Seeking the Keys

Pt. IX: Voices in My Head

by

Cowboy Ghostie




"Thought I Heard something in here..." The well armed and armored legionnaire slid through the door into the room, boots making heavy thuds in the hollow sound of the meteorology lab.

Why am I doing this again?! Will shrunk himself to the wall behind him, willing himself to merge with it, but it wasn't working.. That damned legionnaire was going to see him and then all hell would break loose.

Need a... need a distraction... get the second one to call him back. Casper sounded dazed, but it was the first helpful thing he'd heard in a long time.

Will inched just a little further from the well armed man and shot a glance towards his would-be partner in crime. Sam was huddled under a table, just out of sight of the legionnaire, and then Will's eye caught something else. The backpack was still on the table. It was pretty darn certain he'd see it..

Crap... He thought he remembered... yes. Will moved a little and then shoved himself backwards, feeling the sting of the nonmutual merge and passing. He found himself on the other side, in an alcove, but he didn't make a sound.

The second patrolman stood outside, staring uncertainly at the door the first had just disappeared through. Thinking fast, then smirking devilishly, Will pulled something from his pocket and threw it hard against the wall a little ways down. It thwacked hard against the brick and then bounced off and rolled across the floor with a ting and a tiny metallic growl.

He heard the legionnaire turn with a creak of leather and metal. "Eh...? Hey, get back out here, would you..."

This made the doppleganger smirk and try, again, to sink into the material of the wall. He didn't want to be there when they got there, after all. It didn't fight him this time and again he had the unique experience of being himself and the wall at once. He'd never get used to it, he didn't think.

"Oh, what is it?" The first fellow sounded annoyed, and a moment later he emerged from the lab.

"I dunno... I don't like it. Heard something down the hall, c'mon..." Uncertainty.

"...how did i get stuck with you for a partner?" Definite annoyance.

Will was already back on the other side, not wasting time. He half-snuck, half-slid over to where Sam was and whispered urgently to him.:"Get the flipping backpack before they see it, move it!"

He rolled his eyes. Proctors, get their brains so stuck in being 'real' mode they forget the side they belong on.

Casper snickered as Sam scrambled. Jealous...

Hardly... Will had an impish grin. He couldn't lie, this was giving him a thrill.

He hissed another prompting at the Proctor once he'd gotten the backpack: "Now get out of sight, doofus..."

He proceeded to follow the shaken wraith into the other side of the Lab, spotting something on the way by, and then blinking...

Barometer. Damn... no time. Will slid to the side and looked towards the door quietly... he could just barely see it behind the cabinets and desks.

"Why the hell are you so paranoid, was it the striplings last week? There's nothing out here, I'm telling you you need a vacation."

"I do not need a vacation..." Exasperation from the voice that was starting to get a little distant.

There was a silence, broken after a moment by Sam's uncertain voice. "...a-are they gone?"

He turned cynical green eyes towards the proctor and studied him a moment, considering not answering at all, just to make him more paranoid.

"...Ray?"

Then he sighed, that would serve him no purpose. "For now... I think. There's a barometer about 2 counters back, grab it and I'll go back to watching the hall." Then he walked away, leaving the man to flounder in his own idiocy for awhile.

The hallway was quiet when he got there, but will was annoyed by the thought that those restless could return. He leaned on the doorway and chewed his lip, glancing this way and that and listening for anything at all. He could hear Sam bustling about behind him, looking in drawers and cabinets, and stuffing his finds in the backpack.

They weren't looking for much, and Will was certain people would say he should feel guilty for just taking what they needed. But he didn't. It wasn't locked up, it wasn't tied down and he didn't have any way of getting money to buy it anyways. The professors would survive.

Will glanced at the clock and hissed: "Hurry up, we need to get out of here."

Sam looked up towards his voice and all but glared: "Stop giving me orders..."

That elicited a chuckle, nothing more... Of course, later would come the problem of making sure this junk they'd collected worked. Will ignored the proctor's glare and glanced at the door again.

You're not playing the part very well... A quiet worried whisper from Casper. Will ignored that too.

Warnings and more warnings. Feh... Who cares? I sure don't. Will rolled his eyes and murmured mock complacently for the benefit of his would-be partner. "...yes, Ma'am."

"I think I've got everything," A whisper from Sam, who still looked cross: "If you're not in that book in 10 seconds, Ray..."

He snickered inanely and walked back over to the table and the book. Sam was standing there with the most piqued expression on his face. He'd get over it though, he just had to peck at him occasionally - it was too amusing to pass up.

A moment later he was both himself and the book, and found himself shoved promptly into darkness as Sam shouldered the pack and wandered to the door looking like your average student with a ton of books.

Will always felt like time was screwy when he inhabited something, he didn't know how long it was.

There came a whispered and confused mutter from Casper: Why do they keep asking me to let go of the key?
Eh..? Have you lost it again?
Will was bored with the darkness, so he answered.

I don't know what they're talking about... Casper almost pouted.

You've lost your marbles again, i think. There's nobody to ask you anything. You're in My head remember?

...but I keep hearing things-


Will cut him off: You're crazy, remember? The voices aren't real... that's why I'm in charge now, remember?

The harsh question simply prompted a whimper and silence from his other half. Will rolled his eyes again, annoyed. Eventually the darkness ended and he found himself in open air, and set down with a thud. He wasted no time in removing himself from the cramped constraints of the object.

Sam was standing there in the shadowed alley right outside the professor's hideout. He was squinting trying to ignore the setting sun that washed the area in reds and shadows, the bag was shoved in a nook, and they both headed inside to face the professor, and the problem of how to get this stuff on their side of the Shroud...


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