Chapter Three or Snickers

'No.' I thought to myself, 'No. No. No! Come on Reggie, snap yourself out of it! It couldn't be. She left; she'd gone off to college in Texas! She couldn't be standing right there.' My heart picked up pace and my breathing became labored, at least to me it did, I doubt anybody noticed. 'It couldn't be…'

"Well?" She spoke, "Aren't you going to run? I'm a ghost screaming at you! You guys have to be terrified!" She looked at all of us then her eyes landed on me, "You're not even supposed to be near the school! You're way too old."

It was hard to completely understand what she was saying. Her voice came out distorted and echoed in the large theater. I couldn't tell exactly if it was her or not but it looked so familiar. If it was here it was like a black and white picture. Her sandy blonde hair would be the near silver and her brown eyes were a dark stormy gray but she was too young. It couldn't be Penny…

Then it hit me, my little brother and his friend were playing a prank on me. It had to be a hologram or something. Or they had a projector hidden somewhere in the nooks and crannies. I turned and glared at both of them, "You two are sick twisted little freaks!"

"What?" My brother looked confused.

"You know damn well what!" I shouted, "This is an all new low Roscoe. I've dealt with your little pranks before but this is just wrong!" I took a step forward.

"What are you talking about Reggie? I don't know what you mean. You know as much as I do!" Roscoe played dumb.

"Like hell! How dare you do this?"

"Reggie? Oh my gosh! Reginald Mantle Jones Jr.?" The fake Penny said suddenly.

I swung back to her shocked. Only three people knew my middle name; Mom, Dad, and Penny. I stared blankly at her, "P-penny? Penelope Katie Cruz?" I asked and she smiled nodding.

"Whoa…whoa…Okay hold up man this is to crazy!" Roscoe exclaimed, "You can't be Penny. She's in Texas going to college; you got to be Sally Johnson." Tom nodded in agreement.

"I am Penny. Sally stole my body." Penny explained, or tried to, Roscoe still looked confused, "Do I need to explain the whole thing?"

"Penny…Penny is that really you?" Tom spoke up finally addressing his sister.

She looked right at him with her classic look. The one where her left eyebrow went up higher than the other one and her nose scrunched up, "Yes! Oh my Gosh Tom you've only seen me every day since you were born." An awkward silence filled the large room. Penny caught on quickly, "He has hasn't he?"

"Penny, you might want to sit down." I advice, it was best she did with what we were about to tell her.

"Wait…I have a feeling I've done some bad stuff, err…Sally has done some bad stuff with my body. So it's best you guys sit down." We didn't make a move, "I'm not going to bite you guys just sit where you are." Slowly we sat. I was still suspicious if it really was Penny. She continued on, "Okay, it all started five years ago, during the fall play I think? You're going to have to bear with me here I don't really remember much. Oh! May I request, Reggie, that you save all questions until the end, Reggie, not to name any names, Reggie," I glared at her, after all these years she still knew that I already had questions popping in my head,

"Okay, so after the play I started hearing Sally talk to me, at first I didn't know it was her but she told me her story, well, an edited version of her story and I felt bad for her. She told me that a person's body is just a big holding tank for your soul, which is true by the way," She started using her hands for extra help and another question popped in my mind, "so Sally told me that she had her body unfairly taken away from her, which was a lie by the way. I'm not sure exactly how she talked me into it but I let her share my body with me for three days, which is bad, because she took it over." Her voice, although distorted, was sad and I wanted her help her…damn emotions and why didn't she tell me she was hearing voices? I could have helped. I felt my anger start to build the more she spoke, "So pretty much I woke up one morning like this.

"Samantha and Ashley were waiting for me and told me to just cross over. But I can't! Not now anyway…I felt like I was abandoning you Tommy." She smiled at her little brother, who managed a weak smile back.

"If Sally has you body, how do you still look the same?" I asked the first, of many questions, that came to mind.

