Chapter 7
7
Jack
“ W hat the fuck just happened?” I had run downstairs – like a coward, as Archie locked himself in the bathroom. I could hearhim retching as I quickly descended to the first floor. I was not sleeping in there tonight! That was… “What was that?” I paced maniacally, unsure of what to fucking do.
He stepped off the last stair and into my living room. “That was a surprise.” His alabaster skin was blotchy, and the sheen of sweat clung to his forehead. “I hadn’t been prepared for… I have never had that happen before, not in all my years. It was like we traveled, spiritually, into his plane of existence. It was… Sorry, it really took a toll on me. I will need to put up guards when we do that again.”
“Oh, I am definitely not doing that again!” I threw myself down onto my comfiest chair. It took everything I had not to call the realtor right now and put this house on the market while I hid away at Daveed’s. Maybe I would just set fire to all my stuff in case the spirit attached itself to… Wait! No. This was my house. A house I sweated and bled for. Was I just going to give it all up and run away like a little bitch? I worked hard to be able to buy this place.
He walked slowly over as if he were trying to keep his feet steady on the ground. Whatever had happened had taken quite a toll on him. His pretty face was even whiter than usual. “I can’t quite understand how that happened. I had been sitting up there and trying to connect, but I had found only trails that led to nothing, for the most part. All of that changed when… It was you. You were the catalyst, Jack. Why?” He looked at me so confused that it caught me off guard. I did that? No…
“You think I did that?”
“No – yes – maybe – perhaps all of the above. I don’t know. It happened after we touched. I could feel it, so I gripped onto your hand tighter to see what was happening, and then everything – the world shifted.” He wiped at his eyes. “Sorry, I’m… I don’t get shaken easily.”
“That world was…” I pulled my knees up and held onto them. “It wasn’t black and white, but it was very dim and grey as if someone had adjusted the color. I hated it.”
“It’s the in-between. I’ve seen it in my mind's eye, but that was… We were there, in spirit anyway. How? Why you?” He looked so perplexed – so adorable that I burst out laughing.
“I'm sorry, it’s… You’re very cute when your confused,” I immediately wished I could have taken it back. I glanced away from him.
“I’m going to ignore that you think I’m cute, and…” He looked flustered. It was a good look for him. “Anyway, it… that had something to do with you. I know that because I felt it when we touched. The crackle of psychic energy that boosted my own – it came from you?”
“I am not a psychic. Trust me.” I shrugged.
“Oh, I don’t think you are actually a psychic, but I think you have something more than you understand. I mean, it makes sense. You saw and interacted with the nurse. Seeing a ghost doesn’t mean that you have any ability. But I think you saw her so well because you could. This spirit has been here much longer than you. His energy is intertwined with the house, but you never knew until recently. What changed?”
I swallowed hard. “I… I died.”
His eyes widened, and his mouth actually fell open as he looked deeply into my eyes.
“Are you trying to read my mind?” I muttered.
“I told you that I can’t do that, but… your energy makes a little more sense to me now. You died?” He let the information soak into him.
“Yep. It was horrible, I guess. I don’t really remember it.”
He looked back at me with such sympathy. “This was recent. Your hospital stay. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t want to talk about it. I understand. But I think you’re going to have to, Jack. If you want me to be able to help you, I think that you’re going to have to learn to help yourself, too. You’re open in some way. You’re seeing things. That’s what you and Daveed told me. But are you seeing things outside the house?”
I nodded. “I… I’ve seen some shadowy movement a few times on the street. But mainly, it’s been in here. Why?”
“Dying can open a path to the other side. It doesn’t mean that you’re like me or anything, but it does mean that you may be a conduit of sorts. Spirits need energy to manifest, and they can get it in so many ways. They can drain batteries that you have lying around or are using. It’s easier if they are being used, of course.”
“Oh, of course.”
“They can also use the electricity that courses through your house or your body. You might be the energy source that this spirit is using. I… I don’t know, Jack. But I think you need to tell me everything so I can try to piece the puzzle together. Ok?”
“Fine,” I huffed. God, he was frustrating and bossy. But I couldn’t poke a hole in his theory. I felt it as soon as we touched. A shift in the very fabric of the air around me – the warmth of his hand in mine like an electric current that had wrapped around our touch, binding us. “I fucking think I hate the supernatural.”
“I wish I didn’t know anything about it, sometimes.” The look on his face made me melt. It was so honest and sincere.
“Is it hard to… do what you do? I mean, I’m still super confused about what it is you do.”
“I talk to ghosts, Jack. That’s all you need to know.” He smirked.
