When you touch a glowing sphere from the sky
Brigit's Flame, November week 3, "hysteria". Fiction, about 2967 words.
Stacy was so absorbed in her programming, she didn’t even notice how late it had gotten - already nine p.m. No wonder the office had been so quiet. She sighed when she saw the time, and found a good place to stop with her work. As she had missed dinner with her family again, she took the time she needed to get to a good stopping point for the night with her code, then packed up and went home. She parked next to her husband’s car in the driveway just after ten, and made her way into the house. Only the end table lamp in the living room was on waiting for her. Stacy put her work laptop case on the coffee table in front of it and headed for the kitchen to dig up some leftovers.
Stuck on one of the three progress reports on the fridge was a Post-it note: “Lasagna to left, metal pan”. She found it easily and cut out a slice for herself. While it warmed up, she pulled the first quarter progress reports off the fridge and inspected them. The eldest, John, was getting all As and Bs in seventh grade, but he had a C in art. How do you get a C in art, she wondered, filing the question away to talk about with him later. Next was Courtney, getting mostly Bs in fifth grade, with an A in art and a D in math. That needs to change if she’s going to do well for herself, Stacy thought. And the youngest, Jen, in third grade this year, had all As and Bs, but a C in technology class. Isn’t the main goal of technology class this quarter typing skills? Stacy filed this question away too for a future inquisition.
Stacy made a mental note to herself to ask the kids about their grades at diner the next day as she cleaned up her dish and put things away. She headed upstairs, peeking in the kids’ rooms on the way to the master bedroom. Even Rob was asleep in their bed already. Quietly Stacy got ready for bed and slipped in next to her husband. She tried to fall asleep to the gentle rhythm of Rob’s breathing, but it eluded her. After two hours of watching the back of her eyelids, she slipped back out of bed and padded downstairs in her robe and slippers. She located her computer in the dark and plugged it in, settling into a corner of the couch to do some more programming until she felt sleepy.
Her eyelids were just starting to droop when a falling flash of light outside the bay window caught her attention. It angled across the street and looked like it landed in their neighbor’s yard a few doors down. She hurriedly put her laptop on the table and darted to the front door, only just remembering to put on her shoes before going out the door.
The cool autumn air slipped under her robe, chilling her legs as she headed down the front walk. She could see her neighbor - what was his name, Nathan? - illuminated as he crouched by the glow of the object in his yard. Stacy took a step towards him when another light falling from the sky caught her eye. Then another, and another. There were at least a dozen falling all over like little meteors, and when she looked straight up, Stacy saw one headed right for her. She retreated to the porch as the ball of light came down to a rest in the middle of the front lawn. It made no sound upon landing, nor did it create a crater, nor the grass catch on fire. Cautiously she took a few steps towards it. Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is the glow getting brighter the closer I get to it? she wondered. Before she realized it, she was crouched down next to the glowing sphere, and all she could focus on was its light. It danced in her vision, the brightness ebbing and flowing with a current that she never could quite seem to catch up to. Intrigued, Stacy reached out a hand. Her fingers hesitated just a hairsbreadth from the sphere, which glowed brighter, encouraging her to touch it.
Her curiosity winning out, she brushed the sphere with her fingertips. It momentarily flashed blindingly bright and felt warm to her fingers, but then the light folded in on itself like it was getting sucked into a black hole, until it was nothing but a small pinprick of light. Even that winked out, but the warmth remained and traveled up her fingers and arm to settle and spread from her chest, filling her with a sense of calm and sleepy tranquility. In a near daze, she stood up and went back inside, robotically switching her shoes for her slippers on the way to the couch. Her computer’s screen saver of comets softly winking at her, she curled up on the couch and fell asleep before she could even pull a blanket over herself.
She woke to the sound of the early morning rush to school, Rob packing lunches as the kids scurried around gathering their schoolbooks. She opened up her computer to save her files and put it away before heading to the office.
“Dad, where’s my math book?” Courtney called from upstairs.
“Wherever you were last working on your homework, probably,” Rob called up. “Jen, come back here and finish your cereal.”
“But I want pancakes!” Jen moaned.
“Jen, you know Dad only makes pancakes on Saturdays.” John’s voice floated from the kitchen.
“Well why can’t he make them today too?” Jen complained.
“Because the milk is already in your cereal, and if you don’t eat it soon, it will get soggy. I know how much you hate soggy cereal,” Rob tried to coax Jen.
