Chardi turned around with a scowl and a scathing insult already loaded onto his tongue. A girl with fried peroxide blonde hair bent over him with her hands on her knees.
Chardi's scowl faded. He sighed and turned back to where he was slouching over his laptop.
"Shut up, Resa," he snapped out instead of whatever insult he had ready to go a second before.
The girl popped her gum, a cackle already coming out of her mouth. "Don't be such a grouch, Didi! Look, I come with a peace offering," she said as she slapped a cup sloshing with pink and white swirled liquid clinking with ice cubes.
"What is it?" Chardi said doubtfully, pulling the cup up to his nose and giving it a sniff. It didn't give off any smell that he could detect.
"An original creation. You can be my guinea pig," she said with a toothy grin.
Chardi took an experimental sip and then wrinkled his nose. "It tastes like a unicorn just sneezed in my mouth."
"Excellent! Exactly what I was going for!" Resa pulled up a chair with an obnoxious screeching noise and sat on it backward at Chardi's table. "What are you working on that's giving you such an existential crisis anyway?" she asked, using one long finger to start turning Chardi's beat up laptop screen towards her.
Chardi quickly pulled his laptop away and gave her a warning glare. "A budget," he grumbled.
Resa threw her head back and laughed loudly enough to draw the attention of some nearby tables before she saw Chardi's expression and sobered.
"Oh shit, you're for real. You know, when I call you an old man, I'm mostly joking."
"Yeah, well. Some of us aren't so fucking fancy free," Chardi snapped.
Resa threw up her hands in a surrendering gesture. "Sorry, sorry. Ignore me. And, enjoy your unicorn snot. At least if you have this sitting on your table, my manager won't give you a hard time for using the store WiFi."
Chardi sighed and rubbed a roughened palm over his face, trying to wipe away his angry expression and his exhaustion together. He was at least successful in letting go of his anger.
"Hey, thanks Resa."
"No prob, old man," she said with a grin before hopping back behind the counter.
Chardi turned back to his laptop and the sad spreadsheet looked back at him. There were hardly any cells filled out because it turned out that when you had almost no money, there was little point in making a budget. When you had no money, the only game Chardi could play was one of figuring out which can he could kick down the road and which he dared not.
He at least didn't have to worry about school. The state grant he received for reaching the age of eighteen while still in foster care meant that he didn't have to worry about the costs of his classes. However, the state didn't cover the cost of books, housing, food, or literally anything else. So, Char had made some lists. Things he needed to have, things he could maybe go without, things he could definitely go without.
Unfortunately, the only thing in the need column was food and even that was tenuous. Chardi thought that maybe if he gave up trying to pay for rent at all and put all his money into buying bread and peanut butter he might make it to graduation, but it was going to be tight. The library wasn't open all night and, as that very day had proven, rain and cold were still a problem in Philadelphia in April.
Chardi glared at his screen and the spreadsheet stared impassively back at him, the numbers just as impossible as they had been all afternoon.
Which was when Chardi was interrupted from considering just how cosmically shitty his entire life had been by a tall muscular man approaching him.
At first, Chardi didn't pay him any attention. He just barely perceived him out of the corner of his eye walking toward him, but he thought he must be heading for something behind him. Then he was standing at Chardi's table staring down at him and Chardi realized he must actually want to interact.
The man was very tall, but also very muscular. He was wearing a tight black v-neck t-shirt even in the chilly air of the coffee shop. His dirty blonde hair was artfully tousled and his ears and face were covered in shiny silver piercings. His eyes were a dark blue and his blonde eyebrows were slanted down over a face made for movies. Or, at least, made for TV movies.
"Are you Chardi Sodhi?" the man asked, his face not betraying an ounce of emotion.
"Yes...?" Chardi responded slowly, frowning up at the strange tall white guy he had never met before. He wracked his brain for any reason why this guy might be approaching him or any hint of a memory of where he might have met him before, but he was coming up with nothing. Chardi had a few friends around campus, but he wasn't exactly the friendly outgoing type. He had a few friends he was very close with and a very small pool of acquaintances. So, who exactly was this guy?
"My name is Derek Knight," the man said and then waited expectantly. Chardi stared at him, but the name didn't help him recognize the guy. He was just stumped as he was a second ago.
"Do you mind if I take a seat?" the man asked.
"Uh," Chardi tried to fumble through a way to make the weird guy go away. The man didn't wait for Chardi to respond, pulling out the chair directly across from him. He took a seat with his hands pressed to the tabletop. "Uh, go right ahead," Chardi deadpanned with an unimpressed look at this complete stranger who had arleady worn through all his good will in about two seconds of interaction. Chardi closed his laptop so he could look at the guy without having to lean around his screen, but wasn't willing to make anymore concessions.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"I'll get straight to the point," the man said. "I run a paranormal investigation group called Eastern State Paranormal Research Team. Experts, for short," she said with a small twitch to the corner of his mouth that Chardi took to mean that he thought that pretty generous translation of an overly long acronym was clever. Chardi struggled not to roll his eyes and won by sheer force of will. "I've recently come by a generous investor and would like to investigate St. Agnes Girl's Preparatory School. Are you familiar with it?"
"No," Chardi grunted out with a frown. He was starting to have a bad feeling about where this was going, but he held onto his own imagination with an iron grip. He didn't want to jump to conclusions that could send him spinning into anxiety for days. He didn't have the bandwidth to deal with that on top of everything else. It had to be a weird coincidence. Chardi could hold onto his own thoughts until this guy said whatever it was he wanted to say.
Derek nodded sagely, like that was the response he expected. "That's not unusual, even for locals. It's been closed for decades. Even before that, it's sordid past was covered up by officials. But, rumors of the strength of its haunting have been circulating in the paranormal research community for years. I'm putting together a team to investigate this location for hauntings."
