Paranormal Psychology, Part 7

The slim woman bowed low and gracefully to the class. As she straightened back up she smiled at each one of us in turn and then winked at Professor Abode. Abode harrumphed disapprovingly at her, obviously trying hard not to smile.

"Nice to meet you, class. You see, this ole' codger here is growin' barmy in his tenure as a professor at his dear ole' university." She laughed airily. "Couldn't 'ave gotten away with that one when I was one o' yours, could I? Seems 'e needs some young blood to keep the flow goin' in class, if you get my drift. It's a bit daft, if you ask me, but the pay's good, and who can resist an offer from such a charming old man, eh?" Alyx said, her eyes dancing around the room.

"Yes, yes, very good, Alyx. You can go back to working the lights now." Abode said dismissively. Alyx bowed again and slid out of sight behind a bookcase. "Now, students, each of you will need to take a syllabus and read it over thoroughly and sign it. Next class will be at 6 PM sharp, I expect this to be acceptable to all your schedules. Now if you'll turn to page 6 of the syllabus... and before you do, I'd just like to say, if anything odd or disturbing happens to you outside of class, I would like you to report it ot me as soon as possible..."

****

The rest of the class went by formally and typically, and I felt almost as if only a couple of minutes had passed by the time that Abode dismissed the class. Walking back across campus, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement to see what possible task we could be leading up to. My mind racing with storylines from mystery novels and occult fantasy movies, by the time I had gotten back to my dorm I had decided upon something along the lines of ghost hunting. Slightly disappointed that all this to-do would end with something so mundane, I left the expectations to be played out in my dreams. Despite my roommate normally being of the nocturnal sort, when I got to my bed on the top bunk, my roommate was already asleep. I had no trouble following him in this endeavor.

****

I woke up during the night, suddenly, and could have sworn I heard my alarm going off. My alarm clock flashed '12:00 AM' in glowing green symbols, reminding me of a un-programmed VCR. I sat up to check it, and jumped under the sheets of my bed upon noticing a rather disturbing sight.


"Uh, Peter...?" My roommate Peterwas standing next to the bed silently, facing my bedstand.

After the shock of surprise faded, I realised he must be sleepwalking or something. I reach over from the top bunk to wave a hand in front of his face to make sure of this. I snapped my fingers twice, to no avail. He seemed to be out cold, unresponsive to the things I was doing. Quite unnerved by the sight of him like this, I moved down from the top bunk and walked over to see what he seemed to be looking at.

"Peter, this isn't funny..." I said, uncertain of what to do. He was facing my bedstand, face angled directly to be looking at the coffee cup I had gotten the from the strange customer at my workplace. I moved around him, looking him in the face, and immediately pulled back. His eyes were open, but completely glazed over, giving him an extremely zombie-like appearance. I shuddered, inching towards the coffee cup. I dreaded the implications of what I was about to make sure of, so as my hand reached for the cup it shook mightily. I lifted up one side of the cup tentatively. Just as I had expected, a hint of mercurial silver gleamed from underneath. The lip of the styrofoam closed over it again, and I stood there for awhile, my mind racing. Certainly I'm just jumping to conclusions at this point, I thought.

To test this, I slid the cup up and gently nudged that cursed coin out from underneath with the edge.