“It’s not anywhere, Dad! I can’t go to class without my math book!” Courtney’s footsteps sounded down the stairs as she ran down.
Stacy spied a book peeking out of the rack under the coffee table, and upon pulling it out, saw that it was the lost math book. “Here it is, Courtney,” she called, putting the book on the table and picking up her computer instead. She had just put it back in the bag and put the bag down when Courtney came around the corner and spotted the math book on the table.
“There you are!” she exclaimed, grabbing the previously elusive book. “Found it Dad!”
“See, I told you it was where you left it,” Rob called back. “Now get in here and eat your breakfast, Court.”
Courtney disappeared back around the corner, and Stacy was mildly surprised that Courtney hadn’t even said good morning to her. But then, Courtney had barely seen anything in the room other than the book, and it was unusual for Stacy to be in the living room at this time anyways. Usually she was still in the shower, and wouldn’t be coming down until the kids were headed out the door with Rob, with just enough time once in a while to give them a quick kiss goodbye. Stacy stood and went around the corner. She briefly leaned against the doorjamb to the kitchen and spent a few precious seconds watching the organized chaos that Rob handled every morning. She had no idea how he managed to jump from one conversation to the next so fluidly, while still whipping together sandwiches and milk and snacks for each kid. She could do that with code, but she had never really mastered conversation jumping with their children.
“Have a great day everyone,” Stacy said to the bustling kitchen and then turned to head up the stairs to the peaceful sanctuary of her shower. A glance at her alarm clock told her that it would have to be a quick shower this morning, or she would be late. She turned the handle to start warming up the water, but nothing came out.
“That’s odd,” Stacy muttered, then turned the handle off and back on again a few more times. She had seen the kitchen sink faucet work, so why wasn’t this one? She tied her robe back around her and plodded down the stairs. She had just reached the bottom when she heard the engine of Rob’s car start outside. She couldn’t ask him to try it or they would all be late to school and work. So she went back up and tried the handle again. This time, it ran without a problem, and soon she had a nice steamy shower to wake her up more.
After a quick shower, she hurried through the rest of her morning routine, pouring the last of yesterday’s brew into her travel mug before heading out the door. She climbed into the car, but could not get it to start. She tried turning the key a few times, but with no luck. Well, I guess I’ll just work from home until Rob gets home tonight and can take a look at the car. Besides, it’s quieter here and I won’t be disturbed like at the office, she decided, and headed back in. She settled into the office, shot an e-mail to her boss Pete letting him know what she was doing, and continued on the coding.
This project was proving unusually cumbersome, so she was glad for the excuse to work from home on it. By lunch time she had made significant progress, and thought that if she kept working like that the rest of the day, she should be able to have it completed at least a day ahead of schedule. She smiled to herself. If Pete thought this project was going to do her in, he had another thing coming. She knew that he gave her the hardest programs to code because she was the best coder he had, though he would never admit as much. The real reason was he wanted to finally see her fail, and give him something to tell the higher ups about so that she would no longer be a threat to his position. The way she figured it, if she continued showing this much initiative and effort, then by the beginning of the New Year she would be promoted from senior team lead to project manager. With Pete behind her, it would be only a matter of time before she would become senior project manager, and hopefully within five years, she would work her way into the highest echelons of the company.
Around five she saved her work, closed the door to the office behind her so that the kids wouldn’t mess with her computer, and headed downstairs to make some dinner. Rob wouldn’t be home with the kids after their after-school activities for another half hour, so she had time to cook up something and make up for missing dinner the night before. After rooting through the kitchen to see what they had, she decided to cook up the extra ground beef in the fridge that hadn’t been used in the lasagna and set to work making hamburgers. She had just put the hamburgers on the stove when she heard Rob’s car pull up and the kids tumble out of the car.
“Let me through, let me through,” she heard Rob say over the kids chattering as he tried to get through to unlock the door.
“Mom’s home already!” Stacy heard Courtney say as the door opened.
“Does this mean she’ll eat dinner with us tonight, Daddy?” Jen asked.
“Smells like she’s already cooking something,” John commented.
“In the kitchen,” Stacy called out, placing the spatula on the utensil rest next to the stove.
Jen was the first into the kitchen, and she ran up right next to Stacy to peek at the stove. “Daddy, Mom’s started some hamburgers for us!”
“Has she now?” Rob entered the kitchen behind John and Courtney and made his way to the stove, a slight frown creasing his brow as he looked in the direction of the stove.
