who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS! {teegan}

[STELLA HINES]

How Stella had even been put in a room with Teegan Axelsson was beyond her. Didn’t they have some sort of roommate matching system? Maybe something to put people who were at least a little similar together? Seriously. Not that Stella was complaining! No way, no how. Teegan was a great roommate. The girl was quiet and mostly kept to herself. See, already she didn’t have to worry about a roommate who used her stuff without asking.

What Stella liked best about Teegan was that she was quiet. A lot of people weren’t. Some people felt the need to interrupt her. Stella hated when people interrupted her. It was totally so rude. Teegan, though, let Stella go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on an—well, you get the point. It was only when Stella ran out of things to say that she stopped. For all she knew, it annoyed the hell out of Teegan. But until she said something? Well, Stella would keep at it.

Another thing Stella liked about Teegan was that Teegan liked exploring. It took some late night trying-to-fall-asleep conversations (like the ones at sleepovers) for Stella to really learn much about Teegan. Exploring, though? Freaking fabulous. There were lots of places to explore in New York. Bunches! And what better way to discover them than with somebody else? No way could you go exploring on your own. That was boring and not nearly as satisfying.

Stella had been asking for WEEKS. All she wanted to do was snoop around a graveyard. That wasn’t so bad! At some point, Stella had started insisting. Little things like ‘it will be SO MUCH FUN’ and ‘oh, what could go wrong?’ For all of today, she’d basically begged. Lots of PLEASE OH PLEASE’S and her best puppy dog eyes. It wasn’t until later that night, when curfew had passed, and they weren’t supposed to be outside that Stella set her determination to 100 million percent.

“Please, Teegan. Please! I promise it’ll be wonderful! It’ll be exciting and spooky and awesome!” Why hadn’t Stella every played in a graveyard in the middle of the night? It sounded like one hell of a time. “We could pretend to be ghost hunters!” Who could say no to that? Pretending was the best. Using one’s imagination to have fun was the most fun anybody could have. Forget things like TV. And those weird hobbies like gardening and stamp collecting. How could ANYONE find those fun? “Pllleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssee!”

[TEEGAN AXELSSON]

Rooming with Stella Hines was like rooming with a puppy. A new puppy. That bounced along when it came to living; full of vivacity and boundless energy that was undoubtedly fun, but at the same time tiring. And Teegan couldn’t shake the feeling that one of these days, she was going to end up cleaning up one of Stella’s messes… obviously, not in the same way as with puppy, but the same feeling of dread none the less.

Looking at it from an outside perspective, it was very good that Teegan was rooming with an outgoing, talkative person such as Stella. Conversely, Teegan could be seen as Stella’s puppy: being eagerly led along on a leash while Stella handled every conversation and navigated the new, uncharted, terrain. All Teegan had to do was listen and follow, and Stella made everything easy.

Well, perhaps “everything” was an overstatement.

It had slipped out of Teegan’s mouth by complete accident. She had no idea what kind of pit she had dug herself until it was already well over ten feet deep. Kind of like a grave site. How dreadfully ironic.

Either way, the weeks that followed were less than pleasant, all because Teegan had let it slip that she loved to explore.
Of course, it was nice to finally find something the two had in common, because as much as she didn’t mind listening to Stella ramble—it was nice for Teegan to have something to say for once. That night they’d stayed up late, talking for hours, Teegan felt as if she was finally bonding and connecting with Stella on a deeper level than over the past few weeks. She shared stories of her adventures, and then Stella chimed in with her own. It was the closed thing to a two sided conversation they’d had so far. Although, it was over all too quickly, replaced by Stella’s new idea, that she would not, for the life of her, shut up about.

Graveyards. Why wouldn’t Teegan come near graveyards again?

Oh, yes. Maybe it was because whenever she got in the general vicinity of anything resembling a crypt, be it a painting, a sculpture, or forbid it, the real thing—she was gripped by one of her panic attacks. Teegan knew they were more than just simply panic attacks, however. Sure, she got the classic symptoms—racing heart, clammy hands and feet, generally shakiness and nausea—but something else happened. Something that she could never tell another soul, something she could barely admit to herself.

That voice. The eerie, female voice that echoed in her head…

“Sepulcher…sepulcher…sepulcher…”

What did it even mean anyways?!

Teegan didn’t want to ponder it; she didn’t even want to remember that it had happened, more than once. But Stella would not give in. And, like she had done many times in the past, Teegan allowed her flimsy backbone to buckle and crash to her feet in bitter anxiety.

Her gentle voice shook, and sounded a bit more indignant and strained than usual: “Okay, Stella. I’ll go with you.”

This was it. She was actually putting herself through this. Quickly, in an uncharacteristic, desperate string of words, she blurted:

“But only once. And only for a few minutes. I’m not staying there all night or anything. And, um, we have to go at dusk or something. Not in the dead of night. And, uh, I don’t know if I’ll pretend with you, I mean, I always thought that kind of stuff was anti-religious anyway, and I don’t know, it feels wrong to me. I don’t want to do anything wrong. Maybe I’ll just go out with you, and then stay behind while you go in the actual…graveyard…”

She bit her lip, preparing for the protests and backlash that were inevitable.

[STELLA HINES]

While Stella waited for Teegan to answer, she continued to think please, please, please, pleeeeeaaaaaaaseeeeeeeee as if she were telepathically begging Teegan to say yes. Stella really hoped she agreed. A no, she could maybe handle. But if Teegan actually argued as to why they shouldn’t… well, Stella would lose in a heartbeat. She had few reasons and she’d sound like a broken record – it’d be fun, live a little, nothing bad is going to happen, etc etc.