"I'm not really the best to explain but I can do my best. I think it's like your body molds to how you're going to look and after a certain point I guess you keep looking that way, I haven't seen Sally since the three day mark but yeah...that's pretty much it." Not good enough, I thought to myself.

"So….sister girl what exactly are you? A lost soul or something?" Roscoe asked my next question.

She smiled and my heart skipped a beat, just like it did when we were 15, "I'm a ghost duh, that's what a lost soul is."

"How come you haven't aged?" I asked quickly.

"Again I don't know. It's confusing, but I can ask Ashley and Samantha."

"Who are-"I started to ask

"So...how did that whole thing work?" Tom asked cutting my question off, "How did she take over your body?" the 15 year old boy looked like he was forming a plan.

"Well…I think it's 'cause only one soul can be in a body at one time. There isn't enough room for two."

Roscoe laughed, "Mrs. Conrad has enough room for two souls! Right, man, pound it!" He held up his fist to his friend but he wasn't paying attention. Tom was staring intently at the floor stroking his chin like a bad guy from a movie; Roscoe eventually dropped his fist looking disappointed.

"I think I have a plan." Tom said after a few more seconds, "Penny, have you ever taken over someone's body, like how Sally did to you?"

I guessed I was the only one who noticed the sharp intake of breath and the fact Penny didn't look right at her little brother when she answered, "No, I didn't want anybody else to go through what I did." For some reason that made me more upset.

"Well you're going to have to do it to Sally when she comes home for Thanksgiving." A sneaky smile appeared on Tom's face. So this was the plan, getting Penny's body back to her.

Of course he would want his sister back. Penny, well Sally, had become extremely distant from her family and friends, especially me. But the biggest toll had been on Tom. They had been extremely close before hand and now, when she was home for the holidays, she barely even noticed he was home.

"I'm in brother mans!" Roscoe agreed as well standing up, "And sister girl." My little brother smiled at Penny.

"No, no! We can't! We don't even have a plan and I'm not nearly as strong as Sally was! She was a ghost for over 50 years when she took over, I've only been one for five, whatever you three are planning it's not going to work."

"Yes it will Pen, it's simple really," Tom explained, "All we do is get you over to our house while Sally is over."

"Then you can take over her body for three days and poof! You got your body back!" Roscoe continued for his friend.

"No it's not!" Penny exclaimed frustrated, "I can't go out in daylight and have to be at my haunt before the sun come up!"

"Well that information would have been helpful beforehand." I snapped at her.

"You don't have to snap at me Reggie!" she shouted back, gliding over to me.

"Obviously I do because you're not telling us the whole story!" I yelled standing and getting right in her face.

"Reggie, calm down." My brother urged quietly.

"Shut up you little brat." My anger finally finding an outlet in words

"Don't be mean to your brother." Penny scolded me.

"Like you're one to be talking, you didn't even talk to your little brother while you were in high school. Then you just left for freaking Texas like nobody cared or would notice!" I started walking off, "I'm sick and tired of always having to help you Penny, figure out your own problem." With that I burst out the double doors to the very backstage.

I went over to the window the boys and I had to break in from only to find it locked. After a few minutes of just brooding and breathing back my mood I finally walked back onto the stage. I swore if those boys didn't show me how to get back through the window they were going to regret it.

As soon as I reached them Penny glared at me and Roscoe hunched over. "What do you want?" Penny barked at me.

"Those two have to show me have to get out of this efing school." I said between clenched teeth.

"No." She outright answered, "They're not going to until you agree to help me."

I looked at Roscoe, "You're making her talk for you two? Be a man and talk for yourself."

"Maybe if you hadn't become such a jerk he would. By the way this isn't my idea, they aren't going to show you out of the school until you agree to help me."

I glared at all three of the young people standing before me and finally said, "Fine. What's the plan?" I knew right then that I was probably never going to be free of the spell she put under me all those years ago.

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