“Why did she leave the stove unattended?” Courtney asked, starting to unpack her lunch box. “You always tell us to never leave the stove alone when it’s on.”
Stacy opened her mouth to respond, but Rob was quicker.
“That’s a good question dear,” Rob said, maneuvering around the older kids to reach the stove. “Jen, why don’t you run and see if Mom’s upstairs?”
“I’m right - ” Stacy cut herself off as Jen ran right through her to get to the stairs. Not around her, but actually through her. Rob reached through her as well to pick up the spatula, and half stood in her as he flipped the burgers. Stacy jumped away in shock, took a few deep breaths, then waved her hand in front of his face.
“Rob? Rob? Can’t you see me?” Stacy asked, but Rob’s face did not register her hand or her voice, and his slight frown persisted. Stacy turned to John and Courtney as they jostled for the sink to rinse out their lunch containers. “Kids?” She took a step towards the sink, right next to them. “John? Courtney?” They did not register her presence or her voice either.
It was in mounting alarm that Stacy heard Jen’s feet come dashing back down the second floor hallway and back down the stairs. She felt frozen to the spot, barely able to even think.
“The office door is closed. Mommy must be working in there,” Jen announced. “So we should all be quiet,” she said with her child’s glare at her loudly arguing siblings.
John got a shove in the stomach from Courtney, successfully losing his place at the sink, as he half-turned to answer Jen, “She’ll be wearing her noise cancelling headphones, so it doesn’t matter, squirt.”
“Don’t call me that!” Jen huffed and stomped her foot.
“As long as I’m taller than you - and I always will be! - I can call you squirt, or shorty, or anything like that,” John teased.
Jen’s lip trembled, and Stacy mechanically took a step forward to wrap an arm around her baby. Her hand went right through Jen, and then Rob stepped through her to stand between Jen and John. Stacy jumped again, away from all of her family and wedged herself in the corner by the fridge in fright. They can’t see me, they can’t hear me, and they go right through me! What’s going on?!
“John, you know better than to tease your sister like that,” Rob said authoritatively, making up for the greasy spatula in his hand. “Now you apologize, and I don’t want to hear you call Jen any of those names or any like them.”
“But Dad - ” John started, but Rob waved his spatula at him menacingly.
“No buts. Apologize.”
John sighed. “S’ry,” he muttered, barely audible to Stacy from her corner.
“Like you mean it,” Rob said, turning back to the hamburgers, though he kept an eye on John.
“Sorry.” John said quickly, then turned right around to take Courtney’s recently vacated space at the sink.
Rob nodded. “Better. Courtney, why don’t you get some paper plates down for dinner?”
If they can’t see or hear me, maybe I can let them know I’m here by picking something up, Stacy thought, spying the paper plates on top of the microwave on the other side of the kitchen. She beat Courtney to the plates, and went to pick them up. Instead of touching them though, her fingers went right up through the edge like she was insubstantial. Why can’t I touch them now?
Courtney picked up the plates, and walked right through Stacy on her way to bring them to Rob at the stove. Stacy jumped again, her fear mounting the less she was able to interact with her family and her home.
What on earth is going on? Why am I suddenly insubstantial and they can’t see me? Stacy wanted to shout, but the words caught in her throat.
Courtney placed the plates next to the stovetop so Rob could serve up the burgers as soon as they were done. “Dad, should I try to get Mom for dinner?”
Rob flipped the burgers again. “No, let’s not disturb her while she’s working. She might come down when she smells this, or just when she gets hungry. I know you all must be starving, so as soon as these are done, we can start eating, okay?”
“Okay,” Courtney said after a quick glance in the direction of Stacy’s office upstairs.
Stacy watched as Rob turned off the stovetop and scooped the burgers into a pile on the plate Courtney had pulled off the stack for that purpose.
“Okay everybody, wash up, and John, grab the condiments and bring them with you to the dining room,” Rob said, carrying the plate full of hamburgers high as he stepped around Courtney and towards Stacy.
Stacy tried standing in the doorway, right in his way, but once again Rob just walked through her as though she were not even there. This time she could not hold in a quick scream as she saw more than felt him pass through her, and she ran up the stairs to the doors of the office. She tried to turn the handle to get in, but her hand passed right through it too. She went to pound on the door, half-hoping that she would pass right through it just so she could get away, but the door was solid beneath her fist, though there was no sound as her fist struck the wood.
“What is going on?” Stacy moaned, leaning her forehead against that door. She did not even hear her voice echo in the hallway.
