A 'Lil Bit Crazy Read online

  A 'LIL BIT CRAZY

  DAPHNE COX

  Everything about her was stunning to Jacob. She had long, brown curly hair that looked like it had been kissed by the sun, and her green eyes sparkled with fire even under the artificial lighting of the apartment building’s hallway. Every move was made with the uncanny grace of an angel. He had noticed her from the day he moved in. She had been walking down the hallway in an oversized sweater that barely covered her backside, and basic black leggings that were as tight as she made his chest feel. Her face drifted into a polite smile as her eyes had met his, making his arms and knees go so weak that two of the three boxes he’d been carrying stacked atop each other went sliding to the floor. The top box, which contained a plethora of comic books along with a dirty magazine he’d been unable to throw away for years, slid across the floor. The other one, that contained his towels and other toiletries merely fell on its side.

  “Dammit,” he said, putting down the box that he still carried.

  Without hesitation, she walked over to him, putting her laundry basket down, and helped him salvage his things.

  “Moving sucks, doesn’t it?” she said, looking directly at him with big grin.

  He nodded, unable to form words, and afraid of what might come out of his mouth if he had tried.

  The smell of coconut lime caught his attention as the bun on top of her head bobbed around just inches from his face. The peek of her shoulder and collarbones caught the attention of his manhood, urging him to hurriedly collect the rest of the things that had spilled out before she had a chance to notice. He racked his brain, trying to think of a time where a woman might have captivated him more, but was at a loss.

  “I’m Celeste,” she said, extending a hand once the last item had been retrieved from the carpet floor.

  “Jacob,” he said shyly, extending his hand out to hers. Electricity swam through his arm and straight to his brain as they touched. Her hands were very feminine and soft, although slightly bony and slender.

  “We’re going to be great neighbors,” she said with a sweet smile that melted his core.

  “Yes,” he unintentionally mumbled as he struggled for air.

  She looked at him and giggled innocently as she picked her laundry basket back off of the floor and walked down the hallway with the grace of a fashion model. He beat himself up in his head for not saying more, but he recovered quickly and carried the boxes to his apartment, room 37 - his new home.

  Luckily for him, his parents were modestly wealthy and helped him afford the rent. It was close to the university and everything else he might possibly need was within walking distance. The room itself was more than modest for one person although it was only a one-bedroom unit. It was fully furnished with a television, modern sofas, dressers, a bed, and the kitchen was more equipped than he would ever be to use it. He already knew he’d be spending most of his time in the living area, and immediately began plugging up gaming consoles and tweaking the television’s settings after a few more trips to and from his car to bring up the rest of his things.

  When he’d gone back inside, she was standing outside his room with a big smirk on his face and something behind her back.

  “I think this accidentally fell in with my laundry,” she said, holding it out to him. It was the dirty magazine. His first instinct was to deny that it was his, but he looked up at her face. There wasn’t any way he could lie to a face like that.

  “Sorry,” he apologized, grabbing the magazine and quickly rolling it up.

  “No problem,” she said simply, and skipped back to her room.

  He stood in awe and embarrassment as he watched the bun atop her head bounce away. When she was out of sight he repeatedly smack himself in the face with the magazine, cursing himself in his head over and over until Cody, his best friend and roommate, walked down the hallway and asked him what the hell he was doing.

  Ever since that day, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head, half due to the embarrassment he felt every time he thought of the encounter, but half because she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She’d pop into his head randomly at night when he was all alone in bed, and he would imagine her body pressed against his with a sly smile on her face. Rarely did he ever get to see her, though, even though they were indeed neighbors. He only saw her leaving her apartment every Friday night, dressed in a tight red dress and black bolero. She always took an oversized designer bag as though she were staying the night somewhere.

  Every time Cody saw her, he would whistle boorishly and she would shoot him a sharp glare and go about her business. Sometimes she’d give him the finger, and sometimes she’d ignore him entirely. When she ignored him, he’d whistle even louder, but she wouldn’t give him the time of day.

  “Man, she’s hot,” he’d say to Jacob.

  “Yeah,” he would always agree, although he didn’t like the way Cody treated her at all. It irritated him, because he was pretty sure Cody was the reason she said nothing to him, at least, until his third year in college.

  “Hey,” she had called after him one day as he was about to enter the apartment building. He turned to see her running to him at full speed in black jogging pants, a white t-shirt, and tennis shoes. Her hair was up in a tall ponytail that swung wildly from side to side each time one of her feet hit the ground. When she got to him, she stopped to catch her breath for a moment before speaking.

  “I heard you got your hands on a copy of Undertaker,” she said with a big smile.

  Undertaker was a limited edition game for next generation consoles that very few had been able to obtain. There were only 10 copies of the game made, and everyone in the online gaming community wanted one, despite the questionable reputation it had been receiving in online gaming forums. Jacob had lucked out during the giveaway. People were offering insane amounts of money to buy the game, but Jacob wouldn’t give up his opportunity to play it first.

  “Yeah,” Jacob said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “I didn’t know you were into gaming.”

  “I’m not very good at video games, but I’ve heard a lot about that one,” she said, blushing.

