Glimpse by Steve Whibley

really noticed before… for whatever reason, I thought I was having another hallucination. My heart hammering, I turned slowly to my friends. “Do you see him?” My voice was a whisper.
    Lisa stepped beside me and placed her hand on my arm. Colin cringed visibly as he mouthed, “Dude.”
    â€œOf course they see him, you wacko.” Eric gave Rodney a jab. “I told you he was nuts.”
    Rodney always looked a bit puzzled. I was pretty sure he was so angry because he was confused all the time. But as he scratched the side of his stubbly face and glared down at me, he looked even more puzzled than usual. I wondered if I looked confused too, or just scared. It was tough to decide which feeling I should focus on.
    â€œC’mon, Rodney,” Eric said. “We have shop class. Besides, if you keep looking at Dean, I think he might just wet himself.”
    Rodney laughed and lunged at Colin just enough to make him flinch. Then Rodney slouched his way down the hall after Eric.
    â€œAre you okay?” Lisa asked.
    â€œYeah, dude,” Colin said as he watched Rodney round the corner. “What’s going on?”
    â€œSomething’s happening to me,” I muttered.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Lisa asked.
    I stood up and pulled my friends into an alcove at the end of the block of lockers. “Last Friday,” I began, “I was running late…”
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    ***
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    I told them everything: what happened in the alley, the first two hallucinations, Mrs. Farnsworthy, and even Mr. Utlet.
    â€œ Glimpse? ” Lisa asked. “That’s what the guy who got attacked said to you? Just glimpse , and that’s it?”
    â€œIn the attackee’s defense,” Colin said, smirking, “he had just gotten his butt kicked. I can see why he might not have been too chatty.”
    â€œYou think this is funny?” I asked. My hands were shaking, from fear mostly but from anger too. “I’m seeing things.” My voice lowered to a whisper. “I’m hallucinating some scary stuff. It looks real. Like they’re…”
    Colin and Lisa inched forward. “Like they’re what?” Lisa prodded.
    My voice dropped to a whisper. “Like these people were dying. Or maybe they are already dead and I am seeing their ghosts… which I know doesn’t make much sense considering I saw Mrs. F and Mr. Utlet, and they’re alive. I… I don’t know how to explain it, but something’s wrong with me. I’m barely keeping it together.”
    Colin looked down at the floor and twisted his foot as if grinding a bug into the tile. “Sorry. You’re right. Your hallucinations are not funny.” Then he looked at me. “So you help this guy, and then you start hallucinating? Do you think he did something to you?”
    â€œBesides splattering blood all over my shirt?”
    â€œGross,” Lisa said.
    â€œYeah, that is sorta gross,” Colin said. “But I mean, are you sure he didn’t mutter something else besides glimpse ? A chant, perhaps?”
    Lisa and I looked at each other, then turned back to Colin and asked at the same time, “A chant?”
    Colin looked determined. “Yeah, in the movies it’s always a bunch of Latin that ends with the word mortis .” He leaned forward. “Did he say mortis ?”
    I turned to Lisa, who looked at least as confused as I felt, then back to Colin. “What the heck are you talking about?”
    He threw up his hands. “A curse, obviously!”
    â€œYou think I’m cursed?”
    â€œDon’t you? I mean, if you were seeing people who were actually dead, I might think you had some kind of superpower, like maybe you could communicate with them or, better yet, command them to do stuff for you. They could even spy on people for you.” He smiled and sighed disappointedly. “But since you’re just having messed up hallucinations