Harbor got out of the shower feeling extremely refreshed. Towel around his waist he slipped back into his room.
“Oh shit! Warning warning warning!!!” Oh yeah May is in his room. May squalled as they covered their eyes darting out of the room.
Harbor blinked a few times, processing, before quickly getting changed into new clothes.
“Are you done yet?” May called out, voice muffled slightly from behind the door.
“Yeah!” Harbor called back.
May walked in, kinda they floated an inch above the floor. “Ah you look much better.” May
commented, giving a cheery smile. “And you don’t smell like week old sweat.” They added on.
Harbor winced, “That bad?”
“Your eye bags are worse, when was the last time you slept? 1987?”
Harbor rolled his eyes.
“Go to bed you damn insomniac.”
“But-”
“NO BED now!” May reaffirmed. Pointing to the bed and glaring at their friend.
Harbor sighed, “Alright fine.” Harbor passed out before his head hit the pillow.
“I leave for what a week and he’s a godsdamn wreck. Well could be worse I suppose, at least he ate SOMETHING since I’ve been gone.” May grumbled, “Now what to do, what to do…” May wandered over to the computer, it’s screen up but dark. “I’m sure I can figure this out.”
May placed their fingers on the keys and attempted to push down. They went through the keyboard. “No dice.” May muttered. Their eyes caught onto a small rock, “hmmmm.” focusing they found they were able to pick it up for a few seconds. “Oh yeah I can make this work.” they grinned, “What, why can I move this, but I can’t push a key? … this is rigid.”
Harbor slept for an entire 16 hours. His parents checked on him regularly and were happy he was finally able to rest. His face pressed against the pillow as May dropped a rock on his keyboard oliver and over again. Scrolling pages was a whole nether challenge. Yet they managed. Searching the deep web for answers. Clicking onto the third fourth tenth page of google. Even going to bing and yahoo.
“This is ridiculous.” May muttered to themself, “I will never not regret my lack of hands.”
Harbor groaned. Eyes fluttering awake as consciousness returned.
“Oh look at that you’ve awoken, you’ve been asleep for like a whole day.”
“What?”
“Yeah like deadass I thought you were like dead or something for a little bit.”
Harbor huffed.
“I managed to get into your laptop by the way.”
Harbor’s eye furrowed, “How’d you manage that you are exactly solid.”
“Yeah that’s the thing I can pick up this rock but I can’t press a key.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s what I said.” May infomed, “Anyway so I figured out how to work it without being exactly solid and found something that might help us out.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah it’s a really obscure forum.”
“Sounds sketchy.”
“Oh yeah absolutely, but anyway to sum it up it’s basically says we need to go back to the place I got…. Yeah… and find clues.”
“That doesn’t really help.”
“No, not really.”
“Great so we’re going back to the creepy ass woods.”
“Yep.”
“This is a terrible plan, you know that right?”
“Oh yeah absolutely.”
“Alright I’ll write a note to my parents, they definitely won’t let me go if they knew what I was doing.”
“Why do you say you're going to stay with a friend?”
“That would work if I wasn’t sure they would call my friends daily to get updates.”
“Get your friend on it too.”
“That could work, let me call them up.”
“You do that.”
Harbor nodded, grabbing his phone and opening the contacts. Scrolling through them he found the one that belonged to his friend. He clicked it calling up his friend. The phone pressed to his ear he listened to it ring.
Riiiiing! … Riiiiing! …. Riiin– “Hello?” a voice responded on the other end.
“Hey Blue how you’ve been?”
“How have I been? Harbor, how are you holding up?”
“Ah well that's the thing I called you about.”
“I am here to support you every way I can.”
“Great, uh please keep that in mind, so I need you to tell my parents I’m with you for a little while.”
“Harbor no what are you planning.”
“I- Well I’m, I'm just… May… I’m going back to that campsite.”
“Harbor…”
“Here me out!” Harbor cut in, “I swear I’m not going to do anything rash, I just, I need the closer I guess, that May… That May… passing really was just a freak accident. And not… and not something else.”
“I don’t want you to be doing this alone Harbor.”
“I know I know, but this is something I need to do on my own you know?”
“I don’t think you do, it's ok to have support.”
“Please, blue, please, you don’t need to understand it fully, just please.” Harbor begged.
The line went silent for a long moment, “Fine, but you tell me exactly where you’re going and I get updates twice DAILY.”
“Alright, fine. Thank you Blue, I’ll be back soon I swear.”
“If this lasts longer than a week I’m calling it off.”
“Unless I find something?” Harbor bargained.
“If you find something in that time we will meet up again and discuss what your next actions are.” Blue countered.
“Deal! Thank you Blue, thank you so much.”
“Get back alive.”
“Promise.”
The line went dead.
“Good news?” May questions.
“Yeah, we got a cover now to clear it with my parents.” Harbor breathed.
“Good luck.” May nodded their head.
“I'm going to need it.” Harbor mutter heading to his door.
He swung it open and entered the hallway. Walking down it he made his way into the living room. His eyes scan the room around him. He spotted his mom and dad on the couch watching a movie quietly.
“Hey mom, dad.” He greeted sheepishly.
“Harbor your up!” his mom cheered, standing up and hugging her son.
“Yeah, speaking of which I’m really hungry.” Harbor laughed awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
“Of course of course. Hold on, I'll warm up some lasagna.”
“Mmm, my favorite. Thanks mom, I really appreciate it.”
Dinner warmed and stomach filled, Harbor finally got into what he had come over for.
“So, I was hoping to meet up with Blue, and thought it would be good to get out of the house for a little bit… that it might, you know… get my mind off of things for a little bit.”
“That sounds like a good plan hun,” Harbor’s mom smiled softly.
“I’ll be sure to call you everyday,” Harbor continued, sweetening the deal.
“How long do you plan to stay?” Harbor’s dad called.
“Uh a week I think, Blue said he had some plans.”
“That sounds wonderful, you’ll have to tell us all about it when you call.”
“Of course mom, thank you.”
“When do you plan on heading out?”
“I was thinking sometime tomorrow morning.”
“Alright baby, do you need help packing your bags?”
“No, no, no, I’ll be fine mom.”
“I would be more than willing to help, are you sure?” She teased.
Harbor groaned, “Yes mom.”
His mom giggled.
“Momma’s boy!” He heard May call. Harbor rolled his eyes.
The rest of the night continued in peace, watching movies with his parents while May whispers over his shoulder making jokes he has to try and not laugh from, lest he look insane.
The next morning rolls around with little fanfare. Harbor packs his bags and his mom checks them despite his protest. He leaves two hours after his initial deadline as is typical. His mother and his father crush him in several hugs before he is finally released from their affection and allowed to continue on his way. May giggles over his shoulder the entire time.
Once Harbor finally makes it into his car his parents are about as emotional as the first time he left the house for college. He smiles at the memory waving to his parents as he heads out of the driveway. His mom yelled to remind him to call. He yelled back reassuring her he would.
The car drive passed relatively uneventfully. He called Blue telling him he had left to begin his investigation. Blue reminded him of their deal, promising hell if he broke it. Harbor shook his head fondly. May attempted to fiddle with the radio.
“Want no May don’t mess with the radio!”
The car ended up being consumed by static.
“Ah fuck!”
“Curse my weird ghost-like abilities!!”
“My ears!!”
“AAAAAA”
“AAAAAA”
