that but also looked like she was nervous. Great, another person that was nervous when she was nervous so there was just double the nerves. "N-nice to meet you Tori. I...It's not like I don't want to talk to you it’s just like people in general...at times." Erin was quick to say.

Then was the whole long pause, mostly Erin's fault because pretty girl is pretty and means that she forgot how to talk at times. It was not her fault that she got caught up in someone’s good looks and her mind just wondering places. The other girl brought the silence, bringing up how Erin scared the crap out of her. Well that just made her feel bad again and she was already slightly pouting. "I'm really sorry...I...I didn't mean to. Can I make it up to you somehow?" Erin asked wanting to thank the girl for complementing her ability, but she wanted to find out how to make things better first.