Rustle #3

Rustle Donaldson III strode down the marble floored hallway, his head held high, nodding to the other students as he passed. Everyone in the school knew who he was and he liked it that way. He always had his best friend, Craig, at his side, leading the way wherever they went. Craig had been blind ever since Rustle knew him, but Craig's father had let him live with the family ever since they were both very young. Rustle felt he owed a lot to Craig, so made sure no one picked on him. Because of Rustle, everyone loved Craig.

                "Hey Rusty, let's go back to the room," Craig said, using Rustle's nickname, and began tugging on Rusty to make sure he was listening.

                Rusty winked at a girl passing by and she visibly swooned over his dark eyes and golden haired looks. He had that affect on every girl, though Rusty never purposefully  tried to gain their attention when he was near Craig. The guy was already blind, but he had the ears of an owl and usually teased Rusty when he was trying to go for a pretty girl.

                Finally Rusty switched directions, heading down the back hallway that lead to Craig's and his own room. Ever since they went to school, they made sure to have the same dorm room. The school understood that the pair of friends could never be broken, so went through extremes to make sure everything went properly. Rusty loved the outdoors, so they even found a room that was only a short trot away from the back courtyard.

                "You know, Rusty, I haven't heard from dad in a long time. He's usually calling me and telling me about the different business trips he's gone on, or where he is traveling to next in his fancy jet plane or whatever new toy he's gotten."

                Rusty could only shrug, not knowing what to respond to such a statement. He considered Craig's dad as his own dad, but Mr. Krueger never took the time to reach out to Rusty since they left for college. Rusty had expected something like this to happen considering he didn't even know who his own father was, and knew that in general he had bad luck when it came to the father department. He was, however, instructed to take good care of Craig, and that he would. Rusty would never turn his back on his best friend.

                "He got this new boat, you know," Craig continued as if not noticing Rusty's silence. "Apparently it was fixed up by some Captain of the Navy."

                Rusty only grunted as they continued down the quiet hallway. Rusty hated being out on a boat, and Craig knew it. Rusty also knew that Mr. Krueger hated boats as well, but couldn't resist buying something he felt was worthy of his money. He could just imagine how the man would want a boat fixed up by some Captain.

                "I know, I know, you hate boats and swimming, but I thought it would be cool to home and go for a ride on it."

                Rusty knew that Craig was hinting at him coming with, but just the thought of standing in a rocking boat made his stomach become queasy. "I guess if you want to go, we can," he murmured, trying not to say it loud enough where Craig would hear him.

                "That's the spirit!" Craig exclaimed as they turned into their dorm room and shut the door behind them.

                Rusty only sighed and shook his head as he made his way toward the corner of the room to grab a snack to eat. Craig slowly made his way toward his bed, sitting down heavily and throwing his books to the ground.

                "I really don't want to do homework tonight," Craig complained, but continued to open his Ancient Civilization book and started scanning through it, using his finger as his reading guide.

                The night went by quickly with the two taking frequent breaks outside in the courtyard, talking to the other students who were also ignoring their work for a few hours to enjoy the warm fall air.

                Finally the two settled down into bed, Rusty stretched on top of his blankets while Craig settled deep within his. Rusty knew Craig was becoming increasingly worried when his father did not call him yet another night in a row. It truly was very unusual.

                "Maybe I should call him," Craig tried to reason.

                Rusty shook his head. "You know he wouldn't answer this late at night."

                Craig sighed and rolled over on his bed, ignoring Rusty's words but not picking his phone up to call his dad, either.

                Hours passed when suddenly Rusty woke with a start. He could feel the air in the room change, making his hair stand on end. It was freezing, as if the window had been blown open and snow started pouring into the room.

                Blinking in disbelief, Rusty stared at an opaque figure standing right beside Craig's bed. It looked somehow familiar as if he knew who this figure was. He had never seen a see-through person before.

                Craig also woke with a start, sitting up straight, his hands tightly clenching his blankets from fear.

                "Rusty, what is going on?" Craig said, his voice filled with his panic.

                The figure only stood there, standing over Craig's bed, completely ignoring Rusty.

                "Son," the figure spoke, making Rusty shiver. He now knew why the figure seemed so familiar. "Listen closely, son. I was out on that boat. It crashed. Don't worry. I went quickly. Keep close to Rusty."

