Deadline

He’d like to say he rose with the sun as it lit up the sky, slowly illuminating his large but cozy bedroom with warm rays of yellow-orange light but he wasn’t really into lying. Jek had awoken at 10 past 1 in the afternoon, far past the time he had planned to get up, the sun being blocked from entering his room by the heavy curtain he’d nailed over his window. He groaned, stretching his long arms as he rolled his legs out of bed, forcing himself to stay standing while he swayed on two feet grabbing the phone that still rang on his bedside table. Hitting the green button he held it up to his ear trying to at least sound awake "Hey, Tim. Yeah, I've been up. Putting some final touches to your story. Yeah, you'll have them by tomorrow and I can start on the next section on Tuesday... Yeah, okay talk to you then. Bye." he hung up and dropped his phone back on the bed. The sheets and warm comforter still seemed to call his name but Jek shook his head and gave a great wide yawn, brushing sleep from the corner of his eyes as he made his way to the bathroom to begin his day.

After a hot shower and trying to find where his toothpaste had gone Jek looked into the fogged mirror, a little flight of fancy making him swipe across the glass like he was in a movie, having a dramatic moment, but all he saw was himself. The same face he’d always seen, pale green eyes, large sharp nose, severe eyebrows, straight line of a mouth, not bad jawline, black hair, olive skin, he figured he could look worse though he could also look better if he tried. Jek let out a sigh and headed out of the bathroom, throwing his towel onto the back of a chair and digging through his chest-o-drawers trying to find his outfit for the day.

Eventually settling on a baggy black shirt, black hoody to battle the cool air and a worn pair of jeans he was ready for his day. Almost, Jek was at least ready to go to the other parts of his apartment now. Having woken up a bit more he moved quickly, with sure and precise movements Jek made his way to the front door opening it to grab his paper from his welcome mat, tossing it onto his table before moving into the kitchen to pull a mug from the cabinet and set it into the Keurig. He hit the buttons for his preferred cup of coffee before heading for the fridge pulling out most everything needed for a morning sandwich: bacon, eggs, spinach, cheese, mayo, snatching the bread from the top of the fridge. Dropping his ingredients onto the kitchen counter Jek pulled out his frying pan, the only one he had, and began to cook.

Right now he’d normally be in front of his desk, drawing out the scenes for the Manga he was working on but…. something had happened last night, it was probably a dream but it was sticking with him like a bad hangover. Jek shook his head getting back into it, stopping himself from drifting away while cooking on a gas stove. He studiously looked anywhere but at his desk as he cooked, prepared his plate, ate the deliciously messy sandwich and washed his plate and hands. There was nothing else he could do to avoid it after that though, he wasn’t a slob so the apartment was fairly clean and he really, really needed to get those pages done and turned in.

Jek took a deep breath, stealing himself as he moved towards his desk, his eyes flickering in every direction as he got closer, wondering if he would see it again. He got up to his work space with nothing strange happening, the sun was beaming through the window, the warm light resting on his artwork. He could hear the wind rustling the leaves on the branches of the big old tree outside the open window and that was it. Nothing else, no murmured words from dry grey lips, no looking up from his art into dark hollow eyes. Jek shuddered at remembering what he thought he’d seen and then laughed at himself. He’d been working later and later recently, he was probably just tired.

Confidant he’d just been working to hard and too late he sat back down, resolving to go to sleep a little earlier tonight as he began to work again. He was maybe an hour into his process when he had a strange feeling come over him, Jek shifted in his chair as it got colder, a winter breeze caressing his skin. Jek concentrated on the scene in front of him as he reached towards his lounge chair for the blanket that always rested there. He pulled it around him holding it close to his body as the cold tried to invade. It took him a moment to realize that there was something wrong with this scene. Not the one he was drawing but what he was doing. He was wrapped in a thick blanket while his AC was broken, windows wide open in the hopes that a breeze might come through knowing it would likely still be warm as outside was central Texas and today was only September 12th. He should have been sweating through everything but when he’d woken, he’d been nice and cool, as he’d showered the bathroom was cold, the kitchen hadn’t seemed to heat with the cooking of his lunch.

Jek shivered hard and jumped up looking up once again into the dark hollow eyes of the thing he’d seen last night. He wasn’t sure if he was holding his breath or if he’d just forgotten how to breathe but he was positive his lungs were not expanding as he looked at it. It appeared to be a young woman, of a sort. She had long brown hair sitting limply on her shoulders, her skin way grey and he assumed dead, he assumed everything about her was dead, partially because of the look, partially because she seemed to float about 5 inches off the ground. He wasn’t sure what he would have called the noise he made but that was likely why he was the artist for these books and his partner took care of the words.

He blinked repeatedly as the creature’s head tilted to the side, its face scrunching up in what he thought might be confusion. The noise he had made had been somewhere between a shriek and a whine and seemed to have given this thing pause. Jek wasn’t sure what to do, or what to say, or what kind of stuff he’d been slipped last night to be seeing this (he was dearly hoping that was the case) but he was sure of one thing: he had a deadline. Not knowing what else to do Jek just pointed down at his drawings “I, uhm… I have work to do… I need to finish this by tomorrow afternoon so like, can you not kill me or eat me or whatever until I’m done?”