To be continued...?
Stacy was so absorbed in her programming, she didn’t even notice how late it had gotten - already nine p.m. No wonder the office had been so quiet. She sighed when she saw the time, and found a good place to stop with her work. As she had missed dinner with her family again, she took the time she needed to get to a good stopping point for the night with her code, then packed up and went home. She parked next to her husband’s car in the driveway just after ten, and made her way into the house. Only the end table lamp in the living room was on waiting for her. Stacy put her work laptop case on the coffee table in front of it and headed for the kitchen to dig up some leftovers.
Stuck on one of the three progress reports on the fridge was a Post-it note: “Lasagna to left, metal pan”. She found it easily and cut out a slice for herself. While it warmed up, she pulled the first quarter progress reports off the fridge and inspected them. The eldest, John, was getting all As and Bs in seventh grade, but he had a C in art. How do you get a C in art, she wondered, filing the question away to talk about with him later. Next was Courtney, getting mostly Bs in fifth grade, with an A in art and a D in math. That needs to change if she’s going to do well for herself, Stacy thought. And the youngest, Jen, in third grade this year, had all As and Bs, but a C in technology class. Isn’t the main goal of technology class this quarter typing skills? Stacy filed this question away too for a future inquisition.
Stacy made a mental note to herself to ask the kids about their grades at diner the next day as she cleaned up her dish and put things away. She headed upstairs, peeking in the kids’ rooms on the way to the master bedroom. Even Rob was asleep in their bed already. Quietly Stacy got ready for bed and slipped in next to her husband. She tried to fall asleep to the gentle rhythm of Rob’s breathing, but it eluded her. After two hours of watching the back of her eyelids, she slipped back out of bed and padded downstairs in her robe and slippers. She located her computer in the dark and plugged it in, settling into a corner of the couch to do some more programming until she felt sleepy.
Her eyelids were just starting to droop when a falling flash of light outside the bay window caught her attention. It angled across the street and looked like it landed in their neighbor’s yard a few doors down. She hurriedly put her laptop on the table and darted to the front door, only just remembering to put on her shoes before going out the door.
The cool autumn air slipped under her robe, chilling her legs as she headed down the front walk. She could see her neighbor - what was his name, Nathan? - illuminated as he crouched by the glow of the object in his yard. Stacy took a step towards him when another light falling from the sky caught her eye. Then another, and another. There were at least a dozen falling all over like little meteors, and when she looked straight up, Stacy saw one headed right for her. She retreated to the porch as the ball of light came down to a rest in the middle of the front lawn. It made no sound upon landing, nor did it create a crater, nor the grass catch on fire. Cautiously she took a few steps towards it. Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is the glow getting brighter the closer I get to it? she wondered. Before she realized it, she was crouched down next to the glowing sphere, and all she could focus on was its light. It danced in her vision, the brightness ebbing and flowing with a current that she never could quite seem to catch up to. Intrigued, Stacy reached out a hand. Her fingers hesitated just a hairsbreadth from the sphere, which glowed brighter, encouraging her to touch it.
Her curiosity winning out, she brushed the sphere with her fingertips. It momentarily flashed blindingly bright and felt warm to her fingers, but then the light folded in on itself like it was getting sucked into a black hole, until it was nothing but a small pinprick of light. Even that winked out, but the warmth remained and traveled up her fingers and arm to settle and spread from her chest, filling her with a sense of calm and sleepy tranquility. In a near daze, she stood up and went back inside, robotically switching her shoes for her slippers on the way to the couch. Her computer’s screen saver of comets softly winking at her, she curled up on the couch and fell asleep before she could even pull a blanket over herself.
She woke to the sound of the early morning rush to school, Rob packing lunches as the kids scurried around gathering their schoolbooks. She opened up her computer to save her files and put it away before heading to the office.
“Dad, where’s my math book?” Courtney called from upstairs.
“Wherever you were last working on your homework, probably,” Rob called up. “Jen, come back here and finish your cereal.”
“But I want pancakes!” Jen moaned.
“Jen, you know Dad only makes pancakes on Saturdays.” John’s voice floated from the kitchen.
“Well why can’t he make them today too?” Jen complained.
“Because the milk is already in your cereal, and if you don’t eat it soon, it will get soggy. I know how much you hate soggy cereal,” Rob tried to coax Jen.
“It’s not anywhere, Dad! I can’t go to class without my math book!” Courtney’s footsteps sounded down the stairs as she ran down.