                As soon as Mr. Krueger had appeared in his ghostly form, he disappeared and the temperature in the room turned back to normal. Rusty felt his body begin to unfreeze, though he felt his panic rise.

                "It was dad! Something's wrong! Dad was a spirit! What's going on!?!"

                Craig threw his blanket off and ran to where his phone sat in its usual place on his desk. Rusty could see the light from the phone as it was flipped open and Craig dialed a number.

                Rusty's panic only grew and he jumped off his bed, yelling in fear, "What's going on? Why did I see dad standing by your bed? I don't understand!"

                Craig turned to Rusty and snapped, "Shut up! I'm trying to call dad's phone!"

                But no one answered. The two stayed up the entire night, side by side waiting for his phone to ring. But both of them knew that something was seriously wrong. Even Craig, who did not see his dad in spirit, felt his presence and heard his voice. Rusty was still trying to understand.

                Before the sun was peaking above the horizon, Craig finally got the call. His father had taken his new boat out to sea without waiting for his hired captain to take him. He had been impatient, and had therefore paid the ultimate price, capsizing out at sea.

                Craig had then thrown his arms around Rusty, weeping for hours while Rusty sat in numb silence. Mr. Krueger hadn't even said good bye to him in ghost form. He truly was an unwanted son, but knew his role was to be a protector for his best friend.

                "Don't worry, everything will be okay," Rusty reassured him.

                Another semester passed and the two were back home for the summer. Craig had never been the same since that night his father came to visit the two in the dorms. Craig became obsessed with the afterlife, knowing that something was out there, something that needed solving. Rusty wanted nothing to do with it, but unfortunately had the knack for seeing these spirits and being able to keep Craig from danger in the different run-down buildings they had been to.

                Rusty felt like Craig was searching for his father, trying to find his spirit again and talk to him one last time, but Rusty knew that his father had already moved on. However, he didn't have the heart to tell Craig that his father was beyond gone. Instead, he helped Craig find more and more evidence of otherworldly activity, which seemed to make him happy.

                Rusty had also fallen from being the most popular to just another body moving through the hallways. Craig seemed to throw people off with his internal pondering, even making Rusty want to run away a few times, but he knew he couldn't abandon Craig. So instead, he just kept his head down and pretended not to care that he was no longer the center of attention.

                "Rusty, this summer I have lined up all different places for us to visit and capture more electronic voices from ghosts. I know you can see them, so just keep letting me know they are there and I'll do the talking!"

                Rusty wanted to groan at the news, but kept silent. The house was only a reminder of the lack of life that had come from Mr. Krueger, so at least they were getting out of the house.

                "And look, Rusty, Nana Jean gave me this letter and told me the story of a nurse who committed suicide, not knowing that a man she saved left a love letter for her! Isn't that great? This nurse must be still lingering around! Maybe we can find where she lived and talk to her!"

                Rusty knew that this would be their first stop for the summer, so prepared for the adventure. There would be many more to come, so he knew better than to ask to sit out this one time. Craig had asked some others to come with them to help with the trip. Rusty didn't know how to handle the equipment, after all. He was never good with technical things.

                Several days later, the group had finished their research and headed toward a rundown farm a few hours from their home, ready to communicate with a ghost that may still be hanging around. Rusty had his doubts, but he continued on with the group. It was dark out by the time they reached their destination, but that didn't matter to any of them as they laid out the equipment in all the rooms.

                Once finished, they all sat in a wide circle in a small room, waiting for any change in the atmosphere. Finally, Craig asked the open air, "Is anyone in here?"

                Rusty scanned the room before his eyes came to an almost see-through girl curled up in the corner, openly weeping.

                "Did you hear that?" they all seemed to exclaim at once.

                The girl looked up suddenly, her eyes fearful and almost close to madness as they locked into Rusty's eyes.

                "A dog?" the girl's voice asked, sounding as if it were traveling across an entire ocean before reaching their ears. The next moment she was gone, as if the energy had been sapped right out of her.

                Craig shivered as he held out his device to capture any sounds a human ear could not hear. "Dude, did you hear that?" he asked the group. He could feel the group nod and murmur their agreement.

                Craig reached over and pet the top of Rusty's head in excitement. "You really are my seeing eye dog, aren't you? You see everything, even ghosts! This is going to be an eventful night!"

                He patted the retriever's head once more and grinned at his fellow group members. He couldn't see Rusty look up at him, but he could feel the dog's excitement as he panted and swished his tail.

                An interesting night indeed…