“Is it? Cause after that… I’m not so sure. You can say it was me, but you were a part of that, too, and you know it.”
“It was… our energies intermingling, I think? Honestly, I’ve never had anything like that happen, so… I don’t know.” He shrugged and leaned back on the sofa.
“So, I died. I was hit by a car, and according to the eyewitness, I flew through the air and hit my head hard. I died in the ambulance, is what I was told, for almost two minutes before they brought me back. My brain was swollen, you see. They put me in a coma, and when they tried to bring me out of it, I didn’t come back – until I did. I woke up after three months in the hospital like nothing had ever happened.”
“You said something about muscle loss…” He frowned.
“Yeah. They said that because I was in such good shapealready,I bounced back quicker than they had expected. I was walking a coupleof days later. They had expected more atrophy in my muscles than I had, and my body rebounded faster than expected. When they released me, they told me that I was normal, and that was pure luck. No brain injuries or body issues. Just a normal boy who was the luckiest son of a bitch around.”
“But…” He smiled warmly. Maybe he was starting to warm up to me. I sure was him now that I… had seen the other side. He was the real deal, and he was here helping me, even though Daveed was paying him. He was still here.
“Well, I was apparently talking to a ghost in the hospital, so there’s that.”
“When you got home. When did you first think you saw something?”
“The first or second day I was back. I don’t actually remember. I… I thought it was Daveed coming back into the room, but he hadn’t been there. I just assumed it was a shadow.” Fuck was that the ghost we just saw?
“You see these shadows a lot?”
“More than I would have liked. I assumed it was a vision problem from the brain injury that they hadn’t found. They said that things could still happen, you know? I was trying to deny it until… Well, I heard it… him. I heard him. Then the underwear and drawer thing… I don’t want to believe any of this.” I huffed.
“I know, and I understand why. Do you remember anything after the accident? Do you remember dying?” He asked slowly, as if the question might upset me. Maybe it would have if had been anyone else, but we now shared something big that tied us together.
“That’s… I don’t really like that question.” I pulled my legs tighter against me.
“I wouldn’t either, but I have to ask it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t, thankfully, remember anything. There were no bright lights or people waiting for me… At least, I don’t remember. I felt pain, and then I woke up in the hospital. That’s all I know.”
“Dying is sometimes enough, Jack. It can open the door to the other side. Do you… uh… trust me?”
I laughed. “Are you crazy? I don’t really know you, so…”
“Sure. But I think you’re going to have to. You died, and it was violent. Your body was thrown and damaged. That small time that you spent in-between could have made you a gateway. It at least allowed you to see and hear to some extent. I can help you close that if you’ll let me.” He leaned forward, and I felt my body relax. I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want this. Could he do what he said?
“I… That scares me. But seeing scares me even more.” I let my legs slide onto the floor, and I sat up.
“So, you’ll trust me?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“You always have a choice, Jack. But first, we need to help your friend move on. He’s… I don’t know why he’s trapped here or chose to stay, but it will take both of us to figure that out. I can see that much.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Yes. But I think you’ll make the right one. You’re not the only one in need here, you know.”
“He didn’t seem to want help.”
“They never do. Not at first, anyway. He’s attached to this place for some reason, and we need to figure out why. The gateway has already been opened for him – you did that by just being here. Your energy is as much all over this place as his is. Now, it’s intertwined together. I think that for me to be able to help either of you or both of you is now the same thing. I can take away your ability to see or hear him, but he would still be here. I don’t think he ever crossed over, to be honest. But now, you’re you, and he can use you whether you want him to or not.”
“Fine,” I nodded in total nonagreement. But he made a fair point. If I had a ghost roommate, which I did not want under any circumstances, I didn’t want to be scared of what might happen when he got angry. I didn’t want to pick up more underwear and drawers. What if he destroyed my kitchen next? “There’s knives…”
“What?”
“Yes. I will do what you ask. But if I start to feel uncomfortable…”
“I’ll never ask more of you than what you’re willing to give. I promise.” He held out his hand.
“I am not shaking that. That’s how we got into this.”
He laughed, and it soothed my mind. “I think we’re going to have to touch a lot, Jack. You’ll get used to it.”
I wasn’t sure that was true. He was too fucking adorable. But he talked to ghosts… I would have to keep my libido in check. If that happened when our hands touched – imagine what our bodies on top of each other might do. No matter how cute I found him, Archie had to be a non-starter.
But God, he had pretty lips. I made a fist and held it up. He grinned and brought up his own hand and we quickly bumped. The world stayed as it was.