Stacy spied a book peeking out of the rack under the coffee table, and upon pulling it out, saw that it was the lost math book. “Here it is, Courtney,” she called, putting the book on the table and picking up her computer instead. She had just put it back in the bag and put the bag down when Courtney came around the corner and spotted the math book on the table.
“There you are!” she exclaimed, grabbing the previously elusive book. “Found it Dad!”
“See, I told you it was where you left it,” Rob called back. “Now get in here and eat your breakfast, Court.”
Courtney disappeared back around the corner, and Stacy was mildly surprised that Courtney hadn’t even said good morning to her. But then, Courtney had barely seen anything in the room other than the book, and it was unusual for Stacy to be in the living room at this time anyways. Usually she was still in the shower, and wouldn’t be coming down until the kids were headed out the door with Rob, with just enough time once in a while to give them a quick kiss goodbye. Stacy stood and went around the corner. She briefly leaned against the doorjamb to the kitchen and spent a few precious seconds watching the organized chaos that Rob handled every morning. She had no idea how he managed to jump from one conversation to the next so fluidly, while still whipping together sandwiches and milk and snacks for each kid. She could do that with code, but she had never really mastered conversation jumping with their children.
“Have a great day everyone,” Stacy said to the bustling kitchen and then turned to head up the stairs to the peaceful sanctuary of her shower. A glance at her alarm clock told her that it would have to be a quick shower this morning, or she would be late. She turned the handle to start warming up the water, but nothing came out.
“That’s odd,” Stacy muttered, then turned the handle off and back on again a few more times. She had seen the kitchen sink faucet work, so why wasn’t this one? She tied her robe back around her and plodded down the stairs. She had just reached the bottom when she heard the engine of Rob’s car start outside. She couldn’t ask him to try it or they would all be late to school and work. So she went back up and tried the handle again. This time, it ran without a problem, and soon she had a nice steamy shower to wake her up more.
After a quick shower, she hurried through the rest of her morning routine, pouring the last of yesterday’s brew into her travel mug before heading out the door. She climbed into the car, but could not get it to start. She tried turning the key a few times, but with no luck. Well, I guess I’ll just work from home until Rob gets home tonight and can take a look at the car. Besides, it’s quieter here and I won’t be disturbed like at the office, she decided, and headed back in. She settled into the office, shot an e-mail to her boss Pete letting him know what she was doing, and continued on the coding.
This project was proving unusually cumbersome, so she was glad for the excuse to work from home on it. By lunch time she had made significant progress, and thought that if she kept working like that the rest of the day, she should be able to have it completed at least a day ahead of schedule. She smiled to herself. If Pete thought this project was going to do her in, he had another thing coming. She knew that he gave her the hardest programs to code because she was the best coder he had, though he would never admit as much. The real reason was he wanted to finally see her fail, and give him something to tell the higher ups about so that she would no longer be a threat to his position. The way she figured it, if she continued showing this much initiative and effort, then by the beginning of the New Year she would be promoted from senior team lead to project manager. With Pete behind her, it would be only a matter of time before she would become senior project manager, and hopefully within five years, she would work her way into the highest echelons of the company.
Around five she saved her work, closed the door to the office behind her so that the kids wouldn’t mess with her computer, and headed downstairs to make some dinner. Rob wouldn’t be home with the kids after their after-school activities for another half hour, so she had time to cook up something and make up for missing dinner the night before. After rooting through the kitchen to see what they had, she decided to cook up the extra ground beef in the fridge that hadn’t been used in the lasagna and set to work making hamburgers. She had just put the hamburgers on the stove when she heard Rob’s car pull up and the kids tumble out of the car.
“Let me through, let me through,” she heard Rob say over the kids chattering as he tried to get through to unlock the door.
“Mom’s home already!” Stacy heard Courtney say as the door opened.
“Does this mean she’ll eat dinner with us tonight, Daddy?” Jen asked.
“Smells like she’s already cooking something,” John commented.
“In the kitchen,” Stacy called out, placing the spatula on the utensil rest next to the stove.
Jen was the first into the kitchen, and she ran up right next to Stacy to peek at the stove. “Daddy, Mom’s started some hamburgers for us!”
“Has she now?” Rob entered the kitchen behind John and Courtney and made his way to the stove, a slight frown creasing his brow as he looked in the direction of the stove.