  “I honestly haven’t even played it yet,” he said. Her rosy cheeks melted his heart.

  “We should play it together sometime,” she said, playfully punching his shoulder.

  “Oh, sure,” Jacob said. The butterflies in his stomach tickled his insides, giving him the urge to run away as fast as he could before he had the time to screw things up. “How about tonight? Cody will be out, and I know you two don’t get along so well.”

  “That’s an understatement,” she frowned. “It sounds good, though. I’ll be there around ten?”

  “Perfect,” Jacob said, suddenly self conscious about his smile. Was it too big? Too nervous?

  “See ya later,” she said with a wave, and ran down the sidewalk.

  Jacob waved bye as he watched her leave, still unable to grasp the concept of a woman as beautiful as her playing video games at all, or even wanting to play anything with him. Nonetheless, the thought added a bounce to his step as he walked up to the apartment to clean it thoroughly before she arrived. Instead of doing his homework, he vacuumed, dusted, sprayed the couch down with air freshener, and threw away all the pizza boxes that had piled up on the kitchen counter. He even cleaned places in the bathroom that they usually never bothered to clean. He was fully determined to impress her.

  There was a tiny knock at the door at exactly ten. He stumbled to the door and opened it.

  “Hello,” she said with a dimpled smile.

  Every time he saw her, it was like electricity. She wore tiny flats, black leggings that hugged her legs perfectly, and a navy camisole under a grey cardigan. Her hair was tied up in one o
f her usual floppy buns. She was cute and sexy at the same time. He couldn’t figure it out.

  “Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “Come on in.”

  She walked inside and looked around the living area, inspecting things carefully as though she were looking for something specific.

  “It’s not what I expected at all,” she said, turning back to Jacob with a smile.

  “What did you expect? Crumbs all over the floor and pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling?” he asked with an awkward smile.

  “Something like that,” she giggled, twisting a stray lock of hair around her finger.

  “Sorry to disappoint,” he said, with a nervous chuckle.

  “No, this is better,” she said. Her smile faded as her eyes fell on the television in front of the sofa. “That’s a pretty nice television.”

  “Yeah, I splurged a little.”

  “Shall we boot it up?” she asked, motioning to the couch.

  “Absolutely,” Jacob said, hurrying over to the television and inserting the black disc labeled “Undertaker” into the console’s ROM slot. He picked up a controller and held it out to her.

  “Actually, I’d rather watch you play it. I’m really bad at things like this.”

  “Are you sure? I really don’t mind.”

  “Positive,” she said with a nod.

  “Okay then.” He shrugged, adjusting the volume and brightness settings on the television before thumbing past the typical warning labels and credits.

  “This is so exciting,” she said, resting her right hand on his left knee. “Have you heard what they’ve been saying about this game online?”

  “Only vaguely,” he admitted, more than a little distracted by her hand.

  “They say it’s cursed or something,” she laughed. “How stupid.”

  “That is pretty ridiculous,” Jacob said. “It’s all code.”

  “Oh that’s right, you’re into programming aren’t you?” she asked, turning to him with renewed interest.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty fun,” he said, smiling at her. “Okay, new game.”

  He pressed ‘new game’ at the simple title screen that said nothing more than ‘Undertaker’ in a large gothic font. The screen went back before flashing into a cut scene. Illegible words buzzed across the screen, fading in and out into a blur. He assumed it wasn’t meant to be understood. Slow and uneven piano music played in the background with ambient effects one might expect from a horror movie.

  “Creepy,” Celeste said, unable to take her eyes from the screen.

  Jacob laughed a little and pressed random buttons trying to skip the cut scene. Nothing happened.

  “Maybe it’s a bug or something,” he said. He got off the couch to reset the console, but right as he stood up, an on-screen keyboard popped up, prompting him to name the first boss.

  “Huh, that’s weird,” he said, thinking that most games have the player enter their own name first. He tapped his index fingers against the sides of the controller as he tried to think of a name.

  “J-I-M-M-Y,” he spelled aloud as he keyed it in.

  “Why Jimmy?” Celeste asked with intense curiosity.

  “Oh, he’s an acquaintance at school. He’s at the top of most of his classes, and we have a lot of the same classes for some reason,” Jacob laughed.

  “I see,” Celeste said, turning her attention back to the television screen.

  Jacob pressed ‘okay’ and the screen flashed bright white before going black again. The edges of the screen began to move, as though the viewer were supposed to feel as though they were falling down a very deep tunnel of sorts in what was mostly darkness. The sequence lasted for five whole minutes, before a loud crack erupted from the speakers, making them both jump. The darkness faded into red, and in the same gothic font as the game’s title, read ‘game over.’

  “Huh,” mumbled Jacob. “That’s a little underwhelming.”

  Celeste stared into the screen quietly before turning to Jacob. “Kind of unexpected, huh?”

  “Yeah, well at least it creates a good atmosphere, and the graphics aren’t bad. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do,” Jacob said, mashing buttons and hoping to return to the title screen.

