Something Spooky This Way Comes (Open to all at Xavier's)

[hauntingyou]

It had been a long journey, but finally, she was here. She wasn't tired, exactly, she wasn't sure she could get tired now, at least not in the same way as before. But, she was mentally weary and glad to have reached her destination.

She passed through the metal gates protecting the entrance and paused to admire the random and colorful pattern that appeared on the monitor embedded into one of the posts. She stuck an intangible finger through the screen and dragged it around, watching the pixels swirl and follow. It was pretty. Much prettier than the considerably lower tech ATM she was playing with... when was that? It was so easy to lose track of time, now. That ATM had bleeped and blooped and spat out a snowstorm of twenty dollar bills. Pity she couldn't use them now, or even touch them, but it was fun to watch the crowd of people scrambling for them.

She drifted away. The monitor flickered and flashed, then displayed a rebooting sequence. She moved further in to the mansion grounds, invisible and intangible. There were people here. Maybe she could make one of them see her.

Comments

[hauntingyou]

For a place that had gotten so much news coverage the grounds had been surprisingly empty. Julia didn't know what she'd expected, maybe people flying all over the place or kids shooting laser beams out of their eyes on the lawn? But, whatever she expected, she hadn't found it. All she'd managed to do so far was spook some horses. One of them was seriously big and had wings, so maybe she was in the right place after all.

She drifted towards what she thought were the main buildings. She sifted through the wall and looked around. Books! Books everywhere, this must be the school library. And a person! She drifted over and hovered in the air in front of him.

Nothing.

Ok, she'd just have to try harder. She waved her arms, bobbed up and down, and made faces.

This wasn't working very well.

Julia had discovered she could sometimes move things if she concentrated hard, so she tried that. staring at a stack of papers on the table.

Move. Moooooove...

The papers rustled, flew up in the air, and fluttered to the floor.

[marvel_boy]

Given that Topher had no mystical inclination, at first, he didn't notice anything. No hand waving, no face-making. It was really just him, his books, his laptop, and his papers.

His papers which were rustling and flying about. Topher blinked. Okay. The windows were closed, but the school was filled with telekinetically-inclined mutants.

Oh god. Please don't let it be-

"Dolemeck?" Topher stood up. "Ilya?" He bent down to pick some of those papers up. "Uh. Anyone?"

[hauntingyou]

Ilya? That was kind of close to "Julia", if you stuck your fingers in your ears and hummed!

In any event, she had his attention, and that was progress. She concentrated hard, again, and his chair wobbled and slid backwards a few inches.

[marvel_boy]

Topher breathed in deeply.

Don't freak out.

This could be anything. It could be anyone.

Do we even have any invisible mutants at the school? Topher wasn't sure.

"Rachel. This isn't you pulling some prank, right?"

[hauntingyou]

She had his attention, but she wasn't getting her message across.

Julia waved her arms in frustration. When her hand passed through his laptop it began playing "It's A Small World".

[marvel_boy]

"Gah!" Topher yelled. Okay. No. That was not right. He'd been listening to the Bangles. "It's a Small World" had never been covered by the Bangles.

Ever.

Deep breath. Deep breath. Deep breath.

He closed his laptop shut with a quick movement.

Deep breath.

"Uhm. Halp," he whispered.

[hauntingyou]

This was not going as planned. Julia stamped her foot, and of course, it went right through the floor, but there was an alarming cracking sound from the old rafters in the library ceiling.

She threw up her arms and thought "Aargh!" Unfortunately, that came out as audible. It was a hollow sound, like an old stretched out cassette tape varying in speed and pitch.

"AaaaaaAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrRRRRRrRrgh-h-h-h-h-h-h"

[marvel_boy]

It's cool. This was the Institute. He'd grown up here. He could leave his stuff in the library and come back for it in the morning.

That was fine.

What wasn't fine was the thing in the library.

The thing that Topher was running from.

Because he'd totally just lost his cool.

"Ghooooooooooooossssssst!"

[hauntingyou]

Julia watched him run, her invisible lips twitching. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

That really hadn't gone well at all.