“Why did she leave the stove unattended?” Courtney asked, starting to unpack her lunch box. “You always tell us to never leave the stove alone when it’s on.”
Stacy opened her mouth to respond, but Rob was quicker.
“That’s a good question dear,” Rob said, maneuvering around the older kids to reach the stove. “Jen, why don’t you run and see if Mom’s upstairs?”
“I’m right - ” Stacy cut herself off as Jen ran right through her to get to the stairs. Not around her, but actually through her. Rob reached through her as well to pick up the spatula, and half stood in her as he flipped the burgers. Stacy jumped away in shock, took a few deep breaths, then waved her hand in front of his face.
“Rob? Rob? Can’t you see me?” Stacy asked, but Rob’s face did not register her hand or her voice, and his slight frown persisted. Stacy turned to John and Courtney as they jostled for the sink to rinse out their lunch containers. “Kids?” She took a step towards the sink, right next to them. “John? Courtney?” They did not register her presence or her voice either.
It was in mounting alarm that Stacy heard Jen’s feet come dashing back down the second floor hallway and back down the stairs. She felt frozen to the spot, barely able to even think.
“The office door is closed. Mommy must be working in there,” Jen announced. “So we should all be quiet,” she said with her child’s glare at her loudly arguing siblings.
John got a shove in the stomach from Courtney, successfully losing his place at the sink, as he half-turned to answer Jen, “She’ll be wearing her noise cancelling headphones, so it doesn’t matter, squirt.”
“Don’t call me that!” Jen huffed and stomped her foot.
“As long as I’m taller than you - and I always will be! - I can call you squirt, or shorty, or anything like that,” John teased.
Jen’s lip trembled, and Stacy mechanically took a step forward to wrap an arm around her baby. Her hand went right through Jen, and then Rob stepped through her to stand between Jen and John. Stacy jumped again, away from all of her family and wedged herself in the corner by the fridge in fright. They can’t see me, they can’t hear me, and they go right through me! What’s going on?!
“John, you know better than to tease your sister like that,” Rob said authoritatively, making up for the greasy spatula in his hand. “Now you apologize, and I don’t want to hear you call Jen any of those names or any like them.”
“But Dad - ” John started, but Rob waved his spatula at him menacingly.
“No buts. Apologize.”
John sighed. “S’ry,” he muttered, barely audible to Stacy from her corner.
“Like you mean it,” Rob said, turning back to the hamburgers, though he kept an eye on John.
“Sorry.” John said quickly, then turned right around to take Courtney’s recently vacated space at the sink.
Rob nodded. “Better. Courtney, why don’t you get some paper plates down for dinner?”
If they can’t see or hear me, maybe I can let them know I’m here by picking something up, Stacy thought, spying the paper plates on top of the microwave on the other side of the kitchen. She beat Courtney to the plates, and went to pick them up. Instead of touching them though, her fingers went right up through the edge like she was insubstantial. Why can’t I touch them now?
Courtney picked up the plates, and walked right through Stacy on her way to bring them to Rob at the stove. Stacy jumped again, her fear mounting the less she was able to interact with her family and her home.
What on earth is going on? Why am I suddenly insubstantial and they can’t see me? Stacy wanted to shout, but the words caught in her throat.
Courtney placed the plates next to the stovetop so Rob could serve up the burgers as soon as they were done. “Dad, should I try to get Mom for dinner?”
Rob flipped the burgers again. “No, let’s not disturb her while she’s working. She might come down when she smells this, or just when she gets hungry. I know you all must be starving, so as soon as these are done, we can start eating, okay?”
“Okay,” Courtney said after a quick glance in the direction of Stacy’s office upstairs.
Stacy watched as Rob turned off the stovetop and scooped the burgers into a pile on the plate Courtney had pulled off the stack for that purpose.
“Okay everybody, wash up, and John, grab the condiments and bring them with you to the dining room,” Rob said, carrying the plate full of hamburgers high as he stepped around Courtney and towards Stacy.
Stacy tried standing in the doorway, right in his way, but once again Rob just walked through her as though she were not even there. This time she could not hold in a quick scream as she saw more than felt him pass through her, and she ran up the stairs to the doors of the office. She tried to turn the handle to get in, but her hand passed right through it too. She went to pound on the door, half-hoping that she would pass right through it just so she could get away, but the door was solid beneath her fist, though there was no sound as her fist struck the wood.
“What is going on?” Stacy moaned, leaning her forehead against that door. She did not even hear her voice echo in the hallway.
To be continued...?