  Nothing happened, so he tried to reset the console. When the title screen finally came on, the option ‘continue’ was crossed out, with a lock and timer next to it that seemed to be counting down from about twelve hours.

  “Wow, that’s not cool,” Jacob said, putting the controller on the table, clearly frustrated. He’d had his hopes up.

  “That’s okay. I can come back tomorrow night and we can play again,” Celeste offered.

  Jacob turned to her and smiled. At that point, he was sure she was more interested in him than she was in the lousy game. “Okay,” he agreed. “Tomorrow night, same time?”

  “Yep,” Celeste said with a wink. “I’ll let myself out.”

  “Alright, see ya,” Jacob waved as he watched her walk to the door and close it with a soft click. He turned off the television and console after she was gone and went straight to bed, still thinking of how cute she was. She even liked video games. She was the perfect woman, he thought as he drifted to sleep.

  ***

  The next morning, every part of the campus was abuzz with gossip, but Jacob didn’t hear about it until he ran into one of his other acquaintances in his programming class, Kurt.

  “How have you not heard about it yet?” Kurt asked, dumbfounded. “Jimmy died last night.”

  “What? How?” Jacob asked. Uneasiness swelled inside his stomach.

  “I’m not totally sure. It’s pretty bizarre. There was an old well in the woods out by the university. Apparently he fell in it and died,” Kurt swallowed. “The only way they found him was his cell phone’s GPS.”

  “Why was he so far away from campus?” Jacob wondered aloud.

  “That’s the question. No one really knows. There’s like nothing out there.”

  Jacob listened to all sorts of rumors float around throughout the day, to the point he’d actually gotten sick of hearing about it. He couldn’t shake an awkward sense of guilt he felt for entering Jimmy’s name into the game the night before, but he knew it was ridiculous. Games can’t kill people, he kept telling himself in his head. Accidents happen on a regular basis, after all, so why should he feel guilty?

  He walked back to his apartment building with thoughts of Celeste dancing in his head. When he went inside, Cody was nowhere to be seen, which was how he preferred it since Celeste would be coming over again. He took the time between six and ten to get caught up on the homework he’d procrastinated the night before. Right at ten, there was Celeste’s tiny knock at the door.

  Jacob opened the door, and there Celeste stood, leaning against the frame of the door with a big grin. Her clothing was very similar to the previous evening, except her camisole was a different color and she wore pajama bottoms instead of leggings. The familiar bun on her head bounced inside the apartment and flopped as she fell into the couch.

  “Have you played it since yesterday?” she asked.

  “No, actually,” Jacob said, flinching a little as he thought of what Kurt had said. But he quickly recovered just looking at Celeste, impatiently rocking on the couch. “I’m surprised you like this game so much,” he said, smiling to her and turning on the television and console.

  “It’s pretty mysterious, isn’t it?” she said, resting her chin on her knuckles.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Jacob said, turning the controller on and offering it to Celeste again.

  She took her head and threw up her hand.

  “Why not?” Jacob asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I’m not good at games like this.”

  “I didn’t really even do anything last time,” Jacob said, growing suspicious.

  “Still, games like this make me super jumpy,” she said with a pouty face.

  “Okay, fine,” Jacob said with a smile of defeat. She was too cute to a
rgue with.

  The television flashed straight to the title screen after the credits, showing a broken lock next to ‘continue.’

  “Here we go,” Jacob said with a wink in Celeste’s direction. Her eyes didn’t stray from the screen, though. His face reddened with embarrassment. He pressed ‘continue’ and the whole screen flashed before going black again, reading ‘Enter Boss Name.’

  “Hmm,” Jacob thought aloud. “I’m not sure what to put.”

  “Anything would probably work,” Celeste said, urging him to hurry.

  He thought about Jimmy. It was such an odd coincidence, but he wanted to put his theory to the test.

  “K-U-R-T,” he said as he keyed it in.

  Celeste looked at him questioningly.

  “A friend from school,” he said solemnly.

  He hit enter and the screen went black. There was no light anywhere, but the sound of heavy breathing beating through the speakers set the atmosphere, ensuring them that something was happening. A deep throated chuckle interrupted the panting. The screen seemed to tilt upwards slightly into a dark blue haze. Black and blurry figures danced around, but their form was intangible.

  “Weird,” Celeste noted, leaning closer to the television.

  The chuckling came out in a stupid frenzy, and then everything lit up all at once. Bright orange flames erupted in all directions, and the laughing turned to a guttural screaming that sent chills down Jacob’s spine. The crackling fire was ceaseless, and soon spread out, lighting a forest around it and setting it completely ablaze until the whole screen was nothing but a bright white sea of flames. The crackling continued on and on in an endless loop, but the screaming had long died out.

  Jacob and Celeste sat in silence, mesmerized and dumbfounded by the bright, looping screen. After five minutes of nothing, Jacob finally reset the console. The title screen flashed with another locked ‘continue’ option with a timer counting down from twelve hours.

  “Well, that was unsettling,” Jacob finally said, looking over to Celeste who was still watching the screen after he’d turned it off.

  “What do you think it means?” she asked, moving her eyes to Jacob curiously.