The creature’s eyebrows came together a she looked at him opening her grey lips to speak, he was expecting the murmur he’d heard from her last night but the very clearly accented female voice that spoke to Jek threw him back through the loop he was currently spinning in “I’m not trying to eat you Jek or kill you. This is my home and I’ve been given permission to haunt it.” She grinned, the façade of the creepy dead girl being replaced for just a second by a beautiful young woman probably around Jek’s own age, long wavy brown hair, whiskey colored eyes, tanned skin, the vision was gone as quick as it’d come replaced with the grey vision of horror before him.

“This is actually my first haunting. I’m kind of excited really.” She said seemingly expecting him to say something and when he only stared at her, his eyes slightly wide and unmoving like he was frozen, she continued talking “My name’s Amber.”

That seemed to snap Jek out of the trance he was in and he took in several breaths coughing just a bit as he breathed in a bit too quickly “What kind of name is Amber for a haunting spooky ghost?” Amber shrugged, though her shoulders did go up Jek couldn’t help but notice the cloth was ripped and underneath seemed to be only ghastly bone, no flesh. He swallow forcing himself to look back at the ghost’s face as she spoke, the lips barely seeming to move though he could hear her clearly “My parents? I mean I guess I could pick a new one but I don’t think it really matters.” While Jek found himself staring at the ghost once again, said ghost, apparently known as Amber, was looking around the apartment “Wow.” She said, wondering off towards the kitchen “You really changed things. What year is it? How long have I been dead?” Amber turned back to Jek to see if he’d answer the questions only to find him sitting back at his desk, drawing again, refusing to look up.

Jek could feel it turn colder as Amber came closer to him though he still wouldn’t acknowledge she was there muttering “Just work on your art Jek, the hallucination will go away soon enough.” The hallucination snorted at him, once again becoming the sunny girl he’d seen for a split second at the edge of his vision. Jek didn’t look up, trying to keep his mind on the art and the scene he was supposed to be drawing. He figured he might have been able to too if Amber the hallucinatory ghost hadn’t popped her head through his chest to get a good look at what he was making.

If he’d been a cat, Jek was certain he’d have his claws buried inside the ceiling. As he was very clearly human he only managed to leap out of his chair, over his desk and to the other side of the living room in one go, that manly shrieking whine trialing behind him as he shook his head, covering his eyes as he talked to himself rapidly, rocking back and forth under the dining table “It’s fine, it’s fine.” Jek muttered, Amber having to get close to him to hear clearly “Everything is fine, you’re just tripping on acid someone slipped you or, or I don’t now does Xanax do this? Didn’t Cody say something about Xanax last night?” Jek breathed in and out trying to calm himself, when he felt he was good enough to get out from under the table he opened his eyes, looking around frantically to see the floating feet of the ghostly Amber. When he didn’t he slowly creeped out from under the table, shoulders hunched and stiff as he stood. There was no sign of her now, no weird cold enveloping him, just the warm summer breeze coming from the still open window, his pages were still in the same spot they had been though he was sure he’d knocked them to the ground when he’d jumped over the desk to get away from Amber.

Jek swallowed, he spoke, quietly at first “Amber?” when there was no response he spoke louder “Amber?!” finally relaxing when once again he heard no answer from the ghost. Jek let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing as he fell towards his lounge chair, curling up in it as much as he could and just resting for a moment. Maybe it was stress? Yeah, stress. Stress does strange things to people. Jek chuckled at himself before he stood, moving to his desk once again, glancing around just in case as he sat down. When nothing happened for a few moments, Jek relaxed a bit more, going back to his drawing. In no time he was back in his zone illustrating the story written before him.

Of course when his phone rang he damn near had a heart attack, fumbling with it to answer and press it to his face “Hey mom. Yeah I’m fine. No I’m fine just working.” Jek swallowed thickly nodding to what his mother was saying “Yeah I promise I’m fine, just a little stressed is all. Yeah, I’ll go to sleep early tonight.” He got up walking around as he talked to his mother about everything and nothing, from his uncle’s prostate exam that went smoothly to his father’s soccer team winning a game. When they finally hung up he actually felt much better, more grounded in reality than he had before. Jek went to his desk, deciding that he wasn’t going to get anymore work done in here he unclipped the head of the desk and carried it and the drawings on top of it into his room, snatching his unread paper on the way.

He climbed into his bed, making himself comfortable, beginning to draw once again. Distractedly Jek opened his paper, glancing at the first page, which is usually as far as he ever got with the physical newspaper. Green eyes moved rapidly across the paper reading the article in front of him and looking at the colored picture. He was much calmer this time as he put his lap desk on the ground, and covered himself with his sheets and blanket, noticing as the cold slowly came back to him. Jek had his head covered and eyes shut but he could still hear. He could hear clearly when the sound of shuffling came close to his bed though the sound was confusing as he knew she was floating and when that voice came from grey lips he shuddered again. “I need your help Jek. What year is it? How long have I been dead?”

Jek shook his head pointing towards the paper that showed Amber’s picture. It said she’d gone missing four years ago and had just been found yesterday, her remains where bound and gagged. All Jek could think as he heard the curses and wailing of the ghost in his room was that he was not gonna be making his deadline.