"...I only ever cared for-" Teresa died before she could finish her last words to the boy she loved. You. That was the word that fit at the end of that statement. I only ever cared for you. You. The last word she meant to say. The last word that ran across her mind. The last word that fell on the tip of her tongue.
Teresa shouldn't have been expected to wake up. She had died without speaking her last words. Tom never got to hear her say the last word of her last words. She only ever cared for him. That was no secret, but she had never said so.
Teresa found herself floating upwards. She emerged from the concrete sidewalk of a city. She looked around. Teresa stood in front of a book shop next to a magic store called "Abel's House of Secrets," but the last S on the neon sign didn't glow. The last word was only "Secret." Her thick dark hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail, but she couldn't feel the tautness of hair being pulled back. She felt nothing physically. Mentally and emotionally, she was alert. Teresa looked down and saw that she was wearing white pants and silver-gray boots and a white hooded poncho.
In the reflection of the book shop window, Teresa saw her form glitter from the white dressed girl she had grown up seeing in the mirror to a transparent, pale blue girl with glowing white eyes and then back again. She was a ghost, Teresa realized. A real, actual ghost.
Teresa turned around again and saw a blonde girl dressed similarly to her. The girl's face showed no emotion except for the eyes. Her eyes showed the wheels turning through her mind. Teresa guessed her own eyes looked like that too.
Teresa opened her mouth to ask,"Who are you?" But it only came out as,"You." She tried again."You."
The girl smiled grimly, as if recalling a ghastly memory. She said,"Secret."
Teresa cocked her head and meant to say,"What secret? Where am I?" But it slipped out as,"You."
The girl pointed to the book shop window. The book on display was The Death Cure by James Dashner. Teresa felt in touch with her ghost body, which is how she knew she could reach through the glass and grab the book, which she did do.
She leafed through it and grazed over pages 249 and 250. If ghosts could cry, Teresa would have. At page 317, Teresa wished she could cry and whimper over Thomas' last words to her that she hadn't heard due to her injuries. There were also her last words. The unfinished statement that Teresa had put what was left of her heart into. "...I only ever cared for-" You. Thomas. Tom.
You. The last word that ran laps through her head. Teresa kissed page 317 with her pale, dead, ghost lips before dropping the book with a love/hate, bittersweet, sadness feeling.
Teresa was taken from her home, the book, because she had died. Teresa had this feeling of knowing certain things that had been unknown before she died, maybe it was a ghost thing. Teresa knew the reason she had been pulled from her home was to have her last word spoken.
"You," she whispered."You. You. You."
Teresa looked to the blonde girl. She was a ghost too. The last word she spoke or thought of was "Secret." Teresa wondered how this girl died.
The girl seemed to know this is what Teresa wanted to know. She held out her hands and played a magical vision in the cold mist over her hands. The girl showed her older brother chasing her though their house, the girl running into the backyard and careening into the chain link fence. The girl looked across the street at the magic store with the broken sign. She had a perfect view of the neon pink "Secret" before a dagger made contact with her back. Then the mist glimmered into an old tombstone that read,"Greta Hayes: Beloved Sister."
Teresa did the first thing that came to mind: gave Greta a hug. Teresa released Greta and pulled her white hood over her tied back hair. Greta pulled her hood over her loose blonde hair. They joined hands and closed their eyes as if about to go to sleep. They floated upwards once more to move on from the cruel worlds that had killed them.