As I opened my eyes I was surprised to find that I was lying on the floor of the mortuary. I couldn't understand what had just happened, the spirits had never touched me before, other than the night that they killed me they hadn't had any effect on me whatsoever. This was a bad sign. I pushed the mortuary door open to find Matt lying on his bed once again. But this time he wasn't sleeping, he was surrounded by the spirits, they formed a circle around his bed and stood looking down at him. I ran at them, unleashing every bit of energy I could muster. They turned to look at me and wailed before disappearing into the walls.
I checked the rest of the house to make sure everyone was ok and was thankful to find that whatever the spirits had done they hadn't left any permanent damage. Wendy was in Sara's room reading a book while Billy and Mary slept on the bed beside her. Sara was downstairs in the parlour looking anxiously out the window, I guess she was expecting her husband to come back again at some point. I went back down to the basement and stood in the corner keeping watch over Matt. The spirits were too full of rage to understand that Matt was our only hope so I had to make sure he wasn't harmed. After a while I heard voices on the stair case. Sara came into the basement, followed by the reverend who had been here the other day. As they came into the room Matt never took his eyes off me and when the reverend moved further into the room he followed his gaze. I heard Sara say something about not being able to see me, lucky her.
The reverend moved around the room holding out two lumps of some kind of metal as he went along. He got to the furnace when I suddenly realised what he was doing. He was trying to free my spirit. But I couldn't leave until the other spirits were gone! I couldn't leave Matt and his family here without me to protect them, why couldn't this stupid man see that he wasn't helping things, he was making them worse. If I left that would mean Matt and his family would be left alone, defenceless. My poor Wendy would be left with no one to protect her, I couldn't have that. I felt all my despair and frustration about the situation well up inside of me and unleash itself upon the house. I could hear the sound of doors slamming from all around me but it was too late to stop. The closer the reverend got to my remains, the closer I got to Matt, trying to make him see. But he was too afraid, he thought I was trying to hurt him so he fought me, I reached out to him from behind his mother when I suddenly felt myself being pulled from the house.
The noise of the house was replaced with the eerie silence of a moonless night. I ran to the basement window, looking in at Matt. I tried to get his attention but he buried himself down into his covers, glad to finally be rid of me. I felt myself be pulled away again as the reverend began driving away with my remains in the backseat. I took one last look at the house and saw all the spirits standing in the windows and doorways. In a fleeting second before I was pulled away I could have sworn they were smiling triumphantly at me.
This time I was pulled to the inside of the reverends car, I tried to reach out to him, to tell him to take me back but when he saw me he jerked the steering wheel and ran off the road. Like I said, my social skills leave something to be desired. Thankfully he remained unharmed and sat staring at the rear view mirror as I finally told the entirety of my story. Finally, somebody knew what had happened, somebody knew I wasn't a murderer. I was hoping the fact that it was a reverend who was finally bearing witness to my confession was a good sign. Staggering out of my vision the reverend stumbled out of the car and a gust of wind blew most of my remains into the night air. The particles floated in the air and I floated with them for a bit. Then I remembered that my mission was far from over, there was still one more thing I had to do. I concentrated on Matt and felt myself be pulled toward him.
When I finally materialised I was inside a hospital room. Both beds were occupied, one by a man I didn't know and the other by Matt. He lay on the bed with his eyes closed and I felt my heart sink as my eyes took in the necromantic script covering him from head to toe. I felt a large amount of guilt too. When this was all over I was going to do whatever I could to save Matt Cambell, it was the least I could do. Matt stirred and rose from the bed, he walked toward me and I reached out to him with my mind. I told him the whole story, right up to my death in the furnace. When the vision left and we both stood in the hospital room I was surprised to see a solitary tear fall down his face. It was oddly comforting to have someone mourn me after all this time, it made me feel more human somehow. As I wiped the tear from his face he began to mumble something.
"One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight".
My heart broke at hearing those words come from his lips because I had been hoping all along it wouldn't come down to that. For the last time I reached out to Matt and felt the odd sensation of my soul entering his already occupied body. This time he made room for me, there was no fighting, just two dead boys standing side by side.
Together we wrenched the bars of the window open and got outside. We ran all they way to the house without once pausing for breath. We went around the back of the house and picked up the old axe for chopping wood. As we approached the back door Wendy stepped outside, calling to Matt. She took one look at the axe in our hand and ran inside fumbling with the lock. We raised the axe and brought it crashing down on the door. Wendy yelped and ran further into the house. We followed her to the parlour, when she saw us coming she cringed back against the wall, screaming for Matt to stop. We raised the axe again and I couldn't help but notice from the look in her eyes that she thought Matt was trying to kill her. Why didn't she understand that I could never let anything happen to her, she meant too much to me. I could feel Matt's disgust at having his body thinking of his cousin in anything other than a platonic way and I quelled my feelings for his sake. We brought the axe down on the wall behind Wendy and didn't stop swinging until the first body appeared. We needed Wendy to see it, to know what we were trying to do. We grabbed her by the arm and ushered her and the children out of the house. I spoke using Matt's voice and told her not to let them put the fire out. I couldn't hide the joy I was feeling despite the situation, to be able to touch her and speak to her was something I never expected. I could feel Matt's wonder at my feelings for his cousin even as he told her that it didn't matter about him, because he was already dead.
We shut the door and piled the furniture up. We revealed all the bodies and set them on fire. The fire spread rapidly and we threw the old photographs and eye lids into the flames. Our vision was suddenly filled with the spirits, the walls began to decay and become covered in necromantic script like they had the night that I died. We began to phase in and out of consciousness and I was surprised when we came to and found ourselves cradled in Sara's arms. I was just glad that I wouldn't be alone this time, glad that Matt wouldn't have to feel the terror and isolation that I had felt. We looked up and saw the spirits disappear as they moved on. They were free.
The setting changed suddenly and I was standing in a graveyard. Matt was a few yards away from me, looking at me in shock. I looked down at myself and saw that I was no longer burnt, my pale skin looked just like it had before I died. I nodded my thank you to Matt who nodded back before everything changed again. We were lying on the ground outside the house, I searched Matt's body until I found the disease that was killing him. I held onto it as tight as I could and pulled myself from his body. Now I was standing, looking down at Matt who was surrounded by paramedics and his family. I looked at myself again and was pleased to see that my skin was still smooth and pale. I looked from Matt to the reverend who was standing beside me. He nodded in recognition and I nodded back, the ghost of a smile playing on my lips. I looked back down at Matt and noticed something I had never seen before, a faint blush rising in his cheeks, for a dead kid, he looked positively thriving. It had worked, I was happy to see that he couldn't see me, which meant he must have been placed firmly back in the land of the living. The reverend began to slowly walk away and I noticed as he left he walked past Wendy and placed something carefully in her hands and whispered something to her. She shoved what ever it was in her pocket and joined her family who were now taking it in turns to squeeze the newly recovered life out of Matt.
My heart soared at seeing the smile on her face, hearing the joy in her laugh as she realised Matt was ok It was all finally over…right?
a/n: due to heaps of work for college it might be awhile before I update this again (of course lots of reviews might make me work quicker, hint hint) so bear with me until then.
Read & Review please!