"I don't see how that has anything to do with me. I'm a nursing major," Char ground out, his knuckles white where his hands gripped at his own elbows. He was holding onto his own panic by the skin of his teeth.
Derek Knight gave Chardi a shrewd look, his mouth quirking up at the corner again. "I think that you're more than just a nursing major, Mr. Sodhi. I've been following up on another rumor that's been floating around the paranormal community for years and I'm pretty sure I've solved it."
"Shut up," Chardi hissed, finally losing control of his own panic. His shoulders came up around his ears and his dark eyes darted around the coffee shop for listening ears, but no one seemed to be paying attention to them anymore.
Derek continued as if Chardi hadn't spoken. "I have it on good authority that you were being fostered by the Faulton's when they were arrested-"
"I said SHUT UP!" Chardi shouted, jumping to his feet.
The entire coffee shop went silent, every head swiveling him as Derek Knight continued to stare at him with that infuriating little smirk.
Chardi could see Resa making her way over to him with murder in her eyes as she looked Derek up and down, but he didn't plan on sticking around. He shoved his ancient laptop into his bag without the normal amount of care he showed it and grabbed his coat off the back of his chair.
Derek was still talking. "I think you would be an indispensable part of my investigation. And, I can compensate you handsomely. I've got network backing and they've provided a generous budget for the first episode-"
Chardi was hustling toward the door, trying to block out whatever he was saying, but before he could reach the glass door a hand latched onto his elbow jerking him to a stop. He felt the familiar rush of adrenaline, felt his free hand clench into a fist and draw back. Chardi forced himself to freeze.
This was Resa's coffee shop, where she snuck him drinks and snacks whenever no one was watching. He was looking at possibly being homeless within the next few weeks. If he punched some random stalker asshole in the coffee shop, he was pretty sure he would be banned for life and lose a source of warmth and food at a time when he could least afford it.
"Hey, asshole! You're bothering my customers. You need to leave," Resa was barking at Derek from behind him, but he was ignoring her.
"Here, take my card. Think about it. Everybody could use some money and it wouldn't cost you anything. Just a weekend in an old abandoned building." An honest to Jesus business card appeared over Chardi's shoulder. He glared at it.
He didn't want to take this asshole's business card, he didn't want to think about the Faulton's or about what it was like to live in that house, and he didn't want to see or speak to this guy ever again. But, if taking that card would get him out of the situation without making any more of a scene than he already had, he would take it.
Chardi snatched the card out of Derek's hand. As soon as he did, Derek let go of his elbow and Chardi shot through the door of the shop and out onto the wet pavement. His hand was shaking as he shoved the card into his pocket and walked as fast he could without running to his apartment building. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins, but he didn't feel like fighting anyone. Mostly he felt like he was seconds from shaking apart.
The trip back to his apartment was a blur. He usually took a bus, but he knew that even the little bit of interaction with other people needed to board and sit on a bus was too much for him. He felt like his whole body was a hair trigger and if someone so much as looked at him wrong he would go off. He needed to get somewhere quiet so he could sort himself out. He needed to count out loud and pace and do something with his hands, but he couldn't do any of that in public without looking like he was two seconds away from a breakdown. Which he was, but that was nobody's fucking business but his.
Chardi got back to his apartment building, took the elevator up to his floor, got his key in the door and got inside. If anyone had asked him what route he took home or what he saw on his way there or anything like that, he wouldn't be able to answer them. Jeff, his roommate, was right there in the living room when he walked in.
Jeff immediately popped up onto his feet with a determined look on his face.
"Jeff, I really can't talk," Chardi mumbled as he shut the door behind him with his foot and looked longingly toward the hall that led to the bedrooms.
"Well, that's too bad, because rent is due next week and you're still short three hundred dollars, Di," Jeff said with a scowl.
"I gave you my whole paycheck! You went with me to the bank!" Chardi tossed back desperately. He tried to edge around Jeff, but he leaned against the wall with his hip to block his path.
"And I appreciate that, but if I don't get the other three hundred Im going to be left footing your half of the rent yet again," Jeff replied with a furrowed brow and crossed arms.
"I'll get you the money," Chardi spit out.
"How?" Jeff asked, his brows drawing even lower.
"I don't know! I'll figure something out!" Chardi shouted.
"I can't keep covering for you. If you can't cover your half of the rent, then I'll have to find someone who can," Jeff said sternly, not even bothering to engage with Chardi's promise to find the remaining money. Chardi didn't blame him. He knew that he had made the same promise many times before.
"Yes. Okay. I know and I get that," Chardi said mostly to Jeff's left elbow.
There was a long pause where Jeff stared sternly at Chardi and Chardi tried not to fidget while he avoided looking anywhere near Jeff's face.
"Fine," Jeff finally grit out.
"Fine," Chardi sighed in agreement and gladly dodged around Jeff and shot into his room, remembering at the last moment to close the door gently behind him rather than slamming it.
Chardi breathed deep, big breaths that expanded his rib cage and filled his belly. They started slow and even but slowly got faster and raspier, until he was choking down emotion. He pressed his back against his door and slid down to sit on the old stained carpet.
He had no idea what he was going to do. He didn't want to live on the streets again. He had spent almost a year living on the streets of Philadelphia as a teenager and it was an awful experience, one he didn't want to repeat any time soon. But, he wasn't seeing any way out.
Until, like an arrow through his heart, the memory of that stupid business card struck him.
It almost made him sick to do it, but he slowly retrieved the card from his pocket.He held it tentatively between two pinched fingers.
It was plain white card stock with black typewriter style print smack in the middle.
Derek Knight
Paranormal Investigator
(777) 777-7777
He had one way out. It just turned out to be the absolute last thing in the world he wanted to do.