Stella leapt up and cheered. She actually let out a loud HOORAY! If she’d been paying any attention, Stella would have noticed that Teegan definitely didn’t seem happy to be saying she’d go. Stella liked paying attention to the way people said things; she liked the tones that came with different situations and conversations. However, seeing that Stella was beyond excited, she didn’t particularly have time to worry about Teegan not being all gung ho for the adventure.

Stella had been ready to run around the room, gathering things they’d need and rambling on about how they’d do this. Teegan began, though, and Stella went wide-eyed. It was the most she’d ever heard Teegan say. Or, the most that she could remember. She was speaking a bit fast and Stella was not pleased at all by the terms and conditions. Teegan was making this, like, totally boring! Stella sighed loudly and thought for a long minute.

“Fine,” she said, furrowing her brows and crossing her arms. Once they got there, Stella could see about staying longer than a few minutes and she’d definitely try getting Teegan to at least step foot in the graveyard. One tiny little peek wouldn’t kill her and how boring would it be if Stella had to go exploring on her own? If that happened, she’d try yelling back to Teegan about all the awesome things she was coming across and then they’d probably get in trouble.

Stella looked out the window. It wasn’t the dead of night but it wasn’t exactly dust… hmmm. “Could we go now?” Stella asked, looking to her roommate with big hopeful eyes. “I mean, better to get it over with than worry about it later, right?” There was no way Stella could not wait until tomorrow night now that she knew Teegan would actually go. Besides, going when it was still sort of daylight meant not sneaking out during curfew and that was half the fun!

[TEEGAN AXELSSON]

Was it possible that Teegan had actually intimidated Stella with the amount of words tumbling out of her mouth? Based on Stella’s shocked expression, Teegan had to go with “yes”. This made her a bit uneasy; she wanted to avoid conflict at all costs. But she supposed that if she had to choose one time to speak up, this was the time. Ugh, why did Stella have to be dead set on a graveyard of all places?

Silently stewing in animosity and apprehension, Teegan realized that her hands were shaking. She hurriedly shoved them against her sides, determined to not let loud-mouthed Stella onto anymore that could set her off another slew of hollow reassuring words. Stella didn’t seem to realize that nothing could be said, nothing could be done to fight off the panic that was inevitably hopping the first train for Teegan’s heart. She could feel it in her veins. The numbness was starting. The headache was starting.

The voice always started as a headache.

“Okay!” Teegan nearly snapped, the panic settling into her voice. “Just one second.”

She walked, her world spinning, towards a drawer and reached for her stash of Tylenol. Twisting open the bottle in a one quick motion, she dumped two into her palm and swallowed them dry. It’s just a normal headache, she told herself. Just a little sinus headache from my allergies.

Teegan had never been more jealous of Stella than now, as she looked up into the carefree, eager eyes of her companion. They were just two friends, going out for a little mischief and fun, nothing other than that. She had to keep telling herself that until it was true. After all, the voice was insistent on doing that. Why couldn’t she counteract it?

She could, she could. She could if she tried hard enough. Yeah, that would work. She spun towards the door, reaching up to grab her jacket hanging on it.

“Come on,” she sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”


((Sorry for the shortness of this, Dani Dx I just want to get the action going, i.e., when they actually get to the graveyard))

[STELLA HINES]

Stella watched curiously as Teegan went for the painkillers that she went to quite often. At least, Stella thought it was quite often. This time, she had been paying attention, and she had heard the tone in her voice. For a moment, she thought about calling the whole thing off. Fine, they could go tomorrow, during the day. Super boring, but fine. That moment was gone as quick as it had come. Who was she kidding? Stella didn’t just ditch plans she’d been working on forever. ESPECIALLY not when she finally got an a-okay! Absolutely not. Stella was not giving up on this.

While Teegan got ready, Stella ransacked her side of the room for two flashlights and her cell phone. She hardly ever used the thing, so it wasn’t like she really kept track of it. Finding the phone in one of her shoes, she tucked it into her pocket and turned to face Teegan. Handing her roommate one of the flashlights, she rocked on her heels, grinning. “It’ll be awesome. I promise.” Stella almost said nothing bad will happen, but you never say that out loud. That’s just ASKING for something bad to happen.

Tugging her own jacket on (a black one, despite how tempting the bright red seemed right now, she knew that they had to blend in somehow or another), Stella eased the door open and peered out into the hall. All clear. She knew they had to be careful, anyway. There was a girl on this floor that was the biggest tattletale Stella had EVER had the displeasure of meeting. If they got caught by her before even making it out of the building… Her nerves and frustration suddenly sky rocketing, Stella gestured for Teegan to follow her and she set off down the hall.

Surprisingly enough, they didn’t have much trouble. There was one incident with two teachers walking by where Stella had to dive behind a potted plant to avoid being seen (she wasn’t sure where Teegan had hid), but it was smooth sailing from there on out. The taxi driver hadn’t even asked what two freshman were doing out this late. It took everything in her to not bolt right up to the big gates ahead of them. “Wow…” Stella whispered, in awe. Sure, she’d been by here before, but never at night! It was totally awesomely spooky and cool.

Clicking on her flashlight once the streetlamps no longer provided sufficient lighting, Stella stared up at the gates. It wasn’t locked up. Stella had heard somebody talking about the news, about putting locks on cemetery gates. She let out a quiet cheer (a very quiet cheer) that this cemetery had not decided to do so. Pushing the gate open as quickly and silently as she could (not an easy effort; it was heavy and it creaked), Stella looked back at Teegan. “Are you sure you won’t come in with me?” Again, she put on her best puppy dog eyes. “Just a few steps?”