Stitch by Samantha Durante Read Free Book Online

did seem to match his expression.  “You know, I’m not sure.  It kind of makes sense, and it would help to explain why these encounters keep affecting me like they do.”
    Janie thought for a moment.  “Was it always like that?  I don’t remember you being such a mess at first.”
    Alessa reflected back over her history with the ghost.  At first the encounters were much briefer, lasting only a second or two.  In fact, she may even have had incidents that were shorter.  In the beginning of the school year, sometimes she would see something out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked nothing was there.  So she wasn’t even sure at first that anything had happened.
    Then one night, she’d woken up at three in the morning feeling that eerie sixth sense that she wasn’t alone.  When she’d opened her eyes, she’d seen the silhouette of a man standing at the foot of her bed, near the fireplace.  She had frozen out of fear and pretended she was still asleep, squinting in the darkness to try to figure out if what she was seeing was real.  She could only faintly make out his shape and thought it might have been a trick of the light coupled with her sleepy eyes, but she just had that feeling that she wasn’t the only person in the room.  Then all of a sudden the feeling had passed, and when she’d reached out to her nightstand to switch on the lamp, there was nothing there.
    When she finally did see the ghost for certain for the first time, she’d flown from the room.  She’d been alone in the bathroom one evening brushing her teeth when she looked up from the sink and saw the ghost lurking behind her in the mirror.  He didn’t seem to have noticed her, but Alessa hadn’t stayed long enough to look closely.  She’d sprinted from the bathroom toothbrush in hand and locked herself behind her own door until she’d calmed down enough to go tell Janie what had happened.
    So she supposed in those early incidents it wasn’t quite the same.  Today, she had been transfixed.  She couldn’t seem to summon the will to flee, even as every instinct screamed at her to go.  But those first few times, she had been able to take action.
    Alessa confirmed Janie’s suspicions.  “You’re right.  It didn’t used to be like this.  I think the encounters are lasting longer and longer, and they’re getting more intense.”
    “That’s a little scary.”
    Alessa agreed.  “I’ll look into it when I get home tonight.  I’m sure there are plenty of ghost stories on the internet – I’ll see if I can find reports of anything similar.”
    “Good idea.”
    Alessa savored the last bite of her mac and cheese and put down her fork.  “Okay, I think it’s time for me to head to my ethics seminar.”
    Janie still had a sizable pile of veggies in front of her.  “Okay.  I’m going to stay and finish up.  See you back at the house tonight?”
    “Absolutely.”

7. Research
     
    Alessa was flooded with relief as she climbed the steps to Zeta Epsilon Pi’s front porch.  Between the exam that morning and her lunchtime rendezvous with the ghost, she was wiped.  Her ethics seminar had dragged on interminably, and as she yawned and drooped in her chair, Alessa had found herself wishing she was back in one of those massive lecture halls so that she could sink into the crowd.
    Instead, she had spent the entire class struggling to keep her eyes open in full view of her ethics professor, who quickly took notice given that there were only twenty or so students in the room.  Alessa had spent the better part of the last hour with the professor’s affronted expression boring through her and was glad to put the class behind her.  It felt good to be home at last.
    As Alessa opened the front door, she noticed that there was a group of seven or so sorority sisters gathered around the coffee table in the living room.  They alternated between nodding furiously and looking intently at Lizzie’s laptop as she spoke